27th April 2018

ASPIRE
Friday 27th April 2018
Inside this issue...
Year 11 Praise Bags King’s Coffee Afternoon Shave the ’tache
Brilliant Bath Bombs King’s Garden: Helpers Wanted Interview with at Teacher
STEM Club renamed!
King’s Radio

Student Returns to Inspire and Educate
Others on the Military!
Ryan Bellerby, a former student at King's has returned to deliver a talk focused on careers in
the military. Students from years 7-10 who attended the talk were really engaged regarding the
realism and information Ryan presented. His transformation from a young cadet into a soldier
showed great maturity and professionalism as Ryan came in his own time to give something
back to the school.
Ryan showed great ASPIRE values in the hopes of educating students on their flight path in
the military - we all wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours Ryan!

To listen to this week’s King’s radio broadcast
please visit the link
below...
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/
kingswarrington/episodes/2018-04-24T01_56_17
-07_00

Volunteering Success!
Students in Wednesday's volunteering enrichment have really made an impact on the lives of
young disadvantaged individuals by hosting their own community coffee afternoon. During this
event, members of the public, friends and family were able to visit King's for a relaxing hot drink
and conversation with students. Students served hot drinks, baked sweet treats to sell and also
interacted with visitors. I would like to say a personal thank you on behalf of the school and our
students, to everyone who made this event an outstanding success. Without your help, we
would not have been able to raise £307.60 for a local charity, Action for Children. Year 9
student, Mollie Gardham says, "Through this enrichment, I have really gained confidence when
interacting with members of the local community".
In addition to this, a group of year 8 students organised a charity event called 'Taking off the
Tache!'. This was an event where Mr Kitching, a Geography practitioner, got his facial hair
shaved for charity - the money raised which was, £63.60 helped to contribute to the charity. A
collective school effort demonstrated students' leadership and team-work skills and this meant
we were able to raise £371.31.
Thank you again to those who supported our event.

SAS: SERIOUS ABOUT SCIENCE
In the last newsletter we asked you to vote for a new name for STEM Club!
As you can see, the winning name is…
SAS - Serious About Science!
Thanks to all who voted! You will see the attached poster appearing around school so we hope to
see you there on Tuesdays after school!

Year 11 Praise Bags
On the last day of term all of our year 11s received 'Easter Praise Bags'. At King's we are extremely
proud of the endeavour and professionalism our year 11s have been demonstrating on the run up to
exam season. The new term marks the start of GCSEs and now is the time to put all of the hard work
into practice. Each pupil received a bag with personalised notes from all of their teachers congratulating
them on their work and expressing how proud we are! There was even a chocolate treat from the Easter
Bunny. There were lots of smiles and even tears of joy from our very shocked students. It was a
fabulous way to end a term of lots of hard work and dedication. Continue to work hard year 11s and
remember there's only one person that you need to make proud and that is yourself!
All the staff at King's wish you the very best of luck in your upcoming exams.

Wanted: Helpers for the Garden!
It's now gardening season and we are opening up the King's garden to the
community. Our garden is still in the early stages of development and there are many
exciting possibilities for anyone who would like to volunteer to work on it. We would love to
have parents, King's supporters and members of the local community bringing their ideas,
enthusiasm and creativity to our exciting project. We hope to have a team who come in when
they are willing and able to in order to help us grow produce, keep the garden tidy and work on
new initiatives. Volunteers will need a DBS check to work in a school environment but that can
If you have any questions, ideas or would like to get
in touch then please email Mr. Walker
at p.walker@kingswarrington.com as we would love
to have you helping us out as little or as often as
suits you.

SAS: Brilliant Bath Bombs!
SAS (Serious About Science) this week enjoyed learning about how to make their own bath
bombs and the principles behind why they work. Rather than throw them into a normal sink full
of water (and because we are super cool at King's!) we decided to throw them into a whole
paddling pool full of water to see what would happen - we don't do anything by halves in the
SAS! We look forward to more great experiments coming up soon!

Year 10 Careers Speed Dating Event
As part of our World of Work programme designed to expose our students to the diverse world of work, on
Wednesday 25th April, year 10 students took part in a careers speed dating event. Over 20 employers such
as: Sellafield, Vinci Construction, ThermoFisher, Kerry Logistics, NHS and British Aerospace attended the
event and enjoyed the short presentation delivered by our very own World of Work Ambassadors before the
event started. Students were given employer information slides beforehand and prepared their questions for
each employer accordingly. The atmosphere in the hall was vibrant, insightful and enthusiastic! It was a
pleasure to welcome visitors to the academy who are willing to support and give up their time to benefit and
advise our students on how to get into different industries. The students were really engaged with Elle
Edwards stating, 'that was such a great event!'. A special thanks to each and every employer who made this
event a success (NNL, Swan Solutions, Morrison's, Kerry Logistics, Vinci Construction, Sellafield, Dreamscape
Solutions Limited, Paragon/Optionis, Balfour Beatty, EMR, O2, Urban Pure Solutions, 3M/Scott Safety, Atkins,
NHS, Creative Flare, WSP, British Aerospace, Catalyst Choices) also Aimee Ruddy (Warrington Council), the
year 10 team and of course our professional year 10 students.

Interview with a Teacher...
Miss Taylor
This week we spoke to Miss Taylor, Teaching Scholar at King’s...
Did you have a flight path?
Whilst growing up, I struggled to settle on a flight path. I
knew I wanted to do something creative, but in what role I
wasn’t quite sure. After attending careers and university
fairs and thoroughly considering my options, I decided I
wanted to work within the Events and Marketing industry. I
therefore went on to study for a degree in Events
Management.
After graduating, I gained an events and marketing role
within a school which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had never
really thought that working in a school was for me,
however, this opportunity really sparked my passion for
working with young people in education.
What inspires you?
Watching pupils work hard towards achieving their goals
and ambitions. Seeing them discover new talents and
passions, grow in confidence and fulfil their true potential.
Greatest achievement?
Graduating at Bridgewater Hall with a BA (Hons) degree.
Have you learnt anything new
since starting at King’s?
Having worked across a variety of subjects since starting at
King’s, I have learnt some interesting science experiments,
and even learnt a bit of Spanish!
What drew you to King’s?
Having lived in Woolston throughout my life, I was keen to
become a part of King’s community. When visiting the
school, I was impressed by the emphasis the school puts
on character and leadership education, and the way both
staff and pupils live and breathe the ASPIRE values.
Favourite part of King’s day...
My favourite part of King’s day is form time, where I lead
literacy interventions to a group of Year 7 pupils.
Are you involved in any extra
curricular activities?
Not at the moment but hopefully soon. Outside of school, I
currently teach group fitness classes at a local gym.

Important Information
regarding
TUCASI Payments
What is happening?
Please be advised that from 30 April 2018 any users of Microsoft Windows XP or
Microsoft Vista will no longer be able to make payments via the Tucasi Online Payments
System which are processed by WorldPay. Unfortunately, users of these operating
system may have to upgrade their systems to be able to make online payments from the
30th of April 2018.
Why is this happening?
This change is being enforced by the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standard). From the 30th June 2018, all websites that accept card payments will no
longer allow users of Windows XP and Windows Vista to use their websites. WorldPay
are implementing this change on 30th April 2018.
What is the impact?
While you will be able to access Tucasi SCO, view the content and perform tasks in the
normal way, you will receive an error message and payments will fail to process if you
attempt to pay online.
Please be aware this is outside the School's control and we apologise for inconvenience
that this may cause. Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist with making payments
online using Windows XP & Vista following the 30th April 2018.

King’s Term Time Calendar
2nd May—Year 9 & 10 Consultation Evening
14th May—GCSE Examinations Begin
28th May—3rd June—Summer Half Term
Utilising 21 st Century Technology
At King’s we are fully committed to improving the learning for our students. One of the areas
in which the academy has led the way is the use of mobile technology in the classroom. An
opportunity has arisen for us to develop this aspect of learning further which we wanted to
write to you about to gather your opinions.
Recently, we carried out a survey with our students regarding the use of technology and the
possibility of them bringing their own devices, such as laptops and tablets into school to use
in lessons. Interestingly, the vast majority have said they would like to bring their own device
from home. With respect to their smartphones, 98% of our students already do this anyway.
Given that student have expressed their desire to bring a device they are familiar with from
home, we are seriously considering this option. Given that this will require a number of
changes at the academy to accommodate this request, we wanted to gather parental
opinions first before making a decision.
Therefore, we would be very grateful if you could complete a very brief survey below to assist
our review.
Please follow the link below to access the survey:-
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd4MGwr8Sc2vZ-
4L2RL50jnigZM30OUapgJfbj1uII1Wrd7bg/viewform?usp=sf_link
Regards
Shane Ierston
Principal