News Stories

On Wednesday 23rd November 2022, President Kennedy School hosted its first ever Pan African Culture Festival.

The event was a showcase of the best of Black British, Caribbean and African culture with regards to fashion, music, dance, art and food.

The Festival was the brainchild of the Fabulous Club, a group dedicated to celebrating the school’s cultural diversity, when they were asked how they would most like to celebrate Black History Month.

After a warm welcome from our MCs Deja Bailey and Hannah Richards, the evening kicked off with a fashion show in which our models represented their nations of heritage with their traditional garments and flags.

Our models were: Cordelia Akata, Zuriel Assafuah, Cheryl Bortey, Jeremiah Cudjoe, Rosemary Cudjoe, Fadil Dabre, Vanessa Danso, Deborah Fofie, Gillian Forkuoh, Afia Frimpong, Michelle Kirk-Asante, Fares Mudhai, Arnold Ofori, Constance Nwokeocha, Anna-Rachel Quayson, Shanice Rogers and Shante Rogers.

At the interval, our guests, performers and volunteers had the opportunity to taste some divine West African food provided by the Nigerian restaurant AGG on Far Gosford Street. 
The array of dishes included: Jollof, Fried Rice, Egusi Soup, Pounded Yam, Chicken Drumsticks, Suya (Beef), Turkey wings, Samosas, Pies, Fried Prawns, Puff Puff balls.

The second act included beautiful solo singing performances by Amina Sharmarkey with 'I choose you' and Cordelia Akata with 'Scars to your beautiful'.

Dave’s iconic and symbolic masterpiece ‘Black’ was performed by the duo of Zuriel Assafuah on the drums and Fares Mudhai on the keyboard and vocals.

Stefania Adoma and Emmanuella Boadi did an Afrobeat dance routine as a duet to the infectious melody and beat of 'On the Low' by Burna Boy.

An Afrobeat dance troupe from year 8 raised the roof of the building with a scintillating dance routine to ‘Wololo’ by Babes Wodumo featuring Maphintsa.

Commendations go to: Rosemary Cudjoe, Chanelle Goremucheche, Deborah Fofie, Gillian Forkuoh, Michelle Kirk-Asante, Constance Nwokeocha, Daniella Mensah, Keneth Opoku, Anna-Lee Quayson, Shanice Rogers Shante Rogers and Hannah Wachira.

Shanice Rogers represented her southern African heritage with a performance of the Zulu song ‘Easy to Love’ by Bucie.

Arguably the stand out performer of the night was Fabulous Student Lead, David Samura, who sang four different pieces. His first was a solo rendition of ‘All to me’. He and his fellow Fabulous Student Lead Emanuela Brown sang a duet of the soulful ‘Best Part’ by Daniel Caesar featuring H.E.R.

David’s church choir graced us with their presence and angelic voices. The first of their performances was ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’.

The climax was 'Stand Up' from the film ‘Harriet’, a biopic about African American former slave and hero Harriet Tubman. 
This was performed by David and his choir, and their rousing performance received a rapturous standing ovation from the audience.

At the end, the performers, who had put in such hard work were able to celebrate by dancing to some contemporary rhythms.

This truly was a World Class event for students, parents and staff, to learn experientially about other cultures.

We are fortunate at President Kennedy School that we have such a diverse Black community with students hailing from countries including Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Congo, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

This might just be the start of a new tradition at our outstanding school.  
                                                                            Team Fabulous

The parents of our Year 7 High Attainer students were invited to attend a parents evening on Wednesday 2nd November, alongside their child. This was an incredibly powerful evening that saw parents and their children come together in a classroom setting to learn and to approach a range of challenging activities, and to increase awareness of strategies that parents can use at home.

The evening started with a presentation in the hall where parents were given an insight into the provision given to high attainer students both in the classroom and beyond the curriculum. Parents were then invited into classrooms within the Bridge, as part of a carousel, where they were given some challenging tasks to complete alongside their child, in three different and varied subject areas. In English, students were asked to verbally contribute to a number of talking points using sophisticated and formal language, using no banned words. In Science, students were invited to think critically about the use of fossil fuels and renewable energy. In History, students were exposed to a range of activities that would stretch and deepen their thinking through an array of historical sources.

All students were incredibly engaged during this event, and it was a sheer joy to have parents back through our doors again! A huge thank you to all students in Year 7 and their parents who attended!' 

Miss Tovey,Teacher of English

On the 5th of July we travelled to Costa Rica. We travelled as a group of 15 consisting of 8 students from President Kennedy School, 4 from Our Lady of Sion Independent School, 2 teachers and our team leader, Anna. 

Most of us had never met before, fortunately we had plenty of time to bond on a 52(!!) hour journey via the USA, Ecuador and Panama before eventually reaching Costa Rica. 

We spent 4 weeks travelling around the country, engaging in community development and environmental conservation projects across Costa Rica. Some of the projects included:

• Reforesting areas of mangroves to help store carbon and mitigate against climate change in Guanacaste.
• Improving a local community health centre for local residents in Cuajiniquil.
• Helping with the construction of a community SEND centre to support vulnerable people in Terraba.
• Building a "monkey bridge" to help with the safe passage of monkeys across a busy road in Cano Negro.
• A rest and relaxation trip to Monteverde which included a tour of a local coffee plantation and a night hike.

The trip culminated in an adventure activity where we got the opportunity to qualify as an PADI Open Water Diver. We were lucky enough to see sting rays, octopus and white tip reef sharks during our 3 open water dives in the Pacific Ocean

Mr Graham, Teacher of Geography and Mrs Elliot, Teacher of History

The Year 8 Rugby team started their season on Wednesday night with a game against Princethorpe. The boys continued where they left off last season, and had too much pace and power for their opponents to handle. President Kennedy School win 45-5.