Our thriving nursery has been named one of the best in the country for a second successive year.

The honour was bestowed upon Highfield and Brookham Schools by leading early years website daynurseries.co.uk, which ranked the school’s nursery among the top 20 in the South-East of England.

The welcome nod follows a similar endorsement in 2021.

Brookham Nursery crucially earned the accolade on the back of a wealth of successful parental reviews. And it comes as another huge seal of approval for Sophie Baber, Head of Pre-prep, and her skilled, popular and caring team of specialist teachers and assistants.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been named among the top 20 nurseries in the South East, but what makes it particularly special is that the reviews have come from parents of our pupils, so there really can be no better endorsement,” said Mrs Baber.

“There’s an awful lot of competition out there when it comes to top-quality nursery provision, so it’s hugely important that we stay ahead of the curve and continue to offer our children a varied, interesting, thought-provoking and fun education.

“Our nursery classes are led by a fully-qualified teacher and experienced assistants with high staff-to-children ratios, which gift our staff the time to develop each individual child, helping them build the foundations and get the best start to their learning journey.”

And Mrs Baber added: “Happy children equal happy parents, and the positive response we continue to have from our parents suggests that we are very much on the right lines.”

One reviewer on the daynurseries.co.uk website said: “I can’t rate the nursery highly enough. My son was quite a little monkey when he started and yet they (Brookham) welcomed him with nothing but kindness, support and love. The facilities and opportunities for the children are amazing. I just wish we’d known about it for my older two. We would have moved out of London earlier for them to attend!”

Another happy mum described Brookham Nursery as “phenomenal” with a curriculum “second to none” which includes swimming, ballet, Spanish, sport, art and music, and plenty of time in the fresh air in the school’s 175-acre grounds, with the undoubted highlight being Brookham’s very own “exceptional” Forest School.

And she added that it was “virtually unheard of” for a nursery to have such a high level of pastoral care and facilities and that “no London nursery school could compare”. Due to continued strong demand for Early Years places over the last few years, a nursery extension is currently being built. The refurbishment, expected to be completed during the Autumn Term, will offer a bigger and brighter space in addition to the already outstanding nursery facilities.

A gifted young athlete from Highfield and Brookham Schools has won two national titles.

Talented Year 7 pupil Emily S secured the long jump title with a leap of 4.60m before running away with the 100m title in a sizzling 12.86 seconds at the National Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, which is hosting the Commonwealth Games this summer.

The fastest qualifier in the 100m heats in a time of 13.1 seconds, Emily easily lowered that mark to take gold and set a new prep schools record in the process. Her sub-13-second winning time was also the second fastest ever recorded by an U13 girl from any school.

The twin national titles in England’s second city rounded-off in spectacular style a successful spell for Emily, 12, who was awarded the senior victrix ludorum on sports day at Highfield at the end of June having won the individual girls’ 70m hurdles, long jump and 100m events, as well as being part of the victorious girls’ 4x100m house relay team.

Emily was joined in Birmingham at the national finals by Highfield and Brookham Year 6 pupil Cristo P, who ran superbly to finish sixth in the U12 1500m in a new personal best time of 5 minutes 4 seconds – a new middle school record.

On receiving the good news on Monday afternoon, Highfield Headmaster Phillip Evitt said: “It was just the most wonderful news and a wonderful way to start the final week of term. Emily has been a standout performer on the athletics front all the way through her time at Highfield, but to earn two titles at national level, in two different disciplines, is a phenomenal achievement and one she should be incredibly proud of. The sky really is the limit for Emily and I will watch her athletics career with great interest.”

Emily was only denied the opportunity of adding to her golden tally in the West Midlands because the rules stated that the maximum number of events any athlete could enter was two, thus denying Emily a tilt at the hurdles crown too.

Mr Evitt added: “Having seen both Emily and Cristo perform so well on sports day at the end of June, it’s no surprise that they both enjoyed such a successful day in Birmingham. Reaching the national finals is an incredible achievement in itself, but to break a school record and win two national titles between them is an extraordinary effort.”

Our charitable children have had a double cause for celebration.

While flying the Union Flag and hanging out the bunting in honour of the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, our pupils put their best feet forward for a sponsored walk in aid of Highfield Highreach Holidays.

Joined by parents, grandparents, school staff and assorted four-legged friends – many bedecked in patriotic red, white and blue – the willing walkers raised a tidy £1,420 for the school’s beloved charity which provides week-long residential breaks for children and young adults with physical and learning disabilities.

The Highfield children walked up to 5k through the school’s expansive woodland while the younger pupils at Brookham did their bit for the cause over a much shorter but equally enjoyable route.

Children had set the patriotic scene by making colourful flags and bunting, which proudly fluttered around the school grounds, as well as snazzy crowns to mark seven decades since Her Majesty’s coronation in 1952.

And Brookham children were also in fine voice for an outdoor concert in front of proud parents and grandparents before heading out on their fundraising walk, which finished with a jubilee tea party.

Highfield Headmaster Phillip Evitt said: “There is always something incredibly special about a royal jubilee and some of us have had the opportunity to celebrate more than once the Queen’s wonderful long reign. But for the children at Highfield and Brookham, it’s their first experience of such an outpouring of national pride and joy and it’s something that I have no doubt will linger long in the memory for a good many of them.

“It was a wonderful day with a riot of colour and it was a delight to share it with so many parents and grandparents who came along to celebrate with us and help raise a super amount of money for our Highreach Holidays charity, which is so dear to our hearts.”

Highfield Highreach Holidays this year runs from August 8-12.

Highfield and Brookham Schools have made their debut on the national orienteering circuit.

And after successfully staging a Trail League fixture as part of this year’s British Championships, we have been put firmly on the orienteering map.

Trail orienteering – or TrailO – is a sport that puts the emphasis firmly on precision map reading in order to identify control points within a specific terrain, with the added challenge of decoys to confuse competitors.

Where it differs from standard orienteering is that speed and time are largely inconsequential, making TrailO ideal for competitors young and old, disabled and able-bodied.

Because control points are identified from distance and competitors aren’t allowed to leave the trails, participants with or without physical disabilities compete on level terms.

And unlike other forms of orienteering which involve the competitors physically visiting the control and punching in, trail orienteering is done from distance in the form of multiple-choice questions which test a competitor’s ability to determine where a specific control point is faced with several options.

As a result, Trail O is less physically demanding – which makes it ideal for schoolchildren – and has been proven to be beneficial to children as it encourages independence, problem solving and teamwork – all key skills and attributes central to the learning ethos at Highfield and Brookham.

To underscore the point, a taster event was organised for children at Highfield and Brookham prior to the British Championships which helped build on the orienteering skills that pupils learn during their weekly Keys sessions.

The British Trail League fixture, which saw competitors race around Golden Valley and Cognor Wood, near Liphook, including land owned by Bill Mills, the owner of Highfield and Brookham Schools, was won by Michael Chun Chi Tsang of the Wessex Club with Anne Straube (Octavian Droobers) in second and Kieran Marsh (South London Orienteers) third. Mr Mills presented prizes after the race.

A spokesman for the South East Orienteering Association, which hosted the event, welcomed “special” Highfield and Brookham Schools to the circuit.

“One big attraction was that the land hadn’t been used before. We map a lot of areas for potential use and it’s unusual to find an area that is sufficiently large and special for what we need,” he added. Phillip Evitt, Headmaster at Highfield School, said: “Many generations of schoolchildren at Highfield have learned valuable skills and techniques through orienteering within our curriculum and I know I speak for Mr Mills when I say how proud and delighted we are to have been chosen for a British Championship fixture. Hopefully it will be the first of many!”