Chanel Hill
Editor at the Tribune
Vocational and Technical Education (CTE) programs, extracurricular activities, college and career planning, and teacher and staff support are all core elements of the Kensington High School curriculum.
âKensington is a great place; it’s very exciting here, âsaid manager Jose Lebron.
âWe always stand up for our children,â he added. “We strive to provide our children with whatever we can to help them be competitive and be successful and this is something our children appreciate and respond to.”
Kensington offers its students a variety of CTE programs, including engineering, sports marketing, and IT assistive technology.
At the end of the program, students can obtain certifications accepted in the professional world.
âStudents at the end of their ninth grade can choose which program they would like to participate in,â said vice-principal Amanda Schear. âThe programs last for three years of lessons.
“At the end they take the NOCTI exam and they have the possibility of obtaining certifications and if they do particularly well in the three years of the test, they can enter the university with the credit of having good. successful, “she added.
In addition to the CTE programs, Kensington offers an award-winning Autism Support Program for students with various disabilities.
The school also has an ELECT program which is a statewide initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and Education.
The program provides support for educational and social services, as well as parenting skills training, to pregnant and parenting adolescents through home visits.
âThe ELECT program works with our pregnant and parenting students, new mothers and young fathers to provide support and resources,â said Schear. âThey have an office in our building to provide support to these students.â
For extracurricular activities, Kensington offers a plethora of programs including the Bike Club through a partnership with the Bicycle Coalition, the Cine Club through a partnership with WHYY, Robotics, Engineering and Upward Bound.
âWe have a core of City Year members who provide academic support and enrichment services primarily to ninth and tenth graders in the classroom,â Schear said. âThey will also resume their after-school tutoring and homework program, which is open to all grade levels.
âWe have Rock to the Future which meets here on Tuesdays and Thursdays,â she added. âThis is a community partner who provides after-school music, guitar, piano, drums, choir, songwriting and digital music production lessons for our students and fellow students. who come to travel to participate in this program. “
In Kensington, teachers and staff go above and beyond to support their students and families.
âNone of the great things happening in Kensington can happen without the teachers,â Schear said. âWe have the best teaching staff in town. They are the ones who sponsor the after-school clubs and bring ideas for writing grants to find new opportunities.
âThey are present at every event, they support our families and our students,â she added. âThey even wear our school uniforms to show their support for our students. We have an amazing team and we are so lucky to have them all.
To help students prepare for college and careers, Kensington has an advisory team, orchestrates college tours, and hosts a trade and military fair.
Through a partnership with 12Plus, students are able to develop plans for post-secondary education, whether it’s college, career, trade school or the military.
The goal of the partnership is to ensure that every student graduates from Kensington with a specific plan for what they will do after high school.
âOur consulting team has university visits scheduled almost every Tuesday until the fall semester,â Schear said. âIn December we will have a trade and military fair with different professional organizations. The military branches will also be present so that students can meet people from these different career paths.
âUpward Bound is planning a Future Fair this month, which will be organizations that will help students think about jobs that don’t exist today, but might exist 30 years from now, and how to prepare yourself for jobs that do not even exist. exist, âshe said.
âWe also recently hosted a special collegiate conference that targeted all of our students who have IEP (Individual Education Program),â she added. âWe had a number of representatives from different careers and vocations. It was very successful and the students were delighted.
Lebron has said he wants all of his students to leave Kensington with a plan.
âWhen they leave us, we want all of our students to have a plan, which is why we work so hard to develop and work with them individually so that they can have their own plan,â said Lebron.
âWe want to make sure that we give them all the tools and skills while they are with us, so that once they graduate they will be successful on their next trip and in life. “