News from Geography

April 3, 2025/in Geography /by Presdales School

Year 12 Geography residential trip to Cranedale, Yorkshire

Last week, Year 12 Geography students visited one of the fastest eroding coastlines in Europe: the Holderness Coast. Students saw a variety of coastal management protecting the coast in Hornsea and, in contrast, evidence of people’s homes fallen into the sea where no coastal management was in place at Skipsea. A day trip to Scarborough challenged the students’ perception of the town and questioned whether the regeneration has been successful or not. Students prepared for their NEA coursework by practicing a range of data collection techniques, including beach sediment size and emotional mapping, whilst learning how to present this data using GIS.

Here are some photos and comments from students about their experience.

I really enjoyed learning about new data techniques on my Cranedale trip; they not only helped me learn useful techniques which I can now use in my NEA but it also allowed me to discover more about the place itself. One technique which was really useful to learn, was emotional mapping, which really helps to understand what Scarborough was like on a social level. Alice Lynn

I found the introduction of new data collection and presentation methods very helpful for the NEA as some are abstract and different in comparison to others I knew about already. The beach trip to Holderness was very informative and interesting and combined the enjoyable aspects of both physical and human geography. Lily D’Souza

Sparx Maths

April 3, 2025/in Maths /by Presdales School

Design & Technology – Student of the Spring Term 2025

April 3, 2025/in DT /by Presdales School

Congratulations to our students who are our DT Students of the Term!

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: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Bugsy Malone The Musical

February 14, 2025/in Drama, Events, General News, Music /by Presdales School

Robot Rumble Competition

February 14, 2025/in Science, STEM /by Presdales School

A group of students from Year 10 and 11 have been working extremely hard over the last few months to design, build and program a VEX robot. They took their robot over to John Warner School to compete in this year’s Robot Rumble competition. The students displayed fantastic teamwork, as they progressed through the competition, they developed their skills and deservedly won the skills challenge trophy.

Robot Rumble has provided students an opportunity to work with engineers from MBDA.

‘On Wednesday, we took part in the Vex V5 High Stakes Game at John Warner School. Before we spent many weeks designing, building and adapting our robot, with dreams to win. The main idea of the game was to collect rings and place them onto stakes, whilst working with another team in an alliance. On the day of the competition, we did last minute adjustments to our robot and code and did last minute additions to our log book in order to show the judges all our progress.

When we arrived, we saw all of the other team’s robots and realised that different teams focused more on different aspects of the game so they all looked different. At the beginning, there were 30 qualifying games, where everyone was put together with different teams in alliances to put the various teams in ranking order. After this, we were in 11th place and beat Richard Hale!

After a quick lunch break, all the teams lined up and chose an alliance for the main competition. As we were last to choose, we were placed in an alliance in Richard Hale. In the main competition, we ended up losing our first game and were therefore out of the competition.

However, there was a sub competition which we also entered called the Skills Competition. The aim was to get as many rings onto stakes as possible in a minute. We had three attempts and got 0, then 10 and then 10 points. Overall, we won this competition and received a trophy! We were very excited about this.’

Darcy and Emily

Sparx Maths

February 14, 2025/in Maths /by Presdales School

Sparx Maths

January 30, 2025/in Maths /by Presdales School

New Bluetooth Data Loggers

January 17, 2025/in Chemistry, Events, General News, Science, Student Success /by Presdales School

Using grant funding already received from EdufundUK Ltd and the Royal Society of Chemistry, Presdales’ Science Department are currently in the process of updating their range of Data Loggers.

New Bluetooth Data Loggers communicate wirelessly with bespoke software installed on students’ own devices. Their ease of use allows them to be utilised in a wide range of experiments through all year groups and with data saved on the computers it can also be recalled for homework and for cross-curricular use, increasing the depth of learning gained by students.

Replacement of all of the data loggers will cost around £8,000 of which £3,000 has already been funded and the decision on a £3000 application to the Royal Society is pending.

A further application to the Tesco Community Grants Team for their Blue Token scheme has resulted in our project going live in the Ware store this week. With the opportunity of gaining £1500 funding Presdales would sincerely appreciate you taking the time to drop a token in the box whenever you are there. Please share this request with your friends and family too.

Alternatively, if you are in a position to be able to support the purchase of any of this equipment by way of a charitable donation/sponsorship our Grants Officer would love to hear from you and can be reached at nalbone@presdales.herts.sch.uk.

News from English

January 17, 2025/in English /by Presdales School

In December, Year 12 A Level English Literature students attended the EMC Poems of the Decade Conference 2024, a dynamic event designed to explore key themes, ideas, and techniques in the “Poems of the Decade” anthology, offering students and teachers fresh insights to deepen their understanding of contemporary poetry.

The Conference brought contemporary poetry to life in ways that were thought-provoking. With powerhouse poets like Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Patience Agbabi taking to the stage, students were treated to captivating readings and invaluable insights into the creative process. Each poet brought their unique energy and perspective, sparking discussions about identity, language, and the craft of poetry. It was a celebration of poetry at its finest—alive, relevant, and endlessly inspiring.