Pinewood School are very fortunate to have received a substantial charity donation of £2,473.40 from local company Purchase Direct.

The Welwyn Garden City based company held their twice a year charity fundraising day by running a number of events including: Back to school day, raffle competitions and a highly competitive and entertaining sports day. They nominated Pinewood School as their selected charity.

Our intention is to use the money to contribute to an interactive electronic learning device.

Pinewood School would officially like to thank the company and the team of staff who presented the cheque in one of our festive assemblies.

Last week staff and students were delighted to take delivery of 2 telescopes donated to the school by Scopes4SEN.  Scopes4SEN are a charity that donate telescopes to organisation’s that are working with SEN children.  https://patrickpoitevin.weebly.com/

We have discovered hidden interests amongst the staff (including the Head), enabling us to quickly set them up.  Some students have had the opportunity to use them in class and find out what they do.  The telescopes give students a fantastic opportunity to observe the skies and understand how scientists acquire knowledge of the Universe.

The telescopes will enable us to see the moon, and fortunately at some times of the year this can be done in daylight.  Year 9 students will be able to use them in science lessons when they study space in January.

We are also hoping to set up an astronomy club which could meet half termly for those students who are interested in learning to use them.  If anyone would like to help with this please let us know.

On Thursday 15th November, Pinewood Year 11 pupils attended the Panathlon event as Sports Leaders at Wodson Park. The Sports Leaders worked alongside leaders from Richard Hale.

Chantelle, Stefan, Harry, Aaliyah and Jasmine were selected due to their skills and enthusiasm in sports leadership activities and events at school. The pupils joined other pupils from Richard Hale School to receive training and then lead the Panathlon events of Boccia, Polybat, Table Cricket and New Age Curling. All of the leaders worked with excellent enthusiasm and attitude and are looking forward to further sports leadership opportunities through the year.

For more information on Panathlon see: http://panathlon.com/