On Thursday 7th April, A Level German students from Kendrick School and Reading Boys had the opportunity to attend a German film evening at school, where we watched the film ‘Sonnenallee’. Also known as ‘Sun Alley’, Sonnenallee is the name of a street in Berlin, which was divided in 1961 by the building of the Berlin Wall, with part of the street in Neukoeln split from the section in the east, in the Baumschulenweg neighbourhood.
On Friday 1st April, a group of students from Kendrick and Reading School were able to put on the first Air Ambulance Concert since 2019. Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of all the students involved, the concert was a resounding success and helped to raise vital funds for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
On Thursday 31st March, two teams of four Year 10 students took part in the Year 10 Maths Feast - a fun educational challenge for students which tests problem-solving and teamwork skills with an all-you-can-eat feast of problems.
After several weeks of rugby assessment camps before Christmas last year, Alex from Year 13, was selected for the England U18 Women squad for 2022.
Recently I took part in the First Lego League National Finals in Harrogate. First Lego League (FLL) is a global STEM competition run by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. It develops coding, designing and research skills. There are three parts to the competition:
On Monday 21st March, we had the first opening of the Kendrick second hand uniform shop. It was a successful event, and we had managed to raise £51, which will go towards the school. Our first experience in running the stall was extremely positive, as the shop proved popular with the students, and we managed to sell many items. We are extremely lucky to be able to have a student-run shop in school, and we really enjoyed interacting with our peers; overall it was an enjoyable experience.
On Tuesday 29th March, we had our first live concert for over two years, which was a lovely last concert for us Year 13s (and Year 11 leavers) at Kendrick, as well as an exciting opportunity for those in the younger years and new Year 12s to experience a proper concert at Kendrick for the first time. We heard many ensembles, such as Wind Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Senior Choir as well as having a few Year 13 soloists, which allowed some of us a chance to show how our musicality has developed throughout our time here at Kendrick.
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.