Virtual Visitor! Year 8 Humanism

Throughout the term so far, Year 8 have started to explore ultimate questions, such as ‘what does it mean to be human?’
Within the lessons, we have held debates that delved deep into these philosophical questions, but this week Year 8 have had the opportunity to ask a humanist how they may respond to life’s ultimate questions.

Humanism is a non-religious approach to life that is found throughout time and across the world in many different cultures. Roughly speaking, the word humanist has come to mean someone who:

  • trusts to the scientific method when it comes to understanding how the universe works and rejects the idea of the supernatural (and is therefore an atheist or agnostic);

  • makes their ethical decisions based on reason, empathy and a concern for human beings and other sentient animals;

  • believes in the absence of an afterlife and any discernible purpose to the universe;

  • human beings can act to give their own lives, meaning they seeking happiness in this life and help others to do the same.

Through the virtual lecture, Year 8s were taught the fundamental beliefs of humanism and discussed how it is similar and different to religions. At the end of the presentation, students were able to ask any questions to Keith, the Humanist representative.

More can be found about Humanism here: https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/ https://lancashire.humanist.org.uk/

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RE in the World this Week

INTER FAITH WEEK OF PRAYER FOR WORLD PEACE (11-18th October)
The 8 days from the 2nd to the 3rd Sunday in October each year, are kept as an occasion when members of all faiths focus their prayers on world peace.
It was a Christian initiative in 1974 that led to the founding of the Week of Prayer for World Peace.  It only took a few years for it to become an interfaith activity.  People of all faith traditions or none, are now welcomed.
Each day of the week is given a theme:

Sunday           Celebrating Unity

Monday         Environment and Climate Change

Tuesday         Sharing our resources

Wednesday  Animals and Insects                                           

Thursday       Respect

Friday             Friendship

Saturday        Gratitude

Sunday          Working Together with Courage  

Plans for the Year

We look forward to next half term where we will be learning all about the cultural events surrounding Christmas in France and Germany.  There will be lots of activities to take part in to learn about how the festive period is celebrated in France and Germany.  Hopefully we will be able to bake some delicious French and German Christmas bakes – now that is something I shall look forward to!  Our girls will also get the opportunity to take part in the bunting competition and design their own revision bunting during the Autumn term.  We will also be launching our Year 7 German spelling bee competition, where Year 7s will get the chance to compete in the German spelling competition and see how many German words they can spell in a minute. Could you be the next Spelling Bee champion to take on our local high schools?  Hopefully in the spring term, we will have the opportunity to launch our French and German breakfasts and have the chance to start our film club to enjoy some French and German films.  Watch this space for more French and German fun!

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Mrs Gill
Curriculum Leader for MFL

European Day of Languages

Every year on 26th September, the European day of Languages is celebrated and is a day where people in Europe can celebrate all the diverse languages and cultures across the world.  It is a day to celebrate all the languages that we can learn and to enjoy listening to and speaking them. This year, we celebrated by greeting our students in a new language and students were able to greet their teacher back in a different language.  There were lots of ‘Moy Moy’ (Finnish), ‘Buenos días’ (Spanish) and ‘Ahój’ (Czech) across the school and pupils also practised these in their MFL lessons.  We also had a languages form quiz where forms competed against each other in 30 questions based on different languages and countries.  The standard was so high but 11G came out triumphant, followed closely by 9H, 9G, 7H and 10J.  Well done!

KS3 had the opportunity to enjoy taking part in the poster competition which again proved to be highly popular and successful.  We were inundated with entries to our poster competition and I have genuinely never seen such a high quality of entries in all my years of teaching – deciding on winners was almost impossible.  We divided the winners into year groups and our winners and runners up enjoyed receiving their goody boxes of prizes.  A huge thank you to everyone that entered, the standard was very high.  I have displayed all the work in our hall for all our staff to see. Huge congratulations and special mentions go to:

Year 9:  Isla W, Dionne D, Amber R, Soraya D, Elyse F, Lily T

Year 8:  Hanya A, Jennifer K, Lojaina A, Caitlin J and Sazan A

Year 7:  Hattie C, Elyse F, Natalie U, Angel A, Ruby R, Lucy EW, Rosie Y, Jenna K and Jameelah V

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Mrs Gill
Curriculum Leader for MFL

Bienvenue/Willkommen

Kelly Gill.jpgHello my name is Mrs Gill and what a pleasure it has been to start working here as the new Curriculum Leader for Modern Foreign Languages at Penwortham Girls’ High School.  I am so excited to be starting here and joining a super team in the languages department and I look forward to all the exciting opportunities that lie ahead of us all over the coming months.  

Having taught in Lancashire for 17 years, I know what a wonderful school PGHS is and I look forward to immersing you all in the interesting countries of France and Germany.  We have lots planned over the next year and despite certain things having to be put on hold, there are still lots of activities and events that can take place that we can all enjoy together to share our love of languages and their cultures.  I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all my new students over the last five weeks and I am excited to see all the superb work that they can produce over this coming year. 

What a busy first few weeks we have had in the languages department!  We have spent quite a lot of our time setting all our students up on Quizlet, Duo Lingo and Active Learn.  These are such useful apps and websites to use to further your language learning.  They will really enhance your language learning and help you to discover the language further and the culture of France and Germany even more.  Covid-19 has not dampened our spirits at all as alongside this, we have really hit the ground running and have already celebrated two big events in the languages calendar, European Day of Languages and Tag der Deutschen Einheit.

Mrs Gill

Curriculum Leader for MFL

What to do with your old school uniform

One of our amazingly talented young ladies, Lily (Year 9) has taken a creative approach to the annual question, ‘what to do with her outgrown school uniform?’ Rather than throw-away or pass down to a younger sibling or cousin, she has up-cycled her jumper, shirt and PE kit into a rather zazzy blanket! In Lily’s words:

“I have created this blanket using my previous year school uniform, with the help of my mum’s new sewing machine. The materials I have used, are; my cherry red jumpers, patches of my school P.E jumpers, as well as bits of the school P.E skort and top. For the border of this blanket, I have included a line of string piping, covered by my school blouse. In the far corner, I have included the school logo, to show how proud I am to be attending this school. It took me the entirety of the summer holidays and but it was worth it – I’m really proud of what I have produced :)”.

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Important October anniversaries for GCSE Historians!

The following important events from our study of Elizabethan England, the USA 1910-29 and Germany 1919-1991, all took place in October. Why not revise each topic on their anniversary?

October 1, 1908 Henry Ford‘s Model T, a “universal car” designed for the masses, went on sale for the first time.

October 1, 1938 – Hitler’s troops occupied the Sudetenland – a part of Czechoslovakia. In an effort to avoid war, the leaders of Britain and France had agreed to give this German-speaking area to Hitler, who later broke the agreement and occupied all of Czechoslovakia.

October 3, 1990 – After 45 years of Cold War division, East and West Germany were reunited as the Federal Republic of Germany

October 6, 1927 – The first “talkie” opened in New York. ‘The Jazz Singer’ starring Al Jolson was the first full-length feature film using spoken dialogue.

October 10, 1562 – Elizabeth I nearly dies of smallpox!

October 19, 1987 – “Black Monday” occurred on Wall Street as stocks plunged a record 22.6%, the largest one-day drop in stock market history.

October 24, 1929 – “Black Thursday” occurred on Wall Street as nearly 13 million shares were sold in panic selling. Five days later “Black Tuesday” saw 16 million shares sold.

October 24, 1931 – Chicago gangster “Scarface” Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail for Federal income tax evasion.

October 26, 1586 – Mary Queen of Scots was found guilty of her involvement in the Babington plot.

October 28, 1918 – At the end of the First World War, a mutiny broke out in the German navy at Kiel. The uprising spread to Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck, resulting in a general strike in Berlin which brought down Kaiser Wilhelm II, who abdicated the following month.

October 28, 1919 – Prohibition began in the U.S. with the passage of the National Prohibition (Volstead) Act by Congress. Sales of drinks containing more than one half of one percent of alcohol became illegal.

Year 9 History

 Year 9 students have recently been studying the causes and events of the First World War 1914-18. As part of their study of the period, students have investigated the events of the 28th June 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated by a terrorist organisation, ‘the Black Hand Gang’. Students demonstrated their learning by creating a newspaper article outlining the key events from this crucial turning point in 20th century history. Here are some examples of their hard work!

Mr Herbert,
Curriclum Leader for History

Year 7 History

Year 7 students have already been impressing us this term with their enthusiasm for History and eagerness to learn more about the Medieval period. Here is a selection of Year 7 opinions about what they have enjoyed about History so far!

“I have enjoyed learning about the old school uniform that Penwortham Girls’ used to wear including berets, skirts, scarves and big gym knickers! We learnt about the different subjects and buildings that there used to be.”

Hayley R

“I have learnt all about the old school uniform. They used to wear these berets and wore these knickers for PE. I found it very interesting to learn about it and History is my new favourite subject (other than PE)!”

Tess S

“In History so far, I have enjoyed learning about the various tactics used at the Battle of Fulford and the Battle of Stamford Bridge. It was interesting to learn about the motives of all the claimants.”

Abigail K

“I liked learning about Harald Hardrada and how he fought off the Anglo-Saxons and used their corpses to cross the River Ouse.”

Grace D

Mr Herbert
Curriculum Leader for History

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

We are delighted to announce the launch of our PGHS Maths newspaper, ‘The Sum’.

Every half term, a set of form groups from across all Key Stage 3 groups will be selected to take on the role of mathematical journalists. They will be given the opportunity to write newspaper articles which explore mathematics in real life applications and contexts.

The article headlines are fixed, with guidance and ideas provided on the school website on our Maths Enrichment page.

http://www.penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk/mathematics-enrichment/6392365.html

Students can chose to write articles from any of the following headlines :

Fashion and Finance

Careers that Count

Sustainable Sums

Food for Thought

Puzzle Page

The first form groups selected are 7P, 8P and 9P. The classroom teacher of these groups will spend some time in their upcoming lessons exploring some of the key themes and reminding students of the academic vocabulary that should be used when writing from a mathematical viewpoint.

On completion of an article, students should email their work to thesum@penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk.

We look forward to reading the fantastic work and creative ideas submitted.

Be sure to look out for our premiere issue which will be emailed out in the week commencing 19th October.

  • Artsmark Platinum Award - Awards by Arts Council England
  • Lancashire Socio-economic Equality Badge
  • SMART
  • UNICEF
  • School Mental Health Award
  • Ofsted - Outstanding Provider
  • International School Award
  • Artsmark Platinum Award - Awards by Arts Council England
  • Lancashire Socio-economic Equality Badge
  • SMART
  • UNICEF
  • School Mental Health Award
  • Ofsted - Outstanding Provider
  • International School Award