A King is Born

The Pre-Prep sang, danced and dazzled their way through their nativity, ‘A King is Born’. The Prep School children were a very enthusiastic and appreciative audience for their first performance, and this is what some of them made of it:

There were some really cute, funky songs like ‘It’s a squash, it’s a squeeze’ and ‘It’s Christmas Eve’ and much more. My favourite part of the play was when all the sheep did their ‘baaaa’ because I loved their adorable voices as it was just so cute! The best costumes in my opinion were the three wise men because the gems just stood out so much. It was extremely funny and one of the best nativities I’ve ever seen!

Sylvie, 4H

It was really funny. It had lots of different characters and I really enjoyed it. I loved how they changed all the scenes, how clear the story was and how there was a story inside a story. There are some things that really stood out to me. One was Shilo and how clear his voice was, I also liked it when all the sheep baa’d, and how the Angel Gabriel stopped flapped all the way there and back. I loved how the set was painted with the city and the stars. The best costume was the sheep but all over it was amazing. I give it five stars!

Charlotte, 4H

Faraday Challenge Day

We sent two teams to the Faraday Challenge Day, which pushes pupils to use their STEM knowledge, skills and ingenuity in a real-world setting. The Institute of Engineering sets a challenge to meet the needs of an everyday situation and the pupils are judged on their ability to design, cost and build a prototype model that fits the brief. Communication skills are also tested as the teams have to present and talk through their design, and face questioning by the judge!

Our teams of Year 8 pupils rose to the challenge brilliantly, coming first and second in the area heat on Tuesday 28th November. The score achieved by HG Team 1 means that they currently sit in first place across the entire country! It looks likely that their score will sees them finishing in the top five once all the heats are completed, which would allow them to progress to the finals. Watch this space!

Congratulations to both teams.

A Time for Giving

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the tremendous response to the Tunbridge Wells Mayor’s Toy appeal. In yesterday’s special assembly we welcomed the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, Councillor Hugh Patterson and Trevor Crawford, the organiser of the appeal. The Mayor was delighted the amount of donations. He thanked everyone for their generosity and stressed how important it is to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. The toys will be distributed to local families of children in crisis, and will bring a smile to many faces this Christmas. For more information on the appeal, please visit https://www.twmta.co.uk/

The assembly was a celebration of giving which also featured a beautiful performance from the choristers, and the Pre-Prep delighted everyone with two songs from their Nativity.

Members of the School Council gathered up the gifts after the assembly and carefully packed them into bags to be transported to Tunbridge Wells.

This is a cause that we support every year, and every year we are overwhelmed by the generosity of our families. Thank you again to everyone who contributed.

Bringing Social Action into the Classroom

“Social action has a place beyond extracurricular activities and fundraising. It can exist in the classroom too.”

Fundraising and social action has always been an important part of what we do at Hilden Grange and recently we’ve been giving a lot of thought to how we can embed it across the curriculum . In this article, Mrs Tait gives an insight into how we choose the causes that we support and how we ensure that the children are able to engage with these in a meaningful way.

How we brought social action into the classr oom

At the Sponsored Walk in aid of the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation children completed a task about the organs of the human body.

Junior Soloists Concert

Tuesday’s Junior Soloists Concert was a lovely chance for our musicians from Years 3 to 5 to perform to family and friends. As an added bonus, children from the Nursery and Year 1 were invited to the afternoon rehearsal. Our young audience was very excited to collect their tickets, take their seats and enjoy the music. It was the perfect way to introduce them to the Prep School music and may have inspired a future flautist, pianist or cellist or two!

We look forward to inviting other Pre-Prep classes to concerts in the future.

100% Success in Kent Test

Congratulations to our 34 Year 6 Kent Test candidates. We’re delighted to report that they all passed, which is a great testament to their hard work and dedication.

Nicholas McCarthy

As part of Wellbeing Week, we welcomed a very special and hugely inspirational guest to the school on Tuesday. Nicholas McCarthy is a one-handed pianist who started playing at the age of 14, inspired by his friend playing in assembly.

As he played in the Gracey Hall to an enraptured audience, the banner on the wall proclaiming ‘Inspire a Generation’ was particularly apt. Nicholas shared his journey to success, describing how his ability was constantly underestimated, but how through sheer determination and talent he realised his dream of pursuing a career as a professional musician. He recalled receiving a call from Chris Martin, who invited him to join Coldplay at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic games. The biggest audience of his career, he gave a rendition of the Paralympic anthem in front of an audience of 86,000 people and half a billion worldwide viewers.

It was a truly inspirational evening and the message of never giving up and pursuing dreams was loud and clear!

Empathy Action

Year 7 had the chance to experience a refugee simulation activity run by the charity Empathy Action. They enacted the part of a family forced from their home in a war-torn country, confronting the sorts of impossible and heartbreaking decisions that refugees would face.

Afterwards the pupils reflected on their experience and this is what they had to say:

“The experience was eye-opening as even though we knew it was a simulation, your emotions were still quite real.”

“I felt amazed at the sacrifices [refugees] make to escape from the war in their country”

“It was unbelievable to think that the smugglers basically had our lives in their hands.”

“I felt frightened at the start because there were soldiers coming into our home and we had to run. I felt sorry for the family losing their home.”

“What struck me was that people go through this every day, and people lose their family every day to seek a better life.”

“I realised that lots of people in the world are going through this as a real situation.”

“Some of the choices were very brutal.”

“I could picture what it was like in real life to lose somebody.”

“When I was on my own I was really scared that I would never see everyone again.”