Blog week ending 30th June

Over the last two weeks our school has hosted the most incredible array of inspiring speakers, delivering incredible interactive learning experiences and motivational talks across the year groups (a selection of which are featured in this blog).  Our sincere thanks to all visiting contributors, your input and support is greatly appreciated by our whole school community. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to share some exciting news regarding our school Heads of Year.  I am delighted to announce, Mr Bailey has been appointed as the new Head of Year 7 from immediate effect and will remain with our current students to be their Head of Year 8 for next academic year.  Mr Proctor is currently working with new Year 7 students (currently in Year 6) to ensure a smooth transition to secondary school.  All other Heads of Year will move up with their current year groups next academic year.

Dr Gallaway, from Star Light visited our Year 7 students to deliver an interactive STEAM astrophysics session.  Students viewed and learned about the different constellations, planets, galaxies, and even black holes.    Students looked at how the International Space Station worked and learned about different female astronauts. The mobile planetarium brought the session to life and provided a truly thrilling and immersive 360-degree experience.

Performing Arts students in Year 7 and 8 have been tirelessly working on our first ever school musical - Bugsy Malone. After a string of auditions, the chosen students have been attending two rehearsals a week where they have been learning lines, choreography, blocking scenes and most importantly, having an amazing time whilst doing so.

The students would absolutely love it if you would come and support them by watching the show! The show dates are Wednesday 12^th and Thursday 13^th July in the Main School Hall. Tickets are £5 and be purchased via ParentPay.

As part of our Careers Programme, this week we welcomed a range of amazing and inspiring contributors to deliver Year 9 Career Insight Talks.  Each gave invaluable advice, insight and support as they highlighted potential opportunities in their respective fields, shared their career paths and gave next-step guidance.  Student feed-back has been positive with many saying they learned about exciting jobs and careers that they didn’t know existed and provided lots of potential pathways to consider!  In addition to the visitor led sessions, students took part in workshops to support decision making and broaden their career horizons.

A huge thank you to all of our Industry and Parent contributers;

Larry Omoregie, Project Director & Lucy Sparks Project Manager with Arcadis (design & engineering consultancy solutions)

Lyndsey West, Deconstruction Division Manager, KpH Deconstruction

Jessica McQueen, Solicitor and football chairman

Jamie Izzard, Director for Communities, Gravesham Council

Elizabeth Booth, Senior Programme Manager, Construction Youth Trust

Ben Sizer, Commercial Analyst, Metro Bank

Denis, Information Technology Management at Mimecast

Danny Chapman, Family Practice Manager & Senior Clerk, The 36 Group (Barristers’ Chambers)

Matt Wright and Abi, Head of Business Unit, HCRG Care Group & NHS

Year 10 students are preparing for their mock examinations next week with revision sessions in lessons and ‘drop-in’ one-to-one support tuition.  In this science lesson, Miss Cogswell’s Biologists requested a refresher lesson on the structure of the heart – hence today’s disection and reflection lesson.

Miss Deacon’s Year 7 Scientists have completed their current topic of the solar system with a series of brilliantly detailed and informative presentations.  Each group researched a planet, exploring facts to then incorpate into a 3D model and information poster to present back to the rest of the class.

Year 12 Future Careers workshops.  On 19^th June Year 12 had a day of talks with a focus on apprenticeship routes to complement the University visit on 6^th June.  The first session was delivered by Tammy from Ask Apprenticeships who explained more about the various opportunities and routes and helped students sign up for alerts and understand how to make applications.

Students then had a talk from Harry at Ebbsfleet Garden city about construction and Architecture as well as local opportunities available to them.

Then students heard from Jessica who was able to talk about her various jobs and routes into public services, local government and working as a football chairman.

Darren from Dartford Football club gave an insight in to the various roles within a football club and the routes into these as well as other linked roles such as marketing. Lorna from Group M spoke to Year 12 about careers in social media and the possibilities available to them. This has inspired some to consider exploring different types of apprenticeships outside sport and engineering.

The final one was from one of our Governors, Lyndsey West from KPH Deconstruction who was able to help demystify the industry and talk about apprenticeship routes. Some students have opted to follow this up with mock interviews with our Senior Leadership Team.

Art GCSE Year 10 students are developing ideas on the theme of ‘Identity’.  Students are working on their interpretation of Identity with a series of studies as they explore different concepts and refine their designs before creating their final pieces.  As you can see from the below images, each of our students has taken a unique approach to the theme, using a wide variety of mediums and 3D sculpture to realise their deeply personal vision.

The time has arrived for GCSE Drama students to record their Component 1 devised pieces, worth 40% of their final GCSE grade. Students have been working so incredibly hard to create pieces from a stimulus, thinking about their characterisation, style, genre and audience message. We must say the performances are amazing! Well done! 

Miss West’s Year 7 Food Preparation and Nutrition students enjoyed a practical lesson where they learned the science and process behind making perfect choux pastry, in this recipe, savoury paprika and cheese Gougeres.  Students learned how the Physical aeration causes the Profiteroles to rise and puff in the oven. Due to the boiling of water and the beating in of eggs. 

Governors review the year.  Governors were in school again on Tuesday 27^th June to review the year and make plans for the future. We began with a working lunch with five student leaders from Years 7, 8 and 10.  Year 9 were busy in the hall doing their exams!  We had a good discussion of things that have been particularly valuable and those where they think there could be improvements.  The Culture Day had gone really well.  All the students felt that days like this teach them new things and mean that they value each other’s differences and backgrounds so much more.  Best of all was the different food of course!

We talked about whether boys and girls feel equally valued and supported.  For the most part, they felt that they were.  Year 8 felt that this was not always the case in sport for them and Mr Barnett said that he would look at this.

When the students left (yes, to go and have lunch again!), Governors spent time looking at the year just ending. 

We were delighted to welcome Jonny Uttley, CEO of The Education Alliance to Stone Lodge. He is a leading voice for Ethical Leadership across the sector and contributes to many national debates as well as being an author. He was deeply impressed by what he saw at Stone Lodge and commented on how well embedded routines for learning were in creating the culture so evident from his tour.

Pictured from left me(!), Mrs Artmann, Mr Guthrie, Mr Uttley and Mr Dunscombe.

Eid Mabrouk to all our families that celebrated Eid al-Adha this week.

Kent County Council have asked us to share the below;

Half Term Club in partnership with KCC. Children receiving benefit-related free school meals are free and those not entitled are welcome to our club for £25 a day or £90 for the whole 4 days! We are also Ofsted registered so those who receive childcare vouchers are welcome too!  We are again accepting children from 11-14 years old. Hot meals are free to all.  We offer a range of fantastic activities such as cooking, science, sports, performing arts, games, arts and crafts, water fun, and so much more.

Kent Police have used us to share the below warning of the dangers of swimming in in St Clements Lakes, Greenhithe.

Forthcoming Dates;

Year 10 Geography Field Trips - 6^th and 13^th July

Formal Y10 mock examinations - 3^rd – 7^th July

New Year 7 welcome meeting - 3^rd July

New Year 7 transition day - 7^th July

Sports Day for Y7, 8 and 9 (separate afternoon for Y10 TBC) - 7^th July

Stone Lodge Musical Production – Bugsy Malone - 12^th and 13^th July

Summer School (for new Year 7 students joining in September) - 14^th August to 17^th August 2023 

Best wishes,

 

Gavin Barnett

Head Teacher