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SWPS News 23 June 2017

Head’s News You may have read the recent report that England’s computing revolution is not being

reflected in the take up by pupils in general, and by girls in particular, is a worrying fact if the UK is to make a success of Brexit. In an ironic reverse of Moore’s Law, the number of students studying computing has

halved, when it ought to be doubling; the figures for girls is

even more concerning, making less than a quarter of the overall take up at GCSE. Experts believe that it is the image of the subject which is the main driver for such low numbers among girls.

Our experience, however, has been somewhat different. At

Sir William Perkins’s School, we introduced Computer Science GCSE two years ago. From an initial take up of six students we now have over twenty GCSE students and, due to demand, we shall be introducing A2 Computer Science from September this year. What has been the key to this rise in numbers, bucking the

national trend? First and foremost, exciting and creative lessons. Computer science is almost unique as a subject which combines both logical analysis and creativity. Yes it is difficult and yes it can be frustrating for the student. Yet, a combination of inspiring teaching, together with a concerted effort to demonstrate its relevance to the wider world, can

and does make a difference.

C Muller Head

Economics—London Trip Lower 6th Economics students spent the day in

London on Friday 16 June enhancing their knowledge of the banking system. The day started off in Canary Wharf at the investment

bank Morgan Stanley where students had a talk

from two of the senior managers in the Fixed Income and Commodities division. They were then lucky enough to get a tour of the trading floor and an opportunity to talk to some of the people working in it. One of the traders kindly executed a real foreign exchange deal to buy £1 million worth of Euros just

to show the students how the IT system works which unfortunately due to an exchange rate movement a few seconds later meant he was £200 down on the deal! After a short ride on the DLR we arrived in the City of London for our next port of call which was Schroders. Students were informed about the various careers available

at the company by one of the HR department and the various routes into it. Then a former SWPS student who is now a Portfolio Manager at the company told the story of how she came to be in her current role. After a quick stop for lunch, it was then on to the Bank of England for a tour round the museum (including the obligatory picking up of an extremely heavy real gold bar) and a talk and films on the

work of the bank. A busy but extremely interesting day for all.

J Montgomery

FOSWPS—Sports Day Dear Parents/Carers,

Why not join us for a family BBQ this year during sports day? Everyone is welcome - students, friends and family!

The BBQ is being organised by FOSWPS and the following items will be for sale during the afternoon:

Burgers – Cheeseburgers, Veggie Burgers & Halal

Burgers

Hot dogs & Veggie dogs

Cream Teas

Pimms and Beer

Coffee & Tea, Soft Drinks

We look forward to seeing you there!

FOSWPS

S W P S R o w i n g w i t h Olympians We will not know the

outcome yet, but Emma Falkentoft Hansen and Alexandra Hawkes will be having the experience of a lifetime today when they row the Henley course with

Olympic medallists Debbie Flood and Katie Greves. Debbie is

a double silver medallist from Athens and Beijing, and Katie

was a member of the GB women’s eight last year in Rio. Katie and Debbie are epitomising the slogan of the London 2012 Olympics – “Inspire a Generation”, by giving up their time to give young people the chance to see how top sporting heroes perform at close quarters. They are entering

the time trial for the women’s quadruple sculls, the Princess Grace Challenge Cup, which will take place next week at Henley Regatta. Regardless of the outcome, it is going to be a day Emma and Alexandra will never forget!

S Hallsworth

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Sport News Karate Congratulations to Maddie Jones (Y8) who

competed in a regional Karate tournament last weekend and won Gold medals in both of her

individual events! This tournament was great preparation for

the Go Kan Ryu World Championships in Australia which are only 6 weeks away! Well done and good luck Maddie!

Biology trip to Nower Wood Year 9 visited Nower Wood in

Leatherhead on 21st / 22nd

June. The students took part in a range of activities including estimating population sizes of invertebrates, explor ing different sampling techniques and learning about the

interdependence of organisms in a woodland habitat. The

skills learned are very relevant to their IGCSE Biology course. Great fun was had by all.

C Masri

Rowing News With the regatta season in full swing the rowing team have been tearing it up on the water at

Marlow Town Regatta, Reading Amateur Regatta, Henley Womens’ Regatta and Thames

Valley Park Regatta over the past two weekends. Marlow Town Regatta saw the Year 10 team race in: Nov 1x, J15 2x and J158+ events with wins for every SWPS rower who raced that day! On the same day, the senior squad

raced a few miles up stream at Reading Amateur Regatta, this too was a successful day of racing for the SWPS crews who matched the successes of the Year 10 team and won both of the events they entered: J184x and Nov 8+. The following week it was back to Berkshire for Women

Henley Regatta. The school 1st quad raced well in the time trial to qualify into the main draw but were unfortunately drawn against Isle of Ely, who were unfortunately just too fast for the SWPS crew and eventually went on to race in the

final. The 8+ made up of a mixture of Year 11-13 also fell foul to the luck of the draw and were pitched against Henley RC who have prioritised this event all season, the crew put

up a good fight but eventually Henley won the race. Thames Valley P a r k , t h e following day was a sprint regatta set

over a 500m course with crews racing from Year 9-12. After a

tough morning

of racing where t h e S W P S crews fought hard but with most missing out on progressing into the finals, the afternoon saw more promising results and yet more medals won in the J17 2x and J16 1x event. Well done to all who raced and especially to those who came

away with medals and to the Year 9 team who raced for the first time in 4x+ boats.

J Farmer

Artworks of the Month Here’s one of our four Artworks of the Month, for June, selected by the Art & Design Dept staff. This one is by Kitty

Gahir (Y11). Take a look at more student artwork on the Firefly Art pages.

Robotics Workshop at Legoland Windsor Resort On Wednesday 21 June, 96 of our Year 7

students ventured to LEGOLAND Windsor on the hottest day of the year to complete a Robotics workshop.

The girls were challenged to use the Lego Mindstorms educational robot kits to program a working solution for

the challenges they were faced with. These challenges included moving the robot forwards, hitting an object and moving back into position. This did lead to some technical difficulties (Robots going astray or moving in random directions) but on the whole all the girls

were able to use key programming skills to be able to control the robots movements.

The workshops were spread throughout the day, which gave them ‘free’ time to cool off on the wet rides! The girls were exceptionally behaved and showed a

genuine interest in the workshop, an educational and fun day had by all.

L Timpson

Year 8 Physical Theatre Workshops

This week Year 8 were given

an insight in to how an actor can approach a script to unlock a role using physical theatre from Suzanne Ahmet, a performer with Trestle Theatre company.

The students were put through their paces at some speed by Suzanne who introduced them to a variety of games and techniques employed by actors. In a short space of time the students created some wonderfully inventive work, and impressed Suzanne with their insight and creativity.

S Sweeney

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