Please see the Timing of the School Day section under the Parents & Students section.
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Timing of the School day
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Please see the Timing of the School Day section under the Parents & Students section.
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Timing of the School day
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Please see the Extra Curricular section under the Parents section.
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Extra Curricular
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Morning Break is 20 minutes long – Students’ own snacks from home can be eaten in allocated areas.
Lunchtime is 30 minutes – Food is cooked freshly on site – there is always a vegetarian main meal option as well as a meat one and a massive selection of filled baguettes, pasta, pizzas and salads, cakes and non-sugary drinks. Everyone sits and eats together in the main hall, including packed lunches. You can ‘mix and match’ having a packed lunch on some days and buy school food on another.
Before you join KKS your Primary School teacher will have a discussion with you about suitable friendship groups. These will be passed on to Mrs Oddie who will strive to ensure you are placed in a Form with at least 1 friend. You will also make lots of new friends as you join with other children from all over Kendal and the surrounding area.
In year 7 classes are taught in ‘mixed ability’ form groups for all subjects apart from Mathematics. Each teacher plans lessons that will give you the right level of work whatever your starting point. In Mathematics we have sets based initially on KS2 Test results provided by your primary School. The teacher then marks your work throughout the year and set changes can occur to help you progress at the greatest rate. At the end of Year 7 your results throughout the year are used to set English, Maths and Science. You can be in set 1 for Science and set 2 for Maths and so on.
Homework will be set using Edulink and you will be able to check it daily to help you stay organised with your homework. You normally get 2 subjects per night and an average of 20 to 30 minutes per subject. This increases as you get older to 30-40 minutes in year 10 and 2 hours in the sixth form.
Each form group has two form representatives on their year council. Each year council provides 2 representatives for the School Council. The School Council covers all aspects of school life from talking to teachers who are applying to work here to organising charitable events.
Parents/carers are involved in many ways, for example, through parents’ evenings with subject teachers and form teachers, through open meetings to learn about how to support your work and your revision, through the parent-Teacher association (the KKSA) – with social events, which also raise money for ‘extras’ for all our children. Through regular letters from the Head, through various consultations and a regular questionnaire.
Lessons are delivered as Form groups throughout Year 7. There will be some change to this as you are placed in sets for subjects like English, Maths and Science. Every child becomes a member of a form group with their own Form tutor. There are 6 form groups typically with between 26 and 28 students. The Form tutor is one of your first ‘ports of call’. She or he is one of the adults who you will get to know the best and who will know you well too. The form tutor checks how you are progressing in all your subjects, and checks your planner with you. Each form has two fantastic sixth form students as well who support the form tutor and provide at least two older students that you recognise and can talk to in school. There are also ‘learning families’ which meet 5 times a year and they have two students from every year group in and a member of staff to lead them through activities. The form groups together for 20 minutes in the afternoon.
A number of our students travel a long way to get here. Some catch the train to Oxenholme station and then walk the 25 minutes to school. Also some parents choose to send their child(ren) here using a service bus. The 555 operates from Carnforth – Milnthorpe – Kendal – Windermere – Ambleside with buses arriving conveniently for the start of school. The local authority provides a number of buses and taxis for students where KKS is the ‘catchment school’ and the journey is more than 3 miles, or where the journey is considered to be on a dangerous route (for example with no footpath).