RTS Parents' Newsletter 23 April 2021
Head Teacher's Message
Life never stands still in a school and it has been a very positive start to the Summer Term with much to look forward to with the relaunch of our Enrichment Programme, after-school Sports Clubs, Parent Forum, and Year 7 Subject Teacher Consultation Evening. This week during assemblies students have reflected on Ramadan and during tutor time have commemorated Stephen Lawrence; and begun to look at a legacy of change.
The easing of some restrictions over Easter meant that many of you were able to meet up with family and friends from further afield. Please remind your children that restrictions still remain in place on the number of people that can meet up (two households or groups of six people (including children)). We must remain mindful that these increased contacts outside of school may lead to an increase of positive cases in the school community. Please continue to encourage your child to take their LFD tests and, as parents, you are also now able to pick up LFD tests free of charge around the borough for yourselves - further details are in the 'LFD Testing' section below.
Please continue to stay safe.
Ms K Dooley
Dates for the Diary
Parent Forum: Wednesday 28 April, 18:30-19:30
This will be held remotely. An email invitation for you to sign up via a Google From and ask questions in advance was sent on 21 April. The topic is Safeguarding - looking at the current Government review and also the website 'Everyone's invited' that has featured in the news recently.
Bank Holiday: Monday 03 May
School closed
Year 7 Subject Teacher Consultation, Wednesday 05 May, 15:30-19:30
Information and how to book will be emailed to you next week.
Immunisations
Tuesday 18 May - Year 9: DTP/MenACWY (boys and girls)
Wednesday 09 June - Year 9: HPV1 (boys and girls)
Wednesday 07 July - Year 8: HPV1 (boys and girls) + Year 10 HPV2 (girls only)
LFD Testing
LFD at Home Tests - Students
Tests should continue to be taken across all year groups by participating students on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.
LFD at Home Tests - Parents/carers
You can now order/collect LFD tests free of charge from the following:
For further information, read this news release from London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Council; and information from London Borough of Hounslow.
Ramadan
The British Islamic Medical Association’s view is that taking polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or lateral flow device (LFD) tests during Ramadan does not invalidate the fast.
People may feel more comfortable doing the tests when they are not fasting. In this case, with the move to home-testing, tests can be carried out at any time.
RTS Art Gallery
The Year 9s have been researching surrealism - here are some of their fantastic interpretations. Look away now if you are squeamish!
If you are interested in seeing more art contributions from RTS students , please do have a look at our RTS Online Art Gallery, we have some very talented students in school.
MFL
Ms Chung has shared the following exciting news:
The Louvre has put its entire art collection to view online. The Louvre is the world's most visited museum and houses one of the most famous paintings on the planet - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa - and those who dream of visiting the Louvre in Paris can now do so virtually and view more than 482,000 entries, for free.
The new Louvre website is available here:
The new Louvre collections website can be accessed here:
After School Sports
After a fantastic week of weather and a return to our Games and PE lessons, the PE department are delighted to confirm that our after school sports programme will continue from Monday 26 April.
Monday, 14:25-15:30 - Year 7
Tuesday, 16:00-16:45 - Year 8
Wednesday, 15:45-16:30 - Year 9
Thursday, 16:00-16:45 - Year 10
For this term the activities on the field will consist of girl's football and boy's rugby. The activities on the MUGA will consist of basketball and netball. These will change after half-term.
Should you have any questions or concerns about anything sport related as always please do not hesitate to contact the School Office via email (info@rts.richmond.sch.uk) for the attention of Mr Roberts.
Careers Corner
Teddington School Sixth Form are excited to announce they will be holding a sixth form experience week between 14-18 June which is open to all Year 10 students.
The staff, students and external partners linked to the sixth form will be delivering a whole week of online lectures and live events to help students decide on what they should study after GCSEs, the opportunities at their sixth form and where these experiences might take them.
To find out more about these events and their virtual lecture series running between 14-18 June, interested families should register via this MS Form.
South Western Railway
We have been asked to share this message with you:
As we see restrictions easing, more and more passengers are returning to our rail network. With school and college students returning for the summer term on Monday 19 April 2021, we wanted to reassure you that our key school and college services continue to operate, alongside our teams work to ensure that students can travel safely with enhanced cleaning of trains and stations and the provision of hand sanitiser at key stations.
We outline in our dedicated school travel page on our website https://www.southwesternrailway.com/travelling-with-us/coronavirus-travel-information/back-to-school more information about what to expect when travelling on our trains. We found that students really led the way with face coverings and social distancing, and their behaviours had a positive impact on other passengers – more of whom are now travelling by train,
Over the last year and particularly in recent months as students have returned to the railway, we have been continuing to review our timetable and again are grateful for your help in identifying any issues, from May we will be making changes to our timetable and we will provide more customer information on this closer to the time. If you or your students have any questions about specific services that they would like us to confirm will be operating, do let me know and we will look into them for you.
FoRTS News
Welcome back to the summer term! We hope you all had a great Easter break, and that the new Y7s are all getting excited about their move to RTS in September.
Change of next FoRTS Meeting Date
Please note the change of date for the next FoRTS General Meeting. This will now be held virtually on Thursday 06 May at 8pm, rather than Tuesday 27 April. We hope you can still make it. A link to the meeting and the finalised agenda will be sent out nearer to the time.
The Captain Tom 100 Challenge
To celebrate Captain Tom Moore’s amazing achievements and mark what would have been his 101st birthday, everyone is invited to take part in a fundraising challenge between Friday 30 April and Monday 03 May. All money raised will benefit FoRTS - and ultimately RTS students.
This challenge is managed through the Virgin Money Giving platform. They have created a dedicated FoRTS event hub with everything you need to know about the challenge: see link.
All you need to do is dream up a challenge based around the number 100 and complete this during the above dates. RTS students will be brainstorming ideas in their tutor groups over the coming week.
Volunteers Needed!
If anyone can volunteer a little of their time, we need some helpers for the following:
The second-hand uniform sales team are looking for someone to update the website listings. The website is simple to use, and we can offer full instruction. The updates will not take much time. Please email fortsuniform@rts.richmond.sch.uk if you can help.
An initiative for all students that needs investigating further. We’d like to keep this as a surprise, so if you are intrigued, please email us!
Refunds of Quiz Curry Night Tickets
The FoRTS committee would again like to offer refunds for any tickets bought for the Quiz Curry Night event which was postponed in early 2020 owing to Covid-19. We believe it will be some time until we can hold any such event face-to-face and prices are likely to need to change for any upcoming events.
There are two options available: in both cases email fortsfinance@rts.richmond.sch.uk with the name of your child and their tutor group so we can cross check with our records.
Refund: Monies paid back to your bank account
Donation to FoRTS: Monies donated to FoRTS to go towards future activities to benefits all RTS students.
NOTE: We have around £400 in ticket refunds still to be claimed. This will be our second and final offer for refunds with anyone not contacting FoRTS will be assumed to be donating the monies to FoRTS.
Supporting FoRTS
Remember, if you are not able to help with your time, FoRTS receives donations if you shop online with AmazonSmile and easyfundraising as a supporter of ‘Friends of RTS’.
To contact FoRTS at any time, please email forts@rts.richmond.sch.uk
Second Hand Uniform Sales oldschooluniform.co.uk
Safeguarding
If you have concerns in relation to a student at RTS or indeed with regards to your own child, you may want to contact Single Point of Access (SPA) which acts as a central information hub for all professional agencies in Kingston and Richmond.
Richmond and Kingston SPA
The SPA phone lines are now open as follows:
Monday-Thursday 08.00-17.15 and Friday 08.00-17.00 - the phone number during these times is 020 8547 5008
Out of hours: 020 8770 5000
Hounslow Early Help Assessment
Telephone number: 020 8583 6600
Out of hours: 020 8583 2222
Email: earlyhelp@hounslow.gov.uk
NSPCC:
Speak to a counsellor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Telephone number: 0808 800 5000, or text 88858
Email: help@nspcc.org.uk or
Signvideo using British Sign Language (Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm)
Local News - Please note RTS does not endorse items included as Local News
Kingston and Richmond Parent Champions Network
Funded by the Violence Reduction Unit, a new project, Kingston and Richmond’s Parent Champions Network, aims at providing volunteer parents to support other parents through times of crisis from arrests, schools exclusions, attendance reviews, challenging behaviours and more.
Each volunteer parent has experience going through similar situations and will provide the non-professional, friendly support they know to be essential during difficult times.
If you would like support from the Parent Champions Network or would like to be a Parent Champion yourself, please contact: Meg Scott, Youth Support Worker and Parent Champions Facilitator:
parentchampionsnetwork@achievingforchildren.org.uk or call 07597 528750
The Big Ask - Children's Commissioner's Consultation
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza, has just launched a once-in-a-generation review of the future of childhood. The review asks children how the pandemic has changed their lives, what their aspirations are and the barriers to reaching them, how things are at home, how their communities and local environment could be improved, and how they feel about the future and the challenges facing the world.
Visit the Big Ask website and encourage your children to take part.
Heatham House
Heatham House is back open with a full term-time programme and are happy to also announce some new projects that have launched and now operate from Heatham House!
Girls In The House: A safe space for young women to come and interact with female workers to seek advice or simply chill in an environment where they feel comfortable with discussions, activities and trips!
The Lighthouse Project: A closed group for young people with ASD/ADHD/Aspergers to socialise with one another in a safe space where they feel comfortable. Each week there is a structured activity along with free time to play/socialise and also lots of trips coming up too! (Please note this group is by referral so contact me for more information).
Kooth
The NHS wants to remind young people, parents and school professionals about Kooth’s online support community of counsellors and wellbeing practitioners, plus resources to help with online sessions that promote emotional health and wellbeing during this difficult time.
Kooth is accredited by The British Association of Psychotherapy and Counselling and a trusted delivery partner of the NHS.
Kooth is for all young people aged 11-22 in Richmond to get support for anything that's on your mind. It’s a free online chat service that works on your phone or computer. There are no waiting lists and it’s totally anonymous – you just make up a name. You can find out more by watching the video below.
There are also urgent helplines you can call:
Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm
020 8547 6171 / 020 3513 3238
24 hours, 7 days a week
0800 028 8000
Free advice and support are there if you need it.
Mental Health Webinars
“Let’s all Talk Mental Health” is a new, FREE webinar series for parents, carers and educators of teenagers with mental health problems. The weekly webinars feature one-to-one interviews and audience Q & A’s with experts, ambassadors, therapists and psychologists. “Let’s all Talk Mental Health” aims to help you recognise some of the issues, learn how to offer support and give you access to alternative routes for help.
We know that the mental wellbeing of teenagers is paramount, and that help and support is needed more than ever. As parents, we’ve had first-hand experience of the challenges that other parents, carers and teachers face when dealing with the mental health difficulties of young people, and we want to be able to help.
The weekly webinars will be live every Monday night at 8pm. We are delighted to be working with Clinical Psychologist, Dr Sarah-Jane Knight, who will be in conversation with leading experts and ambassadors to lift the lid on some of these complex challenges. Details of our programme schedule for May, June and July, can be found here. Please click here to view a short introduction video to “Let’s all Talk Mental Health“.
For further information please contact hello@letsalltalkmentalhealth.co.uk, or visit letsalltalkmentalhealth.co.uk.
Term Dates 2020-2021
Full term dates and Inset day information is available on the website:
Bank Holiday: Monday 03 May 2021
Summer Half-Term break: 31 May-04 June 2021
Last day of Summer term for students: Friday 16 July 2021