LSF.WEEK 5 June

LSF.WEEK 5 June 2020

#BacktoSchool #Friendship

The staff and I were thrilled to welcome back children in Kindergarten, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 on Monday morning resplendent in the glorious sunshine! Although the weather took a turn for the worse on Wednesday, it certainly didn’t dampen our spirits and the children had a thoroughly enjoyable and beneficial first week back.

The order of each day has initially been based around the children reengaging with their peers who they have physically not been able to work and play with for over two months.

Whilst we have had to obviously spend time educating the children in our enhanced hygiene procedures and expectations, an exciting programme of practical activities has ensured that the children have made the best of their return to Fairfield.

Feedback

Thanks

In the spirit of acquiring honest feedback from the children as to what their ‘best bit’ of being back at school was, they didn’t disappoint! Answers such as ‘playing with my friends’, ‘lunch’ and ‘wearing my school uniform’ featured largely, but it was quite humbling to learn that the overwhelming response was quite simply ‘just being happy again’.

My thanks also go to the Foundation’s wonderful Estates team, led by Mr Grant who meticulously prepared the Fairfield site, both internally and externally to meet the heightened governmental guidelines, as well as our catering team, led by Mrs Johnstone, who have continued to keep us all royally fed and watered throughout the school day.

Just being happy again

BREAKING NEWS

Virtual Sports Day Fairfield’s new Head of Sport and PE, Mr Hoult has definitely been thinking ‘outside of the box’ to organise what would have been impossible in lockdown, Fairfield’s annual Sports Day. I am delighted to announce that for the first time in our prestigious history, we have launched a ‘Virtual Sports Day’.

This was certainly at the fore of our approach to planning and facilitating the children’s return and I would like to publicly thank my staff for the way in which they worked tirelessly over what should have been their half term break, in setting up their new ‘pods’ and thoroughly preparing for every aspect of the children’s return on Monday.

Via Fairfield’s Firefly Homepage, Mr Hoult and Mr Rennie, (clearly Fairfield’s answer to ‘Saint & Greavsie) challenged the children to pull out all the stops in order for their House to be first past the finishing post.

Their video to unveil the big event can be viewed via the following link https://twitter.com/lborofairfield/ status/1268202870341591041?s=21

Andrew Earnshaw Headmaster

May the best House win!

Exclusive interviews

Olympic values at Amherst Year 7 Runner Bean Race

From this week we have five exclusive interviews from elite athletes for pupils to watch on Firefly.

Mrs Hopper sends her thanks to all pupils who are participating in sporting challenges as part of Get Set Tokyo.

Ranging from growth mind-set to training commitments and how to manage time.

So far we have clocked up a total of 746 hours sporting activities with 283 sessions in total recorded, and 208 sessions as families. The participation is 49% of pupils and 58% of parents.

These resources are part of our Foundation link with Youth Sport Trust and can be found on the health and wellbeing page on Firefly.

Agnes House have a strong lead at present.

As part of their Food unit on seasonal foods, some of Year 7 planted runner beans and peas at the start of the lock down.

They have been sharing weekly updates and photographs on germination and height and the beans have now been staked up and planted outside, hopefully ready for a good harvest in the summer.

Last terms winning beans were from Megan, Dana and Poppy.

Abigail’s bean was last measured at a massive 137 cm tall. The top right picture in the collage below, is the monstrous plant in question.

Well done everyone, a great way to learn about seasonality and the effects of climate on growing in the UK. Keep watering.

Whole School sing A big thank you to Mrs Marsh and Mr Morris for leading the boys and girls of Amherst Prep, both those who are still at home and those now back in School, in one big sing.

It was lovely to all be together again in this way just for a little while, and we look forward to doing it again next week.

Medical student enrichment Over half term our year 12 students who are interested in medicine had a Zoom session with a Professor of Neurosurgery from the Queens Medical Hospital in Nottingham.

These same students are also taking part in the University of Leicester’s virtual medical school and tutorials, so they are making good and steady progress towards their medical applications for next year.

Julian Murphy Headmaster

Picture of the week And finally…. A beautifully calming photograph courtesy of Rae in Year 9.

As Rae himself comments, ‘isn’t nature beautiful’. Is that species of dragon indigenous to Leicestershire?

Preparation for A Level

Community Engagement

Year 11 students have started their ‘Springboard to Sixth Form’ courses this week to help bridge the gap between GCSE and A Level.

As previously reported, Year 7 have been collaborating on the Coronakindness 525 Challenge: marking the Grammar School’s 525th anniversary to carry out 525 acts of kindness for members of their community.

This follows three weeks in which they have been working on their ‘Next Steps’ Diploma preparing themselves for Sixth Form life and broadening their academic interests.

As part of the Diploma, boys have completed a wealth of online courses, exploring a range fascinating topics.

Music Senior Music Prefect, Danushka (Y13) has led an initiative by our musicians to produce online performances to make up for all of the Summer Term concerts so sadly cancelled.

He has produced a haunting multi-track of Rheinberger’s ‘Abendlied’, the full version of which can be found on YouTube...

Year 11 Next Steps Diploma

The boys of 11AKT alone completed courses that included the structure of the NHS, particle physics, understanding economic inequality, aquatic mammals, and book-keeping.

With such keen academic dedication, we are certain they will succeed as they move on to A Level study and we look forward to welcoming them to the Sixth Form family in September.

Duncan Byrne Headmaster

Language Learning Of the 80 clubs and activities in the Virtual Thomas Burton Award this Summer Term, learning a foreign language has been one of the most popular, notably using the free app Duolingo.

However, Mrs Henderson has taken a group of Year 8 and 9 boys to new heights giving them an introduction to Sanskrit, the ancient language on which Latin, Greek and all Indo-European tongues are based.

We are pleased to report that, as of Tuesday 2 June, we are at 533 and counting! BBC East Midlands Today interviewed Mr Parton about the initiative on Thursday morning, and we look forward to hearing his dulcet tones on our television sets within the next day or so, as well as photos of the boys in action.

Springboard into Sixth Form Our Year 11 pupils began their three week ‘Springboard’ courses this week.

Each pupil has been assigned a personal mentor and is participating in post-16 subject lessons of her choice.

The courses will enable pupils to start thinking more deeply about their chosen subjects and include an introduction to key skills, contextual reading and preparatory work.

We are delighted to be joined by new pupils joining our sixth form in September.

Artistic piece 2020 As mentioned in LSF.WEEK, 22 May, students in Years 11 and 13 have been exploring the Arts as part of their critical thinking course.

They asked the LHS community to vote on their selected pieces and the results are in! Drum roll please as we announce that La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona has been voted the overall LHS favourite artistic piece for 2020.

Thank you to everyone who voted.

Triathlon Challenge Eva, who is in Year 7, has been really missing training with her triathlon club.

The club members therefore came up with the idea of a Lands End to John O Groats triathlon challenge.

Over 5 days they needed to travel 874 miles by either swimming, cycling, running or walking.

At the end of the five days, the children had managed 890.80 miles and raised £723, which was well over their £300 target.

Eva’s completed challenges, which she declares were ‘really good fun’, were as follows; Monday: 20 mile bike ride Tuesday: A mini triathlon Wednesday: 11 mile bike ride Thursday: 8 mike run/walk Friday (her Birthday!): just a 5 mile walk

Prefects

Flying High!

Just before half-term, we were delighted to announce the new senior prefects for the year ahead in a special online assembly for Year 12.

Catherine in Year 9 has been using lockdown time to begin working towards her private pilots licence.

We were joined by our outgoing senior prefects, led by Sarah-Jane, Sinchna and Elicia, who have been great champions for the school and for pupil voice.

In building the new team, we took a holistic view, taking into account the results of the staff and pupil vote, staff recommendations and the skills and attributes of the team as a whole.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair The year 7 pupils have been working on stop motion animation videos bringing to life the opening in Macbeth during their drama lessons.

Fiona Miles Head

Congratulations to new Head Girl, Hannah-Maria, her two deputies, Elizabeth and Imogen, and the rest of the team.

A member of the RAF Air cadets, she has been studying RAF text books and using a flight simulator to brush up her skills in her spare time.

The children have been continuing their Kindness topic during the course of this week.

In order to teach the children about being kind to animals, we all made bird feeders.

We hung these in the Nursey garden and the children were so excited to see if any birds flew in for some food.

We will keep watching and will hopefully see some soon! From this, we also explored the different birds that live around us and their habitat As stipulated by Leicestershire Healthy Tots, our children’s mental health is important in their development.

It is stated that we need to make sure that we help our children with their mental health during this trying time.

It is recommended that this can be done by trying to keep to a normal routine and ensure they are occupied with activities, such as making a bird feeder.

Happy squeals and little giggles.

Welcome The staff and children at Loughborough Nursery were also very busy last week preparing for the Nursery reopening.

Carla Brindley Nursery Manager

The staff are all delighted that the children have settled back into Nursery life extremely well and we are so incredibly proud of each and every one of them.

The children made and decorated a wonderful ‘Welcome Back’ banner ready to greet their friends.

The children are so happy to be reunited with their friends and the Nursery rooms are once again filled with happy squeals and little giggles.

It has been lovely (and a little emotional) to welcome back the children who have returned in phase one.

We cannot wait for the rest of our families to gradually return over the coming weeks.

Re-opening

IN THE NEWS...

WELCOME BACK! On Monday 1 June, it was wonderful to welcome back pupils to Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 6 at Fairfield and Amherst.

The pupils soon settled back into a routine and have been enjoying time with their friends and teachers once again.

Fairfield Year 6 pupils have been creating their own Wave master pieces based on The Great Wave of Kanagawa

by Hokusai.

https://twitter.com/re-opening video

Amherst pupils enjoying being back in their classrooms.

In Kindergarten the children enjoyed many indoor and outdoor activities.

In Amherst Reception this week, Gwen has been putting shiny scales on her Rainbow Fish with sequence whilst Florence has made a clay Rainbow Fish with beads. Roshan has been creative with sticky dots.

Estates staff were also busy getting the campus ready for re-opening.

This included ensuring that the site was safe for our children and parents to return with directional signage, a one-way system, handwashing stations and managing the staggered arrival and departure times in the car park.

Head Groundsman Chris, has been busy marking out a new zebra crossing on Burton Walks to ensure pupils cross safely.

Amherst Year 6 pupils have been learning about Els Castells (human castles) in Spanish and built Lego towers to represent their designs. They have also been enjoying the 100 Club task, set by Mr Hoult.

525 + Coronakindness

IN THE NEWS...

533 WAYS TO BE KIND As many of you are aware, the Grammar School is celebrating its 525th anniversary this year.

To keep a group of 129 energetic twelve year old, Year 7 boys engaged during lockdown, Mr Parton (Head of Year 7) challenged them to achieve a total of 525 acts of Coronakindness in four weeks.

The boys were encouraged to carry out acts of kindness that they might not get recognition or a thank you for.

Mr Parton asked them to be kind and thoughtful to their family, friends, neighbours and people in their local communities.

The pupils certainly rose to the challenge and did not just meet the target‌they smashed it with 533 challenges recorded to date!

Examples of the thoughtful acts of Coronakindness include: Delivery of medicine to shielded patients, Baking for delivery drivers and bin men, Making gifts for NHS key workers and the police, Gardening for elderly neighbours, Simple outdoor DIY tasks, Food parcels and gifts on doorsteps, Kind messages to elderly relatives Kindness to animals – fatballs for birds and homemade treats for local dogs.

Many photos of these kind actions can be viewed on the @LboroGSYear7 twitter feed.

It was wonderful to see that throughout this project the boys have been continually cheerful and enthusiastic.

They have needed very little encouragement and thrown themselves whole-heartedly into the challenge to be helpful and kind.

Well done Year 7!

Sports

IN THE NEWS...

LSF STRAVA SPORT CLUB: LEADER BOARD W/C 1 JUNE This week’s leaderboard

HERE ARE LAST WEEK’S TOP SHOUT OUTS. Last week’s leaderboard

It is superb to see how many students are engaging and challenging each other through this sports programme.

Please look out for new challenges on the Strava app next week.

Can anyone knock Nathanial off the top spot?

To find details of the club, please visit the Strava App and search Loughborough School Sport.

To find the Loughborough Schools Sport Strava Club, please visit: https://www.strava.com/clubs/ LboroSchSport

News in pictures

IN THE NEWS...

STOP THE PRESS:

STEM SUCCESS Three Grammar School STEM teams have made it through to the finals of the TeenTech Awards!

BRONZE AWARD

TUK TO THE ROAD!

Ben in Year 7 at the Grammar School, has Sam from our Admissions team is loving submitted some excellent pieces of art to her new skill; driving a Tuk Tuk! receive his Bronze Art Award.

Sam and her daughter Claudia, from Amherst, have been using this mode of transport to deliver medicine and prescriptions to elderly and vulnerable people in their local area, on behalf of the Rosie May Foundation. Think pink Tuk Tuk @rosiemayfoundation

The judges were very impressed by the high standards of the entries and the amount of work that students have put into their ideas.

Congratulations to Project WildFire, Project Spectium and Project Elexobelt and good luck for the finals.

#THANKYOUNHS MUSICAL PLANET On Friday 29 May, musicians joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in their mission to power up our musical planet by taking part in a socially distanced performance.

Hattie from Fairfield and her brother Noah from the Grammar School have run a marathon!

They both ran up to three miles each day to reach the distance of 26.2 miles. This is a great achievement and the money they have raised has been donated to the NHS.

Thousands of musicians around the world played, sang, or remixed ‘Jupiter’ from Holst’s The Planets together at 17.00 BST. Together we showed the incredible power of music to transcend borders, brighten our lives, and connect us across any distance. #NYOMusicalPlanet.

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