All students in Year 10 have wowed and delighted us with their persuasive speeches on a wide range of topics for their GCSE Spoken Language Assessment over the last couple of weeks. This year, we decided to celebrate these speeches by choosing one speaker from each English class to go head-to-head in our first ever Orators' Cup final. Speaking in front of their whole year group, Aditi, Isabella, Mayuri, Raenu and Shivani held their audiences captivated by topics including society's dependency on numbers, whether The Hunger Games reflects modern society, the sanitisation of classical literature, and racism towards Indian people and their culture. 

Day 1: In the early hours of Sunday morning on 8th June, we embarked on the long-awaited trip to France.  The journey was long, yet everyone was buzzing with excitement, and after a day of travel, we arrived at the meeting point in Tours. At this point, most of us had begun to feel some butterflies in our stomachs about meeting our families. However, after the initial introduction, we gradually got less timid and, during dinner at home, we started to amicably chat about all sorts of things. We retired to our rooms for the night shortly after that, happy and content, thinking about the wonderful week to come.

In March this year, thirty-five Sixth Form students completed the British Biology Olympiad (BBO). This consists of two 45-minute online papers. From this group of enthusiastic biologists, seven students achieved a Bronze award, three achieved a Silver award and two achieved a Gold award. Students achieving the Gold award are Ellie and Elise. Both Ellie and Elise went on to complete the next round of the Olympiad, which could lead to them representing the UK team in the International Olympiad. 

On Monday 16th June, our school's team of Riya, Navami, Ananya and Simiao participated in the UKMT Team Maths Challenge National Final, a follow-on from the Regional Team Maths Challenge that took place earlier this year. Accompanied by Mr Stride and Mrs White, we took part in this challenge, which was held at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London.  We were competing against teams from 64 schools across the UK, each of which had been the winners or runner-ups of their regionals.

As part of this year's Creative Arts Festival, our Harp and Percussion Performer Series will take place on Thursday 3rd July at Kendrick School's Main Hall, from 4pm – 6pm.  

This will include three masterclass sessions for both harpists and percussionists, followed by separate harp and percussion ensembles for all attendees. It culminates in a short concert in which we hear from our professionals, masterclass students and harp and percussion ensembles. Family and friends may also attend this concert for free. 

This event is for students of grade 4+ standard and is free to all Kendrick students (you still need to sign up) and only £5 for students in the local area. Music for the harp and percussion ensembles will be sent ahead of time, so please book early to ensure you have enough time to practise. We have a limit of up to three masterclass spaces, so please contact Mrs Cooper – ccooper@kendrick.reading.sch.uk for more information if you’re interested in this. 

GCSE Drama students were given the incredible opportunity to see a performance of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the set text they study for Component 3: Theatre Makers in Practice, at one of the world’s most famous and prestigious theatre venues, Shakespeare’s Globe. For some of these students and staff, it was their first time visiting this venue, and it was fascinating to think that the stage used is a modern reconstruction of the one used in Shakespeare’s time over 400 years ago!