You can keep up with all the latest news and events from The Piggott School via the news tiles below, Twitter or our School Blogs.
For copies of all letters sent home please visit the Letters and latest News page.
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In case you missed it, here are some recent press articles featuring stories about The Piggott School.
This week we took some time as a school to reflect on events happening in Ukraine and Europe. Students offered prayers and messages of hope which are now in our reflection room. This was chosen in order to represent that the world may have different leaves, but they are all part of the same tree.
World Down Syndrome Day - Monday 21st March 2022
As part of the Henley Youth Festival, Gig Night will be held at the Kenton Theatre in Henley on the evening of Thursday 10 March.
The event is open to all students in years 9-13 who would like to perform live at the Kenton Theatre. Bands, duos and solo performers are all welcome. No backing tracks are permitted. Each act can perform up to 15 minutes of music, depending on how many performances we will accommodate.
Entry forms are available here: https://www.hyf.org.uk/_files/ugd/2ccb0e_f39c2130df9b4612b69d3a188c6e914c.pdf
Further details of the festival are available here: https://www.hyf.org.uk/
Computer Science student Jess competed in the National Cipher Challenge and had an astonishing result, equal 9th with Eton College out of 6250 students worldwide. Here is what Jess had to say about her achievement in the @Cipher_Master National Cipher Challenge, along with some inspirational advice for girls interested in pursuing computer science.
Well done Jess!
Fifty-two Year 10, 11 and Sixth Form students visited the National Museum of Computing last Friday, home to the world's largest collection of working historic computers. Students got to follow the development of computing: from the Turing-Welchman Bombe and Colossus of the 1940s through the large systems and mainframes of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, to the rise of personal computing and the rise of mobile computing and the internet.
Year 12 student, Jess said "The Piggott School trip to The National Museum of Computing was a very interesting and educational experience. We were able to see the rebuilt Colossus computer and the WITCH (the world's oldest working digital computer) among many other pieces of technology.
As well as this, we took part in a fun programming workshop where we used a BBC micro-machine to program a game of snake. I enjoyed writing code in a different language using a type of computer that I hadn't used before.
I also thought that the 'Power of Primes' activity was amazing as it highlighted the importance that prime numbers play in cryptography, and it briefly taught us about the other maths involved in creating ciphers.
Overall I thought that the trip was great and the tour guides were very informative."
Other students said the highlights of the trip were:
"Experiencing the minds of computer scientists from the past."
"Programming a snake game with BBC basic."
"Learning about the history behind the enigma machines."
At Piggott, we aim to help and guide students to develop compassion, empathy and tolerance in their relationships with others. This week, our Sixth Form students rallied together to raise an impressive £400 with the simple gesture of wearing red to honour Ashling Murphy, a young teacher who was tragically murdered while jogging in Tullamore, Ireland.
The funds raised will go to Women's Aid, a grassroots federation working together to provide life-saving services in England and build a future where domestic abuse is not tolerated.
Well done to Maeve in Year 12 for mobilising the Sixth Form and for raising awareness of this important issue and raising funds for Women's Aid.
Over 500 students from Years 7 – 10 and 12 - 13 took part in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge last November for a chance to make it through to the Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC), a prestigious event in computational thinking.
Of that number, 78 Piggott students scored in the top 10% nationally, automatically giving them a place in Oxford University’s ‘invitation-only’ event.
We had 3 students selected from Year 10 & Year 12, 12 students from Year 9, 18 students from Year 8 and a record number of 42 students from Year 7.
The first round of the annual OUCC challenge is held online in schools and supervised by teachers with participants' solutions auto-marked by the OUCC system.
Following this, the top 20 students in each age group are invited to Oxford University to compete in the final.
This is our third year participating in the challenge. Last year, Piggott twins Finlay and Oliver (Year 9) remarkably achieved a top 20 place after competing against 3,875 students nationwide in the Year 8 & 9 age OUCC category.
In 2020, finalist Matthew Sullivan (Year 12 at the time) won the chance to spend the day at Oxford University attending seminars, a prize that inspired him to go on to study at Oxford University.
The OUCC is an invitation-only event which aims to encourage students to develop their skills further and produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems.
Just before the end of Term 1, students received their certificates. Take a look at the photos here:
After a fantastic performance, our U13 Girls Football team representing Reading FC made it through to the semi-final of the Utilita Cup. Utilita Energy partnered with the English Football League to power Britain’s biggest junior football tournaments: the Utilita Kids Cup and Utilita Girls Cup.
Over 22,000 schoolchildren take part in six-a-side action for the chance to represent their local EFL club - and compete for a once in a lifetime appearance at Wembley.
Good luck going forward girls.
Keep up with news from each year level here: https://www.piggottschool.org/lettersandlatestnews
Students and their families are usually invited to witness the presentation of A-Level and Level 3 certificates. Unfortunately, in light of the circumstances, we have been unable to hold this presentation evening and would like to invite students to collect their certificates from main reception during the school day.
In the week leading up to Christmas last year, we delivered our first Christmas tree to CIRDIC. This is the Churches In Reading Drop In Centre. We took the beautiful 6-foot tree in time for Christmas along with some decorations and a much-needed supply of socks! Around 90 students cut out and wrote beautiful messages of Christmas cheer which were then hung on the tree as decorations and wrapped around the socks as gifts for the homeless.
This is one of many trips The Piggott School will be making to CIRDIC over the coming year. We are working closely with the centre to discover their needs and as a wider school community, will create provision for them. As a Christian school, with our vision set to be Samaritans as Jesus taught us, we constantly seek to ‘go and do likewise'. We are looking forward to building our relationship further with CIRDIC and will be offering additional opportunities for students to be involved this year.
For further information about CIRDIC please visit their website here.
On Wednesday 24th November, the Wokingham based charity Soulscape delivered a PSHE workshop to the Year 10 pupils. Soulscape partners with schools in Wokingham and Bracknell to help deliver effective RE and PSHE lessons, and to create a space where pupils can talk about sensitive issues. Soulscape partnered with sixth form pupils from READ College, Reading to deliver their OBJECT Workshop which explored issues around pornography, relationships and self-image.
They delivered a brilliantly choreographed, honest and thought-provoking 20-minute theatre presentation followed by a 25-minute small group discussion, led by the sixth form performers.
It was an excellent opportunity for the pupils to engage with a sensitive topic and to explore follow-up questions with leaders closer in age. The feedback from Year 10 was extremely positive, with most finding the session very helpful, educational and relatable. They appreciated the open environment, honest conversation and theatre performance that highlighted the impact of pornography on relationships in young people.
Students address real world problems through CREST Award
A group of Year 10 students successfully completed their Bronze Crest Award this year and were recently awarded their certificates by Mrs Elliott (Head of KS5 Chemistry) in recognition of the successful projects they planned and executed addressing a real-world problem.
The Bronze Crest Awards introduce students to project work empowering them to work like real scientists, technologists, engineers or mathematicians. Students choose their own topic and methodologies, giving them complete freedom over their work.
Bronze projects are assessed against the CREST assessment criteria and the project process develops enquiry, problem-solving and communication skills.
This year the students’ topics included:
Not only did these students complete their topics over and above the required CREST standard, but they also did so during difficult COVID-restricted times, completing a lot of their work at home and online.
Congratulations to Anoushka, Aiden, Alex, Arthur, Annabel and Evie.
Be in it to win it and win some extra cash this Christmas! Support the PSA and get your tickets online for The PSA Christmas Raffle for your chance to win one of three monetary prizes including £100, £75 or £50 plus a bottle of bubbly for the winners. Entries close 14th December 2021.
The Piggott School Association aims to raise funds that will go towards enhancing the school's facilities and resources that will enrich your child’s education.
In RE this term, the Year 7’s are studying Creation Myths; exploring origin stories from around the world, from the Biblical account of Genesis, the Hindu account of Brahman to the Australian Aboriginal myth. We believe a diverse, cross-cultural and thought-provoking curriculum is the most effective for developing holistic, well-rounded students.
Whilst studying the Aboriginal creation myth, students delved into the spiritual and mystical significance of Aboriginal music and artwork. The students showed incredible enthusiasm for this topic, so their homework task was to produce Aboriginal artwork to represent elements of the Dreamtime creation story we read through in lesson.
We were extremely impressed with the level of effort, creativity and interpretation that the students portrayed. You can find more examples of their work here: https://www.piggottschool.org/year7
If you love sport and you're keen to pursue a career in the sports industry; be that as a player, coach, fitness instructor, sports psychologist or some other role, take a look at our Football Academy courses and join our information evening and open day events coming up.
Our football studies programmes allow students the opportunity to play and coach football and still gain the qualifications, skills and experience they require to gain entry into university and access to jobs in the sports industry.
Students may be able to access work placements at Chelsea FC Foundation, where they could experience life as a coach in a professional club.
We have been successfully developing young sports coaches in the Berkshire area for over a decade. Since we introduced the football studies programme in 2008, our graduates have exceeded all expectations. We have past students that are now PE Teachers, soccer coaches in professional clubs and in the USA, fitness instructors in local health, and pupils studying a variety of sports courses at universities across the country.
Join our information session and open days at The Piggott School to find out more about the exceptional courses offered in partnership with the Chelsea Football Club Foundation.
Girls Football Academy Information Evening: Tuesday 23 November from 6:30-7:15pm
Coaching Academy Information Evening: Wednesday 24th November from 6:30-7:15pm
SIGN UP FOR THE INFORMATION SESSION
Watch our video here to find out more about the coaching programme:
Last week, The Piggott School community rallied together to donate food for those in need and in doing so they collected 30 crates of food and other useful items.
“We are incredibly proud of how the Piggott school community responded to our food collection last week. With the help of the prefect team and the generosity of Piggott families, we filled 30 very large crates with food and other useful items for our friends at ReadiFood. Thank you to all who contributed. Each contribution, big or small makes a difference.”
Miss Marris
"There's no planet B so we need to do something now" said Piggott student Otilie in ITV Meridian's recent programme about the COP26 Climate Conference. Fellow student Anna joined her, "This won't be a quick fix but it's a really good step" she said.
You can watch the full programme and the girls in action here https://youtu.be/w8s3at6e1EE
Did you know that more than 3.5 million women and girls are now playing football across England? If you're one of them, and you love playing football but are thinking about giving it up to study your A-Levels in 2022-2023, think again.
The Piggott School offers female footballers the perfect opportunity to combine their A-Level studies in an outstanding academic environment with professional football coaching and competitive matches.
The programme will provide players with the skill to be able to develop their performance and understanding of the game. Training sessions will fit around the girls' academic lessons, allowing pupils flexibility to study up to 3 A-Level or Vocational qualifications alongside their training.
Players will be expected to train up to 4 hours a week and represent the Academy team.
We are realistic in our view that very few students will become professional footballers and therefore we focus on providing our students with the experience, values and qualifications that will offer them a broader choice and pathway in the sports industry when they graduate.
Join our information session on 23rd November at 6:30-7:15pm at The Piggott School to find out more about this exceptional course delivered in partnership with the Chelsea Football Club Foundation.
SIGN UP FOR THE INFORMATION SESSION
Watch our video here to find out more about the programme: