This Week’s Headline Story…
Rule Breakers Have Hearts In The Right Place
15th March 2024
Our fun-loving children have been caught flouting the rules. Virtually the whole pupil body at Highfield and Brookham were spotted sporting home clothes, trainers, jewellery, painted nails, beanie hat…
Nursery Hone Their Fine Motor Skills
The Nursery children have this week focused on enhancing their fine motor skills across all learning opportunities, not least at forest school. They have been engaging in tactile activities, threading and weaving reed grass with leaves and sticks to craft unique creations. The children have also embraced collaborative efforts, utilising the workbench and tools to design and construct their very own traffic lights to complement road designs that they had carefully chalked onto the floor.
Kerry Chapman, Nursery Class Teacher
Reception Focus On All Creatures Great And Small
Young Spanish linguists in Reception were tasked with learning the words for different wild animals, sea creatures and farm animals, and they proved up to the task. The children paid careful attention to listen to, sound out and spell the Spanish words for the various animals before carefully drawing and colouring in pictures of their favourites. The children were delighted to add some new words to their Spanish vocabulary and showed great imagination while designing their pictures.
Sergio Heredia Rodriguez, Reception Class Spanish Teacher
Busy Bees In Year 1 Wowed By The Wonders Of Wisley
Year 1 made the short trip up the A3 to the brilliant RHS Wisley gardens to gain a more in-depth understanding of plants. The young scientists and botanists of tomorrow asked intelligent questions to further develop their appreciation of the diverse plants seen at Wisley, embellishing the work that they have done in the classroom, particularly in relation to their spring term topic about bees.
Rebecca Lane, Year 1 Class Teacher
Year 2 Learn Valuable Lessons On The Netball Court
On Monday, Year 2 took part in Churcher’s Junior School’s netball festival. Split into teams of four, the children got so much out of the day; learning the importance of teamwork and communication in competitive sport, learning to share in each other’s successes, not allowing themselves to become too disheartened when things don’t go to plan, and being gracious in victory and defeat.
Jo Gordon, Head of PE
Year 3 Make Smooth Progress With Healthy Initiative
During DT and digital literacy lessons, Year 3 have been working together to generate ideas on researching, designing and testing a saleable fruit smoothie. This week, the children got to present smoothies – as well as detailed posters explaining the ingredients used and the businesses which supplied them, the name of the smoothie and the benefits of drinking fruit smoothies – to an expert panel of judges who work in the food industry, including Marco, our very own catering manager, our head chef Paul and the chef from Coppa Club Guildford. The children really impressed the judges with their reasoning behind their smoothie recipes, costings and designs.
Rosie Statham, Head of Lower Prep
Warrior Reveals Secrets Of The Maasai To Year 4
Year 4 were treated to a vibrant talk from a Maasai warrior this week. The children listened intently as David, who is also a safari tour guide, taught them how to say some words in Swahili while he talked about the wild animals in the Maasai Mara and about the oldest animal in the conservation – an elephant named Fred! The children, who were challenged to see if they could jump as high as the Maasai warriors of Kenya and Tanzania, then marvelled as David expertly demonstrated the art of spear throwing on Chapel Field to complete a wonderful learning experience rich in African tradition and culture.
Kelly Read, Year 4 Class Teacher
Practice Makes Perfect As Year 5 Review Verb Endings In Latin
In another busy week there was just time for Year 5 to review an important element of Latin grammar – verb endings. The chants of “o, s, t, mus, tis, nt” rang round the classroom once again to ensure this mantra was properly learnt and on the tip of the tongue whenever needed. While not everyone is talking like Julius Caesar just yet, they are learning to use Latin to help work through passages with more complex English, as well as practising their coding by following the strict rules about endings.
Alex Walker, Head of Classics
Year 6 Girls Thrive On The Football Pitch
Highfield’s U11A team battled to a brilliant 1-1 draw against a tough Westbourne House team in a game played in great spirit. All the girls gave everything throughout the game, which saw brilliant passing, dribbling, defending and shooting. Although the game ended all square, the effort and determination the Highfield girls put in made it feel like a win. The girls are clearly enjoying their football, which augers well for the rest of the season.
Jordan Knapp, Girls’ U11A Football Coach
Playing with bags of energy, effort and enthusiasm and smiles on their faces, the U11B team were rewarded with a fine win against Westbourne in an entertaining game. While Highfield’s midfield and forwards were a constant threat, the battling defence and the two goalkeepers were delighted to keep a clean sheet to secure the win.
Eleanor Ingamells, Girls’ U11B Football Coach
The U11Cs blazed another trail of glory on the football pitch this week; beating the opposition in what is fast becoming their customary convincing and comprehensive fashion! The girls secured a comfortable 2-0 win in a good-natured match, dominated by a Highfield team full of confidence and self-belief.
Steph Turner, Girls’ U11C Football Coach
Year 7 Dissect Findings Of Scientific Probe
As part of their studies on body systems in science, Year 7 got a close look at the dissection of a lamb’s lung and were shown all the different parts that make up the respiratory system, including the trachea, bronchi, bronchioles and alveoli. They were particularly amazed to see the lung inflated by air and asked a great many intelligent questions and displayed real maturity in their knowledge of the respiratory process. Next week, Year 7 will be dissecting a heart and looking at the different chambers, arteries and veins.
Oli Backhouse, Year 7 Science Teacher
Year 8 Consider Safe And Respectful Relationships
Year 8 have been working hard in PSHE on their topic of safe and respectful relationships. This has meant digging deep into recognising signs of healthy relationships and considering signs of consent or, perhaps even more importantly, how you might be able to tell when someone might not want to do something. The children looked at relationship scenarios and identified healthy behaviours and warning signs, including considering tone of voice and body language as well as words spoken.
Zoe Thesiger-Pratt, Head of PSHE