King’s Hall School

Prep Newsletter

Edition 148 23 March 2018

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HEADlines

I have just come out of the paradoxically uplifting but emotionally draining House Music

Competition. What a fantastic way to draw everybody together and head into the Easter

break with a massive smile on your face and a great big ‘hug’ from the tangible sense of

community. The adjudicator, Nikki Ridley, offered many positive words, much

encouragement and a little guidance to the performers. She also remarked that I ought to

feel very proud to be Headmaster and certainly there are a myriad of reasons, captured in

the Newsletters, from the last three months to celebrate King’s Hall and the children’s

progress.

For those who weren’t there this afternoon, I mentioned that in my first assembly of the

term I showed the children what appeared to be just a stick. It was a raspberry cane with

the potential to blossom into something special. During the term I have spoken of growth

mindset and we have surely seen the children growing as the weeks go by – now it is time

for a rest over Easter (with a little work for some in Year 8 facing important exams) and we

look forward to even more growth and development next term.

Happy Easter, when the time comes, although I have heard talk that it might be ‘Happy

Beaster’ with the possible threat of a third dose of snow?

Justin Chippendale

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House Music Competition

This year’s House Music Competition drew the Lent Term to a fantastic close. The event featured virtually every pupil in the Prep Department and showcased a wealth of talent in vocal and instrumental arenas. The entries for the Junior groups were varied, exciting and accomplished and received positive comments and constructive criticism from this year’s judge, Nikki Ridley. Beginning with the classic Here Comes the Sun, Gibbs’ band was comprised of Wilf Gostling and Oscar Mack on guitars, and a keen group of singers – Elsa Clayton, Tessa Davis, Sophie Greswell, Jasmine Rao, Isla Ridley, Ella Rowlands and Daisy Rundell. Eugene Louw provided impressive rhythmic security on drums. Oldham followed with the lyrical Scottish folksong The Dark Island. The three vocalists of Emma Duckham, Faith Hammond and Anna Kittow were ably accompanied by Poppy Chedzoy (harp) and Charlotte Ambler (harp). Bradfield performed a lively version of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean with a terrific quintet of percussionists – Huckleberry Halliday, Ciaran McSwiggan, Cameron Wallace, Arthur Webster and Daisy Webster with Annie and JJ Dayus-Jones on violin and ‘cello respectively. The final Junior entry was Whitby with A Million Dreams. This was sung by Grace Eakhurst, Georgia Fidler, Grace Gompels, Eleanor Harding and Daisy Thompson with Gus Gompels on drums.

The Junior class was won by Whitby

The Senior entries followed with a similarly diverse field of songs, all again receiving informative and positive feedback from Nikki Ridley.

Whitby began with the famous One Republic song Counting Stars. The three singers, Daisy Kamsner, Isabella Lawford and Harrie Richardson, were ably supported by Johnnie Drysdale (bass guitar), Yoyo Fang (keyboard), Jimmy Macaskie (drums) and Emily Ogle (clarinet). They were followed by Bradfield giving the audience an exciting rendition of Bastille’s Pompeii. This featured singing from Sophie Austin, Oscar Benneyworth, Maddie Brake, Hettie Chippendale, Jaime Page, Bella Salmons, Ella Spencer, Lexie Wallace and Arjun Ashok who also played violin. The drummer for the band was Lily MacNeice. Oldham changed the mood with a wonderfully reflective Let Her Go. This was effectively sung by Eloise Frampton, Thomas Herbert, Brayden Lee, Jasmine Stroud and Josephine Woodard and also featured Beckie Stacey on flute and Tom Day and Henry Fuller on electric guitars. Gibbs brought the Senior Section to a close with the catchy Riptide. Harry Besley on drums and Annabel Wright on ‘cello supported the singing of Felicity Gostling, Ralph Hutchins, Molly Landau, Magnus Larsen, Julia Louw, Ronnie Potter and Jemima Rundell. The Senior class was won by Bradfield

The House Songs this year all reflected themes of empowerment and were performed with emotion and strength. Bradfield opened with Sara Bareilles’ excellent Brave and the quality of the singing was most impressive. Next came Oldham with the outstanding This is Me from The Greatest Showman. Here, especially, the meaning of the words was conveyed well and effective use was made of solos and small groups. Again utilising small groups and soloists, next came Gibbs with Rachel Platten’s stirring Fight Song. Whitby brought the House Song section to a close with the toe-tapping Lady Gaga number Born This Way.

The House Song was won by Oldham and the overall winner of the 2018 House Music Competition was Whitby. Many congratulations and thanks to all the performers and staff involved. What a wonderful – if somewhat emotional - way to end the Lent Term!

Arabian Nights

A view from the Rose Garden

We have had a busy week in the classroom writing non-

fiction reports and working on decimals and fractions in

Maths.

We have also had some fun outside the classroom during our “Easter

Egg Hunt”

4T had a grand Bake Off to raise money for Charity. All of the cakes

looked delicious!

Academic Life...

History

As most of Year 8 close in on Common Entrance, one of the last topics is Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. As

well as the battle we have been looking at how sailors operated and survived at sea.

We discussed some of the old nautical terms and phrases, such as the Cat ‘o nine

tails, the whip used to administer punishment on board ship. It needed a good space

in which to be wielded, hence our use of the phrase ‘Not enough room to swing a

cat’.

They have also been finding out about the classification of the ships themselves,

such as the First Rates of 100 guns or more, the only remaining example of

which is HMS Victory.

Many captains preferred the smaller, but powerful

and fast moving frigates.

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Physical Education Throughout this term all the pupils have been working hard on a rotation of Handball, Cross Country and Badminton. In the warmth of the sports hall, all of the year groups have spent time practising their racket skills. Badminton requires a lot of concentration and movement, with the children learning to position themselves to play the shuttle effectively. In Year 3, we have focused on starting and maintaining a rally, with the Year 4’s progressing this further. Year 5 and 6 have looked at trying to play a decent serve, followed by short or long returns and being a little more assertive, especially in Year 6 when they have begun to use a smash when the shuttle is high enough. The Year 7’s have enjoyed playing competitive half court singles games, with the Year 8’s learning to play doubles – seeing just how much they have to work with their partner in order to beat their opponents.

Science

It has been a great week in Science with lots of exciting experiments going on. At the Saturday morning STEM club children built their very own cuprous oxide solar cells and tested them, looking at ways we can

convert energy a little more sustainably.

Students testing out their solar cells.

Here students are experimenting with their solar cells, trying to make them more powerful by combing them.

Helping the oxidation process a little.

Slightly Heath Robinson, but a fully functional solar cell!

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Year 7 McDermott

After a term of very changeable weather, we are all looking forward to the Summer term. We enjoyed the snow, but not getting snowed in! Several of us have been poorly (it has been very quiet in the tutor room as Mrs McD has had almost no voice for the past 3 weeks!) A bit about us: Flynn’s locker is still tastefully decorated with baubles, Daisy is excited as she has started trampolining lessons out of school, Maisie is proud to have won loads of fencing medals, Oscar has enjoyed helping with the Year 6 play, Wilfie and Magnus were delighted to have won medals in the Speech/Music Festivals, Daniel is looking forward to going straight onto Grade 3 in his Singing lessons, Lexie ran cross-country for Somerset, Elise and Harriet had great fun at the IAPS Netball Nationals in Basildon, George has really enjoyed Drama, and Leela and Grace swam extremely well at the IAPS Regional Swimming Qualifier.

This week in the Library....

The Great King’s Hall Potato Challenge: The Results!

The Library and Pemberton Room are now a sea of totally spudtastic book character creations! The response

to our school-wide challenge to create a book character from a potato and some craft materials has been quite overwhelming and everyone has been having lots of fun looking at the super display of entries on show.

Mrs Schmidt, Head of Art at King’s College, had a very tricky time deciding on the winning potatoes but in the end she chose the following three entries:

Willow Simpson’s mouse from The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

Eddie Carew-Jones’s Harry Potter from the series by J K Rowling

and Harry Besley’s Mr Tickle from the book by Roger Hargreaves

It was such a tricky decision, that Mrs Schmidt decided to award runner-up prizes to a further 21 entries! Here are just a few of them…

Well done to everyone who took part. What a fantastically fun way to end the term!

Out of the classroom...

Exmoor Challenge Practice

It was a bitterly cold morning last Saturday, as 24 enthusiastic Year 8 pupils ventured onto the top of the Quantock Hills for a practice session on mapping, as part of their Exmoor Challenge preparation. The group left the mini busses in driving snow and made their way into the Quantock Forest before venturing onto the moorland above. The first picture shows the group after emerging from the forest. The second photograph was taken only 15 minutes later, but the wind chill here was already having an effect, as you can see from the small number of children who managed to look at the camera. The next time the group ventures out will be on Tuesday the 17th of April to climb to the top of Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor. On the 5th of May the children will be expected to walk 16 miles unaided around a route, this is a great challenge, and sponsor money raised here will go to the Hospice South West.

British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships In November, 14 children from King’s Hall competed at the South West Biathlon Championships, with four of these children qualifying and competing in the National Biathlon Championships, which took place over the weekend. Katie Rowe, Nicolas Du Toit, Huckleberry Halliday and Grace Fielder all travelled to Crystal Palace, the girls competing on the Saturday and the boys on the Sunday. The conditions were terrible, but despite the driving wind and snow on Saturday both Katie and Grace did brilliantly. Katie was in the U10 age group and in a very strong field of over 104 girls, she got a PB in the swim and the run, achieving the 4th fastest time – amazing! Overall Katie finished in 9th position nationally; what a fantastic achievement. Grace was in the U13 age group and again she swam a PB and smashed her PB in the run with the 13th fastest run out of a field of over 90 girls. Grace finished 21st nationally; congratulations Grace!

The conditions were even worse for the Sunday and now that the athletics track was frozen, the organisers made the decision to cancel the ‘run’ element of the competition and use their times from the qualifying competition. Nicolas was in the U10 age group and swam a PB which meant he finished 12th overall out of over 80 boys; well-done Nicolas! Huckleberry swam extremely well in the U12 age group, with all his hard work in training paying off. Overall he was placed 75th nationally out of over 107 boys; an achievement to be proud of.

A special congratulations to these 4 children for doing so well and representing the school so brilliantly at a National competition and to their parents for taking them in such unfavourable weather conditions. We are now looking forward to the summer term and the start of the Biathles.

Golfing 2nd in Somerset Schools

The Somerset Schools Golf tournament was held this week in the wind and the rain at Weston Super Mare Golf Club. Thomas Rew entered for King's Hall and managed to compile a Nett score of 63, which was good enough to finish joint 2nd place in the Nett competition, out of 53 entries from Schools across the County. Thomas is a member of the Somerset Futures golf squad, training throughout the winter, and is a member of Taunton and Pickeridge Golf Club.

The School Council Cake and Book Sale

The Pupil Council organised a charity book fair and cake sale yesterday for The Book Bus and Macmillan Cancer Support. The Book Bus aims to improve child literacy rates in Africa, Asia and South America by providing children with books and the inspiration to read them. Macmillan provide practical, medical,

emotional and financial support and push for better cancer care. King’s Hall baked and donated to raise a fantastic £537.20 to be split between both charities. Thank you to the whole community!

This term’s Head Girl is Molly Landau

It has been a hectic final week of the term with everyone very excited about the House Music Competition and of course the mountain of chocolate to be eaten over Easter. We have all been working hard on our house songs and the house staff have been wonderful in motivating and helping us learn our words and actions. Well done to all of the cross-country runners who were involved in winning the Larkman Cup. A great achievement and just reward for all of the hard work that has been put in over the course of the term. We have missed watching the Year 6s buzzing around school due to their play but once again say a huge congratulations for such a great production. I hope everyone has a very happy holiday and enjoys the Easter celebration.

Sport Action and News...

Cross-Country

Larkman Cup – Winners 2018

At last week’s Larkman Cup event all of the

King’s Hall runners did incredibly well in

difficult, wet and extremely muddy

conditions. The determination and focus

from every single runner was evident from

all who watched the event and a number of

staff and parents from other schools

commented on this throughout the

afternoon. There were a large number of top

ten finishes from runners in all of the age

groups and this in the end resulted in King’s

Hall lifting the Larkman Cup for the very first time. The support and encouragement within the team was

immensely important to the success of the whole group and created a very special atmosphere for the children

to thrive. Huge congratulations to all who took part as they not only performed well as individuals but showed

strength and courage as a whole team.

Netball

U12C against Bruton School for Girl’s

A great match with a team who doesn't normally play together. We had a lot of swapping around during the match as we wanted to even the score line as much as possible. A few of the girls had a try at shooting who don't normally shoot and most girls on the court played out of position at some point during the match. They were excellent sports who played together very well. The Player of the Match was Daisy Thompson. A special mention for Jasmine Stroud who dominated play in the centre and as shooter during the first half. Well done!

U11B against Bruton School for Girl’s

A great team performance, despite the freezing conditions, that clearly demonstrated how much progress the girls have made throughout the season. It didn’t matter what positon I moved the girls into, due to the fact they have really mastered marking tightly and getting free, they can play anywhere. In the first half Tessa Davis and Rafaella Cook shot extremely well and scored 10 goals, due to the great passing into the D from Daniella Page and Eve Rowe. Then we moved people around; Danielle and Tilly Fuller had a go at shooting - wow, they were amazing! They scored another 10 goals in the second half, partly due to the great defending of Emma Duckham and Daisy Rundell, who intercepted and stopped so many balls getting to the oppositions D, with Bruton only scoring once in the second half. A great team effort and a great way to end the season - well done girls!

U10B against Bruton School for Girl’s

This was our final match of the season and it really demonstrated just how far this squad have come! There were excellent linking passes and great interceptions, with improved court and player awareness really shining through. This finished a very proud tally of just 2 loses out of 9 matches all season - wow! Well played all, and to Jasmine Rao who was voted The Player of the Match.

U10/11B against Bruton School for Girl’s

Luckily we were able to take shelter from the freezing weather and play in the sports hall. The team was made up of U10 and U11 girls who had never played together before, but this did not stop them putting on an impressive display of netball. We won the game easily due to such impressive shooting from Ella Francis, Rose Cartwright, Bethany Cubbin and Willow Simpson. Every quarter the girls played different positions and Maya Penn was great in the centre of the court, along with Willow, Daisy Thompson and Isla Ridley. Erin Cox defended consistently well throughout and the girls played really well together. They really have come a long way since January and conduct themselves in such a lovely manner, always with a smile on their faces -well done girls!

Netball Inter-House Matches Junior Matches What a delight to see so much enthusiasm, improving skill level and confidence today from these young players. Play-off: A hard fought game, but with Bradfield taking the upper hand in the first quarter. The second and third quarters saw both teams score equal goals, however, Bradfield were able to extend their lead in the last quarter to win comfortably 12-5, giving them 3rd place. Final: Oldham proved their dominance in this game by scoring an average of 4 goals in each quarter. Right from the start, Gibbs were on the back foot and struggled against a tough opposition, and were only able to score once in each quarter. Final score Oldham 16 – Gibbs 4. 1st Oldham, 2nd Gibbs, 3rd Bradfield, 4th Whitby.

Senior Matches It was so pleasing to see the level of determination from these girls today and witnessing the progress made by those who were relatively new to netball at the start of the season. Play-Off: After a slow start to the game, with only 2 goals scored in the first half of the game, Oldham then took charge. A really good run, saw them scoring 7 goals in the third quarter to Bradfield’s 1. The scoreline doesn’t really reflect the tenacity shown in the game, with Oldham pulling away to win 13-2. Bradfield pushed them all the way! Final: What started off looking like a one way battle, with Whitby storming into the lead in the first quarter with 6 goals to 1 against Gibbs; continued as a more even match. Gibbs fought back to score more than Whitby in the second quarter and equal in the third quarter. The first quarter, however, had done the damage and although matching goal for goal for three quarters of the match, the 5 goal deficit in the first quarter kept Whitby ahead to win 11-6. 1st Whitby, 2nd Gibbs, 3rd Oldham, 4th Bradfield. Well done to all the Houses – great netball on show!!

Hockey

U13A IAPS National Finals The boys showed great discipline on defence, with superb shape and quick out-letting and transferring of the ball around the oppositions in all the games. We used the entire field on attack and 1-2 passes worked really well as we caught defences off guard at times. The struggle for today was the finishing aspect as no one wanted to hit the ball at any opportunity. Slight nervousness maybe or anxiety but something was just missing with the finishing as we were in the right areas just didn’t get the final touches we looked for. After the first 3 games we were setup to do well in the pool but the next two games would be our toughest of the season. The New Beacon were first and they mainly had a centre mid who was lethal and all we needed to do was make sure he distributes rather than take us on. Unfortunately we didn’t get onto him quickly enough and he decided to take the game away from us. Meaning the last game against Bedford was a do or die chance for us to get further in the tournament. An early goal against us didn’t help and the boys fought their hardest but just couldn’t get back

into the game and we ended the pool 5th. The boys really were up with the rest of the top teams on the day and acquitted themselves exceptionally well on and off the field.

U13B against Exeter School A convincing win for the Under 13B’s who have finished their season in style. The side passed and supported each other admirably and always looked dangerous. We had 9 outfield players so rotated on and off regularly but our flow was never disrupted. Man of the match was Johnnie Drysdale for his effective, passing and shooting - but well done to the whole team!

U11A against Perrott Hill

The final fixture of the term, a win needed to secure an unbeaten season and the boys rose to the occasion. Clearly weary after all the work for the Y6 play they played with determination and grit. It wasn't the prettiest hockey I have seen them play, but it did the job. Perrott had some skilful players who got passed our outfield defence, but Terrence Chen in goal did all that was necessary. Sweeping at the back Gus Gompels made some telling tackles and the midfield of Ciaran McSwiggan, Cameron Wallace, Matthew Candfield and Eugene Louw worked hard to both attack and get back to defend. Arthur Webster and Oscar Mack combined well up front as they have all season. The goals were shared out between Matthew, Cameron, Oscar, Arthur and Ciaran. A gutsy performance boys; very, very well done!

Hockey Inter-House Matches

On Wednesday the boys Inter House Hockey took place and it proved to be a wonderful celebration of everything that has been achieved this term. All matches were fiercely contested, which was illustrated by the fact that two of the matches went to penalties shuffles. With most of the boys having not ever been involved with, or even seen, penalties shuffles before this caused a lot of excitement. With all the boys’ crowded around the astro watching and cheering, I very much felt it was a moment that encapsulated all house sport. As ever the boys played the matches in a very competitive yet good-humoured manner and because this everyone enjoyed the day, especially the first time goalies! In the end Oldham came through in both the Junior and Senior competitions and were fully deserving of their victories. With Oldham also winning the Inter House cross country, I am looking forward to seeing which house will knock them off their perch next term.

Results round up ...

Netball Saturday 17 March

v Bruton School for Girls U13A/B Won 18 - 8 U12A/B Won 16 - 2

U13C Lost 5 - 7 U12C Won 11 - 4

U10B Won 20 - 4 U10/11B Won 12 - 6 U11/10C Won 8 - 3

The Boarders’ World...

I can’t believe as this term comes to an end, we are still gallivanting around in the snow! Let’s hope this holiday brings a little sunshine! Everyone in the boarding house wishes you all a very Happy Easter.

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Hockey Saturday 17 March v Exeter

U13A Won 4 - 3 U13B Won 5 - 0

U12A Lost 1 - 1 U12B Lost 0 - 7

v Perrott Hill U11A Won 5 - 0 U10A Won 3 - 1 U11/10B Drew 2 - 2 Tuesday 20 March

IAPS Nationals U13A 5th in Group