Years 3 from Vinehall and Marlborough House enjoying a joint sports session in the Sports Hall
Vinehall is hugely proud of the cultural diversity within our community and this week we celebrated the Lunar New Year on Wednesday in style. Our youngest children performed their delightful and colourful Dragon dance; and Chef Michael and the Accent team prepared a special feast at lunch, complete with Sticky Chicken, noodles, fried rice, prawn crackers and fortune cookies, and the overseas boarders chose their own favourite recipes for supper.
2025 is the Year of the Snake and the focus is on renewal and regeneration. In many Western cultures snakes are feared and reviled but in the Eastern hemisphere they are a celebrated and revered sign of positive transformation. People slither into new beginnings, if they are willing to shed their old skin and move on.
Our beloved school is moving on to exciting new beginnings as we transition into Marlborough House Vinehall and I am so grateful to our parents, children and wonderful staff that they are embracing this change with such positivity and enthusiasm. The Year of the Snake will bring great hope for a glittering future for the combined communities.
Joff
Pre-Prep
Nicky Whittaker - Head of Pre-Prep
Drama Workshops
This week Year 1 had a surprise visit from Mary Anning, who brought her collection of fascinating fossils and “curiosities” from Lyme Regis in Dorset. All of the children had pre-written questions and were mesmerised by the answers given.
We are so fortunate at Vinehall to be able to bring the curriculum to life through such wonderful drama workshops. These form a regular part of the children’s topic learning, and this week alone both Years 1 and 2 enjoyed drama workshops.
I would like to thank our very own Mary, Mary Alderson, for her part in this, and for her unfailing enthusiasm to bring the past to life.
Nursery - Celebrating Chinese New Year
Sarah Wolford - Head of Nursery & Kindergarten
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
Our Nursery children fully immersed themselves in celebrating Chinese New Year. This week was a wonderful opportunity to introduce the children to different cultures and traditions and extend their knowledge and understanding of the world. The children had a variety of opportunities to explore different media and materials to create Dragon Masks, Slithering Snakes and Chinese Lanterns.
They persevered with trying to use chop sticks to eat noodles and baked delicious Chinese Spring Rolls. The highlight of the week was performing our Dragon Dance down the Pre-Prep corridor, playing the cymbals and drums; what an exciting morning!
Kindergarten
Cathy Fuggle - Kindergarten Teacher
We have had a wonderful week exploring the story ‘Owl Babies'. The children have thoroughly enjoyed retelling the story and joining in with the repeated refrain “I want my mummy!” As part of our work on owls, the children have begun to learn about nocturnal and diurnal animals and to sort animals according to these two categories. Kindergarten have also used their art skills to transform a pinecone into an owl baby and to think about what their baby owl might be saying.
This week has been “a hoot” 😊
Reception
Holly Newton - Reception Teacher
We have had another wonderfully busy week celebrating Chinese New Year and working hard to learn how to read and write lots of new words in Phonics. We loved writing with chalk pens and really thought about our letter formation as we wrote with these special pens.
We also continued to explore the icy world of Antarctica by mixing colours to create beautifully snowy paintings. We started with blue and experimented by adding white to make lighter, frosty shades and black to create darker icy tones. When our painting was dry, we added collage materials and cut out Antarctic animals such as penguins, seals and whales to make our art work look just like the frozen wilderness of Antarctica. Didn’t we do a super job!
Year 1
Jacklyn Garwood - Year 1 Teacher
Year 1 were very eager to meet Mary Anning, the fossil hunter, this week. They listened attentively to Mary’s life story and were curious like Cassie Cat thinking of the most interesting questions to ask her.
In Art and DT, the children learned how to sculpt a dinosaur out of clay, paying careful attention to detail. They thought of and chose appropriate materials to create some fabulous dinosaur dioramas - we hope you will look at them in the Pre-Prep hall!
Year 2
Louise Hawtin - Year 2 Teacher
This week Year 2 took part in a drama workshop to imagine what it was like being shipwrecked. As well as creating the sounds and waves, they had to role play being washed up on a desert island and act out what they would do. Everyone was brilliant and took it very seriously!
The children also toured the Prep School and had their first experience of a carpentry lesson. Everyone showed great perseverance, like Terry Tortoise, to saw, then sand their piece of wood, before adding the dots to create their own dice. The children claimed it was the best day ever!
Year 3
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher & Religious Studies Teacher Years 3-6
Last week Year 3 visited Bexhill Museum for a morning of activities, led by Julian the curator, who is an Egyptologist. The children loved learning about hieroglyphs, the journey to the afterlife and much more. When Julian 'mummified' a doll at the end there were shrieks of disgust and delight! Mrs E was pleased to receive an email from one of the lovely volunteers at the museum saying 'We enjoyed having your class who were obviously very interested in ancient Egypt with some very searching questions'.
Year 3 - Glorious Gold
Year 3 were very lucky this week when Iris brought her father into school to lead us in a morning's discovery of the wonders of ancient times. Firstly the children were 'Guardians of the Timeline' and using yarn they travelled back 5,000 years (around the whole De Beer block!) to the civilisation of Egypt. Next he showed us how metal can be heated (gold leaf with beeswax) until it turned into liquid. Hammering heated foil, lifting lead, mixing pigments with Arabic gum - all kept us transfixed. The excitement rose to a crescendo when everyone was given a sheet of gold leaf to 'gild' onto an Eye of Horus. Thank you so much, Mr Lumsden - we all learnt a lot.
Year 3 – Rock Stars
Year 3 discovered how different rocks were made by Planet Earth. Then they designed fair tests for seven rock samples to check their hardness and permeability. They also used a rock identification key to learn which type of rock (igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic) the seven samples were.
Year 5 – Hot-Seating
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
Year 5 have been learning about Victorian children. Today they were hot-seating, where one child acts as if they are a Victorian child and the others ask questions.
Year 5 Visit to The Bright Foundation ... The Follow Up
Tracey Konyu - Head of Art
Here are some further photographs illustrating what a great time was had by all at The Bright Foundation last week.
The pupils made their own shadow puppets and used the theatre screen to demonstrate their puppeteering skills.
Year 5 Filtration
Becky Prior - Head of Science
Year 5 were given the challenge to use the equipment available to separate salty, sandy water. After learning how to set up filter funnels with filter paper, they were amazed how such dirty water could be filtered back into clear water. We are proving that the salt dissolved, even though we can't see it, by leaving the filtrate to evaporate over the next few days. We are expecting to see salt crystals on Friday!
Year 7P – Forest School
Becky Prior - Head of Science
7P had a wonderful time at Forest School this week and were so lucky with a break in the weather to enjoy the blue sky and sunshine in the woods. We enjoyed watercolour painting; building dens; making friendship bracelets; as well as making wooden axes and an axe-throwing target to aim at. We tucked into some yummy pancakes, cooked over the open fire and finished off the session with a game of 'hawk eye'; this is where everyone hides and the 'hawk' has to spot them from the nest, then everyone gets a chance to find a new hiding place - 7P's favourite game. Thank you so much to Amy and Laura for a fantastic afternoon!
Art - Year 5 Pupil Success!
Tracey Konyu - Head of Art
The Art Department was informed of some great news this week regarding Heidi R, who was successful with her submission for the First News online gallery.
“Thanks so much for sending this in – Heidi has done a great job! I've added her painting to our online gallery” - First News.
It certainly is a beautiful piece of work. Well done, Heidi!
Sport
Matt McKinnon - Director of Sport
On Tuesday the senior swim squad competed against Claremont. It was a very close and fun gala, with both teams giving their all. In the end Vinehall came out winners by 1 point.
With the weather threatening to spoil the matches on Wednesday, the majority of our games went ahead apart from the 3rd team girls' netball side. Laura Percy-White had to shuffle the pack due to a few absences. Playing St Andrew's Prep's U12A & B teams, both games were very even affairs, with Vinehall just edging both.
The Colts A & B teams played out a triangular at home against St Andrew's and Holmewood House, with mixed results.
The boys' Colts teams travelled to Claremont for their first hockey matches of the season. Zac Atwood and Louise Barrett were impressed with their attitude, but plenty of work is needed on our finishing. Two 0-0 draws were followed by a good 1-0 by the Colts A team.
The seniors hosted Claremont in what was an enjoyable and frantic afternoon. The 1st team drew a very even game 1-1; the 2nds, 3rds and 4ths all lost, but showed great effort and resilience in defeat.
On Thursday the junior girls and boys enjoyed a wonderful sunny afternoon of hockey against St Andrew's and Claremont. It is wonderful to see the effort and determination shown, and how much progress is being made in such a short time.
House News
Rushton – Goofy Games
Louis D and MP T, Year 8 (Heads of Rushton House)
On Tuesday, Rushton held a charity event called “Goofy Games”. This consisted of many different games, including a one-on-one tug of war whilst stacking balls race, noodles fencing, potato and spoon three-legged race, welly wangling, a hula hoop competition, a sack race, a spinning shoot out and a keepy-uppy competition with rugby balls.
We raised over £280 for our chosen charity, the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service. We would like to thank all children for participating in our exciting charity event!
Rug Club
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
Arya completed her rug this week in rug club. Very cute and I particularly like the colours.
Harry Potter Club
Becky Prior - Head of Science
Harry Potter enthusiasts enjoyed making potions at Harry Potter Club this week. The children decided on whether to add "powdered giant bones" or "tarantula legs" to their potions and were very imaginative when it came to deciding what their potion does to the consumer!
Here is a video and message from Christy, one of our Pre-Prep parents:
Here are some delightful scenes I filmed today in Vinehall’s beautiful grounds, which I have edited into a Chinese New Year greeting video for the lovely Chinese children in the Vinehall community. Wishing them a happy and prosperous New Year!