Yesterday we held our beautiful Easter Service at St. Peter’s Church, led once again by Revd Magee. Our Year 8’s told the Easter Story with a clarity and confidence that surpasses their years. Our choirs sang beautifully and our orchestras played so confidently. We even had a beautiful dance from Kitty which was just wonderful. It was a very special service, and a lovely way to begin our Easter Holiday break.
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, numerous formal and informal concerts, fabulous enrichment activities to including cooking, ski-ing and powerboating, a visit from the Space Dome and Space Detectives during Science week, a visit from the Hobgoblin Theatre Company and of course our phenomenal Sunninghill’s Got Talent. Our children are incredibly lucky to have all these extra curricular opportunities running alongside their academic work. My thanks to all the staff who provide these opportunities for the children.
I was incredibly 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, as well as prizes for Mrs Fernley’s reading challenge and house point badges. Our Flying Start pupils in Form 8 have done incredibly well, and each received a certifcates for their work, and I will be taking the finalists to Leonardo’s in Yeovil on Thursday. Our top house point scorers for the term, for each of our school values, were awarded a book token for senior prep and a school values animal for junior prep – congratulations to you all!
Whilst we were celebrating in Assembly, our Easter bunnies, in the form of our fabulous PTFA, were busy hiding golf tees in preparation for our annual Great Easter Egg Hunt! This is one of the highlights of the year for the children and they were SO excited! It was wonderful seeing how the Form 8’s looked after the little ones, helping them to find their differently couloured golf tees! The much sought after stripy black and white tees, proved to be somewhat elusive – and I’m not convinced there isn’t still one hidden…..
Thank you to the Easter Bunny who made a surprise appearance and to the PTFA for organising this event, and for all the support over this past term.
To really get us in the Spring mood, on Thursday we had the most wonderful Spring Concert and Easter Bonnet parade from Nursery and Junior Prep. Mrs Culshaw made the dining room look absolutely beautiful with all their artwork displayed, and then we were treated to a medley of songs and dances, which were just so joyful. Thank you to all the staff who made the concert so fabulous.
There have been some fabulous trips our for Junior Prep this week.
Form 3 visited the Sealife Centre, where they attended workshops on being ‘sea defenders’ to find out what threatens sea life in the coral reef, to tie in with their learning on the Egyptian Red Sea. They had a great tour of the wonderful creatures, and no-one was scared of the sharks!
Form 2 had a lovely day at Abbotsbury Swannery on Tuesday. They learnt all about the habitat of the swans and even had the opportunity to feed them which they really enjoyed! Luckily the rain held off too!
Meanwhile, Nursery and Reception enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Herringston House. They spent time with Liz, our Head Gardener, looking at all the Spring colours and all the stunning blossom. It was lovely to see the changes in the garden since their last visit in November when they looked at all the Autumn colours! All the children enjoyed a hot chocolate in the conservatory, which was a bit of a highlight!
A few of our newly qualified powerboaters, Felix, Leo, Louis and Seb, visited the Hive Beach Lookout of the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI). The objective of the NCI is to assist in the protection and preservation of life at sea and along the United Kingdom coastline with approximately 60 lookout stations. It is a charity manned by volunteers who work closely with the emergency services, especially the RNLI and the coast guard.
They had a tour, including a chat with the Station Roster Officer to find out more about the work of the NCI. They learnt how to log incidents, take bearings, how communication takes place over VHF radios and how to identify vessels with the AIS global tracking system. We hope our children never have to rely on them in an emergency but hope they will feel safer knowing there is such a dedicated team keeping a close watch on our waters.
I am really proud of all the charity work that has gone on this term, particularly all the work of the Mrs Johnstone and the School Council. I am pleased to report that we met our recent targets with both the Boomwhackers for the schools in India and the Philippines (where 2 of our current Form 3 pupils are attending) and also for our Weymouth Half marathon, where our team raised £1,280 which will go towards the overall target of £10,000 that the ILG group of school are hoping to raise this year to help their partner school in Malawi. Thank you all for your amazing generosity and to the runners who took part last weekend as part of the Sunninghill Team. I will leave you with this fabulous poem written about the event, by William in Form 3, whose mum was part of the running team:
The Sunninghill Running Team
Mr Shorty-Cardio, set off like Super Mario
However, Stu sped off really quickly, too
Followed by whippet Liz the incredible whizz!
Ultra Jo was fired up from the get-go
But Nicki was equally zippy
As was fast and steady Fredi
Pacing it especially with Lesley
And her rad and speedy dad!
Julie ran ever so cooly
While Eli gave it sheer welly
Emily made the ‘half’ look heavenly
Like Kevin’s tuneful steppin’
And Mr Newberry smiled the whole distance long
With Mrs Wilson crossing the finish line just as strong!
What an awesome Sunninghill running team
Raising funds for a Malawi school scheme
The training was all for a good cause
We thank everyone’s support with huge applause!
By William, Form 3
Have a wonderful Easter, and a well deserved break!
Best wishes
David
