Pate's Buzzing Co-Curricular Life
At Pate’s, the entire school experience is the curriculum. Our intention is to build a student experience to embody our belief that the knowledge and skills gained outside the classroom holds equal value to those gained within.
A huge part of tour co-curricular offer here is Lunchtime clubs - you can view this term's Co-Curricular Programmes here. Each week there are over 20 clubs taking place during the lunch break (over 50 if you include Sport and Music). Two new interest clubs which really took off last year are Chess Club and Gardening Club; we are looking forward to seeing how much more these clubs will progress this year.
Chess Club
Pate’s Chess Club launched this year, and has quickly established itself as a vibrant club for strategy, intellect and community. Meeting once a week during Lunchtime, the club offers welcoming, causal places where students can join to play a friendly game while training their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
In an age of digital distractions, chess gives students invaluable rewards of deep concentration, patience and strategic problem-solving skills along with enjoyment. However, the club was also built with a competitive edge, for testing our top players’ skills against top-tier talent from other schools.
For the first time, Pate's entered a team into the qualifier of the ECF (English Chess Federation) British Schools Team Chess Challenge last academic year. Facing a field of 30 established teams, Pate’s secured a phenomenal 9th place finish. Navigating the intense pressure of tournament taught our players how to handle challenges calmly and to reflect on the mistake they played, providing a valuable lesson that extends far beyond the chessboard.
As Pate’s Chess Club emerges from its successful debut year, we are looking to deepen our impact across the school, to make the benefits of chess a popular and accessible part of everyday school life, while establishing a culture of tournament play - treating chess with the same dedication drive as any other mainstream sports. Nathaniel (Yr 13)
Gardening Club
This last year, the brand-new Pate’s Gardening Club has been transforming the school, adding colour and vibrancy wherever possible. I led the club from its inception, with valued support from Mrs Trace and Mrs Zhang-Evans.
With aid from the Wildlife Trust, we have planted over 300 whips in a variety of native species around the school border, improving the valuable hedgerows around Pate’s for nesting birds and hedgehogs. The club also secured support from Cotswolds Youth Climate Action Network for ten apple trees which they have planted around the school. In new raised beds, Gardening Club have been planting and harvesting all manners of crops, including radishes, lamb’s lettuce, brassica, fennel, courgettes, peas, carrots, dwarf broad beans, strawberries and some particularly productive chard! Earlier in the year, the gardeners planted over 100 spring flowering bulbs, such as varieties of daffodil, tulips and alliums.
We have continued planting flowers around the school, including nigella, calendula, sweet peas, petunia, sunflowers, lupins, and scabiosa, as well as varieties of mint and basil, and have planted a great number of wildflower seeds around the school, thanks to seeds provided by HSBC Bank. We have also been managing the roses along the front of Pate’s and have even propagated some cuttings.
Gardening Club have learnt about the benefits of organic gardening with the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and how to incorporate edible produce into our everyday lives. Members always show great enthusiasm for the plants, and manage the planting schemes themselves with grateful guidance from the club’s vital teachers.
The club has grand plans to improve and expand our gardening; we are working on entries to the RHS School Gardening Awards scheme, and plan to apply to the School Garden Challenge at our composting ability at Pate’s and look to secure funding from Gloucestershire County Council to renovate our composting set-up.
All the members of Gardening Club would like to express their immense gratitude for the generous support we have received from the school and external organisations; our ambitions will only grow! Alfie (Yr 10)
