I hope you have noticed the new road markings at the bottom of the drive. For more than six years Vinehall staff, governors, the FOV and the local community have fought to reduce the risk that the fast-flowing A21 poses to the school; the mantle was taken on by Laura Vakil, whose sterling work last year was instrumental in ensuring the success of the 40mph limit. Part of the agreement for the speed reduction was a guarantee from the school that our parents, visitors and staff would turn left when leaving the site by the main entrance. Using the roundabout will add only a minute to your southbound journey but should make this stretch of road so much less dangerous for us all; I thank you in advance for your support.
Joff
Pre-Prep
Nicky Whittaker - Head of Pre-Prep
The first half of the Lent Term is never an easy one, with grey days and muddy play times, and it has been especially challenging for everyone this year.
So, when we received three amazing parent reviews this week we felt truly honoured. They are a beautiful tribute to our amazing Pre-Prep staff, who go above and beyond each day to create such a wonderful happy, nurturing and stimulating environment for all the children in our care. To receive such fantastic reviews makes it all worthwhile!
I thank all the inspirational parents (and grandparents) for your support and our my staff team for all that they do – you are all stars!
I wish you all a restful half term holiday and look forward to our return, when the first signs of Spring should start breaking through!
Nursery - Love Is In The Air
Sarah Wolford - Head of Nursery & Kindergarten
This week the Nursery was full of love and kindness, even more so than normal, as we celebrated Valentine's week. The Nursery parents participated by writing such beautiful words about their child, which we read out and shared with each child; this brought such a sense of warmth and love to us all.
The children explored natural materials to make heart-shaped creations outside, as well as making salt dough hearts and having opportunities to explore different media and materials. We enjoyed sharing stories such as ‘Guess How Much I Love You', and 'What Colour is Love' but the best part was baking Valentine's hearts, which the children said were delicious!
Kindergarten
Cathy Fuggle - Kindergarten Teacher
This week we have been reading a beautiful book called ‘Winter Sleep – a Hibernation Story’. The children enjoyed learning more about seasonal changes and hibernation. We put up a cosy hibernation den in the classroom and the children thought carefully about what they would take with them for a winter sleep. Kindergarten each drew pictures of what they would take and had fantastic ideas such as cosy blankets and pillows, a bit of food and their favourite soft toys. The children also enjoyed making hibernation dens for toy animals and learning about where different animals hibernate.
However, there was no time to be sleepy today! The children put on their best disco gear and danced the afternoon away at our Valentine's disco. What a lovely way to end the half term!
Wishing you all a wonderful half term and a Valentine’s Day filled with kisses and cuddles from your little ones xx
Reception
Holly Newton - Reception Teacher
This week we have been writing our own information books about Emperor Penguins. We discovered that information books do not have drawings or paintings in them, but photographs instead. So we searched Google Images to choose photographs of the penguins in Antarctica for our own front cover. We added our selected information inside, listening carefully for the sounds in the words and writing them in the order in which we could hear them.
We have also been thinking about Valentine’s Day and how every year on the 14th February people celebrate this day by showing the people they love just how important they are to them. We thought about how our families show us how much they love us and what we could do in return and we made a beautiful beaded heart to take home to say ‘thank you’. Our hearts needed to contain a repeated pattern and so we really had to concentrate!
We are continuing to enjoy our swimming lessons. Our water confidence has grown so much and some of us are even brave enough to go up to the deep end. We are working hard to get the dunkers from the pool floor and to travel from one side of the pool to the other in lots of different ways. It is so much fun. We love swimming!
Year 1
Jacklyn Garwood - Year 1 Teacher
Year 1 put on their lab coats and goggles and became scientists this week, experimenting with different substances that might melt ice.
The children made predictions and worked in small groups testing individual substances, making observations and recording their results to determine what melted ice the quickest and the slowest. What a surprise it was for the children to discover that deep inside the 'egg shaped' ice block was a dinosaur just waiting to hatch out! Thank you Year 1 for melting the dinosaurs out of their frozen eggs and saving them! You worked together just like Billy Bee!
Year 2
Louise Hawtin - Year 2 Teacher
Our focus in English this week has been seaside poetry. The children have learned about rhyming couplets, haikus and pyramid poems. They have enjoyed playing with words and have worked independently, as well as in groups, to write, edit and improve their own poems. What lovely work they produced!
Year 3 - Dreams, Ambitions and Mindfulness
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher & Religious Studies Teacher Years 3-6
Over the last few weeks, Year 3 have been thinking about their dreams and ambitions for the future. Having learnt about Jane Goodall, they 'grew' their own flower of dreams. Thank you to Ally Linney who kindly gave up some of her precious time to lead us in a calming yoga session during Children's Mental Health Week.
Year 3 - The Gift of the Nile
In Humanities Year 3 have been exploring why Ancient Egypt is sometimes known as 'The Gift of Nile'. Here are some shadoufs that they constructed and tested out in the 'Nile', aka the De Beer pond. Many thanks to Ollie Dorman for his help.
Year 3 – Maths - Division with remainders
Year 3 had fun in maths learning about division with remainders and using matchsticks to see what was 'left over'.
Year 4 – Forest School
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
We had a lovely Forest School morning on Thursday; 4B love it out there, as did the teachers! Our first task was to work out which animals hibernate in Britain. It was harder than we thought!
Year 4 – Yoga
Thinking about our mental health, 4B have been doing a few sessions of yoga with Ally Linney.
Year 5 – RS: Exploring Hinduism
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher & Religious Studies Teacher Years 3-6
Year 5 discovered more about the rituals followed in Puja (prayer) in RS this week.
Drama / English
Mary Alderson - Head's PA and Director of Drama
On Friday 7th February 2025 Year 8 pupils from Marlborough House were invited to join Vinehall's trip to see the Donmar Warehouse's production of 'Macbeth', starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, at the Kino Cinema in Hawkhurst. The simply expressionistic staging confused some of the children, as much of the terrifying action was conjured through choreography, folk music, light and sound; they were disappointed that no witches actually appeared and felt a little cheated that the actors played multiple roles. Some of the most memorable scenes were acted in total darkness, Macduff's children gasping their last breaths into a black space. The sombre costumes added to a sense of a hybrid ancient-modern aesthetic and the live audience could hear the intimate dialogue through headphones to enable the performers to speak naturally.
'Macbeth' is my favourite Shakespeare play and I thought the production and acting were magnificent. I hope that the trip will enhance the children's English studies and it will certainly help in drama lessons as we prepare to perform our own small production in an assembly later this term.
Spanish
Acorn Clayton - Head of Modern Languages
¡Arriba arriba! ¡Uno, dos, tres!
This week the Spanish classes in Years 6, 7 and 8 had a special treat - a Salsa dance and Spanish language workshop led by visiting Salsa dance professional Señor Janier Pereira from the Somos Caribe Academy.
We had a wonderful time learning the Spanish words for parts of the body, left and right, up and down, while we learnt a fun Cuban Salsa dance routine. Some of our children are definitely getting ready to be future contestants on Strictly Come Dancing!
Latin
Kate Wood - Subject Leader of Latin
This week, some of Years 7 and 8 had a Roman feast to celebrate the festival of Lupercalia, which in Ancient Rome was observed on 15th February. The festival marked the coming of spring but also shared similarities with our Valentine's and April Fools' Days. Thank you to the Kitchen Team for all their help with Roman feasts this year!
Happy half-term from the Year 7 and 8 Latin classes - and felicem Lupercaliam!
Maths
Kevin Higginson - Head of Mathematics
Last week our maths scholars took part in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge, a competition with the aim of promoting maths learning and developing children’s problem-solving skills. This competition is open to all pupils across the world in Year 11 or below.
Our Year 7 and Year 8 scholars performed exceedingly well, with Bronze certificates for Stephen Z, Yehor A, Act C and MP T.
Sport
Matt McKinnon - Director of Sport
It was an extremely busy sporting week, with two hockey tournaments, a gala, ten girls' football matches and seven boys' hockey matches.
The Colts A started the week with a strong showing at the Sutton Valence U11 hockey tournament. Zac Atwood was pleased with their performances, winning one, drawing two and losing two. A mixed afternoon results wise, but the boys played some lovely hockey on what was a very wet and cold afternoon.
The Year 3, 4 & 5 swimming squads took on St Andrew's on Tuesday evening. With a packed house in attendance and with no points being scored, everyone swam brilliantly and it was wonderful to see them do so well.
The senior girls took to the football pitches on Wednesday afternoon playing St Andrew's and Claremont in a triangular. The 1st and 3rd teams came up against very strong opposition, with the 2nds performing well in their narrow 1-2 loss and 2-2 draw.
The Colts A & B teams travelled to Eastbourne for their second football matches of the term. It was always going to be a tough task, with St Andrew's having far bigger squads, but Louise Barrett was pleased with their effort.
I was fortunate to accompany the 1st team boys to Dulwich for their annual tournament. Starting the afternoon with three matches on the trot was always going to be tricky, but the boys worked extremely hard throughout, drawing two and losing three matches. We created a number of chances and, with a bit more luck, could quite easily have walked away with a few wins.
The senior and Colts boys took on Saint Ronan's. Our staff were pleased with the skills shown, with the highlight of the afternoon being the Colts B's 4-4 draw - an end to end and by all accounts entertaining game throughout.
The Year 3 & 4 girls were incredibly excited before their first football games and, although the toe punt was the most common method of kicking the ball, they had a great afternoon.
The boys took on Saint Ronan's U8s in a number of small-sided games. Bunching and tackling teammates is still an issue and something we will keep working on in training.
Please could I ask that the boys return after half term with their mouthguards, shin pads and hockey sticks for what will be another busy five weeks of hockey. The girls will also need their shin pads and football boots for their football sessions and matches. If your child does not already have one, please could you get them a mouthguard case. The sports department are forever finding mouthguards lying around, and I have had to hand out a record number of replacements this term.
An update from the Eco Committee
Alara K, Jack L, and Iden N, Year 8 Eco Committee Leads
This term, the Eco Committee, with members from all the years from Year 2 to Year 8, have come together and shared our thoughts about what we can do to help our school grounds, our environment and the food that we eat at Vinehall.
We decided to do a food survey to see what the other pupils in our school thought about the food every day for one week. The next meeting, we combined all the feedback we had received and the Year 8 pupils had a meeting with the head chef (Chef Michael) and talked about our food. Chef Michael shared the feedback with the Accent team. Now we are going to have more favourite food dishes such as Banoffee Pie, tomato soup, tacos and more to come.
House News
Paxton Charity Event
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
The children had a wonderful time picking tickets. Everyone was very generous and Paxton made nearly £300 for The Rocking Horse Charity. Thank you to everyone who took part and to the Paxton Children for bringing the filled cups and helping to organise the event.
Boarding
Katherine Kirkwood – Head of Boarding
On Friday evening we invited the Year 6 children for a taster night. They were treated to a game of 'Traitors' and then had dinner before revealing who the traitors were. Bedtime was slightly later than it should have been, but everyone had a fun evening. On Saturday morning the children went to the usual activities and then had a lazy afternoon watching movies and playing games.
On Sunday we got going early and went to Eastbourne for some shopping and lunch. When we returned there was a short library session before dinner and then Kelly had asked if we could make banana splits. I think that was the highlight of the weekend.