Year 1 had a fantastic trip to Langham Glass. Pupils watched some amazing glass making demonstrations, had a go at colouring glass and also made their own tea light holder to take home. Mrs Archer even blew a big glass bubble which the pupils enjoyed smashing! It was very exciting and Year 1 loved their tea light holders.
Our Pre-Prep children brought their brave teddies, dragons, monkeys, unicorns, snakes, dolls and superheroes to a special Teddy Bear Zip Wire event at St Andrew’s Church in Holt. The soft toys all survived their exhilarating ride, and the children had a wonderful time. The event was arranged by our Senior School Charity Committee, raising funds for good causes in our local community.
“Jiaozi” (dumpling making)
To conclude the academic year, all Year 9 and 10 Mandarin pupils have participated in making Chinese dumplings. It is the first time for most pupils and they made some dumplings beautifully. Jiaozi are made of a thin sheet of wheat flour with a finely textured filling made of vegetables or meat that can be boiled, steamed, or fried. Jiaozi was bought to Japan in World War II when thus the ‘gyoza’ was born.
Design for the Mandarin theme T-shirt
As part of their end of academic year project, pupils from Years 9 to 12 have designed some fabulous clothing with Chinese themes. Chinese written knowledge alongside creativity and their artistic inspiration has enabled some outstanding outcomes.
Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. Chinese characters have been adapted and included amongst other East Asian languages, such as Japan and South Korean.
Pre-Prep Year 2 Mandarin teaching
Year 2 have been learning Mandarin with Miss Wang for one year and it is amazing that they are so confident at presenting all the Chinese songs they have learned so far. Thank you Miss Wang for all your hard work this year with the pupils.
On Sunday April 24th, more than 165 athletes from across the Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior Schools competed in the Gresham’s Triathlon, which took place in the beautiful grounds of the Senior School. It was a fantastic occasion, made even better by the lovely sunny weather. The event raised money for our Charity of the Year, Holt Youth Project. Well done to Lily C, who was awarded The ‘Middleton Trophy’ by Mr Middleton, for being the gutsiest participant from the Senior School.
A brilliant total of £915 has already been raised, but if you would like to donate and have not done so already, please click here to access the Just Giving page. Massive well done to all who competed and thanks for all the tremendous support!
Our Pre-Prep children have been working with CPRE Norfolk to learn more about recycling waste and how to reduce single-use plastic. They have been lucky enough to be awarded some money to help in their journey and have used it to provide each classroom with a bin specifically for recycling paper. The children are becoming aware of the resources they use within their classrooms and have been helping to sort other recyclable materials into a different box for collection by our caretaking staff. The Pre-Prep School no longer use plastic straws for modelling, and have replaced them with paper art straws. The children also speak about the dangers to the animals in the oceans of plastic. They now refill their water bottles and the School no longer provides single-use plastic bottles for days out.
Every year the Gresham’s Foundation (registered charity no 1109441) invites teachers and staff from all three Schools to apply for grants towards projects, equipment and initiatives requiring funding that typically falls outside of departmental budgets. This is the Small Grants to Enhance Scheme (SGTE).
Such projects/equipment must benefit a large range of our pupils, and teachers/staff are able to apply for funding of up to £2,500. The funding in question derives from the generosity of the Gresham’s community (Old Greshamians, parents or friends of the School) and, in particular, from those who make unrestricted donations to the Gresham’s Foundation.
Below are some pictures and further information on just some of the projects that received funding from last year’s Small Grants to Enhance scheme. For more information on the scheme or if you would like to donate to the Gresham’s Foundation, please contact Edward Margetson, Director of Development, on 01263 714529 or email [email protected]
Sensory, speech and language resources at the Pre-Prep
A sensory garden has been installed in the Pre-Prep and is being used extensively for relaxation, exploration and stimulus activities. In particular, the garden is helping to support children with learning and development needs.
Spiideo: Video recording and analysis software being used on the AstroTurf and rugby pitches
Spiideo has revolutionised the way in which we are able to educate our pupils in sport. Video is an enormous part of helping the pupils to understand more about sport as well as supporting the coaching staff with a clear debrief of the game. The video hardware is easy to set up and very portable, meaning we are able to transport to any location we would like. The cameras record the whole pitch throughout the game, meaning they are incredibly easy to set up and don’t miss any of the action.
The software ‘Spiideo Perform’ allows us to analyse matches and share directly with the pupils on their mobile devices as the match is being played. We can then present the key coaching points to come from the game and annotate the video for a real match of the day experience.
The cameras are being used across the major sports and teams. Our aim will be to record each team at least once per term – in order for the value to be shared across the sports clubs – and to also start to stream matches live for those that cannot be here in person to enjoy all the excitement of Gresham’s School sport. We are incredibly grateful to the small grants committee for their support in this project; it really is a game changer. (Joe Cowan, Director of Hockey)
The Jetson Nano AI platform
In 2021-22, our Computer Ccience students have been exploring computer vision applications, coupled with artificial intelligence, thanks to a generous grant from SGTE to enable us to purchase a number of Nvidia Jetson Nano single-board computer kits. This small computer is based on Nvidia’s industry-leading graphics card technology, which is ideal for the high-speed, intensive calculations involved in AI. Students are currently building self-driving cars based on this computer, which will soon be ready to race through the Dyson Building. In September 2021 the UK government launched its UK AI strategy, with the medium term goal of enabling school pupils to experience and explore the use of AI applications; Gresham’s is already doing just that! (Bill Robinson, Head of Computing)
Kit car building
Two GreenPower F24 kit cars are currently being built in the Makers space in the Dyson Building thanks to the generosity of the Gresham’s Foundation’s SGTE scheme. The teams of pupils are enjoying the challenge of interpreting technical diagrams, working out the appropriate tools and methods for the build and dealing with problems that arise – such as drill bits that keep snapping and bolts that don’t quite align. Once the electronics are in, the teams will need to test drive the completed frame to ensure everything works before starting on the bodywork. We hope to have both cars competing in the Summer F24 Race Series. In these races the cars go around a track for 1hr to see who travels the furthest on the 2 x 12 volt car batteries. This requires a careful balance of speed and weight vs car design and battery efficiency. Watch this space for an update in summer! (Lisa Stringer, Teacher of Computing)
Year 1 went for a tour around all of the different rooms in the new Dyson Building. They saw computers, painting and exciting Science going on all around them! The children were so excited to have the opportunity to create their own piece of art using iPad controlled robots! The background music inspired their creativity and added to the effect, as the paint was drawn around the HUGE canvas by our robots. The finished result is a masterpiece which they have great plans for…..watch this space!
Our Pre-Prep Reception class had a great time during their Senior School visit to the Dyson Building. The children worked with Mr Hazelwood to learn how to control the sphero bots, which teach programming and computer science while encouraging exploration, experimentation, and creativity. With the help our Year 12 STEAM ambassadors, the children controlled the paint-covered robots with a tablet to create a modern piece of art that will be displayed in the Pre-Prep School.
Each week the children are learning to code their Beebot robot by giving it certain instructions. They are learning to correct their algorithms if the Beebot doesn’t quite do as it is told! Their latest challenge was to complete the spellings of given word cards by making the Beebot travel along a route to the correct letter.
It was lovely to invite parents and pupils from all three schools back to enjoy our annual ‘Bunfire Night’ on the Senior School fields this weekend and help raise funds for this year’s School charity, the Holt Youth Project.
The refreshment opportunities were courtesy of FOGS (Friends of Gresham’s School) and hot food was available from local vendors ‘Fat Teds’ and ‘The Hen House Kitchen’. Gresham’s Enterprise pupil team were also on hand with their range of products.
‘The Guys’ (characters made by every Senior House) were escorted to the bonfire by School prefects which then led on to a tremendous display of fireworks.
Many families attended which made for a really good atmosphere.
