On Monday 12th January, we were fortunate to be able to attend a Debate Competition run by Wokingham Borough Youth Council.
The topics for debate were assigned and released just one week before the event, and so it was a race against time for all schools to put together a debate team, research, gather evidence, build counterarguments and prepare for the day.
Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday 27th January marked the time in 1945 when the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland was liberated by the allies. Since 2011, we have been marking this day in our school. Our two Year 13 Holocaust Ambassadors, Koyenum and Atika, spoke about their visit to Auschwitz last year on the Lessons from Auschwitz project, a visit which two of our Sixth form History students have been able to go on for many years.
On Wednesday, 14th January, A-Level German students attended a Study Day hosted by the Goethe Institut, organised by the German Department of King’s College London. This provided us with a unique perspective on modern Germany's immigration history, which is particularly beneficial for our studies on immigration and multiculturalism as part of the A-Level course.
All of Year 10 gathered for a fantastic celebration of public speaking and oratorical flair for our Orators' Cup final, a competition that is now in its second year. Before Christmas, every Year 10 student delivered a speech to their English teacher and their peers on a topic of their choice for their GCSE Spoken Language Assessment, and the best speaker from each English class was chosen to compete in front of the whole year group.
On Monday the 10th of November, the A-level Sociology students attended the ‘Sociology in Action’ conference, hearing from subject experts about a wide range of sociological issues.
We had six talks: abolitionism, celebrity culture and the media, representations of female crime, exam skills, wealth disparity and its effects on childhood, and gender, feminism and the family.
Last week, we were delighted to welcome over 270 students from Years 4 and 5 from local primary schools into Kendrick to watch our Year 10 pantomimes. These are written and performed by our Year 10 students who are studying Drama at GCSE. This year's performances were based on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Aladdin and we were also treated to Gretel and Little Red and Snow White and the Very Many Dwarfs!
In November, the Community Committee, with help from other members of the Kendrick Student Leadership Team, ran a series of creative events as part of Fringe Fortnight to raise money for our two school charities; the Reading Refugee Support Group and Smart Works Reading.
Wednesday, December 10th, was Human Rights Day, and to mark this, students from Years 7–13 added their voices to millions of people worldwide by taking part in Amnesty International's Write for Rights Campaign.
Amnesty International is a global movement which is independent of any government or political party, and each year, they identify people from around the world whose human rights have been violated, and ask their supporters to write two types of letters: messages of solidarity and support to those who have been affected, and appeal letters to governments.
Earlier this year, Dr Perry signposted the MFL Department to the GCHQ’s National Language Competition 2025, and we were excited to enter seven teams of four Year 9 students. With challenges of varying levels of difficulty, the competition is designed to enthuse students about language and hopefully encourage them to select language options at GCSE. There were 2734 teams taking part across the United Kingdom, and I am pleased to share with you the results of our seven teams:
On Wednesday 26th November 2025, we were excited to launch our Widening Horizons programme for the 2025-26 academic year. Over 150 parents and primary school children from school Years 3–5 living in our designated area and in receipt of a Pupil Premium or Service Premium, and children in care or previously in care attended the Widening Horizons Information Event for 2025-26 at Kendrick School.
On Thursday 20th November, we attended Reading Council’s Young Voices Safety Summit. We met several new people and had to step out of our comfort zone to talk about a variety of topics. This year's theme was crime and safety. The four topics we discussed at this safety summit were topics that young people identified as the biggest issues for them – Bullying and Hate Crime, Violence against Women and Girls, Exploitation, and Reporting.
On Tuesday 18th November, we visited the Reading Civil Office to take part in the Reading Schools Climate Conference, where Kendrick represented the United Kingdom and the Marshall Islands.
To prepare for this exciting event, we attended preparation sessions at lunchtime with our groups. Outside of school, we did background research on the countries we were representing, to find out about their contributions to climate change and what they are doing to fight climate change. We also prepared an opening statement to present at the beginning of the conference and created PowerPoint slides to demonstrate how our school is being eco-friendly.