July 2019 - Term 6 Blog

It has been an incredibly busy few weeks for Year 12.  We have had charity events for the Tommy Crush foundation, supporting the lower years at Sports Day (at both sites) as well as taking part in a number of extra events including;

We were pleased to welcome many Alumni Students at our Year 10 Careers events this week.  Congratulation to Percy who has gained a 1^st in Mechanical Engineering at Southampton University and will shortly be moving to Bristol to commence his first professional role.  We also welcomed Patrick and Imran, who are both nearing the end of their training to become doctors (pictured below).  More recent alumni included Amy who is at Winchester studying primary education and Jess who has just finished her degree and is working in the marketing arena.  Brandon Turner, our head boy from 2 years ago, performed some of his moving poetry and shared his award winning performance with Stormzy!

We are also grateful to North Kent College, apprenticeship providers Kato (pictured below right delivering a session), Army Careers and Ben Shipman, who delivered a highly motivational speech. 

This week the majority of Y12 are on work experience and we have enjoyed receiving their photographs including;

Pictured below are Max outside Aviva’s office and Sophia at Keo Films.  As well as Lauren, Zac, Shannon, Megan and Joe H counting his money at TSB!

Thank you to all the employers that support work experience every year.  You are providing an opportunity for students to experience the real world of work, which is an invaluable life skill.

We have received a wonderful note from Joydens Wood Primary School regarding our students who regularly attend the Junior school to support teachers in class.  She wrote “just to say a massive thank you for the support you have given us this year by lending us your students. Our children love them being in school and they are extremely valuable to us as staff with our SATS revision and Pupil Premium mentoring.  Thanks once again, they have been wonderful and are a great credit to the school”

On 10^th July we welcomed school Trustees, Governors as well as professional mentors who all gave up their time to work with our Aspire 6 students.  Before the day students had to prepare a CV and undertake research on their specific career aspiration.  The students found the experience invaluable and a thank you lunch was provided to all.  A special thanks to Leah White and Josh Rydell for providing the lunchtime background music.

WG6 staff hosted a celebration lunch for Y12 students in recognition of the significant contribution they have made to school life over the past year.  Guests included students who have been volunteering at Joydens Wood Primary every week, the local care home volunteers and those students with excellent behaviour and attendance records as well as students who go above and beyond to help.  All are a real asset to WG6 and the wider school community.  

I recently attended my sister Rebekah Greenbank’s graduation from the University of Cambridge. She attended WGSG from 2009, and finished sixth form in 2016 

A*, A* A in her three A levels. She graduated from Cambridge with a 2:1 degree in theology, and is looking forward to starting her new job in July with the Christian Blind Mission.

Sam Greenbank (currently attending WG6)

Congratulations Rebekah, what a great achievement, we are thrilled for you.

WG6 Chemistry Enrichment students are getting to grips with organic chemistry processes by refluxing oil of wintergreen to make 2- methylbenzoic acid, the first stage in the preparation of aspirin.    This will be used to make aspirin in the following weeks, before assessing the percentage yield and the purity using melting point determination and thin layer chromatography.  All WG6 Chemistry students are welcome to join the programme – please see Mrs Munden at the WGSG site for more information.

WG6 Psychology – student report.  A group of Year 12 Psychology students visited Bethlem Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham.  Here, they got to attend two talks: one on the history of the hospital and mental health treatment; and another by Simon Darnley, a leading specialist in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  Both were very informative and intriguing.  There was also some time to explore the museum itself which holds pieces of art completed by mental health patients from the past and also artefacts that display how mental health disorders and their treatment have changed over the years.  We all found it fascinating and some are now looking into how to pursue a career in the field!

On Thursday 27th June, A Level History students from WG6 visited Hampton Court Palace as part of their studies of the Tudor Module, which makes up 40% of the A-Level History course. The main focus of the day was an education session led by the Palace which focused on 'Tudor Crises'; and this involved the students visiting different parts of the Palace, using sources to make a judgement to the extent to which these events should be considered crises. In addition, the students had the opportunity to look around the palace, which was a favourite of King Henry VIII's and includes several exhibitions on different parts of his life and reign of England.

Congratulations to Dan H & Ned H of WG6 who have both been awarded a ‘highly commended’ in their Design & Technology A Level project.

Dan’s Automated Fire Extinguisher was deemed by the moderator to be suitable to become a commercially viable product such was the calibre of his project.  The AFE is designed to manoeuvre itself to the source of the fire (the hottest point) and self-trigger to extinguish the flames.  

Ned’s project is a Coin Collector which is a highly technical machine designed to sort and count loose change.  The moderator awarded a score of 90% - a brilliant result.

Well done to WG6 (and WGSB) alumni Dan Rowson who took part in Grand Challenges last week to come up with practical actions to tackle climate change. Dan, who is studying at Exeter University worked with students from Falmouth and Exeter University, to make a hugely impactful presentation on the problem of concrete. We had no idea concrete was so bad! Grand Challenges is a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems. 

Dan (pictured right in the main picture) and Falmouth graphic design student Taylor Jones (right) pictured with the Dean of Cornwall, Dave Hosken, who took a particular interest. He has asked them to supply him with information he can take forward in high level meetings to inform future building work in the University. Well done everyone involved!

WG6 A level Poetry conference.  On Monday the 24th of June, we went as an A level Literature group to the ‘e.magazine Poetry conference’ exploring poems we study at A level. It was a very impressive event with many schools attending. A range of poets performed their poems and entered into conversations with other poets and the student audience about the ideas suggested in their poems. A highlight was a student discussion with Daljit Nagra where he let them pick his brains on his inspirations for poetry writing. He spoke about his parents being immigrants and how their journey and his wider family’s experiences coming from India shaped his ideas. He also talked about combing many language roots in his poem. Here is a verse he spoke about where immigrants were hoping to get citizenship and working hard to contribute:

“Swarms of us, grafting in

the black within shot of the moon’s

spotlight, banking on the miracle of sun –

span its rainbow, passport us to life. Only then

can it be human to hoick ourselves, bare-faced for the clear.”

Students felt they gained many tips towards approaching an A level examination and great fun was had by all.

                                                                                                                    Ms Wakeling

We welcomed Freddie McCann from The London Institute of Banking & Finance who delivered a talk to our WG6 Financial Studies A level students.  The LIBF is a university college offering industry-recognised and respected education to prepare students for every stage of their career.  More details regarding their courses, scholarship opportunities, Open Days and Summer Schools can be found on their website here.  This year’s Summer School is 3 days priced at £75 (or £50 for those on the Financial Studies course) and is at their London Campus near Monument, Wednesday 28th to Friday 30th August.

I'd like to say a huge 'thank you' to our student models ... the school photography is absolutely lovely.  Images have already been uploaded to our website and further images will be used to create our new Curriculum booklet.

Best wishes,

Geraldine Tiddy