As many of you will know, Blenheim High School is a secondary school located at Longmead Road in Epsom. It is a very splendid, satisfying and superb school, superior to many of the others in our area. It is not only superior in terms of its academic achievements, but also due to extra curriculum activities which students can get involved with. It also encourages many of its students to take part and get involved in diverse activities offered in our community. This is what makes Blenheim Students different to any other students from other schools in our area; it is the fact that we get involved in variety of different activities inside and outside of school.
The 31st of September was the day when most of the anxious parents of 11 and 12 year olds visited Blenheim High School, as it was the day when our school was hosting its Open Evening. The week following up to Thursday saw huge number of guests arriving to see the school during its everyday life.
It was also predictable that the night would be a great success, letting parents and their children gain an insight into the school. In fact, the amount of people who came was quite shocking, as about 1400- 1500 people turned up, seeking to find out whether the atmosphere in our school was acceptable or whether their children would like their future teachers. Also 623 prospectuses were given out, indicating the great interest of people in our school.
People were continuously coming from 5.30 till 8.30, and were given tours by our students, whose age varied- starting from sweet little year sevens ending on mature and grown up year thirteens. This allowed people to hear about all the different experiences we had as Blenheim High School students. Things we have talked about were different: some of us mentioned different trips we went on or different clubs we participated in, while others preferred to talk about the different opportunities offered by the school varying from the Duke of Edinburgh, sports events to more business like things such as the Enterprise Day. The tours were approximately an hour each, during which parents saw only a little, tiny, minute bit of how entertaining and exciting lessons in our school were. The tours begun in several different departments, but in the end every parent saw everything worth seeing- which in the case of our school is basically every single classroom.
The variety of different activities that took place on Thursday was definitely pleasing to the young people who were eager to get involved in dissecting heart, lungs or liver. They could also see a variety of different insects under microscopes. Other things that could be seen in the science department included things which made people’s hair stand up. Literally.
In Maths however, students were able to play mathematical games, including a competitive game from My Maths. All of students who visited our school said “Maths was my favourite subject” Mrs Wallace told us, few days after the evening. In textiles, however, they were able to get their “hands dirty” as they were making bags.
After the tours, as the excitement of the children died down, an essential part of the evening began. As the tours ended by the hall, there was a speech given out by Mrs Leech, our head teacher. She described what life at Blenheim was like, which was very interesting to prospectus students.
In conclusion, the evening was a great success and was described by many young people as “exciting” and “fun”, which would initially make them choose Blenheim as their first choice high school. Some people even said Blenheim was “better than [they] expected. Overall I believe the evening was portrayed as a great adventure for the children and as something worthwhile and interesting by their parents.
