Dear Students, Parents and Staff,

As the final day of term approaches I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work this year and to wish you all a pleasant Summer.

It has been an incredibly busy year, but also an exciting one with many achievements to boast of. From success in sports with the football and rugby cups to academic excellence shown across all year groups and subjects throughout the year. Just by browsing through the School News archive as far back as Easter it is clear to see how much has been happening this term. We have had the launch of our new website, the election of a new Head Boy and Head Girl, the school appearing on Stafford FM, Science pupils taking part in energy workshops and engineering workshops as well as having the opportunity to study real moon rock; the success by our budding Mathematicians in the UKMT Maths Challenge; over £1000 being raised in Readathon; the rugby team reaching the County finals; the football teams reaching District and County Cup finals – and winning some of them!; our visit by the former Education Secretary Estelle Morris; Hannah Taylor’s nomination for the Children of Courage Award; the Year 8 visit to France, the Year 9 visit to Barcelona; the successes of our young athletes; our participation in the Capital FM competition; the school production of Bugsy Malone, the Dance Show; Maya and Amy's successful campaigning against FGM alongside Jeremy Lefroy MP and much much more! I look forward to the many exciting and rewarding opportunities already being planned for 2014-15.

We have had another successful end to the academic year with our school proms last week, our whole-school visit to Alton Towers on Wednesday and finally our scorcher of a Sports Day yesterday. Well done to all the students who participated and represented their form groups, and special congratulations to 8LAJ who were the overall winners of the competition; an impressive performance! 

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those students and staff who are leaving us at the end of this year and wish them all well in the future. I look forward to seeing Year 11 and Year 13 on their respective results days in August and at the presentation evenings in the new academic year. 

Thank you to all our outgoing staff for everything you have done for our students and for all you have contributed to life at King Edward's. We also look forward to welcoming new members of staff to our school in September. 

Just a reminder that school reopens for all students on Wednesday 3rd September at normal time and that A Level Results Day will be on Thursday 14th August and GCSE Results Day on Thursday 21st August. 

I wish you all a very pleasant and restful Summer break and look forward to seeing you all, and greeting our new Year 7 classes, in September.

Best wishes,

Mr J Christey
Headteacher

Bonjour! We would firstly just like to thank all the teachers that took us to France (Madame Judson, Madame Vincent, Monsieur Lomas and Mademoiselle Lambe) from 22nd June to 25th June 2014 as we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We had lots of great chances to speak in French including the times when we asked for ice cream! The places we visited while in France were: the beach, the aquarium, the chocolate factory, the theme park and the town called Le Touquet. When we went to these places there were many signs in French so we had to try and figure out what they meant. It was a wonderful trip, so thank you to everyone who made it possible.

Report by Liberty Busby

The Boys’ Year 10 football team reached the District Cup finals in June, continuing the school’s impressive sporting streak.

The King Edward VI team faced an equally strong Walton High School team in the final who just had the cutting edge. The Walton team opened the scoring with a long ball over the top that was finished superbly by the opposing striker just out of the reach of the Eddies’ goalkeeper.

The second goal came shortly after; it came after a prolonged period of attack by the Walton front line that were threatening to break through. This prolonged attack finally resulted in a corner, which was taken short, surprising the Eddies’ defence and dragging them out. The following cross evaded everyone in the box and nestled into the corner at the front post. Perhaps the goalkeeper, Jordan Talbot, could have done better as the cross was quite weak but was not helped by the sticky pool of water that was present in the goalmouth.

Just before the break, the Eddies’ frontline starting to grab a foothold in the game but was constantly denied by great defending from the Walton midfield and defence. The half time whistle blew at 2-0.

After the break, the Eddies’ team carried on as they left off and soon managed to grab a goal back through the boot of Josh Wilson. The Eddies’ team then carried on pushing and created an amazing chance to level it when a cross same in to leave Joe Shanley free at the back post to just nod it in, but all he could do was head it just wide of the post.

After that it all went down hill for the Eddies’ team as the Walton frontline went looking for more after the close scare and soon came up with the goods as they bagged another two goals in quick succession to take a steaming 4-1 lead. Now it was just damage limitation for the Year 10 team after the Walton team came at them again and again looking for a fifth. It looked like it would stay at the same score until only a few minutes from time, after a great double save from the keeper, the Walton striker poked home for the fifth and final goal.

The final whistle blew to the sounds of sheer jubilation from the Walton team and fans, contrasted with sour disappointment from the Eddies’ team.

Headteacher, Mr Christey, congratulated the boys’ team on reaching the District Cup finals. “The school, its staff and its students, are rightly proud of the boys’ performance. To reach the finals of the District Cup is no easy thing, they deserve our congratulations for the excellent progress they have made and for being a credit to our school, well done!”

Report by Jordan Talbot

Over 16 schools recently took part in the District Athletics Championships in Stafford. As a school King Edward’s came 2nd in the Year 7 and 8 championships. The Year 7 girls and the Year 8 girls came 1st out of all the schools participating. The Year 7 boys came 3rd and the Year 8 boys came 5th. The following pupils were selected for the County championships:

Charis Farmer
Annie Sowerbutts
Eve Mace
Bethan Reade
Issey Kelly
Allegra Soutar
Faye Evans
Olivia Black
Declan Arber
Ryan Douglas
Terrell Hall
Max Elkin
Cameron Ashman

A big well done to all the students for participating in the event and for such an incredible success.

From Miss Cotton

On Thursday 22nd May, 29 members of Year 9 travelled to sunny Spain to spend a week in Barcelona. We stayed in Calella; a small town just south of Barcelona and everyone loved it.

The trip kicked off on the morning of Thursday when we were all piling onto the coach to get to the airport, it was a tiring journey but we got there in the end. When we reached the airport we were all getting excited; we were getting closer to Barcelona. Once we had checked in our bags and gone through Customs, we were on our way to the plane. Once we were off the plane it was back onto the bus and off to the hotel to check in. The travelling took quite a bit of the morning but it was worth it, the sights were phenomenal.

Finally we were at the hotel, everyone was given a room and some time to explore whilst we all settled down, the trip was getting into full swing. The remainder of the day was spent in Calella, on the beach or in a salsa lesson with two professional dancers.

The next few days were jam-packed and very busy; we had called for the bus to take us to Barcelona to revel in the spectacular sights, the Sagrada Familia, the Nou Camp, the home of the Barcelona football team and the Olympic village and the CosmoCaixa science museum. The days were rounded off with bowling and mini golf and shopping.

The last evening was filled with an amazing flamenco performance by professional flamenco dancers which everyone got involved with (even Mr Dance!) It was the perfect ending to the perfect trip.

Everyone had really enjoyed the trip in the end “I loved the whole experience” said one student “The whole trip was amazing and I would definitely go back again”.

A huge thank you to all of the teachers who came with us, Mr Dance, Mrs Clayton and Miss Till, but the biggest thank you goes to Mrs Morgan, who has been on this trip multiple times and has organised it every year.

Report by Chloe Bromley

The Science Club from KS3 went on a trip to the Kingston Centre to learn about manufacturing recently.

Our manufacturing task was to make six K’NEX cars in seven minutes on a production line. We found it hard to meet the target at first because we were rather disorganised and weren’t working together.

By our third attempt we managed to make six cars in nine minutes. We improved our production line by working better as a team, organising the production line into a logical order, having sub-sections prepared in advance and having some workers who could carry out more than one role.

After we had stopped making the cars, we listened to a talk about the production lines of Henry Ford, Morgan and Jaguar Land Rover.  This was followed by information about careers in Engineering, Construction and the Automotive industry where there are plenty of jobs for people with the right skills.

Report by STEM Science Club Members