As one season rolls into the next, the Vinehall grounds showcase the very best of nature’s magic. Being surrounded by such beauty can be a powerful reminder for us to slow down and appreciate what we have. The Vinehall grounds are more than just an outdoor space; they are a celebration of nature’s beauty. As we gently move from Spring to Summer, from the vibrant gardens and peaceful woodland areas and carpets of bluebells to carefully maintained green spaces, Vinehall offers a calm and inspiring backdrop for learning and our happy community life.
When we take prospective parents on tours of the school, they stand in awe of nature's beauty which speaks for itself. That said, it is our engaged, polite and enthusiastic pupils who are the ones who really bring our tours to life. Your children mirror the peace, vibrancy and magic of the Vinehall landscape. From nearly every door being held open to let parents walk through, to the natural manner in which they speak with pride and love about their school. The joyous chirps of "Good Morning Mr and Mrs Powis!", to the energic and earnest waves from our Nursery children - all are like bursts of colour contributing to the tours. The genuine kindness of your children and the respect and attentiveness they show to those around them, reflect our values and make Vinehall feel like a welcoming family - not just a building.
We are sure that your children do not always open doors for you, nor do they possibly always greet you with a joyous "Good Morning!", a big smile and a wave (especially those parenting young teenagers) but they do it here every day at Vinehall for us, and for that we will always be thankful to them.
Liz and Joff
Nursery – All Aboard
Sarah Wolford - Head of Nursery & Kindergarten
Cardboard boxes offer a versatile and engaging resource for all areas of learning and development and what fun a simple cardboard box can bring to a group of children. With the support of the teachers, the children created a Train Station and The Vinehall Express! Throughout the week the children have been encouraged to demonstrate imaginative play, creativity, fine motor skills, mathematics and communication and language!
Who would have guessed that you could travel on The Vinehall Express as far as Turkey, America and even to Digger Land, which the children voted as the best destination ever!
Kindergarten
Cathy Fuggle - Kindergarten Teacher
All aboard! This week we have been chug, chug, chugging along learning all about trains. We have been looking at trains from the past and present, and enjoying looking at some videos and pictures Ozzie sent in from his steam train adventure. In maths we have been sequencing train carriages and in art we have been making our own trains. The children have been enjoying going on their own imaginative journeys in our role play trains and have been very diligent in checking that everybody has paid for their tickets!
Next stop on our transport journey is emergency vehicles.
Reception
Holly Newton - Reception Teacher
Following on from last week's VE Day celebrations and the prevalence of Union flags, Eva and Aurora were thrilled to spot a drain cover that resembled the Union flag on their way to lunch! We looked at the different shapes and patterns that were evident and used mosaic foam shapes to create our own Union flags. Aren't they super!
We enjoyed a final Forest School session for this year with Amy and Laura. These sessions have been invaluable in increasing each child’s confidence and self esteem through exploration, problem-solving and through being encouraged to learn how to assess and take appropriate risks.
We learnt that there are lots of Elder trees in our forest and that the wood from the Elder tree is soft and light and a yellowy white colour. They showed us how we could cut lengths of stick into sections and then use a skewers to hollow out the stem inside to make beads. We threaded the beads onto wool to make beautiful necklaces. By peeling off the bark, we could make patterns on some of our beads too. We also tried wood whittling. We carefully shaved slivers of wood from a stick to make long skewers to toast marshmallows over the fire with. These became part of delicious S’mores for snack time!
We had great fun dressing up and putting on shows for our friends too. The unstructured environment encouraged the children to use their imagination and creativity. They were developing problem-solving skills and building confidence in their own ability to perform to each other, which was marvellous to see.
Amy and Laura also taught us how to play a game called Ninja Run! We had to creep in turn across a bridge and if they heard us they squirted us with water. We had to try to avoid stepping on anything that made a sound or we got drenched!! The children agreed “this was the BEST FUN EVER!”
This week we have been finding out that insects have six legs and that some can fly. We were thrilled to spot lots of aphids in the forest and looked closely at their features with magnifying glasses, naming the different parts. We also learnt that butterflies are symmetrical and produced our own beautiful butterfly prints. It was so exciting to reveal each one!
Year 1
Jacklyn Garwood - Year 1 Teacher
It was another busy week in Year 1! The children began their unit on fractions in maths and experimented with ways of making ‘half’ of shapes and objects. Halving of numbers was also explored using objects from our classroom. Thank you to all the children who worked like Billy Bee to carefully return the many objects to their proper places! Sports day practice has begun and the children enjoyed the glorious sunshine, listening carefully and learning how to throw their ball properly in preparation for the ‘throwing contest.’ The children learned about the famous interior designer, William Morris, and printed their own designs of ‘The Strawberry Thief.’ Well done Year 1 for another productive week!
Year 2
Louise Hawtin - Year 2 Teacher
Year 2 were treated to a trip to Pizza Express this week, to see how pizzas are made. We talked about the ingredients involved and to which food groups these belong, before the children spread the tomato sauce, sprinkled on the cheese and watched them being put in the enormous oven. After this we were given a tour of the restaurant and everyone was amazed by the size of the fridge and the freezer ... it was also rather chilly! Once we left the restaurant we headed to Calverley Gardens to eat our pizzas and play in the sunshine. What a lovely morning!
Year 3 - Fruit, Shoot, Leaf or Root?
Carina Everist - Year 3 Teacher & Religious Studies Teacher Years 3-6
Year 3 classified different plant foods according to the part that we eat and made detailed observational drawings. As a plenary to the lesson, they had fun in the sun playing a game “Fruit or Veg?” to rehearse the distinction between fruit and vegetables.
Year 4 – Amex Stadium
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
Year 4 headed to Brighton on Tuesday where we met Ned's mum, who works at the Amex Stadium for the Seagulls. We enjoyed an amazing tour and even got to sit in the players' dressing room. The highlight for the children was meeting Gully, the mascot, which Mrs Easthope had arranged for them. They all came home with a flag and a lovely book, given to them by Mrs Easthope entitled '50 Ways into Football'. What a wonderful experience.
Year 4 - Humanities
In humanities we talked about the damage roads and cars cause our planet. The children spent some time do a survey counting the vehicles which past the school on the A21.
Year 5 – Hands on History
Year 5 had a fantastic morning when the 'Hands on History' team visited the school to run a variety of activities focused on the Vikings. The children learnt about their training and fighting techniques, handled examples of some of the weaponry that they would have used, watched a demonstration of a replica Mediaeval bow and discovered Viking legends.
The morning culminated in a 'Warrior Training' activity where the children were put through their paces as ancient warriors at the Battle of Stamford Bridge as they prepared to do battle with their terrible teachers. Well done Mr Higginson for volunteering for this part!
Year 7 – Forest School
Anna Webb – English Teacher
Year 7 combined last week to enjoy a sunny afternoon at Forest School. It was the most creative session we have had in the forest this year, and the children all made the most of the opportunity to work and play together. We foraged for young nettle tops to make nettle tea, drew animal skulls that had been discovered and used traditional yarn swinging techniques to make friendship bracelets. Our future leaders proved what a collaborative group they are!
Sport
Matt McKinnon - Director of Sport
It was another very busy sporting week, with Athletics at Dulwich on Friday, a return visit for the U8, U10 & U11 swimming gala on Tuesday and cricket fixtures against Claremont and St Andrew's on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
1st XI Boys v Claremont - An enjoyable and much-improved game. Although on the losing side, the bowlers performed well and we were able to bat for our 20 overs for the third week in a row.
2nd Team v Claremont - The boys' 2nd team played their first cricket match, delivering a good performance, losing narrowly by 18 runs. There were some impressive moments of both bowling and batting.
Colts A Boys - A much-improved batting performance from the group. Chasing 116, the team reached 106 for 4 in their 20 overs.
Colts B Boys - An improved effort from the team on the whole.
1st Girls v Claremont - Fantastic teamwork meant Mrs B was really impressed by the team and, although they lost, there were a number of highlights throughout the afternoon.
2nd Girls v Claremont - Outstanding performance with both bat and ball, with the entire team contributing brilliantly.
Colts A Girls v Claremont - The team fell narrowly short of reaching a challenging 266 run target, scoring 259. A great effort!
Colts B Girls v Claremont - Fun in the sun, was the way the game was described to me. A good performance with steady progress with bat and ball.
Last Friday the Vinehall Athletics team travelled away to the annual Dulwich Cranbrook Athletics meet. There were some excellent performances throughout, with wins in the 200m, 300m, and 800m. For the first time we included two Year 3 boys, Fergus C and Henry P, who ran extremely well against older boys and setting personal bests in the 300m. A great effort by all the team competing against very strong opposition.
On Tuesday a group of swimmers took on Dulwich and Sutton Valence in an enjoyable afternoon of swimming. With a number of the squad missing due to illness, we were never going to be able to compete for the win, but those who took part put in amazing effort, with a number of very good individual and relay performances.
EAL trip to Smugglers Adventure at St Clements Caves
08/05/2025
Several days ago, 19 EAL (and overseas) pupils, went to Hastings to see the caves, which were used as a bomb shelter during the war.
"We started our day by having one lesson, then changing into school tracksuits and heading to the front hall. After we gathered into two groups, we sat on the minibus towards Hastings, arriving there just after 10.15am. We had a nice break at West Hill Grounds. Afterwards, we went down just to realise there was a French group inside there, too! Soon after, we went down approximately 100 feet underground. We met Hairy Jack and, after a while, we went to try several things. Starting from lifting the materials, trying the gun from the war and more fun things. Then, Hairy Jack came back to the show. He told us what happened down in these Caves and how they had to spend time down here. That was the worst thing to hear. I took my time very carefully to look on all signages and even tried to talk with a ship using Morse code!
Afterwards, we saw a lot of people being trapped in the prison cells, and even a person hung up on the rope, in between the rocks. We took a lot of unforgettable pictures, just to share our memories. We then went to our bus to grab our packed lunches. I had tuna sandwich, with a pack of crisps, a chocolate bar and some fruit. It was delicious, and I was excited. You might ask why? Well, afterwards, we went down to the seafront in order to get an ice cream from Di Pola’s shop. I chose Salted Caramel. It was an extraordinary taste, and everyone enjoyed it. When we finished our delicious ice cream, we went down to the playground, and had a lovely 30 minutes playing around, and even going down to the beach. At approximately 1.40pm, we went back on our minibuses towards Vinehall, arriving just after lunch Activities.
Thank you, Ms Newcomb, for organising the trip! We all enjoyed it! 😊
By YA
Repton Schools international debating festival
Anna Webb – English Teacher
Last week, four talented Year 7 pupils were chosen to represent Vinehall in an international debating competition, marking an exciting milestone in their academic journey. Competing in the British Parliamentary style, our teams embraced a formal and intellectually rigorous format that tested their critical thinking and public speaking skills.
The motion for debate was a deeply philosophical one: Should we prioritise happiness over success? This thought-provoking question sparked lively discussion and challenged participants to reflect on their values and beliefs.
Teams from Repton schools across the globe — including Cairo, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi — joined online to provide strong competition, bringing diverse perspectives and articulate arguments to the table. Undaunted, our Vinehall pupils rose to the occasion with confidence, composure, and flair.
Their participation alone was a tremendous achievement — and one that brought both a sense of success and happiness. Well done to all involved! Seren K, Rhiain E, Ronen Z and Lily F.
Yoga on the front lawn
It has been Mental Health Awareness Week, and we have been finding meaningful ways to "fill our cups."
From bonding games in House Meetings, to practising new breathing techniques in Life Skills, our week has been full of moments that nurture wellbeing. We have explored box breathing and the 5-7 technique - simple but powerful ways to help us feel calm, focused and in control. On Thursday morning, our Eco Committee also led us on a peaceful guided walk through the bluebell woods.
In Year 6 Life Skills, we have been exploring the questions “What is mental health?” and “What does my mental health mean to me?” We have learned that mental health is like a set of scales - we need to keep them balanced. When life’s challenges feel heavy, support strategies can help us stay steady and regulate our emotions.
My own wellbeing was lifted this morning, thanks to Mrs E, who asked me to lead a Yoga Bananas session for 3E. The shining, happy souls and I enjoyed a beautiful session in the sunshine. We stood "on guard," sending light and love to a special person or animal, wore our magic spectacles to admire the bright blue sky, and painted the most epic butterfly - complete with rainbow lips, pink ears, indigo wings and a sky-blue backpack!
How will you promote your mental health and wellbeing today?
Rug Club
Louise Barrett - Head of Juniors
Ivy finished her rug! Another lovely one.
Boarding
Katherine Kirkwood – Head of Boarding
The boarders had a lovely weekend. On Saturday evening we went into Hastings for the 'Hastings Gang Show'; it was great fun and by the end we were all singing and waving in our chairs. It was a very English performance with Mr Bean, really bad Morris Dancers and a skit from Blind Date.
On Sunday we were up early and, after a big breakfast, we spent the day at Drusilla's zoo. The weather was gorgeous; we ate donuts and had a picnic lunch before heading home for a water fight. Then it was back to reality and getting ready for the coming week.
COMING SOON ...
Joff and Eddy warmly invite parents from Vinehall and Marlborough House to Drinks and Canapés on Tuesday 20th May, 7.00-9.00pm on the Front Lawn at Vinehall.
This will be an opportunity for families from both schools to come together for a social event.
Drinks Party - Tuesday 20th May 2025 - Booking Form
If you would like to join us, to assist with catering, we would kindly ask you to RSVP by completing the booking form above by Monday 19th May 2025