On Monday 16th June, the Journalism Club had a visit from our local MP for Earley and Woodley, Yuan Yang, who spoke about her career in Journalism and her progression into politics. I was inspired to invite Yuan after listening to her speak at my Chinese School’s annual Chinese New Year event, where she expressed her interest in helping the wider community by educating people about politics and her role as an MP.  Members of the journalism club and Sixth Form students came to listen to Yuan speak about her career: from studying PPE at Oxford to her former role as a China correspondent for the Financial Times’ Europe. This was a valuable opportunity for our members to gain an insight into different routes to journalism.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Schools' Analyst Competition enables students competing in Year 12 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to demonstrate and expand on their existing chemistry knowledge, skills and aptitude for analytical science through practical analytical experiments based on relevant societal or industrial problems.  Some tasks in the competition are relatively familiar to the students, such as titrations and unfamiliar tasks, such as chromatographic separations or atomic and molecular spectroscopy.  

Ten teams of Year 12 Chemistry students from Kendrick participated in the first round of the competition.  This year’s challenge saw students step into the shoes of professional analytical chemists, working alongside the Department of Housing to assess the safety of a former industrial site for residential development. Each team was provided with soil and waste heap samples to analyse, to determine whether the land was suitable for building and how any potential hazards could be mitigated.

We were delighted to welcome into Kendrick School some students from Primary Schools, Years 3 and 4 who, supported by some Year 12 Kendrick students, took part in an exciting percussion workshop. Led by Mr Hodge, our Head of Science, the children played bongo drums and threw themselves into playing very enthusiastically.  There were lots of smiles all round!

Following on from our in-school Poetry by Heart competition last term, we entered the videos of our winning performances into the national competition and were delighted to discover that, in all three key stages, our students were awarded Best in County for Berkshire.

We were delighted to welcome over 70 Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 students and staff from 6 local primary schools to Kendrick for their Spring Netball Tournament.  Students in year groups 3-6 attended with mixed lower and upper school teams from Geoffrey Field, Whitley Park, Christ the King, Ridgeway, Lambs Lane and New Christ Church Primary Schools.

The hard work and dedication of last year's finalists in the Science in Medicine e-poster competition is having a real impact on the Biology Department. Thanks to their success, some of the prize money they won has been invested in brand-new gel electrophoresis kits.

This sophisticated piece of biotechnology equipment is a vital tool in modern biology and these techniques make two appearances in the A-Level science specification. Having this equipment readily available in our school lab truly brings science to life, offering our students invaluable hands-on experience with techniques used by scientists every day.