We left school for Berlin at 2pm on Wednesday and arrived at our hotel at midnight.
Our trip began with a tour around some of Berlin’s most famous sights, led by Mr Spurgeon. We visited the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Night of the Long Knives Memorial, the Roma Sinti memorial, the Holocaust memorial, Hitler’s bunker and the Topography of Terror. These are all things that we learnt about during our history lessons and in Holocaust memorial assemblies, but visiting the memorials and the Topography of Terror really instilled it in me how the Nazis believed that they were a superior race and what they were doing was justified. Seeing the memorials and about how many different groups were persecuted reminded me how this happened in the not-so-distant past, and the risks of it happening again. Our day continued with a tour by TCBC guides, we visited more places including the Tiergarten to see the T4 and homosexual memorials, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, Lustgarten, and the reconstructed palace. We had an amazing tour guide who taught about us lots of different aspects of Germany in the 20th Century e.g., the book burning that took place at Bebelplatz in 1933 where Nazi students burnt around 20,000 books by authors that the Nazis didn’t like. We finished the day with a trip to a lovely Italian restaurant and a round of bowling.
On Friday, we went to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Plötzensee Prison, and had a tour around the Jewish quarters of Berlin. These were all led by the TCBC guides, who were very highly knowledgeable about everything that we visited. At Sachsenhausen, we saw the rooms where prisoners would have to stay, learnt about the jobs they had to do and the different methods the Nazis had for killing people, not just the gas chambers. In our tour of the Jewish Quarters with visited the Hackeschen Höfe and saw the workshop owned by Otto Weidt, who mainly employed deaf and blind Jews and did everything he could to protect them against the anti-Jewish measures. One of my highlights from the tour were the Stumbling Stones, they are all around Europe and they are to remember people who were persecuted by the Nazis. The stones have the person’s name, birth year, what happened to them e.g., deportation to Theresienstadt, and when they died. I had heard of them before but never realised how many they were. Although there are lots of memorials to the groups persecuted, I like the Stumbling Stones as although they are little, they tell the stories of thousands of people. In the evening, we had time to go shopping and then went to see the new Spiderman film – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse.
On Saturday, we finished our trip by visiting Hohenschönhausen which is a former Stasi-Prison so linked to our Cold War topic. We then went to Berlin Olympic Park and got a tour of the stadium. I found it interesting to see how they have removed the Nazi paraphernalia but still embrace the history of what happened in the 1936 Olympics. They have done this by having the Jesse Owens Lounge and the coloured stones that were Swastikas have been rotated to create different patterns; they are still shadows of what was there. After this we headed to deportation track 17, which has stone slabs to commemorate how many Jews were deported each day.
It was an amazing trip and will be very helpful as we continue our studies on Weimar and Nazi Germany and then move onto the Cold War. The thing I found most interesting was how they have embraced the history without making memorial sights neo-Nazi pilgrimages or completely ignoring the horrific events that happened in Germany during the 20th Century.
Isla Threlfall
In the spring term, Year 7 investigated different responses to the question, ‘What is God like?’ and learnt about the nature of God from the Christian perspective in the Parable of the Lost Son. We set the students the challenge of designing and making a board game that illustrated the story, and were hugely impressed with many of the games presented and played: well done everyone!
In the summer term, Year 7 students learned about the value of Holy Books to religious believers, and were set the task of making a model inspired by a holy book, whether it be out of junk or something more edible! Some students really excelled and showed us their creative side. Well done!
Textiles club is a great place to learn and create new things as well as meeting new people. This term we have enjoyed making bunting for the annual swimming gala. We learnt how to use the sewing machine so that we were able to put together the bunting. To make the bunting we used scrap materials to save money and be eco friendly. We would recommend this club to anyone that likes textiles and sewing. It is a fun place to be and all of us really enjoy coming.
By Isabella Tilley, Amelie Wooding and Lily Corney
This year we have been privileged enough to be a part of the Year 7 textiles club. We have learnt many great skills and facts. From how to use a sewing machine to learning how to cut bunting and use templates.
In the first term, we used the patterned year 8 bags to make makeup bags. We cut the fabric carefully and then embroidered the outside fabrics. We then chose fabric for the inside and started to sew the bag together. We added a zip to the top and then it was done. Mine has its own proud place in my room.
At the end of the first term, we made Christmas decorations. We chose fabric and then added ribbon and accessories. Once we had sewn it, it was done. Mine was a reindeer. I hung it up on my door and it looked very christmassy.
All of the exams prevented us from making anything in term two but we came back for term three to make bunting for the swimming gala. It was very intense as the deadline was looming closer and Mrs Hayhurst had to take some home to finish. The first step was cutting all the different fabrics. We had six different colours: yellow, green,red, blue, white and purple. This is the stage where we learnt how to use the bunting.
Finally, the day before the swimming gala we began to put up the bunting. We tied it to the fence and it made this nice looking pattern. We had yellow, red, blue, purple, green and white. The wind made them descend and it looked adequate.
Sadly the swimming gala was cancelled but the bunting was still up and looking fabulous.
We would like to thank Mrs Hayhurst for her amazing work and help. This club and all we have achieved could not have been possible without her.
This is an article made by Lucille and Evie
The Drama Department would like to congratulate all 110 students who auditioned for Matilda the Musical Jr. Casting involved many difficult decisions but we are pleased to announce that our double cast will feature…
Ryah Dean (Year 9) and Tayla-Mae Deane (Year 9)
who will both be performing the role of Matilda! We have decided to double cast the production to provide more casting opportunities for our students currently ranging from Year 7 through to Year 12.
We look forward to working with the full cast from September.
Miss Mack and Mrs Smith, Drama Department
On the 4th July we examined our Year 10 and Year 12 Devising Drama performance exams. Well done to all candidates who worked very hard to perform to their highest standard. Students were all responding to stimulus for A Level that is a full play text, Metamorphosis Adapted by Steven Berkoff from Franz Kafka. For Year 10 the stimulus was a selection of pieces such as news articles and soundtracks which then they develop into their own unique production. Most performances were 20 min in length and involved student actors, lighting and costume designers. Well done to all exam students, good luck now writing up the supporting coursework evidence.
Miss Mack and Mrs Smith, Drama Department
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!
Well done to all students on their fantastic work on Sparx this year!
On Friday 30th June, Dr Guy Sutton came back to Presdales to deliver another inspirational and informative set of neuroscience masterclasses to our Year 12 Psychology students. We were also pleased to share this enrichment opportunity with psychology students at Richard Hale School, who joined us for the afternoon session. The masterclasses were fast-paced, stimulating and eye-opening, taking students around and beyond A-level material and into degree-level concepts and research. As well as learning more about neuroanatomy, pupils were given an insight into what is current and exciting in brain research, including the use of brain microchips to modify or monitor brain activity, growing ‘mini brains’ in the lab from stem cells to replace unhealthy brain tissue, the negative impact of social media engagement on brain functioning and mental health and what happens to the brain at death. The students were blown away by Dr Sutton’s prediction that within their lifetime telepathy could be possible and they were introduced to the potential uses of this as well as the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by the scientific community.
Students were treated to a hands-on sheep brain dissection where they were able to see and handle some of the brain regions previously only seen in pictures.
Dr Sutton also gave a really interesting and engaging talk to our younger students who attend our weekly psychology fun club. They were surprised to learn that a lot of the advice given to them by parents and staff about diet, sleep and social media use has a strong grounding in neuroscience! They learned about the importance of having 8 hours of sleep to enable the brain to ‘de-clutter’ and organise the day’s learning, discovered the best ‘brain foods’ to eat and were shocked at recent research showing that even moderate social media consumption can change the pathways in the teen brain.
I found the session incredibly inspiring and the entire experience was captivating throughout – it really gave me a good insight into neuroscience and how the brain works, I really enjoyed it! Katie Rhodes
I really enjoyed the session, and I found it particularly interesting to learn about what future technology could look like, for example a device that could connect to our brain and transcribe our thoughts into messages. Laura Wilkinson
I really enjoyed how passionate Dr Sutton was about the brain and all the new technology that is being advanced to support future research, such as the use of brain organoids grown in labs that are now being developed with eyes! The brain dissection was also enjoyable, particularly because we were able to hold the different structures we have learned about, like the hippocampus. Saoirse Slater
A huge well done to the following Year 10 students who took part in the 2023 nationwide Biology Challenge Competition. This is the highest participation rate that Presdales has ever had in the competition. Congratulations Year 10 biologists!
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Friday 17th
Term Ends, 12.45pm
Thursday 3rd
Term begins : Years 7 & 12
Friday 4th :
Term begins : Whole School
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Ware
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Tel: 01920 462210
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Headteacher:
Mr Warren
