School news

The BV magazine, November ‘22 SCHOOL NEWS

Talking to people who help us

Sherborne Primary School children in the Early Years Foundation Stage spent this month learning about ‘people who help us’. They had exciting visits from a vet and an ambulance driver and then they themselves visited Sherborne Fire Station. The children learned lots, but more importantly had an amazing time.

Never a bad word for ‘good’ Durweston

The staff, governors, parents and children of Durweston Primary School are delighted that they have been judged by OFSTED to be a ‘Good’ school. In fact, the inspector said she had never before inspected a school where there were no negative comments from parents. The children were emphatic in their opinion that there is no bullying in the school, and 100 per cent of parents would recommend the school to other parents. The inspector praised the extremely good behaviour of the children and the warm relationships between both pupils and staff and between pupils themselves. The ambitious curriculum was noted, as was the high expectations that the teaching staff have for all children including those with SEND. She saw that the school’s values underpin everything they do;

Durweston Primary School pupils setting off to reenact the Roman attack on Hod Hill

one teacher said ‘these are not just for school, but the values we want them to have for the rest of their lives.’ ‘We have always believed that Durweston is a great place to learn and a great place to work, and are delighted that OFSTED have recognized that our school is a very special place. I am enormously grateful to my fabulous staff, amazing children and their hugely supportive parents. What a super way to start the year!’ said headteacher Nicola Brooke.

The Gryphon School in Sherborne were recently fortunate to host a visit from celebrity painter Adebanji Alade. Adebanji is a presenter on BBC’s ‘The One Show’ as well as vice president of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He is a wonderful motivational speaker among a myriad of other accomplishments. Selected for their exceptionally high effort and their above-andbeyond attitudes to learning in art, 27 students from across all key stages spent an entire day with Adebanji. They experienced a professional portfolio viewing, watched an inspiring painting demonstration and workshop and they each received one-to-one guidance on creating a portrait of their own in oil paint and mixed media. The students gained valuable insights and learned new skills in traditional and contemporary portraiture techniques using oil and mixed-media. They all produced highly successful and advanced portraits.

Inspired responses

The students were absolutely delighted with the experience: ‘It was a brilliant opportunity and I would recommend this workshop to anyone’ - AK ‘Truly a wonderful experience! I’m so happy that I was picked for it, I feel like I’ve learnt many useful techniques and that this workshop will help me to become a great artist! I hope that one day I’ll be just as successful and skilled as Adebanji Alade!’ – BS ‘ Adebanji’s workshop was really educational and inspired me to do my own oil painting’ - IW Adebanji commented on his day at The Gryphon School; ‘Thanks so much for hosting a wonderful workshop with your talented art students, I really enjoyed working with them.‘ Mr Malone, from The Gryphon School’s art department, said ‘We would like to say a huge thank you to both The Gryphon Foundation and to headteacher Nicki Edwards for their generous support in helping to make this wonderful opportunity happen. And of course well done to the exceptional-effort students who took part.’

Autumn at the kindergarten

The two to four year-olds have embraced autumn at Wimborne Kindergarten, making great use of their outdoor space. They have been using their imagination building with crates, planks and tyres to create their own vehicles, and helping each other to complete their own obstacle course. All the children love water play and they experiment with pouring, sieving, filling and emptying containers – it’s always a busy area in the garden. The children have also been investigating the pumpkins and gourds, exploring their smell, texture and colours. They have enjoyed the many autumn aldisplays in Wimborne town centre on their walks and visits to the local library. The children particularly love their visits to the Wimborne Community Garden which adjoins the Kindergarten. They have used foraged blackberries from the Kindergarten’s own hedgerow and collected fallen apples to make their very own gruffalo crumble and they have baked gingerbread men after reading the story. The leftover apples were used to create wonderful prints in Autumn hues! As the days get colder the children will continue to use the outdoor space as a free-flow facility, enabling the children to choose to learn inside or outdoors whatever the weather.

The NSEA championships at Keysoe

A squad of nine Sandroyd School riders attended the nationals just before half term for the finals for showjumping (SJ) and JWS (jumping with style). The Mini howjumping class went first and Bo, Charlotte, Lily and Willow all rode well, finishing in 11th out of 27 teams. Two teams had qualified for the Mini JWS finals. The white team (Charlotte, Georgia, Rose and Bo) had a good experience at their first championships. The purple team (Lily, Willow, Molly and Daisy) all rode confidently over 17 fences showing a good style and transition from showjumping to crosscountry. This competition is judged on style as well as faults and they achieved a team score of 26.8. Willow had an individual score of 1.9 penalties – the best of the class. The team placed 2nd and Willow won the class. On the Friday it was the novice classes, 85/90cm SJ and sandroyd had one team qualified. This was a very strong class with 42 teams entered. Molly, Willow, James and Charlotte all rode well but a couple of poles down meant they had a team score of 8 which left them in 17th place (a good result when only five teams finished on a zero score and seven were eliminated). In the 85/90cm JWS,two Sandroyd teams had qualified. The white team (Charlotte, Georgia, James and Rose) all hard. The purple team (Daisy, Willow and Lily) had to ride without Molly as her pony went lame and so could not compete but again a good experience. Lily, Willow, Rose and Georgia competed as a team in the Mini Eventers Challenge Qualifier for Hickstead next May. All again rode well on now-tired ponies (and riders) but they managed to win the class and Lily won as an individual so she has qualified for the finals next year. James had qualified for the 90/95cm finals as an individual and he rode a super double clear which gave him 21st place out of 164 riders – as one of the youngest in this class this was a huge achievement.