Padworth College

We are excited to announce that we are only weeks away from the Opening Night of our latest drama production, “Journey to X”, by Nancy Harris, in association with the National Theatre Connections Festival.  Performances will take place in Padworth Village Hall on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th March 2012 at 7.30pm.  Tickets are free, but should be reserved in advance by calling 0118 983 2644 or emailing house1@padworth.com. Students have been working tremendously hard on all aspects of this production including acting, choreography, marketing and set design, and they can’t wait to share the finished product with a live audience!  Please note that due to some adult content, “Journey to X” is suitable for audiences aged 14+.  

Cambridge University has offered Padworth College student, Kiki Lam, a place to read Land Economy at Queens College. Kiki came to the UK from Hong Kong to join the Padworth Sixth form and has been studying for A levels in Further Maths, Economics, Accountancy and Business Studies and has already gained an A grade in Single Maths. Higher Education and Careers Advisor, Dr Alex Mitlehner said, “We are delighted that Kiki has been offered a place to study at Cambridge – she is a very hardworking student and we are very proud of her achievement. Many of our A2 students have also received offers from high ranking universities such as UCL, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and King’s College University of London - we wish them all every success in their forthcoming examinations.”

Christmas in Words and Music is a long established tradition at Padworth and this year’s event was a resounding success involving many of our talented students and staff.  The evening kicked off with the traditional carol, “Once in Royal David’s City” with Andrew singing the solo verse followed by readings of “The Angel Lady” by Daniel, Karl, James and Mandy and “Christmas is all about Love” read by Nina and Iftikhar.  The Padworth Singers sang three times during the evening entertaining the audience with the Christmas classic, “Mary’s Boy Child followed by “Christmas is Coming” and ending with the favourite “You raise me up”.  The audience was treated to Payam’s violin solo of Faure’s Pavane and a wonderful performance by Payam, Rashid, Misha and Claire who sang “Do they know its Christmas?”  New for this year was the Drama Club’s production of the rhyming play, “A Christmas Carol” which has been in rehearsals for the past few weeks and which proved to be a very entertaining piece.  Matthew brilliantly portrayed a very grumpy and miserable Scrooge whilst Rashed shone on stage as “Tiny Tim”.  Henry  read “Christmas Shocking”, “The Spirit of Christmas” was read by Richard and Linde concluded the programme with her Christmas Gift Suggestions.  Our thanks go to Jean Medcraft-North, Head of Music and Claire Philip, Housemistress for organising the event and to all those involved in making this a very entertaining evening.

A number of very entertaining and enthusiastic acts appeared at the Student Talent Night this term - some showing a real gift and others a considerable forte for entertaining the crowd!  The opening act by Marcus and Marwan featured energetic singing, rap and dance to the very popular Party Rock Anthem and was followed by Vincent who played “Mariage d’Amour” – a well practised and beautifully played piece.  An extremely well choreographed dance was performed by Jolly, Nelly and Sophia and then Leven sang from the heart with his version of “Wonderful Tonight”.  Whilst William (on lead guitar) and Marwan (on drums) indulged their love of rock music, Rashed and Andy performed a hilarious version of “My heart will go on” and Italy (aka Eminem) and Clare (aka Rihanna) impressed everyone with their rendition of “Love the way you lie”.   The Judges awarded Third prize to Vandana and Iman who acted out a high tension scene from “The Crucible” and Second prize to Wilbun, an extremely talented pianist for his recital of “Reflections of Passion”.  The  Winner of this year’s Talent Night was Payam, a brilliant singer who sang “Apologise” – a fabulous act which the audience loved and the Judges all agreed was the best act of the night.

We are thrilled to announce that Padworth College will be participating in the National Theatre Connections Festival in 2012.  Students have the opportunity to workshop, rehearse and perform a new play, chosen from a selection of 10 brand new scripts by established, contemporary writers.   Performances will take place during the Spring Term both here at Padworth, and on stage at the Oxford Playhouse.  We are pleased to reveal the name of our play as, “Journey to X” by Nancy Harris, directed by Claire Philip, with the cast as follows: Joey:  Karl Spires Penny:    Lottie Arkle Sarah:  Ekaterina Chmireva Louise:  Anisha Fatania Tara:  Nina Sidlyar Vince:  Mason Meyer Ellis:  Payam Partow Liam:  Yida Li (Italy) Bruce:  Matthew Coyne Davy:  Iftikhar Shah More students will also have the chance to participate in other aspects of the project such as marketing, lighting, stage management, choreography, set design and theatre production.

To celebrate European Day of Languages, a group of Padworth students from 6 different countries visited Willink School at Burghfield to meet local students and to introduce each other to different aspects of their cultures.  Activities included Tai Chi, Using chopsticks as well as teaching colours, numbers and greetings in Chinese, Chilean, Vietnamese, French, Arabic and Korean.  It was a great opportunity for all the youngsters to learn about and enjoy the diversity of cultures and language.   To see more photos, click here

Congratulations to James, a local day student who has won a Best Sixth Form Chemist Award from the Society of Chemical Industry.  He joined other prizewinners at the Technology Centre in Pangbourne for the presentation of certificates and a guided tour of the laboratory and engine testing facilities.

A group of Padworth A level Science students attended a lecture at Downe House School on Thursday 22nd September by well known television presenter, author and communicator of science, Dr Simon Singh. The students were part of a large audience in a packed lecture hall and enjoyed an entertaining and stimulating talk by Dr Singh which covered the history of the universe, from the Big Bang onwards. He made a difficult subject accessible and covered concepts such as the evidence for the Big Bang with authority and humour, bringing in anecdotes about famous physicists which helped to bring the subject to life. He included several props to show how different substances emit different wavelengths of light, including a jar of pickled gherkins which glowed red to show that they contained sodium. He also illustrated how the power of suggestion can make us see or hear phenomena such as “hidden” words in music played backwards, showing how data can be misinterpreted if not viewed objectively, a key principle of science. He encouraged all students present to take up further studies in Science and Mathematics at university, and showed how logical deduction can help solve problems in several areas of employment, including industry and commerce. The Padworth students were able to follow the lecture with great interest, and it made a fascinating and memorable adjunct to their A level studies in Physics and Chemistry.

Once again, the students at Padworth have achieved an excellent set of examination results this year.  In the A level results, 69% of exam entries were awarded A*-B grades with  81.4% achieving A*-C.  The top A* grade was awarded to 12.3% of the exam entries. These results mean that the majority of students have achieved their first choice of university including Imperial College, UCL, Warwick and Manchester. The Year 11 students achieved good results in the GCSE level examinations – 96% of entries achieved A* – C grades and 16% achieved A* or A grades. Principal, Linde Melhuish said, “Congratulations to all our students – we are delighted with their results and I must thank all the staff at Padworth for their commitment and support which has enabled our students to achieve such high levels of academic success – as the ISI Inspectors said of Padworth earlier this year, “It is a happy and successful school where students feel very well supported and cared for.” and I believe that this is very much the key to our students’ success.  

Presentation Day Once again, we were blessed with blue skies for the College Presentation Day and we welcomed back former student, Louisa Nie to be our Guest of Honour.  Louisa has recently graduated from Cambridge University with a BSc in Land Economy and an M.Phil in Real Estate Finance and so her speech focused on giving the students her top tips for a happy and successful life at university.  Louisa then presented certificates and prizes to students for academic progress and achievement – congratulations to all those who received an award.