In preparation for our Year 11 boys playing in the county cup plate final on Thursday 25th April, the HSFA are looking for sponsors for the final. Please see the flyer attached if you are interested. The game is being played at Colney Heath FC in St Albans with a 7pm ko. It’s £6 entry for adults and £3 for U16s. It would be great to have as many KWS supporters there as possible!
We firstly wanted to share with you some hugely pleasing news from before the Easter holiday. Both our Years 7&8 boys football teams won their respective district cup finals on Tuesday 26th March, which were played at Woollam Playing Fields.Â
The Year 7 team had only won their semi final against Nicholas Breakspear the night before. In pouring rain, the Year 7 match could not have got off to a better start with Harris M putting Finn J through within the first 10 minutes to put KWS in front. Harris then scored a lovely strike from outside the area to make it 2-0 at half time.Two further goals after half time from Josh R and Lucas W cemented KWS’ dominance to make it 4-0. Sandringham scored a late consolation late on but KWS held firm to win the final 4-1. The boys can be immensely proud of their performance demonstrating the KWS values and showing respect to the opposition and referee throughout the game.”
At the same time, our Year 8s produced an excellent performance after conceding a goal within a really difficult first minute of the game. They recovered very well and controlled the game there on, with some excellent fluid passing football. Special mention to Finlay R for grabbing a cup final hat trick with three very well taken goals, including a towering header to put us 2-1 up. All boys played a vital role and well done on an excellent season all round.
Finally, our Year 11 boys football team booked their place in the final of the County Cup Plate final after a convincing 6-1 away win at Broxbourne School. Jordan C continued his fine run of scoring with a brace, meanwhile Lewis N and Jamie D scored goal of the season contenders. We thoroughly look forward to the final, which is due to be played at Colney Heath FC on Thursday 25th April with a 7pm kick off. KWS students and parents are welcome to attend. Please note there is a small entry free.
At KWS, all staff are invited to join our book club and we have meetings at the end of each half term. Staff agree on a book to read and meet up in our school library during home learning club to discuss it; this allows students to see us as reading role models and it benefits our wellbeing too! Everyone has their own perspective on the books so the discussions are varied and interesting.
In March we read:Â
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
We generally enjoyed the book and had a good discussion about the fact that characters are referred to by their initials the writing style was interesting as the text is separated by gaps and asterisks.
It’s a post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel set in Britain. Flood waters close over London and a woman gives birth to a child. The young family are forced to flee their home and seek safety with relatives but disaster strikes and they must flee once more. The book has been turned into a film starring Jodie Comer.
We have already started reading our next book:Â
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
We returned from our Inaugural China Trip over Easter taking a group of 20 Year 10 and 11 GCSE Mandarin Students. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and below you will find accounts from two of our students who attended the trip. We visited both Beijing and Xi’an and visits included The Great Wall of China, Summer Palace, The Bird’s Nest Olympic Park Stadium, The Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors and a visit to a school in Xi’an.
“The China Trip was a phenomenal experience where I got to immerse myself in Chinese culture, try foods and visit many famous historical landmarks, such as the Great Wall of China and Terracotta Warriors. One of my favourite bits was visiting the Summer Palace (a royal retreat for emperors from the summer heat) It had many clusters of cherry blossom trees, lakes and traditional Chinese architecture, which were all very beautiful to wander around on the first day. I also loved exploring the streets of Beijing, getting sweet treats and noodles from the busy Night Market and making new friends at the school we visited!
Overall it was a really fun week which I loved and I would definitely visit again if I had the opportunity. Plus, it really helped me solidify the spoken language in preparation for my GCSE’s!”
Mabel – Year 11 Student
“Our trip to China in the spring holidays was a really fun and interesting experience, we got to explore temples and palaces dating back thousands of years as well as meet new friends at a chinese school and eat some incredible food. My favourite activity was walking along the great wall of china as we got to enjoy some spectacular views and practise our language skills chatting to fellow hikers along the route. Overall, the trip was an exciting adventure and I can’t wait to improve my Mandarin so that I can hopefully one day visit again.”
Jessica – Year 10 Student
Friday 22nd March saw KWS open it’s doors to host our first ever Ramadan dinner (iftar) as a collaborative effort with Harpenden Community Circle.
As the first Harpenden school to host an iftar, we invited people from the local area as well as a number of KWS families which resulted in us hosting 14 different local community organisations including schools and charities.
We asked guests to bring donations for the St Albans & Distract Foodbank who took a mammoth amount of donations back to their warehouse and were very grateful to their donors. As well as an action packed quiz hosted by Josh E and Rayan Plooking at the commonalities between the Abrahamic faiths, we also had organised activities for our guests to enjoy in between a 3 course meal being served.
As an interfaith event we had guests from all faiths and of no faith in attendance and feedback has been full of requests for it to be repeated next year – so watch this space!
A big thank you to everyone who gave their time in helping transform the school hall into a beautiful setting and also helping to clear up.
Miss Annie
Atomic physicist and member of the Magic Circle, Dr Matt Pritchard, gave an inspiring maths presentation to year 7 and 8 students on Tuesday 19th March. The highlights included anamorphic illusions, where normal objects turn out to be anything but, when the viewpoint is changed and changing the area of two ‘identical’ shapes by re-arranging them; before proving they were not actually identical. He also managed to show how a student can step ‘through’ an A4 sheet of paper!
On Tuesday 19th March KWS welcomed Anthony Glenn, from Shaking Up Shakespeare to perform his fast-paced and fully interactive one man show of Romeo and Juliet to Year 8.
Having studied the play earlier in the year, this was a great opportunity to see it as it was meant to be – performed, live, on a stage.
As usual, the performance was funny and tragic in equal measure and Year 8 were fantastic, volunteering and playing their parts with gusto.
They all had a great time!
Mrs McPartlin
