King's Hawford Magazine

As always, the King’s Hawford children have continued to make us very proud over the course of the past academic year. Their focused, determined and positive approach in lessons and their confident, have-a-go attitude to all tasks, both in and out of the classroom, have meant that they made the most of what was on offer.

Although we were reaching the tail-end of COVID, during our occasional outbreaks staff and children showed great resilience with the switch between live, virtual and hybrid lessons. As the COVID restrictions eased, we were once again allowed to bring groups of pupils together who had previously been “bubbled”, and it was lovely to see children of various ages working and playing as one and supporting each other.

So, this year was all about rebuilding our community and finding joy in the moments we share. Simple things such as assemblies could now take place, where children could cheer each other’s successes during our Friday Celebration Assembly, learn important lessons on how to work and live with others and share ideas on how to make our world a better place.

health. In the coming year, we aim to introduce more children to mindfulness through the MISP Paws B course, which offers a toolkit that helps to build mental resilience and coping mechanisms for dealing with various situations and emotions. We will also continue to help children to develop a growth mindset; an understanding that intelligence is not fixed, that struggle is good and that we all learn from mistakes will allow the children to face challenges in a positive way.

This magazine is evidence of how much we have done this year, how much learning, growing and fun we have had. From investigating life cycles to learning languages, from creating gardens to supporting charities, from playing sports to performing on stage and from baking to climbing, our School offers so many wonderful opportunities for collaboration.

I hope that you enjoy looking back at this wonderful year as you leaf through this year’s school magazine. The articles and photos have certainly brought a smile to my face as I remember all the amazing times we have shared.

Memorable events such as Welcome Home Hawford, the House cross-country, the Apache Relay, productions and charity concerts were now back on the calendar, allowing our wider community to join in the fun too. It was so lovely to welcome back grandparents during Arts Week and, although the weather was against us, spirits were not dampened.

As the children look ahead to the rest of the new school year, I know that they will be hungry to develop their learning further, relish the exciting experiences and build more happy memories as they continue their King’s Hawford adventure.

Caroline Knight, Acting Head, King’s Hawford

Learning outside the classroom has continued to be such an integral part of how we work at King’s Hawford, with many lessons being taken outdoors or to areas outside the children’s form rooms. This year saw the return to a full programme of off-site educational visits throughout Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. These trips supported the teaching in a wide range of curriculum areas. From September, our provision of cocurricular activities was back in full swing, making the most of our wonderful school site. We were therefore delighted, once again, to be awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Gold Award following the recent re-accreditation process.

Emerging from what had been a most difficult couple of years, we were aware that supporting the children’s emotional well-being was going to be extremely important. We introduced Growth Mindset in assemblies, focusing on attributes such as effort, focus and resilience. Alongside this, our Mind and Body course, run as part of our skills programme, focused on a variety of ways to help the children with their mental

Early Years & Pre-prep

Early Years have had a busy year and, with restrictions being relaxed and our lives becoming a little more ‘normal’, this has allowed us to celebrate the environment of our rural school and our local area.

Forest School sites, Kindergarten 1 went to Bishops Wood Forest School for a day of den building, producing art from nature and clay, bird watching and minibeast hunting.

We enjoy sharing stories in the Early Years Department and many of our topic themes begin with a carefully chosen storybook.  Each of the seven areas of learning can be addressed through our favourite stories.  Being able to bring our topics to life through theatre visits has been a great learning experience for our younger children; for instance, we visited Malvern Theatre to watch The Smeds and the Smoos after learning about space. In Kindergarten we never underestimate the value of sharing a much-loved story or the rhyming and repetition enjoyed in a picture book and realise that stories form a vital part of the growing process.

June saw the whole school, including Early Years, celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.  The children enjoyed making cucumber sandwiches, royal biscuits, painting portraits of the Queen, making crowns and designing pants based on the story The Queen’s Knickers. The whole school came together to celebrate her reign with an afternoon tea on the School Field in glorious sunshine.

We are lucky to have such amazing grounds at King’s Hawford, with two superb Forest School sites, and children have enjoyed weekly visits to these.  Through such sessions, children develop their self-belief, confidence, communication, problem-solving skills and emotional well-being.  In addition to our own

What a memorable first year of school the children in Reception have had. They dealt with the remnants of COVID and battled through online learning, showing resilience and determination. They waved goodbye to their previous teachers and welcomed new ones, taking all the changes in their stride and growing into amazing children, well prepared for the new challenges in Year 1.

staff, leaving them on the top of a cupboard. During the evening we were visited by a ‘chocolate thief’ who ate some of the sweet treats, leaving the wrappers strewn over the floor. We spent time writing police reports and making magnifying glasses to help with the investigation. The children drew the conclusion that Mr Stigant was guilty (he was not), a title that he still holds now.

Roll at the party, the children had to make their own. They selected the filling, cut, buttered and filled the rolls ready to enjoy. The party in the tepee was amazing. It was decorated with an orange and black theme and homemade bunting. We sang, danced, ate and drank. We were also fortunate enough to attend The Courtyard in Hereford to watch a live performance on stage.

During the Autumn Term, our topic was based around festivals and celebrations. We began with the harvest, looking at autumn and the changes taking place around us. Our wonderful school site lent itself well to an autumn walk, where the children collected leaves, conkers, pinecones and acorns. The Harvest Festival was brilliant; parents could see just how quickly children mature when starting school, standing up and singing in front of a packed audience, with only a few tears (mainly from the Mummies!) We immersed ourselves in the celebration of Diwali, learning about Rama and Sita, making diva lamps and Rangoli patterns. We even managed our own Diwali party, tasting traditional food and taking part in some dancing. The Nativity was a huge success, and it left the teachers in tears; we were so proud of the children, saying their lines on the stage perfectly for everyone to enjoy.

We ended the topic with a fun-packed day, enjoying a visit from Miriam, a Paramedic, who talked to us about what she does to help people and showing us her equipment. Next, we welcomed two police officers, who let us sit in their car, test the sirens and dress in their uniforms. Lastly, we were visited by a fire engine and crew, who showed us all around the vehicle and even let us try the hose.

Moving on from tigers, we broadened our topic to cover dinosaurs. We ended the year with a trip to All Things Wild. We saw so many of the dinosaurs we had been talking about through the term and thoroughly enjoyed it.

After the excitement of Christmas, as the Spring Term began we introduced our new topic, focusing on People Who Help Us but especially the Emergency Services.

In the second half of the term, we blasted off into space, starting with a visit to the Thinktank in Birmingham. We were treated to an experience in the planetarium, learning all about the stars, before spending time in Mini Brum and the Science Garden.

The children bought some chocolates for a member of

In the Summer Term we focused our attention on animals, starting with The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr. We looked very carefully at the lives of tigers and found out where they live, what they eat and how they behave in the wild. We enjoyed learning about these gorgeous animals so much that we ended the topic with a Tiger Party; this featured a range of orange and black food including carrots, blueberries, peppers and tiger rolls to name but a few. However, in order to have a filled Tiger

Reception thought about helping others and, as part of their topic of Kindness, the children baked cookies for staff and visited a local care home to produce a wonderful collaborative piece of artwork using their handprints. It is so wonderful that our children can support others in our community.

We were delighted to be able to welcome Reception parents on to the school site for Sports Day. The children competed in lots of different races and cheered on their friends. It was the perfect way to end a busy but rewarding year in Reception.

We kicked off the year with a topic which is always a firm favourite for the Year 1 children and teachers alike: A Right Royal Fiasco. Following our creative curriculum approach, we used stories such as Katie in London, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Queen’s Knickers to inspire the children in their work. They thoroughly enjoyed designing and describing new knickers for the Queen and inviting her to a royal tea party at King’s Hawford. They were suitably pleased that she did in fact manage to squeeze a visit into her busy schedule. Alongside this work in English, as part of their topic lessons, the children were also learning about the Queen’s family and her various homes around the UK, as well as her duties as Monarch. The children created their own family tree and, following this, enjoyed working as a team to put together the royal family tree, helping them to understand the links between the different members of the monarchy.

the super starter for their new topic of Home Sweet Home. During this topic the children learnt about homes through history and compared these with their own homes. Fairy tales such as The Three Little Pigs inspired science work on materials from which houses are made, and the children enjoyed an excellent trip to Bishops Wood Outdoor Centre.

The Christmas production, as always, was a main focus of the second part of the Autumn Term. Every child took to the stage as reindeers and elves, performed entertaining and energetic dances and sang with gusto. This was the first production since COVID that we have been allowed to have a real audience and the children certainly performed for the crowd.

The Summer Term saw the return of Mrs Rand from her maternity leave, just in time for two of her favourite topics of London’s Burning and Life’s a Beach. We learnt about London during the 1600s and the events of the great fire through stories of various animals. Children worked in groups to recreate Pudding Lane, which we then set alight under the watchful eye of Mrs Redman. Having learnt about seaside holidays in the past, we compared these to the present and ended the year with a trip to our very own ‘Hawford Beach’, complete with ice cream stall and beach games. The children loved these real-life experiences, and they made a brilliant end to a wonderful year.

When the children returned to school in January, they were shocked to find a crime scene in Forest School. On closer inspection, the children discovered that the Big Bad Wolf had been causing havoc; this was

Year 2

Year 2 have had a really good, fun-filled final year of Pre-Prep. They learnt about famous explorers in the Autumn Term, including Columbus, Henson, Armstrong and Woni Spotts, who is the first black woman to have travelled to every country and continent in the world by 2018. Highlights across the term included building their own boats from junk modelling and testing them on our canal dock, making KataKanoe trips as part of a scavenger hunt to find and explorers lost paraphernalia and designing, constructing and testing the air resistance of parachutes in science to bring our astronauts safely to the ground. Continuing the theme of space, the children walked on the moon by using the ‘Apollo Moon’ Augmented Reality app in our IT lessons; they also learned to survive like an explorer by building dens and shelters in the Forest School area and making fires.

We took our learning beyond King’s Hawford with a school trip to the Thinktank in Birmingham, visiting the planetarium and taking part in a space workshop. The children also very much enjoyed their writing, re-telling and acting out stories influenced by key texts such as Jack and the Flum Flum Tree, Where the Wild Things Are and Man on the Moon.  Term came to a wonderful end as the children led the Christmas show, Ralph the Reindeer, with two performances in The Barn.

in the Forest School area, sampling humus, olives, taramasalata, honey and fire-cooked pita breads.  The children designed and competed in their own ‘Thors Day’, based on one of their study texts, How to Train a Dragon. They also created their own paper dragon aeroplanes, flying them and developing their language of powerful verbs by describing them. Most exciting of all, they re-enacted the journey through the Labyrinth and the battle scene from Theseus and the Minotaur to support their creative writing.

In the Spring Term the children’s topic was Great Greece. They discovered and compared everyday life in Greece to the UK and then went back in time to learn about Ancient Greece. Memorable moments from this included the day when everything turned to gold in their classroom, linked to our key text King Midas and the Golden Touch. We also enjoyed tasting Greek food

The Summer Term was spent metaphorically closer to home, learning about Worcester. Their topic Wicked Worcester covered a range of activities involving the local area, including visits to the Diglis Fish Pass, the local woodlands of Bishops Wood, looking after the local environment with litter picking

walks along the canal and a camp out at school.  We took the KataKanoes along the Droitwich canal, discussing the history of why it was built.  Having watched the fish, mainly salmon, swim past the class window at the Fish Pass, we then created our own fish pass and looked at the science behind it by using

marble run equipment. Focussing on what made Worcester famous, we looked at the trades within the city, exploring whether any relatives involved in a particular trade. The children also created their own full-size flag based on their knowledge of Worcester and flew it proudly from the King’s Hawford flagpole.

Prep School

Art & Design Technology

Art and DT are taught each week by two specialist teachers in our dedicated Art Room. Years 1 to 4 are taught by Mrs McCullough and Years 5 and 6 are taught by Mrs Gregory. A broad Art and DT curriculum provides opportunities to work with a wide range of materials and techniques, whilst also making cross-curriculum links and building upon key skills.

and preparing older pupils for their Senior School education.

It was wonderful to be able to share the children’s creativity and enthusiasm with the wider school community during Arts Week, when we exhibited work produced during the Summer Term and beyond. This included work inspired by the theme of Freedom and featured work from each class.

This year, we have continued to benefit from an IT presence in the Art and DT room. It has shown us an eco-friendly and alternative way of teaching, which complements our more traditional lesson delivery. Children are encouraged to photograph their work as it progresses and share their creations with their families at home. The use of the green screen, laptops, and crumble controllers in DT allows pupils to code, and to create short movies with CAM toys, ensuring the curriculum on offer is varied

The pop-up Art Gallery in The Cobb proved to be a huge success. It was the perfect way to showcase the broad range of achievements from across the school. From Wire Sports People and imaginative Shoe Sculptures to beautiful watercolour bird studies, clay canopic jars, Modroc masks and dream catchers from our Reception classes, there was something bright and colourful for everyone to enjoy.

The centrepiece was a collaborative painting by Year 5 pupils, entitled Freedom to Dream which grew from discussions around lockdown and activities for which pupils longed. This was commissioned by the owners of the Bevere Art Gallery and is currently on display in the gallery’s outdoor space.

After-school art and design clubs offer an extra opportunity to participate in creative activities; Puppet making, Digital Drawing, Sewing and sketching are just a small sample of activities provided by the department.

The children at King’s Hawford have certainly learnt a lot and travelled far and wide through reading and their book studies over the last academic year. From war-torn Europe in The Silver Sword, the islands of the Pacific Ocean in Kensuke’s Kingdom, the foothills of the Himalayas in Asha and the Spirit Bird and the joys of the eccentrics of England in Roald Dahl’s The Twits, the children have had exciting journeys, all from the comfort of their classroom.

Year 6 had the opportunity to watch Private Peaceful at Malvern Theatres. This incredible book by Michael Morpurgo, which is set in World War One, was brought to life by a small group of actors. It was a stunning production, one which the children will remember for a long time to come.

On World Book Day, pupils learnt about the teachers’ favourite children’s books, hopefully finding the next book that they would like to read. They also participated in some online workshops run by famous authors of children’s fiction. Many also joined in with a live BBC Teach programme, linking up with children across the country to celebrate books and reading.

Years 3 to 6 had the opportunity to enter a national competition judged by the children’s author, Sam Copeland. They had to write a 500-word story about the day their character woke up to discover they had been transformed into something different. The brief certainly led to some interesting discussions. We had some great successes, with Bronze and Silver Certificates being won, demonstrating that creative writing is alive and well at King’s Hawford.

One of the highlights of our year was the inaugural King’s Hawford Poetry Slam. Children wrote poems about the topic of Freedom. We were so impressed by how they embraced this event and by the way they created imaginative, lively poems in groups or on their own. The dramatic way in which they performed the poems was a joy to behold. It was wonderful to see the winners from each year group performing these at our concerts on Grandparents’ Day in Arts Week.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr Seuss

Digital Learning

Digital Learning at King’s Hawford has continued to develop and shape our teaching and learning.

The last year saw less enforced absence but still a requirement for our lessons to be delivered in a hybrid style with children and staff joining from home. A personal highlight was delivering a maths lesson from home while my children were supported by the Head and Deputy Head, definitely a case of classroom support with added lesson observation. Classroom control was made easier by the use of two

iPads serving as cameras, proving the old adage that the teacher would like eyes in the back of their head! We continued to use Showbie to share work with the children and parents, this had the double benefit of not only allowing children to work in this way but also it assisted us in achieving our sustainability goals for the year. ClassDojo has remained a popular application for both children and parents. It has allowed parents to see some of the incredible things happening inside the classroom and the children have been able to share their personal successes with their parents. Our younger children have made use of Busy Things both inside the classroom and at home. We will be investigating how to make greater use of Busy Things through some staff CPD this year.

In our computing lessons the children have continued to focus on their thinking and problem solving. We see our computing lessons as not only a chance to learn about using computers and devices but also to develop their thinking skills. Our Year 4 children loved their introduction to the Sphero spark controllable devices and they are very excited about coding them as they move into Year 5.

As children at King’s Hawford continue to live through a decade that is already one of great historical significance, the humanities curriculum at King’s Hawford has continued to seek to be relevant and help our children understand their place in the world. Threads such as citizenship, sustainability and equality all help to give them a greater understanding of issues that face their world and how they might help to bring about change by looking at the past and relating it to the issues of

today. We continue to keep reminding them to ask the simple question: Why?

Humanities

first hand. Year 5 set out for a residential visit to the Malvern Hills, Year 4 to the coast at Broadhaven, Year 6 to Ashes Hollow and Year 3 undertook their regular pilgrimage to Ombersley for their village study.

The attention of our young humanitarians has been grabbed with super starter events, fantastic finish activities and a range of trips to nourish enquiring minds. It was great to see educational trips and visits back on the agenda and King’s Hawford pupils took full opportunity to see both history and geography at

In school, Year 4 invited the Rainforest Man in to visit them for the day to elaborate on the wildlife, inhabitants and plant life of the rainforests. They were also very creative, recreating Stonehenge. Year 3 held their annual Egyptian Day, exploring tombs, cracking curses and mummifying a poor unsuspecting pupil. Our Pre-Prep classes have sampled a Greek menu, undertaken an exploration to find Bear’s missing belongings, been creative with some junk modelling to build castles and burned down London (with the help of a few adults) to recreate the Great Fire.

Interwoven within these highlights have been topics dealing with conflict, the environment, civilisation, industrialisation, exploration and globalisation; all were approached from a historical perspective, helping the children understand the world they live in today and the responsibility that they have to others.

Maths

Being able to count and recognise the cardinal value is a key skill, but being able to pull numbers apart, understand how numbers have been made and find whole numbers using smaller parts will only enhance a child’s ability to develop their skills when dealing with large numbers. Children have enjoyed using ten frames, grids and sentence stems to explore number in a variety of ways.

This is certainly the philosophy we use at King’s Hawford. Securing the fundamentals and taking small steps to build a confident and determined child is the aim of all mathematical teaching and learning from Kindergarten to Year 6. Bizarrely, it is a pleasure to see an empty maths store cupboard, as it can only mean one thing: that classrooms are full of place value counters, base ten, Numicon, cubes, and place value grids. The children are working with concrete equipment to secure their understanding and staff have been creative in their approach to delivering engaging lessons.

In true King’s Hawford style, if an opportunity arises, children are taken outside the classroom to bring their learning to life. Mathematics lends itself tirelessly to the outdoor world. Using chalk to find equivalent fractions and direction or finding acute, obtuse and reflex angles are perfect mathematical elements to take outdoors and children relate to the true meaning of what they are learning.

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about UNDERSTANDING.”

William Paul Thurston

Modern Foreign Languages

Our pupils have risen once again to the challenge of language learning in the MFL department, whose aim is to support an understanding of living in a multi-cultural society and foster curiosity about the wider world. To this end, we have enjoyed celebrating the European Day of Languages, participating in MFL House Quizzes, learning about the tradition of Karneval in Germany,

celebrating Chinese New Year, presenting weather forecasts in German and independently writing and performing restaurant and café role-plays in French and German.

Our pupils have achieved excellent results in unit assessments and the majority of our older

pupils willingly gave up their own time to complete independently their MFL badge, requiring a presentation on a country of their choice, focusing on the language and traditions, as well as teaching a unit of French, German or Spanish vocabulary to someone at home. The home videos of these ‘lessons’ were particularly amusing!

Looking ahead to the next academic year, we are pleased to be able to continue offering Spanish and Russian to our Year 6 pupils alongside French and German as part of their curriculum.  We are, of course, looking forward to plenty of fun, laughter and learning!

Outdoor Education

It was great to get back to normal last year with our residential trips. They have always played an essential part in assisting and supporting the curriculum as well as providing opportunities to develop the children emotionally and socially.

Boundless Outdoors in Malvern for three days. This was, for many, their first opportunity to stay away from home since COVID. The children engaged wholeheartedly in a variety of activities such as developing bushcraft skills, wild woods and low ropes course, zip wire, night line, a night walk up the Malvern Hills, climbing and archery.

The year kicked off with the School Camps for Years 4 and 6, where the children were able to camp overnight, on site, and enjoy a selection of team building activities including KataKanoeing and toasting marshmallows on the fire. The Year 6 pupils also had the opportunity to cook their own evening meal using a Trangia stove.

In the Summer Term, Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 had the opportunity to visit Bishop’s Wood Forest School site to experience a Forest School Day in their ancient woodland. The Year 2 children also were able to stay overnight at School, enjoying a pizza made in our pizza oven and toasting marshmallows on a campfire.

Year 5 were lucky to return to Duke’s Barn, a small charitable centre located in Beeley, Derbyshire. The children had four days of adventurous activities including stream scrambling, caving, weasling, climbing, low ropes course, canoeing and a night walk. Many developed new skills and overcame challenges and fears with a positive attitude, while in a safe environment.

In the Spring Term, Year 3 were able to stay at

At the end of the Summer Term, for their final trip, Year 6 went up to the Ashbourne area in Derbyshire to enjoy a variety of water sports at Carsington Water and Outdoor Activities. For the first time, the children stayed at the Girl Guiding site Pax Hoe, which was great, as we had the campsite all to ourselves. During the three days, the children enjoyed a combination of sailing, rafting and paddling at the water sports centre and then went walking in the Dovedale area and developed their campcraft skills at Pax Hoe.

On site we are blessed with our beautiful campus, which is used on a regular basis. The children in the Kindergarten and Pre-Prep have the opportunity to enjoy regular Forest School sessions in one of our two Forest School sites. Whilst in the Prep, the children have the chance to develop their bushcraft skills in an after-school club or in their Friday Skills Session, where activities range from fire lighting, whittling, orienteering, weaving using natural materials, using the traversing wall, shelter building, erecting tents and learning to use a Trangia stove to cook Super Noodles or Mug Shots.

The KataKanoes are still popular and are used on a regular basis for clubs to extend the curriculum and develop paddling skills.

We pride ourselves in our Outdoor Education programme and the opportunities we provide for our children from their very first day as they arrive at King’s Hawford to the day they leave for Senior School. The skills and confidence they take with them give them a huge advantage with their ongoing education and the next chapter of their lives.

PE & Games

Following the various sport related COVID restrictions during the 2020/21 academic year, the children, staff and parents were all delighted to return to a full programme of sporting events at King’s Hawford this year.

learning a variety of skills and concepts associated with swimming, gymnastics, basketball, handball, trampolining, fitness, fundamental motor skills, problem solving and athletics.

The children throughout the school have continued to apply outstanding levels of enthusiasm, commitment, participation and performance across all areas of sport at school and have enjoyed the wide range of opportunities available to them. From weekly PE and games lessons, co-curricular clubs, House sporting events and local fixtures to regional and national successes, the children have impressed with their consistent desire to learn and improve. Children at King’s Hawford embody a love of sport, teamwork and competition and always do so with a smile on their faces.

Physical Education has remained an extremely popular subject in the school day, with children looking forward to their weekly and fortnightly lessons in the swimming pool and The Barn. The wide range of activities within the curriculum has enabled all children to find their sporting passions whilst also

The children from Years 3 to 6 have also continued to benefit from two games afternoons per week and have enjoyed another outstanding year out on the sports fields as a result. We have continued to run multiple teams in each age group to allow all children access to competitive sport at the most appropriate level for the current stage of their sporting development. Our various teams have regularly achieved impressive results and consistently punch above their weight with dominant performances against much bigger schools. This was never more evident than with the U11 boys’ rugby team, who travelled up to QEGS Junior School in Wakefield by invitation to play in the Harrison Cup amongst several large northern schools. The boys performed outstandingly and finished as overall runners-up in the final.

smaller team sizes, thus increasing the match involvement of each girl and leading to greater development of all players. Additionally, girls’ cricket has continued to go from strength to strength at King’s Hawford, with several of our girls now representing Worcestershire at county level for cricket. It was great to have the boys and girls competing alongside each other yet again in cricket, breaking down the gender sports stereotypes and barriers. We have continued this with our girls’ football team as well as the introduction in 2021/22 of a boys’ hockey team.

A highlight of the AutumnTerm was the return of the annual Year 6 Cardiff Sports Tour, this year with the added bonus of an additional day spent at the beach learning to surf and bodyboard. The children loved the trip away and played some impressive hockey and rugby against Monmouth Prep and Llandaff Cathedral School.

The girls’ teams have made excellent progress across their sports and have adapted well to the newly introduced bee-ball form of netball that involves

King’s Hawford has also enjoyed one of our most successful years at regional and national IAPS sporting

events, competing in IAPS hockey, netball, football, swimming, athletics and tennis competitions. Notable successes include the ISFA boys’ football team becoming regional champions for the second consecutive year and playing in the national finals at St George’s Park, Isaac

P qualifying for the IAPS swimming national finals at the Olympic Pool, Charlotte B and Fabian W representing the Mercia region at the IAPS athletics national finals and Florence B, Charlotte B, Aryton L and Cameron K taking part in the IAPS tennis national finals at Rugby School.

PE & Games

We welcomed back the return of several House sporting events in 2021/22, including House crosscountry, rugby, hockey, football, netball, cricket and, of course, the ever-popular House Apache relay at the end of the Summer Term. It is always a pleasure to witness every child giving their all and striving to perform to their full potential to aid their Houses in their attempts to win the House prize.

As always, the sporting year ended with another series of fantastically supported sports days that saw every child from Kindergarten to Year 6 competing, having fun and striving to beat their personal best scores. This year’s event was another lovely family occasion, with parents and grandparents cheering the children on as they endeavoured to run faster, jump higher and throw further across their selected track and field events. Yet again, the children did themselves proud, with no fewer than 10 school records being broken across Years 3 to 6. It was a wonderful and inspiring way to end another highly impressive and enjoyable year of sport at King’s Hawford.

Music

The academic year 2021-22 has had some fantastic musical highlights and it has been wonderful to perform in the old ‘normal’ way, with live audiences returning and social distancing a thing of the past.

The Year 5 and 6 Production is one of the many highlights every year, especially for Year 6 children as their final performance before they head on to Senior School. This year’s show, What A Knight! by Craig Hawes, was no exception. As is customary, with Year 6 cast in the speaking roles, rehearsals ran smoothly.

Year 5 children sang in all the songs, and each class had a themed dance, making mesmerising, magical Wizards and commanding, gallant Knights. Their choreographed dances were excellent, demonstrating the talents of a year group with a great sense of rhythm and humour.

Alice (Emily J) who sang effortlessly in her duet How to be Me with Watt. Joined by the fiery-tempered Dusty the Dragon (Florrie C), the trio performed a rousing rendition of One of a Kind.  With many excellent character portrayals, other notable performances were those of the coolest King Arthur (Ned T) and Merlin the Magician (Florence B). The entertaining Black Knight (Henry K) and his dozy sidekicks Ernie and Bernie Blackhead (Seren L and Nico C) brought an element of evil to the enjoyment of the evening shows.  In all, the choreography for the songs and dances enhanced every aspect of the performances and the fabulous costumes, stunning set and staging of Rook and Camelot Castles made the whole show come to life.

At Christmas, the Early Years and Pre-Prep children enchanted us with their singing and smiles in their nativities, The Big Little Nativity and Ralph the Reindeer (Year 1 & 2.)  They impressed with their big voices and good memories for the words both spoken and sung, actions and stage directions.

Throughout the year individual children enjoyed solo successes in various festivals in the region and further afield in London and Wales. Michelle Z won Gold for 1st place in the Performance Grade 7 Class in the London Young Musicians’ Competition in September.

The large Year 6 cast delivered numerous strong and entertaining performances, from the hilariously over-the-top Princesses (Harvey R, Bertie D, Ben E, Cameron K, Billy T) to the hapless hero Watt Cobblers (Daniel L) and his exasperated mother Kitty (Zofia W). The soloists sang with confidence, led by Princess

In the Spring Term, Years 3 and 4 performed their production in the form of a Musical Showcase, with highlights from some of the most famous and wellloved musicals. Featuring Mamma Mia, Matilda, Bugsy Malone, and Oliver!, each class performed a song, a scene and a dance from a show, giving the audience the flavour of each production and leaving both the audience and the children wanting more! We look forward to future shows from these talented Year groups.

Henry K attended a Hands-On Harp event in Abergavenny in May and was awarded the inaugural Ann Griffiths Scholarship for young, upcoming and promising harpists. He also entered the Leamington Spa Competitive Festival in June, winning both his Harp class and a prize for the ‘Most Promising Lever Harpist’.

Throughout the year we have offered performance opportunities to our 160+ musicians in the form of Informal Concerts every half-term and chances to perform in assembly

to gain wonderful performing experience.  The Senior and Junior Choirs and the School Orchestra, String Group, Brass Group and Guitar Group have enjoyed rehearsing weekly throughout the year, and it has been wonderful to hear these ensembles practicing for their concert performances.

Notable successes in ABRSM, LCM and Trinity music examinations have continued throughout the year with 70+ results and continued interest shown in the new ABRSM Practical Music exams, which can be recorded at any point in the year, giving great flexibility to all musicians.

We are always grateful to our talented and supportive peripatetic music team, who inspire and motivate their pupils both in their daily practice and in helping the children nurture their love of music-making while realising their musical potential. The focus has resulted in some tremendous progress this year! We were pleased to welcome Erica Sinclair to our team as a Harp teacher, and we said a farewell to Jo Chambers after 13 years teaching Violin at King’s Hawford as she focuses her teaching nearer to her home.

2022 has seen three of our Year 6 musicians offered Music Scholarships as they move on to Senior School. Congratulations to Henry K and Edward S, and to Will L on being awarded a Music Exhibition. Henry has also gained a prestigious King’s Choral Scholarship; long may your musicmaking continue! We are proud that seven King’s Hawford pupils attend the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs.

Science

As science coordinator here at King’s Hawford, it is my mission to create inquisitive children who are keen to question, explore, test and problem solve: the true qualities needed by all good scientists.

meaning their sense of curiosity is never hampered.

We are extremely lucky here to have an amazingly well-equipped science laboratory along with a knowledgeable lab technician who supports in all our Prep science lessons. This facility, alongside our fantastic school grounds, makes us a cut above the rest. Children enjoy donning lab coats and goggles and using a range of scientific equipment including data loggers, Bunsen burners, thermometers, microscopes and balances. Even our youngest pupils have the full range of equipment on offer to them,

We aim to make all our science lessons engaging, exciting and hands on. Right from the start of Kindergarten, where the children are some of the very best at asking questions and testing hypothesis, whether that may be finding out how far a car will travel down a ramp depending on the gradient or looking for different objects that will float in the tuff tray, their curious and inquisitive minds have them exploring and investigating every day. As children move into Reception, they begin to learn how to record their findings and are encouraged to draw conclusions, all while developing their scientific language and love of the subject. In Pre-Prep, children expand their knowledge, practising basic scientific enquiry skills through the delivery of different topics

such as materials, plants, light and dark and habitats. These key skills continue to develop as they move into prep. Children are encouraged to design their own investigations to find answers to questions through relevant and engaging topics. The scientific journey a King’s Hawford child takes is one of adventure and discovery; there is plenty to enjoy and lots of areas to explore.

Science is about the miracle of the mundane and children can appreciate this best. As always, we have had plenty of fun in science this year; the children have thrown themselves in whole-heartedly and the love of the subject continues.

“The important thing is to never stop questioning.”

Albert Einstein

Charity & Events

Special Days and Charity

Unencumbered by the restrictions previously placed on us by COVID, the Special Days and competitions that one of our Year 6 leavers this year cheerfully reminded us “help make Hawford, Hawford” were back in full swing. As ever, they were often intrinsically linked to helping to raise money for the charities that the School had chosen to support throughout the year.

Charity

In the Summer of 2020, the King’s Hawford community had rooted through their collective wardrobes and drawers to donate second hand uniform to Project Gambia. After a very emotional and thought-provoking visit from the charity’s founder Bev Hodt, we quickly determined that we would like to do more to help them this year. After our Charity Assembly, the children also chose to support UNICEF, which sat well with the work the School was undertaking on global citizenship as part our quest for a Green Eco-Schools flag.

“passing on” a kindness that they had been given and leaving each other desk notes to reaffirm friendships and help make new ones. On our Duvet Day, which has become a firm favourite on the calendar, children wear pyjamas and dressing gowns into school and are allowed to snuggle up with pillow and cuddly toys and “chill out” together during their down time. Blessed with good weather, the Christmas Fayre took place in the great outdoors, with children running stalls, singing Christmas anthems, enjoying food and drink treats and there was even a visitor from the North Pole.

concert brought Adam Ants, Boy Georges, Madonnas, leg warmers, neon and mullets out in force across the school. A packed Barn enjoyed performances of a number of 80s classics at the charity concerts, with the teacher’s offerings, once again, bringing the house down. It was a very memorable King’s Hawford night.

Events and competitions to raise money flowed throughout the Year. Our Random Acts of Kindness Week saw children helping the cleaners, visiting a local care home, assisting each other with small tasks,

Dare to be Different Day encouraged children to express their individuality through what they wore, but also to think about the qualities that they have to help effect positive change. Our 80s Day and

The fundraising highlight of the year was undoubtedly the newly created Tenner Challenge. Years 5 and 6 were tasked, as teams or individuals, to turn a £10 note into as much money as possible over a four-week period. The communal areas around the garden and outdoor classroom were buzzing with excitement on Tenner Challenge days. Fuelled by posters and some incredibly creative adverts show in assemblies, children from

across the School came ready to buy the best and participate in a range of challenges. The breadth of offering was simply amazing, from home-made bird feeders, cakes and stationery to sweet treats, home-grown plants and a skipping challenge. Raffles were very popular, but the jewel in the fundraising crown was an auction held by a team that had written to local sports clubs for donations. The Challenge will, most definitely, be back next year.

The generosity and support of the entire King’s Hawford community saw us raise over £6500 for charity for the second year running. In addition to making sizeable donations to both Project Gambia and UNICEF, King’s Hawford was able to give £700 to the Ukraine Emergency Appeal, as part of a Foundation-wide donation, and send a lorry load of food and essential supplies to the Worcester Food Bank through our Harvest Festival boxes.

When Bev from Project Gambia returned to school at the close of the year, she brought with her incredible news for the School. The money raised had been used to refurbish the whole of Wisdom Primary School and contribute to their food project. Our pupils loved the video message of thanks they received from the School’s Head and children, as well as seeing pupils sporting the King’s Hawford uniform that had been donated.

Other Events

Away from fundraising activities, the King’s Hawford Parent’s’ Association (KHPA) put on a fantastic Welcome Back Mini-Festival to kick off the year and the Firework Night received glowing reviews. We saw great curriculum days linked to Maths, World Book Day and the European Day of Languages, as well as House events including the Tug of War, Quiz and Bake Off, which were both highly competitive and entertaining.

Arts Week this year, on the theme of Freedom, saw our first Poetry slams, the creation of an art installation for the Bevere gallery and the opportunity for the Art Department to mount an exhibition of the fantastic pieces created throughout the year. This culminated in Grandparents’ Day, during which children enjoyed performing to their families and touring them around the school.

The Queen’s Jubliee Picnic was a great chance to come together and celebrate 70 years of the Monarch’s reign, and the end of year fun day and outdoor school assembly was a chance for the whole school community to come together to celebrate another fantastic school year and to exact their revenge on the teaching staff with super soakers.

Sustainibility

Looking to build on the excellent achievements of the previous year’s Green Team, the newly elected Eco Council quickly started to take huge steps towards King’s Hawford gaining the highly regarded Eco-Schools Green Flag. Members of the Council took on key leading roles in driving King’s Hawford’s ambitions to become an Earth conscious school and deliver the action plan that they had put in place.

After initial research and the completion of an extensive audit, the Council decided on three key areas of focus for the School’s efforts over the coming year: Biodiversity, Energy and Global Citizenship. Throughout the year, representatives on the Green Team fed back to the whole school community on progress through social media, assemblies and videos.

Through the School’s Friday afternoon Skills programme, sessions were delivered to our Years 3 to 6 pupils, including Biodiversity Gardeners, Outdoor Explorers, Eco-Art, KH Radio’s Big Green Idea, Green Broadcasters and a group who were the first in the country to achieve the Project Gambia Global Citizenship Award, which delivered ideas and action around the 17 UN Sustainable Development

Goals. The Eco Council were also keen to promote sustainable issues within the curriculum across all year groups in areas such as habitats, water, marine life, deforestation, energy, the environment and global citizenship.

One of the School’s identified key objectives, Global Citizenship, was led by our charity programme this year. The Eco Council took an active role in inviting Bev Hodt from Project Gambia into school, to speak to us and develop links with this charity that is doing hugely important work to improve the lives of children and their families in the Gambia.

Closer to home, having run a competition to create a logo to remind children and staff to switch off appliances when not in use, Energy Monitors were then appointed to tour the School during break times with full permission to leave offending teachers notes, ticking them off for energy indiscretions.

Several projects were put in place to change the School’s biodiversity profile. Our gardening skills group and club worked hard to bring new plants into the school to attract wildlife and provide herbs that would be used in the kitchen, promoting the idea of self-sufficiency. On Green Day, the community came together with donations of a huge range of plants

to attract a broad spectrum of bugs and insects to dedicated biodiversity beds. Pupils from across the School planted their kind donations under the careful watch of our guest assembly speaker, Mark McCormack, Head Gardener at the Netherwood Estate, which provides estate-to-table produce for the Michelin starred Pensons restaurant. Children in our outdoor clubs also built and maintained bug hotels in key eco-areas and kept watch to see what species came to visit.

At the end of the school year the Eco Council was able to publish its Eco-code based on the work they had undertaken during the year and aspirations for the School’s future green credentials. However, it is with laser focus that they completed their application of the Green Flag, recording all that they had achieved over 18 months and submitting further information relating to the School’s actions and attitudes to topics such as energy saving, healthy eating, transport and re-cycling. It was with great delight that they were able to announce to the school that King’s Hawford had been awarded a Green Flag with distinction, submitting an application that Eco-Schools said was “an absolute pleasure and privilege to review”.

Holiday Clubs

Holiday clubs at King’s Hawford have continued to be popular with our children throughout the school holidays and we have recently been accepting children from outside the King’s Foundation again, which proved popular this summer. We run camps for approximately 14 weeks throughout the year in the holidays and we have childcare from 7.30am to 5.30pm.

Holiday Club (KG1 to KG2)

Early Years Holiday Club has supervision from 7.30am to 5.30pm with activities running 9.30am to 4.00pm. We have the option of a half-day, and this may be a morning or afternoon session. The Early Years Holiday Club is run by Kindergarten staff and staff within School, so the children see familiar faces each day, with occasional Senior School students in addition doing summer work.

Commonwealth Games, and seaside fun. Summer

Early Years Holiday Club proved to be very popular this year, with most days out of the six weeks being full. The swimming pool was in use for the children to

have a splash around and to cool off with their friends. We also brought back off-site trips this summer and the children had the option of one trip a week.

Our younger children, aged two to four, have had a great year of different activities, including crafts, cooking, physical games, Forest School, swimming, investigations, off-site visits and much more. They have enjoyed some fantastic themed days over the summer put on by the staff such as Gruffalo Day,

Activity Camp (Reception to Year 7)

Activity Camp has supervision from 7.30am to 5.30pm and we have activities from 9.30am to 4.00pm. Staff working at Activity Camp are all either former staff members or members of staff still at King’s Hawford, so this helps the children settle easily as they are familiar with the adults on-site.

This year saw us take in Reception for the first time in the big holiday camp and they loved it; they enjoyed playing with the older children and learning new games.

The children aged four to 12 have had a great year at Activity Camp, with lots of different activities on and off site. Each day the children take part in a variety of activities. Baking, art and crafts, sports, swimming, dancing, team games, outdoor fun, and trampolining are just a few of the exciting activities offered. The children also swim daily in our indoor, heated swimming pool. Here children enjoy fun swimming sessions with floats, dive sticks and hoops, pool toys, balls and nets.

In the summer holidays we decided to bring back two off-site activities a week, with which the children were delighted; most trips were fully booked very quickly. We made trips to Go Ape, Ninja Warrior UK, The Buzz, multiple cinema trips, Conkers, Drayton Manor, The Cotswold Wildlife Park, bowling and a meal and finally, to round the summer off, an inflatable fun day at school. We hired a giant inflatable obstacle course, giant bouncy slide and a bouncy castle and all the children had ice creams to cool off too.

Year 6 Leavers

Our Year 6 pupils finished their final year at King’s Hawford in style, seizing every opportunity and making wonderful memories. They camped overnight at School and later at Carsington, learned how to surf on the Cardiff Sports Tour, made a profit in the Tenner Challenge, read to the Reception children in Random Acts of Kindness Week and performed on stage in ‘What a Knight’.

Having plenty of fun was high on their list of priorities, embracing 80s fashion and Daring to be Different for charity days, but they also remained focused on achieving their best in everything they did. All pupils gained a place at King’s Worcester following a rigorous entrance exam, with several being offered some form of foundation scholarship or exhibition. Our congratulations to Nico C, Daniel L and Harry B for

their Academic scholarships. Edward S received an Academic and Music scholarship, Florence B an academic exhibition and Henry K a Music Scholarship. Eight All-Rounder awards were awarded to Annabella M, Imogen B, Will L, Amelia M, Cameron K, Millie P, Zofia W and Eden G. Tilly M, Charlotte B, Fabian W, Fletcher K, Billy T and Ned T received Sports Skills Awards.

Their determination, resilience and sportsmanship were evident in numerous IAPS sports tournaments and the boys revelled in their opportunity to represent the school in the ISFA National Football Final at St George’s Park. The children rose to the challenge of new leadership roles, proving to be excellent role models as Heads of School, Academic, Citizenship, Sports and Performing Arts Prefects, and inspired younger pupils to strive for

these roles in the future. As committed School and Eco Council representatives, they made lasting changes to the outdoor spaces at King’s Hawford through Project Aviary and the biodiversity garden, and we hope that many of them return to see these finished and thriving.

have the same amazing experience at King’s Hawford as they had had and with this in mind, they gave the words of advice overleaf to go on every classroom wall.

In their final school assembly, our Year 6 pupils decided that there was no better legacy than to help others

We will miss them very much but are proud to send them off on the next stage of their King’s journey, or to pastures new, knowing that they go equipped with all of the qualities of a true Hawfordian.

H

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Year 6 Advice -

How to have an amazing time at King’s Hawford:

ave a go at everything on offer, from clubs to productions to trips. Whatever you put in, you will get back twice over.

lways try your best in lessons, be determined and ask for help if you need it. People won’t think badly of you; they will like helping you.

W ork with lots of different people, even if they’re not your best friends. You might discover something amazing about them.

F ailing is how you learn: enjoy those marvellous mistakes and learn to laugh about them with your friends.

O rdinary is not something Hawfordians are. Stand out from the crowd, embrace differences and love your uniqueness.

R emember always to be honest. If you make a bad decision, admit it, accept the consequences and learn from it.

D on’t forget, your time at King’s Hawford will go every quickly. Have fun, laugh lots, treasure friends, repeat.