Christmas Lunch at Queens’ College

The torrential rain stopped and the crocodile of Heritage Infants and Juniors made its way across the Fen to Queens’ College, helped over puddles and across roads by staff and parent volunteers bedecked in sparkly antlers and other festive finery. Once again Queens’ laid on a wonderful lunch, and everyone from the youngest LP to the oldest in Y6 wolfed down a Christmas roast and a delicious pudding, leaving almost entirely empty plates and pleasingly chocolatey smiling faces. “The best meal of the entire year”, “I am SO happy”, “that was deeeelicious”, enthused some of the children before singing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, to the chefs and staff at Queens’, and heading back to school wearing the Christmas crowns they’d made especially for the occasion.
Huge thanks to the staff at Queens’ College and to Heritage staff and parent volunteers, and special thanks to Evelyn Taylor and Meg Lowe for all their hard work in ensuring that this year’s Christmas lunch went so smoothly.

Swimming Gala Makes A Splash

We all enjoyed our first all inclusive y3-11 swimming gala last week at The Leys : Dragon v Griffin v Phoenix v Pegasus. The Seniors were on first, with races ranging from 50m Individual, to the Large Float Relay (harder than it sounds) and the Whole Squad Relay.

Then the Juniors took to the pool, again swimming some individual strokes over 25m, before participating in team races such as the ‘Woggle and Kick’.  The atmosphere was loud – to say the least – with all teams and House Captains working together to cheer on their competitors.

Results will be announced shortly and added to the Inter-House scores (all of which count towards the Inter-House Cup to be presented to the House with the highest total after all the competitions this academic year.)  

Mrs Eastwood

A Christmas Carol by Year 7

Year 7 did a tremendous job last week in their performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’, putting everybody into the Christmas spirit. Every pupil took part and various staff members came together to help make it an enjoyable and successful production. Many thanks to all involved. (Mrs Strachan)

‘Tense and full of adrenaline, I sat on the edge of my seat, my fingers nervously tapping the sides. I was about to go on stage and I had the butterflies. A million worries flew around my head, too fast to count.

“Ok, you’re on now.” said Mrs Strachan in a stressed whisper. I adjusted my shawl, straightened my skirt, and then I was out on stage.

“Money for the poor, ” I cried as I walked up to the stage. For one terrible, heart-stopping moment, I couldn’t remember my lines, then as the blinding spotlights fell upon me, it all came back. I went through my part without a moment’s hesitation, and I was loving it. Afterwards, I knew I had done my best and I was pleased and proud. Everything else went down in a colourful blur.’  (Madeleine S)

 

 

The Joy of Handicrafts

The great value of children learning Handicrafts is frequently highlighted in the press.  At Heritage we are passionate about Handicrafts and we offer a weekly lesson in the curriculum. The human hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force. The children make things from material, wool, clay and wire and the end result is something beautiful to take home which they can be so proud of.  Handicrafts teach hand-eye coordination and attention to detail.  They develop fine motor skills so critical to later life, as well as many other skills including patience over a period of time. We see these skills develop from the youngest children, aged 4, to the older ones aged 11 and we have found that both the boys and the girls enjoy it equally –  as many of our photographs show.

 

Poetry at Heritage

Recitation Assemblies remain a highlight every half term for pupils and parents alike, as class by class, the children stand to recite collectively the poem they have been learning together.  Our hope and intention at Heritage is that the children will enjoy learning each of these poems individually and that over time they will build up a whole anthology in their memories to treasure as lifelong companions.

As Charlotte Mason recognised, poetry is essential for children because it is ‘the best words in the best order.’ The rhythm and rhymes can help children develop a love of language—and a love of reading. Poetry can spark their creativity and let their imaginations soar! We know that poems expand our language, give access to our rich cultural inheritance, help us develop emotional expression and are tremendously good for our muscle memory.

If a pupil were to start at Heritage in LP and remain through to Y11 they will have learnt the x36 poems listed below.  Perhaps as parents, you might take up the challenge to learn the same and enjoy these poems together with your children.

LP

  • Rain by R L Stevenson
  • Happiness by A. A. Milne
  • Footprints by Shirley Hughes
  • Spring Greens by Shirley Hughes
  • Mice by Rose Fyleman
  • The Swing by R L Stevenson

UP

  • Who Has Seen the Wind by R L Stevenson
  • The Silent Ship by Colin West
  • Daffadowndilly by A A Milne
  • Cats by E Farjeon
  • Bed in Summer by R L Stevenson
  • Now We Are Six by A A Milne

Y2

  • Hurt No Living Thing by C Rosetti
  • Keep a Poem in Your Pocket by  Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
  • Where Go the Boats by R L Stevenson
  • Silver by Walter de la Mare
  • Psalm 121
  • At the Seaside by R L Stevenson

Y3

  • Autumn Fires by R L Stevenson
  • Psalm 23
  • The Moon by R L Stevenson
  • The Pasture by Robert Frsot
  • The Garden Year by Sara Coleridge
  • Windy Nights by R L Stevenson

Y4

  • The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • Fireworks by James Reeves
  • The Fly by Walter de la Mare
  • The Land of Storybooks by R L Stevenson
  • Summer Sun by R L Stevenson
  • The Tyger by William Blake

Y5

  • Sea Fever by John Masefield
  • Romance by Gabriel Setoun
  • Daffodils by W Wordsworth
  • The Destruction of Sennacherib
  • The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Y6

  • The Night Mail by Auden
  • Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
  • Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1-13
  • The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
  • Shakespeare play and
  • The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Longfellow

Y7

  • Macavity:The Mystery Cat by T.S Eliot
  • I have a dream by Martin Luther King
  • O Captain by Walt Whitman

Y8

  • If by Rudyard Kipling
  • I Know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
  • The Lady of Shalott by Alfred L Tennyson

Y9

  • Miracle on St. David’s Day by Gillian Clarke.
  • Sailing to Byzantium by WB Yeats

Y10

  • Cold in the Earth by Emily Bronte’
  • Tears Idle Tears by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
  • Friend, by Hone Tuwhare

Y11

  • Meeting at Night by Robert Browning
  • Because I Could not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

(The poems in Senior School are not set in stone and can be varied, if desired, by the English teachers.  )