Helping you adjust to staying at home

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Published: Thursday, 02 April 2020 15:51

Written by Mrs L Holmes

People will be reacting in different ways to the change in lifestyle, and we are aware that some of our students and their families are finding it hard to adjust to the new restrictions. With this in mind, our colleagues at the Thanet Inclusion Support Service have compiled some resources to support parents with children at home during lockdown.
Firstly, there is a pdf list of external services (300 KB) still available for support or set up to help support the community during the crisis. Contact details for these services are provided, however please bear in mind the speed at which the landscape is changing; some services may be difficult to reach or may have already been withdrawn.
Secondly, they have created a pdf pack of resources (1.29 MB) to support positive mental health and provide emotional support while at home. These are activities that can be explored by the whole family if necessary.
If you have any particular concerns or worries, we are happy to hear from you and will do our best to support you. Mrs Holmes (SENCO) can be contacted by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Mr Sunderland at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Mrs Ives at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Related links

• Safeguarding information during school closure
• Learning from home and online safety

Japanese Pen Pal

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Published: Wednesday, 25 March 2020 21:33

Written by Bradley Cooke, Harry Barham and Ms Myers

As same as every year, IBDP Year 13 students in Ab initio Japanese course have enjoyed exchanging letters with the students at Kitakyushu National College of Technology in Fukuoka in Japan.

Service Learning in Lockdown

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Published: Wednesday, 01 April 2020 16:27

Written by Emily Vaccaro

Faced with a global pandemic, Emily keeps calm and carries on. Service Learning is an important element of our IB career-related programme (IBCP) in the sixth form which could have been hit hard by the coronavirus measures.
Under normal circumstances students liaise with members of the local community and undertake unpaid and voluntary activities that help the community and also have a learning benefit for the student. That's not even a possibility at the moment but thanks to the swift action and advice of her teachers IBCP student Emily Vaccaro has devised a plan.

I am using my time at home usefully to continue with my service learning project. My original project was working with children at Bromstone Primary School and focusing on their mental health. Myself and the members of my team would spend time with the children after school doing things such as reading, lego, drawing and playing outside etc. As I have been unable to continue with this project because of the closure of the schools due to the pandemic, I have been utilizing my time to find other ways that I could complete my service learning project.

I have now moved on to helping my three foster siblings continue with their educational studies at home as they are no longer able to attend school. I am going about this by planning their schooling week in advance, preparing worksheets that they can use and by planning to teach them in areas that they are struggling in. We have been focusing on the main subjects such as Maths and English but we have also included other areas too. These other areas have included P.E, where we have been participating in Joe Wicks’ daily international P.E lessons and home economics where we have practiced baking and decorating cakes. It has been good because I feel as though we are all still being active and productive rather than wasting our time at home doing nothing.

There have been several challenges that I have had to overcome. One of the main challenges that we have had to overcome during this period is that each of my siblings are at different schooling levels, meaning they are all at different points in their education levels. It has been a challenge having to tailor each lesson to fit each child's individual needs. Furthermore, as the children are all siblings it has been quite a struggle getting them to keep focus without bickering with one another. However, I do feel as though it is important that we keep up with our school work as routine is very important to the children. My siblings say that ‘they enjoy homeschooling because they enjoy doing the activities set to them and that it keeps them active’. They also say that ‘they are feeling positive because they are learning practical skills as well as educational skills’.

I feel as though I have developed my IB learner profile in terms of becoming more inquisitive, I am more productive with my time at home and put it to good use instead of wasting it by doing nothing. Furthermore, I feel as though my communication and leadership skills have developed further. I plan on carrying this on for the foreseeable future until things return to normal. If anybody else is planning on doing this as part of their service learning, I would recommend them to plan as preparation is key. I find preparing a week in advance really useful. Moreover, finding activities that you think your siblings will enjoy partaking in is essential as the children will take to them more easily and will concentrate better. The last recommendation I can make is to have a routine and a designated learning space. Below is a copy of a weekly timetable that I created - you will see that the children only work until midday as any longer after this, they begin to lose all concentration. Only working until midday also gives me time to focus on my own studies and allows me to complete my own work so that I stay up to date with my lessons and do not fall behind.

IB options for year 11

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Published: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 19:57

Written by Ms Hale and Mrs Snaydon

This is an important time for our Year 11 students as they consider their options for post-16 study. During the first two weeks of February we will be interviewing all students in the year group for places in our Sixth Form and this will also be an opportunity to help them navigate choices for future careers. It is not in the least uncommon for students to have no idea, at this stage, of what they might want to do in the future, so it is important that they work to their strengths and keep their options open.

There is a wealth of advice and information available and it is always a good idea to become familiar with the UCAS (University and Colleges Admissions Services) website if a student is considering Higher Education.

The documents below outline some things to be considering and there are also helpful links to UCAS and university advice. As always, please contact us if you have any questions.

How to approach making your IB subject choices 2016

University course subject requirements 2016