Congratulations to Rusciano Thomas-Riley in Year 8, who won gold in the Warwickshire County Athletics Finals on Saturday with a personal best of 12.3 seconds in the Junior 100m.
Rusciano has been training really hard throughout the winter and already this season has set PBs in the 100 and 200m.
We wish him good luck for the rest of the season.
Mr Garlick, P.E Department
On Thursday 2nd May, Year 7 students experienced a Maths Challenge afternoon hosted by the University of Warwick.
Students were in the hall during periods 4 and 5 and were exposed to a variety of Maths challenges.
The challenges consisted of a variety of mathematical problems to solve, linked to real world situations.
Students worked in groups throughout the session to solve these problems with a focus on how they showed their working out, how they worked as a team to solve them and about how they shared their answers.
A huge congratulation to the following students who won the ‘Maths Relay Event’: Cadey, Rose, Esha and Madeleine.
A great day for all involved.
Miss Meyrick, Higher Attaining in The Bridge
Congratulations to Year 12 students; Niskia Pryce, Halimah Begum, Simran Erabi, Caroline Achiaa, Frederico Romba-Martins, Helena Sidhu, Awais Khan and Ravneet Virdi who are investing £2000 on the stock market as part of a national competition initiative "Shares4Schools".
At the time of writing, students are 2nd in the Regional Midlands League and 10th in the National League.
The realistic nature of the competition means that it’s important to note the value of investments and that the income from them can go down as well as up. Some schools have lost money in the past, so our students must keep a keen eye on their investments and buy and sell shares at the most profitable times!
Student’s strategy has been to choose blue chip companies for long term growth and to take a calculated risk buying riskier, but potentially highly profitable 'Aim' shares.
The competition ends on 28th June 2019, after this date, students will need to sell any remaining investments before 5th July 2019.
Any remaining investments after then will be automatically sold on 8th July 2019. Therefore, it is important that our students sell all their shares when the financial market is high.
Halimah said "This experience will teach me the fundamentals of trading on the stock market and it will give me a broader insight into the world of finance which will help me in my studies."
Mrs Petrak, Leader of Enterprise
Year 10 and Year 11 students visited Granada on a Spanish trip during the Easter break. Granada is a very traditional part of Spain where very few people speak English. Whilst there, students were immersed into the local culture and experienced a visit to the beach, a Flamenco show, paella cooking class, Spanish lessons and many more culturally rich activities – they even managed to watch the iconic ‘Semana Santa’ processions!
My favourite part was when we had free time to walk around Granada because it was fascinating to see a different culture, I just wish we had longer. Amelia Bassnett
I really enjoyed our time at the beach, the view and joking around over Aquarius and tapas. Mollie Wilson
For me, the best part was trying all the new food and it was interesting to see the traditional Flamenco – I’ve never seen anything like that before! Daniel Cobbett
If your child is in Year 9 and you would like them to take part in next year’s trip and have any questions please feel free contact me on yafaia@pks.coventry.sch.uk.
The initial deposit is due in for 3rd June and is payable via ParentPay.
Miss Yafai, MFL Department
Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of the most notorious sites of mass genocide during WWII, contributing to the persecution and brutal massacre of over a million innocent lives. The trip was, of course, harrowing; however, we were also able to gain a vast amount of insight into the loss of lives, and also the constant resilience of those forced into such barbaric conditions throughout the Holocaust.
Our journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau began with an orientation seminar, where we were given the opportunity to reflect on the overarching Nazi ideology behind the Holocaust. We were able to reflect on this mass genocide on a much more humanistic level through hearing the testimony of Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper. His story left us marvelling at his ability to reflect on his devastating experience with such positivity, with no signs of resentment for what he and his family had been subjected to.
With Zigi’s story in mind throughout our one-day visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, we were able to consider the site of the massacre of over a million innocent lives on a personal level. Displays of confiscated suitcases, shoes, crutches, glasses and children’s possessions was heartbreakingly powerful. Learning of the programmes within the camp, such as mass-sterilisation experiments on women and Dr Mengele’s testing on twins, was challenging yet vitally revealing of the true nature of the inner-workings of the camp. Ending the visit to Auschwitz 1 by entering a gas chamber was inexpressibly difficult, and it was with that in mind that we entered Birkenau – also known as Auschwitz II.
The most striking element of Birkenau (Auschwitz 2) was the bleak and desolate appearance. The camp was constructed with the purpose of holding up to 200,000 prisoners at once, significantly more than Auschwitz 1, which explained its industrial size. The conditions of Birkenau were also considerably more barbaric, with prisoner "housing" originally being animal stables, and nine prisoners sharing one level of bunkbeds. The overcrowded nature of such a vast site put into perspective the overwhelming number of those who perished in the camp.
Ending with a memorial ceremony led by a Rabbi, unexpectedly brought hope to an otherwise hopeless place. He powerfully brought history into the present, helping us to reflect on the increasingly dangerous condition of current society and how we have the power to change hate into love. Through the Rabbi, and the LFA programme as a whole, we left a site of such loss with empathy and grief, but more importantly with a purpose to spread the core message of forgiveness, acceptance of others, and a desire to better ourselves. Auschwitz-Birkenau is not only a reminder of the acts of the Holocaust, it was more prominently a reminder to act to prevent such a tragedy from once again occurring.
Neha Gupta and Kiran Gill, Year 13
The Year 7 cast of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST took to the stage on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd March.
The President Kennedy School theatre had a wonderful atmosphere; full of friends, family and the local community.
The students gave such mature and energetic performances, which were greatly received by the audience. Whilst rehearsing for the production each student showed commitment, determination and exceptional team work skills.
They showed kindness towards each other and real pride in their achievements. Backstage was full of energy and excitement.
A wonderful production which will hold special memories for both students and staff!
I am extremely proud of each and every student.
A massive well done Year 7!
Miss Walsh, Leader of Performing Arts
Last week our Year 7 rugby team won the Coventry Schools Rugby Trophy.
This is the first time ever that President Kennedy School has won this competition since it was first established in 1896.
The students who won the competition were proudly awarded their medal by the Head teacher, Mr Clayton, who spent some time speaking to the boys and congratulating them on their victory.
A huge congratulations to the following students:
• Hayden Nghiem
• Mikey Parsons-Spencer
• Zain Richards
• Tommy Elliot
• Alfie Tompkins
• Shayne Williams
• Haydon Manger’Chand
• Kasim Hojeij
• Ethan McGuiness
• Daryll Assafuah
• Michael Akata Anin
• Joseph Arthur Ntim
• Michael Ababio
• Rahim Kengema
• Gabriel Boateng
Millie-Mae Hendrie (Year 9) and her family and friends began fundraising in 2017, hoping to raise enough money for Millie-Mae to be able to purchase a BrailleNoteTouch, a certified braille tablet specifically designed for use by blind and visually impaired individuals. This will enable her to access Google, e-mails, audio books and many other apps, which can be downloaded onto a standard tablet or mobile phone.
Millie-Mae and her family organised a summer garden party, had a cake sale, ran stalls at the school Christmas Fayre, held a tombola and sold raffle tickets in a bid to raise £4500. After 18 months of fundraising, they had made significant progress towards the total, but still had some way to go.
A firm of Independent Financial Advisers, MPA Financial Management Ltd, had recently launched a Charitable Foundation and heard about Millie-Mae’s fundraising efforts. They were so impressed that they made an extremely generous donation of £1222 through their Charitable Foundation, which meant that Millie-Mae could finally buy a BrailleNote Touch.
On 18th March, Millie-Mae and her mum went to visit MPA Financial Management, based in Henley in Arden, to meet the Charitable Foundation Trustees; Phil McGovern, Managing Director, Eddie Ball, Compliance Director and Grace Brennan, Office Manager. She thanked them and all of the staff at MPA in person for their fantastic donation and to demonstrate to them how she uses the BrailleNote Touch.She explained what a massive difference it has made to her independence.
Millie-Mae would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who helped her with fundraising or made a donation.
Mrs A Hull, Specialist TA for VI Student
Congratulations to our Post 16 Public Speaking team, Reyna Sandhar, Caidie Samra and Isha Patel who produced a flawless performance in winning the Youth Speaks district competition at North Leamington School last Saturday.
They will now be the Coventry and Warwickshire representatives at the Regional finals with the winners of that competition competing in the National finals in May.
Their topic of 'Marginalisation of ethnic minorities in the media' , was delivered in a very professional and entertaining way which left the judges and the audience enthralled.
Well done girls and best wishes for the next round.
Mr Finlayson, Leader of Student Development