It was a pleasure on Monday evening to attend the annual Merchant Taylors’ Company Livery Awards competition. The competition is a Dragons’ Den-style format in which a team of Year 12 students pitch a business idea to a group of judges – including this year Dragons’ Den presenter himself Evan Davis. The concept our team came up with was a “smart” bicycle lock and they presented superbly ending up as the eventual winners and going through to the final where they will compete against school teams connected to other livery companies at the Mansion House in January. We are very proud of the team – not just for winning but for how their confidence in public speaking and presenting has grown throughout the competition; it was also great to see a team from one of the other schools in our Trust – Aylesbury UTC – competing and presenting so well. As ever, our thanks must go to the Merchant Taylors’ Company, and particularly the mentors who worked with the team, for their support for our students.

In school the end of term is beginning to come into sight with the excitement of upcoming House matches, the House talent show next week and the revealing of the House standings so far this year at the whole school assembly on the last day of term. The day will also be a Christmas-themed non-uniform day with donations welcomed to support the Wallingford Food Bank – more to follow on this next week. As in previous years, we are also supporting local charity Sleigh2Give and details of how to do so are being circulated through our social media channels.

A reminder also that the WSA are also running a Christmas Raffle, tickets are £1 each and are available at www.peoplesfundraising.com/raffle/wsa-christmas-raffle-24. The aim of the WSA’s fundraising this year is to provide more outdoor seating for students so any contributions are very much appreciated – and you might win a prize!

Finally, good luck to our Year 11 students as they begin their mock examinations next week. They are a fantastic year group and the practice that the examinations will provide will be invaluable in preparation for next year’s public examinations.

Photo credit: Kris Piotrowski