CASTLE COURT SCHOOL
SPRING TERM 2025
DOMINUS SAPIENTIAM DAT
SCHOLARSHIPS
AMBER
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
SEB SPORT SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
ELODIE
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
LAUREN SPORT SCHOLARSHIP BRYANSTON
SOPHIA
ART EXHIBITION CLAYESMORE
TEDDY
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP BRYANSTON
HATTIE SPORT SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
SOPHIE
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
URSULA
ALL ROUNDER EXHIBITION BRYANSTON
A SUMMARY OF THE TERM
The Spring Term seems to have gone by so quickly. Despite this being a relatively short term, it has been full of excitement with the pupils benefiting from a huge range of activities and opportunities, from performing in plays and concerts, taking part in sports matches and tournaments, working hard for scholarships, going on exciting trips, listening to inspiring visitors, sharing their learning with parents, dressing up for World Book Day to taking part in Easter egg hunts – I could go on! The term culminated in our family-focused Easter Service which was a wonderfully joyous way for the whole Castle Court family to end this term. Throughout this term, I hope each child has had the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zone, learn new things and have their moment to shine. Having happy children, who have the confidence to embrace every opportunity which comes their way, lies at the heart of this school.
These opportunities would not happen without the wonderful dedication and hard work of my amazing colleagues. Visitors to the school always comment on how passionate, enthusiastic and welcoming all staff are at Castle Court. It is
a powerful reminder that it is the people who make Castle Court, and I am blessed to have such a wonderful team around me. I am also aware that Castle Court would not be able to do what it does without the wonderful support we receive from you, our parents. I therefore wanted to thank you for your continued support of the school; it is something I never take for granted and really means so much.
The Spring Term is always such a vibrant one as we move out of winter and the joy of summer appears on the horizon. School should be joyful, and I therefore hope that looking through the following pages will bring back happy memories of all the fun and hard work your children have put in over the past few months.
With best wishes for a happy and family-filled Easter.
Katie Johnson Head
@CastleCourtHead
FAMILY
SUMMARY
All children in Pre-Prep have enjoyed a super Spring Term, approaching their learning with commitment, fun and positivity. A real highlight was World Book Day where the children are always so imaginative with their costumes. They all looked amazing! Here are some of the many highlights this term:
Nursery
Badger Cubs and Badgers have spent the term exploring winter and looking at how animals hibernate in the winter. We have been joining in with “Wake and Shake” morning activities, thoroughly enjoying dressing up for World Book Day and taking part in the Easter Service. We are now enjoying Spring and Easter topics and the children are fascinated watching the growth of flowers blooming all over our wonderful school grounds. Badgers have been investigating sounds of the week and developing their name writing skills as well in preparation for their move to Reception. Badger Cubs are increasing their independence and speech, as well as making lots of lovely things to take home.
Reception
What a busy term it has been for our wonderful Reception children. We have travelled to Iceland and China on Castle Court Airways to see the Northern Lights and celebrate Chinese New Year, and thought about how to look after our bodies and minds during Wellbeing Week. Our topic on Space really did captivate the children; they absolutely loved learning about our solar system and are now little space experts! In the latter part of term, we have enjoyed planting and looking after our very own beanstalks. A trip to Compton Acres Gardens helped us all to appreciate the wonderful world of plants and flowers and to welcome the start of Spring. Weekly swimming lessons have been enjoyed by all. The children loved having
their parents in for the Easter Egg Hunt. It has been a very special term that seems to have flown by!
Year One
We have had a busy and productive term in Year 1. Our topics have been ‘Houses and Homes’ and ‘Toys’. We had a brilliant time visiting the East Dorset Museum to explore our topic on ‘Toys’. In Literacy, we have been focusing on the book ‘Dogger’ and we learnt about how to write our own stories. We have been learning how to add adjectives in our writing too. In Maths we have been learning how to count in 2s, 5s and 10s and using number bonds to 20 to support addition and subtraction. The term ended with a lovely afternoon completing Easter crafts with parents and then the Easter Service. We are looking forward to another exciting term after Easter when our topic will be ‘Birds’.
Year Two
This term has flown by in Year 2 and the children have had an amazing time. They have been captivated by our new topic ‘Endangered Animals and Rainforests’, which included choosing their own endangered animal and learning how to sew a puppet that looked like that creature. In Literacy, we dived into the wonderful story of the ‘Bear and the Piano’, as well as learning about writing instructions and producing a factual report on their chosen endangered animal. The marvellous trip to Marwell Zoo, the trip to Wimborne Minster and an afternoon of Easter crafts with parents were fitting ends to a terrific term of adventure!
SPRING was SENSATIONAL in Pre-Prep!
Mr Graham Antell Badger Cubs to Year 2 Section Leader
Year
CREATIVE
CREATIVE
Performing Arts Highlights
ABRSM & Rockschool exam
Pass rate
LAMDA
Pupils currently take LAMDA lessons with 21 pupils taking Spring Term exams (Grades 1 to 4). Four pupils took a Grade 4 Acting exam at the end of the Autumn Term, all passing with either a Merit or a Distinction.
Performing Arts Highlights
Whole School Service
Whole School Easter Service involving all pupils from Badgers to Year 8
Community Choir
Develpoment of Community choir for parents that sang at flagship Y5-8 Spring Concert.
COMMITTED
It has been another great term in the Year 3 and Year 4 Section. As ever, drama plays an important part in the Spring Term. For the first half of term Year 3 worked on their presentation “Animal Antics”. They worked hard learning poems and practising songs and dances for this wonderful show. Looking fantastic in their bright T-shirts, their performances to both the lower school and their parents were very much enjoyed!
After half term it was the turn of Year 4 to take to the stage as they worked on their play “The Wind in the Willows”. A lot of hard work went into this production as the children learnt their lines and rehearsed songs and dances. The final Wednesday of term saw the hall filled with parents who thoroughly enjoyed the excellent acting, singing and dancing of the final performance.
In February, Year 4 enjoyed a trip to The Tutankhamun Exhibition in Dorchester. This time they were fortunate enough to have the whole museum to themselves. The guide was highly impressed by the children’s knowledge of Ancient Egypt and the questions they asked. During RS lessons, we have been studying Jewish Passover, learning about the significance of the foods eaten during the celebration. The highlight was of course trying the different foods during our Passover Meal. The children enjoyed some of the foods more than others, with the matzos being a firm favourite for all!
In Year 3, the pupils have been studying The Celts and Romans and as part of this, they have enjoyed some super afternoons of practical activities based on their geography work on Italy. The children ventured outdoors to learn more about the destruction of Pompei, creating volcano models; adding bicarbonate of soda and vinegar certainly brought the
lesson alive! Poor weather sadly meant the plan to create a Celtic Village had to be brought inside; however, the children responded well to the change of location by taking Mrs Baugniet’s classroom back in time two thousand years with the sights, sounds and smells of that time.
Another highlight of the term was of course World Book Day, with the children turning up in a plethora of fantastic costumes representing a wide range of book characters. Author Keith Hutton visited the school and ran a super workshop on designing robots for one of his stories. The children came up with some wonderful ideas and gave them a variety of characteristics. The following week Helen and Thomas Docherty ran an online workshop based on Pirate Nell’s Tell to Tale. Helen had the children enchanted as she read the story to them. Thomas then led a guided session where the children drew their own pictures of Nell, with the staff having a go also. Both sessions were very well received by the children and led to some excellent creativity.
Linking World Book Week with the PSCHE theme of Houses and Homes Year 3 took to the woods to recreate the story of The Three Little Pigs. Who could build the most secure home? Would The Big Bad Wolf (Mr Bambrey) be able to blow it down? Lots of fun was had with some incredible designs leading to the wolf retreating to the undergrowth in shame!
What a great term it has been! We are looking forward to even more fun in the Summer Term.
Mr Andy Laidler
Year 3 and 4 Section Leader
CURIOUS
CURIOUS
COLLABORATIVE
CURIOUS
CREATIVE
SUMMARY OF THE TERM: YEAR 5 AND YEAR 6
We have enjoyed another busy term in Years 5 and 6. The Performing Arts Evening showcased some fantastic with dance and drama performances – it is always amazing to see what talent we have in our section! This was followed by our Spring Concert – another opportunity to showcase our talented musicians with performances from our children on the trumpet, saxophone and cello. The Senior Choir sang beautifully, performing songs from ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Greatest Showman’ and our Year 5 children took to the stage with their version of ‘Revolting Children’ from the musical ‘Matilda’.
During our section assemblies, we have been finding out about significant women in history and Fundamental British Values. Year 6 went to Poole Lighthouse to watch the stage adaptation of Floella Benjamin’s iconic book, ‘Coming to England.’ This vibrant and energetic performance showed the difficulties many immigrant families faced and helped our children understand the importance of tolerance and acceptance of race, religion and culture.
World Book Day was a huge success! The children loved coming into school dressed as their favourite book character; they made a real effort both with their costumes and with their entries for the ‘Book in a Box’ competition. We all loved having our visiting author, Keith Hatton come into school to show us how to use suspense and tension in our creative writing. He was very inspirational and has motivated us with our own writing based on our class readers, ‘Running on the Roof of the World’ by Jess Butterworth and ‘Impossible Creatures’ by Katherine Rundell.
British Science Week saw some of our Year 6 pupils heading off to Bryanston for a Junior Science Day with other local schools. In lessons, they have been discovering all about fungal and bacteria growth! Our Year 5s have been busy out in the school
grounds, carrying out a range of experiments from measuring the length of shadows to amazing animal adaptations.
In Geography, pupils in Year 6 have spent the past term studying ‘Globalisation’ based on the book ‘The Almighty Dollar’. Using the themes in the book, pupils have learnt about changes to industry, transnational corporations, the global fashion industry, global trade and shipping and the impacts of globalisation on people, the economy and the environment. PSB Geography has a particular interest in linking to real issues and helping develop pupils as ‘citizen geographers’. Pupils love to learn by ‘doing!’ and have just finished a project designing t-shirts to fit with the ‘circular economy’ and have been on a school trip to the LUSH HQ in Poole.
In CAVE we have been developing the themes of self-care and people-care, through topics such as ‘emotions and feelings’ in the lead up to Children’s Mental Health Week, and e-safety to raise awareness for Online Safety Week. Many of our pupils have passed their Level 2 and 3 Bikeability off site in Corfe Mullen. We have launched our ‘futures education’ programme with pupils onboarded to the Unifrog platform, considering dream jobs, what a career is and careers of the future. We hope this sparks discussions at home!
We are looking forward to the warmer weather in the Summer Term with lots of exciting sporting events, music and performing arts opportunities, and of course, Activities Week. On behalf of all the staff in Years 5 and 6, I want to thank you for your support and wish you a very peaceful and happy Easter.
Mrs Louise Munns
Year 5 and 6 Section Leader
COMPASSIONATE
The Spring Term has been an exciting and successful term for sport at Castle Court, with our pupils excelling in a wide range of disciplines. From hockey and netball to biathlon and swimming, our athletes have demonstrated determination, teamwork, and outstanding skill. Below is a roundup of this term’s key achievements.
In boys’ hockey, the U13 team finished as IAPS Regional Runners-Up and won the Dorset Plate. The U11 team reached the IAPS Quarterfinals, secured 3rd place in the Dorset Championships, and reached the Semi-Finals of the Canford Prep Fest. Additionally, nine Castle Court pupils represented Bournemouth Hockey Club and won various age group categories at the Dorset County Club Championships, and all then went on to qualify for the Regional Finals at Clifton College in April.
The girls’ netball teams also had a strong season, with the U13s finishing 3rd in North Dorset and as runners-up in the Dorset Championship. Individually, Lauren H was selected for Aim Academy and Dorset County, while Maddie B also earned a place at Aim Academy.
In cross country, Maddie B and Arthur K represented Dorset, showcasing their endurance and competitive spirit.
The biathlon team had a fantastic showing in the National Biathlon qualifiers. In Year 3, Pippa B placed 3rd. In Year 4, Cordelia D finished 4th, Hugo S 14th, Arlo K 17th, and Oliver D 13th. In Year 5, Diletta K placed 35th, Milla H 50th, and Luan I 16th. In Year 7, Arthur K secured
9th place. They all go on to represent the school in the National finals at the end of March.
Swimming also saw Castle Court pupils making a strong impact, with 20 students representing the school at Millfield for the IAPS Regional Qualifiers. At the time of writing, the results for national qualification are yet to be confirmed, but we remain hopeful of strong outcomes.
The end of the spring term sees the culmination of the scholarship application process and a huge congratulation must go to our pupils who have been successfully awarded a sports scholarship to senior independent schools. Izzy D will be attending Talbot Heath, Myles M and Lauren H have secured scholarships at Bryanston, while Hattie P and Seb C will continue their sporting journeys at Canford. We are incredibly proud of them and look forward to hearing of their future successes at these amazing senior schools.
This term has been a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our young athletes. We are incredibly proud of all our teams and individuals for their efforts and achievements. With such promising talent, we look forward to building on the huge amount of potential in every year group at the school and making sure that our teams are as well-equipped as they can be to achieve even greater success in the coming terms and years.
Alex Fermor-Dunman Director of Sport
COURAGEOUS
CREATIVE
PHOTOGRAPHY
CLUB
SUMMARY
OF
THE TERM:
Our Year 7 and 8 pupils have had a very busy Spring Term!
We have been so impressed with our Year 8s in their mentorship of our younger pupils in the morning. Year 7 have also had the opportunity to shadow them and we have had rave reviews of their ownership of this role. It is so important to develop these connections with the Pre-Prep pupils, building positive relationships, and giving our senior pupils the opportunity to lead with patience and kindness. It was particularly heartwarming to see our Year 7s and 8s read to the younger pupils during World Book Week. We loved to see our pupils throw themselves into the day, and their costumes were brilliant, with the four “green peas” getting a mention from the author of novel that inspired them!
All of Year 8 and some of Year 7 helped with our recent Open Day, and they were absolutely outstanding! Their confidence, and willingness to take the lead in various areas was noted by all our visitors as well as staff.
Academically, there have been some fun initiatives. Year 7 wrapped up their filming of their Private Peaceful screenplays with excellent results. Some of Year 8 took part in a Macbeth trial which really highlighted some future lawyers in our midst. In Science, for the British Science Week, Year 8 showcased some practical experiments for Pre-Prep to come in and watch, while Year 7 made vibrant bath bombs. In IT all of Year 8 competed in the annual “The Apprentice” competition where “Titanium” and “Sub Zero” drew for the top entrepreneurs by peer vote. In History, the yearly visit to Hampton Court is a firm favourite among our pupils, and Year 7 enjoyed every minute as they explored their history topic of the Tudors.
Inspired by Jewell Parker Rhode’s novel, Ghost Boys, Year 7 went to Poole Lighthouse to watch the stage adaptation of Floella Benjamin’s iconic book, “Coming to England.” This musical was entertaining and vibrant as it showcased the challenges immigrant families face, dealing with topics of racial prejudice, different cultures and the acceptance of anyone who is different to us. Linking this to our core British Values
YEAR 7 AND YEAR 8
gave Year 7 a wider appreciation of what it means to have individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for others.
Our CAVE programme has seen both year groups explore how to manage their emotions, discuss online safety, and focus on future careers. Career discussions have been diverse and have included time spent with a local author and what steps they took to publish their work, and visiting the RNLI (which they absolutely loved!) Year 8 also had the opportunity to go to Canford as part of the research component of their PSPQ projects. The pupils have worked hard on their PSPQ projects, refining their research and answering their enquiry questions. We so look forward to seeing them showcase these on our PSPQ evening in the Summer Term.
In the world of sport, the U13 teams have seen a wealth of success this term. On top of this these teams show cased excellent sportsmanship, amazing team spirit and a love and enjoyment of their sport. They are to be commended for their outstanding effort.
This Spring Term has been a whirlwind! Casting for the senior play has seen various lyrics and lines from The Wizard of Oz spilling out in tutor periods as our pupils eagerly rehearse their different parts. Rehearsals are coming on well, and we await (with much anticipation) the performance next term.
This senior section has been full on with activity, and it has been a successful term. As the weather improves, we will be spending even more time out in our beautiful grounds, and the summer terms schedule is set to be an exciting one! Some notable highlights will be the school play, the final Year 8 PSPQ evening, the Year 7 Dystopian Day and Activities Week.
On behalf of the senior tutor team, we wish you and Year 7 and 8 a restful and happy Easter break. Thank you for all your support this term, and we look forward to seeing you back in the final stretch of this academic year!
Section Leader Miss T
CURIOUS
Easter Egg Hunt
COMPASSIONATE
SCHOLARSHIPS
AMBER
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
SEB SPORT SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
ELODIE
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
LAUREN SPORT SCHOLARSHIP BRYANSTON
SOPHIA
ART EXHIBITION CLAYESMORE
TEDDY
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP BRYANSTON
HATTIE SPORT SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
SOPHIE
ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP CANFORD
URSULA
ALL ROUNDER EXHIBITION BRYANSTON
