hallfield focus focus... on the spring term 2014. page 2 from the chairman hallfield continues to go...

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Page 1 From the Headmaster... As the country appears to be emerging from the longest recession in years, Hallfield started the new year in January with record numbers - 575 children in the Nursery, Pre-Prep and Upper School, rising to 580 children next term. This is again confirmation that parents value the benefits of an outstanding “all round” education. Years 1 and 3 delighted audiences with superb productions of Rapunzel and Troy and parents enjoyed 2 excellent music concerts last month. Well done to all concerned. This term the School has not had to contend with the excitement of snow, but we have experienced wind and rain (hence flooding) like never before which has had a detrimental effect on the sporting calendar at the start of term. However, despite the weather, sport has continued to flourish and the boys were knocked out at the semi-final stage of the Midlands soccer tournament at Repton but the girls were deservedly runners-up at the prestigious Prestfelde netball tournament, where they competed against some of the best girls teams in the Midlands. Girls sport is certainly on the ascendancy at Hallfield. This busy term concluded with a lovely traditional Easter Service at St George’s Church for the Upper School. Tania and I would like to wish you all a restful, peaceful and enjoyable Easter holidays. Continued 11+ Success After last year’s impressive 11+ results, it appears that our current Year 6 children have already surpassed these results. 21 Scholarships have been awarded to children progressing to (in alphabetical order) selective independent schools - 1 Denstone College, 3 EHS, 1 Highclare School, 6 KES, 2 KEHS, 1 Priory School, 6 Solihull and 1 St George’s. This total will continue to rise until the end of the year. Congratulations to our scholars of 2014! Success for children passing exams to the highly selective LA Grammar Schools in the Birmingham area is equally impressive with 46 children being offered places to these schools for entry in September 2014. Congratulations to the children and well done and thank you to the staff who have taught and prepared these children so well during their time at Hallfield. Inside this issue From the Chairman 2 PTA news 2 Hallfieldfirst 3 Pre-Prep 4 Upper School 6 Hallfield Vision 8 Hallfield School Church Road Edgbaston Birmingham B15 3SJ 0121 4541496 [email protected] www.hallfieldschool.co.uk Hallfield Focus ... on the Spring Term 2014

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Page 1: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 1

From the Headmaster...As the country appears to be emerging from the longest recession in years, Hallfield started the new year in January with record numbers - 575 children in the Nursery, Pre-Prep and Upper School, rising to 580 children next term. This is again confirmation that parents value the benefits of an outstanding “all round” education.

Years 1 and 3 delighted audiences with superb productions of Rapunzel and Troy and parents enjoyed 2 excellent music concerts last month. Well done to all concerned.

This term the School has not had to contend with the excitement of snow, but we have experienced wind and rain (hence flooding) like never before which has had a detrimental effect on the sporting calendar at the start of term. However, despite the weather, sport has continued to flourish and the boys were knocked out at the semi-final stage of the Midlands soccer tournament at Repton but the girls were deservedly runners-up at the prestigious Prestfelde netball tournament, where they competed against some of the best girls teams in the Midlands. Girls sport is certainly on the ascendancy at Hallfield.

This busy term concluded with a lovely traditional Easter Service at St George’s Church for the Upper School. Tania and I would like to wish you all a restful, peaceful and enjoyable Easter holidays.

Continued 11+ SuccessAfter last year’s impressive 11+ results, it appears that our current Year 6 children have already surpassed these results.

21 Scholarships have been awarded to children progressing to (in alphabetical order) selective independent schools - 1 Denstone College, 3 EHS, 1 Highclare School, 6 KES, 2 KEHS, 1 Priory School, 6 Solihull and 1 St George’s. This total will continue to rise until the end of the year. Congratulations to our scholars of 2014!

Success for children passing exams to the highly selective LA Grammar Schools in the Birmingham area is equally impressive with 46 children being offered places to these schools for entry in September 2014. Congratulations to the children and well done and thank you to the staff who have taught and prepared these children so well during their time at Hallfield.

Inside this issue

From the Chairman 2

PTA news 2

Hallfieldfirst 3

Pre-Prep 4

Upper School 6

Hallfield Vision 8

Hallfield School Church Road Edgbaston Birmingham B15 3SJ

0121 4541496

[email protected]

www.hallfieldschool.co.uk

Hallfield Focus... on the Spring Term 2014

Page 2: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 2

From the Chairman

Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11+ results to both the top LA Grammar Schools and Independent Schools in the Birmingham and Midlands area. Considerable thanks should go to the staff - not just those who have taught them in Years 5 & 6 - but those who taught them further down the school as well and who put in place the invaluable foundation stones of learning.

We are currently awaiting final confirmation of planning approval from Calthorpe Estates for the additional extension to the car park which will be built on the lower playing fields providing spaces for an extra 34 staff vehicles. Once we have received this, we hope that work will start in the Easter holidays and be completed next term. Together with the woodland walk, completed at the start of the academic year, the Governors are very keen to ensure that the car park is as safe as possible for everyone who uses it.

At the next Governors’ Meeting in April, we are seeking approval of the next major capital development project for the School which should take place in the Summer holidays. More details to follow in my fees letter and the next edition of Focus in July.

Keith Uff Chairman of Governors

PTA News

The PTA have had a busy Spring term, we had a fancy dress Pre-Prep disco in February, which was attended by many princesses, knights, pirates and other characters, all of whom danced the two hours away, and enjoyed a variety of games. There were lots of happy (but tired) children at the end of the event!

Recently we held the Upper School movie night, where everyone enjoyed the film ‘Monsters University’.

Finally, in April, our Ladies’ Night was a wonderful evening, with Beth the personal stylist, a fashion show and a belly dancing demonstration! Everyone enjoyed a glass of bubbly and had a great evening - and all for a very worthy charity, ‘Cure Leukaemia.’ The PTA wish to thank you all for your support throughout the year.

Charities & Fundraising

Our chosen charity for the Spring Term has been Edward’s Trust. Edward’s Trust is a Birmingham based charity, which provides support for families and children coping with bereavement. We had a wonderful time on Friday 14th February dressing in red and pink, hooking ducks, guessing the number of sweets in a jar and many other activities! It was a super day and our thanks to all the children, staff and parents who supported us. Many

exciting events took place throughout the School including making and flying kites and in total we raised a rather fabulous £3,400 - thank you!

Dates for your Diary

17th May Spring Fair

20th June Family Bingo & Beetle Drive

5th July Family Disco in the marquee

In January the winners of the Air Ambulance quiz (part of last term’s fundraising programme)

visited the Air Ambulance Base at Strensham. The children met the pilot and the paramedics.

Hallfield raised £2,790 for the charity!

Proposed new parking shown in red

All drawings and designs therein are the copyright of APEC Architects and must not be copied without the expressed written permission of the company. This drawing should not be scaled from. All dimensions must be checked on site and any discrepancies reported to the designers before proceeding.

The Quarters . 19a Princip St . Birmingham . B4 6LE

T. 0121 333 1750 F. 0121 333 1751 E. [email protected] W. www.apec.acA R C H I T E C T S

job number drawing number revision

52215 GA 101 -

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-

date

Jan 14

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Lower Car Park Works

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0 metres 5 10 15 20

50mm compacted 'Breedon Gravel' surface

30mm 'Axogold' surface

New intercom/access control

New intercom/access control

New vehicle rise/fall barrier

Existing manual gate

125x250mm half battered precast concrete road kerb

125x255mm channel block laid flush

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142.5

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Path

12

34

56

78

91 0

4 1

1 1

1 4

16

17

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Page 3: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 3

We have welcomed lots of new children and families to the Nursery this term and we are looking forward to welcoming more over the coming months.

This term has been very busy and fun-filled at Hallfieldfirst. We celebrated Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse in February with lots of ‘red’ activities. We have also been painting daffodils for St David’s Day and Shamrocks for St Patrick’s Day. The children enjoyed painting and sticking on paper pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and had even more fun eating the real thing afterwards!

We have been exploring and developing our skills, learning to build towers, walking up and down the stairs and dressing and undressing ourselves.

Cooking has been a big theme over the last couple of months – making pizza, shortbread and samosas as well as decorating biscuits and making cakes. Owl has even made a ‘Gruffalo Crumble’! Messy activities also play an important part at Hallfieldfirst – from gloop play to fake snow play, sand, water, painting and exploring play dough – this term we have done it all and, as always, the messier the better!!

The weather has been a little bit wet and we have enjoyed splashing in puddles at the start of the year, we also managed to explore the brief, one hour snow fall we had in February. Recently we have enjoyed playing in the sunshine which we hope will continue!

We have been celebrating birthdays along with the children’s ‘Wow’ achievements; such as taking their first steps to completing jigsaws and sorting colours.

Next term we will be focusing on Oral Health, re-introducing the ‘Bin the Bottle’ campaign and language development. More information on these topics will be available soon in the entrance hall of Hallfieldfirst.

Our ‘stay and play’ event took place at the end of March and parents enjoyed helping their children to decorate Easter Bonnets.

Hallfieldfirst News

Dates for your Diary

18th & 21st April Nursery closed for Easter Bank Holiday

5th May Nursery closed for May Day Bank Holiday

W/C 12th May Physical Week at Nursery

26th May Nursery closed for Spring Bank Holiday

W/C 16th June Big Toddle Week

25th and 26th June Parents’ Evening

Note: There is no Nursery INSET closure day in April/May

Page 4: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 4

Pre-Prep News

Transition Update

This term the Transition children have had fun playing in the shaving foam , running around on the field in the sunshine with their friends, going on walks around the School grounds and playing in the water. The children really enjoyed flying their kites for Edward’s Trust and dressing up for World Book Day. We are also looking forward to going to the Nature Centre on the coach to see the animals.

Foundation trip to the Nature Centre

It was a cold but dry and bright morning as we set off for our spring visit to The Birmingham Nature Centre. Unlike last year when lots of the animals were hiding away from the cold weather, we saw lots of them this time. Our favourites were the Red Pandas, who were out of their dens and climbing up into the trees. The meerkats were very funny and cheeky as they scampered around looking at us. Lots of children thought they had spotted two crocodiles, but fortunately they turned out to be made of metal. We had our photos taken looking like lemurs!

Page 5: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 5

Trips and Activities

The Spring Term has seen the Pre-Prep take part in a wide range of trips and activities to support the curriculum. The term started with a trip to the Town Hall by all the Pre-Prep children to see ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ and finished with the Elocution Competition and the Year 1 play - ‘Rapunzel’.

Year 2 celebrated Founders Day, (135 years), and visited Birmingham ‘Back to Backs’ and Shugborough Hall to study the Victorians. A visit to Cadbury World became the focus for World Book Week.

A new workshop for Year 1 was the Electric City. It enhanced the topic Homes Through the Ages and linked with a visit to Avoncroft. Year 1 enjoyed a puppet show by Major Mustard and with the help of parents made puppets.

Reception visited Bournville Fire Station as part of their studying people who help them. They also enjoyed a day at Hatton Country World

We do hope you enjoyed our Mother’s Day Assembly and you were able to participate in our Stay and Play afternoons.

Dates for your Diary

16th May Foundation Play to Parents

22nd May Year 2 Instrumental Concert

12th June Talk to Reception parents (pupils reports)

16th June Year 2 Sports Day

17th June Foundation and Reception Sports Day

17th June Transition Sports Day (picnic lunch)

26th June Report Review Evening

9th July Year 2 production to parents

Page 6: Hallfield Focus Focus... on the Spring Term 2014. Page 2 From the Chairman Hallfield continues to go from “strength to strength” with another outstanding set of 11

Page 6

It has been a tremendously exciting term in the Upper School with so many special events and activities going on. We enjoyed an action packed Science Week, with trips to the Big Bang Fair and Think Tank combining with workshops and competitions here in school. World Book Day saw the usual array of whacky and wonderful costumes as well as some great fun activities in the classrooms. Non-uniform day this term was for Edward’s Trust and included an old-style school bazaar fund raiser which was very much enjoyed by all. We have also welcomed a team of pupils from King Edward’s School who have run some very stimulating debating workshops for our Year 6 classes. We can’t forget of course the Year 3 play, always a special highlight, which this year was a lively re-telling of the very ancient story of ‘Troy’, about Achilles and the Trojan Wars.

Of course, work in the classroom has not been forgotten with the Year 5’s completing an important exam week in January and our Year 6 pupils receiving what look like being a very pleasing set of offers for Year 7 places. Many now have the surprisingly difficult task of choosing which of their offers to accept and which to reject! We wish them all the very best of luck with their decision making.

Hallfield Science WeekScience Week started off on Monday 3rd March with a visit from the man who ran away from the circus to become a Science Teacher – James Soper showed Reception, Yr 1 and Yr 2 the Science of the Circus. He showed forces through juggling and centres of mass through riding a unicycle. On Tuesday we went to Thinktank to examine the Rock Cycle and to look at how forces work and we had a play in the Science Garden as well as a tour of many of the wonderful exhibits that they have on site. Wednesday saw the Year 4 children going out to Conkers and on Thursday it was SEEDs club where the some of the Year 5 children taught some of our year 2 children how to make Bob – a pen top Cartesian diver. Friday was spaghetti and marshmallow building time. Each of the Upper School Year groups had an opportunity to come up

to the Science Lab and build their tower from 8 pieces of spaghetti and 5 marshmallows.

On Friday 14th March we took the Year 5 children to the Big Bang Fair at the NEC. There were over 300 science, engineering and maths based activities for them to explore. We thoroughly enjoyed the firework show from Pyrotechnician, Matthew Tosh, before we split up into groups to have a look around the exhibition halls where the children chose from a wide variety of activities and experiments. We met a Sellafield robot who asked Mr Wilkinson, firstly if he was a teacher, then whether he would take a picture of the children. This was a fascinating and fun experience that allowed the children to put some very real world applications to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

MusicThe 2014 Inter-House Music Competition has seen over 130 pupils perform and gain points for their Houses in their class music lessons over the course of this term. 54 of these pupils, gaining some of the highest marks, performed in one of two informal concerts to family and friends. The final scores are:

4th Stork - 123 points, 3rd Nowers - 128 ½ points, 2nd Ridgway - 132 points, 1st Pughe - 136 ½ points

A very close run event this year and well done to everyone who performed. Congratulations to the finalists who will compete in the final in May for the Junior Shield: Sana Sibil (Piano), Anika De (Guitar), Praneeth Udathu (Guitar), Akshay Vydianath (Piano), Shreya Machado (Voice) and for the Senior Shield: Omar Amin (Piano), Ria Gupta (Clarinet), Ananth Vydianath (Piano), Gurmeena Nahal (Flute), Alice Green (Violin)

Upper School News

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Modern Foreign LanguagesCongratulations to Alex Tolosa (Yr 5) & Anita Zacheva (Yr 6) who won the MFL Translation Competition. They translated a short piece of text from Spanish (Alex) & Bulgarian (Anita) into English. They are pictured with their awards from Mrs Checketts.

Sport

Vixens Netball

The Vixens have had a fine season. Ably captained by Kirsten Ramcharan the team have gone from strength to strength, putting in some dominant performances against local opposition.

The team lost their early opening fixture to a strong team from King’s Hawford, but after a few changes to the team they came back strongly to dominate in their next match against Solihull – winning 15-3.

After this the team had a period of training before they faced local rivals EHS. Traditionally a strong team, the girls knew it was going to be a tough challenge. From the start of the match the team worked hard together to produce sound team play and this coupled with great shooting ensured a fantastic victory.

At the annual Prestfelde Tournament, in the group stages the team play was superb, shooting was excellent – scoring 29 goals and only conceding 6. Games against Prestfelde, Shrewsbury High School, St. Winefrides and Moor Park were all won and this set up a semi-final against Packwood Haugh. The girls played well to win this and went on to meet Shrewsbury in the final. Unfortunately, we missed a few shots for the first time in the day and lost narrowly, still a fantastic second place was achieved. End of season victories against Winterfold and Prestfelde concluded an excellent season.

House Cross Country

Between the showers, we were able to hold this year’s cross country as scheduled, although wind and rain, at the start of term had meant that the course was waterlogged for much of the term and the children had had very little opportunity to train on it.

Although this is a team competition, positions are only awarded to 1st, 2nd &

3rd and therefore it is important for every runner to finish as high up the order as possible to maximise their effectiveness for their House. The team with the least points wins the competition.

Overall result; 1st Ridgway 981, 2nd Pughe 1052, 3rd Stork 1078, 4th Nowers 1101.

Annual Badminton Tournament

The Years 5 & 6 quarter finals took part in the sports hall. The competition was fierce and Alice Green and Ria Gupta were defeated in the semi- finals. The final, between Lara Bennett and Rhea Sibal, was a thriller and Rhea pulled away towards the end to win 15 - 8.

The boys’ competition followed the same format and Rohan Motwani was beaten by his older brother Raghav and Arjun Johal (Year 5) beat Rohil Aurora to set up a good final. Arjun did not give up but he was beaten, on this occasion, by stronger opposition Raghav Motwani who won 15 - 6.

It was a superb tournament and all of the children played very sportingly: modest in victory and humble in defeat. Thank you to Mr Tobin for organising the event.

Dates for your Diary

12th May Hallfield Year 6 Science Fair

23rd May Year 6 play to parents

24th June Upper School Sports Day

26th June Summer Ensemble Concert

3rd July Prize Giving

10th July Year 6 Leavers’ Celebration Assembly

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Dear Old HallfieldiansThe Spring Term Reunion on Wednesday 12th March at the White Swan, Harborne provided a super opportunity to catch up with an increasing turn out of Old Hallfieldians. There were plenty of new faces including Nick Plotnek and Simon Wall and Mark Blick made the trip from Oxford.

The White Swan accommodated us well and we were suitably fed and watered! The informal reunions in the Spring and Autumn are gathering momentum and are becoming very well attended. These events are free to attend and drinks and nibbles are provided by the Society.

Instead of the Autumn Reunion this year we are organising an Old Hallfieldian Dinner to be held in the School’s Dining Hall (now known as the Bistro!) - put the date in your diary – Thursday, 23rd October. Further details will be circulated next term and we look forward to seeing many of you there.

Tim Venner OHS Chairman

You can visit our website to add or update your contact details: www.hallfieldschool.co.uk/old-hallfieldians

Or email us at the address below........We would love to hear from you!

Les Smith We reported to Old Hallfieldians with great sadness the death of Les (Laurence) Smith. Les died peacefully at home on 12th March with his family around him.

Les came to Hallfield in 1972 to teach games and stayed for 10 years, leaving to become Headmaster of Reddiford School in Pinner. He had played lock forward for Moseley 1st XV against the 1972 All Blacks and was an England trialist.

In an article for the Hallfieldian magazine in 1992 Les said, looking back at his years at Hallfield, “Of these memorable years, what sticks in the mind? The unbeaten rugby sides, who could forget Harry Perry’s side of ’76? The Venner twins, “Death and Destruction” were also members of another great side. Dominic Knight, a colossus on the rugby pitch who also despatched opponents to all corners in the boxing ring. “

Les was a hugely popular and inspirational teacher and we have received many kind messages from Old Hallfieldians, for example:

“Les was a mountain of a man who inspired people like me to take sport seriously and enjoy it. He was a gentle giant to us much smaller children, encouraging us at every opportunity, with authority and wit but never deprecation. I feel proud to have known him”.

Les’s funeral took place on Friday 21st March and his wife, Fassie, encouraged the many guests to make the event a ‘joyful occasion full of smiles and laughter’, in order to celebrate his vibrant and colourful life. Les asked for any donations to go to the Iain Rennie Hospice Care or Cancer Research.

Hallfield Vision Looking back to the future: The Old Hallfieldian Society

Dates for your diary

17th May 16.00 to 18.00 Younger Members’ Bowling

6th June at 13.00 OHS v WHOBA Annual Golf Tournament

6th July 13.00 to 18.00 OHS v WHOBA Cricket match (followed by a Barbeque)

23rd October at 19.00 OHS Dinner

Hallfield celebrated its 135th birthday this term. The school was initially founded on 25th January 1879 and is now located on its third site with the school re-locating here in 1936. Hallfield was previously located at the Priory School, near the Golf Club, and Hallfield signs are still clearly visible at their school. Mr Thackway and the duty monitors are pictured dressed in traditional striped Hallfield Blazers, which are now stored in our archives room.

Contact the OHS

Tim Venner Chairman [email protected]

Celia Hooper Executive Officer [email protected]

Tania Outwin-Flinders Communications Officer T.Outwin-Flinders@hallfield school.co.uk