RTS Parents' Newsletter 13 May 2022
Head Teacher's Message
We are predicted a heatwave for this weekend - which, whilst welcome for many of us, is not conducive to revision! If I cast my mind back, I seem to remember that the summer of my GCSE's was also exceptionally warm. Whilst the rest of the family is outside enjoying themselves, it is hard to maintain that discipline of revision. However - breaks from study are exceptionally important and should not be underestimated. Mental well-being is exceptionally important during this period.
Elsewhere across the school we have had one tired group of Year 8s return from their camping experience in the woods, and we now look to Year 7 to head off on their first RTS adventure later on next week.
We are also planning ahead to some jubilee celebrations in school - more to follow next week!
Wishing you a relaxing weekend.
Ms K Dooley
Dates for the diary
Monday 16 May
INSET Day - School closed to students [except for those sitting a GCSE examination]
Monday 16 May
GCSE examinations begin
Tuesday 17 May-Friday 27 May
Year 9 AP6 assessments
Contacting the School
If you wish to contact the school, the School Office is open (term time only):
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.
Assembly Topics
Assemblies for next week:
School report
RTS Art Gallery
The Year 9s have been working on a project in art inspired by Sarah Graham. Their theme has been food in art. Here is a glimpse of some super bright vibrant acrylic paintings.
RTS Sports Update
On a very wet and windy Wednesday afternoon, the Year 9 Boys rugby team headed over to Richmond Athletic Ground to compete in the Middlesex Borough & County Final. In a tricky game against Richmond Park Academy the boys showed exceptional resilience in tough conditions to push themselves to victory as champions! The final score was 17-5 . We are proud of this team who have remained undefeated all year.
Congratulations to the whole team throughout the year and thank you to Mr Roberts for his committed efforts in organising the fixtures and supporting this great group of Year 9s. Thank you to those parents who also braved the conditions this week; and have also supported and helped out over the season. Your time and support is much appreciated.
Still keeping to rugby - on Wednesday a group of Year 10 girls had the honour of attending the second round of Middlesex U15 rugby trials and we are delighted to share that Jess B., Layla and Jaap were successfully selected for the U15 squad! Congratulations girls - we cannot wait to hear more about your progress!
The Lion King - West End Version!
Students who were part of the school musical production of The Lion King relived being part of Pride Rock yesterday when they went to watch The Lion King in central London.
The trip was a celebration of all that they had achieved - Ms Charles reports that, 'the group all had so much fun! We had amazing seats and the students (and staff too) were all dancing and singing along to the incredible show that gave us the inspiration for our first RTS musical! Students represented the school phenomenally and it was a pleasure and a joy to take them to the West End!'
AP6 - Year 9
Tuesday 17 May is the start of a two week period of AP6 assessments for Year 9. An email was sent home at the end of April to all Year 9 parents/carers containing an exam timetable and revision topics. The students have been provided with tips on revising, revision timetables and have been given time during tutor time and prep this week to prepare for these examinations. Revision material will be in their books and on their google classrooms.
Please support revision taking place at home and encourage a healthy mindset focusing on wellbeing, sleep and dealing with exam anxiety. For further help and tips on the following please use the links below.
MFL Update
We have been using the online platform Seneca Learning in school and there are two ways to keep track of your child's progress. You can log into their own account as explained here, or you can create a parent account as explained below.
This lets you check in on their recent activity, overall study time and preview any homework assignments teachers have set for them (and if they're overdue!!)
Here are some instructions for getting started:
Click here to create a parent account (if you arrive at a login page, make sure to click on the 'Sign up' option)
Click 'See your child's scores'
Copy and share the unique link with your child (or you can use the e-mail or Whatsapp buttons)
Ask them to open the link on their phone or laptop (whatever device they typically use Seneca with)
Once they've successfully opened the link they'll see a linked confirmation
Refresh the page on your parent account to review their progress.
If you have any issues, you can find a video guide here.
To add a second or third child tap the "add another child" button - and repeat steps 3-6 above.
Bushcraft Trip
Mr Singh reports that Year 8 had an action packed two days on their first residential trip this earlier week. It was a fantastic learning experience in an unfamiliar environment where our students learnt and applied new skills through a variety of engaging hands-on activities. But what they enjoyed the most was the opportunity to spend time with their peers sleeping out in the wild!
Sustainability
Ms Dunningham has been leading an initiative in school with a team of Year 7-9 students.
At RTS we are setting up a new event called ‘SwopItUp’. This event will enable students from Year 7, 8 and 9 to clear out and donate unwanted clothes to the ‘SwopItUp’ shop in return for tokens which they can then ‘spend’ in the shop on other exchanged items. The idea is that students will be able to refresh their wardrobe without having to spend any money, and in doing so reduce the impact we as a school community are having in terms of consumption of clothing and resources.
More on this will follow, but in case you wish a head start on gently encouraging students to clear out their wardrobes over the upcoming weekends and half-term, here are the initial details:
Bag drop: Monday 06 June - Friday 10 June
Shop (event): Wednesday 29 June
The shop event will be invitation only to those students who have donated items.
KS3 Trip to Lord’s Cricket Ground
On Thursday 12 May, Ms Oakley, Mr Neal, Ms Cassidy and Mr Breed went to Lord’s Cricket Ground with 16 Key Stage 3 Students. The students had the opportunity to watch a county cricket game as well as participate in activities run by Middlesex coaches. We travelled by public transport through London and were impressed by the behaviour and enthusiasm of the students throughout the day. It was a lovely, sunny day and an excellent opportunity for the students to experience.
Tom M. ,Year 7 had this to say: 'Overall I think that the trip was amazing as we had a lot of activities and got to play a little bit too. I also got to meet a Middlesex cricket player. We were lucky to see some game play but unfortunately we didn’t see a six, but I was really happy I went on the trip. On the trip it was nice and we got a train and a tube. All of the staff were amazing! Thank you for taking me!'
Riley T Year 7: 'My Favourite activity was playing cricket, where I very nearly scored a six but Mr. Neal caught it! I also really enjoyed the journey there as I love getting on trains and tubes but have not been on one for six years.'
Alex G Year 8: 'The trip was amazing, I really enjoyed watching the match as I’ve never been before. It’s a shame we didn’t see a six but I was still happy to be there. My favourite activity was playing our own game of cricket and that was really fun! Thank you for taking us! 10/10!'
FORTS NEWS
FoRTS General Meeting – Wednesday 25 May, 6.30pm at RTS
Our next meeting will be held in school on Wednesday 25 May from 6.30-8pm, we look forward to meeting you. We also hope to hold a second hand uniform sale on the night. Please look out for confirmation of all of the details in next week’s newsletter.
Good Luck to all GCSE Students!
Good luck to all students taking their GCSE’s in the coming weeks. We hope you feel well prepared and wish you a calm weekend as you prepare for this next step.
Your FoRTS Team,
Vanessa (Chair), Mark (Treasurer) and Carey (Secretary)
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)
Local News - Please note RTS does not endorse items included as Local News
London Irish Cup Final Tickets
On Tuesday 17 May 2022, London Irish will take on Worcester Warriors in the Premiership Cup Final at the Brentford Community Stadium, home of Brentford Football Club. London Irish is happy to extend a 25% discount off tickets to all students at RTS who wish to attend this final. Adults can be there for £11.25 and kids for just £3.75 using code FINAL25 at checkout. Opportunities to see a Premiership Cup Final live do not come around too often, with the occasion being Irish’s first cup final as a Premiership side since their 2002 Powergen Cup win. Don’t pass on an unmissable final and get yourself down to Brentford Community Stadium at a discounted rate.
Details for the game can be found below:
Premiership Cup Final
Tuesday 17 May
️ Kick-off 19:45
Location: Brentford Community Stadium
How it works!
Visit https://www.eticketing.co.uk/londonirish/EDP/Event/Index/59
Select the number of tickets required in North Stand and breakdown of tickets e.g. adult, over 65, junior, child
If you wish to purchase the group package of 3, please select the red banner at the top
The tickets will automatically be added to the basket top right-hand corner
Enter promotional code FINAL25 and the amount will reduce by 25%
Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
You are then prompted to log in, if you do not have an account, you can create one.
Select ‘credit / debit card’ for payment and enter card details
Select Print@home / digital ticket delivery. Your tickets will be issued via email
Any issues, please email ticketing@london-irish.com
Please click here for an online step-by-step tutorial to guide you through the booking process.
ARFID webinar for parents.pdf
Middlesex Cricket
Please see the flyer for details of Middlesex Cricket youth membership offers. The offer ranges from 0-18 years; and includes a variety of different opportunities.
MIDDLESEX YOUTH MEMBERSHIPS_2.pdfIsleworthians Youth Football Club
Are a community orientated grass roots youth football club based in Isleworth with a local membership of approximately 250 boys and girls. This season volunteers ran 19 teams, with 'The Girls' team playing in the highly regarded all girls Surrey County Women and Girls league.
Our girls team was formed some 4 years ago after weekly open sessions were started and we continue to try and grow a little more each year. The club is currently in need of additional players and will hold an open trials session on Saturday 14 May. We hope this may be of interest to some of your current year 7 girls.
We are a Charter Standard Club affiliated to the Middlesex FA. This means that all of our Coaches hold a Level 1 [or higher] coaching badge; have undergone FA Safeguarding Children training, are enhanced DBS checked and qualified First Aiders.
Trials 2022_ALL.pdfGirls Football Coaching
We Make Footballers is a Girls Football Coaching programme based in Teddington.
They are hosting a girls only football camp for players of all abilities ages 5-13 this half term. It is a 3 day camp delivered by a female coaching team ending with a tournament day.
Please go to this link to find out more information:
Term Dates 2021-2022
Full term dates and Inset day information is available on the website:
INSET Day: Monday 16 May
Half-Term: Monday 30 May-Friday 03 June