Headmaster's Welcome

Headmaster's Weekly News, Friday 9th February, 2018

Feb 9, 2018

9 February 2018

Dear Parents

The Wind in the Willows at The Charter Theatre
Wow, wow, wow! Highfield Priory School was the only show in town on Tuesday night. 99 children from the age of just 4 to 11 took centre stage in an extravaganza of dance, song and acting in their wonderful performance of The Wind in the Willows. Year 4’s stage presence and acting skills were quite incredible for children of just eight and nine years old. Their performance was integrated into a range of superbly choreographed dances which were performed by Miss Burns’ dancers who enthralled us with their talent, poise and tremendous energy. It never ceases to amaze me how our Infant children are completely unfazed by the huge stage, bright lights and adoring fans!
This year, we also asked Year 4 to sing for us which really added an extra dimension to the show. Thank you Mrs Hill for working so hard with Year 4 during their music lessons in preparation for this performance. I would also like to thank Mrs Duke and Miss Burns, our directors, for all their hard work and for getting the children to such a high level of performance in such a short amount of practice time. Also, a big thank you to Mrs Morrice for her artistic skills, Mrs Shackleton for her props and support and to all the other staff who made the performance possible. The children really had the full theatrical experience: professional lighting crews, sound technicians, pyrotechnics, dressing rooms with lights around the mirrors, not to mention the double decker bus taking them to and from the rehearsals! It is certainly a memory the children will never forget. I have been interviewing the Year 6 children in preparation for their next school and one of their favourite memories of Highfield is always The Charter Theatre performance. Well done, everyone!

World Book Day - Thursday 1st March
In celebration of World Book Day, the children may come to school dressed as a character from literature (including The Wind in the Willows!). Children may not wear football kits or bring toy weapons.

World Book Day Junior Mastermind Final
Congratulations to our Year 6 finalists: Zain, Ziyad, Sophie E, Lilland and Apala who will be taking part in the final on Thursday 1st March. As well as having read the five set books for this competition, they have also been asked to read ‘The Phoenix and the Carpet’ by E. Nesbit.

Chess News
Congratulations to Daniel who came 2nd in the U11s section of the National Rapid Play English Primary School Chess Association 2018 competition held on Saturday 3rd February at Broad Green International School, Liverpool.
The next Lancashire Chess Congress is on 24th of February at AKS Lytham. On that day, the Lancashire team will be selected for U9 and U11 based on their performance. We have had a number of county representatives before so if you are in chess club or play chess outside of school this event may be of interest to you.

HPPTA
The PTA are looking for more support from parents across the school. Our PTA do a fantastic job for us, raising valuable funds and providing a wide range of events for the children. Without their help, many of these activities could not take place. It is also a really good way to meet parents from other age groups within school. If you are interested, please email highfieldpta@outlook.com or pop into the office and express an interest. Many thanks for your continued support.

Football v St Andrews
Last Friday saw our senior football team take on St. Andrew’s in the Harold Slater Shield. St. Andrew’s started very fast and created a number of opportunities from some well taken corners. The Priory boys defended stoutly and gradually worked themselves into the fixture with some lovely interplay through the midfield. Our fantastic passing and movement created an incisive counter attack with Josh finishing the opportunity calmly. The team produced a number of other opportunities without finishing the chance but we managed the game efficiently to a positive conclusion. Well done boys! Mr Turner
The boys now move onto the semi-finals of the tournament. Congratulations to the whole team and to Mr Turner.

ISA Cross-Country
Congratulations to all the children who took part in the ISA Northern Cross Country on Wednesday. The conditions were incredibly challenging with undulating ground, a very steep hill and swamp-like ground in places. The children battled on and showed real character against some very good runners. The following children finished in the top thirty out of over 100 runners.
Under 9 Girls: Lucie 26th
Under 10 Girls: Olivia 27th, Eva 29th
Under 10 Boys: Josh A 13th
Under 11 Boys: Alfie finished 8th and qualified to represent the North.

Sedbergh Netball Tournament
The U11 Netball team travelled to a very cold and snow-covered Sedbergh for the annual tournament. The girls took a couple of games to get into their usual playing style and suffered a couple of early narrow defeats, one of which was to the eventual winners of the tournament. The character and determination of the team then began to shine through and they came back to earn a draw against a very tough Sedbergh side. In the next game, the Highfield girls played their best Netball of the tournament with the ball flowing from our strong defence, through the centre court and to the shooters to earn the girls a fantastic win against a strong Westville side. The whole team played some excellent netball against some very experienced, well drilled sides and did Highfield Priory proud. The following players all received player of the match votes from their opposing teams: Sophie, Bebe, Hanin, Danya (x2) Grace T (X2) and a special mention must go to Danya Brown who was voted Highfield’s player of the tournament by the organisers and the other school coaches. Overall, a fantastic day of Netball for the team which was finished off with a celebratory hot chocolate! Well done girls!

Merit Awards
RD: Toby RJ: Penny 1W: Georgia 2D: Aaron 2E: Yusuf
3H: Isa 3M: Yaamini 4S: The Whole Class 5D: Asiyah 5M: Omar 6H: Sophie 6P: Ziyad
Monitor of the week: Faatimah

Thought for the Week
Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

I hope you all have a great half-term break and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday 19th February.

Yours sincerely

J M Duke
Headmaster