Issue Thirteen - 6th January 2018

Welcome to the thirteenth issue of our e-newsletter Talking Trees. In these newsletters, we aim to bring you some of the special experiences from day-to-day life in the school, mainly through photos. Our longer termly newsletter, also called Talking Trees, provides a fuller picture of the curriculum being covered by the different classes and can be downloaded from our website.

We always appreciate any feedback about the newsletter and we’re very happy for you to pass the newsletter on and share it with friends, family and contacts.

This edition of our e-news has more of a focus on lower school, where things have been particularly busy this term.  

Rowan Class (age 6-8) for example, have been working hard . . .

Rowan Class

So hard, that after getting very cold feet during gardening in the frost, they needed to relax…… but they also found that lying on the floor with your feet against a warm radiator is surprisingly helpful for playing flutes.

Maple’s Class Play was the story of Esther from the Old Testament, a story of forgiveness and one where the Persian King is responsible for the saving of the Jewish race. The story within the Class play supports the curriculum for pupils of Maple class age (8-10 years) as their learning becomes increasingly based around history rather than mythology. It also reflects the growing maturing of the class to manage challenging individual acting roles, as well as acting together as a chorus. Below is a selection of photos taken during the dress rehearsal.

Maple Class

Finally, Sequoia Class (age 10-12) have been having some unusual experiences this term.  After reading ‘My Left Foot’ by Christy Brown they had a go at painting with their left feet.

Sequoia Class

Sequoia class also went busking in the centre of Norwich to raise money for homeless people (see top photo).   It was an extremely cold day, making playing with bare fingers quite a challenge. Nonetheless, the class attracted lots of attention and raised over £40 in half an hour of playing. All of the proceeds are being donated to St. Martin’s Housing Trust.  You can see the class playing in the photos below and listen to them playing a short clip of ‘Oh Christmas Tree’. 

Oak Class

Moving to an upper school story to finish……In our last e-news, we featured Automata (wooden models with moving parts) made by half of Oak class pupils.  This half term, the other half of Oak Class (age 14-16) had their turn at making their automata and they also presented their automata to parents and pupils in the school, showing a very varied and interesting range of creations.

Automata

UPPER SCHOOL FACT - You may not know……that although our oldest class (pupils age 16-18) has now completed the first term of the second year of studying for the NZCSE (formerly the SSC), we can still take new pupils of this age and they can chose to enrol for these final two years of the qualification. Contact us for more details.

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