Pre-Prep’s Den Building Morning
On Saturday mums, dads and children armed with pallets, tubes, planks and power tools came along to build dens in the Pre-Prep playground. The den soon started taking shape under the direction of some very enthusiastic dads and before long a super structure was emerging complete with roof, door and three rooms! After bacon sandwiches to keep everyone going the den was ready for interior decoration. The children made benches using crates and planks and had lots of fun exploring their new den. A big thank you to the dads for the den building materials and their expertise. The children of Pre-Prep will definitely be looking forward to their playtimes from now one!
Pre-Prep’s sunflowers
Pre-Prep couldn’t believe their eyes when they returned after the holidays to see how much their sunflowers had shot up. The children in Gardening Club estimated their height but the flowers had grown so tall that they couldn’t reach to measure them. They decided that the lovely weather this summer must be the reason they grew so much! The children from Photography enrichment had a lot of fun photographing the sunflowers.
Form 1’s blindfold challenge
Pupils in Form 1 were set the novel challenge last week of negotiating the play park area whilst blindfolded. Poppy and Amy helped to guide the children by giving verbal instructions. This was an eventful challenge that had the children in fits of laughter after several comical stumbles but did wonders to develop their teamwork, a key aspect of their learning this year and something that will certainly be useful on their residential trip later in the year.
White Rose Book Shop – Chapter 2
Following the success for Form 1’s trip to the White Rose Book Shop, Forms 2, 3 and 4 have taken up Mrs Lake’s kind invitation to stock up with new books for their class libraries. The children in each form enjoyed a morning’s perusing the well-stocked bookshelves, enjoying stories in the storytelling corner and sampling the delights of the in-store café! Every child came back to school with a personally chosen book to put onto the new bookshelves in their classrooms, and can look forward to many hours of literary escapism.
Eldmire survive their first D of E expedition
Three teams of Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award candidates set off into the Yorkshire Dales for their practice expedition. Starting at Semer Water they camped overnight at Thoralby, before moving on to their final destination of Wensley. The groups all showed excellent team work and, for some more than others, it was their chance to brush up on their navigation and camp craft skills which should stand them in good stead for their forthcoming assessed expeditions.
A taste of Spain… and a tune from China
The boarding house welcomed a day of international flavours on Sunday! First we were treated to an authentic Spanish lunch of Plato Tortilla Tapa (tapas and Spanish omelette) prepared, cooked and served by Uxua and Iranzu. Everyone agreed it was delicious! Then after lunch we enjoyed listening to Gabriella playing her Guzheng in the library. It is a beautiful traditional Chinese instrument which she plays so well. Gabriella looks forward to introducing her Guzheng to the whole school soon.
Mr Ball’s Brass Demonstration
The whole school enjoyed a lively demonstration, by peripatetic music teacher Mr Ball, of the wonderful array of instruments available to learn at school. Mr Ball started with the smallest instrument of the family, the trumpet, before working through the cornet, baritone horn, trombone and tuba. His demonstration of each instrument showed how its role in an orchestra or ensemble can influence the decision which instrument to learn: the higher pitched trumpet, cornet and baritone horn often carry the melody of a piece of music whilst the huge and very deep tuba takes the bassline. The trombone is the loudest instrument of the brass family and lends itself perfectly to big band and jazz numbers. Mr Ball was ably assisted in his demonstration by Archie Powell whose super duet with Mr Ball showcased Archie’s wonderfully miniaturised ‘pocket trumpet’. Any pupil wishing to take up music lessons with Mr Ball, even just on a trial basis, should contactMrs Fordin the Music Department.