March 2025 - Penwortham Girls' High School

PGHS Founders Day

Posted on March 31, 2025April 2, 2025 by Michelle Murray

On 28th March 2025, Penwortham Girls’ High School marked its 70th Founders Day, a significant milestone in the school’s long and proud history. Since its opening on 28th March 1955, the school has grown and evolved but its commitment to excellence and community remains unchanged.

The school was officially opened by Edward Stanley, the 18th Earl of Derby, and its first headteacher, Mrs Waddington, an Oxford graduate and specialist in languages, welcomed the first cohort of 85 students. These early students took great pride in their new school, which laid the foundation for the strong traditions that continue today.

To celebrate this anniversary, Year 7 and 8 students took part in a day of activities reflecting the school’s history. The day began with an assembly led by Headteacher, Mrs Hall, followed by a talk from Mr Herbert about the school’s origins. A special highlight was a video message from Ms Wootton, the school’s first head girl, who shared her personal recollections of life at PGHS during its inaugural year. Music played an important role in the celebrations, with performances led by Mrs Cattanach and Mrs Little. The girls sang Jerusalem and the God Save the King, just as was done during the first Founders Day. We also had some excellent performances from the School Choir, Woodwind Group and Orchestra. Governors, led by Chair, Ms Russell-Hayes, were also in attendance, recognising the significance of the day.

Throughout the morning, students engaged in activities reminiscent of the 1950s, including deportment, elocution, handwriting and Latin lessons, giving them a sense of the discipline and expectations of past generations. They also had the opportunity to showcase their creativity by designing a new school logo, composing a school song and writing a poem to mark the anniversary.

At lunchtime, students from all year groups gathered in the quad for an open mic session, featuring popular songs from the 1950s. The atmosphere was lively and celebratory, as students embraced the chance to take part in a musical tribute to the past.

The afternoon activities continued the theme of tradition, with students trying their hand at needlework, a skill that was once a staple of school life. The celebrations concluded with a special group photograph of Year 7 and 8 students arranged in the shape of a ’70’ on the netball courts, taken from above by a drone. This visual representation of the anniversary served as a fitting reminder of the school’s long history and its bright future.

The students participated with enthusiasm, gaining a deeper appreciation of the school’s past and the changes it has undergone over the decades. This Founders Day held particular significance as the last major anniversary to be celebrated in the current building. As we prepare for a new chapter in our new school, we do so with a strong sense of tradition and pride in our history.

Founders’ Day at Penwortham Girls’ High School on 28 March 2025. Lancashire, England. 2025.

Mr Herbert,

Associate Assistant Headteacher

Chemical Cookery

Posted on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Chemical Cookery: Year 9 Take Science into the Kitchen.

Who says science can’t be delicious? Year 9 students recently stepped outside their usual curriculum to dive into the fascinating world of molecular gastronomy, where chemistry and cooking collide! Their challenge? To create a dish that looked like a classic plate of spaghetti and meatballs, but with a surprising twist. Instead of pasta and meat, students made white chocolate spaghetti and raspberry ‘meatballs’ using cutting-edge techniques and a dash of chemical magic!

Using ingredients like sodium alginate, calcium lactate and agar agar, students explored how science can transform textures and states of matter. The experience introduced them to spherification, a process that turns liquids into delicate, jelly-like spheres, and gelification, which allowed them to turn white chocolate into noodle-like strands.

The kitchen turned into a laboratory as students experimented with different methods to perfect their dishes. Some struggled with getting the right consistency for their raspberry spheres, while others found the spaghetti strands to be trickier than expected. However, through teamwork and problem-solving, they all managed to plate up a unique and tasty creation!

“It was so cool to see how science could change food in such unexpected ways,” said one Year 9 student. “I never thought I’d be making spaghetti out of chocolate, but now I kind of want to try making other weird food experiments at home!”

The Chemical Cookery session was a brilliant opportunity for students to develop their practical skills, creativity and understanding of food science. It’s safe to say that the world of cooking will never look the same again for these young scientists!

Who knows, maybe we have some future molecular gastronomists in our midst? Next time, we might just see exploding desserts or edible foams on the menu! Watch this space!

Mr Dean

Science Department

Year 9 Competes in the ‘If You Were an Engineer, What Would You Do?’ Leaders Award

Posted on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Year 9 students are participating in the ‘If You Were an Engineer, What Would You Do?’ Leaders Award competition.

This competition invites students from both primary and secondary schools to spot a problem, create an innovative solution, and write a letter explaining why engineers should choose to bring their solution to life.

As part of their Science lessons, Year 9 participated in several lessons designed to prepare them for the competition. The first lesson introduced students to various engineering careers through videos that emphasised that anyone, regardless of their background, can become an engineer.

A crucial aspect of the competition required students to interview an engineer. Year 9 had the opportunity to watch an interview with Anne-Marie Imafidon from Stemettes. Anne-Marie provided valuable insights into her journey to becoming and engineer and what inspired her to take that path.

In the final lessons, students focused on identifying a problem and designing a solution, drawing inspiration from past competition winners. Teachers were impressed by the enthusiasm and the creative ideas that the students came up with.

Each student who submits a design will have their work evaluated by an engineer and receive a certificate of participation. Shortlisted entries will be judged by a panel, and the best ideas will be honoured at an awards ceremony and displayed in a public exhibition during the summer term.

An exciting part of the competition is that every year, university teams select one of the shortlisted ideas to turn into a real-world project!

Good luck, Year 9! We’re excited to see what you create.

Mrs Goodwill

Science Department

United Kingdom Mathematics Trust

Posted on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Intermediate Mathematical Challenge 2025

As part of the recent school STEM festival, the Year 9 and 10 students took on the yearly challenge of the UKMT Intermediate Mathematics Challenge 2025.

This national event presents an annual challenge to students in Years 9 and 10 and takes the form of a multiple-choice quiz based on using mathematical skills learnt in lessons to problem solve.

Over 4000 schools across the UK take part in this event and the standard of participation is high. Only the best achieving students can receive an award and to do so is recognition of the effort and ability of our students.

Once again, I am pleased to announce that our students have achieved one of our best ever set of results with 38 medals awarded. This represents a tremendous achievement for our students going up against some of the best other schools in the country.

This year’s prize winners are as follows:

Silver awards were achieved by:

(Year 10) Emily W (also best in Year 10), Elsie B, Tanisha S, Isabella S, Olivia H and Poppy M

(Year 9) Safiyyah R (also joint best in school and joint best in Year 9), Ava T (also joint best in school and joint best in Year 9), Sophia W, Philippa M, Emily T, Isabella N and Cherlotte Y.

Bronze awards were achieved by:

(Year 10) Hannah S, Grace S, Faatimah V, Grace A, Fatima S, Georgia K, Zoha I, Daisy M, Jessica B, Naomi S, Unaisah B, Imogen C, Lily S and Scarlett S.

(Year 9) Georgia B, Sophie W, Mathilda R, Maryam M, Charlotte O, Lucy R, Martha S, Charlotte T, Isabella F, Isabella M and Lilah C.

Congratulations to everybody involved. We are very much looking forward to the other Mathematical challenges this year.

Mr S. Cheal

The Mathematics Department

Girls in STEM Day

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Faraday Challenge Days

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Ian Murphy Workshop

Posted on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 by Michelle Murray

On 4^th March, Year 10 GCSE Art students and some Year 9 students who have shown an interest in studying GCSE Art next year, were given the amazing opportunity to meet and work with World-renowned artist Ian Murphy.

Students were able to see first-hand some of Ian’s sketchbooks and paintings, as he explained to them how he works and where his ideas come from. They were able to flick through his fascinating sketchbooks and ask questions in a lovely relaxed environment at the start of the workshop day. Later, students watched live demonstrations form Ian as he talked them through his chosen materials and processes, before they were able to trial the same techniques themselves.

The atmosphere throughout the day was fabulous, with students all engaged and inspired. Ian encouraged student’s to ‘have a go’ and not be too worried about producing the ‘perfect’ piece as they created a series of samples using layering, texture, mixed-media and inks.

The emphasis was on risk taking and embracing ’happy accidents’ to learn from, inform creative outcomes and open-minded experimentation. As an Art Department, we are delighted with this as we aim to harvest this mindset in all our students within their Art education here at PGHS.

Students gained a unique insight into Ian’s creative thought process from initial small pen sketches gathered on his worldwide travels to final canvas outcomes on a very large scale. Ian had brought a sample of these large pieces of work with him for us to view, one of which being approximately 10ft long!

Feedback from the workshop was incredibly positive and students involved were very enthusiastic about what they had learned and experienced.

As an Art department, we were incredibly proud of all who took part, allowing themselves to step out of their drawing comfort zone.

All students were impeccably behaved and were a credit to our school.