April 2015
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Photograph: Year 7 pupil Nandini
A Note from the Head
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inter is now officially behind us and the dark mornings and evenings have been banished for another season which is always uplifting. The Stormont provides us with an opportunity to draw breath and look back on some of the key features of the last term. It offers us a chance to reflect on the many events that have taken place as well as the successes, both major and minor, that the children have achieved. As I read the notes I never cease to be surprised at the breadth of the activities and the many talents that the girls and boys at Gayhurst possess. This term has seen successes in netball, gymnastics, golf and cross-country competitions, football tournaments, scholarship examinations, swimming galas, chess and poetry competitions, music examinations, concerts, films and plays to name but a few. The children and staff have been busy both inside and outside the classrooms as these pages demonstrate, which is as it should be. It would be lovely to see you all at our Open Morning on Saturday 9th May. As last year, we are keeping our doors open at 11.30am for our current parents to come in, between 11.30am and 12.15. This is an opportunity to look around the School and speak to the staff. I hope you can join us. Mr A J Sims
GAYHURST SCHOOL Independent Preparatory School for Girls and Boys 3 - 11
OPEN MORNING Saturday 9 May 2015 09:00 - 12:00
For further details please contact visit gayhurstschool.co.uk
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Photograph: Nursery pupil Mia-Naledi
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Nursery
ursery, as always, have had a very busy term. At the beginning of the year the Nursery staff somehow managed to scrape together enough snow to make a snowman in the Nursery playground. The Spring term gives the girls and boys a fantastic opportunity to study the seasons as the weather moves from icy cold to the first signs of spring.
he privilege of being the ‘Leader Girl’ or ‘Leader Boy’ continues to be a popular event with all of the children. The pupils are allowed to come to School dressed as they like, and this usually means in a fancy dress costume. Being Leader Girl or Boy gives the children one of their first opportunities to take on responsibility at School and the Nursery staff encourage them to be confident and assertive as they ‘lead’ their friends for the day.
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Photograph: Nursery pupil Luke
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gg..citement builds towards the end of the Spring term as the Easter holidays approach. This year the weather was kind and we had beautifully sunny, if not chilly, days and the Nursery children were able to go out on their traditional Easter egg hunt. Nursery parents had been busy at home creating colourful and very creative Easter bonnets for the children to wear and the girls and boys were treated to having their faces painted with Spring characters.
Nursery Spring Term
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Photograph: Reception children eating noodles with chopsticks
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Reception
hinese New Year celebrations are always eagerly anticipated by the Reception children. A very special restaurant is opened and the children enjoy imaginative play serving Chinese takeaways. The children had some real life experience of eating with chopsticks as they tackled the tricky business of noodle etiquette.
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major building project got underway at the beginning of the year. Putting to use redundant 4 pint milk containers, the Reception staff and children built an igloo. It took a while to finish the plastic dwelling but it was a novel way to show the children how different homes are across the world minus the freezing temperatures of course!
Reception’s Igloo Build
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The Solar Eclipse
Visiting Farm Animals
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Science Week
Scientific Workshops
Science Week
Science Wizards
Hatchin g Eggs
Science Club Assembly
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Photograph: Year 1 pupil Phoebe
Year 1 and 2
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ear 1 children showed their imagination in the Junior School playground by turning a bench into a car. Luckily it wasn’t an escape plan as they could only rely on push power and that wasn’t getting them very far very fast! During Chinese New Year, Year 1 made models of the animals that represent the different years. The children also learnt which animal represented the year they were born. As the weather picked up towards the end of the term, a mini Geography walk-about was arranged. The girls and boys had been looking in class at different house types and discussing what sort of properties their families lived in. The children had all written a letter and addressed it to their homes. They were each posted in the post box in Bull Lane.
1 ar . e Y r t en A ov r W ape es p ous h
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Photograph: Year 2 pupils Evie and Evelyn
Year 2 Trip Report Towards the end of term, Year 2 visited the Roald Dahl Museum in Aylesbury. When they arrived they met their leaders. The leaders talked about Roald Dahl and asked the girls and boys what their favourite stories were. They picked a BFG dream for the children from an old glass bottle and blew the dream for them all to catch. During the visit the year group went into the upstairs gallery and saw the Twit’s sitting room upside down, stuck to the ceiling! There was also an upside down room where they could spy on people outside. The pupils experimented with magic mirrors, shadows and optical illusions. They left the upstairs gallery by going downstairs in the Great Glass Elevator, but it didn’t go up into space. In the downstairs gallery the girls and boys could dress up, explore the Giant Peach and crawl through Fantastic Mr Fox’s tunnel. They acted out a scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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Oink
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Photograph: Year 3 pupils David, Leo, and Leon
Year 3
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andwriting is taken very seriously at Gayhurst and the basic skills are, or course, taught in the Junior School. Every year the Junior School has a handwriting competition and the results are proudly displayed on the Junior School walls for all to see. This year the Year 3 winners were Nicholas, Alice and Luca. Art activities took centre stage for Year 3’s study of the Chinese New Year and they made dragon masks and attempted beautiful Chinese writing with gold paint and brushes. History continued to fascinate and studying the Anglo Saxons led to Rune writing, map skills and treasure hunts in the School grounds. The girls and boys also had the chance to practise their presentation skills when they took part in a PSHCE workshop. They presented to each other and faced questions from their classmates.
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Photograph: Year 4 pupils Isabelle and Robert
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Year 4
ear 4 have enjoyed snackbased maths lessons, sketch performances in RS, assembly presentations on honesty and space and muscles made of paper in science amongst many other curriculum enhancing themes and activities. The girls and boys discovered that School trips didn’t always need a long journey, when they visited our local St James’ Church as part of their studies on places of worship. Opportunities to stand-up and present to their peers were plentiful with project based activities in Science, RS and Maths. The Year group enjoyed hosting their friends from other local primary schools during the Year 4 Maths Challenge. Competition was also the name of the game in Art when they competed against each other during the annual ‘Art Chair Challenge’ (see page 30) where the winner is chosen by the previous year’s victor.
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uring March 31 children from Year 6 – 8 went on a Choir and Advanced Art trip to Rome. It was an amazing experience, it was the best school trip I have ever been on. We sang in four spectacular venues, one of them was the Pantheon. It was brilliant singing in the Pantheon, because after we had stopped singing, the sound continued to echo up the dome. An organist called Dr James came with us, and accompanied us in our concerts. He was very nice, and everyone really liked him. We also had two guided tours, one of the city of Rome, and one of the Vatican City. They were both extremely interesting, and my favourite part of the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel. Everyone thought it was beautiful, and admired Michelangelo’s work. On our final day, we had gladiator training. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it turned out to be really fun. The man who ran it taught us 12 different gladiator sword moves, and then after that, we had a gladiator competition using rubber swords. The winners were Miles and Eloise. After we had ‘fought’ each other, the teachers had a competition. Miss Carr won, which Mr Brown was not very happy about! The trip was amazing, and I hope other years will get to do a similar trip, as I am sure they would love it. By Ben Hunt and Ben Kingston, Year 8.
Choir Tour
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Photograph: Year 5 pupil Poppy
Year 5 Trip Report
Year 5
Tesco in Gerrards Cross hosted our Year 5 children to give them a fascinating look behind the scenes of this popular supermarket. The visit was part of Tesco’s “Farm to Fork� project. The idea is to give the children a better understanding of where their food comes from and also the cost and some of the health benefits. The trip complemented their work in Geography and Science. They learnt what countries the fruit and vegetables came from and sampled some of the more unusual varieties. Beyond the shop front and shelves, the girls and boys looked at huge freezers where the foods were kept and spoke to lorry drivers about their part in the food retail service. It was a fascinating insight into an everyday experience.
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Photograph: Year 6 at The Warner Bros Studio tour
Year 6
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he Harry Potter stories never lose their appeal and the Year 6 girls and boys were thrilled with their tour of The Warner Bros Studio. The children experienced walking through the iconic set, riding the Knight Bus, sitting on Hagrid’s motorbike, tasting Butter Beer and so much more. A truly memorable trip for what is the last year at Gayhurst for many of our children. Charismatic Councillor, Mrs Mimi Harker OBE visited Year 6 in March. Mrs Harker is Member for Chesham Bois & Weedon Hill Ward and The ViceChairman of Chiltern District Council. Mrs Harker spoke to the children not only about her work on the Council, but also about the many volunteer roles she has taken on over the years. Mimi encouraged the children to find their passion and then look at ways they can give back to their local community.
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Photograph: School entrance on World Book Day
World Book Day
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Year 4
Year 7
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Gayhurst Art
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Year 6
Year 5
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Year 7 and 8
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Year 8 pupil’s account of a typical school day.
In the morning, there are often clubs like choir at 8:00. After that, there is a whole school assembly, except on Wednesdays, when it alternates weekly between middle school and senior school assembly. During this time, a form class will do the assembly. They will usually have prepared it for the last week. In assembly, Mr Sims will often read out a Bible extract, an uplifting account frome one of the world’s religions or tell a tale of an inspirational person. If it is a special day, like world book day, the head of that department will do an assembly on that. Sometimes, we will have a visitor, such as the Friday of Science week, when a lady from Science Wizards did a fun assembly for us. Lessons 1 - 3 begin. At first break, there are often bands on. If you do not have a band that day, then there is an outdoor and a library rota, both split into different year groups. This means that throughout the week, everyone will get a chance to use the school’s amazing facilities. Lessons 4 - 5 continue. At lunchtime, there is a lunch rota, which shows the different year group that can go in first to lunch on different days. One of the advantages of being in Year 8 is that you are always first into lunch! Lunch break lasts from 12:45 – 1:30. There are also often bands on from 1:00 – 1:30. Lessons 6 and 7 follow. Third break is ¼ of an hour and our last chance to blow of steam before the last lessons of the day. Written by Ben Hunt & Ben Kingston
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port at Gayhurst is always busy, varied and exciting. The spring term has been no exception! We have had amazing successes in Cross-Country, Football, Netball and Gymnastics. The Ski Championships was a great opportunity for our young skiers to compete and the fair weather even saw our golfers get out on the green. At the end of term excitement was high with the House events arranged by the sports department.
Sport
Hockey Rugby
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hree pupils took part in the Arkley Golf Challenge this term. The format took the two best scores on each hole to count towards an overall team score. Out of the 10 competing teams, Gayhurst managed to finish runners-up on an excellent 28 Stableford points. This was even more impressive given that Thomas G, James B (Y7) and Connor P (Y5) were competing against a field mainly made up of Year 8 pupils. Connor P also managed to win the nearest the pin competition on the 2nd hole, hitting his driver 171 yards to 5 feet from the hole! Very well done to the three boys on a fantastic achievement.
Golf
Golf
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hugely successful term of games from the girls at Gayhurst with contributions from Years 3 to 7 both in weekday fixtures and weekend competitions. The sports the girls took part in this term included netball, cross country and gymnastics. Some girls even made valuable contributions in mixed hockey and football fixtures. The Under 11 girls’ Netball team have had an undefeated season with victories against St Piran’s (15-4), Long Close away (8-0), Long Close at Home (7-4) and against Dair House we split into two teams with the A’s winning (28-2) and the B’s (11-7). Our most valuable player of the season was Eloise Wraight with Elisha Togher and Nandini Sehgal winning the category, most improved.
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The Under 10 girls made major improvements throughout the season after losing their first match to Chesham Prep (3-2). They then beat Chesham Prep in the follow up match (2-0) and beat York House (8-2). These girls also contested the York House Tournament where they came third out of seven schools. Our most valuable player was Lily Barker with the most improved player being Sophie Davies. The highlight of the season for the Under 10 girls’ team was the mixed Netball competition at Kingsmead, High Wycombe. The amazing improvement that all girls showed as the day progressed was extremely pleasing. The A team losing their first two matches then went on to win the last 5 matches; they were placed 5th out of 35 schools whilst the B team were placed 13th. The Under 9 and 10 girls’ team lost their two closely contested matches against Long Close School at home (2-3) and away (2-0). However the Under 9 girls, when teamed with a group of Year 3 students, proved to be a successful combination winning all three matches against Berkhamsted (5-4) and Dair house A team (3-2) and B team (6-0). The team contested the Gayhurst Under 8 and 9 Tournament fielding two teams with team A placed 3rd and team B placed 7th. The most valuable player for the Under 9 girls was Isabelle Dusek and Lara Vicente was the most improved player. The future is bright for Gayhurst games with a very talented group of Under 8 girls coming through the ranks. Our netball team contested the Chesham Prep tournament playing 5 different schools with only one loss to Heatherton House by 1 point. They were only beaten by one goal in a hotly fought contest by Berkhamsted’s Under 8 and 9 team. All the girls have made remarkable progress throughout the term with Akaal Kaur being the most valuable player and Alice Fleming and Rosie Marshall being the most improved. Gayhurst is becoming a hub for gymnastics excellence achieving great success in the South Buckinghamshire tournaments. The Senior team, consisting of Eloise Wraight, Alice Langley, Amber Kearns , Elisha Togher, Sebastian Mansfield and Thomas Walker, competed in the floor and vault competition against 7 different schools and were placed third overall. Amber Kearns was the top scorer for the floor routines whilst Sebastian Mansfield topped the scores in the vault. This was an extremely pleasing result as this competition was for children who trained in gymnastics for more than two hours per week. The Key steps Gymnastics competition is for gymnasts who only train for one hour a week in this discipline and students were chosen on their attendance in our gymnastics club. Key Steps 1 was primarily for Years 2-3 students, Key Steps 2 for Years 4-5 and Key Steps 3 for Years 6. The student performed a floor routine and a vault. On the second last day of term Key Steps 1 and 2 teams competed. The Key Steps 1 team consisted of Pheobe Hanlon (Y1), Joshua Waldegrave (Y1), Joshua Fienburg (Y1), Charlie Wright (Y2), and Isabelle Dighe (Y2). The team was placed third overall with Charlie Wright coming second in the overall individual points Gymnscore. This is a remarkable astics result with all the girls and boys competing against older gymnasts than themselves making the future look promising for this group.
Skiing
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The Key Steps 2 team consisting of Akaal Kaur (Y3), Anya Everett (Y3), Rosie Marshall (Y3), Alice Fleming (Y3) Isabelle Dusek (Y4) and Christopher Carradine (Y4) were the undisputed champions of the day. Isabelle Dusek and Christopher Carradine were placed equal first on the overall individual points total whilst Rosie Marshall and Anya Everett were placed equal third in the individual points total. Again most of our children competed against students who were a year or so older than them so this really demonstrates the strength of our gymnastics program at Gayhurst. On the last day of term the Key Steps 3 competition was held after a last minute change. ‘Super Substitute’ Amber Kearns stepped in at very short notice. With minutes to create her routine she gave a brilliant floor performance. The team, consisting of Grace Cotter (Y5), Leia Lewis (Y5), Sebastian Mansfield (Y5), Connor Peters (Y5), Charlie Marsh (Y5) and Nandini Sehgal (Y7), performed in the advanced group. They were placed second overallwith Sebastian Mansfield placed third in the individual scores.
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e have enjoyed a fairly successful football season at Gayhurst, with some outstanding individual and team performances seen throughout the term. All age groups have gone from strength to strength, improving with every training session and match played. The U8s enjoyed their first taste of competitive football for Gayhurst this term, displaying some real promise for the future. A highlight for the term has to be the performance of the A team at the Oratory Prep School tournament, finishing runners up to OPS after a golden goal in the final. After an incredibly promising U8 football season last year, the U9s started where they left off, playing an exciting, entertaining and attacking style of football, scoring 45 goals and conceding only 10 as a year group in weekday fixtures. The A team in particular have seen a great deal of success, winning all but one fixture, coming runners up at the Moulsford Prep tournament and winning the Oratory Prep tournament, for the second time in two years. The U10s have also enjoyed a successful term’s football with an exceptional standard being played throughout each team from A team to E team. The U10 As finished off the term with an excellent display at the CCJB 6 a side tournament winning the plate competition. The U11s and Senior sides have endured a tough term overall, suffering some heavy defeats along the way. However, as ever, with each defeat they learnt from their performances and endeavoured to improve during the next fixture, culminating in some fantastic performances towards the end of the term, most notably the 1st XI performance against Caldicott and the U11 A performance against OPS. As well as some great team performances, we have also seen some outstanding individual performances and achievements. In Year 4 Ryan O’Connor, Sam Matthews and Noah McCann have represented Watford, Wycombe Wanderers and QPR respectively and in Year 5 Govind Chahal has represented Tottenham and Alex Lee has represented Wycombe Wanderers. Special mention must go to Noah McCann who was awarded player of the tournament at OPS for the second year in a row. There were also a number of hat-tricks scored by pupils from various age groups throughout the term, in Year 4 Brandon Murphy, Ryan O’Connor and Anshiv Rudki, in Year 5 Govind Chahal and Aidan Gadjadhar, in Year 6 Alex Lee and in Year 7 and 8 Tommy Gormley and James Boardman.
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he cross country team has had a very successful season and thankfully not as wet, muddy and cold as it has been in previous years. Year 3 to Year 6 (boys and girls) have taken part in competitions at Chartridge, Lowndes Park, Hervines and Cholesbury. We have won 3 competitions in Year 3 and the Year 4 boys and Year 6 boys have won all four competitions, which is an outstanding achievement. George Beddoe (Year 3), Sam Matthews (Year 4) and Aaron Phillips (Year 6) have won individual races at all of these events. Our top runner in Year 5 was s s o Cr ry t Edward Hooper who performed consistently well in all races. Top girl n u o C runners were Sophie Davies (Year 5) and Eloise Wraight (Year 6). The U11s (Year 6) and U13s (Year 7/8) took part in events at York House, Haberdashers and St. John’s Northwood. The U11 team won both the York House and St. Johns Northwood competitions with Aaron Phillips winning both the individual events. They also came 3rd in the Oti Relay competition at Belmont this year. We had a mixed U12 team take part in the Greyhound cross country event at The Oratory and our team came 5th overall. Aaron Phillips competed in the individual competition at the Malvern Cross Country Championships and came 14th out of 270 athletes on a tough course through the Malvern Hills. Well done Aaron! Our cross country season came to a close this year with everyone in Year 2-8 competing in the interhouse competition for the Cameron Smart Shield which has been running since 2007. Our winners in each competition were as follows: Year 2 - Daniel Munn and Sophie Davies, Gibbs Year 3 (1mile) - Finley Connolly and Rosie Marshall, Campbell Year 4 (1mile) - Sam Matthews and Isabelle Dusek, Stafford Year 5 (1mile) - Edward Hooper and Sophie Davies, Stafford Year 6 (2 miles) - Aaron Phillips breaking the school record in a time of 12.52 min and Eloise Wraight Stafford Year 7/8 (2miles) - Wesley Adamo and Nandini Sehgal Gibbs The overall winning house of the Cameron Smart Shield was Gibbs. Congratulations to the following children on their awards: Full Colours: Aaron Phillips, Sam Dean, Pierce Dillon and Will Wright Half Colours: Aidan Meazzo, Hayden Waller, Paul Gormley , Eloise Wraight and Amber Kearns, Wesley Adamo and Eamon Dillon
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