Year 5 signing 'What's your name?'
Inspirational Moments
One hopes to provide an education full of inspirational moments. One such moment was Thursday morning's Prep School assembly by Ally Linney, where she promoted Deaf Awareness.
Living in others' shoes, even just for a moment, opens up profound insights for our children into experiences beyond their own. For a deaf child, navigating the world without sound presents unique challenges and perspectives. Our children were asked to imagine the silence that would fill their daily interactions, where the rhythm of life unfolds without audible cues. In understanding a deaf child's world, the focus was on the richness of communication beyond speech, where gestures, expressions, and visual cues become the language of connection.
Empathy and awareness can bridge the gap between the hearing and non-hearing worlds, fostering inclusivity and appreciation for the diverse ways in which others experience our world. Vinehall children are wonderfully empathetic, thoroughly embracing the many awareness days Ally Linney and others arrange for them.
Joff
Nursery - Forest School
Sarah Wolford - Head of Nursery & Kindergarten
We are so fortunate here at Vinehall School to have access to the beautiful grounds, as well as having access to wonderful opportunities like Forest School. Forest School is an inspiring approach to outdoor learning that aims to provide confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning in the woodland environment. The Little Vines children have had the most amazing time being involved in their Forest School adventures, where they have gained many new skills and opportunities.
Kindergarten Trip to the Miniature Railway
Catherine Garlick - Kindergarten Teacher
There was much excitement in Kindergarten on Thursday as we had the pleasure of going on our first school trip of the year to ‘The Eastbourne Miniature Railway.’ It was wonderful to see the joy on the children’s faces as they explored all of the activities on offer. They enjoyed a ride on the miniature railway, watching the model trains, playing crazy golf, exploring a maze and a nature walk. This was all topped off with playing in the parks. The children were a delight on the trip and their calm behaviour was noted by other people enjoying the railway.
Year 1
Jacklyn Garwood - Year 1 Teacher
This week, Year 1 took advantage of the glorious sunshine and explored our school grounds in search of the physical and human features. The children continued to think about the physical and human features in the countries of the United Kingdom and how to represent them on their 3D maps.
Finally, we experimented with growing seeds in plastic bags comparing it to how seeds are grown in greenhouses. The children were very surprised with the results!
Year 2
Louise Hawtin - Year 2 Teacher
Liz Powis treated Year 2 to their first Good Copy Tea in the Melon Garden this week. They had delicious pancakes, chocolate sauce and strawberry ice cream, kindly made by Chef Rob. The pancakes were a big hit, but even better was when we got to meet some of the puppies; several children said that it was the best day ever!
The children have also been thinking about ways to stay healthy and looked at the effect of exercise on their bodies; star jumps and running on the spot were hard work but balancing on one leg was not quite so exhausting.
Year 3 - Was Tutankhamun killed?
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher
Year 3 have created Explanation Texts in the form of a poster, having researched historical facts and scientific evidence before drawing their own conclusions about Tut's demise. They also enjoyed writing in the role of Horemheb or Ay, two of Tut's alleged enemies. Thanks to Mrs Walker for 'ageing' the paper with coffee and Mr Kellick for bravely burning the edges!
Parents of Year 3, do feel free to drop in to look at your child's letter and poster if you have a moment or see them at our next 'Book Look'.
Year 3 - Back to the Past
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher
Pre-history, chronology and 'ages' are tricky concepts. Year 3 experienced a variety of activities at the Bexhill Museum including handling ancient tools from The Stone Age, exploring the Sargent Gallery and making up a wonderful story with the help of 'story pebbles'. After a morning's work we had fun in Egerton Park, where Mrs Walker lost her sandwich to a seagull! Then it was on to the beach for a paddle and an ice cream from Mr Attwood's kiosk. A lovely way to spend the day.
Year 3 - Leggy, wilting, yellowing?
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher
Continuing to measure, record and observe in Science this week, Year 3 reported back to the class on how their requirement seems to be affecting the health/growth of their group's bean seedlings. Then, independently, the children made a summary of all the findings from the seedling investigation with notes and some detailed drawings of results. Thank goodness for Mr Kellick's help as some beans are now extremely tall!
Year 5 – Humanities
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
Year 5 have been learning about food production in Humanities. Today they watched an episode of 'Inside the Factory' showing how Jaffa Cakes are made. They enjoyed one too!
English
Emily Platt, Head of English
Several pupils in Year 5 created some incredible dioramas to finish off their work on "Charlotte's Web". Some of these were so skilful that they received Headmaster's Commendations for their efforts and below you will see them showing off their work!
We were particularly impressed by the homemade hay bales in Teddy's creation and the below-ground lighting in Rex's "Templeton's den". Ivy created a colourful and visually interesting den for Templeton, the rat, which included lots of sweet wrappers from Easter eggs! Noah wrote a superb story about the friendship of his two cats, Nutka and Riska (see below) and Harry and Arthur took imaginative approaches reproducing Charlotte's Web (using origami and a glue gun, respectively).
It is always satisfying to see pupils engaging imaginatively with a text and this was a perfect finish to our work on this novel which deftly deals with themes including friendship and difficulty.
The Friendship of Nutka and Riska, by Noah P (5P)
One day, I went with my family to a farm. When we got there, it was packed with animals. There were dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits and they were all running around together. (This farm was close to the village of my Polish grandparents, where we lived for two years).
We came there for two little kittens that were sisters. They were called Nutka and Riska (musical note and tigress).
Days passed as they grew older, wiser, greater friends and a tiny bit bigger.
Finally, their first winter came and they loved to walk on the snow. They did everything together. Soon, spring came, and the flowers grew colourful.
Soon we packed our bags and went to England. On the way there, they were constantly miaowing in their little basket. When we arrived, they sniffed around for a good spot to rest.
STEM - Nature Walk
Becky Prior - Head of Science
Year 5 made journey sticks on a nature walk down to the bluebells in the wood. We stopped along the way to play a game involving camouflaged butterflies and ended the walk with flying parachutes off of the hill, to model how dandelion seeds are adapted for wind pollination.
Maths - Junior Maths Challenge
Kevin Higginson - Head of Mathematics
This term Years 7 and 8 took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge, a national competition that 'encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency to make students think.'
All entrants were awarded a certificate, with 13 achieving the Bronze Certificate, 9 Silver and 3 Gold.
The highest scorer in Year 8 was Isla McLeod and in Year 7, and Vinehall winner overall, was Matilda Bobin; both pupils have been invited to the next round of the competition, The Junior Kangaroo on 11th June.
Congratulations to all pupils in Year 7 and 8.
French
Acorn Clayton - Head of Modern Languages
French classes from Year 5 and 6 enjoyed an experience of French language and culture at the BFI IMAX at the Southbank in London.
Some Vinehall children were very confident and attempted French tongue twisters on the microphone. Bravo!
In the afternoon everyone enjoyed a French film on the big screen.
Sport
Matt McKinnon - Director of Sport & Head of Co-Curricular
Congratulations to our Year 7 swimmers Alara K, Honor H, Mia G and Fleur L who have qualified for the IAPS Swimming Finals to be held at the LAC, Olympic Park, on Saturday 8th June. The team will be competing in the U12 4 x 25m medley relay. Alara K also qualified for the U12 50m breaststroke and Honor for the U12 50m backstroke events. A wonderful achievement.
It was a enjoyable but tough afternoon of cricket on Wednesday, with the girls taking on Marlborough House. It is clear that we are making good progress on the bowling front, but we are struggling to score any meaningful runs, an area on which we will be focusing before next week's matches. Well done to the 2nd team who won their match, the result in the balance up to the very last ball.
The Senior boys did well against two strong teams from Saint Ronan's and, although the results did not go our way, our fielding is improving. The Colts A, playing their first hard ball game of the year, faired slightly better. Batting first they posted 122 runs against Skipper's Hill, with Charlie C scoring a very good 50 not out. Skipper's were then bowled out for 67. The Colts Bs came up against a very strong Beechwood team, with Noah P the pick of our batters.
The Year 3 & 4 boys took on Skipper's Hill in two very enjoyable matches on Thursday. There are not many better places to play cricket than the Sunken Fence and the group can be pleased with their efforts.
We feature a different Sporting Highlight each week
Deaf Awareness Week
Ally Linney - Assistant Head (Pastoral)
This week we had an assembly to recognise Deaf Awareness Week. Pupils entered in silence and learnt how to sign "good morning" and "deaf awareness". We watched an informative video from children with hearing impairment who gave us top tips for communicating effectively. We kept ourselves silent as we learned some greetings such as "how are you?" "what is your name?" "good morning, afternoon, evening, night". We look forward to practising our new communication skills over the next week and beyond!
COMING SOON ...
On Saturday 25th May, we are offering Year 4 and above the opportunity to join animator and graphic novelist, Norm Konyu, for a day of comic book creating!
Norm is a BAFTA and EMMY award winning animator with two comic titles published internationally with Titan Comics and a third being released later this year. On this day, he will teach attendees how to tell a story visually and help them plan and construct their own book. At the end of the day, children will take home their creations, together with enough materials to finish them off. Children need only bring a simple story idea but if they don't have one, they can create one using story prompts on the day.
Ticket price: £45 per child - book online at this link: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/DFHV