blog

Preston Montford Field Trip

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:37:25 +0000

Thursday 10th May 2012

A lovely sunny start to the day for a walk up Carding Mill Valley to carry out a stream survey. As the day progressed, Form 5 experienced all weather conditions - gale force winds, drizzle, rain and more sunshine. The stream survey was a success but their recorded results were very damp; as were the children following an attempt to dam a stream (with some success). Not one child came back totally dry, but a good time was had by all!

Wednesday 9th May 2012

Form 5 woke to a clear blue sky, but the cloud has now drifted in, as did the rain. First of all, they checked to see what had been caught in the humane mammal traps overnight; out of the 20 traps laid they only managed to catch one mouse!

The children have also been pond dipping and caught a great variety of bugs, inspecting the bugs under microscopes this afternoon.

They are all looking forward to a trek up Long Mynd tomorrow....fingers crossed for no rain.

Tuesday 8th May 2012

Form 5 arrived safely at Preston Montford and had a lovely afternoon in the hot sunshine. The children have been finding out about the local area and working on team games, including parachute games.

Form 5 will be outside for the next two days. Unfortunately, the forecast is not looking so good...waterproofs have been issued to all!

Travel Bug design is a winner for Lukas

Fri, 04 May 2012 10:34:42 +0000

Six year-old Lukas Whaley, a pupil at Eversfield Preparatory School was recently chosen as the junior winner of a national science competition.

As part of National Science and Engineering Week held earlier this year, pupils at Eversfield Prep took part in a number of fun and interactive science activities. Thirty-five pupils were entered for a national science competition entitled “The Great Global Adventure”.

The competition, run by the British Science Association for National Science challenged school children to design a ‘global racer’ which would be powered by renewable energy and used to take themselves and two friends on a journey across the world. Lukas who designed a beetle-shaped racer with solar panels on its wings and retractable wheels allowing it to travel by land, sea or air; beat almost 20,000 other entries to win the junior category for ages 5 to 7 years.

Mrs Sliney, Head of Science commented, “The children came up with some fantastic ideas and really enjoyed the challenge of designing a futuristic vehicle. Lukas’s ‘Travel Bug’ not only looked good but was well designed to enable it to cross a number of different terrains. We are delighted that he was chosen as the winner of his category.”

Upper School pupils take to the stage

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:25:59 +0000

Whilst Form 6 were in France last week the rest of Upper School took part in a fun week of Drama. On Monday Forms 3 and 4 worked with Drama teacher Miss Grace and entertained parents with an amusing performance of Gangsta Granny.

The hero of the story Ben, is bored beyond belief after he is made to stay at his grandma's house. She's the boringest grandma ever: all she wants to do is to play Scrabble and eat cabbage soup! However when Ben finds a biscuit tin full of jewels in her house he begins to wonder if there is more to his granny than meets the eye.

The children enjoyed making props in the morning and each class practised and performed a scene to parents at the end of the day.

Form Five also spent a busy week rehearsing for a performance of Scenes From Shakespeare on Friday afternoon. In just four days and four English lessons, they chose their parts, learnt their lines, decided on costumes and staging and then put on a credible performance, all in the original Shakespearean language - quite a tall order for children of any age!

This year, the performance took the form of a house competition - with each team performing the same scenes from three of Shakespeare's plays: Macbeth, Romeo And Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a daunting but exciting event, with a dress and tech rehearsal finishing only moments before the audience came through the doors. With live costume changes to contend with and the presence of judges, conferring and scribbling notes throughout, the children pulled it off with aplomb. There were some fantastic performances from both teams. After the first two stages it was one apiece - the Saxons claiming the Macbeth scene and the Angles fighting back with their super Romeo and Juliet performance. Everything lay on the final scene and, whilst the Saxons got more of the laughs, it was the polished performances of the Angles that assured them the victory this year.

As Mr Yates said in his summing up, though, all of the pupils were winners and a throroughly entertaining afternoon was enjoyed by all. Well done, Form Five!

Form 6 French Trip

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:05:58 +0000

Friday 16th March 2012

The final report from France before an early night for all in preparation of the long journey home tomorrow. Today has been action packed - breadmaking, archery, a French lesson, circus skills, fencing, feed the animals...and packing bags!

Thursday 15th March 2012

Form 6 have had yet another action packed day which has involved canoeing, climbing, archery, an assault course, participating in a circus and improving their French language skills. Yesterday evening's French night was a resounding success with nearly all the children trying snails! The weather continues to be warm and sunny.

Wednesday 14th March 2012

The weather continues to be warm and sunny. Form 6 are having a great time having participated in climbing, fencing, canoeing and a very muddy assault course today.

Tuesday 13th March 2012

The weather has been wonderfully sunny and Form 6 had a very busy day visiting a market where they used their French language skills to purchase the ingredients for their picnic lunch. They then explored Mont St Michel and, later on, experienced the delights of a French supermarket!

Monday 12th March 2012

After a long journey, Form 6 arrived safely in France yesterday evening. Today, the children are enjoying a warm and sunny day filled with activities such as canoeing, bread making, a french lesson, games and archery.

Nursery Blue Investigates

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:00:40 +0000

Our Nursery Blue Group have been doing lots of activities on a transport theme this half-term. Yesterday we went on a walk down the drive to carry out a traffic survey. The most popular colour of cars passing-by was black, followed closely by blue! We looked at the cars parked on-site including the school minibus and even managed to spot a helicopter flying overhead. In our cookery activity the other day we made traffic light pizzas. Our role-play garage has been constantly busy with our mechanics repairing the nursery cars.

3,2,1 Blast off!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:08:20 +0000

During February Form 4 visited the National Space Centre in Leicester. Their trip supported this term's science topic - Earth, Sun and Moon. The children followed a fact-finding trail around the exhibits, as well as taking part in a rocket making workshop and a session in the planetarium.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:18:43 +0000

Reception and Nursery pupils have enjoyed a week of celebrations for the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. Reception classrooms have been decorated with lanterns and streamers and the children have been role-playing in their very own Chinese Restaurant - cooking up delicious noodles and receiving orders over the phone! They have been making lucky red envelopes, dragons and writing in Chinese. In P.E. they performed a dragon dance in the gym. They have been using the animals in the Chinese zodiac in literacy activities.

The nursery children have also been making dragons and writing wishes for their wishing tree. In their weekly lesson with Miss Griggs they learnt a traditional Chinese song and played instruments as well as performing a dragon dance.

Eversfield School wishes everyone a very happy and prosperous new year!

A busy Christmas at Eversfield

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:36:12 +0000

The children at Eversfield have been enjoying a busy end of term. Upper School children all came out to support the teachers in their netball match against Form 5 and 6 girls. The final score was 12-0 to the teachers who took full advantage of their height difference - Mr Robbins certainly did not have far to reach when shooting in the net!

Our Pre-Prep play this year was Christmas Around The World. Angel Gabriel organised a team of messenger angels to find and bring children from six different countries to the stable in Bethlehem. The visitors presented Jesus with some special gifts and shared something of what Christmas means in their own country.

Senior Choir took part in Young Voices at the LG Arena and brought some Christmas cheer to shoppers on Monday morning as they sang carols in Poplar Way. They raised an impressive £209.96 in total for RNIB Actionnaires.

Our annual Carols at Eversfield evening filled the gym with music and merriment. The gym was packed and everyone sang with great gusto. We are looking forward to our Carol Service at St. Alphege tomorrow.

Today will be the final performance of the Early Years' Nativity. The children have worked hard in rehearsals and learnt their words with great enthusiasm.

Next week will start with Associated Music Board Examinations on Monday and the Saxons and Angles will go head to head in the first competition of the year - the House General Knowledge Quiz.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and good wishes for the New Year.

Things we take for granted

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:12:21 +0000

Form 6 pupils welcomed back Rachel Setchell of RNIB Actionnaires West Midlands last Friday. Rachel came to talk to our Form 6 about some of the children she looks after. She spoke about the things that we often take for granted, such as pouring a drink or going up and down stairs. The children tried on different eye pieces which simulated various levels of sight, they tested out a water measure which beeped or vibrated to tell them when a cup of water was full, looked at the braille alphabet and learnt how to guide eachother safely around school.

Form 6 Scale Heights with RNIB

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:14:20 +0000

This year our chosen School Charity is the RNIB Actionnaires West Midlands. Following a talk at Harvest Festival from Rachel Setchell, several of our Form 6 pupils spent a day with some of the Actionnaires at a local rock climbing centre. They made friends and were able to conquer the heights together. It made our pupils think how different life must be with out the gift of sight but that it is also possible to have fun doing the same activities thanks to the important work of charities such as RNIB. Eversfield is looking forward to an active year of fundraising which will provide funding for clubs and activities and the special equipment and volunteers that are needed to deliver them. We look forward to your support.

Saxons win House Music

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:52:56 +0000

Pupils in Forms 2 and 6 sang in fine voice as they came together for this year's House Music Competition. We were delighted to welcome Mr Gil Cowlishaw, Director of Music at Princethorpe College to be our adjudicator for the day. Gil was extremely impressed by the high standard of our soloists and enthused by the clear enjoyment the pupils had in performing on an individual and group level.

Angles won the the toss and choose to go first with their London Medley. Performances then followed on piano, guitar, drums, violin and flute. Gil singled out Kieran and George Daly who performed Fanfare(Corrette) with George accompanying his younger brother so expertly. Form 2 sang the fun Bare Necessities and then Angles and Saxons ended with the rousing Power in Me.

Angles have won the competition for the last three years and so the Saxons were especially delighted to be this year's winners. Congratulations to all who took part and thanks to Miss Griggs for many hours of rehearsing and our peripatetic staff who helped our soloists prepare for the competition.

Saxons and Angles are you ready?

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:18:34 +0000

House Music Competition - Thursday 20th October 2011, 2.15pm in the Gymnasium

Miss Griggs has recorded last week's House Music rehearsal with Form 4. Why not have a listen and practise at home? Click on the download icon below.

Though Saxons are slightly ahead on points from the audition stage, the Angles have been learning their words and are sounding better on the group sing-off so there is all to play for....

Download Form 4 London Medley.wav

Don't forget to come and support your House and Soloists. This year the guitarists really excelled and therefore are well represented amongst our selected finalists, who this year are:-

Angles Saxons

Oscar Richardson- Piano	Katie Buxton - Flute
Max Manley - Guitar	Luke Doshi-Keeble - Flute
Issac Arnold - Guitar	Ibraheem Mohammed - Guitar
Masato Kimura - Piano	Liam Scagell - Trumpet
James Dunleavy - Violin	Edward Crossley - Guitar
Kieren & George Daly - Violin and Piano	Lily Dredger - Guitar
Carmen Whaley - Piano	Harry Loud - Drums

Competition results so far - Angles 24 points, Saxons 28 points

Harvest

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:45:35 +0000

This week we held our Harvest Celebrations in Upper and Lower School. We thanked God for the many gifts He provides for us with a special service including hymns, prayers and a drama presentation. We welcomed Rachel Setchell who told us about the important work of the RNIB Actionnaires in the West Midlands, our chosen School Charity for 2011-12. This year we will be supporting children who are sight impaired by providing funding for them to take part in all kinds of exciting and fun activities ranging from football and rock climbing to ice-skating and fencing.

Thank you to all our pupils and their families for their kind donations of food which have been taken to Birmingham City Mission and Brookvale Day Care Centre. A group of Form 2 children went to deliver our gifts to the service users of Brookvale and entertained them with a mini concert of harvest songs and solo performances on the guitar, piano, violin and cello. The children then enjoyed chatting with everyone afterwards.

To learn more about our RNIB Actionnaires click here.

Please sir, we want some more!

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:39:25 +0000

If like me you attended one of the performances of Oliver! then you will probably have been humming Pick a Pocket or Two or Food, Glorious Food ever since! Over the weekend my house was filled with the sound of my daughters singing Oliver songs and memories of a delightful final show on Friday night. Each year we wait with eager anticipation to hear what the show will be and following on from a brilliant production of Grease last year I was excited to see what the children would do next. I was not disappointed, the roles all seemed to me to be perfectly cast - Luke with his beautiful voice as Oliver, Ellie with her natural stage presence as the Artful Dodger, Jessica and Georgia with strong vocal performances as Nancy and Widow Corney, Sam portraying Mr Bumble to perfection with dramatic humour and good vocals to match and Harry as Fagin, owning the stage. I could go on as there were so many strong solo performers ...I don't envy those who have to make the decision on who will win the Drama Cup this year!

As the weeks of rehearsing went by it was clear that we had taken on a big task in attempting a show that is currently showing in the West End. With choreography to add in to all the songs, costumes to sew and lines to be learnt, everyone gave 100% and more. It is always wonderful to see how everything comes together in the end and all the Upper School staff support Mr Hastings and Miss Griggs back stage, sourcing props and painting scenery, doing hair and make-up and supervising the children. Production week is always a busy week towards the end of an extremely busy term but I am sure everyone will agree it is great fun and very satisfying on the night. Thank yous go to Mr Hastings and Miss Griggs for their direction and tireless enthusisam, to our wonderful Band which was made up of former pupil Sophie Hill, current Form 6 pupil Herbie Hazard along with Mrs Creaton, Miss Green, Mr Spall and Miss Newton, to our skillful 'Costume Ladies' Mrs Stansfield, Mrs McCormack, Mrs Beaumont-Dark and Mrs Harryman, and to Edward BD for his able assistance on sound. Well done to all the children in Forms 5 and 6 and thank you to parents for helping them to learn lines and songs and delivering/collecting them from after-school rehearsals and evening performances.

Mrs Dredger

Lower School Sports

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:28:33 +0000

Following on from a morning of nursery sports it was the turn of our Lower School children to take to the field for their annual Sports Day. With the rain holding off it was an energetic afternoon of running, balancing, shuttle runs and of course the much loved Mums and Dads' race. This year the Angles House took an early lead and held this almost right until the finals with some strong performances by the Reception Angles. However when the final scores were added together the result was a tie on 189 points. Well done children, thank you to our Form 6 School Officials for helping with the finish line and setting up races and thank you to all who came to support and to the brave Mums and Dads that took part - there were some very fast runners this year!

Nursery Sports

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:10:24 +0000

Well done to all the children who took part in Nursery Sports Day, for some of them it was their first ever sports day event. Thank you to siblings in Lower and Upper School who came to support and in some cases took part when younger brothers and sisters needed a helping hand! In spite of a little rain a good time was had by all.

£12,000 raised for Over The Wall

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:14:37 +0000

On Saturday 18th June we welcomed pupils, parents, families and friends to our annual Open Afternoon. This began with a concert by Lower School with songs from Reception, Forms 1 & 2, plus Form 2 Ocarina groups and the Form 2 & 3 Guitar Ensemble. Sadly Miss Griggs was unable to attend due to injury but her hard work in preparing the children meant that they sang in fine voice with the help of Miss Shipley who kindly stepped in to play the piano and Sam Young who accompanied the Junior Choir later in the afternoon.

After the Lower School Concert Mr Yates announced our fundraising total for the year. The children were anxious to know if we had met our target of £9,000 which would fund nine children to go on a camp. They were thrilled to hear that their hard work and the generosity of families and friends had meant that we had surpassed all expectations and raised a grand sum of £12,000. A special mention must go to Form 6 pupil Dougie Dolleymore who made a significant contribution to our total in raising £1,201 by taking part in a 100km cycle ride around the Isle of Wight. Michelle Ainsworth was delighted to accept a cheque from Sam and Aaila on behalf of Over The Wall charity. The money raised will go towards an activity camp to be held in Kidderminster this summer for local children suffering or recovering from serious illness.

This year rather than a themed afternoon the focus was on traditional family fun - there was plenty happening around the school grounds from karate demonstrations to tap dance, LAMDA performances, art projects, a chess challenge and much more. The classroom displays were fabulous so well done to staff and children. The ESA ran a fun afternoon on the fields from 3.30pm with a barbeque, tug of war, wellie wanging, and lots more! A big thank you must go to the ESA for all their hard work prior to the day and also in setting up early and clearing away on Saturday. It was a great success.

Having fun for Charity

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:02:05 +0000

The School Council has worked extremely hard in planning our Charity Day which took place last Thursday. The School Council is made up of representatives from Form 2 upwards and is chaired by Robert Yates, Angles House Captain. At morning break Council members from both Lower and Upper School set up stalls and sold cakes to pupils and staff raising £135. (Thank you to everyone for their delicious donations!) William Pugh and Oliver Francis sourced this year's Over The Wall Badges which sold well and raised £170.

In the afternoon our sponsored events took place - a sponsored walk around the field and balancing obstacle course for Nursery children, a Biathalon (hurdles and 5 laps round the field) for Lower School and a Triathalon (up to 10 lengths of the pool, 10-15 laps around the field and an obstacle race) for Upper School. In the evening we held the final of Eversfield's Got Talent. It was a lovely end to a busy and enjoyable day with acts including comedy, irish dancing, ballet, bollywood dancing, singing and instrumental performances on the trumpet, piano, violin, indian drum and organ. The winner of Lower School was Emily Tran on violin and the winner of Upper School was a comedy act by David and Olivia Hass. Highly commended in second and third places were James Lake and Lily Dredger in Lower School and Amber Lawana and Nina Dredger in Upper School. Thanks go to Miss Griggs, the ESA and all the staff for helping the School Council to plan such a successful day.

P.S. Don't forget to hand any sponsorship money in by Friday 17th June at the latest as we will be presenting a cheque to Over The Wall at Open Afternoon on Saturday 18th June. This year looks as if we will set a new record for the amount raised for the school charity so it is very exciting. It costs £1,000 to send a child on an activity camp with Over The Wall and the children are determined that we will be able to fund nine children.

Angles win Upper School Sports

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:46:31 +0000

Our first half of term ended with an afternoon of sports for Upper School. With the Angles House slightly ahead on points after the field events, which had taken place during weekly games lessons, it was destined to be a hotly contested title. The Angles were fighting to retain their lead and to win the Sports Day Shield for the first time in four years.

With some grey skies looming up above our Form 3 pupils got things under way with the 50m sprint. This was followed by each age group and over increasing distances. By late afternoon we were blessed with some sunshine and it was time for the whole school relay. Each one of the 128 upper school pupils had to run a 100m leg for their House. As always this event proved to be very exciting to watch as the lead changed several times over the course with a terrific sprint to the finish line by the victorious Angles. The Angles also dug deep and won the Tug-of-war 2-1 which meant that they were the overall winners of the Sports Day Shield.

Congratulations also go to our individual winners:-

U8 Boys - Alex Ford U8 Girls - Eve Downes

U9 Boys - William Pugh U9 Girls - Nayana Khosla

U10 Boys - Thomas Hornby and Finlay Gifford (tie) U10 Girls - Katie Buxton

U11 Boys - Alex Bartley U11 Girls - Maddie Koral

Up close and personal with some unusual friends

Mon, 23 May 2011 13:12:49 +0000

Our Form One pupils have recently received some unusual visitors at school! They have been studying plants and animals in different environments as part of their Science curriculum this term and on Friday Steven of Tropical Inc. brought along some animals from the rain forest and desert to show the children. These ranged from a baby boa constrictor (already 12 feet long!) to a four-day old meerkat and some brightly coloured macaws. Thanks to Steven's detailed explanations we all learnt a lot about the animals and overcame any fears to hold tarantulas, snakes and many more!