What do Economists do? Robert Lind enlightens Presdales’ Economists
On 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)
https://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Subject-header-for-PressTales-Copy.jpg600786Presdales Schoolhttps://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/presdales-school-logo.pngPresdales School2020-02-14 10:30:182020-02-14 10:30:44News from Economics
On Saturday 18th January, Presdales hosted its first VEX robotics tournament. On the run up to the day the girls had worked extremely hard to prepare their robots for the competition, building through lunchtimes, staying after school and even taking robots home to work on. All the members of the robotics club should be extremely proud of what they have achieved.
16 teams attended the tournament representing John Warner, Greig City Academy, Henrietta Barnett, Nobel and Presdales School. With places for the national finals at stake the teams fought hard, the overall winners were from John Warner School and Greig City Academy.
We were very lucky to have an excellent judging panel on the day, Jamie D’Ath (MBDA), Steve Green (Lockheed Martin) and Parent Adrian Hughes. A special thank you to the team of volunteers that helped set up and supported throughout the event, especially to Mr Bedwell and Dr Gale. Well done to Megan Hughes (Year 7) for being awarded the volunteer of the tournament.
On Tuesday 28th January, the Year 10 Graphics Design and Technology groups visited the Design Museum in London. The students visited the Beazley Design of the Year exhibition, now in its newer home on Holland Park, and the architecture of the inside.
The Beazley Design of the Year exhibition was fantastic, where the girls explored an array of different designs that had been nominated for the competition. Some of the ideas were very thought provoking, however many of the girls mentioned that the designs, though simple, would change people’s lives. For example, a virtual postcode for homeless people so that they can apply for things such as jobs, passports, bank cards etc., and upcycled fashion to bring different cultures to the forefront of design. The ‘Designer, User, Maker’ exhibition was also something the girls really enjoyed. For example, the computers and mobile phones through the ages is always a talking point for them, and the huge 3D printer!
After lunch, the girls had a treasure hunt to do around the museum where they had to look for specific items. 14 students in total got all of the questions correct, and were rewarded with chocolate, which went down well!
It was a fantastic day, and one which we hope will widen the students’ thought process about design and their questioning skills about material choices and ethics from a designer point of view, ready for their NEA coursework which will begin in June 2020.
‘The architecture videos were great, showing the environment of each of the structures.’ Jessica & Isobel
‘The AI face design, which is a website called www.thispersondoesnotexist.com was really interesting, but quite scary to think these people do not actually exist-very clever! Rebecca
‘I really liked the puppet fashion pieces and the other outfits and costumes.’ Elizabeth
‘The pregnancy chairs and the blue mood lighting to encourage home births was fascinating and caused a big discussion amongst us.’ Izzy, Ria, Kirstin
• Congratulations to the following pupils on passing their recent instrumental examinations:
Deniz Isingor, ARSM Diploma, and Charlotte Waring, ABRSM Grade 8 Recorder
• The music department is excited to launch its first Inter-House Music Competition on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th February.
We welcome all musicians to take part and earn those all important house points.
• 40 singers from Years 7 and 8 are taking part in the Hertford Symphony.
Orchestra: Robert Kiln Concerts for Children: Musical Tales on Sunday 2nd February @ 2:30pm and 4:15pm in the Hertford Theatre (The Wash, Hertford, SG14 1PS).
Tickets are £8 for adults and £5 for children and is suitable for all ages. The concert should last 1 hour with no interval.
It will be an enchanting concert of storytelling and music celebrating the involvement of the Robert Kiln family in the musical life of
Hertford over many years. Dress up as your favourite story character and audience participation is guaranteed! Please do come and show your support.
https://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/lunchtime-recital-header-Copy-Copy.jpg367800Presdales Schoolhttps://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/presdales-school-logo.pngPresdales School2020-01-17 10:26:082020-01-17 13:24:06News from Music
We gathered to celebrate the many achievements of our students as prizes and GCSE and A Level certificates were awarded at the school’s annual speech day on Monday. Musical performances included the A level students’ choir, the recorder group and a sublime piano solo from Deniz Isingor.
Guest speaker, Rebecca Huntsman, former Head Girl (1991) and disputes lawyer for Hogan Lovells International (2000 – 2019) returned to the school to give an inspirational address. She highlighted the drive and impact of women in the legal profession as we approach the centenary of the landmark Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Rebecca shared important lessons from key female lawyers and her own legal career, such as striving even when the task ahead seems impossible, the power of positivity, and the value of working with and learning from others.
Uppermost in hearts and minds was Tierney Kinsella, who is deeply missed by all her friends, family and the school community. She continues to inspire all who witnessed her beauty, strength, determination and ongoing hard work in her studies whilst undergoing treatment for cancer. The prestigious new award in Tierney’s memory, established by the Kinsella family, recognises determination and resilience, and was presented for the first time to Lottie Mills.
Returning Head Girl, Katie Adamson, and Deputy Head Girl, Hannah Davies, gave incredibly thoughtful and moving valedictory speeches. They reflected on the happy memories as well as the sad times they and their peers have been through together. One of their key messages that will stay with all of us was, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
https://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/speech-day-Copy-Copy.jpg255800Presdales Schoolhttps://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/presdales-school-logo.pngPresdales School2019-12-20 10:06:342019-12-20 10:06:34Speech Day 2019
On Friday 29th November, we held the Christmas Fayre, our main fundraising event of the year and what an amazing afternoon!
A great variety of stalls for everyone and mulled wine, Prosecco and mince pies for the adults.
We were so happy that so many of the girls, their families and the teachers attended, maybe thanks to the ‘throw a wet sponge at a teacher’ stall which appeared to be a great attraction.
We couldn’t have run such a successful Fayre without the kind donations of raffle prizes from many local companies and some kind parents:
Standon Calling, Hanbury Manor, Velopark, Fox & Hounds in Hunsdon, Luna Cinema, Johnson Blythe Hairdressers, Simmons Bakery, Yoga with Kirsty, Ware Bouncy Castles, McMullens, Angela Archer and Vicky Yeoman and Domino Pizzas
We would like to thank Keith Ian Estate Agents for sponsoring the Fayre this year and very generously donating £300.
Lastly we would like to thank all of you for buying raffle tickets and attending the Fayre.
We are really excited to say that we raised a massive total of £4,258.10! We will be talking to Mr Warren soon to discuss how we can support Presdales with this money.
Hope you all enjoy a very Happy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in 2020!!
On Friday the 15th of November 2019, we had a Design and Technology professional team come in and teach us all about the in’s and out’s of different technologies. It was very interesting, learning all about the different options there are for us, if we decide we would like to study an aspect of Design and Technology for GCSE and start a career path within it. When I first came to this school, I thought that textiles, for example, was just about sewing fabrics and making outfits, but I have now learnt that there is much more to it than that.
Simon Thorpe who does lighting design really impressed me as I never knew designing lights could be so interesting! He showed us all these different pictures of how they layout the right colour and shape of lights onto a building so it suits it correctly. It was very fun to see all the different ways of how light can be shown. This really inspired me because it made me rethink my option for GCSE and how this might be a good topic for me to study.
Alex Hellum showed us how to work with modelling to create paper models to hold objects… he showed us pictures of what he created. We found it awe inspiring, and a lot of fun. We also learnt how wood technology is not only about cutting a piece of wood to make it look nice – it is also about creativity and designing something that could help us in modern day life in one way or another.
Alimat Adenekan came into talk about her job, she specialises in food safety and hygiene. She taught us that we didn’t always have to be good at cooking to be involved with food technology, as her job isn’t to cook food but to go around restaurants, cafés, shops and other places that provide food and look at how good their hygiene and health and safety is. She also showed us some pictures of how bad the safety and hygiene can be in restaurants as some of the pictures showed how gross it can get! But with people like her it can make a big difference with our health and safety around food.
Warren Malkin and Zoe Hillyard kindly came in to talk about their career in textiles. Zoe has a degree in embroidery and went on to be a knitwear designer. Warren has used his pattern and product development skills to design shoes for a living. We even had a chance to design wallpaper by cutting out different colours of paper in a form of fashion items. It really was a fun experience and we all took a lot from it. The finishing products of the wallpapers were beautiful.
The GSK engineers worked with us in thinking about design in medical technology. We enjoyed the workshops, and were very happy to receive smarties, which are designed in exactly the same way as coated tablets for medical use. We also looked at a prototype of a breathing apparatus to support patients with asthma that they were developing.
Our last visit was from Sarah Louise Colton who taught us about her job in the fashion and textiles industry. She is a fabric trend, sourcing and buying manager for womenswear, menswear and childrenswear at River Island. During our session with her she showed us many fashion designs and the latest trends in dresses for this year. Near the end of the session she gave us a chance to design our own dress/outfit and she gave us a wide range of fabrics to choose from which gave us a good idea of fashion all around the world when she explained to us where she had sourced each item and also she gave us a good idea of what it would be like to work in the fashion industry.
The Design & Technology Careers day really opened our minds to what we could be doing with our lives in the future. It was a great experience, learning about many different Design & Technology careers that we never knew about and how the areas of Technology could be so different but so fun at the same time. Overall we really enjoyed finding out about all the different careers and trying them out for ourselves.
Poppy Higgs and Charlotte Roberts (Year 8)
Our Design & Technology Professional Team
Warren Malkin has a degree in Mixed-Media Textiles and has used his pattern and product development skills to design shoes. Through his business, Pencil Led Design, he has worked for brands such as Merrell and Caterpillar and has travelled to factories in China to oversee their development into production. He is also a collector (cheese labels and orange wrappers amongst other things!). He uses found materials to create one-off art pieces and loves to draw.
Zoë Hillyard is a Textiles designer. She has as a degree in embroidery and went on to be a knitwear designer. She loves to travel and has previously worked in Mongolia, helping communities to develop yak knitting yarn. She is now a textile artist selling her ‘ceramic patchwork’ pieces through galleries. She is also a Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University teaching students on the BA Textile Design course.
Here are 2 images from Zoe and Warren from the wallpaper textiles workshop – the coloured wallpaper is the Year 8 work (above) all photoshopped onto the ward walls.
Alimat Adenekan – Senior Environmental Health Practitioner – Specialism: Food Safety, Health & Safety. Her job involves:
• Regular food hygiene inspections and associated closures, seizures, prohibitions, notices and letters on a weekly basis. These take place anywhere where food is present – restaurants, cafés, warehouses, shops, supermarkets, hospitals and nursing homes.
• Health and safety visits and accident investigations.
• What she likes most about being an EHP: in charge of own diary and setting goals
• Work amongst interesting and supportive colleagues; she enjoys the interaction, assistance and camaraderie at work. No two weeks look alike; a rewarding career path.
• Her advice to someone thinking of becoming an EHP: talk to an Environmental Health Officer or visit your local authority’s environmental health department to find out if you can shadow one at work.
Sara Louise Colton– Fashion and Textiles; Fabric trend, Sourcing and Buying Manager – Womenswear, Menswear and Childrenswear at River Island (Aug 2015 – present day). Sara has a wide range of fashion design experience including with Marks and Spencer and F&F.
Part of her job with River Island involves:
• Responsibilty for the sourcing and fabric buying team
• Delivering Fabric trend messages across the business and with key senior management
• Creating key fabric strategy within the business with key mills
• Established improved shipping and more efficient deliveries
• Managing fabric from warehouse to factory and reporting on stock management
• Established a yearly mill conference to the business for our key mills
Here are some Year 8 designs:
Alex Hellum – Product design. Born in Larvik, Norway in 1966, Alex Hellum is a furniture and product designer living and working in the UK. Alex has a furniture and product design company based in Hertford, UK. His design ethos is based on observation, utility and honest use of materials. He first trained at The Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College between 1992 and 1994 and then went on to study Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1996. After graduation, Alex received a grant from the Craft Council and set up his own design practice. He has worked on numerous private and commercial design commissions and has designed products for Heals, Thorsten Van Elten and Ercol.
Simon Thorp – Lighting Design London. An independent firm of lighting design consultants working across the UK. They create a fluid link between lighting and product design to provide clients with lit environments and luminaires that inspire and enhance spaces. The company works with an array of sectors including architectural, retail and commercial. They have an extensive list of clients and collaborations with the famous Tower of London, Barclaycard Arena and Costa Coffee.
And thanks to Adam Smith (Mechanical Engineer), Halisha Patel (Manufacturing Engineer) and Mahnoor Ali (Biomedical Engineer) from GSK.
What another brilliant show! As always, we are very fortunate to have such enthusiastic and talented dancers who work extremely hard to get their performances ready on time! This year the Dance Club Leaders have been amazing! They have worked so hard to choreograph such fantastic dances in and around their GCSE and A Level studies. They have been so committed to run numerous practices and I am very appreciative of the hard work involved, and I know the girls are as well, so, well done and a huge thank you to Freya Campbell, Nicole Fenman, Maddi Drake, Olivia Sanders, Millie Walford, Lucy Dell, Sienna White, Emma-Jane Thompson and Emily Patrick.
Also, a massive thank you to Miss Fentiman for putting a show-stopping Gymnastics piece together with the 34 gymnasts!! It is not an easy job but the girls have been dedicating their time before school and at lunchtime on a weekly basis to get their performance ready.
The show doesn’t happen without the people behind the scenes! Thank you to Scarlett Kendrick, Ellis Miller and Sarah McCarthy, who are all A Level PE prefects, doing the sound and lighting for both performances. They did an amazing job. I really am so grateful for your time and preparation for quite a stressful job!! Thank you to Miss Seaman who took the brilliant photos during the dress rehearsal; the PTA for the interval refreshments; Mrs White, Miss Johnston and Miss Baldo for getting the girls ready backstage and on time, and Mrs Miller for being front of house.
This year, Impress Theatre Show team came to perform their medley of ‘Born Ready’ and ‘Greatest Showman’, which was a great opening to the show! With a theme of music from any movie, Presdales Dance Evening was a winner for parents and staff! Students from Year 7 to Year 13 performed in routines from tap to ballet to an amazing gymnastic display, creating an evening which was entertainment all the way. During the first half, Year 8 Dance club looked very stylish in their ‘Men in Black’ costumes and Millie Walford performed on an incredibly emotive piece to ‘Shallow’ from a ‘Star is Born’.
The second half of the evening led off with the Gym club, choreographed by Miss Fentiman to ‘Lets hear it for the boy’. The girls’ agility and timing left the audience breathless and applauding enthusiastically. Following this, the girls performed solos beautifully: Seren Miller, Jessica Downing, Olivia Sanders, Elizabeth Green and Sienna White. The Senior dance club put on a well-choreographed glitzy number to ‘One Night Only’ and Nicole Fenman and Lucy Kennard finished with a tap-dancing re-creation of the bar scene in the Greatest Showman of ‘The other side’. The show finished with everyone on stage dancing to ‘Holding out for a hero’ and the audience clapping in time with the music.
Finally, the Dale Dance Trophy Award this year was awarded to Freya Campbell, Maddi Drake and Nicole Fenman for their commitment to Dance during their time at Presdales. You have all been truly outstanding and have been fantastic role models to many younger students. Thank you to those who came to watch, I hope you had an enjoyable evening!
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week was held on the 4th-8th November. At Presdales we celebrated the week with visiting Engineers and the House Competition ‘The Egg Challenge’.
On Tuesday lunchtime, three engineers, Daniella, Sally and Chai, from Volker Fitzpatrick, came to talk to students. They described the different routes into Engineering. Daniella, who is currently studying Civil Engineering at University and undertaking her work placement with VolkerFitzpatrick, shared her experiences with the girls.
Sally and Chai talked about projects that VolkerFitzpatrick have worked on including the upgrade of Tottenham Hale Railway station.
Wednesday was ‘Egg Challenge’ day. Teams from Years 7 to 9 launched eggs from the top of the mansion staircase. They had been given the task to design a vehicle to transport an egg safely from the top of the staircase to the ground (photos above).
A massive thank you to Tess and Mike Engineers from WSP who came into school to Judge the Competition.
Well done to the Winners:
Year 7 – Sophie Burch, Amelia Mekni, Shanelle Bryant-McCormack and Tiffany Martin-Cox
Year 8 – Tierney Gaines
Year 9 – Charlotte Payne and Stephanie Moor
Results:
On Thursday lunchtime, ex-Presdales student, Ruth Wilson, came and talked about her experiences as a Civil Engineer. During her career, she has had plenty of opportunities to travel, managing projects such as the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town and Lu Sail Motor racetrack in Qatar.
On Friday Sue and Su Corrin (Ex-Presdales student) visited Year 8 Assembly. Su works for the FA and leads Health and Safety. Her role is very diverse; she is responsible for the safety of everyone who enters Wembley Stadium and St George’s Park, also the safety of all 28 National Football teams.
On Tuesday 22nd October, Mrs Schillaci-Rowland, Mrs Hayhurst and Mr Warren took the Year 11 Design and Technology students to the Paper Trail in Hemel Hempstead.
The students watched a presentation and demonstration about paper and boards, given by Sue, one of the members of staff at the Paper Mill. There were some fascinating facts about the history of paper, as well as the surrounding area (the first place to manufacture paper in the world), and how the Paper Mill had been a huge part of the paper industry, and is the only site to have a working Fourdrinier machine making bespoke paper. They also have a 10-year plan in place to become a Papermaking Centre of Excellence.
The students were then split into groups to undertake three workshops: papermaking, a tour of the Paper Mill in action, and a letterpress workshop, too. The students came away with their own pieces of paper that they had made, as well as a printed sheet they had produced in the letterpress workshop.
The tour of the Mill was very informative, and the students asked lots of questions about the process. It was incredible to physically see how quickly paper is made from pulp, which takes minutes to go from very wet, to a crisp, piece of paper. The Paper Mill make a lot of sustainable paper for big companies, such as banana paper for Lush, and also for events such as Wimbledon, where grass is mixed into the paper to give it a luxurious feel.
The trip will certainly prepare our students for their GCSE exam next summer, and the hands-on experience has also helped them to visualise the processes involved in making paper and boards. The students’ behaviour was outstanding (as commented on by the staff at the Mill) which made the trip thoroughly enjoyable for the staff, too. Thank you Year 11!
Mrs Schillaci-Rowland
Design and Technology
https://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/paper-4-header-Copy.jpg600572Presdales Schoolhttps://presdales.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/presdales-school-logo.pngPresdales School2019-10-24 09:58:322019-10-24 09:58:32Year 11 Design and Technology Trip to the Paper Trail, Hemel Hempstead
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