We continue to promote literacy at KWS. Students this half term have been taking part in Read Aloud, various year group reading challenges, and not to mention literacy week. We have just appointed a library assistant and she is very excited to get started in helping to manage and develop our school library. We are hopeful we will have many more library events and competitions in the spring term.
Reading is still very much a priority for our staff and students. So, we thought it would be fitting to use advent to get our school community reading in the lead up to the winter break.
We are soon to launch our ’12 Days of Reading’ virtual advent calendar which we hope will encourage students to read a variety of Christmas and Winter inspired texts. From comic books to newspaper articles to poetry, there is something for our students to get stuck into each morning as we count down.
The English Department
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/christmas-reading.png12001600Keris McCormickhttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngKeris McCormick2021-11-30 11:06:422021-12-05 11:19:1712 Days Of Reading
All year groups are invited to submit a piece of artwork to be displayed in our upcoming art exhibition. For further information please see Miss Robinson
Theme: Winter. Examples of imagery might include: lights, wintery scenes, autumn leaves, bonfires, wrapping up warm, etc
Deadline: Monday 13th December at 4pm
Size: No bigger than A3
You can work in any style and with any material – digital, paint, drawing, photography, etc.
All work to be given to Miss Robinson in room 162.
Miss Robinson
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Winter-showcase.png170373Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2021-11-30 11:06:182021-12-02 19:54:58Winter showcase art exhibition
Throughout Period 7 Zoology class, we have been looking at what makes animals fit into certain categories: Why are dogs mammals? How do reptiles move compared to mammals? What are owl pellets and are they unique to birds? To conclude this block of Period 7 we decided to design animals. This follows a discussion on the various adaptations of different species and how it helps those creatures to survive in their habitats. This could be methods of detecting prey (echolocation, large eyes, antennae), deterring predators (aposematic colouration), or conserving water (fat reserves).
The students were then set the challenge of designing an animal to live in either: the Sahara desert, in a pitch black cave, or at the bottom of the ocean. The Top 3 entries for each zoology session are now on display in room 73 and the students responsible for the work have received r2’s. The winning entries were as follows:
Tuesday – Ollie T and Charlie F, Isla W, Liam M, and Noah J
Wednesday – Lucas L, Jessica H, and Mia T, Isabella H and Raphael C
Our local Superleague Netball team is Saracens Mavericks and every school holiday they run some fun netball camps for keen ballers in Years 7-9. This Christmas holiday they are at Oaklands College in St Albans on Monday 20th and Wednesday 22nd December. Please see here for more details.
This week has been KWS Literacy Week. While our wonderful teaching team have been focusing on how we improve literacy skills in the classroom, we have also taken the opportunity to provide all students with a great short story to read in class, a word games focus in our Form Time Quiz, book reviews for recognitions, and to continue to encourage visits to the library.
In a post about literacy, it would be remiss not to ask, ‘how much does your child read?’. These days there are so many other things to do with our time and we are seeing some students who have got out of the habit of reading over the difficult circumstances of the past couple of years. But reading regularly is the biggest contributor to academic success and is vitally important. We have recently invested in some great short novels which are dyslexia friendly for the KWS Library. They have older interest levels twinned with younger reading ages and are great for students who are out of the habit and for those who might struggle with a longer book. They are proving hugely popular so far, so please do encourage your child to pop to the Library and take a look and to talk to you at home about what they are reading and how they are finding it. We’re already seeing improvements in students’ reading focus and understanding. Let’s keep this going! Your child’s English teacher will always be happy to give you some recommendations.
To Brighten up December and celebrate the countdown to Christmas we are hosting a Christmas Joke Competition for the last 10 days of school. This is a chance for families and staff to win house points for their student’s houses. The competition starts on Monday 6th December.
We want each household to send in up to a maximum of 10 jokes to enter the competition and for each joke entered 1 House point will be awarded.
Then each day, for the last 10 days of term, a total of the 50 best jokes will be selected, shown to students, and voted on over the two weeks (5 jokes a day) to decide a winning joke of the day. Five extra house points will be awarded to each of the 50 selected jokes.
All ten winners of the day will then be submitted to the ‘staff for a laugh’ panel to choose the winning KWS joke of 2021 that will be announced on the last day of term.
A google form will be sent out on Monday 29th November, giving you a week to submit your best jokes. All family-friendly jokes are welcome whether they are Christmas-related, original jokes, or classic favorites, as long as they are good!
Well done to all who participated in the Harpenden inter-school Geography quiz; a coming together of the brightest Geography minds in Harpenden. After a few tough rounds of questions, we are congratulating Sophie, Lina and James who won 3rd place for the Year 8 category! It was great to see students in their element, and absolutely rocking the show (puns intended!)
Miss Moxham and Mr Inman.
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211118_172533.jpg12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2021-11-19 11:51:212021-11-19 14:01:13Success at the Harpenden Inter-school Geography quiz!
Milestone Tests are coming up in Science over the next few weeks for all year groups. These are written assessments on everything covered so far in their current year of study. The topics are listed below:
Year 7 (w/c 6th Dec)
Year 8 (w/c 22nd Nov and 29th Nov)
Year 9 (w/c 6th Dec)
7A: Cells to Organisms
7G: The Particle Model
7K: Forces
8A: Food and Nutrition
8E: Combustion
8I: Fluids
9A: Genetics and Evolution
9E: Making Materials
9F: Reactivity
9I: Forces and Motion
Students have been set lots of revision activities on SenecaLearning.com and should be accessing the Science Knowledge Organisers to help them to prepare for these assessments. Click here to access this.
New Science Technician
Our new science technician, Sonia Pervez, started with us just after half term and has been busy settling in and finding her way around our fantastic prep room since then. Sonia comes from a biomedical science background, having worked in the pharmaceutical industry before joining KWS, and has always wanted to work at a school to support student learning in Science. She is a fantastic addition to the team, exemplified by the fact that our students have not missed out on any practical investigations in the last few weeks. Students, please do say “Hi” and thank her for all the hard work she does to enable you to do practical work when you see her around school!
NHS Pin Badge Design Competition
It’s not too late to enter the ‘All About STEM’ NHS pin badge competition: the deadline for submissions is Monday 22nd of November. For further information see the last edition of the KWS Newsletter or click this link.
If students decide to enter they should email their science teacher and Mrs Creamer (s.creamer@kwschool.co.uk) with an image of their entry. Good Luck!
Don’t Forget to Look Up
Planets
Currently, if you look South to South West between 5 pm and 6 pm on a clear night, it is possible to see at least Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Venus. Jupiter is the brightest, Saturn is ‘right a bit and down a bit’ from Jupiter and, if you follow the line between those two planets, you might be lucky to catch a glimpse of Venus too.
Two easy ways you can tell if you’re looking at a star or a planet are, Stars twinkle, planets do not or you can use an app like ‘SkyView’ and point your phone at the sky and it will map out all of the celestial objects that you should be able to see on the screen for you.
Attached is a picture I took in Batford a few weeks ago just before 6 pm with all 3 planets visible.
My picture is not the best, so any students who could do better can send me a photo of at least 2 planets in the same shot before Christmas will receive a Recognition! (s.creamer@kwschool.co.uk)
Spot the Station:
There’s also a few good opportunities to see the International Space station coming up too. These are Saturday 26th November (5:38 pm for 5 mins), Sunday 29th November (4:50 pm for 7 mins), and Monday 30th November (5:40 pm for 5 mins) – it will pass directly overhead on this day.
Click here to see upcoming opportunities to see the ISS.
Photos or videos sent to me by email of the ISS will also receive Recognition!
One of our Year 7 boys football teams put in an excellent second-half performance to progress to the next round of the County Cup. Many impressive performances, with Tim B scoring a hat trick and Harry W and James B both being excellent in defence.
We look forward to the next round.
Our Year 7 girls football team were also in action in a tournament over the last week. They battled well throughout and gained experience throughout the process.
KWS has just marked Climate Change Awareness Week, from 8th – 12th November, with highlights taking place across the school. Well done to Mabel, Ruairi, Rayan and Jacob who performed a professional debate to answer the statement “This house believes that school should encourage students to strike for climate change.” Each pair argued back and forth before it was put to a vote by our Year 8 cohort. We are looking forward to the next debate this week performed by Tabby, Bobby, Sophie and Sofia, where the Year 7 cohort will get a chance to listen to the issues being explored and also vote on their winning pair. The weekly Oracy assembly saw students consider the ethics of carbon credits; should HICs (High-Income Countries) be allowed to pay Low-Income Countries to maintain forests, if it means that HIC’s can continue to emit high amounts of greenhouse gases? Who retains the final responsibility for emissions?
Elsewhere, our weekly form quiz competition was focussed on the current events surrounding COP26 and pledges that have been made, and we will soon be announcing the winner of our Climate Change Awareness house competition; to discover which form group has completed the most planet-saving activities at home. We have also had presentations during Culture Club about Greta Thunberg. We are so proud to be surrounded by students who embrace independent thought and are not afraid to articulate their viewpoint on these matters. Thank you especially to the Eco Committee (Syan, George, Mabel) for leading this successful week!
Mr Inman
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/climate-change.png12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2021-11-16 20:19:362021-11-19 14:08:53KWS Climate Change Awareness Week is a roaring success
