Weekly Newsletter

th Friday 8 February 2019

Important Dates:

18th – 22nd February Half Term Year 7 & 8 Historical Models! 25th February School re-opens Year 7 and 8 students have been completing creative homework projects this

th term. Year 7s were tasked with building a model of their own Norman castle. 28 February Students could make a motte and bailey or a stone keep castle. This resulted in Year 10 Parents Evening some very creative and detailed castles made from a range of materials, including 7th March edible ones! Year 8 students were tasked with building a model of a Tudor house. Year 8 Parents Evening The results were very impressive and included a variety of sizes and designs, yet

st were in keeping with the key features of the period. 21 March Year 9 Futures Evening

8th – 22nd April Easter Holidays

23rd April School re-opens

SMSC Question of the week: KS3 Question and KS4

Question:

When should shops start stocking Christmas items?

Mr Herbert, Head of History

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Important information for those attending the History trip to Berlin 5th-8th April.

*IMPORTANT* Passport Validity – Post-Brexit After 29 March 2019: 1. You should have at least 6 months left on your passport from your date of arrival. This applies to adult and child passports. 2. If you renewed a passport before it expired, extra months may have been added to your new passport’s expiry date. Any extra months on your passport over 10 years may not count towards the 6 months that should be remaining for travel to most countries in Europe.

For more information visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/passport-rules-for-travel-to-europe-after-brexit

Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day falls on the 27th January every year, marking the day in 1945 when the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated. It is a day for everyone to reflect, commemorate and remember the millions of people who were killed or whose lives were affected by the Holocaust. A group of Year 9 girls took part in a Holocaust commemoration event at Kingsfold Library on Wednesday 23rd January. Students listened intently to an engaging presentation by Judith Rhodes, the daughter of Ursula Michel, a refugee who came from Nazi Germany to in 1939 on one of the last Kindertransports. She explained how the Jewish community were persecuted under the Nazi regime and its impact and legacy on Jewish lives today. The girls gained a unique insight into the Holocaust and asked many thoughtful questions. All students involved were extremely well behaved and represented the school superbly.

If you would like to learn about Judith and her story please watch this youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l92-HALfFBs. Head’s Breakfast Aoifa C (7P) – outstanding effort and You can also see Miss Hughes for further information. attitude to learning in history. Anna K (7P) - outstanding effort and attitude to learning in history. Faye H (7S) - outstanding effort and attitude to learning in history. Naeema M (7S) - outstanding effort and attitude to learning in history.

Head’s Commendations Izzy M (8P) – Tudor House project Eliya D (8G) – Tudor House project Lois R (8G) - Tudor House project Mr Herbert, Head of History

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Charity Walk

Mr Bowles and his son Jacob (6) will be walking from Preston to Lancaster along the Lancaster Canal on the 16th and 17th February. This 30 mile challenge is to raise money for the Morecambe Bay Foodbank, a charity Jacob chose after watching an item on TV about food poverty in a Morecambe . If you would like to donate then you can put a few coins in the jar in Mr Bowles’ room, search for “Gary Bowles” on the Just Giving website or text JJFB90 £(your amount) to 70070. He only has little legs and 30 miles is a long way – any support would be greatly appreciated!

Geography Club

Our Geography Progress Leaders in Year 10 (Ava W, Scarlett S & Olivia O) have started a Geography Club on Monday, at lunchtime. There is a massive box of Geography themed games and challenges will be set up once the club is established. It is currently open to Year 7 and 8 students – if you would like an early lunch pass for this club, please see Mr Bowles.

Geostars!

12 students in Year 7 have completed a recent Geostar task and as a result have been added to the Geostar board. They also have an invite to Head’s Breakfast. Geostar tasks for all years are displayed on the noticeboard on the thirties corridor – check them out and have a go! Geostars – Tilly P, Abi F, Enya H, Emily S, Amandeep K S, Aoifa C, Charlotte B, Frayal I, Jessica A, Grace Q, Lucy S, and Sarah B – well done everyone,

geotastic!

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Get your parents to email in your answers to [email protected]. Remember – be specific with your guesses! OS map of the local area for the first correct answer.

Mr Bowles Head of Geography

Charity Update

We were proud to present the Royal British Legion with a cheque for £627.45 on Thursday 7th February.

We raised this money for The Royal British Legion from our Remembrance Concert in

November.

We would like to thank all our

parents, staff and governors who took the time to attend the concert and support the girls in a

truly poignant evening.

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

On Thursday 24th and Thursday 31st of January, groups of Year 7 students participated in a maths workshop. This allowed us to show off our mathematical skills we had learnt over the past 5 months. We started by understanding the help that ‘Explore Learning’ would provide us. Our task was to use the shapes shown on the interactive whiteboard and place them in a restricted area of a 6cm by 10cm rectangle. This task proved a challenge for every student who took part. Only a few students

successfully completed the challenge, placing all 12 shapes into the restricted area. ‘Explore Learning’ helped us along the way, showing us different techniques we

could have used. Thank you ‘Explore Learning’ for a fantastic, challenging afternoon.

By Olivia W and Lola U (7H)

Head’s Commendations Head’s Breakfast Olivia M – Year 9 Lola U – Year 7 Consistently excellent standard of homework. Fantastic participation and progress in the Explore Learning Workshop. Hannah M – Year 10 Olivia W – Year 7 Superb effort and attainment in her Mathswatch Fantastic participation and progress in the Explore Learning assignments. Workshop.

Emily H – Year 10 Sienna B – Year 8 Superb effort and attainment in her Summative Fantastic participation and progress in class and an assessment. outstanding class coach. Always helping her peers to understand new skills.

Eleanor P – Year 9 Nicole M – Year 11 Fantastic work produced when completing challenging Consistent positive attitude in lessons and a committed proof GCSE shape problems. Excellent processing and approach to closing gaps and achieving her best in application with superb reasoning skills. Mathematics.

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Primary Mathematics Geometry Workshop Friday 25th January 2019

On a wet and windy Friday, a class of Year 6 pupils from came into PGHS to take part in a Geometry Workshop.

The pupils were shown how to use paper folding to create perfect approximations of an equilateral triangle, an isosceles triangle, and a kite. Once this was mastered, they had to combine the shapes together in as many different ways as possible and try to use their knowledge of angles to calculate the interior angles of each shape. To make this more challenging there were no protractors in the room, pupils had to carefully consider the need to make a number of copies of each shape and compare how they would fit together. As a final challenge the pupils were given the opportunity to create their own patterns using the shapes made. Each group was able to create their own unique and interesting patterns, some examples of which can be seen in the pictures below.

Overall, an enjoyable morning was had by all. The only complaint was that students said they wanted to stay for longer and create more patterns for themselves!

Thanks to my able assistants from Year 8, Laura, Abby, Lauren, Ellie, Sofia, Carla, Khadija and Charlotte who provided advice, guidance and a calming presence throughout. They did themselves and the school proud, with their encouragement and guidance.

Mr Cheal Mathematics Department

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

United Kingdom Mathematics Trust - Intermediate Mathematical Challenge 2019

At the time of writing, our Year 9 and 10 students have just sat the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Intermediate Mathematical Challenge 2019. This always presents an enjoyable opportunity to challenge our students with higher order mathematical problems, and promotes a wider range of skills that will be useful in later life. Students involved have spent some time recently in lessons looking at the challenge questions from previous years and attempting to work through them, sometimes even successfully! As usual the students approached the challenge with an infectious enthusiasm and gave their best efforts to achieve a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. The department looks forward to receiving this year results and would like to congratulate all students who took part. The Year 7 and 8 students will take part in the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Junior Mathematical Challenge 2019 later in the year. Again, the department looks forward to preparing for this and another set of successful results.

Mr Cheal, The Mathematics Department

As this newsletter goes to print, a visitor from the Bank of England is leading an information session with several of our aspiring future financial advisors, bankers and accountants in Year 10. In the Maths Department, we are enthusiastic about promoting and future careers in the mathematical sector and hope to inspire more and more young women to pursue opportunities in STEM. At the start of this academic year, we used the annual school open evening as a chance for students to explore different roles that use Maths everyday and the response was overwhelming. There are endless examples of “Careers that Count” and although our students already have an excellent appreciation of the vital role that Maths plays in many professions, we are continuously striving to find new, exciting ways of engaging them with the application of Maths in the workplace. We hope the girls thoroughly enjoy the session delivered by the Bank of England representative. We are already researching future opportunities for external speakers to visit the school and provide further insight into the potential careers that are available for our hardworking Mathematicians. A huge thank you to the staff from the Bank of England for delivering the event and an extra thanks must go to Mr Ramsdale for co-ordinating it.

As we move towards the end of another busy and successful half term, we also reach another very important milestone. As many of you will know, Mrs Sweeney will be starting her Maternity Leave after the half term break. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her continuous hard work and commitment to the Mathematics Department. We wish her and her family lots of luck and happiness and look forward to her return in the new academic year.

Mrs Walsh, Head of Mathematics

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Lancashire Schools’ Cross Schools’

Country Championships Trampolining Competition

S tudents took part in the Congratulations to our 4 students who competed in the South th Schools Cross Country Championships at Ribble Schools’ Trampolining Competition on Weds 6 February Witton Park, Blackburn on Saturday 2nd at Jump UK, Trampolining Centre at Leyland. February 2019 (Junior Girls).

The girls all performed 2 impressive routines and PGHS left with Our PGHS country runners selected to 4 district medals! compete in the Lancashire race were:

Alissa D, Scarlett S, Katie M, Freya A and The results were: st Lola U. Unfortunately Lola and Freya Evie M. - 1 place in the Year 7 Elite Category couldn't race this weekend due to their

football tournament. However, Alissa, In the Year 8 and 9 Elite Category: st Scarlett and Katie achieved an excellent Ella M. – 1 place nd result for the South Ribble Team. Grace S. – 2 place rd Ella D. – 3 place Final Results: Well done, girls!

Congratulations to Katie M, she was placed 5th in Junior Girls.

Inter Girls — TEAM RESULTS - South Ribble

1st Congratulations to Scarlett S - 6th Place Congratulations to Alissa D - 13th Overall

Well done to all the girls involved!

Mrs Shahi, PE Department

Mrs Shahi, PE Department

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

Dance Festival

On Monday 4th February, Middleforth and St Michael’s Primary School came to PGHS to participate in our annual Dance festival organised and delivered by our Year 10 sport/dance leaders. The primary school children enjoyed learning Cheer, Rock and Roll and Street/Jazz dances, all choreographed and taught by the PGHS sport/dance leaders. The year 3s and 4s learnt the dances during the morning on a carousel activity. They then practised their favourite in costume, ready for an afternoon performance. All students performed with confidence and enthusiasm which demonstrated the enjoyment they experienced throughout the day. The dance/sport leaders showed fantastic leadership and communication skills and the primary school teachers commented on how impressive they were! Well done to you all - bring on the Old Fashioned Sports Day in the summer term!

Mrs Naylor, Head of Performance, Sport & Health

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Weekly Newsletter

th Friday 8 February 2019

College Open Evening / Advice Events:

For any Year 9, 10 or 11 students and parents/carers to attend: Root Word of the Week

Cardinal Newman College - Saturday 2nd February, GNO 10-1pm. Meaning: To Know What does it mean to ORIGIN: be diagnosed? - Wednesday 27th February, 4pm - Ancient 8pm. Can you think of any Greek other words that use this root? , Bilsborrow, Preston Campus Advice morning – Saturday 9th February, 9.45am – 12:30pm.

Preston College - Thursday 26th April, 4pm - 7:30pm. Lost Property

Hutton 6th Form - Pupils & parents/carers can contact the school office to arrange a look around the 6th from and speak to the head of 6th form Mr John Hill or deputy head Louise Wright.

Applications - preferable by 31st January. Applications can be completed online.

Cambridge University Offers

We currently have a collection of items in lost property. (Coats, pencil cases, hats scarves etc). We were delighted to discover that 2 of our former pupils, Olivia C and Rebecca W have received offers If your daughter has misplaced items, please ask her to from Cambridge University. come to reception to check lost property.

The competition for places at Oxford and Cambridge is as strong as it has ever been, so this is fantastic news!

We wish them all the best for the future.

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Weekly Newsletter

th Friday 8 February 2019

Theo’s Chicken

EXCITING NEW FOOD COMING SOON!

Here at Penwortham Girls’ we work hard to ensure that our catering team offer food our students want to eat, whilst making sure we meet the strict government nutritional guidelines. But this doesn’t mean that the food is boring – far from it! This week we are launching brand new products that will be served in the main school dining room, provided by Theo’s. These will range from tasty chicken wraps to new, juicy chicken burgers. Not sure it’s for you? Want to try before you buy? We will be offering a taster session for students in the Courtyard Café on Tuesday 12th February, at break time. The first Theo’s product will be on sale in the dining room from Wednesday 13th February.

We think our girls will love this new offer and we can’t wait to hear what they think!

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Weekly Newsletter

th Friday 8 February 2019

Attendance Update

If you are not here, you cannot learn. School Target = 96%+

Year Group

1February

18 January 18 January 25

11 January 11

– –

7 7

28 28

14 14 21 Attendance to date to Attendance

7 98.02 98.15 98.28 97.64 96.56

8 97.72 97.63 98.36 97.35 97.09

9 96.36 96.54 95.95 94.38 96.27

10 95.10 93.31 94.13 93.86 93.40

11 97.73 97.61 97.36 96.67 96.48

Whole School 96.99 96.66 96.82 95.99 95.96

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Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th February 2019

th After School Activities w/c 11 February

The Library is open Monday – Thursday until 4.15pm

MONDAY

3.20 – 4.30pm Netball (All Years) Courts Mrs Naylor, Miss Shahi 3.20 – 4.30pm Art Club (Year 10 and 11) Room 53 Mrs Gerrard

3.30 – 4.30pm Drama Club (All Years) Drama Studio Miss Garlick

TUESDAY SMSC KS3 (Y7–Y9) No after school clubs due to staff training Question of the week: Do I make other people feel respected and WEDNESDAY valued? KS4 (Y10-Y11) 3.20 – 4.30pm Handball (All Years) Courts Miss Shahi Question of the week: 3.20 – 4.30pm Art Club (Year 10 & 11) Room 53 Miss Jennings Do I make other people feel respected and valued? Cheerleading Club cancelled this week.

THURSDAY

3.20 – 4.30pm Hockey (All Years) Courts Mrs Worthington 3.20 – 4.30pm Dance (Year 7 & 8) Dance Studio Mrs Naylor 3.20 – 4.30pm S.T.E.M. Club Room 34 Mr Farringdon, Mr Dean, Mr Rhodes

FRIDAY

3.20 – 4.30pm Football (All Years) Gym/Field Mr Farringdon 3.20 – 4.30pm Art Club (KS3/KS4) Room 53 Mrs Morris 3.20 – 4.15pm GCSE Dance Intervention Dance Studio Mrs Naylor

3.30 – 4.00pm Grade 9 Maths Maths Dept Mrs Bennett, Mr Rhodes

Please note: PE practices may alter due to changing circumstances. Pupils must check the PE noticeboard for up to date information. A copy of our lunchtime activities are available to view on our website under the parents section.

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