This Week’s Headline Story…
Christmas Card Designers Swell Charity Coffers
8th December 2023
Our creative pupils have designed their own Christmas cards – and raised money for charity along the way. The annual Christmas card design competition at Highfield and Brookham is always a festive f…
Christmas Performance Is Nursery’s Crowning Glory
The Nursery children’s happy festive planning came to fruition with a moving Christmas performance in the theatre on Thursday in front of proud parents and grandparents. Wearing golden crowns lovingly crafted on the days leading up to their seasonal show, the excited children carefully placed lit candles on golden stars to form a beautiful circle of glowing greenery which encircled a poignant baby’s crib. And they ended their heart-warming performance with a flourish, the children working together to sing several festive favourites. It truly was a joyous celebration of a fantastic term spent together.
Penny Hodnett, Nursery Class Teacher
Reception Get A Wriggle On To Deliver Christmas Cracker
The fabulous Reception performance of ‘The Wriggly Nativity’ was a wonderful way to start the Christmas celebrations. The children definitely reached for the stars as they projected their voices to follow their cues and deliver their lines while dancing and singing. The children worked amazingly well together to put on a wonderful show for their families and we are all so proud of them!
Rosie Snagge, Reception Class Teacher
Year 1 Stick At It As Learning Takes Shape
Year 1 have this week been exploring the properties of 2D and 3D shapes at forest school. The children were asked to each collect two sticks then challenged to work as a team to create squares, putting their problem-solving skills to the test by finding other children with similar length sticks to complete the task. The children also had the chance to gather together to discuss how best to produce their shapes. And keen to share their knowledge of shape, Year 1 then found more sticks to create triangles, hexagons and pentagons.
Kathleen Salusbury, Year 1 Class Teacher
Bridging The Gap Adds Up For Year 2
The addition of two-digit numbers using a range of methods took the attention of the young mathematicians in Year 2 this week. One key technique was bridging across the ones and into the tens, which the children proved very adept at, so much so that they used their impressive problem-solving skills to tackle thee-digit sums. The children really embraced the challenge and it was wonderful to see teamwork come to the fore as they helped each other with some of the trickier sums.
Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 2
Year 3 Delight As Stone Age Huts Take Shape
The objective of this week’s Year 3 DT lesson was to continue making their Stone Age huts. The children are at different stages of the process but the huts are really starting to take shape beautifully. Listening carefully to instructions at every stage has been key in order to piece together the various elements of the hut and this week the children looked at the technique of dabbing different shades of paint to produce a piece of land outside the hut and adding clumps of ‘grass’ courtesy of discarded pencil sharpenings. The result was delight on the children’s faces as they saw their work of art coming together before their very eyes.
Kim Martin, Year 3 DT Teacher
Nothing Ugly About Year 4’s French Progress
Year 4 ended their study of ‘Les Cinq Affreux’ – or ‘The Ugly Five’ – this term with a small enactment of the book complete with animal masks and use of some ugly adjectives. They put their creative skills to the test to make their masks and also put their speaking (and singing) skills out there to introduce their animals and join in with the key aspects from the book. They are now confident with description of self and others and getting to grips with adjective agreement.
Jo Longshaw, Head of Modern Foreign Languages
Year 5 Continue To Impress On The Rugby Pitch
The U11A team came up against a strong, well-organised Cranleigh team on Wednesday. The game was well contested as both teams crossed the whitewash in the first half, with the visitors heading into the half-time break leading three tries to one. Highfield and Brookham fought hard in the second half, notching two more tries, but Cranleigh took the honours six tries to three.
Richard Dunn, Boys’ U11A Rugby Coach
The U11Bs secured a magnificent win over a decent Cranleigh side. The players gelled beautifully and ran in several wonderful tries, underpinned by excellent teamwork, desire and determination which augers well for the rest of the season. The boys also showed great sportsmanship across the afternoon, something which didn’t go unnoticed by the coaches.
Simon Gunn, Boys’ U11B Rugby Coach
The U11C team continued their unbeaten start to the rugby season with an impressive victory over Cranleigh, winning six tries to three. Despite going behind early on, Highfield and Brookham rallied with some excellent tries from the impressive Rex W and Platon B earning the boys the victory. A great team performance with the defence just as impressive as the attack.
Danny Parkinson, Boys’ U11C Rugby Coach
Year 6 Poetry Skills Shaping Up Nicely
This week in English, Year 6 put their creative skills to excellent use and aimed high as they got to grips with shape poetry. After learning about poetic devices and preparing a detailed plan, the children artistically put pen to paper and wrote clever and engaging poems based on their current class read, ‘Floodland’ by Marcus Sedgwick. The poems they created were phenomenal pieces of literature and the children should all be very proud of their work.
Eleanor Ingamells, Year 6 English Teacher
Year 7 Issue Vaping Message Loud And Clear
7B1 worked wonders in PSHE this week, unleashing their creativity to create powerful and thought-provoking videos. Their objective was to create short, catchy and informative adverts demonstrating the risks of vaping to other young people. From time lapses to news reports, using their teamwork skills, they planned and executed some fantastic videos, really embedding their understanding and learning from previous lessons.
Zoe Thesiger-Pratt, Head of PSHE
Fashionable Year 8 Have Designs On Creativity
Creative Year 8 continued working on their cushion project in DT this week, with the focus on design. After researching the current fashion market, the children mocked up sustainable price tags and designed prints for an item of clothing. The task gave the children the opportunity to expand their knowledge of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture as well as the chance to use an iron on vinyl, as opposed to the ink printing they used earlier in the term for their pillow cushions.
Jamie Dew, Head of DT