This afternoon 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 orchestra played so confidently. 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 visitors and local trips, as well as trips further afield to Bath for the netball. We have had writing and public speaking competitions with fantastic results, fabulous enrichment activities to including cooking, bouldering and ski-ing, a visit from Space Detectives, an incredibly informative careers week, theatre trips, Nursery tea party and of course our phenomenal production of Aladdin. Our children are incredibly lucky to have all these opportunities running alongside their academic work and is what makes Sunninghill such a special place.
I was incredibly proud of the children on Thursday morning during our celebration assembly where pupils were awarded their colours and half colours for sport and music, as well as Endeavour cups for the highest scores in their ATL grades (Attitude to Learning) and the awards for those children who gained the most housepoints over the term for our 4C’s – Courage, Commitment, Compassion and Creativity. A fantastic number of children were given these colours and awards in recognition of all their efforts. Congratulations to you all.
Last weekend I was delighted to go to the University of Bath to support Amelka, Tabitha, Sonny, Frank and Ollie who took part in the finals of the National Schools Biathlon Competition in Bath, having recently qualified in the regionals earlier in the year. All 5 of the children did incredibly well, competing against some of best sporting talent in the country. They all showed great determination, and superb sportsmanship and it was lovely to see them cheering each other on. A brilliantly organised event at the incredible sports centre at the University of Bath and a fantastic experience for them all. We could not have been more proud of you all.
On Monday, Year 2 students had an exciting day out at Abbotsbury Swannery, where they deepened their scientific understanding of the life cycle and habitat of a swan.
During their visit, the children were given a fascinating guided tour, which taught them how the swannery creates a safe and supportive environment to meet the swans’ basic needs. The highlight of the day was when the children had the chance to feed the swans, which they thoroughly enjoyed!
The students also had fun exploring the decoy tunnels, a unique feature of the swannery, and comparing their own wingspans to that of a swan—some were surprised at how large these majestic birds actually are!
It was a wonderful learning experience that helped bring science to life, and the children returned to school with a wealth of new knowledge about the fascinating world of swans.
Forms 5 and 8 had a great afternoon on Monday with Jo Richardson from Space Detectives, as part of their space topic. They had a presentation about the solar system and were then able to explore it using virtual reality. It was great watching them interact with the 360 degree view and the feelings of taking off in a space rocket!
In the evening parents and pupils were treated to a wonderful talk from Jo and a chance to look at Jupiter through a telescope with her husband Peter. Whilst some children were looking through the telescope, others were building constellations out of spaghetti and marshmallows! It was fascinating to learn the mind blowing number of galaxies in our solar system and the distances and scale in the universe. Jo made sure that we will all remember the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second! A fascinating evening, and so lovely for the children to learn alongside their parents.
Also on Monday, Form 4 enjoyed a wonderful day at Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre as part of their Vikings topic. They has lots of fun experiencing what it would have been like to live during Viking times, by building fences, chopping wood and creating textiles by weaving. They had their lunch by the fire in a Viking Longhouse and a highlight was getting to play traditional Viking games to end our day.
On Tuesday, the children had a fantastic time celebrating Red Nose Day – a little later than the rest of the country due to our production of Aladdin! They got into the spirit by wearing their own clothes, decorating a biscuit to enjoy at break time, and taking part in a fun red nose letter hunt, where they used the letters to create a phrase related to the theme of charity.
To raise even more money for Comic Relief, the children participated in form sponsored events. The playground was full of energy, with scavenger hunts, penalty shootouts, and laps of the field. Music echoed from the classroom windows where dance marathons were in full swing, while the Year 8 form room remained remarkably quiet as they took part in a sponsored silence!
It was a wonderful day, and the children did an amazing job raising money for such a worthy cause. School Council will be busy counting up the total and look forward to sharing the amount raised with you soon!
Also on Tuesday was the first of our Parent X Teacher Run Club session covering just over 5km. Mr Cracknell said; ‘The weather was stunning and we’d like to thank Øystein for joining us – it was a pleasure to chat, laugh and run with you! We hope to see some new faces at the next session after the Easter holidays.’
Congratulations to all our children who took their ABRSM music examinations on Wednesday morning. The examiner commented on what wonderful children we have here at Sunninghill, and how talented they are! All the children came out of their exam smiling and confident with their performances, and we can’t wait to receive their results next term.
As a belated part of our Career’s Week, Forms 5-7 enjoyed an informative and engaging talk this week with Mr Lynes, learning all about being a system’s engineer for BAE Systems. We have been so fortunate this year to have so many of our wonderful parents give up their valuable time to come and share their careers with us!
On Wednesday, Form 8 pupils went to Yeovilton to take part in the Regional Finals of the Flying Start Challenge 2025.
Their initial task was to build a marble run that kept the ball moving for as long as possible. Easy? Not when you only have drinking straws, lollypop sticks, thin card and paper tape to hold it together! Following this, the quiz, in which all the theory studied over the past few weeks was tested, and poster presentation, where an engineer grilled them on how and why they had made the decisions that led to their glider’s design. Finally, in the afternoon, the fly-off in Hangar 6. The last-minute adjustments to the gliders made a difference, as they all flew better than during testing, although they didn’t quite make it to the hangar door, unlike the eventual winners. They all enjoyed the opportunity to get inside the Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, try out some VR combat and play with robots; it was a long day, and they were excellent Sunninghill ambassadors.
On Thursday there was huge excitement as the much anticipated PTFA Easter Egg Hunt took place. Each of the children had to find 3 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! Our thanks must go to our wonderful PTFA who arranged (with the Easter Bunny of course) for a fabulous Easter Egg Hunt.
Congratulations to Albi for recently securing a music scholarship to Bryanston. Albi is a fantastic singer, drummer and guitarist and recently played the part of Jafar in our school production of Aladdin. A fabulous performance.
We have also learnt that Leo, who has already gained a scholarship to Leweston, has also been awarded a scholarship to Milton Abbey – an incredible achievement! Leo has successfully represented Sunninghill in all major games whilst displaying a fine sporting etiquette. He is a strong rugby player and exceptional sailor!
Well done to both of you, and to Vira and Scarlett, who we wrote about earlier in the term, for their scholarships to Milton Abbey and to Leweston.
On the subject of celebrations, I’d like to wish Jeanette, our lovely receptionist, a very happy 60th birthday which she will be celebrating over the Easter holidays!
I’m sure you will agree this has not only been an incredibly busy and exciting week for all the children, but a very busy term filled with fantastic opportunities and I would like to thank all the staff who have made this such a special term for them all.
Have a wonderful and restful Easter and I look forward to seeing you all in the Summer Term.
David
