13th - 17th June 2011

Our Sixth Form students enjoyed a fascinating lecture by eminent Sport Psychologist, Professor Ian Maynard of the Centre for Sport Performance at Sheffield Hallam University, as part of their Gifted and Talented Programme. In a lively and interactive session, enjoyed by Sixth Formers and staff, Professor Maynard spoke of how athletes have to be able to deal with pressure and as such it is imperative that they develop a professional attitude. He talked about anxiety and stress management, stressing the importance of avoiding negative self-talk, and how much of sport psychology can be transposed across to life situations, including dealing with exam and work stresses. Professor Maynard worked with Olympic athletes at the Barcelona and Athens games and in a wide variety of sports including lacrosse, rugby, cycling, diving and boxing; he is currently undertaking work with Premiership football referees.

Another opportunity for our Sixth Form students is the chance of a 4 week paid vacation programme at KPMG in Manchester. This unique new scheme will see one girl and one boy undertake meaningful employment with the accounting giant, spending two weeks in the Financial Services Audit Team and two weeks in the Corporate Finance team. The two lucky students will be involved in client work and will be "at the coal-face" undertaking real research in an ongoing summer scheme between the school and the big four accounting firm. Students are being asked to apply for the work placement as if they were applying for a full-time position and they will be judged on their application form and a subsequent interview.

In Senior Boys, the U15s' football team has received a Fair Play commendation from the Independent Schools' Football Association (ISFA). The awards are made on the basis of marks given and comments made by match referees in the ISFA Cup competitions and comments made by opposing schools.

Our Junior Girls undertook half an hour of vigorous walking around their school this week to raise funds for MedEquip4Kids, a charity based in the North West of England for paediatric healthcare facilities at local hospitals. Fun was injected into the "Walk4kids" event as girls were allowed to dress in their pyjamas - more of a sleep walk really! By the end of the day a fantastic sum of over £1,800 had been raised! The Year 6 Girls have also been busy performing their bite size interpretations of William Shakespeare's comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. After studying and exploring the play, pupils challenged their own thinking and skills of interpretation to produce short devised pieces. Under the title "Devising the Dream", the girls will perform their work to their parents. And the Year 4 girls had some interesting visitors from Blackpool Zoo, coming face to face with a giant hissing cockroach, a snake and a stick insect when Russell from the Zoo came to talk to them about habitats and adaptation. To the girls' delight he brought several animals from the zoo with him to demonstrate what he was talking about!