Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Small is beautiful

Sunningdale was featured in an article in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday about the advantages of small schools. You can read the article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/8538551/Parents-are-choosing-smaller-prep-schools.html


One Week to Go

While many schools are on half term this week, we are full steam ahead in the preparations for Common Entrance which begins on Monday. I think that it is so important that the boys are here this week so that we can continue to help them right up to their exams and make sure that they peak at just the right time.

Friday, May 27, 2011

It's all Greek to me!

What a pleasure it is to see Greek thriving once again at Sunningdale. This morning three boys brought Greek show ups to me. They are really enjoying studying the language and doing very well indeed. This is a great sign of the continuing academic strength at Sunningdale.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Telling the time

Recently, when teaching the time in French, I have discovered that a number of our youngest boys do not know how to tell the time on an analogue clock. They are aware of time but they are so used to seeing the time in a digital format that they have not learnt to read a normal clock. I would encourage all parents of young children to make sure that they have plenty of analogue clocks around at home and to draw children's attention to those clocks on regular occasions.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

DT

The boys are loving DT and have made some fantastic projects.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Great Weekend

What a fantastic, action packed weekend!

On Saturday most of the boys were involved in cricket matches against St. Andrew's Pangbourne. The first and second elevens both recorded excellent victories, both sides bowling their opponents out for under a hundred. In the evening, as previously mentioned, a group of boys went over to St. George's, Ascot for a social.

On Sunday, the Mothers and Sons tennis was a great success, helped by the fact that the weather held off, although it was a little breezy! The go-karters raced with daredevil abandon and thoroughly enjoyed themselves (and came back safely!).

In the evening, a large number of parents came to chapel to hear Mr Keith Metcalfe preach in chapel. Mr Metcalfe is the housemaster of Lyon's at Harrow. He delighted the boys by getting them to throw rugby, football and cricket balls around chapel to huge cheers. Certainly a very popular sermon!


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Social at St. George's!

Boys on one side - girls on the other! Early days!

The new building - nearly done!

Time for a catch up

I have been very slack at updating the blog this term so it is time for a catch up. It has been so busy that it is difficult to know where to start.

Over the holidays several projects were carried out. We now have three new dormitories for the youngest boys and I am thrilled with them. The boys seem to love them as well although the current lack of curtains has not been ideal. That should be completed by the end of this weekend though. The redevelopment of the courtyard in the middle of the school is very nearly complete. It really has transformed that area. I will post an updated photograph later today.

The term has started very well. On the academic side the two Eton scholars performed very well although they just missed out on an award. We heard yesterday that our Winchester candidate was safely through and the rest of the CE candidates all completed their French Listening, French Oral and Maths Listening this week.

The magnificent weather at the start of term has been perfect for cricket. There have been some good performances throughout the school with plenty of boys making good runs and taking plenty of wickets. The 1st XI were robbed of a victory on Wednesday because of the rain but will hopefully get another chance today against Brockhurst.

The athletics team have got off to a flying start. Already this term they have recorded wins against Hall Grove, Bishopsgate and Ludgrove. The senior Victor Ludorum looks set to be a very exciting competition on Sports Day.

So a busy start. Not long now until Common Entrance so lots of work to do. Updates will be much more regular from now on.