On Thursday 16 June we went down the rabbit hole at Stanfield Preparatory School as we hosted our very own Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Pupils from Year 1 and 2 from Stanfield and lots of other schools joined us for this magical event and fun was had by all.
On Thursday we held a special assembly at Stanfield to celebrate the medal winners of the Infant and Junior Sports Day. Congratulations to everyone who took part and to those who won a medal.
Before half term, Year 4 enjoyed their first residential trip to Patterdale Hall in the Lake District. They had an amazing time and enjoyed spending time with their friends and completing lots of fun activities. Here is what some of our pupils had to say about the trip:
Patterdale was my first residential. It was an extraordinary experience. I loved my dorm. On the first day, I did bush craft. We made a shelter for a pine cone and found and ate forest food. On the second day, we did a low ropes course, archery and my favourite activity, rock climbing. The view was amazing! I climbed up to the top twice. On day three we did canoeing and I ran into the lake.
Eliza 4Ra
I really enjoyed my trip to Patterdale Hall and thought the food and the dormitories were fun! The highlight of the trip for me was rock climbing because although it was scary and high I felt proud of myself for getting to the top. Canoeing was also brilliant especially ‘body part bingo’ as we all got really wet!
Reanna 4L
On Wednesday 4th May, we climbed on the bus to Patterdale Hall. I was fizzing with excitement. My favourite parts of the trip were canoeing, bushcraft and climbing. The beds were so comfy and it was a trip that I will never forget.
Amelie 4R
Merchant Taylors’ pupil and BMX Racer, James, is riding high after recent successes at the National BMX Series.
James has been racing since he was just five-years-old and has been competing on his BMX in both regional and national competitions whilst also representing Great Britain in a number of events.
Since the beginning of 2022 he has incredibly placed first in each of his last ten races in the 14-year-old boy category. Six of these victories have come in the UK National series which has given him an unassailable lead with races to spare.
BMX made its debut on the Olympic programme during Beijing 2008 and James has set his sights on competing for a gold medal in the future.
James on his BMX at a recent competition.
Recently Year 6 pupils have been very busy preparing for their performances of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. In just one week, they have learned dances, poems, lines, created films and programmes, taken photographs, whilst also learning all about Shakespeare in class lessons and even writing sonnets of their own! A fantastic week has been had by everyone involved, with huge thanks to Stage Door Theatre School in Crosby.
Spanish students in Year 12 and Year 13 travelled to Manchester to attend the Spanish and Latin American film festival, ‘VIVA’, which was celebrating its 28th anniversary.
After some excellent parking by Dr. Goodwin in the minibus, students enjoyed a delicious lunch in the HOME restaurant, where the festival took place, before going up to the projection room to see the new Colombian film, ‘The Red Tree’.
The experience helped to broaden pupils’ knowledge of the Hispanic world, especially about the historical traditions and the social and political conflicts in Colombia during the 1990s.
As the news cycle once again discusses the issue of fewer girls studying Physics and other sciences, we take great pride not only in the opportunities we offer to young female scientists, but also their achievements while at school and in later life.
Data collected by the IOP in 2018 showed 68% of all schools with girls send fewer than two girls to A-Level Physics, while 44% of schools send no girls at all. We are pleased to say that the picture at Merchant Taylors’ is very different.
In Years 10 and 11, 100% of all pupils at Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School study Physics, while 10% of all our Sixth Form girls are currently studying Physics at A-Level. The majority of those are aiming to study science, medicine or maths degrees at leading universities and they are currently being supported to find related work experience. Indeed, every year girls leave us to study Physics, Astrophysics, or Engineering-based degrees.
Merchant Taylors’ girls enjoy an environment where their passion for learning is fostered and encouraged, and where their love of science, or any other subject for that matter, is gently nurtured and stretched beyond the realms of the curriculum.
We offer girls a wide range of enrichment and co-curricular opportunities in STEM topics, including:
Studying Physics provides pupils with a number of desirable and transferable skills, such as problem-solving and experimental skills, as well as strong mathematical and written skills to be able to explain complex ideas. It also gives them an appreciation of how and why things work and will allow them to be at the forefront of developing technologies that can impact everyday living, whether saving lives through medical Physics or developing sustainable energy resources through studying Nuclear and Particle Physics.
Our girls are certainly not put off by ‘hard maths’ – they rise to the challenge, exceed expectations, and prove their worth in the various competitions they enter alongside their studies. They do this because they have a general curiosity, a desire to learn and and love for Physics.
We hope many of our pupils will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors at Merchant Taylors’, including Lauren McNally, Optical/RF Communications Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Beth Malley, Offshore Tunnel Engineer at Hinkley Point C, or Eadie Weston, Trainee Clinical Scientist (Medical Physics) at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, to name a but a few.
For Merchants’ girls, studying STEM subjects is not an exception, but a natural part of their everyday education, and we enjoy supporting them to become the female scientists, doctors and engineers of tomorrow.
The MTGS Physics Department received the amazing news that Year 12 pupil, Emily, has won a place on the XMaS Scientist Experience. This means that in June, she will be jetting off to Grenoble to take part in the Synchrotron@School Programme in the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Some 8000 scientists visit this particle accelerator every year, and Emily will be able to experience what life might be like as an international research scientist.
Emily won one of 16 places on the four day all expenses paid trip, organised by The University of Warwick, after entering the national XMaS competition. Her winning essay was entitled ‘Ada Yonath: her life and contributions to science’ and highlighted the impact that Ada has had in narrowing the vast gender imbalance in STEM by becoming the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences.
This is the fifth year that MTGS have had winners in this competition, and we know from previous girls’ experiences that Emily is going to have a fabulous time. A huge well done, Emily!
Congratulations to Year 6 pupil, Keshav, who was successful in auditioning for a place in the prestigious National Schools Symphony Orchestra Academy which is designed for his age range. The competition for a place is high with hundreds auditioning from across the entire country.
Keshav is currently working towards his Grade 6 Clarinet and takes part in many school ensembles, as well as singing and playing the drums – quite literally the one man band!
In the Spring term, a number of Physics students entered the Oxford Physics Challenge, a national competition designed to stretch and challenge the best students from across the country, with difficult problems set in unfamiliar contexts. We are delighted to announce that the following boys achieved awards:
Front row (from left to right): Hemanth (Silver), George (Gold), James (Gold), Darren (Gold).
Back row (from left to right): Oscar (Bronze), Dylan (Bronze), Tom (Bronze), Nathan (Bronze), Adam (Bronze), Hugh (Bronze), Nathan (Bronze)