Parental Bulletin - 8th March 2019

Parental Bulletin
8th March 2019

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
Dear Parents and Carers
PARENTAL WEEKLY UPDATE – 8th March 2019
(available on our website)
Thank you to all year 12 parents who attended our parents’ evening on Tuesday this week. I hope the evening was
productive and there were some helpful discussions focussing on successes and areas for improvement.
Congratulations to our drama students on some outstanding performances this week. Please be reminded that
there are so many opportunities for each child in school as part of our enrichment and extra curricular
programme.
I hope to see as many of you as possible at our Spring Concert next week. The concert starts at 7pm on
Wednesday 13th March.
Over the next few weeks, I will be asking you about your views on some aspects of our school. I will also be
communicating about some minor changes to some of our policies. Please do keep an eye out for these emails, I
would appreciate your feedback and support.
Finally a message for year11 parents. Please could I ask you to encourage your child to make full use of the extra
support on offer this half term. Control-click here for the latest version of the study support timetable.
Kind regards,
Tim Litchfield
Headteacher

Dates for your Diary
Friday 08 March 2019 Borneo Quiz Night
Saturday 09 March 2019 Yr12 Gold Expedition Training Weekend
Sunday 10—13 March 2019 Yr12 Geography Flatford Mills Field Studies Centre
Tuesday 12 March 2019 Y7 Maths Challenge (selected students)
Wednesday 13 March 2019 Yr7 District Netball Tournament
Yr9 Bronze Practice 2 Planning Meeting
Spring Concert
Thursday 14 March 2019 Yr11 English Language Walk Through
Yr8 District Hockey Tournament
Yr11 Performing Arts and Drama Open Performances
Yr12 & 13 Berlin Trip Information Evening
Year 10 Parents’ Evening – Wednesday 20 th March 2019
The online booking system for this parents’ evening is now open and bookings can be made via the instructions on
the letter sent home via email.
Please be aware that these appointments get booked up very quickly!
If you don’t have access to use the online booking system then please let me know so that your appointments can
be booked through the school.
Mr White
Year 10 Leader
Year 8 Relationships and Sex Education:
This week, Year 8 students will be starting the first of a series of PSHCEE lessons surrounding Relationships and Sex.
These lessons will be entirely age-appropriate and delivered by specialist teachers in accordance with the PSHE
Association’s guidance. Should you wish to know more about these lessons, please contact Miss Staines (Head of
PSHCEE) at: mstaines@ktemplar.herts.sch.uk
Miss Staines
PE News
Year 7 and 8 Festival of Rugby
On Monday afternoon year 7 and 8 joined together for a fantastic development match. Mr Smith picked a full
strength year 7 team and Mr Matthews selected a development XV to ensure a safe and enjoyable match. The
game was played in fantastic spirit with both teams playing fast, open attacking rugby. Year 8 started well and
scored some excellent early tries, showing good strength in the contact area. After a slow start year 7 gained
confidence with Mitch, Billy and Luke making ground with strong carries. On the wing both Joshua for year 8 and
Jonah for year 7 showed exceptional speed and agility to get on the scoreboard.
With the final play year 8 stormed down the field and scored a brilliant try to earn a draw! KTS Rugby was very
much the winner! Jack Petre refereed the game and was superb allowing it to ebb and flow.

Scorers
Year 7s: Nathan, Billie x2, Jonah x2, Harry and a Penalty try
Year 8s: Dan x3, Baillie, Josh, Olivier and Callum
On the top pitch Mr Matthews put the year 8 VIIs team through their paces in preparation for the
National schools 7s which take place in London at the end of this month. The squad were working on
their passing, support play and restarts. Mr Matthews will be announcing the final squad next week.
Mr Matthews and Mr Smith

Media & Film News
Year 10 & 12 Media and Film Students
The closing date to make payment for the trip
to The Making of Harry Potter was on the 1 st
March, but we will leave WisePay open until
Monday 11 th March for any final students to join
the trip. Thank you to everyone who has already
secured their place- we are thoroughly
looking forward to the trip already!
NEA
NEA (coursework) is well underway for Year 12 Media and Film students, with the brief for Year 12’s task being
released this week; please can I remind students and parents/carers that there are cameras and tripods available to
borrow from the library in order to complete the work. A parental consent form will need to be completed first
before kit is loaned.
Year 13 Media have been given an absolute final deadline of 27 th March to complete or upgrade any work towards
their NEA which is then submitted to the exam board shortly after.
Art News
Recycled Fashion Show 2019 – KTS students did well and had a great experience at this year’s catwalk show. Of
twelve KTS finalists, the following six have been selected to display their costumes in the forthcoming exhibition at
Letchworth Community Museum – Amelia, Jess, Esther, Abbie, Ben and Jamie Kay. Well done to everyone that
took part. Parents, please don’t miss the exhibition.
Recycled Fashion Show -
2019
New Frontiers: Visions of the Future
EXHIBITION
March 9, 10, 14 – 17
10 am to 5 pm

First Bronze practice expedition completed in Norfolk
Forty students in Year 9 took part in a training expedition to Norfolk last weekend,
putting into practice what they learned on their training weekend. The expedition
team were also impressed with the team work, making sure that everyone reached
the finish.
"I really enjoyed my Bronze DofE practice, as it was my first time camping and I liked
how I got to spend time together with my friends walking and camping. We were quite
lucky with the weather as it was dry on the first day which allowed us to see the beach
and lots of wildlife. I also enjoyed the independence that we got as we were able to
walk on our own."
Charlotte C (Year 9)
The next practice expeditions for Year 9 take place on 16-17 March and 30-31 March.
Year 10, 11 and 13
The deadline for DofE Award approval is Monday 18 th March if you want to collect your Bronze, Silver or Gold
award at the celebration evening on Thursday 21 st March. Please get all assessor reports submitted/uploaded to
eDofE before this date.
THE UKITF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, BATH UNIVERSITY - 16 TH FEBRUARY 2019
TAEKWONDO is a martial art which is a mix between kickboxing and karate . I attend the Letchworth &
Biggleswade Taekwondo School and have done since I was 4. A selection of
students have been handpicked by my instructor to represent the school at
a National level and I’m one of them.
The National Championships happen twice a year, in February and October
and are normally held at Bath University. At each competition, there are
over 100 competitors from all over the country and sometimes Europe.
There are four parts to the Nationals dependant on age and belt but as a
Black Belt 1 st degree, I only take part in patterns and sparring. Patterns,
which is a sequence of movements, is where two competitors of the same belt try to compete for a medal. The
categories can consist of anywhere between 2 and 20 competitors. I just missed out on a bronze medal this
time but still came 4 th in a large category of 16.
In Sparring, which is a type of fighting in a controlled way, the categories are decided by both belt colour and
weight. This time around, I’m proud to have achieved a gold medal, which as a result of this, means that I have
now qualified for Finals Night in Reading on the 23 rd March. This is where the top competitors in the country
compete against each other. I am in 1st position because of my win and have also qualified for the European
Championships which are being held later this year in Ireland.
I hope I do well and thank you for reading.
Ramone – 8HAN

How / why did Dr. Hadley become a doctor?
What is his PhD thesis about?
What is an elegy?
Why do people read poems at funeral, when they and / or the deceased never read poetry?
These are some of the questions Dr. Hadley answered in the latest KTS Aim Higher Research Seminar, whilst raising
many others along the way.
Dr. Hadley presented on ‘Funeral Blues: Elegy and the Poetry of Mourning’ to an audience
of Year 11s, sixth formers, and staff on Thursday lunchtime. An elegy is a poem
lamenting the dead, often read at a funeral. According to Dr. Hadley, it ‘makes sense of
something which rarely makes sense.’ Yet, whilst we still read poetry at funerals, the
modern elegy has abandoned or subverted the three common elements of a traditional
elegy. This thesis was illustrated by a comparison of two poems, the traditional
‘Thyrsis’, penned by Matthew Arnold in 1865 in memory of his friend Arthur Hugh
Clough, and the modern ‘Funeral Blues’, written by W. H. Auden in 1936 and best
known as the poem from Four Weddings and a Funeral. In ‘Thyrsis’, the deceased is
described against a pastoral scene – an idealised countryside – which has the effect of
distancing the mourners from the deceased, whilst comforting them that he is in a
better place. However, ‘Funeral Blues’ has a distinctly urban setting, in which clocks
tick, telephones ring, and aeroplanes circle overhead. In ‘Thyrsis’, the deceased speaks
to and comforts the poet, offering the consolation that ‘Our scholar travels yet the
loved hill-side,’ whilst in ‘Funeral Blues’ the narrator laments ‘I thought that love would
last forever: I was wrong.’ ‘Thyrsis’ offers renewal, with the poet resolving ‘yet will I not despair,’ whilst ‘Funeral
Blues’ laments ‘For nothing now can ever come to any good.’

During the Q&A, Dr. Hadley revealed that he had written his PhD on the elegiac form
Ted Hughes’s work, which began as an undergraduate dissertation supervised by
former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. Dr. Hadley’s advice to us was ‘find something
you love and pursue it!’
in
Now read the poems:
Matthew Arnold, Thyrsis (1865)
W H Auden, Funeral Blues (1936)
Many thanks to Dr. Hadley for his insight into both poetry and academia!
Year 13 Politics Revision in London
Year 13 Politics A Level students headed to London on Wednesday for a day of revision, led by experienced Politics
A Level teachers and examiners. In four intense hours, we heard presentations on topics as diverse as ‘how far do
socialists disagree about the ends and means of socialism?’ to ‘should political parties and election campaigns be
funded by the state?’ The talks were packed with examples and exam technique which we can put to work in the
classroom right away and in our exams this summer. As a measure of how fast-moving politics is at the moment,
three of the case studies offered in the resources, printed just three weeks ago, are already out of date! These are
exciting times to study.