Over the past fortnight, Cisco have come in to deliver some workshops with students. 

They delivered a session for year 7 students on programming. Students had the opportunity to advance their programming skills by coding a rock, paper and scissor game. This complemented what they had learnt in computing lessons the term before. 

For Year 10’s, they led a design workshop where students worked in groups to come up with their own technology which utilised 5G. They learnt about the development of data over the years and what it is like to work as a software engineer. They looked at real world scenarios and learnt the importance of working as a team. Students had to present their ideas during the session explaining the impact of the technology.

In the library we have a new “Celebrating Neurodiversity” display which contains some really informative non-fiction books and also some good stories with neurodivergent characters. Students have been very interested in the display and it has opened up many positive discussions.

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. 

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.

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

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!