From the HeadmasterIn September, we welcomed a number of new staff to the ‘Hallfield team’ in all areas of the school. Mrs Anne Oliver joined the school as Head of EYFS and she became a member of the SLT and Mrs Casey joined as Head of Year 2 and SENCO, and became a member of SMT. Both bring considerable experience to the school as former Heads of Pre-Prep and Mrs Oliver is also an ISI Inspector.

During the Summer holidays the astro turf was replaced and the girls have thoroughly enjoyed playing hockey on their new pitch. Next term they will use it for Netball and the Senior boys will play more hockey from January.

England’s participation in the Rugby World Cup was sadly ‘too brief’ but Mr Moffat, our new Head of Year 5, Science Teacher and Rugby Coach, is hoping to inspire a new generation of rugby players!

Reception children have enjoyed using their ‘free-flow’ play area outside their classrooms and Year 2 have enjoyed their new reading areas which have supported the KS1 reading initiative which was introduced in Year 1 and Year 2 at the start of term.

The term concluded with a wonderful Reception Nativity Play and Pre-Prep and Upper school

Carol Services at St George’s Church…as well as a superb Christmas Lunch and great Christmas parties!

Tania and I would like to wish you, your families and the whole school community a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Hallfield SchoolChurch Road Edgbaston Birmingham B15 3SJ

0121 454 1496

office@hallfieldschool.co.uk

www.hallfieldschool.co.uk

@HallfieldSchool

Hallfield Focus

Page 1

Inside this Issue

From the Chairman 2

PTA News 2

Hallfieldfirst 3

Pre-Prep 4

Upper School 6

Hallfield Vision 8

… on the Autumn Term 2015

Hallfieldfirst NewsFrom the ChairmanAt the start of term the SLT joined the Governors for an ‘away day’ at Birmingham University with training led by Andy Robinson from The Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools. It was a very worthwhile and productive day with the theme of the training being ‘The role of the Governors in an Independent School’. With a possible EYFS Inspection in 2016, this training was timely and very useful.

At the AGM in January, we will be proposing a new Governor to join the Board. Mr Neil Price is currently Head of Bablake Junior School in Coventry. This is Neil’s 3rd Headship and he will bring considerable Prep School knowledge and experience to the Board and he will also become a member of the Education and Marketing Committee.

I enjoyed reading at the Upper School Carol Service at St George’s Church and I thought that the choir sang particularly well. Congratulations to them and the Head of Music, Mrs German.

May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Keith UffChairman of Governors

PTAThe run up to Christmas is always a busy time for the Hallfield PTA and this year was just as exciting and hectic. We had a record breaking turn out for the Halloween Disco just after half term and this trend continued with a fantastic, event packed Christmas Fayre!

We also plan to extend the seasonal celebrations a little longer at Hallfield, with The Snow Ball which will be held on 23 January. Tickets are on sale now and selling fast so don’t forget to get yours!

I would like to take this opportunity, from all of the PTA team, to thank you for your positive comments and continued support of our events. We would like to wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas and a cheerful New Year.

We look forward to continuing to host entertaining, enjoyable events in 2016.

Kavita Chauhan PTA Chair

The new children have settled in well this term and we are looking forward to welcoming our new families in the New Year; Inductions are already under way.

This term the children have enjoyed supporting a number of charities and festivals including the British Heart Foundation, Children in Need and Diwali.

We had lots of fun during our Halloween dress up week! The children played with pumpkins, made spooky biscuits and dressed up in a variety of costumes.

Parents’ Evening provided the opportunity for parents to speak to their child’s Key Person about their development and targets to be completed over the coming year. Parents were also able to take a look at the new Child Observation Profile and feedback on the evening was very positive.

Dates for your Diary

• 23 December Nursery closes for Christmas at 6.00 p.m.

• 5 January Nursery re-opens after Christmas at 8.00 a.m.

• 24 March Nursery closes at 6.00 p.m. for the Easter weekend and will re-open at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday 29 March

We will be holding an Easter Stay and Play event w/c 21 March 2016 – more information soon.

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Staff NewsCongratulations to Rahana Islam (Winnies Room Leader), who gave birth to a Baby Boy called Dheen on 20th September.

CharitiesThe children have had lots of fun raising money this term for a number of charities. An amazing £978 was raised at the ever popular Macmillan coffee morning in September with another successful cake bake sale and other fundraising activities.

For our Harvest celebration the Pre-Prep and Upper School Committees chose to support the Black Country Food Bank and over 500 non-perishable products were donated by Hallfield parents, in addition to the £118 raised from the Harvest Festival retiring collection. A huge thank you again for your generosity.

In November we held a charity day in support of the British Heart Foundation which included ‘wearing something red’ and trying some new playground games - namely skipping. Lots of the children (and staff) learnt to skip and it was amazing to see how much they improved as the day progressed! Skipping has since become a popular playtime activity.

This year a record 172 Christmas boxes were carefully packed by Hallfieldians for Operation Christmas Child. Congratulations – they will make lots of children very happy this Christmas!

Once again we supported the NSPCC Festival of Trees in the ICC and Miss Watton, Head of Art, organised another successful Art Workshop for children, parents and staff to make this year’s decorations for the Hallfield tree.

We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the Startwell Level 1 Award this term and this shows how, as a nursery, we are helping children to be healthy; from the nutritional meals on our menu to introducing teeth brushing. In November Bibi Maria Khanom and Emma Astle attended an awards ceremony and workshop to receive the certificate for completing Level 1 and they have now gained the knowledge to begin Level 2. Watch this space!

Christmas is always an exciting time and once again the Christmas Fairies did not disappoint - at the start of December the children arrived to find the nursery had been beautifully decorated, ‘as if by magic’! Since then they have enjoyed a range of seasonal activities, festive food and of course, our annual ‘party week’.

We would like to wish all Hallfieldfirst families a very Happy Christmas.

Pre-Prep News

It seems a long time since we started the term in warm weather and sunshine. In between we enjoyed the most glorious autumn when the colours of the leaves on the trees in our school grounds were magnificent.

This year we have introduced assemblies for Years 1 & 2 to join the Upper School on a regular basis and they recently enjoyed an assembly with the Reverend Francis about ‘preparing for Christmas’. We hope these assemblies will help Year 2 in their transition to Upper School.

Congratulations to the Reception children who performed magnificently in their Christmas Nativity “Shine Star Shine”.The children retold the story of the Big Star and how she learned to shine brightly above the stable where Jesus was born.

Highlights of the performance included the well-rehearsed singing and a dance performed by the silver stars. The narrators and actors delivered their lines confidently and the performance concluded with a final tableau scene depicting the stable and featuring a large fully lit star hanging above the manger kindly constructed by Mr Kynaston.

The new staff throughout Transition, EYFS and KS1 have settled in quickly and become part of the Hallfield family. However, it is always sad to say ‘goodbye’ and, at the end of term, Mrs Simkin will retire after 10 years at the school as Head of Year 1 & 2 and KS1 Literacy Coordinator; she is

very much looking forward to spending time with her family and grandchildren. We wish her a long and healthy retirement.

We have concluded our busy term with a variety of seasonal activities, a lovely Carol Service and Christmas parties…and a visit from Santa!

Good luck to Miss Taylor and Mr Florance who will be getting married in Australia at Christmas, and to Miss Pickford, who is also getting married during the holidays. We wish them every happiness for the future.

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Dates for your Diary• 8 & 10 February Year 1 & Year 2 Parents’ Evening

• 23 & 25 February Transition, Foundation, Reception Parents’ Evening

• 29 February World Book Week

• 3 March World Book Day – Dress as a character from a book

• 4 March F, R, Y1, Y2 Mother’s day Assembly

• 10 March Foundation, Year 1 Elocution Finals, 09.30 – 10.30

• 10 March Reception, Year 2 Elocution Finals, 14.00 – 15.00

• 17 March Year 1 Play to parents, 09.30 – 10.15

• 21 March Hallfieldfirst & Transition Stay and Play - ALL WEEK, 14.00 – 15.00

• 22 March Foundation Stay and Play, 14.00 – 15.00

• 23 March Reception Stay and Play, 14.00 – 15.00

• 23 March Year 1, Year 2 Stay and Play, 14.00 – 15.00

Maths WeekYear 1 had a problem solving week in maths. We split into mixed form groups and took part in different activities. We used our weighing skills to weigh out ingredients to make Christmas cookies and salt dough decorations. We completed practical maths activities for shape, measures and money and we learnt about positional language to help to solve a problem with Bee-Bots.

The Jolly Christmas postman left us some addition and subtraction problems to solve.

Sleigh Ride to Meet Santa!We were all very excited going on our trip to the West Midlands Safari Park - going on a sleigh ride, walking through the grotto and going through the magical door to meet Santa. We saw lots of different animals but we especially loved the penguins!

Upper School NewsIt has been a busy and hard-working term for everyone in the Upper School. The autumn term is always the longest one of the school year and it is when much of the good foundations are put in place for the year ahead. Academically, it is a transitional time as children settle into their new Year Groups and get used to the raised expectations required of them. For Year 6, of course, this has also involved both internal and external examinations and some serious preparation work for more exams to come.

Amongst all of this academic endeavour however there has still been room for the usual wide variety of activities. We have enjoyed visits from the Young Shakespeare Company, Thinktank science, a fascinating Egyptian workshop as well as a Year 5 excursion to Warwick castle. Of course, the (now annual) Year 6 French trip to Normandy was another great success. On the sports field, I can’t quite remember a term where we have enjoyed so many fixtures with other schools, which has provided many, many children with the opportunity to represent Hallfield in a competitive environment. Not only that,

many of our teams have enjoyed great successes this term, although of course it is our shared belief that the greatest success of all is to take part and to do your very best. Everyone in the Upper School wishes all of our parents and children a very happy and peaceful winter break and we look forward to seeing the children refreshed and ready to learn again next term. Modern Languages

The term began with our second annual trip to France for Year 6 when we visited a town called Rue, just south of Calais for a weekend of language learning and fun. Blessed with good weather which enabled us to get to the town market to buy some goodies, followed by a visit to the goat farm to find out about how to make goat’s cheese and meet some furry friends. Back at the Chateau, this year we celebrated birthdays, had a campfire and again enjoyed lots of great outdoor activities including kayaking and going on a long zip-wire! Examples of the children’s work can be seen in the main school corridor and many photos are on display outside the library.

In the classroom, highlights this term have included Year 3 making and using their own menus in a ‘French café’; Year 4 have been creating written work about transport and weather; Year 5 have created and described some very unusual dinosaurs and Year 6 have been getting to grips with verb conjugation to talk about their school. There have been some fabulous ‘light-bulb’ moments this term!

This term I have purchased 20 foreign language books in English translation to give the Hallfield children a glimpse of other cultures. Books will be available to borrow from the library as soon as the new term starts in 2016. We also have the online resource of a subscription to Linguascope, which allows the children to play and learn in their own time too. Finally, I had the pleasure of listening to the Pre-Prep children speaking in their home languages in their special World Languages Day Assembly. There are lots of budding linguists in this school!

Joyeux noël… ¡feliz navidad!

Mrs Checketts Head of MFL

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Dates for your DiaryWeek commencing 18 January: School Examinations for Year 5 in all subjects & Assessments in Maths, English and Science for Year 4

• 9 January KES boys’ Entrance Exam

• 28 & 29 January KEHS girls’ Entrance Exam

• 9 & 11 February Year 4 Parents’ Evening

• 1 & 3 March Year 5 Parents’ Evening

• 15 & 16 March Year 3 Parents’ Evening

• 8 March 11+ Destinations Meeting for Year 4 and Year 5 parents

Congratulations to this year’s Upper School Librarians (pictured left) who are a great help to Mrs Fear, running a busy Library. Thank you to the YSC for a fabulous Romeo and Juliet workshop and performance (below).

MusicCongratulations to Rohan Galappathie, Astrid Gibara and Kieran Vas who passed their ABRSM Examination Grade 1 Music Theory with Distinction. We hope to see more children taking the exam in the future. Thank you to Mrs German, Head of Music.

THE SNOW BALL Saturday 23 January 2016We look forward to seeing many Old Hallfieldians at the jointly organised Snow Ball on 23 January. Edgbaston High School PA, Hallfield PTA and the OHS will be holding this event at Warwickshire County Cricket Club for the second year – last year was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyed by parents, staff and OH’s alike. Tickets are selling fast - we hope to see you there!

Hallfield VisionFrom the ChairmanAt the recent AGM of The Old Hallfieldians I was delighted to be elected as Chairman. It is a rather sobering thought that I actually left Hallfield some 40 years ago. How time flies! The Christmas Carol Service, at St George’s Church, was a timely opportunity to reflect on school days gone by. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to meet some old faces and acquaint myself with some younger members of the Hallfield “family” at the same time.

The Old Hallfieldians are in robust shape. This is in no small way a reflection on the wonderful work invested by my immediate predecessor, Tim Venner. There was a time when such organisations remained somewhat detached from the current activities within a school. Thankfully no more! Tim’s sterling work has placed the Old Hallfieldians firmly within the community of Hallfield and that has to be good for young and old alike. I am delighted that he will remain with us on the committee. Thank you Tim.

The year ahead will once again be dotted with a variety of events that will enable Old Hallfieldians of all ages to engage with like-minded chums. Please do keep in mind the relevant dates and come and join us.

All that remains is for me to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Richard HarperOHS Chairman

Welcome to the CommitteeI am delighted to welcome Richard Harper as the new Chairman of the OHS and the new committee who were ratified at the recent AGM in November – his Vice Chairman will be Simon Sangha.

A particularly warm welcome to new committee member Roshan Shah, OH and current Hallfield parent - we are looking to generate continued interest in the Association and at future OHS events. Your support is most welcome and invaluable.

Roger Outwin-FlindersOHS President

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Dates for your Diary• 23 Jan PTA, OHS & EHS Snow Ball at WCCC Stadium

• 3 March London Reunion at the Punch & Judy, Covent Garden

• 16 March Informal Reunion at the High Field, Edgbaston

• 14 May Younger Members’ Activity Session

• 12 June OHS v WHOBA Annual Golf Tournament at Edgbaston Golf Club

• 2 July Hallfield Day

• 16 Sept Recent Leavers’ Football & Hockey Tournament at Hallfield

Looking back to the future: The Old Hallfieldian Society

Contact the OHSRichard HarperChairmanrichardharper7@icloud.com

Celia HooperExecutive OfficerC.Hooper@ hallfieldschool.co.uk

Tania Outwin-FlindersCommunications OfficerT.Outwin-Flinders@ hallfieldschool.co.uk