Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• U16 Basketball v The North School

  Thu 29 Nov 2018

  Stocky took this game convincingly with a 58 – 36 score line at home to The North School. Ably led by County player Harry Williams Stocky weathered an early storm and the match was basket to basket. Stocky struggled to contain a couple of players but after some excellent coaching from Sixth Formers Jon S and Eric P begun to get on top. The match was a tight affair until the last quarter when Stocky took the score line away from The North and also the victory. 

   

  Stocky now await the semi final draw for the U16 Kent Cup. The squad is upbeat and after a lot of hard work find themselves in the final four schools at their age group in Kent. 

   

  

• Meet our new Subject Leaders

  Tue 27 Nov 2018

  Mr O Jenkins – Subject Leader of Geography

  Please allow me to introduce myself, I am Mr Jenkins the new Head of Geography here at St Simon Stock. I have previously been Head of Humanities and subject leader of Geography at a school in Medway as well as having experience leading whole-school teaching & learning initiatives. I am married with a little one-year old son who keeps me very busy when I am not teaching about this wonderful world. I am very excited to be starting this next stage of my career and all staff and students have made me feel very welcome. Some readers may be aware already, but I have introduced the Geography Star of the Month Award where our students have the opportunity to be recognised for a combination of fantastic homework, brilliant contributions to lessons, showing an inquisitive mind, positive attitude to learning and truly “thinking like a geographer”. This award is given out to one student at the end of each month from every year group across mine, Mr Williams’, Mrs Rodell-Jones and Miss O’Neill’s classes – to nineteen students out of approximately 700 that study the subject across the school. The students will receive a certificate, an email home and a prize as well as a huge round of applause from their classmates. Congratulations to the students that won this fantastic award for the month of September! I wish all Geographers a fantastic academic year to come with more success along the way.

  Mr Pleasant – Subject Leader of Social Sciences

  I am a graduate of the University of Kent with a first class honours degree in the social sciences. I have taught A level subjects for many years, focusing upon Psychology and Sociology primarily. I have a particular interest in applying Educational research into the classroom through an emphasis on memory and learning techniques. 

  Mrs Swyny – Subject Leader of Year 7 – 10 Science

  Since starting the new role of Head of Lower School Science (Years 7-10) in September, I have been made to feel incredibly welcome by both the staff and students throughout the school. My background is in Biology, having studied Biomedical Science at University, however throughout my career I have also taught both Chemistry and Physics. Outside of school I am a keen rugby fan, and have had a season ticket to Wasps for the past 11 years. I spend as much holiday time as I can travelling, and have recently visited Costa Rica and the America’s Southern States. Looking forward to the future in the Science department, I will be coordinating redevelopment of the KS3 teaching program to reflect the recent changes to the GCSE curriculum. I will also be taking an active role in the expansion of KS5 Biology courses, with my particular area of focus being on the new A-level Biology specifications. I would like to thank the St Simon Stock community as a whole for making me feel so welcome, especially at parent events such as Year 9 information evening.

  Miss Courtney – Subject Leader of Design and Technology

  I started at St Simon Stock Catholic School in the June of the last academic year, as the Subject Leader for Design & Technology.  I have been overwhelmed by the kindness, generosity and support that I have received from the St Simon Stock Catholic School community already.  I have previously been subject lead across two other schools and I have a deep passion for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) education and I also work as a consultant for the Royal Academy of Engineering in supporting schools develop and deliver an engaging STEM curriculum and enrichment opportunities.

  I have so many plans for developing the D&T department at St Simon Stock Catholic School.  Already this academic year new schemes of work and projects have been introduced across Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.  Year 11 are busy working away on their coursework as are Year 13.  Over the next few years, I plan on seeing the GCSE and A-Level student numbers increase across both Food Preparation & Nutrition and Design & Technology.  The subject has so much to offer students where ever their interests and passions lay.  As I often say to Year 7 in their first lesson…if it isn’t nature, then it’s been designed and manufactured by a wide range of designers, engineers and manufacturers and the possibilities are endless!

  

• Invicta Maths Challenge

  Fri 16 Nov 2018

  On the 20^th November Mr Archer and 4 year 11s; Laura Buchan, Long Nguyen, Sabe Santhosh and Grace Strong went to Invicta Grammar School to compete in a maths competition.

  There were 4 rounds. Round 1 was testing general mathematical knowledge. Round 2 was a puzzle round-there were some very challenging ones in there! Round 3 was on sequences and code breaking and round 4 was a relay round. All of the rounds were challenging and involved strong problem solving skills. It was very close in the middle where we came 7/10.

   

  ‘Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I would thoroughly recommend it to future year 11s.’ – Laura Buchan

  

• Can Appeal

  Fri 16 Nov 2018

  We are supporting Homeless Care and Noah’s Art Food Bank this year.

  For the last five years we have asked students to donate a can of food, some dried goods or toiletries in the run up to Advent. The donations are then given to shelters around Maidstone to help those in need. This year our donations will be split between Homeless Care and Noah’s Ark Food Bank.

  In 2017 we collected more donations than in any previous year and were able to give 2150 items to our charities. We have set ourselves the target of 2500 items this year and I am confident that not only will we meet this target but due to the generosity of our school community we will end up exceeding this target.

  Each student has been asked to bring in at least one item before Friday December 7^th.  The donations will be collected by their form tutor and in exchange for every item they donate they will be given a raffle ticket, (up to a maximum of 25). On Monday 10^th December the raffle will be drawn and the lucky student will winner a pizza lunch from Dominoes for themselves and four friends to share Tuesday lunchtime.

  If anyone would like to donate to this cause please let us know or contact Miss Bennett

  

• U14 Rugby V The Malling School

  Wed 14 Nov 2018
  Stocky had a tough match at home against TMS in near freezing conditions. TMS arrived full of confidence but this was soon sucked out of them when Dante W burst through to score and open his account. TMS worked their way back into the match but outstanding defending kept them out. Dante W scored two more try’s and Henry S converted taking the full time score to 19-0 and a good local victory for the Stocky squad. Special mention to all players that took part and in particular the Year 8 pupils who stepped up and played a year up in this league fixture.

  

• History Trip to Ypres

  Tue 13 Nov 2018

  On Friday 9th November, 2018, the History Department took a group of Year 8 and Year 9 students to Ypres Salient as part of our ongoing celebrations and study of First World War. We were fortunate to be visiting the battlefields just two days before the 100th anniversary of the end of the war (11th November). Theresa May and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, were also visiting the same sites on the same day as us, but we didn’t see them!

  The Year Eight students are completing a project on the war, therefore the trip enabled each student to see the actual battlefields and the vastness of the cemeteries. We visited a number of Commonwealth cemeteries including Essex Farm, Tyne Cot and Menin Gate. We also visited Langemarck German Cemetery, in order for the students to see the sacrifices made by both sides of the conflict. We have been running this trip for the past seven years, the current Year 13 students were the first group we took. The Art Department has made clay leaves with each Year Seven 7 and during open evenings and transition events so we now have a large number of individual leaves to highlight the huge numbers of men who died on all sides. The ‘leaf’ was chosen as it represents new growth and a new start. It was inspired by the ground at Langemarck being covered in leaves too.

   

  At Tyne Cot, which is the biggest allied cemetery in the world, each individual student had researched and gathered information on one soldier who had given his life for our future. Each student laid a poppy cross on the grave of the soldier he or she had selected and wrote a short reflection or prayer to commemorate the sacrifice. Some students had researched a soldier who had the same family name as they had, or had fought in a specific regiment with which they had family links. This gave the activity more poignancy for the students and many were so overcome with the size of the cemetery and the images we had seen in the museum at Tyne Cot, that they became emotional. All students should be both congratulated and proud of themselves for the respect they showed at each of the sites we visited.

  One of the most popular parts of the day was the visit to Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62), where the students had the opportunity to walk in actual trenches used during the war. This helped them empathise with the soldiers as they were still very muddy and part of the system includes a long, dark tunnel. The site is littered with shell holes and the trees still show the damage caused by the bombardment during the fighting.

   

  The trip ended with a visit to Ypres Town and Menin Gate. At the latter, we held a short commemoration service led by the school youth chaplain, Miss Bassett. She was assisted by Harrison Holmes, Evie McGill and Liam Gambrell who read a poem of remembrance. Thomas Cubbon laid a wreath here on behalf of the school. Students were then able to go into the town to buy gifts – mostly chocolate!

  Miss M. King (Subject Leader of History. St Simon Stock Catholic School).

  

• French Homework Champions

  Mon 12 Nov 2018

  Congratulations to Thea Langlands, Oscar Galloni and Kazimierz for the outstanding French piece of writing that they produced for their homework.

  They produced a grade 5 GCSE piece of writing. It is very impressive of a year 8 student to produce such high quality piece of writing.
  Well done for the three homework champions. Keep up the excellent work.

  

• The John Downton Award – Rebecca Pengelly

  Mon 12 Nov 2018

  The John Downton Award for young Artists is an annual exhibition which celebrates the creativity of Kent’s young artists . Congratulations and well done to Rebecca Pengelly from the 6th form who has had her work selected for this years awards .The exhibition of shortlisted work is on at County Hall in Maidstone from the 22nd of October to January 2019

   

  ‘I was delighted when I found out I was shortlisted for the 2018 John Downton awards with my piece “The Edge”. This photograph project looked at space and how angles can change the senses of space around you, doing this by taking photos of aspects of the environment around me that may not be noticed and how this effects human movement without us being aware of it.’ – Rebecca Pengelly

  

• Aspiration Digital

  Sat 10 Nov 2018

  On Friday 2nd November, a group of sixth form students attending Reflect Digital – a conference focusing on careers within the digital world.

  Along with Mr May and Miss McNamee, 15 students with a range of interests joined other schools in talks from professionals within Creative Media, Marketing, Analytics, HR and Advertisement. The day kicked off with an introduction to the day before a panel on university vs apprenticeships. Attendees then split into four groups depending on their preference: Development, Creative, Marketing or Client Management.

  In addition to to presentations and career insights, there were opportunities for networking with providers, recruiters and companies, some of who were offering lots of work experience. Two versions of “Beer Pong” were playable (don’t worry, just ginger beer!), one of those being a VR version built by the team at Durty Media.

  We would like to thank all the presenters who gave up their time to help inspire the next generation of digital influencers, especially Becky Simms at Reflect Digital who delivered Aspire through from idea and design.

  Mr May

  

• FaME Conference

  Thu 08 Nov 2018

  This month, A level Film students enjoyed the excellent ‘FaME’ (Film and Media) conference at the Central theatre, Chatham where this year, the theme was ‘Genre’. For the 4th year running, our own students were part of the day, opening the conference with a presentation on the genre of British Social Realism, discussing the politics behind it’s rise to popularity in the post-War period, to how the print media and social attitudes to the working class inspired the ‘New Wave’ in the 1990s-2000s. The class talked about their own set texts in the A level exam – ‘Trainspotting’ (Boyle, 1996) and ‘Fish Tank’ (Arnold, 2009) and how these fit the criteria of realism films. Two of our class, Diana and Emily, also wrote the accompanying article that features in the course booklet.

   We also heard from various other schools, discussing other aspects of film genre that will be of benefit to exam revision and enjoyed other students’ demonstrations of their Media coursework.

  The day ended with the classic film ‘Airplane’, looking at how this parodies the genre features of the popular 70s disaster films. Myself and Mr May enjoyed a great day with lovely students and look forward to next year’s event, where Stocky students will again be contributing.

  Miss Lockett