Category Archives: King’s

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A Guide to Lockdown: How People Are Getting Through These Tough Times

Lockdown has been a new experience for us all since the coronavirus hit the UK, and everyone has had to adjust to new challenges, such as home-schooling, limitations on our usual lifestyles and not being able to see our friends and family in person.

However, despite these enormous changes, many good things have come out of lockdown and in order to keep a positive mindset it is important that we recognise these things. The 8th May saw the UK celebrate VE day, with many families preparing homemade traditional British treats such as scones with jam and clotted cream, and some people even dressed up in attire typical of the 1940s. Some neighbourhoods hosted socially-distanced afternoon tea and even street parties to mark the 75th anniversary of the acceptance of Nazi Germany’s surrender in the Second World War, meaning the end of conflict in Europe. Union Jack flags and decorations scattered the front gardens and houses in many streets, creating a welcome sense of celebration and solidarity in communities across the UK.

Former British army officer Tom Moore rose to fame in the past few weeks for his extraordinary fundraising efforts in the run up to his 100th birthday, collecting a total of more than £23 million for the NHS. The UK has also been celebrating the other heroes in our midst, for example the many NHS workers who are fighting the pandemic on the frontlines, supermarket workers and other people who are risking their lives to make ours better, safer and more comfortable. Many King’s students have parents who are key workers and we are extremely proud of these people who are selflessly working at this unusual and often scary time.

King’s students themselves have also been doing their bit. Many of us have taken part in the ‘5 5 5’ challenge, where participants run 5km, donate £5 to the NHS and then nominate 5 others to do the same. Lots of similar fitness challenges are circulating the Internet; some people are completing the Burj Khalifa challenge, which involves walking up the stairs a grand total of 184 times, and the House Marathon challenge has got us all running 2.6 miles for our houses. These opportunities have got everyone keeping fit and healthy, as well as busy! King’s have also done their bit in the fight against COVID-19 by creating PPE – the DT department have been making vital equipment to support those who need it.

Despite the fear and uncertainty caused by the virus, communities are coming together (whilst staying apart) to support vulnerable members of society and to show appreciation for the nurses, doctors, midwives and other healthcare professionals with a weekly applause every Thursday in the street. We have also been able to adjust to the fantastic online learning systems here at King’s, using Microsoft Teams to get guidance from our teachers and have even had assemblies and House time online.

Also, the King’s Voice school radio station is once again up and running, as well as weekly lunchtime concerts on our school twitter page, allowing us to appreciate the exceptional musical talent displayed in our school by streaming it on our screens.

Whilst the pandemic is not ideal for any of us, it is essential to stay happy and healthy as much as possible and it is lovely to see neighbours uniting to help those who need it.

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A New Student Voice: The King’s Voice Radio Station

There has been an excited buzz over the launch of the very first King’s school radio station which aired for a special podcast on Friday 17th January 2020. Fittingly named The King’s Voice, the pupil-produced radio station runs on a fortnightly timetable with an eclectic variety of themed podcasts, as well as some brilliant guest shows which will be released later in the year.

The radio station has already proved extremely popular amongst students and the recent competition to submit a logo design spurred much curiosity around the school. Pupils who are members of the radio station have been trained to use the specialist equipment by The King’s Voice director and physics teacher Mr Pearson, who also ran a radio station at his previous school before joining KSW and has kindly designated a part of his classroom to accommodate all of this apparatus.

For the opening podcast, listeners were treated to an interview between Louise Gwilliam, an Old Vigornian of the King’s School, and a group of Upper Four students. In the show the students ask Louise inquisitive questions about her interesting career in broadcast journalism as a rugby producer for 5 Live Sport at the BBC.

Like all good radio stations, The King’s Voice has its very own catchy jingle, “Our voice, the pupil’s voice, the King’s Voice“, which features in all of the shows as well as some great songs. Future podcasts will discuss an assortment of topics from politics to sports, providing the perfect range of subjects ensuring there is something for every student to listen to.

To discover all of these fascinating podcasts, you can visit The King’s Voice Mixcloud below and follow their twitter account @Kings_Voice to keep up with the latest installments.

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Settling Into Sixth Form

900 people were thankfully not looking at me

After the exhaustion and excitement of summer, settling into Sixth Form can be somewhat of a struggle, and for me, a new student, the first couple of weeks felt like a whirlwind of work, friends and unfamiliar rooms. Deciding to make King’s Worcester my destination for Sixth Form only three months before September definitely proved to be challenging but after a month of the “King’s experience” I could not be more grateful for the spontaneous change I made post-GCSEs.

Throughout the summer, I reached out through mutual friends to people I understood to be going to King’s in the upcoming term but despite this I still had yet to encounter the daunting nine hundred pupils I envisioned dramatically to be stood at the gates watching me on my first day. The reality was that the cosy site of King’s strangely swallows the children up so much so on my first day that I felt as if I’d walked into a homely haven. However, it has still taken me a while to comprehend the uniqueness of the site and its quirky corridors to classrooms.

Despite all the things I was not accustomed to in my much smaller rural secondary school — the daily commuting experience of the train, the weekly cathedral gatherings, the freedom to go into town for lunch, and the HUGE range of clubs/activities — King’s has welcomed me so much and the past four weeks feel as if I have belonged to these customs and community for years.

The one significant thing I have learnt from “diving into the deep end” and coming to King’s, and which I believe can be taken into almost every situation, is that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and trying alternate options — not always following the crowd — is the way to go.