Pre-Prep’s Literary Guest
Mr Richards, one of our school governors, and his book illustrator Mrs Gleaves, visited PP2 last week to share with the children their new story book Benji goes to the Seaside. The children were thrilled to enjoy the story with its author, and loved searching for Sally the Seagull with the artist who drew her. It’s a very sweet story with the important message to stick by friends during difficulties, and also that behind everything and everyone there are adventures which we can only guess at. Copies of the book can be bought via school if parents would like.
Children in Need
A huge thank you to everyone who remembered to bring in their donations and got dressed up for Children in Need on Friday. We saw some fabulous ‘Hero’ costumes around school, including sports personalities, policemen, firemen, armed forces members and plenty of comic book super heroes. Special mention must go to Form 3’s Oscar Fenby who emulated his cycling hero Chris Hoy by spending the day sweating it out in bubble wrap! Oscar’s inspired costume drew the attention of Sir Chris himself who retweeted the Fenby’s Tweet on the day! Thank you also to all the children in Reception who boosted the Children in Need coffers with their bun sale on Friday. The total raised by the whole school currently stands at a wonderful £456!
Pumpkin Competition
A huge thank you to everyone who submitted their wonderful entries into this year’s pumpkin competition. We had a bumper crop of entries in both Main School and Pre-Prep, with prizes awarded as follows: Pre-Prep: Largest pumpkin: James Craig Smallest pumpkin: Gabe Collier Ugliest pumpkin: Ram Pisharody Best Decorated pumpkin: Annabel Mindenhall Main School: Largest pumpkin: the Wilkinson Family Smallest pumpkin: Freddie Marston Ugliest pumpkin: Cian Armstrong Best Decorated pumpkin: Hannah Barker
Scarecrow Festival
Congratulations to everyone who came and joined in our inaugural scarecrow festival just before half term. The fabulous fruits of their labours added an extra dimension to life around the school grounds (there were several double takes to check whether these unfamiliar characters on the premises were in fact real!) in the run up to the half term break.
Lunchtime concert
What a lovely interlude our lunchtime concert provided in our very busy week leading up to exeat. Following the long summer holiday the pupils had very little time to prepare for this concert, but the standard of the performances was high and the children were unfazed. It was wonderful to have Lily Sadler with us from PP2 singing ‘The Clock’, which she delivered with such confidence and clarity. From the other end of the school we had Gawain Romijn (Thornton) who presented a delightful performance of ‘On The Street Where You Live’ from ‘My Fair Lady’. We had a good variety of instrumental solos including violin, saxophone, piano, cornet and the brass group started and ended the concert with some gusto! It is always a pleasure to hear our musicians perform; to see the progress being made and the increasing confidence which performance brings. Well done to all pupils who took part in the concert.
ESB success
Last year’s PP2 (this year’s Form 1) are rightfully looking very pleased with themselves after receiving their certificates from the English Speaking Board. They all did tremendously after working so hard.
A Flying Visit to Dishforth Airfield
Reception had a lovely trip to Dishforth Airfield on Monday. The children had lots and lots of fun looking at a helicopter and meeting real life soldiers! They made themselves camouflaged with cam cream, felt how heavy the guns were and even tried some ration packs – yummy! The fire engine also turned up and the children got to have a look around that and some children even tried to spray Mrs Living! Huge thanks to Cordelia Adamthwaite-Cook’s daddy and his team for organising such a fun afternoon for everyone – the children all loved it!
Pre-Prep Summer Concert and Speech Day
The gym was adorned with flowers for the Pre-Prep concert and prize giving. Mrs Ford put on a lovely concert with renditions of Sing a Rainbow from Nursery and Reception and Bare Necessities and Supercalifragilistic from PP1 and PP2. Mrs Sample was extremely proud of her recorder group who gave an impressive performance which was a credit to their hard work in recorder enrichment. There were many lovely individual performances on a wide range of instruments including Andrew Sturdy on the saxophone and Harvey Mercer on the trombone. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Reception performed Gary Barlow’s Sing and everyone enjoyed the grand finale when PP1 and PP2 gave an enthusiastic rendition of Reach for the Stars. Well done the staff and pupils of Pre-Prep. You always ‘reach for the stars’. It was a lovely celebration of the pupils’ achievements and during the year all Pre-Prep pupils have received a prize. We said goodbye to PP2 as they begin their adventures in main school by giving them a shield as a memento of their time in Pre-Prep.
PP2 Parents’ Lunch
PP2 had a busy day on Thursday leaving the classroom to become event planners, chefs, waiters and waitresses. They began the day by learning how to lay a table correctly. Some children made beautiful table decorations with Mrs Wick and Mrs Majewski using flowers from Mrs Wick’s garden. Then the children prepared a delicious lunch of salmon with lemon sauce, green salad and potato salad, with meringues, cream and summer fruits for dessert. The children worked really successfully and carefully to produce 33 plates of beautiful food complete with garnishes. Finally it was time for the parents to arrive. Each child met their guests welcoming them with a menu before seating them and offering drinks. The parents were all impressed by the children’s waiting skills and are hoping they will be served at home in future! Well done PP2 for looking after your parents so well.
Speech Day 2015
Last Saturday saw the whole school come together to celebrate the achievements and successes of the last academic year. In a packed marquee Upper School Head Laura Aspinall gave a brilliant and amusing opening address before handing over to Chair of Governors, Sir Thomas Ingilby, and then Headmaster Mr Sample. Main School Head Boy James Neilson-Clark entertained us with his reminiscences about life at Cundall before welcoming the guest speaker The Rt Hon Lady Justice Eleanor King DBE to the floor. Dame Eleanor offered the pupils some sound advice about finding and following their own particular star in fulfilling their personal and career ambitions, before presenting this year’s prizes and trophies to their deserving recipients from throughout the school. Main School Head Girl Ellen Watkins took the unique and all too apt theme of mud, in all its various guises, to sum up her experiences so far of life at Cundall Manor, before Upper School Head Boy James Gordon, with eleven years of material to draw upon, an abundance of charm and mastery of comic timing, brought the day’s proceedings to a hilarious close.