Vinelines 18 October 2024

This Friday saw Pre-Prep literally bursting with activity. The morning started with our parents visiting the Book Fair ahead of one of our favourite family activities at this time of our school year – our Autumn Walk. Our parents, grandparents, children and even some dogs spent a wonderful hour walking through our beautiful grounds. We could not have wished for a more spectacular Autumn morning – truly evoking ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.

This week the refrain “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!”, has been ringing out from Reception as we have been enjoying the traditional tale as our text for the week. We baked our own gingerbread people, keeping a very close eye on them to make sure they weren’t going to leap out of the oven and run away! We had lots of fun making them, and even more fun eating them!

The Year 1 children came to school dressed as people from ‘The Olden Days’ on Tuesday. They listened carefully to each other as they shared who they were and why they were dressed this way. It was lovely to hear the children working like Billy Bee asking and answering questions with one another. We worked together to form a ‘Human timeline’, ordering ourselves from the oldest people to the most present! Another fabulous week of learning from Year 1 - well done!

Year 2 have worked so hard to make fire engines this week. They have painted their boxes, sawed the wood to make the axles the right length and have added ladders, hoses, lights and sirens. Everyone was proud of their finished engines, which will be on display after half-term.

We were also treated to Zephan N playing the Cello for us in assembly on Wednesday. He played with confidence and the children enjoyed singing along.

At Vinehall, we are proud of our Global Outlook. The 12th October is a day to celebrate the Spanish language across the world. With Annabel Newcomb's help, Year 7 and Year 8 children learning Spanish and EAL worked together to cook a Spanish recipe. Teams had to read the recipe in Spanish, weigh and measure the ingredients, make and bake delicious magdalenas.

Of course, everyone enjoyed tasting them sprinkled with canela (cinnamon).

¡Qué aproveche!

On Tuesday eight Year 6 pupils with a passion for drama were very lucky to enjoy a special event at Eastbourne College. After some fun warm-up activities and drama games, they worked with a vocal coach on a section of the script for a spooky mystery radio play, 'The Monkey's Paw'. The children then had a session with a Foley Artist, a sound designer who creates realistic audible effects for movies, TV shows and other media, learning many of the tricks of a very complex trade. Before a delicious lunch, pupils from three primary schools were split into two groups for DT or a French Escape Room.

Children volunteered to be either actors or on sound effects and, after another quick run-through, parents were invited to attend for tea and a special public recording of the radio play. We will be receiving a link to listen to their efforts.

I was hugely proud of the children, who represented Vinehall so well, being enthusiastic, talented, appreciative and very well behaved.

The Drawing Room was full of excited children on Thursday morning as each class took turns to visit the Book Fair. It was lovely to see their sheer enthusiasm and joy as they discovered new books. A big thank you to Rosie Hill, our local bookseller, for bringing such a huge range of books to appeal to every age group and interest.