On Monday 18th December, we were delighted to invite our amazing ex year 11 and 13 students to celebrate their fantastic achievements and superb exam results. It was lovely to see family, friends and teachers come together to celebrate all the hard work of our students.
The ceremony was largely influenced by the senior sixth form team: Adesola, Gracie and George led the event and the senior student team started the celebrations with a summary of Presdales life in the last year. An abundance of trips, certificates, and some fabulous achievements across all subjects, where the students and staff have had a great year.
Then, we were graced with some gorgeous musical items by Presdales’ finest. Georgiana Fowler, in year 11, played a beautiful rendition of Chanson de Matin. Whilst Callum Tredgett, in year 13, rocked the hall with his guitar.
We were lucky to have an inspiring guest speaker, Sala Abdalla, a surgeon who is one of the most qualified in her field. An inspirational speech followed, where Sala explained that life had not always been easy. Born in Sudan, her family had to flee when she was only ten years old. Settling in England as a refugee, Sala knew difficulties lay ahead; a language barrier, her heritage, and not fitting the stereotype of a ‘typical’ doctor. However, Sala persevered, worked hard, and explained how you should aspire to be anything you want, whatever your background, skin colour, economic status, or any other perceived barriers in your life. Sala’s early upbringing has made her sensitive to the needs of underserved people and she had returned only days before from West Africa for another charity surgical mission where she had been delivering free surgeries to patients in deprived communities. The students were visibly moved by Sala’s speech, and we are very grateful to have had such an inspirational role model speak to our students.
Speech day was drawn to a close by our ex head girl and deputy head student. Hannah Stapleton and Charlie Waring explained how it was lovely to return to Presdales, but it was also exciting to start a new chapter and to play ‘the main characters in their own lives’. We are so proud of our students, and all they have achieved. We hope they all feel accomplished with their successes and that they have left school ready to be a main character.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year in the food department! As part of their Christmas Bakery project, our Year 10 GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition students have ended on a high note making their Gingerbread houses. The quality of the bakes and decorations was excellent. The Gingerbread houses were wrapped so the students could take them home to share with family and friends. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas.
Lottie Fellows submitted the following Product Design Super Curriculum Modelling activity this term.
Lottie chose to recreate a lamp she found at home, using old cardboard of different thicknesses and parcel paper. Lottie carefully photographed each step of the process.
Working in an art studio Lottie made a scale model of the lamp. She measured each piece and cut them out using a craft knife and ruler to achieve a sharp, straight line. The pieces were then assembled using a glue gun to stick them together before adding the final touches, like the switch, plug and bolts.
I’m sure you will agree Lottie has done an amazing job and the model lamp is a terrific success.
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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Coming Up
Friday 16th to Friday 23rd
Russian Trip to Uzbekistan
Wednesday 21st
KS4 Health & Social Care Trip to Anglia Ruskin University
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Presdales School
Hoe Lane
Ware
Hertfordshire
SG12 9NX
Tel: 01920 462210
admin@presdales.herts.sch.uk
Headteacher:
Mr Warren
