In March, Heritage Alumnus Maxwell Buchanan raced for Team GB at the European Duathlon championships in Caorle, Italy. He finished the 10km run/ 40km cycle/ 5k run in an amazing 2:08:37, ranking 1st in the U20s and 34th overall. Huge congratulations, Maxwell!
Heritage is a place where strong relationships are built, and many of our pupils’ friendships last long after their years at school. Recently, three of our alumni met up in Scotland, at a reeling ball at The University of St Andrews: Pictured are Harry Alderson (a 2018 Leaver who is finishing at St Andrews), Seth Fletcher (a 2020 Leaver in his second year at St Andrews) and William Buchanan (a 2021 Leaver in his first year at Durham University). What a fun mini-reunion!
Last week, Year 7 delivered a marvellous performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear, a play known for its extraordinary bleakness and brutality. The audience programme described it as ‘a play of extremes’ with themes of ‘darkness and light, blindness and sight, truth and deception.’ Thus prepared, the audience watched the story unfold as Lear banishes the daughter who loves him most, descends into madness following his betrayal by his two older daughters, and ultimately dies of a broken heart. Winding throughout this main plot is further betrayal, injury, and death.
Compelling performances made the story come to life, as pupils tackled famously difficult roles. There was subtlety, realism and nuance in their portrayals, as well as high melodrama and some splendid sword fighting. Having mastered reams of Shakespearean text, the children were able to deliver their lines with clarity and passion as characters variously exploded with rage, smouldered with envy, plotted with sanguinity and poured out their hearts with unwavering devotion. There were also some brilliant musical performances, using popular songs with lyrics re-written by Mrs Burden. To the tune of Lady Gaga’s ‘Hold My Hand’, the children urged, ‘If your heart’s full of love let it show/Cling to the good, don’t let go.’ And the music of Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Shot through the heart’ provided a perfect vehicle for King Lear to sing, ‘Out of my mind and you’re to blame/Daughters, you give love a bad name’.
Mrs Burden explained to the audience that, in working through the challenging subject matter, the class used a Bible verse that says ‘hate what is evil; cling to what is good’, to think about the deep harm that can result when little envies and bitternesses go unchecked. ‘Then,’ she said, ‘we realise how ugly that can be inside us, and how we need to fight for what is good and pure and true.’ She recounted how hard the pupils worked to deliver their performances; it is almost unheard of for 11 and 12-year olds to perform King Lear, which Percy Bysshe Shelley called ‘the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world.’ But, she continued, despite the difficulty, ‘their minds, hearts and imaginations will have been enlarged and awakened in ways they might not even realise…it is exhilarating to be part of a production like this.’
In addition to the phenomenal work by the class, congratulations to Mrs Burden for her amazing direction, and special thanks to Mrs Lowe for her brilliant musical accompaniment and Miss Pearce-Higgins for so ably handling the lighting and sound.
At Heritage, we strive to offer a broad curriculum across every subject area, enabling young people to develop many interests and competencies. But we also want to provide opportunities for our pupils to dig deeper into topics and areas that have especially sparked their interest.
The Year 9 Independent Research Essay is one way that our Seniors can take their learning to deeper levels, inviting pupils to research a topic question and then to analyse, evaluate and reflect their findings in an 800-1500 word essay, with support by a subject teacher. In February, our Year 9 class successfully submitted the essays that they have been developing since the beginning of the academic year.
During a recent Senior Assembly, we celebrated this important achievement. Year 9 pupils Cecilia, Daniel, Josh, Liberty and Sandy presented their topics to their fellow pupils, each doing an outstanding job of engaging their classmates with interesting questions and well-researched information on their topic of choice. At the end of the assembly, each member of the Year 9 class received a certificate in recognition of this accomplishment.
We think you will agree that the topics chosen represent a remarkable breadth of interests across the arts, humanities and sciences. We are eager to see where their interests lead them next!
During their most recent assembly, Infants and Juniors heard about the Independent Research that Year 6 pupils have been working on this term. It was an inspiring and informative talk, where the class walked through the process of researching and developing their projects.
Beginning with the process of choosing a topic, the children emphasised the importance of choosing subject matter that, first and foremost, they were really interested in, because they would be working on it over the course of several weeks. They also warned against picking too broad a topic (like ‘Space’), pointing out that it’s better to take a smaller topic and think about answering an interesting question about it. The class noted that the process of choosing a topic proved tricky at first but during some Enrichment sessions, Librarian Mrs Pilkington and Year 6 Teacher Mrs Parkinson helped the class by defining four types of questions that helped as a starting point for a research project: Compare and Contrast, Explain, Define, and Discuss.
The children then talked about the importance of making sure that there would be plenty of information available for them to research their topic. Sources of information could include books, the Internet, primary sources (like an interview with grandparents), or visiting relevant places of interest. Throughout the presentation, Infants and Juniors heard about some of the topics that Year 6 are working on. Among them are ‘Explain what you know about very rare and expensive Lego figures,’ ‘Compare and Contrast Strong Female Characters from Harry Potter,’ ‘Compare and Contrast the Dog Rose with Catmint,’ ‘Discuss wartime life for children in the UK,’ ‘Explain what zodiac signs are and their personalities,’ ‘Define BMX cycling and Slope Style’ and ‘Discuss the life and career of Kobe Bryant.’ Such a diverse array of topics, and we can’t wait to hear more!
