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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

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

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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!

A Toast to Burns Night with the HCA

Heritage families gathered last Saturday for an unforgettable evening of Scottish tradition at the very first HCA Burns Night Celebration. With the stirring sound of James Orr’s bagpipes setting the scene, guests enjoyed a lively ceilidh led by The Cyriacs Ceilidh Band, a classic Burns poetry recitation, and, of course, a whisky toast. From energetic dancing to shared laughter across generations, the night was a wonderful celebration of culture and community, bringing people together in true Heritage spirit.

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Year 5 Class Assembly: Push, Pull, Twist – Forces & their Effects

In Year 5’s interactive Class Assembly this term, they shared the amazing things they have been learning in Science about Forces. The Infants and Juniors listened carefully, thanks in part to a gentle warning at the start that there would be a quiz at the end! Year 5 pupils held up cards that identified the three types of force – Push, Pull and Twist and suggested that doors and locks are a good example of where we find these forces at work in everyday life. The children were then asked to put their hands up with any of their own examples of these forces.

After an engaging introduction, pupils took it in turn to share what they had learned about the effects of some of these forces, such as Friction, a resistive force that acts like a push force on moving objects. The children were encouraged to experience one of the effects of friction for themselves, by looking at the uneven texture of their palms then rubbing them together to feel the heat this generates. They held up a picture of a racing car whose brakes were red hot from the brake discs slowing the vehicle down, another effect of Friction.

Year 5 explained more about Air Resistance. Pupils showed how, in a lesson in the playground, they had tried to run with a large piece of cardboard in front of them and felt how the air resistance slowed them down. They also had conducted an experiment with different shaped handmade parachutes, to work out which shape caused the most and least air resistance: a hexagon, square and circle fell at similar speeds but the rectangle always fell fastest.

The final force the class told about was Buoyant Force, which acts on any object that enters water. To demonstrate this, pupils held up a line of wool to represent the water surface line and used light and heavy balls to illustrate how, for heavier objects, the downward pull of gravity is much bigger than the buoyant force pushing against it and the opposite is true for lighter objects, like a beachball, which causes it to float.

As promised, the Infants and Juniors enjoyed a short quiz at the end of the assembly, showing all that they had learned. Proving his own habit of attentive listening, Mr Fletcher added a quick summary, with an affirmative nod from the Year 5 teacher Mr Dalton to confirm that the knowledge had successfully ‘stuck’.

Well done to Year 5 for a thoroughly absorbing and informative Class Assembly!