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Dunannie >
What We are Doing > Events
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Events
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The Tooth Fairy and Cat Burglar join children from Dunannie for a Red Nose Day. The theme was “Night Time.”
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Christmas 2006
As Alice shrinks she finds herself in the bright colourful world that dreams are made of. Dancing oysters, magical flowers, marching cards and a whole host of imaginary creatures greet her as she travels through Wonderland. Everyone enjoyed being part of this year’s exciting Christmas production . A huge thank you to everyone who helped make it so successful.
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Art
This year everyone in school is taking part in the Take One Picture Experience at the National Gallery. Each class will be submitting work linked to the painting ‘Two Boys and a Girl making Music’ by Dutch artist Jan Molenaer. The children are using shoes as their inspiration and various pieces of work are currently being completed. This project is drawing together work from schools all over the country and from various areas of the curriculum.
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Brother Kevin visits Dunannie
Great anticipation at Dunannie this week as we had a rather unusual guest. Our visitor dressed in his Franciscan robes came to school to tell everyone about his life in a Friary.
Brother Kevin told the children the story which persuaded him to become a monk. St Francis of Assisi was a wealthy young man who was spoken to by God and encouraged to treat everyone as an equal brother and sister. He visited the sick and needy, and gave back all the worldly goods given to him by his father. He spent the rest of his life serving and helping others. |
Harvest Festival at Dunannie
Dunannie children gathered together last week, to celebrate Harvest Festival. During the week they had enjoyed decorating boxes and baskets and filling them with delicious cakes, homemade biscuits, jams and produce. Parents decorated the library with a colourful array of flowers and foliage and really helped to bring the world around us to the library.
This year’s celebration was a collection of songs, poems and readings about our environment, and how we should be thankful for everything the world gives us. Our speaker was The Revd. Joanna Farrell and she echoed the theme of being thankful for our world.
The produce was taken down to the residents at Ramscote, sheltered housing for the elderly and the Roberts Centre, a charity offering support for homeless families in Portsmouth.
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Judo Club
This term Judo club has been practising judo hold downs and throwing techniques. Ray Whitfield, the judo coach, is very pleased that some of the children have now obtained their red belts and tabs by demonstrating these moves and showing knowledge of the Japanese holds.
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African Day at Dunannie
The children in Year 3 have been spending much of their time visiting the various countries in Africa for this term’s project. Last week it was a village in Kenya on the east coast, this week the tour arrived in Cameroon in the West. Noah Messomo came into school to share the sights and sounds of his home in Cameroon, with the class. The day began with an assembly introducing all the children to instruments which came from Africa, together with some Noah had made himself. The drums were a huge hit. Sounds were loud, soft, tinkling and resounding as they echoed round the library, inspiring the children to become African musicians. Noah then spent the day with Year 3 teaching them African drum rhythms, songs and dances. Everyone enjoyed his traditional stories and joined in with unusual sound effects. The day wouldn’t have been complete without dressing up and getting into character, so everyone chose from Noah’s fabrics and created wonderfully coloured costumes. Songs and rhythms learnt, Year 3 ended the day by giving a rousing performance to their parents and the rest of the school.
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Chinese New Year
With colourful streamers dangling from Chinese fans; the
Dance Club, under the watchful eye of their dance teacher Fiona Morris,
twisted and spun, high and low around the Library in time to the atmospheric music.They have enjoyed working with Fiona's
choreography and learning some traditional Chinese moves.
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Drama at Dunannie
A safari to Kenya, waiting on in a Victorian house, meeting the three little
pigs, a trip on a pirate ship and a daring cave rescue! What an exciting day!
The children were kept very busy last week as they entered the world of role play, during a drama workshop with Alastair Black.
As the day progressed , the children had the opportunity to transform themselves into a variety of characters. Using the
simplest of props and their imaginations, each class entered a story based on their current project. A screen was used as a
backdrop, and pictures were displayed on the screen which inspired the children to begin their drama journeys. In the hot,
dry lands of Africa, Year 3 accompanied ‘Prof Black’ on his safari to photograph
animals. Year 1 met ‘The Prince of darkness’, and helped him to turn night into day for their Light and Dark
project and Year 2 were changed into Victorian servants bustling below stairs in a Victorian Home. The Reception Class and
the Nursery both travelled on secret missions to find hidden treasure. Drama can be used in many situations and across the
curriculum, to extend children’s learning. With Alastair’s help and inspirational teaching, everyone had a
truly fantastic day. The adventures didn’t stop with the children, as the staff had their own workshop after school.
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| A Story Telling Day with Tony Aylwyn
Dunannie Library turned into a hive of activity when story teller Tony Aylwyn came to visit last week. He spent the morning with the children, telling traditional stories from around the
world. They were taken on a whirlwind trip, from the cold lands of the north to the sunny climes of the
Caribbean, meeting a whole host of interesting characters. Each class spent time with Tony,
everyone listening to different stories. Year 3 worked in small groups practising story telling skills and perfecting their given
stories. At each step of the way the storyline was embellished with the tellers’ own imagination. After lunch a flurry of
colourful cloths were draped around the library, as story telling tents emerged in every corner. The younger children were then
treated to an exciting hour of story telling from Year 3, each group snuggled into a tent with its own story tellers.
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26th January 2006
Peter Pan
This year’s play was full of fun and exciting characters. Thanks to our wonderful parents who spent many hours painting, sticking and sewing colourful scenery and innovative costumes, Jenny’s last performance with us, was a huge success. Looking for his shadow, Peter Pan and his mischievous friend Tinkerbelle, creep into the nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, Michael and John. The children wake up and so begins a wonderful story of wicked pirates, lost boys and fierce Indians. Dunannie children have enjoyed bringing a modern twist to the classic J M Barry fairy story. With New Romantic style pirates, camouflaged lost boys and beautiful dancing planets, the children journey through the magical adventure created by drama teacher Jenny de Jongh. The production was not complete of course, without the menacing TICK TOCK of Captain Hook’s enemy the crocodile.’ Good Luck Jenny from us all!
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26th January 2006
Dunannie’s New Orchestra
Making music has always been very important at Dunannie and this year sees the return of the Dunannie Orchestra. Carol Innes, music teacher from Dunhurst has gathered together pupils and staff to come and enjoy playing as a group. They had their very first performance just before Christmas and amazed everyone with how well they all played. After several practice bows, encores could be heard from the audience and many children are now looking forward to when they are able to join.
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01 December 2005
The Vikings have Arrived
Imagine the scene. Gounar, the chief of a Viking tribe has died and is being cremated in the traditional manner to ensure that he takes his rightful place in Valhalla. The tribe have built a huge fire and placed Gounar on it, in a specially built long ship for his journey. Everyone has brought a gift to appease the gods, sacrifices of food and treasures. Gounar’s favourite slave is to accompany him on the journey and she performs a haunting dance around the fire before the Angel of Death, dressed in black, makes the sacrifice. Role play is an excellent vehicle for learning and with the help of two fantastic actors, from the ‘Theatre Exchange’ company, Year 3 learnt all about this Viking ritual by imagining and acting it out.Transformed into Vikings and with only a few props, the class were guided to use their imaginations to create a Saxon village and follow its history under the attacking Vikings. From learning about traditional Viking life, to creeping through dangerous woods and attacking vicious enemies, everyone had a brilliant day and went home with many sagas to tell.
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15 November 2005
Dunannie Community Weaving
On Tuesday afternoon the children from Dunannie school walked up to Bedales for the presentation of their Badley Weekend Community Weaving. The Badley Weekend, held a few weeks ago, brought together pupils, staff and parents to work on community projects. Everyone enjoyed weaving squares of textured yarns which were then sewn into a colourful hanging. The deputy head of Bedales, Leo Winkley and members of the student council were present to accept Dunannie’s gift to Bedales School. The weaving was hung in the Reading Room, part of Bedales’ new building and everyone agreed the colours shone out against the simplicity of the room.
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November 2005
Human Body Workshop
Last week Year 1 took part in The Human Body Workshop, a fast moving, informative, fun session to help them understand how their bodies work. The children’s first task was a warm-up involving turning themselves into bananas and pineapples. After that they were transported into Professor Frazzle’s class where a rather annoying boy Arnold had invented a shrinking machine that actually worked! It shrank the children and their teacher who ended up inside Arnold’s unhealthy body after standing on a crisp which Arnold ate.
Groups then acted out the various organs which they met in Arnold’s body: a stomach that wanted healthy vegetables and fruit instead of the smelly food that Arnold was used to; lungs that needed constant cleaning because Arnold did not have enough fresh air; a sad heart which worked too slowly as a result of lack of exercise on Arnold’s part; a brain which told the children how to get out of the body and a nostril which was the children’s means of exit. When the children returned to Professor Frazzle’s classroom and became their normal size they had various messages from Arnold’s body to give him: to eat more fruit and vegetables for a healthy digestive system; to eat leafy vegetables and spinach for healthy blood; to take exercise and have plenty of fresh air for a healthy heart and lungs. The children went home with plenty of interesting tales to tell. 
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01 October 2005
The Badley Weekend
Community Spirit on a Sunny Sunday Morning
Last weekend Bedales school held the Badley Weekend, a time for the whole school community to come together to share and improve their environment. Dunannie, Bedales pre-prep school, held several events which many of the families were able to enjoy.
On the warm, sunny Sunday morning the children planted a thousand bulbs in the Dunannie orchard and then followed an environmental Scavenger Hunt around the school grounds, collecting treasure as they went. Apples from the orchard were transformed into fruity sculptures and delicious sticky apple tarts, these were enjoyed by everyone at the community lunch held at Bedales. Enthusiastic murmurs could also be heard coming from the library as parents, as well as the children were caught up in the excitement of making a colourful woven panels. These will be joined together to create a woven hanging for the Bedales reading room. Such was the eagerness that some fathers could be seen leaving school with their unfinished weaving tucked under their arm.
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Harvest Festival
Fruits of the Earth Click here for Photo Viewer
Harvest Festival is a chance to celebrate and give thanks for the beautiful world around us. We all had a strong sense of community celebrating together. The children looked wonderful, the colours of their clothes reflected in the rich autumnal flowers decorating the room. Gifts were collected and will be greatly appreciated by the homeless families using The Roberts Centre and our elderly friends at Ramscote in Petersfield. The singing and music was brilliant and it was a pleasure to welcome Revd Rob Dewing, the Vicar of Sheet, as our guest speaker. Afterwards Year 3 entertained their parents as well as the Parents’ Committee and then we all enjoyed a harvest lunch.
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Events
