LSF.WEEK 15

LSF.WEEK 15 May 2020

#ThanksAMillionNHS #HealthyLSFCatering

The Senior Management Team and I would like to take this opportunity to inform the whole Foundation of a new and exciting development at Fairfield Prep School regarding Year 7 transition to either Loughborough Grammar School, Loughborough High School and Loughborough Amherst School.

Entrance examination

Guaranteed place

As you are probably aware, particularly those of you who are former parents of Fairfield, every Year 6 child would normally have to sit an entrance examination alongside other external candidates in January in order to secure a Year 7 place at one of the three Senior Schools within the Foundation.

For the first time in Fairfield’s impressive history, our current Year 5 parents will be informed as to which Schools their child has guaranteed places for, based on our internal tracking data following the half term break.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Fairfield Prep School will now guarantee Foundation Year 7 places for pupils in Year 5 by the end of the Summer term.

This approach will therefore remove the hurdle, and often the associated anxieties, of Year 6 Fairfield pupils having to sit the Year 7 entrance examinations.

Having received this information, parents will then confirm as to which School they wish their child to join following the taster days at Loughborough Grammar School, Loughborough High School and Loughborough Amherst School, which have been scheduled for the Autumn term due to the current coronavirus situation.

Fairfield Scholars Furthermore, scholarships will be awarded to Fairfield’s top three performing Year 6 boys and girls for Loughborough Grammar School and Loughborough High School, again using our internal tracking data.

These six pupils will subsequently be known as the ‘Fairfield Scholars’.

Kindergarten - Reception We have also taken a similar approach for entry into Reception from our Kindergarten Unit.

Parents of children who join Fairfield Kindergarten prior to the October half term will be notified by the end of the Autumn term of their offer of a Reception place for the following September.

This decision will be based on a child’s attitude to learning, as well as behaviour, which will be assessed by ongoing observations whilst in the Kindergarten Unit. A separate entrance assessment in January will therefore not be required for children who joined Fairfield Kindergarten prior to October half term and who will have met the aforementioned criteria.

I do hope that parents will welcome this as a positive innovation.

Andrew Earnshaw Headmaster

I thought that I would start this weekly update with the good news that Year 5 pupils at Amherst Prep will be informed of a place at one of the Foundation’s Senior Schools, one year in advance.

Starting this year, we are using our academic progress data to let the family of every Year 5 pupil in Amherst Prep know over a year in advance, whether they have the offer of a place from one or more of the Foundation’s Senior Schools; Loughborough Amherst School, Loughborough Grammar School and Loughborough High School.

This unique provision for existing Loughborough Schools Foundation parents allows them peace of mind throughout Year 6 and allows their focus to remain squarely on their child’s long term academic and personal growth.

Meanwhile, Louise in Year 9, has been undertaking a wide range of sporting activities during the lockdown.

In addition to lots of cricket practice she has been cycling daily, and recently broke her personal best by completing a 46 mile ride in one morning. It makes me feel tired just reading those statistics!

It has been a quieter week for news at Amherst, but much has still been going on behind the scenes.

Frances Devine from Newcastle University has been working with Year 12 this week on their university preparation and choices of courses.

Frances has been providing helpful tips on; personal statements, course choices, which university and why.

This week Frances has worked with our students for over four hours and we are very grateful to her for all her time and effort.

Frances was a student with us and studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Newcastle graduating with a 2:1 She is about to start her Master’s degree.

At the other end of the Senior School, the Year 7’s have been very busy creating drawings, cards, paintings and decorating their own shoes!

They have added their creations to the art blog on Firefly. It’s really nice to see them supporting each other with lovely messages about their art works.

Julian Murphy Headmaster

On a sad note, our caretaker, Jamie Widger, was taken ill last weekend (not corona virus) and is currently in hospital.

I am getting regular updates and it already sounds as if he is on the mend.

The thoughts and prayers of everyone in the Amherst community are with Jamie.

We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back at work in the near future. !

It is not widely known that, ever since the schools closed on 20 March, School House has remained open for boarders who have been unable to return home due to the shut-down in international travel.

Boarding

Sporting challenge Year 8 boys have been undertaking a 525 sporting challenge in honour of the School’s anniversary where each is trying to do 525 repetitions of a chosen exercise.

Mr Sollars has been leading by example, using his young daughter instead of traditional weights to increase the intensity of his press-ups.

During the Easter holiday about a dozen were in residence, but this has dwindled to only three at present.

Mr and Mrs Marlow have taken the boys into their own family, ably supported by the other resident boarding staff, Mr Korosi, Mr Parton and Mr Prescott.

The boys are enjoying a rather exclusive isolation inhabiting the lovely Grammar School buildings and using the facilities such as the gym to make sure they do lockdown in some considerable style.

Ball games can be seen in the Quad, and the warm evenings recently have also seen bonfire evenings at the Forest School.

Lessons take place in the Library and there has been plenty of walking of Penny, the adorable house puppy as well as rather more gaming time than might usually be permitted in the boarding houses.

Although they still have supper daily in the Hodson Hall, Mrs Marlow has taken to cooking rather fabulous brunches at the weekend.

Other staff are developing their skills too, with Mr Korosi opting predictably for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding as his culinary offering.

VE day was celebrated in style with chocolate cake as everyone listened in to Winston Churchill’s speech.

Bright spark Congratulations to Finn in Year 9 who has appeared this week on BBC Radio Nottingham to talk about his light shows for NHS workers.

He has covered his entire house with LEDs which he has programmed into a musical extravaganza.

Duncan Byrne Headmaster

Visit his ‘Redwood Lights’ YouTube channel to see his creations.

Art Year 9 artists have produced pencil drawing this week on the subject of architecture. Outstanding shading!

Pupils in years 7 to 10 have been busy this week with their Summer exams.

Whilst the process has not been quite how we, or they, had planned, I have been hearing wonderful words about how the girls have adapted to the different format of assessments with good cheer and maturity.

House Art

Very well done to Diana, who won the picture category and to Anika who won the poetry category with her poem ‘It Will End’.

Sitting alone in my bedroom Watching the flowers begin to bloom Trying to decide what to do next Maybe I should give my friends a text Lockdown lockdown Be my friend Lockdown lockdown When will it end?

Reading a good book But can’t forget the many lives this virus took Listening to music on my phone Trying not to feel alone Lockdown lockdown Be my friend Lockdown lockdown When will it end?

These uncertain times give us fright But we will put up a fight A vaccine would be the greatest feat This virus we must all beat Lockdown lockdown Be my friend Lockdown lockdown It will end

Congratulations to Anais in Year 12, who was the overall winner with her breathtaking coastal landscape.

Lucy in Year 12, and Natalie in Year 9, came in a close second as runners up and were highly commended for their charming rainbow inspired responses.

DofE Gold

LHS House Challenges

For her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, Ella in Year 12 has adapted her plans for the volunteering section and is supporting vulnerable people in her community by cooking ready meals.

Staff and students have the opportunity to earn points for their houses if they submit a video of themselves performing the House challenge of the week.

Heads of Houses are currently using a new and interactive platform called “FlipGrid” which enables students and staff to view each other’s videos.

We look forward to seeing the results of this week’s challenge which is to recreate a piece of artwork using objects found around the house!

Fiona Miles Head

Mrs Baldwin, Head of Year 9, has invited the year group to submit a poem or a drawing reflecting what isolation means to them.

It will end

Remote learning hasn’t dampened House spirit at LHS and girls from across the School have taken part in our annual House Art competition. The theme this year was ‘Hope’.

Today’s batch is pasta with tomatoes and bacon!

Year 9 reflections

The children at Loughborough Nursery had their very own VE Day celebrations.

Not only did the children make their own bunting but they also made their very own crowns.

Video baking

This was followed by a fun VE Day street party with party games and afternoon tea. As you can see the celebrations certainly tired everyone out! We would love to see how our families celebrated VE Day, so please do send in some of your pictures.

Last week, we shared our video, ‘Baking with Miss Sinclair’, on our Facebook channel. In this video Miss Sinclair shows the children how to make one of her personal favourites - Flapjacks. Here is the recipe in case you want to try them at home.

Flapjacks

Ingredients    

250g oats 125g sugar 125g butter 2 tbsp honey/syrup (add your choice of optional ingredients!)

Method

Activity ideas

    

Preheat the oven at 180 Over a medium heat, melt the butter, sugar and honey Stir in the oats and optional ingredients Press firmly into a lined tin Bake for 15 minutes

Lastly, we know that sometimes it can be hard to keep your little ones busy.

One of our parents from Investigators has created an Instagram page to help parents with activity ideas during this time of lockdown.

If you would like to follow her, her account name is tuff_trayideas.

Carla Brindley Nursery Manager

We have received so many pictures showing us what some of our children have been doing over the last month; we have really enjoyed seeing them and so please keep these coming!

Music

IN THE NEWS...

FESTIVAL FRESCO Vanessa White (LHS alumna) co-founded a music festival last summer, called Festival Fresco. Due to Covid-19, the planned festival in June has been cancelled however in its place, there will be a virtual festival available on YouTube this weekend.

There will be eight twenty-minute concerts streaming over the two days, some of which will be pre-recorded and some will be live-streamed.

Christopher White, Vanessa and Melanie Reinhard (Head of Keyboard and Chamber Music) will be live streaming the Bach Double Violin Concerto (plus some jazzy violin duos) on Saturday 16 May at 19:00.

For further information, please view the Festival Fresco website: www.festivalfresco.com

NINE DRUMMERS DRUMMING

BENEDETTI SESSIONS Many of our string players across the Foundation have signed up for the fantastic ‘Benedetti Sessions’ which run for the next few weeks.

Mr Geary, Head of Wind, Brass, Percussions and Bands at Loughborough Schools Music, has performed a piece for nine snare drums called 9 Drum Lock Down Fun, which he also composed!

The programme is running daily online ensembles, masterclasses, Q&A sessions and even yoga for musicians with sessions for all ages including adults, teachers and parents.

Click here to listen and watch

Sophie, one of next year’s new music scholars, enjoyed her Zoom call with the amazing Nicola Benedetti.

If you would like to find out more about these sessions, please email Mrs Burns, k.burns@lsf.org.

FOUR PIPERS PIPING Four members of the LSF Flute Ensemble have put together a wonderful performance from their own homes.

This will definitely make you feel cheerful! Click here to listen.

VE Day

IN THE NEWS...

COOKIES - AMHERST COMMUNITY

VE DAY 1945 The Loughburian, Vol. XLIX, July 1945, records the following details about VE Day celebrations in Loughborough:

Poppy, at Amherst, baked some delicious cookies to wish the Amherst community a happy VE Day. Can imagine they were eaten quickly!

Mr Stamper was the Commanding Officer of Loughborough’s Home Guard (Loughborough’s Captain Mainwaring!), which numbered 2,000 local defence volunteers.

CYCLE RIDE TO RAISE MONEY Well done to Sophia, Ruhie and Amelia from Fairfield, who on VE Day decided to raise money for NHS charities by cycling 13.8km around the Leicestershire villages.

They raised £485 which is a tremendous achievement!

VE DAY 2020: 75 YEARS The Boarding community enjoyed VE Day celebrations with a tea party in School House.

The afternoon tea was preceded with watching Winston Churchill deliver his victory speech.

A DIORAMA

VE DAY IN STYLE

Henry, in Year 7 at LGS, is an excellent modeller and to celebrate VE Day, he created a model RAF Diorama.

A Lancaster bomber and a crashing Messerschmitt can be seen in the picture.

Ellie, Charlie and James, all in Year 3 at Fairfield prepared to celebrate VE Day in style by producing bunting, decorations and having a tea party. The Union Jack inspired cake looks amazing!

Charity events

IN THE NEWS...

#TwoPointSixChallenge Miss Barham from Amherst School has completed her 10-day challenge which has included a 2.6km run, 26 press-ups, holding a headstand for 26 seconds, a 2.6m throw and a 26-mile bike ride.

Great work Miss Barham!

CYCLE FOR NHS HEROES

Funds are being raised for Following Felix, which is the charity that Amherst School are supporting this year.

Last weekend, George, who is in Year 10 at the Grammar School, achieved an amazing mission and cycled 120kms in memory of 120 NHS professionals who have lost their lives to Covid-19.

He cycled the distance in 3hours 44mins.

To date he has raised £2,680 for Derby and Burton Hospitals Trust, which is George’s local hospital and where his father works as a frontline professional.

This is a great achievement and if you wish to donate, please visit the following JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ george-stephen1

As many of you are aware, the various activities planned for the 525 Anniversary have had to be put on-hold It is however very much hoped that the celebrations can be resurrected and that the dates for the 525 Lectures can be rearranged, as well as continuing with some of the events planned for the Autumn.

More details on this will follow once the situation becomes clearer.

Meanwhile, the boys have been continuing their celebrations by playing a School version of Pointless and also entering into a cake competition.

525 CAKE COMPETITION Grammar School pupils have been asked to put their creative skills to the test and design a cake that encapsulates the 525th anniversary.

The closing date for designs is 5 June.

Standard is high; these pictures display two amazing cake creations from previous anniversaries.

ECO-SCHOOLS

IN THE NEWS...

ECO-STRATEGY GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT Pupils at all four schools are passionate about creating a cleaner, greener future and over the course of this year they have been working together to find ways to reduce the impact of the Schools on the environment.

At the start of this term, the Executive Committee (the four Heads and the Chief Operating Officer for the Foundation) were joined by the three Senior School Eco-Prefects, to discuss progress and agree what more could be done since Amherst first announced it’s eco-strategy nearly one year ago.

Pupils were also pleased to learn that the new sports kit will make the Foundation’s schools the first in the country to adopt the ‘eco’ kit, made from recycled plastics.

This was the first time that pupils had presented to this group, and all were impressed by their thoughtful and thorough presentation of both the issues, and how these might be addressed.

They found that there was much to celebrate in what we had already achieved – in particular the decision by the Schools to remove single use plastic bottles from our lunches means that we now are no longer disposing of thousands of plastic bottles each year.

Everyone shared a commitment to doing more, and pupils and staff will be meeting together regularly in the next academic year to develop further plans to reduce the use of energy in our classrooms and other buildings, and to find ways to reduce waste and increase recycling.

STOP PRESS - SPORTS KIT SNEEK PEEK AT THE NEW FOUNDATION SPORTS ECO-LAYERS. More product information to follow shortly.

News in pictures

IN THE NEWS...

AMHERST HEARTS Amherst staff and pupils all sent their best wishes to their community and the NHS. Amherst Hearts can be viewed at @LboroAmherst

LES PRÉVISIONS MÉTÉOROLOGIQUES Fairfield pupils have been busy with their French activities and Rishi in Year 2 delivered an excellent global weather forecast in French.

It was raining in the Amazon Rainforest, sunny in Kenya, icy in the Arctic and windy in the UK. A meteorologist in the making! @LboroFairfield

100 CHALLENGE Fairfield pupils have been doing some strenuous activities this week in response to the Fairfield 100 Challenge; 100 cartwheels, 100 skips, 100 spacehopper bounces, 100 squat jumps…Well done everyone, 100% for effort!

BEING A RAINBOW IN SOMEONE ELSE’S CLOUD There have been so many truly amazing acts of kindness from our pupils during lockdown including Matilda in Year 7 at LHS, who has been making afternoon tea boxes and delivering them to house-bound people in her local area.

LET’S DANCE! Time for pupils to get on their red shoes since the LSF Drama Prefects have launched a Musical Theatre Song and Dance Competition!

Solo or household entries are welcomed and all entries will be featured in an online showcase. Actual prizes (Amazon vouchers) to be won!

Watch the video for details.

Loughborough Schools Foundation 3 Burton Walks Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 2DU

T: 01509 283700 www.lsf.org @LboroSchFdt

Loughborough Schools Foundation is a Company Limited by Guarantee, number 4038033, and is registered in England and Wales. It is also a Registered Charity, number 1081765.

The Registered Office is 3 Burton Walks, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 2DU