Celebrating Chinthurst 2018-19

Celebrating Chinthurst 2018–19 Featuring

Music & Drama Productions Sporting Highlights David Shepherd Art Prize Year 6 Trip to France Residential PGL Trips Adventures of Early Years World Book Day and more...

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

WELCOME

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am delighted to welcome you to Celebrating Chinthurst 2018–19. It captures just a small part of the exciting and varied lives that our children lead here. As you read it, I hope their happiness and sense of fun shines through – as this is the true essence of life at Chinthurst.

Our children continue to excel in academic performance, and I am extremely proud of our Year 6 leavers, the class of 2019, who all moved on to their first choice of senior school, many with scholarships across a range of subject areas. More than that, they left us as engaged learners, excited for the next step and with strong foundations for a happy and fulfilled future.

School life at Chinthurst will always be enriched by an exciting curriculum, cutting-edge technology, visitors, trips, and a range of creative and sporting opportunities for all of our children, from Early Years right through to the final year of Upper School. This breadth of experience ensures that our children get the best start in life.

An important part of this is building resilience and equipping our young people with the skills to manage their mental health. That is why our wellbeing programme is so important to us. After all, our children’s happiness is paramount.

As headteacher, one of my proudest moments of the year was when I discovered that Chinthurst had been shortlisted for an ISP award for Independent Prep School of the Year. This was a wonderful achievement and deserved recognition of the hard work and excellent care given by our teaching staff every single day. They shape our children into inquisitive, enthusiastic and thoughtful individuals who are ready for anything!

Cathy Trundle Headteacher

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

WELLBEING AT HEART

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ellbeing is at the very heart of everything we do at Chinthurst, and the children are encouraged to understand how their minds and bodies work and the importance of looking after their mental health.

We all enjoyed wearing yellow on World Mental Health Day to support the #HelloYellow initiative, which aims to show young people that they are not alone when struggling with mental health issues. A visit from Flash the therapy dog and his wonderful owner Rachel Bullerwell to talk to the children about how to manage their feelings when they feel anxious was hugely popular with the whole school. We all agreed that throwing a ball for Flash was excellent therapy! Our fantastic parents association have helped to transform part of Morris House into a special wellbeing room, which now provides a quiet, cosy area for the children to go to when they need to have some space, to talk through a problem or if they are feeling anxious.

It is a terrific new addition to the school!

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

ADVENTURES OF EARLY YEARS

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ur youngest children enjoy a packed timetable of activities including specialist teaching in drama, sport, STEM, languages and swimming as well as a weekly Forest School session.

But lessons aside and weather permitting, they spend a great deal of their time outdoors, learning through play, and can always be found with smiles on their faces! One of the highlights for our Nursery children this year was the annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Thankfully, the rain held off and the children had a delightful time with their current class, as well as welcoming new faces. The children were very excited to bring their teddies from home and were able to show their mummies and daddies their classroom!

There were also lots of fun activities, including making perfume potions with fresh flowers and a teddy bear hunt.

Everyone enjoyed the afternoon.

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

ADVENTURES OF EARLY YEARS

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

DAVID SHEPHERD ART COMPETITION

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nder the guidance of Mrs Lyth, the children in Years 4 to 6 produced a wonderful entry for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Global Canvas Art competition, the theme of which was ‘Habitats of the World’. The Foundation’s goal is to help secure a future for wildlife in their natural habitat, and whilst they usually focus their efforts further afield, we took the opportunity to highlight the importance of preserving the wonderful habitats on our doorstep. Our entry was a stunning layout complete with trees, birds and foxes to replicate the magical Leith Hill, an area recently endangered by fracking. Not only were we thrilled to qualify for the final of the competition, which was held at the Natural History Museum, amazingly we were chosen for the Mandy Shepherd personal choice award. Mandy (David Shepherd’s daughter) was the guest speaker for the day and she picked our entry as her favourite. Children from 26 countries took part in the competition and so winning this award really was a phenomenal achievement!

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

WORLD BOOK DAY

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he entire school buzzed with excitement during this year’s World Book Day. The children all looked fabulous in their costumes and it was interesting to hear the reasons for choosing their character.

The older pupils read with the younger ones and we continued the enjoyable experience of DEAR (drop everything and read), illustrating that nothing is more important than reading. The staff, too all entered into the spirit of the occasion by dressing up and helping make it such a memorable day for the children.

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

YEAR 4 & 5 RESIDENTIAL TRIPS

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esidential trips challenge and inspire the children and they always eagerly look forward to them. This year, PGL Marchants Hill was the destination for Year 4, and they enjoyed a packed schedule of activities starting with raft building and a barrel rodeo. They also experienced abseiling, rifle shooting, orienteering, challenge courses, aeroball and the amazing giant swing. The children loved the evening activities, which included making an indoor campfire and playing ‘Passport to the world’.

Year 5 headed to PGL Liddington and enjoyed activities such as the giant swing, a sensory trail, archery and rock climbing.

A particular favourite for them was the vertical challenge – an upwards climb full of obstacles that they had to master as a team. Despite the campfire being a washout due to torrential rain, the children still enjoyed campfire songs and a quiz in the comfort of the activities centre.

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

YEAR 6 FRENCH TRIP

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he Year 6 children had an incredible time during the inaugural visit to the Château de la Baudonnière in France.

On the first day, they walked six and a half kilometres across the sands to Mont St. Michel, basking in sunshine but with mud all the way up to their knees! They also visited Bayeux, where they learned about the Battle of Hastings via the story in the tapestry and had a tour of the museum. There was also so much to do at the château itself, including aeroball, orienteering, bread making, climbing and the very ‘unique’ assault course. They found out how cider is made (and tastes), looked after the llamas, ponies and bunny rabbits and even worked out how to (almost) keep their rooms tidy! With delicious food (including escargots), fun entertainment in the evenings and a cosy bed to fall into at the end of the day, it was a really fun week.

MUSIC & DRAMA

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

PORRIDGE

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he Year 5 and 6 school production of Porridge was a resounding success. The play, based on a whole host of fairytale characters was jam packed with singing, dancing and a stream of appallingly hilarious jokes!

All of the children took part with boundless enthusiasm, energy and dedication, which made the show such a triumph. It is events such as these that truly demonstrate the magic of Chinthurst. The children were excited, happy, engaged and keen to make the performance the best that it could be. They commanded the stage with confidence, whatever their role and recognised the joy of being a part of the show. All of the children were stars, each of them stepping out of their comfort zone, supporting their friends and working hard as a team to ensure they each could do their best.

“I am incredibly proud of how well all the children performed on the day!�

Mrs S-T

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

RAZZAMATAZZ

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n the Spring term, Years 3 and 4 entertained us with an evening of singing, poetry, acting and some comical dancing at their Razzamatazz performance. All of the children delivered their parts with confidence and enthusiasm. It was a wonderful showcase of the breadth and excellence of music and drama at Chinthurst.

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

EARLY YEARS NATIVITY

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wet and windy December week was brightened by a most heartwarming performance of the Early Years Nativity. On Tuesday, the children performed their nativity to the whole school, which was enjoyed by all. On Wednesday, it was show time – jazz hands at the ready! The Nursery children looked festive in their Christmas jumpers and Reception embraced their roles with the help of their wonderful costumes.

The children sang proudly, they delivered their lines with confidence and they truly entertained the audience. What made the performance particularly special was the involvement and contribution from our Head Girl, Annalise and Head Chorister, James. It was a magical start to our Christmas festivities!

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

EARLY YEARS NATIVITY

“Wow... Well done everyone!

I am amazed by how confidently you sang and how clearly you spoke!”

Miss Trundle

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

YEAR 1 & 2 CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION

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estive celebrations continued with the Year 1 and 2 Christmas production, which was a terrific event!

The children astounded the audience with how well they had all learned their lines, which were delivered with great expression and confidence. The songs, too were sung with gusto and much fun was had by all. It really was a superb performance, and was a credit not only to the children but also to all the staff who helped prepare them, especially Mrs Stricker-Timmermans and Miss Veal.

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

UPPER SCHOOL CHRISTMAS CONCERT

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he last of December’s busy calendar of events was the Upper School Christmas Concert held at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The evening saw Years 3 to 6 in fine voice as they showed off their musical and comic acting talents to a packed audience of Chinthurst parents. The children all sang beautifully and the evening left every one of us in a festive mood.

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

MUSIC AT CHINTHURST

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any of the children in the school have been involved in our peripatetic music programme this year.

The music department has delivered over 100 individual lessons per week on a wide variety of string, brass, woodwind and percussion instruments. The children attend lessons with plenty of enthusiasm, with many of them working towards music examinations.

SPORT

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

UPPER & LOWER SCHOOL SPORTS DAY

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hat fun Sports Day was this year! The children ran, jumped, threw and tugged to the best of their abilities for their House and a great time was had by all. Each child participated enthusiastically in every event and showed great sportsmanship at the same time. The Sports Department worked hard to make sure that the day went without a hitch, but no one could have predicted that the children would manage to snap the rope during the tug-of-war. It just goes to show how hard they were trying!

The combined results for Upper and Lower School were: Nelson: 734 Raleigh: 775 Wellington: 762 Congratulations to Raleigh!

“It was fantastic to see so many parents enjoying the sunshine whilst supporting their children.�

Mr Mussellwhite

CELEBRATING CHINTHURST 2018–19

NURSERY SPORTS DAY

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ursery did incredibly well at their Sports Day this year. All of the children took part and performed beautifully for their parents. The Nursery teachers were enormously proud of them. Each child gave it their very best in the 20m running race, the hurdles and an obstacle course. It was wonderful to see all the mummies, daddies and grandparents who came to watch and it was especially rewarding to see the Year 6 children doing all they could to support the younger ones. They were a tremendous help in making sure that the Nursery children waited beautifully in their lines and running with them if they needed a bit of extra moral support.

CHINTHURST SCHOOL

SPORT AT CHINTHURST

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e were so proud of our U11A football team for reaching the finals of this year’s County Cup. On their journey to the final they defeated strong schools such as Danes Hill and Kings College School Wimbledon – wonderful confirmation of our continued sporting excellence! We were all eager to support the team in the final at Charterhouse School, as our boys in green looked to make history.

A compelling, tight and exciting game unfolded with both teams very evenly matched and the boys giving their all.

Unfortunately, we conceded a good goal and despite increasing the pressure on the opposition and hitting the post and bar, we just could not get that crucial goal.

We were immensely proud of the boys’ performance on the day, and also of their sportsmanship and team work throughout the tournament. They were perfect role models for the rest of the school.

Congratulations later went to Charlie, Alex and Gabriel from this team, who all went on to be selected for the Gothia World Cup squad.

U11 Football

This year our girls have continued to thrive in netball and hockey, and it has been fantastic to watch their hard work pay off with the number of match wins increasing in both sports from last season.

This year also saw the introduction of girls’ cricket, which our girls will continue to enjoy during the summer terms.

In other sporting news, our U11s performed brilliantly at the National School’s Rugby Festival and a special mention must go to our U9 rugby team, who won all of their matches over the course of the 2018–19 season. In cricket, several of our boys were selected for the Surrey Cricket performance squad, which is a remarkable achievement.

There is so much more to success at sport than winning alone. It is about participation, inclusivity, leadership and team work. That is why we have a comprehensive fixtures programme ensuring that every child has the chance to represent their school. Not to mention Saturday Sport, which is the ideal training ground for our budding sportsmen and women of the future.

U11 Girls’ Cricket

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH US As Celebrating Chinthurst illustrates, we are an extremely active school with a host of activities happening throughout the year To keep up to date with school news, please visit our website or join us online: facebook.com/ChinthurstSchool @ChintSchool

Chinthurst School, Tadworth Street, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5QZ 01737 812 011 | admissions@chinthurstschool.co.uk www.chinthurstschool.co.uk