Ski Trip 2024

March 15, 2024/in Events, General News, Trips & Visits /by Presdales School

During February half term, 78 students from Year 10-13 and 10 teachers travelled to Claviere in Italy for the school ski trip. The journey passed quickly, chatting, watching films and sleeping. We arrived on Saturday afternoon to settle into our lovely hotel, do our ski fit for ski equipment and early bed!

The weather was sunny all week, chilly at times but we did get snow on Thursday, making for some wet conditions on our final skiing day! We all had such great fun – the instructors were all so experienced and knowledgeable and everyone made great progress. The beginners were on red slopes on the second day!

We enjoyed our evening activities too; bowling, pizza night at a local pizzeria and karaoke – thank you to those amazing singers, treating us to some classic songs! Our hotel was in great location, just a short walk from the slopes, in the middle of a quiet town. We were treated to some great food; pasta, lasagne, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, salad, soup etc! We were so proud of the progress everyone made and for showing great resilience on some very challenging slopes, which at times were icy and covered of moguls!

We hope you all had a great time and made some lovely memories with your friends! Thank you to all the staff who came on the trip and accompanied the students during half term and Ms Young for her support with the administration and finance.

Mrs Dann and Miss Stitson

News from Art & Photography

March 15, 2024/in Art, Events, General News /by Presdales School

Year 7

‘Alfred Basha’ inspired animals

Year 7 have shown so much enthusiasm designing their pen animal illustrations. I think you would agree that they have designed some wonderful, imaginative designs.

Well done!

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 8

‘Mexican Day of the Dead Festival’

‘Dia De Los Muertos’

Year 8 have made wonderful, creative, colourful Clay skulls inspired by the Mexican festival.

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 9

Flight mixed media pages

Year 9 have been exploring a variety of materials – layering watercolours, markmaking with pen, colour pencil blending and collage. The students have produced beautifully presented double pages based on the theme flight. This project is leading to a selection of surreal outcomes from box Art, Playing card designs and mobiles. We shall post their final pieces after Easter.

Year 10

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Year 10 have been working on studies of sweet treats. They have been exploring a range of media and creating colourful compositions. The next stage of their project is ‘Meal times’ which is leading towards Final individual outcomes for Year 10 mock exams.

We are looking forward to sharing their outcomes with you in future PressTales.

Year 12 Photography

Exciting collection of Year 12 photography exploring portraiture, focal points, exposure and contrast.

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Careers Week : Lunchtime Talks

March 1, 2024/in Careers, Events, General News /by Presdales School

If you would like to attend any of these lunchtime lectures, please pop along to the Lecture Theatre at 1.10pm. All Year Groups welcome.

Matilda Jr the Musical

February 16, 2024/in Drama, Events, General News, Music /by Presdales School

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Congratulations to the cast of Matilda Jr the Musical, what an incredible production! The double cast performed 4 performances over the last 3 days to sold out audiences who were blown away by their talent! The Wormwoods were hilarious, the Trunchbull’s terrifying and both Matilda’s demonstrating incredible skill and talent! The named children carried the show with their hard work on vocals and routines and brilliant lines responding to the events. The chorus got better and better every show building the atmosphere with their energy! In the last week we brought in our technical team and backstage crew who were so dependable and professional! A particular mention to Aston Williams in Year 12 on the sound desk multi-tasking like a pro! The audience have been blown away with the standard of this production and could see all the hard work that each member has committed to this since casting last Summer! A huge well done to everyone involved and thank you to all the staff, family and friends who came Along to support us!

We will print another article once we have Year 12 photographs in and all of this pictures will also later be on the website to view.

Miss Mack, Miss Sargent and Mrs Hardiman, Drama and Music

Art Competition

February 1, 2024/in Art, Events, General News /by Presdales School

Hertfordshire based artist Amy Pettingill is running an art competition for artists aged 11-16. The theme is COLOUR you need to create your own artwork that celebrates colour & brings joy, positive vibes!

Presdales had a runner up last year who won a workshop with Amy and 6 highly commended art students.

Please see the flyer below for more information.

We would love you to apply as we are confident we have lots of potential winners that Amy could choose from! We are lucky to teach such talented and creative students. We encourage you to enter.

The DEADLINE is Thursday 29th February 2024, photograph your work in good light and email to contact@amypettingill.co.uk

If you need any help please ask your art teacher

The Art Department

School Production – Tickets on sale now!

January 12, 2024/in Drama, Events, General News, Music /by Presdales School

Dance Evening 2023!

November 24, 2023/in Dance Show, Events /by Presdales School

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

As always, we are very fortunate to have such enthusiastic and talented dancers who work extremely hard to get their performances ready on time! The Dance Club Leaders have worked so hard to choreograph such fantastic dances in and around their GCSE and A Level studies. They have been 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 huge thank you to Jessica Downing, Erin Shiel, Erin Taylor, Seren Miller, Sienna Akore, India Elkes and Lydia Botting. Also, a massive thank you to Miss Fentiman for putting a show-stopping Gymnastics piece together! 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 Molly Barnard and Maisie Johnson who did the sound and lighting for both performances, you did an amazing job!

This year, Impress Theatre Arts also performed a number from their Dance School which was great to see! The girls all chose brilliant songs to represent this year’s ‘theme’, through the decades. It was a pleasure to hear a huge variety of music, even from the 1940’s! Students from all years performed in routines from tap to ballet to an amazing gymnastic display, creating an evening which was entertaining and thought provoking. During the first half Year 8 Dance Club looked very stylish in their gold braces as they danced to ‘Want you back’ by Michael Jackson and Holli Jenkins performed on an incredibly emotive piece to ‘The Wind Beneath My Wings’. In addition, Lexie Rowley performed a stunning number to ‘It’s all coming back to me now’. Both Olivia Kinnear and Teah Gregory put on well-choreographed gymnastics numbers to finish the first half in style.

The second half of the evening led off with a fantastic show case of skill, timing and creativity; Gym Club, choreographed by Miss Fentiman to ‘Commander’. Following this, a variety of dance genre kept the audience captivated; a stunning ballet piece by Kiri Lobb and Lily Sansford, tap numbers by Rosie Bentley, Chloe Evans, Erin Shiel, Erin Taylor and Phoebe Prentice and ballroom from Cleo Lambourne. The second half was also full of beautiful solo’s from Seren Miller, Jessica Downing, Molly Munt and Sienna Akore. The Year 7 Dance Club put on an emotive number to ‘Beautiful’ and the show finished with everyone on stage dancing to ‘September’ and the audience clapping and enthusiastically cheering!

Finally, the Dale Dance Trophy Award this year was awarded to Lydia Botting and India Elkes for their commitment to Dance during their time at Presdales. Lydia and India have been dance leaders and performed in Dance Evening for many years. We have some very special dancers leaving Presdales this year to continue their A Levels elsewhere and begin University degrees, thank you for always embracing dance at Presdales and being fully committed as a dancer and a dance leader. Your support does not go unnoticed and the younger students are really going to miss you.

Thank you to those who came to watch, I hope you had an enjoyable evening!

Mrs Dann

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

News from PE

November 24, 2023/in Events, General News, Sport /by Presdales School

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: Reviewed by Eloise Bundy

: Reviewed by Lucy White

: Reviewed by Constantina Nichola

Football

U12s

Great performance by our Year 7s in the first round of the U12s County Cup on Monday, winning 9-1 against Grange Academy. This was the first time the girls had played a competitive match together and they performed brilliantly as a team.

Well done to all the girls, some great performances all over the pitch. PoTM was Ella Reynolds. Looking forward to the next round.

U14s

National Schools Cup – 3rd Round

Dominant performance from our U14s football team on Wednesday 8th against Woodlands School. The girls won 5-1 to go through to the 4th round of the National Schools Cup.

The girls created a huge amount of chances with our goal rarely threatened, but then found ourselves 0-1 behind from a breakaway goal. A tremendous effort from Keira Gale levelled the game and we entered the half time break at 1-1. Luckily the girls were more clinical in the second half scoring 4 times without reply. Two from Liv White and two from Mia Schillaci-Rowland. The second goal from Liv was the pick of the bunch where she slalomed around 4 players before calmly slotting the ball into the corner.

The girls showed great attitude and 100% commitment throughout. Our defence was particularly impressive, remaining calm in all situations and playing the ball out of danger areas confidently. Player of the Match, as voted by the girls themselves was Liv White. Coaches Player of the Match was Amy Little. Well done to all the girls for a fantastic win.

National Schools Cup – 4th Round

Definitely one of the best performances from our U14s football team winning 11-0 against Appleton School. This means we now enter the final 32 of the National Schools Cup.

The girls started brightly, creating several chances and soon opened the scoring. Lots of little interchanges, great wing play, passing triangles and one-twos made it a joy to watch.

At half time, Presdales led 7-0 and it could have been a lot more. Appleton asked to shorten the second half to 20mins. Presdales scored a further 4 goals to win 11-0. Hat-trick from Mia SR and 4 from Liv W.

Great work girls, onward to Round 5! The entire team played brilliantly. Appleton School was very complimentary and extremely gracious in defeat. You were all star players!

Hockey

What a day!!!!!! We headed off to Ipswich on Friday 10th for the next round of the U14 National Hockey Championships. We played some amazing games in the first round, winning 5 and drawing one to put us top of our group! We had Stephen Perce in the final. Once again, they stepped on the pitch and worked the ball around the opposition and into the back of the net twice to give us a 2-0 lead… Perse got one back with 2 minutes to go….. but it wasn’t enough…. finishing 2-1 with Presdales being crowned U14 Regional Champions!!! They go through to the Nationals in February!! Well done girls, it has been a fab day with you all, you have made the PE department incredibly proud!! Star Player was Olivia Holme!

Netball

Senior Netball

Well done to the senior netball team who recently played the next round of the County Plate Competition against Hemel Hempstead. The girls won 54-15 and the PoTM was Flora Rowley. It’s lovely to watch these girls bonding as a new team and play some excellent netball!

Years 10 and 11

Well done to the Year 11 and Year 10 A&B netball teams who played against Chauncy this week. It was a very successful day with all three Presdales teams winning. The Year 10 Bs won 33-2 and Star Player was Evelyn Pearce, the Year 10 As won 30-12 and Star Player was Darcy Bennett and the Year 11s won 23-14 and Evie Macrae was Star Player.

The Year 10 netballers were in action again last night. Both teams won against RMS. The A team won 40-6 to progress to the next round of the County Cup Competition. Player of the Match was Rosie Bentley. The B team won 30-10 in a friendly match and the Player of the Match was Emily McCutcheon. Well done everyone!

Rugby

On Thursday 16th November, Mrs Bowden got to spend the afternoon with this group of amazing girls! They have been having Rugby training on a Friday lunch with @juniorsharksrugby @hertsrfu. And on Thursday they played their first contact Rugby tournament at Hertford Rugby club! A few nerves at the beginning and lots of them wanting to start as sub so they could see what it was like, and then the games begin and I can’t keep them off!! Some great team morale on pitch, runs, tackles and tries….we came away winning every game!!!! Opposition included The Nobel School, Hockerill and Birchwood/Priory. Well done girls! You were amazing! Thank you to Herts Rugby!!!

Tennis

Fantastic performance by the U16s Tennis team last Friday who won 5 out of their 6 matches against St Edmund’s College to qualify for the County Final! The girls played some wonderful tennis and were deserved winners against a strong St Eds team. Presdales will now face St Albans High in the Final. Well done girls!