Dear Parents/Carers
I hope this letter finds you and your families well; a final letter for you as we break up for the summer holidays.
I am very pleased with how this academic year has gone; there is much for us to be proud of as a school community. Our reputation as a destination school continues to grow, and I am excited by what the future may hold, as we continue to kick on and make Kelmscott the very best it can be.
As you know, it has been a short week but still lots packed in the two and a half days. On Tuesday, a group of Year 10 students tried some on-demand virtual work experiences from three different providers; of which, Springpod.com was the most popular. The experiences are designed to help students learn about various careers and industries, by engaging with information about jobs and completing work-related tasks, which would be a great summer break activity. Sign up at Springpod.com. If your child does complete a course, ask them to email their certificate to Mr M Jones (m.jones@kelmscott.waltham.sch.uk) and he will arrange for it to be printed for them. We look forward to working with Springpod in the next academic year for further on-demand and live virtual work experiences.
This week was the last workshop of the term to plan our school garden for next year. During the workshop, students decided they would like to create a sensory corner with a number of drought-resistant herbs, such as Rosemary and Thyme. They also decided they would grow a range of salad leaves in the more shaded areas and use the areas with higher levels of sunlight to grow rhubarb. The students planted some seeds which they will take home to nurture over the summer before returning with the plants in September.
We received two excellent pieces of news from Kelmscott alumni this week. Jessica Tunks, our former Head Girl from the Class of 2019, received a first for her Psychology degree from Oxford University. Jessica now returns to London to embark on an MSc in Clinical Forensic Psychology at King’s College London; we are immensely proud of her. We also heard that Michal Rosiak, from the Class of 2022, will be joining the Arsenal first team squad for their pre-season tour around the USA. We hope he features and will be keeping a close eye on how he gets on. Again, we are immensely proud of him.
I would like to highlight some small changes to students’ uniform next academic year as I know you will be getting organised with that over the summer holidays.
Student coats must be plain black or navy blue, no large printing or logos please. Hoodies are no longer permitted
Baseball caps must be plain black or navy blue
Headscarves should be navy blue only please
All other uniform expectations remain the same. Many thanks, in advance for your support with this.
Year 9 have been set a small amount of work over the summer holidays to help prepare them for their forthcoming GCSE studies. Whilst it is very important students have a good rest over the summer, research also shows that maintaining studies over the summer holiday ensures important knowledge is retained, to enable a running start in September. Your support in ensuring this work is completed is much appreciated.
As you are already aware, we are introducing a new app, Edulink, to replace MyEd in the new academic year. Edulink provides all the functionality of MyEd and a lot more, as well as additional functionality for learners and staff. In September we will begin rolling out Edulink, on-boarding parents ready for a full launch in January 2025. Until then, to facilitate a smooth transition, we will continue to use MyEd for all school communications, and both apps will function for everything else including the school calendar, timetables, behaviour and reward points. We will be in touch with more details regarding preparation for the new app over the summer.
One challenge we have had this year has been on boarding our external caterers The Pantry, it has not been a smooth ride, to say the least. I’m encouraged that things have improved in recent weeks and months, and we now have a new substantive chef on board who feels a good fit for the school. You will have hopefully seen the survey that came out this week that hopes to capture your views about the catering service. There is also a student survey to capture their thoughts too. Both surveys are open to midway through August, we will use this information to pick up a conversation with The Pantry over the summer holidays, to try to ensure things improve yet further. If you and your child are able to spare some time to complete that survey, I would be most grateful.
Mr Smith has put together a terrific list of things students can do before they are fourteen or sixteen. You can view that list here. We thought these ideas might be useful as students consider how they might want to spend their 6-week summer break.
For details about activities taking place in Waltham Forest for children and young people over the school holidays, please see here. I have also included the Youth Service directory for Waltham Forest here which I hope you will find useful. Discover Your Summer Waltham Forest free offers a directory of free activities in during the school holidays; with a huge range on offer, from free events and activities to art trails, exhibitions and the great outdoors. In addition, for families with children aged from 5-11, I have included information from ‘The Hive’ who offer a summer holiday programme which I thought may be of interest to you.
Arrangements for the start of the new school year are as follows:
Monday 2nd September – Staff Inset Day
Tuesday 3rd September – Year 7 only
Wednesday 4th September – Whole school return 8.40am
Well done to the following students who topped the reward point charts for their year groups last week. Numbers bolstered by end of year rewards assemblies and suchlike. Keep up the good work.
➪ Year 7 Ilian Cain with 31 points
➪ Year 8 Hirah Noor Azmat with 30 points
➪ Year 9 Armaan Afzal with 29 points
➪ Year 10 Amaan Malik with 20 points
I hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday, creating long lasting memories as a family. With special thanks for all your support this year; Kelmscott is a wonderful community that I feel very privileged to lead.
With every good wish for a fabulous summer,
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher
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