The queen katherine school, kendal

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r e t t le

The Queen Katherine School

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as 2 m t s i Chr

Features

3 Exam Results 12 R.E. Award 14 Kendal Pals 22 Harry Johnstone wins BBC Music Competition

30 Fell Running

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THE HEAD WRITES

The school year started well with a full Year 7 and several new members of staff joining us. Governors have released funding, and we plan to continue a programme of refurbishment and renewal over the course of this year for several improvement projects.

We started the year with another set of excellent examination results, both at GCSE and Advanced level. Both cohorts recorded results that were considerably above the national average. Through careful planning and management, we have also managed to invest in smaller class sizes and, within key subjects, our

average class size is now at 22 students.

Other recent developments within the school have seen the continuation of our widely acclaimed Accelerated Reader programme into Year 8, focused teaching for numeracy and literacy and an extension to our already wide range of GCSE options.

Outside the classroom, life has been as busy as usual. Our PE and sports teams have started the year well with a number of successes against local schools, whilst in the English Schools Fell Running championships we secured third position.

Aside from competitive sports, the school was highly placed in the North West Regional Kids’ Literature Quiz securing a 2nd and 4th position.

Performing Arts have also been busy with numerous Music, Drama and Dance performances. It is always difficult to single out any production, but the performances of “The Kendal Pals” were memorable - a unique community production, produced in conjunction with SLDC, to mark the centenary of the commencement of the Great War. Written and directed by Jonathan Linaker, with support from several key colleagues and students, it was a superb manner in which to remember the sacrifices made by our community.

As always, I could write about the large number of other activities in which our

Memorial Service QKS student and Cumbria Army Cadet Force Megan Cook attended a Memorial Service at Oosterbeek Military Cemetery on Sunday 21st September.

This year was a special occasion, as it marked the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the failed attempt to shorten the war by seizing a series of bridges on the River Rhine and the Meuse.

On arrival in Amsterdam, Megan first visited the laboratory of the Netherlands Recovery and Identification Unit, where she saw the bones and personal effects of British, Canadian and German soldiers from World War II. The unit works to identify these bodies and then release them for burial with full military honours.

On the Sunday morning, the cadets were driven to the Cemetery at Oosterbeek, where they saw the 1,680 graves of Commonwealth servicemen

who died in the fighting, as immortalised in the film “A Bridge Too Far”. Among the graves were many soldiers of the Border Regiment, an antecedent of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, whose badge and beret the cadets of Cumbria Army Cadet Force wear.

The most moving part of the twohour ceremony was when hundreds of Dutch children came and stood in silent lines by the rows of graves.

On a command from the minister conducting the service, they raised bouquets of flowers above their heads, before turning and tenderly placing them by each headstone. As they did so, each child softly said the name of the fallen soldier. After the laying of wreaths, the Last Post and the minute’s silence, there was a fly past by a Spitfire, a Dakota DC3 and two other WWII aeroplanes.

students have been involved, but can I suggest that you simply follow QKS on Twitter – QKS Kendal - to keep up to date with the wide range of activities and events that occur on a weekly basis.

This year we have been asked by the BBC to contribute towards their festive schedules. A range of students and ensembles will be recorded by the BBC for broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC Radio Cumbria with a catch up opportunity on BBC IPlayer. This will be a truly special event and one that I hope the whole school community can find time to enjoy the music.

With regret, I have to report the death of Lesley Talbot, who sadly passed away on November 29th, after a long illness.

Lesley was along serving teacher at both Longlands Girls School and the Queen Katherine School; her impact and legacy on generations of Kendal musicians is immense. Lesley will be sorely missed by all those that had the privilege of working with her or being taught by her.

Our thoughts go to her husband, Robert, and to the rest of her family.

On behalf of all the staff, students and governors I wish you all well for the Christmas festivities.

Gareth Roscoe, Headteacher

Cross curriculum project (Graphic Design – Modern Languages) In the summer term, three Year 13 students, Caitlin Law, Mary Omerod and Kate Fearnyough, volunteered to translate into French and German the leaflet for the Famous 1657 Chocolate House.

Two students from Graphic Design, Stan McNulty (Year 12) and Jordan Halliwell (Year 10) took care of the design. Both leaflets are now available at the Chocolate House in Kendal.

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Exam Results | 3

Examination Results In spite of significant changes to the examination regime, including several that took effect during courses of study, it is pleasing to see that the standards at QKS continue to show that the school adds value and that students make progress.

This year saw another fantastic set of A level results. Overall, the pass rate was 99.5%. 84% of results were A to C, and 35.5% were A* or A. Cathy Earle, Deputy Headteacher and Head of Sixth Form commented on the A level results: “More than a fifth of the U 6th at QKS achieved at least three A levels at A or A*.

This represents tremendous hard work on their part and that of their teachers, and considerable support from their families.

Five students have succeeded in gaining Oxbridge places: three at Cambridge and two at Oxford. This is an outstanding outcome for a Cumbrian comprehensive, where we value the achievement of a wide range of students. We are equally delighted to see a substantial proportion of our students going to a selection of Russell group institutions including Durham, Leeds, King’s College, York, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham and

Liverpool, to follow courses as diverse as Dentistry, Classical Studies, Physics, Nursing, Engineering, Neuroscience and Podiatry. Creative Art successes includes students getting unconditional offers to study Music, Photography and Acting degrees.

Whilst high achievement tends to dominate the headlines, the school celebrates the students who make exceptional progress particularly in difficult circumstances. The pressures facing young people in the 21st century are multi-faceted, and we are most proud of those who achieve their potential in these situations.”

At GCSE, in spite, once again, of difficulties caused by changes nationally, results show the percentage of students gaining 5 or more GCSEs showed an increase from 59% last year, to 62.4%, with 25% of grades being A* or A. Gareth Roscoe, Headteacher added: “I am extremely pleased that students can see a reward for all their hard work and efforts. As always, students and staff have worked together, with support from parents, to ensure the best possible outcomes.”

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Year 7 Awards Jonah Aldridge Gaby Ansell Rowan Baker-Ellwood Oliver Beresford

Year 8 Awards Lily Beck Jack Boles Kim Brown Laura Cribbens

Year 9 Awards Jamie Bath Daniel Blackburn Rhys Bragg Laura Braithwaite Courtney Brewster Oliver Dawson Paige Durnall Sophie Hardman James Jardine

Year 10 Awards John Bell Bethan Benson Daniel Burns Catherine Chant Daisy Clement

Year 11 Awards Alice Alexander Ellie Bland Megan Funning Anne-Marie Garnett Ruth Hannaford Euan Harries Adam Hughes Casey Knowles Bethany Latham Matthew Lowther Aaron Orsi Carolyn Postlethwaite Sophie Simpson William Walker

Year 12 Awards AS Level Subject Awards Art Tabitha Topping Biology Alice Bowler Business Studies Ellie Sumner Chemistry Elspeth Smith Computing Hannah Hutton Dance Catherine Cribbens

Year 13 Awards A Level Subject Awards Art Keziah Baskerville-Muscutt Biology Liz Watton Business Studies Elisabeth Adams Chemistry Lotte Cowan Computing Carl Smith Design and Technology Ben Crompton Economics Charlie Maguire English Language Jenny Jones English Literature Laura Day English Language and Literature Charlotte Miller

Megan Berry Emily Blythe Lewis Bowness Joseph Conner Emma Dodd Bradley Hamilton

Isla Hamilton George Hornby Kate Matthews Agnes Meikle Iona Nelson-Yeats Charlie Norton

Meg Owen Tyler Owen Florrie Park Chloe Richardson Chloe Sanderson Oliver Saner-Haigh

Hannah Wenzel William Yarker

Ben Fleetwood Isabel Garstang Lucy Gibson Ellie Holden Madeleine Hurley

Joe Hurn Sasha Johnson Cerys Latham Hazel Leedham Finn McMahon

Sam Moffatt Benjamin Reddin Ned Reid Joe Richardson Kirsten Robinson

Olivia Roscoe Paul Rowlinson Head of Year Award Madeleine Brown

Connor Jarvis Sophie Kirkby Rosa Matarewicz Sam Parkinson Seren Parkman Anna Senior Jayne Siddell Leah Strickland Robbie Swift Thomas Thorne Sophie Walton

Zoe Watson Alfie Wilson Connie Wilson Steven Wilson Harry Stephenson

The Outhwaite Award for Progress in Lower School Mathematics Mayflower George Contribution to Sport – Junior Girl Jemma Powell Contribution to Sport – Junior Boy Dylan Hoyle

QKSA Sports Achievement – Junior Girl Laurel Halliwell QKSA Sports Achievement – Junior Boy Alex Birkett KS3 Performing Arts Khan Durnall Head of Year Award Katie Russell

Alice Slattery Libby Thwaites Abigail Wharton Amelia Yazdi

Head of Year Award Elli Shepherd Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award: Ursula Brown Charlotte Dawson

KS3 Attendance Awards Abbie Coathup Hannah Charnley Scott Womack

Head of Year Award Bradley Wills

Megan Cook Connor Dixon Emerson Doore Matthew Elwood Eva Grange Andrew Greenwood Emily Haggin

Jordan Halliwell Jamie Hunt Laurence Hurley Tom Latham Caleb McLellan Ovidiu Morar Bella Reid

‘Sewing Box’ Textiles Award Sophie Hewitt

Callum Ward Heidi Westmoreland Joseph Wiseman Hannah Wilson Peter Wilson Sam Wilson

Ryan Schorer Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award: Beatrice Hooson The Emmott Award for Progress and Commitment to Work in Year 11 Ellie Bland Contribution to Sport – Senior Girl Dominique Alexander Contribution to Sport – Senior Boy Brad Askam

The QKSA Sports Achievement – Senior Girl Sarah Earl The QKSA Sports Achievement – Senior Boy Aiden Dent KS4 Performing Arts Award Thomas Wharton The QKS Award for Technology Sarah Porthouse The Chris Freeman ICT Award Jordan Atkinson Manduell Award for Music Kai Chareunsy

Liz James Award for Progress in English Kamil Klistala Yorkshire Bank Award for Year 11 Academic Achievement Lucas Helaine-Watson The Dr Reynold’s Award Academic Achievement for Year 11 Katy McDonald Head of Year Award Emily Humble

Design and Technology Stan McNulty Economics Hannah Herbert English Language and Literature Susie Irvine English Language Beth Hayton English Literature Jack Barwise French Alice Lee Geography Mark Curran

German Charlotte White History Elsie Atkinson Mathematics Matthew Theobald Contribution to the School Musical Production Kirstie Hewart Kay Larsson Award for Contribution to Music Ruairidh Jamieson

Young Enterprise Mark Curran Sylvia Cockett Contribution to Strings Cup Jo Simpson

Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award: Robert Atkinson Adam Hartley Thomas Kendal Peter Marshall Charlotte Milligan Luke Powell Jo Simpson Charlotte White

French Jenna Roberts Geography Kate Fearnyough German Mary Ormerod History Ben Hughes Mathematics Kelly Greenbank Music Daniel Brown Physics Laurie Hill Psychology Lucy Child Religious Studies Jasmine Allen Sociology Tom Gilson-Park Theatre Studies Olivia Winter

K Shoes Award Annie-Jo Gregory The Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon Award for Technology Sam Roper The Gerrard Award for Economics Kelly Greenbank The NatWest Bank Award for Business Jamie Capstick The Richard Robinson History Award Alice Adcock KS5 Performing Arts Award Curtis Medley The Hayton Trophy for Contribution to Music Daniel Brown

Barclays Bank Award for Languages Kate Fearnyough SLDC Chairman’s Cup for Languages Caitlin Law Stuart Green Award for Craftsmanship Megan Stuart The Queen Katherine School Award for Science Rowan Hall Contribution to School Art Lily Sadin The Dwyer Cup for Mathematics Tom Simpson HSBC Award for Music Harry Johnstone

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award: Isabelle Carradus Liam Dugdale Beatrice Hooson Ellika Livingstone Matthew Lowther Savannah Nicholson Hannah Russell

AXA Award – Services to School Community Rebecca Rodger Soroptomists Award for Service to the Community Zarah Dixon

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award: Edward Dixon Kirstie Hewart

Contribution to School Drama Rachel Woods Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award Kelly Greenbank The Town Council Award for Sixth Form Humanities Hope McNulty Governors’ Award for Academic Progress in Sixth Form Hayley Parker Town Mayors Academic Achievement Award Ben Dodds Head Teacher’s Award Charlie Maguire Senior Students: Zarah Dixon, Caitlin Law, Charlie Maguire, Mary Ormerod

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Awards | 5

Awards Evening Over 700 students, teachers, parents, governors and friends of the school gathered on Thursday 11th September for the School’s annual Awards Evening at the Leisure Centre, where the successes of 2014 were celebrated.

The evening commenced with opening music played by the QKS Jazz trio (Dan Brown, Lotte Andrade and Kai Chareunsy), fresh from their acclaimed performances at several venues across the region.

Stephen Wilkinson welcomed Tim Farron MP and Sylvia Emmott, who was representing the Mayor of Kendal.

Headteacher, Gareth Roscoe, opened the evening by highlighting the school’s continuing support for system wide improvement as a National Support School and now as a National Teaching

School. The recent accreditation as a Centre for Teacher Training brought QKS in line with University level education.

In addition, he celebrated the School’s amazing success in Sport and PE, including third place in the National Fell Running Championships. He also high-lighted the School’s continued high reputation for Performing Arts.

The outstanding range of extra-curricular activities provided aided student learning and progress.

Key Stage 3 students celebrated Languages, Sports and Outdoor Education developments. Also mentioned were the students starring on the video to promote the latest song by Kendal group “Women’s Hour”.

In Key Stage 4 there was a focus on the excellent careers information

and guidance provided to ensure that all students are prepared for the next chapter in their lives, fitting in with some life-enhancing activities offered by the school.

Key Stage 5 continued this theme with visits over the past 12 months including trips to CERN, Iceland and Bolivia. These activities, supported by outstanding teaching, have helped the school to achieve enviable results, with over 35% of grades awarded being A* or A, and over half of sixth form students progressing to Russell Group Universities.

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THE EXECUTIVE HEAD WRITES The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust is now becoming more confident about its role and has a very strong Board of Directors. The Chair is Richard Moore, a Governor of QKS, supported by two Vice Chairs – Peter Townley, Chair of QKS Governors and Liz Moffatt, a member of Walney Governing Body. The rest of the Board consists of Beth Curl and Heather Dixon, who are both QKS Governors, Steve Parkman, who is a former QKS Governor, myself, Gareth Roscoe (Head of QKS), and John Richardson, (Head of Walney School).

We have a new and very efficient clerk, Karen Little.

I am very pleased to report that the Multi Academy Trust is very well regarded both in Cumbria but also by the newly appointed Regional School Commissioner and the Department for Education.

The Trust is concentrating its efforts on providing a service to the two schools and will consider other potential schools with a degree of caution until it finds its feet.

Stephen Wilkinson Executive Headteacher

Train to be a Teacher

at The Queen Katherine School

teacher education, where the theories of teaching and application in the classroom are learnt together in school. The trainee teachers are immersed into classrooms with young people from the start, and they are taught by excellent teachers from a range of schools to ensure that we train the next generation of outstanding teachers for our schools”.

The South Cumbria SCITT is currently recruiting for people who want to start teacher training in September 2015.

We have places in the following subjects and age phases:

The Queen Katherine School becomes accredited as a provider of School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) The Queen Katherine School has been successful in becoming accredited as a teacher training provider for training secondary school teachers. A group of schools from across South Cumbria have been working together over the last three years to deliver a very successful school-led teacher training course, called School Direct.

These schools have now formed the South Cumbria SCITT, which builds on this excellence to be able to accredit teachers themselves from September 2015 onwards.

The schools who led the SCITT development are: The Queen Katherine School, Queen Elizabeth School, Dallam School, Ulverston Victoria High School and Dowdales School, with all of the other secondary schools in the South Lakes

Federation and Furness Education Consortium involved in the training and placements. The course is a PGCE in a secondary subject at Masters Level with the academic qualification accredited by the University of Cumbria.

Stephen Wilkinson, Executive Headteacher of The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust, said, “I am delighted that the Directors of The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust were happy to be the gateway organisation for this very exciting development for initial teacher education for the whole of South Cumbria”.

Alison Chapman, Vice-Principal of The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust, added, “It is a really exciting time in

Secondary Training Places Secondary Art and Design (1 place) Secondary Biology (1 place) Secondary Chemistry (3 places) Secondary Design Technology (1 place) Secondary English (10 places) Secondary Geography (5 places) Secondary History (2 places) Secondary Mathematics (10 places) Secondary Physics (3 places) Primary Training Places General Primary age 5-11 (7 places) Early Years age 3-7 (1 place) Apply to The Queen Katherine School School Direct Further details are available at www.qktsa.org.uk or at UCAS, www.ucas.com/how-it-allworks/teacher-training/postgraduateroutes-teaching . For enquiries please contact Alison Chapman at The Queen Katherine School, email: alison.chapman@queenkatherine.org

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Art | 7

PERRY GRAYSON VISIT Years 12 and 13 were taken to see the current Grayson Perry’s “Vanity of Small Differences” exhibition which was on display until December in Temple Newsam Estate, Leeds. In addition, they visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The students had a very successful day and took the opportunity to take photographs, sketch and research for their coursework.

Perry’s work is especially relevant to Year 12, who are developing their own adaptation of his tapestries, which deal with the visual environments people build around themselves and with social class and etiquette. It was a fantastic day!

FELT WORKSHOP A Year 12 Felt Workshop took place on 15th October with the artist Dianne Standon. The students had a full practical day creating their own handmade felt vessels. All work will be used to enhance the Year 12 Environment coursework unit.

Comic Art Festival Year 7 and 9 Art students worked from last summer onwards to create our QKS contribution to the Comic Art Festival 2014. Year 7 created their own original ‘Super Heroes’. Year 9 were asked to create a separate piece of a huge jigsaw, which was a back drop to create ‘A School for Super Heroes’. The whole display came together really well.

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8 | Careers

“YOUTH ENTERPRISE” EVENT AT CASTLE GREEN HOTEL A total of 37 lucky students from Years 9, 10 and 11 earned the opportunity to take part in a Youth Enterprise event on 30th September, run by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Throughout the day, they attended

workshops learning about setting up a business and the financial aspects involved - marketing, market research and how to come up with ideas for products and services. They also listened to local entrepreneurs talk about their career

paths and had the chance to ask questions. A total of 200 students from the South Lakes secondary schools attended the event and students found it was very informative and interesting.

CITIZENSHIP/ENTERPRISE – MOCK INTERVIEWS

At the start of Year 11, students are not only realising that their exams are fast approaching, but also starting to think about what happens next. As well as the competitive nature of the modern job market, students may also have to compete for a place on college, 6th form and university courses. To prepare them for this, the students focus on developing essential skills, such as communication, organisation and team work, throughout their KS4 Citizenship lessons, and consider how they can best present their skills to employers in writing and also at the all-important interview stage.

On 16th October, the students had a

chance to put this skill development into practice, as 22 local employers and education providers were represented at the “mock interview” event. After completing CVs and handwritten application forms in Citizenship lessons, the students were given an interview time and matched with an appropriate interviewer based on the jobs they are interested in doing in the future. For most of the students, this is their first taste of a realistic interview, and whilst there may not be a real job on the line, the interviewers are honest with the students about how well they performed. Feedback is given verbally

during and after the interview, and through written feedback that is discussed in Citizenship lessons.

Many of the interviewers have taken part in this annual event several times over the last few years, and the feedback from them suggests that this year’s students were some of the most confident and well-prepared they have seen. Feedback from the students in Citizenship lessons also shows how much the students have gained from the day, with all - including some of those that were very nervous beforehand - saying that they benefited from the experience.

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Cool Council | 9

PRIMARY SCHOOL SUMMER CONFERENCE ON

GLOBAL AWARENESS

Images by Lucy Child, Year 13

It has been said that young people are the future decision makers…and if this is the case, the evidence suggests from the Primary School Conference on Friday 11 July at Kendal College, that the future is in safe hands.

A United Nations report has highlighted the challenges that need to be overcome in order to have a sustainable world. These include health, education, resources, the environment and war, which are challenges that world leaders struggle to address, so how would a group of Year 12 students from QKS deal with these when presenting them to much younger children? And how would they try to solve the problem of creating a happy, healthy world for the future?

Mayor Tom Clare opened the Conference, quite amazed at the professionalism of the Year 12 students who managed to control a room of almost 100 people. The students spoke with confidence and clarity, completely at ease in their role as hosts. The first activity explored the difference between needs and wants. Who would have thought children as young as 6 could understand that we need to be able to go to school and have safe places to play but we just want to eat lots of sweets?

The Year 12 students had researched all their own activities, including facts such as an American child has access to water the equivalent to 7 children from Somalia, that the bulk of the people who cannot read or write in the world are female, that rainforest the size of 3 football pitches is cut down each day and that there are now 44

million refugees in the world today.

All the activities were carefully planned, bearing in mind the age of the children.

Each group dealt with their particular task, whether it was creating a rainforest, learning about its destruction and the impact it has on our world, or thinking about having to leave your home right now because bombs were being dropped and you needed to pack a rucksack with the essentials.

Feedback from each group highlighted just how much the children had learned during the afternoon. The Conference lasted just 75 minutes, but a great deal of material had been crammed in, all relevant to our world and all easily accessible for the children.

For the plenary, each group had to think of a word or phrase to complete the sentence: “To have a happy, healthy world in the future we all need to…..” Mexican wave style, each group shouted out their thoughts: “Reduce, reuse, recycle, be friends, share, stop war, eat well, turn off taps….” The ideas were all practical and do-able.

Approximately 70 primary school children arrived at Kendal College buzzing with excitement and energy. They didn’t

know the children from the other schools, but they worked together with concentration and focus, engaging with every aspect of the event. Their teachers were impressed with the Year 12 students’ preparations, some even thinking these were not A Level students, but undergraduates at university, and others thinking that a teacher had prepared everything and given it to the students to deliver.

What took place at the College isn’t something that can be quantified or measured; there isn’t a National Curriculum level for how much the children learned or the skills they practised, but this event serves as a reminder of what education is all about. It is tempting to think these are just children with limited experience, but they are open to new ideas, they are creative in their thinking, willing to take a chance and are willing to find a way around a problem. All these characteristics are essential when dealing with life today.

These young people will be meeting again….. and the agenda is getting bigger and more ambitious with every meeting!

For further information please contact Mrs Tracey Ellis on tracey.ellis@queenkatherine.org.

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10 | Citizenship/Careers

CITIZENSHIP/SCHOOL COUNCIL – LOCAL DEMOCRACY WEEK The week of 13th-19th October was Local Democracy Week. During this time, all KS3 Citizenship teachers delivered a ‘one-off’ lesson on the topic of democracy to their classes. Students learnt about the difference between national and local democracy as well as learning about the work of the Local Council and councillors. They also had a chance to consider all the responsibilities of the Local Council in Kendal and to debate their own views on what the Council’s priorities should be.

In addition to this, the School Council helped to organise special assemblies for Years 7, 8 and 9. Senior students from the 6th form led the assemblies with a talk and interactive activities to get the students to think about how they felt about issues. After this local councillor (and School governor) Clare FeeneyJohnson spoke to the students about her role as a councillor.

Following on from Local Democracy Week, all students in KS3 wrote letters in

CAREER PLANNING The National Careers Service website www.direct.gov.uk/nationalcareersservi ce is a really useful and informative website for students (and parents) to help with career planning.

Any questions please contact Mandy Morland (mandy.morland@queenkatherine.org) Tuesday 13th January – 5pm-7.30pm, Careers Convention in the Upper School Hall for Year 10 and 11 students and parents, please make a note of the date. More information will be forwarded to students/parents with further details.

form time about what they think the important issues are for the Local Council in the future. Form tutors read these letters and each picked one letter writer to go forward to a “grill the councillor”

session after half-term at which the students will be able to take their hopes and concerns directly to Clare FeeneyJohnson herself.

Year 11 Newton Rigg College Taster Day 20 students from Year 11 enjoyed a day out at Newton Rigg College, Penrith on the 22nd October. They participated in 4 workshops throughout the day including Agriculture, Animal Care, Gamekeeping,

Horse Care, Sport & Public Services, Forestry, Hair & Beauty and Childcare.

Students found the day a good opportunity to learn more about the College and what it has to offer. Fun was had by all!

National Takeover Day South Lakeland District Council hosted their annual “Takeover Day” for young people in the South Lakes on Friday 21st November. 5 students from Year 10 and 2 students from Year 11 were given the chance to take part. The students worked alongside officers in SLDC, observed what they do and participated in meetings to learn more about the workings of the Local Council. This was a valuable opportunityfor young people to develop skills in working with others in new situations.

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Citizenship | 11

CITIZENSHIP/RED SHED HALLOWEEN AND FIREWORKS TALKS As Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night approached, the School was visited by local Police Community Support Officers and “Community Dave” from our local ASDA store, a major fireworks retailer.

Several groups across the School were visited during their Citizenship lessons to receive a talk about the best way to have fun safely at the these times, and to avoid getting into any trouble. The students were really responsive and shared their own experiences of positive and negative behaviours they had witnessed in the past.

Students learnt about how to have fun whilst being empathetic and considering the needs of others.

COOL COUNCIL –

LOCAL DEMOCRACY WEEK EVENT Usually in the first half of the Autumn term, Senior Students at QKS organise an event that focuses on the key skills needed to be a successful school councillor: listening, speaking in public, teamwork and prioritising. However, this year the training event coincided with local democracy week – what better example of local democracy is there than School Council?

The event was held in the CLL at QKS – our usual venue at the Town Hall was being used. For the pupils at the local primary schools, this new venue only added to the excitement, walking in to the room to be greeted by a huge screen with “Local Democracy” projected across it drew their immediate attention. The Senior Students along with other Sixth Form students had planned the event, combining learning about local democracy in an accessible and interactive manner with practising key skills.

To get everyone energised, the session started with a game of musical statues.

When the music stopped, everyone had to strike an animal pose. The poses were imaginative; animals from all over the world suddenly appeared in Kendal.

Following the ice breaker, Years 2 and 3 went to learn more about democracy through a new Mr Men character written by Ed Hawkins at QKS: Mr Democracy. The other pupils, with support from Sixth Form students at QKS and KKS, began exploring democracy within their schools and how using their voice within school they could make change a reality. When pupils were asked to consider what things they would

like to change within their schools, the ideas were varied; more sports equipment, benches outside, more celebrations and rewards. When asked about their local community, the lists grew; safer roads, reduced speed limits, safer cycle paths, more spaces for teenagers so children could play without influence, play parks that were free from vandalism. The children really thought about their local community, how they used it and what would make it a better and safer place for different people.

Special guest Local Councillor, Clare Feeney-Johnson, was able to explain some of the different levels of local democracy, Local Council, District Council and County Council. Knowing who to contact to express a point of view is essential! And did you know there are 51 local councillors in the Kendal area? The focus then moved to look at nationwide democracy. Who runs the country? It was wonderful to hear so many pupils shout out the name of the Prime Minister – they know their stuff when it comes to who makes decisions!

The final activity explored how the Prime Minister and his Cabinet spend money. The children had an opportunity to vote using ballot papers and real ballot boxes. The key question was: what should David Cameron spend the money on? The choices at the ballot box were: • Doctors, nurses and hospitals • Schools, textbooks and computers • The army • Houses for those in need • Helping the poor

The children voted, the ballot boxes were taken away, the count was supervised and the final result announced. You might have thought that the children would have voted for something that would affect or benefit them – schools or hospitals, but overwhelmingly the children had voted that money should be spent on helping the poor.

It was interesting that when faced with a big decision, the children considered the needs of others over their own needs, wants and desires.

The atmosphere in the room was buzzing throughout the afternoon; keen discussions and debates took place and continued on the journey home. There were definitely some potential politicians in the audience! The next stage will involve meeting with members of the Local Council who might be able to make the concerns of the children a thing of the past!

Another successful Cool Council event, another afternoon spent with young people of various ages who have real passion and enthusiasm – If anyone needs reminding that young people can make a difference, just send them along to our next event in the Spring Term.

Careers Research reminder: Useful websites www.u-explore.com (contact Mrs Morland for the registration code to access if student does not already have it) www.nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk

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12 | Citizenship

Sasha Johnson (Year 9) and CLIC Sargent In September, Head Teacher Mr Roscoe received a letter from Sasha Johnson, one of our Year 9 students. In it, she asked if she could raise money for the children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent. CLIC Sargent supports one of Sasha’s friends.

Mr Roscoe was won over by her suggestion and agreed for the School to run some events to raise money for this worthy cause. To promote the event, Sasha went to assemblies and spoke to all students and staff. Due to her hard work all members of the school were desperate to get involved. Sasha and a group of friends spent hours making cakes and gold ribbons to sell in school. By the time the day arrived, there was a fantastic atmosphere generated throughout the school.

Sasha had successfully united the whole school in a bid to support a wonderful charity. It was a fantastic example of how one person’s determination can make such a difference.

The day was a great success raising more than £600 for CLIC Sargent. In total Sasha raised more than £1,000.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people and their families. They provide clinical, practical, financial and emotional support. For further information contact Mr Ben Griffin ben.griffin@queenkatherine.org

Religious Education Quality Mark On Wednesday 2 July, the Queen Katherine School was awarded the Gold Award for the Religious Education Quality Mark (REQM). The REQM has been developed by the Religious Education Council (REC) to celebrate quality Religious Education (RE). Schools achieving Gold are those where the quality of RE is recognised as outstanding beyond the School, where learners are unanimous in their appreciation of the value of the subject and where there is evidence of excellent practice and innovative strategies that have been developed in RE and which are shared throughout the School and in the wider community.

One Year 10 student said “We use RE more than people think in day-to-day life, and by having a wider understanding of beliefs and values we become a more tolerant society.”

The school was delighted to achieve such recognition and has been one of 6 schools nationally that have

achieved the award this year.

Mrs France said, “It is superb that the Religious Education we deliver at the Queen Katherine School has been nationally recognised, celebrated and publicised. The whole process of applying

for the award enabled us to be more reflective about our current practice and gave us the opportunity to consider how we can further improve the quality of the subject in School, on a local level and nationally.”

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News | | 13

Children's Literature On 17th November, two teams attended Pendle Vale College in Nelson to take part in the regional Kids' Lit Quiz competition. This is a challenging international competition run by Wayne Mills, Professor of Children's Literature at Auckland University, New Zealand.

Our teams were chosen by an internal competition that spans three rounds of increasing difficulty, lasts for 6 weeks and involved over 150 students from Years 7 and 8. Both our teams did very well indeed within the region, coming 2nd and 4th out of a field of 30. Both teams won best score in round prizes, and both took spot prizes for individual answers.

We should all feel extremely proud of the high standard of literacy and book knowledge displayed here.

Year 8 team at competition

Painting the Big Red Shed

Year 7 team with Wayne Mills

On Monday 20th October, a number of North West Regional Managers from ASDA volunteered to paint the Big Red Shed at QKS. The Big Red Shed provides a variety of student services, inclusion support, School Counsellor, Learning Mentor support, Parent Support Advisor, Education Welfare Officer and the School Nurse.

ASDA’s Community Life Champion, Dave Bedford, has worked with Police Community Support Officers and school staff on a range of initiatives such as Bonfire Night, Halloween and Alcohol Awareness projects.

Asda helps lots of different organisations within the community and in October they have chosen to work with The Queen Katherine School to paint and brighten up the Big Red Shed. Shelly Neill, Inclusion Support Coordinator and Learning Mentor said, “Asda in Kendal have been supportive of our work with the students and we are delighted that they have chosen the Big Red Shed as their Management Project”

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THE

14 | Performing Arts

KENDAL

PALS Images by Flo Acland

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Performing Arts | 15 Sometimes, it is easy to be cynical about the positive reports seen in this newsletter about the achievements of QKS students, so we take this opportunity to reprint a letter sent to the Westmorland Gazette about “The Kendal pals.”

“The students and staff of QKS, Kendal, are to be congratulated on their stunning performance of their play: “Kendal Pals”.

“The play, written to commemorate the centenary of the start of the Ist World War,

by Drama teacher Jonathan Linaker (who also co -directed it with Jarrod Collings) and supported by Head of Music Rob Shillitoe, with historical material provided by Cllr Paul Bramham, began with the speeches made to commemorate the unveiling of the War Memorial in Kendal.

“But the principal part of the play was to tell us the real stories of real people from Kendal and Milnthorpe, and in particular those of three individuals and their families. Those three individuals/families were seen to be and should be seen to be - typical of every family in the latter half of 1914: our grandparents and great grandparents.

“These tragic - and heroic - stories were told with touches of humour and they were further highlighted by a masterful use of song and music. And it was good to see the participation of staff as well as pupils. But there was a master touch, referencing that this was a production written and performed by a school, and that was the depiction of the lead up to war as a playground spat and bullying.

“It was a must see thing and all who took part in creating and performing it are to be applauded and commended.

“I began my using the word “stunning” and later spoke of a “master touch” but both words have to be combined to describe the finale when, totally unexpectedly, one of the soldiers stepped up and adopted the pose of the soldier on our war memorial. By that one act we were force d to recognise that behind the stone and bronze of the war memorial of all war memorials - are stories of individuals and their families, such as those told in the play. But the play also reminded us that whilst such memorials commemorate - quite rightly, those that made the ultimate sacrifice - others survived, some physically wounded and many others never speaking of what they had seen or done. It is for them, and their successors in other wars, that the Royal British Legion works so tirelessly.

“But what of the future of the play, because surely it must have a future and I have suggested to QKS and to Jonathan Linaker that if it sees no other performance it must be repeated on the centenary of the unveiling of the war memorial in Kendal. It has to be: Kendalians must be allowed to see the play again”.

Tom Clare, Mayor of Kendal

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16 | Performing Arts

YEAR 12 DRAMA

BUGSY MALONE AUDITIONS Years 7 & 8 – Wednesday 7th January Years 9 & 19 – Thursday 8th January Year 12 & Recalls – Thursday 15th January Performances – 22nd - 26th June @ The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

On Thursday 27th and Friday 28th November, the Year 12 Theatre Studies students performed the play “My Mother Said I Never Should” by Charlotte Keatley in the school’s main drama studio.

This was an ambitious production, as the play looks at the difficult and sometimes quite complex relationships that exist between mothers and daughters, as well as exploring the themes of independence, growing up and secrets. The lives and relationships of four generations of women - Doris, Margaret, Jackie and Rosie are at the heart of the play. We see their expectations, loves and choices set against the huge social changes of the twentieth century. When Jackie falls pregnant with Rosie, without a husband, she is unable to cope, and hands over the baby to her mother, Margaret. The play looks at the consequences of this secret and each woman’s opinion on it. With minimalistic set, some unrealistic scenes, in which all four women make an appearance as children in a mysterious waste-ground, and a non-linear story-line, the Year 12 students were able to convey effectively the essence of the play. Written in 1985, it is still as relevant a piece of writing now as it was then, with its depiction of how different generations break free from their parents’ traditions and culture.

International Theatre Dance Catherine Cribbens in Year 13 has been nominated for an International Theatre Dance award for outstanding potential in theatre craft. Catherine received this nomination after doing her Grade 4 theatre craft exam.

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Performing Arts | 17

KEY STAGE 4 PRODUCTION

This year’s Key Stage 4 production was the classic Charles Dickens story, “A Christmas Carol”, performed on 11th and 12th December in the main drama studio. Ebenezer Scrooge pays his clerk Bob Cratchit only fifteen shillings a week, is rude to his nephew and has a passionate dislike of Christmas and the general revelry of the season, as characterised by his famous line “Bah, Humbug.” On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Jacob is bound in

Men and Women of War

chains, which, he explains, are his punishment for a life of cruelty to the poor.

Scrooge is then visited by 3 ghosts that night. The first ghost shows him his Christmases past, where we see that Scrooge wasn’t always a bad man. The second ghost shows him the Christmas present. He sees the dismal condition of the life of the poor, especially of his clerk, who has a large family, and his poorer nephew. These both are shown as happy, despite being poor, in contrast to the bitter Scrooge. Scrooge shows remorse at last, as well as pity. He is then visited by the third ghost, of Christmas yet to come, who shows him his grave, as well as the general public not caring about his death and auctioning his goods, etc.

He wakes up to find that it is Christmas Day, and sets about helping the poor, including his clerk, and enjoying life and celebrating Christmas.

The company of Year 10 and 11 students performed as an ensemble, ably supporting Year 11 student, Tom Owen, who rose to the challenge of playing Scrooge.

Tuesday 21st October Year 13 Theatre Studies students devised a play looking at the impact of the First World War on relationships. They were due to perform on the evening of Thursday 16th October, but due to illness had to postpone this performance.

Instead, they performed the piece on Tuesday 21st October to a Year 7 class, and then at lunchtime on the Tuesday, as part of the Drama department’s lunchtime theatre series - the first of the year.

There was a packed audience of sixth form to support them in this performance. The piece was received warmly with some great individual performances from students at the top of the school.

CHRISTMAS WORKSHOPS!

FEEL FESTIVE WITH BREWERY YOUTH ARTS!

CHR RISTMA AS ACTI CTIVIT IVIT TY WORK O KS SH HOP OPS YOU OUTH AR RTS

Saturday 13 December

Saturday 20 December

Vintage clay broaches/ badges with a contemporary twist.

7-14yrs | £7

Fill the Brewery with festive songs 4.30-6pm

Design your own silhouette portrait pieces - punk or glamorous, or re-work images we provide with white clay & a range of under-glaze colour to create a *1) !. +" +*!ġ+û #%"0/ċ ! 3%(( ü.! * 2 .*%/$ 5+1. work ready for Christmas.

A fun and light-hearted workshop where we will sing through a range of classics as well as some upbeat numbers. You will then have the chance to serenade the Brewery customers in our Vats Bar to really get everyone into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas hats welcome!

Saturday 20 December

Monday 22nd December

Young Fun Session Contemporary Christmas Wreath 1.30-3pm | 5-8yrs (parents free) | £5.50

Personalised decorative covers for books or albums 8-16yrs | 10.30am-12.30pm £7 inc. materials

Work with your child on lots of fun creative processes.

You will experiment with paint, papier-mâché, and all things sparkly and bright as well as making your own felt to create your own original and funky wreath to decorate your front door.

Sat 13, Sat 20 & Mo on 22 Dec

Family carol singing & art workshop.

Gett creative this Christmas with h an arty array of worrkshops designed d to help you u make your own perf p ect uniq que, hand-made pr p esents.

Cost for both sessions : £2 children £4 Adult

All ages welcome. Under 8’s must be supervised by an adult (max 2 per adult)

Make a Mini-lantern to accompany your caroling.

3.30 -4.15 pm Decorate a jam-jar with colourful tissue, paper and sparkles to get everyone in a festive mood. We’ll provide all materials and tea lights.

breweryarts.co.uk | 01539 725133

breweryarts.co.uk | 01539 725133

Create a fun, comic collage, a funky photomontage or a decorative fabric cover. Please bring a hard-back notebook to work with.

LET IT GO! Frozen Dance workshop 7-14yrs | 1.30pm- 3.30pm (sharing for families at 3.15pm) £6.50 Learn and create dances to create the fantastic wonderland of Frozen! Do you want to build a snowman?

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18 | Performing Arts

Images by Flo Acland

The annual QKS Performing Arts Festival celebrated its eighth year with a fantastic week of showcasing students’ talents. Well over 250 students took part during the course of the week. The festival started on Monday 17th November with the Drama, Dance and Musical Theatre heats, and strong competition was evident in all key stage classes.

On Tuesday 18th November, the Festival continued with the Music heats being held throughout the day, and again the talent on display across the vocal, instrumental and ensemble classes was

wonderful to see. The standard of performance this year was extremely high, with judges of all the heats saying that they had real difficulty at times choosing which piece to put through to the Winners’ Concert on the Thursday Evening.

The All Winners’ Concert was held on the Thursday evening in the School’s Senior Hall. This proved to be a brilliant evening of entertainment, and the sheer amount of talent appearing on the stage was amazing, especially considering that the vast majority of performances had been put together by the students themselves.

As part of the Festival, 45 Year 8 and 9 students took part in a Musical Theatre workshop during the day on the Thursday.

They worked, from scratch, on two numbers. The boys worked with Mr Linaker on “There Ain’t Nothing Like a Dame’ from “South Pacific”, whilst the girls worked with ex-student, Rachel Woods, on “All That Jazz” from “Chicago”.

These were then performed as part of the interval entertainment, and went down extremely well.

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Performing Arts | | 19

PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL 2014 The results at the end of the evening were: Best Dance Performance – Key Stage 5 solo performance – Harry Brooks Most Promising Dance Performance – Key Stage 3 group performance Lucy Holliday & Sasha Johnson Best Drama Performance – Key Stage 4 Monologue – Rosa Matarewicz Most Promising Drama Performance – Key Stage 4 Duologue – Tom Latham and Laurie Hurley Best Music Performance – Key Stage 4 ensemble - Leah Bell, Helen Scott, Emma Tirvengadum & Emma Ward Most Promising Music Performance – Key Stage 3 ensemble – Josie Blythe, Olivia Roscoe & Emily White Best Musical Theatre Performance – Key Stage 4 soloist – Joe Thomas Most Promising Musical Theatre Performance – Key Stage 3 soloist – Olivia Roscoe Arts Leadership – Drama – Niamh Parker-Whitehead Shield for Best Overall Performance of the Performing Arts Festival Key Stage 5 Duologue – Kieron Lowther & Niamh Parker-Whitehead

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20 | Performing Arts

QKS AUTUMN CONCERT Tuesday 14th October As we approached the end of the first half term at school, the Music Department and students were busy preparing for the first concert of the school year.

The evening was a huge success with the upper school hall packed out with family and friends who had come to support the students. The Queen Katherine School Community Music Centre Orchestra opened the concert under the direction of Karen West, with a fantastic arrangement of “Skyfall”.

The first half then saw a number of the smaller ensembles perform, including String Group who performed “Aaron’s Key”. The evening also featured a number of debut performances from newly-formed ensembles; Carnival Band performed Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and the Guitar Ensemble performed “Contradanza” by Ian Gammie.

We are very fortunate to have a strong team of peripatetic staff who also lead ensembles, as well as teach students.

We were thrilled to have a number of them perform at our Autumn Concert including flute choir led by Sara Heath who performed Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”, whilst Rachel Little led her amazing chamber choir in performances of “Pastime With Good Company” and “Si njya njay njay”.

Man Band performed a unique arrangement of “I Won’t Give Up”

by Jason Mraz and, not to be outdone, the A Cappellhers then performed a stunning arrangement of “Run To You” by Pentatonix. The second half played host to our larger groups with performances from Concert Band, Orchestra, Senior Choir and Big Band who closed the concert with “Street Life”, featuring Sian Bentley on vocals, and “Spain” by Chick Corea, featuring Laurence Hurley on keys and Maddie Brown on drums.

At the end of the evening both students and audience members left buzzing about the high quality of music

that they had just witnessed. As some parents said afterwards, it was not only great to see such a high standard of musicality, but it was heartening to see so many students, from Year 7 all the way through to Year 13, performing together.

It should be noted that in excess of 180 students performed in this opening concert of the year.

Many thanks must go to all students and staff members involved in what was a truly wonderful way to start the musical year at the School.

WESTMORLAND MUSIC COUNCIL GALA CONCERT The Queen Katherine School was very excited to host this year’s Gala Concert for the Westmorland Music Council on Thursday 16th October.

This is a collaborative concert made up of secondary school music departments from around Cumbria. Each school is asked to provide two items for the concert. This year, Kirkbie Kendal, Dallam School, Windermere, Sedbergh, Queen Elizabeth School, Cartmel Priory and the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School all took part, as well as the hosting school.

In order to try and maximise the number of students taking part, this year, we took along Man Band and our newly formed guitar ensemble.

All these students had been involved in the school Autumn Concert on Tuesday 14th October, so a lot was being asked of them to perform at a second concert in the same week. However, Guitar Ensemble and Man Band were a credit to both themselves and the School.

Man Band performed third in the programme and sang “I Won’t Give Up”

by Jason Mraz. This featured two lead vocalists, Joe Thomas and Ruairidh Jamieson. They did a fantastic job and once again received comments such as “so professional” and “wonderful to see so many lads singing”.

Our guitar ensemble closed the evening’s performance, as it is customary

for the hosting school to perform last.

They performed “Contradanza” by Ian Gammie. For only their second performance, they performed brilliantly and were a fitting end for a wonderful evening of music making. A massive thanks has to go to Rob Steels (guitar teacher) for leading this ensemble in rehearsals.

Our students watched the entire concert and brought parents along to watch. Afterwards, we arranged for a buffet for all students, staff and audience members. It was a wonderful evening, and a great opportunity for students to meet and greet and for teachers to network.

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Performing Arts | 21

KENDAL CONCERT BAND SHOWTIME CONCERT Friday 17th October

By Friday 17th October, the School had already hosted two concerts in the same week (our Autumn Concert and the annual Westmorland Music Council Gala Concert).

However, before we could enjoy the weekend, we had one more concert!

Kendal Concert Band hosts a concert each year in October using our Upper School Hall. They run the evening in association with QKSA and last year we took along our Big Band to perform a selection of numbers. This year, we were

asked if we could take along our a cappella groups as their reputation had spread.

Therefore, come Friday night Man Band and The A Cappellhers assembled in S17 at 7pm ready to sound check. All the students were tired from a busy week and so it was a lot to ask of them to perform at one more event. However, they approached this concert as if it was the first one of the week.

They arrived in mass numbers (we had 51 students performing at this concert) and all dressed in their specific ‘uniforms’

MAN BAND - THE WEDDING SINGERS! Head of Music Robert Shillitoe reports on a rather special gig by Man Band:

“When Man Band was formed two years ago, the first thing Mr Kevin Bell asked (apart from could he join!) was whether or not Man Band could sing at his daughter’s wedding in two years time? Well, that day arrived on Saturday

1st November this year, and what was the longest gig booking I had have ever taken, finally came to life. Man Band were asked to sing at the reception, which was held at the Merewood Country House Hotel in Windermere. The guys actually

(Man Band in suits with the MB ties, and the A Cappellhers in black with a ‘hint of red’).

Once we had warmed up and run a sound check, it was our moment to perform.

Man Band performed first and because they had already performed twice that week, we decided to sing “I Won’t Give Up” again so as to cause the least amount of stress as possible! However, this number is arranged for two lead vocalists but for this performance, it was all down to Ruairidh Jamieson. He did a fantastic job and is certainly going to be a star in Man Band for this year.

The A Cappellhers then performed “Run To You” by Pentatonix. This was simply a stunning performance and afterwards both the Kendal Concert Band and audience were in awe of the fabulous a cappella ensembles that we had to offer.

I must take this opportunity to thank all these students for their hard work running up this performance. One would have to go a long way to find another cohort of students that will freely give up their own time to perform at three concerts in the same week! We certainly are lucky at QKS.

spent the previous day at School, even though it was their half-term holiday, as we had to rehearse four numbers to absolute perfection ready for our first wedding gig. Not only did we rehearse numbers we already knew, we actually turned around two new numbers in a day! The band arrived at the Merewood Hotel around midday and, after a sound check, we placed ourselves on the staircase that faces the main entrance of the venue. As guests arrived, we sang through our four numbers as everyone stopped to watch and applaud.

The bride and groom then arrived, and we serenaded them with numbers such as “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz, and Kevin Bell himself sang “Stand

By Me” for his daughter and new son-inlaw. It was a great experience for the lads, as not only was it a performance at an external venue, but it also gave the guys a great insight into what a professional paid musician would do when booked for events such as weddings. We had a great day and I hope the bride and groom enjoyed their special day and our performances.”

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22 | Performing Arts

Harry Johnstone – Winner of the 2014 BBC Inspire Young Composers’ Competition

Harry Johnstone, a Year 13 student at QKS, has been selected as one of 3 winners in the senior category of the BBC Inspire Young Composers’ Competition.

This competition is a branch of the BBC Proms Inspire Scheme that provides young musicians with opportunities to succeed and have their music reach a wider audience.

Harry had recently completed his

composition coursework for A level music and had produced a composition called “Dis-pulsed”. After discussions with the Head of Music, an application form was submitted, as it was recognised that Harry’s composition had huge amounts of potential.

Head of Music, Robert Shillitoe, said: “Harry is known throughout school as a superb performer. But only to a few is he known as a superb composer. Throughout

his composition coursework, I noticed he was onto something ‘big’ and once finished, we had a chat and decided to submit his composition for this competition and to see what came of it. I am thrilled to see him succeed and to be finally recognized as a composer. And without a doubt, I believe we will see him continue to succeed as a young and vibrant composer.”

Winners had their pieces performed by the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon, at the Proms Plus Inspire concert at the Royal College of Music on Wednesday 20 August 2014, 5pm. The winning pieces were broadcast in a special programme on Radio 3 on Monday 25 August, at around 9.45pm. Winners will also receive a commission to compose another piece for the BBC. This is spectacular news for Harry, especially as he now moves onto study jazz at Trinity in London.

Gareth Roscoe, Headteacher stated.

“I am really pleased for Harry, he a unique young man. This achievement is a just reward for all the hours of work and dedication Harry has put into his music and highlights what can be achieved with the right work ethic and backing. Harry has made the most of his time at the school, throwing himself into several music ensembles and choirs, and each has helped to shape and develop his musicianship. This honour will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Harry perform, and his love of music is evident to all. It is also pleasing for the staff who have worked with Harry over the last few years.

I know they will be proud of Harry and be delighted for him. This young man has a bright future ahead of him.”.

We wish Harry all the best for the future and readers need to make sure that they keep up to date with rising stars in jazz and composing, as Harry is certainly set for stardom.

WOMAN’S HOUR (left QKS in 2006) Woman's Hour are a four piece band based in London and were formed in 2011. The band consists of siblings Fiona Burgess (vocals) and William Burgess (guitar), along with Nick Graves (bass) and Josh Hunnisett (keyboards). Fiona, Will and Nick all studied at QKS and formed the band after moving to London.

The band have toured the UK, Europe and America and have supported Metronomy and Anna Calvi amongst others. Their debut album “Conversations” was released on 21st July 2014. The Guardian called them “the perfect indie guitar group”.

In July, Fiona brought a camera crew

into school to shoot a video for their new single. She wanted younger students to create a dance for it, which would then be recorded within a school environment.

They would then play around with the speed of the dance and use the footage to go with their single “In Stillness We Remain”. After auditionning several groups of Year 8 students, a group of boys and a group of girls were chosen.

The students spent the day with Fiona and a camera crew at various locations around the school. Woman's Hour have recently completed an European tour to rave reviews, and are definitely a group to watch out for in the future.

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French | 23

NORMANDY 2014 In October, a group of 62 Year 8 students from QKS, 2 students from Sandgate School and 6 staff stayed at the Château du Molay in Normandy. We visited the market at Trouville on the Sunday morning to practise our French, a tasty cider farm in the afternoon (for the apple juice of course!) and the 360-degree cinema at Arromanches. Sunday evening was a delightful tasting of snails and frogs legs… ☺ or ☹!!

We visited and researched the Bayeux Tapestry on the Monday, visited a luscious chocolate factory and went bowling in the evening. On Tuesday, once the weather

improved, we visited Omaha Beach (the American beach for the Normandy Landings in 1944) and the impressive memorial. The students also sampled (and brought home in sealed containers!) the local produce from a goats’ cheese farm.

On the Wednesday, we visited Paris, travelled up the Champs Élysées and around the Arc de Triomphe, had a trip up the Montparnasse Tower and a boat trip along the River Seine. Before returning to the ferry on the Thursday morning, we went for shopping “dans un grand hypermarché Carrefour”.

All in all an amazing trip!

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24 | Trips

Geography

Manna House Year 11 Health and Social Care classes had a fantastic reception at Manna House where they learnt about the huge support that service users there are offered. The students were really impressed by the warm welcome given to them by School Governor and Centre Manager Andrea Aldridge, who also talked to them about careers involving vulnerable people.

Year 11 Geographers braved the Lake District weather to visit Grasmere to collect information as part of their controlled assessment in Geography.

They dodged the showers to survey the impacts of tourism on the village and questioned visitors and locals about their impressions of the effect that tourism has on the ‘honeypot’ locality. Students then conducted their own investigation exploring such aspects as traffic congestion, the proportion of tourist and local shops and the amount of litter.

Of course we couldn’t leave the village without sampling the famous gingerbread to cheer us up before we left a soggy Grasmere.

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Design & Technology | 25

Design & Technology London On Saturday 15th November, nine A level Design students joined Mr Howard and Mr Wilcock on a visit to London. They experienced several collections of furniture and product design at the Victoria & Albert Museum. This was followed by a tour of the capital to view a number of pieces of work by world renowned contemporary architect and designer, Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the cauldron for the London 2012 Olympics.

The students saw his newspaper kiosk at Sloane Square, his rolling bridge at Paddington Basin (middle below), his screening of the services section at Guy's Hospital (below left) and some cooling vents at Paternoster Square behind St Paul's Cathedral (photo right).

Students saw a range of inspirational buildings and structures, too, including The Shard and visited the Remembrance Poppy installation at The Tower of London.

Glasgow On 14th November, 42 Year 9 students had the opportunity to see the work of famous Scottish designer and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the Hunterian Museum and the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow. The Hunterian is the home of a replica of the home of Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, which they altered over a century ago. It is furnished throughout with examples of their work.

There were two other temporary exhibitions at the Hunterian. One was the work that Mackintosh completed with his partners John Honeyman and John Keppie throughout the city, including the Glasgow School of Art. The other was of the holiday sketches and paintings produced by Mackintosh in the UK and abroad. At the Kelvingrove, students viewed the Mackintosh room where examples of his work were displayed

alongside his contemporaries. Students were then free to see the wide range of exhibits on show, including stuffed animals, items from ancient Egypt, dinosaurs and a real-life Spitfire. It is hoped the experience will inspire future design projects back at school.

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26 | Trips

Rinteln Alice Lee, Rory Douglas and Soren Greasley took part in Rinteln Summer Schools. Alice reports: “In August, we were invited by Rinteln’s town twinning association to attend the annual “Sommeruni” – a week of lectures run by several universities for German students. It was great to see Kendal’s twin town and, along with

three students from Rinteln’s other twin town Slawno, we were made to feel very welcome. We took part in many engaging seminars on the English Language, the study of music, Middle Eastern history and the politics of Germany. We also signed up for evening “free time activities” such as competitive cup-stacking and an evening riding a rickshaw along the

Religious Studies This term the RS (Religious Studies) department has been busy visiting local, special places of religious significance with our Year 8 students. We have been fortunate to develop links with three local places of worship and have been warmly welcomed by St Thomas’; The Quaker Meeting House and Sandylands Methodist Church. All have provided our students with an opportunity to learn about what makes a religious place special and significant.

The 8SRO and 8PKI students learnt about how St Thomas’s worship, prayer, history of the church and about the symbolism and historic meaning of the Eucharist (bread and wine).

At the Quaker Meeting House 8SHA spent a wonderful morning being inspired by the fantastic Quaker Tapestry that brought

alive the history of the Quakers’ contribution to the local and national history of Britain.

At Sandylands Methodist Church, students from 8AFO and 8DBR spent an afternoon grasping the challenge of young people stepping outside their comfort zone, their youth club activities and the church being the “cornerstone” of the community.

The RS Department would also thank the Reverend Rob Saner-Haigh for giving up his time to share his thoughts, in a visit to school, on what makes Kendal Parish Church “a special place”.

On behalf of the students, we would like to say a big thank you to all our local churches and we look forward to our continued, developing links with local “religious special places”. We still hope to arrange further visits for other Year 8 groups.

former railway to see the local countryside. One of the highlights of the week was a trip to Wolfsburg to visit the “Autostadt” and the Volkswagen museum and factories.

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News | 27

GOLD DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD WINNERS On Monday 17 November, former QKS students Eleanor Hooson, Rachel Hendrickse, Bethanie Murray, Flora Wharton and Hannah Wilson were presented with their Gold Duke of Edinburgh's award by the Earl of Wessex at St James's Palace in London. Earlier in the year, other former Queen Katherine students Rachel Bell, Lucy Gray, Alice McLoughlin, Ben Powell and Peter Thompson also received their Gold awards at the Palace.

Many congratulations to them all on this wonderful achievement.

Bebras Computing Challenge This term, students studying across the school took part in an international competition sponsored by Oxford University. The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students and is organised in over 30 countries. Each participant had 45 minutes to answer 15 multiple-choice questions that focus on computational and logical thinking.

Each student has received a certificate of participation and the top students have received a certificate of distinction! In addition, the top 25 Best in School students in each age category have been published on the organisation’s website.

The top 25 students were: Ned Reid, Joe Hurn, Luke Mossbarnett, Ben Fleetwood, Madeleine Hurley, David

Seaton, Owen Dixon, Nye Greasley, George Barrett, Rachel Jessett, Benjamin Cudby, Jim O'Reilly, Ilias Olivotos, William Yarker, Stephanie Driscoll, Jonah Thom, Ellie Judson, Will Metcalfe, Kai Britton, Leah Mitchell, Edward Nelson-English, Tom Blackburn, Flinn McInerney, Megan Reed, Callum Binnie.

Host a German teacher The MFL department were successful in a bid to "Host a German Teacher" organised by the UK German Connection. Kathrin Kimmig spent 2 weeks in the department and helped in many classes.

The Year 8 German classes were particularly excited to meet her, as she had brought a letter from her students for each of the QKS students so now each one has a German pen friend.

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Table Cricket Success at Cumbria School Games

The Queen Katherine School Year 7 Table Cricket team won the Table Cricket Tournament at the Cumbria School Games held in Carlisle on Tuesday 1 July.

They played four rounds, narrowly losing in the first round to Allerdale, but went on to win games against Eden and Copeland and eventually beat Carlisle in the final.

The Games were opened by Helen Grant, Minister of Sport, and there were representatives from Boccia England who met the team.

Colleen Brennan, Higher Level Teaching Assistant said “It was a fantastic day. The atmosphere was amazing.

The team played well, we are all delighted that they won”.

Triathlon Year 7 students Madeleine King, Emily Gibson and Alice Eastwood have competed in the North West Junior Triathlon Series. The results for the series have just been finalised and the girls have done fantastically well - Alice was 9th, Madeleine was 11th and Emily 19th in the North West of England. The girls competed in the T2 category - swimming 200m, cycling 6km and running 1.8km.

The series involves competing in at least 8 events over the season. The girls are members of Kendal Tri Club Juniors.

More information about Junior Triathlon can be found at www.triathlonengland.org/northwest/ juniors/juniors

Gymnastics Amelia Edwards competed in the Cumbria gymnastics competition in Carlisle on Sunday 2nd November.

She came second overall, only 0.4 points behind the winner.

QKS student James Neal has continued his outstanding success in the world of table tennis by being selected to represent the North West of England in the National Cadet (Under 15) Championship Table Tennis Finals on Sunday 23 November 2014 . He attended the North West qualification event and out of an 18-strong group of contenders, he was runner up, losing only one match in the whole day. James will be one of five players representing the North West at the National Finals.

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WKA (World Karate Association) World Championships QKS student Kalum Heywood-Byatt trains at Kendal Lau Gar Kung Fu and Kick Boxing, under Sifu Steve Mattinson and is a first Dan Black belt. In November last year, he attended the WKA (World Karate Association) World Championships in Italy.

He fought in two disciplines – Semi Contact Points Fighting (first strike gets the point then the fighters reset) and Continuous which is more like boxing (with kicking). He was unlucky at points, losing to a very good Italian (who eventually got the silver medal ) in the first round in a very close bout. In Continuous, he defeated the reigning Champion in the under 19 years (Kalum was 16 at the time ) under 80KG category in the hardest and tightest of semi-finals and went on to have a comfortable win in the final against the Irish Champion to become World Champion.

The week after the Worlds, he took part in the Welsh Open, where he broke his thumb in the men’s heavy weights, but retained his junior Points title - with one hand! He was withdrawn from the other categories.

The injury to his thumb proved to be quite serious and he was unable to compete (though he did train) until April.

He entered the Edinburgh Open and was disappointed with a silver in Points and a bronze in the Continuous. Next tournament was the Welsh Open. As this was his last year as a junior there (to defend his title) so he was entered for the Junior Points and the Junior Continuous as well as the Senior Points and Continuous.

He had a fabulous tournament winning all four competitions.

He followed that up in June with his

first ring-based title, when won the Senior Continuous WUMA European Title.

A reality check in July, when he got two bronzes in the WKA (World Karate Association) Senior European Championships. The Points bronze was well earned, but he was disappointed with a 3rd place in the Continuous.

At the WKA English Open in Barnsley in October, Kalum, now a Senior, entered the Points, Continuous and the Ring Continuous, and was delighted with 2 gold

National Saddle Centre British Eventing 100 QKS student Robyn Bowness took part in the National Saddle Centre British Eventing 100 under 18 championship, which was held at Weston Park, Shropshire. She had to qualify for the event by winning an under 18 British Eventing 100 class, which involves a dressage test, a show jumping round and a cross-country round, all on the same day. The lowest number of penalties wins. There are 40 competitors in the qualifiers. The National Saddle Centre Championships were held

over three days, with each component taking place on each day. There were 8 teams of 8 competitors representing all areas. Robyn represented the North. The best four scores in each team were used.

Lulu (Starholme Lulu, Robyn’s pony) and she had the best score from the North region and this enabled her to finish in a very creditable 6th place out of 64 individually.

The North team finished 3rd overall. Robyn said that it was a great experience and that she “enjoyed every minute of it.”

medals and a silver.

Like all good champions, Kalum knows what he can improve and he works very hard to improve - 20 a week hours training in addition to his school homework. The culmination of this hard work came in November, when in his world title defence, again in Italy (Marina De Carrera), Kalum not only retained his world title, he gained two more! He also got a bronze in the points category, which is his weaker discipline.

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English Schools Fell Running Championships

At the end of September, a strong team of thirty-one students from QKS travelled to Calder High School, near Hebden Bridge, to compete in a gathering of English junior fell runners. Josh Roelants, Year 7 said, “I was pleased to run for the school and I wanted to do well for them. I’ve competed lots of times in fell races, so stuck to my normal plan, going to bed early the night before, walking the course carefully and looking for any places where I might get held up and those where I could recover from steep climbs. Just before the race, I warmed up thoroughly and then we were off. It was a wonderful feeling coming back into the school grounds in third place and then being presented with my medal from team GB mountain runner Emma Clayton.”

The English Schools Fell Running Championship is open to all secondary school students who wish to take part, and so gave a brilliant opportunity for as many students as possible to experience a prestigious event. The courses were tough. Steph Driscoll, Year 8 said, “This year’s championship at Hebden Bridge was only my third fell race, so I was a little unprepared for the event that lay ahead.

My favourite sport is athletics and I’ve been running for about four years and I play lots of other sports, including hockey, netball and swimming. I was amazed at how narrow and steep the climb was (understatement!), with very few chances to pass other people. After walking the course, I had time for a rest and a drink before warming up for the start. Then we were off. I wanted a quick start, as I knew how important it would be to get over the stile and not be held up. That worked – I was the fourth girl over and just kept going, so I finished in the same position.”

Sophie Dawson, Year 10, took part in the Year 10 and 11 race; “Before the race started I was nervous because I had never competed in a race before. There were lots of people in my race, which meant it was very crowded at the start. During the morning, we walked the 7km course before the race began; it was very steep at the beginning but then flat on the top and the downhill was a lot easier. At the end of the race I was exhausted and the bottle of water provided was greatly appreciated!

I am looking forward to my next race.”

The Girls’ Year 10 and 11 team won first place in their race. Overall, with such strong results in so many age categories, QKS won third place. Twenty-three schools in total were able to enter enough runners in enough categories to qualify for an overall school position. QKS can, just like last year, take pride in proving itself one of the top fell running schools in England.

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The annual District Cross Country Championships

Wins for Junior Girls’ and Inter Boys’. Josh Roelants wins individual Minor Boys Race. 20/11/14 The annual District Cross Country Championships were again kindly hosted

by Sedbergh School this year. On a challenging, wet and muddy course our Queen Katherine runners produced some fantastic performances across all age ranges. Those students finishing in the top 12 will be asked to represent the South Lakes at the Cumbria Championships in January.

Minor Boys: 1st Josh Roelants, 8th Thomas Russell, 12th Elliot Wren, 13th Jim O'Reilly, 15th Angus Corrie, 16th Jake Edwards, 20th Ben Cudby, 51st James Woodcock, 55th Joe Hugginson.

Overall team result: 2nd place.

Minor Girls: 5th Lotte Beardwood, 11th Alice Eastwood, 17th Josie Johnson, 20th Madeline King, 59th Michaela Evans. Overall team result: 2nd place.

Junior Boys: 15th James Neal, 30th Joseph Conner, 42nd Tom Willacy, 43rd Harry Sanderson, 48th John Handley, 62nd Lewis Bowness.

Junior Girls: 2nd Stephanie Driscoll, 4th Mia Walsh, 5th Katie Thurlow, 6th Hannah Edwards, 13th Lily Maiden, 20th Emelia Stevens, 23rd Alice Boston, 24th Kaya Carradice. Overall team result: 1st place!

Inter Boys: 2nd Alex Birkett, 3rd Cole Blaikie, 4th Jack Byrne, 15th Josh Hayes, 16th Martin Askew.

Overall team result: 1st place!

Inter Girls: 2nd Heidi Murray, 6th Mia Senior, 11th Katie Russell, 14th Alice Slattery, 16th Sophie Hardman.

Senior Boys: 3rd Matthew Senior, 4th Mark Sullivan, 12th Joe Liddell.

Senior Girls: 2nd Hannah Russell, 6th Caitlin Ashcroft.

The Year 7 Inter Schools cross country competition 17/10/14 Twelve Year 7 students, 6 boys and 6 girls, represented QKS at the Year 7 Inter Schools Cross Country Competition at QEGS Penrith. With 28 schools being represented and up to 150 runners in each race, all the students ran superbly and they should be extremely proud of

their efforts. The individual results were: Minor Boys: Josh Roelants 9th, Angus Corrie 21st, Jake Edwards 48th, Jim O'Reilly 52nd, Daniel Betoin 82nd, James Woodcock 120th. Minor Girls: Alice Eastwood 14th, Lotte Beardwood 21st, Madeline King 24th, Josie Johnson 33rd, Chloe O'Connor 43rd, Jessy Gray 82nd. Josh's 9th place finish ensured him a place in the Cumbria Cross Country Squad! Well done Josh.

The English Schools Country Cup North West Regional Final: 8/11/14 Athletes from QKS in Years 7 to 10 showed some commitment and ran in extremely wet conditions to race against the best athletes from the North West of England. Commendable performances came from the following students; Alice Eastwood and Lottie Beardwood in the Junior Girls (positions still to be confirmed). In Junior Boys Josh Roelants finished 23rd and Liam Robson 59th.

In Inter Boys Cole Blaikie finished 3rd, Alex Birkett 16th, Robert Askew 28th and Martin Askew 44th. Well done to all those who ran.

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Hockey Year 9 – 18/09/14

QKS

6

Year 10 South Lakes Tournament – 06/11/14 Dallam School

0

This early fixture against Dallam was a great start to the season for the Year 9 girls. The team have been trying out a new, more attacking, formation to give the likes of Alice Boston and Hannah Dodgson the chance to get forward and join the attack more frequently. The formation appeared to work, as the scoring was opened by Libby Townley with some lovely dribbling skills and a clean finish. Further goals followed from Alice Boston (2), Libby Townley and two great penalty corner strikes from Isabelle Brownell. Sharna Ramsden and Neve Guy both had fantastic games in their new half back positions. A confident victory and a useful experience to prepare the team for their upcoming South Lakes tournament.

Year 7 – 16/10/14

QKS

6 QES

1

The Year 7 hockey team made a storming start to the season with a 6-1 triumph over QES. Hannah Metcalfe and Laura Partington-Bowlby worked well together in defence and were tight on players. Both Kitty Brownell and Mia Stewart scored and applied the pressure on the QES defence players throughout the game. Emelia Hassall took it upon herself to go in goal for the first half, despite having never played in goal before, and Hannah Brimble saved several goals during the second half. Luci Haydock and Connie Guy also played very well in midfield. This was a very promising start to the season.

Isabelle Brownell in action

The Year 10 (plus a few Year 9 players) team played their hearts out in this South Lakes based tournament. With an opening match against the reigning champions, QES, it was never going to be an easy afternoon. Nevertheless, QKS started very brightly, applying a lot of pressure and were rewarded with the opening goal - a lovely little dribble and reverse stick placement from Alice Boston. For the next 20 minutes of the game, QKS soaked up the pressure and kept the ball out, until a very unfortunate penalty corner rebound sneaked in at the near post. The QES game finished 1 – 1, with all the team a little disappointed not to have taken more from the match. QES then went on to play against Windermere School, running out as comfortable 3 – 0 winners. The QKS team set out with renewed determination, knowing that an equal 3 - 0 victory would put them level with QES and a 4 - 0 victory would win the tournament. From the outset,

Boccia Tournament Queen Katherine comfortably won the first round of the Boccia Tournament held at Penrith Leisure Centre on Wednesday 26 November against Appleby Grammar and Stainburn Schools. The QKS team were then drawn against Nelson Tomlinson School in the quarter final and Nelson Tomlinson went on to win three games to one and they were the overall winners.

The team was Joshua Hunter, Harold Wilson, Harry Bates, Louise Coglan and Ellie Missenden.

they pushed forward with Lucy Dixon scoring a lovely goal from a penalty corner within 3 minutes of the start. The pressure continued, and QKS were unlucky to have a second penalty corner goal disallowed for the shot being too high. Throughout the second half, more and more chances came QKS’ way and finally 2 more goals were scored, by Mia Senior and Katie Russell, to make it 3 - 0. In spite of desperate efforts to score a 4th, it just didn't happen and the end result was 3 – 0, which left QKS level with QES. Being tied at the top of the table meant that the 2 teams had to decide the overall winners by means of a penalty shoot-out. After the first round of 5 flicks the score was still level, but into sudden death a key QES player managed to score a lovely flick past outstanding GK Laurel Halliwell, which sadly could not be matched. A fantastic tournament ended with and a more than respectable second place!

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Rugby Year 7 – 06/11/14

Year 7 – 22/10/14 Morecambe H.S

33 QKS

12 QKS

The Year 7s engaged in their first rugby match of the year against a well-practised Morecambe side. For the majority of our team this was their first ever game of rugby after only 6 weeks of practice. The boys can proud of their efforts, in what was ultimately a losing battle. However, the performance was what really mattered in this game, not the result. Overall the team showed a great deal of potential and it looks like the boys will grow stronger together and prove to be a tough unit to beat.

10

Year 7 – 08/11/14 Dallam School

5

On an evening where the light faded fast, the boys’ rugby certainly lit the place up. In only their second game, the team's performance grew from strength to strength, as they showed a greater structural awareness to their play. The forwards' scrummaging was dominant throughout the game, which gave the backs a great platform, and allowed fly half Jim O'Reilly to run in two outstanding tries to win the game for QKS. Man of the match goes to Jim O'Reilly for his superb two tries.

Year 9 – 18/09/14

QKS

10 QES

62

Year 8 – 08/11/14

QKS Year 9 got their Autumn rugby season off to a start at QKS on Thursday 18th September against QES at home after school. The team put a valiant display against a strong QES side, playing with conviction and commitment for the entire game. QKS man of the match was shared by Dan Abbott and John Handley for tireless work in defence. Special mention should also go to Andrew Lancaster making a welcome return in the second half at scrum half.

59

Keswick

Keswick

10 QKS

The team's first Saturday fixture allowed for a full game to be completed without the risk of fading light. QKS faced a much tougher opposition in Keswick, as they enjoyed the lion's share of possession. QKS showed their defence would be hard to breach, as the team were putting tackles in left, right and centre! There were great defensive performances from No.8 Riley Stafford and centre Kiah Harrison, which ensured QKS remained solid. Tries were scored by Riley who powered his way over to score and Thomas Russell who finished off a great elusive run. Man of the match goes to Kiah Harrison for filling in at centre and putting on a great defensive display.

0

Going from strength to strength and growing in confidence, the Year 8 Rugby team played host to Keswick School in the first Saturday fixture of the season.

Keswick arrived prepared to play a 12-aside match, which immediately played to our strength of open, running rugby. From our first try after 2 minutes, Keswick had no reply. The first half saw QKS run in six tries with five conversions, giving a 40-0

lead at the break. In the second half, Keswick found a little more, stemming the QKS flow to 19 points. With the main aim from half-time being to keep a clean sheet, it was an impressive display in all areas.

The Man of the Match added 14 points through kicks alone and gave a masterclass in dummy passes.

Well done Charlie Norton!

Year 8 – 22/10/14 Morecambe H.S

10 QKS

38

Due to the Normandy trip which accounted for several regular players, the Year 8s took a depleted team to Morecambe High School.

After a difficult start to the season, things started to fall into place, and time spent on the training ground began to pay off. The best performance of the season so far saw QKS romp home with a 38 - 10 win. The team was well led by Alex Ryder, who put in a solid captain's performance. The Man of the Match award could have gone to any one of several players, but he real stand-out performance was that of Cameron Seeds, who ran in 3 long range tries.

Year 9 – 06/11/14

QKS

9

Dallam School

33

The fixture in failing light resulted in a convincing victory for Dallam. However, two exemplary performances can from John Handley and Jack Williams, on his return to the team. Jack was given QKS Man of the match for his outstanding performance.

10

The Year 7 Rugby Team with Bob and Dinny from Kendal Rugby Club

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Netball Year 9 – 11/09/14

QKS

5

Dallam School

4

The first game of the season started off strongly for the Year 9 team. They showed pure determination and team work to take a win against tough opposition. The team had the majority of possession, thanks to some excellent interceptions in the centre court from Isabelle Brownell. The attack showed real flair and dominance from some excellent passing from Olivia Roscoe into the circle to shooters Samantha Graham and Josie Blyth. Isabel Garstang, Maddie Brown and Hannah Edwards were strong in defence, denying Dallam that vital pass into the shooting circle. Player of this match was Isabelle Brownell.

Year 11 – 11/09/14

QKS

22

Dallam School

2

What a game! From start to end the team dominated both in attack and in defence.

Attacking players once in possession were extremely hard to stop. Emily Topping, Heidi Murray, Eva Grange and Alice Slattery moved the ball down the court with immense pace and quality that was hard to keep up with. Alice’s and Eva's were on top form with their shooting, with both girls consistently scoring. Defence players made sure Dallam had to work hard to get the ball into the shooting D. Trudi Van Geesebergen, Liz Atkinson, Poppy Brooks and Katherine Lawson were crucial in their interceptions and marking to keep Dallam’s scoring opportunities to a minimum. There was no individual player of the match, as every single girl played their part in a fantastic win.

Well done!

Eva Grange shoots for the under 16 team

Under 16 South Lakes Tournament – 17/09/14 The girls had an extremely tough start to their tournament, due to having the two strongest schools in the first two rounds.

Their first round was against Windermere and the QKS team had the potential to win this game. They started off slowly and they did not get into the flow of the game allowing Windermere to take a 7 - 1 lead at half-time. In the second half QKS came out more strongly and won this half, with the game ending Windermere 9 QKS 4.

The second round was against a sharp Sedbergh side and again QKS upped their work-rate in the second half to restrict the goals scored by Sedbergh. This game

ended Sedbergh 14 QKS 2. The team then won the following games convincingly and had to really pull together as team due to two players getting injured. This really showed their versatility and strength.

Scores in the other games were: QKS 12 Dallam 3, QKS 10 Cartmel 3, QKS 7 QES 4, QKS 4 KKS 1. The Year 11 netball squad should be proud of their 3rd position in the tournament. The Year 11 team were Trudi Van Geesebergen (GK), Liz Atkinson (GD), Poppy Brooks (WD), Eleanor Day (WD), Emily Topping (C), Heidi Murray (WA), Katherine Lawson (WA), Eva Grange (GA) and Alice Slattery (GS).

6th Form – 22/09/14

QKS

22

Kirkbie Kendal

8 U14 south lakes netball tournament team

This was the first sixth form match, and it was a real pleasure to see the regular netball team as well as some new faces. QKS dominated from the start with some fast and precise passing and positioning from Mary O Reilly, Abby Counsell, Hannah Russell, Dominique Alexander and Alice Slattery. The girls really got into their rhythm quickly. The QKS defence made it difficult for KKS to deliver that crucial ball into the shooting D. Liz Atkinson, Jodie Dixon, Lucy Richardson and Molly Thwaites were all on their game.

This was a great start to the netball season.

Under 14 South Lakes Tournament – 24/09/14 The girls had a difficult start to the tournament facing a well-drilled and fierce Sedbergh team in round one. The pace and team play surprised the girls and they could not quite find their rhythm, losing 0-18. In the second round, QKS faced Windermere. If the team had played the first half as they did the second half, then this is a game they could have won.

QKS 5 Windermere 7. For the remaining

matches, QKS really focused, and their decision-making and their team play showed a greater quality in both attack and defence. Remaining results, in which QKS were unbeaten, were: QKS 3 Dallam 2, QKS 7 Cartmel 2, QKS 7 QES 5, QKS 6 Lakes 4. QKS ended up with a creditable result of 3rd out of 7 schools.

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Netball Continued

Karate

Year 10 – 08/10/14

QKS

6 QES

13

Under 15 South Lakes Tournament – 15/10/14

The team really worked hard throughout their matches. Unfortunately, due to the This was the first match of the netball number of schools, that entered, the team season for the Year 10s and it was promising only had 3 matches as there were only two start. The QKS team went from strength to pools. Their first match was against Dallam. strength after each quarter. However, QES The team started well and the game really began very strongly and maintained their flowed in their favour. The first half ended lead they gained from the first quarter. The with QKS 3 and Dallam 2. However, Dallam Year 10 team learned that they must ensure upped their game in the second half and they start strongly and score goals from their QKS really struggled to find that crucial possession, especially in that crucial first half pass into the shooting area and the game of the game. ended QKS 4 Dallam 9. In the next game, QKS came up against Windermere. Again, the first half was strong, but early into this half there was a bad injury and one of – 09/10/14 QKS’s main defenders had to come off.

The girls lost their flow a little due to players Dallam changing position around and this game School ended Windermere 11 QKS 2. QKS really wanted a win and this came in their last Year 8 “A” team: This was a good start to game. The change in positions had a the season for the Year 8 team The team positive impact on the team, and QKS had members were very versatile as different more possession and were able to positions and combinations were tried out, and they responded very positively by being capitalise from this to win 4-2. It was a pity there were no more games, as the QKS able to change quickly from attack to team was just finding its form. The team defending roles. The score does not really consisted of Kofi Broadhurst, Jemma reflect the dominance shown in possession Powell, Rebecca Ainsworth, Rosa and the quality of team.

Materwicz, Mia Senior, Lucy Dixon, Alisha Mitchell, Martha Boggan and Chloe Barker.

Dallam

Year 8 A+B QKS A

4

QKS B

1

4

School

5

For many of the girls in this team, this was their first ever inter-school fixture. To ensure that the girls had equal amount of playing time some of the girls had to play positions that they were not totally sure of, but they still went out and gave their all. Final score QKS 1 Dallam 5. Lily Maiden and Maddie Sanders were star players of this match.

Year 7 – 11/11/14 QKS

4

Lakes School

Year 8 – 13/11/14 QKS

6

Lakes School

This was a fine game from the Year 8 team at the Lakes School with accurate passing and precision throughout the game. After quickly jumping off the bus and straight into the game, it took the first third to settle into positions. QKS took the lead in the 2nd third and there was no stopping QKS’ attackers.

1

There was a second triumph for the QKS Year 7 netball team who beat the Lakes School 4-1. With the competitive spirit running high, it was a fast game. Josie Johnson and Mae Cross scored with support around the D by Kitty Brownell in centre and Poppy Howe in wing attack.

Leah Atkinson and Mia Stewart played well in defence and marked their players well.

Cindy Wu swapped from goal keeper into goal attack and soon popped a goal into the net. This was a great game; well done to all who played.

4

The netball teams would like to thank QKSA who funded two sets of new netball tops and netball Velcro bibs. The P.E department, netball teams and Mrs Gore are delighted with the new up-to-date kit.

In mid-September, Year 8 student Nathan O’Sullivan, a member of Kendal Chojinkai Karate Club, attended the Association’s senior training and grading session held at Trinity Leisure Centre, Carlisle. After a four-hour session under the assessment of a grading panel made up of Doug James, 8th Dan and Senior Association Grading Officer, and five Senior Examiners of 5th Dan or above, he was awarded his Junior Black Belt (1st Dan). Nathan is the first junior, i.e. under 16 year old, to attain Black Belt status in the 35 year history of the Kendal Club and one of the youngest ever to reach this level in the entire Association. For Nathan to achieve this level whilst still only 12 years old is an extraordinary and noteworthy achievement, and credit is due to him for the effort and dedication to achieve this milestone. Nathan started karate at the age of six and has trained twice a week since then, progressing through the grading system, as well as having medal success in multiple competitions.

Nathan’s next target will be achieving his 2nd Dan status which he will be eligible to grade for in two years’ time.

If he achieves this, he will be the first Junior 2nd Dan Black Belt in the history of the entire Association.

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SPORTS ROUND-UP Football 6th Form County Cup

QKS

6

Kendal College

1

The team showed good organisation throughout and this was the basis for a positive result. The defence were strong and the midfield pairing of Jeffs and Sullivan kept a tight grip on the opposition. The team are training well with Michael Shiels and Alex taking a leading role.

Year 8 – 02/10/14

QKS

6 QES

1

A fantastic performance from the lads resulted in a well deserved 6-1 victory.

The team were solid in defence and clinical in attack.

Year 10 – 21/10/14

QKS

3

William Howard School

0

The Year 10s continued their winning ways with a 3-0 cup quarter final victory over William Howard School. Three first-half goals from Dan Jones, Dylan Hoyle and Hal VanImage by Richard Edmondson, a Kendal College student Geesbergen ensured the match was all but sealed by half-time. QKS defended the William Howard attack well in the second half, and Year 8 County Cup – 14/11/14 Year 8 – 21/10/14 launched several counter attacks to try and Ulverston increase their lead, but the score remained 3-0 Kirkbie High to the final whistle. The Year 10s now progress Kendal School to the County Cup semi-final due to be played at QKS with the opposition and date TBC. A competitive game that the QKS Year 8 team A good and closely contested game were unable to win, despite taking the lead with between two good Year 8 teams. a Kelton Knowles header from a corner. The QKS emerged the winners, thanks to game was played in wet and windy conditions their midfield superiority. The team is Year 10 – 24/11/14 on an extremely tight pitch that favoured neither improving game on game and are able team. The defence was rather guilty of ball to link moves together that creates Kirkbie watching, which proved costly, along with the scoring opportunities.

Kendal forwards not really having an impact.

QKS

1 QKS

1

3

1 QKS

3

5

A superb victory for the Year 10s against the local rivals. A fine all-round performance th from the team saw them take a 3-0 lead into – 19/11/14 half-time. This lead was quickly increased Lakes within the first ten minutes of the second half by two goals to kill off the game. Man of School the match goes to Matthew Kennedy for netting a hat-trick and pulling out some Our 6th form team lost this quarter-final to unbelievable “tekkers” (or technique) to Lakes in a hard fought match. They were score his hat-trick goal.

3 - 1 down at half-time, but rallied in the

6 form Cup

5 QKS

2

second half to create three golden opportunities but missed them all and Lakes capitalised later in the half. Lakes were a strong team with no obvious weaknesses and this strength eventually carried the day.

Our students have trained twice a week and given themselves every opportunity to progress in this competition so no one can fault them for effort.