Year 4 trip to Pin Mill

September 24, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Emma returns to Brandeston Hall

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Year 4 recently visited Pin Mill on the banks of the River Orwell for an English based educational trip. The location allowed the children to familiarise themselves with the setting of their class reading book ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’ by Arthur Ransome as they meandered their way along the river path to Woolverstone Marina. Other activities included knot-tying, drama and poetry workshops. The day’s highlight was, however, the opportunity to explore the 1930s sailing boat at the centre of the story book ‘The Goblin’. The day sparked high levels of interest and excitement, and only served to enhance the year group’s enthusiasm for the book.

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Emma returns to Brandeston Hall

September 24, 2013, 2:28 am

≫ Next: Headmaster’s Commendations

≪ Previous: Year 4 trip to Pin Mill

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Popular Old Framlinghamian Mrs Emma Nunn (nee Tuckwell) is now back at Brandeston Hall where she is teaching Year 2. Before joining Brandeston, Emma was teaching at Charsfield Village Primary School and prior to that completed a degree in Sport and Leisure Management at Loughborough University.  

Emma is already enjoying life back at her old prep school, where she studied before moving on to Framlingham College until 2002. Her name even appears in the Brandeston Hall dining room under ’1998 Drama Scholar’! Emma was in Moreau House with Helen Myers-Allen as her housemistress and remembers her time fondly. She joins another popular OF in James Loveridge, who is now in his second year as a Year 4 teacher, games coach and boarding tutor.

Brandeston Hall Headmaster, Mr Martin Myers-Allen who himself taught Emma whilst at Framlingham College said, “I remember once asking Emma in biology what she wanted to do for a career and she replied that she would like to work with children and having seen her passion for teaching its clear that she has made exactly the right decision.”

Headmaster’s Commendations

September 26, 2013, 2:13 am

≫ Next: Year 6 ICT trip to Legoland, Windsor

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Congratulations to Bela Reader and Luke Attwell who were both presented with Commendations in assembly this morning for their Outstanding work in English.

Year 6 ICT trip to Legoland, Windsor

September 26, 2013, 8:47 am

≫ Next: Becoming a Brandeston Buddy

≪ Previous: Headmaster’s Commendations

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Year 6 travelled down to Windsor this week for our annual visit to Legoland. The focus of the day was ‘Monitoring and Control’. The group started with a workshop and were introduced to Dr Heartbeat, a Lego robot controlled by the NXT computer brick. In pairs, the children had to make the robot complete a series of tasks by writing a program that was then sent to the robot by Bluetooth. The knowledge they acquired here will be the basis of work that the children will undertake once back in the classroom.

Next we moved on to Miniland, the fabulous reconstruction of famous land marks around the world. The children, by way of a quiz, scoured the models looking for ways that computers might be controlling the systems. We had a surprise treat when meeting Steve, the Miniland development manager, who gave us a tour of the system computers, an area not normally open to the public.

The day was finished off with time in the theme park, again looking for ways computers are helping with safety and entertainment, oh …… and having a little fun on the way!

Becoming a Brandeston Buddy

September 30, 2013, 3:30 am

≫ Next: Headmaster’s Commendations

≪ Previous: Year 6 ICT trip to Legoland, Windsor

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Brandeston Hall have had their own peer mentoring scheme since 2007 and the current year 7 has now undergone their one day training course. During the day they were involved in some fun exercises which helped to demonstrate the skills and qualities needed to make a good ‘Brandeston Buddy’. The pupils found out that being an attentive listener was really important but not always very easy. They learnt how to ask the right sort of questions, the importance of confidentiality and how to gain the trust of younger pupils. They also discussed the sorts of things that might make pupils unhappy and lead pupils to seek their help and they then worked on possible solutions that they could offer pupils who were experiencing difficulties.

They realised that the things people say and do can really affect self-esteem. Several pupils experienced this first hand as they were subjected to comments and actions that made them slip down the ladder of self-esteem but also felt their confidence grow when someone said or did something nice that made them climb back up. At the end of the session many of the year 7 pupils felt that they had learnt some very useful skills and were keen to fill in their application forms to become Brandeston Buddies.

Headmaster’s Commendations

October 3, 2013, 1:37 am

≫ Next: Year 7 visit to Walsingham

≪ Previous: Becoming a Brandeston Buddy

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This morning’s assembly saw the presentation of no less than 10 Headmaster’s Commendations. Congratulations to all the recipients who have all produced outstanding pieces of work; Xavier Bueno de Mesquita, Lucas Walker for outstanding holiday work, Thomas Bell for excellent work after European Languages Day. Saul Wells, Tiffany Ferguson, Martha Lawrence, Lucy Westmacott, Rebecca Garrard, Liberty Salsby and Ella Sunderland for outstanding work in English. Well done to all and keep up the good work.

Year 7 visit to Walsingham

October 3, 2013, 6:12 am

≫ Next: Poetry by Heart Competition

≪ Previous: Headmaster’s Commendations

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On Tuesday Year 7 visited the Roman Catholic National Shrine and the Anglican Shrine in Walsingham. Walsingham has always been a very special place to visit and this year was no different.

We were looked after at the Roman Catholic National Shrine by Sister Jane Louise and she guided the children around the Chapel of Reconciliationand explained to the children about the importance of the Eucharist, icons and symbolism.  We visited the stations of the cross that had been brought from all of England after World War II and visited the beautiful Slipper Chapel and the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. It was in this chapel that the birthday girl Isabella was invited to light a candle and where we had time to reflect.

After lunch in the wonderful gardens of the Anglican Shrine, we split into groups and were taken by our guides to discover the Holy House. Here the pupils learnt about Christian festivals and pilgrimage and discovered the beautiful artwork and statues that adorned the shrine.

It was a wonderful day and my thanks go to all of our guides at both shrines, Mr Myers-Allen and Miss Morrison-Bailey and for Year 7 for being such wonderful company and such fantastic ambassadors for the school.

 

Poetry by Heart Competition

October 8, 2013, 1:42 am

≪ Previous: Year 7 visit to Walsingham

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Juniors [L-R] Mimi Salsby, Lucas Walker, Xavier Bueno de Mesquita

Brandeston Hall celebrated World Poetry Day on October 3rd by holding the final of their Poetry by Heart competition. This was to be the first performance to take place in the fabulous new studio and the atmosphere was electric. An audience of parents, grandparents siblings and peers heard eight juniors and eight seniors recite a variety of poems from Shakespeare’s sonnet ‘Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day’ to ‘The Man Who Invented Football’ by Kit Wright.

The theme for this year’s World Poetry Day was water and so the two common poems the finalists were asked to recite were by John Masefield’s – ‘Cargoes’ and ‘Sea Fever’.

 

Seniors [L-R] Poppy Mayall, Flo Cornwall, Theo Walker, Oscar Welsh [front]

The standard was exceptionally high but Lucas Walker won through to win the Junior competition and Oscar Welsh the Senior. Congratulations to everyone who took part and thanks to Mr Leo Goldsmith and Mr Hugh Edwards, members of staff at Framlingham College, who kindly judged the competition.

Jan Norton, Head of English

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