Hunter Hall School Newsletter Number 9 Summer Term 2016 June 17 th Dear Parents, After an extremely busy weekend it was a real treat on Monday morning to come into assembly and sit quietly for a few minutes with the children. Reverend Sargent was our guest that morning and he brought in some music to reflect and contemplate whilst listening to it. He talked of the importance of just stopping sometimes - a concept not many of us are familiar with these days (!) but he is quite right, if we don t take time to stop and reflect we are all the poorer and frazzled for it. By stopping we can take time out appreciate all that has happened be that good or not so good and try and make sense of this all too busy world we live in. We did of course have a great deal to reflect upon, for as I wrote last week we were just about to celebrate our 30 th birthday and what a celebration we had! Nearly every family in the school that was able to, helped us to celebrate last weekend, along with a significant number of Old Hunters. Yes, the weather could have been better, but that did not stop us at all. The bake off tent was a sight to behold, as were the three birthday cakes specially made by our parents for the event, the pizza oven was going great guns (over 400 pizzas made!) along with a fantastic barbeque of pulled pork and as much salad and strawberry meringues as you could muster. Cricket and rounders matches played in such good spirit and a bar that did a roaring trade throughout the day added to the occasion. There was something for everyone I have never seen a bouncy castle or a set of Spacehoppers so popular and as a number of children ran up to me throughout the day to declare this is the best party ever Mrs Vinsome we clearly got it right. It goes without saying it was not without a great deal of help and dedication from many of our parents, spearheaded by Natalie and Nigel Harling. However, SO many people had a part to play and whilst I shall be writing personally to individuals to thank them may I say a public thank you to all of you for either helping/supporting/attending/or clearing up after the day. There are loads of photos please look on the Alumni section of our website, Twitter, Flicker (my what a technological world HH has entered into) and I shall also endeavour to put as many in the office window as possible on rotation for those of us less technological minded! Some of you who bought tickets may not have picked up your celebratory school birthday booklet please call in at the office if we owe you one! If you couldn t join us and would like one they are some spare at 5 a copy. We had a grandparent the other day who purchased 8! Splendid. Such is the goodwill of our parents and benefactors that we have also been given the sawdust bales to sell. These are large (and heavy!) and near the entrance to the school field. If you would like one please can you put a donation into the office sawdust bale pot! This money along with any other we raise will start to go towards our next big building project which we are launching in school to go alongside our 30 th birthday a new science classroom. I shall be writing to you in due course about this, but if you would like to know what we have got planned and didn t manage to glimpse it in the hall exhibition last Saturday then please see our plans on the display in the library. I always know it is getting to the end of term when the badminton final takes place. This year the finalists were Toby Scott and Keira Butler. A final showdown took place at break time on Thursday and I am pleased to say that whilst congratulations must go to Toby for a very deserved win, Keira played extremely well and was a worthy runner up. Rehearsals are also now beginning to get underway for the end of term performance of Twelfth Night more about that later, whilst we have also had rehearsals for LAMDA exams which are taking place today (fingers crossed everyone) and Words and Music last night - I always look forward to these events and see them as our version of mini PROMS - the children get so excited when they see the tables, stage, flowers and nibbles out. As always a plethora of talent was on show and how proud you must be of your children to perform to such a level and with
such enthusiasm. It really was an extraordinarily successful evening with our hall packed to the rafters and more guitars, drums, saxophones and other such musical items ready to help us to relax into the evening. Singing is obviously the order of the day as I have heard it a lot around the school this week including a fabulous rendition of a colour song (In French) by Year 3. A talented bunch of children they certainly were and their French accents were simply formidable! Our residential trips are now complete for the year and it was a welcome sight to see our Year 4 along with Mr Spooner and Mrs Stanford return from the Farne Islands last Friday afternoon. I have left Kai and Toby to tell you their story in this newsletter but clearly a wonderful time was had by all despite the north east wind and rough seas over to the Farnes! Next week seems ominously quiet on our school calendar... I m looking forward to it Enjoy your weekend Mrs D Vinsome
P.S. Winners of the Bake Off competition were as follows: Lower School - 4 Decorated Cup Cakes Ist - Lucy Hetherington (Faces Cupcakes) Special Prize - Matilda Harling (Fish Cupcakes) Upper School - A Celebration Cake This was by far the most difficult class to judge 1 st - Olivia Corbishley (Pinatta Cake) Special Prize- Yolanda Wilkinson (Caution - This Squirrel may contain nuts!) Man Made - My Favourite Cake I st - Louis Antoine (Cranks Carrot Cake) Special Prize- Duncan Dobson (Almondies- wheat, dairy and egg yolk free) Open to all 4 Fruit Tarlets 1 st - Brodie Weymouth (Assorted Summer Fruit Tartlets) Special Prize- Mrs Vinsome (Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Tarlets) Plus two additional prizes Special Prize for the family who entered all classes - The Sorton Family Special Prize for the most beautiful Victoria Sponge - Alexa Weymouth Sun and shopping! The reading for this week is 13,067.00 kwh. We have now raised a total of 3,766.50 through easyfundraising U-10 Rounders v Mowden Hall Although rain briefly threatened to stop play, or at least curtail it, the Year 5 girls were able to complete a full set of innings against their latest opponents, from Mowden Hall. In one of the most closely contested games of the season so far, the Hunter Hall girls looked set to establish a healthy first innings lead, only to see it slip from their grasp, due to some belated big hitting and one or two fielding slip-ups. In fact, they reached the halfway point trailing by 4 rounders to 5, so knew they had work to do when they lined up to bat again. In their second innings, they played much more positively, without becoming reckless, taking advantage of a few fielding lapses on the part of their opponents, to sneak in a few whole rounders and amass a healthy total of 10½. Even with another late flourish, Mowden could not match our girls second innings score, falling one short to leave the final result a well-earned and sportingly played draw. Mrs H Scholefield
Farne Islands 2016 First we set off at 8:00am to head to the Farne Islands. Half way there we stopped for a snack, then we set off again, it took us 5 hours to get to Holy Island. When we got off the bus at Holy Island we walked to Lindisfarne Castle. Half way there we stopped for lunch. When we got to Lindisfarne Castle we had to put our bags away in a locker then we walked around the castle and took some pictures and videos. Mr Spooner told us about a tower which used to have a massive moving cannon which was never used. Then we looked down a telescope and saw lots of seals, then we left and got our bags back and got back onto the bus. Then we went to the Grace Darling museum and watched 2 videos but 1 video was not working, then we had a look around. After that we went to the hotel and found which room we were staying in and who will be staying with. Next we went to have tea we had roast dinner and ice cream with fruit. Then we went to the beach to play some games. Later when we got there we played a game where the best sand sculpture gets a prize. Eva won with the maximum amount of points which was 10. Then we went back and had snacks and drinks before we went to sleep at 8:30pm. When we woke up we went down for cooked breakfast. Then we left the hotel at 9:30am went to get on a boat for our boat trip which started at 10:00am we saw seals, jellyfish, puffins and seagulls. We took some photos and then we got off the boat. Next we went to the RNLI lifeboat and went to the gift shop. After that we went to have lunch on the beach and played around the rock pools and the water was hot. Then we went to the Farne Island Gift Shop and had ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel to do journal writing and tidying our bed room. Then we went down to have tea which was pizza and chips and for pudding we had banana split and ice cream or just ice cream. And then we went to beach. We built a fort to protect against the water and a very big hole. Next we went back and had snacks and drinks then went to sleep. When we woke up we went down for an English breakfast. Next we got on the bus to go to Dunstanburgh Castle when we got there we walked along the coast and then we got there and had a look around and there was an amazing view at a tower that was fully intact. Then we went to the gift shop to spend the rest of our money then we got back onto the bus, had lunch and set off for school and arrived at 3:30pm. Toby Dobson and Kai Hall Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Year 2 Last Thursday Upper School classes and Year 2 all went to Newcastle Theatre Royal to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Our seats were very high up and we had to look over the banister to be able to see the stage! We could see some of the orchestra underneath the stage too. The stage was much smaller than we thought it would be. Then the lights went down, the music started and we all felt very excited. Lucy Hetherington This week Year 2 have written about their favourite characters, songs and parts of the performance. Luca and Lexi enjoyed the part when Toot sweets were invented and they made a sound. They were red and white and Mr Potts took them to the Scrumptious Sweet factory to play them! Samuel s favourite person was Mr Caractacus Potts, especially when he built Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Stefan liked the song The Old Bamboo where the cast were dancing with sticks for a long time! Zach, Evie, Oskar and Louis particularly enjoyed the section of the performance which involved the toymaker and the child catcher. They thought the toy shop looked really good and the child catcher was evil and scary. He wore a tall black hat and he stole the children from the toy shop by pretending to sell ice-cream and pies. He put them in the castle sewer. Jonty found it very funny when the Baron had a birthday party and he wanted lots of toys so badly that he had a tantrum! Zahren and Lucy Harnwell s favourite part was when the car started flying really high and red and yellow wings came out by magic! Truly, Caractacus, Jeremy and Jemima were sat in the car. The Finale song of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a treat for us all, but Callum and Esme particularly loved the catchy tune and clapping along to the singing. Year 2 When it finished we went down the thousands of steps! As soon as we got outside we jumped back on the coach, ready for the long journey home. It was a fantastic trip! Lucy Hetherington
St Pius X Rounders Tournament Shortly before departing for France, the Year 6 girls headed down the M6 to Preston, courtesy of the Bloomer Bus and Mrs Scholefield s mini, to compete in the annual St Pius X under-11 rounders tournament. Seven teams from all over the North West took part, from Austin Friars in the north to Rydal Penrhos, who travelled from North Wales. With so many teams competing, the format was a shortened, though exciting one, in which each team had one innings of 18 balls, but could not only score when batting, but also earned themselves half a rounder every time they got one of the opposing team out, which made for a very interesting dynamic! The Hunter Hall girls adapted well to this unfamiliar twist to the rules, getting off to a winning start against the home team of St Pius, before coming up against rather stiffer opposition in the form of the extremely slick Kirkham Grammar, the eventual winners. They soon got back to winning ways, however, dispatching with Lady Barn School, from Manchester, who had won both their opening games, with relative ease. Next came something of a local derby, against Austin Friars, from which our girls unfortunately emerged second best, before bouncing back once again to comprehensively beat Rydal Penrhos. The strong and well-drilled team from St. Mary s Hall (Stonyhurst) were their final opponents, and the Hunter Hall girls gave them a real scare, before eventually succumbing in a closely contested last game of the day. The girls were delighted to get three impressive wins under their belts, with their fielding the stand-out aspect of their play, which earned them more than one admiring comment, a great confidence boost! Bethany Cater was named bowler of the tournament, earning a box of rounders balls for her excellent efforts, and the team returned to school in high spirits, having come a well-deserved fourth overall. Many thanks to Mrs Bloomer for her help with transport and supportive presence throughout the day. Mrs H Scholefield Badminton Cup Match report Over seven weeks of intense competition the badminton cup was a fantastic showcase of the school s badminton talent. Twenty six competitors took part in this year s knockout cup, with some hotly contested matches taking part in the first round with Eve McKeown beating Jack Broyan by a narrow margin of 11-10, Toby Scott successfully defeated Emily Airey 11-8 in a close battle with Toby pulling the score away in the last few points. The second round of the cup began with Jack Holt-Stott and Rosie Airey which Rosie showed her competitive edge and won the match becoming the only year five left in the competition at the quarter-final stage. Special mention to Harvey Johnston and his determination and confidence in two nail biting matches, his first against Ted Farnan in the second round, Ted was 10-9 up, Harvey managed to win the point and make it 10-10 and finishing the match with a tremendous smash down the line. His quarter final round match against Beth Stafford looked to be comfortable for him but Beth s determination at 1-5 down brought her back to 7-5, both children playing brilliant shots, showing excellent tactical skills and movement, the match concluded 11-10 to Harvey. Into the semi-finals with only year sixes left Toby versus Finlay Hansford and Keira Butler against Harvey. The first semi-final to be played was by Toby and Finlay a tight game with equal scores throughout and at 8-7 Toby managed to widen the gap and won the match 11-8, Finlay played a tremendous game with fantastic tactical skills and placement of the shuttle making Toby work for his win. The second semi-final between Keira and Harvey was again a close match with Keira edging the win 11-6. The final took place on Thursday between Toby Scott and Keira Butler, a brilliant match to watch both children hit the shuttle with such strength and purpose that it was impossible to decide who was going to win, at 10-10 Toby started to pull away from Keira s score but she gallantly fought back. However, Toby had secured a five point lead at this point and managed to win the match 21-14. Well done Toby Scott winner of the 2016 Hunter Hall School badminton cup. Miss L Westgarth
Week Ahead Monday 20 June After-School Care 3.00-5.30 Lower School Rounders 3.10-4.10 Upper School Choir 3.20-4.20 Band 4.30-5.30 Tuesday 21 June After-School Care 3.00-5.30 Reception Year 3 Dance 3.10-4.10 Lower School Construction Club 3.10-4.10 Twelfth Night rehearsal Feste and Malvolio 3.20-4.30 Upper School Cookery Y3 3.20-4.20 Y4 Outdoor Education 3.20-4.20 Upper School Brain Games 3.20-4.20 NO Exam Prep IAPS u11 6-a-side Cricket Championships, Stockport Grammar FS/Yr1 visit to Maryport Aquarium Wednesday 22 June After-School Care 3.00-5.30 Lower School Arts & Crafts 3.10-4.10 New to Reception parents meeting 5.30pm in reception class Thursday 23 June Lower School Football 3.10-4.10 Twelfth Night rehearsal Sebastian, Olivia, Sir Toby & Sir Andrew 3.20-4.30 Upper School Cricket (Nets) 3.20-4.20 Upper School Badminton 3.20-4.20 Upper School Football 4.30-5.30 Penrith Junior Schools Chess League UCC 1.30-4.30pm Friday 24 June After-School Care 3.00-5.30 Lower School Tri Golf 3.10-4.10 Lower School Cookery Group 2 3.10-4.10 Upper School Running 3.20-4.20 Y5 Outdoor Education 3.20-4.20 Upper School Lacrosse 3.20-4.20 National Book Day' Guinness World Record for the world's largest reading lesson 9.00-9.30 Tri Golf competition Calthwaite Yrs 1&2 v Tri Golf Club members (h) 3.15-4.30