Principal's Message - never judge a book by its cover
The most unique feature about our school is the pupils in it. It’s quite simple for me. Our girls are the best young people I have ever worked with across 22 years and six schools. They are articulate, empathetic and driven to do the best that they can.
I am passionate about our school and have been very active on social media, lobbying local councillors and spreading the word across Reading at every opportunity to promote our school. This year, we have received an additional potential 171 year 6 pupils to join us in September 2019.
I am a huge advocate of the moral and social justice that education can provide for young people regardless of their circumstances. Recently I wrote to the Reading Chronicle asking why they do not give coverage of our school. Please follow this link to read my letter. I am glad to say we had a visit from their reporter today who toured the school and met with pupils and staff. His article will be published in next week’s edition.
Smashed Project
The Smashed Project is an educational theatre initiative with a vision – to break the culture of underage drinking and reduce alcohol related harm amongst young people around the world. They work with governments, industry and a wide range of creative partners to realise this vision. This year, the Smashed Project will be delivered in 15 countries and reach over 250,000 young people on 6 continents.
Year 7’s were fortunate to watch the production facilitated by Collingwood Learning and the Community Alcohol Project this week. They found it very engaging and informative and was followed by a workshop about the effects of alcohol on the body, personality and lasting effects. The students thoroughly enjoyed it and interacted very well.
Anti-bullying Charter and Support Framework: Kindness
As part of the introduction of our revised anti-bullying strategy the Anti-Bullying Ambassador Team are in the process of launching a Kindness Board in school which celebrates the huge number of acts of kindness our students show for each other every day. Here is just one example of the kindness we see every day in our school.
Esther, a Year 10 student, joined us in 2018 after making the decision to move from her Bracknell secondary school because she felt she was not making the progress needed to achieve her potential. Hard working and focussed, she has made great progress at RGS and despite traveling by train and bus every day, she has never missed a day and is always on time.
Ashleyne, a Year 7 student, joined us from London this year, she also lives in Bracknell. Esther took it upon herself to show Ashleyne her travel route when she started. Every day Esther waits for Ashleyne in the morning and after school to travel with her. It is a real act of kindness for Esther to support Ashleyne and has made a real difference to Ashleyne’s transition to RGS. We are very proud of Esther, her commitment to school, the kindness she shows every day, she is a role model to us all.
PE NEWS
Our Year 7 (blue bibs) and Year 8 (yellow bibs) Netball teams are midway through their leagues with other schools from Reading, Wokingham and Oxfordshire.
They have already had impressive wins against JMA and Leighton Park. Our Year 8 team also achieved a very dominant result against Chiltern Edge winning 10-0.
Our Year 9 (blue bibs) and 11 (yellow bibs) Netball teams are also part way through their leagues. They have both played some challenging games, the best results for both teams were wins against Highdown. The Year 9’s winning 5-3 and the Year 11’s winning 9 - 5.
Our Year 11 Health and Fitness Group had their second and final climbing session at Reading Climbing Centre. The purpose was to see if their training programme had improved their fitness enough to improve their climbing. The girls worked really hard, attempting more challenging routes up the wall and also the very difficult overhang sections.
Teaching and Learning
Has your lesson been REAL (Relevant, Engaging, Active Leaning?
This academic year has been an exciting time for staff and students at Reading Girls’ School, with the launch of REAL. At the end of lessons students get the opportunity to feedback to teachers about the lesson. Students are presented with the question ‘Has your lesson been REAL?’ Students inform the teacher by taking a token and placing it in the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ box in their classroom. The tokens are then collected in at the end of the week and counted.
Results for Monday 11 — Friday 15 March 2019
YES - 337 tokens
No - 63 tokens