Wednesday 24 July 2013

Finally...

Well the long awaited end of term has arrived and we have said goodbye for the final time to our year 6.

The last few weeks of term certainly were packed full- I hope that you all enjoyed the concert on Monday evening- it was lovely to see such great support on the night and the children displayed their varying talents magnificently. Your children certainly made me proud of what they achieved and how they have grown in confidence as they have gone through the school.

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you  for my very generous gifts. I wish you a very happy summer which I hope is a warm and sunny one wherever you are headed, be it the parks of Harpenden or further afield.

I look forward to seeing some very smartly dressed year sevens as I drive to school in September and maybe one or two will pop in to let us know how the new term is going.

Once again, thank you and enjoy your summer. I'm off for a glass of something lightly chilled!

Pamela Doran

Friday 12 July 2013

Silent Auction


An opportunity to purchase a piece of your child's artwork- well a piece that they have worked on in a group of four!

Last term as part of their Harry Potter topic the children created some canvases based on the idea of Quidditch and movement in art. You can now purchase their artwork. Place your silent bid in a sealed envelope with your name and the name of your child so we know which picture it relates to and drop it in to the school office.
Bids need to be received by Friday 19th July. Winning bids will be announced on the evening of Monday 22nd July at the Leavers' Concert when we will need your payments and you will be able to take your new masterpiece away with you.
















Thursday 4 July 2013

Thursday's news

Well Thursday has arrived and this afternoon the sun has finally returned, let's hope it stays out longer than this morning when the sight of Mr Pattrick's sunglasses frightened it back behind the clouds!

Yesterday ended with a great game of ambush in the woods- split into three groups, two went to hide and one had to find and ambush the others to earn points. How 21 children can hide so successfully in the centre of a hollybush without giving themselves away by talking I would never have believed if I hadn't been hiding with them. Very prickly underfoot it was too!

Thursday began with another epic breakfast- some of these children may well arrive home with great expectations of Saturday mornig's offerings! Following breakfast the groups set off for a variety of team games, giant swing, zip wire and a bit more quad biking.

The general consensus of opinion seems to be that Harpenden's roads should be very wary in 6 years time when this lot get their first licences as not many of them seem to be able to find the brakes... Consequently, there were quite a few crashes with the tyre barriers. Still, everyone lived to tell the tale and move onto another exciting afternoon's activties.

Challenge champions of the week so far must go to Scott, Charlie H and Angelika who would never have imagined three days ago that they could fly off the top of a 15 metre high tower dangling on a rope. Zip wire has definitely stretched some children to their limits, but their determination to succeed despite their fear of heights has on occasion brought a tear to the eye!
We do have the video and photo evidence to prove it so look out for some of these on open evening next week.

Everyone has been fantastic while we have been away- sporting and willing to have a go, considerate of other people's feelings and well behaved- a credit to Crabtree. I am sure that when you get them home tomorrow they will have many of their own anecdotes to share aswell as a suitcase of dirty washing!

I must say the biggest thank you of all to the adults without whom this trip really would not have been possible. a more game group of people could not have been asked for.

On that note I will end my final update from PGL.

See you all tomorrow afternoon.

Mrs Doran and the Marchant's Hill team

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Hello from Marchant's Hill.

Marchant's Hill: Wednesday

We are all having a great time here, although this morning the weather could be warmer!

Tuesday began with a variety of climbing, abseiling, hiking, fencing and other exciting activities which saw many of the children overcoming fears of heights and general misgivings about their own abilities.
Charlie K, we discovered, is our resident expert on fencing and was coaching alongside the instructor- a talent none us knew about. It was quite amusing to see some of the quieter members of the year challenge their partner to a duel by slapping their opponents helmeted face from side to side with a fencing glove- some got quite carried away, but all in good fun!

We saw a new side to Angelika on the trampoline playing aeroball and Charlie H has proved to be a real bouncing bean- he nearly bounced hinself into the goal!

Last night was spent singing and dancing to songs around the campfire, finishing off with toasted marshmallows and an interactive story.

After a short night's sleep the first night everyone, including the adults were all too glad to climb into their cosy beds on Tuesday while the rain hammered down overnight.

Today instead of the children waking up the adults- I'm sure some of them turned into tap dancing fairy elephants in the room above me on Tuesday night- we were waking up some very bleary eyed children!

This morning saw the end of the rain, although it is still very grey, and after another hearty breakfast (no one can complain about the choice or amount of food available here) the children have all headed off to their first activities of the day- today we have more hiking, problem solving- not maths problems set by Mrs Doran and Mr Pattrick as some of the children thought!- the giant swing, zip wire and archery.

That's all for now as there's a giant swing to be had if I'm quick!

Mrs Doran and the Super Star Team of Adults from Marchants Hill