Headmaster's Welcome

Headmaster's Weekly News, Friday 19th October, 2018

Oct 19, 2018

19 October 2018

Dear Parents

4S Assembly
Thank you 4S for concluding the class assemblies for this term. I really enjoyed your topic, ‘Prehistoric Britain’, which you have been studying this term. You gave us a fascinating insight into what life was like at this time, including actually meeting characters from that period! The depth of your understanding was very impressive for Year 4 children. Well done and thank you Mr Sheppeck for organising this assembly.

Out and About with Year 2
I visited a Year Two lesson this week. They started the lesson by discussing some basic maths rules. Naina explained how to lay out an addition sum and Luca said that when we are adding we should start with the units. The children all used their hands to add 7 to 5 and Georgia explained how the answer should be written. Lola also explained that you need to add the one when you are adding the tens column. Heba told us that you mustn’t forget it, she said it was like playing with friends - if there are three of you, you can’t leave the third person out. The class then moved onto subtraction and Violet explained how the sum should be set out and that the tens and units should be in the same column. Hanna said you can’t do this sum unless you borrow from the other column. Malaaikah completed the final column by saying 7 minus 5 equalled 2. Ms Eccles told the children that they may come across sums with three figures. Luca reminded everyone that you must start with the units before Pranav asked if he could use his fingers to work it out. The class all had a firm grasp of the rules and couldn’t wait to get started on the work. They all demonstrated real focus, working methodically through their questions. I was really impressed by their work ethic and their ability to apply the rules to the questions they faced. Well done, Year 2!

News from our Nursery
The Babies have been involved in lots of messy play this week, having fun with wet oats, gloop, water and paint. The Toddlers have been enjoying Autumn activities, walking in the school grounds and looking for all the signs of Autumn. They have created hedgehogs, autumn trees with popcorn and completed some autumn threading. Our Nursery children have been busy making pizzas, drawing themselves and talking about their eyes and other facial features. They have also completed some autumn activities - making hedgehogs in playdough, conker rolling in paint and exploring the inside of a pumpkin!
What a wonderfully creative week you have all had!

Staff News
Mrs Morrice has returned to her full-time post this week with 3M. I would like to thank Mrs Hill and Mrs Heyworth for all their hard work this term.
Mrs Parsons will be returning to school on Wednesday 5th December. She will be working part-time with Mrs Botton, both covering three days a week until the end of the academic year.

Year 4 trip to Haigh Hall by Diya, Tim, Lameesa, Aadi and Ariana
Firstly we went on a coach from Highfield to Haigh Hall. It was approximately a twenty to thirty minutes’ drive. When we arrived, we met a friendly woman called Lizzy and also Tony and Chris. They helped with a number of activities, my favourite was den-building. It was my favourite activity because I liked working together to try to make the best den and I liked the fact that we got to make it like we were actually going to sleep in it! Two stand out moments were when Chris said all the dens were excellent and when we were all huddled up together in the shelter.
I really enjoyed the camp fire and having hot chocolate. We queued up for marshmallows and sticks and toasted them on the fire. We were given biscuits and made them into smores! We ate and drank them and they were so yummy. I ate mine slowly so I could savour every bite.
After bug-house building, we did mini-beast hunting. We went into the deep, dense, woodland and immediately started lifting huge, heavy pieces of wood or rocks. We found two huge slugs, six woodlice, seven millipedes and three worms. When we went further into the forest, another team found a toad! And Mrs Shackleton picked it up! I had lots of fun and wish I could go again.

Year 3 visit to The Museum of Lancashire
On Thursday, Year 3 went to the Museum of Lancashire to learn about life in World War II. We were greeted by Mrs Riley and Mrs Perkins. Mrs Riley was dressed as an Air Raid Warden. She showed us all how to identify whether it was a German or a British plane flying overhead by the noise they made. We then practised what to do if it was the enemy, with Hugo and James dressed as Air Raid Wardens. She also taught us a rhyme so we would know how to apply a gas mask. Mrs Perkins helped us make our name labels for when we were evacuated, showed us how few clothes we would have been able to buy with our clothing coupons and then practised our aeroplane recognition, which children would have done at school during the war. We sang war time songs like ‘Run Rabbit, Run’ and to finish we had a raffle where the winner won an exciting prize of… an onion! We had a fun and informative few hours at the museum and left knowing more… and also wondering if one of our teachers was actually a spy!

3J Diwali visit by Diya
My mum came into school on Tuesday to talk to my class about the Hindu festival of Diwali. We saw lots of different types of Diyas. These are oil lamps which are sometimes called Diyas (like my name). We spoke about the goddess Laxmi. Then we went into the Dining Hall and made Rangoli patterns. The whole class had a wonderful time!

Under 11s Hockey
Our Hockey team played in their first match of the year on Wednesday against Rossall School and SMH.
For the majority of the team, it was the first time they had played in a competitive match. The girls started fantastically well against an experienced Rossall A team. Highfield managed to hold off the numerous Rossall attacks for the majority of the game, unfortunately a brilliant Rossall strike saw them take the lead with 2 minutes to go: 1-0 to Rossall.
The second match was against SMH A team who were extremely structured and passed the ball around well. Our defenders, Tia, Kavya and Natasha, all made some brilliant tackles alongside some fine saves from our first time goalkeeper, Beth. SMH were the eventual 2-0 winners.
Our third match was against Rossall B team. We started very strongly with some excellent passing through the midfield from Abigail, Isabelle and Olivia to Brooke and finally on to Eva who slotted the ball past the Rossall keeper. Highfield had lots more chances, however, Rossall had a lucky break and scored in the final 10 seconds of the match.
The final match was against SMH B team. Again there was some excellent play from all our girls who managed to keep the opposition out of the circle. We had the majority of the possession, however, again, a lucky break saw SMH score in the dying minutes.
All the girls played really well, but player of the tournament goes to Eva. Mrs Botton

Under 11s Football
Wednesday afternoon saw our friends from Westholme join us for two football fixtures. The games were competitive whilst being conducted in a good-spirited fashion. William produced another fine display in the net and kept the score down for the B team. The A team produced a much better display than in the cup competition last week. Their attacking play was far more fluid. Moreover, defensively, the marking and positioning were slightly improved. This led to the A team running out fairly comfortable winners in the end. There is still much work to do defensively, but I was very pleased that the senior team returned to display such an ambitious style of football. They are a pleasure to watch when they approach the game with this attitude. Mr Turner

Halloween Disco
The PTA are organising a Halloween Disco on the first Friday back after half-term (9th November). Tickets are available from the School Office. This is always a popular event and it will be lovely to see as many children as possible supporting this event and our PTA.

Term Dates
The term dates for 2019-2020 are attached to this newsletter.

Merit Awards
RB: Ahmad RH: Brodie 1D: Scarlett 1W: Raj 2E: Naina
3J: Luca 3M: Joshua 4D: Haaris 4S: The Whole Class 5M: Bomi 6H: Abigail 6P: Ayesha
Monitor of the week: Isabelle

Thought for the Week
Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us. John N Mitchell

I hope you all have a good half-term break and I look forward to seeing you on Monday 5th November.

Yours sincerely

J M Duke
Headmaster