- September 6, 2010 13:31 to November 11, 2010 18:30

March 2, 2010 March 25, 2010 April 29, 2010 June 15, 2010

Year 3 will visit the Gallery on 15th June to study Journeys

Year 4 will visit the Gallery on 25th March to study Stories

Year 5 wil visit the Gallery on 2nd March to study Pattern and Colour

Year 6 will visit the Gallery on 29th April

March 2, 2010 - 16:20 to 17:00 March 9, 2010 - 16:20 to 17:00 March 30, 2010 - 16:20 to 17:00 May 4, 2010 - 16:20 to 17:00

Following a successful trial last term, instead of having year group concerts in the Upper School hall, we will have smaller, informal concerts in the Music Room based around instruments or sections of the orchestra. 

These pupils will be selected by teachers and the concerts will last around 45 minutes; no one piece will be repeated in a concert. 

The idea ais to show the progression that pupils can make and to have something to aspire to.  They will therefore span across abilities and all year groups.

The dates are shown below and are changes to the published school calendar.

2nd March 2010 Flute, Clarinet and Oboe

9th March 2010 Strings

4th May 2010 Recorders and Brass

30th March 2010 Singing and Guitar

All concerts will start at 1620 and will take place in the Music Room

March 12, 2010

Face to Face

Light Show

Mrs Culek planned an action-packed day at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on the 4^th March for Year 5 children. The workshop was run by artist Lucy Dagger who guided them trough the stages of making a press print , how to incise the plate and ink it up with rollers before the really exciting bit of making the final print! The children examined the work of Arts and Crafts artist William Morris and William de Morgan who designed the most beautiful tiles.

A visit to the Bridget Riley flashback exhibition proved very popular and an effective way of making you feel dizzy and sick as the op art pictures painted in the 60’s played tricks on the eyes and brain.  Cheaper than a trip to Alton Towers but not such a good idea just after lunch!!

The final section of the visit was a series of videos about how art is made, showing the processes of printmaking, painting, ceramics, drawing, jewellery and sculpture. This latter category made Mrs Culek very excited as the artist demonstrating in the video was Rob Perry, her old tutor!

March 12, 2010

On Friday 5^th March the dining room at Hallfield looked like a set from a Harry Potter movie! Wizards, witches, magicians, pixies and elves queued for their lunches with a multitude of pink fairies – not all of them pupils!  No we hadn’t all swallowed a magic potion or been the victim of a Potter spell, it was part of the activities for World Book Week and the theme was magic. Sean Connolly, in a non-magic world the voice of Horrid Henry, came disguised as a wizard and told stories  – ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, ‘Winnie the Witch and the Dragon’, ‘Room on a Broom’ and ‘Snow White’, to a captivated audience of Pre-Prep children who took  a book token home to buy their own magic story book.   Who says children don’t like reading  anymore?

March 12, 2010

Was it the lure of a fish and chip supper or a streak of sado-masochism that dragged us back to an evening of humiliation and disbelief that Mr Tobin can continue to dream up such impossibly hard questions? Does he inhabit a parallel universe that has a completely alternative bank of knowledge to us? How could he be so cruel as to combine a geography round with a working knowledge of the World Cup teams and venues?

The PA Committee who usually come last with such lame excuses as having to man the bar, go for the fish and chips, hand out the salt,vinegar and ketchup came fifth, only three points behind the winning team ‘Team GB’ (nothing to do with nationality, more to do with being George Bennett’s father).It was a close run thing at the finish with the staff team of Mrs Culek, Miss Smith, Mr Florance and supportive other halves only half a point behind the winners.

The reason for the meteoric rise in the fortunes of the Committee team was due to the foresight of Mrs Shackleton in inviting Miss Thompson to join them, adding her vast wealth of general knowledge and trivia (she owes a lot of it to her 11 year old godson and watching a lot of television) to their more limited range! Who else would have recognised the theme tune of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates quite so quickly or been able to unravel the connection between the voice of Bugs Bunny, a book by Jane Austen and a film goer’s guide?

Mr Stotts invited a Canadian guest who also contributed by answering questions on anything vaguely North American and who couldn’t believe we would put ourselves through all that agony on a Friday night after a gruelling week at school!

Feel you may like to join us with a team next year? We’d love to see you, but Miss Thompson is ours, so hands off!  

If you’d like to know the answer to the brain teaser I’m sure she would explain it to you!

March 15, 2010

A Cinderella who didn’t want to marry the prince?

Only ONE ugly sister?

A Fairy Godmother who wanted to retire early?

Major Mustard treated Year 1 and 2 to a very funny version of the well-loved fairy story at the end of February. Cinderella wanted to go on holiday with Buttons rather than marry the prince, who contrary to expectations, wasn’t handsome at all and ended up carrying off the Ugly sister – or was that the other way round ?

Major Mustard  in his versatile style, managed  the puppets and voices of all the characters and explained to the children that some of these stories date from the 13^th century.

This is part of a week’s study for Year2 who danced to the music of Prokofiev and wrote the story from the viewpoint of the little mouse – Cinderella’s friend. I wonder if he went on holiday with Cinders and Buttons?

March 15, 2010

On Tuesday 9 March, violin and cello players from Years 3 to 6 held an excellent concert in the music room, demonstrating their skills from beginners to Grade 7 level. Violinists performed traditional favourites including Old MacDonald, Ode to Joy and Au Clair de la Lune as well as the theme tune from the Flintstones. We were treated to some very mature performances including Souvenir de Sarasate by Potstock too.

The cellists played Hungarian Stomp by the ever popular Pam Wedgwood, Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits and the event concluded with the percussion interlude in Tap Dancer by Blackwell. Well done to all pupils for their hard work in preparing for this event.

March 15, 2010

On Tuesday 3^rd March, the first of this term’s concerts took place in the Music Room with pupils of all abilities and Year groups performing Clarinet, Saxophone and Flute pieces. Mrs Shaw was present to accompany her pupils, both solos and a duet. We were treated to a range of styles from traditional favourites such as Yankee doodle and When the saints, to arrangements of well known pieces from Opera and classical classic including La Donna e mobile and Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony. Some pupils had only been learning for a matter of months and others for years, but the standard throughout was excellent. Well done to all involved.

March 15, 2010

On a cold March morning, Year 2 set off to the Vale site at Birmingham University to assess the area in terms of facilities and safety as part of their Geography studies. They focused on rubbish collection, the lake, how wildlife is encouraged and also  the trees and flowers that grow in the area. They record the data on paper and on camera and make suggestions for improvement and how the area is to be maintained. It looks as if they found a first sign of Spring!!

March 16, 2010

Hallfield chess players scooped up the cups at the Warwickshire Junior Championships held on Saturday 6^th March at King Henry VIII in Coventry. Andrew Fergusson and Aroun Kalyana shared the U8 title with scores of 5/6 and Hallfield also won the trophy for the best team performance in this age group. Well done !

March 22, 2010

Lily Brocklehurst Cordell from 2F  won the Pre-Prep elocution competition on Monday 10th March reading a poem called ‘Today is Very Boring’ – by Jack Prelutsky.  It was lovely to see Mrs Sarah Miles  back at Hallfield  judging the entries. As a former teacher here, Mrs Miles will know that   ’boring day’  are not words that could  be used to describe a day at Hallfield – but read the poem and you will see that boring it was not! Well done Lily!

Today is Very Boring

Today is very boring,

It’s a very boring day,

There is nothing much to look at,

There is nothing much to say,

There’s a peacock on my sneakers,

There’s a penguin on my head,

There’s a  dormouse on my doorstep,

I am going back to bed.

Today is very boring,

It is boring through and through,

There is absolutely nothing

That I think I want to do,

I see giants riding rhinos,

And an ogre with a sword,

There’s a dragon blowing smoke rings,

I am positively bored.

Today is very boring,

I can hardly help but yawn,

There’s a flying saucer landing

In the middle of the lawn,

A volcano just erupted

Less than half a mile away,

I think I felt an earthquake,

It’s a very boring day.

March 31, 2010

Spaghetti and Marshmallow Challenge

Pasta and marshmallows are not the sort of materials that immediately spring to mind when asked to build the tallest tower you can. Undeterred by that, the budding engineers of Hallfield School rose to the challenge with the sort of enthusiasm that would have warmed the heart of Monsieur Eiffel. As part of the Science week, pupils were asked to construct a tower  from a maximum of 20 pieces of spaghetti (uncooked!) and 5 marshmallows (pink or white!), it had to be free standing and self supporting – well long enough to be measured by the teachers. Shredded marshmallows reduce down to a sticky, gluey mess and children were rapidly becoming an integral part of their tower as they became welded to the strands of pasta!   Shrieks and laughter ensued as the clock ticked away the 20 minutes allocated for the task. And the overall winners? Hannah Nolan and Marianne Fitzgibbon.  Well done girls !