This week has been an incredibly busy one at Sunninghill. With NSPCC Number Day, Storytelling week, our Open Morning, trips out for Bath Netball, Dorchester Museum for Form 3 children, visits from Leonardo’s for our Form 8 Flying Start project and from Kooth – a charity for student mental health.
With our Open Morning on Friday, we had a slightly different assembly, just with our junior prep. Toby and I amazed Junior prep with a mind reading magic trick, following on from Mr Butcher’s mathematical wizardry last assembly. We also celebrated our Academic Excellence winners, our Well Done winners – Grace, William, Emily, Beau, Elsie, Rosie and Tessie. Finally, our Junior Prep winner for Compassion was Alfie, Commitment was Bea, Courage was Ava and Creativity was Penelope. Well done to you all.
Henry and Elsie stood up on behalf of the school council to share the news that the School Council raised an additional £89.90 for Wessex cancer Support through last week’s tuck shop and to let us know that they will be selling Valentine’s biscuits at next Friday’s morning break sale.
As part of National Storytelling week, the Senior Prep children visited the Junior Prep and Nursey, sharing their favourite childhood stories. Everyone involved had a truly wonderful time! We hope to make it a more regular event after the success of today. The deadline for the Sunninghill creative writing competition has been extended to Friday 14th February, to give all entrants an opportunity to really hone their story!
On Wednesday, Form 3 were lucky enough to be one of the first classes to visit the touring Roman Exhibition at the Dorset County Museum. The children were given a guided tour around the exhibition and were able to ask inquisitive questions about the precious artefacts. They then had chance to do an archeological dig to find buried artefacts and piece together what type of person could have been buried with their belongings.
In the afternoon they visited the famous Roman Town House and examined the exquisite mosaic floors and the remaining walls. The children had a brilliant day and cemented their learning from Autumn Term on the Romans.
As part of Children’s mental health week, on Thursday, Forms 5 and 6 have taken part in a ‘Virtual Soccer Schools’ assembly, where they met and asked questions to Premier League Footballer, Josh King (Fulham FC) . Aligned with the theme “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself”, this session showed pupils how understanding their strengths can unlock their potential. They discovered how the strengths used by champions can help them navigate life’s challenges with resilience and confidence.
On Thursday, 6th February, Lauren Finn, the Senior Engagement Lead for Kooth, visited our school to deliver a talk to pupils in Forms 6 to 8. This event was part of Children’s Mental Health Week, which is taking place from 3rd to 9th February 2025. This year’s theme, “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself,” encourages children to embrace self-awareness to build resilience and personal development.
Kooth is a digital mental health and well-being platform that provides free, safe, and anonymous support for young people. It offers access to self-help resources, community forums, and professional counselling services, all designed to assist students in managing their mental health and well-being. Kooth is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), ensuring that all counsellors adhere to high professional standards. Over the past two decades, Kooth has partnered with the NHS to enhance mental health support across England and Wales.
For more information about Kooth, please visit their website: www.kooth.com.
Form 8 have enjoyed two full days of STEM this week, taking part in the preliminary work towards their entries for this year’s Flying Start Challenge. The three teams worked against the clock to learn the theory of flight, taught by three engineers from Leonardo in Yeovil, before constructing a prototype glider that flew as far as possible, in as straight a line as possible. They also began to put together a record of their work on a poster that will be displayed as part of their entry at the regional finals taking place in March at RNAS Yeovilton.
On Thursday, Sunninghill Prep took part in the NSPCC Number Day. The students came in non school uniform wearing something with numbers on. Some went further and made outfits to celebrate the day. A special mention must go out to Rosa in Form 6 and Henry in Form 4 who had made amazing dice outfits. During the day the children took part in a number of activities in and outside of the classroom. Including ‘Buddy’s adventure challenge’ an escape room type activity, ‘Who Framed Harold Rained’, a ‘who done it’ challenge, Mr Butcher’s break time number challenge and the ‘ I spy Mr Butcher’s ever changing numbered shirt challenge’.
Not only did the children have fun doing maths throughout the day, they also learnt about the NSPCC and the amazing work they do. Today the fun continued as the children take part in the TT Rockstars NSPCC national tournament.
Well done to all the children for their participation and generous donations.
Form 5 tried out the new Boogie Bounce trampolines this week in their PE lesson. A massive thank you to the PTFA for purchasing them for us, the children really enjoyed using them and learnt about the health benefits of the activity.
Next week I am hugely excited to be attending the Young Voices concert at Wembley Arena with 42 children and their families. It is going to be an amazing trip and the children have been working so hard rehearsing all their songs! We are also holding a Valentine’s biscuit sale on Friday for Wessex Cancer Support, as well as a parent and child ceilidh, following the success of the parent event last month.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
David
