Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's Weekly News, Friday 24th November, 2017
Nov 24, 2017
24 November 2017
Dear Parents
3M Assembly
Thank you 3M for your Assembly on the subject of Light and Shadow which you have been studying in Science recently. It was very interesting! You knew so many facts and you demonstrated a clear understanding of the subject with your detailed and very impressive explanations. I particularly enjoyed the demonstrations which brought the assembly to life and helped your audience to understand the topic more fully. Thank you 3M, and Mrs Morrice for arranging this assembly.
Winter Fayre
Thank you to everyone who attended and supported the Winter Fayre. It was a lovely event with a wide range of stalls run by school and outside agencies. Thank you to the PTA who worked so hard preparing for this seasonal event. Mr Duke
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the Winter Fayre, it was such a lovely event and it was fantastic to see so many people there. Thanks to you, we raised £576.76 for the school. Thank you very much for your ongoing support. Gemma Bradley, Chair of PTA
Pre-School Afternoon Tea
I was invited to Pre-School for a tea party on Tuesday. When I arrived, Sofia, Chloe, Ted, Ayaanah and James were all sitting very smartly at the table with jam sandwiches, brownies and a cup of tea. After the initial shock of watching a 6ft 2” man, in a suit, sit down on one of their extremely small chairs, we all started chatting away. Sofia explained how they had made the brownies that morning with Mrs Harrison and how they had cracked the eggs. She also showed me the igloo the children were starting to build out of milk bottles! Ted talked about his family and his big brother, Oliver. Ayaanah chatted about the two princess parties she had recently attended and playing musical statues with her dad. While talking, they all sat up very straight taking sips of their tea very carefully and holding the china cups in two hands. James told me his favourite lesson is French which was going to take place during the tea party. Mrs Hayes explained that the children were doing very well in French and had now moved onto counting to twenty after mastering one to 10. The girls, led by Chloe, then got up to dance to a French song that was playing: a proper little tea dance! I was then joined by Arthur, William, Sadie, Ayyub and Dylan who all sat down excitedly; Arthur asked if the cake was cheesecake? He seemed to be equally happy that it was a brownie and munched contentedly away. William said he liked having tea in a special cup like his mummy. Dylan told me he had been busy playing in the sand and on the ipads that morning and had really enjoyed it. I left the tea party just as they were preparing for the next activity. Thank you for inviting me to tea, Pre-School. I had a lovely time!
Academic Success
Highfield Priory School was ranked 22nd in the country in The Sunday Times League Tables this month. This is the seventh consecutive year that the school has been ranked in the top thirty; an incredible achievement! It is this consistency year-on-year which was one of the leading factors in achieving our recent National Award for Academic Excellence and Innovation.
Year 3 Trip to Lancashire Museum
The day which we have all been looking forward to finally came! I was very excited- we were going to the Lancashire Museum with our school friends and teachers: Mrs Morrice and Mrs Hill.
When we arrived, we were greeted by an ARP Officer which stands for Air Raid Precaution. He started talking about the size of gas masks. There was a baby one, toddler one and one for adults. It is important to make sure the gas mask fits so no gas leaks in. The ARP Officer is responsible for: sounding the air raid alarm, patrolling at night, making sure all lights are off and black out curtains are down, rescuing trapped people and giving first aid. I was lucky enough to be picked and dress up as an ARP in overall, helmet and bag. I had to shout to everyone: ‘ENEMY AIRCRAFT! ENEMY AIRCRAFT!’ After lunch, we did the next session about espionage and sabotage (spying and deliberately damaging something). Four people disguised themselves as other people and the rest of us had to ask them questions to find out who they were. We then learnt how to decode morse code. The British worked really hard to crack the German codes. They built a massive computer the size of a room to crack the codes.
We had an excellent day at the museum and have learnt lots of interesting facts about our history topic: World War 2.
What an interesting day! This is only a brief account of the trip from Udita, Hasan and Tim who wrote at least one side of A4 each!
Regional Swimming Gala
Nine children from Highfield attended The Northern Regional Gala in Macclesfield on Saturday. There were 26 schools taking part which was the largest attendance we have known. All the children did incredibly well against a very strong field of swimmers. Our top three finishers were: Zahara and Daniel who both came second in the Breaststroke and James and Danya who both came first in Backstroke. Our under 11 girls’ Freestyle team made up of Danya, Grace W-Y, Evie and Zahara and the Medley relay team made up of Sophie, Danya, Zahara and Evie came first in both races. Congratulations to all the swimmers who took part.
Beech House Swimming Gala
Seventeen swimmers travelled to Middleton on Monday for the Beech House Annual Swimming Gala. Many of our swimmers were in their first competitive gala for school and really enjoyed the experience. Our individual medal winners were: gold medals for Danya (Backstroke), James (Backstroke and Frontcrawl), Zahara (Breaststroke) and our Year 6 Freestyle Relay team - Daniel, James, Grace and Sophie; our silver medal winners were Daniel (Backstroke), Nandini (Breaststroke), Evie (Frontcrawl) and the Medley Relay (Daniel, Elizabeth, James and Grace). Highfield came fourth overall! Well done to everyone who took part.
Football v SMH
The Under 9s were in action against St. Mary’s Hall on Tuesday. They showed a much improved performance on their last outing with better movement and strength on the ball. Final scores were 3-1 in the first match and 0-7 in the second match.
ISA Football
The under 11s travelled to Greenbank on Wednesday to play in the ISA Cup. After a very closely fought game, in which Highfield created lots of chances, to potentially win the game, the match finished 2-2 after extra time. We eventually lost on penalties. The boys also had to cope with a three hour drive home due to the traffic! All the boys and staff were in school on Thursday ready to take on the challenges of the next day, demonstrating their resilience and real Highfield spirit! Thank you to Mr Turner and Mr Forrest for taking the boys and having another late night on the roads.
Preston Primary Schools’ Indoor Athletics by Grace W-Y
Yesterday, a group of Year 6 children took part in the Indoor Athletics Competition. Each school represented a country and we were Bermuda. We all did our best and had some fantastic results. We took part in events such as running, speed bounce, standing and triple jump and javelin. Well done to everybody who took part.
Merit Awards
RD: Daisy RJ: Ali 1W: Lyla 2D: Sophie 2E: Diya
3H: Isabelle 3M: The Whole Class 4S: Inas 5D: Aamina 5M Sophia 6H: Lilland 6P: Madeleine
Monitor of the week: Gabrielle
Thought for the Week
Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don't give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people. Tena Desae
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
