Grant Funding – A huge THANK YOU to our local supporters
Our first thanks must go to Hertfordshire charity, EdufundUK. Presdales has benefited again this past year from the amazing generosity of this organisation. Their simple and effective grant systems saw funding granted under the PE banner for a 12 bar set of barbells for use by our GCSE and A-Level students as well as our elite athletes and the growing number of boys in sixth form. A second application under their Major Grant banner achieved success to further enhance strength and conditioning training for students and staff alike with a £10,000 grant to purchase a stair master and further weight systems. With these additions the Presdales Fitness Suite will be complete and a fantastic addition to the PE offering here at Presdales.
A STEM grant enabled us to enhance our D&T provision with the addition of a wood-turning lathe. This machine will help greatly with key projects within our curriculum such as the lamp project. This was further supported by a very kind donation from the Managers Fund at Wickes Hertford which provided us with a belt sander and clamps to further assist with woodwork projects.
EdufundUK supported us further through their final category of ‘Learning to Learn’ on an application for biology models of elements of the human body but in addition to this, very interestingly, a quantity of frozen animal specimens and owl pellets to create a ‘dissection library’ for Biology. This resource can be used to enthuse our younger Biology students and stretch and challenge our A-Level classes and Med-Soc students. Now established this will be replenished from their budget as items reach the end of their useful life.
As part of this project, plant and human cell models were identified but due to their cost could not be included. The identical items were found on eBay for a fraction of the price and we would like to thank the Presdales PA for their support in their purchase. This photo shows just how happy our Biology Lead was with these.
Crochet club, run in lunchtime groups next year, is currently regularly full to capacity and provides a quiet creative space for students to learn a new skill. Making squares for baby blankets and next year will be working to making baby bonnets for charity putting their work excellent use. Next year students can choose to make items that can be sold at our annual Fayre to further support the group itself. Again this initiative has been supported by Presdales PA with seed funding for yarn and hooks. Generally self-supporting this club would also be very pleased to accept donations of an unwanted yarn and crochet hooks when we return in September.
Another creative project that has been running in this past half term is one to create mosaic decoration on one of our outdoor structures. Full details of this are in a dedicated article in PressTales and our thanks go out to Wickes Hertford.
Finally, a first time application to Tesco was successful and a project to replace production lighting in the school hall is currently in the voting system in Tesco’s Ware store. The voting continues until the end of September please vote for us whenever you shop in store.
