We have been working with UCLAN in our initiatives promoting reading and are delighted to be hosting visits from two authors who have been published through UCLAN’s publishing house. The first visit, organised by Miss Starkie on the 1st October will be for Year 7 and 8. We will be welcoming Rose Edwards to talk about her new novel “The Harm Tree”. Rose has this to say about her novel: “I wrote ‘The Harm Tree’ for a lot of people. I wrote it for my younger self, who longed to see young women confronting the complexities of life. I wrote it for the students I’d taught, whose excitement for worlds beyond their own, peopled by characters they could aspire to be like, kept me going through dark days. I wrote it for people I’d never meet, who might need to know that growing up is hard but also exciting, loving and worth surviving.”
UCLAN publishing has offered our students a discount on the novel; it can be purchased via ParentPay and Rose will be available to sign copies during her visit.
We are also looking forward to welcoming AJ Hartley back into school on 30th October (a suitably spooky date) to talk about his follow up novel to the award winning “Cold Bath Street” – a novel for slightly older readers set in Preston. The New York Times bestselling author was born in Preston and the novels draw on local Lancashire legends and ghost stories. Many of the areas around UCLAN and the city centre feature in the novel. More details about this event will be sent out a little closer to the time and again, the novels will be available to buy on ParentPay at a discount.
Mrs Woodhouse
Curriculum Leader for English
At the end of term, Food technology hosted a chocolate masterclass. Mrs Hall came down to join in and make her very own chocolate bar. The feedback from the girls was that the day was full of interesting knowledge and facts about their favourite food and they enjoyed the practical chocolate making and packaging workshop.
We are very excited to be launching our new STEM Club this year. STEM Club is a gathering of students that meet weekly to work on inquiry-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related activities. STEM is a powerful and enjoyable way to engage young people, who have a particular interest in these areas and who like to use their innovative and creative thinking to solve everyday problems. We hope that our STEM Club will ignite an interest in STEM subjects and provide a platform to extend young people’s learning. Most importantly, they are fun and exciting, allowing all involved to explore STEM subjects in innovative and inventive ways outside the curriculum. This year, we have some exciting opportunities coming up! We have a range of competitions, such as the Annual Rotary/BAE systems competition and the Tomorrow’s Engineers Robotics. We also take part in the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) Faraday challenge day, which we are fortunate to host here at PGHS on the 7th November. Within STEM Club, we will be solving a variety of problems and challenges to prepare us for these events, plus we hope to submit some students for a variety of CREST awards in order to recognise their hard work. For the first half term, STEM Club will be held on a Tuesday evening 3.30-4.30 in room 34/36, then changing to a Thursday to fit around staff training. We will be launching the new club in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the student bulletin for a date. If you have any questions, feel free to come and see us.
