RTS Sports Day

It's the write-up you've all been waiting for! Last week saw the whole school transported off site to Osterley Athletics Ground for the annual RTS Sports Day. It is a huge organisational task, and, as ever, the Sports Department stepped up to the challenge with flying colours. All staff were involved from Business Support Staff manning First Aid and Water Stations to the Senior Leadership Team on Track Marshall and Data Entry duty, to teachers rallying the troops and monitoring each event position. The House competitive spirit was high, with face painting in house colours, banners, and, of course much shouting and cheering! The weather also behaved itself with a cooler day than we had been expecting and no wind. 

On return to school, the RTS Catering Team had prepared a BBQ lunch and the RTS Ensemble entertained the students outside with a selection of hits to sing along to! 

Results were close throughout the day and everyone who took part was an absolute winner; however special shout out to the following:

• The overall House winner was Anderson, by a very small 10 points clear of Shakespeare

• Chloe B (Year 7) and George N (Year 9) were the top performing students on the day

• Year 7 Shakespeare scored the most points overall in terms of tutor contributions; and finally

• Shakespeare won the staff relay!

A massive well done to all students and staff who took part - whatever their role. This really is a whole school event and one that we all look forward to. Special thanks to the Sports Department for creating and organising a fantastic and very successful day!

Year 10 College Taster Day 

Last Friday, Year 10 students were invited to The Richmond upon Thames College to sample a range of the courses that they might like to take as a post-16 option. Students were able to trial an Architecture A Level, learn how to bathe a baby in Early Years Childcare; and understand human behaviour in the smoky room experiment in Psychology - amongst many others. 

The day allowed students to consider the different courses and study options available to them and will help them make an informed decision as they start applying to post-16 destinations. 

Year 9 Learn to Earn Drop Down Day 

On Tuesday all Year 9 students participated in the Learn to Earn programme delivered by Young Enterprise. The day provided students with the opportunity to look at budgeting, employability skills and practice their interview techniques.

There was a buzz around school as students engaged in a wide range of activities that allowed them to start seeing how their GCSE options will pave the way to their future careers. 

FORTS Information

Pre-loved Uniform

We will be at the Chase Bridge summer fair this Saturday 11am-1pm selling pre-loved uniform. 

We are looking for donations of good condition uniform to sell onto our current and new parents. If you have any uniform you can donate, please send it in with your child to hand into Reception.

Car parking - Depeche Mode Concert

A huge thank you and congratulations to our FoRTS parking marshals who spent the evening volunteering their time to raise money for FoRTS. They raised a whopping £2488.67!

Anyone who would like to help out at future car parking events can message Rob on fortsparking@rts.richmond.sch.uk

Subject Leader bids

This term FoRTS were able to give around £6,000 to the school for staff to make bids on what they would like to purchase for enrichment activities for the students.

Some of the purchased items include boys and girls fixture kits, KS3 books, Duke of Edinburgh equipment, a science award, MFL and Drama equipment; and plastic recycling bins.

All the above is only achieved with the help of our teams of volunteers. If you are interested in helping out at any events, please contact me on fortssecretary@rts.richmond.sch.uk

Recruitment Drive

We need your help!  The school's parent teacher association, Friends of RTS or FoRTS, needs parent volunteers to step forward to take the following key roles:

• Secretary - plan and to take minutes of meetings, draft the weekly newsletter, other small marketing / administrative tasks.  At most, 30 minutes a week, but a bit more around meeting time.

• Treasurer - handle the FoRTS finances, eg. manage bank accounts, payments, preparation of annual accounts.  At most, 30 minutes a week, but a bit more around year end.

• Committee roles x 3:  Be part of the core team to manage the events over the year.  We only have one FoRTS-run event a year, with the rest in partnership with school events.  This is likely to involve joining the regular meetings and doing a bit of organising.

If you want to have a chat about any of the roles, or have any queries about FoRTS, please don't hesitate to contact either of us.

Your FoRTS team,

Carmelle (Chair and Secretary) and Mark (Treasurer)

General: forts@rts.richmond.sch.uk Parking: fortsparking@rts.richmond.sch.uk

Uniform: fortsuniform@rts.richmond.sch.uk Voluntary donations: Peoples Fundraising

Term Dates 2022-2023

Full term dates and Inset day information is  available on the website:

• Summer Term 2: Monday 05 June-Friday 14 July

• Autumn Term 1 (2023-2024): Monday 04 September - Year 7 only / Tuesday 05 September - Years 7 & 11 only / Wednesday 06 September - All year groups (staggered)