KTS Parental Bulletin 23rd March 2017

Parental Bulletin
23rd March 2017

The Knights Templar School
Headteacher:
Mr T. Litchfield, G.G.S.M.
Park Street
Baldock
Herts SG7 6DZ
Email: admin@ktemplar.herts.sch.uk Tel: 01462 620700
PARENTAL WEEKLY UPDATE – 23rd March 2017
(available on our website)
Dear Parents and Carers
We are fast approaching the Easter holidays and I am keen to emphasise the importance of having a revision schedule
over the holidays for all students who are sitting exams after Easter:
Year 10 exams start on Wednesday 3 rd May
Year 11 and 12 exams start on Monday 15 th May
Year 13 exams start on Monday 5 th June
Year 7, 8 and 9 exams start on Monday 19 th June
Spending 2/3 hours per day over Easter holidays will have a significant impact on grades, so please may I encourage
you to ensure a plan is drawn up and is followed. Please also note that a balance between revision and ‘down time’
is vitally important. Each student revises differently so what works for one student will not necessarily work for another.
There is some excellent guidance on the school website (ktemplar.herts.sch.uk/KTS-Parent-guide-to-exams)
for parents –please do spend a few moments to read this before you discuss it with your child.
Thank you to all parents who attended the Year 10 Parents’ Information Evening last night. The feedback I received
from the many parents I spoke to was very positive indeed. It was very clear that students have received good feedback
on what is working well and some equally good guidance on what to improve on.
As you will be aware, we run nearly 100 weekly extra-curricular activities on a
weekly basis. A huge part of our enrichment offer is delivered through the
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. With annually between 100 and 130 students
starting Bronze Award in year 9, it is very clear that there is a link between
these students and their performance at GCSE. I was therefore very proud
and honoured to be invited to speak to the corporate sponsors of the award
at Windsor Castle a couple of weeks ago, where I represented headteachers
across the country.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex were present and were therefore able to
hear about the impact of the DofE Award at The Knights Templar School and
why I am a passionate supporter. Congratulations to all students who are on
any of the Bronze, Silver or Gold strands of the Award as the evidence is that
they will achieve and indeed exceed their target grades. I have copied a couple
of pictures from the evening.

I try to attend as many school events as possible and I was thrilled to watch our school senior boys’ football team
win the District Cup on Tuesday with a solid, 4 - 1 win over John Henry Newman School. Congratulations to all the
students and staff involved and good luck in the County Finals next Thursday evening.
Finally, can I remind you that school for the spring term ends on Friday, 31 st March at 3.20pm – please note that
there is no early closure on this day. We will start our summer term on Tuesday, 18 th April, when we will be following
a week A timetable.
Kind Regards,
Tim Litchfield
Headteacher
Dates for your Diary
Friday 24.3.17 Protected Time for Yr10-13 until June 30th
Yr 11 Drama Unit 3 Controlled Assessment (in lessons) [Drama Studio]
Yr 11 GCSE PE Moderation (and selected Yr10 & 12) P1-5
Yr 13 Final Report
08:00-13:20 A Level Dance exam [Dance Studio]
13:20-14:20 LAMDA Lunch Showcase [Drama Studio]
Saturday 25.3.17 Bronze Practice Expedition 3 (leave 8.30am, return 4pm)
Monday 27.3.17 Week B
Protected Time for Yr10-13 until June 30th
09:00-15:30 Yr 11 GCSE Music Solo Performances [K1]
15:30-18:30 GCSE Dance showcase [Dance Studio
Tuesday 28.3 09:00-15:30 Yr 11 GCSE Music Solo Performances [K1]
18:45-21:00 Gold Practice Expedition pre-check [T16]
Wednesday 29.3.17 09:00-15:30 GCSE Art Practical Exam
15:30-17:30 Y10 GCSE Drama Development Workshop [Drama Studio/ DSA]
Thursday 30.3.17 09:00-15:30 GCSE Art Practical Exam
Non-School Uniform,
Friday 24th March 2017
Raise money for Comic Relief by
ditching the uniform! Pay £1 on the
day to participate.

Keeping Parents Informed About Behaviour
Sending email alerts for positive behaviour points has proved very successful and popular amongst parents, pupils
and staff.
We are now planning to do the same with negative (poor) behaviour points. This is at the request of many parents
who want to know of any problems the day it happens so they can discuss with their son/daughter.
Starting after Easter, an email alert will be sent at the end of the day (approx. 4pm) notifying you of any negative
behaviour points issued to your son/daughter by any teachers. Hopefully you will not receive many!
We do not expect you to have to contact us about the issue but if you strongly feel the need then please email the
issuing teacher or the relevant head of department. Email addresses can be found on our website.
Year leaders, myself and heads of department will continue to contact you in the normal way (by email or phone
call) should an issue be more serious or need to be taken further.
We do realise that our students sometimes put their own “spin” on an event but please trust us in this situation
and support the school’s guidelines and policies.
Paul Clayton, Assistant Headteacher (Pastoral)
Year 10 Mock Exams
Today all Year 10 Students and their parents/guardians were sent an email containing their Individual Timetable for
the Year 10 Mocks. Please check your inbox to make sure you have received this. If there are any problems please
let the exams office know.
Year 7 BCG vaccine for tuberculosis
All of Year 7 should now have had a consent form for the BCG vaccine, but if you haven’t had one please let me
know so that I can send one to you. If your child fits into the criteria then please return the form to me as soon as
possible. You can copy one off from the Medical Matters page on the school web site.
Year 8 Girls HPV vaccine
The HPV forms should have all come back to me now. If you still have one, please return it to me as soon as possible.
Year 8 and Year 9 girls HPV vaccine date
The HPV vaccine will be given to both these Year group girls on Wednesday 19 th April which is the day after we
come back to school from the Easter break. Due to having the vaccine in the upper arm muscle please ensure that
your child doesn’t wear a long sleeve shirt that day and make sure they eat something that morning.
MrsJane Mance
School Medical Officer
Calling all Year 10 Geographers!
CGP have released an exam practise workbook to support the new AQA GCSE Geography course. The booklet contains
practise questions for all the Physical and Human Geography topics that we cover as well as practise questions
for the new ‘Issue Analysis and Fieldwork’ paper. We would like to offer all of our Year 10 geographers the opportunity
to purchase one of these workbooks for £2.75. All payments can be made via Wisepay and these will be
handed out in lessons once they arrive. Please email Miss Bow if you have any questions at
sbow@ktemplar.herts.sch.uk

In Year 10 Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE students have been learning skills to
make different types of pastry. The have enjoyed rolling and folding flaky pastry,
plaiting sausage rolls and have recently enjoyed the challenge of making choux pastry.
Particular well done to Callum Knights who showed extra creativity piping his
pastry into different shapes and decorated with drizzled chocolate and extra decorations.
A beautiful finished product ready to filled with fluffy whipped cream!
A Message from Mr Allman (Year 11 Leader)
Every year at the end of the GCSE exams, I hear Year 11 students saying “I wish I’d started revising earlier”. So
please ask yourself:
What revision will my child be doing this Easter? Does he/she have a plan?
Whilst breaks in study are essential, the Easter before final exams isn’t the time for Year 11 students to relax completely.
Your child’s teachers and the staff running the additional sessions next week will have advice for students
on the areas they should be revising over the Easter break.
Music solo performance exams 27 th and 28 th March
Art and Art Graphics exams on 29 th and 30 th March
Dance practical exam Friday 31 st March
Key Dates for Students Next Week
Please see our website for the sessions we are providing next week. We will also email each child’s personal schedule
under separate cover as usual.
Year 7 District Hockey Tournament
Well done to :
Rosalind Hartley
Jacey Rice
Alice Northern
Eloise Pinnock - GK
Amy Gonis
Sophia Botterman
Freya lewis
Olivia Wisdom
Jet Baldwin
Georgie Simpson
Who were runners up in the District Tournament on Monday. We went to Letchworth Hockey Club in the pouring
rain to play some really exciting hockey to successfully come away with Silver medals.
We beat JHN in our first match, then drew with St Francis B and Hitchin A and a win to finish against St Francis A
put us joint top of the points table with HGS A. We also had the same amount of goals scored and goals conceded.
We unfortunately just lost out on the winners medals due to a count back on short corners.
The girls were a pleasure to take and ALL played their part in a very successful end to the season.
Mrs Curtis
U13 and U15 Girls’ County Rugby Tournament
The girls U13 and U15 rugby teams played at the county tournament
on Friday 17 th at Hertford rugby club.
The U13 team played their hearts out against the teams in their pool
but unfortunately didn’t make it through to the semi finals. Player of
the tournament was Sophia Botteman who played outstandingly in
both attack and defence throughout the day.
The U15 team had some very physical games in the lead up to their
semi final but unfortunately they lost out by one try. Outstanding performances
came from Hannah Smith, Eloise Fox and Abbie Picking. They played with courage and commitment
throughout the day.

Year 8 hockey news
Last week, the year 8 girls’ hockey team took part in the annual Outdoor North Herts District Hockey Tournament, finishing 4 th
in the District! The girls ended the tournament with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses. They performed with high levels of skill in
all of their games and were unfortunate to end up on the losing side of a couple of results along the way. All in all, this was a
very positive occasion for the girls and we would like to congratulate all of the pupils who were involved with this fixture!
On Saturday 18 th March Charlotte Spinks in year 10 competed in The ESAA National Cross Country Championship, this is the
most eagerly anticipated event of the winter for young athletes. The event brings together the best athletes in each of the 45
Counties in England. Charlotte was selected to run after placing 7 th in the County trials and to run at this event is a phenomenal
achievement. Charlotte represented Hertfordshire at the event and ran against over 400 athletes across year 10 and 11, the PE
department are very proud of her achievement!
Athletes are the start Charlotte Spinks in the orange vest Herts team (Charlotte far left)

PARTICLE ACCELERA-
TOR IS A SMASH HIT!
The Knights Templar school toured the ISIS particle
accelerator in Oxford. Rowan Gray gives his account
of the day.
LIFE MONICA’s MILKBOTTLE
TOP MISSION
SHOWBIZ: BILL BOWKETT REVIEWS DRAKE
IN CONCERT
SPORT KTS IN RUGBY CUP SEMI
WWW.KTSNEWSKNIGHT.COM

Year 12 Physics Trip
On Friday the Third of March, 2017, The Knights Templar school joined 6 other schools and members of the public
to receive a tour around the ISIS particle accelerator. Rowan Gray gives his account of the day.
To start the day, we were shuffled into a tall lecture hall. There were no wooden pews and broad, square tables
here- instead, there were rows of gently coloured seats lit by warm lights. The hall had a theatre-feel to it. After a
quick introduction; we were promptly briefed on the history of particle accelerators. The professor taught us the
journey particle physics had taken, from a tall steel pipe with a man in a box- to the 27 kilometre super synchrotron,
A.K.A; the LHC- in Geneva.
Afterwards, we were given a lecture about the standard model, a ‘periodic table’ of fundamental particles; in which
he explained the four fundamental forces, the difference between bosons, leptons and force carriers, and how to
detect gravitational waves.
Later on the tour, we were shown the ISIS particle accelerator, as opposed to
the diamond light source synchrotron. Both essentially do the same thing in a
different way- accelerating particles at test objects to determine their properties
under a variety of conditions. The difference is the Diamond light source
uses x-rays, while ISIS fires neutrons at the target material.
Following this was an activity where we viewed computer generated images
from atlas, a machine which detects particles at Cern. We saw the particle trails
and were tasked with finding certain decays of bosons into
The run up to the target area where the
neutrons are accelerated
their fundamental components. As an extra challenge, the staff had hidden a higgs boson decay
among the snapshots. The group who “discovered” it first were to win a prize, which
turned out to be LHC holographic viewers and postcards.
Then we returned to the lecture hall to be greeted by another professor who talked about his
experiences at CERN and explained why the higgs boson why so important.
On the tour of ISIS by one
of their engineers, just in
front of the target area.
Overall the trip was truly eye-opening, seeing physics being applied for real life rather than being
a theoretical study. I may even go as far to say that I might want to work at a place like this
someday.
During the tour of ISIS with one of their scientists,
explaining some of the physics that goes
on there
The hunt for Higgs is on!

Year 12 musicians shine in local competition
Three of our Year 12 musicians competed in the Hitchin Priory Rotary Music Awards
on Wednesday night. Carmen Gilbert, James Luk and Felix Shaw all performed brilliantly,
with a great deal of confidence, musicality and professionalism. All three students
received very positive and constructive feedback from the judges and were a
real credit to the school.
We are absolutely thrilled that Felix Shaw won the Vocal Category, and James came
third and Carmen second in the Instrumental Category. What a result!
Sixth form visit local primary school
Sixth Form Music Enrichments students visited St. Mary’s Junior School yesterday. As well as performing a short
concert, they also gave a demonstration of their different instruments. The primary children thoroughly enjoyed
the performance and sang along with great gusto!