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KWAF Fireworks

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Dean Inns

We held our third “Low Bang” firework spectacular on Friday 8th November. We had record attendance with over 1,500 people attending our biggest event yet. The event raised over £6,500 to support the students at KWS. The event would not have been possible without the help and support of the KWAF Volunteers (both parental and staff) led by Claire and Natasha and support from the school – Mr Bullock, Mr Inns, Mrs Freeman and the KWS Site Team. Thank you to those who supported with the event including Fantastic Fireworks, Herts Catering, Hearn Medics, ReallyAwesomeCoffee and the Police Service who were also in attendance and our Main Sponsor Phoenix Construction.

There is some drone footage from the event available here – Click Here

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Absence Reporting through Arbor Parent Portal APP

November 14, 2024/in News/by Chrissy Dicks

This year we have brought in a new method of reporting absence through the Arbor Parent Portal APP which is quick and easy for parents and carers and our preferred way for contacting school with regards to reasons for absence.

In order to report absence through the Arbor Parent Portal APP, go to the home page of the Arbor app.

To record an absence, click on the Quick Actions button and then click Attendance

From here click the green Log Absence button in the top-right of the page.        ­­­­­­­­­

You can input a start and end time for the absence and type in the reason for the absence giving as much detail as possible.

By default, the absence start and end times reflect the student’s full day, but these can be adjusted as needed if a student will only be absent for a short time as a result of an appointment. Once you have filled in all this data, click ‘Log Absence’ and this will be visible to the school attendance team.

Please note that informing the school is a key responsibility of parents/carers. When staff from both the attendance and safeguarding team take time out of their day to chase families, it detracts from the support we can offer to students in school. Therefore, please ensure all reports are made by 8.30am and the school are informed every day that a student is absent.

Where possible, please give plenty of notice for any planned absence, for example hospital appointments by using the Arbor parent portal app or emailing absence@kwschool.co.uk.

By working together, we can help students reach their full potential and make the most of the opportunities school has to offer.

If you feel you would like support with your child’s attendance or well-being, please do not hesitate to their Head of Year.

Chrissy Dicks
Attendance Manager

 

 

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Arbor-APP-Log-Absence.jpg 70 371 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 15:34:082024-11-14 15:35:34Absence Reporting through Arbor Parent Portal APP

Attendance Rewards

November 14, 2024/in News/by Chrissy Dicks

The school is keen to reward good attendance and has recently introduced some new additional incentives to promote positive attendance.

Every half term the form who has the best attendance will receive some sweets from their form tutor (allergies & intolerances taken into consideration). The winners will receive 60 points to be added to their house totals and the runners up will receive 30 points each.

Our winners for the first part of the autumn half term were 7 Nightingale with the runners up being 7 Ali & 7 Keller.  Congratulations to them all.

       

In addition to this, those students who attain 100% attendance in every half term will receive a personalised email of congratulations from the Headteacher, and if they achieve 100% in a whole term, they will have their name entered into a prize draw, where there are five prizes for a free school meal up to the value of £2.90 to be added to their Arbor account. All 100% students over this period of time will also be entered into the grand prize draw which takes place in the summer which will consist of Amazon vouchers ranging from £50 to £5.

The more terms a student has 100% attendance, the more entries they receive into the summer grand prize draw.

If you have any queries with regards to this, please don’t hesitate to contact Chrissy Dicks, the school’s Attendance Manager.

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Half-Term-Form-Autumn-1-Winner-Rosettes.jpg 558 923 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 15:16:392024-11-15 10:25:04Attendance Rewards

Just Talk Week 2024

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Keris McCormick
Just Talk week 2024 is from 18th November and our social media campaign runs until 6th December. This year’s theme is ‘Just Be Scroll Savvy’ Empowering Youth Online Safety. Our campaign message is not about telling young people to not be online; but instead we want to encourage young people to use the internet safely and in a way that is positive for their well-being. Being online is a huge part of our daily lives, there are so many benefits to it, connection, learning new things, having fun. But are we always aware of the less positive impacts it can have on us and others around us?
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“Beyond Y11” Drop Down Day

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Chrissy Dicks

Students in Y11 were lucky to be visited by some external speakers, as well as our very own Mr Laing to inform them of some of their options at post-16 and post-18 level.

Mr Laing spoke about KWSixth and how it differs from life within the main school body. Students were informed of the subjects on offer and what would be required of them should they wish to join KWSixth in September 2025.

We were also lucky to have Andy from “Power of Events”, who spoke about the broad scope of roles within event planning and organisation. The students heard what was required to plan smaller events, such as weddings, and also heard how Andy and his colleagues had been involved in much larger events like global superstar concerts, sporting events and Eurovision. Andy also spoke about the different routes into the company, such as apprenticeships.

Sarah from the University of Hertfordshire informed students of what university life is like. This session was used to introduce students to the idea of university and how different university courses are from GCSE or higher education courses. She also touched on some aspects of student life like tuition fees and loan repayments, so that students were aware of these and how to access help with such things should they need to.

Unfortunately, some of our speakers were unable to attend on the day due to illness. We will, therefore, host some smaller events later in the year to provide further information on apprenticeships, vocational colleges and also working within the NHS.

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241113_114726.jpg 1200 1600 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 13:49:202024-11-14 13:49:20“Beyond Y11” Drop Down Day

Lifelong Learning at KWS – Your feedback

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Chrissy Dicks

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing the best possible education for our students, we are currently evaluating how we nurture the values and skills that students need to succeed in the wider world.  One element of this is to gather parental feedback on the values and skills that they think are most important for success in the wider world and to identify current strengths and potential areas for development.

To that end, could I ask all parents/carers/guardians of KWS students to take five minutes to complete the attached form (this will be sent through Classcharts and email too). The closing date for submissions is Friday 29th November 2024.

The KWS Leaver – Values and Skills

We would value the input of as many parents as possible into this evaluation so that we can work together as a community to fully prepare our learners for life after school. Please note that responses are anonymous but if you wish to discuss this further or offer any other feedback then please contact Gareth Livesey Jones, Deputy Headteacher on g.liveseyjones@kwschool.co.uk.
Thank you in advance for your time and input and I look forward to sharing the feedback with you in due time.

Kind Regards,

Mr G Livesey Jones

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_0761.jpg 768 1024 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 13:49:082024-11-15 09:30:25Lifelong Learning at KWS – Your feedback

Year 8 Cultural Day – Hadestown

November 14, 2024/in Year 8/by Chrissy Dicks

80 year 8 students will take part in a workshop at Pineapple Dance Studios run by two of the cast from the show – followed by lunch at the Sartori restaurant in Leicester Square, before travelling to the Lyric Theatre to watch the Matinee performance of Hadestown.

Book your place now!

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Hadestown-NEW-CAST-DRESS-5059-Enhanced-NR_AW-scaled-1.jpg 1200 1600 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 13:48:592024-11-14 13:48:59Year 8 Cultural Day – Hadestown

Staff Book Club

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Chrissy Dicks

In September and October we read: Standard Deviation  by Katherine Heiny

There were differing opinions on whether we liked the book or not.

It was generally agreed that it was an amusing book to read for pleasure and the characters were very interesting but the ending was a bit dull.

There were a few moments that had us gasping in surprise.

We enjoyed the descriptive writing.

‘A divinely funny novel about the challenges of a good marriage, the delight and heartache of raising children, and the irresistible temptation to wonder about the path not taken.

Graham Cavanaugh’s second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son’s Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting.

In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger’s, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham’s life. Former spouses are hard to categorise – are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?’

Our current Staff Book Club read is – Umarriageable by Soniah Kamal

https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Book-Club.webp 388 560 Chrissy Dicks https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.png Chrissy Dicks2024-11-14 13:48:422024-11-15 09:31:25Staff Book Club

Remembrance Day

November 14, 2024/in Whole School/by Chrissy Dicks

On Monday 11 November, the Head Students attended the Remembrance Day Service with the Harpenden Branch of the Royal British Legion. In beautiful sunshine, and surrounded by the autumnal colours of the trees around Church Green, a bugler from the local Salvation Army played The Last Post. The students stood alongside members of the Harpenden community and observed the two minutes silence. Tristan Havemann noted how ‘deeply moving it was to stop and think about the sacrifice of the men and women from our community.’ On behalf of KWS Tristan, Becky Dowse, Thea Okolie, and Jacob Townley laid a poppy wreath at the foot of the memorial. Afterwards one of the RBL representatives came over to speak to the students, and pointed out how ‘many of the local community would have seen that young people such as yourselves came here today, and it would make many of them extremely happy.’ Thea herself reflected afterwards ‘it was a wonderful experience to gather around as a community to pay our respects to soldiers who fought for us.’ KWS has been selling poppies the last two school weeks, and many students have been wearing them with pride for relatives or simply to pay their own respects. In school, the two minutes was observed by watching the live BBC coverage at the Cenotaph. Overall it was a very moving day for KWS.

‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.’ – The Kohima Epitaph.

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Page 2 of 212

More News

  • St George’s DayApril 25, 2025 - 11:20 am
  • Attendance Rewards – Form WinnersFebruary 28, 2025 - 11:31 am
  • Mock Results DayDecember 13, 2024 - 8:40 am
  • Absence Reporting through Arbor Parent Portal APPNovember 14, 2024 - 3:34 pm
  • Attendance RewardsNovember 14, 2024 - 3:16 pm
  • Attendance Rewards, Review & Absence Reporting ProceduresSeptember 10, 2024 - 3:00 pm
  • GCSE Results DayAugust 13, 2024 - 4:14 pm
  • Changes to non attendance fixed penalty systemJune 6, 2024 - 3:55 pm
  • 3G Pitch Update – November 2023November 16, 2023 - 8:34 pm
  • Year 10 Information EveningSeptember 21, 2023 - 3:45 pm

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Trust Information

Harpenden Secondary Education Trust

Company Number: 09238779
Registered in England and Wales
Registered Address: Katherine Warington School, Lower Luton Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 5FH

Chair Of Trustees: Jenny Howarth, j.howarth@kwschool.co.uk

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Katherine Warington School,
Lower Luton Road,
Harpenden,
Hertfordshire,
AL5 5FH

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