Activities Fortnight is always a highlight in the school calendar as it marks the run up to the end of the school year and heralds the advent of the wonderful House Drama competition. Beginning shortly after the end of public and internal exams, the students enjoy a unique period of time off-timetable and immerse themselves in a wide range of activities which this year included House Matches, pride in Pate’s celebrations, sustainability projects, conservation, Outdoor Education, Art workshops, cookery lessons, a Junior Concert, trip enrichment, Mandarin Excellence Programme enrichment, Shakespeare, and Language and Science Fairs - there has been so much to get involved in to enhance the personal development of the students. It has been really fantastic to see our learners supporting each other across the year groups to enjoy the array of co-curricular opportunities on offer. 

This year it has felt like there has been an 'Alumni Fortnight' running parallel to Activities Fortnight with two alumni events in the same afternoon starting it all off - Alumni Cricket and Careers Talks. The Alumni Cricket match always kicks off Pate's Cricket Week with the 1st Xl taking on the Headmaster's Xl. The 1st Xl fell 29 runs short of Mr Ellicott's team who scored 186 in the 30 overs - much happiness for Mr Ellicott and his team of staff and alumni! 

We are grateful to the six alumni who returned to Pate's to talk to Years 9 & 10 about their careers and the different paths they took post-Pate's to get to where they are today. There were excellent contributions from Ethan Adams (degree apprenticeship Dyson), Gaurav Singh (degree apprenticeship Bloomberg), Memoona Ahmed (Assistant Psychologist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and TIC +), Corrie Sissons (Humanitarian Food Security Advisor, Catholic Relief Services ), Becky Ratcliffe plus husband Ben (De Montfort Vets and Purton Vets) and Tristan Sharman (Geography, St Andrews) - they were very generous to give up their time to inform and inspire the students!

The 1960, 1961, 1970 & 1971 Anniversary Reunion took place with the attendees enjoying meeting up both with classmates and also former members of staff Bob and Hilary Beale and Noel and Pat Furley. It was a lovely event with lots of reminiscing over the memorabilia displays which had been put together by the volunteer Archivists (and Pate's Society members) Maggie Cowie and Rob Rimell.

The Class of 2020 filled the Art Gallery with chatter and happiness at their reunion. Current staff members popped in to catch up on where these alumni now find themselves two years on from leaving Pate’s. Both reunions had been postponed due to the pandemic so it was fantastic that these events have finally taken place.

The end of Activities Fortnight saw Year 8 students working in small teams to develop and execute their own science investigations. This culminated in the presentation of poster boards of their work to the three alumni judges and pupils from Hester's Way Primary School. Our thanks to Matt Evans (EDP, Class of 2009), Rebecca Taylor (CERN, Class of 2016) and Chrissy Williams (Natural History Museum, Class of 2017) for their time and words of wisdom. Working in a lively environment, the judges recognised 5 Outstanding projects covering a wide variety of themes - the nutrition of sausage rolls, non-Newtonian behaviour in slimes, cues as memory triggers, the Physics of blood spatter and woodlice habitat choice. The students' choice went to the mouse-trap car team. The Hester's Way 'Most Memorable Project' winners - 'Microscope Forensics' and the Overall Winners - 'Is there a gender difference in the perception of distance?'.

We've loved meeting so many 'new' faces this summer and look forward to welcoming alumni to Pate's in the Autumn. The next opportunity for alumni to contribute to a school event is at the Higher Education & Careers Fair on Wednesday 9th November 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm. If you are interested in attending this event where you would chat to students interested in learning more about your career please get in touch development@patesgs.org