Dear OFS Community,
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
Charles Dickens
On Monday we met Charlotte, from Winston’s Wish who came to share a few stories of the work that she and her colleagues do to support children who are facing the loss of a parent. She shared simple starting points, the creation of memory boxes to collect photos, stories and precious items to help; the idea of planting up a small garden area for reflection and she introduced a ‘worry monster’ a place to put written notes overnight, zipped up tight so that we can let go.
It was fascinating watching pupils engaging with these thoughts and whilst we as adults, tend to shy away from holding such conversations, children are often far more capable than us!
Milan made a wonderful impromptu speech describing the fun that we have all had over the past year, raising funds but also thanking Charlotte for coming to talk to us. On behalf of the school, Milan presented a cheque for £9,846.42
Science trip to New Scientist Live at ExCeL
Year 8 have visited the New Scientist Live festival at ExCeL London last Friday, a trip filled with lots of exciting moments both at and on the way to the venue, as part of the journey was on the Elizabeth line! Our students were able to meet the scientists and engineers who are shaping the world of science and technology and got up close and personal with immersive scientific activities, ranging from remote robotic surgery, VR activities, robots and experiments, to a pop-up planetarium and the chance to experience 'the smell of space'.
Describe the trip in one word:
Please rate the trip out of 10:
What was the highlight of the trip?
Science Back at Basecamp!
Yr5 were looking at changing state, through the impact of heat. I was so impressed with the language being used as they talked about the thermal properties of materials, insulators or conductors of heat. However, the highlight is seeing the wonder and the questions that follow!
Yr8 were problem-solving to explain why they were getting differing results as they built the limestone cycle. Having heated calcium carbonate, they added water, filtered the mixture and bubbled CO2 through in the hope that it would turn milky. Universal indicator fluid was used to test the ph…results varied and this is where the Science really began…
Classics Week
A huge thank you to Mrs De Freitas for organising a wonderful week of activities and workshops that brought a little context to our lives as we look back at past civilisations and cultures that continue to shape ours today. I have no doubt that opportunities like this lead to the most extraordinary places…
I liked the Assembly because I enjoyed looking at all the costumes and artwork and the song was brilliant!’
Arya Yr6
I quite liked the song ‘Just Like a Roman’ in our Assembly. I learnt new Latin words such as ‘precamini’ which means pray.’
Jeet Yr6
I liked Classics Week because the Assembly was fun with the song. I enjoyed eating 2 bags of popcorn when watching the movie ‘Pompei the Last Day’, and I learnt a lot about how Pompei was destroyed’
Liam Yr6
I loved Classics Week because there were so many activities to do. I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt and the song.’
No Name!
Classics Week was so much fun and got to do so many activities. On Wednesday, we got to dress up as Roman or Greek gods and Year 8 sang a song about the Romans, it was very enjoyable. On Friday we learnt about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and I learnt so much more about it.’
Vedika Yr6
Y4 Hockey
I was so impressed with our four Hockey teams who had their first competitive fixture of the season against Belmont. There was some really fast end to end play happening and both schools got better and better as the games went on. I suspect that as fatigue kicked in, they learnt to move the ball faster with passes and we were treated to some really good hockey. This bodes well for the future!
Holland Football Tour
Our touring team met at 4:45am to catch their bus this morning – one mum commented that her son had been up since 3am, so I think that it’s fair to say that there’s more than a little excitement about this trip. Mr Bloom will be posting comments via our Twitter feed, but we wish them all well and look forward to hearing about their adventures.
Greenpower
Congratulations to everyone involved in Greenpower, past and present! We were delighted to be invited to the final. Whilst we were largely up against senior schools and even international schools, we achieved some pretty impressive results:
From 83 competitors the results for F24 Rocketman were:
- Race 1 - 49th & 23rd in our category
- Race 2 - 37th & 13th in our category
It was a great day, and the team worked so well together. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the 2021-2022 season and we’re looking forward to the new season which starts next year! A huge thank you to Mr Du Plessis, Mr Morris and Mr Birdi who made this possible.
Talking of gratitude, I was delighted to read the following prayers written by Isha and Flora in Yr2.
I wish our whole community a restful half term break…my family have been asking when we are going to put the heating on, ‘not until November’ was my reply! So long walks, evenings under the blanket, hot chocolate and a shop for woolly jumpers await the Calvey household!
Tim Calvey