This week at PGS: 7 March 2025

Book Week

From the Year 12 Reading Mentors leading the Middle School assembly on Monday about the impact of book bans, to Barton House parents joining the Year 7 Guided Reading session to observe excellent book talk, it has been a hive of activity as we promote the importance of reading for pleasure to boost mental health and wellbeing, and improve academic performance further. 

Pupils in Year 7 enjoyed the unravelling of the short story ‘Button, Button’ by Richard Matheson at the beginning of each lesson, and were encouraged to use their skills of prediction, questioning, clarifying, and questioning by their teachers. Year 8 took part in DEAR (drop everything and read) at the start of every lesson to help demonstrate the calming and focusing effect of regular reading. In Years 9-13, pupils were offered academically rigorous additional reading to support their curriculum content to showcase how reading beyond a subject can further enrich their understanding. 

Year 9 and Year 12 Reading Mentors have been busy all week visiting the pre-school each day to read to the youngest members of our community. Year 9 Reading Leaders were formally congratulated with certificates and book tokens by Mr Wickes in assembly for their weekly commitment to reading to the infants before school. In addition to this, Year 12 were able to showcase their excellent reading leadership skills when Barton House’s parents observed them leading guided reading with the Year 7s in the Memorial Library. 

There were book quizzes in tutor time and the Library’s famous biennial PGS 100 where pupils and staff voted for their favourite books. 

As always, our local Hayling Island Bookshop was onsite all day and Middle School pupils were able to drop in, browse, ask for recommendations, and order books. 

Our motto ‘everyone’s a reader at PGS’ was certainly in full force this week. 

London Art

On Tuesday, Year 12 A- level Art students visited London to explore artists who could inspire their coursework, expand their artistic knowledge, and discover the wealth of free galleries within walking distance of Waterloo. Blessed with glorious warm sunshine, we enjoyed a busy and enriching day, visiting the National Gallery, the cluster of small galleries on Cork Street, The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and Tate Modern. It was an absolute pleasure to spend the day with the group who were so engaged, thoughtful, charming, cheerful and chatty - and thank you to them for introducing me to delicious Blank Street Coffee and Wingstop fried chicken. 

South Coast Engineering

A team of five Year 9 pupils visited Gosport Memorial Museum to take on the South Coast Engineering Challenge: designing and building a communication structure capable of transmitting a message from Mars. Working as structural, electrical, mechanical, and software engineers, they demonstrated outstanding teamwork and successfully met all design specifications. They programmed their Mars buggy to navigate a course, reach the communication tower, raise a satellite, and send a message. Their commitment to success was evident throughout, as they rigorously tested prototypes and refined their design to ensure they met the brief. 

Representing Young People

On 28 February, Vivaan D in Year 12 had the opportunity to take part in a debate in the Houses of Parliament in his role as member of the Youth Parliament for West Sussex. The subject being debated was equal pay for under 18's. You can watch his representation by clicking here.