This Week’s Headline Story…
Christmas Comes Early For Bursary Fund
6th December 2024
A charity with a focus on social mobility has received a festive boost to the tune of £3,215. The money, which will swell the coffers of the Highfield Centenary Bursaries Fund, was raised at a succes…
Nursery Proudly Present Their Crowning Glory
Today, the Nursery children filled their parents and teachers with joy at their Christmas celebration, a definite highlight of the festive season. Proudly wearing crowns they carefully and lovingly made themselves, and dressed all in white, they began a beautiful procession into the theatre where they placed candles onto special gold stars dotted around winter greenery taken from the school estate. With the stage set, the children rounded off their special celebration with a heart-warming rendition of Christmas songs. There was an immense sense of pride at how well the children rose to the occasion and performed so brilliantly to their audience despite being the youngest members of our school community.
Sam Forster, Head of Nursery
Big Performance From Little People In Reception
Weeks of dedication and hard work paid handsome dividends as Reception took centre stage with their amazing Christmas performance. Each child took time to learn not only their spoken lines but also the words and accompanying actions of the songs that helped make A Little Big Nativity so special. It was a true team effort, with the children supporting each other and working together to create a memorable performance for their families. Their enthusiasm and bright spirits shone through, making it a magical experience for everyone involved.
Rosie Snagge, Reception Class Teacher
Year 1 Performers Take Centre Stage
What a wonderful performance the Year 1 children put on for their parents. They have worked extremely hard over the last few weeks to learn their lines, create the props and recreate the Christmas story. The children used nice clear voices to sing and speak their lines while also gaining an early understanding of what it takes to be a performer. We are extremely proud of each of the children for producing such an amazing play.
Hannah Feery, Year 1 Class Teacher
Year 2 Artists Take A Leaf Out Of Warhol’s Book
In art, Year 2 this week continued their nature theme by looking at press printing and leaf designs. Inspired by artist Andy Warhol, the children studied examples of his ‘Pop Art’ and decided to use similarly bright colours in their own work. They also gave a great deal of thought to their leaf designs and the layout of their artwork, with six separate tiles being produced in different colours to form one big picture. The result was an impressive series of pictures which Andy Warhol would no doubt have been very proud!
Kim Martin, Year 2 Art Teacher
Thoughtful Year 3 Ponder The Journey Of Life
In PRE, Year 3 have this week been considering how Hindus view the journey of life. The children explored the idea of ‘karma’, the connection between what we do and what happens to us. They also discovered how rivers play a big part in the lives of Hindus; that life, just like a river, flows and symbolises our ongoing journey. The topic generated healthy debate among Year 3, which gave the children the opportunity to voice their thoughts and ideas and also listen attentively to the opinions of others.
Year 4 Put Finishing Touches To Christingle Prep
The run up to Christmas is always a busy but enjoyable time at school and Year 4 have this week been hard at work preparing for next week’s Christingle service. Performed to parents in our beautiful chapel, the ever-popular Christingle service gives the children the chance to show proud parents how well they can perform as a group, harmonising beautifully while singing Christmas carols, and individually reciting poems in front of an audience of both adults and their peers.
John Mühlemann, Director of Music
Year 5 Actors Adopt A New York State Of Mind
In drama this week, Year 5 have been developing characters and themes from hit musical ‘Bugsy Malone’. The children showed great resilience as they attempted to master the tricky Bronx accent using a technique called hot seating, which involves imagining the facial expressions, body language and thoughts of specific characters from the story. Working in small groups, Year 5 created their own scenes which they decided would be set around a card game and a bank robbery. The children really put a great deal of thought into their roles and had a lot of fun creating these characters and scenes from 1920s New York.
Sarah Baird, Head of Drama
Year 6 Keep An Open Mind About William’s Castles
In topic this week, Year 6 stepped back in time to learn about the layout of William the Conqueror’s castles and their relative strengths and weaknesses. The children considered how they could defend and attack a typical motte and bailey castle, which consists of an artificial mound (motte) atop which was built a fortified tower called a keep, and a bailey, which was an enclosure connected to the motte. Year 6 gained a good understanding of the problems that William faced during his reign and how he adapted to deal with these problems by building castles all over the country. They also discovered just how ruthless he was!
Year 7 Linguists Home In On Holidays
In Spanish this week, Year 7 were tasked with writing a paragraph on the topic of holidays, describing where they like to go and the kind of activities they like to do. The challenge gave the children the opportunity to put into practice the grammar lessons and core vocabulary they have learnt in recent weeks, something they did with aplomb as they produced some lovely and well-formed sentences.
‘X’ Marks The Spot For Year 8 In Maths
Year 8’s maths knowledge was put firmly to the test this week as they had to solve quadratic equations using a graph. This particular topic will appear in the more advanced Level 3 Common Entrance and scholarship exams that Year 8 children sit, so it was an ideal opportunity for the top set to gauge their progress. Having plotted the quadratic graph, the children used additional lines to work out the values of ‘x’.
Danny Parkinson, Head of Maths