Hurst Lodge is Going Green

Last term, pupils from year 9 wrote lyrics for a school eco song with Mrs Hooker. The best lines were chosen, Lauren M composed some music, and we’ve now finished recording the song and shooting the video.

‘Hurst Lodge Is Going Green’ has been entered into a Co-operative’s ‘Green Schools Revolution’ competition and the video has been uploaded onto the home page of the school website. Many pupils from the Kindergarten to the Sixth Form were involved in the recording and filming process.

 https://vimeo.com/42632138

The Forest School

Over the past three weeks Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 have been experimenting with plasticine, they have been making ‘Hursties’ (the things that live in the woods at school).   The children let their  imagination flow and made Hurstie people, animals and monsters. We talked about their Hursties, what they were called and what they might like doing.  We then moved the activity on and the children started creating lodges for the Hursties to live in. We had houses, rooms and hidey-holes appearing all over the woods.

With the constant wet weather we started one of our sessions in the classroom with some creative writing about the Hursties.  Some of the children wrote a description of their Hurstie’s life and other wrote stories about an adventure their Hursties had. We then ventured outside where the children developed their lodges further, with some of them redesigning them to try and keep the rain out!  So if you venture down to the woods please look out for Hursties and try not to stamp on their lodges.

Academic Achievement

Yesterday afternoon I listened to a talk given by Lord Adonis where he addressed the difference and future of the independent sector and the state sector. He confirmed that levels of academic attainment in the United Kingdom are average worldwide and struggle to match success particularly in the far East. At odds with these findings are the levels of academic attainment of  independent schools in the UK which rival and exceed the very best in the world. I feel we should never be complacent however and examining why our sector succeeds will ensure a future of academic excellence. At our school I believe it is the confidence and security our students feel, coupled with small class sizes, a first rate, dedicated staff and a wonderfully supportive parental body that enables success. We will continue to strive to improve every aspect of education here at Hurst Lodge, but I also feel it is important to acknowledge the success we achieve and to thank the staff for their efforts and enthusiasm and to thank you all for your support. I am confident we will once again see fantastic results in the public examinations this year and wish our students all the very best over the coming weeks.