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
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.
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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:
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It’s taken to aspecial processing plant where it is used to generate
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 renewable energy and produces a fertiliser to grow crops
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The amount of food waste in school will reduce significantlyÂ
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The school’s general waste will be cleaner, less full, smell less and cost lessÂ
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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.
From 20th-22nd March join us for our production of The Addams Family in the style of a new musical. Tickets are available at the main reception, adults are priced at ÂŁ10 and tickets for those aged 18 or under are ÂŁ7.
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.
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/Â
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.
The February issue of the student-run School Newspaper is here! In the first edition of 2024, we explore a Valentine’s theme. Keep an eye out for some of our student’s latest achievements as well as references to some important topics like social media safety and of course a bit of fun in our monthly quiz.
Read the February issue here.
Congratulations to Ollie Beale, Charlie Sandeman, Stephen Glennie, Finley Curtis and Declan Tate on their victory at the Badminton England Regional Finals. The students competed against five schools from the region and worked hard to secure a place in the final. The group battled hard and secured a 4-1 win against Ponteland to claim victory overall.
They are now through to the Northern Finals in York later this year. We wish them the best of luck in the next round.
 
Students interested in our local history continue their education and development of their local history project by meeting key people from Northumberland County Council. The group met with Steven Hodgson, ITT Lead at County Hall, Dai Richards from Greater Morpeth Development Trust and Frances Povey from NCC Green spaces, and it went very well.Â
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The students are now taking another step forward in preparing the content for the new signage on Lord Collingwood, Emily Davison, William Turner, the Polish war graves, the Commonwealth war graves at St Mary’s churchyard, and Morpethian Ralph Bullock.
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Steve encouraged our students to explore and understand the intricacies and differences when using QR or similar style codes on signage. The importance of security, the role of content developers and administrators was also covered which helped everyone gain a deeper understanding of these steps. Not only is this project deepening their local history knowledge, they are developing important employability knowledge and skills.Â
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The group, supported by Sheila Clark, will continue their project by meeting up to discuss further with 1st year degree students and their lecturer Jack Hepworth  in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University. They will also get to join the conversation at The Collingwood Society in Newcastle and obtain a private viewing of their archives.Â
Year 12 student Dylan successfully applied and gained a place on the AQA Student Advisory Group. It was a competitive process and we are thrilled Dylan has been successful. An active member of the school community, Dylan will represent the views of young people on a much larger scale.
On January 24, Dylan attended the reception event for the AQA Student Advisory Group (SAG) held on the parliamentary estate. This is the group’s fifth year of operation, and the primary aim is to communicate directly with the exam board in tri-annual meetings, giving advice and feedback on their current operations and future plans.
During the reception event, Dylan was fortunate enough to hear from a range of speakers from across AQA, including the CEO Colin Hughes and Co-Chair of the SAG Elizabeth Kitcatt.
Dylan said “this experience has reinforced the importance of well-designed assessment to me and brought into focus the amount of work required to facilitate the incoming digitalisation of exams. I’m truly grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to see what the group accomplishes in our first meeting next month.”
More context for the event, can be found in this article.
Thank you to our Sixth Form students for their recent litter pick. Senior Student, George Liddle, organised the pick with Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador Dai Richards. They gathered 10 bags of rubbish on the day to help keep our site tidy.
