It’s been another busy week. We enjoyed seeing Year 12 parents and carers at our welcome evening this week. This was a great opportunity to look ahead to this academic year together.
We also had a talk from one of our former students and a Sixth Form Physics trip to Lancaster University:
On Wednesday we welcomed back former student Ciel Matthews who left our Sixth Form in 2024. Ciel held a lunchtime talk for our current Sixth Form students about her first year of studying Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge. Ciel and our Sixth Form students covered topics such as the process of applying for university and life as a student in Cambridge. It was a great opportunity for our students to ask questions and to learn more about opportunities to study languages at university.
On Thursday our Year 13 Physics students attended a project day at Lancaster University. Our students really enjoyed doing projects on radioactivity in food, spectroscopy and detection of cosmic rays.
Dates for your diary:
22-26th September 2025 – International Week
24th September 2025 – Year 10 and 11 New York Trip Parents’ Information Evening
30th September 2025 – First Year 9 Geography Trip to Bowness
1st October 2025 – Second Year 9 Geography Trip to Bowness
3rd October 2025 – Training Day
6th October 2025 – Year 12 Geography Trip to Liverpool
7th October 2025 – Year 12 Trip to Great Tower Wood
9th October 2025 – Senior Mathematical Challenge for Year 11, 12 and 13
9th October 2025 – Year 7 Parents’ Information Evening
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Year 7 CATs
Year 7 pupils will be taking Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) in the next few weeks. This assessment looks at a range of reasoning skills using three types of questions:
Verbal reasoning (using words)
Quantitative reasoning (using numbers)
Non-verbal reasoning (using shapes and patterns)
There is no need for any special preparation or equipment for the test, and students do not need to revise or practice anything beforehand. They will be told by their form teacher when their tests will be.
The purpose of the CAT is to help us to help set their baseline in collaboration with SATs scores as well as identify any support individuals may need.
There’s no need for any preparation or concern beforehand — it’s simply part of how we get to know and support your child’s learning.
Year 7 YMCA trip April 20th-22nd
A quick reminder to parents of Year 7 students that the deadline for deposits for the YMCA residential trip in April is Thursday 25th September.
Information about the trip has been sent out on ParentPay.
Student news
Anuhya
Well done to Anuhya who was invited by Rotary Club of Cumbria & Lancashire to talk about her community work/projects at their ‘Annual Rotary Conference 2025’. She was the youngest keynote speaker in this conference alongside CEO – North West Cancer Research, The Garden Ninja, Delegate from Eden Project North, and many more.
She was presented a Rotary Young Citizen Award 2025 Certificate by the District Governor of Cumbria and Lancashire Rotary Club – this Rotary Club has nominated Anuhya for the Young Citizen Award by ‘National Rotary UK’ i.e. Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland.
She was also presented a letter of commendation and a gift card at this annual conference attended by way over 100 Rotarians from across UK, and offered scope of further involvement in community led projects. At the time of this event, Anuhya was in Year 8.
Congratulations to Nicole and Ash!
From almost 600 entries this year for the MASSOLIT Video Essay Competition, the judges selected the 10 best entries, and those students were invited to the Awards Ceremony at Brasenose College. We were delighted that two of the top 10 entries were from LGGS! Nicole was the overall national winner with Ash a very impressive runner-up. Nicole’s video essay was an illuminating talk about ultra-processed foods, while Ash spoke about the diagnosis of mental illness. Both students greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to not only undertake research in a field which relates to their future career interests, but to be able to present their work in such a professional and creative way.
Sophie
Well done to Sophie who took part in the Rise to the Challenge: Caledonian Triathlon over the summer.
This extraordinary nine-day event tested participants both physically and mentally, and Sophie rose to every challenge with remarkable determination and spirit. She successfully completed a two-day, 65-mile cycle across demanding terrain from Inverness in the East Highlands to Fort William in the West. She then spent four days paddling over 100 km along the Great Glen Way, including the entirety of the legendary 23-mile-long Loch Ness. To complete the triathlon, Sophie climbed to the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK.
What was particularly impressive was not just her endurance, but her attitude. Sophie proved herself to be a fantastic team player, offering encouragement and emotional support to others throughout the challenge. Her resilience, positivity, and leadership shone through.
Please send in your positive student news to commsteam@lggs.lancs.sch.uk
Safety outside of school
We have been aware of some recent trends involving secondary school students engaging in potentially unsafe activities outside of school hours. These include exploring abandoned buildings (also known as “urban exploring” or Urbex).
We kindly ask that you speak with your child about making safe choices when socialising and encourage them to look after themselves and one another. As always, our priority is their wellbeing, both in and out of school.
Apprenticeships Information
Speech and language therapy careers (Year 10 to 13)
Future First Alumnae Network
We have a growing Alumnae network and, as a reminder, you are able to keep in touch with school, each other and receive our termly Alumnae newsletter by signing up to Future First.
Our Alumnae also provide support to our current students through talks, mentoring or offering work experience. Further along your career path, this may be something that you wish to be involved with.
Chatbots and Children – The Children’s Society
The social media sphere has recently gained a new tool in their battle for youth engagement – the chatbot. Chat bots are not particularly new, but the sophistication of their governing algorithms is. These applications are designed to keep people engaged with artificially generated responses, formulated based on the information the user puts into them. This can create a self-reinforcing effect, where the chatbot continually increases the user’s convictions in the truth of their own inputs. False information, reinforcement of poor choices and self-manipulation are common issues with this emerging software. The Children’s Society has recently published an article on the issue which you can find here: https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/blogs/chatbots-and-children
Mental Health Support for Young People
There is a wealth of useful information from Young Minds to help parents and carers understand more about their young person’s mental health. Find the right help for them or hear from other parents who’ve been there.
You will find advice on:
Helping your child to talk
Looking after yourself as a parent/carer
Speaking to professionals
An A-Z guide to mental health and a guide to mental health services.
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