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School News

June 2023

  • Year 7 Bertha Earth Residential

    Published 30/06/23

    Bertha Earth is an environmental organisation which seeks to grow a network of diverse environment leaders who will bring about positive change.  They seek to support young people to develop a range of leadership skills whilst educating them about the environment and sustainability.

    As part of the 2022-23 programme, a group of Year 7 students have participated in a series of after school workshops, culminating in a residential retreat at Jamie's Farm to focus on the story of land, food, farming and fashion systems.   During the residential activity at the end of June, our students farmed their own produce and learned about animal welfare and sustainability.  A great deal of fun was had and the group are very much looking forward to continuing this important work next year.

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  • Year 12 Physicists visit Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE)

    Published 21/06/23

    On Wednesday 7th June, Year 12 Physics students went on a trip to Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in Oxfordshire.

    CCFE is home to JET, a nuclear fusion experiment which aims to release large amounts of energy without producing long-lived radioactive waste or greenhouse gases.  JET is fuelled by two isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium (commonly found in seawater) and tritium (much rarer), and reaches temperatures of 150 million oC (10 times hotter than the sun), making this the hottest place in the solar system.  To achieve this, JET consumes an astonishing amount of power (2% of the UK’s entire power reserve when switched on). The “neutral particle beams” used for heating could boil a bath full of water in 0.48 seconds.

    To protect researchers from the heat and radiation released, JET is housed in a hanger protected by the second largest doors in the world (after those at NASA), weighing 400 tonnes each.  We were utterly fascinated by JET and had a wonderful experience with the staff, who gave us a personal tour of the facility and a short talk about the faculty.

    Two of us will be returning in July to take part in a women in STEM scheme run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority which is definitely something to look forward to.

    - By Louisa, Simren, Hannah & Hafsa in Year 12

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