Last Friday saw our annual House Poetry Recitations and, from the Year 4 children opening the show with French poem ‘J’aime Papa J’aime Maman’ to the incredible house and individual performances from Pre-Prep all the way up to Year 8, we didn’t want to it end. Very well done to all the winners and to Blackdowns, who were victorious with their excellent rendition of ‘Goldilocks’ by Roald Dahl. The biggest thanks to our judges from Blundell’s and to our Head of English and brilliant house staff for their encouragement and inspiration.
For the first time in recent Perrott Hill history, last week’s Year 7 debate was too close to call! Pupils were contesting the motion, ‘This house believes that break time is more important than lesson time,’ with some well-researched and thought-provoking arguments put forward by both sides. Very well done to all the children involved (including chair, Nia, and timekeeper, Pelayo, who are not pictured).
Yet more scholarship news this week… Many congratulations to Ed, who has been awarded an Academic Exhibition and Ted, who has been awarded an Art Scholarship, both to Sherborne School. Very well done, boys. This takes the number of scholarships this year to an incredible 24 awards (across 16 pupils), out of a year group of 26. In the words of the Tatler Schools Guide, ‘sterling stuff for a smallish school.’ Proud to be Perrott!
We were blown away by the incredible Year 6 production of Goodnight Mister Tom last week. As well as some stand-out performances on the stage, the musical accompaniment was in the form of a band made up entirely of Year 6 pupils – impressive! We loved the beautiful rendition of Grade 5 song, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. If that wasn’t enough, the play was scripted by Year 6s as part of a cross-curricular project with history and English. Huge thanks to the masterminds behind it all: Director, Mrs Byrne, and Musical Director, Mr Shortman, along with all the staff involved. The full album of photographs can be found on our Facebook page.
Our Nursery children have been enjoying some cross-curricular English, maths and science this term. Following a discussion about classic folktale The Gingerbread Man and how long it might take to bake their own gingerbread man, the children looked at time – and had a ‘race’ involving four different egg timers. Finally, they did their daily finger time activities using a stopwatch. Some brilliant and fun learning going on! Thanks, Miss Becky and Miss Sarah.
Well done to our U8s who took part in the Millfield Football Tournament this weekend. The boys had a brilliant afternoon of football and played their socks off. Many thanks to our friends at Millfield and Port Regis for some great matches.
Many thanks to Mr Salmon and Mr Vandvik from Canford for an informative visit this week. They had a tour of the school, ran a Q&A session with our Year 8 pupils about the transition to senior school and enjoyed lunch with selected pupils in Years 6 and 7. We look forward to seeing you both again soon.
Congratulations to the Perrott Hill Show Jumping team who were victorious at the Royal Windsor Horse Show Qualifier last weekend and have booked their places to compete at the prestigious event in Windsor in May. In the individual competition, Anouska and Lola came 1st and 2nd respectively. What impressive achievements – we are very proud of you all!
Congratulations to Year 7 pupil Alistair, whose short story ‘Stranded on Mars’ was Highly Commended at the St Mary’s Shaftesbury Born to Write competition this week. “I was staggered by the quality, the standard of writing and the pupils’ willingness to push their imagination,” said BBC journalist and Wellcome Book Prize judge, Razia Iqbal, who presented the prizes. She went on to offer this fantastic piece of advice: “If you have things in your head that you’re not reading, then you’re born to write.” Inspiring words and Alistair is pictured here with Razia and St Mary’s Headmistress, Maria Young. Thank you to you both for a memorable and motivating event.
To kick off our World Book Day celebrations yesterday, we held a special assembly to announce the winners of our creative writing competition. From Year 3 pupil Horatio’s fantastic use of imagery to build the tension in My Scary Journey (‘the thorns looked like fingernails that were going to scratch me,’ he wrote) all the way up to Year 8 pupil Ellie’s unexpected twist in The Snatchers, there was a fantastic display of creativity and imagination throughout. Very well done to the winners and a big thanks to our Head of English, Mrs Lonergan, and all our English teachers for encouraging and inspiring our pupils every day. For more World Book Day photographs, please follow us on social media – we are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
