News from PE

July 20, 2023/in Sport /by Presdales School

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Nicky Morris Athletics Champions!!

Well done to all of our athletes who competed on Thursday 6th July and throughout this years very successful athletics season!

Our U13 team came 2nd!

Our U15 team came 1st!

Our Over 15 team came 1st!

This meant that we were crowned champions for the 31st year in a row!! (Minus 2020-2022 where no one competed due to covid)

Congratulations to the following girls who won their individual events:

Jess Botheras – U13 shot put

Izzy Wilson – U13 standing triple jump

Scarlett Victory – U15 75m hurdles

Rosie Bentley – U15 high jump

Jess Downing – 15+ 300m hurdles and discus

Martha Ker – 15+ 800m

Alice Lynn – 15+ 80m hurdles

Ella Little – 15+ long jump

Beth Botheras – 15+ 300m

15+ 4x300m relay team

Special mention also goes to our over 15 4x300m relay team – Jess Downing, Alice Lynn, Martha Ker and Beth Botheras – who smashed the record and therefore were awarded the Jane Branford memorial award for outstanding athletic performance!!

Bruce Longden Athletics Competition Winners!

Congratulations to our first ever senior boys team who competed in the Bruce Longden Athletics Competition on 12th July at Wodson Park!

The boys were competing in division 2 as it was our first time at the event against teams including John Warner, Saffron Walden, Leventhorpe, Freeman, Sele and Goffs Academy.

The boys absolutely smashed it and only went and WON!

Shout out to the following boys who won their individual events:

Josh Hole – 100m Hurdles and Shot put

Josh White – 100m and High jump with a crazy jump of 1.80m!!

4x100m relay team – Tobeya Ikeyina, George Reilly, Josh White and Josh Hole

4x400m relay team – Josh Hole, Josh White, Ollie Hobdell and George Reilly

Hopefully this means we will get promoted into division 1 next year.

Thanks to our Year 12 leaders who helped officiate events throughout the day

A very special day as it was our first ever win of a boys trophy for Presdales and an amazing end to an incredible athletics season!

Presdales Equestrian Team

Last weekend, Presdales Equestrian team took three members to Brook farm to jump the 80/85cm and the 90/95cm as a team and as individuals.

Evie Lodge on Kadanz was first to go in the 80/85cm where she had a tack malfunction resulting in her being unseated. However she got back on and jumped the 90/95cm to come back with a brilliant result of 2nd place as an individual!

Next to go was Ellen Beesley on Leith Libretto on whom she jumped an amazing round in the 80/85cm to win the class as an individual! Then she had a go at the 90/95cm where she gave it her best just to have a miscommunication at the final fence.

Last to go was Ruby Robinson on CrossWord where she rode 2 clears in both classes to come 2nd in the 80/85cm as an individual and then she jumped the 90/95cm to win the class individually!

Not our day for the team but it was all good practise for the season ahead in September but we gained some brilliant results. Well done girls!

Rounders

Huge well done to the Year 7 rounders team who played their district tournament last week. They won 3 matches and lost 2 so ended up coming in 4th place. Some excellent batting and fielding from everyone, but the Star Player goes to Annabelle Copues for being an excellent backstop all tournament!

Student News

Ellie Bostock (Year 11) is the Schools INTERNATIONAL Shot champion!!

As Ellie recently became English Schools champion, last weekend she represented England at the Schools International competition. Not only did she get a new pb of 15.03m but also came in 1st place! We so proud of you Ellie – you are incredible!

Don’t forget that Presdales PE Department are on Facebook. Please follow them to see our students’ achievements in non-school sporting activities!

Not on Facebook? Click here for our Social Wall!

Gifted and Talented PE club

Well done to all students who have been involved in Gifted and Talented PE club this year.

The girls have dedicated their Monday mornings each week before school to improve their fitness and overall sporting ability, despite already having heavy training schedules for the high levels they train and compete at in their individual sports.

Also students are welcome to apply in September for next year if they compete at a county level or above (or equivalent) in any sport!

Sparx and Maths News

July 20, 2023/in Maths /by Presdales School

Year 7 Maths

#gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

The five girls in Year 7 Maths study support did some real-life maths work recently. The first lesson they chose a recipe for a “no-bake” cake, scaled it down and printed it out. The next lesson they made it! They used many skills – calculating, weighing, measuring, choosing suitable equipment, following instructions, working as part of a team and finally tasting their lovely cakes! Thank you so much to Mrs Hellum for the idea and her amazing help with the students in the lessons.

As you can see they had great fun!

Sparx Maths

Well done to all students on their fantastic work on Sparx this year!

Final Leaderboard:

Whole school stats:

Total correct answers this year:

828,692 (around 920 per student!)

Total time spent on Sparx this year:

21,819 hours / 909 days

The Crochet Club

July 20, 2023/in Clubs /by Presdales School

We have had a hugely successful first term of crocheting club, with over 40 students taking part.

We have created out first blanket and hope to make more going forwards, as well as moving on to baby clothes and toy in the near future.

Well done to all those who took part, looking forward to our new Year 7s joining the class after their induction day.

Wishing you all a good summer,

The Crochet Club

Pride Month 2023 at Presdales

July 20, 2023/in Events /by Presdales School

This June at Presdales we have been celebrating Pride Month! We have done this with a focus on inclusivity (both within the school community and the wider world) and the celebrations have provided an excellent opportunity to focus on our school value of equality.

Activities have included screening the adorable Netflix series Heartstopper on Tuesday lunchtimes, a schoolwide competition called ‘Stag Race’ (with apologies to RuPaul Charles – no actual racing involved, just a competition to decorate the school stag logo and add a message of inclusivity), a visit from youth workers from Young Pride in Herts and the Herts LGBT+ Multicultural Project, and an ‘Eat with Pride’ rainbow-themed menu for the final week of June. We have also relaunched Presdales Pride Club, which is open to anyone who identifies (or thinks they might identify) as LGBTQIA+, as well as friends, allies, family members, and people who just want to inform themselves better about the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition, the final week of June saw Lower, Middle, and Upper School Assemblies on the origins of Pride and how to be a good ally all year round, and a Kahoot! Quiz in form time.

Winning ‘Stag Race’ entry for Upper School, by AJ Lush (12RD)

Finally, on Monday 10th July we held a Pride Celebration Picnic in the sunken garden during lunchtime, with cake, bunting, and a visit from Mr Warren, who showed excellent allyship to those present.

#gallery-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 20%; } #gallery-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Special thanks go to Charlie Waring in Year 13 for their wonderful work in Pride Club throughout their time at Presdales, as well as Ms Coulson (EDI Lead) and Mrs Burnett for their invaluable help. We look forward to continuing with Pride Club next year!

Ms G. Price (Head of Spanish/ MFL Teacher/ Pride Club Coordinator)

Overall Interhouse Sport Results 2022-2023

July 20, 2023/in House, Sport /by Presdales School

Thank you to everyone who has competed in any house sporting event this year, it has been fantastic to see so many of you representing your house and enjoying the various activities. The following points (12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2) are given for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th respectively for each event. They are accumulated over the year and the final results are as follows…

#gallery-7 { margin: auto; } #gallery-7 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-7 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-7 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

#gallery-8 { margin: auto; } #gallery-8 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-8 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-8 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

#gallery-9 { margin: auto; } #gallery-9 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-9 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-9 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Congratulations Curie!

Grant Funding – A huge THANK YOU to our local supporters

July 20, 2023/in General News /by Presdales School

Our first thanks must go to Hertfordshire charity, EdufundUK. Presdales has benefited again this past year from the amazing generosity of this organisation. Their simple and effective grant systems saw funding granted under the PE banner for a 12 bar set of barbells for use by our GCSE and A-Level students as well as our elite athletes and the growing number of boys in sixth form. A second application under their Major Grant banner achieved success to further enhance strength and conditioning training for students and staff alike with a £10,000 grant to purchase a stair master and further weight systems. With these additions the Presdales Fitness Suite will be complete and a fantastic addition to the PE offering here at Presdales.

A STEM grant enabled us to enhance our D&T provision with the addition of a wood-turning lathe. This machine will help greatly with key projects within our curriculum such as the lamp project. This was further supported by a very kind donation from the Managers Fund at Wickes Hertford which provided us with a belt sander and clamps to further assist with woodwork projects.

EdufundUK supported us further through their final category of ‘Learning to Learn’ on an application for biology models of elements of the human body but in addition to this, very interestingly, a quantity of frozen animal specimens and owl pellets to create a ‘dissection library’ for Biology. This resource can be used to enthuse our younger Biology students and stretch and challenge our A-Level classes and Med-Soc students. Now established this will be replenished from their budget as items reach the end of their useful life.

As part of this project, plant and human cell models were identified but due to their cost could not be included. The identical items were found on eBay for a fraction of the price and we would like to thank the Presdales PA for their support in their purchase. This photo shows just how happy our Biology Lead was with these.

Crochet club, run in lunchtime groups next year, is currently regularly full to capacity and provides a quiet creative space for students to learn a new skill. Making squares for baby blankets and next year will be working to making baby bonnets for charity putting their work excellent use. Next year students can choose to make items that can be sold at our annual Fayre to further support the group itself. Again this initiative has been supported by Presdales PA with seed funding for yarn and hooks. Generally self-supporting this club would also be very pleased to accept donations of an unwanted yarn and crochet hooks when we return in September.

Another creative project that has been running in this past half term is one to create mosaic decoration on one of our outdoor structures. Full details of this are in a dedicated article in PressTales and our thanks go out to Wickes Hertford.

Finally, a first time application to Tesco was successful and a project to replace production lighting in the school hall is currently in the voting system in Tesco’s Ware store. The voting continues until the end of September please vote for us whenever you shop in store.

News from Art and Photography

July 20, 2023/in Art, Trips & Visits /by Presdales School

Presdales Mosaic Pergola Project 2023

#gallery-14 { margin: auto; } #gallery-14 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-14 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-14 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

I am delighted to finally be able to achieve a long-awaited mosaic project. It began with putting a proposal together to ‘The Arts Society East Herts’ for funding to decorate a very old wooden pergola outside the art rooms.

We were delighted when this was accepted and we could begin our journey of enhancing the school environment with vibrant colourful mosaics based on elements adding splashes of colour.

Thanks must go to the fantastic local Mosaic Artist, Claire Costello, whom I had the pleasure of working with at her home studio a few years ago. We discussed the idea of artist-in-residence at Presdales and now it’s a reality.

The students have been totally absorbed and committed to this project, developing self-confidence, team-building skills and pure enjoyment creating designs. They have said how the project has helped with their well-being and self-esteem.

We are so proud of all the students involved and look forward to being able to share and celebrate their artwork with the whole school. We are five weeks in and very close to finishing – we just need to grout and then put the tiles up in place.

A huge thank you to Claire for her support and enthusiasm. And a big thank you to all involved at Presdales for making my idea a reality.

Finally, thank you to the fabulous students – you have done an amazing job, truly inspiring!

A wonderful end to the summer term.

Ashley Page, Art Teacher / Project leader

Year 12 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Trip

#gallery-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

We had such a lovely day on 12th July at the Summer Exhibition with our Year 12 Students. The inspiring collection of work has provided lots of exciting ideas for their personal investigations. Do go and see the exhibition if you get a chance over the summer holidays.

Mrs Page and Mrs Harmer

#gallery-16 { margin: auto; } #gallery-16 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-16 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-16 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 9 Flight Finals

#gallery-17 { margin: auto; } #gallery-17 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-17 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-17 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 9 created some exquisite final outcomes for our new surrealist flight project. Mobiles fluttering with butterflies and box art with bumble bees and bird nests.

Fantastic creative efforts Year 9!

#gallery-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Sports Day Results 2023

July 7, 2023/in House, Sport, Sports Day /by Presdales School

#gallery-19 { margin: auto; } #gallery-19 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-19 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-19 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

#gallery-20 { margin: auto; } #gallery-20 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-20 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-20 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 7 Victrix Ludorum

Daisy Goodwin – 1st in High Jump and equalled the school record, 1st in 200m and broken the record

Year 8 Victrix Ludorum

Florrie Pidduck – 1st in 800m and broken the record

Amy Little – 1st in high jump and broken the record

Year 9 Victrix Ludorum

Rosie Bentley – 1st in high jump and set a new record of 1.49m

Year 10 Victrix Ludorum

Lucy White – 1st place and new record in triple jump which stood since 2012

Beth Botheras – 1st place and new record in 300m which stood since 2010

Year 12 Victrix Ludorum

Jess Downing – new record in discus and the 300m

Other records broken:

Josh White (Year 12) – high jump which is now 1.76m!!

Ollie Hobdell (Year 12) – 1500m

Tobeya Ikeyina (Year 12) – shot

Josh Hole (Year 12) – 200m

Jack Markham (Year 12) – Javelin

George Reilly (Year 12) – 800m

Teah Gregory (Year 10) – high jump

Martha Ker (Year 10) – 800m

PE Stars of the Month – June

July 7, 2023/in Sport /by Presdales School

Congratulations to the following students who are our PE Stars of the Month!

#gallery-22 { margin: auto; } #gallery-22 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-22 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-22 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

News from PE

July 7, 2023/in Sport /by Presdales School

#gallery-24 { margin: auto; } #gallery-24 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-24 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-24 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Athletics

District Athletics Champions!

Congratulations to all of our athletes who competed last Friday at Wodson Park in District Athletics!

Our minor girls team came 1st overall with Honey Trevellyan-Tucker also winning her discus and Ava McManus winning her 1500m.

Our junior girls team came 1st overall with Scarlett Victory winning her hurdles, Olivia Holme winning her 800m, Georgia Wittey winning her discus and Rosie Bentley winning her high jump!

Our inter girls team came 1st overall with Alice Lynn winning her hurdles and high jump, Beth Botheras winning her 300m and the relay team also winning!

Our senior girls team came 1st overall with Jess Downing winning her hurdles and discus, Molly Barnard winning her 800m, Lotty Hobson winning her 1500m and javelin and Amelia Kaufman-Cook winning her triple jump!

Our senior boys team came 2nd overall which was also history making as it was the FIRST EVER boys team Presdales has ever had!! Ollie Hobdell won his 1500m and Josh White won his high jump!

Well done to everyone involved – another very successful day!

County League Plate Final

Congratulations to our athletes who also competed in the County League Plate Final this week. The plate final was for schools who placed 5th-8th in the county throughout the athletics league this summer.

Well done to our U14 team who placed 7th overall and a huge congratulations to the U16 team who came joint 1st overall with Hitchin Girls!!

Special mention to the following girls who won their events:

Martha Ker – 800m Beth, Martha, Alice & Ella – 4x100m Relay Scarlett Victory – Hurdles

Great work girls especially against some really tough competition!!

Tennis

Well done to the girls who competed in the recent Nicola Mabbit Tennis Tournament at Queenswood. Presdales were represented at U13s, U14s and U16s after qualifying as District Champions in these age groups.

The girls played some magnificent tennis throughout the afternoon. Lots of super-close games that were decided on the smallest of margins.

The U13s finished 6th overall against some strong competition but they narrowly missed out in a number of their games.

The U14s finished 4th overall, again suffering a number of narrow defeats which went down to the wire with deciding game tiebreaks!

The U16s finished as deserved Winners losing only one game from the 8 matches played and dominating most of their matches with some fantastic tennis.

The entire team contributed and it’s difficult to pick anyone out specifically, however the Star Players were as follows:-

U13s – Ava McManus U14s – Chloe Pearce U16s – Ellen Beesley

Well done to all of the girls. Another example of the depth of sporting ability across multiple sports at Presdales!

Rounders

Massive congratulations to the Year 8 rounders team who remain undefeated and were crowned district champions last week! Excellent batting, fielding and team work from all of the girls! Star player was Amy Little for her excellent catches and fielding on second post!

Student News

Don’t forget that Presdales PE Department are on Facebook! Please follow them to see our students’ achievements in non-school sporting activities! This month, we have had student successes in Athletics, Dance, Hockey and Football!