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6 October 2006
Group 3F and 3M, Bedales Olivier Theatre

Group 3F and 3M enjoyed two highly creative days with Helen Porter (director/composer) and Joe Gladwin (puppeteer). The fruits of their work, 'The Ballad of the Eyes that Wandered the World' will provided a unique start to the Counterparts MTA production of 'Songs from the Shadows' at the Olivier Theatre on Friday 6 October at 7.30pm.

The Group 3 ballad combines creative writing, choral speaking and singing with shadow animation. With the help of an overhead projector and an abundance of card and scissors, Group 3 produced colourful shadow puppets to illustrate their ballad.

WebPlay – Group 1

 Group 1 have started the WebPlay project which they will work on for the rest of the year.

Using a safe internet site, specifically designed to enable children to communicate with children in schools across the world, the Group 1s will be learning how to communicate successfully through the written word.

In this initial stage the children have been learning about how to use the internet safely and have just started building their individual web pages. They have been practising writing interesting messages to welcome visitors to their web pages as well as learning how to write about themselves in a manner that should make others curious to read further. They have learned how to send and receive ‘stickies’ (a form of e-mail) to communicate with each other and how to collect ‘buddies’ so that they can interact quickly and safely on the internet. My buddy list contains most of the class already!

As the project progresses the children will be meeting the children of a partner school in Los Angles via this web link. By building a full image of them through a process of question and answer they will eventually gather sufficient material about their partner children to write and make a play.

The Group 1s are already excited by this work and keen to log onto their webpages to keep the ‘stickies’ flying. We will keep you updated as we progress and hope that ultimately we will be able to invite you to watch our film!

Saturday 30 September 2006
Badley Afternoon

 Last Saturday saw Dunhurst pupils and staff all working together ‘doing and making’ in the true Badley tradition. In a shorter session than last year we engaged in a wide variety of tasks around the school. To appreciate the scope and to remind everyone of their achievement, I have, ‘for the record’, made a list of the works:

Bench building, path and borders tidying, tree planting, tree pruning, soil and compost moving, pot and hanging basket planting, raking, greenhouse tidying, bonfire moving, stream dredging and apple pressing.

With some activities there was an element of ‘Challenge Anneka’. (Darran and team attempting to move 15 tons of topsoil with three barrows and five spades!) and with others there was a more creative ‘Groundforce’ approach (Wendy’s garden….). Most importantly there was a tangible sense of the School’s community during the afternoon’s whole school effort.

Badley insisted that such enterprise is undeniably healthy work, it is also real work and necessary work similar to that done by millions, but above all he felt it was unselfish work.

On Saturday we again proved that working together we can make a real difference to our school environment as well as enhancing our sense of being Dunhurstians.

25 September 2006
Union Dance Workshop

The Blocks had a great opportunity to learn from ‘the masters’ during a dance workshop led by two members of Union Dance Company. After an extremely thorough warm-up our budding dancers were put through their paces trying to learn, memorise and perform some great dance moves. Towards the end of the session the children were given some time to use what they’d learnt and make up their own dances to show us at the end. In between the laughter and fun our Dunhurstians did us proud with some great performances.

On Tuesday evening, the 26th, we had the chance to watch the dance company in action. We saw some breathtaking dancing and many murmurs of “how do they do that?” were heard. The performance contained some excellent visual effects and many of us left the theatre thoroughly inspired.

26 September 2006
French Day, le 26 septembre

Our special French day was held earlier than usual this year, to coincide with events throughout Europe, celebrating the European Day of Languages.

We got off to a lively start with a language and cultural awareness quiz and a presentation by our two resident French citizens – Sophie and Clémence – on differences in life across the Channel. Then followed a memorable ‘test the teacher’ time which saw three supremely fashion-conscious English citizens – Alan, Andrew and Darran – putting to the test their knowledge of French vocabulary for clothes. The biggest problem seemed to be actually getting into the clothes: must be the different sizing system in France!!

Many classroom activities centred around France: the history of the Eiffel Tower, the French Revolution, the work of Louis Pasteur, ‘Les animaux marins’, extreme fashion shows and games of ‘boules’ among them.

Our day was punctuated by “haute cuisine” willingly and energetically supplied by the catering department, and came to a close with an assembly during which various groups of students demonstrated what they had been learning during the day: some fine drama sketches by Block II on language and communication, French songs from the Groups, and from Block I a classroom sketch in French and a presentation on aspects of the work of Matisse.

21 September 2006
Block II National Gallery Visit

Science and Art came together at the National Gallery last week when Alan gave the Block IIs a talk on the painting ‘An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump’ by Joseph Wright of Derby. As well as holding the pupils’ attention he had several passers-by gripped by his lecture too. The pupils have been studying air vacuums in Science to link in with the viewing of this work. Later on the pupils produced sketches of their chosen paintings.

This is what Thomas Millar had to say about the painting he chose to study: Jesus Blessing the Child by Nicholas Maes:

“I liked the way that when I looked at the painting on the computer it looked good but when I saw it in the National Gallery it was very impressive. I am not a very big art fan but that painting was amazing! It had so much description and it was so big and life-like.”

 Jacques Grierson wrote:

“During the National Gallery visit we were shown some paintings by a guide. One of these was the Judgement of Paris by Rubens. The guide told us what the three women in the painting were doing. They were showing off their beauty to Hermes and Paris. They were Aphrodite, Athena and Hera. All three thought they were more beautiful than the other. In the end Paris chose Aphrodite, because Paris is holding up a golden apple towards her. I liked the trip very much and liked the lunch at Leicester Square too, although was disappointed   to find no golden apple in my lunch bag.”

15 – 17 September 2006
Block I Sailing Weekend

 Block I spent this weekend at the United Kingdom Sailing Academy at Cowes. This was a first visit for Dunhurst and so there was great anticipation as to how it would be from pupils and staff alike. We need not have worried as, from the start, we had great fun – helped in no small part by kindly weather, which ended up verging on scorching for the time of year, as well as fair winds.

Our start on Friday was unusual in that rather than take a conventional ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight we went by a small ‘Jollyboat’ from the Hamble and disembarked at UKSA. After fitting for wetsuits and buoyancy aids we were soon all engaged in the ‘Ironman Challenge’, a series of activities which rather than being too strenuous ensured that we were well acquainted with the waters of the Medina River!

Next day everyone rotated between sailing and windsurfing in the morning and afternoon sessions and by the end there was a general feeling of euphoric exhaustion. Then, before our passage back to school on Sunday, we managed a further session of kayaking and sailing.

9 – 10 September 2006
Peer Listening

Fourteen keen new recruits for our Peer Listening Scheme went to the Isle of Wight to participate in a two-day training programme over this weekend. The success of this scheme is proven by the fact that it is now in its sixth year.

After an initial training with Childline, training is now done in-house, enabling pupils to develop two important life skills: listening and empathy. The Peer Listeners are recruited from the top year group, Block II, and make themselves available to support other pupils in the school. It has become a widely used and popular scheme: 35 children applied and were interviewed for the 14 available places this year.

After a busy first week back at Dunhurst the new Peer Listeners, Pam, James and Elaine were all eager to enjoy the glorious weather and to make Totland Bay beach our classroom for the two days.

Pebbles, shells and sand made a pleasant change from computers and whiteboards, and breaks from training could enable us to enjoy paddling in the sea, collecting stones and eating ice cream. In the evening we all enjoyed playing charades and were entertained by Laura’s and Darren’s feverishly competitive personalities.

Over the weekend it became apparent that we have an impressive and highly empathetic group of young people in this year’s Peer Listening team. On returning from our weekend they are all eager to put their newly acquired skills into practice.

July 2005
Dunhurst LAMBA Acting Exam Results

We have had another outstanding year of LAMDA acting examination results at Dunhurst.  We had two separate sessions of exams this summer and both the examiners who came to the school have been hugely impressed by the standard of the work and have marked them accordingly.  So, for 2005, we have had 5 ordinary level passes, 18 Merits and 18 Distinctions and 7of those Distinctions were near-perfect marks - an extraordinary achievement in the critical field of drama! 

£2200,00 raised by HOPIT

HOPIT Committee present a cheque for £2200,00 to Graham Cook, who visited Dunhurst on behalf of The Kings World Trust for Children. The money was raised for the charity's tsunami relief fund by a sale of unwanted Christmas gifts, 'Outrageous Day' and a pupil's personal efforts busking.

Centenary concert at Sutton's Hospital, Charterhouse, London

From Lara Budge, Joey Dale and Peter Mabe.

On Saturday, thirty-three musicians went to the beautiful Charterhouse estate in the middle of London. We were amazed by the grand architecture of the Tudor buildings and the beautiful decoration of the Elizabeth I Drawing Room where we gave the concert.

We practised during the morning and then went to the Waterside Café at the Barbican for lunch.

In the afternoon, we performed to family and friends and the elderly gentlemen or ‘Brothers’ who live in Sutton’s Hospital. The programme included music for choir, solo instrumentalists including Peter Mabe playing the Mozart Flute Concerto in D major, two wind ensembles, brass ensemble, Bach Violin Concerto in A minor (Katrina Duncan and String Ensemble) and music by the fiddlechix. Our favourite item was ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’ sung by Kate Banks and Ella Clayton Bell. The concert raised £600 for Sutton’s Hospital.
The audience gave a huge round of applause; well sung and well played everyone.

From Melanie

We had an excellent day; remarkable music making in a remarkable venue.

Many of us know who we are by reference to our past, to group memories and the objects which absorb and reflect us. Saturday’s music making in the historic setting of the Great Hall provided Dunhurst musicians, parents, friends and staff with a radiant memory of the Dunhurst Centenary celebrations.

Fantastic Success in Music Exams

Of the forty-one pupils who took individual music exams last term all passed and better still, there were twelve distinctions and sixteen merits! Few schools can boast such achievements.