Results of consultation on changing the length of the school day

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The consensus of opinion from our recent consultation with parents and students was two-thirds in favour of changing the length of the school day.  We will therefore be going ahead with the changes from September 2022.

This means that we will re-arrange the school day to finish at 3.30pm from Monday through to Thursday and will continue to finish at 2.30pm on Fridays. The school day from Monday to Thursday will be shortened by reducing morning form time to 25 minutes, shortening lunchtime to 45 minutes everyday and removing the 10 minute ‘break’ between period 6 and 7.

As outlined in our consultation, the advantages of doing this include:

  • More productive use of staff and students time in the school day
  • Improved staff wellbeing, retention and recruitment
  • Continuing Period 7 whilst finishing at a comparable time to other schools
  • More time for students to participate in independent study/other activities after school

In addition I would like to address some common questions raised during the consultation:

  • Period 7 will remain a key part of our KWS curriculum, running from 3.00pm to 3.30pm Monday to Thursday.
  • Students participating in Body options for P7 which require changing into PE kit, will have the option to do so at lunchtime.
  • We are currently not using the full serving capacity of our food hall. We have three additional serving hatches which we will use as student numbers increase, along with other potential options to add more capacity, eg. pods in other areas of the site, as used by many other local secondary schools. We will also increase the number of till points in the main serving area.
  • We appreciate that the change will cause issues for a handful of families that collect siblings from local primary schools before collecting students from KWS. We would like to reassure you that the school buildings will continue to remain open until at least 5pm and that students can make use of the supervised library facilities to do academic work until at least 4pm.

We have spoken to Herts County Council who will be factoring in the changes to transport, as they commission and co-ordinate external bus services for the next academic year.  We hope to be able to distribute new bus timetables by the time we break for the summer holidays in July.

These changes will commence from 1st September 2022 and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to respond to the consultation.

Tony Smith

Headteacher

Travel Plan – Zonal Map Reminder

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As you will be aware from previous communications – KWS operates a travel plan and as part of this we encourage parents strongly to pick up/drop off a 5-10 minute walk away from school to help the enviroment and also encourage students to be active and healthy. The School Car Park should not be used for pick up/drop off unless you have been issued with a KWS Parking Permit from the school due to an exceptional need such as as a medical issue. These are renewed on a termly basis as we only have a limited amount of parking available on site. The Senior Leadership Team will be checking all cars coming on site after half term have the appropriate permit.

Please Click Here to see the zonal map and ensure you are picking up/dropping off your child a 5-10 minute walk away from the school. We ask that when parking in neighbouring roads a 5-10 minute walk away that you park respectfully not obstructing access to a driveway and ensure your engine is switch off whilst waiting.

KWAF Update – February 2022

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We have a couple of exciting upcoming Events –

Comedy @ KWS – Friday 18th March – Click Here for more Information

Easter Fair – Saturday 19th March 10am to 4pm – SAVE THE DATE – more information to follow!

Our February Newsletter is also attached.

Netball

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Students have had a great half term of netball playing in fixtures against Sir John Lawes and STAGS.

All students who have taken part worked well as a team and put in some great scores.

Well done!

Miss Moxham

Celebrating the Year of The Tiger

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To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, KWS students have been making dumplings and paper cutting.

Dumpling is a symbol of wealth for its shape like ancient Chinese gold money; paper cutting is a symbol of luck and happiness and parents in China put money into the red envelopes for their children. Thank you to Mrs Freeman for all her help in the food tech room. We wish everyone:

Xin nian kuai le, Happy new year!
Gong xi fa cai, Congratulations and may you be prosperous!
Thank you
Mr Chen and Miss Hu