Happy Easter!

As I walked to church on Friday, I reflected on how, just one year ago, Tammy, myself and our son Max, were welcomed into the Sunninghill Community with a beautiful Easter service, Hot Cross Buns and kind words. The Easter Service this year, led by Revd Magee, was another beautiful service just as I remember if from my very first service at Sunninghill. Our Year 8’s told the Easter Story with a clarity and confidence that surpasses their years. Our junior choir and chamber choir sang beautifully and our orchestras played so confidently. I was a very proud Head.

I was equally proud of the children on Thursday during our celebration assembly where pupils were awarded their colours and half colours for sport and music. A fantastic number of children were awarded these colours in recognition of their efforts. Endeavor and academic prizes for the term were also handed out – congratulations to you all.

The Spring Term has been a very eventful term – with house competitions, numerous local trips, as well as trips further afield to Bath for the netball. We have had Rotary writing and public speaking competitions with fantastic results, incredible results from our LAMDA examinations, a very successful community project with the Glencairn Care Home, a visit from the Space dome, a visit from the Hobgoblin Theatre Company and of course our phenomenal production of Moana! Alongside all these events was of course our ISI inspection – which we are hoping to give you some more feedback on as soon as the final report is ready, which is likely to be after the holiday now.

Form 2 had an exciting visit to Lorton Meadows Conservation Centre & Nature Reserve this week. They saw the barn owls nesting on the web cam, they went minibeast hunting in the woods and pond dipping. The leaders were very knowledgeable and helped the children identify lots of minibeasts as well as name the birds from the birdsong. The children were a real credit to themselves and had a great time.

Form 1 have been busy with some fabulous ‘vegesaurus’ creations in art to end their Jurassic Fantastic topic. They then had a lovely talk from Beau’s Grandad, an advisor for the National Trust, all about protecting our coastline. He also brought a huge shell collection with him and we all learnt lots of new facts about different shells.

Form 3 have been working on the finishing touches of their game ‘Sunninghill Parking’ in their DT lessons – their adaptation of the board game ‘Rush Hour’. They have worked really hard on this and Mr Salisbury has been really impressed with their hard work and attention to detail.

I was invited into Form 4 this week to take a look at some of their fantastic poems. Inspired by the poet Maya Angelou and her poem ‘Still I rise’, Form 4 wrote their own interpretations of the poem. I was truly moved by their poems and wanted to share a few of them with you.

Reception and Nursery had a treat this week with a trip to Coffee No.1 for some hot chocolate. This was a reward for all their hard work. They all had such a lovely time and were very well behaved!

On the subject of chocolate, our thanks must go to our wonderful PTFA who arranged (with the Easter Bunny of course) for a fabulous Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday. Each of the children had to find 5 of the hidden golf tees in return for an Easter Egg – and the hope of finding one of the special striped golf tees for that extra special chocolate egg! In a week of terrible rainy weather we were so lucky to have such a glorious morning for our Easter Egg Hunt!

This week we also held the inter house netball and hockey competitions. Some very close results and some great sportsmanship on display!

Finally, I am so proud of all the children who took a LAMDA examination this term with unbelievable results. Out of 101 examinations our children received 76 distinctions and 25 merits. A credit to all their hard work and the dedication of their teachers and parents who worked with them. Absolutely wonderful!