Friday Headlines

19 October 2017

We began this week of unseasonal weather with a Harvest assembly. A number of girls helped by taking part in a harvest lucky dip and although everyone would have preferred the strawberries to the cabbage or beetroot we recognised how lucky we are to have plenty to eat and also a wide variety of foods to choose from. The generous donation of food items brought in by girls from Nursery to Year 6 will certainly help those in crisis.

We also heard the story of Frank and the Pea Stalks. Frank, a farmer in Malawi, has struggled to feed his family as drought and floods, brought about by climate change, have damaged his crops. Thanks to special peas donated by a charity Frank’s crops now grow despite the weather and his family can rely on having enough to eat. During the assembly we weighed the largest of our allotment pumpkins and were surprised that it was not the heaviest. Well done to Trisha for estimating so accurately.

Our celebrations also included the success of girls in a variety of activities. We congratulated Rebecca, one of our Music Prefects on her success in the Birmingham Music festival, Aurelia on her Gymnastics award and our Year 1 and 2 Well Done certificate winners. Well done also to the Year 6 Netball Squad who won their match against Our Lady of Fatima School 13 – 5.

This week several classes enjoyed activities to further extend their classroom studies. Year 4 made a visit to St George’s Church as part of their RE topic on Christianity. The girls looked closely at the internal features of the Church. They identified the nave, chancel, pews, choir stalls, lectern, pulpit and altar then answered questions and sketched detailed pictures.

Year 2 finally managed to complete their workshop with the fire brigade on the third attempt. The firemen had been called away to emergencies on the two previous visits. Girls extended their work on people who help us and also heard how fires are tackled today compared with methods used at the time of the fire of London which they have been studying in History.

In Westbourne the girls in Nursery, Kindergarten and Reception enjoyed a Bhangra Tots workshop of stories and dance. Girls in Reception also showed their teamwork skills as they worked together using Lego bricks.

After the strange coloured daylight on Monday the Prep School had another colourful experience on Wednesday as it was Pink Day. The girls and staff were ‘in the pink’ in support of Breast Cancer Care and we are delighted to have raised £460 in donations.

Our last assembly of the half term featured one of our two talented Music Prefects. Derwent mesmerised us all with her harp playing which was greeted with enthusiastic applause. We all enjoyed the performance on this interesting instrument. After such a busy time supporting a variety of charities we also awarded the Care Bears to 3L and 1C for their contributions to silver bag each week.

We hope that girls and parents enjoy the half term break and we look forward to seeing everyone back at school on October 30. The school photographer will be in school on November 1 to take individual pictures and we hope to see many families at the EHSPA Firework event on November 4.

Mrs Sally Hartley
Head of Preparatory School