On Thursday 6^th March, we held our Design your Future Careers Fair with our partners Learning to Work in the school hall. We had 30 exhibitors, including employers from a range of industries, training providers, voluntary sector organisations, universities and local colleges.

Over 300 students from Year 9 to 12 attended, some with their parents/carers.  They were able to ask questions, pick up ideas and hear first-hand about entry-level requirements and career opportunities.  The energy at the fair was buzzing with lively conversations and information sharing.

On Saturday 8th March, a team of Year 9 students participated and won first place in the local heat of the 2024-25 Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition at Reading Crown Court. Presented with a fabricated case beforehand, our team of lawyers, witnesses, legal advisors, magistrates and even court artists and reporters went up against several other schools in the setting of a real court.

On the 7th March, Kendrick celebrated International Women’s Day! We began the day with an assembly led by Kendrick Student Leaders and Year 13 students, to outline the importance of this event, and the focus of this year’s theme ‘Accelerate Action’. The assembly highlighted the immense contributions of women throughout history and their ongoing fight for equality, outlining how figures like Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst helped achieve women's suffrage in the UK after decades of struggle.

On Thursday, 13th February, a group of four Key Stage 3 students set out to test our problem-solving skills at the UKMT’s Team Maths Challenge, held at Queen Anne’s School. Competing against some of the brightest minds from across our region, our team tackled a series of challenging mathematical problems that tested not only our numerical abilities but also our teamwork and strategic thinking skills.

The challenge consisted of several rounds, each designed to push our mathematical limits in different ways. These included a group round, which was essentially a set of complex problems that were given out to the group, a crossnumber round, which was a mathematical crossword puzzle, where we had to work in pairs to fill in different parts of the crossnumber, the shuttle round, a fast-paced relay of problems, where one pair’s solution fed into the next problem, and finally, the relay round, a test of both speed and accuracy as we passed problems around in pairs.

As part of Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, our Student Wellbeing Ambassadors and staff organised an Inside Out 2 event around this year's theme of Know Yourself, Grow Yourself.

Last month I was awarded the DofE Changemaker of the Year Award and was invited to Buckingham Palace to meet HRH the Duke of Edinburgh for Afternoon Tea. It was an incredible evening as I was able to talk to the other award winners who were doing some amazing work and breaking down barriers in their own communities, as well as Prince Edward and other celebrity judges like Harry Judd and Oliver Phelps. It was amazing to be inside the Palace and to have afternoon tea there!  After the reception at the palace, we went to the London Transport Museum for the awards ceremony, where I met other nominees and DofE Youth Ambassadors.