Week ending 10th Feb 23

Dear Parents,

“Creativity is intelligence having fun”- Albert Einstein

It might have only been a four day week for the pupils but what a time we had! We have fully immersed ourselves in Creative Arts Week and explored storytelling in all its forms. The theme was chosen to tie in with National Storytelling week and also to further promote the love of reading and stories in the school. It has been such a pleasure to walk around this week and see the pupils engaged in all manner of creative activities. We have seen everything from crumpled paper puppets, songs from the musicals, poetry, origami, illustration, radio plays and so much more!

We started the week with an assembly challenging the children’s perception of creativity and exploring the
idea that everyone can be creative. We even put the teachers on the spot to test this theory with a drawing
challenge.  On Tuesday night we were thrilled to have around 50 people join us for an intimate concert in
the library to see Mr Beharrell and Miss Richards perform. Huge thanks to both of them for sharing their
craft with us, it was a really special evening and we are looking forward to similar events in the future.
I am so grateful to all the practitioners who joined us this week to provide fantastic workshops for the
pupils and you can find out more about each workshop in the rest of the newsletter. I would like to take
the opportunity to give particular thanks to Brighton College and Kent College for sharing their amazing
staff with us over the four days.

We rounded off our week with a gallery exhibit showcasing the work and activities the children took part in
and it was terrific to see so many parents in attendance. As you may have guessed, I am hugely passionate
about the power of creativity and my personal highlight of the week has been observing all the children
challenging themselves, learning new skills and understanding that creativity can be embraced in every
subject and all areas of life.

I hope you all have a restful (and creative) half term!

Katherine Hougham
Head of Creative Arts

Dear Parents,
What a fabulous creative week we have had across the school! The children in Pre-Prep have enjoyed so many exciting events and activities and I have loved watching the children make the most of all that has been on offer. Children from Nursery through to Year 2 had the most wonderful time with our storyteller, Kevin Graal. They had so much fun and he even managed to keep the Nursery children entertained for nearly an hour! To read more about Kevin, please click on this link. We are also hugely grateful to Mrs Bruce, a Sevenoaks Prep parent, who worked alongside children from Reception through to Year 2. She ran some wonderful ‘Tempest’ workshops, introducing children into the
wonderful world of Shakespeare, immersing them in thespian language and allowing them to understand some of the tricky language but in an engaging and fun way. I was lucky enough to be able to attend one of the workshops with Year 2 and I was captivated by the huge levels of creativity that the children were showing.

On Wednesday afternoon, Year 1 welcomed their grandparents into their classrooms to show and chat
about toys from the past, as part of their topic on toys. The classrooms were buzzing with excitement (I’m
not sure if it was the children or the grandparents who were more excited) and I was amazed to see some of
the toys that had survived so many generations of play. A firm favourite was an original, 1920s game called
Gee-Wiz and a close second was an early pinball type game where the children got very competitive! Many
of the grandparents had travelled both near and far to come along for the afternoon, with a few who had
travelled from abroad too. Thank you, as ever, to all of our families for the support that you show for these
events.

Behind the scenes this term, Mr Tye and Mr Proctor have been busy clearing and renovating our Nature
Trail. They have worked tirelessly to produce some fabulous results! They have cleared brambles, added a
willow workshop, built a pond viewing platform and pond dipping table, added boundaries, a mud kitchen
and ‘Book Nook’, made a planting area and ensured that the site is fully safe and ready to open for business
after half term. Huge thanks to Mr Tye and Mr Proctor for all of their hard work, dedication and energy into
turning the children’s ideas into a reality for them. Over the half term, our much-loved forest needs a rest
to recover from its use during term time so that the bluebells can flourish and the insect population can find
new homes in the undergrowth. We therefore would like to politely request that families do not use this
area over the half term break, to allow nature to do its business. We value teaching the children about
taking care of our natural environment and world, of which R&R is a very important part of the
process. Whilst the new nature trail might look and sound inviting, we would ask you to simply observe
from the boundary only so that we can fully enjoy the novelty of using it during class times.

I hope that you are all able to enjoy a fabulous half term break, whether that is soaking up some wonderful
sunshine on a beach or on the slopes, or simply relaxing and having fun at home. This year, half term shall
be a fairly quiet one in the Cook household with preparations for mock GCSE exams taking place – therefore
sadly, not a beach or a slope in sight. I never thought that I would have to worry ever again about ionic or
covalent bonding, and as I sat in Mrs Bruce’s workshop this week, I wondered how I might make Macbeth
come to life in such an exciting way for my sixteen-year-old!

Have a wonderful break and we look forward to welcoming you back after half term.

Best wishes

Helen Cook