Plastic Free – Herts Catering

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Due to the successful launch of the Wrap Bar supported by Theo’s, we will be opening the service to all students daily starting on Tuesday 19th April 2022. Students will follow the lunch rota and be able to use the Main Service area or Wrap Bar.

We are also proud to announce the removal of single use plastic from the service. From Tuesday 19th April 2022 we will be offering Generation Juice. Pupils can purchase a token at any till point and collect a reusable cup. There will be cup bins around in the dinning room for washing after use. This is a great opportunity for students to actively encourage sustainability.

Toastmasters Leadership Programme

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Well done to all of those involved in the recent Toastmasters Leadership Programme. Students have worked hard with our volunteers to develop their public speaking and communication skills.
Thank you to our volunteers, Liz Burnett and Fiky Wilkinson for their time and care throughout this process.
We hope to give you some more information about the event in our next newsletter.
Mrs Aikman

Reading Challenge Success

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Well done to all students who are maintaining their 3×15 minutes per week of reading at home. We are beginning to see some real progress with some classes clocking up well over 100 books read already this year! Well done to 7K, 8S and 9B who are currently in the lead with 166, 131 and 97 books read respectively! We have 4 months yet to go though, so plenty of time for other classes to knock them off the top spot and win some all-important chocolate! Check out the leader board in the Library to see where your class is sitting!

On an individual note, congratulations to the following students who have all completed their year group Reading Challenges already! Certificates will be on their way very soon!

Year 7                                        Year 8                                       Year 9
Grace O                                        Isla W                                           Harry H
Florence C                                   Oscar Y                                        Leigha K
Bertie R                                       Lina B                                           Nathan T
Imogen D                                   Louisa T                                       Anton P L
Kit C                                            John D                                         Callum W
Emily C                                       Aaron N                                      Nathan K – O
Aidan B                                      Oscar D                                       Annalisa R
Joel D                                         Jessica H
Kayla F – K                                 Isobel J
Nissi M                                      Owais P
Matilde F – E                            Amel A – M
Nathan J                                  Alexandra H
Liana N                                    Red M
Gigi C                                       Daniel W
Sam P – S

Team English.

Science Week

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Science Week
Finally at KWS we have had a British Science Week that has not landed in lockdown!
The Science department have been very busy planning for what has been a hugely enjoyable and informative week for everyone involved: from our first science joke competition to our interactive careers in science session; from learning about scientists as ‘risk takers’ in assembly to twists on regular Period 7 activities (cookie science anyone?); and from building and launching our own mini rockets, to observing mysterious microscopic extremophile creatures called Tardigrades: Science week has been absolutely jam-packed and we look forward to it being even bigger and better next year… (If you feel that you’d be able to contribute an activity or talk to Science week 2023 please do contact Mrs Creamer on s.creamer@kwschool.co.uk)
       
And here is the overall winning Science joke for 2022, submitted by Red M (Y8) and Grace O (Y7)
Q: What do you do with a sick chemist? 

A: If you can’t Helium, and you can’t Curium, then you might as well Barium.

(if you don’t ‘get it’, please enjoy testing your KWS student to see if they can explain it to you!)
Other events in Science
Our Year 8s have been extremely busy producing some of the most fantastic model Solar systems over the past few weeks- it’s been an absolute delight to see all the work and effort gone into these Science-Tech-Art masterpieces!  
 
Prior to Science week Year 9 have completed 3 weeks of practical projects where they found out about the pigments in leaves (via chromatography), investigated the transfer of thermal energy (Qu: what happens when you put a coat on a snowman?) and measuring the effects of limiting the volume of oxygen available during the process of combustion. 
Next week Year 9 will formally commence studying GCSE content in Science and they also have a talk from a scientist working in the field of Cell Therapies to look forward to (where they’ll learn about immunology and the science of vaccinations).
Mrs Creamer

Maths Update

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Well done to eight Year 7s who competed in the Hertfordshire Maths Challenge last week. Both teams worked extremely hard and we are pleased to say that Team A (Mia K, Arabella D, Henry G & Bertie R) came 4th in their heat and will be competing against schools all across Hertfordshire at the finals in Stevenage in May. 
 
Also well done to the 57 Year 9 students who completed the UK Mathematics Trust Intermediate Maths Challenge earlier this month. We have now had the results back with some outstanding scores. The following students got a Bronze Certification: Tom M (9Ali), Maanasee N, Ruairi A, Rory F, Max O, Umar-Farooq S, Evan W, Ethan S, Alex C, Nishaan P, Jasmine D, Joanne E, Finley M, Cuan P, Oscar Q, Walt R & Callum W.
The following students got a Silver Certification: Becky D, Anton PL, Rayan P, Rayan H, Freddie C & Oliver G. Our Silver students competed in the follow on round (the Grey Kangaroo) yesterday so we await their results and will share these with you when we have them.
 
A huge well done to all of these KWS Mathematicians.

Geography Update

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Year 9 geographers successfully curb global warming to 1.2 degrees celsius.
Well done to the Year 9 geographers, who took part in a mock UN climate conference recently.
We used an online simulator used by government and organisations across the world and negotiated decisions about how to cut carbon emissions.
Students did fantastically articulating their reasoning, with some classic ideas like reducing deforestation, to more exotic arguments like reducing population growth.
The IPCC has said that we should limit global warming to 1.5 degrees maximum, and our UN conference ensured that warming did not go over 1.2 degrees.
It was a great opportunity to see how world leaders would use simulators and negotiations to discuss how best to reduce carbon emissions. Well done to all involved!
Mr Inman and Miss Moxham