Chigwell Chronicle HEADTEACHER’S NEWS This week has been typically intense with a plethora of achievements and activities in this vibrant school. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of watching the U13 Girls’ netball fixtures against Haileybury. The competition was fierce but fair and the standard of play high. It was interesting to see the games ebb and flow and sides take and relinquish the lead. On a personal level, I think that I am finally beginning to grasp some of the rules! The Pre Prep Science Festival on Tuesday evening was a real success. It was good to see the progression of science from Pre Prep all the way through to the end of KS2. The talks and in particular the photographs of the children enjoying their learning were excellent and it was absolutely clear that science is a strength of the school. The Forest Schools Programme talk by Mrs Rawlings also showed how we can use the beautiful grounds around us to enhance the experience of learning for the pupils throughout the school. I know that our Lower Ones loved their woodland lessons last week. We would like to expand this programme to all of Key stage Two in the future. I would like to thank all the Pre Prep teachers and Mrs Gibbs for their welcome and the sheer quality of the presentations. I would also like to thank Mrs Botham for showcasing KS2 Science so well. The Lower Two Parents’ Evening of Wednesday was really useful and I hope that the parents felt that this was the case. I am pleased that our 11+ transition process has been clarified and hope that this has reduced the anxiety of parents in this regard. As always, I enjoyed the opportunity to talk to many of you about the progress of your children. If you have any concerns about the transition at 11+ then please contact us in school. Mrs Tomsett will be available next week to see the parents of the children she teaches. Since September, I have been running a small scale ‘Quiz Club’ for LI and UI pupils. Yesterday, I attended my first Quiz Club fixture, an area heat at Forest School. We had chosen four pupils, one from each year in Key Stage Two, (as it says in the rules) and for over an hour, our children engaged in an enjoyable and interesting General Knowledge quiz against seven other teams. We finished a creditable fourth (beating Bancroft’s!) and I was really proud of our team - Asia, Aarush, Edward and Isabel. Thursday’s assembly was largely devoted to celebrating the many achievements of our pupils. There was lots of sport, with our U13 Netball team finishing as runners up in the IAPS East Regional Tournament, and the individual accomplishments of Johnny and Hilary that you can see later in this issue. Then, too, Mrs Botham displayed some excellent artistic work that had been entered for her Art and Design Competition, with prizes for the best. Finally, we had Suraj’s bronze award for his performance in the Primary Maths Challenge. Just another week of high achievement at Chigwell School both academic, sporting and cultural. Thursday also saw the BBC School Report Live Day and I know that our pupils have been preparing really hard for this. The experience of being a journalist and investigating and interviewing potential stories and people is really valuable. I was interviewed myself a couple of times and once filmed, somewhat bizarrely, just working at my desk. There were many good stories researched and, in one of them, our older pupils had the opportunity to interview Nick Clegg, which must have been fascinating. I must thank all the children for their work and of course to their helpers among the staff, Mr Ennis and especially to Mrs Pewsey for all her tireless work in running and managing this event. This Saturday’s sport is again dominated by some U13/U12 netball, this time against St Edmunds. Have a restful weekend. Andy Stubbs
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