Members of Vth and VIth form worked together as part of a work- related learning exercise. During the day the girls were required to form a company, appoint key personnel, design logos and business cards, interview customers, and prepare a bid for a major contract. This included letters to the customers and a presentation to their client and their peers.

The customers were representatives from various industries who played different roles over the course of the day. The teams found the pressures of deadlines and meetings quite demanding, commenting that time management was the most important thing they had learnt.

The music department closed the first half term with a concert of chamber music featuring AS and GCSE pupils as well as music scholars. Parents and staff enjoyed a varied programme with music spanning four centuries on a variety of instruments. Sarah impressed with a performance of her own composition for piano and we look forward to hearing more from Les Six – a newly formed vocal group who gave a beautiful rendition of ‘The Long and Winding Road’.

The weekend of the 10th October at Tregoyd House in Wales was the beginning of a growing friendship between the lower sixth forms at both Alton Convent and Salesian College. Over the four days the groups got to know each through activities such as rafting and kayaking (where we all got throughly soaked including Mr Maher) zip wire, quad biking, fencing and archery!

In the evenings everyone participated in team building games, including hide and seek in the dark, problem solving and a disco.

We have made such good friends and are all looking forward to building on this realtionship over the next two years, especially in Lourdes next Easter.

On a sunny morning when serious matters were being discussed deep in the Bank of England, girls from AC's LVI were busy next door trying to control inflation! They tested their skill in the Bank of England museum where they were visiting the current exhibition "The Pound in Your Pocket" .

After becoming more informed about the financial world they spent time soaking up the atmosphere in Covent Garden before moving to the world of art in the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern. Their cultural visit was rounded off by a visit to the theatre where they enjoyed the current hit production "Wicked".

A group of sixth formers from Alton Convent School recently returned from their expedition to India which had been funded by months of fundraising and was made in celebration of Alton Convent’s 70th Jubilee. Their first destination was Varanasi, and Alton Convent’s sister school, St Joseph’s which had also been founded by the order of Our Lady of Providence.

The girls were the first students to visit from Alton Convent and were welcomed into the community like old friends. There they met a group of disadvantaged young girls known as the ‘Rainbow Children’ who now live with the Sisters at the Convent. During their stay in Varanasi they were given an insight into the ‘real’ India, away from the tourist trail where they were able to learn about the Indian way of life. The Sisters do incredible social work in the poorer villages surrounding Varanasi. An afternoon spent in one of these villages proved almost to be too much for the girls who found it to be one of the most humbling experiences; it certainly gave a new meaning to fundraising. A spontaneous collection back at the Convent was immediately instigated knowing that the villagers needed vital supplies.