Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Mid Kent Mind's Youth Wellbeing Cafe
Tue 23 Nov 2021Did you know that Mid Kent Mind provide a drop-in Youth Wellbeing Café for young people who live across the Mid Kent area? This is a free, weekly drop-in session which is designed to provide a safe space and time where young people can access support.
This drop-in service is funded as a part of Mid Kent Mind’s Reaching Communities Programme – a programme which provides support to young people in our area, and also aims to encourage more awareness about mental health in parents and carers. The sessions take place on every Tuesday evening from 4pm – 5pm and will be available to young people aged 9-18.
The Youth Wellbeing Café takes the format of a ZOOM Room where young people will have the opportunity to take part in a quiz, and also get involved in other online activities which will be facilitated by our Wellbeing Workers.
For more details on the Youth Wellbeing Café, and how young people can access these drop-in sessions, please click here: https://www.maidstonemind.org/youth-wellbeing-cafe/
FREE Emotional Resilience Course for Ages 9 – 18 Starting January 2022
Additional dates for our Bounce Back Course have been released for this January – providing a great opportunity for young people to access a virtual course which will help to boost both their mental health and their emotional resilience.
Bounce Back is a 6-week course which aims to provide a safe space where young people can learn more about how to combat stress, process emotions and reduce anxiety – equipping them with the knowledge they need to ‘bounce back’ from the challenges which they face in life.
This course aims to help young people to not only process difficulties they face now, but to also equip them with the tools and the knowledge to manage challenges they face in the future.
For more details on the dates we have available, and how to book onto them, please visit: https://www.maidstonemind.org/virtual-bounce-back-courses/
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Children In Need
Fri 19 Nov 2021Today our amazing students raised a magnificent £900 for Children In Need! What a brilliant fundraising effort to everyone involved. But it doesn't end there, there is still more money to come from the Pudsey Penny Display.
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Black History Month Poetry Competition
Tue 16 Nov 2021Black History Month Poetry Competition
To mark National Poetry Day as well as Black History Month the English Department launched a poetry competition open to all pupils to compose a poem in celebration of an event or a person of significance in Black history.
It was truly difficult to choose a winner from the entries submitted, and Mrs Asplin and Dr Kossuth agonized over the decision. Ultimately, first prize went to Amelia Orr (year 9), who wrote an excellent poem about the insidious role something as simple as a pencil could play in racial discrimination, and runner-up was George Haffenden-Boyce (year 7), who turned the Rosa Parks story into a hauntingly repetitive poem.
Thank you to all pupils who took part and we look forward to even more entries for our 100-word gothic story competition.
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Short Story Competition
Tue 16 Nov 2021A Short, but Chilling Hallowe’en
To mark the end of October’s spooky goings-on, the English Department invited pupils to participate in a short story competition with a difference: while, obviously, all stories had to be of spine-tingling horror, the pupils had to chill, fright or scare their readers in exactly 100 words. Over the half-term our inboxes were flooded with a deluge of blood, entrails and gore (not literally – luckily) as the pupils brought out the darker sides we rarely see in the run of a normal school day. With so many entries and with such horrific stories, it was very difficult to find a winner. But found them we have: first prize goes to Matthew Charatan for his short story ‘03:15’. Runners-up are Michael Davison for ‘The Basement’ and Vaniah Coleman for ‘The Nightmare’. Well done to all participants and especially to the winners.
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Autumn Leaves
Tue 16 Nov 2021Inspired by falling leaves in Stacy’s Garden. The National Trust did a survey which revealed that 28percent of people notice trees more than at the start of the pandemic . A total of 30 per cent chose the colour of autumn leaves as their favourite thing about the season. This is work in progress from a year 8 Art class.
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Folkestone Triennial Art Trip
Mon 15 Nov 2021On the 2nd of November the Art department took all the 6th form Art & Photography students to explore the last day of the Folkestone Triennial.
The Triennial is Creative Folkestone’s flagship event. Artworks adorn the town and residents and visitors are encouraged to explore Folkestone. The theme is The Plot and there are three main strands to this theme. Artists have been invited by curator Lewis Biggs from across the world to exhibit in the town. There are 23 artists contributing to the 2021 Triennial.
The students had the opportunity to follow planned routes around the three trails in the morning. The students all took sketchbooks with them to record from first hand and the photography students had the opportunity for some focused technical exercises around the Harbour. Some of the exhibiting artist were able to talk with the students about their current practices when we visited them in the small independent galleries that were dotted around the town.
Many found relevant artist to inspire and inform their current projects and personal investigations. It provided a fantastic opportunity for the students to have some focused 1:1 support over the day whilst working from a range of different first-hand sources. The day was a big success and many students will continue to develop this work once back in school.
The trip was expertly led and organised by Ms. Livermore. We were very fortunate with the weather with the sun out for most of the day. We can’t wait to return for the next Triennial in 3 year’s time!
