Cutting the Sod

17th March 2025Leanne Johnston
Subject Leader for PE Rachel Shaw and students joined local councillors and representatives from Robertsons construction for the “cutting the sod” ceremony on Friday.  We are delighted that work has finally started on the new Sports Hall and 3G facility.
Rachel Shaw commented
“The PE department would like to thank everyone for supporting the new sports hall development and making this vision a reality. This will greatly enhance all of our students’ experience of PE and promote overall well-being in the community. We are excited for the opportunities it will bring our students, who truly deserve a modern and inspiring environment. Our students strive for excellence and need improved facilities if they are going to continue to excel. This is a very exciting time for us all and we can’t wait to see the impact it will have on our students and local community in the future.“

Ski Trip

6th March 2025Leanne Johnston

60 Students had an awesome week skiing in the French resort of Serre Chevalier. With over half the group having never skied on snow before, some excellent progress was made.

Groups experienced ski school and demonstrated a great deal of resilience, learning a new skill and overcoming challenges, especially when tired! The group of students represented KEVI well and were supportive and encourgaing of one another with ski instructors praising their attitude.

Night time activities included visiting the local town and a torchlight descent with aerial show and fireworks. There was some friendly rivalry at quiz night, followed up with games and movie night. A week early, the group celebrated pancake day with a feast of crepes!

Parental comments:

Thank you for organising such an amazing ski trip this year.  He had an absolutely fantastic time.  Sadly, he’s not impressed by any of our holiday suggestions now and only wants to go skiing again!

We just wanted to say thank you so much to you and all the staff for organising the ski trip. He had a fantastic time. We really appreciate all the time and commitment it takes to provide these opportunities. He’s had an incredible week so many thanks from us both

Careers Education

6th March 2025Leanne Johnston

We were delighted, after a rigorous assessment process, to have our Quality in Careers Standard reaffirmed in January. The award recognises our committment to developing students beyond their examined curricula and supporting progression after school; whether at 16 or 18.

Throughout the process we undertook a lengthy self evaluation that was interrogated thoroughly by the assessors. Our assessment day involved a range of students, staff and governors from across the school to ‘test’ and triangualte our self evaluation evidence.

We are extremely proud to continue developing our Careers Education offer and will continue to work with tenacity to support our students’ ambitions.

UK Youth Parliament 2025

3rd March 2025Leanne Johnston

Congratulations to Emily in Year 9 who has been successfully elected to the Northumberland UK Youth Parliament in the elections held on 18 February. 

Following her election success, Emily travelled to London over half term and spoke in the House of Commons representing the young people of Northumberland. To see Emily speak, access the YouTube link and she is at 54:23.

As a school, we share the pride of her parents and wish Emily all the very best and will support her political ambitions. Emily spoke with conviction on the subject of Political Education in schools and represented our region, showing our students that their voice matters.

Tackling Antisocial Behaviour

3rd March 2025Leanne Johnston

To build on our PSHE curriculum and further develop our excellent safeguarding provision, Northumbria Police’s Prevention Through Education Team visited our school in February to deliver sessions to students in Year 9 about antisocial behaviour.

These sessions are to help young people understand what antisocial behaviour is, its consequences and how it affects communities, as well as how to get help and report it.  

Our King Edward’s students were fantastic across the three days, each group engaging with the facilitator and sharing ideas. Kerry, our facilitator, was also very good. She set exactly the right tone, the students were completely engaged throughout and learned a huge amount from it.

Staff who accompanied students were also very positive, seeing lots of curriculum links with the content delivered. One colleague commented:

I also got a lot from it myself, and the session was a thoroughly worthwhile thing to do.

Northumbria Police provided the attached parent/carer e-leaflet for further information.

European Youth Parliament Regional Event

3rd March 2025Leanne Johnston
A group of 8 KEVI students in Year 11 and Year 12 represented the school at a European Youth Parliament Regional Event.  Staff accompanying the students were immensely proud; the students were a real credit to themselves and, the school competing against eight other schools.
They prepared on a complex topic (farming, strikes and taxation) thoroughly with extremely short notice and, whilst, we did not get through to the next round, the judges had this to say:
In terms of more specific feedback we would really like to commend your team’s consistent enthusiasm from the very start, and their incredibly strong teamwork. We would also draw attention to their use of post-it notes and other forms of active communication during debates as a particular strength. 
It is great to see students taking advantage of the many additional opportunities at KEVI and developing their Accomplished Student characteristics.

KEVI VI Form Reading Ambassadors Celebrate

17th February 2025Leanne Johnston

At King Edward’s, we are proud to celebrate the dedication of our VI Form Reading Ambassadors, who have made a real difference in supporting lower school students with their reading progress. Since September, these mentors have met with younger students once a week, applying their training to model effective reading strategies that improve fluency, automaticity, and confidence.

To mark the success of the programme, our final session included a celebratory breakfast, where lower school students expressed their gratitude by writing heartfelt thank-you cards for their mentors. One Year 9 student shared how much he had enjoyed working with his VI Form mentor, highlighting that the dedicated reading time each week had boosted his confidence in lessons and helped him make greater academic progress.

King Edward’s encourages VI Form students to give back to our school community while developing valuable skills such as organisation, resilience, and interpersonal communication—qualities that will serve them well in the future. We’re proud of the dedication and hard work shown by both our lower school students and their VI Form Mentors!

Year 9 Options Information

17th January 2025Jump Marketing

Please find attached the link to the documentation required for Year 9 Options.

https://sites.google.com/the3rivers.net/kevi-yr-910-options/important-information?authuser=0&pli=1

 

Spirit of the Season

20th December 2024Leanne Johnston

Students and staff have given generousy over this week, in the spitit of Christmas. We had a fantastic collection for Wansbeck Valley Foodbank and were overwhelemed by the volume of donations.

This continued with our annual Christmas Jumper non-uniform day on Thursday 19 December. Students enjoyed a festive lunch and raised over £400 for Save the Children. Donations can still be made via MCAS.

Year 9 School Council members organised their very own bake sale; the students coordinated volunteers from across the year group to bake, donate and sell cakes. The Year 9 students raised over £100 for their nominated charity; Christian Aid.

Christmas Communion

19th December 2024Leanne Johnston

The RE department took 38 students to Durham Cathedral on Wednesday 18 December. The students were welcomed into the Cathedral and had the opportunity to explore a major place of Christian worship and pilgrimage, learning about the story of St Cuthbert and the origins of Christianity in the North-East, as well as seeing the practices they have been learning about including attending the service. A really good and valuable day for all involved.