We are pleased to announce that there is now a Parkrun Junior event hosted at Katherine Warington School each Sunday morning at 9:00am. It’s free to enter you just need to enter on the Parkrun website to get a barcode to scan and track your times.
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/katherinewaringtonschool-juniors/
There are also volunteering opportunities for those parents/students who are interested in volunteering. This can be useful if you are doing DofE.
In PE, we have had a series of fixtures to conclude the fixture calendar for this academic term.
Our Year 8 boys have progressed to the quarter finals of the county cup after a dominant 6-1 win. Goals from Ethan H x2, Ed J, Thomas C, Ayaan and Juan J-B saw us secure our place in the next round in January. The boys played very well in challenging conditions and we very much look forward to the next round.
Our U13 girls had a fantastic experience playing in a football tournament at Watford’s training ground. The girls equipped themselves very well, finishing 3rd overall.
Well done to both Isobel J and Ali C who represented Hertfordshire county schools this week. ⚽️ They both represented KWS with pride and we are all proud of you.
Our rugby season concluded with a blocked fixture against Beaumont. Year 7&8 yet again dominated their fixtures, demonstrating solid defence as well as evasive ball carrying in possession. Both these age groups have shown themselves to be very strong within the district. To that end, Year 7 won a district competition hosted by Nicholas Breakspear School, without conceding a try in the tournament. A Daniel Penfold try late in the game won the tournament for KWS. Well done to our Year 9 squad too – the focus for next year is increasing the squad size.
We look forward to welcoming the inclusion of two additional blocked fixtures next year – against Dame Alice Owen and Watford Grammar.
Well done to our u12 netball team on their 10-4 win over SJL in the district cup. They are now into the semi final, so good luck with that. POM was identified as Sophia D. Also we wanted to mention the Year 8A netball team on their 20-12 win v NBS. POM Scarlett🏐.
Penultimately, as I am sure you are aware, we are in the exciting position now where our 3G astroturf pitch will be available to use from January. With this in mind, we need to ensure all students using the pitch have the correct footwear. Students will therefore need plastic-studded footwear only, whilst flat soled, metal studs and dimpled shoes/trainers are not allowed. All students in Year 7-9 will need to ensure they have the correct footwear for the astroturf in January. Students in Year 10 and 11 who take part in outside sports during their core PE lessons will also require the correct footwear, as well as any students wanting to use it during break and lunchtimes (when it is available to be used).
In the short term, all students in Year 7-9 will all be required to have plastic-studded boots for their curriculum lessons in the first 3 weeks in January. In the long term, Year 7-9 students will be given advanced notice of when they will require boots and when they will need just trainers.
While we appreciate that this comes at an expense to parents, we very much appreciate your support with this and also hope you recognise what a fantastic facility your child has available to use.
Finally, rugby training is on tomorrow at St Albans Rugby Club in Smallford from 9-10am. All are welcome to attend with gumshields.
Mr Alexander
On Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th December, 104 pupils in Yr11 visited the Radlett Reform Synagogue as part of their Jewish Practices module within GCSE Religious Studies.
It was a great opportunity to experience some of the things that have been and will be studied, and will hopefully aid pupils in their very first GCSE exam in May. Pupils used the visit to ask questions about Judaism in today’s society and to learn more about the different ways Judaism is followed in Reform and Orthodox communities.
Pupils also got to see first hand what it was like to use some of the articles of faith such as the tallit (prayer shawl) as well as having a look at a Torah scroll that was nearly two hundred years old and that had been hidden from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust.
Mr Hiscock
Firstly, a reminder that the students always have access to their eLibrary and that all books in the library are also available to be borrowed for the holidays. If they take them out now, they won’t be due back until January and we have some really wonderful new books available. If they are in Year 7 and 8, they can also keep recording their reads for their reading challenges – nothing better that curling up with a book on a cold and snowy (or perhaps, more realistically, rainy) December day!
Last week, in year 7 library lessons, we ran a book spine poetry competition. This involved the students searching the library to pick books whose titles could go together to make a poem. We were very impressed with how hard all the students worked and the brilliant poems they produced. It was very hard to choose our top three but congratulations to Dexter R, Harris MM, Tom F and Jayden JB; Martha H, Evie T and Izzy H; and, Emma M, Emily W and Melissa N – your poems were our top three, so you win a prize and your poems will be displayed up in the library in the new year.
Finally, last week we also ran a wonderful lunchtime crafting session. Students from across the school came at lunchtime to help decorate our library for Christmas and we were very impressed by how responsibly they worked.
Happy Christmas!
The Library
It’s been another busy few weeks in the library. Last week, we had the pleasure of distributing new books to our Year 7s in their library lessons. At the beginning of term, they chose one book out of a selection of sixteen offered by the Book Trust’s Book Buzz programme and, now that all the chosen books have arrived, we enjoyed handing them all out together with a new KWS bookmark for each student.
We have also been celebrating Non-fiction November with a series of library lessons aimed at helping students learn to navigate their way through a non-fiction book, a useful skill that they will need as they progress through school.
Finally, it has been great to see the reviews that our Year 7s have been submitting about the fantasy books they are reading for their Year 7 Reading Challenge. They still have until the end of term to read and review two fantasy books and we can’t wait to see what else they have all been reading.
A massive thank you to the generous KWS community for contributing to the Rotary boxes. The shoe boxes have now left KWS and are making their way to children in orphanages and to elderly people in eastern Europe.
On Sunday we had 16 students compete at the Eastern Region Trampoline competition at Hitchin Boys’ School. First up saw the year 7-8 girls novice team (Rose S, Lucy H, Ethel M, Sophie D) who competed well against some tough competition. The year 9-10 girls novice team (Eden A, Sophie K, Jess H, Nissi M) put in some superb performances and came 4th. Izzy J was entered in this category as an individual and competed her best routines to date. In the boys category we had some great results. George R placed 6th in the year 7-8 novice group just missing out on a qualification place for the next round. Jude D and Ollie T competed in the year 9-10 novice category and have both qualified for the Zonal round in January placing 5th and 3rd respectively. Will E has also qualified in 5th place in the year 10-14 intermediate category which is a fantastic achievement. To finish a successful day, the year 7-9 elite boys team (Riley W, Matthew P, Josh P) were crowned Regional Champions and placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd individually. Congratulations to all students and we are looking forward to the next round of competition!
In PE, we’ve had a large number of successes in sporting fixtures over the last few weeks.
In rugby, we’ve had a full on few weeks with consecutive Saturday fixtures against Sandringham, Samuel Ryder and Sir John Lawes either side of half term. All games have been highly competitive and there have been some outstanding performances and commitment, most notably from our Year 7 and 8 teams in all those games. We have 2 remaining games – against Verulam (date yet to be confirmed) and Beaumont, although Year 7 have a tournament at Nicholas Breakspear School this Saturday. There will be no training for all other year groups this weekend.
We’ve also had a series of netball fixtures. Our Year 9A side had an excellent win against Malborough with Imogen D identified as the player of the match. Our Yr 7A and 8A squads have also had fixtures vs St Albans High School, with Scarlett and Sophie identified for impressive contributions.Year 11s suffered an unfortunate loss to Roundwood in the district cup, losing narrowly 18-21, but with Eva-Rose M being our stand out player.
We have also made positive strides in football. Our U13 girls and boys are both through to the next round of the country cup. Our U13 girls won 1-0 against Adeyfield, with Georgia R recognised for an excellent performance. Our Year 8 boys played some fantastic attacking play scoring 5 as they booked their place into the next round. Lots of excellent performances but Ed J, Ethan H (scored a hatrick) and Juan J-B were key players in us being such an attacking threat.
Finally, we also wanted to recognise Ethel M in Year 7 competing in the Eastern Regional Copper Gymnastics Championships against a tough field. She placed 3rd overall and was also crowned regional floor champion. Well done on an excellent achievement.
Mr Alexander
Last week, we took the wonderful year 7s to Norfolk to develop students’ social skills and to build new friendships. The students had the opportunity to try exciting activities such as kayaking, fencing and caving. The experience offered students a safe and supportive environment to try new activities outside of the classroom.
For a lot of our students, this was their first time away from home for longer than a night. But we noticed students becoming more independent throughout the experience.
During the 3 day trip, we saw how much students valued time with friends to build or strengthen friendships. Relationship building is what we encourage for residential trips. In groups we spend the day working in teams to solve brain teasers, encouraging peers to overcome fears and jumping into lakes.
The trip gave both students and staff a chance to connect and get to know each other. I think myself and everyone involved can agree that this experience was a positive one. Here’s what our students said:
‘’I made lots of friends and enjoyed every bit of it. From jumping into the river to caving. It was all amazing. I could see everyone smiling and enjoying the time together. I recommend manor, it is a fun place to go and visit.’’ – Taya B
‘’I really enjoyed spending time with new and old friends as it was a great time to get to know each other and find things out that we didn’t know before.’’ Lori C
‘’The trip was so fun and the food was good. 10 out of 10! ‘’ Ryan C
Miss Rebecca Alexis
Head Of Year 7
This week all students in Computing lessons took part in the Bebras challenge. The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students. Each participant answers questions that focus on computational and logical thinking. Students in the top 20% of the Country go through to the next round. Good luck all!
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
Katherine Warington School,
Lower Luton Road,
Harpenden,
Hertfordshire,
AL5 5FH
Telephone: 01582 314777
admin@kwschool.co.uk