This morning I went to a wonderful Form 2 Assembly on ‘Marvellous Monarchs’. Form 2 talked confidently to the whole school, and their own parents, about the great Kings and Queens of Great Britain, as well as the not so great ones! With a timeline going back to 886 to the present day, fantastic facts and songs – it really was a very informative and engaging assembly and we were all very impressed! There was even some suggestions for what changes they would make if they were head of this school – with some excellent ideas such as hot chocolate fountains instead of water fountains and having a giant shiny unicorn at the helm!
The week started with the excitement of our whole school photo, as well as our class photos. The children looked very smart and were all beautifully behaved, making the tricky task of photographing a whole school very painless. Even Molly the dog was happy to pose for the camera! We look forward to receiving the official photographs!
On the subject of looking smart – a little reminder about uniform please! All children must come to school wearing their blazers, every day, and come into school in their school black shoes (not trainers) and hair tied up if on shoulders or longer.
Summer uniform is:
For girls – Reception – Form 6 – summer dress, white socks, blue cardigan and black shoes.
For girls, Form 7 and 8 – blue navy skirt, white blouse, white socks and navy cardigan
For boys – white shirt with tie, blue school jumper, navy shorts, navy socks and black shoes.
We have lots of tours and taster days happening at the moment, which is very exciting, and we want to give a great impression of our lovely school.
Our Form 3 children have had the most wonderful time this week in Devon, at the Rock and Rapid Adventure Centre in South Molton. They have all got along brilliantly and enjoyed all the adventures that the centre had to offer – from canoeing, working as a team on a giant SUP, surfing in Croyde Bay, climbing on the high ropes and climbing in the indoor climbing centre.
It has been a jam packed few days of fun and a fantastic first residential for them all. Thank you to Mr Stazicker and Mrs Johnstone for leading this trip and looking after the children so well, and thank you to all the children for embracing this opportunity and being so beautifully behaved.
This week, the girls played pairs cricket v Hanford. All played really well and their bowling was accurate and caused problems for the Hanford batters. Having worked on this in their lessons, it was so good to see it used so effectively in the game. We won with more runs, so well done everyone for looking smart and working as a team.
Also this week, 31 Senior prep pupils enjoyed a fine afternoon at the Clayesmore Athletics on Wednesday. The weather was challenging, but overall it was a fantastic learning opportunity for all. The pupils displayed great levels of effort, endeavour and support throughout the events. Special mentions go to Zac, Felix, Abel, Freddy, louis, Amelka and Scarlett whose performances were outstanding in the ‘A’ races.
Tom Palmer, renowned children’s author, came to school on Thursday and shared his personal journey with Forms 4 to 8. Tom spoke candidly with the children about his early struggles with reading and how football was initially a source of inspiration and a route into writing. He talked about the importance of planning and writing about things that you love.
With Forms 4, 5 and 6, Tom’s Football Game proved that Mrs. Baker was a tough goalie to beat: only Natty succeeded in scoring two goals against her.
After break, Forms 7 and 8 took inspiration from World War II memorabilia and collaborated to write their own creative pieces. Will H read to us a breathtaking opening which used the senses; Izzy wrote a powerful description with shocking impact; Freddie’s group included original and well-crafted images; Flora wrote with impressive realism and knowledge of technical details; Alex’s group brought drama; Freddy and Dexter included a convincing military setting.
We are grateful to Tom for his inspirational messages of encouragement for all our young writers.
We were also lucky enough to welcome Tracy Linney from Earth Energy Education who came in to talk to the Form 8 pupils about renewable energy – solar in particular. They started the afternoon by discussing renewables and then had a go using solar cells to power LEDs, buzzers and motors – looking at different ways to set up the circuits and what light levels they would work in.
They took them outside and noticed the difference in speed of the motors when the clouds came! On return to the classroom they planned an investigation into where in Sunninghill would be the best location for some solar panels. They then went outside with Lux-meters, solar cells and voltmeters to test their ideas. I am looking forward to hearing about their suggestions for our school.
Tonight we have a wine tasting evening hosted by Morrish and Banham which I am very much looking forward to!
Finally, I hope you will all join me in welcoming Darren Still, who joined the Sunninghill community this week, as part of our maintenance team.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Best wishes
David
