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

• Pop Up Art Gallery Challenge

  Thu 20 Feb 2020

  At the end of term 3 Yr 12 art students were joined by friends and teachers to celebrate a Pop Up exhibition showcasing curiosities in Maidstone.

   

  Students successfully worked around the clock to curate and exhibit the work they produced following a day drawing in Maidstone. The exhibition included fashion photography, relief printing, illustrations and typography.

   

   

  

• The Big-Sleep-Out 2020!

  Fri 14 Feb 2020

  The St Simon Stock 6^th form and prefect teams are delighted to announce that the annual ‘Big Sleep-Out’ is happening this year on the evening of Friday 13^th March 2020 to once again raise money for Kent-based homeless charity Porchlight.

  Today, year 12 students took part in an hour PDW session dedicated to sharing information about the event, hearing a presentation from Nathan Tough, the Porchlight representative for our school about how the money raised helps the charity’s work and discussed statistics and facts linked to the current crisis in homelessness in the UK. Over 80 students are currently signed up to spend the night on the concrete outside ‘S’ block to smash our total of just over £2,000 from last year.

  While it is 6^th formers who participate on the night, we want to give the whole school the chance to be involved in the awareness and fund-raising that will occur around the time of the sleep-out next term.

   

  If you would like to donate to our Sleep-Out total, we have a page set up: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/StSimonStock where students can gather sponsorship and share the link to friends, family, employers etc.

   

  As well as this, prefects will be collecting loose change on the morning of the 13^th March in the lead up to the big event, so money can be donated then.

   

  In the week leading up to the Sleep-Out, prefects and staff will be working across the school to raise awareness of the homeless issue. Details about these will be shared in year assemblies in the new term but these will include:

  -Prefect presentations to assemblies/visits to forms years 7-11 (Friday 28^th Feb-Thursday 5^th March)

   

  -Period 6 PDW sessions will be focused on the issue of homelessness, including the causes and the consequences.

  – Tuck shop; ‘Guess the Number of Sweets in the Jar’; 6^th form vs. staff basketball (Monday 9^th-Friday 13^th March) These will take place in the 6^th form common room and the sports hall respectively.

   

  -‘Wear Trainers’ day (Friday 13^th March). This is for years 7-13. A twist on the ‘own clothes days’, this seeks to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless when it comes to access to new/clean clothes and footwear. Students will pay £1 to wear trainers to school rather than school shoes. The money will be collected on the morning of the event or can be given to prefects in advance when they visit forms.

   

  -‘Wear it Purple’ (Friday 13^th March). This is open to 6^th form students only- as above, students will be encouraged to wear a purple element to their outfit on that day (or even a complete ensemble if they wish!) to raise awareness for the charity Porchlight, whose chosen colour is purple.

  More details about this will be publicised by the prefects after half term.

  We hope that you will help support us in our goal to make this year the most successful ever!

  Yours sincerely, Miss Lockett

  

• Lego Robotics

  Fri 14 Feb 2020

  Our astounding Lego Robotics Team consisting of a brilliant bunch of year 7s and 8s came second in the regional championships on Wednesday 26th February. They missed out on first place by ONE POINT. Something they will never forget and have already made plans to beat next year. They had to perform a number of challenges including navigating a challenge mat with the robot they had designed, a teamwork challenge to build a bridge out of Lego, and two presentations. We even came back with a trophy for the speediest robot!

   

  The behaviour and attitude displayed by our students were utterly top-notch and nothing more could have been expected of them. They are an absolute credit to our school, congratulations to them all!

  Mr Young

  

• U15s Basketball Team

  Fri 07 Feb 2020
  The U15s Basketball Team competed in the Kent School Games in which they played 7 matches; this journey included some stunning victories vs Maidstone Grammar School, Strood Academy, Rainham Mark Grammar School, Norton Knatchbull and Haysbrook School. The team progressed all the way to the ‘play offs’ and ended up finishing as Bronze Medallists. In previous years the team have always completed in local school competition and their development as a team is remarkable, says Mr Nimani who was extremely proud of the boys.

  

• Holocaust Memorial Day

  Fri 07 Feb 2020

  For Holocaust Memorial Day, all students have been reflecting on and remembering the genocides in a number of different cultures. These include the persecution of Jews and other groups by the Nazis and the wars in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. A reflection was given in year group assemblies and form tutors led a variety of activities based on these events. Mr Malone read a poem written by Pastor Martin Niemoller, who himself was a victim of Nazi persecution in Germany, over the tannoy for students to reflect upon. This promotes the spiritual life of the school community and shows how much our students care about world events. They should be commended for this.

   

  Our school Holocaust Tree was re-dedicated in our school Mass on Friday 31^st January by Fr Damian Esene from St Francis parish, who also blessed the clay luggage tags that had been made by students in Art lessons. This was undertaken in conjunction with Year 9 students.  On 27^th January, Year 10 students completed still life drawings based on the Holocaust Memorial sculpture in Miami, which is based on the photos of starving children in the ghettos.

   

  Two of our Sixth Form students, Anna Maria Dean (Year 13) and Dominika Maruszczak (Year 12), wrote about the personal experiences of their relations or friends of those who were living in Poland at the time of the Nazi occupation and persecution. These are presented in our Holocaust display on the ground floor of Main Block. This includes posters and information from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

  Finally, Special thanks to Mrs Tilby for organising this and leading many of the activities mentioned above.

  Miss M. King (Subject Leader of History)

  

• Network Rail- Trespassing On Railway Lines

  Fri 07 Feb 2020

  Due to the very high level of trespassing on the tracks by young people in your local area, Network Rail in partnership with Learn Live are working to help raise awareness to students across the UK educating them about the dangers of the train tracks through interactive digital delivery.

   

  Network rail ask you to share the relevant safety video with your Children before the Easter holidays, as this is when Network Rail consistently see a spike in trespassing.

  Network Rail have made things easier for you to watch the safety videos by clicking below

   

  Secondary school version: Age 11-16 

  https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-secondary-school-safety-talk/ 

   

  College version: Age 17 plus

  https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-college-safety-talk-lnw/

• 2019-20 Charities Bulletin 3

  Wed 05 Feb 2020
  

• Year 12 Biology Residential Trip

  Tue 04 Feb 2020

  We had a fantastic time this weekend at YHA South Downs completing core practical work with the Year 12 Biologists. It is no exaggeration to say the students behaved perfectly – even when I forced them to wear less than fashionable waterproof trousers. The students were so efficient at organising themselves that they were able to carry out some extra practical work on day three, and the catering staff commented that ours were the best group they’d ever hosted.

   

  Students found their ‘mud legs’ quickly on the first day, carrying out sampling techniques in dense woodland with gusto. Follow up statistics lessons ran til 8pm each day, and a full day was also spent at Seven Sisters cliffs analysing species distributions in rockpools on the shoreline, which they all loved. We were very lucky with the weather too.

   

  Needless to say they were all very tired when we returned, but got thoroughly stuck in and had a fantastic time in the process.

  Huge thanks to Mrs Shepherd, Dr Roberts and the YHA/Field Studies Council staff, who made running the trip an absolute dream!

  Miss Swyny