Drawing for the Planet

17th April 2024Jump Marketing

During Enrichment Week of 2023 local artist Jane Lee McCracken worked with a group of over 40 students and staff to create some intricate sketches from biro. This was to support an international project to protect Laguna Marine Wildlife.

The drawings Year 9 created with artist and Drawing for the Planet Founder, Jane Lee McCracken’s helped raise awareness of many incredible marine animals that live in the Pacific Ocean off Laguna Beach. Jane was extremely impressed by the outstanding drawings Year 9 and KEVI staff created for the project and how hard every artist worked to make their drawing. In recognition Jane presented our now Year 10 students with a framed print.

The Laguna Marine Wildlife artwork was displayed at the prestigious Laguna Art Museum and the Coast Film & Music Festival, Laguna Beach, California in November 2023. Hundreds of people saw the artwork. Many people have commented on how amazing the drawings are.

More information about the project can be found here. We are delighted that Jane will work with our current Year 9 students on her new international project during our next Enrichment Week in June.

The Addams Family Musical – Spookily Good!

17th April 2024Jump Marketing
A huge congratulations to all cast and crew involved in our biannual musical that took place before the Easter holidays. Our students put on an amazing performance of outstanding quality.
The musical was made even more special this year in that the supporting live music was performed entirely by KEVI students, past and present, and it was great to welcome back some old faces for the performances.
Students had such an amazing time being part of the show and there was a fantastic atmosphere and supportive environment created backstage.
We are delighted that our staff continue to give so much of their time to support and honour the arts in this way – for both education and for fun! Well done to all involved.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY, a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and it’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family– a man her parents have never met. And if that wasn’t upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before– keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they
host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.

ÂŁ6m allocated for Sports Hall project

27th March 2024Andrew Baxter
We are delighted to announce that Northumberland County Council has given the go ahead for a new Sports Hall for our school.

Headteacher Clare Savage said: “It is fabulous news and we are all delighted that we are going to have a sports hall.We have some high-quality outdoor facilities, such as the athletics track that we share with Morpeth Harriers. However, the school has never had a sports hall and it has been difficult at times to accommodate our ambitious PE curriculum during the winter months.

This new facility will greatly enhance PE provision and will also contribute to the provision of excellent sports facilities for the wider community.”

Simon Taylor, co-CEO at Cheviot Learning Trust, added: “I would like to thank Northumberland County Council for supporting this much-needed facility at the school. We have worked closely with its officers for a number of years to develop these plans and are very grateful to gain approval for the project, which will make a huge difference to future generations of students and staff at the school.

The project was included in the recently approved capital programme as part of the council’s budget, with ÂŁ2.456million to be provided by the local authority in 2025/26 and the rest from external funding over the next two years.”

Morpeth students to run against the world’s best in Kenya

11th March 2024Jump Marketing

Six students from The King Edward VI School in Morpeth are set to carry the flag for England in the Schools’ World Cross Country Championships in Kenya in May.

The boys earned the trip of a lifetime by winning the English Schools’ Cross Country Cup after twice narrowly missing out on the national title. 

But now the Northumberland students face another tough challenge before they have even stepped foot onto the plane to Nairobi. The KEVI team must come up with the cash to fund the £12,000 trip to Kenya, probably the greatest distance-running country in the world. 

Unfortunately, both English Schools and International Schools Sport Federation don’t provide any financial support for this trip and the funds will have to be found by the team themselves.

The Morpeth students had been among the medals two years in a row facing the best cross country runners from 46 counties. Finally, their persistence was rewarded in this year’s event at Woodbridge in Suffolk when they lifted the silverware and with it the chance to represent England in the ISF World Schools Championships which have been staged since 1975.

Left to right – Bertie Marr, Liam Roche, Ethan Phillips, Ryan Davies, Joe Dixon & William De Vere Owen (holding cup). Other runners not pictured are Oliver Calvert and Elliot Mavir.

This is an outstanding example of North East sport being represented at international level and it is truly amazing that The King Edward VI school can produce six such talented athletes who will be competing against the world’s best in Kenya. The students will be flying out on 9th May and returning on 14th May 2024.

“At last, all their years of hard work has paid off”, said PE Teacher Mark Wickens. “Keeping the core of the team free from injury and illness has been the key to our success, where in previous years this has been our Achilles heel.’ 

The boys have been training together for years and competing at local, county, regional and national level representing both their schools and Morpeth Harriers. They have not only forged tight friendships but a team desire to support each other and win.”

Attention will now turn to Kenya and the chance for a small market town in Northumberland to take on some of the world’s best in Nairobi. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the boys and one that they have earned through their own hard work and dedication to their sport. It is very rare to be able to field a school team with such quality and talent and one which will be very hard to replicate in future years. 

The King Edward VI School are very proud to be sending their school team to represent England in such a prestigious event and would like the whole community to try and help with the funding for this trip.  The school has set up a ‘Go Fund me’ page on their school’s website, where individuals, local businesses and organisations can pledge any amount of money to help with the financial cost of this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

If you are interested in making any form of donation please visit our GoFundMe page

https://gofund.me/1a25ca23

Red and Black – March Edition

5th March 2024Jump Marketing

The March issue of the student-run School Newspaper is here!

In the latest edition, there are some wise words from a former KEVI student, and we get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with a pub quiz.

Read the March issue here

KEVI Food Waste Trial

1st March 2024Jump Marketing
Students who are part of the KEVI Environment Council are delighted to launch an environmental pilot with Northumberland County Council. KEVI has been selected to be the first high school in Northumberland to run this Food Waste Trial.
 

The aim of the trial is to reduce food waste. This can be achieved through putting food waste in a separate bin so that it can be used for bioenergy or bio fertiliser. The bins are located in dining areas and will be collected once a week by NCC. The initiative will involve the whole school as everyone is asked to help reduce our waste in school.

The benefits of recycling food waste are:

  • It’s taken to aspecial processing plant where it is used to generate

  •  renewable energy and produces a fertiliser to grow crops

  • The amount of food waste in school will reduce significantly 

  • The school’s general waste will be cleaner, less full, smell less and cost less 

  • It will increase our recycling rates and help our school meet our environmental targets

We are very proud of the proactive approach of our students in the Eco Council to get this initiative up and running.

Opera Singers Lead Masterclass at KEVI

16th February 2024Jump Marketing
Two professional opera singers from Samling Academy, which trains young singers from age 14 to 25 in classical singing delivered a masterclass to our students this week.
Over 40 students were involved in the sessions which ended in a performance.   It was the performance of Summertime by Gershwin by Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan which absolutely blew the students away due to the power of her voice. They will not forget this in a long time!
As a result of this, four of our 6th Form students are all going to see a production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Newcastle University next week, completely inspired by the masterclass.
We are planning on becoming a Samling Singing School from September which means that we will get 6 weeks of choral / vocal tuition from Samling.

Aim for Oxford Programme

12th February 2024Jump Marketing
We are delighted that one of our students has once again participated in the Aim for Oxford programme this year. The access programme is run by Christ Church and St Anne’s College Oxford for year 12 students across the northeast of England.
It’s a very competitive program with only 67 spaces, and aims to introduce students to undergraduate style teaching, helping them decide if a highly selective university, such as Oxford, is right for them. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate/outreach/aim-for-oxford/ 
Year 12 student Dylan said “I was very glad to be offered a place on this programme, and attended the first event at the Hancock Museum, where the access officers for both colleges explained the basics of applying to Oxford University. Afterwards, I attended a computational biology lecture delivered by Oxford PHD student Tom Wilson, an amazing introduction to undergraduate teaching.”
There are three further northeast events this year, followed by a summer residential and further supported progression if students choose to apply to Oxford. Dylan said “this opportunity has made highly selective Higher Education feel like a real possibility to me, and I am confident the upcoming events, along with support from Sixth Form will do the same.”
We are delighted that seven of our current Year 13 students have received conditional offers to study at either Oxford or Cambridge in the next academic year.