On Wednesday 23rd March, Year 12 went to the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference centre for a UCAS Discovery Exhibition Fair where we got to interact with many Universities from all across the country ranging from Imperial College London to the University of Wales.
The week of 14th - 18th March 2022 saw the return of a very popular school event, Comic Relief Week, run by the Kendrick Student Leaders (KSL) in collaboration with the School Council. It was a fun-filled, activity-packed week enjoyed by students and staff across the school, that enabled us to collectively fundraise an incredible amount of money, £1498.63 for some really worthy causes and see our school come to life again after two years of online events. Some of the main aims of Comic Relief this year includes supporting people to live free from poverty, domestic violence and those currently fleeing war in Ukraine.
On Monday 14th March, Years 9, 10 and 11 had the amazing opportunity to watch a play performed in German. Being in Year 9, we thought the play would be difficult for us to understand: in fact it was quite the opposite! We were surprised by how much German we knew, and were left feeling optimistic about the possibility that we might be able to speak colloquially in German one day. We were told that the actors started by saying their lines slowly, but once they realised that their audience was able to understand what was going on, they spoke at the same pace as if speaking to a German audience! We have shared our understanding of the play with you in this article…
This year we delayed our Harry Potter celebration due to Covid numbers in school, but thanks to the more recent decline in numbers at Kendrick, we were pleased to host our celebration on Friday 11 March. This year’s theme was Diagon Alley and our students were treated to visiting Ollivander’ s Wand Shop, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Honeydukes Sweet Shop and Flourish & Blotts Book Shop which happened to be hosting a book signing event with the famous Gilderoy Lockhart (aka Mrs Williamson, one of our school librarians!).
Berkshire Maestros, in partnership with Windsor Festival and Bradfield College, held a competition for singers to showcase their talent and win prizes alongside others of a similar age. One of our students, Natalia in Year 11, made it through to the Folk category final, having sung ‘She Moves Through the Fair’ – a traditional Irish folk song, to gain a place there.
Last month saw the return of the popular house event, House Drama. This year’s theme was based around taking a myth or legend of their choice and adapting it for a modern audience. As always, our students produced three very high-quality performances which made it rather difficult for our adjudicator, Louise Gilmour, to decide on a winner.
On Thursday 10th March, Angela Strach, the former Head of Drama at Kendrick School, visited Kendrick to speak to students about the experiences of her father, Eric Strach, and the rest of her family in relation to the Holocaust. During an Enrichment lesson, Mrs Strach spoke to all the Sixth Form, where she gave a truly moving presentation following the life of her father, which enabled us to establish a connection with the lives of those affected. Later in the day, she spoke to interested students from Years 7 - 11 and staff, going into more detail about the items she still possesses to remember her family, such as a prayer book with an inscription inside, and everyone learnt a lot about the importance of reflection and commemoration from this.
International Women’s Day is always celebrated here at Kendrick, as it is something we feel passionate about all year around. We have several displays around the school to commemorate this special day. Our monthly Inspirational Woman display in the library features four women this month.
Once again here at Kendrick we had a fabulous week celebrating World Book Day – the 25th anniversary of the event.
This year we held a Book Sale on Wednesday, selling books for the Reading branch of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. It was so successful; we didn’t even get the chance to take a photograph of the busy event! We were sold out before the end of break and raised just over £100.00 for the local charity.
https://fcbg.org.uk/
On 14th February, the Community Committee had an opportunity to visit New Beginnings Reading to gain an insight into the work they do and discuss how we can support them in the future. We spoke with Louis, the manager of the organisation, who explained how the charity worked, which helped us develop a better understanding and appreciation of the work that he and his team have put into growing the charity and providing vital aid to many people in our community. The reality and information on the prevalence of homelessness in Reading has inspired us to work towards creating short and long term plans to support the valuable work they do.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme this year is Growing Together.
Growing Together is about growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Challenges and setbacks can help us to grow and adapt and trying new things can help us to move beyond our comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential. However, emotional growth is often a gradual process that happens over time, and sometimes we might feel a bit ‘stuck’.
In Science lessons in Year 8 we cover topics in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. We aim to make the lessons fun and engaging, as well as ensuring that the students learn a lot. One of the Biology topics is Food and Digestion, and at the end of the topic the students consolidate their learning by writing 'The Journey of a Cheese Sandwich'.