Kesteven & Sleaford High School Parent Portal

This week two groups of GCSE Business Studies visited Cadbury’s World. In lessons we are currently studying production processes, quality control, procurement and logistics and our visit to Cadbury’s Bourneville headquarters brought this to life. We started our tour with growing cocoa beans and the climate that is required to produce high quality crops. We then moved on to the history of the Cadbury family who were revolutionary in the culture and work environment that they created for their employees; they treated workers as family members by providing housing for them, excellent working conditions, schools, a church and a cricket ground – all to make them feel a strong sense of belonging to the organisation. The Cadbury family realised that this was very powerful in their workers’ ability to produce the best chocolate. We saw the different methods of advertising over time and then packaging for different products since their invention.

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There were many opportunities to be involved in the manufacturing processes. Students were able to create their own pictures from chocolate; they learnt how to temper chocolate; and they even created their own chocolate flavours in the tasting room. We were able to watch different processes, from job production where individualised products were being made and personalised with names or messages; and we saw the flow, continuous production processes that the company uses 24 hours 7 days per week to maximise the output from the business. We were also shown different moulds that the business uses to produce Freddo’s, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and Crème Eggs.

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On completion of the tour, many bags of ‘Misshapes’ and other memorabilia were purchased. We then took our turn in the’ 4D Cinema Experience’ which was a rollercoaster story of the different mascots that Cadbury’s have used over the years to market their products, from the Caramel Bunny to the Cadbury’s parrot from the 1970s. This was in addition to an earlier exhibition where we were all shaken around like cocoa beans arriving at the factory.

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In the afternoon, Colin, an Education Manager for Cadbury, gave us a talk where he applied the learning from the GCSE Business classroom to Cadbury and how they manage their business. He also explained how they use marketing information and try to predict future trends. He told us that Cadbury have a target of 2025 to develop a chocolate bar that is 0% sugar and that a lot of their future targets are around ethics and environmental issues too, particularly with regard to packaging.

An excellent day was had by all, plenty of chocolate was consumed and I have a feeling that Cadbury’s have secured 50 customers for the future.

Mrs K Ramsay

Subject Leader for Business

Thanks to all parents/carers who contributed to our parents’ evening survey. Your views mean that we have planned some additional face to face tutor meetings for parents/carers with children in Years 8 and 10 next year. These are in addition to the face to face ‘Settling in Evening’ that already exists for parents with children in Year 7 and the Options Evenings for parents/carers with children in Years 9 and 11.

The majority of parents/carers, over 66%, still ask that parents’ evenings are held online using our parents evening software School Cloud, preferring the logistical convenience and reliability of the schedule online when talking to a range of teachers.

This means that parents/carers will have a chance to speak to as many of their child’s teachers as possible and/or their child’s tutor twice a year:

2023-2024

Year group	Face to face event in school	When	Online appointments	When
7	Settling In Evening with tutor, Head of Year and senior staff	Term 1	Academic Progress meeting with your child’s teachers	Term 6
8	Tutor meeting, Head of Year and senior staff	Term 1		Term 4
9	GCSE options evening with teaching staff	Term 3		Term 2
10	Tutor Meeting, Head of Year and senior staff	Term 1		Term 5
11	Post 16 Options Evening with teaching staff	Term 2		Term 3
12	Higher Education Evening	Term 6		Term 3

Many of you commented that you would like online appointments but wanted them to be longer.

This year we responded to last year’s parental feedback which raised the issue of there not being enough appointments to book and them running out quickly. In response we released more appointments by reducing them from 5 to 4 minutes in Year 7 only, laying on 2 additional afternoons of appointments with our busiest staff and letting parents know in advance when the appointment booking system would go live. We now open the booking at 7pm in the evening to give most parents/carers the chance to access promptly.

Next year we will ensure appointments at Key stage 3 and 4 are a minimum of 5 minutes with longer ones available in the Sixth Form.

Unfortunately it is impossible to offer more than this for every parent with every teacher. Every teacher is assigned 21 hours of parents' evening time each year. A teacher who teaches each Form in Year 7 would need over 23 hours to ensure 10 minute appointments with each parent/carer in just this year group alone. We do commit to the following however:

We always try to respond to any parental enquiry within 3 working days and encourage all parents/carers to email or ring the school with any specific concerns. Concerns shouldn’t wait until parents’ evening. We take pride in our home school communication response rate and really have looked at all parents’ evening appointment systems with the parent/carer experience primarily in mind
We try to keep you in touch with all the school news via our newsletters every two weeks and our Twitter Feed. The newsletter is the place to find parent consultations and surveys
We open our doors for regular events, concerts and school productions and prizegivings throughout the year. We hope you will join us regularly for those
Our active PTA is always looking for new members – come and make a difference and join the group contact enquiries@kshs.uk for more details
We have vacancies on our Governing Body for September. Perhaps you would like to learn more about the school as a parent governor and influence policy? Do look out for more information in September.

If you’d still like to offer your feedback please don’t hesitate to add any comments here. Parents Evening Survey

Mrs J Smith

Head of School

As we get every closer to the school holidays and look forward to an opportunity to recharge, we have to also remember that some young people may find themselves struggling without the structure and support network of school.

The Anna Freud National Centre of Children and Families has produced some really excellent resources in preparation for secondary school aged students and these packs (#SelfCareSummer) feature a range of creative activities based on self-care strategies that other young people have found useful in helping them stay mentally healthy. You could print the self-care summer guide attached, or go to this link to explore a range of other resources for children and young people. Or, you can go to this link and use the flipbook:-

My self-care plan: secondary (annafreud.org)

They also signpost young people and their families to additional support, including the AFC crisis messenger text service.

If you are a young person looking for immediate support visit this page for ChildLine, Samaritans and the Emergency services:-

On My Mind: Urgent Help for young people with their mental health (annafreud.org)

Online Viral Challenges

Viral challenges are, unfortunately, commonplace on social media but recently there has been some content that has gained media attention which has the potential to be incredibly dangerous. Our safeguarding partners have asked us to support parents by giving them important information to help protect children. Online challenges can pose a risk to the health and well-being of their children. Tools are available to help manage access to inappropriate content such as parental controls with TikTok offering a feature called Family Pairing. YouTube also offers parental controls in the form of their ‘Restricted Mode’ and have a more child-friendly version of their app called YouTube Kids. More information about these features can be found by visiting https://www.internetmatters.org/

We would also encourage all parents and carers to be mindful of the content their children are viewing and keep an open dialogue with them about their online use. Attached are three factsheets we have been asked to distribute to parents to help support you in protecting your child online.

More Help?

If you need more help then here are some additional resources. The below organisations offer help and support for young people on a variety of issues. You can also search for support services near you using the Youth Wellbeing Directory.

Please check the organisation website for up-to-date opening times, details of locations helped and information about confidentiality. Please note that the below organisations may collect identifiable or anonymised data around your use of the service and each should provide a privacy or terms of service setting out their use of your data on their website.

The Mix: call 0808 808 4994 / email / online chat

The Mix are there to help you take on any difficulty you’re facing – from mental health to money, from homelessness to finding a job, from break-ups to drugs. The Mix is for anyone under 25 living in any part of the UK. Their confidential helpline and webchat service are open from 11am to 11pm, 7 days a week, and are both free to contact.

HOPElineUK: call 0800 068 41 41 / text 07786 209697 / email pat@papyrus-uk.org

HOPELineUK is a confidential support and advice service for young people under the age of 35 across the UK who may be having thoughts of suicide, or anyone concerned that a young person may be having thoughts of suicide.

HOPElineUK is open 10am-10pm weekdays, 2pm-10pm weekends, and 2pm-10pm Bank Holidays. All calls and emails to HOPElineUK are free, and you will be charged at your usual rate for text messages.

SANEline: call 0300 304 7000

SANEline is a national out-of-hours mental health helpline offering specialist emotional support, guidance and information to anyone over 16 affected by mental illness, including family, friends and carers. They are open every day of the year from 4.30pm to 10.30pm. Calls cost no more than calls to 01 and 02 numbers and are included in inclusive and free minutes on mobiles.

Switchboard: call 0300 330 0630 / online chat / email chris@switchboard.lgbt

Switchboard is a confidential LGBT+ helpline there to listen and support you with anything that you want to talk about. All of their volunteers self-define as LGBT+ and they are trans-friendly and nonbinary-friendly. Switchboard are open 10am to 10pm every day of the year. Calls cost no more than calls to 01 and 02 numbers and are included in inclusive and free minutes on mobiles.

FRANK: call 0808 16 89 111 / text 82111 / online chat /email

FRANK offers friendly, confidential support and advice to anyone concerned about drugs, including alcohol and legal highs. The FRANK phone helpline is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

BEAT: call 0808 801 0677 (helpline) or 0808 801 0711 (youthline) or 0808 801 0811 (studentline) / online chat /email (18+) / email (under 18) / email (students). Beat provides support to help young people beat their eating disorders.

The BEAT phone helplines are open 365 days a year from 9am – 8pm during the week, and 4pm – 8pm on weekends and bank holidays.

Victim Support: call 0800 123 6600 / online chat /

Victim Support are an independent charity which helps people feel safer and find strength to move beyond crime. The support offered is free, confidential and tailored to your needs.

Victim Support's SupportLine operates 24/7.

Mrs D Collett

Assistant Headteacher – Pastoral and Wellbeing

Term 6 - 30 June 2023

GCSE Business students visit Cadbury's World

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