RTS Parents' Newsletter 31 March 2023
Head Teacher's Message
As I reflect on the end of the Spring Term, I am incredibly proud of the many successes, events, and activities our students have participated in over the past few months. They have continued to show excellence through endeavour, and I have been delighted to witness their growth and development. This Spring Term has been filled with opportunities for our students to engage with their learning and further their interests. Our students have been busy with sporting fixtures, intermediate Maths Challenges, visits to the Science Museum, attending a Careers in Medicine Conference, the Poetry Live event; and much more. It has been a pleasure for staff to reconnect and strengthen relationships with parents and carers during face-to-face Subject Teacher Consultation meetings and revision workshops, GCSE Options evenings for Year 9; and meetings with career advisors for Y11. Meanwhile, I, the Senior Leadership Team, and Heads of Year have enjoyed our one-to-one meetings with Y11s, Y10s, and Y9 students, and we look forward to meeting with Y7 and 8 in the Summer Term.
Y11 students had the fantastic opportunity to participate in a Careers Conference, featuring over 25 local and national employers and further education providers. The event included keynote speeches and workshops with leaders at our partner organisations, such as JT Janssen, Chief Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, Mark Tisshaw, Editorial Director of Autocar at Haymarket Media Group and Marc Leckie, CEO Harlequins Foundation (Harlequins Rugby Club). I eagerly anticipate the Y10's Careers Conference in the summer term, which promises to be another excellent event.
I would also like to take this opportunity to celebrate the outstanding performance of A Monster Calls. Importantly, I would like to applaud all the staff and students directly involved in the production, as well as the staff, parent audiences, support staff, and FoRTS for their fundraising efforts. Their combined efforts made the event memorable and successful. In addition, I would like to extend my thanks to FoRTS for their fundraising efforts this term and again give a warm welcome to the new Chair, Carmelle Jaitly. The work of FoRTS is crucial in improving opportunities for students' access to resources, making more trips and visits affordable and accessible to all students, and providing additional equipment for enrichment activities. For FoRTS to continue making a difference, they need more volunteers, and a new Treasurer, and a Secretary. Whatever you can offer, big or small, please do let them know - visit their webpage on our website for more information.
The Summer Term begins on Monday, April 17. Students should arrive from 09:15. The gates will open at 09:15 as all staff are involved in meetings and training. Lessons start with lessons at 09:45 for Period 2 and the day ends at 15:00 as usual.
Wishing you a pleasant and restful Easter break with your families. Thank you for your ongoing support, and I look forward to an exciting and productive Summer Term.
Ms K Dooley
Dates for the diary
Monday 17 April
Start of Summer Term, late start at 09:45 for all year groups
Tuesday 18 April
Whole school photograph - Perfect full school uniform for all students (NO PE/Games kit)
Wednesday 26 April, 15:30-19:30
Year 8 Parent/Subject Teacher Consultation
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
This last term, Year 8 have been creating wonderful abstract portraits influenced by the artist Keemo. His artwork is very recognisable and is abstract and figure-based. We think the students efforts are fantastic!
RTS Fixtures
The girls netball teams continue in their run of wins - this time against Twickenham School. Just before the Easter break they came away with two wins. The Year 8 team won 15-1 and the Year 7 team won 17-2. Kiana and Charlotte L were players of the match in their respective games. Well done to all girls who took part!
A Monster Calls
As Ms Dooley has already said, we are so proud of the entire production crew for their recent performances of A Monster Calls. Months of hard work went into these shows and the students' dedication and endeavours more than paid off with four incredible performances last week. Well done to all of the crew - actors, musicians, back stage, lighting, design, make-up, front of house; and staff - the list is long! We have had some lovely emails in from parents congratulating the crew for the production - thank you to all of those who came for your support. It is truly appreciated.
Thank you to FoRTS for providing refreshments each evening and also to the Year 10 Young Enterprise Team. They still need to do a final tally, but between the raffle and bake sale at the school production the Young Enterprise Team have made close to £200 to start their business. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday there were at least five of the team helping with the bake sale. They took complete control of the entire process and it has been lovely to see them interacting with staff, students involved in the production, FoRTS, and parents every evening; they have been fantastic ambassadors for the school and their confidence has grown every evening. The team members are: Mia B., Tom B., Noah, Abigail C., Dhru, Kavin, Nevaeh, Alex S., Zaine, Tabby, Charlie and Paige.
The RTS Kitchen
Last week we were treated to Chef Laurie's home cooked specialties with a celebration of Jamaican food. The team served up Jamaican beef or veggie patties, Jerk chicken served with rice and peas, a jerk sauce and mango salsa, or vegetable curry with rice and peas and steamed vegetables. Desert was a flavour packed Jamaican ginger cake.
We can't wait to see what the team come up with next!
The RTS Way
Outside of school, our students continue to make us (and you) proud of their achievements. Oliver and Deacon (Year 8) and Bodie (Year 9) are part of the 2nd Whitton Animal Troop Scouts. Together they won a Scouts cooking competition - well done boys!
Ramadan Food Bank Drive
Last week marked the beginning of the month of Ramadan on the Islamic Calendar. This is the month in which billions of Muslims around the world will fast from sunrise to sunset. As well as not eating/ drinking, it is also a month of giving charity and helping those less fortunate.
To celebrate this, as a school, we are collecting donations for local food bank (The Trussell Trust) as a way of helping others.
Each tutor group will be given a target of 30 items to bring in - 1 for each day of Ramadan. This equals 1 item per student (but you can definitely bring in more if you are able too). Boxes have been placed in tutor rooms for students to put their donations in; and boxes will be collected on 26 April.
The food bank have provided us with a list of items that they are most in need of: Cereal; Soup; Pasta; Rice; Tinned tomatoes; Pasta sauce; Lentils, beans and pulses; Tinned meat/ fish; Tinned vegetables; Tea/coffee; Tinned fruit; Biscuits; UHT milk; Fruit juice.
Thank you in advance for your support in helping our local community; and thanks to Ms Razak for organising this collection.
English Trip
On Tuesday 28 March all Year 7 students went to watch a performance of 'The Tempest' at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside in London. We were given the tickets free from The Globe which meant that all students were able to go. The performance has been especially adapted for young audiences and is the perfect culmination of our unit studying the play last half term.
We were 'Groundlings' which meant standing in the pits and incredibly close to the stage and the action. Students had a fantastic day:
'I liked when one of the actors came out of the ceiling!' - Michel
'I thought it was so realistic and it was really fun to see the play live on stage' - Ben T
'It was nice to go with our friends into central London' - Isabella
'I loved the costumes - they were so sparkly and bright' - Zahra
Enrichment Activities
Eco-Warriors
With the financial assistance of FoRTS, our Eco-Warrior Enrichment group have installed bright new plastic recycling bins in all classrooms. Every Tuesday, during Enrichment, they collect up the bins and sort out the plastic waste - bottles are taken to the bin area and deposited in the green plastic recycling bins for the waste contractors to collect; whilst the plastic wrappers like crisp and popcorn packets and chocolate wrappers head off to the Terracycle bin in Mrs Munro's office.
Once full, that box will then be sent off to Terracycle to be sorted and processed into raw materials. These are then sold to manufacturing companies to make new products. These end products may include outdoor furniture and decking, plastic shipping pallets, watering cans, storage containers and bins, tubes for construction applications, flooring tiles, playground surface covers, athletic fields, and more!
Saleh (Year 8) - 'I enjoyed communicating with teachers and making a difference in the school community. We have already collected many plastic bottles, which have now been recycled. I am excited to do more Eco-projects at RTS in the future.'
Marko (Year 8) - 'I enjoyed being a part of the project. After 30 minutes of rubbish collection I was actually very tired but I kept going and I am proud I have helped the school community'.
Lego Robotics
Our students from the Lego Robots Enrichment Club attended a competition at the University of Greenwich in February, where they demonstrated their excellent robotics skills as well as their aptitude for innovation and engineering.
Our students took home the prize for the best innovation project. Congratulations Team!
FORTS NEWS
Quiz and Curry night
Thank you to all those who attended the recent quiz night. We truly hope you enjoyed yourselves. Well done to the team “Let's Get Quizzical” for winning the quiz!
It was a fun evening with an excellent quiz master and the curry made by local business, Heena’s kitchen. Thanks also to Browne’s Artisan Butchers and P Cooper & Sons on Twickenham High Street; Kew Gardens; and Hampton Hill Theatre for the raffle prizes.
We raised around £500 for the students of RTS on the night which is a wonderful outcome.
Thanks to all our wonderful helpers in the evening and we hope to see more of you next year!
Have a great break over the next couple of weeks and we look forward to the Summer Term.
Your FoRTS team,
Carmelle (Chair & Secretary), Mark (Treasurer)
General: forts@rts.richmond.sch.uk
Uniform: fortsuniform@rts.richmond.sch.uk
Parking: fortsparking@rts.richmond.sch.uk
Voluntary donations: Peoples Fundraising
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
Governor Opportunity
Auriga Trust (Strathmore School, Clarendon School and Capella House are looking for new governors (with significant educational and SEN experience) to join their trust in September. Full details are on their website here.
School Uniform Petition
Stevensons are conscious of the cost of school uniform and are always looking at ways to reduce the financial burden on families. A petition has been set up that aims to abolish the VAT on school uniform, in turn helping alleviate some of the pressure on UK households.
Easter Holiday Clubs
Our Camps for Your Kids
We work in partnership with Kingston & Richmond Council to deliver the HAF programme. This allows any child eligible to benefit related free school meals to attend our camps for free with a hot meal included.
We are delivering a camp this Easter at Grey Court School and would love to welcome you to attend.
Dates: 3rd-6th April
Time: 10:30am - 2:30pm
Ages: Ages: 8-16yrs old.
Booking site: www.ourcamps.org
Coupon Code - We have 30 free places each day, parents/carers that are eligible to benefit related free school meals can use OC coupon code to add to the end of their booking. - OCGRE100
TV series needs Dads!
A new C4 adventure series featuring Ed Stafford is looking for dads to take part! The show will take a group of dads, who want to better connect with their children due to the pressures of the modern world, to live in the jungle for 2 weeks (but they would need to be available for 3).
There they will get the chance to experience back to basic living, take on challenges together and bond over the once in a lifetime experience.
For further information see the flyer and get in touch with:
Glen Bartlett, Casting Producer – Kings of the Jungle
Little Kickers
Little Kickers are providing children and tots a fun introduction to sport offering classes for boys and girls from 18 months to 5 years, the classes are held on Saturday mornings indoors at:
All Hallows Church, Chertsey Road, Twickenham.
Each class is tailored towards the learning requirements of that specific age group.
It’s the perfect way to ignite an enthusiasm for sport that will stay with your children for life. Contact richmond@littlekickers.co.uk
Term Dates 2022-2023
Full term dates and Inset day information is available on the website:
Spring Term 2: Monday 20 February-Friday 31 March
Summer Term 1: Monday 17 April-Friday 26 May
Bank Holidays: Monday 01 May and Monday 08 May