Our spectacular annual careers evening, KEVI Inspires is back to its pre-pandemic best! Inspiring students and evoking their ambition is something that we are extremely passionate about and that is the vision and purpose of the event; to inform and inspire. Thursday 26 October 2023 was our tenth event of this kind and it was the biggest, both in terms of delegates but also attendance.

We had in excess of 60 different organisations in attendance amounting to 100 guests from Further and Higher Education, charities and training providers, and employers of all sizes. Organisations that covered every sector; STEM, creatives, digital, law, medical, military and more gave up their time to inspire our students. This was also supported by a programme of 30 presentations/workshops that students and parents could get involved in.

KEVI Inspires is an event that, as a school, we are immensely proud of. Not just the scale and scope of the event, but the real community-feel it has. Many of the delegates in attendance are long standing supporters of King Edward’s and they come back year after year due to the reception and engagement our students provide. Several of the delegates commented on what a special evening it was and how there was “a real buzz” about the place.

Even more humbling for us is the number of former students who gave up their time to come back and do for our current students what was done for them. There were lots attending at information stalls and some gave presentations. Recent leavers were Elizabeth dialling in from Harvard, who was inspired when she was in Year 9 by the information stall at the event and has gone on to realise her ambition. Meagan, from Eversheds Sutherland LLP is now a trainee solicitor and came back to give the very same talk that inspired her six years ago. Finlay dialled in from Cambridge to share his experience of Early Entry, competitive university applications and many many more former students giving up their time too. This is what is truly remarkable about the event and the reason it will be a mainstay in the KEVI calendar.
Thank you to each and every delegate, student, parent and colleague who supported and attended the event… we’ll see you in 2024!

On Tuesday 17th October KEVI hosted a Rugby Festival for a large number of local Year 5 and 6 students. There were a range of Rugby games on offer to the school students, some of which were visiting KEVI for the first time. The students were welcomed and supported by some of our magnificent Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE PE students, who led a variety of rugby sessions on the day. It was a magnificent atmosphere that enabled everyone to have a fantastic experience, with some KEVI students leading rugby sessions for the first time.

Year 11 student, Seb Parreira, has been competing in the British Prokart Endurance Championship (BPEC) with his team TSM Racing this year, and the team have just been crowned Pro class champions having collected enough points to secure the title. This means the team will be promoted to compete in the Super Pro class next season, which is one step away from the top-level Elite class. The BPEC races are 6 hours in length, and are run across 10 rounds, at tracks all over England and Wales. In addition to the BPEC title, Seb and his teammates have also won the 24h Series in class having won the 24h at Le Mans back in April, and taking 2^nd place in the British 24h in August. The team will be heading down to Coventry in December to pick up their winner’s trophies at the BPEC awards ceremony.

Year 10 pupil Gregor Laidlaw had a great weekend representing the North East Region in the Army Cadets National Championships in Liverpool. He came first in his regional XC heat and had qualified for the National Cross Country. However on the day (due to illness he joined another detachment to help at the last minute with orienteering). They got bronze. After that he had another 6 or so miles XC to do and was placed 13 out of 50 in his age group nationally.

A group of Sixth Form students recently took a trip to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art to explore a variety of art to assist with developing their own work. Here is what a couple of students had to say:

We went to the baltic to get ideas for our making a mark coursework, finding and discovering new artists in the library allowed us to get thinking of how we can relate our themes to them. We also collected a range of photographs to develop our ideas. I really enjoyed taking photos of marks, the Baltic was a great place to visit to get inspiration for our different projects and I had a really nice time.

Lilly

The reason we went on the trip to the Baltic (In Newcastle) is to explore a variety of art to capture key parts that will assist with developing our own work. The best bit of the trip for me was overall going around and taking pictures around the quay side because it was just interesting to see all the different lines, forms and etc of different things. But yeah overall it was a really good day and i really enjoyed myself.

Aidan

On Tuesday evening we took a group of 100 Year 11 students to the Northern Stage in Newcastle to experience the latest production of ‘Macbeth’. The students thoroughly enjoyed critiquing this contemporary and powerful performance, engaging with the stage adaptations and modernised elements of the play in relation to their understanding from their studies in school.

It was a great opportunity to see Shakespeare come to life on stage and to see how the messages and cautions from the play still resonate with with audiences today. An unforgettable evening had by all!

The Year 9 football team had their first fixture of the season on Thursday evening at Ponteland High School. The squad of 15 put in an incredible performance and came out of the match with a 7-3 victory.  Well done to all of the students involved.

On Thursday we took a group of Year 11 students to experience Jesus Christ Superstar at the Theatre Royal. The students had a fantastic experience and thoroughly enjoyed the performance including Julian Clary! They were very impressed with the whole performance but particularly picked out the role of Mary. 

We were delighted to welcome parents and carers to our Year 12 Induction Evening on Wednesday 27 September. We have an incredible cohort of students who are embarking on their Sixth Form journey with us at KEVI. The evening provided the opportunity to share key information in order to support students as they progress over the next two years.  Thank you to all who attended.