Over the past few years Mr. Lawrence has been walking the coastline of Cornwall and will be finishing his final 33 miles (all being well) this May half term. The total distance walked, over 21 hikes, will be 289 miles which is roughly the walking distance from KWS to Land’s End!
If you would like to sponsor him and help raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support the link is below;
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/profile.jpg12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2025-05-22 16:02:202025-05-22 16:02:20Mr. Lawrence Walking the Coast of Cornwall for Charity
On Tuesday 20th May KWSixth hosted the new parent/student sixth form evening for students who have applied to the sixth form at Katherine Warington from other schools. Thank you to all the families who attended, and to the current year 12 students who supported the running of the event.
The slides are here for any parents who missed it.
The last few weeks have been particularly busy for our school houses, and I am delighted to announce our new school House Captains:
Ali House: Mr Lawrence
Armstrong House: Mr Houghton
Franklin House: Mr Church
Keller House: Mr Offeh
Nightingale House: Mr Hall
Tesla House: Miss Christou
Their role will be to lead and help run house events next year. This week and after half term, they have been meeting with their respective houses to discuss key values and prepare for next term’s House events.
Next term, we will be recruiting student House Captains to support our staff House Captains.
Upcoming Events
6th June: KWS House Quiz (during Celebration Assembly time)
26 and 27th June: Sports Days
7th – 18th July: House Fortnight
Change to the House Cup
This year, we have made a few exciting changes to how the House Cup is calculated. This will now take into account participation in events, completion of the Academics program, the House with the most recognitions, and the House with the least amount of consequences.
The current standings are…
First Place: Nightingale
Second Place: Ali
Third Place :Franklin
However, there are still many more events to go before the end of the year!
On Sunday 18th May one of our partner football clubs – Harpenden Rovers Youth FC – organised a sponsored Hill Climb with around 180 of their players running up (and down) the infamous KWS Hill as many times as possible in 20 minutes. Their objective – to raise money to install a solar and wind-powered AED (defib) cabinet on the football pitches in time for the next football season and school term starting in September.
The Club feels the AED located on the wall of the Sports Hall is too far away should there be a sudden cardiac arrest on the top pitches – for every minute that someone is in cardiac arrest without defibrillation, their chance of survival decreases by 10% – and offered to provide a solution that doesn’t require a mains electricity supply to keep the AED above minimum operating temperature.
Should anyone wish to contribute to this potentially life-saving initiative by Harpenden Rovers Youth FC you can do so by clicking on the below link.
Should you have any questions or offers of help, please reach out to their chair – Jeremy Finch – on chair@harpendenrovers.co.uk
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/All-Club-Photo.jpg12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2025-05-22 16:01:492025-05-22 16:01:49“Defib on The Hill” fundraising initiative
As is typical, the approaching half term holiday appears to mark a change in the weather; hello rainy days! So, if we’re all stuck inside next week, what a great opportunity to get lost in a book. Maybe you could choose one set somewhere warm and sunny, to take you away from the rain. Or, you could read a story set somewhere freezing cold, and then you’ll be grateful it’s just a passing shower.
We’d love to see lots of logins to the ePlatform over half term. It’s available 24-7, and is stocked with hundreds of ebooks and audiobooks. There really is something for everyone, with a great search engine, making it easily accessible.
And do remember, magazines and newspapers are also great ways to get some reading in over the half term. Maybe an article giving a round-up of the football season? If that’s not your sport then the summer sports are in full swing now – who’s looking in form for Wimbledon this year? How about cricket? Or Formula 1? There are magazines dedicated to just about everything now – gaming, history, fishing, fashion, classic cars, music, crafting… And don’t forget your local library has endless reading opportunities too; books and magazines aplenty, and many options via their Borrow Box app too, both ebooks and audiobooks. And, they’re all free! Librarians are generally a friendly bunch, so drop into any branch of Hertfordshire libraries and see what they have to offer, you’ll be made to feel very welcome.
Before we finish for the holiday, a special mention to all the year 9 students that have visited us this week to grab a book to support their learning in English. Their current module is all about crime writing, and as one of the most popular book genres, we’re well stocked with suitable reads for our dedicated year 9s. Come in and check out a “whodunnit” novel. Can you work out who the perpetrator is before the end? Or is there a twist in the tale, designed to throw you off the scent?
This year, Rayden Solicitors were very excited to bring our Work Experience Competition across the four consortium schools in Harpenden – Katherine Warington School, Roundwood Park, Sir John Lawes School and St Georges.
This is the second year the competition has run, but the first year across the consortium schools.
Rayden Solicitors is an award-winning specialist family law firm with 10 offices, including an office in Harpenden High Street. Rayden Solicitors specialise in all aspects of family law and are experts in financial and issues concerning children.
In December, year 11 and 12 students were invited to submit written entries setting out how they would determine a family law scenario. We were delighted by the number of entries received and the calibre of those entries, which made choosing the 8 finalists very difficult! After very careful consideration, our eight finalists consisted of two students from each school. Shakhram S and Charles F of Katherine Warington, Honrick C and Kira M of St George’s, Erin H and Laura L of St John Lawes and Lauren R and Priyanka D of Roundwood Park were chosen to participate in an all-day Mock Trial on 13 May 2025.
Katie Skinner (Senior Associate Chartered Legal Executive, Rayden Solicitors), Kendra Jeffries (Solicitor, Rayden Solicitors), John Chapman (Barrister, Pump Court Chambers), Victoria Ellis (Barrister, Pump Court Chambers), Albert Gibbon (Barrister, Pump Court Chambers), Paige Gibbons (Solicitor, Rayden Solicitors) and Claire Johnson (Trainee Solicitor, Rayden Solicitors) attended with trial papers in hand ready to meet the students, and to prepare and deliver cross-examination and closing submissions on a case scenario, which was based on an application by one parent to be able to send their children to a privately funded school, which was opposed by the other parent, who wished for the children to attend a non-fee paying school.
We started the day by splitting up into two teams, one team for the applicant and one team for the respondent and then spent some time going through the case papers, getting top tips from the barristers on the skill of advocacy and agreeing a strategy for how we would conduct the case. We were all thoroughly impressed by how quickly all of the students got to grips with the nuances of the case and with the challenging techniques of cross examination. The students then had the opportunity to deliver cross-examination, the questioning of the other side’s witnesses – they really held their own against the curveballs thrown at them by the parties who were being questioned, played by Paige Gibbons and Claire Johnson. They did this in front of their ‘Judge’ for the day, John Chapman – Barrister of Pump Court Chambers. It was no doubt intimidating to have a go at this in a room full of legal professionals but the students did an amazing job – confidently delivering their questions and thinking on their feet. We then enjoyed lunch together before spending time preparing closing submissions in our teams – this a summary of your case for the Judge. The students then delivered these and all persuasively and robustly put forward their clients’ respective cases. The Judge then delivered her decision. It is safe to say our Judge was very impressed by the skill and care in which both cases were presented and, regardless of the outcome, all eight students should be incredibly proud of how they conducted themselves in the Mock Trial!
A very big congratulations to Shakhram, Charles, Honrick, Kira, Erin, Laura, Lauren and Priyanka for your fantastic work throughout the day. It was a pleasure meeting and working with you all. We wish all of you the very best in whatever you choose to do, and have no doubt you will have a successful future ahead!
Thank you to everyone from all four schools for working with us to make the competition such a success!
Over the course of this half term we have had a number of athletics meets as part of the county and district competitions. Students have conducted themselves fantastically well throughout and this has coincided with some excellent performances too.
Year 10 are leading the way with some outstanding performances. Darci M (200m) and Harry S (400m and long jump) are dominating their respective events each week and will take some beating in our upcoming district championships after half term. With both of them having joined athletics clubs outside of school, they are clearly reaping the rewards for that level of commitment to the sport. At the most recent event in Stevenage on Monday, other impressive first place performances came from Bailey M in the U16 100m, Tim B (U16 200m), Jesse G (U16 high jump), Sophie C (U16 300m), boys’ and girls’ 4x100m U16 relay team (Harry, Bailey, Tim and Jesse and Sophie, Darci, Lexi and Rose S), Lucy H (U14 1500m and high jump), Lucy W (U16 high jump). There were also a number of students achieving second and third-placed finishes in a range of other events. Well done to the whole athletics squad.
Tennis
Last week, we had KWS’s first ever girls’ tennis match! Well done to Lucy, Jess, Sophie and Georgia (all Year 8) in their doubles matches versus STAHS A team. Lucy and Sophie won both their matches 6-2 and Georgia and Jess unfortunately lost both their matches 6-2, therefore making the overall result a draw.
Cricket
Well done to both the girls’ Year 7 and 8 cricket teams versus Aldenham. The Year 7s lost by 10 runs but the Year 8s had a dominant win. Great effort, girls!
Thank you to the Herts Catering team for putting on a fantastic lunchtime spread to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day. Students loved the range of themed cakes on offer.
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pro-SCxGFFkd.jpeg12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2025-05-09 08:52:442025-05-09 08:52:4480th Anniversary of VE Day celebrations
Ellie Moore from Project Trust led an inspiring session for our year 12’s last week informing them of the benefits and opportunities which come with taking a volunteer placement overseas with the charity. Ellie herself did a placement in Myanmar, which interested many of our year 12 students and gave them another option as they consider their futures post KWSixth.
