Grandparents' Day - Notes From A Small School

This week we held what is one of my absolute favourite events in the Sunninghill Calendar – Grandparents’ Day! On Thursday afternoon we welcomed over 100 Grandparents to tour the school, see their children’s work and enjoy an afternoon, while they listened to fantastic musical performances from Preschool to Form 8. The reason why I love Grandparents’ Day so much is the look of total adoration from both the grandparents and their grandchildren. The children absolutely love welcoming them into school, and the pride and affection on display is always heartwarming. Special thanks must go to Mrs Moss for the wonderful musical performances, Kerry and the team for the delicious cream tea, and to Mrs Culshaw and Liz for the gorgeous flowers given to all the grandmothers – they really were beautiful!

This morning in assembly, we took time to celebrate one of my all-time heroes, Sir David Attenborough on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Few people have done more to share the wonders of the natural world – and the important of protecting it – with generations across the globe. When I asked the school who had heard of him, I was delighted to see nearly every hand in the school shoot up. What an inspiration!

Well done to our latest published authors, Sophia, Sonny, Seb, Rory and Alice whose Remembrance stories have been published in a Remembrance book ‘Whispers of War’. Sonny and Sophia were courageous enough to share their excellent stories for us during assembly. Thank you and well done to you all.

We also congratulated Rosie, Elodie, Penelope, Violet, Beau, Grace and Connor for gaining an Academic Excellence Award. Will N. Sandro, Logan, Grace, Agatha, Rosa and Sasha also received a Well Done certificate. Romeo and Phin received the Commitment award, Ruby and Rosa the Compassion award, Olivia and Sasha-Mae the Courage award and Florence F and Mila the Creativity award. It was a pleasure to award silver badges to Juliet and Rosa, and gold badges to Yasmin, Sandro and Jia-Wei.

Finally, I was also delighted to present Anna and Callisto with their Dance Captain badges. This is the first time we have had Dance captains at Sunninghill and Ms Dulston was delighted to award these to Anna and Callisto for their outstanding contribution to dance at Sunninghill – and the care and leadership they show to the younger dancers in school. Well done to you both.

In science this week, Reception class have been busy learning about a balanced diet and how to stay healthy. Today they made delicious smoothies to share with their friends, before taking in a little run around the athletics track!

This term, Forms 7 and 8 have been introduced to a brand-new Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) in Music lessons — and the response has been overwhelmingly positive! Students have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the creative possibilities of music technology while developing a wide range of composition and production skills. Using the DAW, pupils have learnt how to create and layer drum beats, bass lines, chord progressions and melodies, as well as experiment with arrangement, structure and sound effects. They have also explored key production techniques including mixing, editing, looping, balancing tracks and using virtual instruments to create polished final pieces. As part of their project, students composed all of the instrumental parts themselves before editing and integrating pre-recorded professional rap vocals into their compositions. The creativity, confidence and musical understanding demonstrated throughout the process has been extremely impressive, with students showing real flair for modern music production.

We are delighted to share two examples of the students’ work via the QR codes below.

Form 8 will now take their learning even further by creating an original composition in a genre of their choice, including Afrobeats, House, Pop and Grime. We look forward to hearing the exciting and diverse music they produce next!

It was lovely welcoming prospective families into school this morning for our Summer Open Morning. Once again, thank you to Kirsten and Trinni from our PTFA who helped serve teas and coffees and chat to parents. It is much appreciated.

Next Monday is our whole school photograph, Forms 7 and 8 will be going to the Globe theatre and senior vocal choir will be going to a choral day at Sherborne School. Forms 1 and 2 will be going to the Swannery, and Forms 5 and 6 will be having their form assembly on Friday.

Although it has been a short week this week, it feels like we have all packed a lot into our week this week, so I hope you all have a lovely restful weekend.

David