A leading independent prep school in Somerset, offering excellence in education for 3-13 year olds
We are excited to announce our Summer Term Open Morning dates! We will be holding two Virtual Open Mornings on Friday 7th and Friday 14th May and an Open Morning at school, in accordance with all government guidelines, on Friday 21st May. Please do get in touch if you’d like to explore our multi-award-winning school – or pass on to any interested friends and families you know. For further info and booking, please email Camilla on admissions@perrotthill.com.
Our Pre-Prep ballet dancers are back in action and it’s gallops a-go-go in the Grundy Hall! EYFS children are exercising skips and first and second position along with curtsies/bows, relevé, plié, sauté and échappé, while Years 1 and 2 are working on retiré, balancer and pas de chat. Meanwhile Year 3 (not pictured) are practising battement, travelling jeté and port de bras, as well as exploring a short choreography with a piece of music chosen for their favourite sounding instrument. Many thanks to the wonderful Dr Berkeley for her energy and inspiration!
Years 6-8 turned out in force for last week’s Book Club, where they shared their thoughts on Philip Pullman’s ‘Northern Lights’. An animated discussion on the central themes of love, betrayal, religion and science ensued and pupils were keen to give their opinion on the recent BBC adaptation, too. The star of the show was the Book Club’s mastermind, Mrs Byrne, who wore a polar bear jumper in honour of Iorek Byrnison! We’re looking forward to the Year 3-5 Book Club this week where the topic of discussion will be Ross Montgomery’s ‘The Midnight Guardians.’
We are delighted to share some more scholarship news. Congratulations to Harry, who has been awarded an All Rounder (Thompson) Scholarship to Radley, to Erica, who has been awarded an Academic Scholarship to King’s Bruton alongside her Music Exhibition, and to George, who has been awarded a Sport Exhibition to King’s College, Taunton. Very well done to you all.
Very well done to Harry (Year 6) and Jessica (Year 4), who were recently named the winners of a short story competition to raise money and awareness for the Forde Abbey Riding for the Disabled Carriage Riding Group. The competition was organised by 10 year-old Erin, a pupil at Combe St Nicholas Primary School whose aunt attends the group and benefits enormously from it. With the help of her mum, Maxine, Erin invited a number of schools to take part and the competition was judged by Victoria Seaman from Somerset Libraries and Annette Bartlett, a local Independent Usborne Organiser, who donated five book prizes. Well done to runners up Lucas, Scarlett, Horatio, Arthur and Caspian (Year 5/6) and James, Rose, William and Arabella (Year 4), to Chloe from Manor Court Primary School who was also named a winner, and to Erin, who raised £450 for this fantastic and deserving group.
We expected the motion of last Friday’s Year 7 Debate on Teams to be a hot potato and it certainly did not disappoint! The question of whether or not violent video games should be banned was hotly contested and despite persuasive arguments from proposers Eleanor, Harry and Sophie our Chairman, Ollie, declared Magnus, Barnaby and Bluebell the winners as the motion was defeated by 10 votes to 37. Many congratulations to all who took part and to Mrs Byrne who helped to prepare them so thoroughly. We look forward to a return to live debating next term with Year 6 and 7 debates in the offing.
The Week’s Independent Schools Guide is out today and we are delighted to feature not once but twice. Our Head of English, Mrs Byrne, was invited to share some essential reading for prep children in the Joy of Books feature on page 35 (she has recommended the book ‘Lampie’ by Annet Schaap) and we are also listed as a contender for ‘Great Country Prep’ in the annual ‘best of the best preps’ feature on p45. Proud to be Perrott! The issue is out now and is modelled here by Year 5 pupil, George. George has been writing his own books over lockdown and will be continuing to craft them in next week’s Creative Writing Club.
World Book Day at Perrott Hill! From Mr McCullough as James Bond in The World is not a Nerf (see what he did there…) to Mr Silk as Farmer Boggis with a plethora of Fantastic Mr Foxes to seek out, pupils and staff had great fun celebrating all things books this week. Well done to our senior pupils who have been taking photographs of themselves reading in far-flung locations and to those who have designed their own costumes and posters on this year’s theme, Heroes and Villains.
Our Reception class were excited and proud to show off their fantastic work to celebrate Chinese New Year last week, while Year 1 have been wowing Mr Edgar with their 3D polar bears. Meanwhile, our Nursery children have been measuring different items and printing welly footprints on paper this morning. We can’t wait to have the whole gang back together soon; the countdown is on!
Pupils gathered around their instruments at home last night for another brilliant informal concert on Teams. From Xanthe on the piano to Alice on the cello (and with trumpets, flutes, guitars and singing in between), this week’s Pupils’ Party Pieces was another fine celebration of music making at Perrott Hill. One particularly special arrangement was ‘Forest’ by siblings Lily in Year 7 and Luca in Year 4, which formed part of a ’16 squares’ art project by Lily. Luca then responded to the visuals by improvising his own musical arrangement at the end. Both Mrs Palmer and Mr Shortman – and all the pupils attending last night – were mightily impressed. Very well done to you both and to all the pupils who took part last night.
