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. 

10D get creative for Community Week

Here are the lovely 10D, led by the lovely Miss Scanlan busy working on a group project for Community Week with their Sixth Form tutor group guests! 

10D have created posters around the theme of Community focusing on celebrating our school community and our local community. They are also crossing the Channel (metaphorically speaking) and thinking about what it means to be a European citizen and a Global citizen. We look forward to seeing their finished product. Meanwhile, here they are in action, working hard with their new Sixth Form pals! 

A visit from a Community First Responder

For many people, once you reach 16 or 18 you never step foot inside a secondary school again. As such many people's views of what goes on in schools remains stuck in time! As part of Community Week we wanted to give local people an opportunity to see what goes on in a modern, successful comprehensive school and at the same time, share with our students the wide range of jobs and opportunities outside the school gates. Our first visitor was a Community First Responder. He spoke to Miss Rigby's Year 11 class about the important work he does as a Community First volunteer. Thierra Currie in 11A found the talk inspiring:"We thought the speaker was very interesting and informative. He spoke in a way that was exciting and the fact that he can save a life doing volunteer work really inspiring"Here he is talking to 11A - a fine way to start a Monday morning! 

For more information about Community First Responders please click on the link below:
http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/what-we-do/community-first-responders.aspx

Sixth Formers go out into the local community

We value the support of our local community and are always looking at ways of strengthening relationships with local residents. As such we have encouraged our fantastic Sixth Form students to use a couple of their free periods for the week to visit local residents in the village. Year 13 students, Luke Sills and George Calcutt, accompanied by Year 12 students Georgia Gain, Eliza Briscall and Fran Parry visited local residents at The Cloisters in Kings Langley and enjoyed chatting about their studies, discussing ways of improving the local area as well as celebrating the wide variety of things to do in Kings Langley and the surrounding towns and villages.  

Not did students get to enjoy tea and biscuits but they also enjoyed celebrating a significant birthday with a local resident - 95 years young! 

Kings Langley Community Week

Kings Langley students are celebrating our wonderful school and local community in a whole school awareness week led by the student council. In this blog we will be sharing with the world (we are aiming high!) some of the fantastic activities we have been taking part in this week to strengthen and celebrate our school and local community. 

In Student Council meetings and form time students have been thinking about how we can improve our participation in the school community and ways we can strengthen the links between different year groups. To this end we are experimenting with vertical tutoring with sixth form students allocated to each tutor group where they can support younger students with class work, home work and other school related issues. Look out for more news stories on this as the week progresses! 

Students will be running activities in tutor groups ranging from collecting food for local food banks to creating short presentations on what it means to be both a British citizen and a Global citizen. Some tutor groups are focusing on specific issues such as homelessness and other groups are using the week as an opportunity to teach their class a new skill! In Miss Scanlan's Technology classes, students will be making pencil cases to send to Tanzania and in Miss Rigby's class, students are collecting Easter Eggs for a local food bank. 

The week will end with a 'Fun Friday' where tutors will have their faces made funny for money for Comic Relief. Students are expected to come in fancy dress or non uniform, £1 for fancy dress and £2 for non uniform. There will be a 'fashion show' for tutees to show how hideous attractive they have made their tutors look!