Welcome to Year 10
Welcome back
Welcome back year 10, I am delighted to take over from Miss Moxham as your Head of Year and support you as you start your GCSE courses and build upon your skills and talents. I am told you have grown into great role models, being respectful and kind members of the school community. I cannot wait to see you develop and I look forward to watching you both in the classroom and out. I am also pleased to announce that Mrs Dam has joined the Year 10 team as our Student Support Officer and will be integral to the success of the year.
From an academic perspective, you are GCSE students now; each lesson and piece of home learning counts as preparation for those final exams. You need to ensure you are fully focused at all times and your attendance is 100%. You will be rewarded for this in the future.
This year you will experience your first formal mocks after Easter; you will get a taste of your ideal career with your work experience week and many of you will complete your Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver award too.
Overall a very busy year ahead – the tutor team and I can’t wait to support you through all your upcoming successes!
~ Mr Gardener
KWS Expectations
Please take the time to re-read Mr Martin’s outline of our high standards and expectations as KWS students return at the start this academic year.
All students should be Ready, Respectful and Responsible. These 3Rs guide our students on how to conduct themselves in their learning and how to interact with students and staff.
Our school values of Knowledge, Wellbeing and Success are key to the character development of our students and how they can achieve personally and academically.
Important date for your diary
We are running an ‘Introduction to Year 10 parents only evening’ on Tuesday 17th September, from 6-7.30pm. This will give parents/carers the opportunity to hear more about the Maths, English, Science and PRE GCSEs that all our students will take, and how they can support you to achieve your best.
Tutor Team
Year Group Team
Curriculum in Year 10
The curriculum year 10 (and 11) students follow is outlined in the diagram to the right. The curriculum in Years 10 and 11 is similar to that of Year 9, but with two key changes:
- The Carousel lesson is replaced by a further science lesson, to allow all three sciences to be covered by all – whether studying for a double or triple science award at GCSE.
- Students commence the GCSE content of their finalised options in Year 10, studying it across the two years of Year 10 and 11.
Details of the curriculum studied in each subject in Year 10 can be found on the Curriculum Pages of the website here. As a reminder, the details on programmes of study and exam specifications for options can be found here.
If you would like more detail, please do ask your child to show you the student site and/or google classroom for each of their subjects – this provides access to each lesson and associated resources along with knowledge organisers (KOs) for topics studied.
Careers Education in Year 10
Students will have one form time per week dedicated to the ‘World of Work’, as well as undertaking a PSHCE unit, further developing their knowledge of careers through Unifrog. In June, all Y10 students will take part in work experience for one week. Students will also have opportunities to meet with visitors from industry and participate in careers trips, should they wish to. During P7, students will have the opportunity to learn skills required for their lives beyond KWS. This may include CV writing and interview skills. All students in Y10 will have at least one meaningful encounter with an apprenticeship / technical qualification provider. Students in all year groups will also take part in careers based lessons in all subjects during KWS Careers month in March.
Home Learning in Year 10
Home learning expectations change a little as we enter Year 10 and are outlined here. As in previous years, additional enrichment tasks can be found on each of the subject’s curriculum pages – do encourage your child to dive into some of these.
Super Curriculum in Year 10
Period 7 changes for students as they enter Year 10. One session a week remains Independent Study but we introduce a new module once a week called ‘Careers, Community and Study Skills’ – this will focus on really developing their ability to study independently, increasing their awareness of community and various aspects of careers as outlined above. Twice a week students have the opportunity to take part in electives – with many of their favourites from years 7 to 9 repeated alongside some interesting new opportunities and the chance to lead activities for younger students.
As in other years students have the opportunity to select Period 7 and clubs twice this year, in July of Year 9 and again in January of Year 10. Choices will be sent home for review and discussion the Friday prior to choices being made the following week in form time, guided by their tutor. Period 7 is still organised into four blocks across the year, and includes squad training and various performing arts groups.
Students will continue to be provided with a large range of other opportunities across the year, such as those outlined here and on our Performing Arts Webpages here.
Students who completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award in Year 9 are invited to progress to Silver in Year 10. Students who did not take part in DofE in Year 9 are also most welcome to start the Bronze award in Year 10.
Dates to note for Year 10
All our key events are on the school calendar which can be viewed here and should be reviewed in detail.
Some to note for Year 10:
- Information Evening for parents/carers is on Tuesday 17 September.
- Parents Evening (subjects) is scheduled for 22 May.
- Reports will be issued in January and May.
- Mock Exams take place in the fortnight starting 22 April
- Work Experience is for the week commencing 9 June.
- Activities week will run (inc. some trips and sports day) from 23-27 June.
- There are subject specific events and trips that can be seen on the calendar (including Geography field trip, Spanish trip, Theatre trips, Computing Museum trip etc.).
- DofE Silver training weekend is 26-27 April, the Silver Practice Expedition is 9-11 May and the Silver Qualifying Expedition is 4-6 July. Bronze dates, if applicable can be seen on the calendar too.
Your first port of call in school is your child’s form tutor, please do get in touch with them via ClassCharts if you have any questions or concerns. Please be aware of agreed protocols for such communications here.