This week the Year 8 Art and DT Scholarship pupils had the opportunity to learn from guest textile artist Liz Robertson. Liz guided the scholars over two workshops, teaching them textile 3D shaping techniques which they can use in their scholarship portfolios and interviews. All of the designs were based on organic forms, and the children had a go at steaming organza fabric around objects to create 3D forms. Using acrylic paints and textile mediums, the organic shapes were painted and sewn onto a backing material to add strength. Pieces were themed around scenes of running water, waterfalls, jellyfish, coral, sea creatures and woodland floors. The Year 8s worked really well, enjoyed the workshops and were enthused to experiment more with the textile methods taught by Liz.

Recently, Year 4 finished constructing their boats in DT, which they have been planning and creating over a number of weeks. They researched and designed their boats to include materials to help with buoyancy, and created different frames for their boats to test its speed and agility. This week, the children’s boats faced the ultimate test, as they launched them in the Swimming Pool! The children were delighted watching their masterpieces, most of which zoomed across the surface of the pool! They will use this test in their evaluations of their work in the coming weeks.

Pupils in 6C hosted assembly in the Prep School this week, telling the children all about different customs across the world. They explained how different actions can mean different things depending on the country you are in, and advised their classmates not to cheers with beer in Hungary, and to make sure to slurp their noodles in Japan. It was fascinating to hear how certain actions can be interpreted across the world, and the children were reminded to celebrate others’ cultures and customs.

We are very excited to be welcoming mountaineer and adventurer Kenton Cool to Beaudesert on Thursday, 16^th March at 7:00pm.

Kenton will be coming to the PAC to deliver a special talk entitled, ‘Everest and Beyond. Life on the Edge.’, recounting his experiences as an elite mountain guide on Everest, K2 and other mountains around the world. A highly energetic speaker, with entertaining stories about his experiences, the people he has met, and some sticky situations, Kenton’s talk is sure to be a memorable evening.

Tickets are available exclusively to the school community until the 1st of February, at which point they will go on sale to the general public. All adult tickets include a glass of wine. We feel children aged 10 years old and above would enjoy this talk.

The talk is kindly sponsored by Steppes Travel and When in Rome Wines, with all funds raised supporting Beaudesert’s ongoing Bursary Fund Appeal.

If you have not booked tickets yet, check your inbox!

Having been learning about ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, the Nursery children were surprised and delighted to have a visit from a Giant (who looked very similar to Mr Jones!). We spoke with him and discovered that, actually, giants are often very nice – they only get grumpy when people take their things and steal their golden harps! This inspired them to make beanstalks to help the Giant get back to his castle, as naughty Jack had cut it down. Miss Shearer Manning also visited with her harp and played to the children.

In Reception, we have continued to enjoy exploring different animals, sorting animals from different Polar regions, and deepening our understanding using the recent frosty environment. Linked to this topic, in Music, we have been exploring different birds and their songs, recreating these with our own voices, and singing call and response songs to enhance our listening skills. We also created some artwork with wet tissue paper to represent the beautiful colours of the Northern Lights.

In Year 1, our dragon eggs hatched this week; Baby Rose Dragon is doing very well in 1N, and twin babies Aurelia and Flash in 1S are being very carefully looked after by all the boys and girls. The children are really embracing the ‘dragon’ element of our topic and have designed and created their own dragons out of modelling clay. Their original designs were incredibly detailed and have some fabulous colour schemes. In Maths, we are continuing with our place value knowledge with particular focus on the ‘teen’ numbers. We are practising writing our CAPITAL LETTERS at the moment, and in French we have been building our vocabulary of colour and animals. Par example, le lapin est brun!

In Year 2, Delphie showed us how to finger knit for her Marvellous Me week; she is such a good teacher that lots of us can now finger knit. We have been working in pairs to sequence the events of The Great Fire of London, and the children used hot colours to paint the flames. We have also been testing a variety of materials in Science for a ‘Fair Test’, to see which ones are waterproof and which ones are absorbent. Everyone got a little wet, but it was good fun and has helped the children to consider which materials could be used to make a house and why.

In Forest School, Year 2 also extended their learning about materials by tidying up the forest environment, collecting and sorting rubbish with their teachers. Reception continued their ‘polar expedition’, exploring the ice and frost at Forest school and toasting fish-shaped bread on the fire.

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep

Our Year 4 thespians did a fantastic job this afternoon performing to parents in their production of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Ceasar’. The whole cast brought the Roman court to life on stage, accompanied by wonderful lighting and costumes.

On Monday, four Year 5s went to Bristol Grammar School for a Maths competition. Mr Burns was happy he didn’t get lost! We were put into two teams to solve puzzles. There were five rounds, each with a different kind of puzzle. These included the 24 game, a dominoes jigsaw, a complicated task with things called pentominoes, and two others. The puzzles were hard, but quite satisfying, and we got most of the answers right! Afterwards there were some great snacks including millionaire’s shortbread. It was a fun afternoon.

By Isla, Year 5

6TC had two very special guests join them for Show and Tell this week. Honor brought in her two rabbits and told the children all about them…

My rabbits are called Dusty and Magic. They are four months old. They were a Christmas present from Mummy and Daddy. They live in a chicken coop, in the garage. They have an attachable extension too, so they can run around on the grass in summer.

I clean out their coop by sweeping out the dirty sawdust and poop and replacing it with nice, fresh clean sawdust twice a week, after school.

Dusty is the more nervous rabbit. He likes to hide. Magic is more confident. I feed them pellet food and hay before and after school each day and they like the occasional treat, like the carrots Mr Curr brought in for them.

I think it’s really good to learn to look after animals because it helps prepare you for looking after people someday, and makes you a more responsible person.

Honor, Year 6

After Forest Green Rovers visited us last year, we are very happy that Reuben and Willough have decided to take up the mantle as our FGR Ambassadors. We would like to extend a thank you on behalf of our ambassadors for the clothes we received on Wednesday and Thursday for FGR’s Clothes Swap, which were swiftly scooped up by one of our bus drivers and delivered to Nailsworth.

It has been a great week for our girls in sports; our U13B and U13C teams won their Severnside competitions, while our U13A, U12A and U11A all came second in their tournaments. Well done to all teams!

Class 3H have been busy this week. They had a great time in Forest School playing Knights and Dragons, and spent more time outside picking litter in Ecology, which helped them understand the impact of litter on local wildlife. Back in the classroom, they have been retelling the mythical story of Pandora’s Box using puppets, and learning about volcanoes in Geography. What a great week!

Our traditional Year 8 suppers with Mr and Mrs Searson have resumed again. This week’s gaggle had a great time in Chez Searson, enjoying a particularly raucous and competitive game of Pucket!

As the school week began, the Year 5 and 6 children eagerly stepped into the cricket nets, ready to sharpen their skills under the guidance of coaches Mr Griffiths and Mr Houghton for the first time this year.

The following day, all of the boarders took advantage of the Astro, honing their skills and creating their own games, and spent the rest of the evening warming up in the Library and computer rooms.

Wednesday brought a chill to the air, but the determined Year 8 children braved the cold and headed to the Astro again, which seems to be the activity of choice for the majority of Year 8s on a Wednesday. Other students used the opportunity to catch up on work, explore their artistic side in the Art Studio, and utilise other indoor facilities.

On Thursday, as the sky cleared, Mr Layton led the boarders in a thrilling game of Spotlight, marking the first of the term, while another group of students continued to have fun on the Astro with Mr Curr.

We are looking forward to having the boarders back next week; Friday is a normal boarding evening following the School Disco for those children that usually board. Have a lovely Leave-out, and see you next week!

Oli and Debbie Jones, Houseparents

It’s great to see the results from the House Art competition proudly displayed in the corridors this term! Children and staff alike have been looking at the wonderful array of rainbow self-portraits which were completed before Christmas.

At lunch this week the Pre-Prep children have enjoyed margherita pizza, Mexican chilli beef with vegetable rice and tortilla chips, Mediterranean chicken with pasta and beans, roast pork with stuffing and roast potatoes, and fish fingers and chips on Friday.