This is a very important and exciting year of the school, between the lower and upper sections of the school and an important crossroads of your life. Soon the challenges of GCSE will appear - but not just yet! This is a year when you can enjoy school life and get involved in some exciting school activities. You will have assembly with the senior part of the school and you can take part in lots of activities with more senior girls.
You have selected 3 out of 6 subjects for Upper IV (Art, Music, Food Technology, Textiles Technology, Latin and ICT). Later in the year you will choose your actual GCSE subjects, but there will be plenty of useful advice from the teaching and careers staff.
There are lots of things to do in UIV - below are a sample:
- Form Charity - each form raises money for the school's chosen charities
- Sports - you could be selected to join a team and represent the school
- Music - concerts take place at certain times in the school year and there is a musical production every two years in the Spring Term
- Houses - you will be a member of a school ‘House', which will take part in various competitions during the year. This is a fun thing to do. All the staff belong to a House - I am a proud ‘Carrington'!
- Trips - lots of trips occur during the year and some are exclusively for Upper IV. There is a Christmas Market Trip to Germany in December which gives you a great chance to stock up on goodies and last minute Christmas presents as well as practising your German of course! There have been trips to France, Spain and German exchange visits as well.
The History department run trips to France and Belgium to see the World War I battle sites which have proved to be very interesting - also the Belgian chocolate is pretty good too! There are theatre trips to see productions of a play or text being studied in school English lessons. The Physics department run an ‘Engineering Day' in the summer term, where you become engineers for the day and compete in teams. Sometimes there are trips to the Natural History Museum in London - luckily no Upper IVs have, as yet, been eaten by the dinosaurs. You will also have the chance to become a manager of a business for a day in our Spring term ‘Business Studies Day' which may encourage you to follow in Sir Alan Sugar's footsteps.
So, as you can see, the Upper IV year is a very busy one and much enjoyment can be derived from it. If you try and put plenty of enthusiasm, willingness and hard work into your school life during the year, you will reap rich rewards.