11th April 2016

I would like to welcome everybody back to school and to the new term.

We begin the new term with the exciting news, I was able to quickly report on the last day of term, that our Condition Improvement Fund bid has been successful.  The success of the bid means that we will be able to build a new two storey teaching block to replace the two storey section of what is currently known as the new block (which has been in place since the early 1970s).  This news has made a lot of people very happy indeed.  It is high time that Kinver High benefits from excellent new facilities and I am delighted that our students and staff will have the opportunity to work in them.  The new build really is a great boost for the school.  I will keep you all informed as the project develops in the coming months.

Over the Easter holiday the much anticipated school trip to Gambia took place.  It is clear that the students on the trip have benefitted tremendously from the experience of seeing how children in Gambia live and how much they value their education.  The big project of building a new school in a Gambian village is now well underway thanks to the money raised through Kinver High and the efforts of our staff and students.

I wanted to thank our teaching staff for taking our students on such a wonderful trip but the following message sent to Mr Wilkes by the mother of one of our students expresses gratitude in a far better way than I could.  It is a fitting tribute to Mr Wilkes whose vision and enthusiasm established our links with Gambia and to all the staff who have committed to be part of one of the three trips organised so far.

(our daughter) “has not stopped talking about what she saw and learnt in Gambia and the privileges we all take for granted at home. To see such positivity is wonderful.
Something the government in this country will never understand or be able to put a price on is teachers like you and all the others who attended this trip... Teachers that go that extra mile and truly care about their students and those lovely children in Gambia.”

What an inspiring way to begin the summer term.

18th March 2016

Welcome to the Head’s Blog in which I will attempt to keep everyone updated on what goes on at Kinver High School and Sixth Form.

We are in a truly exciting phase of Kinver High’s development.  We have been an academy within the Invictus Education Trust for a year now and the benefits are really beginning to show.

January saw the launch of “Edge” which is Kinver High’s version of the Learning Platform developed through Invictus.  Students and staff are already reaping the benefits of Edge which will develop from strength to strength in the coming months.

Students have enjoyed taking part in visits and events involving students from all four Invictus schools.  The visits to Oxford and Cambridge Universities are highlighted in our end of term newsletter as is the Invictus Choir who performed at Birmingham Symphony Hall in February.  This was an event I thoroughly enjoyed attending and was proud to see and hear our students taking part in.

In school we have been working hard to support improvements in our Maths provision and learned a great deal from the two days a renowned Maths teaching expert spent with us in January.  In addition, we have been able to provide significant extra support to our Year 11 Maths students as they prepare for their GCSE exams.  This additional support has been made possible through money made available to us an academy.

We have also benefitted from high quality school improvement advice and support generated from what we call our Quality Assurance Days when our own school improvement adviser and colleagues from the other Invictus schools work together to evaluate our performance and progress.  This takes place in all four schools and it is also a great learning experience for me to be working in other Invictus schools on their Quality Assurance Days.  We have all learned a great deal from each other.

This time of year always sees the preparations for public examinations really gather pace. Our Year 11 and Sixth Form students have working very hard with their teachers towards their final GCSE and A Level examinations and our predictions for their results look very promising.  We wish all our students well as they continue their revision and examination preparations.

In April we expect to hear the outcome of our ambitious bid to the Condition Improvement Fund.  If successful the bid will enable us to build a new two storey teaching block and knock down a substantial proportion of the “new block” (which as I always explain is called the new block because it isn’t as old as the “old block”!).  We are all extremely hopeful that the bid will be accepted and believe it would be a tremendous boost for the school.  There is no doubt that we all deserve some brand new and outstanding accommodation.

We continue to be really grateful for the efforts of the Kinver High School Association in supporting us with their fundraising efforts.  Not least they put on some excellent events for us to enjoy.  The latest Quiz Night was a very successful event and this will be followed by a Race Night on Saturday May 14^th at the KSA in the village.  If you haven’t been to such a race night before you must try it, they are great fun.  Tickets are available from the school reception.