A leading independent prep school in Somerset, offering excellence in education for 2-13 year olds
Years 3-8 had great fun taking part in our second ‘Four Hills Challenge’ last term – a sponsored walk to raise money and awareness for this term’s chosen charity, Marie Curie. Spirits were high as each House negotiated a circular walk taking in local landmarks (and plenty of cows!), all dressed in their House colours. Not to be outdone, Pre-Prep played their part by dressing in yellow and walking around the school boundary. Excellent work, everyone.
Our Young Farmers had great fun picking strawberries at Forde Abbey yesterday in readiness for making this summer’s batch of strawberry jam. The jam was on sale during the last week of term, with all proceeds going to Michael and Clare Morpurgo’s charity, Farms for City Children. The charity enables children from disadvantaged communities to experience the adventure of staying and working on a farm and we are delighted that its CEO, Donna Edmonds, was our guest at Prize Giving earlier this month.
The Perrott spirit was out in force for Sports Day in June, with multiple records broken, some spectacular picnics on the go and a brilliant parents’ tug of war (in the words of one parent, ‘even the rain storm was impressive!’). Many thanks to our Director of Sport, Mr Sheldon, and all our staff for a fantastic event; to our Groundsman Mr Bartlett and his team for all their hard work in the run up; to Mr Yeomans and the catering team for their support; and to our friends at Wells Cathedral School for the hurdles. A very special mention to our Year 8 entrepreneurs and the Friends of Perrott Hill, who between them raised over £1500 for cancer charity AMMF via the sale of tea, coffee, cakes, drinks and more. Finally, a huge round of applause for the individual winners and record breakers – and to this year’s winning House… Blackdowns!
The rain didn’t dampen any spirits for Expedition Day, with Years 3, 4 and 7 heading to Wildwood in Devon, and Years 5 and 6 going to Otterhead Forest School. At Wildwood, pupils got to explore the collection of British wild animals, complete the maze challenge and experience the famous Swamp Walk through the mud. It was great fun! Meanwhile at Otterhead, Years 5 and 6 took part in a range of teambuilding exercises including crossing a steam, navigating a course while blindfolded and using magnets to find buried treasure. Huge thanks to all our staff, pupils and friends at both Wildwood and Otterhead Forest School for a fantastic day!
Very well done to our amazing Pre-Prep children, who took part in Sports Day earlier this month and ran, threw, jumped and navigated obstacles like absolute pros. Special thanks to Mr Sheldon and the games department; Mrs McCullough and the Pre-Prep staff; Mr Bartlett and the grounds team; Mrs Palmer and the Year 8 entrepreneurs who were out raising money for AMMF once again; and, of course, to our brilliant Pre-Prep parents who not only cheered the children on but got well and truly stuck into the parents’ races. It was such fun! Proud to be Perrott.
Very well done to Daisie in Year 6, who came 1st in the javelin at Friday’s South West Athletics Championships at Millfield. Joining her at the nationals in Nuneaton were Reggie, Evie and Luca who came 2nd in the shot, long jump and high jump respectively. Very well done to you all!
Our Pre-Prep children have been very busy for the final few weeks of term, with lots of creativity and learning on the go. Year 2 painted their own interpretations of the ankylosaur, having been inspired by the discovery of the fossilised remains of a newly discovered armoured dinosaur on the Isle of Wight. They have also skilfully used mixed media to create their own ammonite fossil and got to go on a fossil walk with an expert palaeontologist (more on that soon). On a similarly artistic theme, the Nursery children continued their topic of ‘Under the Sea’, and used forks in paint to create their own puffer fish. They also loved being read to by Year 2! Meanwhile, Year 1 learned to tell the time to o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, and the Reception class wrote about Tiddler and his ‘adventures’ under the sea in Julia Donaldson’s book.
Congratulations to Old Perrott Hillian Dougal Glaisher, who recently broke the record for kayaking around Britain after paddling 2,000 miles in 40 days. Dougal, who left Perrott Hill in 2012 and went onto Blundell’s and then the University of Nottingham to read biology, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 19 and has since embarked on a series of adventures to raise money for Action4Diabetes. Well done Dougal; we are all very proud of you! Head to our social media pages for more information and for the link to donate.
Our recent Year 6 debate on whether or not Roald Dahl’s books should be reworded was a hotly contested affair with impassioned speeches from both sides and some thoughtful questioning from the floor. Very well done to our proposers Daisie, Evie and Albert whose motion that the author’s books should not be tampered with was carried by a comprehensive margin despite fine speeches from their opponents, Luca, Saba and Milly. Our thanks go to our Lady Chairman, Mia, and her trusty timekeepers, William and Alvin, who worked valiantly to keep proceedings on track.
The smiles were out in force for last week’s whole school photograph! Many thanks to Jon and the team at David Wiltshire Photography for a fantastic morning. For more behind-the-scenes photographs, please head to our Facebook page @perrotthillschool.
