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Tockingtonian 2020 - 2021

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THE TOCKINGTONIAN 2020 - 2021

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Contents From the Study Window.......................................... Seniors........................................................................ End of Year Prizes.................................................... Nursery...................................................................... Lower School............................................................ Year 3......................................................................... Year 4......................................................................... Year 5......................................................................... Year 6......................................................................... Year 7......................................................................... Year 8......................................................................... Computing................................................................ Music......................................................................... Performing Arts....................................................... PSHE & SMSC......................................................... Geography................................................................. Mathematics............................................................. English...................................................................... Latin.......................................................................... Art & Design............................................................ History...................................................................... Spanish...................................................................... French........................................................................ Science....................................................................... Football..................................................................... Rugby......................................................................... Tennis........................................................................ Hockey........................................................................ Cross Country........................................................... Cricket....................................................................... Swimming................................................................. Athletics.................................................................... Sports Days................................................................ Activity Week............................................................ Year 7 Camp.............................................................. Year 8 Camp............................................................. Friends of Tockington Manor................................ Old Tockingtonians.................................................

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Edition No. 90

FROM THE STUDY WINDOW

Welcome to this, the 90th edition of The Tockingtonian, an edition that will once again highlight the tremendous work that has been carried out by all within the Tockington many community. The year was, like last year, effected heavily by Covid interruptions but despite this it was clear to see that both staff and children were committed to the school’s motto of ‘making the most of every moment’.

Very much like the 2019 – 2020 year we adopted the approach of ‘what can we do ‘ rather than ‘what

are we not allowed to do’ and with this in mind so much was achieved. Sadly, events such as drama productions and sports fixtures were impacted but we found a way to make sure they all went ahead. A particular favourite of mine were, however, the performances of The Day the Woods Came to Dunsinane and Caesar and the Pirates. Parents of Years 5 and 6 enjoyed smaller but more intimate performances with a glass of wine and nibbles and the Senior Play was recorded and shared on YouTube.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoons parents learnt the art of leaning on the school fence to avoid Covid regulations so they could watch the many fixtures that went ahead. Despite what was going on in the wider world Tockington Manor continued to flourish with excellent advancements in IT and huge developments with curriculum planning. At the start of the first lockdown in 2020 I was fearful of what could potentially happen to the independent school sector and particularly smaller schools like ours but instead of seeing a shrinking school, TMS continued to grow at a steady rate and is, as a consequence, rather bucking the trend around the rest of the country.

We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and committed school community, one where every important component plays its part and this edition of The Tockingtonian is a celebration of all that is good about our school. With this in mind I thank you all for the part you played. I give further thanks to Stephanie Dawkins and Amanda Symonds for their hard work in compiling this magazine. Mr Symonds

Our first whole school assemblies were held outside and in our "bubbles" due to Covid restrictions. 4

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SENIORS 2020-21

Our Senior leavers this year have moved onto the following schools:

G. Allen

Monmouth School for Girls Academic Scholarship

B. Bishop

L. Bowden

Clifton College

Headmaster's Scholarship

Sports Scholarship

A. Collin

G. Cooper

Colstons

Kings College, Taunton

Sports Scholarship

All Rounder Scholarship

Pate's Grammar School, Cheltenham Academic & Art Scholarship

C. Pook

Westonbirt School

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Castle School

Clifton College

A. Ingleby

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A. Beetlestone

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E. Lewis

H. Benson

Westonbirt School

G. Carrel

Cheltenham College

E. Heer

Kingswood, Bath

T. Littlejohn

Westonbirt School

Clifton College

Academic & Sports Exhibition Scholarship

Sports Scholarship

S. Sheasby

Taunton School Sports Scholarship & Headmasters Award

J. Webley

Kingswood, Bath

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Year 8 Monitors The Year 8 pupils held these roles for the 2020/21 academic year. They held these with a sense of responsibility and pride setting an excellent example to all of the pupils both in school and during distance learning.

Head Boy T. Littlejohn

Deputy Head Boy L. Bowden

Head of Alexander J. Webley & A. Ingleby

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Head Girl G. Allen

Deputy Head Girl E. Lewis

Head of Churchill G. Carrell & A. Beetlestone

Head of Cunningham B. Bishop & S. Sheasby

Head of Boys' Sport A. Collin

Head of Girls' Sport G. Cooper

Head of Science H. Benson

Head of ICT C. Pook & E. Heer

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END OF YEAR PRIZES The Merchant Prize for English

The School Prize for Art

The Prize for Best Brass Player H. Byrne

Year 7: G. Mockridge Year 8: J. Webley

The Ashford Prize for Best Poem

The Richardson Prize for Art

The Warn Prize for Best Guitar Player

Best Girls' Games Player of the Year

The Shaw Prize for English

The Allen DT Prize

The Lees Progress Prize for Strings

Best Boys' Games Player for the Year

The Prize for Most Promising Writer

The Jamie Smith Photography Cup

The School Prize for Percussion

The Symonds Cup for Excellence in Cricket

The Broyd Prize for Reading

The Benjamin Moore Science Shield

The Pippa Mason Award

The Stringer Shield

The Haigh Cup for Middle School Creative Writing

The Smith Prize for Science

The Russell Trophy

The Middle School Prize for Science

The Resilience Award

The School Prize for Computing/ICT

The Smith Cup for All-round Sportsmanship

Lower School End of Year Prizes

The Gerrish Activities Cup

G. Cooper A. Ingleby V. Gibbs

L. Bowden

M. Hunt, G. Griffith

H. Leadbeater

The Old Tockingtonian Prize for History G. Carrel

The Sarah Finnigan Award for Drama L. Bowden

The Old Tockingtonian Society Prize for Mathematics Winner: G. Cooper Progress: A. Ingleby

The Jones Cup for Excellence in Geography G. Cooper

The Robert Mason Prize for Geography A. Ingleby

The Finnigan Prize for French G. Cooper

The Lower School Prize for French D. Yu

The Middle School Prize for French A. Ricciardi

The Lower School Prize for Spanish M. Adams

The Middle School Prize for Spanish A. Ricciardi, K. Woodhouse

The Bett Prize for Classics G. Cooper

The Elaine Thomas Prize for Art

M. Woodward D. Burch

J. Sanders

E. Billimoria

E. Lewis

A. Collin & G. Allen S. Sheasby I. King

C. Pook

Reception: A. Galpin Year 1A: B. Strickland Year 1B: R. Hill Year 2A: D. Yu Year 2B: J. Bird

H. Hill

J. Webley

S. Sheasby E. Heer

T. Littlejohn B. Bishop

The Watson Sports Achievement

The Baker "Make the Most of Every Moment" Salver T. Littlejohn

The 'Dame Mary Warnock' Young Philosopher Award C. Pook

The Winson Prize for Singing E. Tyler

The McArthur Prize for Best Overall Musicianship E. Lewis

The Lower School Prize for Music

B. Hurford, E. Watkins, A. Shambu, D. Yu

The Walters Prize for Piano E. Billimoria

The Wilkinson Shield for Best Wind Player G. Allen

A. Ingleby

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I. King

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Reception: A. Watkins Year 1A: L. Gazi Year 1B: B. Rowe Year 2A: T. Greenbank Year 2B: E. Viner-Plumley

E. Lewis, G. Cooper A. Collin

L. Bowden

1st Churchill 2nd Alexander 3rd Cunningham

Headmaster's Prize E. Lewis

Lifers' Awards G. Allen, G. Carrel, G. Cooper, E. Lewis T. Littlejohn

Head Boy and Head Girl Salvers Head Boy: T. Littlejohn Head Girl: G. Allen

The Shutt Cup for Lower School Endeavour E. Viner-Plumley, J. Bird

Lower School Water Polo Award W. Bayley

Swimming Awards

Junior Squad: H. Harvie-Pullin, E. Lewis Senior Squad: G. Allen, A. Collin Year 4 Squad: P. Rogers, O. Harvie-Pullin Year 1A: A. Goodenough, T. O'Connell Year 1B: R. Hill, H. Thurston Year 2A: M. Gascoyne, A. Kasprzyk Year 2B: A. Shambu, E. Watkins Year 3A: A. Palmer, C. O'Connell Year 3B: S. Baigent, N. Bhadri Year 4A: S. Chohan Year 4B: A. Owen Year 5: K. Davis Year 6: N. Gazi THE TOCKI NGTONI AN

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OUR NURSERY The Nursery has enjoyed another fantastic year with many varied activities both indoor and outdoor within our vast and amazing grounds.

moving their bodies into different gymnastic poses and positions without falling over! The Owls experienced team games using football skills, learning to control the ball with their feet whilst the Woodpeckers had the opportunity to take part in a penalty shoot-out. These skills taught the children to work together, using their balance with skills to aim the ball at the net and enjoy scoring goals!

As a Nursery we promote Safety, especially whilst on our Environmental walks. Encouraging the children to use their senses to stop, look, and listen. This quickly became part of our daily routine when crossing the road to explore the farmer’s fields and carefully pond dipping in the school pond to find tadpoles and water insects.

The Nursery look forward to their weekly visit from Madame Veron. The Woodpeckers experience French through animals, weather, and food, whilst the Owls learn colours, greetings, and body parts, in French, German and Spanish throughout the year.

Within the Environment the Owls made and used their own spotter cards to identify various berries, seeds, and fruit. The children explored and collected natural materials to make mobiles. The tree bark was great for rubbing and the leaves were used to trace, making colourful pictures. Mapping was introduced using memorable items from familiar places chosen by the children.

Music is embraced through instruments and singing. With the help from Mrs Sapkota, the children discover new songs and understand ‘tempo’ in a fun way. The produce in the Kitchen Garden this year, planted by the Owls, grew well in the summer sun. Lots of communication to aid their learning and understanding from ‘seed to plate’ was achieved. The children enjoyed watering and eating their carrots, potatoes, lettuce, and herbs, whilst the sunflowers grew and grew with the pumpkins still travelling across the ground for the Autumn term.

The Woodpeckers Environmental Learning followed the seasons. They made hedgehogs, hiding them in the Autumn leaves for hibernation, looked for tracks and animal prints in the snow and then spotting the first signs of Spring making plant and flower trails in the sunshine. Following the children’s interest, the Woodpeckers have enjoyed acting their favourite stories. They chose Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Stickman, and The Gruffalo. All the children took turns sharing costumes and props and really loved getting into character.

Mrs Pearce

During the year the Nursery children have all participated in fun exercises using gross motor skills. Balancing games using benches, beams, and discs,

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LOWER SCHOOL

It has been another busy year in the Lower School. In September, all the children settled well into their new classes and were excited to be back in school after a disrupted year. We are extremely proud of the children’s resilience in adapting to the new restrictions in their classrooms and their school experience. We are looking forward to returning to school and resuming all our normal activities. Miss Sheppard

Reception It has been a very busy, exciting, and hardworking year for Reception. They have taken transitioning from Nursery into Lower School, lockdown learning

and getting used to the school routine in their stride and I am very proud of them, proving just how resilient these children really are. I am greeted with a ‘Good Morning, Miss Coles’ and an eagerness to learn each day which has proved just how exciting learning in Reception really is! At the beginning of the year, the children got used to the day-to-day life at Tockington Manor School. They learnt where their outdoor kits were hung, where the toilets were and explored the beautiful school grounds. We went on lots of Nature walks during the Autumn term, discovering different wildlife, finding a variety of coloured leaves, and creating our very own Hedgehog collages using the orange, brown and red leaves we found. We enjoyed playing outside in the Autumn sunshine and even found some cheeky bears on our Bear Hunt! During Christmas, in Maths, we ordered Gingerbread men starting from the smallest Gingerbread man to the largest. We even decorated our own Gingerbread men using sweets and icing… they were delicious! We finished off the term with a delicious Christmas lunch where we pulled crackers with our friends, wore paper hats, and enjoyed eating our delicious Christmas puddings and mince pies. In the Spring term (after being back at school for one day!) the children began remote learning. We

thoroughly enjoyed our Zoom sessions where we discussed what we had been up to over the weekend, we learnt our Phonics, how to form our sounds correctly and worked on capacity and number bonds. The children adapted well to this new way of learning and uploaded some fantastic pieces of work to Tapestry. Upon returning to school, the children wowed Jackie and I with their super reading, focusing on letter and sound recognition. During the Summer term, the children learnt how to grow their own sunflower seeds, recognising that seeds need water, sun light and soil as well as identifying the life cycle of a plant. The children also learnt about different minibeasts with a particular focus on Bees. We created our own beehives out of Lego, drew pictures of Bees and created our own paper plate Bees. We have learnt how important Bees are for the planet and how we need to cultivate a rich environment for Bees to thrive. It has been an absolute pleasure teaching the Reception class of 2020-2021 in an otherwise tricky year. Their perseverance, hard work and positive attitude has made the atmosphere in Reception fun, happy and enjoyable. I wish the children all the best for next year and I hope they have a fantastic Summer!

Year 1 Year 1 started the academic year with two classes which was exciting and gave opportunities for lots of collaborative work together. Miss Lloyd joined us from Westonbirt School, and we began the year in great spirits with lots of activities planned for us to do altogether. We embraced being back all together with assemblies outside, which meant we could join as a whole school. The Year 1 children were lucky that they had been in school from June last year, but having the whole school together was a great way to start the year. We welcomed new children to the school and had lots of fun getting to know each other. We started to learn about Florence Nightingale in History and explore the impact she has had on modern day medicine and hospital practice, this linked in well with our constant reassurance to the children about Covid – 19. We linked the good practice Florence had established to the practices which were the normal for the children. They enjoyed getting creative, painting their own interpretation of Florence Nightingale and learning about the conditions of the hospitals during the Victorian era. When the weather allowed, we explored the grounds in forest school, finding and identifying different leaves and insects.

Miss Coles

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We enjoyed being back together, in a routine and seeing the children start to blossom again. Sadly, it was short lived and just before half term we were back to remote learning for two weeks. However, all the children engaged with us on Zoom, sent in work and generally kept their spirits up. We managed to return to school for the whole of the second half of term and our minds were firmly on Christmas! Sadly, we could not have a show stopping nativity play but we had taught the children lots of songs via Zoom and we put together a recording for the parents to enjoy and allowed the children to gather safely together to celebrate what we could. A surprise visit from a certain Mr FC made us all smile…. some things will never change! We decided to get into the festive spirit with glitter and a certain naughty Elf appearing in the classrooms daily. We waved the children off for the Christmas holidays with everything crossed that they may stay safe and well. The Spring started with gentle optimism and when a child asked Mrs West if Mr Johnson would send us home again, she answered with a very positive ‘no’…. sadly, she was very wrong and off we went home again. The children fell into the Zoom routine again very quickly, showing enthusiasm and determination for their home learning . We also had plenty of children at school under the ‘key worker’ provision and the wonderful Jackie and Mrs Tregenza held the fort for us at school, checking in

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regularly and guiding the children through the tasks we set remotely. The highlight had to be our Year 1 scavenger hunt and the baby chicks which the O'Connell family hatched, not to be forgotten was Rosemary on her roller-skates too! If nothing else, we laughed, a lot! We still covered all our spelling tests, our work on toys in the past continued and we explored lots of new maths topics which worked well online. The children received a broad yet balanced curriculum and maybe learnt a different skill, that of optimism and resilience. It was fantastic to see the children so enthusiastic about our Safari topic, producing some beautiful home learning about Kenya. The Summer term started with the sun shining and we made the most of being out on our beautiful grounds. We began the term with our Seaside topic, learning about holidays in the past and how they compared to the present. We also enjoyed learning about plants in science and even grew our own runner bean! A topic the children were particularly passionate about was plastic pollution. We discussed the impact that plastic is having on the world and oceans and the children were very eager to help raise awareness to significantly reduce plastic waste. They made seagulls out of plastic

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milk cartons to show how we can recycle and reuse our unwanted plastic. During activity week, the children developed their skills in lots of areas of the curriculum. We studied the artist Alberto Giacometti and enjoyed linking our science skills to make sculptures out of different materials. We certainly got messy using the clay to create our final piece. We put our ICT skills to good use and had fun coding sprites in a game. The highlight had to be pond dipping where the children found newts, dragonflies and many more pond creatures! We ended activity week with a delicious picnic in the rose garden, having lots of yummy sandwiches and cakes- an excellent way to end the year! Mrs West and Miss Lloyd

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Year 2 It has been a crazy year, but Year 2 have been incredible with their unending enthusiasm for learning. Nothing has stopped them from throwing themselves into every activity both at school and at home. We could not be prouder of them. Some of our highlights have been: History: Year 2 were incredibly lucky this year to be able to visit the SS Great Britain as part of our Brunel topic. It took a few attempts in the Autumn term but we managed to find a window when the museum was open, and everyone was fit and healthy to go. We were the only people there that day and had the whole ship to ourselves to explore. We certainly made the most of it and had a wonderful time. In the Spring term we had our castles week and found out all about medieval life and weapons in an on-line workshop with Sir Jay the knight!

Science: We have enjoyed lots of scientific activities and experiments this year, including making plastic from flour, fireworks in a jar, how to make a raw egg bounce, growing Duke the great potato, testing static electricity in the lab, and having an electrifying time with circuits. English: In the Summer term Year 2 face the challenge of preparing and delivering a presentation on stage about a topic that they love to the whole of Lower School. It is quite a daunting task, but every year the children amaze us. This year has been no exception. All the presentations were beautiful, interesting, personal and fun! Miss Gooch and Mrs Abraham

The Great Fire of London was brought to life for Year 2 this Summer by a visit from Mary Porter of Pudding Lane 1666, our local Fire team and a controlled ‘street fire’ on top field. Geography: In the Autumn we enjoyed learning about the locations and cultures of the four nations that make up the UK…. Especially some of the traditional treats to eat! In the Spring , Remote Learning didn’t stop us from celebrating cultures ‘Around the World’. This summer saw Year 2 going mad with maps, including a field trip around Tockington to follow compass directions and map out local features.

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YEAR 3 What a fantastic year it has been in Year 3. We have been super busy and studied so many amazing things that it would be impossible to share them all with you so we have picked a few of our highlights. We began our year by adopting our special animal friends. Mrs Glanville’s class chose to adopt Bodo the Moon Bear from the Born Free Foundation, whilst Miss Green’s class adopted Dipper the Dolphin from WWF. In the Autumn term, we studied Dick King-Smith’s The Hodgeheg. We used this to inspire lots of cross-curricular work such as making a news report in Drama, making clay hedgehog’s in Art and using these clay hedgehogs to act out a story which we then turned into a piece of recount writing in English. In Maths, we focused on consolidating our key number facts involving the four operations and worked hard to improve our multiplication facts using Times Table Rockstars. Our Geography work was inspired by our favourite holiday destinations and we compiled a field study as a class. In History we studied that Ancient Greeks and once again performed lots of crosscurricular activities such as exploring the story of Theseus and the Minotaur in Drama and navigating our friends through the labyrinth, making clay pots in Art and sorting modern and ancient Olympic sports using a Venn diagram. We even had a visit from Mr Sherwood who taught us some Greek words and phrases. The Autumn term also gave us the opportunity to take part in some new fun events such as Happiness Day, where we had to dress

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up as things that made us happy, and our outdoor Christmas nature crafts. The start of Spring term saw us in school for only one day before we were put into lockdown. This did not stop us from having a great time and learning lots of fun facts and completing amazing activities. We would start everyday with a form time which gave us a great opportunity to see each other, have conversations about how we were finding things and we even took it in turns to share stories, wear silly hats or show each other our pets! Working from home or in a smaller group in school gave us the opportunity to complete extra activities that we might not normally have the chance to do, such making pancakes whilst studying Shrove Tuesday in RS or making the traditional Kenyan dish Ugali and Sukuma Wiki when studying Kenyan food in Geography.

our own Viking shields and heading on to top field to take part in a Viking raid! Our English topic allowed us to express ourselves by writing and performing different styles of poetry and in Maths we enjoyed the hands on experience of Geometry, including drawing and making 3D shapes using nets, exploring and identifying angles and measuring things around school using rulers and protractors. Towards the end of term we enjoyed taking part in the House Talent Competition and House Athletics. We have all had such a fantastic, albeit unusual, year and have loved spending time together and getting to know each other. We are now looking forward to next year and all of the exciting things that it will bring. Mrs Glanville & Miss Green

We learned lots of interesting things about the Celts and Romans in History and wrote an exciting Quest Myth in English. We continued to develop our Mathematical knowledge and enjoyed collecting and analysing data as well as continuing to develop our Times Table and Mental Maths skills. Thankfully we were allowed back into school for the end of term and were just in time to celebrate World Book Day! We enjoyed the topics that we learned about in the Summer term, particularly the hands on nature of them. In Geography we learned about the Amazon Rainforest and contributed towards our interactive display board each week. History saw us creating

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YEAR 4 What a superb year it has been with our amazing Year 4 classes! We have had a fun packed year and have studied so many amazing topics. Here are some of our best highlights of the year:

Bristol Museum, where we learned about the children of Ancient Egypt and were able to ask questions, which stretched our understanding of the topic.

As we got to spend the whole term in school and have our first Upper School Activity Week! In English we thoroughly enjoyed our poetry topic and both classes performed learned poems, incorporating actions, with some help from Mr Moore! In History we learned about the gruesome Aztecs and had our very own Aztec feast! I think Miss Collins’ class enjoyed the chocolate drinks a bit too much- there was not much lunch eaten that day!

In the Autumn term, we studied William Wise’s Christopher Mouse and we used this to inspire all of our English work. We produced some fantastic pieces of writing, but also had some fun along the way! We became food critics and had a cheese tasting activity, some were a hit, whilst other cheeses shall we say, were not so pleasant! If you are wondering why some of the Year 4 children do not like cheese anymore, this may be why!

This Autumn term, also gave us the opportunity to take part in some new fun events such as; Happiness Day, where we had to dress up as things that made us happy, and our outdoor Christmas nature crafts.

In Geography we studied our European neighbours and learned about capital cities, landmarks, monuments and cultures in all European countries. We then got to pick out of a hat and were given two weeks to study and prepare a PowerPoint that we were to present to the class. We must say Year 4 - these were OUTSTANDING!

In Maths, our focus was on consolidating our number facts involving the four operations, learning new methods for multiplication and division and we always finished the week off, with fun Maths games! We thoroughly enjoyed our India topic in Geography, where we studied India as a country and made comparisons to how different life is in the different cities, as well as how different it is to life in the UK. In History, we studied the Ancient Egypt and learned about the amazing lives the Egyptian led. As we studied mumification, we got to put our knowledge to practise and Miss Hale caught us just in time, as both Year 4 classes ‘catwalked’ their finished ‘mummy’ product! We also had a Zoom call with

After Christmas, we were all eager to get back to school, but unfortunately, we awaited to hear the news from our PM, Boris Johnson, who made the decision to close all schools with immediate effect! We packed up all of our books and hoped we would be back together soon! This however, did not stop us…The fun and learning was not going to stop, just because we were remote learning! In History, we learned all about World Explorers and how explorers changed and impacted History. As well as this, we studied our Local area in Geography, incorporating Google Earth into our Zoom lessons! We even managed to write FANTASTIC fictional stories and we continued to develop our Mathematical knowledge, through interactive lessons and Miss Collins became an expert Quizizz maker!

In Maths we enjoyed the hands on experience of Geometry, including drawing 3D shapes, exploring and identifying angles and measuring angles using a protractor. Towards the end of term we enjoyed taking part in the House Talent Competition and House Athletics. Year 4 really enjoyed their Activity week with some outdoor swimming at the Lido in Portishead and a mini Euro 2020 football tournement. Plus it was their first experience of "Hunt the Teacher" which they all loved and were even the first to find Mrs Symonds' hiding place! Well done Year 4. Although it was an unusual year, the Year 4 children really did make the most of every moment! We have loved spending time together and getting to know each and everyone of you! We know you are ready to move on and we cannot wait to see all the exciting things you achieve next year! Miss Collins and Mrs Shopland

Finally, we were allowed back into school, just before the end of the Spring Term and we were able to get back to face-to-face classroom learning. Here we continued to work hard and were very thankful to be back in school together! Being back at school allowed us to celebrate World Book Day, and complete our Easter Egg Hunt - Mr Watts was able to go on two Easter Egg hunts with both classes! The Summer Term was our favourite!

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YEAR 5 Year 5 has had a great year and the children have coped admirably with the extra challenges that the year has brought. Social distancing, the wearing of masks and staying in bubbles all became the norm and the children showed great maturity and took their responsibilities very seriously. They have all worked hard and enjoyed all aspects of their school life. Having spent their final Summer term in Year 4 in Lockdown, the children were delighted to return to school and be with all their friends in the Autumn term. The class settled in remarkably well with the added independence and extra responsibility of moving around to different classrooms and the introduction of Latin! The children missed some aspects of school life in the Autumn term such as matches with other schools, singing, concerts and performances but this did not dampen their spirits and they threw themselves into all the Art, Music, Drama and sporting activities on offer. The Spring term brought extra challenges as we were all sent home after the first day and once again found ourselves in lockdown. Our Form Time provided us with the opportunity to all get together online and share our highs and lows and play games!

YEAR 6

In the Summer term the children demonstrated great teamwork and focused on rehearsing for their play. They really enjoyed producing their own Shadow Puppet version of Macbeth. The whole production was fantastic, and they should be congratulated for all their hard work. They were also delighted to get back on the cricket pitch and were able to play matches once again against other schools. In activity week, the children were rewarded with a fun day out at Rest Bay in Wales where they were given a two hour surf lesson. This was definitely one of the highlights of their year. Despite the challenges it has been another busy and rewarding year and we are sure that the class will continue to go from strength to strength as they move into Year 6. Mrs Mockridge & Mr Perez

Year 6 had a wonderful year taking on extra responsibility around the school and stepping up to the extra challenges brought by Covid restrictions.

Surfing Trip One big highlight of the year was our surfing trip. We headed along the M4 in our minibuses - one quiet bus and one very noisy! We were met at Rest Bay by Ollie, Logan, Emma and Mike from the Porthcawl Surf School who were brilliant instructors for the day. They not only taught us how to surf, but discussed with us; safety on the beach, the dangers of rip tides, safety flags and generally keeping safe. They were fun and very informative, especially Mike who spoke like Mr Jones! In our small groups we were given wetsuits to squeeze into, then we were taught how to carry our boards, how to paddle and even attempt a 180 degree turn if we managed to stand up, which most of us did. We also did some team games on the beach to warm us up - and to get us thinking teamwork, ahead of some challenges on a huge 17' Stand-Up-Paddleboard. At one time we managed to get 8 people to stand up at the same time, and we all helped each other to balance. Then we had a wrestling competition and threw each other off! After lunch we set up on the beach, some of us had a sandcastle competition (special mention to the Shark, also the School Sculpture), others had a crabbing contest, others of course couldn't resist beach cricket, or football, or frisbee. Before we got back on the buses there was just time for ice-cream. Back at school we concluded Activity Week by writing a Risk Assessment for a future day trip to the beach and we also designed a safety poster. After writing this report Delilah, Joshua and Harrison practiced their letter writing skills as they wanted to thank the instructors and Mr Phillips for such an amazing day.

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YEAR 7 Some Year 7 pupils share their thoughts on the school year: Camp was amazing to escape all the Covid worries and a great way to get away from it all. Sports day was fun and we all tired new races, I won the 200m and tried the 1500m. Form time was great and Madame Véron let us travel around the world with quizzes, dressing up and many exotic backgrounds.

term, but I felt like I have been here forever (in a good way). In the short period of time that I have been here, I have made so many friends who have welcomed me so kindly and have enjoyed exploring new activities. Camp was unbelievable fun and my groups dorm inspections went so well scoring 9.25 and winning the prize. I’ve really enjoyed the time I have been here and I’m looking forward to next year.

Next we entered the last few weeks of school everyone was rushing around trying to get the play in order which was performed on Wednesday and recorded and then the video was sent to parents. This has been a year with many lows and highs, but it was fun and worthwhile all the same. Thank you Mr Phillips.

Heidi C

Grace M

This year it has been wonderful and a privilege to be at Tockington Manor School, with amazing friends. I love participating in all the sports and I have found the teachers to be really kind and help with all of your learning. I went on camp with the whole of Year 7 and we all had the time of our lives. Tockington really helps break you out of your shell and prepares you for the journey ahead. Maria W I joined Tockington at the start of the Summer

Our year in Year 7 has been hard for all of us in lockdown but we have found lots of different ways to have fun. Every Friday our Zoom tutor lessons would allow us to fly off around the world and complete fun activities about that location. Coming out of lockdown was the biggest high, along with cricket fixtures, sports day and an amazing time at camp. We still had to do regular, twice weekly covid tests, but it was worth it just to be in school with friends.

Stirling R

Charlie N

The year started off on a high - returning to school and seeing everyone again - we also welcomed 2 new students to the class. We had a fun term at school before Christmas with many matches against ourselves in hockey and rugby before breaking up for a well-deserved winter break. Sadly, the Easter term consisted of only 3 weeks at school because of the Covid19 lockdown, however this lockdown was a lot more organised than the previous one, Well done everyone! We then went into the Summer term where the cricket teams were mixed for the first time. These were the first matches some of us had had for a year. Suddenly we were on a fabulous camp deep in the Brecon Beacons enjoying ourselves as we kayaked or walked.

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YEAR 8 It has been an exciting, yet somewhat different Year 8 experience for our departing class this year. We started September by celebrating being back together as a whole school and managed to spend the whole of the Autumn term in class. The Spring term was a different matter! Due to COVID restrictions we were remote learning once again. This came with challenges but also some fun moments in the Zoom lessons. Thankfully in the Summer we were all back together for our final term to enjoy Camp Week, House Talent and House Athletics alongside our normal lessons. We have picked out some highlights of our year to share with you. In English, we studied Private Peaceful which is a story about a soldier in World War One. We learned about the characteristics of each person, analysed the thoughts going through the narrators head and how the story was structured and why the author chose to write in the particular way they did. This linked in really well with our History topic, which was World War One, and we feel that it helped to strengthen our understanding of the war. We enjoyed the introduction of the Accelerated Reader programme this year. We already enjoyed reading but being given rewards for how many books we had read or for reaching the ‘Millionaires Club’ gave us an added incentive to read more. Our favourite topic in Maths was when we were learning about enlargement on graphs. We watched a video demonstrating the concept which contained a man in a pink tutu! It was very funny but also informative and it was very memorable! We also had a fun time learning about practical probability by looking at card games and other predictable games. One thing we will never forget about our Maths lessons is Mrs Wakeling getting passionate about dividing decimals. Seeing her passion and enthusiasm for the subject always made us work harder. The highlight of Science this year was our STEM day. Sorry to disappoint you Mr Glanville but your jokes did not make the top 5! We had to split into groups to do a STEM project. We had a choice of activities to partake in such as making bath bombs, making toothpaste, investigating crime scenes using fingerprints, making animations, creating gaming consoles and investigating which conditioner is

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best for different hair types. We worked hard on our projects and some were more successful than others but it was a great experience. The most memorable topic in History was studying World War One and the Battle of the Somme. We learned about the conditions of the trenches and how the men were treated and it made us really appreciate how lucky we are and appreciate the sacrifices that they made for us. Even with such a serious subject, Mr Phillips always managed to make us laugh with his great banter. In the Autumn term in Geography, we undertook our field study into the sand dunes in Merthyr Mawr, which was definitely the highlight of this subject. It was a fun walk up the sand dunes and we were greeted with a beautiful view. To collect data for our study we had to find out how many different plant species there were and how much of a grid was bare ground and how much was covered by vegetation. This was an enjoyable and educational experience which we will remember for many years. An Art project that we enjoyed completing this year was making the props and scenery for the Year 5 and 6 play in the Summer term. We made props such as a cauldron, axes, crowns and thrones and scenery like the two tall brick towers. In ICT we had a visit from the Head of Academic at Westonbirt who came and taught us about Artificial Intelligence. It was a very interesting presentation which explained the consequences and possibilities of people’s actions and what life would be like if AI took over, like self-driven cars for example.

written by Logan, Corey and Barney who wrote a rap about everyone in our class. They managed to think of a funny anecdote about each of us and make it rhyme. It was very enjoyable to listen to, was very thoughtful and made us all laugh. Of all the sports that we have played throughout our time at TMS our favourite will always be Longball!!! As much as we have enjoyed rugby, football, hockey, netball and cricket, there is always something about Longball that makes us want to play it more than the other sports! We love that it is competitive but everyone has a great spirit and shows great teamwork. We also love Swimming. We always enjoy our swimming lessons but our highlights for this subject has to be the galas and the house water polo. It is another example of great sportsmanship and teamwork where we all work towards a common goal and it strengthens our communication skills and friendship. Other highlights for this year were World Book Day, where we saw Logan in a dress! Camp was fantastic (but you can read about that in our Year 8 Camp page). House Talent was lots of fun, although challenging to put together given our bubble restrictions. Nevertheless, we all worked really hard to bring our houses together and produce a good song for each house. Cunningham stood out as they chose to do an acapella performance, which in itself was a huge challenge, but they managed to pull off an amazing song. We also performed our Year 7 and 8 play in the final week of term which was a huge success. This year has gone by so quickly and we can’t believe our time at TMS has come to an end. We are going to miss the friendly environment, small classes and how encouraging everyone is. We all act like one big family and some of us have been together since we were 2 years old. We cannot remember a time when we did not know each other. We have made lifelong friendships which is something that we will treasure forever. If we were to give a message to future Year 8s it would be to enjoy every moment, don’t sweat the small stuff and never give up. If you work hard, it is worth it in the end! Year 8

This year in French we were preparing for our CE exams. One funny moment came in our French Oral Exam when Georgia got her verbs confused. Instead of saying that she liked to feed her dog (called Fudge), she said that she liked to eat her dog! This was a moment that had us all giggling! In Latin we enjoyed playing Latin Bingo! We were each given a Bingo sheet with English verbs printed on them. Mr Sherwood then said the verbs in Latin and we had to tick them off if we had them. Once we scored three in a row we would shout out Bingo and win a packet of sweets! Our Music project was fun this year - we made our own songs in small groups. The best song was TH E TO C K INGTONI AN

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COMPUTING

MUSIC It has been quite an eventful year in the music department but not in the same way as usual! We began to prepare our return to school over the summer with governmental guidelines in place and some fear and trepidation as to what it would all mean. Singing was to be socially distanced by 2 metres per person, limited to 15 in a room, all windows and doors open, and we were to focus on quality of sound instead of volume! It soon became apparent that this would not be entirely possible on a regular basis even if the hall had been fully at our disposal and it would certainly not be possible to breed a feeling of confidence and fun amongst the pupils! Wind instruments had a 3-5 metre restriction as did singing teaching. This put pay to our fantastic orchestra too.

Computing at Tockington has continued to progress throughout the academic year. Within their designated computing lessons the pupils continue to develop their fundamental computing skills. As technology and the computing curriculum evolves, we at Tockington pride ourselves on being at the forefront of change and embrace new advancements with open arms. Our new Artificial Intelligence block of work with Years 5-8 epitomised that. Walking around the school it is clear to see how well embedded computing is throughout the curriculum. From Reception to Year 8, pupils work with technology to enhance and develop their learning experience, with our dedicated class teachers being at the forefront of this.

Computing has been more involved than ever this year, as with another extended period of home learning, lessons moved online. Teachers and pupils adapted immediately, with live lessons and supporting work from Google Classroom being rolled out efficiently across the school. In the pupils computing lessons an there has been a strong emphasis within on E-Safety, where all students will spend time learning about staying safe online in lessons tailored to them. Coding has continued to be popular this year and our Computing club proves to be a popular activity on a Tuesday lunchtime, with every computer often in use. I look forward to the 2021-2022 academic year, here we will see some large scale changes with a 1-1 device programme introduced and a full refurbishment of our Computing suite. Mr Ross

I set about to ensure the peripatetic teachers had enough support and measures in place to return. Transparent screens were put into place and wet wipes were delivered to each room to sanitise the pianos between every lesson. Some of the pupils in lockdown had absolutely surged forward with their instrument having had more time to practise so it was imperative to ensure these children had support to develop. The music exams had all been cancelled and there was much discussion about recorded exams online of which of course no one had any experience. Suddenly we could not sing during class, so I had to really start developing other ways to develop the ear. We invested in a whole set of class glockenspiels both for the Lower School bubble and the Year 3&4 bubble. A stave board was put into place and some desks set up in the music suite ready to teach theory. A whole set of mini whiteboards and pens were attained, and every child had a theory resource pack to work through. Looking back, I have very much enjoyed the creativity of inventing new modules and creating new slide presentations to teach from, and these will be used moving forward. I created a project for the Y8’s to design and make a short film and set it to two contrasting music tracks to see how music changes the atmosphere of a film. We had some very good results. With the Y3’s and 4’s, I used Fantasia, to teach them about the instruments of the orchestra and introduced them to conducting! The Y5’s and 6’s enjoyed playing Christmas tunes on the glockenspiels while the Y7’s composed their own carols. At the beginning of the Spring Term, I was looking forward to hearing pupils play in live concerts, however, a sudden change on day 1 saw us falling into a lockdown. Suddenly lessons had to be delivered online which is a real shock to the system when you have a day to prepare. A huge amount of work began, delivering Zoom lessons to a carefully planned timetable, while simultaneously planning and creating the next day’s online lessons. Those first few weeks were indescribably busy and then the weekend came along full of cooking and finding ways to keep everyone off-line! I set up Performance Space – an online google classroom just for those having private music lessons, to enable the children to connect with each other and share what they were practising. Everyone was very encouraging

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and supportive. Will Crewe gave a particularly funny performance which made me think of having ‘Performance of the Week’. I designed a page for the weekly Tracker entitled ‘Who’s in the Limelight?’ which now highlights any children who stand out to me during the week. This may be in class music lessons, in assembly, for an exam, or a recording of their work… On our return to school on 8th March 2021 we had three weeks of term left, and really, we had had such a challenging time with the grey winter days of lockdown, I just wanted the children to have fun in music lessons and enjoy time with their friends. I started researching body percussion. The whole school began creating small group performances within class time! Most of these were filmed. A lot of them were celebrated in the tracker. I invited pupils to play to their class during class music lessons, just to give them a chance to perform. Bubbles meant that live performances were not possible, so this was a good way for me to hear how they were progressing.

House Talent By the end of March, I was determined that some form of House Talent would go ahead – mainly for the benefit of the Y8 leavers. It could not have the same format as normal as singing was still not allowed. However, after plenty of discussions with the Y8’s, we chose House Songs on the off chance that we would be able to sing after half term. They then rallied their house members to film their own solo or perform to the class. Y2’s were encouraged to join in for the first time ever and every single solo attained a point for their house total. Extra points were given for merit. Mr Sherwood and I watched no less than seventy performances and graded them all. ‘Bubble Acts’ were entered, and some fantastic dancing and singing were witnessed. I would like to thank the peripatetic music teachers for all their help with facilitating this. Finally on Tuesday 29th June we held the House Song round – outside in the Rose Garden!

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Who’s in the Limelight? Mrs Sapkota says...

from the musical. They had to decide parts, read it through and stage it, then I filmed them. I then used iMovie to put each moment into a short film for them to watch.

I’m bringing back WOW stars… badges for ‘Wow’ moments…

Most Musical Moment

Watch this space...

Y7 James C

Trumpet Grade 3

s! rhyme That

Y3 - Albie & Isla Garageband Composition Su

cc

es

s!

Y 6 E m il y B

Finally, during the beginning of this term, the Y8’s were set the task of creating their own song using Garageband. In small groups they set about working on it. One particular group, Logan, Corey and Barney, with help at the start from Gabe, really excelled and enjoyed it so much that when we hear it back, I suggested the whole class perform it at their ‘Leaver’s Goodbye’ event. So, they did! It was a rap about every member of the class. What a great way to say goodbye to each other… I would like to thank the VMT team for their continued support with many continuing their lessons online and under different restrictions; Mr Sherwood (Piano), Katherine Denny (Piano, Woodwind and Brass), Will Browne (Guitar), Greg White (Drums), Sian Walters (Singing and Piano), Sophie Kirk-Harris (Singing), Jess Townsend (Strings) and Martin Rogers (Brass).

Well done for learning two Grade 4 piano pieces since Christmas!

Y6 W i ll C Viking Style!

Performance of the Week The points were tallied on the board as usual. Churchill sang Pompei by Bastille, Alexander sang Unstoppable, and Cunningham took the cup with their outstanding 3-part harmony, acapella version of the Wellerman Song. They had not had one rehearsal all together and they managed to stay in tune the whole way through! Mr Sherwood kindly judged the House Song Round (using GCSE criteria) and I would very much like to thank him for his support.

It only leaves me to say thank you for all the support parents have provided for the education of your children at home. In particular (from my point of view) with the continuation of their musical development. Several children have now taken recorded ‘Performance Exams’ which will run alongside the face-to-face exams forevermore. Never have I been more aware how restorative and vital music is for the spirit and for connecting to others. Hearing the children sing again after so long without being able to – I wish you had witnessed the feeling of unity that prevailed. Mrs Sapkota

Christmas Concert It all started unseasonably early before the Autumn half term. All the lower school classes needed a couple of music lessons recorded while they were home schooled. So, I thought it would be useful for them to learn the first two songs of the Nativity play

that had been planned. We came back after half term and the children had worked hard on their music homework and we were up and running with 2 songs enthusiastically performed by the lower school. However, even within the lower school, we were restricted by Covid regulations on singing, so we had to have quite a cunning approach to rehearsing the different classes. As each group sang, 2 metres apart from their nearest classmate in a well ventilated hall (“Mr Sherwood, can you close the windows, please?” “No, but do put on a coat if you want to.”), the songs started to come together. Mrs Dawkins and I started to hatch a plan that could involve everyone in the school contributing some music to a filmed Carol concert. Different songs ( and parts of songs) from the nativity play “A Midwife Crisis” were performed by Nursery, Reception, year 1, year 2, year 7 and percussion was added by year 8. Other carols were given a glockenspiel interpretation (thank you, years 5 & 6) . O little town of Bethlehem was sung by each of the 4 classes of years 3 & 4 – 1 verse each. Readings telling the Christmas story and Maya S. read a Christmas poem that she had written. Mr Symonds recorded Christmas messages to introduce the concert and offered a Christmas toast at the end. All the parts were in place and yet it still lacked that certain something…. Enter the Staff Choir ( Est. November 2020). The choir was so big that we had to rehearse in 2 separate sessions (we couldn’t have all fitted in the hall at the same time under the Covid regulations at the time). After approximately 6 hours of filming in the hall and around the school spread over several days, including every class and many others, we had filmed enough Christmas delights for the whole concert and it was watched in school and beyond on the last day of term. Simon Sherwood

Another highlight of our term in the music department was Activity week. Some children participated in no less than three separate musical activities; a nature-inspired composition, a rain forest mime set to “Rain Forest Dream” by Joji Hirota and a song and scenes from Wind in the Willows. In the latter project, each year group from Year 3 to Year 6 was given a separate moment TH E TO C K INGTONI AN

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PERFORMING ARTS We were able to put on two fabulous plays this year. Despite all the challenges of Lockdown and the endless re-configurations and delays, Years 5 & 6 and Years 7 & 8 both had the opportunity to perform.

The Day the Woods came to Dunsinane - Year 5 & 6 Years 5 & 6 comic play was “The Day the Woods Came to Dunsinane” by Steve Eddison. Based on the traditional Shakespearean play “Macbeth”, four children on a hiking trip stumble into the plot of Macbeth (portentous witches, poor hospitality, portable forests - that sort of thing). After many bad jokes and pantomimesque moments, the children escape unscathed from the clutches of witches, ghosts and wicked Queens. There was even a part for Corona Virus, a Covid Inspector, who was added to the script with the permission of the playwright. To acquaint the audience with Shakespeare’s version of the story of Macbeth, Year 5 created a shadow puppet play, with the help of Mrs Mockridge. This was then filmed and played before the live performance. Year 5 also danced most evilly and fought some great battles on stage. The play was held in the Hall with very limited audiences, as a result of Covid restrictions. Parents of Year 5 children attended the first showing of the play and Year 6 parents attended the second. Parents described the socially distanced bistro style tables and treats as resembling a “date night” and they really enjoyed the evening. The children also performed to Years 3 & 4 and 7 & 8 during the day. The Year 5 & 6 children performed so well and were incredibly patient and understanding throughout, as the rehearsal time stretched in the end to the best part of a year!

Caesar and the Pirates - Year 7 & 8 This was in dramatic contrast (excuse the pun) with the Year 7 & 8 play, which was rehearsed and performed in just under a week! The play was “Caesar and the Pirates” by Timothy Hallett and Nicholas Richards. This play was based loosely on true events when a young Julius Caesar was on his way to Rhodes to learn how to become a great orator and the ship he was travelling on was captured by a motley crew of pirates. Once they realise that they have captured a wealthy nobleman, a ransom is raised and, while his servants go off in search of the ransom money, Caesar is held captive on an island and amuses himself by educating the pirates, who he will eventually crucify, if he can. In the alternative ending, history is rewritten, as Caesar has a soft spot for the pirates and lets them go. The play was a whirlwind of activity and the students worked hard to achieve a great performance, which was filmed for parents and other family members to watch from the comfort of their homes. The rest of the school were able to attend the virtual performance and even the Year 7 and 8 students got to watch their own performance on stage – possibly one of the few benefits of the Covid pandemic! A particularly big thank you to Kings’ Taunton for lending us your stage lights and Mr Moore for the filming and editing of the performance. Ms Case

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The Day the Woods Came to Dunsinane

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CAESAR AND THE PIRATES

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PHSE & SMSC PHSE and SMSC continues to be an important part of our curriculum. PSHE education helps pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities. Our creative curriculum develops fully-rounded children who are healthy, sociable and emotionally literate. It covers key concepts and skills to support pupils’ SMSC (moral, social and cultural) education, focusing on Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.. PSHE prepares children for life in modern Britain today. It also helps pupils develop and apply skills and attitudes to allow them to become full and active citizens in our wider global community. Online and e-safety has continued to be a particular focus this year teaching children about staying safe when using internet technologies. It also helps make sure pupils themselves know how to behave responsibly online. This has been particularly pertinent during our recent foray into remote teaching.

GEOGRAPHY

recent pandemic has amplified those situations many times over. Our PSHE curriculum has helped the children by allowing pupils to explore their thoughts and questions in a supportive space. In SMSC, spiritual development has allowed pupils to explore beliefs and experience; respect faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; using imagination and creativity. Social development has included using a range of social skills; participating in the local community; appreciating diverse viewpoints; participating, volunteering and cooperating; engaging with the British Values of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance. As always, we will continue to review and evolve the delivery of the PSHE and SMSC curriculum, including the delivery of the requirements of the 2020/2021 SRE (sex and relationships education) to keep pace with the ever changing world we live in.

Year 7 Geography Enquiry on ‘out of town shopping’ at the Mall, Cribbs Causeway Year 7 produced an outstanding study based on two questions: 1. What were the three main reasons that you shop at the Mall? 2.

Where did you travel from to get to the Mall?

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic we were unable to interview customers at the Mall however, the group interviewed at least 10 family, friends or neighbours each. The pupils used email, telephone calls, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom or text messages to help collate their evidence.

Year 7 achieved excellent results. They collectively interviewed 203 people and concluded that the majority usually travel from South Gloucestershire (124 out of 203 people asked). The main reason for visiting the Mall was quoted as John Lewis, 21% of the respondents named this as their main reason. Stirling R, Emily T, Emily G, Maya, Thomas W and James C all gained 100% for their studies, the group averaged close to 90%, demonstrating impressive work and effort from the entire group. Thanks to Mr Ross who was invaluable with advice and guidance during Lockdown and in helping the pupils gain some important new IT skills. Mr Jones

Miss Sheppard

Schools and teachers are used to supporting their pupils through challenges that they face in life, the

Year 6 Geography Enquiry - Afon Caerfanell Year 6 had a great trip to the Brecon Beacons. The Afon Caerfanell was as beautiful as ever despite the river lacking the usual water level. The group were outstanding, working efficiently and cooperatively in their 3 groups. We studied the width, depth and velocity at three different sites along the river in the youthful, mature and old age stage of the rivers' course. We looked at how the river changes from its source to its mouth in the Talybont reservoir. Thanks to Mr Ross and Miss Collings for their invaluable help on the day. The School came together to mark Remembrance Day. We stayed in our "bubbles" and were outside for the service.

The pupils produced excellent enquiries with the vast majority of the marks being over 80%. Congratulations to Edward Young who achieved 100% for his outstanding enquiry. Mr Jones

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Year 8 Geography Fieldwork Due to Covid 19 we were unable to visit our beloved Stackpole in Pembrokeshire for our week away, a great shame! However, we spent a glorious Autumn day studying the vast Merthyr Mawr dune system near Porthcawl. We saw the big dipper, Europe’s 2nd highest dune. Year 8 looked at the slope angle along a transect line, studied the proportion of marram grass and bare ground at each stage as well as identifying

plants throughout the system. We looked at the development and formation of the dunes from the embryo stage to the dune slacks inland. Year 8 worked superbly as a group to compile the data during the day. The final studies were of a very standard with Georgia Cooper and Amy Ingleby Scoring 100 % for their outstanding enquiries. Mr Jones

CARTOGRAPHY COMPETITION RESULTS Another year of fantastic maps. There was a really high standard of entries this year so well done to all of the children for taking the time and effort on their maps.

Country Overall Winner Runner Up 3rd Place Year 8 Year 7 Year 6 Year 5 Year 4 Year 3 Year 2

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Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

USA Georgia C Eva L Violet G Gemma A Emily T Delilah Eva B Simar C and Dorian G Avneet C and Nitsa B Emma and Dudu

New Zealand Thomas B Delilah B Gemma A & Georgia C Logan B Ella G Elsie L Henry B Simar C and Henry W Avneet C and Oliver G Tommy G and Patrick M

Mexico Eva L and Gemma A Amelia R & Katie W Georgia C Maya S Delilah B Ellis C Simar C and Annabelle O Sirivaana V Dudu Y and Aryansham S

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MATHEMATICS Mathematics controls more aspects of the modern world than most people realise – from iPhone, cash machines, telecommunications, to engineering processes and jet engines. In the last 50 years, old and new applications of Mathematical ideas have transformed the way we live. These developments depend on mathematical thinking – a mode of thought whose style is far more permanent than the wave of technological change which it has made possible.

Silver winners:

In the Mathematics Department we enter students into National Competitions annually. This is another way we can prove our standards are high and it’s a great way for students to practice applying their knowledge. The results are as follows:

Congratulations to all the children in Year 5 & 6 for their excellent achievements, in particular to the Gold winners.

Primary Maths Challenge Results: This year we have had amazing success in the Primary Maths Challenge which is aimed at Year 5 & 6. Congratulations to the following students on their awards. A special congratulation to Edward Y, who made it through to the bonus round. Gold winners: Edward Y - Through to bonus round, scoring 22 Edward B Amelia R

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Janu S, Herbie H, Isaac K, Thomas B, Fraser R and Henry H Bronze winners: Harry H, Harrison L, Katie W, Will C, Delilah B, Oscar G, Mirabelle S, Henry B, Fletcher R and Finley L

Despite being in Lockdown during the Spring term our Common Entrance Exams went ahead in a slightly different format and we had some outstanding results. The papers are very challenging, and all the pupils applied their knowledge well to the questions and showed they were able to think mathematically and persist to answer the questions. This is one of the aims of the Mathematics Department, which stems from the ethos adopted by the whole school to challenge students to reach their maximum potential. This is fostered by the Maths Enhancement Scheme of work used to develop these elements. The Lockdown situation albeit not ideal, gave us an opportunity to utilise more project work and individual investigation work. The children were

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able to develop their own ideas and combine their interests in the projects and task set. This allowed the children to develop how to demonstrates their understanding of the problem to be explored, evidence of the developed solution and the solution reached. They could then choose how to show their analysis and interpretation of the results and then draw a conclusion. This was highly successful, and the results were absolutely incredible. I congratulate all the children on their efforts in their Maths projects as they clearly enjoyed the task and produced fabulous work.

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These projects went someway to demonstrate to children how powerful and beautiful Mathematics is and I was pleased to see that the students started to appreciate how Maths relates to the real world. Next year we have more time built into the curriculum to explore all the exciting aspects of Mathematics we use in the real world with more emphasis on Financial Maths. All of these aspects will be linked to the topics we study in the classroom and help develop skills that are needed for success in the future. Mrs Wakeling

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ENGLISH Despite a challenging and disrupted academic year, our children have continued to enjoy the richness of the English curriculum with plenty of opportunities for writing, reading and discussion. Accelerated Reader This year we fully launched our Accelerated Reader programme for all children in Years 2 to 8. This has been a great success and we have seen a boost to reading stamina and enthusiasm, as well as comprehension. We have been able to give out lots of rewards for reading. Children have been honoured on the Book Trail, have earned Mufti days, have been given certificates and those who have read more than one million words have enjoyed a delightful tea party with all sorts of delicious treats. We have also been shining a light on our readers with displays on the Reading Tree to spread the word and share the enthusiasm for reading. To make our books available to the children in Years 2-4, during a time when the library hours have been restricted, we have created a mini-library of books on the Accelerated Reader programme on the landing in the Mead Building. This has been both popular and convenient for the children. Book Fair We had to cancel our book fair in March but were able to hold it at the end of the Summer term and all children who wanted to bought books and stationery. We raised a fine sum of money to spend in rewards with Scholastic and we will continue to add to our classroom bookshelves and the library with this funding.

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World Book Day

Reading Clubs

World Book Day took place in a socially distanced style. Children were able to dress up as book characters, as usual. Rather than a parade, we had class photos of so many creative costumes, a Treasure Hunt in the grounds for book characters and a Masked Reader powerpoint quiz for children to do in their classrooms. The teachers read stories to the children whilst wearing a range of cunning disguises and the children had to guess who the readers were. We also had a Drop Everything and Read session in the afternoon which was such a treat. Years 3 to 8 all took part with everyone taking a break for reading. We continue to love World Book Day and enjoy all the fun and enthusiasm it brings.

We have run Reading Clubs when we can for years 3-8 and these have been popular, despite the challenges of Covid disruptions. Children are very keen to share the books they have loved and inspire their friends.

National Poetry Day On National Poetry Day – we all shared poems and wrote poetry – both individually and as class projects. The Pocket Lady visited some classrooms with a range of poetry books and read to the children. Handwriting Competitions We have been able to hold two Handwriting and Presentation competitions, and the standard is always very high with children taking great pride in the way their writing has developed. Prizes this year included plants which many of the winners have been proud to report back on as still thriving in their gardens.

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Sponsored Read We raised an astonishing £3125.50 in charitable donations back in November when we did a sponsored read of 30 minutes for 30 days. What an incredible achievement – the most we have ever raised for this great charity which supports children who are unwell and provides them with much-needed books during long stays in hospital.

our years of fund-raising for this charity, we received an Outstanding Readathon School Certificate and this message from the charity: “Congratulations! Tockington Manor has been one of Read for Good’s best participants over the years. Your school’s recent Readathon raised an amazing £3,125.50 which brings your grand total raised to £6,175 through a total of 5 Readathons since 2012.” We are very proud of our achievements in this challenging year and particularly of the children who responded so well to Lockdown and continued to make the most of every moment. Ms Case

The children really rose to the challenge and parents were incredibly supportive. As a result of

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LATIN

ART & DESIGN

What did we do in Latin classes this year? It’s difficult to summarise succinctly – there were lessons in class and on Zoom. We made the best of home schooling as another chance to get out the LEGO. The students used lots of online activities when working at home and as a result made giant leaps in their vocabulary knowledge. Once back in school, we tried to keep off the screens more than usual so that everyone could get reacquainted. That’s how I remember a rather unique year. But what did the children remember ?................................... Mr Sherwood

The Art Department has continued to flourish this year despite the time away in Lockdown. The children embraced their surroundings at home and continued to produce some amazing artwork. Some pupils enjoyed painting with their family members, and we were inundated with colourful pieces of work. Topics ranged from Colour creations and Africa to Australian Indigenous Aboriginals, Ancient Greek vases to Van Gogh, Monet, Fabulous fish, Picasso and Pop Art.

The pupils have also enjoyed several fantastic Design & Technology projects. At home, they developed their cookery skills and produced some delicious meals for their families. At school, Year 1 have investigated kites, Year 2 have designed and made beautiful buildings. Year 3 developed their sewing skills and produced some colourful Christmas stockings; Year 4 made some stunning picture frames Year 5 designed and made their own slippers. Christmas Cards During the Autumn term, the children in the school designed a wonderful array of Christmas cards as a fund-raiser and raised a whopping £500 for the Art Department. We also used some of the designs to send to our local community. Spring Term The Spring term brought extra challenges in Lockdown and Art lessons continued online. The children had to get to grips with a new way of learning and produced an exceptional array of artwork which was thrilling to receive and really made my time in Lockdown that much more enjoyable. It was fun producing videos and seeing the results from the children. The children were also able to produce work that might not be so

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easy to do at school, such as some amazing fruit and vegetable faces inspired by the famous artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo. They were challenged to do photographic scavenger hunts and produce compositions using their electronic tablets. The children also practised their cookery skills for Design and Technology with some great results. I was so impressed by the children’s resilience, resourcefulness and creativity and it was great sharing ideas and work on Zoom. Summer Term It was great to get back in the Art room at the start of the Summer Term and the focus was on the Year 5 and 6 play “The Day the Woods came to Dunsinane.”. Year 8 threw themselves into constructing and painting a variety of props and backdrops for the play, including axes


and an amazing Modroc cauldron. Year 5 worked hard to produce our first Shadow puppet play. They thoroughly enjoyed the process and learnt skills in making puppets and backdrops, lighting, sound and filming. A big well done to Year 5 for a superb performance. Later in the Summer term, it was Year 7 and 8’s turn to perform in a play and once again they were excited by the prospect of producing props including a spectacular pirate ship! Art Scholarship We were also delighted to learn that Amy I had won an Art Scholarship to King's Gloucester. Amy produced some exceptional pieces of work and had the additional challenge of producing and presenting her work online during Lockdown. I would like to congratulate her on her achievements.

There have been some superb photography entries this year. Well done to Oscar B and Oscar L for their winning entries and a special congratulations to Eva L, who won the Jamie Smith Photography Cup at the end of the year.

Overall, it has been a fantastic year, despite all the challenges and the Art Department continues to go from strength to strength. Now it is time to turn our attention to the year ahead and generate new ideas for the future! Mrs Mockridge

Activity Week During Activity week the pupils learnt new skills and focused their work on the bees. They became garden designers and designed some bee friendly gardens as well as producing some beautiful plant focused fabric paintings.

Photography Competition

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HISTORY Year 7 and 8

based on the murder of Thomas Becket.

Year 8 started the year following the Common Entrance syllabus with a rather timely focus on the Black Death and Peasants Revolt. It was intriguing comparing modern day NHS provisos with the treatments and cures endured by people in the 14th century. Year 8 made interesting leaflets looking at the causes, symptoms, treatments, four humours and the impact of the disease. It was also interesting to study the impact of the Peasants Revolt and learn about the beginning of workers’ rights and the changes to the labour market.

Year 7 also improved their essay writing skills and have made great steps towards Year 8.

In the Summer term Year 8 studied World War 1. It was great to see such lovely work including letters home from the Front Line, propaganda posters and poetry. In the last two weeks of term Year 8 chose an historical event of their choice to research, with the aim of creating a presentation to deliver to their peers. There were some excellent topics of research such as the Suffragettes, The Cold War and 9/11. I would also like to mention the amazing creative work I received during Lockdown, Henry Benson even managed to make a satirical, topical news briefing based on the Black Death, whilst Amy Ingleby persuaded her Dad and little brother to star in her production too!

Common Entrance Syllabus Year 7 started the Common Entrance Syllabus looking at Life in England, transitioning from the Saxons to the Normans. Year 7 focused on the Norman Conquest, and all attempted to create their own ‘obligatory’ Norman Castle once we returned from Lockdown.

Year 5 and 6 Year 6 were a most creative Year group during the Lockdown. I am sure their ICT skills improved dramatically during this time, as well as demonstrating their persuasive skills by encouraging siblings and parents to participate in their video shoots and audio overlay! The topic of study was ‘The Vikings’ and pupils did not disappoint with numerous costumes, props and re-enactments. A particular highlight was William Crew making his own Horrible Histories based on the Vikings, set to the Gangnam Style song – fantastic! Available to view on the TMSFacebook page if you missed it. Similarly, Year 5 embarked on a host of creative and extended written tasks based on the Stuarts. They discovered amazing facts about Charles I, Guy Fawkes, The English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell and The Merry Monarch. In addition to some excellent written work, Year 5 honed their amazing artistic skills creating a Warts and All portrait of Oliver Cromwell! A highlight, once returning to school, was using the beautiful Tockington grounds to set up an inquiry into the Merry Monarch using sources scattered around the courtyard classrooms. Mr Phillips

It was the perfect task to return to school, where pupils relied on great communication skills, teamwork, and creativity. I was also amazed at how pupils were able to work collaboratively during the Lockdown. James, Stirling, and Thomas submitted an excellent video - ‘The Time Travellers Report’,

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SPANISH

FRENCH

It has been another great year in our Spanish lessons across all the Year groups, from Reception all the way to Year 6! Despite the uncertainties brought on by the Lockdown during Spring term, we all adapted and kept learning this amazing language.

Lower School Lower School enjoyed our famous “Rockalingua” songs and videos, always fun and exciting. They also listened to some exciting stories when they had online lessons “El Rey León - The Lion King”, “El Mago de Oz - The Wizard of Oz”, “Los tres cerditos - The three little pigs” and many more.

Upper School Upper School focused and developed their language skills, talking, listening and writing, with excellent work and performances. Year 6 produced some fantastic speeches, reading them aloud with polished Spanish accents!

Every week Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a lesson and a task to complete as a follow up. The children blew me away with their talent and creativity, making drawings with French labelling, collages, crafts, and videos in French. We have covered many topics including: the Weather, Daily Routine, School, Hobbies, Sport, Parisian monuments and French geography. Upper School In the Upper School, I was equally impressed by the children’s talent and resilience. We covered a range of topics from Healthy Habits in Year 6 to Sport and Countries in Year 5, Holidays topic in Year 7. Year 8 have prepared well for their French Common Entrance Exams.

It has been a pleasure to teach another year of Spanish to the children and witness their progress. Excellent work everyone! Mr Perez

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SCIENCE

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FOOTBALL A season without any inter-school fixtures; a great shame. We had the potential in all age groups to become competitive sides with good skills.

RUGBY

The results aside, all the staff were delighted with the football on show, with special congratulations to all the girls, who were excellent throughout.

What a strange term without fixtures, match teas or any interaction with other schools.

Results

We used the time to work on our handling skills using our much-loved version of touch rugby to hone our defensive lines, running angles and passing game.

We worked hard on developing our core skills and technique in lessons during the term. The emphasis was on the pupils improving passing accuracy, ball control and being comfortable in possession.

1st

CUNNINGHAM

15 POINTS

2nd

CHURCHILL

10 POINTS

3rd

ALEXANDER

1 POINT

The girls were coached on a regular basis; their skill level showed a significant improvement over the course of the term with Ella G and Emily G showing skills on the ball.

Player of the Tournament

U9 House Football Tournament The U9’s finished their season with a series of excellent House matches. There were two tournaments played featuring the Lions and the Tigers! Alexander House was eventually victorious with Hugo L voted as the Player of the Tournament. Isaac L was the top scorer. The most improved players were Stanley B, Leon F, Jasper H, Rupert P and Finn C.

Year 5-8 (Boys and Girls) Maclellan Cup for House Football

U13 - Stirling R

The pupils all showed progress with their skills and awareness of the game, although many were champing at the bit to use their physicality, not to mention names here …...Gabe and Alex C! The lack of fixtures was a great shame as the 1st team, U11, U10 and U9 were fine sides in the making.

U11 - Lions: Joshua N U11 - Tigers: Herbie Hill

The Cymric Cup was a closely fought affair with Churchill being victorious after an excellent series of matches.

Top Goalscorer

Players of the Tournament were Barney B, Toby L and Logan B. Sam S was the top scorer with 5 tries. The most improved players were Henry B, Harrison L, Henry H and James C.

U13 - Max J U11 - Lions: Joshua N U11 - Tigers: Herbie H

Toby L Alex C Sam S Logan B Gabe C Henry B Barney B The girls were given an opportunity on a wet, muddy Saturday am to try out their rugby skills, a morning that was much enjoyed by all. Maria W, Natasha G and Lola-Bow S proving that they have some excellent skills and are both powerful tacklers! Here’s to 2021 and being back to normal. Mr Jones and Mr Ross

Cymric Cup Result Most Improved Players U13 – Emily G, Maya, Violet, Ethan

1. Churchill 2. Cunningham

An excellent morning of football in which for the first time ever, the girls joined the boys to participate. Three separate tournaments were played involving all Year 5 - 8 pupils. The U13 tournament was won by Churchill, who beat Cunningham in a thrilling final game.

U11 - Lions: Thomas B, Jack S, Elsie L

3. Alexander

U11 - Tigers: Natasha G, Eva B, Katie W

4. Barbarians

U11 Lions and Tigers were won by both Cunningham squads who won all their games by playing some fluent passing football.

Here’s to 2022!

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COLOURS 2020

Sharland Cup for the best footballer of the season Barney B Mr Jones and Mr Ross

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TENNIS

HOCKEY

Tennis continues to be a popular sport at Tockington The Simpson Cup (Junior Singles) Manor with the pupils utilising our five astro courts at Joshua N every opportunity. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to The Pritchard Cup (Junior Doubles) play other schools in matches due to bad weather Joshua N & Anay N on the dates, however, the pupils skills improved The Hilleard Cup (Senior Girls Singles) significantly throughout the season. Lower school continued to enjoy tennis within their Maya S designated PE lessons, developing their individual The Rapson Cup (Senior Boys Singles) skills throughout the block of work. Toby L We continued our internal tournaments for another year to decide the many prizes throughout the school. The James Finnigan Cup (Senior Doubles) The tournaments were played to a very high standard and produced some excellent matches. The winners Toby L & Alex C were:

The Lucy Newman Trophy (Mixed Doubles)

I very much look forward to the 2022 season and to Toby L & Georgia C overseeing the talent we have here at TMS. Mr Ross

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U13 Team

Best Hockey player went to Georgia and Eva.

Unfortunately, this year we have been unable to play any fixtures against other schools. However, we have organised and played a number of internal matches and Tournaments in order to practice in a competitive environment.

Special note: Ella G has been selected for Gloucestershire U14 development squad this season. Congratulations Ella on an amazing achievement!

This season we have been focussing on skills, positioning and applying them in game situations. The girls have been working on their individual skills developing each skill and challenging themselves to incorporate them in a game. We have also worked on decision-making. How to create an overload, when to tackle/shadow a player or close the space down. Also, how to move the ball quickly to ensure as many goal scoring opportunities as possible. This has been linked with game principles where the girls have tried all the positions on the pitch. Practiced all types of pass in game situations and worked constantly on their communication and tactics.

House Hockey Tournament Congratulations to all the girls for the fabulous House Hockey competition on the weekend. All the matches were very closely fought and it was a tight competition. Well done to the following girls who had notable performances: Eva L, Amy I, Elsie L, Lola-bow, Maria, Amy B and Grace Top goal scorer was shared between 3 girls: Amy B, Ella and Katie W

The girls have all worked extremely hard and have engaged in all the pratces and game situations. They have all made significant progress this term as well as enjoying their hockey and have fun!

Most Improved Players:

Congratulations to all the girls for their efforts.

Georgia & Maya

Colours were awarded to Amy I, Amy B, Eva, Gemma and Georgia.

Congratulations to Cunningham for winning the Taylor House Hockey Cup and the Tournament overall.

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Mirabelle, Delilah & Katie W Players of the Tournament:

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CROSS COUNTRY

What a strange cross-country season; no fixtures and an enforced 8 week break due to Lockdown 3. However, the vast majority of our internal competitions went ahead and the athletes were as keen as ever to achieve their P.B's and improve their fitness. The Monday Running Club was as popular as ever. The cold, dark evenings saw headtorches donned and large numbers attending. One cold November evening (when it was 1degree) saw over 50 athletes. Thanks to Mr Symonds, Mr Ross, Mr Watts amd Mr Weeks for leading the groups as we had to stay in our "bubbles" due to Covid19. There were 86 list improvements with 25 new list times over the course of the 2020-21 season. It was a great shame that we missed the first 8 weeks of the Spring Term after the Christmas break as this noticeably affected the fitness levels of the pupils. Finn C (Year 4) ended up with a PB of 2mins 51secs on the mini course placing him 5th on our all time list. Holly H-P (Year 6) achieved a PB of 8mins 09secs on the Junior course placing her 5th on our Junior Girls all time list. Georgia C (Year 8) is now our 9th fastest Senior Girl of all time with her excellent 13mins 07secs run on the final cross country of the term. Stirling R (Year 7) was the only athlete to dip below the 12minute barrier on the Senior Course with an impressive 11mins 56secs putting him into 9th place on the all time list. The Booker-Jones Cup for the Best Girl Cross Country Runner: Georgia C The Davis Cup for Best Boy Cross Country Runner: Barney B Athlete of the Month Awards: Jackson S, Fletcher R, Striling R (x2), Elsie L, Holly H-P, Sienna R and Finn C (x2)

INTERNAL COMPETITIONS & EVENTS The Pumpkin Pursuit

Turkey Trot

Years 3 & 4

Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th: 7th: 8th: 9th: 10th:

Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th: Years 5 – 8 Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th:

Maya S Logan B Gabe C Elsie L Amy I / Maria W / Ella G

Easter Egg Competition Years 3 & 4 1st 2nd 3rd 5th 6th

Oliver G Sienna R Oliver H-P & Finn C Hugo L George C & Harrison C

Cross Country Colours: Alex C, Barney B, Gabe C, Sam S, Georgia C, Elsie L and Logan B

Years 5 – 8

Here is to next season and the resumption of fixtures and fun!

Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th:

Mr Jones

Jackson S Isaac Lb LeilaBelle S Finn C Dorian G Harrison

Holly H-P Oscar G Jenson E Georgia C Herbie H Max J

The November Cup Years 3 - 4 Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th:

Stanley B Hugo L Harry P Gilby R Basil B LeilaBelle S

Charlie R Isaac L Violet G Kate D Sienna R Georgia C Barney B Elsie L Fraser R Gilby R

Clarke Cup for House Cross Country 1st 2nd 3rd

Alexander 32pts Churchill 23pts Cunningham 10pts

TMS House Relays Under 9

Under 13

Under 11

1.

Churchill

1. Churchill

1. Alexander

2.

Cunningham 2. Cunningham

2. Churchill

3.

Alexander

3. Churchill II

3. Cunningham II

Fastest individual times of the day Stirling R 2mins 31s Georgia C 2mins 39s Holly H-P 2mins 23s Jenson E 2mins 45s Overall Result 1. Churchill

- 123 pts

2. Cunningham

- 112 pts

3. Alexander

- 108pts

Years 5 – 8 Winner: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th:

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Elsie L Charlie R Holly H-P Maya S Fletcher R Emily G

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CRICKET

Cricket continues to thrive at Tockington Manor, with more pupils playing outside of school than ever before. Despite not running our Winter nets programme officially, many pupils participated in a winter training programme on our astro throughout all weathers. This gave us a flying start to the 2021 season, with the 1st XI in high spirits ahead of a busy season.

This season continued to provide an opportunity for girls, as we had 3 senior teams competing under the names 1st, 2nd and 3rd XI’s as opposed to boys and girls. All pupils got the opportunity to develop their hardball skills throughout the season and every pupil represented the school on numerous occasions. Many individual performances stood out throughout the season; Maya Sapkota became the first year 7 girl to represent the 1st XI. Toby Littlejohn top scored with a score of 66 vs Wycliife and Logan Bowden scored 63* vs Clifton College, as well as performing excellently with the gloves. Bowling wise there were also stand out performances, Henry Benson bowled 4 overs for 2 wickets which included 3 wickets vs Wycliffe and Alex Collin finished as top wicket taker with 12 wickets throughout the season. A special mention to Logan Bowden, who captained fantastically throughout the season, leading from the front. This was evident vs a fantastic Saturday morning game vs Stonar, where he managed the field and his bowlers excellently to win by just 4 runs. Congratulations to all who represented the 1st XI this season, who all contributed vital performances throughout. I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the Year 7’s lead the team with the help of the talented upcoming Year 6 pupils. I also wish all the best to the Year 8 leavers and thank them for their services to cricket at the school, I hope you continue to play cricket at your respected senior schools.

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Wicket takers – Emily G x 2, Eva x3, Lola-Bow x2, Maria 1 Catches – Georgia, Maya, Eva, Gemma

Season Analysis

Run outs – Gemma

Vs St Johns (Match abandoned) Vs St Johns (Won by 21 runs)

Most improved player – Lola-bow TMS Team – Eva (c), Gemma (v/c), Georgia, Amy I, Maya, Maria, Grace, Lola-Bow, Ella, Emily G

Vs Wycliffe (Won by 65 runs) Vs Stonar (Won by 4 runs) Vs Clifton College (Lost by 56 runs) The Symonds Cup for excellence in Cricket -

Congratulations to the team they were a pleasure to coach. Mrs Wakeling & Mr Jones.

Logan B The Carr-White Cup for the best All Rounder - Logan B The Relton Cup for the best Fielder- Barney The Ross Cup for best Bowler - Henry

Girls Cricket This year we have successfully integrated all the girls into mixed teams from Year 3-8. We have had a number of girls involved in the first teams in each age group. This has stemmed from our commitment to drive new and develop current opportunities for our girls of all ages and abilities to participate in cricket. We continually upskill all the staff by providing training opportunities and hope to develop this further in the future. I have been really impressed with the participation levels and standards we have achieved for girls in this sport. Many of our pupils are playing outside school for clubs and county. U13 Girls Tournament at Clifton College In the first match we beat Clifton High School by 61 runs. We then lost to a very strong Clifton College side in the final. Player of the Tournament – Georgia C For her excellent wicketkeeping and top scorer with 21 runs.

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SWIMMING I have been incredibly proud of all our swimmers this year for the way they have kept going, even during pool closures ! The swimmers have all kept their fitness and returning to the pool was always met with excitement, despite cancellations of matches and events.

Lower School Reception are a great example of the Tockington spirit, returning to the pool with huge enthusiasm and confidence and achieving their school standards, showing muscle memory from Nursery and or fierce determination to work hard. Well done to Year 1 and 2, who have been an absolute pleasure to work with. The team were keen to build back skill and confidence and whilst stamina will still need some work, their technical work was excellent. Their enthusiasm unparalleled and progress across the board wonderful!

1st Churchill 2nd equal Alexander and Cunningham Having pool time from March allowed the PB and final gala competition to be enjoyed.

Under 11s

Overall results

This was a great competition and there are some real rising stars.

From the gala-

Holly HP was very close to a number of records, The results: 1st Ellis and Holly

Whilst Year 8 missed out on travelling to the Olympic park, they have much to be proud of.

2nd Katie W and Isaac

Toby L, Alex, Barney, Sam, Gemma, Eva, Gabe and Georgia, richly deserved their colours for talent, hard work and being part of the swimming team for many years. Despite the lack of competitions this year, they produced 100% PBs, testament to their work rate. Many of them leave with happy memories of trips to London, Severnside wins and close competition.

Special mentions to Thomas B, Elsie and Mirabelle who also pushed the competition hard.

Alex deserves a special mention for producing the fastest 25m ever swum in the TMS pool. 12.83 seconds is a remarkable time!

3rd Amelia and Jenson

CHURCHILL 953 1st

Special mention to Leila Belle who secured 2 new records The u25m front crawl 18.33, is a new school record beating her own PB for the 3rd time !

William B was awarded the Polo award and will go on to be a fine polo player in the Lower School, I am sure.

1st Leila Belle and Oscar HP

2nd equal Eva, Georgia, Emily T and Stirling

2nd Darcey and Hugo

3rd James C

3rd Henry and Poppy

Special mention to Charlie Ac, Gabe and Barney who pushed the boys hard and Ella who had secured a strong position but was unable to attend.

Special mention to Amelie and Harrison who pushed the competition along, they achieved great PBs too.

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The final gala was won by Churchill, with the U13s amassing huge amounts of points and pulling the competition away from Alex.

The under 9s then had to work hard to add points for the Houses and produced some great swims. Their event included over 60 races!

1st Gemma A and Alex C

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U9 1st Alex ; 2nd Churchill and 3rd Cunningham

ALEXANDER 822 2nd

The final results after a competition that witnessed many changes to 2nd and 3rd over the morning were-

Mr Ross and I in the face of the disappointing news of IAPS cancellation, held a friendly gala in December. This was really popular and is likely to become a fixture on the calendar!

U11 1st Churchill 2nd Alex 3rd Cunningham

Under 9s

Congratulations to Emma VP and Jasper, for receiving the Shutt trophy for Lower School swimming. This is awarded for progress across the Lower School and both richly deserved the award.

Upper School Swim Gala

U13 1st Churchill; 2nd Alex 3rd Cunningham

Leila Belle then went on to produce an outstanding 50m swim , which was a new record in 40.1 sc

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CUNNINGHAM 694 3rd

As always, a huge thank you to the team who help to keep the pool clean. To our now retired Marion and Rose for years of hard work ! To Mike for his work and to Ali, Danny and Andy for keeping the pool clean and safe. A huge thank you to the wider teaching team for your input and support, helping to make swimming fun ,whilst moving forward. Thank you: George, Ellie, Pablo; Becky, Amy and Jacob. Mrs Hinchliffe

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ATHLETICS Athletics continues to be popular and successful at Tockington. The track was very well used with the pupils having a go at all the track and field events on offer. Our Monday running club and Friday evening Athletics Clubs were well subscribed, the pupils always enthusiastic and willing to realise their potential.

Athletics Championships The annual Beaudesert Park athletics meeting didn’t happen due to the Pandemic. However, we were delighted to attend the South West Athletics Championships at Millfield School. What a great day we had, this on their recently laid new track and the usual warm welcome.

C (U14 Shot), Thomas B (U12 Shot), Georgia C (U14 100m) and our (U14 Boys 4x100m relay team) Barney B, Alex C, Logan B and Max J. A most enjoyable day.

Record Breaking There were two records broken over the term; Georgia C broke Alice Green’s long standing Senior Girls 100m mark, lowering the time to 13.25 secs. Jenson E broke the U12 Boys 75m record, previously held by Ben Jacobi. It now stands at 10.68 secs.

House Points and ESAA Award Scheme During the term, the pupils worked towards gaining points for their Houses, individually and on improving their PBs on the ESAA Award Scheme. Years 3 - 8 achieved some excellent times and distances with the re-vamped ESAA Scheme, proving a real encouragement in their pursuit of PBs and self-improvement. We collectively achieved 45 Gold, 12 Platinum, 2 Elite and 4 Podium Awards. Alex C, Max J, Ella G and Georgia C all achieving this new mark which equates to a national Level performance.

Darcey O and Oscar H-P achieved 4, as did Jenson E and Katie W, with Georgia C achieving 6 and Alex C 7 Gold Award standards, the latter pair at Year 9 level! I would like to thank Georgia and Barney for the excellent job they did as Athletics Captains, they were good role models for our younger pupils. This was apparent when, together with their Year 8 class, they helped lead a very well-run Sports Day for the Lower School, expertly overseen by Mr Ross.

House Athletics Finals The Upper School House Athletics Finals were, as usual, closely fought and free of rain! Churchill ended victorious, with Alexander in 2nd. The coveted Freeman Cup ending in Blue for 2021. The U10 Victor Ludorum was won by Oscar H-P, the U10 girls Victrix Ludorum winner was Darcey O. The U12 equivalents were won by Katie W and Jenson E. Georgia C and Alex C lifted the Senior trophies. Mr Ross

Freeman Cup for House Athletics 1. Churchill

684 pts

2. Alexander

566 pts

3. Cunningham 511 pts

Victor/Victrix Ludorum Results U10 Oscar H-P Darcey O

U12 Katie W Jenson E

Senior Trophies Georgia C Alex C

During the term there were 114 Gold Award standards reached, with many of our pupils achieving four or more in a range of events. We competed very well, this was testament to our preparations and maintaining our fitness throughout the lockdowns with our classes and the running clubs which remained open to all throughout those difficult months. We had 4 South West Champions by the end of proceedings; Ella G (U13 200m), Jenson E (U12 100m), Stirling R (U13 1500m) and Georgia C(U14 800m). Alex C(U14 1500m), Stirling R (U13 Javelin) and Ella G (U13 100m) gained Silver Medals. Podium places were also won by Maria W(U13 Shot), Sam S (U14 Javelin), Max J (U13 LJ), Alex

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SPORTS DAYS It was great to see our Upper School House Athletics, Lower School and Nursery Sports Days fully return this year and having parents able to cheer on from the sidelines (socially distanced) made them very special events.

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ACTIVITY WEEK Activity week this year had a joint theme of “the Arts” and “life skills” and time was shared developing the children’s understanding of these areas. Throughout the week the children took part in three different First Aid sessions; covering topics such as Risk Assessments, basic principles of First Aid, Kitchen Safety, Bandaging, Road Safety and the Recovery Position. A particular highlight for many was the cake decorating session after the kitchen First Aid session had been completed. The children also participated in a lifesaving session, where they focused on learning different skills for keeping themselves safe in the weather and helping others in need.

Within the Arts strand of the week the children created some big, bee friendly art with Mrs Mockridge. This included designing bee friendly gardens and fabric painting. Mrs Sapkota focused on the Rainforest and Wind in the Willows through sound scaping and mime. The mime work was met with great enthusiasm and delivered skilfully by the children. In Drama sessions, Mrs Glanville introduced the children to Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, which they thoroughly enjoyed; especially those playing Marvolleo. Ms Case enjoyed spending the week focusing on poetry and developing creative ideas inspired by nature.

Year 3 - 6 trips This year’s activity week also included two trips. Year 3 and 4 went to Portishead Lido, whilst Year 5 and 6 visited Porthcawl for a day on the beach, which included a surf lesson. On the Year 3 and 4 trip the children enjoyed two hours in the pool with intermittent trips to the tuck shop supplied by Mrs Hinchliffe. This proved a very popular part of the day! Upon returning to school, the children listened intently to some fantastic stories read by Ms Case in the shade to recover from the heat of the morning. Later that afternoon, the Year 3 and 4 children all participated in a Mini Football Tournament inspired by the Euros. There were some great footballing skills on show and lots of amazing team spirit too. Meanwhile, Year 5 and Y6 enormously enjoyed their time in Porthcawl and unanimously rated it as one of the best parts of the week. On the evening of Thursday 24th June, Year 6 were also treated to a camp night at TMS by Mr Symonds, Miss Green and Mr Phillips. After the initial confusion of tent erection, the evening had a fantastic start with a three legged Geography quiz based on the flags of the world. This was followed by an enjoyable evening around the campfire cooking popcorn and drinking hot chocolate. The evening was finished off with a quick pyjama tennis session before lights out. Despite the rain setting in later, a wonderful evening was had by all.

Hunt the teacher Another firm favourite with the children was the return of “Hunt the Teacher”, during the afternoon’s game sessions. The children were tasked with locating eight members of staff who were hidden around the grounds, collecting a scrambled code word from each of them and deciphering the code to reveal a hidden sentence. After much running around and peering in peculiar places, the children managed to collect enough clues to reveal the sentence “Tockington children make the most of every moment”, which is definitely how they approached activity week this year!

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YEAR 7 CAMP

YEAR 8 CAMP

What a setting! Underneath the stunning limestone escarpment on Llangattock in the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park. Wern Watkin bunkhouse is a joy to behold with views which included the Brecon Beacons, the Black mountains, the sought after village of Crickhowell nestling in the valley below as well as rugged moorland and fields. We saw Hare, Peregrine Falcon, Red Kites, Newts, Wheatear, Dippers, and Grey Wagtails to name but a few.

beautiful River Caerfanell on our canyoning trip, we worked out puzzles and conundrums in our team games as well as searching for an errand Bulldog puppy, Benson. The group entered into the spirit for military style, hammed-up room challenge. The rooms ended up being at the least very tidy, by the final night we saw rock and flower displays, coordinated bathroom utensils and Marine standard beds. Yes, all true, no more messy bedrooms at home.

The Year 7 group were a pleasure to take away on camp. They worked cooperatively, with laughter and smiles being the order of the week. Everyone gave what was on offer a go and they all grew both individually and as a team.

Thanks to everyone for a lovely week and to Mrs Wakeling and Mr Ross!

We discovered; Limestone caves, the highest peak in Southern Britain – Pen Y fan, the Brecon to Newport canal whilst canoeing, the

Mission accomplished.

“A good camp is one where everyone has been happy and enjoyed the week.”

We were so pleased to be able to attend our Year 8 Camp Week in Biblins, Wales after such a strange year. It gave us the opportunity to relax and enjoy spending time together, which is something that we had missed doing for a big portion of this year. Within the first five minutes of being on the bus the atmosphere was buzzing with excitement and lots of talk of what fantastic things we had to look forward to over the next 5 days. We arrived at noon on Monday and pitched our tents before going on a walk led by our instructor, Rick. We visited the iron quarry and were delighted to find some wild strawberries along the way which we all enjoyed feasting on – although Sam somehow managed to eat an ant too! Upon our return we played a game football, which was won by the Rangers team. Our final activity of the day was orienteering. We had to find numbers with letters on which we then had to rearrange to make the longest word we could. One team came up with ‘anti-disestablishment’! We returned to camp to have spaghetti bolognaise for dinner before heading to our tents for our first night sleeping under canvas.

Mr Jones

On Tuesday we woke up early to sound of the wildlife around us. Our day began with a cooked breakfast before we headed out for rock climbing, abseiling and caving. Climbing was first! We climbed a 10m

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cliff face and descended back down it before moving to the higher 30m drop. We were all nervous but excited and we all completed the challenge with a little encouragement. Next, we travelled to the caves which were much smaller than we expected. We had to travel through the cave system which at times included crawling on our stomachs and squeezing through the tightest hole which was nicknamed ‘the microwave’. Back at camp in the evening we had jacket potatoes for dinner and then played Gold Rush which was so much fun! After a busy day of physical activities, we had a lie in on Wednesday. When we woke up we wished Logan a happy birthday and then completed some bushcraft activities. There were seven stations set up that were designed to test our teamwork, leaderships and communication skills. An example of the activities was creating a hydro-electric system to create electricity for the camp, using a gutter and waterfall system. Later on we played volleyball and football and had pizza for dinner. On Thursday we went kayaking on the river Wye. We travelled from our camp down to Monmouth It was the perfect way to end our time at TMS, spending it having fun and creating memories with our friends that have become our family.

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FRIENDS OF TOCKINGTON MANOR So 2020-21 – what can I say? What a year! We knew it was going to be a tricky one but didn’t quite anticipate how tricky! And as I’m sure you can imagine – I don’t have a huge amount to report on!

As well as plans for the welcome return of the TMS favourite Bonfire Night, the Christmas Fayre and fingers crossed a celebration to tie in with the schools 75th Anniversary next year.

BUT we were able to run our first ever virtual quiz night thanks to the Woodhouses, the Williams and trusty zoom – an event that was well supported with a healthy profit. We also had incredible support from the whole school community in our Christmas raffle, both with donations as well as a record number of tickets purchased, resulting in a fantastic amount of money being raised. Despite a very quiet year on the fundraising front due to an ever-changing Covid situation, we were at least able to ensure that Father Christmas & the Easter Bunny was able to visit the children & send them home with a festive treat at the end of term. Also the popular adventure playground was a muchneeded recipient of the Friends funds, enabling the children to return to school in the summer term with a safe and newly refurbished space – something I know the whole school has enjoyed.

account, but we have a fabulous, keen and willing committee and also a supportive (and ever growing) school community here at Tockington, all keen to support our fundraising efforts and no doubt looking forward to getting back to some sort of normality!

I really look forward to welcoming lots of new faces and fundraising ideas to the Friends committee, and I have no doubt that the Friends of Tockington Manor will continue to grow from strength to strength alongside the TMS community.

The Year 8s were presented with their leavers’ hoodies at their prom and have moved on to their new schools with a lovely memento of their time at Tockington – a gift the children loved and always a nice way to finish the term.

To finish, just a huge thank you to you all, along with anyone that has supported us in any capacity by giving their time or donations. We have some exciting projects coming up that will continue to benefit all of the children at TMS from Nursery to Year 8 for many years to come so please know that all of your time and efforts are so appreciated. Nina & all of FOTM

As we enter the new school year, yes we have a slightly depleted bank

Close links with daily bus service from Tockington

Generous 13+ Scholarships and Awards - academic, sport, music, art & drama

Day and Boarding www.habsmonmouth.org Charity No. 525616

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OLD TOCKINGTONIANS Once again we have been delighted to hear of the successes of our former pupils. The traditional Year 8 reunion at the Bonfire Night was missed this year, along with so many other TMS events that brings our TMS family back together. We managed to fit in a OT few visits amongst the restrictions. It was lovely to meet Robert Pearson who was at Tockington between 1948 and 1953. Congratulations to all of our OTs who gained their university places and degrees in such a challenging time. Please do keep in contact with us and join the Facebook group to rekindle memories with other OTs. If you would like to visit the school to share your memories with us and your family then please do get in touch to book a mutual convenient time.

Mr Symonds with OT Robert Pearson and below with OTs at Wycliffe College

It will be our 75th anniversary in 2022 and we look forward to celebrating with as many Old Tockingtonians as possible. There is a form on our website to register to keep in contact and we ask that everyone who has left us whether in 1948 or 2020 adds their details so we can keep in contact. See you at our 75th Anniversary celebrations!

A MAGICAL PLACE TO LIVE AND LEARN

Together, we are Clifton Co-educational boarding and day school for 0-18, in the heart of Bristol. Alongside outstanding academic results, Clifton College provides exceptional pastoral care, fostering a supportive atmosphere to ensure each child feels confident, happy, safe and secure. Our flexible boarding options offer a true home from home experience, and our unique House system creates a welcoming enviroment in which each pupil is cared for in a close-knit community that promotes friendships, security, and a sense of identity and belonging. The wide range of co-curricular activities and clubs encourages every pupil to discover their niche, and develop interests and talents beyond the purely academic.

Visit cliftoncollege.com to discover more. 84

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FLEXI, WEEKLY & FULL BOARDING

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Tockington Manor School Tockington, Bristol, BS32 4NY Telephone: 01454 613229 admin@tockingtonmanorschool.com www.tockingtonmanorschool.com tockingtonmanorschool

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