House System, Student Leadership and School Structure

We are proud of our House system which has developed a diverse and broad range of events on offer in combination with the traditional sporting offer. Our four houses at KES Academy are Lancaster School, Edinburgh York, Keene Thoresby and Gloucester Windsor. At the heart of KES Academy lie our House Values which are integral to Academy life. Our shared values are Teamwork, Empathy, Passion, Creativity, Determination, Self Belief, Honesty and Respect and all students are provided with opportunities to excel in all these areas throughout their educational experience. Our values are strengthened by the wide range of Leadership opportunities we provide from Form Leaders to Prefects to Sports Captains and many more. We are fortunate in having an extensive and ever-increasing range of clubs available from Art to Chess, homework club and Karaoke on a Friday, all of which serve to develop our students' sense of self, sense of belonging and enable them to gain character and cultural capital. House Art & Design challenges have proved very popular additions with GoGo Dinosaurs this year enabling our students to create 'Doris' as part of the Norwich trail. House Maths Challenges get high levels of participation and are created by older students. New events introduced include dodgeball, handball, 'gaming', designing, raising money for charity events, and science experiments! Annual events totalling nearly one hundred, are the substance behind our House System belief of "giving all students the opportunity to have a moment" Each half term, we reward achievement, progress and excellence. The House system ensures regular contact for pupils and access to competition, across the year groups. Weekly seminar slides introduce career ideas and opportunities to all pupils from Years 7-11. Careers interviews focus on supporting pupils to independently access the platform START to track their career journey through education and support transition points. A wide range of Student Leadership opportunities ensure our young people can develop wider skills and support their community in a variety of ways from prefects to anti-bullying and we are a member of ABA and LGBT+ Norfolk. Pupils also choose to regularly collect food donations for the local food bank and support local charities and the wider community. Our school week is made up of 28 taught periods of one hour, plus break and lunchtime. Each day begins with a 25-minute seminar time where key messages are shared with students. On Monday and Friday students have five sessions, and on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday there are six taught sessions.