Round-up of the term - Summer 2019

Academic/Supra-Curricular:

As always, the Summer Term has been dominated by one thing in particular on an academic
front - public examinations. This year they lasted for eight weeks and there were over 3,500
exams in total, all fantastically managed by Miss Cockshott and her team. Add on to this the
end of year exams that you have all been taking and that represents a phenomenal amount
of effort and hard work.

Our Year of Languages has continued this term with a language workshop, trips to Puerto
De Santa Maria in Spain and the Opal Coast in France and a visit from prestigious French
film director Eric Toledana. Thank you to Mr Marshall and the whole Modern Languages
team for all of their hard work to make this a very special year.

In addition, the U3 explored sustainable farming at Rushall Farm, our Art and Textiles
students sampled the cultural delights of Vienna, our Geographers headed for the
spectacular landscapes of the Alps and our Biologists explored the marine biology of the Isle
of Wight. One again, as part of the IB CAS programme, a group of sixth formers were lucky
to be able to visit Botswana and to help in the local community, teaching pupils at Matlapana
School, before going on to see the wildlife on safari.

The Academic Scholars in U3 to L5 adopted a new way to present the findings of their
studies with a presentation evening on the theme of change, which gave everyone a chance
to understand their areas of research. Recently, the whole L5 have been writing their
Rhetoric Cup speeches and we could all learn a great deal from Abi’s winning speech which
encouraged us to complain less and laugh more. The U3 gave some very thought-provoking
speeches on ‘game-changing women’ and the finalists were confidently able to argue why
their women should be included in a wall of fame. The L5 attended their second academic
dinner with Abingdon School; the new Conspiracy Theory Club was born and Dragons’ Stem
once again produced some creative ideas such as electromagnetically charged slippers.
Add to this some eminent speakers including Peter Stringer who visited the Philosophy Café,
Prof Diana Coyle who came to discuss welfare economics and Prof Denise Lievesley with a
thought provoking talk on social statistics.

Congratulations to all the girls for their hard work and we hope that the summer holiday
gives you a well-deserved chance to rest. At the end of our Year of Languages, we hope that
everyone will be able to enjoy practising their different languages over the summer.

Creative Arts

The Summer Term started with a bang as girls in GCSE and A Level sat their final exams in
the Art School. It was a hive of creativity for nearly two weeks, resulting in ambitious
personal outcomes from all.

A team of enthusiastic Art and Textiles Ambassadors were appointed to work in
collaboration with our Art Prefect, with the specific aim of fostering a love of Art and Design