On Tuesday 4th October 2022, Year 12 students attended the Wokingham Waterside Centre as part of their Personal Development and Integration into the Sixth Form. The focus was on working as a team to complete the course and the tasks. Students were enabled to mix together and develop new friendships.
With nearly half of Year 7 choosing to participate in House Chess this year, we saw victories, losses and incredibly close draws, all from students eager to play chess in their first ever house event as part of Kendrick. Participants joined throughout the lunch break to get involved, some without any chess experience at all, providing competitive and tantalisingly close match ups.
This year we celebrate an incredible 145 years of Kendrick, 145 years of girls’ education!
Kendrick School, came into existence in 1877. It is named after its founder, John Kendrick, whose painting is in this Hall. John Kendrick was a 17th century merchant and clothier who left a bequest, a sum of money – some £12,000 to the towns of Reading and Newbury to provide employment and education for girls and boys. So started Kendrick Girls’ School and Kendrick Boys’ School. The boys’ school eventually merged with Reading school, leaving Kendrick Girls’ School, which became Kendrick School.
Yesterday we heard the very sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral. This is clearly an historic moment for the country and the world as people everywhere acknowledge the tremendous contribution and service the Queen gave to the country, the Commonwealth and all the charities and organisations she supported and interacted with in the 70 years of her reign. As Head of State, the death of the Queen is a hugely significant event in the history of the constitution and political system of the country as the death of one monarch leads to the succession of the next.
On Wednesday 6th July, we hosted an event for students from Kendrick and schools from the surrounding area in which they had the opportunity to learn from industry professionals in the wind and brass families. During the afternoon, students worked together on ensemble items, developing their sense of performance as a chamber group, balance between players and the musicality of the pieces they played.
One of the events of the Creative Arts Festival was a Poetry Pentathlon, which was held at lunchtime on Wednesday 13th July. Students were challenged to do any or all of a selection of five mini-poetry ‘events’ (see below).
The idea was to compose poetry at speed, letting the inspirations provided prompt a spontaneous response in the moment. This method of composing, which entails getting fleeting ideas down on paper, can be surprisingly fruitful. Some ideas produced are surreal and bizarre, others are cleverly and succinctly meaningful. I’m sure you will agree that our winners certainly produced work that was indeed poetic, surprising and even thought-provoking.
With amazing effort and determination shown by all three houses, Kendrick saw its first whole school sports day since 2019, hosted at Palmer Park. Track events took place in the morning, and all the way from 1500m to 75m, it was an incredibly close contest. Even through 30⁰C temperatures, students from all year groups were able to give their best performance and cheer on their fellow competitors, waving their house flags with pride.
On Tuesday 12th July, ten members of the Kendrick Student Leaders (KSL) team attended a 'UK Student Leadership Conference 2022' in London hosted by the FCA. This was a programme aimed at state school girls, where we learnt not just about empowering ourselves but also our peers, the young people around us and our community. We attended a variety of different seminars ranging from identifying unconscious bias in both the school environment and the workplace, learning how to inspire social change around us by becoming agents of change and gender-based safety in school. We hope to impart the valuable lessons we have learnt from this conference in our school.
The sun shone as Kendrick School celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in style on Friday 8th July. There were many exciting competitions to enter, a picnic lunch to enjoy on the school lawn and fun activity stalls to partake in throughout our extended lunch session.
Every year, the Franklin Society of Cambridge University's Murray Edwards College hosts a science-based essay competition. The competition is open to Sixth Form students (or equivalent) from any country and of any gender. The competition aims to encourage students to explore scientific issues beyond those covered in the school curriculum.
Here is Daisy's essay report:
Our Year 13 students, Jade and Katerina have been running ‘Space Society’ for the last few years. Throughout lockdown they used the two computerised Celestron telescopes belonging to the Physics department.
These are loaned to interested students, and you will see from their blog how much Jade and Katerina have been inspired by being able to use them.
Remembering Sahana, a student at Kendrick School, who was talented and clever, but more importantly was a kind, considerate and selfless child who loved her school, her family and friends and the life she had. We mourn her loss and celebrate her life.