World Book Day 2019

What an exciting World Book Day we had!

Pupils and staff throughout the school enjoyed dressing up as their favourite characters and the Infants and Juniors had a wonderful time in assembly admiring the various costumes. There was a vast range of interesting characters including popular fiction characters such as Hiccup the Viking and the Gruffalo as well as some real-life characters such as Corrie ten Boom and Harriet Tubman.   

There were across the school, a range of book related activities happening, including of course in the library.  Mrs Pilkington had her usual fun activity : Guess The Shredded Book, and each Junior class had a library session where pupils presented their ideas for a new book in the library.  After a secret ballot a book (or three) where chosen.   There was also a Book Worm Hunt looking for where a Book Worm had been spotted reading in different places around the school.  He was even spotted reading a book on the loo (!) and the children had a great time looking around the school for him. Many staff had a picture of a book they were reading at home on their doors to share the idea that reading is for everyone.  

We are also thankful to the parent volunteers who came into school at the end of the day to share their favourite books with the Infant and Junior classes. The children thoroughly enjoyed this and I am sure this is a new Heriatage World Book Day tradition we have begun.  Another highlight for many classes was the chance for a pupil to read to another pupil from another class and vice-versa.  This was such a special time loved many of the children.

Thank you for sending in your donations.  The Junior School Council plan to visit the bookshop before the end of term to use the money to buy the books each class selected.  

Here is a quick overview of some of the additional exciting activities each class did on World Book Day:

Lower Prep

In Lower Prep the children were drawing pictures of themselves in their costumes and writing a sentence about them.  They also made a special book mark using pictures of books, so they had a special memory of their first World Book Day at school.  

Upper Prep

The Upper Prep children were working in groups, as authors and illustrators making their own books.  They also shared a special time with Year 4 reading together.

Year 2

Forest School took on a World Book Day theme for Year 2 and the woods were transformed into an outdoor theatre. The children enjoyed making wooden tickets for the performance before either taking part in or watching the play – Cinderella!  Mr Catley showed the class how to cook popcorn over a camp fire (using a brilliant popcorn machine made from two metal sieves attached together) so the children enjoyed the show with a cone of popcorn in hand !

Year 3 had a really fun way of sharing a favourite book with the class.  They all placed their books in Mr Grinling’s ( Mrs Symon’s) basket and covered them with a tea towel. Each child then picked a book and the owner talked about it. A book review was then completed.   They also enjoyed sharing books with Year 5. During the Library session Year 3 also voted for a new book for the library.

Year 4

In Year 4 the highlight was looking for the Book Worm and dressing up.   They all enjoyed the opportunity to sketch each other in their costumes as well as their book reviews.  In addition, they loved reading with Upper Prep.

Year 5

Year 5 began the day with a Book Word Search. They had an extra library session to vote for a new book and excitingly all 3 books were equally voted for , so Mrs Pilkington agreed the class could have all 3 books.  They also enjoyed being with Year 3 to share books.

Year 6

A visit to Year 2 was enjoyed by Year 6 in order to share books.  They also had a lovely time in Art sketching themselves in costume.  They also shared some books from home with each other that they thought the class might enjoy.

Seniors

The Senior school also enjoyed World Book Day with many pupils dressing up and starting the day with their poetry recitations during assembly.  A highlight was a Book Quiz hosted by Mrs Pilkington and Mrs Wren, with a range of questions including; Was Mary’s Little Lamb a boy or a girl?

We are now all looking forward to World Book Day 2020!

A Music Recital in Queens’ College Chapel

An invitation was given to our more experienced players, to perform their chosen pieces in the beautiful, candlelit setting of Queens’ College Chapel.  In all, 15 pupils from Year 2 through to Year 11, rose to the occasion, demonstrating fantastic musicianship as they played and supported their friends in front of a small audience of family and teachers. Performances included Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’ played by Nathaniel on the piano, an iGCSE music composition performed by Thomas and Peter, Aratunian’s ‘Impromptu’ played by Anastasia on the cello, ‘Where is Love’ sung by Hope, and Faure’s ‘Morceau de Concours’ played by Isla on the flute.
Thank you to all pupils who worked so hard and to Dr and Mrs Zurcher for their part, hosting and creating such a memorable evening of music-making!

Swallows & Amazons Forever

Last week, Year 5 performed a musical based on the classic story, Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome, to a full hall of foot-tapping, tear-wiping, proud-as-punch family members and friends… and they did a marvelous job!  Every child rose to the occasion and acted, sung and danced brilliantly, and all after only four weeks of rehearsals.  I was extremely proud of the effort that Year 5 put in; each member helped to make the whole play a real joy to watch.
A big thank you to Mr Beaton for paint a magnificent backdrop, Ms Robertson for helping the children produce such excellent posters, train wheels and houseboat, and Mrs Zurcher for both accompanying the children during the production and for teaching them all of the songs.
The feedback from parents, staff and pupils has been really positive, reflecting what a talented and hard-working bunch of actors Year 5 is.  The performance transported those in Panton Hall to a time of great adventure, bravery and friendship.  Swallows and Amazons forever!  [Mr Catley]

International Day

Many thanks to all the staff and parents who worked so hard to make International Day such a memorable day for our pupils. In addition to an International Tuck Shop and a Celebration Assembly, here is a snap shot of what the Infants and Juniors got up to :

The focus in Lower Prep was China. Wearing red and yellow – the colour of the Chinese flag, everyone had fun eating noodles with chop sticks, making lucky red packets and dragon puppets for Chinese New Year. They also had a go at writing Chinese characters for the names of all the animals in the Chinese New Year story. To end the day, the children danced with their puppets to Chinese music, and Mia sang a lovely song in Mandarin.

Upper Prep enjoyed learning about the USA with Mrs Tippen. They made flags, patriotic necklaces and tasted delicious American specialities kindly donated American families in the class. They read about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and wrote their very own space adventure stories!

Year 2 enjoyed learning about (and making models of) Australian landmarks such as the Harbour bridge and Uluru. They had a look at and tried their hand at aboriginal art and painted some beautiful pictures of kookaburra and Lorakeet. They later made Fairy Bread – a common children’s treat that is made for special occasions in Australia – before ending the day with a rendition of the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ at the Infant and Junior celebration assembly.

Y3 began their ‘New Zealand’ day by speaking live, on a computer screen to their class mate Kitty, who together with her family, is spending this term in New Zealand. So the whole class gathered round and asked her a great many questions which was a great learning experience and the perfect launch pad for International Day.

Year 4 had fun finding out about Italy. They sketched the beautiful buildings, tasting lots of Italian food, learnt to speak some of the language and listened to some Italian opera.

Y5, spent the day exploring Cameroon, with Lucy’s mum showing some pictures of her time there. They found out about Cameroonian food and cooked a recipe involving prunes and tomato sauce served over rice – some of the class loved it, others weren’t quite so keen! They listened to lots of ‘Makossa’ – popular Cameroonian music – and tried drumming along to it on djembes – they even had a go at African dancing. Throughout the day, they learnt many fascinating facts about Cameroon’s history, geography and culture. What a remarkable country: ‘Africa in Miniature’ indeed!

Year 6 had a fantastic time learning about France. They reconstructed the Eiffel Tower in teams using spaghetti and marshmallows, learned about French life, had a French quiz, played French board games, discussed current affairs with a focus on ‘Les Gilets Jaunes’ and relaxed in their own French cafe after all that hard work!

 

C.U. at Heritage

Between 30-40 children come to the Junior Christian Union in The Hall every Wednesday and whilst eating lunch, we play a game – with a tenuous link to a Bible story or thought about God! This term, we are working our way through The Gospel Story, by watching a short section of the stop motion animation ‘The Miracle Maker’. Juniors are also invited to suggest ideas or themes that they might like to explore each term and everyone is very welcome! [Mr Catley]

The Senior Christian Union also meets weekly on a Friday lunchtime in The Hall. Last term we explored the topics of destiny, beauty and friendship using the resource ‘Table Talk’. We also looked at Mark 1: Good News and Ephesians 2: God’s Masterpiece. We were delighted to have two visits from Pete Alston of Lymington Rushmore holidays who led a study on ‘Identity’ and then came back later in the term to tell us all about Lymington Rushmore camps.

Numbers range from 10-40 (with popularity of a C.U. session being increased dramatically when food is on offer). We aim to create an atmosphere where all are welcome, doubts and questions can be raised and the truths learned can be practically applied to our lives.

This term we are looking at the Youth Christianity Explored course, using the SOUL DVD series, with breaks in the course for some outside speakers. With Year 11 particularly in mind – in this their final full term, our hope is that the SOUL course will help pupils to understand for themselves, the gospel that has inspired so much of what they have been part of at Heritage. [Mrs Pluke]