Community Groups

STEAM

Founded in 1993, Science Technology Engineering At the King's School (STEAM) is a group of people with scientific backgrounds. STEAM provides advice and help on a range of activities involving Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. The core aim is to promote careers in these industries and STEAM is affiliated to the DTI/DFES initiative STEMworks.

Our vision is to encourage, excite and inspire students and the school community about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) at school and in the wider world.

Our mission is to promote curiosity, creativity and accessibility to STEAM, and to provide an understanding of how skills gained through STEAM are transferable for careers in many sectors and in our day-to-day lives.

External members and staff work together in partnership to promote interest and curiosity in STEAM through involvement in relevant activities, including those outlined in the objectives below.

STEAM provides enormous support and opportunities for all involved. Through the initiative, we have established links with firms such as BT, GCHQ, British Energy, G.E. Aviation, Chronos Technology, Renishaw, EDF Energy, ARUP and Schlumberger.

We meet once each school term.

Key STEAM achievements have included:

• Mock interviews, industrial visits and work placements
• General studies lectures
• Support for technology projects and CREST awards
• CAD/CAM demonstrations
• School ICT development
• Provision of computing hardware
• Events (Technology Challenge, Astronomy Day)

The STEAM group within the King's School comprises a Steering Group of parents, ex parents, King's alumni and associated external contacts along with the Head, Head of Science and other members of Scientific, Technical, Maths and IT staff.

The Chairman is elected on an annual basis at the close of the Summer Term meeting, to preside from the Michaelmas Term and the group meets three times each academic year. 

The STEAM Group adds value by providing:

• Ideas for promoting and encouraging STEAM within the school
• Ideas for the planning and running of science challenges within the school
• Support judging relevant activities within the school
• Help with career days and practice interviews 
• Work experience and mentoring opportunities
• Links to relevant external organisations (companies and professional bodies)
• Information about relevant external events (e.g. university and institute talks)
• Funding opportunities
• Informal STEAM talks and other academic enrichment sessions.

Contact Point

If you would like to find out more about the group please contact the STEAM Co-ordinator Frankie Rouffet at The King's School on 01452 337337 or email [email protected].

Community Choir

King’s Community Choir is a friendly group of singing enthusiasts, consisting of parents, staff and former pupils (parents of children who have now left school are also still eligible to join!) Rehearsals are light hearted, with the main emphasis on having fun singing together with our school choirs.

The choir suits singers who may have had some previous experience such as singing in a school or church choir. It is important that you can sing in tune, though you are not required to be a strong reader of music! Recent repertoire have included The Armed Man (Jenkins), Gloria (Vivaldi), Coronation Mass in C (Mozart), Requiem (Fauré) and Les Misérables Medley (Schönberg)

In order to cover costs, there is an ‘honesty box’ system in place, in which each member pays one pound for each rehearsal attended.

2025 Lent Term

As in previous years, the Community Choir will join forces with the King’s School Chapel Choir to perform in the Lent Term Concert on Thursday 13th February, 2025.  The main work will be Matthew Coleridge’s, Requiem and an arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (as this is now a set work for GCSE Music).  

Rehearsal tracks for the Requiem are available at https://koor.app/  (You will need to register for a free account, then you can listen to the individual voice parts, recorded by professional singers.) 

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE

JANUARY 2025

8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th - 7pm-8:30pm

FEBRUARY 2025

5th - 7pm-8:30pm

12^th (Nave - final rehearsal)  7-9pm

13th (Thursday) 7pm Concert (Nave) - please note earlier time

If you are interested in joining King’s Community Choir, just turn up at one of the rehearsals and give it a go. For further details please contact the Director of Music, [email protected] . 

Looking forward to welcoming all keen singers! 

Mr John Pennington 

International Links

Since 2008 we have had an exciting partnership with the Dornakal Diocesan schools in the Cathedral Compound at Dornakal, Telangana, India.

There are various different schools on the site: two primary schools and two secondary schools - where pupils are taught either through the medium of English or through Telegu; there is a school for the Deaf; and the Dornakal Junior college - like a 6th Form College.

We are partnered especially with the Dornakal Diocesan English Medium (DDEM) School. The partnership between the schools forms part of a wider Diocesan partnership between the Diocese of Gloucester and the Diocese of Dornakal. Both King’s Senior and Junior Schools are in partnership with the Dornakal English Medium School.

Over the years, the schools have received Global Curriculum Grants from the British Council and worked on joint projects – Food, Family life and Energy. Also, there have been reciprocal visits of teachers and pupils. Although the funding from the British Council has now finished we are continuing with our joint projects. For example, the Second Form at King’s completed a history of King’s and Gloucester for the Dornakal School and a selection of Independent Learning Projects by our First Form have been sent to Dornakal.

In November 2013, we started sponsoring five pupils at the DDEM School - we now sponsor 20 pupils.

The pupils we sponsor are from very poor families or are orphans with no relatives. The DDEM School receives no government funding and has to charge minimal fees. Families pay what they can afford – it costs £25 a year to attend the school and hostels – where pupils board. The hostels are funded by different aid agencies. The area of Dornakal is rural and the majority of the pupils come from tribal families who live in remote villages; many of the parents have had no education and the pupils who come to the DDEM School are the first in their families to receive an education. The tribal families are from the Dalit community and are often victims of prejudice as they are often considered 'untouchables.'

King’s has also provided helped to fund the building of a new classroom at the DDEM School along with the Gloucester Diocese. This was through money raised at a dedicated fundraising day and we are pleased to say that the new classroom was opened by Bishop Prasada Rao on 31st October 2014.  The school hopes to use it for science teaching.

The Gloucester Rotary Club has been very supportive and has awarded a grant to the Dornakal Deaf School and its hostels for the refurbishment of the girls’ and boys’ toilets in Spring 2015. These were in the most appalling condition: the roofs leaking, no doors on the cubicles, no running water or washing facilities. This will change the lives of these children immeasurably especially the girls.

In 2019, Penny Fayter, one of our Classics Teachers, travelled over to Dornakal and visited three schools - The Dornakal Diocesan English Medium School, The Telugu Medium School and The Shriver School for the Deaf. She was introduced to each class and was able to spend time talking to the students and teachers and finding out about the facilities and the way in which they learn. Mrs Fayter returned to Dornakal in October 2023, as part of the Gloucester Diocese International Links Team visit.

Full accounts of Penny's visits can be found below: 

Report on A Visit to Dornakal, Telangana

A Visit to Dornakal 2023

Please visit our School Stories page for the latest news on Dornakal.