Thank you to Year 11 for their enthusiasm at today’s Poetry Live event in Oxford, where we were lucky to see and hear a range of poets, including Carol Ann Duffy. We hope that ideas from the performances and Q & A sessions will feed into their writing and thinking about poetry.

We’re excited to be awarding certificates in assembly tomorrow to all those Year 7 boys who entered our mystery story writing competition, inspired by Dev Khotari’s visit last term. The winner will also be announced…

Congratulations to our Year 10 team of Junaid, Aditya and Akaash who were victorious in the Senior Youth Speaks Competition at the Doubletree Hilton, Stratford. Our Year 12 team gave them a serious run for their money and Georgia was awarded Best Speaker.

Well done to our two intermediate teams in this evening’s Rotary Youth Speaks Competition. Congratulations to winners, Will, Ahon and Ryan.

Here are some more pictures from our online conversation this morning with students from our Japanese partner school, Sano Nichidai.

It was a pleasure for our Year 12 to join students from Sano Nichidai School for an online conversation this morning.

It was a delight to welcome author, Jonathan Stroud, creator of the Lockwood & Co novels, to meet Year 8 this afternoon. He gave an enthusiastic talk that inspired our readers and writers.

We’re very excited that author, Jonathan Stroud will be visiting school tomorrow afternoon to talk to Year 8.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @kes-music.bsky.social This programme by Giles Martin is a fascinating listen for anyone interested in how AI will affect music creation in the future.

We are delighted to welcome author, Dev Khotari to school today. She is speaking to our Year 7s at the moment and will be running a writing workshop with each class later.

What a glorious and enjoyable evening of theatre! Well done to cast, tech team, musicians, director and everyone who has contributed to such a joyous and moving production!

www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita... We couldn’t agree more with these wise words on children’s reading from Katherine Rundell.

It was a pleasure to gather KES students from Year 12 yesterday for an online cultural exchange with students from our Japanese partner school Sano Nihon High School.

In debating society yesterday we discussed: ‘This house believes that being famous is more trouble than it’s worth.’ The motion was narrowly defeated.

Well done to all speakers in today’s Year 13 House Debate. Dyson emerged as winners of a fiercely contested debate about whether the Union Jack is a positive symbol of the UK.

Thank you to Aditya and Benjamin for their brilliant introduction to debating which they gave to Year 7 students at today’s meeting.

We had a fantastic turnout for our first Junior Debating Society meeting of the term. Great to see lots of new Year 7 members.

Thank you to our wonderful judge, Jo McInnes, who is currently appearing in ‘4.48 Psychosis’ at the RSC Other Place. Her chosen winners for this year’s Edgar Flower Reading prize are Tom, Dulcie and Noah. Congratulations to all three.

Four of our Year 7 debaters went to The Croft School this afternoon to help run a debating workshop for Year 6 pupils.

We are excited to welcome our New Year 7 students for their induction day tomorrow. All of them will receive this list of great books and a summer reading poster to complete and decorate. Thanks to Betsy Stather for her design.

Heats for the Edgar Flower Reading competition take place this week. The final will be on Tuesday 15th July.

We launched our poetry competition this week. See your Year Group Team for poetry writing tips. Deadline for entries is Friday 4th July.

A gorgeous poem from Simon Armitage about the delights of live music to celebrate this year’s Proms festival. @kes-music.bsky.social

Happy Half Term Holiday to all. Here are some poems by our talented Year 7 and Year 9 students, on display ready for Open Morning on June 28th.

A huge thank you to Dulcie and Jacob for their wonderful reading of ‘Seven Ages of Man’ from As You Like It at the official launch of ‘The Shakespeare Line’ this morning at Stratford-upon-Avon train station.

Break a leg to Year 11 as they take on their first GCSE English Literature Paper this morning.

It was lovely to welcome author, Charlie Higson to school today to talk to Year 8 about his books, including the young Bond series.

Welcome to our new home on Bluesky!