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Arts Week

The week beginning 20th October saw the School holding its annual Arts Week.  All of the children worked within their House Groups spending a day on a different activity - art, dance, drama, music and performance and production.  The enjoyment, creativity and quality of work produced was once again outstanding.

Here are a few photos from the week...

P.T.A. Events

The BAGS2SCHOOL event in September was a huge success with lots of second-hand clothes, toys and bedding collected in large plastic sacks.  These will all be transported across Europe to help those less fortunate than ourselves, and the School will receive £393 based on the weight of the bags collected.

The Race Night, held on Saturday 11th October, was once again another exciting evening for all the family.  Young and old cheered on their horses in the hope that they would cross the finishing line first.  The event raised more than £500.

Super Learning Day

Pupils in Years 7 & 8 spent the whole day, on 7th October, working in small groups in our first Super Learning Day.  The groups had to design and make a tissue box, with a brand name, advertising poster and television advert.  Each class selected a winner, and then a winner was selected from within each Year Group.  This fantastic fun-filled day provided lots of opportunities for the children to develop their thinking, creative, leadership and teamwork skills.  The finished products were wonderful and lots of children received rewards.

Harvest Festival

Our Harvest Festival Assembly took place on Friday 26th September.  Pupils brought in a fantastic selection of food – tins, packets and fresh produce – and these were later distributed to Senior Citizens homes in the village and to St John’s Hospice at Moggerhanger.  Mrs Hitch was our guest speaker and the children received clear messages about being thankful, as well as reflecting on the desperate needs of many people throughout the World.

Remembrance

As in previous years, the School has supported the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.  

Children, representing the School, placed a poppy wreath on the village war memorial at the Service of Remembrance.  

All pupils have focused on “Remembrance” during assemblies and tutor sessions, and will be observing two minutes’ silence at 11 o’clock on Tuesday 11th November.

French Trip 2009

In March, fifty-three of our Year 7 pupils and eight staff, went on a residential trip to France.  They stayed in the Château de la Baudonnière in Normandy.

The pupils took part in various activities organised by the centre staff of the Chateau e.g. assault course, archery, French classes, climbing wall, initiative exercises, bread making, fencing and orienteering.

In addition, they visited a French market in Villedieu and had a day’s excursion to Arromanches (site of the D-Day Landings).  A wonderful time was had by all.

“The Wiz”

This year’s Key Stage 3 Drama Production was a spectacular performance of “The Wiz”, a modern musical version of ‘the Wizard of Oz’.  Over sixty children, with outstanding performances from the lead characters, performed to packed audiences during the last week of the Spring term.

Fun Run

Our annual sponsored Fun Run took place on Friday 24th April with over five hundred children, staff and parents taking part.  Over £6,000 has been pledged in sponsorship.

The boy and girl in each Year Group who completed the most laps received medals, along with the best judged fancy dress competitions.   The overall boys and girls’ winners were:

James Cornish and Charlie-Rose King.

Talent show

The annual Talent show took place on the last day of Spring term, with twenty six acts of a wide range of skills to the whole School.  Everyone marvelled at the talent on show.

The winners were:

Years 5/6

1st Maya Derrick, Georgia Rose, Fern Sheppard, Eleanor Roberts

2nd Ellie Downing

3rd Tyler Ball

Years 7/8

1st Daisey Cooke, Freya Attenborough, Imogen Jenner, Jamie Price, Louisa Steeley & Elle McGregor

2nd Lucy Nimmo

3rd Halina McNeil

Ski Trip to Austria, 2009

The Journey

The journey there was very long and tiring. We left Henlow at 3:00pm, a little later than planned and had a long traffic delay on the M25. This meant we missed the original ferry crossing and had to travel to France on the Euro Tunnel. We eventually travelled through France and Germany, arriving in Austria about 4:30pm on Saturday. When we eventually saw the hotel and resort, we were all happy and pleased to have finally arrived.

On the Ski Slopes

The skiing was BRILLIANT! On the first two days, we went to Hinterglemm. The snow was good and we all managed to use the button lift - some with more success than others! Everybody enjoyed themselves and we all made excellent progress.  On the other days we went to a small town called Saalbach. Saalbach was a much better Ski Resort than Hinterglemm: it was higher and steeper, with better snow. Everybody had a great time and by the end of the week we were all shattered but able to ski. On one of the days in Saalbach, we used the gondola to go to the top of the mountain and took a group photograph. What a view! What an AMAZING week!

Entertainment

Every night we had some entertainment. The first night was the quiz: we had six rounds on such things as Sports, General Knowledge, and Picture Round. On one of the other nights we had a disco or we could watch a DVD instead: Most of us chose the disco, we had a dance off, and there was lots of great music - it was great fun. We were also allowed time to go shopping which was also really good fun: they had some brilliant shops. On Wednesday we all went out for a pizza and ice-cream: yummy!

The Journey Home

All too soon, it was time to leave: 6:30pm on Friday, straight after tea. We arrived back at Henlow about 1:00 pm on the Saturday afternoon. We were all so tired and exhausted that we slept for most of the journey. Despite having had one of the most fantastic weeks ever, we were all very happy to see our families waiting for us.

Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made the trip possible, and especially to the teachers that gave up their time. Thanks for a FANTASTIC week.

Eleanor Marshall and Bethany Palmer

PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALLER OPENS M.U.G.A

Local lad, Jack Collison, of West Ham United and Wales, was the special guest at the opening ceremony of Henlow V. C. Middle School’s new synthetic multi use games area (Muga) on Monday 8th June.  This new resource is a jointly funded, project between the School and Henlow Parish Council, with additional support from the former Mid Beds District Council.  The facility is available for hire outside of school hours, by contacting Bert Shrier (Clerk to the Parish Council) on (01462) 811800.