This February, girls from the third form went on a three day tour of the First World War Battlefields in Belguim and France. While exploring the Battlefields in the Ypres and Somme region, they had the opportunity to visit the "In Flanders Fields" museum, the reserved trenches at Newfoundland Park and Sanctuary Wood and Tyne Cot cemetery.

Girls compared French, German and British cemeteries and took part in the Last Post Memorial Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres where form captains laid a poppy wreath on behalf of the school.

Day One

After solving the problem of fitting 11 bags into the minibus, we traveled for 3½ hours to Wales. Our first stop was Rhondda Valley Heritage Park. The old colliery, which first opened in 1870, has now been converted into an industrial museum. We started, after meeting our very Welsh guide, Howard, by tracking two families lives and how the coalmine had effected them. This gave an insight to life in the coalmines and a glimpse at their history. We were then taken down, or so we thought, into the coal mining tunnels. We learnt how the coal seams were blown apart, in order to be mined out, with a life like re-enactment, and the system they used to extract coal from each seam. We then simulated a ride back up to the surface, only to find ourselves at the surface the whole time; we hadn't been below ground at all!

Alton Convent School was again delighted to play host to sixth formers from Salesian College and More House School for this year's Joint Sixth Form Conference. Our theme this year was "News Values or Real Values?", comparing and contrasting the values of the media and public life with those we ourselves hold. A distinguished panel of speakers once again led our discussions.

The day began with a brilliant session on what makes a good story in tabloid and broadsheet journalism. Our speaker, Jim Mansell, started his career in journalism as a trainee on a weekly newspaper in Southport before coming to Fleet Street more than twenty years ago. He has worked on the Daily Mirror, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Star and is currently with the Daily Mail.

On Wednesday 27th February, the U11 netball team played a tournament at Lavant House. We started our first match against Lavant B. We set off with an amazing start and managed to beat the their team by 8-0. Team spirits were high and were maintained throughout the next matches: we passed quickly and scored goal after goal, winning 4-0 against Prebendal and 10-1 against Central. We won all three of our first round matches, thus securing a place in the knock-out. Alas, Lavant House A beat us by 3-2 to come first in the tournament. We were disappointed but held our heads high and won our next game against Prebendal 12-0, with all playing well to secure our third place overall. Girl of the match was Natasha, for one of the best goals in the tournament. We all enjoyed it and are looking forward to our next tournament.