IN LOVING MEMORY
We dedicate this edition of Life at Somerhill to our much-loved colleague and friend, Noleen Hammond, who suddenly and tragically passed away a few weeks ago. Noleen started her time at Somerhill in the Pre-Prep section of the school, over 15 years ago, and moved into accounts during the second half of her time with us. She was known to many in the Somerhill community for her incredible warmth, positivity and happiness. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her.
We offer our thoughts and prayers to Noleen’s family at this incredibly sad time.
Somerhill Music
Spring Instrumental Concert
We were delighted to once again host our annual Spring Concert in the Bickmore Hall this half-term. Over 180 performers took part in this wonderful showcase of the depth and breadth of music at Somerhill.
The concert started and ended with performances by the 75+ member orchestra, finishing with a stirring performance of Danse Macabre. Throughout the evening we were entertained with beautifully played pieces by flute groups, guitar groups, string groups, a clarinet and sax group and a brass group. In addition, Year Three children entertained us with three ukulele pieces and Year Six students played their boomwhackers to two contemporary pieces. Enthusiastically, the large crowd of friends and family joined in with the Year Five African Drumming Group performing in the five different parts of ‘Kuku’, a traditional African piece.
A huge thank you to Jane Findlay, Steph Vidler and all the peripatetic teachers who helped prepare the children for the concert.
Year Six Music Soirée
There was an atmosphere of complete calm in our Somerhill Year Six Soirée, with the children shouldering the responsibility of what it is to rise through the school, so expectations were high. There was such a variety of instruments on show, displaying the breadth of instrumental tuition on offer at Somerhill, with every orchestral family represented, including violin, flute, clarinet, trombone, drums, piano and guitar. Our more experienced musicians rubbed shoulders with those children who have only just started out on their musical journey, and much support was given by parents, teachers and peers. The high expectation was certainly fulfilled as all the children performed with control, confidence and flair, giving us yet another wonderful Soirée to be proud of.
What a Performance!
Drama at Somerhill
Year Shakespeare Rocks
Year Six YC boys brought the house down with their amazing production of 'Shakespeare Rocks'. With fantastic singing and lots of laughs, pupils enjoyed performing to a full house on both nights. Well done to all the boys and a huge thank you to Ms Jones, Mr Leach and Ms Findlay for all their hard work behind the scenes.
After the performances, the reviews came in thick and fast.
"I laughed and smiled my head off the whole way through. What verve and fun they all seemed to have." - Parent
"We thought it was truly outstanding in so many ways but what stood out was the passion and fun the boys were having and the hard work and passion that Miss Jones has clearly put into this musical. It was an absolute pleasure to watch and see our boys thrive out there in so many different ways." - Parent.
Year Four - Just So Stories
What a triumph! Year Four donned their best animal outfits and spun a series of yarns re-telling Rudyard Kipling's animal tales with confidence. The group of friends, who acted as narrators, told tales such as ' 'How the Camel got his Hump', 'How the Rhinoceros got his Skin', 'How the Leopard got his Spots', 'The Elephant's Child', 'The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo' and 'The Beginning of the Armadillos'.
Year Four Aesop's Fables
The Yardley Court Year Four boys took to the stage on Thursday evening, delighting us with their modern take on Aesop’s Fables. Linked skilfully by narrators, small groups of boys enacted eight of Aesop’s Fables, including The Hare and the Tortoise (set in a classroom where an overly confident hare learns a lesson in life from a hard-working tortoise) and The Lion and the Mouse (where three over-confident hunters become a meal for a hungry lion who had been caught in their net, but rescued by a friendly mouse). It was great to see the smiles on the faces of the boys as they received the well-deserved applause of the crowd at the end of their performances.
Shakespeare Schools Film Festival
It was wonderful to receive such positive feedback from the Shakespeare Schools Film Festival for our Macbeth film submission, "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
"This was a regal and confident Macbeth from a brilliantly collaborative ensemble. We have been so impressed by your brilliant commitment and fearless creativity; it's been a joy to have you involved in the project this year...It's no small feat to plan, shoot and edit a whole Shakespearean film adaption, and we hope that you are deservedly feeling extremely proud of all you have achieved".
Well done to all the children involved and many thanks to Miss Jones and Mr Shute for all their hard work behind the scenes.
Art at Somerhill
Year Three have started a new project: 'Space'. They are looking at the 8 planets of our solar system, creating a very large final piece of work displaying the planets in the correct orbit order. They have learnt how to use marbling paints to create beautifully coloured and patterned paper to cut their planets from.
Year Four have finished their tribal masks project. Pupils have studied and learnt about geometric pattern, low relief and negative space to create brightly patterned and decorated tribal masks from cardboard.
Year Five, as part of their observational studies, have drawn some superb skull studies using monotone chalk pastels influenced by the artist Georgia O'Keefe.
Year Seven are working on abstract self-portraits inspired by the styles and techniques of a range of famous artists.
Year Eight are expanding their ideas on the project title 'Reflections'; each individual re-visiting, exploring and refining a range of artistic techniques to express their response. The initial exercise was a straightforward still life scene set on mirrors, sketched with soft graphite pencils cultivating their tonal shading skills.
Tonbridge School Hayward Gallery
Year Six have visited the OBS Gallery at Tonbridge School to view the Hayward Gallery 's touring exhibition 'General Dynamic F.U.N.', by the Pop Artist, Eduardo Paolozzi. This complements their current 'Pop Art' project, where they are beginning to experimenting with collage and printmaking techniques.
House Activities
House General Knowledge
House general knowledge is a general knowledge quiz where students from each of the school houses work in teams of four to answer questions about all manner of topics (geography, maths, literature, sports, science, films pop culture etc).
This year they had a strict time limit to complete 153 questions. Windemere won for Derwent Lodge followed by Grasmere, Ullswater and Coniston. For Yardley Court Ashmore won followed by Marques and Nicolson tied for 2nd and Hudson 4th.
House Charity Day
This half-term Ashmore and Coniston teamed up to raise money for Marie Curie. They sold hot chocolate with toppings and a sweet treat provided by the catering team. Ashmore and Coniston pupils, along with staff, lined up to provide an efficient production line serving the ravenous masses! The sale was a huge success and the grand total made was £448.56.
Year Eight Visit to Hampton Court
Year Eight traveled to Hampton Court Palace to learn more about the rulers who lived there in the Seventeenth Century.
First the boys explored the grand Tudor rooms that their Stuart cousins used to display their kingly might. Later, the boys noted the changes that the sober Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell made to the palace, as well as viewing a wealth of artworks on display and touring the extensions built after the Glorious Revolution. The boys were amazed by some of the artworks and artefacts on display – one of the most asked questions of the day was,
“Is this real?”
It was wonderful to see the boys engaging with their learning outside the classroom, whilst honing their PSB skills as they looked for clues about the rulers whose footsteps they were following in.
Bede's Galactic Challenge
At the end of January, a group of twelve Year Six girls and Year Eight boys headed down to Bede’s Senior School in East Sussex for the 2023 Galactic Challenge.
They were tasked with creating a lunar holiday resort in the future of 2073. Our students were split into 2 different teams, Infinity and Hyperion, where they met other students whom they had to work with for the day. Some took on leadership roles, while others showed their creativity in the fields of science, engineering, marketing and strategic planning. This would normally be a very difficult task with numerous aspects to consider and organise, but trying to put this on the moon as well made it really very challenging!
All their work culminated in a 15-minute presentation and question and answer session to a hall full of judges, parents and the other teams competing for the winner’s prize. Our students did exceptionally well to communicate their ideas and answered some tricky questions about their futuristic holiday resort on the moon. Although neither team won, our space engineers performed brilliantly and demonstrated a variety of skills throughout the day. A massive well done to all involved!
Rowland Constantine Shield
Four buzzing quiz brains from Years Five to Eight forged a strong team this year to compete in the Rowland Constantine Shield - General knowledge competition, with the first round held at New Beacon School.
The quiz was made up of ten rounds of increasing difficulty on a broad range of topics; split between individual and team rounds. Featuring questions from Greek Mythology to The Human Body! The Somerhill team scored a commendable 41 points, narrowly missing out on the finals.
Maths Race
8 of our Year Five students competed at the Mayfield School maths race showing great teamwork, problem-solving & mathematical skills. Challenged with 4 activities, it was a close-run event with both our teams scoring full marks in the logic round. Overall, our team of Toby, Arlo, Emily & Amariah came 9th (152 points) and the team of Darcie, Sophie, Marcus & Jacob finished 5th (158 points). We look forward to hosting our own maths race in May for children in Year Four and Year Five.
Sports
Alessio Russo - A Euro Champion!
Following on from their assembly on values, the girls (and boys) at Somerhill had a special visit from the talented Lioness, Alessia Russo. What an incredible treat for all involved! She answered questions from the children, talked about her inspirations, and gave some sound advice.
"You've always got to follow your dreams and not let anyone else affect how you feel about something you love."
She then took the Year Three and Four girls to the Astro pitch for a fun football training session. A true inspiration for all our girls.
Rugby
Our Yardley Court boys have enjoyed a half-term full of Rugby matches, festivals and training. All boys have developed and learnt new skills as they progress through their respective age grades, alongside showing great bravery, commitment and teamwork. After half-term, they can look forward to more matches/festivals, with House Matches finishing the season at the end of term.
Hudson 7s
On Saturday Yardley Court welcomed six schools from Kent and Sussex to our annual Hudson 7s Festival, competing in the U12 and U13 age groups. Over the afternoon 140 pupils played Rugby in a ‘round-robin’ style festival, gaining 3 points for a win, 2 for a draw and a losing bonus point if they scored half of the winning sides' score. Rugby 7s is a tough format, whereby you play on a 12-a-side pitch with just seven players; teamwork, stamina, speed, skill and resilience are all key factors in being successful.
Congratulations to Hazelwood U13s and Windlesham House U12s for coming out on top in their respective festivals.
A huge thank you to our grounds team for ensuring the top and lower terraced pitches were looking fantastic. Thank you also to our Somerhill sports staff for refereeing, our catering team for providing refreshments all afternoon, Mr Davis for running the scoring table and Mr Shute for the awesome drone footage below!
Netball Tournament Wins
2 tournament wins for Derwent Lodge recently have put them firmly on the netball map! The U8 girls came back as winners of the tournament at Hazelwood whilst the U9Bs were victorious at the St Michael's tournament. Both teams showed their ball-handling skills with strong and confident passes.
Swimming
Huge congratulations to Somerhill pupils Emily Tarr, Miriam Fok, Michael Apostolou and Henry Webb, who all qualified for the Kent County Swimming Championships this half-term.
Rookie Lifeguarding at Somerhill
The Rookie Lifeguarding club at Somerhill has continued to make a splash this term with groups now working towards their Gold and Silver level awards. This term we have focused on a variety of different skills and scenarios from performing CPR, to rescuing casualties in the water and surface diving. Good luck to all Rookie Lifeguard recruits as they head into their final assessment week for their certificates.
Striving for Excellence Talk
Swimmer and businesswoman, Angela Wilson, came to Somerhill to speak about “Striving for Excellence.” An inspirational woman, the girls loved hearing her story about resilience and dedication!
Burns Night
Somerhill celebrated a ‘reet guid’ Burns Night. Kicking off with a Champagne reception in the Mansion Hall, guests were then welcomed into a transformed, candlelit Long Library where they were treated to a lively rendition of the Address to a Haggis and a delicious four course meal courtesy of Phillip, Sally and our brilliant catering team at Somerhill.
Later, dancing shoes were donned and, with thanks to the ‘Skinners Rats’ band, the Mansion Hall was filled with whooping, twirling and stamping feet! Thank you to everyone who was involved in organising the event, and to everyone who came and embraced the Scottish spirit - Slainte!