Friday 26th April 2024
This week’s focused update: Attendance
We are delighted to inform you that King’s Norton School for Boys has won an FFT National Attendance Award for Autumn 2023/2024. Attendance is monitored by both the DfE and the FFT (Fisher Family Trust), and this award is an acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication of staff, pupils, parents and carers in achieving excellent attendance during the autumn term. The FFT data helps schools to track, monitor and compare their attendance every week.
For context, our FFT award is only given to schools with attendance in the Top 10% and Top 25% of all FFT schools nationally. The FFT collects daily attendance data from over 10,000 schools. This is mainly due to the significant number of students who attend very well throughout the year.
Studybugs
We are also pleased to announce that King’s Norton School for Boys is introducing a new, more efficient and more secure system for reporting your child’s absence due to illness, called Studybugs. This will be our preferred way for you to record any absences for your son and will start from Monday 13th May. In the meantime please download the Studybugs app or register on the Studybugs website and so you are able to use this programme moving forward. We will be in touch to show you how to use the app between now and the 13th May. *Please note that you will still be able to leave a message via telephone or email our enquiry line (enquiry@knbs.co.uk) if you do not have the technology available to use this app.
Get the app or register now (https://studybugs.com/about/parents)
Top Three Reasons to Use Studybugs
1. It’s integrated with our systems, so we know right away if your child is unaccounted for.
2. It’s quick and easy to register and use and automatically reminds you to keep us posted.
3. You will be helping the NHS and other public health organisations improve children’s health(https://studybugs.com/about/schools). In addition, if offers official guidance from the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) about the need to stay off school, based on the symptoms or illnesses you enter. Please be aware that Studybugs does not provide medical advice or diagnosis — please consult your GP for this.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing to encourage your child to attend school on time, every day. We would also like to update you on the Government’s national drive to improve attendance and tackle persistent absence, which has led to some changes to attendance that will become compulsory for all schools from 19th August 2024. These are very important changes that will affect the way we work:
What will the new statutory changes for attendance look like from September 2024?
From September 2024, every school in England will be required to share their daily attendance registers across the education sector as part of the next stage of the government’s drive to reduce pupil absence: ‘The sharing of daily school registers will form a new world-leading attendance data set that will help schools spot and support children displaying worrying trends of persistent absence or those in danger of becoming missing in education’ (DFE 29th Feb 2024).
Parent fines for unauthorised absences will be brought under a national framework to help tackle inconsistencies in their use. Guidelines state that from this time a fine to parents can be considered if a child misses five days or ten sessions (half days) of school for unauthorised absence. The threshold can be met with ‘any combination of unauthorised absence’, for example, four sessions in term time plus six instances of arriving late. Guidelines state that the period of ten weeks can also span ‘different terms or school years. Alongside this, costs for fines will go up from £60 to £80 if paid within 21 days and from £120 to £160 if paid in 28 days. These fines are paid directly to the local authority and not to schools.
What will the new coding changes look like for attendance?
From September there will also be changes to the way schools code for attendance. The Government will create additional codes to track attendance reasons more thoroughly.
Will there continue to be support for my child if they are struggling to attend school or struggling with their punctuality?
The answer is yes. With regards to punctuality, any child who is late to school is greeted by a member of the pastoral team. We can discuss the reasons for their lateness and suggest strategies to improve punctuality, including early help. In addition, if your child is struggling with punctuality, or you are struggling to help your child attend school, please get in touch with your son’s Form Tutor, Head of Year or our Attendance Team to discuss ways that we can reduce barriers and or any concerns that you may have.
Will the new changes to punctuality impact my child’s overall attendance if they are late to school or have unauthorised attendance?
To support our high expectations around punctuality and new Government guidelines, we are required to change the times our registers close in the morning. From Monday 15th July registers will close at 9.20 am. Any child arriving after these times will have to be marked with a ‘U’ code, which means they arrived after the register closed and are recorded as absent for the morning session, with their attendance record being negatively affected.
What research is there to show the impact of poor attendance on children and young people?
School attendance is vital to the life chances of children and young people. Being in school improves health, well-being and socialisation throughout the life course. The greatest benefits come from children and young people attending school regularly (DFE September 2023). At KNSB we want our children to thrive, and to be healthy and happy. For this to happen, according to the DFE (2022), the majority of young people need to be attending school, seeing their friends and learning in the classroom.
You can find more information about the link between absence and attainment at KS2 and KS4 from the Department for Education (2022) here: (accessed 5 Jul 2023).https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/the-link-between-absence-and-attainment-at-ks2-and-ks4.
As a parent, I am unsure if I should send my child into school due to illness. How will I know what to do?
The NHS and the Chief Medical Officer say it is usually appropriate for parents and carers to send their children to school with mild respiratory illnesses, including general cold symptoms like a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat. However, children should not be sent to school if they have a temperature of 38°C or above. Please check NHS ‘Is my child too ill for school?’ guidance for further information.
In addition to respiratory illnesses, we are aware that more children may be absent from school due to symptoms of anxiety since the pandemic. Worry and mild or moderate anxiety, whilst sometimes difficult emotions, can be a normal part of growing up for many children and young people. Being in school can often help alleviate the underlying issues. A prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending in the future, rather than reduce it. DfE has published useful guidance on mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance and those who are experiencing persistent symptoms can be encouraged to access additional support.
If you have any additional questions relating to any attendance matters, please do not hesitate to contact our attendance team via the enquiry email (enquiry@knbs.co.uk).
Year 11 amended timetable
At the time of publication, we have just five school days until the examination schedule begins in full, starting with a two-day Art exam on the 7th and 8th of May. By the end of this week, all Year 11 students will have sat at least one real GCSE exam. With this in mind, we will start to provide additional opportunities for specialist revision for those exams that are coming up. Some students will have targeted period 6 opportunities where they have exams the following morning. We will release the amended timetable on a weekly basis so that your son understands where he needs to be and at what time. This will also be shared in his form room and on the exam noticeboard. We will be talking students through how this timetable works during assembly on Monday. In short, we have three areas of priority:
- When a student has an exam that is where they will be and thus will not attend their normal timetabled lesson.
- Where students have an exam on an afternoon or the following morning, we will provide a revision session on that day to enable him to undertake final preparations. This will be with a subject specialist for that exam subject.
- Where a student does not have an exam or does not have a revision session, they will attend their normal timetabled lesson.
We also want to remind you that students will remain in school full time until May half term following the priority order above. We are in the process of looking at an amended timetable for after half term, and we will ensure that you and your son are in possession of it before we break up. You can find the amended timetable for week beginning 6th May below. During the exam period where students have a morning exam, we welcome them to attend school early (from 7.55am) where they can revise with subject specialist staff in the canteen area. We will provide breakfast for them, so they are fully ready to tackle those important exams.
Period 6
Please find the latest period 6 schedule below. As outlined above, there will be some changes to the Year 11 timetable which could have a knock-on effect on the period 6 sessions that students will be expected to attend.
Equipment
Please be reminded of the equipment that students are expected to have them in school each day. This will clearly become more important as they attend summer examinations: two black pens, a green pen (lessons only), 30cm ruler, scientific calculator, protractor, pencil, rubber, sharpener. We thank you in advance for ensuring that your son is not going to disadvantage himself in exams by not having the appropriate equipment.
Summer Exam Timetable
Your son will receive another copy of his summer exam timetable early next week. This will also include his seat number for each exam. It is helpful for your son to remember his seat number to ensure a quick start to each exam. If your son requires any additional copies of his timetable throughout the exam period, then he should see Miss Dixon (Exams Officer).
Exam Resources for Students and Parents
Please find links below for a range of advice and guidance for students and parents to help alleviate or lessen the anxiety they have about sitting exams, including:
- NHS Help your child beat exam stress
- Anna Freud: How to identify the signs of academic stress, and ways to help
- Student Minds – resources, tips and blogs about exam stress
- Ofqual: Coping with exam pressure – a guide for students
Prom Update
We are now in a position to share the final details regarding this year’s Prom. You can find the latest letter here. Please make final payments on ParentPay by Friday 10th May. We are all very much looking forward to this event.
Sparx Reader
Since the boys have started on Sparx Reader, they have collectively read for an incredible 1012 hours and read 160 books!
Our student of the week this week is Jayden K. He achieved a total of 829 Sparx Reader Points which equates to over 82 minutes of careful reading. Well done, Jayden!
Our joint classes of the week this week are 7K2 and 7K1. Well done to these classes!
Our ‘Gold Reader’ students are currently:
Ben A
Jayden G
Luqman I
Jayden K
Isaac F
Joshua H
Elisha C
Issac W
This means that these boys have been reading extra on top of their set homework. They can earn now Sparx Reader Points by reading their own books. The boys have been reminded of how to do this during lessons and I have attached the instructions below.
Sparx Reader Club
For support with Sparx Reader or if they would rather complete their work in school on a school computer, students can now attend Sparx Reader Club. This will be held every Wednesday, straight after school until 4pm. Miss John will be there to support students with their reading.
Thank you for your support from home with Sparx Reader and please continue to encourage your son to use Sparx Reader throughout the week. If you have any questions, please refer to the FAQs below. If you are still unsure or if your son is having any particular issues with Sparx Reader, please get in touch via our enquiry line.
National Storytelling Week Year Competition!
Last term, we had an incredible Art/English collaboration where students could create an Art project or a story based around the topic of ‘Freedom’. We will be carrying out the judging process soon and sharing some of the wonderful work the boys have produced. A huge well done to everyone who entered!
To continue with our storytelling year at KNSB, we are very excited to announce that the competition for summer term will be collaborating with the drama department. All the key information is detailed below:
The topic of this term’s competition will be ‘Find Your Voice’. The boys can choose anything they have a passion about or feel they have something to say about. They can choose to create a script, film, short play or film or show.
- The deadline is 14th June 2024.
The information we will share with the boys is also attached below.
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘constrain’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and, if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Personal Development
Personal Development Year 8
Year 8 students are starting their new module titled ‘Relationships – Addressing Extremism and Radicalisation.’ Your son will question what is meant by extremism and what is meant by radicalisation, examining where they come from and why they are so dangerous while exploring where they can seek help to prevent radicalisation.
We encourage our students to continue the dialogue outside of the classroom so over the next six weeks let’s get talking as a household about:
- What is hate speech?
- Where legitimate behaviours (like protest) cross the line and become extremism
- What techniques extremists may use to recruit people and what therefore we need to be wary of, making sure we share our concerns with the adults we trust.
Personal Development Year 10
Year 10 students are starting their new module on ‘Wellbeing and Relationships’. Your son will explore mental illness and the impact this has on lives, learn strategies on how to reframe our thinking. This will be important as they enter their PPEs. They will then explore the rights of different types of families and the legal rights of partnerships and of parents.
We encourage our students to continue the dialogue outside of the classroom so over the next six weeks let’s get talking as a household about:
- How we can stop stigmatising mental illness
- What activities we can do to keep our mind healthy
- Why some people choose to marry, some cohabitate, and some a civil partnership
- How a parent’s role changes over time
Friday 19th April 2024
Student Leadership
Students at our school are given the opportunity to lead on many areas within our school community. By experiencing a leadership position and working together as part of specific teams, students will be well equipped to take on and flourish in leadership roles once they leave us. The creation of different leadership pathways also contributes to our successful school environment, as students can play a direct role in the decision-making on different projects and issues around the school.
Our STRIVE values, Self-discipline, Teamwork, Resilience, Initiative, Vision and Endeavour, underpin all the efforts and projects undertaken by the different Student Leadership pathways throughout the year. We strive to have a leadership programme here at KNSB that is run by students, for the students.
As our Year 11 students prepare in earnest for their GCSEs, we look to appoint new student leaders in different positions across all year groups.
Year 10 Head Boy Team Applications
Our Head Boy Team is made up from Year 10 students, going into Year 11, who are outstanding role models and want to contribute to the life of their school. The Head Boy Team is made up of a Head Boy, alongside Deputies and Head Prefects. Each Head Prefect is responsible for a specific Student Leadership area: Sports; Philanthropy (charity); Peer mentoring; Academic mentoring; Outdoor community team; House competitions; School council; House competitions; Media literacy; and our Reader Leader scheme. The Head Prefects help run these programmes in school, but the whole team has a notable presence at all whole school and external events.
Year 10 students who are interested in applying for a position on the Head Boy Team, need to write a letter of application stating their reasons as to why they want the position and what they could offer the role.
For boys that would like to be a part of this team, in their application they should include:
- the position(s) that they are interested in applying for
- the reasons why they are interested in that position(s)
- the reasons why they believe they are the best person for that position(s).
In addition to their letter of application, they will need to supply a reference from a member of staff at school. This could be their Form Tutor, a subject teacher, their Head of Year or any other member of staff in school.
All applications and references should be handed to Miss Bishop in room A2.4. The deadline for letters of application and reference is Friday 3rd May 2024.
Year 9
Year 9 students can now apply for one of three positions on the Student Leadership team: Prefect; Peer Mentoring; and Residential Leader.
Prefects: our prefect team is made up of students who volunteer to help with whole school community events, such as guiding tours at open evenings, helping and guiding parents at parent and transition evenings, being present at community events, helping show visitors and guests around the school and helping run whole-school events, such as charity and sports-day.
Peer Mentoring: our peer mentors are made up from students who wish to help other students at school. They are there to support new Year 7 students transitioning to secondary school, as well as aid any other student who may require help in school. Peer mentors help support Year 6 students on transition day in school and potentially during summer school (if available). In September, peer mentors support and attend a Year 7 form during AM registration once a week in September. Peer mentors may also be involved with specific targeted sessions with anxious students to help them build relationships, with those who find social interaction difficult and with students with attendance issues.
Residential Leader: we are excited to launch our new initiative in school – Residential Leaders. Residential Leaders will attend and assist with the running of the KS3 Residential in September 2024 – (Monday 16th September – Friday 20th September). They will be asked to support a group whilst on the residential and will have the opportunity to get involved with the activities during the five days. In addition to this, leaders will be asked to help organise and run activities with the Year 8 students during social times when on the residential, e.g., organise ball games, etc. There are only eight Residential Leader spaces available. Students who are successful in their application for the position will have their place on the residential partly funded by the school, however, the position will incur a slight cost in order to cover their food and transport for the five days (£150 for non-Pupil Premium students and £90 for Pupil Premium students).
Year 9 students who are interested in applying for a position as either a Prefect, Peer Mentor and/or Residential Leader, need to write a letter of application, stating their reasons as to why they want the position and what they could offer the role.
In their application they should include:
- the position(s) that they are interested in applying for – they can apply for more than one position.
- the reasons why they are interested in that position(s)
- the reasons why they believe they are the best person for that position(s).
As there are only eight spaces available for becoming a Residential Leader, there will be a further selection process. This will involve the students organising and running a social session with a group of Year 7 students. Further details will be given to students who are shortlisted for this position.
All applications should be handed to Miss Bishop in room A2.4. The deadline for their letters of application is Friday 26th April.
Year 8
Year 8 students have the opportunity to apply to become a Peer Mentor in school.
Peer Mentoring: our Peer Mentors are made up from students who wish to help other students at school. They are there to support new Year 7 students transitioning to secondary school, as well as aid any other student who may require help in school. Peer mentors help support Year 6 students on transition day in school and potentially during summer school (if available). In September, Peer Mentors support and attend a Year 7 form during AM registration once a week in September. Peer Mentors may also be involved with specific targeted sessions with anxious students to help them build relationships, with those who find social interaction difficult and with students with attendance issues.
Year 8 students who are interested in applying for a position as a Peer Mentor need to write a letter of application stating their reasons as to why they want the position and what they could offer the role.
In their application they should include:
- the position(s) that they are interested in applying for – they can apply for more than one position.
- the reasons why they are interested in that position(s)
- the reasons why they believe they are the best person for that position(s).
All applications should be handed to Miss Bishop in room A2.4. The deadline for their letters of application is Friday 26th April.
Sparx Reader
Since the boys have started on Sparx Reader, they have collectively read for an incredible 924 hours and read 141 books!
Our student of the week this week is Isaac Fisher. He achieved a total of 1133 Sparx Reader Points which equates to over 113 minutes of careful reading. Well done, Isaac!
Our class of the week is 7K2, with 23 students completing all of their reading and ten of these students reading with ‘excellent’ accuracy.
Our ‘Gold Reader’ students are currently:
Jayden Goujon
Luqman Isaac
Jayden Kamanga
Issac Fisher
Joshua Hendry
Elisha Campbell
This means that these boys have been reading extra on top of their set homework. They can earn Sparx Reader Points by reading their own books. The boys have been reminded of how to do this during lessons and I have attached the instructions below.
Sparx Reader Club
For support with Sparx Reader or if students would rather complete their work in school on a school computer, students can now attend Sparx Reader Club. This will be held every Wednesday, straight after school until 4pm. Miss John will be there to support students with their reading.
Thank you for your support at home with Sparx Reader; please continue to encourage your son to use Sparx Reader throughout the week. If you have any questions, please refer to the FAQs below. If you are still unsure or if your son is having any particular issues with Sparx Reader, please get in touch via our enquiry line.
National Storytelling Week Year Competition!
Last term, we had an incredible Art/English collaboration where students could create an Art project, or a story based around the topic of freedom. We will be carrying out the judging process soon and sharing some of the wonderful work the boys have produced. A huge well done to everyone who entered!
To continue with our storytelling year at KNSB, we are very excited to announce that for the competition for the summer term, we will be collaborating with Drama. All the key information is detailed below:
- The boys can choose to create a script or film a short play/film/show.
- The topic of this term’s competition will be ‘Find Your Voice’. The boys can choose anything they have a passion about or feel they have something to say about.
- The deadline is 14th June 2024.
The information we will share with the boys is also attached below.
Y11 Updates
There have been some minor changes to the Year 11 period 6 schedule for next week. Please find the link to the amended timetable below.
We will be re-issuing your son with his individual GCSE Summer timetable next week which will also contain details of his seat number for all of his GCSE examinations. If at any point he requires a further copy, then he should see Miss Dixon or Mr Hanson.
In their assembly on Monday next week, Year 11 students will be given further advice on how to organise and manage their revision in the final weeks running up to their GCSE exams. Some students have got this completely under control, but many struggle with knowing how best to manage their time, and with what they should revise. Hopefully, all will then have a clear idea of what their next steps are for getting ‘exam ready’ and can prepare effectively in this all-important time. Please have a chat with your son following this, to check that he has everything that he needs and knows what he needs to do to perform at his best.
We would like to confirm the date for the Year 11 end of year in school celebration will take place on Tuesday 17th July. Students should arrive to school no earlier than 2pm with the event finishing at around 4pm. There will be food, music, sun (hopefully!), ‘staff versus students’ events, including on the inflatable course, and much more fun besides. We are hoping that it is a laid back, relaxing way to sign off their final year at KNSB. All Year 11 students are welcome.
We are awaiting the final balance amount for the Prom. We hope to have those details to you next week which will then need to be paid via ParentPay. Once we have this letter prepared, we will re-issue the full details of Prom – this will surely be a truly memorable evening for all involved.
We have partnered with Elevate Education this year who have come into school to work with our Year 11 students in preparation for their GCSE exams. We are delighted to continue this partnership, and Year 10 students will now also benefit from their expertise. As part of the partnership, Elevate also offers free parent webinars. Any parent from any year group can sign up and register for free. We have enclosed their flyer below for your perusal. It would be amazing to have as many of our parents take advantage of this free opportunity and would welcome and feedback that we can use moving forward.
Friday 12th April 2024
Fund Raising Update
You may remember that we shared Oly’s story with you before the Easter break. To support Oly and his family in his rehabilitation from injury, we asked our community to come together in a series of different fundraising events. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the £1500 that we have raised to contribute to the Cadbury Athletic Go Fund Me page.
Spotlight on Safeguarding: April Newsletter for Parents
Year 9 Parents’ Evening
This will be on Thursday 18th April from 4pm until 7pm. It will be held in the sports hall.
You should have received an email with details of how to book appointments on the ‘Schoolcloud’ system – one email was sent per student to the ‘Priority 1’ contact. If you did not receive an email, it could be that we have an old email address for you. If this is the case, please contact the school to update your details.
Please only make appointments for D&T, Drama or Food Technology if your son is considering this subject as an option.
Mr Garvey, Head of Year 9, as well as other senior staff will be in attendance to answer any wider queries.
Please do not forget to print out or make a note of your appointment times ahead of the evening.
As a reminder, the deadline for options request forms is the following Wednesday, 24th April.
Uniform Summer Polo Shirt Update
The polo shirts that families have ordered are now arriving in school for distribution, which will be happening early next week. Students will soon be wearing their new summer polo shirts around school, in readiness for the sunny weather that will surely be heading our way! The summer polo shirt (optional) is still available to order if you would like your son to wear one.
The Trust has agreed to supply one polo shirt to all students for whom the school is in receipt of Pupil Premium funding. If you are entitled to claim this and have not yet done so then please get in touch via reception or email (enquiry@knbs.co.uk).
Follow this link to the order portal, to order and pay for summer polo shirts. They are £15 each. All orders will be delivered to the school, and we will distribute them as they arrive. Size information is also available on the portal. If you are worried about ordering the wrong size, we will have a set of polo shirts in school shortly that the boys can try on.
If you have chosen to purchase this optional summer polo shirt, we are keen for your son to be in a position to start wearing it as soon as it arrives. Therefore, we have drafted some initial uniform expectations which we expect your son to follow. These will be reviewed with staff and students during the next few days:
- summer polo shirts replace your son’s shirt and tie
- summer polo shirts do not need to be tucked in
- blazers should still be worn, however, summer blazer rules will be in operation*
- jumpers remain optional
- All other expectations remain the same, e.g., shoes, school trousers, no hoodies
*Summer blazer rules: students should wear their blazer to and from school. They can remove them in lessons, and they are not required at break and lunch.
As polo shirts are a non-compulsory item, we insist that they are branded with the school badge and logo. It is essential that they are branded as during the summer term there will be many situations where they are worn without a branded blazer, therefore, non-branded options are not acceptable. Students not wishing to purchase a polo will need to wear their usual school shirt.
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘consist’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and, if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Y11 Period 6
Period 6 sessions for our Year 11 students will commence again from Monday 15th April. Please find attached the latest schedule below. Attendance to these additional revision sessions as we approach the summer exams is paramount, so we thank you for your on-going support in ensuring that your son continues to attend and takes advantage of the additional support in place.
Year 11 Yearbook
We are resurrecting the Year 11 leavers’ yearbook this year, so that all students leave KNSB with a visual memento of their time here and of the staff and students that they have shared this with. Students will receive their copy of the yearbook when the visit us in school for the Year 11 celebration event which takes place on the afternoon of Tuesday 16th July. We have not asked for a compulsory payment for this, as we feel it is important that everyone receives one of these important keepsakes, however, if you would like to make a voluntary contribution of £5 towards the cost of your son’s copy, you can do so via Parent Pay.
Friday 22nd March 2024
Wear your own clothes day
Thank you for your support with today’s fundraising. A quick check earlier today put us at well over £1000. We still have money coming in from various sources so we will share the final total on our return after Easter.
Uniform Summer Polo Shirt Update
This School Council initiative has been very popular, with many families ordering the new summer Polo shirt, which will be arriving for distribution from the first week back.
If you have chosen to purchase this optional summer polo shirt, we are keen for your son to be in a position to start wearing it as soon as it arrives. Therefore, we have drafted some initial uniform expectations which we expect your son to follow. These will be reviewed with staff and students during the first part of the summer term:
- Summer Polo shirts replace your son’s shirt and tie
- Summer polo shirts do not need to be tucked in
- Blazers should still be worn; however, summer blazer rules will be in operation*
- Jumpers remain optional
- All other expectations remain the same;
- e.g., shoes, school trousers, no hoodies
*Summer blazer rules:
Students should wear their blazer to and from school. They can remove them in lessons, and they are not required at break and lunch.
As polo shirts are a non-compulsory items, we insist that they are branded with the school badge and logo. it is essential that they are branded as during the summer term there will be many situations where they are worn without a branded blazer, therefore, non-branded options are not acceptable. Student not wishing to purchase a polo will need to wear their usual school shirt from the at the beginning of term.
Sparx Reader
Since Year 7 students have been using Sparx Reader, they have collectively read for an incredible 644 hours and read 94 books! We are very proud of how the boys have jumped straight in to reading at home.
Our student of the week this week is Joshua Hendry. He achieved a total of 1728 Sparx Reader Points which equates to over 172 minutes of careful reading. Well done, Joshua!
Our class of the week is 7K2 , with 22 students completing all of their reading.
Some students also deserve a special shout out for their reading this term:
- Elisha Campbell has received over 15,000 Sparx Reader Points – that’s 1500 minutes of careful reading
- Ben Andrews has received over 8,000 Sparx Reader Points – that’s 800 minutes of careful reading
- Leo Bailey has received over 7,000 Sparx Reader Points – that’s 700 minutes of careful reading.
Many of the boys are doing so well on Sparx Reader that they have now been awarded a Gold Reader Pass. This should be visible on their account. With a Gold Reader Pass, students can choose to read a physical copy of their book and still earn Sparx Reader Points. The instructions on how they can do this can be found here.
Sparx Reader Club
For support with Sparx Reader or if students would rather complete their work in school on a school computer, they can now attend Sparx Reader Club. This will be held every Wednesday in the library, straight after school until 4pm. Miss John will be there to support students with their reading.
Thank you for your support from home with Sparx Reader; please continue to encourage your son to use Sparx Reader throughout the week. If you have any questions, please refer to the FAQs below. If you are still unsure or if your son is having any particular issues with Sparx Reader, please get in touch via enquiry@knbs.co.uk.
National Storytelling Year Competition!
The deadline for the National Storytelling Year competition has been extended to the end of the first week back after Easter (12/4) to give the boys more time to complete their projects. This also gives any of the boys who were struggling with the deadline time to enter. The topic for the storytelling competition is freedom and the boys can produce this through any medium from script writing, to a video, to a written story. Please encourage your sons to enter.
Friday 15th March 2024
Summer Polo Shirt – ready to order from Monday!
The summer polo shirt (optional) will be available to order from Monday. We are delighted that the Trust has agreed to supply one polo shirt to all students who receive Pupil Premium funding. Families who are entitled to this offer will receive a text on Monday morning to confirm the size of shirt that they want to order.
On Monday afternoon all families will be sent a link to the order portal and families can order and pay for summer polo shirts. These are £15 each. All orders will be delivered to the school, and we will distribute as they arrive.
Please remember that polo shirts are an optional item of uniform; they would replace the need for students to wear their shirt and tie.
Thank you for your support,
Ashton and Abu (Year 11 School Council Leads)
Size information is also available on the portal. If you are worried about ordering the wrong size, we will have a set of polo shirts in school after Easter that the boys can try on.
Solar Panels Workshop
As part of British Science week, external visitors have come into school today to deliver workshops and presentations to our students. The aim of these workshops has been to help increase awareness of the newly installed solar panels we have in school. Throughout the day, students have participated in assemblies and workshops, sharing all the fantastic benefits our solar panels will provide, not only for our school, but also explaining how we are doing our bit to help tackle the important issue of climate change and fossil fuel consumption.
*Reminder* Plans for Friday 22nd March 2024
Fundraising
This day will be a wear your own clothes day. A minimum donation of £1 is requested, however, if families wish to donate more, all of that money will be donated to the Cadbury charity and used to support the care and support for Oly Yorke and his family. Both cash and Parent Pay will be available for donations for this event: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/plea-after-birmingham-teen-suffers-28747856
Timings of the Day
In celebration of Ramadan and Easter, we will be finishing slightly earlier on the last day of term. Periods 1–4 will take place as normal, and lunch and break will be also normal. There will be a registration period at 1:55-2:05 and then all students will leave the school site at 2:05pm.
The Big Iftar
We are excited to hold our first Big Iftar event and would be delighted if you could join us. The event begins from 17.45pm on Friday 22nd March. Please sign up for a place here: https://forms.office.com/e/qgNJpAFUcs.We will send you more information directly. Donations made as part of this event will support our school community donation to the Cadbury charity to support Oly and his family.
Year 10 Work Experience
Next week is work experience week. Good luck to everyone at their placements, and well done to everyone managed to secure one – this is no mean feat! We know that you will show just how amazing King’s Norton Boys are – go and make us all proud!
If you think that your company can offer a work experience placement in the future, please drop us a message to enquiry@knbs.co.uk
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘consequence’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and, if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Uniform Reminder
With the amount of rain we have had recently, our school site is very waterlogged. We are not currently using the fields for break or lunch, but it can impact on the playground which can carry more dirt than usual. Please remember that if students wish to wear trainers at break and lunch this is allowed. All we ask is that they change back into their shoes before returning to lessons.
Year 11
At this time of year, Year 11 students up and down the country will be ensuring that their revision schedule is in place and that they are completing an appropriate amount of independent revision in preparation for the summer exams. We have attached a handy ‘parent guidance’ document which will support you and your son to access in accessing what is a significant amount of resources. These will help students to stay on top of their revision. The booklet can be found below.
I am excited to bring you our Easter revision offer. You can find your son’s individual schedule below. This will work similar to his period 6 schedule where you will use his candidate number to track which sessions he has been invited to over the Easter holiday period. We hope that your son is available and engages in the opportunity that has been presented to him. Students should aim to arrive five minutes before his revision session begins. He can wear his own clothing but should come prepared and ready to learn. Breaks will be incorporated into the sessions, and I would advise that your son brings some food and drink, particularly if he has been invited for two sessions in a day.
Please find the period 6 schedule for next week (w.b. 18th March) below.
Following the collation of the February PPE grades, all departments will be holding review meetings in the first week back to ensure that the right intervention is put into place for all Year 11 students in the approach to the summer exams. Therefore, period 6 sessions will not take place in the week directly after Easter and students will be expected to conduct independent revision following guidance from class teachers. Class teachers will remain available at various times across the school day if students have individual questions relating to them. The full period 6 timetable will reconvene w.b. 15th April.
Today your son has been provided with his summer examination schedule. At this stage students will not be allocated a seat number. We will provide an updated version with this additional detail at a later date. It is important that you, alongside your son, check this timetable carefully and ensure you are confident that he has been entered for the correct subjects. In the unlikely event that a subject does not appear on the schedule, or a subject appears that your son does not study, please let the school know using the enquiry@knbs.co.uk email address.
We have today held our final seminar working with Elevate Education, aptly named ‘Ace your Exams’. Once again, I have been so impressed with the level of maturity and engagement that our students have demonstrated. I would like to thank Elevate for the effort and work they have conducted with our students across the year, and I hope that this seminar gives them the final boost they need as we approach the summer examinations.
Important letter regarding Scarlett fever
We have been informed that 2 children who attend King Edward VI King’s Norton School for boys have been diagnosed with a suspected or confirmed scarlet fever.
Although scarlet fever is usually a mild illness, it should be treated with antibiotics to minimise the risk of complications and reduce the spread to others.
The symptoms of scarlet fever include a sore throat, headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. This is followed by a fine, rash which typically first appears on the chest and stomach, rapidly spreading to other parts of the body. On white skin the rash looks pink or red. On brown and black skin it might be harder to see a change in colour, but you can still feel the sandpaper-like texture of the rash and see the raised bumps. The face can be flushed red but pale around mouth.
If you think you, or your child, have scarlet fever:
- See your GP or contact NHS 111 as soon as possible
- Make sure that you or your child takes the full course of any antibiotics prescribed by the doctor
- Stay at home, away from nursery, school or work for at least 24 hours after starting the antibiotic treatment, to avoid spreading the infection.
The infection causing scarlet fever (group A streptococcal infection) also causes sore throats (strep throat), mild fever and minor skin infections (for example, impetigo). If someone in your family has any of these symptoms in the next 30 days we advise that you take them (along with this letter) to see their GP. Their GP can arrange for them to be tested if necessary and then treated with antibiotics. If the GP thinks they have a group A streptococcal infection. If the GP thinks that the person has group A streptococcal infection, they will need to remain off work, school or nursery for 24 hours following the start of antibiotics.
Complications
Children who have had chickenpox recently are more likely to develop more serios infection should they catch scarlet fever and so parents should remain vigilant for symptoms such as a persistent high temperature, skin infection and joint pain and swelling. If you are concerned for any reason please seek medical assistance immediately.
If your child has an underlying condition which affects their immune system, you should contact your GP or hospital doctor to discuss whether any additional measures are needed.
You can find more information on scarlet fever symptoms, diagnosis and treatment at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scarlet-fever-symptoms-diagnosis-treatment
Further advice can also be obtained from your local health protection team on 0344 225 3560 during office hours.Important letter regarding Scarlett fever
Thursday 14th March 2024
We wanted to send one clear update about Friday 22nd March, which was outside of the usual Friday Comms so the information did not get lost.
Plans for Friday 22nd March 2024
Fundraising
This day will be a “wear your own clothes” day. A minimum donation of £1 is requested, however if families wish to donate more then all of that money will be donated to the Cadbury Charity, and used to support the care and support for Oly Yorke and his family. Both cash and parental donations will be available for donations for this event. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/plea-after-birmingham-teen-suffers-28747856
Timings of the Day
In celebration of Ramadan and Easter we will be finishing slightly earlier on the last day of term. Period 1 – 4 will take place as normal, lunch and break will be also work as normal. There will be a registration period at 1:55-2:05 and students will leave site for the end of their day from 2:05pm.
The Big Iftar
We are excited to hold our first Big Iftar event and would be delighted if you could join us, the event begins from 17.45pm on Friday 22nd March. Please sign up for a place and we will send you more information directly: https://forms.office.com/e/qgNJpAFUcs. Donations made as part of this event will support our school communities donation to the Cadbury Charity to support Oly and his family.
Friday 8th March 2024
Important News
One of our own is once more in need of support from the wonderful KNSB community. Oly, one of our boys, is currently in hospital recovering from a terrible accident.
Cadbury AFC have set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to support the family at this really tough time. We want our KNSB community to come together and support those fundraising efforts. Therefore, on the Friday 22nd March, we will hold a non-uniform day with the proceeds going towards this amazing fundraising effort. We are also planning other fundraising events on that day. More details on how to donate will follow next week.
We want Oly to know that we are thinking of him and cannot wait to welcome him back into school KNSB family.
Click the below link to read more about Oly’s situation and the excellent fundraising efforts made so far. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/plea-after-birmingham-teen-suffers-28747856
The Big Iftar
Ramadan 2024 begins in the third week of March. It is one of the five pillars of Islam. Ramadan is the time in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammed (SAW).
During the month of Ramadan, all Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink, from dawn until dusk. The act of fasting helps Muslims to feel closer to God and be compassionate for those in need; it also seen as a way to practise patience and avoid bad habits. The time to open each fast at sunset is called Iftar. Iftar will be announced by the Adhan (the call to prayer) and water and dates are usually the first things to eat as this is what was done in the time of the prophet. This will be followed by a meal after Maghrib prayer. It is a time for loved ones to come together in unity, share a meal and reflect on their day.
It is in this spirit that King’s Norton School for Boys invites all our families to The Big Iftar on Friday 22nd March at 17.45. Let us be together as a community and share a meal together in solidarity.
You do not need to pay for your meal however, we ask that you make donations to our charity fundraising via ParentPay.
What we need from you:
Please fill in the 30 second survey below to indicate your attendance and the number of people who will be attending.
We only have 100 places! Thank you and Ramadan Mubarak!
https://forms.office.com/e/qgNJpAFUcs
Summer Polo shirts – Update
We are delighted that we can show you a proof of the selected colour and design for our summer polo shirts (optional). The School Council Cabinet Team is really pleased with how this has turned out and that by offering this option for the summer, we will have made a long-lasting difference to students here and for future students too.
We are currently finalising the online shop where you will be able to order and pay for polo shirts. As soon as this is organised, we will share those details via text message.
Thank you for your support,
Ashton and Abu
School Council Leads
Safeguarding Newsletter
This month’s newsletter focuses on child-on-child abuse, a term that schools often use when talking about the negative behaviour children show towards one and other. There is also information to support you in talking to your child about knife crime. With knife crime featuring in the news regularly, it is important for you to actively educate your child around it. The app feature is on WhatsApp, one of the most commonly used apps for messaging, which has a number of safety features but also comes with its risks.
First Chapter Fridays
Our First Chapter Friday for the next two weeks is from a book called ‘Tender’ by Eve Ainsworth. We have chosen this book because on 13th March it is Young Carers Day. We think it’s incredibly important to raise awareness of young carers and help them find the support they need. ‘Tender’ is a book which touches on mental health, family, friendship and the pressures teenage carers face. For more information on how we can all support young carers and raise awareness, you can visit the Carer’s Trust website. We hope the boys find this book inspiring and seek to find out more about it or read it in full!
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘consent’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Year 11
Today has signalled the end of a three-week period of PPEs. We appreciate the level of effort that our Year 11 students have put into these and wanted to congratulate them on successfully completing their final set of mock examinations. Teaching staff are busy marking and will have already begun the process of feeding these back to students. All attention will now turn to the summer examinations which begin in just 29 school days…
Next Friday (15th March) also provides our Year 11s with their final Elevate Education seminar entitled ‘Ace Your Exams’. The feedback that we have had from students regarding the previous two seminars has been exceptionally positive so we are hopeful that students will have something to take away with them that they can apply to their final couple of months approaching the exams.
We are in a position to share with you the broad revision schedule for the Easter holidays. I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of those staff who have offered up their own time in order to support Year 11 students. Not currently shown on this timetable are the days when we will open up the library for any students who just wish to come to school to conduct some private revision. Once we have allocated staffing to this space, I will share with you the days and times that this facility will be open to all students. By the end of next Friday, students will be in possession of their individual timetables for Easter revision. We hope that students are in a position whereby they can attend all sessions that have been put on for them – it could make all the difference come those all-important summer exams. The broad schedule can be found below.
Miss Yussuf
| Mon 25th March | Tues 26th March | Weds 27th March | Thurs 28th March | Tues 2nd April | Weds 3rd April | Thurs 4th April | |
| Session 1. 9am-12pm | Business (DD) PE (MT) English (FY/SS) | History (AD) Geography (HD) Geography (HC) French H (TO) | Drama (AW) Science | English Lang (VTB) Music (JN/CC) RE (UA) | Maths (RJH/EK/GJ/PC) | English (DT/LK) Computing (MC) | History (JW) History (ST) |
| Session 2. 12pm-3pm | iMedia (DD) | Computing (SE) French F (TO) | Spanish (AF) | Spanish (AF) Music (JN/CC) | Business (MC) English (DT) | English (VTB) | |
| SLT | SM | DC | JB | VTB | RJH/GJ | MC | VTB |
Year 7 Parents’ Evening
This will take place on Thursday 14th March from 4pm in the school Sports Hall. You should have received a link by which you can make bookings on the ‘School Cloud’ system. You will also need your son’s date of birth in order to log in, along with your unique identification code. These were also sent out by email. Please remember to bring a list of your appointments along to the evening. We look forward to seeing you there.
Year 9 Options Evening
To begin the formal process of your son selecting his Key Stage 4 option subjects, Options Evening will be held in the main school hall on Thursday 21st March. There are two sittings – 5pm until 5.45pm and 6pm until 6.45pm. We will talk you through the structure of our Key Stage 4 curriculum and give information about the option selection process. You will receive your invitation to one of these sessions next week. Looking ahead, Year 9 reports will be issued by the end of the first week back after Easter and then Parents’ Evening will be on Thursday 18th April. The deadline for submission of the option forms will be the following Wednesday, 24thApril.
Friday 1st March 2024
Important Message from the School Council
re: Summer Uniform (exploring an optional change)
Over the last few years, our summer weather has become increasingly hot, and we have been grateful that the school has allowed us to wear our PE shirts during these extended warm periods. However, we all think that a more permanent solution would be best. The School Council has, therefore, been working with staff to look at introducing a summer polo shirt.
As this would most likely be an alternative to wearing our white cotton shirts, tie and blazer, it would need to be branded with the school’s crest and name. Therefore, we have been working with the Trust and a supplier to determine what this might look like. We are delighted that the Trust has agreed to supply one polo shirt to all students who receive Pupil Premium funding. All other polo shirts for the first year would need to be purchased by parents/carers from the supplier and would cost between £17-20. In future years, these polo shirts will be available in all our usual uniform providers.
What do we need from you?
We need to know if you would intend to buy a polo shirt for your son and perhaps the number you might purchase. Please can you let us know by completing our brief survey:
https://forms.office.com/e/p4E673HbPw
Thank you,
Ashton
Year 11 School Council Lead
Canteen update
What happens if a student does not have money on his account? (student debts)
Breaktime
Students who do not have funds available on their Parent Pay account, will be unable to use the catering service at breaktime. Heads of Year and Pastoral staff may be able to provide a snack from their welfare boxes in such an emergency.
Lunchtime
At lunchtime, students with no available funds will need to see the lead Pastoral Team member on duty in the canteen to explain the situation, who can authorise a meal deal voucher. This will allow the student a meal deal on the first day of there being no available funds.
Following the lunch service our admin team will send text messages to the parents of any student who has requested a lunch voucher so that they can top up their son’s account for the next day’s service.
Any top up will be available for the next day and school authorised lunches will not automatically come off those top up funds, as this money can only be redeemed with our catering supplier.
Free School Meals reminder
If your son is in receipt of free school meals, they are entitled to £2.65 per day. The free school meal entitlement is added to your son’s account for lunch service each day and any unused allocation is removed at the end of service (in line with the rules set out by the DfE).
Students who are entitled to free school meal funding who wish to use the catering service at morning break must have additional funds added through their Parent Pay account to cover the use of this provision (they can access the Pastoral Team welfare boxes if they do not have sufficient funds on their account.)
Y11 Period 6
Period 6 sessions will commence again next week (wb. 4th March). We appreciate that a few students still have some afternoon PPEs and therefore will be unable to attend all sessions. You can find the updated schedule here.
In addition, we are in the process of putting together our revision offer for the Easter holidays. This will take place over the two-week period (excluding Bank Holidays) and each day will have a morning session (9am-12pm) and an afternoon session (12pm-3pm). We hope to share individual schedules next week and hope that students embrace the additional time and appreciate the teachers who are giving up their holiday time to provide to them. We will give more details over the next two weeks.
Word of the Week
The Word of the Week next week is ‘conform’. This will be displayed on a poster in form rooms and if students use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
50/50 Draw
Our last Friends of King’s Norton Boys’ School 50/50 club draw has taken place for February 2024. We thank those who have supported us with this initiative – your contributions have helped many students enjoy extracurricular activities here at the school, and without your support this would not have been possible.
We will shortly be launching our School Lottery fundraising campaign (run for the school by yourschoollottery.co.uk). This will enable the wider school community to take part, including our current families, the local community and our Old Nortonians network. Further details about this platform and our fundraising targets and achievements will be distributed shortly in readiness to launch in the summer term.
February 2024 149 (G Illey) VIEW
Friday 23rd February 2024
9-week Block
Our second 9-week monitoring period finished on Friday 2nd Friday, and we are pleased to celebrate the successes of such large groups of our school community. We want to share with our wider school community some of the headlines:
- In the last 9 weeks, over 125,000 commendations have been awarded across all year groups, with the average commendations per student being 152. Commendations continue to rise. On average, each student has received 20 more commendations than this period last year. 286 students have achieved more than 150 commendations in this 9-week block!
- Those students with 100% attendance comprise just under 26% of the school. 208 students have achieved a 100% attendance record for this 9-week block.
- 762 students (94.9%) achieved Merits in this 9-week block. 563 students achieved 150+ Merits – this is over 70% of the school population!
- 71 students achieved the maximum number of Merits in this 9-week block – the second highest number since the 9-week blocks began.
We will continue to remind students that all their hard work across the year, culminating in the collection of Merits, will contribute towards the end of year reward trip. Sweet treats, certificates, letters home and celebrations within forms will have already been taking place this week. Please see above a reminder of how our students qualify for rewards in each 9-week block.
Perhaps most encouraging is our recognition of all those wonderful students that we have that simply do the right thing each and every day. Indeed, 48% of the school population didn’t lose a single point in the last 9-week block! That is an astonishing number of boys and the highest we have had on record. It really is a testament to their commitment and the value they hold for their place at King Edward VI King’s Norton School for Boys. This figure rises to 63% for students that have only lost 2 or less points across the whole 9 weeks. And further to 74% of the entire school who have lost less than five points. This is a fantastic effort by the entire school community – students and staff alike!
We place an important emphasis on rewarding students that are working hard and showing outstanding levels of conduct. Therefore, this week we have been thrilled to share with students some very exciting additional rewards that are available to all students at the end of this academic year. We have spoken with students in assemblies this week to provide the ‘big reveal’.
How it works?
Students will continue to collect Merits based on their attendance, SDfL behaviour points and commendations right up until the end of the year in the hope that they can achieve enough Merits to gain an invite to the end of year reward trip (which will take place at the start of next academic year). Students must maintain a good behaviour and attendance record in order to receive this reward.
Separately to this are rewards that are open to all students to try and achieve before the end of the academic year. The date range for this reward will be from Monday 26th February to Friday 12th July. During this time any students that have 96% or greater attendance record and do not lose more than five points will be entered into a prize draw for some fantastic prizes:
- a mountain bike (available to year 7 and year 8 students)
- a mountain bike (available to year 9 and year 10 students)
- Apple Smartwatch (available to all students)
- Apple air pods (available to all students).
We are so excited about making these rewards available to students and we remain committed to rewarding those students that do the right thing, day in day out. Let the competition begin!
Dr McIntosh (Assistant Headteacher – lead for key stage 3)
Mr Hanson (Assistant Headteacher – lead for key stage 4)
Y11 Elevate Education
We are excited to announce that we have our next, and final, seminar with Elevate Education coming in to further enthuse and support our Year 11 students on Friday 15th March. The session will focus on final preparations for the summer exams. There is also the latest parent webinar taking place on Tuesday 5th March. You can register for this free event below.
Year 10 English Literature Set Text
Year 10 students will be starting a new GCSE Literature text on Monday 4th March – Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. Students will require their own copy of this text so that they can annotate it as we read it and to create their own revision resource that will be invaluable in their revision for the Year 10 Pre-Public Exams and for Year 11. This text is available from Amazon and other online sellers, as well as from most bookstores. If you have financial difficulty in purchasing this text, please get in touch via enquiry@knbs.co.uk.
First Chapter Fridays
Our First Chapter Friday for the next two weeks is from a book called ‘I am Malala’. We have chosen this book because on 8th March it is International Women’s Day. Malala is a young woman close to Birmingham’s heart and here story is a demonstration of the amazing things young people and women can do to change the world. We hope the boys find this book inspiring and seek to find out more about it or read it in full.
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘conflict’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and, if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Sparx Reader Updates
We are very excited that we are now mostly set up with Sparx Reader after a few small teething issues. It’s wonderful to see how much reading the boys have been doing at home and we have enjoyed rewarding this with our Sparx Reader commendations. A gentle reminder that all Year 7 English homework comes out on Monday and is due the next Monday – this should be completed by Monday morning.
As with anything new, there can be many questions, and lots of them are relevant to everyone, so we have put together a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list which can support you with these. Please use this in the first instance to find answers to your questions. If your question is not answered on here, do feel free to get in touch via enquiry@knbs.co.uk.
Friday 9th February 2024
Standards and Expectations – Update
Last week, we shared with you a concern about some of the behaviours that we were experiencing. Thank you for your support in addressing these issues. This final week of the half term has seen a significant improvement in self-discipline. When we return from the half-term break, we will be able to share the key messages from the last 9-week data cycle.
Please spare a thought this half-term for our Year 11 boys who will be spending a significant amount of their break revising for their last set of PPEs. We urge them to have some downtime and would like to wish all our students a wonderful week.
Symphony Hall Trip
On Thursday 8th February, some of our Year 7 and Year 10 music students visited Birmingham Symphony Hall to watch a concert performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The intention of the concert was to provide secondary school students with a snapshot of the diversity of orchestral repertoire, understand the different instruments of the orchestra and experience a world renowned orchestra in our home city. Students got to hear a mixture of music, from more popular pieces such as Harry’s Wonderous World (Harry Potter) and Angry Birds, and they heard classical music by Ravel and Dvořák. They even got to have a dance to Soul Bossa Nova! The concert has hopefully enthused some of our younger years to learn an orchestral instrument and inspire our GCSE students in ways to develop their compositional work. The concert was a great opportunity to showcase the classical music world and was enjoyed by all.
Y11 Enterprise Session
Hosted by DHL, our Year 11 students enjoyed a logistical challenge earlier this week when they were tasked with finding a solution for getting various goods from China to the UK, using only the options they were presented with by the DHL team. Each group were given a budget, along with a range of ethical and environmental considerations to adhere too. The boys had a fantastic time experiencing how logistics works within a real-life business and putting their problem-solving skills to good use.
Personal Development – Year 7
Year 7 students are starting their new module on Relationships and Wellbeing. Your son will explore friendships, diverse identities within our community and the British Values that unite us. If you have any questions about this, please contact Miss Turley.
We encourage our students to continue the dialogue outside of the classroom so over the next six weeks let’s get talking as a household about:
- What is your identity?
- How we look different yet share similar interests; goals within our friendship groups
- How to recognise discrimination and put a stop to it.
Personal development- Year 8
Year 8 students are starting their new module on Living in the Wider World. Your son will explore what is meant by stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination before exploring the impact these all have on individuals, relationships and today’s society as a whole. If you have any questions about this, please contact Miss Turley.
We encourage our students to continue the dialogue outside of the classroom, so over the next six weeks let’s get talking as a household about:
- What does inclusion look like and what can we do to promote it?
- How, and why, we should challenge discrimination and how to do so safely
- What xenophobia, religious prejudice and racism are and how we can be anti-racist and generally explore how we can stand up against these particular forms of discrimination.
Y7 Sparx Reader
This week has seen a mostly successful introduction to Sparx Reader for our Year 7 students. Homework will appear on their Sparx Reader on Monday 12th February and should be completed for Monday 19th February. We hope they are all excited to get started. Students who were absent or who couldn’t log in for any reason will be logged in and will sit the reading test after half term.
After half term, we will be sending out a Sparx Reader crib sheet with key information and FAQs you can refer back to. Please do get in touch if you have any questions that we can add these to our FAQs.
Word of the Week
The Word of the Week for after half term is ‘confirm’. This will be displayed on a poster in form rooms and if students use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Looking for something fun to do over the half term?
EcoBirmingham is putting on different free cycling events during half term to encourage people from the local community to explore the outdoors together and have fun.
Check out the link for further details.
Friday 2nd February 2024
INSET Day – Wednesday 7th February
This is just a gentle reminder that school will be closed to all students on Wednesday 7th February for staff INSET. Part of this day will include a range of collaborative opportunities for staff to meet and share expertise with colleagues from across the South Area Network of schools, an event that always brings huge benefit to our school community.
Standards and Expectations
Since the return to school, following the pandemic, there has been a significant national dip in behaviour. Until very recently, we have been lucky enough to avoid such a significant dip. This last week, however, we have experienced issues that we are not used to seeing, issues that we feel cannot be tolerated. To do so would be to let down most of our students, those who meet our shared expectations almost all of the time and have a passion for learning. We are looking forward to rewarding and praising these students when the 9-week data is analysed.
On Monday, we will be reminding our students of our expectations and the standards that we need everyone to maintain, day in, day out. Going back to basics will help us to ensure that these expectations and standards are clear, and that they are followed. It would be incredibly helpful if you could support us by making sure your son has the equipment he needs and is wearing the correct uniform. These are the starting points for many of our expectations, and they help students to have a mindset for learning. We know that many of you will also wish to support us by talking through the expectations and reinforcing the need to behave positively.
We are grateful for your support.
Blazers
We have almost all of our blazers back and handed out to our boys. Thank you for your patience with this process. We understand that heat transfer badges are not a perfect solution, however, they remain the best overall solution available. Thank you to those parents who have added a stitch in the corners of badges – this adds a significant amount of strength and will help to keep the badges in place. Where badges have peeled away (most often from being picked at), they can be resealed by simply covering the badge with a cloth and applying a hot iron. We then recommend that you add a stitch or two for added stability.
For the new 2024 intake, both heat transfer blazers and shop bought blazers will be accepted. Likewise, when blazers need replacing in the future, the uniform suppliers will have these available with embroidered pockets.
Canteen Menus
Our catering provider has been working hard to devise and implement our new three-week menus. Included below is the full catering offer that we are working towards offering from Easter. Menus will be regularly reviewed to see which options have been popular and to include seasonal options throughout the year. Our Chinese New Year themed day will be launching soon, so tell your son to keep an eye out for posters in the canteen.
Safeguarding Newsletter
This month’s Spotlight on Safeguarding newsletter focuses on mental health and includes useful information about spotting the signs of poor mental health, strategies to support poor mental health and information on Kooth, an online platform providing support for young people.
Y11 Prom
We have had an amazing response from students wishing to attend Year 11 Prom, with over half of the year group already having paid their deposit, securing their place at what will undoubtedly be the ‘event of the year’. The deadline for anyone wishing to pay their deposit is Monday 5th February, to be paid using ParentPay.
Y9 Immunisations
Year 9 students are due to have their teenage booster immunisation on Tuesday 6th February. The School Aged Immunisation Service (SAIS) will be offering these immunisations in school.
Please use the link below to provide consent if you wish your son to have the recommended vaccines.
https://www.bchcschoolagevaccs.nhs.uk
Quoting Letter Reference – 103562-331
Access Code – 8337
If you need help or advice completing the consent form, please contact the SAIS team on the phone number 0121 466 3410 or via email BCHNT.BirminghamImms@nhs.net
Year 7 Sparx Reader Launch Evening
We were delighted to see so many of our Year 7 parents in school last night at our Sparx Reader launch event. You will undoubtedly already be familiar with Sparx Maths, the online homework platform that our maths department uses. We are now delighted to have been chosen to pilot the long-awaited Sparx Reader, and have selected Year 7 students to have first access to this. The launch was also shared with Year 7 students today and they were equally as excited as parents about what Sparx Reader has to offer. If you were unable to attend the launch, the presentation can be found below. Year 7 students will be using the site for the first time next week but if you and your son want to have a sneaky peek at the platform, he can log on to the Sparx Reader site using his Sparx Maths log in, which will be used for both. Enjoy!
First Chapter Fridays
Our First Chapter Friday for the next two weeks is from a book called ‘The Boy with the Butterfly Mind’ by Victoria Williamson. This book supports our assemblies which this week have been about Place 2Be’s Children’s Mental Health week. The novel follows two characters: one who struggles under the pressure of her perfectionism and one who struggles with having ADHD. We hope you enjoy discussing this text at home – we think this book is one that many of our boys will really enjoy!
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘confine’. This will be displayed on a poster in every form room and, if the boys use the word, they will get a commendation. It would be great if you can ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
50/50 Draw
Our last Friends of King’s Norton Boys’ School 50/50 club draw will take place on Thursday 29th February. We thank those who have supported us with this initiative – your contributions have helped many students enjoy extracurricular activities here at the school, and without your support this would not have been possible.
Our latest draws are as follows:
December 2023 108 (L Reali) VIEW DRAW
January 2024 154 (R Withey) VIEW DRAW
School Lottery – launching soon!
We will shortly be launching our School Lottery fundraising campaign (run for the school by yourschoollottery.co.uk). This will enable the wider school community to take part, including our current families, the local community, and our Old Nortonians network.
Further details regarding this platform and our fundraising targets and achievements will be distributed after half term.
Friday 26th January 2024
Blazer Update
On Monday we will be presenting Year 11 blazers. This will leave almost everyone in school with their re-branded blazer. We thank you for your patience. There are still some outstanding blazers that will be back in school next week (e.g., blazers for students who were absent on their year groups collection day)
There are no perfect solutions to the re-branding issue and this one has met most of our objectives, particularly around reuse, recycle and cost. Our supplier’s advice is for a stitch to be placed in each corner of the badge to support longevity.
Of course, over time new branded blazers will begin to replace our re-branded ones, the aim is for that happen naturally over time avoiding the need for high-cost replacements at the point of conversion.
Canteen Update
The canteen has been running a three-week menu which will be reviewed to see which options have been popular. This will help them to tailor the 3-week menu to our boys. When this is passed to us, we will share that with you.
Year 7 Sparx Reader Launch Evening
We just want to remind you of our parent launch for Sparx reader on Thursday 1st February from 6-7pm. We are inviting all parents of Year 7 students to attend, and we are very excited to introduce you to Sparx reader. The importance of reading for supporting students’ academic progress is widely known, and we have been waiting for a platform such as this for a long time. Please pop this date in your diary and join us on Thursday to find out more!
Young Musician of the Year
We are very excited to be launching our second Young Musician of the Year competition. The competition is open to all abilities, and you can enter as a performer, a composer, rapper/vocalist and/or in a band. You do not need to have lessons in school to enter and you can enter in more than one category. Those shortlisted will perform in our finalists’ concert and those who win overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, as well as Best Band, will receive a trophy to keep and points towards their house teams. The winners’ name will be engraved on our presentation shield which is displayed in the music room. Students who wish to enter should sign up on the sheets outside music room A1.12 before Friday 2nd February.
Word of the Week
Next week’s Word of the Week is ‘confer’. This will be displayed on a poster in form rooms and if they use the word, they will get a commendation! It would be excellent if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it.
Year 11
We are aware that some of our boys speak an additional language at home. We are in a position where those students can be entered for their additional language as a GCSE. If you have already expressed an interest in your son sitting an additional GCSE, we will text to say that we require no further action. However, if your son does speak an additional language, but we are not yet aware of this, and you would like him to sit a in this, then could you please let us know at the earliest opportunity.
As we approach the final set of PPEs, attendance to period 6 sessions has never been more crucial. You can find the latest timetable here which will cover the final two weeks of half term.
We have had Elevate Education in again on Thursday to deliver their ‘Ace your Exams’ session to all of Year 11. Once again, this session has gone down very well, with 132 of 135 students stating that they would recommend it to a friend and 131 students stating that they got something valuable from the session. I would like to praise the conduct of the Year 11 students who were engaged throughout, and I am hoping they can implement some of the advice they have been given this week into their revision schedule moving forward.
Whilst we don’t want to wish the months away, we have started our planning for this year’s Prom in conjunction with Kings Norton Girls School. This is always a well-attended event and one that signifies the end of five years at KNBS. Your son has received a Prom letter this week which has all the details for your perusal. I have attached an electronic version here. ParentPay should now be live for you to be able to pay a deposit if your son would like to attend. Please note that deposits will not be accepted after Monday 5th February and your son will not be able to attend Prom once this closes.
Y11 Key Dates
| Event | Date |
| Year 11 PPE 2 | Tuesday 20th Feb – Friday 8th March |
| Elevate Education Seminar 3 | Friday 15th March |
| Year 11 Full report | Wb. 8th April (TBC) |
| Summer GCSE Examinations begin | Wb. 6th May |
| Year 11 Prom 2024 | Thursday 4th July |
| Year 11 Celebration Event (in school – further details to follow) | Wb. 15th July (specific date TBC) |
Friday 19th January 2024
Y8 Parents Evening
This will take place on Thursday 25th January from 4.00pm in the Sports Hall. This will be an opportunity for you to meet your son’s teachers, to discuss his progress and to get advice on the way to make further progress. Form tutors will only be there in their capacity as subject teachers and will generally not be available for pastoral discussions. Login details have been emailed and the email contains a link to our School-Cloud booking system, as well as instructions on how to book your appointments. Appointments will be five minutes in duration, and we would request that you do your best to adhere to this limit. To help the evening run smoothly, we suggest that you either make a note of your appointments or print them off to bring along to the event.
Blazers
On Monday we will be taking in the last full year group of blazers, and they will be dispatched with any blazers that have not been processed yet.
From Tuesday to Wednesday students are allowed to bring in a spare or second blazer. They can bring these to admin office on A block main corridor, please make sure they are named.
We did mention in earlier communications that we advise parents to place a simple stitch in each corner of the badge to secure a long-term bond to their son’s blazer.
PE Extra Curricular Activities
As we start the spring term, our PE extra-curricular timetable follows the rotation of sports we do in PE lessons. If your son wishes to take part, they will need to bring full PE kit and head to the Sports Hall at the end of the school day. We encourage as many students as possible to take part in our clubs, to help further develop their skills and techniques.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| After School 3.05-4.05pm | After School 3.05-4.05pm | After School 3.05-4.05pm | After School 3.05-4.05pm | After School 3.05-4.05pm |
| Staff Netball (Miss Wallace) | Meetings | Badminton Club Years 7-8 (Mr Griffiths) Table Tennis Club Years 7-8 (Mr Miruszenko) | Badminton Club Years 9-11 (Mr Francis) Table Tennis Club Years 9-11 (Mr Garvey) | Bench ball Years 7-8 (Dr Mcintosh) Basketball Years 9-11 (Mr Turner) |
KS3 Drama Club – Mrs While
I am delighted to announce that I will be running a drama club on Wednesdays from 3:05pm until 4pm. This is an excellent opportunity for boys to indulge their creativity and enhance their performance skills whilst also having fun. It is also a great chance to meet new people and develop social skills. If your son wishes to attend, please ask him to come and see Mrs While in the drama room where he can sign up.
Personal Development Year 10
Year 10 students are starting their new module on Living in the Wider World. Your son will explore what is meant by finance, budgeting, tax expenditure and the cost of living in today’s society. If you have any questions about this, please contact Miss Turley.
We encourage our students to continue the dialogue outside of the classroom, so over the next six weeks let’s get talking as a household about:
- the cost of the weekly shop and why you choose the supermarket you shop at
- wage slips and where you can find your National Insurance outgoings
- the cost of essentials, such as gas and electricity, and how this might have changed some of our household items/goods to a ‘once a month treat’ now.
Safeguarding Newsletter
This month’s Spotlight on Safeguarding newsletter focuses on building healthy relationships and gives guidance on how you can support your son with his friendships. In addition to this, it identifies the dangers of online grooming, with a particular focus on radicalisation. The app focus is on ‘BeReal’, which we are aware is used by some of our students.
Next month’s newsletter will centre around mental health, in keeping with Children’s Mental Health Week which is 5-11th February. We will also be delivering assemblies on this topic to all year groups in this week.
First Chapter Fridays
This week we see the relaunch of an old favourite, First Chapter Fridays, to help boost our students’ love of reading and support their literacy development. Once a fortnight, during form time, students will be read the opening chapter of a novel by their Form Tutor or a guest member of staff. The aim of this is to expose our students to a range of genres of fictional texts, to pique their interest in texts that they may not ordinarily encounter and, ultimately, to help get everyone reading for pleasure!
We would also encourage you as parents to read with your son as much as possible, so after each fortnight, we will be sharing the extract or information about how to access the text at home with you too so that you can talk about this at home.
You will regularly receive information about the books that we will be reading chapters from so that you can continue reading these books at home if you wish, or even get ahead of the schedule. Next week, we will be reading a text to raise awareness of Holocaust Memorial Week called ‘This is Not a Story’. This book has been written especially by author Tom Palmer for Holocaust Memorial. It describes the experiences of a brother and sister during the Holocaust and is based on real life people who Palmer interviewed while researching for the book. This book can be accessed as an audio read by Tom Palmer on the National Literacy Trust website. Enjoy!
Word of the Week
At KNBS, we are also revitalising our Word of the Week. Every week in form time, students will be introduced to a new piece of vocabulary. This will be displayed on a poster in their form room and, if they use the word, they will get a commendation. This is designed to develop our students’ vocabulary and support them in every lesson. It would be great if you could ask to hear the Word of the Week at home and encourage your children to practise using it. Next week, our Word of the Week will be ‘conduct’.
Tuesday 16th January 2024
We have adapted our blazer hand in schedule for years 10 and 11 on the advice of our uniform supplier. See below updated schedule.
| Year | Blazer name checked and taken in: |
| 7 | Morning registration on Tuesday 9th January |
| 8 | Morning registration on Wednesday 10th January |
| 9 | Morning registration on Monday 15th January |
| 10 | Morning registration on Thursday 18th January |
| 11 | Morning registration on Monday 22nd January |
Friday 12th January 2024
Catering Update
New Canteen provider: AIP
Our new canteen provider has certainly got the boys talking. We are very grateful for how much work they are putting in to taking on the role, they are an experienced provider working across the trust and we are pleased with the start they have made.
Many boys are a wary of change, so a new menu and new routines put them on edge. Having said that, most of the feedback so far has been very positive, and any teething issues are being managed and solved as they come up.
The important changes are to menus, and we have included a sample menu for you. The menus do change regularly, and once AIP are fully established, they will be asking for student feedback to help inform future provision.
Please note that the amount now provided by the Government for a free school meal is £2.65. Therefore, AiP set their meal deal at this figure (£2.65) and it includes a main meal and pudding. The previous meal deal did include a drink and was set at £3. We have moved to this approach as we have water fountains and refill stations that mean water is always available free of charge. We also noticed that an increasing number of boys were spending a lot of money on carbonate fruit juice. It is our intention (working with the student leadership team) to remove plastic bottles from our canteen altogether. This is an important and exciting venture that AiP are helping us fulfil in the future. We are working with them to look at refill stations for student bottles that include more than just water. Watch this space!
Congratulations
Congratulations!
A massive congratulations to Zack in 11A who has applied to the Royal Navy as a Weapons Engineer and has successfully passed the majority of his assessments. Zack will hopefully begin his initial training post-GCSE exams. We look forward to having a Royal Navy Weapons Engineer Submariner amongst school community in the future.
Year 11
Please find a link to the next two weeks of period 6 sessions here. There are also links below to some useful post-16 information about open evenings and apprenticeships.
Measles
Please click here to view an important letter from Birmingham public health. We have received the following advice from them this week:
“There is an increasing number of people in Birmingham with measles, with many cases being linked to Birmingham schools. Measles is a highly infectious disease that can spread rapidly – outbreaks can happen when not enough people have been vaccinated, and while most people recover completely within a couple of weeks, measles can cause serious illness and in rare cases it can be fatal.
Measles can cause enormous disruption to schools as any child or adult who has not received at least one dose of the MMR vaccination who comes into contact with a person who has measles will have to be isolated away from school or work for 21 days.
We strongly encourage families to check vaccinations are up to date.”
Numeracy Newsletters
Please click the links below to view our latest numeracy newsletters for years 7-9.
STRIVE Ranges
Now your son has had chance to settle into life at school, we felt it important to explain how we gauge the progress he is making in each of his subjects.
To assess potential in a subject, we need to look at how a student has performed previously – in the case of your son, we use his performance in KS2 SAT assessments. This is the only real indicator we have of ability. Although it is not a guaranteed indicator, it is the best method any school has.
An organisation called ‘The Fischer Family Trust’ (FFT) collects annual data for performance of all students in England and Wales at KS2 and the end of KS4 (GCSE, Cambridge National, BTEC etc). Over time, this organisation has been able to make clear links between performance at KS2 and at KS4, and it is able to give the most likely outcomes for a student in each subject at KS4 based solely upon their performance at KS2. These most likely outcomes take no account of parental income, family circumstances or any other social factor. They are simply a straight conversion. When they publish this data, FFT give the most likely grades for median (average) performance, top 20% of performers and top 5% of performers.
We have chosen to use performance of the top 20% of students nationally as our benchmark when setting aspirational targets for our students, which we call our STRIVE ranges.
Your son has been set a STRIVE range for each of his subjects. The lower of the two grades represents the minimum standard for which he should be aiming, and the upper grade provides a more aspirational grade – the grade he should be working towards if his performance is exceptional.
We are aware that students can develop intellectually at different rates. In some circumstances it becomes apparent that that the original STRIVE range offers insufficient challenge for a student. This may be because of underperformance at KS2 or because their progress has accelerated since joining the school. In these circumstances, we will raise the STRIVE range accordingly. It is unusual that we will consider lowering the STRIVE range.
On rare occasions, a student may not have sat KS2 assessments – this may be because he was privately educated, educated overseas or ill. In these cases, we will assign a nominal range for each student and review it as they progress through the school.
Year 7 Sparx Reader Parent Launch Event Thursday 1st February 6-7pm
We are delighted to have been selected to conduct a pilot of Sparx Reader, and will be launching this with our Year 7 students at the end of this half term. The name will be familiar because our students already use Sparx Maths for their homework, and it supports the maths learning that they do in class. Sparx Reader is an online reading platform that is similarly algorithmic, meaning that it tests students’ reading ability and selects reading material designed to help them to progress their skills, becoming more challenging over time. Students will read whole texts, including a range of engaging readying material, over time.
To launch this to parents and give you everything that you will need to be able to support your son’s reading at home, we are inviting all parents of Year 7 students to attend our information evening at 6-7pm on Thursday 1st February. Please make a note of this in your diary – we will remind you nearer the time.
School Blazers *Reminder*
We are proud of now being part of the King Edward VI Multi Academy Trust and we are also proud of our school, our students, and our history. Therefore, we have collaborated carefully to ensure any rebranding is effective in maintaining our King’s Norton Boys identity whilst celebrating our partnership with King Edward VI.
The only immediate change to current uniform is to replace the KNBS eagle crest on the blazer to the King Edward VI crest, which demonstrates our membership to the King Edward VI MAT. The rebranding of the blazer will come at no cost to families and has been organised in line with our environmentally conscious approach to purchasing.
What do I need to do?
Please ensure that:
- you add your son’s forename and surname to his blazer
- your son has a coat to wear on the days that he will be without his blazer (this should not be a hoodie which are not permitted)
Thank you for adding names to blazers, this has been a brilliant support and there has been a very high completion rate.
Please send your son in with a coat on the day that he hands in his blazer. We have decided not to take in a couple of blazers where students have not brought a coat with them, as the lads would be too cold without their blazer.
How will rebranding happen?
Blazers will be checked for names, taken in and boxed. These will be delivered to our manufacturing partner who will rebrand them by adding a badge with the school’s new name and the KEVI crest. Blazers will then be presented to the boys on their return.
When will it happen?
The provisional timetable is as follows:
| Year | Blazer name checked and taken in: |
| 7 | Morning registration on Tuesday 9th January |
| 8 | Morning registration on Wednesday 10th January |
| 9 | Morning registration on Monday 15th January |
| 10 | Morning registration on Tuesday 16th January |
| 11 | Morning registration on Thursday 18th January |
We have changed the dates when we take in blazers for year 9, 10 and 11, to avoid them being without them for an unnecessarily long time. We are in the regular contact with our uniform supplier about the progress being made on our blazer rebrand and we are monitoring the progress carefully. We hope not to have to make many more changes, and if we do have to adapt, we will of course let you know.
As this type of rebrand has not been completed before, the timescales are currently estimated. However, our uniform supplier is confident that they can return blazers to the school within 5 working days. Once we have them back, they will be to our boys, which will help formalise the process. Of course, if the schedule needs to change, we will keep you informed.
What if my son was absent when blazers were taken in?
We have kept records of all blazers that have been processed and shipped to the uniform suppliers. Therefore, we know some students (currently only in year 7 & 8) have not had their blazer taken. We have plans to collect these and ensure that they are rebranded once each year group has been completed.
Are we able to get a second blazer rebranded?
We know that some students will have a second blazer, or some students may have a spare blazer waiting at home for them to grow into. We have ordered more badges than students, so there will be an opportunity for families to request that a second blazer is rebranded. Once we have dealt with each student’s main blazer, we will contact you again to provide an opportunity for students to bring in a second blazer, while stocks of badges remain, we can accommodate these being rebranded.
Is there any after care needed?
The new crest will be sealed using a heat press and the embroidered badge has a coating that responds to heat. It is advised that families put a stitch in each corner of the badge to ensure that it does not catch and peel. Also, if edges do peel on a badge, it may be an option to reseal using a hot iron over a covering such as a tea towel/towel.
Are there any other changes?
- the tie remains the same
- the jumper remains the same (permitted as branded (eagle) or non-branded (plain) items)
- the summer PE top remains the same (permitted as branded (eagle) or non-branded (plain) items)
- the rugby shirt remains as an eagle branded item (however, as stocks are used up this may this will be reviewed)
- there are no changes to the remainder of non-branded uniform (shirts, trousers, shoes, sports shorts/socks etc.)
- in the future new blazers will be purchased with the King Edwards VI crest and school name already embroidered on them.
Friday 22nd December 2023
Christmas Message from the Headteacher
Goodbye to 2023. There have been many brilliant moments for our school community in 2023. Although the impact of previous lockdowns is still being felt across schools we do feel a sense of optimism as so many of our students are showing great bounce back-ability. Resilience cannot be under-estimated and we are proud of the vast majority of boys who are showing great resilience – bring on 2024.
We would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas period and hope you have a wonderful break. I truly hope that you get a chance to spend some quality time together with your family and friends – if there is one thing that the last few years have reminded us, it is that the people in our lives and that are close to us, are the most important thing.
We look forward to seeing everyone in 2024.
Best wishes,
Dave Clayton
INSET Day Monday 8th January – school closed
School will be closed to all students on Monday 8th January for INSET. We will reopen at our usual time for all students on Tuesday 9th January.
Farewell to Ms Goult
You may well have heard that I will be moving on to ventures new in January. I wanted to take the chance to let you know that Ms McIntosh will be starting as Assistant Headteacher in the new year, and she will bring valuable experience to our highly skilled team. I am pleased to say that I will still be around in January as the school have organised a period of transition, so, I will share a more detailed goodbye after Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful break with your families.
Safeguarding Newsletter
We are pleased to be able to bring you our next monthly safeguarding newsletter, ‘Spotlight on Safeguarding’. This month’s edition is focused on digital boundaries and the online world. Finally, each month will have an app focus, and this month informs you about an online streaming site called Discord.
Click here to view.
Autumn Term Eagle Newsletter
We are thrilled to be able to share the link to the latest Eagle. It showcases the ways that we enhance our already-ambitious curriculum to provide our students with the knowledge and skills they need to have a very bright future. Click here to see this.
Food Donation Competition
A massive thank you to everyone who helped with donations for the Food Donation House Competition. Overall, as a school we collected:
460 cans of food!
127 packets of pasta
57 jars/sauces
35 packets of rice
34 packets of sweets/crisps/chocolate items
22 boxes of cereal
19 boxes of custard
16 Cup-a-Soup packets
7 cartons/bottles of drinks
3 full boxes of toiletries
Our Head Boy Team packed our minibus full of the food, and it has all been successfully delivered to King’s Norton Food Bank. This will go a really long way to help members of our community. Thank you very much.
Congratulations to 7L, 8T, 9L, 10R and 11L who collected the most donations and earnt the most points for their house!
Christmas with the Community
On Thursday 21st December, students from our Peer-Reading Programme and our Christmas carollers spent the morning at our local retirement home. Students put on a festive showcase, performing Christmas songs and festive-themed poetry, including the late Benjamin Zephaniah’s Talking Turkeys. The boys then enjoyed a hot chocolate, mince pie and some socialising with the residents. We would like to thank Hamilton Court for hosting us – it was a truly special occasion, and we look forward to more visits in the future.
Merry Christmas!
Friends of KNBS 50/50 Draw
We are pleased to announce the latest winners of the Friends of KNBS 50/50 club. Details can be viewed here. We have been working hard in the background on plans to relaunch this fundraising initiative and will be providing more details in the new year…watch this space!
Darker Nights
Dear Parents/Carers,
REMINDER FROM WEST MIDLANDS POLICE
With the darker nights fast approaching, it is important that students are reminded what we, as a school community, expect of them in terms of behaviour.
Parents/carers and students should already be aware that as part of our safeguarding arrangements, the school has a two-way information sharing agreement in place with West Midlands Police, and we are active members of the local Police and Schools Panel. This joint approach helps us to intervene early to prevent and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour involving our students and provide support and up-to-date safety messages.
In partnership with the police, we would also like to remind our students about the following: –
- Anti-social behaviour: Think about how your actions and behaviour affect others; elderly and vulnerable people may be frightened by things that you might thing are just a bit of fun.
- Personal Safety:
- Be aware of your surroundings, take care of friends and family members and keep valuables such as phones out of public view whenever possible.
- Don’t drink alcohol, take illegal drugs or unknown substances; they can have a big impact on your health and safety, behaviour, and your ability to do well at school. They can also be addictive and have unpredictable side effects, including sudden death. Information is available at www.talktfrank.com
- Social Media: Don’t allow your use of social media to put you at risk of grooming, exploitation or regret in the future. Use social media positively and avoid being negative about anyone online as comments/actions may be traced back to you and you will be held accountable.
- Weapons in public places: Carrying a knife or other weapon will get you a criminal record which can have life-long effects on travel and job prospects. Those who carry knives are also much more likely to be injured by them. Don’t take BB guns, gel blasters/guns, or any other real looking toy guns into public spaces as these can cause alarm to the public – which could receive a Police Firearms response.
- Off-road bikes: These can only be ridden on private land with the landowner’s permission. Don’t risk your life and future prospects by illegally riding these on the road.
- E-Scooters: In the UK, you must be at least 18 years old and hold a provisional or full driving licence to ride or hire an e- scooter. A privately owned e-scooter can only be used in a private place with the landowner’s permission; they are illegal to use on a road or in a public place.
- Remember the company you keep: If your friend breaks the law, you may also be held responsible for that crime – even if you weren’t the one directly responsible.
Yours faithfully,
| David Clayton Headteacher King’s Norton Boys’ School | Richard North Chief Superintendent – Birmingham LPA West Midlands Police |