School Trips

Year Five - Sky Skills Studios

On Friday 7th February, Year Five went on an incredible trip to the Sky Skills Studio in Osterley. We were visiting to take part in a workshop where we could create our own bespoke movie trailer using Sky’s professional equipment.

First, we went to see a model whale which had plastic surrounding it - this was part of their #PassOnPlastic campaign. From the start, we knew that Sky was a very environmentally friendly company.

As we walked inside the building, we got to watch a little episode of a children’s programme, which was fun. We were then collected by the staff and we walked inside another building where we were going to create our trailer. We were separated in to two groups and we used our storyboards that we had planned at school as a basis for our movie trailer. Each person was given a different role (actor, director, cameraperson, editor etc.) and we had to work together to create our trailer. Our trailers were called ‘Chaos in the Castle’ and ‘Danger in Disneyland’. When we had finished, we got to watch each other’s clips.

This was a brilliant experience and we were so happy to get the chance to see how to film and edit an original trailer. Here is what we had to say about the experience:

‘I enjoyed using the green screen to make really cool scenes. I learnt how to use the camera and to put our scenes together effectively.’ – Ava

‘I loved visiting Sky as it taught me how to communicate, improvise and compromise.’ - Emilie

‘It was just lovely to watch the trailers afterwards – this was our product, our script, our plan and it all came to life.’ - Alessia

On Saturday, 30th November, girls from Year Five and Six got up early for a Saturday morning netball training session at Queen Mother Sports Centre in Pimlico. We worked very hard at the session... it was a fantastic opportunity for us to work on our skills and also learn from a special guest who is star from the world of netball!

After a brief warm-up, we launched into a busy and active morning of drills and activities that focused on footwork, defence and most importantly, teamwork! At the end, we did some full court match play. The Yellow Team (otherwise known as the Golden Gods) came first.

Adean Thomas was our special guest player/coach for the training session which was fantastic! Adean is a Jamaican International who competed at the World Cup in Liverpool and has recently joined London Pulse in the Superleague. She was also a bronze medal winner at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Adean was an amazing player - really tall and really fast - she was able to show us lots of moves to keep us on our feet. We were very grateful for the time she spent with us! All in all, a great morning session where we all improved our skills and movements!”

Thank you so much to Mrs Payne and Miss Humble for organising this special event.

Maddy

South Kensington Festival

In November, the Upper School took part in the South Kensington Festival organised by the French Institute.

Year Two attended a bilingual performance. Two actor-musicians weaved music, story and songs together to make a funny and touching tale about identity. With only their instruments and their voices, they created an imaginative space for children and adults alike.

Year Three watched a collection of short films called ‘En sortant de l’école’ inspired by poems of Claude Roy. The poetical short pieces were created by young French directors fresh out of their animation schools.

Year Five watched a film called ‘Rémi sans famille’ directed by Antoine Blossier. The film was in French with English subtitles. After the film, the girls described the main characters and discussed the main themes of the film.

Year Six girls took part in a workshop with Colas Gutman. This author explores childhood and adolescence in his work. They listen to the French author read extract of his book and made up their own stories in French.

Year Six - Charles Dickens Museum

To complement their studies of the famous novella ‘A Christmas Carol’, Year 6 visited the Charles Dickens Museum to take part in a tour and workshop.

We started the day exploring the home of the famous Victorian author. The girls learnt about his childhood and the fact that he worked in Warren’s Blacking Factory when his father was sent to prison. Luckily, his father later inherited some money, so he was able to attend school, sending him on the path to writing. Dickens married Catherine in 1836 and in this year the first chapters of The Pickwick Papers were published. The girls looked around his home with Catherine and learnt all about his early life as a writer. We learnt that he loved performing in the drawing room and he even made a lady faint during one of his performances!

We then split into groups to examine some artefacts from the Victorian period. We had to decide what the objects were and what they were used for. We then had to decide which items would be best to include in the Dickens Museum. We thought carefully about which artefacts would be most interesting and informative for the visitors. We had to present our conclusions to the group, persuading them to feature our object in the museum.

Later in the day we went on a Dickensian walking tour all around London. We visited places that Dickens lived and worked, whilst also noticing features around London that appear in his novels, such as the famous doorknob that revealed the face of Marley in the opening chapter of ‘A Christmas Carol’.

It was a fantastic day learning about one of the most famous writers in the world.

Mrs Cadenhead

Head of English

Fun Afternoon of Netball

On Friday 8th November, Year Three and Four travelled to Norland Place for a fun afternoon of netball. Year Four played matches, whilst Year Three learnt some new skills and shared warm up ideas with each other. It was a fantastic day topped off with some lovely Norland Place cookies. We can’t wait for our next netball match. Thank you to all the teachers for taking us.

Alice

Year Four

Year Six - Old Vic Theatre

On Wednesday 11th December, Year Six went to see a thrilling production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, originally written by Charles Dickens, at the Old Vic Theatre. After a short coach journey, our lunch was finished by the time we arrived in Lambeth and we were bouncing up and down with excitement when we reached the massive doors of the historic theatre. I was so happy when we went in to find our welcoming seats waiting for us. Then the lights dimmed!

We all loved the bell chime songs and Ebenezer Scrooge’s actor was brilliant. The character of Tiny Tim charmed us all with his sweet words and adorable face and, to everyone’s surprise, all the three ghosts of Christmas were played by women.

We all laughed when Scrooge, having been visited by the spirits, changed his miserly ways and set up for his Christmas feast with brussel sprouts floating down on parachutes and oranges, apples and potatoes tossed down two white cloth chutes to land in wicker baskets on the stage. Finally, to everyone’s joy, a massive turkey came flying down on a line and nearly hit poor Scrooge on the head! The staging of the performance was incredibly creative with flying fruit, roaming actors communicating directly with the audience and a great use of carols sung by the cast.

Of course, the message of the play that love and generosity to one’s fellow man bring happiness is one that touched us all, especially during the Christmas season.

Agathe Year Six