The last few weeks have seen our students and staff take part in a variety of activities around the school to mark Black History Month. As well as assemblies for each year group discussing the theme of  ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’ which recognises the strength and resilience of Black communities globally, our students were invited to take part in poetry workshops with Adisa the Verbalizer organised by Mrs Yates.

Additionally, KWS were invited by Herts for Learning to a conference hosted by Kit Brown, a primary school teacher, who has found social media stardom through his messages of hope and resilience and is now in talks with Downing Street and the BBC to help raise aspirations amongst young people.

Accompanied by Mrs Hobson and Miss Annie, our Sixth Form student leaders visited the Nobel School in Stevenage, where Kit spoke about his life experiences, inspiring young people as a role model in overcoming challenges.

It has also been a month of reflection, with Mr Bowsher hosting Year group assemblies looking at the contributions made by African Caribbean military personnel in the World Wars for Britain and how without those, Britain would be a very different place today.

Our Year 10 and Year 11 Drama students took a thrilling trip to the historic Alexandra Palace Theatre to watch The Woman in Black – and it certainly didn’t disappoint! From ghostly whispers to heart-stopping jumps, the performance brought live theatre to life in the most spine-tingling way. Students will now use this unforgettable experience to analyse and evaluate the production for their GCSE exams, exploring how acting, design and atmosphere combine to create real theatrical magic.

Football

The Year 9 girls’ football team have made a strong start to their national cup campaign. They beat Queen’s School 2-1 and then played Lealands, winning by a 4-2 scoreline. The girls will now play Samuel Whitbread in round 3, which we look forward to. 

Well done to the U13 girls’ football team who won 3-0 against Aldenham in the first round of the county cup.

This week, Sophie K, Isabelle K, Martha H, Hannah D, Lucy H, Poppy D and Amelia S competed in a district 6-aside tournament organised by Harpenden Colts FC and came away winners, which was a fantastic effort. The girls played excellently throughout.

Good luck to Sophie Kenton in Year 9 who is representing Hertfordshire Schools FA in their national cup game versus Dorset on Sunday.

We currently have around 40 girls that have been attending Friday morning football club from 7.45-8.30 on the astroturf, which is fantastic! If you are keen to come along, all are welcome! 

The U12 boys won 1-0 away to Marriotts in the County Cup round 1 on Monday evening. Mendecee with a sweet free kick into the top corner from 25 yards proved the difference. They will now play Tring in the next round.

The U14 boys beat Samuel Ryder away for the second time this year, with a 3-2 scoreline, in the second round of the national cup on Wednesday evening. Coming back from 2-1 down, Ryan C scored a brace and John D notched the winning goal from a corner with 5 minutes to go to clinch the game.

Our U15 boys’ football team have had some excellent wins in 2 rounds of the national cup with challenging away days at Redborne Upper and Wixams Academy. All the boys in the squad have performed brilliantly when called upon. Their county cup participation starts this afternoon.

Lastly, our sixth form football team followed up a convincing friendly win against Townsend, with a big win against Simon Balle in the second round of the national cup. Having led 1-0 at half time, the boys really turned it on in the second half, including a hat trick from Ollie T.

Basketball

Well done to our undefeated Year 9 basketball team beating Marlborough, RPS and Beaumont in the past couple of weeks. Looking forward to your exciting match up at Sandringham on the 22nd October. 

Rugby

During a tough block of fixtures against Roundwood, the boys showed heart throughout with some impressive performances from a number of students in Years 7 to 9. We look forward to fixtures for Years 7&8 against Sandringham this weekend.

Netball

The Year 9 and 10 netball teams have started off their league campaign. Both A teams are in Division 1, which our B sides are in Division 2. Well done for close games against Roundwood and Samuel Ryder and then promising wins against STAGS too.

Cross Country

Well done to all the students who competed in the district league cross country over the last 4 weeks. A special shout out to Ella Potten in Year 10 for consistently finishing within the top 4 competitors each week. 

Fixture Access and Club Timetable

Please find attached the club timetable for this academic term. Please note that the trampolining squad is a selective club with students having participated in trials at the start of the year. Currently we do not have a trampolining club just for participation, but we hope to introduce that at a later time in the school’s growth. Similarly, football training after school is only for those that are selected for their respective year group’s squad. For our new year 7s, this trial process is over a number of weeks to allow students time to be watched. Students who do not represent school squads in football have ample opportunity to play football on the astroturf during lunch times and also during period 7. 

Please use this link to find sporting fixtures, not SOCS: 

https://kwschool.co.uk/sports-calendar/

This weblink is updated regularly and the most accurate in terms of dates. SOCS is used for parental consent for fixtures and is only updated with fixtures on a week by week basis. 

For Saturdays and boys’ rugby and football fixtures, assume that if there is not a fixture on that weekend, there will then be a training session.

The children’s publisher Puffin has issued an alert regarding books authored by Andy Cope including those in the Spy Dogs, Spy Cats, and Spy Pup series.

Within the books, there is a link which encourages children to find out about additional information told during the story. The link is intended to take children to Mr Cope’s web page, however the domain is no longer owned by him and instead the link will direct children to a web page now owned by a third party. This third party is publishing pornographic content. There is no suggestion that Puffin or Mr Cope are responsible for the pornographic materials, and the content of the actual stories are fine to read, however if any children access the link with the intent to learn more about the story online they will be exposed to highly inappropriate materials.

Puffin has paused sales, and libraries and retailers have removed these books from their shelves until further notice.

Schools are being asked to share information with parents so you can check your children’s books at home and speak to them about talking to an adult first before following any links within books that they read.

We do not have any books by the author in our school library.

Last week saw our Year 12 Sports Leaders begin a term of Football Coaching for the Girls and Boys teams at St Helen’s Primary School in Wheathampstead.  Four of our Year 12 students head down every Monday during Period 7 to coach the Y5 and 6 Girls and Boys Teams for an hour long session after school.  This is a fantastic opportunity for our leaders to develop their coaching skills whilst supporting the next generation of players.

They do a fantastic job leading the activities – showing energy, team work, and encouragement to inspire the younger pupils.  Both the Headteacher and Deputy at St Helen’s are hugely appreciative of their efforts and are excited to see the partnership continue.

Emily even popped along to coach the girls team in their first matches of the season last Friday, in the pouring rain.  Deputy Head Alistair Denton outlined “Both teams won their games and really appreciated having Emily there to support them”.   Keep up the great work Year 12!