Year 4 welcomed us to the Heritage Dental Practice, where they gave an animated illustration of the value of keeping your teeth healthy

Year 4 Class Assembly: An Animated Visit to Heritage Dental Practice

For their Class Assembly this week, Year 4 welcomed us to the Heritage Dental Practice, where they gave an animated illustration of the value of keeping our teeth healthy.

Ella arrived with her mother at the dental practice and, as she popped on some stylish safety glasses, the dentist began the check-up, with a sign held up to let the audience know that the rest of the action would take place ‘Inside Ella’s mouth’…

The tour began with a few introductions: from the Incisors, who have sharp edges and bite and cut our food; the Canines, who are pointed and tear our food; and the Molars, whose broad ridges crush and grind. Younger pupils were reassured to find that a wobbly tooth isn’t anything to worry about, as children lose all their milk teeth before getting their adult teeth; although a fainting Incisor felt otherwise, exclaiming ‘I’m being replaced!’ as they fell to the floor.

Along the way, the audience also learned some interesting facts about teeth from the Animal Kingdom, such as that elephants have teeth that keep growing for all their lives and that sharks regularly lose their teeth and grow new ones, with some sharks replacing theirs as often as every two weeks! This helped to reinforce the importance of looking after our own teeth, as, unlike the sharks, humans only get one set of adult teeth.

Suddenly realising there was something wrong, one of the Canines called out: ‘I’m covered in something horrible!’.  Enter the truly sinister, cackling Captain Cavity, along with his infamous allies Cavity Boy and Cavity Girl, who took some plaque and some sugar and, like a foolish villain in a Bond film, revealed their evil plan for the plaque to feed on the sugar, causing the sugar to turn into acid, eating away at the enamel of the tooth and forming a small hole called a cavity. Captain Cavity explained that the cavity is a good place for bacteria to live because you cannot brush them away very easily and, as they continue to feed on sugars, making more acid, ‘the cavity gets bigger and bigger and bigger’… Luckily, Toothbrush and Toothpaste arrived at the scene just in time to spoil this evil plan, recommending cleaning your teeth properly twice a day to keep Captain Cavity at bay!

With the evil villains thwarted, the next scene returned to the dental practice, as Ella promised not to have too many sugary foods or sweet fizzy drinks and to come back in six months time for her next check up.

Thank you to Year 4 and Mrs Young for a humorous and informative reminder, for children and adults alike, to take good care of our teeth.

Brilliant mathematicians in Years 6, 10 and 11 were awarded certificates in the Mathematical Association’s Primary and Intermediate Maths Challenges this year.

National Maths Challenge Success for Heritage Pupils

Brilliant mathematicians in Years 6, 9, 10 and 11 were awarded certificates in the Mathematical Association’s Primary and Intermediate Maths Challenges this year.

On 29th January, Years 9 – 11 took part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, a national competition of very stretching and engaging questions. Nationally, the top 50% of participants are awarded certificates. For Heritage, we are delighted that 63% of entries received certificates, with 14 awarded ‘Bronze’, 8 ‘Silver’ and 4 ‘Gold’. Nationally, the top 8% of participants receive ‘Gold’, so particular congratulations goes to our Gold certificate winners: Idris and Dylan in Year 10, plus Sandy and Maxim in Year 11.

Back in November, the Year 6 class entered the Primary Maths Challenge with high scoring James and Norah doing very well to be invited through to the bonus round this February; an opportunity for the most able mathematicians to extend and challenge their maths skills. They both received a certificate for their achievement, which Mrs Watkins presented to them in Assembly, with James winning a ‘Silver’ award in the bonus round.

The actress and screen-free childhood campaigner Sophie Winkleman gave a remarkable, impassioned speech at a conference this week, arguing for the return of tech-free learning in schools and celebrating Heritage as a leading example.

Actress Sophie Winkleman Celebrates Heritage as an ‘Oasis of Screen Free Education’

The actress and screen-free childhood campaigner Sophie Winkleman gave a remarkable, impassioned speech at a conference this week, arguing for the return of tech-free learning in schools and celebrating Heritage as a leading example.

Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, Sophie calls Heritage an:

‘Oasis of screen free education… haven of focus, serenity, classical intellect, Christian heritage, nature, art and beauty… a profoundly effective learning space… It would not be effective if the classrooms were filled with screens.’

She brilliantly outlines the case for a screen-free education, questioning the adoption of EdTech and AI in British schools: 

‘Why is digitally transporting a child to the Egyptian pyramids better than that child imagining it? This kind of jazz-hands immersion as an engagement tool doesn’t work. It negates the need to imagine, rendering the pupil a passive rather than an active learner. Parents such as myself ask these questions, but we do not get answers.’

And she points out the incomparable value of real life human connection, the importance of nurturing in children the truly human skills of ‘reading about and getting to grips with the human condition, empathy, concentration, eloquent and humorous discussion, and creative expression’.

The full speech is well worth a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6nucKFK88

Heritage International Day 2025, our annual whole school exploration and celebration of countries from around the world, took place last Friday.

Heritage International Day 2025

Heritage International Day 2025, our annual whole school exploration and celebration of countries from around the world, took place last Friday. The Junior School focused on Chile and the children were invited to come dressed in the colours of the Chilean flag: red, white and blue, while Infants explored Brazil and dressed in green, yellow and blue.

In the Senior School, the excitement began at registration with an internationally themed quiz prepared by Head Girl Liberty, who then revealed the answers at the beginning of Assembly and awarded a prize for the winner. Nine pupils from across the year groups had volunteered to prepare presentations on countries of their choice. Highlights included maggoty cheese and an encounter with wild boars in Sardinia, the history and current impact of the state of Pennsylvania, interesting facts on the Vatican City – the smallest country in the world since 1929, the history and traditional dress of South Korea, fun facts about Scotland – plus an inspirational quote from William Wallace, before finishing with a whistle-stop history of Russia.

Infants had fun in the middle of the day with a visit from Eleni’s father and his Brazilian Capoeira group who offered up their time to showcase some capoeira and demonstrate native Brazilian instruments, such as the berimbau, a 5 foot long, single-stringed bow played with a stick and a stone to create different tones and rhythms.

Before home time, Infants and Juniors gathered for a special Assembly to share what they had learned and created. Upper Prep brought the Brazilian carnival spirit, wearing their decorated masks and shaking their maracas as they encouraged everyone to join in with their samba party! Year 2 recalled facts they had enjoyed about the Christ the Redeemer statue, such as that its fingers, head and eyebrows were damaged by a lighting strike in 2008 and that there is a chapel under the statue where people can get married. Year 3 bravely performed the cueca, a traditional Chilean handkerchief style dance. Year 4 told of their afternoon with Mrs Robertson, taking inspiration from examples of Chilean bird pottery to mould their own birds from clay, which they added pattern to with careful carving and painting. Year 5 recounted the story of the 2010 Chilean mining accident, which saw 33 miners rescued from a collapsed mine after 69 days trapped underground. The class had been particularly interested to learn that to escape the miners had to fit into a capsule only 50cm wide. Year 6 baked Chilean bread and apologised for not bringing any to show at Assembly as they had, quite understandably, already eaten it all!

Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who made this another fun and memorable International Day.

For anyone who may be interested in getting involved with capoeira, this link has all the details of the Cambridge group: https://capoeiracambridge.co.uk

 

View a gallery:

Heritage pupils celebrated International Day 2025

Year 2 entertainingly performed two Bible stories, The Golden Calf and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector, to illustrate the importance of always telling the truth

Year 2 Class Assembly: The Importance of Being Truthful

Year 2 entertainingly performed two Bible stories, The Golden Calf and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector, to illustrate the importance of always telling the truth, their Habit of the Week.

In the first story, Theodore, Rapha and Lucas took the parts of Moses, his brother Aaron and God, while the rest of the class played the Israelites waiting with Aaron in the camp for Moses to return from speaking with God. Frustrated with waiting (‘perhaps they needed to learn our Whole School Habit of being patient!’) Aaron tells the Israelites to bring him all their gold jewellery, which he melts down and forms into a Golden Calf. The pupils showed how the Israelites bowed down and worshipped this idol, angering God and Moses. In a helpful “freeze frame” Year 2 acted out what should have happened: Aaron telling the truth and saying sorry. Then they acted out what actually happened: Aaron denied making the idol (which was met with big gasps from the Israelites). Though God forgave him, the consequence for Aaron was that he was never trusted to lead the camp again.

The class had also thought about the sorts of lies, like exaggerating: ‘I never get to…’, ‘You always get to…’, and truths: ‘I broke a train track and admitted to it’, that children might tell in school. In class they had made posters of some examples they had seen, which they held up at the front as they explained.

To finish, Samson and Isaac took the parts of Zacchaeus and Jesus and acted out the story of the dishonest tax collector who learned the importance of telling the truth and changed his ways after spending time with Jesus.

Thank you Year 2 for an amusing and thought-provoking Class Assembly on being truthful!