Charity Ball 2015

GENFACTOR’ COMPETITION

Since 2009 Gentoo have held ‘Genfactor’, a talent competition which gives schoolchildren across Sunderland the opportunity to showcase their talents, be it singing, dancing or comedy. ‘Genfactor’ is something Kepier have been involved with heavily over the years as in the early stages Dave Brennan, our Community Development and Marketing Manager was involved in the organisation and promotion of it, and Kepier have in the past held some of the auditions for the show.

This year, two acts from Kepier made it through to the final at The Sunderland Empire on Wednesday 19^th November from the hundreds that entered – ‘Supersonic’, a five piece band with influences of Green Day and Fall Out Boy and Connor, a solo guitarist who plays his own take on anything from modern pop to timeless classics. Despite not winning the event both acts received fulsome praise from the judges, and should be proud of making it through to the finals. Well done!

Remembrance Day

"This year's commemorations have been particularly poignant with it being one hundred years since the start of the Great War. Learners in Year 7 started their study of the First World War last year on the 28th of June to mark the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo 100 years ago. This week, assemblies focused on how the conflict has been remembered across the country throughout history. In the school the two minutes silence was perfectly observed by both learners and staff. One learner, Jonathon travelled down to London during half term to help plant poppies at the Tower of London."

Class Act

Last week we had a theatrical group called 'Team Players Theatre Company' come into school to perform a show entitiled 'Super Cyber Safe' aimed at our Year 7 - 9 Year groups around subjects such as the use of social media, trolling, uploading inappropriate photos, leaving mobiles and laptops logged on, etc.

The feedback from our learners was extremely positive, and the performance was both fun and interactive, very important with these age groups. Comments included that 'I've learnt an important lesson in a really enjoyable way

Miss McGrath's Year 7 Science

Miss McGrath’s Year 7 science class spent a morning learning about how organisms live in different habitats and how they evolve and adapt. They looked through a pile of leaves, twigs etc. (very kindly collected by Miss McGrath the previous night!) and then searched through this to see how many different types of organisms they could find.

It’s fair to say that hunting for creepy crawlies wasn't to everyone’s delight, but all the learners had a go and produced some wonderful work.

In the summer, some of our learners and staff went to Tanzania on a project to support a small village there.

Those involved had a fantastic time, working in the village of Mwambani. The work included building houses for those in the community who are destitute, and providing a community and educational resource centre and kindergarten.

This work is vital – in Tanzania, around 70% of the population are living below the poverty line, with no access to proper sanitation, healthcare, clean drinking water or education.

Those involved also enjoyed the thrill of climbing Mt. Meru, Tanzania’s second highest mountain at 4566 metres,, and on their final day climbing trekked to the crater rim to see a spectacular sunrise over Mt. Kilimajaro.

All those involved – staff and learners – agreed that the whole trip was the experience of a lifetime! Mrs Henderson, the teacher in charge of the trip, said "The learners were an absolute credit to themselves and their families. It was a shock to the system to be living in very basic conditions, but they took it all in their stride and their attitudes throughout the trip were amazing."

The Big Draw

Year 7, 8 and 9 learners had great fun producing two large-scale jungle artworks in the school hall as part of The Big Draw campaign. Learners looked at Henri Rousseau's paintings for inspiration and used graphite, ink and charcoal in response to this year's theme ’It’s Our World'."

Our Head of Art, Miss Bell, also organised a ‘Draw my Dinner’ competition as part of The Big Draw, which ran throughout October.  Learners and staff were simply asked to draw their dinner in their own choice of media.

Daniel in Year 7 won the learner prize - some Staedler coloured pens, a 24 pack of coloured pencils and some chocolates.  Miss Rudge won the staff prize, producing a fantastic A2 still life in pencil and was awarded some chocolates and a hardback sketchbook; Mrs Ward reproduced her favourite chocolate pudding using the sewing machine as a drawing tool, with fabric paints.  Many thanks to all the learners and staff who took part, and to Miss Bell and Mr Lightfoot for their hard work in organising the whole event.