Well done to all the students who took part in the recent House Table Tennis competition. The results are below:
House totals so far …
On Thursday 6th and Friday 7th February, nearly 120 pupils took part in our first ever Inter House Music Competition. We had a fantastic variety of instruments and pieces across five classes: Strings, Woodwind & Brass, Piano, Drum kit & Percussion and Vocal.
The adjudicators were choral conductor Mr James Davey and Royal College of Music postgraduate opera singer Ms. Annabel Clapham. They had the unenviable task of providing clear and detailed feedback for all competitors and awarding the winners and highly commended prizes for each class.
Mr James Davey writes, ‘It was a pleasure to listen to so many talented instrumentalists and singers during the course of the two days. In every class, there were exceptionally good performances representing every level of musical development and skill. I was particularly struck by the supportive environment the students provided for each other, and the spirit with which everyone entered into the competition. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone for performing with courage and confidence.’
Ms. Annabel Clapham writes, ‘What an honour it was for me to be invited to adjudicate Presdales first ever inter-house music competition. I must say I was very impressed with the high standard of entries – which made my job very difficult! All the students should be extremely proud of what they achieved.’
The winners and highly commended awards for each class are as follows:
Winner: Gemma Archer Highly Commended: Abbie Oldham
Winner: Lucy Kennard Highly Commended: Adesola Jinadu-Adewale
Winner: Charlotte Waring Highly Commended: Grace Farrell & Sophie Pratt
Winner: Louisa Safo Highly Commended: Gemma Archer
Winner: Caterina Daffada Highly Commended: Georgiana Fowler & Kittie Walton
Winner: Hope White-Heath Highly Commended: Caterina Daffada
Winner: Imogen Warhurst Highly Commended: Amelie Holmes
Winner: Rachel Harvey Highly Commended: Saranya Lister & Ishara Hettiarachchi
Winner: Annelise Apling Highly Commended: Deniz Isingor
Winner: Safia Sipi Highly Commended: Alicia Sharpner & Jessica Pryke
Winner: Poppy Croucher Highly Commended: Saiunnati Siddantham & Madison Scully
Winner: McKenna Hunter Highly Commended: Esmé Sabin & Amber Wingrove
Winner: Connie Marshall Highly Commended: Amelia Acheson
Please do show your support to all these pupils by attending the Inter House Winner’s concert later on this year (more details to follow). We hope to see you all and more return next year.
Year 9 have been studying tectonics in their Geography lessons this term. Here are some of their volcano models, ready for judging and erupting!
Well done everyone!
On Wednesday 5th February we went to Fanuc Coventry, we saw many amazing robots and delved into what engineering careers had to offer. As we entered, we were greeted by members of FANUC. We were able to see some of their robots which were displayed. Robots in green were human friendly meaning if it comes into contact with someone it will stop what it is doing. Whilst yellow robots do not and are kind of dangerous.
We then had an introduction from representatives from the PPMA, who told us about the companies involved in the project. An apprentice then took us on a tour around the rest of the factory.
After the tour, we came back and they explained what the next 10 weeks would entail. They suggested how to set out a plan for the next 10 weeks and learnt a bit about Gantt Charts. We also had an activity involving Lego and one involving a paperclip.
In the end we had a great experience looking at robots and learning a few more things about engineering and robots. We are hoping to raise the 8% of women working in the industry to 50%!
Thea, Alice, Isabella, Louisa, Becky and Mariam (Year 9)
Well done to Alice, Beth and Martha in Year 7 who recently competed in the Hertfordshire Schools cross country championships. The girls were fantastic and did so well on the tough course! You should be very proud of yourselves!
Beth also had a great time on Wednesday afternoon being the hare for the primary cross-country race at Hertford Rugby Club. She also did some marshalling and handed out the medals and trophies! Well done, Beth, and thank you for representing the school!
Presdales U13s hockey team played a County Cup match against Parmiters School last week. It was a closely contested match, the 1st half ending 1-1. However, Presdales stepped it up in the 2nd half to win 4-1. That’s 3 wins out of 3, with the final group game taking place next week to secure a place in the County semi-finals. Great performance girls, well done! Star player was Martha Ker who scored all 3 second half goals.
The U13 County Cup team then competed again this week and beat RMS in their final game in the round, even after waiting over an hour for the game to start. The score was 6-1 with some amazing goals from Martha Kerr…. making her Star Player from our team and the opposition! Well done girls, you were awesome! Good luck in the finals in March!
A massive well done to the Year 9/10 hockey team who last week won the District tournament…. and with 8 players, thanks to the Year 9 parents evening! Well done girls… fab matches winning 6-0 and 7-0 against John Warner and Simon Balle schools.
Huge congratulations to the Year 7 and 8 Sportshall Athletics teams who have both qualified for the District Final on Wed 26th February! Both teams also came out in 1st place, which is amazing! Good luck in the final!
The Year 7’s played a mini round-robin 7 a-side football friendly last night at Simon Balle. We fielded two teams who played 2 matches each. The games were closely contested, with Presdales winning 2, drawing 1 and losing one. The scores were 1-0, 3-0, 0-0 and 1-2. The matches were played in a great spirit, competitive with lots of good football. The girls were a great credit to themselves and Presdales. Well done, excellent performances.
The Year 8 football team played in the District 6-a side Football tournament last week. The girls played really well, but just couldn’t find the net in the first couple of matches drawing 0-0 against John Warner & St Mary’s. They finished with a great 1-0 win against Goffs to come 2nd overall. Well done girls! Star player was Caitlin Ryan.
The U14 Girls Football Team played their semi-final match against a strong Goffs team this evening. Unfortunately, Goffs prevailed, winning 3-1, but the score could easily have been the other way around. What a match! The commitment and effort of our girls was simply outstanding to see! After going 0-2 down in the 1st half, we changed formation to go all-out attack in the second half. This changed the dynamic of the match and the girls were unlucky not to score more goals and change the outcome. Regardless, we should feel incredibly proud of their efforts. The girls literally worked their socks off! So, so proud of you girls. Getting to the semi-final was a great achievement – next year the final! Eva Cullen was voted POTM by Goffs. Coaches POTM split between Amelie Powis and Hannah Nash but the whole team deserves it! Missing from the team photo is Amber L, who unfortunately got injured and left just before the end to get treatment.
Well done to the U13 Cricket team who last week won their tournament to get them in to the county finals at the end of the month! Some excellent bowling, batting and fielding. Well done girls! Special mention to captain Eva Cullen who scored a 6 and bowled out 5 people!
Well done to the U15 cricket team who competed in the Indoor Lady Taverners tournament on Thursday. They won 2 matches against Freman College and Onslow but unfortunately lost by 7 runs to Beamount to just miss out a place in the County finals. Star players were Lotty Hobson and Hannah Stapleton.
Thank you to Mr Hobson for running a training session for the U13 and U15 team and coaching them yesterday.
Well done to the Year 7 netballers who played against Simon Balle this week! We had 2 games going where the girls were so versatile to mix between both games and positions! We won both games: 17-2 and 5-1. Fantastic play girls! Star players were Ellen and Olive.
Well done to all of the girls who competed in the swimming gala this week at John Warner! There were too many medals to count, great job girls!
Brook Farm Equestrian Centre NSEA Competition run by Felsted School, Essex, on 1st February 2020
It was lovely to see Ruby Robinson compete at her first show for Presdales, going clear in her very large class in 80cm, but unfortunately not placed this time. Well done to Lucy French, who also competed and went clear in the 80cm on a reformed Jaffa… good for you! Darcy’s pony was not playing ball this time out, but it will be good to see her bringing him out again. The next class was the 90cm Windsor qualifier with 15 teams trying to gain the coveted top two qualification placings. Some of the teams had come all the way from Sussex to compete. Our team of Ruby Barrs, Connie Harrington, Freya Naylor Stewart and Lucy French managed to go round landing on zero penalties and with very quick rounds. We had to wait until well after the class had finished to find out how they had done. What a result! 1st place and now on their way to the Royal Windsor Horse Show on 16th May. I am just relieved we don’t have to travel to Cheshire for another qualifier! To top it all, Ruby Barrs came second as an individual in the 90cm class in an incredibly strong group. The following class was the 1m Hickstead qualifier and we only had 3 in the team, Freya, Ruby and Connie, but it was not our time in this event. Well done to everyone that took part. Presdales are very lucky to have you guys in their school, and thank you to the school for supporting us.
By Ms Naylor (Equestrian Team Organiser)
Summer Hobbs (Year 8) recently had an equestrian vaulting competition. Vaulting is gymnastics on a moving horse and she came a very impressive 2nd place! Well done Summer, what a brilliant achievement!
On Saturday, Jess Downing in Year 9 competed in the Essex County and Eastern Counties Indoor Championships at Lee Valley in the 60m hurdles. She got through the heats and then the semi-final. In the final she came 5th (so 5th in the whole of the Eastern Counties!) but she came 3rd in the Essex County Championships and therefore got herself a well-deserved bronze medal! Well done Jess, this is a fantastic achievement.
What do Economists do? Robert Lind enlightens Presdales’ EconomistsOn Thursday 23rd of January, the Years 12 and 13 Economics classes, along with Sixth Form students from a number of local schools, went to Chauncey School. The event was put on by ‘Speakers For Schools’, Founded in 2011 by ITV’s Political Editor, Robert Peston, whose aim is to end educational inequality by giving all young people access to the same prestigious networks available to the top fee-paying schools in the UK. Through talks from today’s influential figures, they are helping level the playing field for young people of all backgrounds.
We listened to the economist Robert Lind (pictured above) who offered us an excellent narrative of his decorated career in business and industry. Lind currently works for the Capital Group, an investment group which manages approximately a fund of $1.87 trillion of working peoples’ investments in the USA. It is one of the biggest of such firms in the US and the world. He talked to us about his career and his involvement in a number of the most significant economic events in recent history. These detailed accounts were fascinating, ranging from his time at the Treasury during Black Wednesday and the events which followed the UK’s withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 to being on the trading floor at RBS when they ran out of money as they heard of the collapse of Lehmann Brothers Bank at the height of the 2008 Financial Crisis. He gave us a valuable insight into these events as well as his own take on the government policies which may have contributed towards, but also helped to rectify, the shock to the UK and world economy. As well as this, we learnt of his time at Anglo-American mining and the after-effects of the slowdown of the Chinese economy in 2016. The talk was particularly engaging due to the fact that we were able to get an insider account of the details of the Banking Crisis which features on our A Level course, as well as the opportunity to hear his brilliant anecdotes, all of which improved our awareness of everything from fiscal policy, the financial sector and the role of the economist in the UK in 2020.
Adam Vithaldas (Year 13)
Year 7 : Grace McMenamin
Year 8 : Kamilah Abubakari
Year 9 : Freya Naylor-Stewart
Year 10 : Charis Church
Year 10 : Emily Ells
Year 11 : Eden Woodley
Year 11 : Liliana Watkins
Year 12 : Safa Ahmad
Year 13 : Shania Dharmakeerthi
Year 12 : Jamie-Leigh Lawrence
Year 13 : Alessia Mariotti
On Sunday 2nd February, 40 members of Presdales Junior Choir sang with the Hertford Symphony Orchestra in Hertford Theatre to celebrate 40 years of the Robert Kiln Family Trust. In the two concerts, with a theme of “Musical Tales”, we sang a series of songs which got the audience on their feet, singing and dancing along with us. We got to hear the amazing Hertford Symphony Orchestra (who were dressed up for the occasion in a variety of fancy-dress costumes, including a whole bumble bee cello section) and sing classic songs such as “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles. We also got to hear the orchestra play well-known pieces, such as Hedwig’s Theme, and enjoy readings from well-known books, such as Winnie The Pooh, The Nutcracker (where I played Clara) and Aladdin. Both concerts in the afternoon seemed to fly past in a flash! It was an incredible experience that Presdales Junior Choir will never forget.
By Amber Wingrove and Lola Gardner (Year 8)
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Coming Up
Wednesday 14th
Year 7 (15 students) care home performance, periods 3 & 4
Year 10 Geography Trip to Epping Forest
Thursday 15th & Friday 16th
Duke of Edinburgh Bronze 2024-2025 Qualifying Expedition
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Presdales School
Hoe Lane
Ware
Hertfordshire
SG12 9NX
Tel: 01920 462210
admin@presdales.herts.sch.uk
Headteacher:
Mr Warren
