Harry’s trip to Downing Street
As part of Rays of Sunshine’s Christmas celebrations, Form 3 pupil Harry Young and his family were invited down to 10 Downing Street. Harry was greeted by reindeer outside the building before being welcomed into the house. After rigorous security checks, Harry was then able to enter the grand library where he mingled with Samantha Cameron and he even got to have a chat with the Prime Minister himself! After that all the families gathered together to have a meal along with many other famous faces. Harry said the day was really special and he returned to school eager to share his story and photographs with the rest of Form 3.
House Times Tables Competition 2015
Just before half term, the whole school fell silent for 5 minutes for the annual House Times Tables Competition. Prizes are given for the top scores in each Year, with the maximum score being 99. There were some very commendable scores across all age groups also worth mentioning: FORM WINNER HIGHLY COMMENDED Form 1 Matthew Alton 36 Stuart Broadwith 34 Jude Collier 34 Arran Armstrong 33 Fergus Mainey 30 Form 2 Isla Wadsworth 96 India Duree 94 Josie Sample 94 Alfie Weber 94 Caspar Dallas 92 Form 3 Patrick Cunningham 97 Sam Dallas 82 Flossie Attwood 77 Beth McEvoy 77 Form 4 Matthew Mairs 91 William Cunliffe-Lister 87 Harry Nettleton 87 Emily Bulmer 86 Murron O’Neill 86 Form 5 Basil Nettleton 97 Jacob Zoing 91 Ollie Booth 90 Olivia Turner 90 James Earley 89 Rebecca Bolt 88 Form 6 Ethan Watkins 99 Sean Skahan 88 Ben Earley 87 Niamh Watkins 87 Kit Jay 87 Thomas Hall 86 Leckby Max England 99 Elise Darcy 98 Iranzu Ros-Ramirez 96 Louis Zoing 93 Eldmire Becky Thompson 99 Annabel Hill 98 Lucy Wang 97 Uxua Ros-Ramirez 97 Jenny Davidson 94 Thornton Tim Wang 99 Gabriella Lei 99 Freddie Wiles 99 Ross Sullivan 99 Helena Youmans 96 Lauren Egan 95 Laura Aspinall 94 Quentin England 93 Taking the average score across each house, the House results were incredibly close (the closest in the history of the competition) with just one mark between all four houses: 1st Normans 61.7 2nd Tudors 61.2 3rd Stuarts 61.1 4th Saxons 60.8 Well done to everyone who participated. Same time next year!
Form 1 trip to Audi showroom
On Thursday the 12th February, Form 1 went to visit the Audi garage in York. Upon arrival, the class and their teachers, Mr Crossley and Mr Bayne, were greeted by Ben, their host for the morning. Questions quickly turned to the fastest car in the showroom whereupon they were taken over to the Audi A8 Spider. The children got to sit in the luxury sports car and they even turned on the engine so they could hear the powerful sound it made. After this, they were taken to the executive suite upstairs to view and touch the tremendous array of paints and leathers that can be used to customise a car. Refreshments were also served, whilst the children had great fun looking through the interactive brochures to create the car of their dreams. As a final hurrah, Form 1 were taken outside where the dealership’s second most powerful car was revved up for the appreciative audience. It was incredibly loud! Many thanks to the team at Audi for being so accommodating. Form 1 will enjoy describing their own dream cars and writing recounts of the visit.
Form 3 Tudor morning
On Tuesday 10th February, the children in Form 3 enjoyed a very interesting Tudor morning workshop which taught the them some Tudor history in a dynamic and memorable way. This lively workshop really served to make the children interested and excited about the Tudors. The children were faced with a number of rather strange looking artefacts from the Tudor period which they were asked to have a go at drawing, looking carefully at the details. Even more tricky, the children had to try to decide what the objects were made of and what they might have been used for. Some objects were harder to guess than others. They then had to wait until after break to see if they were right or not. By investigating these artefacts, the children were able consider how Tudor lives were different to ours. The children were also challenged to some Tudor Maths and found out about Tudor weapons and how they were used. It was a memorable morning in which everyone learned lots of new information about Tudor life.
Form 4 Music and Poetry Evening
Congratulations to every member of Form 4 who took part in the Music and Poetry evening just before the half term break. The evening offered a wonderful opportunity for these young performers to showcase their talents across a range of arts: the audience of families and friends were treated to virtuoso musical performances, beautiful singing, crystal clear poetry recitals and hilarious comedy sketches.
PP1 Good Work Assembly
On Friday 13th February PP1 had their Good Work Assembly to showcase all their hard work throughout the year. During the assembly PP1 took their audience back in time to Viking Britain where they questioned the audience on Viking life using a series of true or false questions. To help transform PP1 into Vikings for their assembly, PP1 had made Viking helmets and shields. After sharing their favourite bits of their trip to JORVIK and DIG, the children then came back to the present day where PP1 had the chance to show off some paintings and research about their own houses as part of their Houses and Homes topic. Well done to PP1 for all their hard work practising and performing their assembly.
Form 5 French dans la salle de bain!
Form 5 had a very practical and fun lesson learning vocabulary about their morning routine and how to use reflexive verbs in French. Mme Cooke took her class to the boarding house where pupils used props and acted in very amusing sketches in a bathroom environment. In some of the sketches, boys can be seen wearing dresses (je m’habille), girls putting on make-up (je me maquille) and others singing in the shower (je me douche et je chante). A lesson to be remembered!
Pre-Prep’s Healthy Me week
Pre-Prep spent the week before half term learning all about staying healthy and safe. The children had a visit from Sandra, an Accident & Emergency nurse to tell them all about what happens when they visit A & E department. Then Mr Smith, a dentist, explained to the chidlren all about how they should brush their teeth and which foods can be most damaging to teeth. Everyone was surprised to see the amounts of sugar in some foods, and the damage that can do! Pre-Prep completed their healthy week with a Healthy Me day where they had lots of fun doing Zumba along to their favourite songs, making delicious juices from vegetables and fruits and learning some First Aid. PP1 sold tasty, healthy snacks at break time to raise funds for Pre-prep i-pads. The week really helped everyone in Pre-Prep think about making safe and healthy choices.
GCSE Biology under the microscope
Eldmire have recently been studying cell division in Biology and during the practical sessions they have been trying to look for dividing cells under the microscope. Mr Sigsworth has been very patiently growing garlic roots for the pupils to make root tip squashes from. It is quite a tricky process to get the cells to stain correctly but sometimes if you are very lucky you can catch some cells at various stages of mitosis when the chromosomes in the cell nucleus thicken and are then pulled to opposite ends of the cell ready for the cell to split in half. The students patience and perseverance paid off as they managed to capture (with an iphone down the eyepiece!) images of the process.