The Knights Templar School Headteacher: Park Street Mr T. Litchfield, G.G.S.M. Baldock

Herts SG7 6DZ

Email: admin@ktemplar.herts.sch.uk Tel: 01462 620700 www.ktemplar.herts.sch.uk Fax: 01462 620701

PARENTAL WEEKLY UPDATE – 1st October 2015 (also available on our website)

Dear Parents and Carers You will be receiving this parental bulletin through our new communications system. The new system will help us keep you more informed about school and particularly about your son or daughter’s progress. For example, when your child gets a positive referral from one of their teachers, you will receive an email informing you of this – this will give you an opportunity to ask about the lesson and their achievement. We will also be sending reports and other important school information to you in this manner. Data checking sheets will be sent to you via the students in the next few days – please ensure that the information on the document is correct, make any adjustments necessary and please return to the form tutor as soon as possible. We will use this information to communicate with you. I do hope that you are attending the Careers Fair this evening (Year 10 – 13 students and parents) – all the details are on the school website. There are well over 40 local and national employers in attendance – a great opportunity not to be missed.! Last Friday the whole school got involved in the National Macmillan Coffee morning event. I am most grateful to the students and parents who baked cakes for this spectacular event! We had over 3,000 cakes available for our students to eat. All students and staff contributed £2 and we have raised in excess of £2,500 for Macmillan – a wonderful achievement. Individual students also did some impressive things: Harry Colton (8 Templar) raised £426 by baking and selling cakes at his stepfather’s workplace – congratulation to Harry and all other students who made a special effort for Macmillan. This link takes you to a video created by Lauren Marshall (Year 13) which captures the event perfectly! I am delighted to announce that the building work for our new Science Centre has started. We are very hopeful that we will be moving in at the back end of this academic year. We will keep you informed of progress as the year develops. As you can imagine, the build has significantly reduced the amount of parking space on the site, so can I pre-warn you please that when we have a school event (parents evening etc), parking will be very limited and on some occasions, there will be no parking at all. Please do walk to our events if you can and if not, please find streets around the school where you can safely park. (picture below: Mr Litchfield with Head Boy and Girl, Barney Taylor and Lucy Murrell and the site manager)

Finally, may I inform you of the staff training day that took place yesterday (30th September). All teaching staff spent the day exploring ways to personalise the learning experience for your child – an area that we do very well at, but strive to be even better! The day was led by an external provider and was hugely engaging and useful with a wide range of practical ideas given.

Kind Regards, Tim Litchfield Headteacher Dates for your diary:

01/10/2015 Thursday Yr 11 Revision Cracked Seminars (Periods 1-4) Careers Fair, 6.30pm-8.30pm, Hall

02/10/2015 Friday Yr 11 Revision Cracked Seminars (Periods 1-4) Yr 12&13 Trip to Macbeth, Letchworth Broadway

03/10/2015 Saturday Silver DofE Assessment Expedition 2, Peak District - returns 6th

04/10/2015 Sunday Silver DofE Assessment Expedition 2, Peak District

05/10/2015 Monday Yr 12 Blencathra Geography Field Trip (returns 8th) Silver DofE Assessment Expedition 2, Peak District

06/10/2015 Tuesday Yr 12 Blencathra Geography Field Trip Yr 7-9 G&T Music Trip to Cineworld, Stevenage, 10.30am-2.20pm Yr10-13 Drama Splendid Production performance of 'Odyssey', Hall (2.20-5.30) Silver DofE Assessment Expedition 2, Peak District - returns

07/10/2015 Wednesday Yr11-13 Drama Theatre Trip to The Lord of the Flies, 1.20pm-5pm, Cambridge Corn Exchange Yr 12 Blencathra Geography Field Trip

08/10/2015 Thursday Yr 6 Open Morning, 9.30am - 12 noon Yr 7 Rugby Festival, 12.30pm-4pm, Stevenage RFC Yr 12 Blencathra Geography Field Trip returns VIth Form Big Quiz

09/10/2015 Friday Yr 6 Open Morning, 9.30am - 12 noon Yr 13 CV and letters of applications for Mock Interviews deadline Yr 7-9 Music of Bond Concert, 5pm-11pm, Royal Albert Hall

News from the Music Department: Next Tuesday, 6th October we are taking a group of our gifted and talented year 7, 8 & 9 students to see a performance of the BBC’s Ten Pieces at Cineworld Stevenage. The aim of this exciting new initiative is to open up the world of classical music to children aged 11 and above and to inspire them to respond creatively to the repertoire. Following the trip, students will take part in a composition workshop. Please return your reply slips for The Music of Bond trip which takes place next Friday, 9th October. This trip is open to years 7 to 9. Further information can be obtained from the Music Office. The Counterpoint Choir present an evening of music at St. Faith’s Church, Kelshall at 7.30pm on Friday 16th October. Tickets are available on the door: Adults £10.00, Students £5.00 and Under 12s free.

A Web of Intriguing News, Opinion and Features NewsKnight is back! The school’s magazine has returned in web form at http://www.ktsnewsknight.com/ and is bigger and better than ever. The brand new website features opinion pieces, podcasts, photo albums and articles on all the latest school events. For updates, you can follow us on Twitter @KTSNewsknight.

Ben Summer

News from the Drama Department Nell Gwynn at The Globe: we’d highly recommend this hilarious comedy based on the story of the first actress of the English stage. A great visit enjoyed by all last Thursday evening! Our Country’s Good at the National Theatre: Y12 and Y13 Drama students spent the whole day at the National Theatre on Tuesday this week, starting with a conference about the play and then seeing this wonderful interpretation of a modern classic. Next week we are looking forward to a visit from Splendid Productions with their performance of The Odyssey on Tuesday afternoon and a theatre trip to see Lord of the Flies in Cambridge on Wednesday. Finally, we like to invite you to the KTS Sixth Form Drama Performance Evening on Wednesday 14th October, 7pm in the Drama Studio. All of our Y12 and Y13 Drama students will be performing extracts for the texts that they are studying, including Antigone and Our Country’s Good. This is a fantastic opportunity to see our talented actors in action! This performance is appropriate for Year 9 students and above. Knights Templar Library Inductions and the Public Library The library has been working hard with our Year 7 pupils to ensure they are familiar with all the wonderful facilities and services the library can offer. Students have been trained to search our online catalogue and issued with a library card. As part of their induction we are keen to ensure all our new and existing pupils are members of the Public Library Service. Membership is free and allows pupils access to greater book stock, electronic books and a selection of on-line databases. Please enquire at your local library for further details. Rugby News – Year 8 and 9 Mr Smith and Mr Raymen took charge of the Year 8 and 9 rugby teams who played Beaumont School on Saturday 26th September. The year 8 boys played at home on a fantastic autumn morning with lots of parents watching. They were unfortunately outplayed on this occasion but put in a very spirited performance with the score line at 42-20. Tries were scored by Dom Merrell, Will Bruning, Joe Howson and Gage Harrigan . Man of the Match went to usual scrum half Dom Merrell who played out of position as a prop and was fantastic! The year 9’s were narrowly pipped in a in a thrilling match that finished 34-29. Standout performances from Daltrey White, Toby Arnold, Dan Ward and Rohan Bhalla helped to rally the KTS boys, showing a fiery, competitive spirit against a very experienced and talented Beaumont side. We would like to congratulate all of the boys involved for their efforts at the weekend! Senior Netball The team played really well on Tuesday and came away from JHN with 2 wins. We beat JHN 9-8 and St Chris 9-6. Outstanding performances from Amy Clarke (Yr 11) and Georgina Crowther (13) Well done. Girls’ Football Success Congratulations to Charlotte Kingsbury in Year 9, who has been selected to join the South Wales Girls Football Squad. This squad, along with the North Wales Squad, feeds into the Wales U16 National Squad. We would like to wish Charlotte luck as she attends the training camps in the coming weeks.

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is launching a new way for young people to access advice and support about health related issues. This service will be available to all secondary schools from September 2015. Chat Health is a confidential school nurse messaging service for young people aged 11-19 years, available Monday to Friday from

9am to 4pm (automatic bounce-backs respond to incoming messages out of hours). This will provide a quick way for young people to access a health professional with an allocated nurse being on duty for Hertfordshire each day. The evidence base shows that children and young people are experiencing increasing levels of emotional distress with one in ten children suffering from a mental health disorder and one in fifteen self-harming with many needing hospitalisation as a result of this (YoungMinds, 2011). This service will improve access to support, advice and signposting to support the health of young people. The text number is 07480 635050. Year 7 BCG Consent Forms All Year 7 pupils should have brought home a letter and consent form for the BCG vaccine. Some have been returned but there are still a lot more that should come back to me. Please return them asap, as the School Nurse Team would like them all returned, even if the vaccine is not required. The consent form is on the school web site for you to copy if necessary, or I have some spares in the medical room. Thank you

Mrs Mance Medical Student Services

Baldock ‘dragons’ arrive at KTS The year 10 business students were tasked with preparing a presentation on the marketing of a new product they had developed. Each of the teams presented their proposals and were ‘grilled’ on the content by 4 ‘dragons’. The students commented “It was great fun to prepare and present, but the dragons were hard task masters and some of their questions really put us on the spot”.

Over two days the teams competed against other with the dragons finding it hard to decide on a clear winner. The first winning team was made up of Molly Armstrong and Chloe Duggan with their inventive product the ‘timetable touch’. The other teams were Blue Clock, Nano Cam MPC, Magic Mirror and Juan equals 2. Two of the

dragons were senior 6th form business prefects, Fran Rowley and Caprice Brookes, who commented “The presentations were professional with original ideas and the groups definitely used their individual strengths when presenting”. The second day’s winning team was just as equally difficult to decide upon. The winning team being made up of Sam Chapman and Jack Brown with their product being ‘Autopaste’. The other teams involved were RTG, Knife & Co, Twirl bar, Visual Sounds and Sleepness Nights. Mr Clayton commented “it was excellent to see our new year 10 students already being involved in presenting their ideas under pressure, especially as they did not know who the dragons were!”

Local estate agent, Satchells, presents to year 11 business students

Alan Hilditch, owner of Satchells estate agency visited KTS to present on his business. The focus of his presentation was to enable Mr Vallier’s year 11 students to gain a real understanding of Satchells location, which is their focus for their upcoming controlled assessment this year.

Alan went into great detail in his presentation on the location of his Baldock office. The students had an opportunity to ask their

own questions which gave them relevant answers to access the higher marks. The students were impressed with Alan’s presentation and Alan with the students answers and if offered some the opportunity in the future to work for him! Mr Vallier, Head of Business and Social Sciences Faculty

Sixth Form News Macmillan coffee morning We would like to thank our wonderful team of sixth form students who organised and led a truly amazing Macmillan coffee morning last Friday. The students advertised the event heavily to the student body, encouraging students and families to bake cakes for the event. They did such a brilliant job in this regard that over 900 cakes were baked and brought to school on that Friday morning- a terrific accomplishment! The sixth form students then organised a ‘bake-off ’ competition where Mr Allman, Miss Barker, Miss Harrison and Mr Raymen judged the cakes on their aesthetic beauty, resulting in an eventual winning form in every year group. With the sun shining and staff and students alike enjoying a well- deserved break time cake and beverage, a terrific day was had by all! Well done to the sixth form students involved with the logistics of organising such a large scale event! KTS students hailed as 3 of the best young people in the county

Year 13 students Lauren Marshall, Lucy Merrell (Head Girl) and Meghan Porter have

been rewarded for all of their voluntary work, both in and out of school, with a place in

the Hertfordshire Young Person of the Year Final. The students were initially nominated

as part of a larger group of students but have been selected from a huge number of

nominees from all around the county for the ‘YOPEY Finals’ which will take place in just

over one month’s time. The students have received this high accolade in recognition of

their various voluntary work as part of the mentoring programme, working with

children with special educational needs and contributing to sport and dance in the local

community. We are very proud of the students for getting this far in the competition

and wish them the best of luck in the finals!

Hat-trick hero Laughton strikes for KTS

The senior boys’ football team put their training with Biggleswade

United pro-license coaches to good use by utterly dominating

proceedings in their opening district league match against local rivals,

Fearnhill. Three goals from man of the match Alfie Laughton were

enough to see the KTS boys cruise to victory against their Letchworth

opponents, although the boys admitted that they probably should have

won by a larger margin! Stand-out performances in midfield from

Captain Matthew Reynolds and Joe Fantom, coupled with staunch

defending from Steven King and Ollie Hume, ensured that Fearnhill were

never allowed to truly influence the game. Congratulations to all of the

boys involved.

KTS Sixth Form- an ‘outside’ perspective

Georgina Sear chose to leave Highfield School for the sixth form at KTS

due to the wider variety of subjects on offer. In a recent meeting with

Mr Raymen, Georgina said; ‘I was really impressed with the general feel

of the sixth form when I visited on open evening and the variety of

subjects allowed me to do what I really wanted.’ When asked how she

was settling in, Georgina replied; ‘all the students and especially the

teachers have been really friendly and welcoming, so I’m glad I made

the move and I’m really enjoying it so far.’ Georgina has thrown herself

into her academic subjects of Applied Business, English Literature and

Psychology, while also experiencing the extra-curricular life at KTS.

Georgina has already signed up to the mentor training and has been

assigned a key stage 3 mentee. She is also looking forward to the English

Shakespeare trip this week and the adventurous activities trip to

Anglesey later this academic year. We are happy to welcome outgoing and dynamic characters like

Georgina into our sixth form!

Senior boys’ football team progress in county cup

Due to our first round opponents being unable to field a full team for the opening match in the county cup,

the KTS senior boys have progressed to the 2nd round. Are we going to count this as a ‘clean

sheet?’….definitely!

MacMillan coffee morning- in photos