On the 23rd of January, Year 11 geography students, wrapped in about 50 layers of clothing, embarked on their second field trip. This was to gather data to analyse in our GCSE paper which discusses Geography around the UK. We explored the small, rural village of Berinsfield, a quaint, nucleated, commuter settlement situated just 13.1km away from the urban hub of Oxford. 

We left Kendrick just after registration, and hopped on coaches which took us to Berinsfield. Once at the village, our coach-driver took us on a whistle-stop tour (with our Geography teachers doing amazing voiceovers) of the village, circling the sites we would gather data from. We had a particularly interesting insight, Berinsfield being the area Mrs Dunlop grew up in- we were even able to see her primary school!

On Wednesday the 25th January, Year 11 students were lucky enough to go to the Hexagon on a fantastic trip to see Poetry Live, organised by the English Department.

We left school after Period 1 and walked to the Hexagon with our teachers. At the Hexagon we were given booklets with the poems from the GCSE anthologies, centred around love, war, nature and relationships, and also some information about each poet we were going to hear from. We were very privileged, as these people included award-winning poets Daljit Nagra, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, Owen Sheers and John Agard as well as the current Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage!

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, which takes place annually, is a week-long celebration of engineering designed to highlight to young people that engineering is a creative, problem-solving, exciting career that improves the world around us.

Last term two Kendrick students, Sarah and Dhitha took part in Tomorrow’s Engineers Week when it celebrated its 10th year with a new recorded broadcast - Future Minds Live. Around 50 young people were chosen to attend Future Minds Live, where they discussed their ideas for the future of engineering in four key sectors: Entertainment, Sport, Technology and Environment.

In the first week of December, a group of students studying German from Years 11, 12 and 13 took part in the German Christmas Market trip, travelling over 700 miles in total. 

Day 1 - Thursday 1st December

At 5 o’clock in the evening, we gathered in the school hall to get checked in and make sure we had a list of our groups. We said goodbye to our parents and got onto the coach, leaving at around 6pm. The coach was full of chatty students; all of us were so excited for what was to come! After three hours on the coach, we reached the Port of Dover, went through customs and got onto the ferry. Many of us were very tired, but still enjoyed the ferry ride! We arrived at the Port de Calais, and continued our 12-hour journey to Cologne. 

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Meredith Willson, arr. A Level Music Students 2022-23

This Christmas classic was originally composed by Meredith Willson (known for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man) and brought to popularity by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra in 1951. Reaching No.8 on the US Billboard Holiday 100, it has since been recorded by the likes of Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Pentatonix, Meghan Trainor, and of course the quintessential Michael Bublé, whose version continues to top the charts regularly over the Christmas period, 11 years after its release.

As we are all aware, this winter is going to be a difficult one for many families across the country, especially with the rising cost of living.

To do our bit to help locally in the Reading area, we organised a 'Food Drive Week' collecting food items such as breakfast cereals, UHT milk, eggs, loo rolls, washing up liquid, washing powder, tea, coffee, biscuits, cooking oil, pasta/rice, tinned food such as sweetcorn / fruit / soup / tuna, spreads like honey and jam, toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothbrushes for the Whitley Community Food Cupboard.