RTS Parents' Newsletter 12 November 2021
Head Teacher's Message
I hope that you all had a restful half-term break. The students have certainly returned invigorated and have shown great application this week in their learning.
We are excited to be able to run school trips again. I am sure that we all have great memories of these types of trips from our school days; so I am so pleased that our Year 11 GCSE students are finally able to attend field trips and theatre trips as preparation and research for their coursework and exams.
Our sporting fixtures continue and it is fantastic to see the number of different schools that our teams play against.
Earlier this week I was delighted to receive a visit from two Year 10 students: Tyler and Armin. They have been working together on writing a novel and wanted to share their ideas and progress with me. I can't wait to see how their story develops and to share updates with you (without spoiling their plot!).
Ms K Dooley
Dates for the diary
Wednesday 17 November
Year 10 Parent & Subject Teacher Consultation Evening (remote), 14:30-19:30 (booking link email sent today)
Reminder that school will close early at 14:05 for this event
Tuesday 16 and Thursday 18 November
Year 11 GCSE Geography Field Trip to Stratford Olympic Park (check your email for which date your child will be going)
Friday 19 November
Year 11 Trip to Tate Modern and Tate Britain
Monday 22 November
Year 11 Mock GCSE English Literature Exam
Tuesday 23 November-Friday 03 December
Years 7, 8,9 and 10 - AP3 Assessments
Assembly Topics
Assemblies for this week and next are as follows:
Anti-Bullying Week
Tackling Bias and Inequality
Contacting the School
If you wish to contact the school, the School Office is open:
Monday-Thursday - 08:15-16:30
Friday - 08:15-15:00
Telephone: 020 8891 2985
Email: info@rts.richmond.sch.uk
Please use the Parents Communications Summary for guidance on types of query and where advice may be found/who to direct your query to.
LFD Testing
LFD at Home Tests - Students
Thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation in continuing to encourage your child/ren to take LFD tests on Wednesday and Sunday evenings and to report the results to school (via the app on their iPad). It is important to keep the school community protected and safe.
RTS Art Gallery
This week Ms Williams would like to showcase the fun things that students have been making in Enrichment Art Attack. Students have been learning how to carve into linoleum and creating wonderful block prints onto pieces of fabric.
Inter-House Competitions
A quick throwback to the last week of term and the PE Department organised some fantastic Autumn inter-house rugby and netball competitions. Congratulations to all of the House representatives who tool part and well done to Stoop who scooped the most House points!
Rugby Report
Rugby here at RTS goes from strength to strength.
This week the Year 9 boys comfortably won the second round of their Middlesex cup fixture against Rosedale College, Hayes. Mr Roberts hasn't seen a team execute a game plan at such a young age in a long time.
This weekend we welcome Year 7 and 8 boys' fixtures against Fulham School for Boys on Saturday morning; whilst on Sunday afternoon we have our first girls' joint training session with Richmond. Over 22 girls have already signed up which is amazing! Mr Roberts is very excited for a weekend packed with rugby action across both days!
Next week welcomes rugby league tournaments across the board for the boys; as well as the start of our basketball season for the girls. The week after also looks exciting as we are due to play further Middlesex cup rugby games!
All in all, very exciting.
Richmond Climate Week
Richmond Climate Week ran from 01-05 November and was timed to coincide with COP26 in Glasgow. Richmond Council and local charity, Habitats & Heritage, hosted a series of events (in person and online) to encourage residents, businesses and communities to participate in tackling the climate and ecological emergency.
Climate Week addressed the themes of Richmond’s Climate Emergency Strategy adopted in 2020 and its annually refreshed Action Plan. Topics included the environmental impact of food waste and better ways to manage food; energy efficiency and sustainability; transport and air quality and alternatives to car use for neighbourhood journeys; and nature, habitats and biodiversity.
The Council ran a competition, across the schools in the borough, to design a poster for the event. We are delighted to announce that of the five winning students across the borough, two were from RTS!
Huge congratulations to Ioel (Year 7) and his poster 'Save Earth' and Soraya (Year 8) and her poster 'Climate Change'. Their posters were displayed at Orleans House for the Open Forum and The Exchange for the Net Zero Panel Event held during Climate Week. The winners were chosen by Cllr. Neaden-Watts and will receive a prize.
Habitats and Heritage also ran an Eco Conference during Climate Week. This was run as a mock COP and Mr Harris took 5 Year 9 students. The students spent a couple of hours imagining they were a country at COP and held discussions with other nations about their viewpoints in meeting the challenges that affect them. The students were really engaged and contributed to some very complex and nuanced conversations. Thank you to both Mr Harris and the following students who gave up their time during half-term break to attend this event: Eve, George P., Millicent, Sienna and Esther.
FoRTS News
Christmas is coming!
Christmas Raffle
After the success of our summer raffle, we have joined up again with Parentkind and are today launching the Big PTA Christmas Raffle! Tickets cost £3, and there will be 12 draws over 6 days, starting 13 December. Each ticket bought will enter you into all 12 draws, so you have 12 chances to win up to £5,000 cash per draw! You can buy your tickets now! 50% of ticket sales goes directly to FoRTS. Thank you for your support.
Christmas Trees
We are currently in the process of selecting a local business who will offer a donation to FoRTS when you buy your Christmas tree with them. Watch this space for further details later in the month.
Festive Workshops
Last year we held a very successful wreath making workshop but have been unable to secure an instructor this year. If anyone can offer a skill to enable us to hold a Christmas workshop, please get in touch.
Rugby Parking – Saturday 13 November
After an incredibly busy match day last week, this Saturday England play Australia. Rugby parking is by far our biggest fund raiser, last week bringing in a staggering £1,205! Huge thanks to our incredible volunteers that make it all happen. If you’ve been thinking of helping out, but still not sure, pop down on Saturday and check it out (there will be volunteers there from 10.30am until 8.30pm). It’s a great way to meet other parents at the school and develop the school’s relationship with the local community. Please email FoRTS if you’d like any further information, or can volunteer.
Virgin Money Giving Site
Just to let you know that we are aware that Virgin Money Giving is shutting down its site at the end of November. All donations up to that date will be processed as normal. We are actively working on a replacement which will be communicated later this month.
FoRTS AGM
Hopefully you saw the minutes of the FoRTS AGM sent out on Classlist. If not, let us know and we can forward them to you. There are still two Committee member positions vacant, and we need a co-ordinator to manage the second-hand uniform sales. If you’d like any further information about these roles, please contact us.
Your FoRTS Team,
Vanessa (Chair), Mark (Treasurer) and Carey (Secretary)
To contact FoRTS at any time, please email forts@rts.richmond.sch.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
Signvideo using British Sign Language (Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm)
Children Online - Setting Parental Controls
This is the time of year parents and carers will be buying devices that access the internet for their children and so we would like to highlight the importance of setting parental controls before giving the devices to children:
Local News - Please note RTS does not endorse items included as Local News
Volunteer police cadets
The Met Police are looking for new police cadets aged 10-18.
Why should your child become a police cadet? First and foremost, because it's really good fun. But there are lots of other reasons too:
Make new friends: Become part of the policing family and build friendships that will last a lifetime
Learn new skills: Build confidence, team work and leadership abilities whilst learning new skills
Become a community champion: Help the local community by taking part in policing operations and crime prevention initiatives
Duke of Edinburgh's Award: An award universally recognised by employers
Enhance their CV: Whether they want to go to college or university or go straight into work, this will provide a unique experience to talk about in interviews.
Go to: https://www.met.police.uk/car/careers/met/police-volunteer-roles/volunteer-police-cadets/overview/
'Skills in STEM' webinars for 14-18 year olds: 11 November-09 December
STEM Learning is hosting STEM Ambassadors from across five different sectors in a series of online webinars taking place from November to December.
Schedule: 4.30pm - 5.30pm
Thu 11 November - Project Management
Thu 18 November - HR
Thu 25 November- Intellectual Property
Thu 02 December - Marketing and PR
Thu 09 December - Logistics
In this series of webinars, STEM Ambassadors from a range of industries working in areas such as project management, communications and logistics, for example, will share what they do within the STEM industry and talk about their skills and experiences.
The webinars are designed for pupils aged 14-18 and will be delivered using Zoom with safeguarding settings in place (no cameras, no microphones, interactions will be kept to the Q&A function which will be monitored by a STEM Ambassador Hub employee). Webinars will not be recorded. More information can be found here.
Richmond upon Thames Monopoly!
An official Richmond upon Thames version of the world’s most popular and famous family gaming brand has just hit the shops in time for Christmas.
Earlier this year when it was announced that Richmond upon Thames had landed the honour of its very own customised Monopoly game the public was invited to suggest local landmarks to feature in the game.
In the game all the famous multi-coloured Monopoly property squares like Mayfair and Park Lane are occupied by leading landmarks from Richmond upon Thames.
In between Terrace View (replacing Mayfair) and Corporation Island (Old Kent Road) – which reside at the top and bottom of the board - are the great and good of the borough, including Richmond Park which gets to reside on a green square (Bond Street from the classic London original), Ham House (replacing Angel, Islington), Twickenham Stadium (Northumberland Avenue), the Hazlitt Theatre (Coventry Street), The Mall (Vine Street) and many more.
Several charities get to feature in the game as well, following a public vote. They include SPEAR and Animal Rescue and Care.
Very many of the Chance and Community Chest cards are themed around the borough too. One rewards players with one hundred Monopoly dollars to spend on champagne afternoon tea on the terrace at Richmond Hill Hotel. Whilst another also hands over Monopoly money to players – this time twenty Monopoly dollars – for braving the elements by going on an early morning swim in the Thames.
Cllr Geoff Acton, Mayor of Richmond upon Thames, said:
'It was a borough-wide effort to vote on the local landmarks and charities that feature on our very own Monopoly board. Our borough has so much to offer and I’m looking forward to seeing this represented on the new official board. I am looking forward to playing the game at Christmas!'
The game is on sale now at Asda, Ryman, Waterstones, WHSmith and The Works – as well as extensively online, including on Amazon.
Richmond Parent Carer Forum
Richmond Parent Carer Forum is turning 2 years old this month!
To celebrate we’re holding an informal celebration where parents of children with SEND can learn more about what the PCF does and connect with other parent carers. Join us on Thursday 25th November in the Winchester Room of the Turk’s Head, Winchester Road, St Margaret’s, TW1 1LF.
We’ll hold our members only AGM earlier in the evening, but all are welcome after 8pm to join us for food, drink, giveaways and prizes. To book your place please complete the booking form here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RichmondPCFAGM If you have any difficulty using this form then please email us on information@richmondpcf.org.uk
Not a Richmond PCF member yet? Membership is FREE for parents of children aged 0-25 years who have a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND) and live or access services in Richmond. Sign up here: https://www.richmondpcf.org.uk/membership/
PCF Non Member Invite.pdfTerm Dates 2021-2022
Full term dates and Inset day information is available on the website:
Christmas break: 16 December 2021 - 04 January 2022