ST NICHOLAS’ NEWSLETTERfluencycontent2-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/... · 2017-09-13 · ST NICHOLAS’ NEWSLETTER SUMMER TERM 2017 VOLUME 56 EXPLORING ICELAND. . .

ST NICHOLAS’ NEWSLETTERSUMMER TERM 2017

VOLUME 56

EXPLORING ICELAND. . .Iceland was the destination for thirty senior students and three members of staff this Easter. After flying into Reykjavik, they began their incredible six-day exploration of Iceland. The trip focused on the natural landscape and each day brought another spectacularly different environment. The weather was very varied: spectacular snow storms, torrential rain and bright sunshine, and all accompanied by a very strong wind! The party visited Thingvellir National Park, where the Eurasian and North American Plates are pulling apart, to see the rifting, and then made their way to the awesome Gullfoss waterfall and the natural geysers. One of the many highlights was walking behind the Seljalandsfoss waterfall and getting thoroughly soaked by the spray.

At Fontana Spa, the students luxuriated in the steaming water pools and steam rooms. Another memorable sight was the icebergs floating in Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon and also washed up on the black sand beach. Travelling along the flat coastal plain on the south of the island, the scenery was spectacular with the mountains, volcanoes and glaciers on the left and the stark black sand plains leading to the sea on the right.

The party saw the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, and learnt from the family on the farm how they had survived the eruption. Their guide also told them about the traditional trolls and elves, and explained how the incredible features at Gunnuvher are attributed to the wrath of Gunna whose cooking pot was confiscated and so she blasts steam out of the ground at a ferocious rate!

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the trip was the glacier walk. Kitted out with crampons, harnesses and ice axes before splitting into groups with their guides, the party walked up the Sólheimajökull glacier.

The new shelter, replacing the old yew tree, is now up and ready for use. Thank you to the PTA and all our parents who have contributed so generously, through supporting many events, to this project.

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARENTS!

Years 9, 10 and 11 enjoyed workshops on Study Skills from the Positively MAD team. They were delivered in a lively, fast-paced, highly interactive, high-energy way that really inspired the students.

Year 9 students learned how to develop Super Speed Study Skills. The presenter discussed a range of approaches to help develop efficient learning methods and encourage an ‘I can’ attitude.

Meanwhile, students in Years 10 and 11 learned about developing self-motivation and goal-setting skills. It encouraged them to take personal responsibility for their futures.

ROTARY YOUNG CHEFCOMPETITION POSITIVELY MAD: STUDY SKILLSMiranda Watson has won the Regional Final and is now going on to compete in the National Final on May 20th at Lincoln College. We wish Miranda the very best of luck.

Year 10 students visited the Globe Theatre where they saw an entertaining version of Shakespeare’s comedy “The Taming of the Shrew”.

The morning began with a guided tour of the replica Globe Theatre and then the students took part in an hour-long ‘Lively Action’ workshop, led by the play’s director Jacqueline Defferary. It provided a valuable insight into Shakespeare’s language, the play’s main characters and themes, as well as giving the girls the opportunity to perform themselves. In the afternoon, the students saw a full-scale, fast-paced, ninety-minute performance of “The Taming of the Shrew”. The play, which deals with the issues of feminism, gender identity, power and equality, is still very relevant for teenagers today.

Rotary Young Chef Miranda is pictured receiving her certificate and trophy.

Year 10 at the Globe Theatre

Students participating in the Positively MAD workshop

“THE TAMING OF THE SHREW”

ST NICHOLAS’ SCHOOL NEWSLETTER - SUMMER 2017

MIDSUMMER.DRE@MShakespeare’s famous comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” formed the basis of St Nicholas’ School’s annual senior production. However, did the Lovers really get lost in the woods because of the mischievous fairies, or was it simply because they lost their phone signal and could not ‘Sat Nav’ their way out? And, as for the disastrous Mechanicals, they seemed to be having their own problems getting ready for

“Athens has got Talent” at the Palace.“With around sixty girls involved in all aspects of the production, this modern twist on a much-loved tale, combining both live and recorded media, proved to be an innovative and exciting evening of

entertainment ,” said Director and Head of Drama, Josie Downer.

DAVID HOCKNEY RETROSPECTIVE

YEAR 9 VISIT THE JURASSIC COAST

Year 8 pupils visited Tate Britain to see David Hockney’s acclaimed retrospective exhibition. It features an extensive selection of his most famous works and celebrates his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades.

The pupils have been studying his work in their art lessons. They are in the process of producing a painting of the school environment and have studied his work based on Woldgate Woods. The girls will be producing their own photomontages in response to Hockney’s work, as well as writing poems inspired by his paintings in their English lessons.

Year 9 enjoyed a day at the spectacularJurassic Coastline in Dorset, investigating how the processes of erosion have shaped the coast. Despite the rain, the girls drew sketches of Durdle Door showing how the arch had formed. After lunch, as the weather improved, they walked along the coastline to Lulworth Cove and saw Stair Hole and the fantastic view of the cove itself. The girls carried out a short tourism investigation in the village, rating services and the quality of the environment.

Year 11 GCSE drama performance of “Cupid Rampant” by Percy Corry, a one act comedy from 1935.

Year 9 geography trip to Dorset


ROTARY SUCCESS Congratulations to Year 9 pupils Bethan Gwynne, who was runner-up, and Charlotte Hutchinson, who was third, in the local heat of the Fleet Rotary Young Writers’ Competition. Bethan’s entry has been put forward to the District round which will be judged in April.

Congratulations to Laila Virji (11N), Catherine Harris (8N) and Nina Carter (8N) who were runners-up in their age groups in the Fleet Rotary Young Photographer Competition. Ella Barnes, Ella Goldman, Alice Cleak and Georgia Oakenfull were also awarded certificates of merit. Their work has been on display in the Hart Centre, Fleet.

The Senior Chamber Choir took part in the Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival in March. The Choir performed to a packed hall and sang to a very high standard, receiving some excellent feedback from the adjudicator. They were awarded a mark of 93%, which was the highest in the ensemble section, making them the winners of the Hogan Music Award.

BASINGSTOKE MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL

SISTER ACT

Year 11 students saw ‘Sister Act’ at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. They thoroughly enjoyed the new production of the Broadway and West End

smash hit musical, directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood.

Congratulations to junior pupils Carly Emmerson and Evie Coles who took part in the exhibition at the Farnham Maltings. There were over 100 entries. Carly reached the last five in the Drawing category and Evie reached the last five in the Painting category. Their pieces were framed and displayed in the Maltings throughout March and both girls were presented with certificates.

Six pupils from Year 6 visited Walsh Junior School, in Ash, to take part in their annual building challenge. The girls had to work very hard as team to reconstruct a model building out of coloured wooden blocks. They had to devise a budget as well as remember what the original design was like.

A representative from Willmott Dixon construction gave an interesting talk about life in the construction industry. The St Nicholas’ team won the challenge. The girls received a certificate and pencil case each.

Year 2 pupils recently enjoyed a Bugs Day, to show them what life is like in Year 3. The day began in the Drama Studio participating in various theatre games, before moving into the Pritchard Hall where they performed ‘Centipede’ poetry in groups.

Afterwards, the children enjoyed a session of PE, where they played a selection of exciting team ‘Bug’ games. Then, they designed ‘Bug’ art, making beautiful, colourful collage butterflies.

In the afternoon, the pupils learned some computer coding skills and enjoyed programming a ‘virtual bee’ to collect nectar and make honey. They then tested their spelling skills with an online spelling bee!

The children enjoyed a delicious ‘bee’ cake and the day concluded with them all singing a rousing rendition of “The Ugly Bug Ball”.

The Infant and Junior Departments celebrated World Book Day, the biggest annual festival of reading, by dressing up as their favourite book characters. After a special assembly, there was a parade of costumes for the juniors in the school hall, with characters ranging from Alice in Wonderland and Paddington to Hermione Grainger and Harry Potter. Throughout the day, each class enjoyed various book-based activities.

FARNHAM MALTINGS YOUNG ARTISTS EXHIBITION

BUILDING CHALLENGE

BUGS DAY

YEAR 6 GEOGRAPHY FIELDTRIP

WORLD BOOK DAY

RELIGIOUS STUDIES WORKSHOP ON WORLD BOOK DAY


Year 6 travelled to a sunny but slightly blustery King’s Ridge, in Frensham, for their geography field trip. The girls made field sketches of the landscape. They identified the different vegetation and used clinometers which they had made themselves to measure the angles of slopes.

Year 6 pupils took part in a workshop with Reverend Tara Hellings as part of their topic on Christian Church Buildings. The girls were fascinated by the different objects from a variety of churches which Reverend Hellings showed to them. There were six work stations for the girls to examine; they had to work out a scale of formality for six churches, ranging from Quaker to Orthodox.

Year 9 geography trip to Dorset

Year 6 pupils and the Reverend Tara Hellings

After weeks of creating artwork and stories to be buried in a time capsule in the grounds of Keble Court retirement development, the day finally arrived for the pupils to put their work into the ground.

They have been writing stories and creating artwork about what they think life will be like in fifty years’ time. The pieces will be important historic documents when they are read in 2067. The time capsule was donated by the construction company building Keble Court.

The Junior Music Evening was a very enjoyable event. The concert began with the Junior Orchestra performing Dance of the Fairies by Purcell, followed by an energetic interpretation of Can-Can by Offenbach. The Year 5 and 6 Chamber Orchestra then performed an arrangement of the Largo from Vivaldi’s Winter concerto, before finishing with the traditional Scottish reel The Flowers of Edinburgh.

The Guitar Ensemble, led by Virginia Pearson, played an arrangement of Cuckoo, a traditional Swiss piece and the Junior Chamber Choir, directed by Ben Pont, sang the traditional sea shanty A-Roving followed by Where is Love? from the musical Oliver.

The solo singers and instrumentalists performed a wide range of music from show songs to concert pieces and were selected from pupils in Year Six.

The concert ended with all pupils in the junior school singing a medley of songs from The Lion King by Elton John.

JUNIOR MUSIC EVENING

PUPILS BURY TIME CAPSULE


Year 3 pupils recently visited Stonehenge as part of their History studies. As well as visiting the iconic stone circle and walking around the stones, they participated in a number of fascinating workshops in the Education Centre.

The girls dressed up as Bronze Age people and became archaeologists looking at artefacts. Stonehenge was rebuilt on a miniature scale and they were challenged to work out how the bluestones were moved there all the way from the Preseli Hills in Wales. Year 3 pupils exploring Stonehenge

YEAR 3 STEP BACK IN TIME

It has been another busy term for the children and they have enjoyed a number of activities. On World Book Day, the Infant Department enjoyed listening to the story of Paddington Bear, read by Fleet actor Henry Douthwaite and accompanied by ‘Bear Humbug’. Last year, Mr Douthwaite started a successful Facebook campaign to raise money for the Paddington Bear statue designed by Ant and Dec. Bear Humbug was one of the fiftyspecially-designed statues dotted around London to celebrate the Paddington movie launch.


News from Branksomewood

GODALMING FESTIVAL WINNERS

Bear Humbug joins in the celebrations on World Book Day

38 certificates were awarded to 22 junior girls at the festival. Congratulations, girls!

RAINFOREST TASTER DAYThe children starting Reception in September 2017 recently enjoyed a Rainforest Taster Day. The girls and boys took part in a variety of activities ranging from butterfly-making to rainforest counting.

The children were joined by their parents at the end of the day for a splendid tea party.

The children enjoy eating their lovely cake on Rainforest Taster Day!

Year 1 children learn about healthy eating

The Easter Egg Hunt was organized by the PTA. The children also had a competition to name the Easter Bunny and to guess the number of

eggs in the jar.


SPORTING SUCCESS

FESTIVAL OF NETBALL

The Festival of Netball The Year 8 netball team finished fourth in the Aldershot and District tournament

In March, St Nicholas’ hosted a Festival of Netball. Year 5 teams from local junior schools joined in an afternoon of netball-based games followed by a tournament.

The St Nicholas’ team were runners-up in the tournament; they just missed out on winning by two goals! Freya Rafferty was selected as Girl of the Game. In the shooting competition the St Nicholas’ winner was Tamsin Wheeler.

Lydia Carter in Year 9 ran for the school in the District Championships in November. Following this, she was selected to run for the District in the county championships where she did very well and was selected to run for Hampshire.

In March, Lydia ran in the English Schools Cross Country championships, which is an amazing achievement. Over 350 of the best runners in the country from 45 different counties took part and Lydia finished 93rd. She was the fifth runner back for Hampshire, making her the fifth best runner in the county and one of the top 100 Year 9 runners in England!

Teams from Years 7 and 8 recently took part in the Aldershot and District Cross Country Championships. The Year 7 team ran very well and came fifth out of ten schools. Special congratulations go to: Katie Prickett, Evie Coles, Leah Howe, Lucy Brincat, Charlotte Wareing and Maya Farmer.

The Year 8 team ran very well and finished in second place. Congratulations to: Daisy Owen, Isabel Cann, Brooklyn Read, Charlotte Hardman, Jessica Phillips and Evie Home. Daisy and Isabel have been selected to run for the District in the U14 County Championships.

Teams from Years 5 and 6 recently took part in a junior schools’ cross country event. Special congratulations go to those girls who have been selected to run for the District in the U12 Girls Cross Country Championships. Rebecca Gascoyne ran exceptionally well. She has also been selected to run for the District because she came third out of over 60 runners!

The Festival of Running took place at Frogmore School. This is a Year 5 and 6 cross country event for all local junior schools. There is a Fun Run and a Championship Run which is a team event.

Gabby and Tegan riding to success

Congratulations to Gabrielle Davies and Tegan Ball who represented the School at the NSEA County Dressage Qualifier in Moreton, Dorset, in February. Gabrielle came fourth in her P12 test, out of the Hampshire riders, which was an amazing achievement for her first dressage test. Tegan came second in Hampshire for her P12 test (and seventh overall) and second in her N24 test.

Representatives from the Hope Foundation came to talk to Year 4 about the charity’s work. Year 4 held a cake sale which raised £118 for the charity.

We raised the fantastic sum of £486 for Comic Relief.

CHARITIES

St Nicholas’ School, Redfields House, Redfields Lane, Church Crookham, Hampshire, GU52 0RFTel. 01252 850121


The Year 8 cross country team

The Year 5 Football Team

Rosalind Torr and Rebecca Gascoyne achieved success in the Festival of Running. Rebecca finished third individually in the Championship Run and Rosalind finished third in the Fun Run.

ST NICK’S YOUNG EQUESTRIANS

SPORTING SUCCESS

ST NICHOLAS’ NEWSLETTERfluencycontent2-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/... · 2017-09-13 · ST NICHOLAS’ NEWSLETTER SUMMER TERM 2017 VOLUME 56 EXPLORING ICELAND. . .

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