Year 8 have been enjoying their stay in the Ardeche for their leavers’ trip. They have been completing high ropes courses, visiting the Med, running a 2-day canoe descent of the Ardeche Gorges as well as lots of other action-packed activities.
Year 6 were treated to a theatre workshop to explore the text they are studying in English lessons through Drama. Led by Miss O’Brien, Director of Drama at the Senior School, and Miss Corrigan, pupils created ‘fairy teams’ of Oberon and Titania. Using tableaux, movement, gesture and facial expression pupils created The Athenians and The Mechanicals. They even had the opportunity to perform their work in the fitting arena of the Theatre in the Woods!
Year 8 pupils celebrated completing their end of year exams with a fantastic rotation of activities. These included cooking with The Crown Inn, East Rudham, and intelligent self-protection with Absolute Defence.
Year 4 have been exploring data handling in their Maths lessons. They are learning how to best collect, organise and present data before analysing and comparing it.
Just before the Whitsun half term break around 100 pupils from Gresham’s Prep and Senior Schools came together to create a new art installation in Chapel. The installation features 1000 metres of multihued ribbons cascading from the rafters which fill the space with a riot of colour: like streams of light connecting heaven and earth. Inspired by Old Greshamian W H Auden who died fifty years ago this year, pupils wrote words from his poem Whitsunday in Kirchstetten on each piece of ribbon to help us mark this significant anniversary as a school community. Whitsun is the festival in which the Christian church commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit, and Auden is buried in Kirchstetten in Austria.
The different coloured ribbons contained in the piece are intended to match both the summer sunsets which come streaming through the West Window in Chapel and the stained-glass depiction of the Holy Spirit contained in the Chapel’s East Window.
School Chaplain Rev Jack Branford said, “The pupils have done a wonderful job creating this stunning work. It seems to lift people’s spirits and make them smile as they walk into Chapel.”
This half term saw the conclusion of the ABE Endorsed KidsMBA programme that our Year 8 pupils have been working towards throughout the year. The internationally recognised programme is part of the Year 8 curriculum and aims to provide future skills and business knowledge to unleash the entrepreneurship potential of the Prep School’s oldest pupils.
The ABE Endorsed KidsMBA has been identified as one of the world’s leading children’s entrepreneurship programmes by Forbes magazine (see story here) and it concluded with our second annual ‘Shark Tank’ event. The ‘Shark Tank’ event replicated TV’s Dragon’s Den, and the pupils pitched their business start-ups to three judges from both the Gresham’s and business community – we would like to thank Mr Paul Devlin, Mrs Ingrid Cox and Mr Charlie Mack for their time and support.
The business ideas varied from personalised Crocs, online stylists, upcycled sports equipment, ski safety devices and much more. The eventual winners ‘Sail Away’, sought to recycle used sails from the coastline to turn into eco-friendly, high-quality bags. This company idea will now be entered into this summer’s global competition, and all pupils involved will receive their certificate of course completion on Speech Day. Lloyd Stephenson, Head of Teaching and Learning at the Prep School, says “I would like to thank the parents, teachers and ABE for supporting the programme this year, and the pupils for being so creative and engaged throughout. We look forward to running the programme for the third year in September 2023 with our current Year 7 pupils”.
If you would like to read about last year’s Shark Tank event on the ABE website, please see this link.
Today we have received excellent ISI inspection reports for Gresham’s Senior, Prep and Pre-Prep. Well done to all!
Please click here to read the Senior Inspection Report.
Please click here to read the Prep and Pre-Prep Inspection Report.
Year 5 have been developing characteristics through the use of Trestle Masks. They have developed the use of body language and gestures to enhance the performance of a character.
Year 3 and 4 and their parents welcomed Chris from Norfolk Children’s Book Centre into school this week for a special book event. Chris introduced the children to lots of exciting books and entertained everybody with some stories. Then there was a chance to browse and choose from a huge range of books. The children were all very pleased with their new purchases.
Year 5 and 6 enjoyed a wonderful performance of ‘The History of Britain’ by the Hobgoblin Theatre Company.
