REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2007-2008 - Pershore High School

This year, the Young Writers' Away with Words competition attracted many entries from students inYears 8 and 9. The theme was 'Talkin' about my generation'. Many pupils from this school had theirpoems published in an anthology which featured the best poetic talent selected from thousands of upand coming writers nationwide.Our Sixth Form Poetry evenings have become firmly established as a favourite social event for ourpresent and past students. The next one will take place at the end of the summer term.In the build-up to the SATs and GCSEs we worked very hard in the department to encourage ourstudents to reach their full potential. Mrs Humphreys ran booster classes for our Year 9 students andorganised a trip to The Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury for a production of 'The Tempest 'aimedspecifically at a school audience whilst Mrs Durrant was involved in delivering extra revision classesfor Year 11 students.The year is not yet over; there are plans afoot for a summer's evening of poetry readings for ourSixth Form students and another day of 'Rap with Spoz' for Year 8. Tickets have already beenreserved for productions to be staged in the RSC's Winter Season and the Christmas production atThe Birmingham Rep, but before that we look forward to a rewarding set of examination results againthis year.GeographyReport by David Brookes, Head of DepartmentThis academic year started ratherdifferently for the Geography Department,for at 7.30am on Monday, 3 rd September2007 we stood outside school with35 Year 12 students (whilst the rest of theschool was still in bed).In a break with tradition, we decided thatthe best way to start a Geography A Levelwas being out in the field collecting data.So it was that we embarked on our intrepidjourney across Worcestershire to AshesHollow, a small river outside Little Strettonto complete an investigation into rivergeomorphology. This added anotherquality fieldwork experience to a fantasticrange of experiences offered to Geographystudents of all ages in the past 12 months.These have included the Year 8 visit toStratford, Year 10 fieldtrip to Bredon Hilland the Year 11 day visit to Birmingham.A Level Geography Field Tripto Ashes Hollow, Little StrettonIn addition to the basic fieldwork days, the department continues to provide a range of residentialexperiences. In June we took another group of Year 10 Geography students to the Portland YouthHostel. This was our base to explore the coastal processes, landforms and management techniquesalong the Dorset coast. The department also continued its annual pilgrimage to Llanrug inSnowdonia.