Pre-School started the year by looking at the season and have been outdoors exploring and discussing the signs of winter. The children have also been introduced to the artist Monet and his painting ‘The Magpie’. Everyone has been using cold colours and a variety of materials to create their own paintings.
In Reception the children have been sharing their holiday news and talking about resolutions for the new year. Here are some lovely goals that your children shared with us.
“I want to play with everyone!”“I want everyone to be kind to animals.” “I want to get more Golden Moments this term''.
I’m sure you will agree that these are wholesome resolutions and ones we will be encouraging as we know the children can achieve them.
Year 1 has been beavering away with some arts and crafts activities, in preparation for our history topic on space exploration, using collage, papier mache and textured fabric to add to rockets and planets. We have spoken about empathy and have briefly touched on the amount of preparation that is required to travel to space. Some children found the prospect of space travel exhilarating and some were slightly daunted. Further interesting discussions will be had, commencing with Yuri Gagarin’s maiden voyage to space.
The Year 2 children have returned enthusiastic and more engaged than ever. They have loved learning about block diagrams and have been excellent mathematicians even being able to analyse data! Our year group reading project is an old favourite ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’. The children have loved creating their own precious owls and we are busy creating another beautiful display board sharing your children's work, which we would love for you to see once it is complete.
Thank you for sending your children suitably dressed for Forest School. It makes such a difference when the children arrive ready to learn, warm and happy. We have been on a nature walk and stick hunt experiencing the warm winter sunshine permeating through our clothes. We explored the lake area looking for sticks to make trees, and found the Wellingtonia, one of Edge Grove’s largest trees. Whilst looking, we also discovered little green shoots sprouting through the soil - snowdrops! A sure sign winter is on the move.
Welcome back to pupils and parents. We hope that you all had a lovely and restful break. The children returned to school on Thursday ready for another fun-filled term ahead. Term started with an empowering assembly by our new headmaster, Mr Balfour. The children were challenged to reflect on 2022 and their resolutions for the year ahead.It has been great to see all of the optional work completed over the break such as the holiday reading challenge. Many of the children have worked so hard and we are extremely proud of their dedication they have shown to improve in their studies.In Year 3 in maths lessons this week the children were exploring units of time. In class we discussed the units of measurement the children would use to complete various activities. We also spent time learning different rhymes to recall how many days are in each month of the year.
The children became detectives in their English lessons this week as they started to search for clues hidden within the images and text of ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’. Year 3 were challenged to use the 5 Ws and question words to ask inferential questions on the text.
This term the children will be exploring light and shadow in science lessons. Pupils spent time exploring light sources and investigating shadows with the use of torches.
In Year 4, we hit the ground running in maths where we are multiplying numbers by 10. Some children are looking into multiplying decimals. This is helped for some with the use of place value grids.
Friday was a fun-filled afternoon for everyone at the inter-house cross country. Well done to all of the children who ran. You showed great team spirit!
A huge congratulations to Josh in Year 4 and Zara in Year 5 for your respective swimming and running successes over the holidays. See the PE & Games section for full details.
This term, we welcome our newly appointed team of prefects to the pupil leadership team. These senior pupils were nominated by staff, and received their badges at the final end of term assembly before Christmas. Prefect status is open to all Year 8s, and they have been invited to step up and challenge themselves to be visible, responsible, active and involved members of the Edge Grove community. At the end of this term, we will award badges to any other Year 8s to acknowledge their contributions and commitments to pupil leadership. We also look forward to awarding prefect ties to the members of Year 8 who have gone above and beyond, and have really shone as true pupil leaders of Edge Grove.
Edge Grove Upper School Careers Morning - We call all willing parents to support us at this term’s forthcoming Careers Morning! Across the school, this term’s PSHEE focus is ‘Living in the Wider World.’ Pivotal to this, as well as a core element of the enrichment module of the Edge Grove Baccalaureate, is exposing our seniors to the world of careers.
To ensure that we can make this as relevant, impactful and and as memorable as possible, we are keen to include our talented parent-body. Whether you are a business entrepreneur, a medical professional, an artist, actor, accountant or athlete, we would love to hear from you!
The date of our Careers Morning will be Monday 27th February at 09.00am in the Theatre. Within the format of a ‘fair’, we will be inviting the children to come and speak to you to find out more about how your individual world of work operates, the various pathways into it, and some of the skills and attributes that may be required. We know it will be a tremendously valuable opportunity, and we are greatly appreciative of your help! If you think you can get involved, please do let me know via email: awarren@edgegrove.com
Inter House Cross CountryWell done to all the boys and girls who performed with great grit, determination and House spirit on Friday. It was fabulous to see the Edge Grove community come together with so many parents coming along to support this event and the pupils certainly did not let us down! There were some great individual performances which need to be highlighted, but it is always important to mention that pupils who exceeded their own personal expectations and performed above their expectations were all winners too!
In the Year 3 and 4 race Nathaniel H dominated from the start to win with Edith H in Year 3 being the first girl home and finishing an incredible 5th overall. In the Year 5 and 6 race Ben R won with Isaac K in Year 5 finishing second and Zara B in Year 5 finishing an excellent third overall and first girl home. Niccolo dominated the senior race making it back to back wins for him and Emilia was first girl home and sixth overall.
Well done to everyone who took part and our individual age group winners:
Year 3 - Tyler Mc and Edith HYear 4 - Nathaniel H and Olivia GYear 5 - Isaac K and Zara BYear 6 - Ben R and Cathy CYear 7 & 8 - Niccolo C and Emilia C
When all the final positions and results were added up the overall House results were as follows:
1st Churchills2nd Hedgerows3rd Stratton4th Sarnesfield5th Gills
Holiday success for our pupils
It has been great to hear about how well our pupils have been doing outside of school over the holiday period in their various sports. Zara B in Year 5 did really well in her first club cross country run. She was very nervous but put in a fantastic run to finish 12th in the under 11 girls, 1.9km in 8min 54sec. Considering that she is still U10 this is a wonderful achievement.
Josh C in Year 4 placed second in the Bushey Amateur Swimming Club U10 50m freestyle event. A great achievement considering he is still U9.
Tyler M in Year 3 played in the final of his football club's U9 league competition and they ran out as 5 - 2 winners in the final having gone through the season undefeated. Tyler is still U8 and is playing in the U9 team for his club with great success.
Winter Cricket Nets
In preparation for the cricket season we will be offering indoor cricket nets this term on a Tuesday evening from 4:30pm to 6:00pm, as well as a Saturday morning. The Saturday session for Year 3 to 5 pupils will be from 9:00am to 10:00am and the session for Year 6 to 8 will be from 10:00am to 11:00am.
I would strongly encourage all pupils who are interested in cricket or who are hoping to play hard ball cricket to sign up to one of these sessions.
All of these sessions will be chargeable at the normal rate of £100 per term and numbers will be limited so please book early to secure your place.
Table TennisEdge Grove Seniors 27 York House 15Before the Christmas break, we entertained York House to an afternoon of table-tennis with everyone having at least 6 matches to 15 points. Congratulations to Karsten who won all his matches.Team: Jamie, Kamil, Chase, Karsten, Caitlin, Henry and Rohan
Music and Drama - After an amazing end to Autumn term with the spectacular Bah Humbug and the Carol Service which made us all ready to feel the Christmas spirit once again we are very excited for the upcoming term. Another term full of musical and performing arts opportunities where pupils can be immersed into the creative aspects of their school life.
Year 5 & 6 were very excited to find out that their Spring production is going to be Alice in Wonderland. Students enjoyed beginning to learn the first song in the show as well as doing a read-through last week. Auditions for parts will commence this week and we look forward to the rehearsal period ahead. This production will take place just before the Easter holidays.
We look forward to resuming Matilda rehearsals after school on Tuesday. Please note the new pick-up time of 6.30pm to ensure we have longer rehearsals to make the show the best it can possibly be!And finally a reminder from Future Stars that their new term started on Sunday at Edge Grove and they are thrilled to announce that their focus for the term will be: Aladdin and The Mickey Mouse Club! Book a free trial for your child's chance to audition! Click here for more information.
Design & Technology
Year 7 3D Printing project - Product Design
During the Autumn term, the Year 7s designed and created, using Google SketchUp, a product that had a biomimicry influence. Each pupil was able to design a unique and innovative 3D CAD model to 3D print and render with colour successfully. A brilliant effort from all the Year 7s and one they should be very proud of!
Year 8 Clock project - Product Design
At the end of last term, the Year 8’s successfully completed their clock projects in Design & Technology. They all did a fantastic job and worked extremely hard throughout the project. Here are some of the pupils' excellent work inspired by their chosen GCSE design movements - Well done all!
