There was a great buzz in the air last Friday as the children arrived at school in anticipation of taking part in the activities planned for International Day. The day began with an assembly where Alex Rankin from The Farakunku Foundation came in to talk about the positive impact that the children’s fundraising is having at the school that we are supporting in the Gambia. Those children that were in national dress got the opportunity to stand up in the assembly and show off their amazing outfits.  After assembly we began the cake sale which was very busy and successful, a big thank you to all of those families who donated the cakes to sell.

After break we began our activities working in our houses. The children in Foundation took part in some great activities. Mrs Collins had organised The Great Bake Off, whilst Mrs Vass had organised activities with a French theme and Miss Watham planned activities on the theme of Wales. The children in Pre-Prep had a really exciting time and took part in a carousel of activities including cookery, greek dancing, clay modelling and making dream catchers.

The children in the prep department spent the day in their houses   where they had to take part and complete activities that promoted team work, focus and responsibility. It was a really exciting day where lots was learnt!

As part of International Day, The Grove also held a Cake Bake Sale to raise funds for The Farakunku Foundation. The Grove raised a total of £699.60 on the day. Congratulations to all the pupils and staff who contriubuted.

All in all everyone had a fabulous time where lots of fun was had by all and lots more money was raised for the Farakunku Foundation. 

Mrs Carlin

This week in Foundation the children had a very exciting time playing with the Junk Orchestra. The Junk Orchestra consists of one man (Saul) and and his van packed FULL of things found on a rubbish dump! Saul started off by playing his instruments to the children. These included ; a tumble drier tube, the inside drum from a washing machine, a bike wheel and a shaker made from bottle tops. Saul delighted the children with his show in which he demonstrated how different sounds can be made. The children absolutely loved his performance and couldn't wait to make their own rubbish instruments.

The children had great fun  making  shakers,  drums, trumpets and  guitars from the junk that they had previously brought in. The session ended with an awesome rubbish orchestra in which the children got to play their instruments (and Mrs Vass got to play the gas tank tongue drums)! This was a real l journey of discovery for the children; learning how to make an orchestra from a load of old rubbish!

Mrs Vass

This half term’s lunchtime concert was thoroughly enjoyable. The audience was very respectful and the performers were too, bowing carefully in response to the applause that they so richly deserved.

Our speech and drama girls were wonderful. Tiya Mistry's poem about ballet lessons reminded me of pictures taken of me when I was four in my ballet kit with massive plasters on my knees. Alice Alder's poem was very clever, it helped to imagine that cars are like tigers and buses could be elephants, she recited ‘City Jungle’ very imaginatively. Iraa Kulkarni is an excellent story teller and her diction is always so clear, her ‘Midnight in the Classroom’ was very evocatively portrayed.

Our musicians played very well. I can’t mention everyone who played but I can tell you about a few performances. Eve Bailey’s piano piece ‘Boating Lake’ had a lovely singing tune and Emily Ying-Clifton’s piano piece ‘Menuet’ was played with beautifully flowing phrases.  Ewa Adekanmbi’s piece ‘See the parade’ had great rhythmical strength and Alexander Chan’s ‘Professor Umbride’ showed how you can play staccato notes on the piano to great dramatic effect.

Harini Sivavakeesar was busy. She sang ‘Rainbow’ beautifully and also treated us to an atmospheric piano piece in a minor key called ‘El Cant Dels Ocells’. The two violinists Barnaby Davison and Hana Iguchi where excellent and we even had some ‘Blues’ on the piano from Rohit Rajaraman.

Well done everyone and keep practising.

Mrs Hodges  

The church was full of sunshine, flowers, harvest produce and singing children; what more could you want?

It was our time as a school, together, to consider how fortunate we are and to think about others who have much harder and often very dangerous lives. The students in Senior Prep had written some very thought provoking poems as well as some about the season of Autumn. Those chosen to read theirs out were just a handful of many that Mrs Kenton and I enjoyed. Well done to Harry Dunning, Anas Mehrez, Rohit Rajaraman, Mariam Elakama and Emily Garwood for reading theirs so well on the day.

Hawthorn brought us their sketch based on the parable of the sower that was inspired by homework diaries, prep and excuses! Olivia (who was representing the good seed sown in the fertile soil) just managed to say, “I wrote my prep down and ….I did it!” before everyone realised how funny that sounded and we all got the giggles. Well done and don’t worry, Olivia Sobera did get her credit from Jaina Kavia right at the end.

There were some lovely songs and artwork too. Foundation’s pictures celebrated the stunning autumn colours. Fallen leaves made gorgeous hedgehogs and inspired the painting of wonderful autumnal trees. They sang their song brilliantly doing some fabulous actions at the same time; you get a 10/10.

Pre-Prep's performance of ‘Waiting for the Sun’ was excellent. They worked incredibly hard to get it to sound first smooth and lyrical and then short and bouncy whilst singing the words clearly. What a super choir you became, well done.

That reminds me, our Grove Choir goes from strength to strength both in numbers and in quality of sound. We usually miss the more mature sound of the leavers at this time of year but I can honestly say that they sang so beautifully and with such sensitivity that I quite forgot it was only October! Mr Mace was heard to exclaim in rehearsal…’Wow!’

So Choir’s performance of ‘For the beauty of the earth’ was stunning. Miss Haig and I both loved working with them on their harmony and vocal skills. What a great team!

So too were the three musicians who played so well together and accompanied the ‘Seasons’ song; Hana Iguchi, Zadie Berkin-Evans and Alexa Berkin-Evans and all the readers who spoke so clearly during the service.

So a great big thank you to all of our wonderful pupils. You found your singing voices again (after losing them over the summer) and joined together as one in celebration.

All the gifts of produce and money collected on the day have been donated to the Salvation Army. Thank you for giving generously.

Mrs Hodges