Congratulations to our two doubles pairs who played at the Schools U8 Tennis Tournament in Sevenoaks. They competed against children from over ten schools, and all played extremely well, with the boys winning their tournament, and the girls winning Silver. It was a great experience for them all and wonderful to see them put their training into practice.
This week HG welcomed 350 boys and girls from a dozen local schools for our annual HG Trophy Cross-Country event which involves six races for children from Years 2, 3 and 4. The HG team included some boys and girls from Year 1 and performed very well.
The U8 Girls and U9 Boys teams were victorious in the team competitions whilst the U7 Girls and U8 Boys were both third. Individually there were strong performances across the board, with two golds, two silvers and a fourth place, and a further seven top ten finishes.
Overall, Team HG occupied 20% of all the top 10 places across the six races as well as winning four medals and two team titles – an excellent performance.
The football season has started for our girls and they are already showing great promise. It’s wonderful to see them all enjoying football so much, and playing with such boundless levels of enthusiasm and determination.
The theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health week was ‘Let’s Connect’ and the week was full of activities designed to enable children to do just that. The ‘Nurture Hub’, set up in the Dining Hall was an open invitation for all pupils to join together and play games and enjoy other activities together in a relaxed setting. The children also came together for special hot chocolate breaks.
The Year 6 pupils had a very special excursion to the Baptist Church where they met with members of their congregation, exchanged anecdotes and compared experiences of growing up in 2020s Britain versus the 1940s and 1950s.
On the last day of term each year group buddied up with another to join together for a fun activity and it was really heartening to see the different age groups taking such genuine delight in each other’s company. A particular highlight was watching the Year 4s strut their dance moves with the Nursery children – it was impossible to tell who was enjoying it the most!
The week culminated with a very successful the Charity Fair. It was held in aid of the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, a charity dedicated to fighting all childhood liver diseases. A whole school assembly gave the children the background to the CLDF and they were all very eager to support it. Thank you to Mrs Baker for taking the time to come in, share her family’s experience and provide such an informative talk. The Prep School children put a great deal of thought into the planning of their stalls and they took it in turns to support each other throughout the afternoon, taking particular care of the Pre-Prep children as they arrived in a state of great excitement, very eager to sample all of the fun activities on offer. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the Charity Fair such a success, through the support of the children’s efforts and providing donations. We raised a wonderful £1177 (and counting!)
In keeping with the Children’s Mental Health Week theme of ‘Let’s Connect’, pupils from Years 4 and 6 sat down together this morning for a petit déjeuner français. The helpings of croissants, jambon and fromage helped to enhance some essential French vocabulary and they celebrated the joy of the French language and its food through songs and games.
The Forest School Site is constantly evolving and has undergone some changes this term. Most excitingly we now have a parachute canopy as our forest school base which was kindly erected with support of our wonderful HGA. The canopy was donated by Year 8 leavers with a hope that ‘you enjoy your time under it!’ The children are certainly doing just that.
Key Stage 1 have learnt to use a storm shelter, loppers and secateurs as well as to grade kindling for the fire. Other activities like adding to the willow fence, tree climbing, digging, den and fairy garden construction are all child led. Year 2 had a particularly cold day but the fire and hot chocolate, s’mores and popcorn helped to make it ‘the best forest school day ever!’ Year 1 also used the storm shelter, loppers and their own child led activities. As the firewood had been restocked they were also able to enjoy hot chocolate and s’mores at the end of the day. Early Years spent an afternoon together exploring the newly developed site and, with help from adults, climbed the ash tree while Mrs Fordham supported individual children to use a bow saw to cut log slices. They too had a memorable time in the woods.
The Year 4 French topic this half-term is food and drink. So far, the pupils have practised the words for different snacks and beverages and learnt how to say if they like/dislike/love or hate something. Today, they focused on items eaten at breakfast time, singing a song about them and then carried out ‘Un Sondage’ or a survey on their classmates, asking them in French what they like to eat and drink. All of this is in preparation for a French breakfast next week where they will get to practise their language skills whilst enjoying some delicious food, alongside Year 6. The children are already very excited! Watch this space…
Pupils from Years 5-7 were treated to an enthralling talk from author Eve Wersocki Morris, who shared her secrets and tips for powerful storytelling. Eve revealed how her dyslexia, which led her to being described as “the worst speller in the class” made her even more determined to realise her dream of becoming an author. Her resilience and determination as well as her passion for creative writing were truly inspirational.
