Parental Bulletin

1st December 2016

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

PARENTAL WEEKLY UPDATE – 1st December 2016 (available on our website)

Dear Parents and Carers

I am delighted that so many of our Year 9 students have signed up to be involved in

the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh programme this year. This is a huge part of our school

life and certainly equips our students with a wide variety of skills needed for their

future employment as well as learning about themselves. I was honoured to be pre-

sent at St James’s Palace on Tuesday where ten of our leavers (as pictured here)

were awarded their Gold DofE Award from the Duke of Edinburgh. For those starting

the Bronze programme – this could be you in a few years’ time!

Thank you to all parents who attended the Year 12 Parents’ Information Evening last Thursday – a great evening of

positive discussion around progress.

I am very unhappy with the way some classrooms are being left at the end of lunchtime which is resulting in a very

dissatisfied start to learning for period 5.

Currently, we allow students into their form rooms at lunchtime so they can meet with their friends and have a

break – not many schools are able to do this or indeed choose to do this. However, far too many students are not

taking responsibility for the rooms and we have had some damage as well as food being dropped. In addition, the

rooms are being left in a disorganised manner, with chairs and tables out of position.

Food and drink are not permissible in classrooms or inside buildings at break or lunchtime. As a result of this, stu-

dents will not be allowed into their form rooms tomorrow lunchtime and will have to be outside or in their club or

activity (please see the list of available clubs below).

Please ensure that your child has their coat with them tomorrow if they are not involved in a lunchtime activity.

Kind Regards,

Tim Litchfield

Headteacher

Good Luck Francesca and Maisy!

On the 5th of November Francessca Westwick-Draper and Maisy Gough auditioned for a show at the Shaftsbury

Theatre!! The audition was singing and dancing. Maisy sang ‘Naughty’ from the musical ‘Matilda’ and Francessca

sang ‘Doe a Dear’ from ‘The sound of Music’. We also had to perform a dance to the theme song from pirates of

the Caribbean. The auditions took place at Stagecoach, Letchworth, in the dance hall. We are pleased to say that

we both got in!! The show will take place in April 2017. The theme of the performance is pirates!! We are very ex-

cited to start the rehearsals after Christmas.

By Francesca and Maisy

Dates for your Diary Thursday 1.12.16 Yr11 Mock Exams

08:30-15:15 Yr9 Bletchley Park Trip

Friday 2.12.16 Yr 7 & 8 County Hockey Tournament [Bishop Stortford]

Yr11 Mock Exams

Yr9 Cologne Christmas Market Trip

Saturday 3.12.16 Yr9 Cologne Christmas Market Trip

08:30-14:00 Cambridge Raspberry Jam Trip

Monday 5.12.16 Yr9 Cologne Christmas Market Trip

08:55-13:20 Yr11 - Chemistry ISA [Gym and Science Labs]

13:20 Library Activity Week - Lunchtime

Tuesday 6.12.16 07:50-18:30 Yr10 Textiles trip to the Clothes Show, Birmingham

08:55-14:20 Yr13 Media Trip [Cambridge]

Wednesday 7.12.16 Scholastic Christmas Half Price Book Fair [Library]

08:55-11:20 Yr7 G&T Maths Workshop [Hall]

08:55-15:20 Yr11 GCSE Drama Unit 2 Assessment Day [Drama Studio/DSA]

19:00-21:00 Full Governors Meeting [DSA]

Inside the theatre The outside of

the theatre

On Tuesday 29th November a group of year 9,10,12 and 13 dancers went to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music

and Dance. Trinity Laban is the UK’s only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance and it is one of Eu-

rope's leading centres for the training of professional contemporary dance artists.

The students experienced a tour of the world class facilities including the buildings 13 purpose built dance studios

and the largest dance library and archive in Europe.

Laban believes that contemporary dance has a vital part to play in everyone's lives and our students got to partici-

pate in an hour and a half technique class and an hour and a half creative class led by one of Laban’s specialist

contemporary dance teachers.

I hope that the dancers came away from the trip inspired and enthused by the world of dance and can use the

experience to develop their studies for their GCSE and A Level work

Miss Henderson

GROW YOUR MO

Every November, a band of perfectly ordinary men, or in this case

teachers, take on the brave task of Movember: growing a moustache

for charity in a bid to raise awareness about men's health - prostate

cancer, testicular cancer and many more health issues. This year three

staff members, Mr Vallier, Mr Pilgrim and Mr Groves are taking part in

Movember.

The school has grabbed a few headlines over the last month with the

teachers regularly updating their webpage with photo’s showing the

development of their moustaches.

Since last year they have raised over £1400 for the charity and as Mr Pilgrim said “The money is one part of the

Movember campaign, but getting students quizzing us why we are doing it and knowing the reasons is just as im-

portant.”

Mr Grove and Mr Vallier added “It is not the most comfortable thing to grow but for 30 days it is a small price to

pay for this worthwhile cause.”

If you want to donate to this fanTACHEtic cause, please follow the link below http://moteam.co/kts-mo-bro-s

Press release written by year 12 Cambridge Technical Business students

Year 8 go Caving!

It was early to bed on Saturday November 12th for 29 year 8 students as they had to be ready to leave school by

7am the next day for the annual caving trip to the Yorkshire Dales.

The 3-day trip to the Dales, just North of Settle, builds team spirit and confidence though outdoor challenge and

gives the year 8 students the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves and others.

This year’s trip was fantastic. The students were, as always, a credit to themselves and rose to every challenge set.

On arrival on the Sunday we quickly settled into the bunk barn we called home for the next 2 nights and then head-

ed off to Pen-y-ghent, one of the Three Peaks. The Peak stands at 694m, and is not an easy climb. Every student

reached the summit!

The highlight of the trip is caving with the Yorkshire Dales Guides - Dave and his team are brilliant! On the Monday

morning the students were prepared for caving, dressing in protective jumpsuits and wearing helmets and head

torches. We drove, with our guides, to Selside to experience the wonder of underground limestone caves. Caving is

a hard task, especially if you are claustrophobic, but again every single student climbed up waterfalls, crawled

through narrow gaps and sat in pitch black underground as they turned their headlamps off! It was a pleasure to be

in the students’ company as they became amazed by what they managed to do.

After hot dogs back at the Bunk barn, the afternoon was spent in Malham looking at Gordale Scar and learning

about limestone features. Sadly we had to head home on Tuesday but managed to complete a 2 mile walk along

the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail first. Another highlight was climbing over to see the waterfall Thornton Force, cascade

14metres over the limestone cliff.

Well done to all the students that came with us this year and many thanks to Mrs Bell, Miss Kimber and Mr Clayton

for their support and especially Mr Glover who returned for the few days specially to help us run the trip.

Mrs M Clarke

Year 10 Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio and Meningococcal ACWY Vaccines

To All the Parents and Guardians of Year 10 pupils,

On Monday 9th January the School Nurse Team will be coming into school to give all Year 10 pupils 2 vaccines

Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio

Meningococcal ACWY

This link will take you to the letter telling you about the vaccine and the consent form. Please copy off the consent form only (both sides please)and your child needs to return it to Mrs Mance via her Red Drop Box which is outside the Medical room or they can also be brought into Reception. The nurses have informed me that they will not accept emailed-in completed copies, they do need the paper version signed by the parent.

Some families don’t have an email contact and they will receive the forms in the post. If you are unable to copy off the consent form, please let me know as soon as possible so that one can be forwarded to you.

The consent form needs to be returned by Friday 9th December.

Thank you

Mrs Mance

Former Head Boy appears on BBC show Our former Head Boy Barney Taylor has always demonstrated an incredible talent and enthu-siasm for acting and this past weekend, he made a huge breakthrough as an actor in the BBC 1 show Casualty. Filming for this episode took place some months ago and Barney was obviously excited about the experience that this opportunity has provided. Barney has appeared in a number of stage productions both locally and further afield and has even appeared in an independent film. However, this most recent breakthrough is arguably his biggest success in the TV industry thus far.

If you are interested in watching Barney’s performance, then please visit BBC iPlayer via the link shown below: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b084f1gm/casualty-series-31-13-not-in-holby-anymore

Well done Barney! Sixth Form Winter Dinner Dance Next Wednesday 7th December the Spirella Ballroom in Letchworth will play host to the annual KTS Sixth Form Winter Dinner Dance. Students will be treated to an evening of festive fun that has been largely organised by the sixth form council. There will be a mix of entertainment on offer, including; a street magician, live music from our student band, a series of gambling stations (fake money of course!) a photo station and much more.

The event starts at 7pm and students should ensure that they arrive at the venue on time. This is a formal event and students should be dressed in accordance with this. This promises to be an excellent social occasion for the students to enjoy but we would like to remind students that this is a school event and we expect the highest standards of behaviour at all times from those in attendance.

Graduate Profile- Matthew Reynolds Matthew completed his A Level studies this year and was very pleased to receive grades of BBC in Statistics, Physical Education and Business Studies, respectively. In September, Matthew started studying for his degree in Sports Development and Coaching at The University of Lincoln. During his time at KTS, Matthew excelled in a variety of sports. In his final year in the sixth form, Matthew was Captain for the senior football squad and scored the winning penalty to clinch the District Championship in a tense final against lo-cal rivals John Henry Newman School. Matthew also proved to be an excellent middle-distance runner, securing a victory in last year’s 1500m race and helping KTS to yet anoth-

er District Athletics Championship. Previously, Matthew had represented the school football team on tours to Paris and Eindhoven and had represent-ed Luton Town FC’s academy for a number of years. Matthew was heavily involved with coaching some of our younger football teams and he has continued to pursue his passion for sports and coaching at University. He is representing the University of Lincoln Football 1st Team and has secured a coaching placement with the Lincoln City Academy side. We are pleased to see Matthew pursuing his passion with such enthusiasm and success. We look forward to seeing him achieve his goals! Senior basketball success Congratulations to the senior boys’ basketball team who triumphed over Hitchin Boys’ School in a recent district league fixture. Despite not being on top form for much of the match, the KTS boys managed to grind out a gutsy win against their North Herts rivals, eventually winning by a narrow 7-point margin. KTS remain on track to make yet another district final appearance this year. Congratulations to all of the boys involved and in particular to Man of the Match, Joe Croker (year 13). Year 13 student profile- Lucy Brewer During her AS Level summer exams, Lucy performed well, achieving AAD in Maths, Art and Geography, respectively. Lucy is currently studying Maths, Further Maths and Art at A Level and has recent-ly sent her university application to UCAS for courses including Illustration and De-sign for TV and Film. Lucy has already secured 4 interviews to various universities and is now working towards putting together an impressive portfolio of evidence to impress her inter-viewers! Outside of the classroom, Lucy is a Prefect for a year 7 form, as well as for the Art Department. Lucy is also a very keen musician and has performed in a number of the school bands and orchestras, as well as with organisations outside of school. Lucy’s eclectic mix of interests and talents is testament to the range of opportuni-ties at KTS and we look forward to seeing her achieve well in whatever she choos-es to do in the future.

Sixth form football fundraiser A group of year 12 sixth form council members recently took it upon themselves to organise a football tournament for years 7-11 as a fundraising initiative for the sixth form. The tournament was played in a wonderful spirit and was brilliantly supported by large numbers of non-playing pupils. In total the organisers raised £168! Well done to everyone involved.

Year 12 student profile- Will Marshall Will entered the sixth form with a set of GCSE results that included; 1 A*, 3 A grades, 4 B grades and a C. Will decided to study English Literature, Government & Politics, History and Eco-nomics at the KTS sixth form and has made a very good start to the year academi-cally. Outside of lessons, Will is an avid rugby player and represents both the senior rug-by squad, as well as Letchworth Rugby Club. Will is also currently working towards his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award but still finds the time to work as a mentor to a key stage 3 pupil and a key stage 4 pupil. In addition, this year Will has contributed an article to the school media outlet New-

sKnight, providing an interesting perspective on the role of Jeremy Corbyn in modern British politics. Will has made an excellent start to his sixth form studies and we look forward to seeing him achieve some wonder-ful things during his time here.