Our third and final visit this year to the Riverside Care Home took place on Thursday 2nd July – and it ended the year perfectly!
Our Year 12 students decided on the theme of Wimbledon for the summer term visit. It included tennis themed crosswords for the residents, as well as a tennis quiz which included questions from the 1960s and 1970s. The students had some lovely conversations with the residents about their experiences of tennis and sporting events, and spoke about the excitement surrounding the England match the evening before.
Some residents had their nails painted whilst Bea in Year 12 sang to them – this was very popular with the residents and staff who came from other areas of the care home to listen.
The afternoon was finished off with strawberries and cream and a discussion about who might Wimbledon this year!
This is our third year of visiting the Riverside Care Home and we look forward to organising our next visit in the Autumn Term.
On Monday 6th July, Year 12 had their final L4L Day for this academic year.The programme followed several areas of the government’s RSHE and PSHE programme which included:
The students took part in the sessions, asking questions and engaging with the speakers about the various areas that teenagers their age face.
We are grateful to the local services for offering these sessions for our young people.
Sixth Form Team
On the 25th June, we took thirteen Year 8 and 9 students to the University of Hertfordshire to take part in a STEM Challenge against other schools across the county. Two students from each school were part of a multischool team and competed in 3 of 4 available tasks that covered Forensics, Medicine, Robotics and Engineering.
Alice Gil-Dignam and Bex Drury were part of the team that were overall winners and will be competing in the Finals next year. Millie Fowler and Lola Eyre were part of one of the teams that performed the best in an individual task. All the students were amazing, learning new skills, working well in teams with students they had never met before and showing enthusiasm and perseverance in their tasks. Well done to all who took part and good luck to our finalists next year.
“I really enjoyed my time learning new skills that will be helpful for the future. It was nice to connect with people that I have never met before. I particularly enjoyed making the cars as it was interesting to overcome struggles with my team to make it work. Thank you for the experience.” Isla Bowkett
“I originally went in thinking it was a just a learning day, but it ended up being that and a competition. We were put into teams, one person you knew and two you didn’t, you had to work in those teams for the whole day. I liked the instructors as they never gave us the answer, only hints to steer us in the right direction, which made us all come to our own unique conclusions, creating many inventions and ideas. We programmed a robot, learned how to do CPR and the readings for the vital signs. At the end was the presentation, everyone shuffling around in anticipation. My team came runner up for two things; however, we did win the whole UH Science Challenge day!! Our team was presented with trophies, and we were just as surprised as each other. We had worked well together considering we were strangers, whilst having a fun time. I would do it again, as it was very fun and I learned some vital skills in CPR, logical, creative skills in robotics and compromise in programming.” Alice Gill-Dignam
On Friday 3 July, a group of three Politics students, accompanied by Ms Durant, met with our local Member of Parliament, Josh Dean, at a coffee morning.
The topics raised focused on local issues faced by both residents and students daily, such as public transport fares, protection of small businesses, and safeguarding of students. As simple as they may seem, these considerations can and are often neglected by MPs’ roles in national politics, so seeing a community able to reach Josh Dean directly and, as Politics students, being able to question him on issues that needed more focus was a very valuable opportunity.
Although Josh Dean takes an interest in local matters, residents can be unaware that they are able to easily reach their MP. Critics have frequently noted in the past that MPs for the Hertford and Bishop’s Stortford constituency lacked visibility in local engagement, often due to a focus on Westminster duties, so having the opportunity to engage directly with a sitting MP and ask questions on issues requiring greater attention was particularly important.
We were also able to speak to a colleague of Josh Dean who helps in organising such events and had attended Presdales during their time from Year 7 to Year 11. They explained their duties and priorities in reaching more people and addressing concerns of the community, supported by a degree in Sociology. It was incredibly interesting to not only discuss political issues we’ve studied throughout our Year 12 course but to gain an insight into the decision-making process behind constituent MPs concerning their representation of constituents.
Ediz Koch
Year 12 Politics students were very fortunate to be visited by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, a member of the House of Lords, on Friday 10th July. This opportunity came about through the Learn with the Lords initiative, to promote discussion around politics. Year 12 asked questions around Brexit, foreign policy, voting and the political system.
Lord Parkinson also delivered a presentation that explained what the House of Lords is, how it operates and also what the stages of a Bill are.
One of the questions Lord Parkinson asked of the students was; ‘Do you think 16 year olds should have the vote?’ The majority of students said they did not feel this should happen as many 16 year olds do not have the political understanding needed to make an informed vote.
‘Today, on the 10th of July, the Year 12 Politics class had the honour of being visited by Lord Parkinson. Lord Parkinson’s role in the governance of the UK has had multiple links to the A-level course, from his presence in Brexit and voting reformation campaigns to his role as a lobbyist and a special advisor to Theresa May. Students were able to question Lord Parkinson on not only topics that were relevant to the course but were able to effectively follow up and consistently ask questions that individually concerned them as future voters. At the end of the session, Lord Parkinson was able to ask questions to students concerning the rising issue of the voting age being reduced and took an active effort to understand the concerns of the policy.’ Ediz
We are grateful to Lord Parkinson for coming in to speak to the students, and we look forward to arranging similar events with students in the future.
Politics Department and the Sixth Form Team
On 4th June, 20 students from Years 8 to 10 representing French, German, Italian, German and Spanish volunteered to teach some language to classes at Abel Smith Primary School during their Language Day. Our students prepared some lively lessons and delivered them with great confidence. We were very proud of the contribution they made to the day.
Year 9 Russian students enthusiastically taught pupils in Years 3, 5 and 6 how to say “I play…” various instruments in Russian, and introduced them to a traditional folk instrument, the balalaika. The Abel Smith students were very welcoming of our students’ efforts and greatly appreciated their encouraging tone and enthusiastic delivery. Well done to all involved.
Year 10 French students taught the French version of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to Nursery and Reception classes.
Nancy, Olivia, Megan and Selma planned the whole lesson very thoroughly and with an engaging PowerPoint presentation. They made sure that the language and the progression of the lesson were age appropriate.
The Reception and Nursery classes loved the song and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all.
Year 10 students began by teaching the vocabulary for musical instruments in Spanish to Year 1 and Year 5. The students were kept very busy colouring the Spanish instruments by numbers and practicing colours and singing a song to practice the days of the week.
Year 10 German students also taught Years 1 , 2 and 4. They also began with the names of instruments in German and moved on to dancing and singing a well-known Karneval song called the Fliegerlied. The Year 4 class also managed to sing and dance to Golden by K-pop Demon Hunters in German.
Year 9 students taught Italian lessons to Year 2 and Year 6 pupils. Year 2 learned animal vocabulary to help them sing ‘Nella vecchia fattoria’, the Italian version of Old MacDonald’s Farm, while Year 6 learned some key musical terms, such as the names of musical instruments and adjectives like adagio and allegro. We were very impressed that some of the Year 6 students recognised these words from sheet music in their instrumental lessons.
A message of thanks from Emma Walsh, one of our Year 12 Charity Ambassadors:
I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated to the RATS animal rescue. Overall, we filled 8 refuse bags with donations for them!
I dropped them off at the kennels last Saturday, and the rescue was extremely grateful for all of the towels and blankets, which will be well used by any new rescues they have coming in. Additionally, all of the clothing donated will be sold in their charity shops to raise even more money for them.
I was blown away with the generosity from the school, and so thankful for the opportunity to hold a donation drive for a cause close to my heart, so thank you again for helping me to achieve this.
In February 2026, our dear colleague and friend, Sam Rowe, lost her life to cancer. She was a fantastic teacher who worked tirelessly for her students at the Presdales School for almost 20 years. She was also a passionate and very accomplished runner.
In memory of Sam, 27 runners (Presdales staff, past and present, as well as Sam’s husband, sister, brother-in- law and nephew) will take part in the Ware 10 race, challenging themselves to run 10 km or 10 miles, in order to raise money for Isabel Hospice. The race will take place on Sunday, 5th July.
For many of us running 10 km or 10 miles will be quite challenging, so please consider donating to our fundraising page to support this amazing charity and allow them to continue their irreplaceable work. Any amount, big or small, will give us a much needed boost.
https://www.justgiving.com/team/presdales
See some of the staff running and volunteering at the event in the group photo as well as some of us in full training, especially Mrs Teal’s and Mrs Nicholls’ very cute dogs! We also include a link to the Ware10 in case you would like to come and encourage us on the day!
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Presdales School
Hoe Lane
Ware
Hertfordshire
SG12 9NX
Tel: 01920 462210
admin@presdales.herts.sch.uk
Headteacher:
Mr Warren
