HOLME GRANGE NEWSLETTER 1 2014/15 - 1

HOLME GRANGE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER TO PARENTS 9th December 2014

In this issue:

Little Grange

Pre-Prep

Inspiring change

Christmas Fayre

Science quiz

Advent calendars

The Big Draw

Gymnastics

Book bench

Goats

English

Sculpture

Body language

Sport

PAA news

From the Headteacher: Dear Parents,

We have enjoyed a very festive end of term, with the many events that make this time of year so special. There has been such a seasonal atmosphere of joy and creative exuberance at Holme Grange as we near Christmas. The pupils enjoyed their Christmas lunches where crackers were pulled, hats donned and jokes told.

At this time of year it is easy to get caught up in the rush and forget what is important. For those of us who believe, a little child lies at the heart of our thoughts and focus, a child with the crudest of beds but the gifts of Kings, a child who would grow up to change our thinking with his extraordinary openness and acceptance of everyone, but whose inclusivity others found shocking. For those who don’t believe, it’s still a powerful story with some good moral teachings; ones we find underlying every day at Holme Grange.

The community spirit was very much at the heart of the Christmas Fayre last Saturday which was an extraordinary event. A real buzz from a community working together; smiles, fun, giving, sharing and so many people tirelessly working to make it happen before, on the day, and to clear it away. There was truly something for everyone. The house stalls were particularly successful, together

raising over £900 which is an amazing achievement. Trent were the winners, with £282 followed by Thames £238, Severn £226 and Kennet £186. Severn were the winners of the Best Decorated Stall – well done.

Thank you to all those who planned, those who came, those who sang, those who cooked and served, our local traders who joined us, those who made things to sell and those who bought them and all who played a vital part in organising it and making it sensational. Our special visitors from Frozen and of course Santa, made the day even more special.

Thank you to everyone this term who has very generously supported a number of charities and good causes mentioned in the Inspiring Change section of the newsletter. The school ends the calendar year in excellent shape and in very good heart. We look forward to more exciting plans for 2015. The new building is coming on, a little behind schedule but the builders are working hard to get everything done and we are awaiting the decision on our plans for the theatre and music school.

I thank you all for your continuing support for the School. Pupils, parents and staff all equally deserve a wonderful rest over the break and so can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Little Grange & Pre-Prep

Hey Ewe !

The excitement all began last Wednesday with our first performance of ‘Hey Ewe!’. Our musical Nativity was performed by children in Little Grange and Pre-Prep with Year 2 taking the lead roles.

Christmas came early to Pre-Prep and Little Grange!

Pre-Prep and Little Grange fully embraced the festivities of the season.

Seen through the eyes of a particularly excitable and curious sheep, the traditional Christmas

story unfolded with our fantastic Year 2 narrators and included a gospel choir of angels and calypso-ing Kings! Hey Ewe! played to highly appreciative audiences for two matinees.

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children joining in with the singing and dancing. Not

forgetting... ‘He’s behind you!’

Christingles

Year 1 recently visited St Paul’s Church where they made Christingles. Not to be left out Reception and Year 2 enjoyed a Christingle workshop on Tuesday morning in school.

Thank you to Ms Hill for organising this and for reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas!

Cakes and jumper biscuits

All of Pre-Prep and Little Grange participated in some seasonal baking. Little Grange and Reception joined forces in the Nursery where they made baskets and cooked Christmas biscuits! Reception children also made mini-Christmas cakes with Mrs Harling and Years 1 and 2

baked and decorated Christmas jumper biscuits!

More food!

The festivities continued with a traditional Christmas lunch prepared for us by our fantastic

team of kitchen staff. In true festive style the children proudly donned their party hats which they had designed and made themselves! It was then time to put on our party clothes!

Oh yes it is: another panto!

The final treat on our last day was a pantomime by the talented Eaton Grange…’Sleeping Beauty!’

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of the Pre Prep and Little Grange!

J. Fifield & M. Casey

Living Nativity

The play was followed by our trip to London Zoo to experience the magic of Christmas with their Living Nativity!

Reception through to Year 2 went on a journey through the scenes of the Nativity to meet the Wise Men and their camels, see Mary in the stable and talk to the shepherds as they tended their flock. We also met Father Christmas in his Grotto!

Panto - Aladdin

This week our Christmas celebrations continued with a performance of ‘Aladdin’ from

Pyramid Pantomimes. It was an interactive performance with the

Little Grange & Pre-Prep

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The following children won an assortment of OLN mugs and bags for their fundraising efforts: Dominic Brewer 8EG, Sam Nike 7EG, Sam Brewer 6A, Holly Gascoyne 5B, Reuben Gericke 4L, Shaan Sullivan 3C, Adam Lethbridge 2K, Albert Simpson 1K, Caitlin Ledger RF and Emma El Jundi LG. Together these

children alone raised nearly £600!

In addition to this, on Friday evening we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas concert during which children from all over the school performed for their parents and

friends. The talents ranged from singing to group instrumentalists, including a tub-thumping African drum section of which the Kenyan children would have been very proud. Here too, we held a

collection during the interval intended for OLN scholarships. At the school Carol Service, another collection was taken. Already, Holme Grange is supporting the scholarships of two children and

now we are able to sponsor the academic aspirations of a third child.

We extend to the community of Our Lady of Nazareth School our thoughts and prayers during this joyful time of Advent. We

remember them in our class

Our Lady of Nazareth School

Towards the end of October we had a Big Walk event when every child in the school was sponsored by their families and friends to walk a certain distance through the autumnal woods around our school.

This was followed by a festive cake sale. The children baked their own cakes, cookies and

other sweet treats to sell. We raised over £2,000 for the community of Our Lady of Nazareth School, in Kenya.

assemblies and Carol Service and pray for God’s blessings upon them. We wish them a very

Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year in 2015. A. Rex

Peace One Day

On 19 September, the staff and

pupils of Holme Grange School made a pledge for peace, especially after such a turbulent summer of conflict, through the campaign ‘Peace One Day’. Everyone formed P E A C E on the Show Lawn. The pupils were

urged to consider peace in their own lives through a campaign of posters around the school: ‘Make me an Instrument of Peace’.

This has encouraged dialogue and debate in Religious Education, Philosophy, PSHCE

and LS lessons. A. Rex

Inspiring change Charity begins at Holme

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. Mother Teresa

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Eaton Grange Harvest Festival and Carols

Leading up to Christmas, the children in Eaton Grange went to WADE to sing carols to the residents.

Earlier on in the term, the children of Holme Grange School celebrated Harvest Festival and the children’s many generous food donations were given to WADE and the Wokingham Foodbank.

The theme of the Harvest

Festival was ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’. The children considered just how fortunate they are living in the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland of ‘pleasant pastures and mountains green’. Furthermore, the children realise that it is important to give back to, and care for, their local community. A. Rex

Prep School Science success

Holme Grange pupils in Years 5&6 secured first place in the National Science Inter-School Quiz Championship for 2014-15 (South East Heats) held at Eton End PNEU School, Datchet.

Questions covered a wide selection of science topics up to the depths of Key Stage 3. The industrious and enthusiastic team comprised: Aarit 6O, Guy 6O, Megan 5W and Flavia 5W. Their achievement was fantastic. With a score of 1,900 points we are now competing for the National Semi-Final, culminating

in the National Finals in the Spring term. P. Panshikar

Online Advent

Year 4 pupils have been thinking about ‘simple acts of kindness’ for Advent and have produced web-based Advent Calendars in their ICT lessons. To view their thoughts and advice please visit 4 Elm’s site at https://sites.google.com/a/holmegrange.org/4-elm-s-advent

-calendar-2014/ and 4 Larch’s site at https://sites.google.com/a/holmegrange.org/4-larch-s-advent-calendar-2014/

N. Hitchcock

Christmas Fayre visitors

Every year we are very lucky to

secure the services of Father Christmas for the Christmas Fayre and, even though this year’s Fayre was closer to Christmas than usual, Santa nevertheless managed to fit us into his busy schedule.

Additionally, through his closely guarded top level list of contacts, FC managed to obtain the services of three other special guests who not only managed to drop in to do a Fayre promo in

Friday’s assembly but were generously made available by their agents to come to the Fayre. The special visitors gave up their Saturday to travel a great distance to attend the Fayre, where they kindly posed for photographs with the children and key members of the school community.

Congratulations to Trent for raising the most money from their house stall. £282!

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Matisse mania

Pupils, staff and parents took part in ‘The Big Draw’, the world’s biggest drawing festival, in early October. The week long event culminated in an exhibition in the Art Room.

The Prep School made chickens, ducks, doves and leaves and Pre-Prep and Little Grange made

decorated elephants in honour of ‘Elmer Day’, as described in the children’s book, ‘Elmer’ by David McKee.

Year 8 spent a lesson teaching Little Grange how to make multi-coloured hand prints and turn

them into elephants.

The children enjoyed making the bright and colourful cut paper artwork, inspired by Henri Matisse; many staff and parents were also surprised by their own creativity and how therapeutic the process was! No doubt some

participants were inspired by the recent Matisse ‘The Cut-Outs’ exhibition at Tate Modern.

C. Saynor

For more information about The Big Draw, and other drawing events in which you can get involved, please see their website:

http://www.thebigdraw.org/

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Prep School

Gymnastics success

Well done to Georgia who attended the 2014 Pinewood Gymnastics Club Award Ceremony, where she was presented with a number of awards in recognition of her achievements over the past year.

They included: being selected to represent the South Region Gymnastics Squad at a National Final, being selected for Pathway Performance Gymnastics and representing her club in both individual and team competitions.

DATES

TO REMEMBER

PAA Meeting Wednesday, 14th January

Open Morning Friday, 16th January

Parents’ Evenings : Rec-Y4 Tuesday, 3rd February Wednesday, 4th February

PAA Quiz Night Friday, 6th February

Parents’ Evenings : Y5-8 Tuesday, 3rd March Wednesday, 4th March

Year 2 Concert Thursday, 9th February

School Play - ’Seussical’ Thursday, 19th March Friday, 20th March Saturday, 21st March

PAA Dinner Dance Saturday, 16th May

Books about Town

Abigail 6A won a Book Bench Drawing Competition.

In the summer the National Literacy Trust placed 50 benches all over London. The benches were part of ‘Books about Town’, and were made by artists to celebrate reading for fun. The

benches all looked very different and children were asked to think about what they thought a Shakespeare themed bench should look like and to draw a picture of a bench that reminded them of Shakespeare.

Abigail’s drawing perfectly represents ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

The prize includes: £100 worth of Shakespeare books for Holme Grange School and a family ticket to the Shakespeare Globe Exhibition with Tour, plus some playground goodies. Well done Abigail! For more information see the ‘Books about Town’ website: http://

www.booksabouttown.org.uk/

New term - new arrivals!

The children were excited at the start of term to find the school had acquired two new male pygmy goats – the HG goats – Horatio and Goliath, both pygmies, were born on June

28th. Horatio is brown with a white patch and Goliath is tri-colour. Despite their appearance they are quite hardy and able to adapt to most climates. Their primary diet consists of greens and grains. Pygmy goats are often affectionate if they are

treated with respect.

Emilia’s Advent picture

See page 5 for Year 4 online Advent Calendars.

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English Department News

As always the Autumn term has

been a busy one in the English Department with debating competitions, performance poetry and the annual Book Fair. The children have all enjoyed the various events and it has been a

pleasure to watch them flourish. Children in Years 3 and 4 have already had a flavour of their Shakespeare plays for the year, pupils in Years 5 – 8 will be commencing their Shakespearean studies next

term, while the Pre-Prep children will undertake their experiences in the Summer term.

Back in October four of our Year 7 children travelled to Sherfield School with Mrs Walden to take part in a debating competition. The pupils all performed brilliantly and visibly grew in confidence and expertise as the

day progressed. We were thrilled when Gabriel and Annabel came third overall against some really tough opposition. Next term we will be wishing our Year 6 and 7 pupils luck as they compete in

the Bradfield College Public Speaking Competition. They have all been asked to put in some practice over the Christmas holiday so some constructive

criticism from parents would be

most welcome!

In November the school held its annual Performance Poetry Competitions both in-house and for the wider Prep School community. Once again the standard was high and both events were highly entertaining and inspirational. The in-house competition saw Hawks winning the Pre-Prep award, Chestnut winning the Prep School category and Willow taking the overall

prize for their empathetic and moving performance of ‘In Memoriam’, particularly fitting as the competition was held on Remembrance Day. The following week we welcomed six other prep schools to compete for in

our Performance Poetry Competition. Some were returners to the event and we were delighted that Yateley Manor fielded a team for the first time as well. We were joined by Tim Head from Wellington College and Deborah Gummery from Luckley House who were superb judges and gave excellent feedback to all competitors. Trophies and medals were on offer for a group performance, a

duet and individual performances. It was a tough competition but I am delighted to say that Holme Grange took first place – for the first time in a

number of years – in the group category. Waverley School won the individual group and Bishopsgate took first prize in the duets. We look forward to welcoming all the schools back next year for another fabulous afternoon of poetic performance.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who supported our Book Fair this year, despite an initially slow start we had sold over £800 worth of books by the end of the week enabling me to

purchase £420 worth of books to replenish old library stock throughout the school. This is much appreciated as books are so important in the lives of our children and incredibly expensive to replace. Once again the Fair

has been booked for the same week next year.

In January we look forward to welcoming Curtis Jobling to school. Best known as the creator of ‘Bob the Builder’.

Curtis is also a prolific children’s author writing books suitable for all age ranges. He will be in school on the 22nd January and children will be able to purchase signed copies of his latest books

on the day. If you would like to find out a little more about him before the day please visit www.curtisjobling.com for further information. R. Cox

Upper School

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Body language

Mike Carter, from Body Language

Workshops, gave a very interesting session to Eaton Grange pupils. He explained that most communication is not verbal and told us how important it is that we are aware of the non-verbal signals our bodies demonstrate. It was a very useful session and although the boys still find it hard not to put their hands in their pockets at least they now know why they shouldn’t! C. Kennedy

As part of their Art and ICT Eaton Grange Experience, Year 8 visited the New Art Centre at

Roche Court, near Salisbury, in November.

Children had the rare opportunity to gain first hand experience of large scale pieces of sculpture and other artworks by important

living artists such as Mark Wallinger and Gavin Turk.

The visit developed critical thinking skills through discussion of the artworks and talking about ideas such as Land Art, Conceptual Art and Public Art.

In the second part of the Eaton Grange Experience, Year 8 will design and make their own prototype for a sculpture in the school grounds using new technology. They have been using 3D modelling software to design their models which will be printed on our new 3D printer. Watch this space! C. Saynor

Public sculpture

Eaton Grange

HOUSE POINTS PREP TOTAL PRE-PREP

KENNET 2955 1830 1125

SEVERN 2915 1775 1140

THAMES 2995 1680 1315

3045 TRENT 1885 1160

HOUSE POINTS

End of Term Totals

1st - Kennet (2710 points)

2nd - Severn (2615 points)

3rd - Trent (2595 points)

4th - Thames (2565 points)

Top House Points Scorers

Junior / Pre-Prep

Kennet – Lottie Cox (120),

Leon Briggs (120)

Trent – Jack Lewis (115), Sacha Plume (115)

Severn – Amy Collier (105)

Senior / Years 5 – 8

Kennet - Ava Truswell (100)

Trent - Tejas Jain (95)

Thames - Freya Neave & Chloe Showell (95)

Severn - Richard Deeks & Alice Clayton (95)

Students with Mark Wallinger's ‘The White Horse’ (2013) © the artist and the New Art

Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park

Students with Peter Randall Page's

‘Parting Company II' (1996) and Kenneth Armitage's ‘Pandarus’ (1962) © the art-

ists and the New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park

Students looking at the Gavin Turk

Exhibition: 'We are One', with 'The Ob-serving Eye' (2012) © the artist and the

New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park Court Sculpture Park

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BOYS’ SPORT Our aim as a department is for pupils to ENJOY, PARTICIPATE

and ACHIEVE. We give pupils plenty of opportunities to play sport and achieve their goals.

Although sport is more

enjoyable when you are winning it is not the most important aspect. The values of sport and the experience are far more important and hopefully pupils realise this when they are here

and even after they have left Holme Grange. All the positives of sport can clearly benefit and complement what pupils do in the academic classroom.

During PE this term, Prep School pupils have also been playing basketball and table tennis. Next term will be dodgeball and gymnastics. They also have an array of after school activities.

Under 12/13s with Mr Neil Harvey,

Head of Football, Wellington College

BOYS’ SPORT

Our main focus has been football with over 110 boys playing in excess of 130 matches. Every week all boys from Year 3-8 have been involved in a match.

It is always so difficult to choose our trophy winners with so many pupils contributing in positive

ways.

We have had plenty of success this year with our weekly matches and tournaments.

U10A Winners at St George’s

Tournament

Our U9B team won every single match.

U11A Winners at Papplewick Triangular

U9A Winners at Holme Grange Tournament

Year 6 Tour to Taunton

Senior Inter-House

Winners A Teams Trent Winners B Teams Severn

Year 2 Winners at Lambrook Tournament

D. Simpson

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Firstly the PE department would like to congratulate the girls on a

thoroughly enjoyable and successful hockey season. 120 fixtures were played in total throughout the season and it has been a pleasure to see the pupils progress week by week and

apply the skills and tactics taught in lessons to their games, and in the tournaments that they have played. Not only has there been a real buzz for hockey this term but also for Girls’ football and it has been great to see the girls take part in a number of competitive fixtures against other schools. In core PE, the girls have enjoyed challenging the boys in basketball and table tennis and have been working

hard to progress their skills in both sports. May their hard work and commitment to their sports continue into the New Year and remember: always to work hard and play fair!

Hockey

Holme Grange were winners of the Holme Grange Clubs Tournament beating both Wokingham and Reading Hockey

Clubs.

U11As were placed third in the Hall Grove Tournament and progressed through to the quarter finals of the IAPS Regional Hockey, narrowly missing out on selection for the

Nationals.

Football

U11 girls were runners up of the Community Football Tournament run by Miss Taylor. They were also winners of the Hawley Place Triangular fixture, beating Abbey 2-0 and Hawley Place 4-0. Coaches from King’s College came in to teach the girls in Years 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8, the game

of Futsal. It was great to see some budding footballers amongst the group.

And then there was Tour...

What a fantastic weekend away

we had in Taunton, with the boys and girls playing hockey and football fixtures on Saturday and Sunday and an array of activities in between. There wasn't a moment spare to from

start to finish! Year 6 had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and hopefully created memories that they will take with them along the way.

Year 2

Year 2 experienced their first ever fixture against St George’s School, Windsor, where they were able to demonstrate all the multi-skills they had been

learning this term. They are now very much looking forward to when we meet St George’s again for a netball fixture next term.

R. Fuller

Severn were winners of the Year 5-8 House Hockey

Trent were the winners of our Year 3-4 House Competition.

The U9s ended their season with the best win/loss ratio, having

played 15 matches; winning 12 and losing only 3.

We were really lucky to be joined by Olympic and GB Hockey star, Helen Richardson-Walsh, for a morning when she came into assembly to inspire the pupils to follow their dreams in sport, no matter what challenges they face, and to always strive for their very best.

GIRLS’ SPORT

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Holme Grange School Heathlands Road Wokingham RG40 3AL Telephone: 0118 978 1566 Facsimile: 0118 977 0810 E-mail: school@holmegrange.org Website: www.holmegrange.org Blogsite: www.holmegrange.net

SPRING TERM 2015

We have one social event in the first half of Spring term, the Quiz Night.

Quiz Night is taking place on Friday, 6th February at 7.30pm in the Sports Hall. Tickets are £10pp, which includes a chicken-in-the-basket dinner.

Please organise a team (max 10)

and enter into this year’s event. Last year’s winning team, ‘The In-Quiz-itors’ from Reception will be back to defend their title so challengers are welcome to come and try to knock them off their top spot. Booking forms will be sent out in January.

Hanging Baskets

In the second half of term we have the Hanging Basket and Flower Sale. These make a beautiful addition to any garden so please do place an order.

Dinner Dance, 16th May 2015

Next year the Dinner Dance will take place at the popular venue of Bearwood Lakes Golf Course

again. Last year this event was one of the PAA highlights and it was made even more enjoyable by a very entertaining auction, conducted by Steve Shortland. We are pleased to announce that Steve is booked again for the

coming year.

Calling new members: If you would like to join the PAA we would love to hear from you as we are always looking for new members. Please do come along

to our next meeting on Wednesday, 14th January at 7.30pm at school or contact me at rharris5@hotmail.co.uk

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all next term.

Rachel Harris - PAA Chairperson

PAA News British Gas and Telefonica and willing parents, so thank you very much for all this.

This makes the Grand Total of

£8,329 this term so thank you to you all for your generosity and community spirit when taking part in, and attending, events.

Projects funded this year: Throughout the term the

numerous events and sales have been held for the enjoyment of everyone at Holme Grange. All of the money raised at these events is spent making your children's time at Holme Grange even more special. Below is a list of items purchased with this in mind: Christmas Pantomime - Little Grange to Year 4; Christmas Party for Little Grange; Christmas Party for Reception to Year 2; Years 5-8 Christmas Disco; £2,000 Library Books; £3,000 balance towards the poly-tunnel which was built over the summer and is located next to Little Grange.

Matched Funding - Please do

get in touch if you think your employer may be able to match funds raised for the school. This is a valuable source of funds for the school and it may be easier than you think to apply. Please see the email dated 12th

November from Lynda Bulpett for details.

www.thegivingmachine.co.uk - Please take a look at The Giving Machine, it helps shoppers generate free cash donations for the causes they want to support. Simply register, choose Holme Grange as a beneficiary, click through to your normal online shopping websites from The Giving Machine, and shop as normal to generate a donation

for school. Please see the email sent on 1st December for more details.

The PAA is always working hard to organise events and raise

money for the school and this year has been no exception. It is the Holme Grange parents, family, friends, children and staff who support our events and for that I would like to say a huge THANK YOU.

AUTUMN TERM 2014 REVIEW This term has been an extremely busy start to the new academic year with four big events:

The Macmillan Coffee Morning raised £616, which is a fantastic amount. It is enough to pay for a Macmillan Social Worker for three days. Thank you to everyone who attended and donated cakes. This year was even more fun as the children

were able to join in and buy a cake at break time, something we look forward to repeating next year.

Race Night was another success. This biennial event raised £742 towards Christmas

Activities for the children.

Fireworks Night raised £2374, which also went towards Christmas Activities.

The Christmas Fayre raised £3,233 which went towards the

remaining balance of the poly-tunnel.

We also had Christmas cards and wrapping paper for sale which made £272. Reading Football tickets made £108 and we also sold bacon sandwiches at several Saturday sports tournaments and raised another £350.

This makes a total of £7,079 which has been raised by all of

you, so thank you.

We have also received £1,250 in matched funding from Vodafone,