Senior School Lunches

This Term a new initiative has been launched to hold formal lunches with every year group in the Senior School once a week at Panton Hall.  Tutors are invited to come, as well as Mr Burden (Head of Seniors) and Mrs Wren (Head of Pastoral) and the Headmaster, Mr Fletcher when he can. For the first half of this term every year group had a special welcome lunch with cake for pudding at the end and Year 11 had cheese toasties. This half term the pupils are going to be bringing the baked goods.  The more formal setting has provided a context where pupils and teachers converse over lunch and where good manners of conversation can be encouraged as well as deepening relationships.  

A Trip To The Battlefields

On 19th October, 40 intrepid pupils set off for the triennial French / History Battlefields Trip. We were delighted to be joined by Mme Haddow and were fortunate to have fabulous weather throughout the trip. Mrs Rowland had planned a full programme of visits including, on the first day, Poperinge with its contrasting Talbot House (a refuge for soldiers behind the lines founded by two Anglican chaplains) followed by the execution post and cells! We then visited Sanctuary Wood with its preserved trench system and museum of artefacts, Essex Farm Cemetery where John McCrae was inspired to write In Flanders Fields and finally Ypres. We attended The Last Post Ceremony which was packed and very moving. Three of our pupils (Olivia, Benjy and Sophie) placed a wreath on behalf of the school and the kindness of our pupils as a whole, towards members of the public, was commented on.

On the Saturday we headed south for Vimy Ridge with its beautiful monument to the Canadians and then on to Arras to the impressive Wellington Tunnel system. In the afternoon we visited the key sites of the Somme – Lochnagar Crater, Newfoundland Park preserved battlefield and finally Thiepval. After a delicious supper which included snail tasting, Mme Haddow kept us entertained with a challenging French Quiz.

On our final day it was back to the Ypres battlefields with visits to the hugely contrasting cemeteries of Langemark (German) and Tyne Cot (Commonwealth), the Passchendaele Museum and finally some chocolate shopping.

Throughout the trip there were commentaries in both English and French from Mrs Rowland and Mme Haddow respectively, poetry readings by our pupils and opportunities for personal pilgrimages to discover graves and memorials of family members. The pupils coped well with the long days, were respectful and thoughtful in the spirit of such a trip and it was good to see the strong sense of community amongst and across the three year groups; Years 9, 10 and 11.

 

Forest School Baton is passed from Y4 to Y6.

As the Forest School baton is handed on from Year 4 to Year 6, Mr Catley shares a few thoughts from the pioneer group’s time in Abington woods.
‘When we first arrived, we had to choose a base camp.  This involved working together to haul some very large logs into place in a clearing the children called ‘Ladybird Camp’  due to the fact that each week we found hundreds of seven spotted ladybirds there.  Over the course of the next seven weeks, the children deepened their knowledge of the space, enjoying watching summer gently turn into a beautiful autumn.  They also developed their use of tools and understanding of specific trees to make mini-beast hotels out of elder, artists’ charcoal out of hazel (which some then turned into elder pencils), some wonderful dens complete with thatching.  They also learned to split wood to build a table using square lashing, saw wood carefully using a bow saw, and how to light fires (over which they then cooked some delicious outdoor food)!  But perhaps the greatest skill many of Year 4 developed was how to work well as a team.  Watching the children share plans, ask each other for help, and collectively be proud of a shared project, such as a 5 star shelter, was truly encouraging.
Year 6 have now had their first week at the woods, and despite the wet, instantly got into the swing of woodland life and the adventure continues….’

Bronze D of E Expedition successfully completed

On Fri 28th September 17 Y10s set off on their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award assessed expedition, walking from the environs of Graham Water to the environs of Oundle, a total distance of approx 25km in two days with an overnight camp. They had exceptionally good weather both days, if somewhat cold for camping with the temperature dropping to about 3 degrees C overnight. Everyone remained in excellent spirits all round and all groups completed the walk in record time! Well done to all who took part.

Music Making This Term

This year the Music department is giving pupils some additional whole-class performance opportunities. We now have a class set of ocarinas, which were wonderfully showcased in our Infant & Junior Recital Assembly by our enthusiastic year 6 class. Ocarinas are accessible to all children and make a warm, mellow sound – an ideal choice for classroom learning! We have also bought a whole-class set of samba instruments which will be used by Year 8 to perform as a samba band. Samba is fantastic for developing rhythmic skills and embodied movement, and it also requires high-level team work. This samba band will be by far the loudest form of music making at Heritage!
As well as the more established choirs and ensembles, we also have two new groups that have started this term. Ukulele club on a Tuesday lunch time, led by Year 11 student Adele and Mrs Zurcher, and ‘A Cappella Singers’ on a Thursday lunch time, led by year 11 student Alexander and Mrs Zurcher. Anastasia in Year 11 is also in the process of forming a small chamber choir who will work on 4-part choral repertoire together. Any interested singers should speak directly to Anastasia.
We look forward to another term of enjoyment as we make music together at Heritage.