First Give Finals

You may remember back in April, we posted about the success of Year 9’s Easter Fayre. This was undertaken as part of the FirstGive project, which encourages learners to take part in social action, and support charities in their local area.

Each of our Year 9 Humanities classes selected a charity to support, researched their mission, and spoke with charity representatives to learn more about what they do.

However, there was a slight competitive edge to the project! Each class had the opportunity to win a further £1,000 for their chosen charity from FirstGive…all they had to do was impress the judges!

This Wednesday, a representative team from each class presented their case to our panel of judges: Luke Fletcher MS; former student and Marketing and PR graduate, Jade Evans; Maureen Harris, School Improvement Partner at CSC; First Give Trustee, Jeremy Langley; and Director of FirstGive, Isaac Jones.

One by one, the teams took the floor and spoke passionately about their charities, and the social causes they support. Some learners were even brave enough to share their own personal experiences. They shared what they had learned throughout the project, and how their chosen charity would spend the £1,000, if they were to receive it.

Then, it was time for the judges to deliberate! It was an incredibly tough decision, and they praised learners enthusiasm, the detailed knowledge they had of their charities, and the confidence they showed in their presentations.

In addition to the grand prize, the judges were so impressed by learners that they awarded two special commendation awards, recognising the bravery and effort learners had shown.

However, only one group could win the £1,000 donation for their charity, and the judges awarded it to Breakthrough T1D, supported by 9.5.

We are incredibly proud of the maturity that all of our Year 9 learners have demonstrated throughout this project, and it was a pleasure to see them come together to support so many fantastic causes. Da iawn, pawb!

If you would like to find out more about the charities Year 9 supported, click the links below:

Year 8 Careers Adventure!

This week, as part of their Health and Wellbeing lessons, Year 8 had the opportunity to begin their exploration of the world of work and careers.

Guests visited from a variety of industries, from emergency services and education, to entrpreuers and cyber security.

The session began with a game of ‘Guess Who’, where learners had to attempt to guess the profession of our visitors, sparking discussions around career stereotypes

Then, each class had an opportunity to visit the Careers Fayre. Not only were learners able to gain some ‘hands-on’ experience of some of the professions, they were able to find out more about the different pathways available to them.

We were very impressed with the way Year 8 engaged in the activities, and the maturity they showed in their discussions. We hope this opportunity has given them a lot to think about, and perhaps sparked some ideas about what they would like to do in the future!