News
The latest from The Piggott School
You can keep up with all the latest news and events from The Piggott School via our website, our School News App (instructions below), Twitter and our School Blog.
Follow our departments on Twitter
A-Level Languages @piggenglang
Physical Education @PiggottPE
Computer Science @PiggottCS
Mathematics @3142ggott
History @piggotthistory
Sociology @piggology
Psychology @piggpsych
Science @PiggiodicTable
Business Studies @PiggottBS
Piggott Trips @PiggottTrips
For copies of all letters sent home please visit the Parents Page.
Stay up to date with our School News App
Get push notifications to your phone of important news, upcoming events and key dates. Follow these easy steps:
1. Download the app from either the iTunes App Store , Google Play or Windows Store by clicking on the relevant buttons below or by loading up the app store on your phone and searching for ‘School News’.
2. Launch the app and you will then be able to either click on the ‘Find my school’ button which uses the phones GPS to locate all the schools in the surrounding 20 miles, or you can type in the schools postcode and click on ‘Get my school’ button.
Our school's postcode is: RG10 8DS
3. You will then see a list of schools that use the app. Click on The Piggott School to view relevant news & events.
4. You will then be able to click on the ‘News’ button to view all the latest news items that have been added and all the upcoming calendar events by clicking on the ‘Events’ button.
Piggott in the press
In case you missed it, here are some recent press articles featuring stories about The Piggott School.
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Key Stage 3 Awards Afternoon
Published 28/06/22This afternoon we honoured our Key Stage 3 students who have worked tirelessly to do their best and give 100% effort in their learning this year.
Congratulations to all Key Stage 3 award winners
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Bikeability Course
Published 16/05/22Last week 52 year 7 students completed their Bikeability Level 2 qualification.
They had a fantastic day, gaining the knowledge and confidence they needed to cycle safely to school and around the local area.
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Bags 2 School Donations
Published 13/05/22Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Bags 2 School project. Please click the link for more information https://bag2school.com/ - Read More
Summer Term PE Clubs
Published 25/04/22Day
Club
Monday Badminton
Fitness Suite Yr12/13
Yr7 Rowing at Henley Rowing Club
Tuesday All Years - Athletics
Fitness Suite Yr9
Wednesday All Years - Rounders
Fitness Suite Yr7
Yr7/8 Boys Cricket
Thursday Girls Football
Yr7/8 Girls Cricket
Yr9/10 Boys Cricket
Yr7/8 Tennis
Fitness Suite Yr10
Dance
Friday Revision Sessions
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Ukraine Awareness
Published 05/04/22This week we took some time as a school to reflect on events happening in Ukraine and Europe. Students offered prayers and messages of hope which are now in our reflection room. This was chosen in order to represent that the world may have different leaves, but they are all part of the same tree.
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World Down Syndrome Day 2022
Published 21/03/22World Down Syndrome Day - Monday 21st March 2022
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Calling all musicians
Published 11/02/22As part of the Henley Youth Festival, Gig Night will be held at the Kenton Theatre in Henley on the evening of Thursday 10 March.
The event is open to all students in years 9-13 who would like to perform live at the Kenton Theatre. Bands, duos and solo performers are all welcome. No backing tracks are permitted. Each act can perform up to 15 minutes of music, depending on how many performances we will accommodate.
Entry forms are available here: https://www.hyf.org.uk/_files/ugd/2ccb0e_f39c2130df9b4612b69d3a188c6e914c.pdf
Further details of the festival are available here: https://www.hyf.org.uk/
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Success for Jess
Published 07/02/22Computer Science student Jess competed in the National Cipher Challenge and had an astonishing result, equal 9th with Eton College out of 6250 students worldwide. Here is what Jess had to say about her achievement in the @Cipher_Master National Cipher Challenge, along with some inspirational advice for girls interested in pursuing computer science.
Well done Jess!
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National Museum of Computing Trip
Published 26/01/22Fifty-two Year 10, 11 and Sixth Form students visited the National Museum of Computing last Friday, home to the world's largest collection of working historic computers. Students got to follow the development of computing: from the Turing-Welchman Bombe and Colossus of the 1940s through the large systems and mainframes of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, to the rise of personal computing and the rise of mobile computing and the internet.
Year 12 student, Jess said "The Piggott School trip to The National Museum of Computing was a very interesting and educational experience. We were able to see the rebuilt Colossus computer and the WITCH (the world's oldest working digital computer) among many other pieces of technology.
As well as this, we took part in a fun programming workshop where we used a BBC micro-machine to program a game of snake. I enjoyed writing code in a different language using a type of computer that I hadn't used before.
I also thought that the 'Power of Primes' activity was amazing as it highlighted the importance that prime numbers play in cryptography, and it briefly taught us about the other maths involved in creating ciphers.
Overall I thought that the trip was great and the tour guides were very informative."
Other students said the highlights of the trip were:
"Experiencing the minds of computer scientists from the past."
"Programming a snake game with BBC basic."
"Learning about the history behind the enigma machines."
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Students raise funds for violence against women
Published 21/01/22At Piggott, we aim to help and guide students to develop compassion, empathy and tolerance in their relationships with others. This week, our Sixth Form students rallied together to raise an impressive £400 with the simple gesture of wearing red to honour Ashling Murphy, a young teacher who was tragically murdered while jogging in Tullamore, Ireland.
The funds raised will go to Women's Aid, a grassroots federation working together to provide life-saving services in England and build a future where domestic abuse is not tolerated.
Well done to Maeve in Year 12 for mobilising the Sixth Form and for raising awareness of this important issue and raising funds for Women's Aid.
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Record number take up computing challenge
Published 14/01/22Over 500 students from Years 7 – 10 and 12 - 13 took part in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge last November for a chance to make it through to the Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC), a prestigious event in computational thinking.
Of that number, 78 Piggott students scored in the top 10% nationally, automatically giving them a place in Oxford University’s ‘invitation-only’ event.
We had 3 students selected from Year 10 & Year 12, 12 students from Year 9, 18 students from Year 8 and a record number of 42 students from Year 7.
The first round of the annual OUCC challenge is held online in schools and supervised by teachers with participants' solutions auto-marked by the OUCC system.
Following this, the top 20 students in each age group are invited to Oxford University to compete in the final.
This is our third year participating in the challenge. Last year, Piggott twins Finlay and Oliver (Year 9) remarkably achieved a top 20 place after competing against 3,875 students nationwide in the Year 8 & 9 age OUCC category.
In 2020, finalist Matthew Sullivan (Year 12 at the time) won the chance to spend the day at Oxford University attending seminars, a prize that inspired him to go on to study at Oxford University.
The OUCC is an invitation-only event which aims to encourage students to develop their skills further and produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems.
Just before the end of Term 1, students received their certificates. Take a look at the photos here:
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U13s through to semis
Published 14/01/22After a fantastic performance, our U13 Girls Football team representing Reading FC made it through to the semi-final of the Utilita Cup. Utilita Energy partnered with the English Football League to power Britain’s biggest junior football tournaments: the Utilita Kids Cup and Utilita Girls Cup.
Over 22,000 schoolchildren take part in six-a-side action for the chance to represent their local EFL club - and compete for a once in a lifetime appearance at Wembley.Good luck going forward girls.
Keep up with news from each year level here: https://www.piggottschool.org/lettersandlatestnews
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Certificates A-Level and Level 3
Published 12/01/22Students and their families are usually invited to witness the presentation of A-Level and Level 3 certificates. Unfortunately, in light of the circumstances, we have been unable to hold this presentation evening and would like to invite students to collect their certificates from main reception during the school day.
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Christmas Tree for CIRDIC
Published 11/01/22In the week leading up to Christmas last year, we delivered our first Christmas tree to CIRDIC. This is the Churches In Reading Drop In Centre. We took the beautiful 6-foot tree in time for Christmas along with some decorations and a much-needed supply of socks! Around 90 students cut out and wrote beautiful messages of Christmas cheer which were then hung on the tree as decorations and wrapped around the socks as gifts for the homeless.
This is one of many trips The Piggott School will be making to CIRDIC over the coming year. We are working closely with the centre to discover their needs and as a wider school community, will create provision for them. As a Christian school, with our vision set to be Samaritans as Jesus taught us, we constantly seek to ‘go and do likewise'. We are looking forward to building our relationship further with CIRDIC and will be offering additional opportunities for students to be involved this year.
For further information about CIRDIC please visit their website here.
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Thought-provoking performance
Published 08/12/21On Wednesday 24th November, the Wokingham based charity Soulscape delivered a PSHE workshop to the Year 10 pupils. Soulscape partners with schools in Wokingham and Bracknell to help deliver effective RE and PSHE lessons, and to create a space where pupils can talk about sensitive issues. Soulscape partnered with sixth form pupils from READ College, Reading to deliver their OBJECT Workshop which explored issues around pornography, relationships and self-image.
They delivered a brilliantly choreographed, honest and thought-provoking 20-minute theatre presentation followed by a 25-minute small group discussion, led by the sixth form performers.
It was an excellent opportunity for the pupils to engage with a sensitive topic and to explore follow-up questions with leaders closer in age. The feedback from Year 10 was extremely positive, with most finding the session very helpful, educational and relatable. They appreciated the open environment, honest conversation and theatre performance that highlighted the impact of pornography on relationships in young people.
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Students awarded Bronze Crest
Published 25/11/21Students address real world problems through CREST Award
A group of Year 10 students successfully completed their Bronze Crest Award this year and were recently awarded their certificates by Mrs Elliott (Head of KS5 Chemistry) in recognition of the successful projects they planned and executed addressing a real-world problem.
The Bronze Crest Awards introduce students to project work empowering them to work like real scientists, technologists, engineers or mathematicians. Students choose their own topic and methodologies, giving them complete freedom over their work.
Bronze projects are assessed against the CREST assessment criteria and the project process develops enquiry, problem-solving and communication skills.
This year the students’ topics included:
- Assessment of the quality of the school pond as a first step to using it as an educational resource.
- Determining how to make your own fizzy drink
- Growing food using aeroponics
- Investigation of chromatography (which is used in lateral flow tests)
- Investigation of dehydration
Not only did these students complete their topics over and above the required CREST standard, but they also did so during difficult COVID-restricted times, completing a lot of their work at home and online.
Congratulations to Anoushka, Aiden, Alex, Arthur, Annabel and Evie.
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It's that time of year again!
Published 24/11/21If you're heading out to by your Christmas tree, local Sheeplands plant nursery, cafe and farm shop is supporting the PTAs of local schools this Christmas.
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PSA Christmas Raffle
Published 22/11/21Be in it to win it and win some extra cash this Christmas! Support the PSA and get your tickets online for The PSA Christmas Raffle for your chance to win one of three monetary prizes including £100, £75 or £50 plus a bottle of bubbly for the winners. Entries close 14th December 2021.
The Piggott School Association aims to raise funds that will go towards enhancing the school's facilities and resources that will enrich your child’s education.