A leading independent prep school in Somerset, offering excellence in education for 2-13 year olds
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.
And that’s a wrap! Our Year 8s finished their Common Entrance exams on Friday and celebrated by donning their leavers’ hoodies in anticipation of this week’s trip to Cornwall. Exciting times ahead for this brilliant bunch…
It was a pleasure to welcome parents to our whole school ‘Celebration of Work’ before half term, which served as a chance for the children to show off their fantastic work and take parents on a tour the school. One of the highlights was our pop-up ‘Museum of Classics and Culture’ curated by Mrs Palmer, Dr Longley-Cook and Year 7 pupil, Art (pictured). Featuring artwork by pupils in Years 3-6, plus self-directed PRS studies by Years 7 and 8, and paintings and drawings by the Years 6-8 art scholars, it was a must-see exhibition in celebration of pupils’ work in classics, art and PRS this term.
Our recent Perrott Promenade was an absolute triumph! Featuring an array of stunning performances in various locations around school and some mesmerising renditions from our ensembles, orchestra and choirs, it was a truly wondrous event. Hats off to Mr Shortman and his talented team, and very well done to all the pupils, staff and parents involved. Proud to be Perrott!
The cricket season is well underway and on Saturday Years 5-8 enjoyed some fantastic matches with Sandroyd – it was the perfect afternoon! (Pictured are the 2nd XI.) This afternoon, our U8 and U9 teams face Leweston at home and we’re looking forward to some great competition.
Inspired by the extraordinary talent of Leonardo da Vinci and the many and varied inventions found in his famous notebooks (helicopter, hang glider and parachute, to name a few…), Year 2 have been flexing their creative muscles by designing, making and then testing their own flying machines. What fun! Big thanks to Miss Dawson for yet another fantastic hands-on lesson.
We are extremely proud to have been Highly Commended for ‘Most Creative Learning Through Play (Early Years)’ at the Muddy Stilettos Best Schools Awards 2023, and there’s certainly been plenty of creativity, learning and play going on! In Nursery, the children have been using scales to measure weight. Continuing the ‘minibeasts’ theme they weighed ladybirds and used words such as ‘heavy’, ‘light’ and ‘the same’ to describe the weight of these minibeasts. In Reception, the children have been having fun refining their fine motor skills by making some beautiful butterfly cushions! Last Wednesday, the brilliant Nick from Bugfest came to share his knowledge about minibeasts large and small. He showed the children millipedes, African land snails, stick insects and spiders, plus tarantulas and a Goliath bird eating spider! The children learnt that minibeasts have exoskeletons and were able to see Nick hold the insects and magnify them under his special camera. It was exciting to see them enlarged on the screen!
Years 6-8 enjoyed a lively Book Club discussion of Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’ last week, a highly popular choice. Pupils especially loved that the author was always firmly on the side of the children, and that it brought to life every child’s dream of inhabiting a desert island and having adventures messing around in boats with no adults present. It has even inspired the group to make a map of the woods here at Perrott Hill with their own secret names and places! Even more excitingly, almost 100 years after the book’s first publication, we will be welcoming Sophie Neville (the actress and author who played the original Titty from the 1974 ‘Swallows and Amazons’ film and who is now president of the Arthur Ransome Society) to school later this term for a series of workshops and talks for Years 5-8!
