RTS Parents' Newsletter

RTS Parents' Newsletter 23 September 2022

Head Teacher's Message

It has been a short and extremely busy week here at RTS. We have continued with our programme of parent information evenings, welcoming parents back into school to talk about the academic year ahead for their child's year group. Every year group has its focus and destination and it is up to both us as teachers and you as parents to guide the children along their way. September always has such promise of new beginnings (and new stationery!).

We are looking ahead now over the next few weeks and will be welcoming many prospective students and parents through the doors for our Open Events. This year we are hosting both morning events and, new for us, afternoon events. These events really showcase the RTS Way and the community that we have in school and I know from past experience that our students love to help out and conduct school tours for these parents and children. They enjoy showing off their school.

Please do share the invitation with friends who have children in Years 5 or 6 - links are on our school website here; and also available via our social media pages.

Thank you for your ongoing support in attending events these past weeks and we hope to see you again soon.

Ms K Dooley

Dates for the diary

Wednesday 28 September
- Early finish at 14:30 for Years 7-10 ONLY
Thursday 29 September
- FoRTS International Community Evening and AGM, 18:00-20:00
Wednesday 05 October
- Early finish at 14:30 for Years 7-10 ONLY
- Year7 (and new parents) Technology Evening, 17:30-19:00
Friday 14 October
- INSET Day - School closed to students

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.

RTS Art Gallery

The Art drying rack is filling up!! Thank you FoRTS for donating this essential piece of equipment to the Creative Arts Department!

During the first week back, during Art lessons, we discussed the meaning of art, how it makes us feel and why it's important to be part of the school curriculum. Students expressed their feelings on colourful post-it notes. I am blown away with the interesting insight our students have on creativity and am looking forward to a fun, colourful and creative year ahead!

National Archives

This week has seen Year 9, in their individual classes, head of to The National Archives - over in Kew. They are the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. They have over 1,000 years of iconic national documents - which is just incredible. The Archive is free to the public to visit and has an exhibition space, shop and cafe. Whilst the students didn't have the opportunity to visit the cafe - they were privileged to go deep into the building to a reading room surrounded by shelves full of precious documents. Organised by the History department, students had an exploration session on the Suffragettes.

Scholastic Success!

Ms Nockolds, Senior Learning Support Assistant and ILZ/Library Coordinator, wishes to pass on her sincere thanks to everyone who has supported the Scholastic Book Fair over the last couple of weeks; and also in July.

Between the two events, and thanks to the support of parents and students purchasing books, RTS has earned over £400 worth of free books for the library! This is a wonderful contribution to our shelves and will benefit all students across the school. Thank you!

International Community Event

To celebrate European Languages day, the MFL department will be collaborating with FoRTS to organise an International Community Event. The aim is for families to celebrate their culture with the school community. The event will be held at school on Thursday 29 September between 18:00-20:00 and will celebrate all the varied cultures that the RTS community is made of.

Planned activities include Bingo quizzes, food and drink stalls, a bar and other themed activities that celebrate and promote the diversity of our RTS community.

We are looking for help in manning the stalls, bringing cultural food for other guests to taste or just being there to enjoy the evening and make the event a success. If you are interested, please complete the Google Form sent out on Thursday 22 September. It will be fun, so don’t miss out!

Sporting Success

RTS were very successful at a recent table tennis tournament hosted at Turing house. Casey, Year 11, won first place! Well done to all the players who took part.

Out on the field, Mr Glossop led a Year 8 boy's rugby team to victory, 12-1, against Teddington School. This was the boys' first game in the borough cup - Congratulations!

The RTS Way

The RTS PE department are keen to celebrate about all of our students' sporting achievements, especially those from outside of school.

If your child has represented the borough, county or beyond, successfully completed a challenging course or featured in a competition we would like to know.

Please send in accomplishments/achievements via email to info@rts.richmond.sch.uk and we will share these in the newsletter and also add these to our wall of fame in school.

FORTS NEWS

International Community Evening – Thursday 29 September, 6-8pm

FoRTS, in conjunction with the school, is running an International Community Evening on Thursday evening. Whilst the night is aimed at new families joining the school, it is of course open to all, and we hope that many of you can come and celebrate the array of cultures that make up our school community. We would love you to bring a dish (nut and orange-peel free please) that signifies your country/culture to share with other attendees. Snacks and drinks will also be available to purchase. There will also be bingo on the evening, and during a break we will hold our AGM. We apologise for the late notice given for this event, due to recent events. Please come along and bring a dish to celebrate your culture, we want to celebrate everyone who makes RTS what it is!

Entry is a minimum of £1 donation payable on the door and this will entitle you to one bingo card!

So that we can plan the evening, please complete the Google Form emailed out to you on Thursday 22 September from Arbor, letting us know if you will be attending and if you are able to contribute by bringing some food.

AGM - Thursday 29 September, 7pm

The FoRTS AGM will take place on 29 September as part of the International Community Evening. You do not have to be coming to the event to take part, and vice versa. Details have been sent out by the school about the AGM, and descriptions of the roles. With an outgoing Chair and three vacant Committee Member posts, we really need new volunteers to step forward so that we can keep FoRTS running. You can contact us at any time on forts@rts.richmond.sch.uk.

A Message from our Outgoing Chair

It’s been an amazing 5 years and now it’s time for me to step down from the Chair role. Building a PTA from scratch when the school opened in 2017, gaining charity status in 2020 and raising many thousands of pounds for the school has been a very rewarding experience. This would not have been possible without the dedicated and skilled FoRTS team (Mark - Treasurer; Carey - Secretary; Rob - Parking co-ordinator) and close connections and support from the school and trustees. Not forgetting the parents who are consistently there to offer help when needed. I’m confident that whoever steps forward for the Chair role will find they are as well supported as I have been. If you think this could be you, I’m happy to answer any questions about the role ahead of the AGM next Thursday. Please get in touch forts@rts.richmond.sch.uk

Second Hand Uniform Donations and Sales

The next uniform sale is proposed for the evening of 12 October, more details nearer the time. If you have any uniform you’d like to donate, this can be done at any time by dropping off at the school reception. Please contact us at fortsuniform@rts.richmond.sch.uk if you have any queries.

AmazonSmile, easyfundraising and Peoples Fundraising

Don't forget you can keep making a difference to our fundraising efforts by shopping via easyfundraising or AmazonSmile. It only takes a minute to sign up by becoming a supporter of Friends of RTS on easyfundraising and AmazonSmile. You can also make direct donations, including Gift Aid, via Peoples Fundraising, or use the “Fundraising” button on the RTS website.

Have a great week, your FoRTS Team

Vanessa (Chair), Mark (Treasurer) and Carey (Secretary)

General: 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)

Local News - Please note RTS does not endorse items included as Local News

Fear-Less Parenting: supporting children with anxiety

The Positive Parenting Project are running an online webinar for parents of children with anxiety: practical tools to help you support your child (for parents of children aged 6-14yrs).

When children have anxiety, it impacts the whole family. It can be incredibly hard for parents to know what to say and how to help. And, without support, children’s anxiety often escalates or becomes entrenched. It’s normal for parents to feel frustrated, worried or distressed when children are struggling – but there are parenting strategies you can learn that will make a real difference to your child’s anxiety.

This specialised Triple P® Fear-Less parenting seminar has been specifically developed to help parents cope with the challenges of parenting a child with anxiety. It will help you understand what causes anxiety and take you step-by-step through concrete strategies you can use to help reduce your child’s anxiety.

Know what to do when your child is anxious or upset.
Help your child develop a toolkit of coping skills to overcome anxiety.
Break the cycle of anxiety and avoidance.

The webinar will be delivered by international parenting expert Anita Cleare (MA Adv.Dip) and is relevant for parents of children aged 6-14yrs.

Click on the link here to take you to the EventBrite booking page.

Volunteering Opportunity - Independent School Admission Appeals Panels

Richmond Council is looking to recruit to its pool of volunteers who sit on panels that hear and make decisions on school admissions appeals lodged by applicants who have been unsuccessful in securing a place at their chosen school. The panels consist of trained volunteers selected from a pool, and who are independent of local schools and, as such, you will not be able to serve on any panels for schools you have a connection to e.g. where your child attends. The panels meet virtually, as and when necessary (but mainly in the summer term).

If you are discreet, good at listening to both sides of an argument, and able to digest and analyse information in order to make a reasoned decision, then this could be a good opportunity for you.

Further information and an application form are available from: education.appeals@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk or call 020 8891 7183 for a chat.

Volunteers from underrepresented groups within our community are particularly encouraged to come forward.

Work at Twickenham Stadium

The home of England Rugby, Twickenham Stadium is holding two recruitment days at the start of October, with successful applicants being able to start work in time for the upcoming Autumn Internationals.

You don't need to be a rugby fan to work at the stadium - there are a variety of roles on offer if you are looking for some weekend work.

Education Wellbeing Service

Secondary Parent Webinars Poster 2022.23. Education Wellbeing Service (2).pdf

ASD Parent/Carer Support Group

ASD support group october 22.doc.pdf

Heatham House

Heatham House is back open with a jam packed term time program with something for all young people to do!

Not only do we have our regular drop in sessions but we will be introducing more fun activities such as: Cooking, art, garment printing, wildlife program and more...so keep an eye out on their Eventbrite page and Instagram!

Copy of HH Term-Time.pdf

DIY Assistance

My name is Tony Joyce and I am the new Store Manager for Crown Decorating Centre in Twickenham.

I am reaching out to local schools with a view of creating a partnership in the supply of decorating materials.

We are aware that with the ever rising prices of every day necessities that any money saved is good money, so I would like to extend an offer of 25% off a first purchase with ourselves when opening an account (excludes promotional items)

With industry leading coatings, I am sure we can accomplish great things together, some of what we offer is a follows:

25% off EVERYTHING your first purchase and then 25% on Paint and 15% on Sundries afterwards
Access to competitive pricing across all of our brands
Complimentary FREE next day delivery to your door
Access and manage your account online
Bespoke colour matching service INCLUDING access to all Farrow and Ball colours (we know people love those)
Complimentary Can recycling - we are the only decorator's merchant that will recycle any empty can from any brand!!
All of this along with World Class Service too!!

If you would like to take us up on this offer here is the link that you can use to sign up an account with us: https://form.jotform.com/221803755488363

Please feel free to contact me via email or on the number below to discuss further!!

Email: twickenham@crownpaints.co.uk / Phone No : 0208 891 5267

Term Dates 2022-2023

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

Autumn Term 1: Friday 02/Monday 05/Tuesday 06 September-Friday 21 October 2022
Autumn Half-Term: Monday 24 October-Friday 04 November 2022
Autumn Term 2: Monday 07 November-Friday 16 December 2022

Parents' Calendar

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