I hope this email finds you and your families well; a Friday update for you as always, as we approach the end of the school term.
I had a great afternoon on Monday with a group of sixteen Year 7 students, decorating the Kelmscott Christmas tree that is in our school canteen. The students selected have made a terrific start to their time here with us, in all aspects of their school life. Getting to know them all a bit better was a real treat for me. We made some decorations for the tree that complimented our other decorations really nicely. I also decorated a second tree, in reception, with a similar group of Year 9 students who had missed out on the experience in Year 7 due to the pandemic. What an outstanding group of students they were as well, it was a real privilege to spend some quality time with them.
In a Christmassy themed week, I then judged the many entries we had in the Christmas card design competition. There were genuinely some outstanding entries but the winner really stood out. It was a stunning, hand painted design by Marilena Cifligu in 11K. The superb quality of entries made it extremely difficult to choose just one winner. With that in mind, I decided a first runners up prize should go to Umar Akthar in 10L, and honourable mentions to Armita Yadollahi in 8C and Aleena Ahmed in 9S for their outstanding entries. Thanks to all the students who took the time to put an entry in.
Last Saturday, a group of Year 10 students attended an ICEE event at Kelmscott. ICEE work with us to deliver a project that develops key life skills, such as problem solving and developing a growth mind-set. The students had to pitch their problem solving idea that would “solve the earth’s current issue, in terms of lack of resources, by going into space to mine for essential ores and minerals from asteroids and at the same time promote space tourism.”
The winning team, who called themselves the ‘astrocrafters’, delivered an excellent pitch, as well as dealing well with some challenging additional questions relating to finance and marketing; the team was composed of Dylan Chadwick, Sinead Franklin-Tomlinson, Winnie Wang and Rukhsar Hussain. Well done to all of the students involved.
Year 10 and 11 enjoyed a visit to the British Library on Tuesday. Students interacted with a number of artefacts and were able to see links with Islam, which many thought were interesting. They viewed a map of the world produced by Medieval nuns on which Alexander The Great features sixteen times, but aspects of Islam and Christianity are also evident. Students were given the time to explore the Treasures galleries where they were able to see the Magna Carta in person. All had a great time with the students coming back with a little more appreciation for Alexander the Great.
Given the urgent focus on Scarlet Fever and Invasive Group A Step, the local authority has issued some important information for families. Our Student Health Manager attended a webinar yesterday to ensure we are up to speed on this matter, we will remain vigilant here in school, as I know you will at home.
We were delighted to learn that Peter Gibson, a recent graduate of Kelmscott school, has recently won the North London "Joutes Oratoires" - a French debating competition. He now goes on to represent Highgate School at the National Competition in March, something he is very much looking forward to. Peter was kind enough to emphasise the importance of the brilliant foundations, he feels the Kelmscott MFL department laid, in his French education. We are very proud of him.
Leyton Orient are running a free multi-sports programme during the Christmas holidays. It runs from Monday 19th December to Thursday 22nd December.
Voting closed at noon today for the Parent Governor vacancies on our governing body. We will be writing to the four candidates, to notify them of the election outcome, in the New Year. I will of course include the outcome of the election in one of my New Year weekly updates. Our thanks goes to all four candidates and to all those who have voted.
A quick app update; MyEd now includes a Reports button where you will be able to view your child’s school reports, once they have initially been sent out to you via app messaging. This means that you will eventually be able to view all your child’s school reports in one place. You will find this button in the Student section of the app.
A reminder that next Friday 16th of December is the last day of term, we break up at lunch time, 12.40pm.
Finally, congratulations to Adam Mansouri in 7C who topped the rewards points charts last week with twenty-four.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher
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