KLS Textiles students make 100 pencil cases for Tanzania during Community Week

Textiles students managed to make 100 pencil cases for Tanzania. Students and staff have also donated stationary so we are able to fill them too! Don't they look amazing!

7A learn British Sign Language for Community Week

Mr Bargiela's Year 7 tutor group showed how well they could work as a team. Mr Bargiela explains what they achieved during Community Week:

"During Community week, 7A (A for awesome) learnt British Sign Language (BSL), the premise was to reach all parts of our community in Kings Langley and being part of the Communications Department (Modern Foreign Languages) I thought it appropriate for the students to engage with this language. The students made it their mission to learn the alphabet, numbers and some basics such as introducing themselves and giving their age. During the weeks activities, they taught the sixth formers that had been attached to us how to sign also. Using the resources given to them some of the students even learned how to tell stories. Finally at the end of the week during assembly, every student from 7A, led by Deanna Coe, gave a presentation in BSL to rest of the year group. A wonderful achievement by an awesome tutor group!"

Here they are signing in class

Video to follow! 

Mr Jarvis gets his face made funny for money!

Mr Jarvis's form were true to their word. If they raised £30, he'd let them make his face funny for money. They raised more than £30. This is the result. Beautiful.

Students vs teachers in a battle of wits for Comic Relief

Miss Mohan's form developed a quiz for Comic Relief. Lots of teachers were happy to join in and show off their general knowledge skills - unfortunately for us, categories like 'Text Speak' meant that students had an unfair advantage and some of us were left with egg - well cream actually - on our faces. Here are students planning the quiz during their registration time. More pictures to follow!

And here are some pictures of the quiz in action! 

Mrs Hardy's group of litter pickers!

Armed with litter pickers, Mrs Hardy's Year 8 group were a force to be reckoned with as they cleared the school site of any left over litter from the morning. Great to see students actively improving their school community. Well done!

7C's Global Community Project

7C were exploring what it means to be part of a global community. They talked about the cultures and traditions from a range of countries, sharing stories from the places they had visited. They learnt that the places they have been and the people they have met have influenced them and shaped their view of life.

One of the students, Alex, recorded that 7C students have been to more than 100 international destinations!

Easter Eggs for Foodbank

Well done to Miss Rigby's Year 11 class - a fantastic haul of Easter eggs for the Food bank in Hemel Hempstead. Students have managed to collect over 100 eggs. This will make a massive difference to some children in our local community.

Enterprising 8C run a photo booth for Comic Relief

It doesn't take much persuading for KLS students to get dressed up! Combining enterprise with charity, 8C raised £30 in one lunchtime for comic relief. Look out for some familiar faces behind the wigs and glasses in the pictures below! 

More visitors pop into KLS on their way to work!

We were lucky enough to have a number of local residents pop into Kings Langley on their way to work and tell the students a little about themselves and their careers. You'll see below how diverse the speakers were! Students were unanimously positive about the talks and we were delighted that so many local residents were prepared to give up their time. So....deep breath.... here's a list of all the speakers we had into school on Wednesday and Thursday morning:

Mr Moyo's tutor group were visited by a Mental Health nurse who gave a very informative talk about the profession.

A professional photographer came in to speak to Mrs Mendlesohn's form. Year 11 student Aaron Wharf, gives his views on the talk :

"It was interesting to learn about how she started and built up her photography business over time. She told us how she found her field of speciality (portrait pictures) by trying different types of photographs and seeing which she liked best. She also talked about her cameras and touched on how they worked and how to optimise the photo, which was useful for those taking photography. She also showed us some of her pictures on her website which were very good. Overall, it was an interesting and informative talk."

This tutor group were lucky enough to have more than one speaker and were treated to an engaging talk from 
George Tucker, a retained firefighter. Georgina May, a Year 11 student said:

"I found the talk very useful. I was able to understand better the recruitment system and also how the retained duty system works. It gave me an insight as to whether or not I would want to follow this career path and feel I am now in a better position to choose based on the information we were presented with. It was an overall, a very engaging and insightful presentation and you could definitely tell he was enthusiastic about his job which was inspiring to see" 

Mrs Bird's group were visited by a local chiropodist. Students were delighted to hear about all the gory, toe and foot related work that specialists in this field work with in this informative and engaging talk. 



Mr Whittaker's group were visted by a Finance Director. His tutor group loved this talk, see their account below: 



"A Financial Director came in to see 10A - he actually came to Kings Langley School in the 1980s! He works for an Insurance company called Seventeen Group. The company is called Seventeen because the owner’s birth day is on the seventeenth of the month and his three children were all born on the seventeenth of the month! Maths Set2 10x2 will be working out the probability of that happening with Mr Whitaker! Looking back he said he was good at maths at Kings Langley School and decided to specialise at an early stage by studying finance when he went to university.He explained that probability is the underlying consideration when an insurance company quotes for your car insurance your house insurance and for the big companies buildings and liabilities that Seventeen gets involved. He explained that he is responsible for anything to do with money. The students were interested when he said that profitable companies can still go bust when they run out of money.One student politely asked how much a Financial Director earns and he said that a “six figure “salary was the norm. Maybe this will make more members of 10A interested in a career in financial services?"

Mr Clark's group were 'knocked out' by their visit from local boxer, David Abraham. David spoke to the students about following your passion and working at that passion relentlessly until you are successful. Initially students were quite spellbound by him - he's a big guy - but soon relaxed and listened to his talk with students taking away the message that hard work and dedication pays off. 

Sixth Form students were visited by two local residents who work in Recruitment and HR. They spoke to students about employability skills, aspirations and how to present yourself to potential employers. For students at this stage in their lives it is important for them to be thinking about next steps and these talks were invaluable sources of information, advice and guidance. 

Students were also visited by a local resident who runs the Kings Langley Scout group, an employee from DENS who spoke to students about the impact and causes of homelessness, a resident who runs a jogging club in the village and a TV Director. A really interesting and inspiring start to the day for Kings Langley students.

Year 9 students make pencil cases for Tanzania

There are a number of projects going on across the school during this week - this one is amazing and encourages the students to be really creative whilst at the same time considering issues around global poverty and access to education. Year 9 students have been working in their Textiles lessons creating pencil cases that they, with the help of the school and local community, are then going to fill with pens, pencils, erasers and rulers and send to school children in Tanzania. We are asking staff, students and parents to donate any unwanted or unused stationary so we can fill these pencil cases with basic supplies. Something so ordinary can have an extraordinary effect.