As 2026 commenced, we challenged students to write poems on the theme of 'beginnings'. Students interpreted this brief in a variety of ways, producing a stunning, profound and thought-provoking array of poems. We are grateful to our guest adjudicator, Miss Stansfield, for choosing Deshna (Year 11) and Adhvika (Year 9) as our runners-up, and Falaq (Year 10) as our winner.

You can read their poems below – many congratulations to all students who entered this competition! 

Mr Dilley – Subject Leader of English

On Friday the 27th of February, we held our first ever Kendrick Iftar! During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims break their day-long fast with an evening meal called iftar, and we had the honour of hosting our Muslim students in this.  

The evening started off with a speech from a special visitor, Mrs Kaur, who talked to us about Sikhism and what her faith means to her. This was followed by a speech from Mrs Mohamed, who spoke to us about her journey in Islam, and about how her faith has grown over the course of her life. Some Muslim sixth form students then spoke about what their faith means to them, touching on the five pillars of Islam and reflecting on the similarities between the Muslim and Sikh faiths.

On Monday 12th January, we were fortunate to be able to attend a Debate Competition run by Wokingham Borough Youth Council. 

The topics for debate were assigned and released just one week before the event, and so it was a race against time for all schools to put together a debate team, research, gather evidence, build counterarguments and prepare for the day.  

On Wednesday, 14th January, A-Level German students attended a Study Day hosted by the Goethe Institut, organised by the German Department of King’s College London. This provided us with a unique perspective on modern Germany's immigration history, which is particularly beneficial for our studies on immigration and multiculturalism as part of the A-Level course.

On Monday the 10th of November, the A-level Sociology students attended the ‘Sociology in Action’ conference, hearing from subject experts about a wide range of sociological issues.

We had six talks: abolitionism, celebrity culture and the media, representations of female crime, exam skills, wealth disparity and its effects on childhood, and gender, feminism and the family.

In November, the Community Committee, with help from other members of the Kendrick Student Leadership Team, ran a series of creative events as part of Fringe Fortnight to raise money for our two school charities; the Reading Refugee Support Group and Smart Works Reading.