January's Monthly Newsletter

A WELCOME FROM THE HEADMASTER, Mr Michael Bayes

As with all schools around the world we have begun 2021 in the same manner as we ended 2020 – dealing with the constant challenges created by the global pandemic.

Inevitably some of our students have had to go into quarantine due to a member of their core group testing positive for COVID–19. However, it has been so reassuring that Kensington families have treated such setbacks with considerable resolve and we have really appreciated your support and understanding. I would like to acknowledge the splendid efficiency of Ms Kendall, our Lead Administrator, in managing this demanding and constantly evolving situation.

With the two classes affected this month we have immediately transitioned into online lessons. The speed with which both pupils and teachers have moved to remote learning has been truly impressive. This has enabled us to continue to offer a first class education with the minimum of disruption.

As we have stressed to students now is not the time to become complacent and our young people are to be congratulated for continuing to comply with the coronavirus protocols which, of course, to a degree stop them from enjoying some aspects of normal school life. Play and relaxation times remain so there is opportunity to expend youthful energy at break and lunchtime. However, in response to questions from some families, breaks are also organised by secure class groups; it would defeat the object if we allowed year group ´bubbles´ to mix at playtime.

This term we have started, via online video, our Student Voice initiative. Mr Voller has been really heartened by the number of secondary students who have offered to sit on this student committee which is exploring ways in which to enhance the school experience for their peers. You will learn more about this further in the newsletter.

One of our great strengths as a community is the way in which we offer help and guidance to one another. This is evident from the way several parents and senior students are now volunteering to help some of our younger children improve their reading capability. These pupils are predominantly non-native English speakers whose home environment is not anglophone. Following an initiative led by Mr Evans we have tested pupils to determine who would benefit from having someone to read to and this programme is already reaping dividends.

Despite the depressing context in which we all currently lead our lives Kensington remains a most happy, purposeful and vibrant community in which our children continue to excel both inside and outside the classroom - as you can now see from this month's newsletter contributions below.

A NOTE FROM THE HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL, Mr Steve Evans

The end of January already! It has been an action-packed start to 2021 as shown in the broad range of articles in this month’s newsletter edition. Students excelled during the online start to the term, demonstrating with ease, the progress made with ICT skills.

We have battled through the cold days with high spirits and extra layers and are now looking forward to class presentations for Chinese New Year and our adapted version of Carnival celebrations in February.

Nursery

In Nursery this month students have been learning about winter and polar regions, you can see below some pictures of their topic crafts.

You will see: seals, polar bears, penguins, snowy owls, a narwhal, esquimos and igloos!

Nursery students have learnt what things start with the letter 'E' and 'M', encountered number 11 Mr. Walrus, traced 12 hot chocolate mugs and enjoyed a covid friendly Birthday 'tea party' on the terrace!

Little colour scavenger hunts are keeping things cheery during these winter days.

J2

J2 created this frieze after reading the The Tin Forest by Helen Ward. The story is about an old man who lived in "a wide, windswept place, near nowhere and close to forgotten, that was filled with things that no one wanted". Every night he dreamed of a beautiful forest full of trees, birds and animals. When he finds a broken lamp that looks like a flower, his imagination is sparked and he begins to build a tin forest.Later, it comes to life as real plants start to grow and animals appear!This story fits in with our Science topic on Materials in which we learnt about recycling and reusing objects. It also relates to our work about plants.The children enjoyed writing their own stories about the Tin Forest.
Whilst learning about winter, the children copied Winter Landscape by the Russian artist Kandinksy. mixing their own colours for the sunset which are reflected in the snow.

J5

History

In history students have been studying different aspects of World War II. Students made posters about different things in WWII that they were particularly interested in. We had some amazing posters about spitfires, spies and unusual stories from the war. A selection of the posters have been featured in the gallery below.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE)

In PSHE students have been discussing what it means to have good manners - in school, at home and also out in public. We put together our ideas and then made posters to encourage everyone to use good manners wherever they are. You can see some of these posters featured in the gallery below.

Science

In science they enjoyed a very interesting lesson revolving around fire safety. They learnt about the fire triangle (what three things are essential for a fire to start) and then discussed how they can prevent fires and also, importantly, what to do if you were to discover a fire. Students then used their new knowledge to create safety posters warning others how to be safe around fires.

Maths

Students have been learning to recognise and measure angles this term. One of the most common mistakes that children make with a protractor is to read the wrong row of numbers. In order to prevent this, the children created posters to teach others how to measure angles. An important starting point is to look, name and estimate the angle - with a sensible idea already in mind before using the protractor you are less likely to read the wrong row. Their practice and hard work paid off. Having completed this task, the angle section of their latest assessment was one of the most successfully answered questions. Well done!

J6

In Spanish, J6 have been working on their past tenses. To learn what children's lives were like in the past students interviewed some Kensington teachers to ask them about their childhood. What appliances they used to have at home, what their favourite toy was, what they used to do to have fun, etc.

A NOTE FROM THE HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL, Ms Viv Canwell

It was lovely to welcome our students back to school at the beginning of January. Hearing first hand from friends and family in the UK how difficult it is for them with all schools closed again, I feel very fortunate that we are still able to teach our students face-to-face.

Whilst we must never feel complacent and must continue to adhere to all the government guidelines, our teachers are doing all they can to provide the same learning opportunities as in pre-Covid times; this includes our English Department embarking on their much-anticipated half-term of Drama with the KS3 students, and our Maths Department preparing for the Intermediate Maths Challenge with some of the older KS4 students.

With half-term reports and the subsequent target-setting meetings coming up in February our students are all working hard to ensure they do well in their half-term exams and I hope you enjoy the video our first cohort of IGCSE ICT students made to help them with their revision.

In this newsletter we are also highlighting the excellent work done by our Form 5 Art GCSE students. If you want to see more of the work produced by our amazing Art department, please do have a look at their website that is mentioned below – you will not be disappointed.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE)

During the last term, F1's focus in PSHE was on understanding, dealing with and ultimately eliminating bullying from our lives. We explored the group dynamics at play when bullying happens and understood that even the role of "bystander" can make a big difference to the outcome of the situation.

Students had the opportunity to discuss their own experiences of bullying in addition to clarifying what constitutes bullying - repeated, deliberate actions which are intended to hurt, whether it be physical, mental or online.

By the end of this topic, it was clear that if we want to eliminate bullying from our lives, we have to stand together: United Against Bullying. We created videos and posters to help spread the word that by working together we can make a big difference.

GCSE Fine Art

Here are some examples of Form 5's final outcomes that our Fine Art students completed this month, they produced creative and personal responses to their extended GCSE coursework project inspired by different themes Order and Disorder or My Surroundings.

The students used a range of different media, materials, techniques and processes such as acrylic painting, collage and digital art. There are also some examples of sketchbook pages and display boards from the project. Miss Lewis is extremely proud of our talented students!

We have an art department instagram account @kensingtonartbcn, please follow to see more art from Kensington! The Art Department also have a website:

Kensington Art Department Website

Form 4 students started a new project this term, the new theme is Identity. The students have been studying the work of London based artist Carne Griffiths who paints with Coffee and ink. See below some examples of work from Joy and Zach.

Lydia F5 - Fast Track art

Evaluation of final piece inspired by My Surroudings.

"I think my project clearly links to the theme of 'My Surroundings', inspired by artists researched, my work conveys an overall mood of distortion and surrealism through the repetition of eyes, inspired by M.C.Escher. The use of bold outlines is very similar to artists Gilbert and George and David Hockney.

Distortion is used frequently to create the surreal artwork. I enjoyed using a wide range of media including brusho, acrylic, watercolour, graphite aquarelle and colour pencil.

The development and experimentation all clearly link to the final piece, my experiments convey a sense of balance and how colour in your surroundings can convey different emotions."

F5

IGCSE, ICT

Upon completion of the theory units for the iGCSE course, Form 5 pupils have devised a creative way to revise. They will begin scripting, filming, presenting, editing and directing their own series of revision videos.

Not only will the videos include all they need to know, but it will give them a chance to put their ICT skills to practical use whilst producing the videos.

Here is their first complete episode. All pupils have starred in the video and the incredible title sequence is the impressive work of Zming.

Senior School Student Voice

January saw the hotly-anticipated inauguration of the Kensington School Student Voice Working Party. The Student Voice project has been in the pipeline for over a year, and at last we have overcome lockdowns and social distancing restrictions to make it happen.

To set up the student voice, we invited every member of the secondary school to complete a short survey about an area of school life that we as a community could work on to make the school an even better place to learn. The topic students voted for was support for students who are having a difficult time with school work.

Once we had a topic, we needed a group to discuss it and to bring about the changes to the school. Students were invited to write an application to Mr Voller explaining why they deserved a place on the Student Voice Working Party, and those candidates who wrote convincingly were accepted as members of the group.

On Tuesday, January 19th, we held our first meeting (remotely, of course, so as not to mix secure groups), during which Mr Voller explained the concepts of meeting agendas, meeting minutes and action plans, and made the students aware of the important political role they are now fulfilling in the life of the school. Students were invited to apply for the role of Chair and Katinka Monberg (Lower 6th) was awarded this prestigious accolade. Supporting her as Vice-Chair will be Eva Beausoleil (Lower 6th), another very worthy and dedicated student. With such a strong leadership team, we have high hopes for Student Voice.

We congratulate both of these students and all students who made it onto the Working Party as representatives of their peers in the school.

So, now, students - to work! Watch this space for updates on the important work of the Student Voice Working Party as they galvanise students to help bring exciting changes to our wonderful school.

HOUSEMATCHES

This term we restarted playing our (bubble) house matches. The chosen sport that will be taught and completed in this terms house matches is Colpbol.

Colpbol which would translate into 'hitball' was invented by a Valencian PE teacher who wanted to create a sport with the following values:

• Gender equality
• Inclusion
• Maximum cooperation
• Solidarity and adherence to sports practice

You can find more information about the sport on: https://www.colpbol.es/es/que-es-el-colpbol.html

Eco Challenge

For last week's challenge the eco committee members weighed the contents of the paper recycling bin of each class over a period of three days.

The next challenge which began on Thursday 28th January is the PLASTIC FREE SNACK CHALLENGE. The challenge for each class is to only bring eco-friendly snacks to school that day. In other words, snacks without one use plastic wrappers or aluminium foil. Snacks in reusable plastic containers are 'allowed'.

The idea is to have Eco challenges throughout the whole school year, varying in duration from one day, several days, weeks or even a whole term. The ultimate goal for Kensington as an Eco school is to earn the ‘Green Flag’. More information can be found here: www.ecoschools.global.

The 3 Eco school categories Kensington will be focusing on this school year, based on the in-house surveys we conducted last year, are: Litter, waste & water.

Thank you to all our Kensington community for your support and collaboration at home, especially during these difficult times.

Next Monthly Newsletter Issue - Friday 26th February