Knowledge Is Power
Nursery Children Get Busy As The Autumn Winds Blow
On a wet and windy autumnal Monday morning, the Nursery children noticed that so many of the surrounding trees were shedding their colourful leaves; the big gusts of wind blowing them all over our lovely garden and the surrounding grounds. This sparked lots of discussion among the children about the change in the seasons and what happens to the environment around us; everything from the beautiful vibrant colours of the leaves before they fall and the mahogany conkers to the easily identifiable sweet chestnuts in their ‘furry’ shells that had already fallen to the floor for us to explore and find. They collected a wealth of leaves, conkers, acorns and acorn ‘hats’ to produce a ‘Leaf Man’ creation in honour of our book of the week. We discussed the vibrant autumn colours – not least the brilliant reds, oranges, pinks and browns – and the children enjoyed mixing paint to make new colours to match the snazzy pumpkins we have in Nursery and the leaves the children found during their nature walks. The Nursery children have also been celebrating the harvest this week, culminating in a heart-warming rendition of the Big Red Combine Harvester song during a lovely service in the chapel. And our harvest theme wasn’t finished there as the eager children got busy in the kitchen baking bread; kneading, rolling and twisting the dough to create a beautiful harvest loaf to mop up the autumn squash soup that we lovingly prepared.
Kerry Chapman, Nursery Class Teacher
Happy Reception Proud Of Their Pumpkin Potions
With the half-term break looming large, our wonderful Reception children have been hands on during a very busy week. With excited chatter in the air surrounding Halloween, we knew it was time to practice our magical mixing skills while making some brilliant pumpkin potions. After listening to the lovely story of Room On The Broom and knowing the recipe for the very best potions, the children set to work. They worked in small groups to first dig out all the extra pumpkin flesh and seeds that they didn’t want in their potions. Getting busy, they made their magical potions by adding lots of ingredients such as shaving foam, food colouring, water and anything else they could find and mixed it all together with glee. And they collaborated to good effect while exploring the shared area for the best utensils to mix the ingredients. Roars of laughter and squeals of delight filled the air as the children experimented with their newly-acquired resources. Back in the classroom, the children have been busy consolidating their numbers up to five, and they have certainly impressed us all with their sharp subitising skills and recalling of number facts.
Hannah Feery, Reception Class Teacher
Year 1 Prove To Be Seasoned Poetry Performers
Performance poetry week is an important and central pillar of our literacy curriculum. This week, Year 1 explored this concept with real enthusiasm. They had the opportunity to explore a wide range of quality poems and chose one, Autumn Days, to learn off by heart to perform as part of a super harvest assembly. We discussed how techniques can be used to enhance performance, such as intonation, tone, tempo and volume to help develop meaning for an audience. The children also spent time creating their own verses and playing around with the language. Between performance practice, Year 1 did some serious brainstorming of adjectives to describe autumn leaves; carefully creating leaf rubbings and finding as many different types of leaves around our school site and naming the tree they came from. After all of the preparation, the children’s performance was a triumph and our audience loved the actions we linked to key aspects of the poem. Well done, Year 1!
Kerri Wilkes, Head of Year 1
Year 2 Explorers In The Habit Of Finding Habitats
Year 2 have taken full advantage of the spectacular autumn weather and our expansive grounds by taking the curriculum outside of the classroom. Initially using drama to engage and excite, the children ‘transformed’ into animals and insects the size of a pen lid. They then had to consider the type of habitats that they would need to enable them to survive. Having developed a unique sense of empathy with their invented or real creatures, the assignment became much more meaningful. Like discerning first-time buyers, they established whether their proposed habitat provided sufficient heat, ventilation (air) shelter, light, food, water and, just as importantly, protection from predators. The children considered a variety of habitats and were delighted to uncover and observe myriad insects. And they noted how some of these creatures had adapted to their particular habitats. In fact, some were so well camouflaged that we almost missed them. Some favoured the dampness between rotting pieces of wood and some had cleverly located their habitat within a food source – such as the Year 2 compost bin! Next day, the young explorers took another exciting trip out of the classroom to discover what habitats they could find in our wonderful woodland. The children then honed their collaboration skills to construct tepee shelters. They gathered their own materials – such as dead branches – and cleverly created their very own human habitats, under the watchful eye of Mr Millsom.
Shirley Jervis, Year 2 Class Teacher
Collaboration Key As Year 3 End Half Term On A High
With the harvest festival service and half term fast approaching, collaboration has been the buzzword for Year 3. The children have positively feasted on working together to learn and perform the poem The Chilly Chilli, by Joseph Coelho. With a focus on homophones, the poem has enabled the children to develop their understanding and knowledge of the different spellings while embedding a firm grasp of the contrasting meanings. Speaking competently and coherently, the children took great pleasure in performing the poem to the rest of the school, a performance which also included homophonic signs that the children have created collaboratively in class this week. Year 3’s relating learning power has also been stretched in other areas across the curriculum; through the creation of a ‘class charter’ and learning how to solve complex word problems in maths. Furthermore, away from the classroom, Year 3’s increased ability to apply principles suitable for attacking and defending on the football pitches and netball courts is evident in our weekly matches, which is a result of their enjoyment in communicating, collaborating and competing with others.
Robert Grech, Year 3 Class Teacher
Dramatic Tale Of Life As An Evacuee Told By Year 4
To link in with their class topic of the Second World War this term, Year 4 have been exploring a unit called ‘Evacuees’ in drama. Our budding actors have started to consider how it might have felt to have been an evacuee during the war years; developing their skills of empathy and understanding. It certainly opened up interesting discussions, as we learnt that some of their evacuee characters were actually quite excited by the whole experience while others were confused, angry or heartbroken. By using the dramatic skills of freeze frame, mime and improvisation, Year 4 worked in small groups to create a scene where a parent explains to a child that they are going to be evacuated and what this will entail; ultimately resulting in the evacuee packing their bags and being waved off on a train. It was a really reflective task to put themselves in an evacuee’s shoes, especially as they have also been busy practising for their Remembrance service this week and thinking about pupils that may have been affected by the war. It was certainly a creative and fun way to remember a thoughtful time, while also developing key skills in drama.
Sarah Baird, Head of Drama
Inspired Year 5 Netballers Win The Space Race
In glorious autumnal sunshine, Highfield took on Cranleigh at netball on Wednesday. With Highfield having already beaten Cranleigh once this season, the girls may have been forgiven for thinking that the visitors would have revenge on their minds. But they needn’t have worried as they put the skills and techniques of their Games lessons to good use to see off their friendly rivals. Passing into space – which is much more difficult than it sounds – had been the focus of the week in the build up to the matches. You need to be brave to pass into an empty area in the hope that your teammate will run onto the ball, but that was exactly what Highfield did to great effect. In order to ensure that every girl played in a match – as Cranleigh only brought two teams of six girls – Highfield made two mixed teams from our squad; yellows and blues. Highfield Yellow started well, scoring two goals in quick succession to set up an excellent platform. At the other end, the Highfield defence didn’t have a great deal to do in the opening quarter and comfortably repelled any Cranleigh attacks. The second quarter saw the blue team take to the court, and the goals continued to stack up. Cranleigh did finally break through the home defence to score but by then Highfield were comfortably ahead and ended up running out 10-2 winners. The best part about this match was the girls’ ability to put into action exactly what had been taught during their practice sessions. There were several moments of incredibly fluid and beautiful netball, and it’s worth bearing in mind that most of these Highfield girls are only nine years old. So the result went Highfield’s way but the real winners on the day were good sportsmanship and the ability to pass into space.
Viv Liddell, Year 5 Netball Coach
Year 6 Ponder A Very Different Side Of Henry VIII
When asked to describe Henry VIII, what words do we think of? Fat? Beheader of wives? Atheist? Selfish? Greedy? Many of our Year 6 children thought exactly the same before this week’s lessons on a young Henry. In later years, Henry indeed made a permanent shift to the religious order, married a few too many women and indulged rather excessively at the dining table. However, the children have been encouraged to remember that as a young monarch, Henry was not only fit, intelligent and a capable linguist and musician, but also a man loyal to the Catholic Church. Don’t believe me? Ask your child about our current coinage! What does FD stand for on the back of a pound coin? They’ll let you know. Year 6 investigated what Henry was like in 1509 when he came to the throne aged only 18 and wrote an entertaining school report as Henry’s teacher. Perhaps, over the course of the week, we have helped dispel a few historical stereotypes.
James Ridge, Head of History
Mature Year 7 Get A Real Sense Of Self In The Art Room
Pupils in Year 7 have been reviewing the rules of facial proportion. Initially, they started by drawing their own portraits in their sketchbooks. The next stage of this exciting topic is to use digital media to create an image transfer of self-portraits taken on the iPad and put onto canvas. After half term, Year 7 will research BAME artist David Gomez Maestre and pop artist Andy Warhol. They will compare and contrast these two artists and be influenced by both to produce their final design for their self-portrait painting on canvas using acrylic paint. Year 7 made a great start this week on this ambitious project and I am hugely impressed with everyone’s efforts and maturity.
Olga Houghton, Head of Art
Year 8 Scientists Discover Many Degrees Of Separation
8A have been covering separating techniques this week; looking at methods they can use to separate solids from mixtures and solutions. After a few lessons which deliver the theory, the children are given chunks of rock salt and a variety of apparatus. They are then tasked with separating the mixture through a variety of processes, including crushing, filtration and evaporation. They have also learnt how to separate substances based on their solubility through chromatography; recognising that not all substances are soluble in water and that on occasion, stronger substances are required.
Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science
