Well done to all sports teams this term. There have been a number of standout teams and also individual performances in gymnastics, basketball, netball and football just to name a few.
Last week marked our Inter-House Sports tournaments in football, netball, benchball (due to the weather) and badminton. It was fantastic to see so many students competing for their house and showcasing sporting talent across the school. After all the scores were counted up for all the different sports, congratulations to Nightingale on winning the overall competition, with Franklin finishing second.
Finally in PE, we celebrated Careers Month this month by asking students to design their own sporting activity before delivering and teaching it to another group of students. This developed key skills such as communication, collaboration and also got students to experience how they might cope with behaviour challenges! All groups produced some fantastic activities and also considered how they could adapt the session to make it easier or more challenging. Well done.
We look forward to athletics, cricket and rounders in the summer term.
We are excited to announce that we are partnering with HomeRun App to help parents connect to others living nearby and make journey-sharing easier. The app is a secure, digital platform that will enable you to:
Share lifts with nearby families to reduce the time and cost of driving to school
Contact other parents securely, sharing personal contact information on a needs-only basis
Ensure safer independent travel for your children by arranging travel buddies
Receive information promptly about any changes to the arrival times of students returning from trips
Receive up to date information on the school’s travel and environmental initiatives
The app also provides the school with anonymised journey information so that we can understand our school commute footprint and view our progress towards more sustainable travel.
We will be launching the app by emailing out a sign-up link after the Easter holidays.
What do scissor-action grabbers, vending machine claws and parachutes all have in common? They are ingenious student inventions for handling a radioactive meteorite (A.K.A. a tennis ball).
Last Wednesday KWS had the privilege of hosting the 23rd annual Rotary Technology Tournament in the sports hall – an inter-school competition for Design and Technology students.
Our students competed against 30 teams from at least 7 local secondary schools to design and build devices to retrieve a ball from within a protective case 1.5 metres away, in under 4 hours – a true engineering challenge.
Congratulations to Thomas R, Will E, Taye L, Lucas C, Dean H and Luke G who, whilst being some of the youngest in their category, dreamed up devices that successfully extracted the meteorite. Such was the energy and enjoyment of the day; we would love to enter more teams next year. If this gets your gears turning come and talk to any of the DT Department to find out more.
British Science week 2023 is upon us and we’re gearing up to celebrate it at KWS during our KS3 science lessons in the week beginning 20th March. Year 7, 8 and 9 students will have a range of tasks during their science lessons – looking at STEM careers, tardigrades, egg parachutes and the Van De Graaff generator to name but a few.
There will also be a variety of other activities on offer throughout the week including a science joke competition, science scavenger hunt and David Attenborough documentaries lunchtime club – make sure to get involved!
As part of science week 195 of our Year 7 students visited the STEM centre in Stevenage to participate in practical sessions which link to our curriculum across STEM subjects. Split across 2 days, the students didn’t let the weather deter them and threw themselves into the tasks on offer.
We started off by creating DNA keyrings. The students learnt about the 4 bases that make up DNA (adenine – A, thymine – T, cytosine – C and guanine – G) and discussed Rosalin Franklin’s role in discovering the structure of DNA along with Watson and Crick. Students then selected a DNA code from a species and set about creating a keyring from beads and pipe cleaners. Each base was given a colour (e.g. yellow was chosen for A and grey for T) and paired up with its complementary pair (A with T and C with G) to form the famous DNA double helix structure.
Next, the students had an opportunity to practise their SCRATCH coding skills by creating a maze game. Each pair chose their character and programmed the maze to correspond keystrokes for movement and prevent their characters from being able to walk through walls. The most inventive team chose a car as their character and managed to programme the car to rotate as it changed direction to ensure it was always driving forwards! With their mazes safely navigated, the group were then given the unique opportunity to view the recreated Martian surface and Airbus prototype Mars rover in action; alongside the scientists who have developed and tested the rover. We discussed the advantage of programming the latest rover, Rosalin, with AI (artificial intelligence) which would enable the rover to more safely navigate the treacherous surface of Mars, without the need for human input. Current rovers can take hours to navigate a few metres, with the time delay of sending instructions to the rover from earth.
The design process and concept of learning from prototypes served our Year 7’s well in their final task – designing rockets. Linking in with the work completed on forces this year, within their teams, students created individual prototype rockets before testing them outside; using pressurised air to launch them. The students then evaluated the performance of their prototypes before creating a single, improved prototype within their team. There were some difficult choices – go over budget on materials and lose their fuel allowance or use fewer resources but risk a catastrophic failure due to a weak structure or over-fuelling. There were some truly spectacular rockets, with twisted tail fins, inspired by the fletching on arrows, a particular success.
When the students were not involved with the 3 main tasks they explored the numerous interactive exhibits on offer. The highlight was a sandbox with a scanner that read the topography of the shapes created. It would then project an interactive image onto the sand, with low areas becoming rivers and high ground mountains – depending on the settings, students could also create volcanoes!
A huge congratulations to all the students that were involved over the 2 days, we hope this has shown you some of the exciting careers that a future in science could lead to.
Mr Lambert
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-16-at-4.39.40-pm.png12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2023-03-17 13:25:352023-03-17 13:25:35STEM Trip and Science Week
Tesla would like to launch our Easter event! Are you our KWS Star Baker?
Introducing The Great KWS Easter Bake Off!
Students (from any house) make and decorate cakes at home and enter them into our competition. House points will be awarded to all entrants and big points are on offer to the winner’s & runner’s up.
Dates are as follows:
Monday 27th March – Cakes made at home, brought into school
Tuesday 28th March – Judged by neutral KWS “Paul & Prue”
Wednesday 29th March – Cakes auctioned
Thursday 30th March – Sliced cake sale of any un-auctioned cakes
Mrs Gaydon
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/hhg-easter-bake-off-graphic-1648124301.jpg15401881Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2023-03-17 13:20:002023-03-18 16:37:57The Great KWS Easter Bake Off!
On Wednesday our KWS Dance Company competed in The Great Big Dance Off at The Gordon Craig Theatre. We were up against a number of schools within our region in the KS3 category, with our team consisting of students from Year 7, 8 and 9. We were fortunate enough to be able to perform on a professional stage, whilst able to appreciate the work of other dance students in the area.
The students worked extremely hard in preparation for the competition, and performed a stunning lyrical/contemporary routine to ‘In this Shirt’. Unfortunately we didn’t progress to the final (only by a narrow 4 points), but are hoping to return next year ready to take the trophy!
Miss Patterson and the Performing Arts Team are extremely proud of the team and is excited for future opportunities of Dance at KWS.
Massive congratulations to the students involved; Anaya B, Ava A, Bea B, Mia K, Ruby H, Anastasia H Rebecca R, Eliza K, Sophie C, Liana N, Halle B and Imogen W.
Over 100 actors, singers and musicians are busy preparing for this year’s production which is Shrek the Musical. This incredible production brings the beloved story of Shrek to life on stage.
There will be four performances running from 18th May to 20th May at 7.00pm with a matinee performance on the Saturday at 2.30pm
We are also looking for sponsors and advertisers for the programme. If you are interested in discussing these opportunities, please contact enquiries@kw-arts.co.uk for more information.
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-16-at-4.56.48-pm.png12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2023-03-17 12:59:232023-03-17 12:59:23Shrek The Musical
On Wednesday 8th of March, Miss Annie organised a bake sale to raise money for earthquake victims out in Turkey. We managed to raise £360 even though it was a last minute bake sale.
Miss Annie travelled to Turkey and distributed this money to the earthquake victims herself on behalf of KWS.
Thank you for all of your contributions to the cause!
Miss Annie
https://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image_67506177.jpg12001600Chrissy Dickshttps://kwschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/smlogo.pngChrissy Dicks2023-03-17 12:57:382023-03-17 12:57:38KWS Bake Sale
On Wednesday 15th March Cisco employees Emily, Areek and Hatti came in and delivered a coding session to a group of Year 8 students.
The session was interactive and students coded several games using Python. They had a talk regarding Data, 5G, driverless cars, technology use in healthcare and smart cities. At the end of the session students were presented with certificates for their brilliant engagement and participation during the session.
Sam P-S Year 8 writes “On Tuesday some students were at a coding workshop run by Cisco. We were learning how to use code to create games as well as the importance of coding and 5g. At the start of the session, we were given a link to instructions to make a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It took about 35 minutes. The end result was a game where we wrote either r, p or s to choose our item and the computer would randomly choose one too. We had to write multiple lines of code for each possibility. After that, we were given a presentation about coding and its uses in jobs as well as the possibilities that 5g internet could provide. These were things like, self driving cars, energy efficient street lights and more efficient healthcare services. It was a great experience and we all enjoyed it a lot.”
We are delighted to announce that from Easter, we are now able to offer tuition in LAMDA as part of our peripatetic service. LAMDA tuition can take a variety of forms including elocution, public speaking and verse and prose.
These sessions are ideal for those wishing to either pursue a career in the performing arts, or for those who would like to develop their confidence in speaking to or presenting to others.
The sessions can be either 20 minutes or 30 minutes long and are delivered on a one to one basis with one of our highly qualified teachers and cost £150 or £222.50 respectively for 10 lessons.
If you would like more information, please contact our Performing Arts team at enquiries@kw-arts.co.uk
