Kenilworth's Sophie Callahan releases her debut single Another One in style with an Official Music Video

Sophie Callahan

Rising star +Sophie Callahan told me earlier today, It's the first song I've ever recorded in a professional studio, which is fantastic news for the Kenilworth singer who has her video released today. 

I'm all for supporting and promoting local talent. In a tweet earlier today Sophie said..

Kenilworth Community Forum Monday 5th Dec 2011 Upper School Hall

Monday 5th December 2011 at Kenilworth School, upper school hall, Leyes Lane, Kenilworth. CV8 2DA The Community Forum drop-in is open from 6.30pm, with a start time of 7pm. Behind the Scenes Dec 2011

Safe in your community? Come and hear what we’re doing to help keep Kenilworth safe. Share your ideas and concerns .Get involved in your community!

Agenda: Parking issues in Winn Close, Grant application from Crow watch, Safer Community (Young People and Youth Work, Graffiti), Library, Public Service Centre, Connect 2 and the Police Update. 

We look forward to welcoming you. If you would like to suggest an issue for a future Community Forum meeting, or get involved, please contact the Warwick District Community Partnership Team on 01926 456102 or email warwick@warwickshire.gov.uk www.warwickshire.gov.uk/communityforums Community Forum Kenilworth

Kenilworth Community Forum - Mon 5 September 2011 at Kenilworth School

The next Kenilworth Community Forum is Monday 5 September 2011 at Kenilworth School, Upper Hall, Leyes Lane, Kenilworth CV8 2DA open from 6.30pm, with a start time of 7pm.

The detailed agenda is to be announced, but two items are Changes at the Youth and Community Centre and Grants to local groups. Two documents are available:

Behind the Scenes and Community Forum Grant Fund

And: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/kenilworthforum

Kenilworth School Newsletter 18 March 2011

Read the full Newsletter From Mr Abbott: Africa Week went very well and by the end of the week we raised in excess of £6,200 which will go to Uyogo. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in making it such a success; students who organised the event, those who participated either in the performances on stage or by giving technical support back stage, the staff who supported them and all of the volunteers who were involved. There is clearly much talent amongst our students in school and in the local community.

This Friday there will be another non uniform day for Comic Relief. A quiz for students and staff was organised by sixth form students on Wednesday evening and the proceeds of this event will also go to Comic Relief. Applications are currently being processed for entry to Castle Sixth Form in September. We hope to send out conditional offers towards the end of this term, and the following criteria will be used in the selection process; 

· Performance at interview, · Predicted grades, · Supporting statement from subject teachers/suitability for subject for the student  · The order of preference for subjects chosen

Kenilworth School Newsletter 11 March 2011

This week's Newsletter in full. From Mr Abbott: This year, once again we are celebrating Africa Week in school, which embraces a range of events including sponsored events, visiting speakers, poetry readings, music and dance performances. The concerts and swing night showcase some excellent performances from many of our talented pupils. We are grateful to everyone who has helped and organised the events and to the Mayor and Twinning Association, in addition to other visiting speakers for helping to raise the profile of this important event in school and for making it the success that it has been.

It is always worth remembering the purpose of Africa week, as we have been celebrating it every year for the last seven years at around this time. It is a largest fundraising event for charity that we organise in the year and all money raised during the week goes to support underprivileged children in Uyogo, as many of them are deprived of the basics such as clean water, electricity, fresh produce and their local school provides only very basic facilities and little opportunity for young people to achieve success and eventually leave their community for a better life style. It is always a wakeup call to us in the modern industrialised world to remember how privileged we are in this country to have the opportunities that we have and these should never been taken for granted.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 4 March 2011

Africa Week

The deadline for applications to Castle Sixth Form was on the Friday of the week before half term. I am pleased to say that we have received a large number of applications from students both in year 11 at Kenilworth and from other schools. The interview process is due to begin next week and will last for the next three weeks.

This year we have 6 students in the Sixth Form who have conditional offers from Oxbridge. We also have a larger number of students than ever before who have gained offers from their first choice university. Following on from the Friday Club support which has been offered to year 11 students for the last two years, an equivalent study support opportunity has been provided for sixth formers. I hope that students will take advantage of the additional support that is available to them from individual teachers or departments in the run up to the public exams next term.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 18 February 2011

Comedy Club

Read the full Kenilworth School Newsletter

This week we held a Business Breakfast event in school, with the theme of ‘Raising Achievement’. The aim was to bring our Trust partners and other business professionals together with staff and students to celebrate our successes, share strategies that have been used to raise achievement and to plan future projects together. Our students and staff spoke extremely well at the Business Breakfast and two students in the sixth form played accomplished solos. The presentations from our visitors were useful and informative and the breakfast, prepared by our catering students, reflected a high level of culinary skill. My thanks go to everybody involved in making the morning a real success.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 11 February 2011

As many parents are already aware, we are changing the format of our reports based on a pilot with year 7 reports last summer term. Our new reports provide concise information on each subject with targets for improvement. For each subject, a pupil has an effort grade from 1 to 4 with 1 being the most positive down to 4. In addition to that, there are achievement and target grades. The achievement grade denotes the working grade or level and the target grade indicates a level that a pupil is expected to achieve by the end of the year. A target grade set by the teacher, is realistic, but includes a degree of challenge to which pupils should aspire. If a pupil’s report is issued early in the year and the achievement is below the target grade, but the effort is good or better, there is usually nothing be concerned about, because the lower achievement grade is a snap shot at a particular time and the pupil is likely to achieve the target grade at the end of the course with sustained effort.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 4 February 2011

From Mr Abbott:I hope that Year 9 students feel that they have been well supported this year through the options process. The returns should be in on Monday and these will be processed as soon as possible. If parents or pupils do not hear from the school, you can presume that you have been offered a place on your chosen courses for Year 10. In the next few weeks we are planning to have individual meetings with a small number of pupils whose option choices do not match and to those who we feel would benefit from further guidance from professionals.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 28 January 2011

Kenilworth School Newsletter

From Mr Abbott:  As I write this, we are approaching the Year 9 Parents’ Evening and this is a good opportunity for all students and parents to receive key information about their sons/daughters successes across all areas and have appropriate advice and guidance about their next stages. The career talks from visiting speakers have gone extremely well and we hope to build on this contact with professionals from a range of careers over the years. The Year 9 Parents’ Evening, the recent curriculum choice evening and the options assemblies will support the process of Year 9 options for Key Stage 4. We will be hosting a Business Breakfast meeting early next month and this event will bring together many of the professionals from outside of secondary education who have worked with our pupils. As a Trust school, we have a good partnership with the University of Warwick and with Thomas Vale Construction.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 21 January 2011

This week's Kenilworth school Newsletter is now available

The league tables were published last week and I am delighted to say that based on the GCSE results last year, Kenilworth School was the highest achieving comprehensive school in Warwickshire. As you may be aware, 78% of pupils received the benchmark five or more A* to C at GCSE, almost 20% above the county total. At A level, our students also performed well and we are listed as the third highest achieving state school based on average A level scores. I would like to take this opportunity once again to congratulate everyone and to encourage those who have exams in the near future and encourage them to believe in their ability.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 14 January 2011

Read the full Kenilworth School Newsletter 19 Jan 2011

I would like to congratulate our Year 11 students who have sat their GCSE English Language and a small number of them have already taken their GCSE Mathematics early. They have achieved excellent results and I hope that this will motivate them to carry on working hard and to achieve their full potential in the summer term. Our GCSE examination results in 2010 were our best ever and this was due largely to the hard work of the students, supported by dedicated and committed teachers in lessons and in booster classes. I see no reason why our current Year 11 students cannot perform just as well, if not better, as many of them are showing great signs of considerable potential.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 7 January 2011

Dear All, Welcome back and Happy New Year.

This month many of our students will be sitting public examinations. It can be a very stressful time for them and I am sure that they will be supported by their families at home as we will do our best to support them in school. There are a few good websites which contain information on anxiety and stress management, and a summary of some techniques which may be useful to reduce anxiety can be found under the exam section of our school intranet. There are also a few good websites giving advice on this subject. 

If you wish to access one of these websites, I suggest www.brookes.ac.uk/student/services/health/exam.html. 

Kenilworth School Newsletter 16 December 2010

Gemma Jones Winning Photo

Read the full Newsletter As we come to the end of a very successful and productive term, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all good wishes for the New Year. Please note that the new term begins for pupils on 5 th January 2011. The previous day will be a staff training day and on this occasion, we are having a collaborative event, involving teachers from other schools.

This week, we had our Christmas concert, and it was good to see the talents of our pupils playing a range of instruments and singing so well. This was the first year in which we had a separate boys’ choir and one for girls and both vocal harmony groups demonstrated a high level of performance and confidence. It was an enjoyable evening which unfortunately was not as well attended as we would have hoped, largely due to illness. I would like to thank all of the students involved and express my appreciation to all of the music staff for their encouragement and support to the pupils.

Kenilworth School Christmas Concert Tonight 7.30pm

CHRISTMAS CONCERT Monday 13th December 2010  Upper Hall, 7:30pm All welcome, £2 on the door. Refreshments available

Kenilworth School Newsletter 10 December 2010

This week's Newsletter from Kenilworth School. We have had two recent events involving pupils from our school in partnership with Barr’s Hill School in Coventry. The first of these involved a cross curricular Humanities project with year 7 students from Kenilworth working with pupils from Barr’s Hill School. The aim of this project was for pupils from both of our schools to find out more abouttheir respective communities and places of geographical, historical and religious interest in their local community. The students from Barr’s Hill will come to Kenilworth with a similar focus next term. The second project involved ten Year 10 Business students who took part in a Regional Enterprise Activity Day. They were split into teams from other schools in the area with the objective of setting up a shop and attempting to make the most trading profit during a simulated trading year. In the afternoon, our students undertook a S.T.E.M. challenge which involved the construction of a model bridge which was then tested for strength by loading it with weights. The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and learnt some great lessons in teamwork, cooperation and meeting deadlines. They were great ambassadors for the school.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 3 December 2010

As you are aware a number of our students will be embarking upon an exciting expedition to Ecuador in the summer. In preparation for their expedition, they took part in a world challenge training weekend in Buxton last Sunday and Monday. Our students very bravely camped outdoors in extremely cold conditions and cooked all of their food in the outdoors. The challengers learned a lot about working as a team, organising themselves in camp and the conditions they may face in Ecuador.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 26 November 2010

Read the FULL NEWSLETTER  We are in the process of reviewing our catering arrangements and as part of this review we have engaged a firm of catering consultants to undertake a needs analysis with regard to catering. In the next few weeks, the firm of consultants will carry out surveys and discussions with key stakeholders on their views of our catering. At present, we employ a catering company to provide our school meals and we work closely with them to ensure that they offer a wide range of meals to ensure that they comply with national nutritional standards. With our emphasis on sustainability, we are always looking at how we can increase the consumption of locally grown produce.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 19 November 2010

Here is the Kenilworth School Newletter for 19th Nov - quite packed this week with many dates, competitions awards and information.  Remember, paper copies are only sent to those parents who have not provided the school with an email address. That's saving 10,000 sheets of A4 paper a week.

We held our Sixth Form Open Evening this week and I would like to thank everybody who contributed to making it such a success. It was inspiring to hear our students talk so confidently and sincerely about their experiences of study at Castle. I am always impressed by our students’ level of independence, maturity and confidence. It was also good to see so many prospective students at the event including many from outside of Kenilworth. Talking to some of our sixth formers, they invariably comment on the breadth of opportunities that they have at Castle and the good relationships that exist between staff and students. They also appreciate that, although the sixth form is an integral part of Kenilworth School, the sixth form site is separated from the main school building, and this enables the students to develop quickly a sense of responsibility and independence.

Kenilworth School Newsletter 12 Nov 2010

Read the full Newsletter 12 Nov 2010

We celebrated our pupils’ achievements at our Awards Evening on Wednesday of this week. It was a pleasure to celebrate the successes of our pupils and to watch the excellent student presentations and performances on the night.