“Bees don’t just make honey” 

Last term, the Humanities faculty ran the second annual environment competition, focused on the theme “Bees don’t just make honey.”  

The theme chosen by alumni and sponsor, Dawn Smith, who also took on the role of judging the entries and awarding the final placements.  

We are delighted to announce that the overall winner is Martha 9S for her creative entry. 

Second place went to Maisie 9F for her artwork, whilst third place went to Alice 9W who wrote and performed a song about bees and the environment. 

The finalists will receive a gift certificate for £25, £15 and £10 respectively, with our overall winner Martha also being awarded the trophy for first place.  

Keep an eye out for details of the 2021-22 competition which will be published in the coming months. 

Mr Sterlini 

Head of Humanities  

Specialist Leader of Education 

28 May 2021

Dear Parent/ Carer

Re: History GCSE curriculum 

We are writing to advise you of a proposed change to the current GCSE History curriculum at Walthamstow School for Girls which will affect your daughter currently in Year 10.  Currently at GCSE all students must study one ‘British Depth Study’.  Under the Edexcel exam board, this is on Paper 2 of the specification and it involves studying the reign of one of four English monarchs between the years of 1066 and 1603.  Since the last changes to the GCSEs, first sat in 2018 at WSFG, we have studied William the Conqueror. 

Having listened to feedback from the students who have completed the GCSE course, the overwhelming response has been that they do not enjoy this part of the course as much as they enjoy the other aspects.  We are therefore proposing that we make a change in this area of the course. Many of the students and staff agree that a more interesting option for our students would be to study the reign of Elizabeth I.  We feel that studying the life and challenges facing a female ruler in a role that throughout history has been dominated by men, would be something that the students at our school could relate to and enjoy analysing and evaluating. We believe this would be an exciting change for the students and that it would ensure that they continue to enjoy all aspects of the GCSE History curriculum offered here at WSFG.  

We are proposing to begin this unit towards the end of Year 10. As this would be a small change from the GCSE that your daughter signed up for in Year 9, in order to make this change in time for the current GCSE cycle, we need to ensure that we have the consent of parents/ carers.  Therefore, if you do have any objections or concerns with regards to this change, could you please contact me via the school e-mail, so that we could discuss the matter further.  

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of the school, the Humanities faculty, and all students. It is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards  

Mr A McLeod  
Head of History  

Words supplied by the Humanities Faculty, based on R.E.

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Words supplied by the Humanities faculty, based on history.