In The Picture - November/December 2020

In the

picture • Junior and Senior School Edition •

November/December 2020

Closing The Term With Christmas Spirit

Leading girls’ education

Where girls learn without limits

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Current total

£3000.000 Thank you so much for your continued generosity.

During the last few weeks of term we asked the girls and our community to get into the real spirit of Christmas and think of those who are less fortunate than themselves. With virtually all fundraising events cancelled, this year has been a challenging one for all organisations but particularly for the not-for-profit sector, so our work on behalf of two local charities, The People’s Kitchen and East End Women, has been a real priority for us.

When we launched our appeal early in December we felt confident we would be able to raise a significant amount of money for these very important causes but raising nearly £3000 in such a short space of time has truly exceeded our expectations.

We have witnessed generosity by the van-full (literally!) and the amazing success of the appeal is entirely down to the kindess of our community. The initiative has brought about an inspiring response to the modern crisis that is Coronavirus. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

At Junior School, the class teachers asked that parents direct their usual Christmas gifts to teachers to a charity of their choice and we have been also overwhelmed by the response. Junior School parents were invited to share the details of their donations on a special page set up on Firefly, and they have given to a variety of charities, raising a phenomenal £2,500 so far (in addition the monies raised via the Appeal website.)

The monies have been donated to the parents’ choice of charities including: The People’s Kitchen East End Women Project Santa NEAT Academy Trust Hamper Appeal Changing Minds with Pick up a Penny

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Thank you to Abrish, Year 7, and family for this unbelievable donation of food and toiletries!

Here are a few comments from our parent community:

staggering, and we are very grateful for all of their support.

We hope that their gifts will support individuals and families in our community and we are particularly pleased to be providing significant support to the two charities we work most closely with, the People’s Kitchen and East End Women, both of whose work is valued by so many in Newcastle.”

“A huge thank you to everyone that donated so generously.

Thank you Mrs Abbott and all the staff at NHSG for continuing to provide a safe nurturing environment for our girls, in what has been such a challenging time. Your hard work and dedication to our children is greatly appreciated.

May you all have a Merry Christmas & a very Happy and Healthy New Year!”

While the festivities were a little different this year in school we ensured that there were still plenty of opportunities for fun with friends in a safe environment. Girls at Junior School enjoyed their festive lunches and ‘class bubble’ parties throughout the last week of term. We also shared the videos of the eagerly anticipated Nativty and Christmas performances with

Action for Children RNLI I Care U Share Cash for Kids Bubble Foundation Family Gateway UK Feeding families Malaria Foundation Children North East

parents which made for a really heart-warming watch.

Girls at Senior School enjoyed their traditional Christmas lunch on Tuesday 15th December while sporting some cracking Christmas jumpers and took part in Christmas House challenges in the afternoon.

On the final day of term, Wednesday 16th December, Senior School tuned into Microsoft Teams for the thoroughly entertaining Virtual Staff Panto. Special thanks for Mrs Dobson for bringing the highly-anticipated Panto production into being, even under Covid conditions!

All that remains to say is, we hope you have a Merry Christmas and here’s to a much more settled 2021!

“A very big thank from all the parents and girls to Mrs Donaldson and all the wonderful staff at NHSG. We appreciate your continued dedication and support during such unprecedented times.

Wishing you all a very peaceful Christmas and happy and healthy New Year!”

“Thank you for all you do, not only teaching the girls, but supporting them during these challenging times. Merry Christmas to you all!”

Commenting on our parents’ generosity and kindness, Mr Tippett said: “At NHSG, we feel it’s very important that we work to support our local community, and, as we know this year it is more important than ever. The generosity of the parents has been

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A not-so-traditional Nativity Things may have been a little different this year in schools but the girls in KS1 have not let these changes dampen their Christmas spirit!

In the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday, the grounds of Chapman House were a flurry of activity with numerous reported sightings of traditional Nativity characters and creatures scurrying around! The girls had great fun acting out the Nativity scenes in a much more adventurous way than normal, outside of the confines of the school hall and into the fresh air!

On Friday 11th December, the girls enjoyed their traditional Christmas lunch and EYFS parents were able to watch their daughter in their highlyanticipated Nativity performances via Firefly. While we understand it wasn’t quite the same as seeing the girls perform in person, there was no shortage of enthusiasm from the girls and there will be plenty of time for live action remakes at home over the Christmas break!

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 performances are available to watch as of today and made for an equally heart-warming watch.

Here are some ‘behind the scenes’ photographs from the KS1 Nativity Productions.

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A festive farewell like no other

The NHSG Senior School Carol Service is a treasured event in the school calendar for many of us and we just couldn’t imagine ending the Autumn term without our traditional festive send-off.

With this in mind, we set about getting special permission from St. George’s Church to film a carol concert in a safe and socially distant manner to share with our wider community.

With permission granted and all the necessary precautions in place, the NHSG Choir and staff from the Music Department performed a selection of carols in the stunning setting of St George’s on Monday 14th December. The atmosphere at the Church is what makes our Carol Service truly special so we hope that this comes across as you enjoy the Carols from the comfort of home. In

addition to the carols, you will also have the opportunity to view the work of our Senior School pupils as they showcase their Music, Dance and Drama skills. The girls and staff in the Performing Arts department have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to pull this reel of talent together for you so we hope you enjoy it. A special thank you to Miss Penny and Mr Newey for masterminding the logistics behind this wonderful project. Here is the link to view both the carols and Winter Showcase. https://nhsgvirtualevents.com/ welcome?eid=h5YqPCXbbi8k6 zBGN4MD Don’t worry, if you can’t join the event at 5.00 p.m. you will be able to view it at a later point.

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Junior School • p11-p27

Getting to grips with the finer things in the Early Years Foundation Stage Physical development is one of the prime areas of learning in the EYFS and is therefore placed at the centre of our curriculum. A solid foundation of gross and fine motor control and experience of moving in different ways improves development in all other areas of learning.

At NHSG we have so many exciting environments which can be used to accelerate girls’ physical development. Forest School is one of them, with two leaders trained to deliver this specialist and unique area of the curriculum. We also benefit from numerous fabulous playground spaces, a mud kitchen and a specialist EYFS outdoor learning zone. We implement these areas into our learning as much as we possibly can.

Children learn to control their bodies from the centre outwards and from the top downwards. Arm and finger control follows the same pattern: at first the girls will be able to manipulate their arm from the shoulder joint; gradually understanding how to control their hands; finally they learn how to make the fine finger movements needed to write. In order to be able to write, the girls need to be able to coordinate both sides of their body together, with one hand holding the paper, while the other manipulates the writing tool. This ability to coordinate the two sides of their body, while doing different things with each side, is known as ‘bilateral integration’. The girls

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also need to learn how to ‘cross the mid line’ – to be able to control their movements across the centre point of the body. It is this that allows them to write without changing the pen over to their other hand midway through a line. The girls need to develop their fine motor control required to hold and manipulate a writing implement and therefore they need to develop strength in their wrists and hands, and also a high level of finger control. Some of the key actions required are: grip strength (make a fist to feel this action); pinch strength (hold an invisible pencil tight to feel this action); and eye to hand coordination (also known as ‘visual motor integration’ ). The games and activities carried out in our Early Years setting this term have all contributed to the girls developing and mastering these delicate movements.

Developing dexterity If you consider the actions used when writing, you’ll see how important it is to have a high level of dexterity. We have encouraged lots of independent behaviours to develop the girls’ dexterity such as doing and undoing buttons and zips, threading beads, using tweezers and chopsticks, building towers, turning keys in locks, playing with peg boards, colouring in between the lines of a picture as well as cutting and tearing paper around an outline.

Holding a writing tool At first, the girls usually grasp the pencil or pen using a fist grip, which then develops into a finger grasp. The ultimate aim

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is for them to learn how to use a ‘dynamic tripod grasp’, where the pen or pencil is held between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, and they should be able to do this from about three or four years old. We have consistently encouraged your daughter to make a tripod shape with the thumb and fingers, with the pencil resting on the soft part between the thumb and forefinger. We keep a very close eye on our young writers, and encourage them to hold their writing tool correctly at all times.

Our weekly timetable has ensured that the girls in Nursery and Reception have experienced an abundance of fine and gross motor control learning opportunities in both our wonderful indoor and outdoor facilities. Girls at NHSG excel through purposeful, active learning opportunities curated by the specialist EYFS team.

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Year 1 Three Little Pigs Fun!

The girls in Year 1 have been studying The Three Little Pigs.

The story links well with their ‘Houses and Homes’ topic and has been used to teach the main features of traditional tales during English lessons.

The girls thought about the characters, plot and language features common to this type of story. They also looked at dividing the story into a beginning, middle and end.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed using ‘talk for writing’ to help

remember the order of events in the story. This teaching tool uses actions to help recall the story whilst saying the sentences. The girls thought of actions to depict the characters and events and performed signs for phrases and words such as ‘once upon a time’ and ‘they lived happily ever after.’

Each class did a super job at performing the beginning, middle and end of the story and subsequently creating story maps with relevant sentence openers.

These activities helped them enormously during their ‘Big Write’ sessions when they had the opportunity to creatively re-write each section of the story. Their writing stamina is brilliant!

The girls also participated in a STEM activity whereby they had to design, build and test the stability of the three little pigs’ homes. The girls considered the materials used by the pigs and experimented with joining and construction

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techniques to create model houses to represent straw, sticks and bricks. The girls worked very hard to overcome any challenges during their build.

They enjoyed testing the strength of their model houses too with lots of ‘huff and puff’!

In ICT lessons, the girls have been studying programming and algorithms. This has been an opportunity to teach key skills such as writing algorithms and debugging. As part of the topic, the girls had the opportunity to ‘program’ each other to move in different directions to different locations!

They also using the Bee-Bot app and the Bee-Bot toys to apply their learning. This culminated in creating a map showing the three little pigs’ homes and then programming ‘wolfbot’ to reach certain destinations on the map.

We were very pleased with the efforts of all Year 1 girls this term.

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Year 2 delve into research on Diwali During their Humanities lesson, Year 2 have been learning all about Diwali, the five-day Festival of Lights celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains around the world. The girls used design technology skills to create their own diya lamps which we then lit with battery candles to watch them glow. They also examined Rangoli patterns before drawing some of their own colourful creations outside in the Autumn sunshine. Fantastic work, as ever, Year 2!

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Literacy in Year 3

Year 3 have embarked on quite a journey during their English lessons this term. The girls have been exploring vocabulary and language patterns in Benji Davies’ award-winning collection of illustrated books.

In particular they have studied the book Grandad’s Island, a beautiful and sensitive story about loss, set on a tropical island, which reassures children that those who are dear to us remain near to us, however far away they may seem.

Year 3 created a story map of Grandad’s Island and wrote some of their own descriptions of the weird and wonderful island to accompany it. To help reinforce learning on the structure of a journey story, they engaged in some energetic ‘sentence tennis’ and reading games. The girls also had the opportunity to transform their imaginative thoughts into reality with creative interpretations of Benji Davies’ illustrations using collage.

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Catnaps Circle Ice, Icecaps Ant Circle, Calcites Carp Nice, Icecaps Tan Cleric Have we caught your attention?

Did you work out the anagram for the real title of Practical Science?

While it has been a little challenging for schools to provide practical scientific experiences during times of social distancing, Year 4 have found lots of creative ways to learn about Solids, Liquids and Gases as well as Sound.

The girls have completed many investigations and concentrated on the skills surrounding investigative work. Firstly, observation skills were introduced to Year 4 by emptying a fruit teabag into a glass of water. The girls watched in amazement as particles floated, sunk, then floated back up again and swirled around, leaving a trail of pink behind. The demonstration was also filmed allowing slow-motion analysis of the event to take place later on in the lesson. It is amazing how a few tiny particles of fruit can lead to unbelievable theories and discussion!

Other skills Year 4 have learned in Science include using a thermometer when investigating melting points.

While it is obvious to adults that water freezes at 0°c and boils at 100°c children need to see it with their own eyes and experience it first-hand. Girls in Year 4 also measured how much salt will dissolve into different temperatures of water followed by an investigation on which substances do and do not dissolve. One class were

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very creative in sourcing ingredients to dissolve from kitchen cupboards at home!

The basic principles of investigative science were kept throughout as the girls identified the variables in each experiment and which ones would remain constant to ensure fair testing conditions.

In this year of incredibly challenging firsts, the foundations of STEM learning have been firmly established in Year 4 and we are so proud of them for soaking up all of the Scientific knowledge available to them. N-ice work, girls!

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Year 5 sample Tudor living Year 5 have covered a wide range of topics in their study of Tudor history so far. They started by looking at the family tree and how the Tudors came to power as well as the advantages and dangers of serving in the court of a Tudor monarch.

They have also investigated aspects of daily life such as sustenance, and compared the typical diets and meals eaten by rich and poor people of the time. Everyone was amazed to learn that King Henry VIII would reportedly lay on banquets of up to 24 courses on particularly special occasions! Class 5N took on the role of chefs in Hampton Court Palace kitchen to plan a banquet menu they thought would please the King which featured everything from roasted pheasant to wild boar.

Both classes have researched and discussed what it might have been like to work in the court of King Henry, considering both the advantages and the potential problems of such a job. After reading some example diary entries of Tudor servants which explained some of the duties required, the girls worked on producing their own versions.

Class 5Y seized the opportunity to practise writing diary entries with a proper quill pen and dipping ink and the resulting Tudor-stlye calligraphy was terrific.

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An Unusual Christmas

The theme of the KS2 celebrations this year is ‘An Unusual Christmas’.

Year 6 built upon on their philanthropic and local history knowledge by comparing Christmas experiences from our region which are very different to their own.

The girls began the topic by learning about the role of food banks in supporting families and individuals in the North East, such as The People’s Kitchen. The girls have also examined primary sources from

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Christmas in 1984 to learn about the conditions during the height of the Miners’ Strike.

The girls took time to consider how Christmas is celebrated in different ways at different times.

portraying a nostalgic and simpler time. Year 6 have debated the wisdom of some of Thomas’ choices, compared his Christmas Day to their own and used his lyrical sentences to generate their own writing.

Our final Christmas-themed lesson focused on the autobiographical prose text A Child’s Christmas in Wales by poet, Dylan Thomas.

Recounting memories of growing up in Swansea during the 1920s, the text is rich in language and describes the viewpoint of a young boy,

Girls have observed that Christmas has been celebrated in very different ways in our country over the years and acknowledged that Christmas 2020 is a good experience of living through history! It will certainly be one to remember.

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Senior School • p28-p48

Back to basics with Biro art Year 7 have got off to a great start in Art at Senior School.

Olivia Charlton and Hafsah Tayyab tell us what they have been doing.

In Art we have been studying the portraiture work of Mark Powell, a London-based artist.

He primarily uses a Bic Biro for all of his works of art, creating intricate portraits on antique documents such as envelopes, old maps and letters. His favoured subjects are the elderly, a natural fit for the paper he uses and his detailed style. We have really enjoyed recreating his work and it has been fascinating to see how much we can create with just a simple ball-point pen.

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Year 7 make a splash in STEM club On Thursday 3rd December, Year 7 spent their lunchtime as Marine Engineers. They enjoyed a live virtual session delivered by a STEM Coordinator from the Marine Society and Sea Cadets and learned all about density and the Archimedes principle which states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially, is proportional to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces.

The girls were introduced to the engineering design cycle and then put their knowledge into practice as they planned their own design for a cargo boat.

Then it was time to bring their designs to life. The girls had great fun building their boats to specific dimensions from card, tape and foil and there was some fantastic variation in the resulting vestles. Next it was time to test their boats to see whose could hold the most mass. The excitement in the room was tangible and the girls were delighted to find that their boats, constructed from such fragile materials, floated (well, most of them!) and could withstand a great weight. In many cases we ran out of masses to sink the ship because the designs were so robust!

Sink or float, we all had a great time designing and testing our creations and Year 7 proved that they have all the potential to become magnificent Marine Engineers in future.

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Seasonal circuits in Year 8 Physics Year 8 Physicists have been studying the topic of electricity this term and were delighted when Dr Scott sparked some Christmas cheer into their lesson with this festive activity.

The girls were asked to use their newly acquired practical skills to build some Christmas themed electrical circuits, using decorations to embellish the functional designs as much as possible. The girls remarked that it was a great opportunity to work in groups and get creative with a sociable Science project. Here are some comments from the Year 7 girls:

“We put our bulbs in a parallel circuit so that our tree was as bright as possible.”

“It was an exciting activity incorporating arts and crafts and our Physics lessons about parallel circuits.”

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Year 9 master the style of Ian Murphy

Ella Sayer, Year 9, tells us about her Art studies this term: Studying Ian Murphy’s artwork has taught us so many different skills such as tonal shading, coloured pencil technique, collage and fine liner drawing.

I have really enjoyed improving my observational drawing skills by studying Murphy’s work and mirroring the incredible level of detail he includes in his signature style .

My favourite part of the learning unit was the fine liner drawing because I liked that the lines were imperfect and rough, but at the same time so effective. This project was really fun because I enjoy drawing so much but I am now looking ahead to next year and can’t wait to begin our Fashion Show Textiles project.

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MMI Interviews On Monday 7th December 2020 our Year 13 medical and veterinary medical school applicants were fortunate enough to experience NHSG’s Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI).

Numerous NHSG parents volunteered to offer support for this event, without which it could not have happened. Our parents’ collective expertise made the resulting experience incredibly worthwhile for the girls as they prepare for their real Medical School interviews.

Each girl was asked questions about the NHS, the personal attributes which make them strong candidates for Medicine, their motivation to study the subject, medical ethics and communication skills. They also took part in a role play activity led by one of our Year 13 actors Niamh Hanlon who very kindly volunteered to support her classmates. Thank you, Niamh.

The event was hosted on Microsoft Teams and each interview lasted five minutes with girls dropping into six or seven different meetings to be interviewed by our team of professionals. It was designed to be a challenge for the girls as we aimed to simulate the intense conditions of real interviews but it was an incredibly invaluable learning opportunity for them.

Huge thanks to Dr Joanne Lewis, Dr Francoise Bari-Jones, Dr Joanna Katory, Dr Sarah Klenka, Dr Kathryn Cockett, Dr Lucy Harrison for taking part and also to NHSG staff Ms Chambers, Mr Wager and Mrs

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Harrison. A special thanks to the NHSG IT team too as the technology worked seamlessly.

Finally, a thank you to Dr Sharmila Jandial for delivering a follow-up session on Thursday 10th December, over lunchtime, so the girls could reflect on their MMI experiences.

We wish all our girls luck in the upcoming interviews. Here are some of the girl’s feedback from the session: Megan Leung: “I liked the opportunity to answer questions in a time pressured environment. It was good to have to think on the spot and manage stress.”

Charlotte Cooper: “The experience of having the interviews allowed me to increase my ability to speak about the NHS and gain further insight into the Covid pandemic. The variety of questions and the pressure I was under has made me feel more confident about going into the real thing.”

Sanghya Venkatesan: “We were extremely fortunate to have our teachers set up an MMI for us. This allowed us to experience an MMI before our real interviews which was extremely valuable since many medical students say that your first interview is worse than the later ones. It also gave me an idea of what we needed to work on moving forward and how interviewers may ask questions and follow up questions.”

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Spotlight on Sport

In the absence of the usual variety of school sport taking place at NHSG this term, we felt it a timely moment to highlight some of our girls’ recent sporting achievements.

We can’t wait to get back to our action-packed sports programme when the restrictions ease but, for now, we hope you enjoy this spotlight on some of the girls we have within NHSG Sport, both past and present.

GEORGIA MABBOTT YEAR 10 Huge congratulations to Georgie Mabbott, Year 10 who finished 1st in the Under 15 Tynedale Pentathlon Competition. Some of Georgie’s PBs include; an impressive 10.58m in the shot putt and an outstanding 1.54m in the high jump.

Georgie has also been selected for Under 17 England Hockey Performance Centre (North).

Another fantastic achievement, well done!

EMMA WALSINGHAM YEAR 10 It has been fantastic to welcome Emma Walsingham to NHSG this year. She has come to us as an all round games player, with a passion for cricket. She has recently been rewarded with a debut for the Women’s T20 Blitz Eagles Regional Team. She has also scored over 100 runs for the Regional Under 18s Eastern Knights.

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OLIVIA HARPER YEAR 10 Huge congratulations to Olivia Harper who finished 1st in the 300m at the NECCA Open Meet. Her time has put her in the Top 15 in the UK, meaning she would have qualified for English Schools. We cannot wait for the athletics season to see Olivia run for School.

POPPY OLD YEAR 9 Well done to Poppy, Year 9 who has been crowned Under 15 Champion in the 800m at the NECCA Open Track Meet, with a amazing time of 2minutes 23 seconds. This girl really can run!

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LOIS JACKSON CLASS OF 2020 Alumna Lois left in 2020 and is now a full time member of the British FIS Ski Team. After a very successful summer training, Lois has unfortunately torn her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament and is currently awaiting surgery.

We wish her all the best in her rehabilitation and know she will bounce back stronger than ever.

ROSIE BELSHAM CLASS OF 2020 Good luck to Alumna, Rosie Belsham, who left NHSG in the Summer to embark upon her golfing scholarship at Baylor University, Texas! We are excited to follow her progress!

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Reece Bursary for new Sixth Form pupils The Reece Foundation have generously agreed to fund two Sixth Form bursaries here at NHSG for new pupils joining us in Year 12 in 2021. Applicants must be passionate about pursuing an Engineering career and complete A Levels in both Maths and Physics in our Sixth Form. If you know of any families that would be interested in hearing about this opportunity for their daughter, please share this information and the attached flyer which is aimed at engaging pupil interest.

Do you want to be an

Engineer?

Do you want to make a real and positive change to the environment we all live in?

Are you thinking of taking Physics and Mathematics at A Level?

Would you like to attend the leading girls’ school in the North East?

Sound

interesting?

Come and join us at Newcastle High School for Girls.

The Reece Foundation are offering to cover the fees for two places in Sixth Form for girls wishing to take a higher education course and pursue a STEM related career, after completion of A Levels at NHSG. The Reece foundation bursaries offer you an excellent grounding for the future. Not only will you be studying A Levels at the leading school for girls in the region, but you will have the very best support as you prepare for your future in an engineering related science. NHSG has been extremely successful in the Education and Engineering Scheme for a number of years, with girls taking part in a wide variety of co-curricular activities such as visiting the amazing Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

If you are passionate about pursuing an Engineering career and have excellent predicted GCSE grades please contact us at NHSG.

Julia Howe

Admissions Manager

j.howe@ncl.gdst.net

0191 201 6511

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Becca braves the bald!

Rebecca McGowan, known as Becca, joined Year 12 in September and immediately demonstrated the defining hallmarks of a GDST girl; in particular, courage.

Rebecca had been thinking about shaving her head for some time but said that moving to NHSG, a different school to her identical twin, finally gave her the confidence to take on this challenge in aid of a really important cause. On 29th November she decided to shave off her long blonde hair so she could donate the money raised to the charity, Samaritans. She explained the significance of this charity: “Mental health is very important to me and has affected me and my loved ones, so Samaritans felt like the right option.Samaritans offers a 24-hour helpline for those

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facing a crisis.”

In the run-up to the big day Becca admits she felt nervous and “scared about what people would say“ but also incredibly excited, helped by the fact that she was encouraged by friends and family.

How does she feel now she has ‘done the deed’? “Everyone around me has been so supportive. I honestly feel fantastic, despite my head feeling like Velcro!“ Her goal was to raise £500, an ambitious target in itself, but within 24 hours of her JustGiving page going live she had already doubled it. She has now raised over £2800 which she says was “Beyond my wildest expectations!”.

Looking ahead to the future she

says she can definitely imagine herself doing something similarly bold for charity but will need some time to think of her next challenge!

There’s certainly no rush, we’re hugely impressed by Rebecca’s brave actions and think she should take some time to reflect on her inspiring achievement. A huge well done from NHSG. To donate to Samaritans via Rebecca’s page visit: https://www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/bec-braves-the-bald

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Every Little Helps Evie Dielehner, Year 10, heard on the news over Summer that some families struggle to feed their children over school holidays, this year more so than ever due to the challenges of Coronavirus. She decided to take matters into her own hands and here is what she had to say: After learning how many families are unable to afford food during these troubling times, I decided to arrange a drop-off point in my driveway for residents of my housing estate, Haydon Grange, to leave grocery donations. As you can see from the picture, the response from my neighbourhood was absolutely overwhelming! After the collection was over, we dropped the donations off at the Newcastle East foodbank, who were very grateful for our support.

In September, I was thrilled to be selected for the role of charity rep in my form and we had the brilliant idea of setting up a box in our form room where members of the class are welcome to donate food items throughout the year. Mr Bignot will kindly deliver the donations to a local foodbank over the Christmas holidays and we are planning to continue the initiative in the new term too!

Although many supermarkets have their own collection stations, now more than ever, every little helps.

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