Mr Spanswick's Words Lent 10

For those of you who were lucky enough to attend our music concert on Tuesday evening, I am sure you will agree it was a wonderful event where our Key Stage 2 pupils had the opportunity to express themselves through a variety of different genres of music, all relating to the theme of ‘Sport’. I must commend the boys for their skill and their attitude - personally, it has been the highlight of my academic year so far. Many thanks to Mr Rowan, our Director of Music for his endless inspiration and to Mrs Stevenson, our new music teacher, who has done a super job with the choir in such a short space of time. My favourite song of the evening was the African themed ‘Mayebu iAfrica’ by Vusi Mahlasela which was sung by all of Year 5 and 6 - an absolute gem. It was also lovely to see our Year 2 and 3 boys take part in a slightly formal but equally impressive concert on Thursday afternoon where the boys had the chance to perform some lovely songs in front of their parents. It has been a very musical week!

Mrs Vine has been working hard with our Young Writers’ and some of our Year 5 and 6 boys are competing to enter their work into the ISA National Creative Writing Awards. As I have mentioned before, we try to teach a great deal of our English through the medium of Creative Writing as it provides a platform for boys to express, to think critically as well develop expressive skills, and a wonderful to develop proofreading of grammar and punctuation….something boys are not always known to excel at!! I hope to give you further news of our Young Writers next week. Also next week, boys in Year 5 will have the opportunity in English to produce a piece of writing to be submitted to a more local competition, organised by Maidenhead Rotary club.

As you will see from our gallery, the sunshine has brought the classroom outside! Many teachers took the opportunity for some practical Maths and Science lessons in the sun, even Humanities were getting in on the act! We are very lucky with the varied environment we have on our site, and boys were able to experience really a ‘hands on’ approach to learning.

I was extremely proud to hear last Monday about the exploits of our Karate stars at a tournament held at Windsor Boys School. The boys from Claires Court literally stole the show and lots of silverware - do take a look at our pictures in the gallery. Many congratulations go to all the competitors and results can be seen below.

Under 7 Individual Kata ("form") -

1st Place - CCJB Moksha Suriarachchi

3rd Place - CCJB Jack Cairns

Age 8 Individual Kata ("form") -

1st Place - CCJB Aaran Hitschmann

2nd Place - CCJB Edward Look

3rd Place - CCJB Kida Zhou

Under 8 Group Kata ("form") -

2nd Place - CCJB Team "The Japanese Warriors" (Junwen Liew, Moksha Suriarachchi and Aaran Hitschmann)

Age 8 Kumite (Sparring) -

1st Place - CCJB Sander Andreasen

2nd Place - CCJB Kida Zhou

3rd Place - CCJB Aaran Hitschmann

Special Mention -Three 5 yr olds from CCJB, Adam Cairns, Ethan Cairns and Kanishka Suriarachchi, also competed in the Under 7 Individual Kata category and were awarded Participation Medals - they performed brilliantly for their age.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be part of the Under 9 Football tour which saw our A and B teams travel down to Bournemouth and take on some of the schools and clubs down on the south coast. The boys had a brilliant time and the staff were very impressed with their attitude and their skill level, especially on the Saturday morning when they played some very tough games on slightly less sleep than they are used to at home! Between them they played 4 games, won 2, drew 1 and lost 1. Our Year 4 Bushcrafters also enjoyed their expedition day and are now to be considered as proper ‘Bushman!’ They also played a football tournament on the Saturday morning at school and had a wonderful time.

The kitchen staff have been excited this week as we have bought new tables and chairs for the boys to sit on at lunchtime. They were slightly bigger than I first anticipated but we have managed to squeezed them in!

As I write this Year 2 have just returned from the National Archives where they had a brilliant time doing lots of research!! By all accounts, every member of staff who met the group commented on how well behaved they were, how animated, and how polite - well done chaps.

There is a very busy weekend ahead with the Under 8, 9 and 11 boys playing in Football and rugby tournaments, along with the small matter of our Easter Egg hunt!! I hope to see many of you there for the fun and games (and the chocolate!), and we are praying for some nice weather! On the matter of parking for this event, please note that parking will be on the school sports fields (please wear the right sort of shoes for this!) and disabled parking will be at the front of the school (where Kiss and Drop usually takes place). It promises to be lots of fun. On the matter of chocolate, I was delighted to be awarded with a huge cake this morning in assembly by some of the Year 3 boys who had conducted their 3-4-3 charity cake sale on Wednesday. So what prize did I win? First place for the person who ate the most cookies…...I was filled with both pride and embarrassment!!!

Just a reminder that our whole school Workshare is on Thursday next week - please ensure that you have filled in the relevant forms. It is a great chance for you to come and see how hard your son has been working.