Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's News, Friday 12th of May, 2023
May 12, 2023
12th May 2023
Dear Parents
Year 2 Assembly
Thank you Year 2 for your assembly this morning all about your History topic: Children in Victorian Times. You brought the assembly to life with your superb costumes and acting. You told us about children from the age of 7 who worked in the mines, a girl aged 9 who worked in a mill and what it was like to work in the big hall. I think the most surprising fact we learned was that the children only had 7½ days holiday a year! Thank you, Year 2, for an excellent assembly and thank you to Ms Eccles for organising it.
ISA Dance Competition by Brodie
On Thursday 4th May, some girls in Year 4 took part in the ISA Dance Competition. It was really fun! The competition was at Bowdon Preparatory School and we competed against ten schools. My favourite dance out of all the other teams was the Legally Blonde dance about getting into Harvard. My dance teachers are Miss Alcock and Miss Burns and they are really good at dancing. I loved competing, it was amazing!
ISA Chairperson visits Highfield
On Wednesday afternoon, we were visited by the Independent Schools Association Chair, Philip Souter, who represents 629 schools across the country in our organisation. He has visited over thirty schools in the ISA this year, as Chair, and it is a great honour that he chose to visit us. He was very impressed with his tour of our school, with the work on display, our facilities and the children he met. I would like to thank Mr Souter for his visit and I wish him success in the remainder of his year as the ISA Chairperson.
Coronation of King Charles III
The school had a day of festivities last Friday to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. The day started with a whole school assembly where the children impressed me with their knowledge of the Coronation, discussing the next day’s events and the special items, like the orb and the sceptre, that would be held by the King during the ceremony. The assembly ended with the school singing the National Anthem. I then visited Reception where they were all sitting, wearing their crowns that they had made earlier in the week and eating some of the King’s favourite breakfast food, croissants. The day continued with lots of coronation-themed activities including the creation of a large coronation crown made up of sections from all the classes. A royal lunch was served on royal tablecloths, with all the Junior children waving flags and wearing hats.
After the Coronation, the children wrote letters to their new King, and one is copied below.
Dear King Charles,
I’m so pleased to have seen your Coronation and the special oaths you’ve made. I know you will serve our country like all the monarchs from your royal ancestral heritage. My heart understands the grief you have for your late mother, HM The Queen. She was one of the greatest monarchs in history as you will be too.
Your love for nature gives me hope that you will help preserve our ecosystem. I know this will be another era of Britain’s success.
Lastly, how are you feeling on reaching this status? What are your plans for the future? I hope you and Queen Camilla have a happy time!
Yours sincerely,
Raj
Thank you to Mr Drake and to all the staff for making it a special day for the children.
Year 3 & 5’s Production of Archibald’s War
Last Thursday, our Year 3 and 5 classes came together and took centre stage for the school’s performance of Archibald’s War. Year 3 has been studying the home front in class and it was lovely to see the children reading out extracts, from work they had completed in class, confidently in front of the whole audience. Year 5 commanded the stage with superb acting, beautiful solos and some lovely group singing. The singing from the whole group was a joy to hear and very memorable. A big thank you to our directors, Mrs Jones and Miss Macklam, for giving the children this wonderful opportunity. Aathu in Year 5 writes about his experience below.
Archibald’s War by Aathu
As soon as I stepped foot on to the stage in the sports hall, I hearkened back to all the preparation leading up to this event. I went up with only one idea in mind, be louder. After hearing Mr Drake turn on the wireless effect, I uttered my words as loud as possible and went down the stage. I changed my trousers and grabbed a cap and was now a village boy. As I heard Toby say the word, ‘Well?’ I ran on stage exclaiming the words, ‘Alright Bill?’ I ran off remembering that Mrs Jones said to be cheeky. I ran back on and shouted anything in my mind. Then, as fast as I could, I got changed into my Air Raid Warden suit.
As I waited for the Air Raid Warden scene, I anxiously prepared for the song after that. Then, after I went on, I really listened for Alayna to say, ‘Oh, let’s have a sing song.’ As the song, ‘Cheer Up Granny’ went on, we had to skip and dance. Even though I felt nervous, I really had fun. Despite this being my first ever play, with more than one line, all my anxiety during the show turned to excitement. I can confidently say I can’t wait for our play next year.
Year 5 French Breakfast
One of the highlights of the year for our Year 5 pupils is our French Breakfast. This year, the children made their own croissants with French music playing and the dining room taking on a very French theme. The children were also given prompts to support French conversation during the breakfast and were supported by Mrs Morrice and Mrs Lockwood. The children really enjoyed the experience, practising their French confidently and sampling their amazing croissants. Thank you to Mrs Morrice for organising this very popular event.
Year 3 and 4 Rounders and Cricket
It was lovely to see all the boys in Years 3 and 4 have their first experience of competitive cricket last week. They performed incredibly well with bat and ball against an older opposition, and they certainly demonstrated a lot of promise for the future. I know they will use this experience to continue to work on their technique at school, home and at their local clubs.
Our Years 3 and 4 girls excitedly travelled to Rossall on Wednesday to play in their first ever competitive rounders match. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon and all the girls played some super rounders and really applied all the skills they’d been learning this term. There was some excellent batting on show, together with some superb fielding too. Lots of rounders were scored and the whole team learned something new by playing in a competitive match.
Well done to all Years 3 and 4 girls and boys!
Photographs
Tempest Photography will be at school on Monday 22nd May to take the class and team photographs.
The whole school photograph will be taken on Thursday 25th May.
Reminder
Please could all children have a bottle of named suncream at school from Monday.
Merit Awards 5.5.23
RB: Daniel 1W: Adam A 2E: Liyaana
3D: The Whole Class 4J: Arthur 4M: Joshua 5H, 5M and 6P: The Whole Class
Merit Awards 12.5.23
RB: Kevin 1W: Evie 2E: The Whole Class
3D: Megumi 4J: Haya 4M: Esmail 5H: Penny 5M: Aathushan 6P: Pranav
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
