This weekend is the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch 2025’. On Friday morning Mr Stazicker led our assembly about the importance of taking part in this survey each year. We are asking all our families to spend 1 hour watching the birds in your ‘patch’ next weekend and record the birds that land in your garden. Sadly we have lost 38 million total bird population over the last 60 years, so the survey is designed to see how our birds are faring in the UK. Last year, over half a million people took part in this survey, which is now the worlds largest garden wildlife survey.
We had a lot to celebrate this week, with a record number of Well Done winners; Penelope, Aiden, Olivia, Juliet S, Clara, Ava, William K, Heidi, Baxter, Albi, Nikolas, Anna, Agatha, Zachary, Max, Callisto, Sasha and Charlie! Wow! Our Academic Excellence winners this week were Ava, Aiden, Samson, Toby, Henry and Albie. Finally Mina and Nathaniel won the Commitment award, Oliver A and Manu the Compassion award, Agatha and Emily the Courage award and Zachary and Harry P the Creativity award.
We had more to celebrate this week. The results of the local round of the Rotary Young Writers competition, with the theme ‘Wonderful Water’ were announced. In the intermediate section, Sunninghill had a clean sweep with Scarlett in first place, Lottie in second and Rosa in third. In the junior section, Heidi achieved second place. As the winner of the local round, Scarlett’s story qualifies to go forward to the District Competition. Her wonderful short story is attached. We wish her the best of luck! Congratulations to all for this amazing and well deserved achievement!
Well done to Sandro, AJ, Juliette, Remi and Samson who received their Star Crest Award in Science yesterday for their work in the 4Cs Junior Science club last half term. They had to complete between 6 and 8 different experiments including bridge and raft building, investigating reflection, popper rockets and chromatography.
In science this week, Form 7 were investigating air resistance on the main stairs this morning looking at the impact of changing the surface area of the parachute and it’s impact on air resistance. They have been learning how to draw free-body diagrams to show the sizes of the forces at different points in a parachutist’s fall.
Form 8 pupils attended the annual Holocaust Memorial at the Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday. They had developed their own poetry after reflecting on the theme of genocide, and more specifically the Holocaust, in a number of their English, history and religious studies lessons. All of the pupils performed their pieces in a clear and eloquent manner as part of this hour-long event. They should be proud of the way they conducted themselves at such an emotional and poignant occasion.
Our 4C’s Senior Gardening club were out in Dorchester High Street this week, working with Liz to refresh the town planters that we sponsor. Please go an admire them when you are next in town – they look fantastic!
We are ending this week with the very exciting news that 5 more of our students have qualified for the National Biathlon Championships in March. Ollie, Frank, Elizabeth, Sonny and Amelka have all qualified for the event through their national ranking that will take place on March 22nd & 23rd at Bath University. Their exceptional performances at Millfield School in November have earned them a place to compete against the best school children across the country. We are super proud of the students and wish them the best luck.
This weekend is the PTFA Burns Night event – with a delicious traditional Scottish dinner cooked by Kerry and her team, followed by a ceilidh with a live band – ‘The Stompin’ Boondocks!’ All the money raised tonight will go towards re-vamping the low ropes area of the school which is an area loved by so many of our children. It is a lot of work putting on an event like this – and I am so grateful to the fabulous PTFA team who work so hard throughout the year to put on so many events for the children and families of Sunninghill. It’s going to be another fantastic event!
Have a great weekend.
David
