The latest edition of the Blue & Grey is now available.  If you do not normally receive a copy and would still like to read the school magazine, please go to the Blue & Grey Magazine page on this website for an interactive version.

Congratulations to Honor McFarlane, who has been awarded a place in the National Youth Choir.

Congratulations to Mimi Watts on her Sports Scholarship to Dean Close and to Imogen Syme-Taylor, who has been awarded a Choristership place in the Cathedral Choir at Wells Cathedral School (one of only four specialist music schools in the country and the only one attached to a cathedral) for January.

All your donations of old trainers and football boots to the Swindon Town Football Club Zambia Appeal have now been shipped out to Zambia and the community coaches have gone out there to distribute them to local children.

A Big Thank You to all of you who passed on your old trainers and football boots – they are going to bring smiles to the faces of others and have a second life!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported us at the Christmas Fair, we are thrilled to announce that we have raised over £8,500 towards our chosen charities this year and for Friends of Pinewood projects.

We are enormously grateful to all the stallholders, visitors and to all those parents, staff and pupils who volunteered to help us on the day.

If you are interested in booking a stall at next year's Christmas Fair, please contact Henrietta Hoyland on henriettahoyland@pinewoodschool.co.uk.

A large group of Year 5-8 pupils arrived at Stowe ready for a great day of jazz. This was my 2nd time so I knew we were going to have lots of fun.

There were three other schools there, but Pinewood had many more people than anyone else. First we waited for the other schools to arrive, once everyone was there we made our way over to the music school where we had our first rehearsal. The conductor told us not to get our instruments out yet and he taught us the difference between jazz phrases, funk phrases and so on. Then he taught us to sing back something he sang but using numbers; so the first note of the scale would be number one etc. etc. He would give us the first note and tell us the order of the numbers then let us figure it out.

Next the instrumental group had a separate rehearsal to the percussion group. The conductor used the same method with numbers and notes but this time with our instruments, we then got two melodies memorised. We broke for lunch and then back for a full rehearsal.  Then it was tuck shop time - always a highlight of the day! After enjoying our snacks, we then went back for the final rehearsal before the concert.

The final concert was very exciting and all the parents were very impressed that we hadn’t used any sheet music the whole day!

By James Eyles

The latest Movember photos from the final week, before the big shave off today, are now available to view in the Events Gallery. Who has grown the best moustache and has Tom really grown one at all?!

The male members of staff have been growing moustaches for the month of November to raise awareness of and money for men's health problems.  Please do support this very worthwhile cause by donating to the Pinewood Movember team; for full details on how to donate, please click here.

Congratulations to our musicians on their outstanding success at this weekend's festival of Music in Devizes.  A large number of Pinewood pupils performed in a variety of classes, with the following being awarded prizes in their category:

James Eyles, Hannah and Jonny Woods - Winners of the Ensemble section.

James Eyles - Individual Winner of Woodwind section

Eleanor Tuckey - Winner of the Individual String section

Wanda Criswell and Hannah Woods - 2nd equal in the Individual String section

Very special congratulations must go to Eleanor Tuckey, who was named overall Festival Junior Musician Winner.

Sixteen Prep Schools from as far afield as Suffolk and Somerset competed for the Steggall Trophy. The teams were divided into four groups and the matches were refereed by members of staff from a selection of public schools. At the end of the group stage the results were as follows:

Group A: The Downs, Swanbourne House, St Andrew’s and Christ Church Cathedral School

Group B: Beaudesert, The Elms, Pinewood and Prior Park

Group C: Dean Close JS, Old Buckenham Hall, Ashfold and Dragon Under 12 VII.

Group D: Abberley Hall, Hazelgrove, St Hugh’s and Abingdon.

The first two teams from each group moved into the main competition while 3rd and 4th placed teams played in the plate competition.

The Plate Competition was won by St Andrew’s with St Hugh’s as runners up. The Main Competition was won, for the second year running, by The Downs with Abberley Hall the losing finalists.

The medals and trophies were awarded by Matt Perry (Bath, England and British Lions) and a great afternoon of Rugby drew to a close as the sun sunk behind the trees.

JB

The Rainforest was covered in plants and I didn't expect birds to be flying around. I would definitely go back because there were lots of interesting things, like a chameleon, which was my favourite animal, because it can change colour.

I learnt that chocolate can be good for you, especially dark chocolate and that a dumb cane can kill you.  I liked the monkeys jumping around.

By Henry Woods & William Taylor

With a good range of children from Year 4 to Year 6 our archery team battled valiantly against an older and rather more accurate Prior Park Team.

The 1st team started really well and the four scored 23 in their first round, things looked good when Prior Park first team were at least five points down and our 2nd team notched up a higher total with Harry Fuller and Rowan Maslin hitting gold. The Prior Park 2nd team fired and suddenly our archers realized that it was going to be a challenging task to win the match. Then Pinewood fired off some excellent arrows which included a further gold by Molly Weeden and the 2nd team managed to snatch 2nd place while our first team finished 4th.

The match finished with a victory to Prior Park by 126 to 93.  All the competitors thoroughly enjoyed their first ever archery match and their thanks go to James for running the event.

Team members: Katie Reid, Molly Weeden, Cosmo Del Mar, Finn Wetton, Rowan Maslin, Max Smith, Dan Ayers and Harry Fuller.

For the latest Movember photos keep checking the Events Gallery - even the ladies are getting in on the act!

Please, please support the staff in this noble fundraising effort - for full details of why the men are all growing moustaches and how to donate to their cause, please click here.

Week 3 pictures will be available soon.

The exam timetable for next week is available to download from the Prep page of the Parents Information section of the website.

Rock Band rehearsals are cancelled on Tuesday 22nd November.

A huge thank you to all the parents and children for supporting our Fireworks Party last Friday, we do hope you all had  a good evening.  We were so impressed by the Pinewood Parents ability to drink the bar dry and we promise next year to stock it with more!  We are thrilled to say that the evening has raised over £3,300 which is a record for this event.

Our chosen Charity this year is CALM, this is a small charity who support local families who have a child with cancer or leukaemia, we will be supporting them alongside our existing commitments to charity and to projects within the school.

Thank you once again for your support and we look forward to seeing you all at The Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December 2011.

If you have any questions about Friends Of Pinewood please do contact Henrietta Hoyland or Lucinda McFarlane.

Bourton Church has asked the school if we could get involved in their kneeler project.  The church is a key part of Pinewood life and it was only very recently saved from closure by a tremendous local effort to raise funds by signing up to monthly covenants, putting on regular fund raising events and Pinewood’s own yearly financial commitment to support it in order to ensure its continued existence. 

The church has no kneelers; there are a few wooden style pew kneelers but whilst being uncomfortable, they are also limited. Village churches with kneelers not only look more cheerful but on a practical level are a whole lot more comfortable than stone floors and/or wooden kneelers. 

The kneeler project is intended to be an ongoing project with kneelers being made over a period of time.  To this end the Bourton and Pinewood communities are looking for willing volunteers to not only donate a kit (cost around £45) but to possibly take up the challenge of sewing it too.  Dedications can be made by way of a template/plaque which is sewn onto the underside of the kneeler.  There will be a list of ‘approved’ designs; the church is keen to keep things simple in terms of colour and to ensure that the kneeler designs follow ecclesiastical themes.

Pinewood sees this as an opportunity for not only the children to get involved but for you as families/friends to take part too.  The legacy of your hard work will be there in the church for years to come – a real connection with Bourton as a village that will mean something to your children and family long into the future.

If you think your family is up for the challenge then please show your interest by contacting either Louise Slater (bob@weez.demon.co.uk) 01793 783332 or Henrietta Hoyland at school.

Saturday 3rd December, 10.00am - 2.30pm.

Do all your Christmas shopping under one roof with over 40 fabulous stalls, visit Father Christmas, relax in the FOP Bistro, buy a cake for tea, listen to some Christmas carols to get you in the mood and much, much more!  Everyone welcome.

Admission: £3.00 for adults, children are free of charge.

Friends of Pinewood will be selling raffle tickets for the Pre-Prep Christmas Fair Raffle every morning this week, in the Pre-Prep Multi-Purpose Room.  Anybody can buy a ticket and prizes are Toys R Us vouchers for £20, £10 and £5. Tickets will also be available to buy in the Pre-Prep during the Christmas Fair. 

Our chosen charity this year is CALM (Children's Cancer And Leukaemia Movement). Calm is an independent local charity, caring for the needs of families within the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, who have or have had children or young persons dealing with Cancer or Leukaemia.

For the full list of stall holders, please click here.

Please note that pupils will be free from 12.00 after house matches (Years 5-8). Parents should come and collect them from Lower School. There will be no school lunch but food will of course be available in the ‘Bistro’ for adults or ‘The Grubber’ (Year 8 courtyard) for children.

Parking arrangements: Please could you park sensibly around the school and not double-park in the drive and in the village. We MUST keep the main thoroughfare clear to provide easy access for the Emergency Services.  Your co-operation is appreciated.

If you would like information about booking a stall at our Christmas Fair 2012, please contact Henrietta Hoyland on henriettahoyland@pinewoodschool.co.uk

A Pinewood Team of Dominic Hutchinson (captain), Lucas Prichard-Jones, Ned Corfield and Max Tite battled hard and won the fencing match versus Prior Park scoring 45 to 36.

It was an excellent afternoon of fencing and every team fought with skill and determination. Our thanks to Shaun Garley for organising the fixture and Prior Park for hosting it.

The Book Fair, organised by The Travelling Book Company, will take place from Wednesday 16th to Friday 18th November.

The Fair will be stocked with good quality fiction for all ages from Nursery to Year 8, ranging in price from approximately £3.99 - £6.99. The school benefits by earning commission on every sale, in the form of free books for the school libraries.

All children in the Prep school will be visiting the Fair. If you would like your child to choose a book to buy, please download the letter from Mrs Matthews and complete the slip at the end of the letter and give it to your form tutor. Monies will be added to the school bill. Alternatively you can e-mail Mrs Matthews on library@pinewoodschool.co.uk.

The Book Fair will be open in the Boddington library, for parents to visit, at the following times:

Wednesday 16th: 8.00am – 8.20am

Thursday 17th: 8.00am – 8.20am and 4.15pm – 5.45pm

Friday 18th: 8.00am – 8.20am and 4.15pm – 5.45pm

The Pre-Prep Book Fair will be open in the Pre-Prep Library for parents to visit at the following times (Pre-Prep children will not visit the book fair without parents):

Wednesday 16th: 3.00pm - 4.00pm

Friday 18th: 3.00pm - 4.00pm 

Thank you in advance for your support.

Congratulations to the following on completing their RYA sailing awards:

Level 2

Toby Acheson-Gray, Ben Adams, Lucas Prichard-Jones, Ben Shamash, Finn Simpson

Level 1

Alessandro Corrias, Robbie Clayton-Reid, Paddy Scudamore

Pinewood was invited to take part in the Oxfordshire Maths Challenge at St Edward’s school on Thursday.

The competition was split into two groups, with Lucas Arkwright and Jamie Lawson entered in the Red Section and Esme Foster and Abigail Kelly competing in the Blue Section. The competition began with a mental test, followed by Counting Down, (like the TV show), and finally the Big Event – a huge race to finish a set of mathematical problems. 

Lucas and Jamie finished 3rd out of 42 schools, while Esme and Abigail came 24th out of 42 schools. The afternoon was finished off with a delicious tea.

SD

Alex Norris, Jess Tregoning, Katy Meehan and Ben Ryder jumped superbly to become the 2011 National Champions in the Mini Show Jumping team event at the NSEA Championships last weekend and Jess was also individual champion on her second ride Joey B.

The team all jumped stylish clear rounds to lead after the first round. The top eight teams jumped in reverse order for the final in the main arena so the pressure was on.  Alex and Blue Fox jumped a very fast clear as trailblazer, but Jess with Hapni just tipped a pole for 4 faults.  To win, our last two riders had to go clear and they rode superbly to do just that, with Katy on Reach for the Stars and Ben on Ollie, both riding clears in fast times leaving us in the lead by 20 seconds.  Jess then rode the round of her life on Joey, cutting inside a fence, to take the lead by nearly 2 seconds and clinching individual victory. To be both team and individual champion is fantastic and shows just how well the children rode.  An amazing achievement!

The next day the team of Alex, Jess, Ben and Ryan Lockwood kept their cool despite some mishaps to ride beautifully in the Novice Jumping with Style championships to come 3rd with 3 good clears and few time faults, despite being one of the youngest teams.  It was a stiff course of 21 jumps with some tricky turns that caught out many, so this was a great result.

Ryan also came third as an individual in the Novice show jumping with a slick double clear to add to our tally of Pinewood prizes.

Pinewood now stand champions in mini schools show jumping, cross country and eventing in 2011, an outstanding achievement!

Congratulations to all concerned!

Melanie Norris

Year 8 pupils will be selling poppies to the children in the school hall on Monday 7th, Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th November between 7.55 & 8.15am prior to the School's Service of Remembrance on Friday 11th.

If you would like your child to have a poppy to wear for the service please would they bring in  minimum donation of 50p .

Thank you

As you will no doubt have noticed the male members of staff are looking a little more hirsute than normal!  This is all part of "Movember", a campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer in men and the illness itself, which has an added poignancy given that we heard recently that Bruce Tombs, one of our maintenance staff has inoperable cancer of the stomach and little time left with us.

Staff wanted to show solidarity, not only with him but others within the Pinewood community who are affected by cancer, by growing a moustache for the month of November.  Please do support them in this good cause. For more details on Movember and to donate to the Pinewood Team, please click on the link.

http://uk.movember.com/

In order to donate, please click on the "Donate" tab, then go to "To a team" and then enter "Pinewood School" and click "donate to team".

You can also make cash donations in the box in the School Office.

Thank you in advance for your support.

We will be posting a weekly photographic update in News items and in the Events Gallery, so please keep an eye on the website for the latest progress.

Week 1 (To view more photos, please go to the Events Gallery)

Week 2 - The Ladies

Week 3

An evening of Gothic entertainment… it was a true delight to have been involved in this production with the children themselves having had such a huge input. We were treated to some fantastic musical performances, an original ballet and truly remarkable recitals of poetry from the likes of Shelley, Byron and Barrett Browning.

AJJ 

Thanks to the kind generosity of Mr Tuckey, all of the children in Year 8 – accompanied by Mr Bischoff, Mrs Greene and Mr Johnson – visited the Watermill theatre and were fortunate enough to watch a most entertaining, professional and atmospheric production of Great Expectations. It was a delight to see such a well structured and crafted performance and a tremendous learning experience for the children in so very many ways. 

On a gloriously sunny, if rather windy day, all of Year 6 (accompanied by Ms Doscher, Mrs Hawley, Bree and Mr Johnson) took the long trip to London to visit Sam Wanamaker’s revisioning of the Globe theatre.

With the children all studying the book “King of Shadows”, in which the protagonist finds himself back in Shakespeare’s time taking part in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it was a timely visit. It was also an opportunity for them all to brush up on their Tudor and Elizabethan history; indeed our guide for the tour, Simon, was a mine of information about the London of Shakespeare’s day and really helped to enrich the whole experience. With Tima Malikov being dressed as a Shakespearian maid, the day and the trip was brought to a fine – and entertaining - conclusion. 

Year 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit from Quantum Theatre. The play was called ‘PERSONAL BEST’.

The play centred around ‘Charlie’, an unfit and unhealthy girl, who changes her ways during a ‘Healthy Week’ at school.  In the old days, Charlie’s only form of exercise was stretching to reach the remote and as for food, her idea of a balanced diet was a burger in each hand! But during a ‘Healthy Week’ at school she realises that there is another way.

On her journey of enlightenment, she is introduced to the value of a balanced diet and the ‘Five A Day Challenge’. From walking to school, to running round the playground, she begins to see the value and benefits of exercise. Her new healthy lifestyle results in Sports Day success and catching the eye of the school heartthrob!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the show and learned some valuable lessons about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

We are keen to be involved with this Kenyan school project raising funds for equipment such as water pumps.  We want to form a meaningful link with the school, share experiences at pupil level through Skype and work to improve the facilities there to give the children hope for future years via further education.

Our first fundraising effort will be the retiring collection at the Carol Service. 

For more information about the project, please visit their website: www.shonda.org.uk

To save administrative time, the Pigeon will no longer be emailed to parents and will ONLY be available to view on the website.  It will be published by pick up time on Fridays each week.

Please go to the Pinewood Pigeon page and enter the same login and password details that you use to access team lists (if you need these, please contact the Office).  The most recent Pigeon will appear at the top of the list.

On Tuesday 11th October, Year 5 went to Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s homes.  We arrived just as the Changing of the Guard procession began.  As we left the coach, the guards marched past in their smart red and black uniform.  They were all keeping to the beat of their musical instruments.  After watching the procession we walked to the Windsor Castle Education Centre where a Guard lady told us lots of interesting facts about the Castle and how William the Conqueror had built it.  We then had some squash and biscuits before we took a look around the Castle.

First we went and looked at the Square and the Round Towers.  Everybody had been given a card with questions to complete and activities to do.  I found it very clever the way that they had built the towers because if an enemy was attacking the square tower the resistance wouldn’t go all the way round because of its shape and if they were attacking the round tower the resistance would go all around the tower.  Inside the Castle walls we saw the arrow holes where soldiers would sit on a ledge and shoot their enemy! 

After a yummy lunch of tuna, cheese or egg sandwiches we went to look inside at the wonderful St George’s Chapel.   It is so beautiful with its amazing stained glass windows, so carefully decorated with the bright colours.  We had our photograph taken with a Guard and to finish off the trip we had a look at some of the bedrooms and chambers inside the Castle.  We also had a look at Queen Mary’s doll’s house.  It looked just like a real house with all the magnificent chandeliers, but all in miniature!

I really enjoyed our visit and thank Mrs Hughes, Miss Grayshon, Mr Caird and Bree the Gapper for taking us.

Annabelle Moody 5C

For more photos of the trip, please go to the Events Gallery

Photos from the fabulous French Day held at Pinewood on Friday can now be viewed in the Events Gallery and the Pre-Prep & Nursery Gallery.

After a rather long, not so magical journey, we finally arrived at the museum. A run around and food cheered us up and then it was time to explore the centre.

To start with we had a story session and the BFG’s blow pipe was used to blow magic powder over us so that when we went to bed that night we would have a really fantastic dream. Then, in two groups we explored upstairs and downstairs.

The best bits upstairs were the shadow room where our shadows were imaged into a light-absorbing wall. Lots of us made some really silly faces.  We all also appeared on TV. We looked very small. The lady in charge managed to hold at least 6 of us in her hand!!

There were also lots of tricks and optical illusions including a maze where you had to move an eyeball from one end of the maze to the other using a mirror and a box of mirrors which made lots of images of your head.

It was also really funny to see the Twits' sitting room stuck on the ceiling.

Downstairs there were lots of different things: a giant peach which you could go inside, Matilda’s library and Fantastic Mr Fox’s tunnel which everyone crawled through to explore. You could also pop your head up into a big tube which was part of Willy Wonka’s factory. There was also a pipe machine which made all sorts of noises including rude ones.

Although it took a long time to get there we had some fun and luckily the journey home was much quicker.

by 4E3

For more photos of the trip, please go to the Events Gallery

Friends of Pinewood committee members will be selling tickets for Bonfire Night every morning from Monday 17th October until Friday 4th November in the Hall, the Pre-Prep and Lower School. Tickets can also be bought from the School Office.

Our very popular Bonfire Night takes place on Friday 4th November from 5.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Tickets are £15 per family to include entry into a raffle for a bottle of vintage champagne.

The evening starts at 5.30pm with a BBQ, Bar, tuck and children's activities, the bonfire will be lit at 6pm and the fireworks display will be at 6.30pm.

Children in Years 5-8 will be free from 5.25 p.m. (Boarding children will have an early supper at that point).  Even if your child is boarding that night, do feel free to come and join us.  Flexi-boarders should come with some pocket money that they should hand in to me. Weeklies will be given £5 on the night which will go on the bill unless I hear otherwise.  We do not expect any unaccompanied day children.  Parking will be as directed.

Please do not bring sparklers, but torches and weather appropriate clothing/footwear are a good idea.

For more information, please speak to any member of Friends of Pinewood.

NB Treetops will be out of bounds for the evening.

On Tuesday 11th October 2011, Sarah Singleton came to talk to Year 7 and 8. Year 8 had recently been studying the Gothic style of writing and Sarah seemed to be the perfect person to give us all some tips.

Sarah writes gothic novels both for adults and children and is a British journalist. In 2005 she was awarded The Booktrust Teenage Prize for her novel ‘Century’.

Century is the name of the Georgian Mansion, where the Italian Verga family live. It is surrounded by magnificent gardens and has the view of a huge lake. However, Century and the Verga family seem to be caught in the same time period: it is always winter. Mercy, one of the two daughters, catches a glimpse of the ghost of a drowned woman. Then she meets Claudius. Can she uncover the truth?

Sarah explained to us the origin of the word ‘Gothic’. It first came from an East-Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin called the Goths. The Goths destroyed Rome and its elegant and sophisticated style. Then she moved on to the gothic architecture which started in the Mediaeval Period, the main example being Notre Dame, in France, with its famous grotesques. Now, modern writers use the gothic style for books, like Twilight.

Following the presentation, Sarah took the Year 8’s for a workshop in creative writing. This was really useful and Sarah got us writing in the gothic style in a contemporary setting such as a hospital or a car park.

We had a great day and lots of us went home with a signed copy of one of Sarah’s books.

By Rosie Martin-Barton

Mrs Matthews is running a poetry competition in the Library, linked to National Poetry Day.  The theme for the competition is "Games", so why not pick up an entry form from the Library now?

If you are interested in taking a stall at our extremely popular and successful Christmas Fair, please click on the links for more information and to download a booking form.

On 4th October, the author Penny Dolan came to Pinewood to talk to everyone in year 5 and 6. I thought Penny was really inspiring because she gave us lots of tips on writing stories and she showed us all the books she had written. Some of them were for younger children but I liked the one where she had mixed up lots of fairytales altogether. She also told us how she had come up with her ideas.

Her latest book is called ‘A boy called M.O.U.S.E.’ which is aimed at children who are older. Before she wrote this book she visited different places to research her ideas. Mouse is a little boy who can climb very well and some bad people are out to get him so he tries to escape from them. Most of us got a signed copy of the book and I am looking forward to reading mine, I am sure it will be really exciting.

Rosie Jephson

The preacher at our service this Saturday is Roland Martin, Headmaster of Rendcomb College.  The service takes place in Bourton Church at 9am.

Our kaleidoscope lecturer this week is David Pickford, who talks about "The Risk Experience".  For more information about David's talks, please go to:

www.davidpickford.com

Families and friends are welcome to attend both the above.

After the fine weather of the last few days, rain threatened to make the tournament a damp affair.  Luckily, however, it moved on and our pitches and grounds looked fantastic.

Eleven teams and 120 girls arrived from various points on the compass and munched away on their packed lunches before getting some pre-tournament practice in awaiting Mr Cooper’s loud hailer siren to signal the start of the first matches. Group games were hard fought with everyone keen to progress in pursuit of the Competition Shield and medals laid out on the pavilion steps. Parents moved from pitch to pitch seeking that moment of great pride while coaches rallied their troops to give a little extra and remember to try and stick to the game plan! Each team was hosted by Pinewood girls who acted as runners ensuring they had received their picnic teas and were hopefully on the right pitch at the sound of the siren.

A wonderful day was had by all and the tournament played in the spirit of prep school sport. The Headmaster arrived to present the awards and medals and congratulate all the girls on their efforts. Thank you to Mr Cooper for his announcing and scoring (stepping into the old grandmaster’s shoes of Mr Brown is no mean feat) and thank you to Mrs Robinson for coaching the Pinewood team and assisting with the day.

The results of the tournament were:

Main Competition Shield Winners: Cheam

The Plate Competition Winners: Cranford House

The Vase Competition Winners: Abberley Hall

                                                                                                            JDS

Monday morning, oh no not school again! Hip hip hurrah I have been selected to attend a sports skills day at Dean Close. School must be the best days of your life – meeting internationals, being coached by them and getting a few autographs all in a days work.

Finn Whithead, Harry Brooks, Alex King and Tighe Handley represented our rugby section while Jess Tregoning, Hannah Woods and Maddy Lloyd got the chance to show of their skills on the wonderful astro facilities. The morning sessions were split into different skill zones with the coaches working in small group with the children and imparting their wisdom and experience. Paul Hull and Dan Ward-Smith both ex–England players headed up the rugby supported by Chin Gale (Worcester Warriors) and Greg Barber-Williams (Dean Close), while the girls worked with a group of experienced coaches led by Ashley Ball, current Great Britain player. After a healthy and tasty lunch break the afternoon sessions focused on a few mini tournaments giving the children a chance to practise their skills.

All our children impressed the coaches and numerous awards were won for their efforts. A great day for the children, full of memories to keep and hopefully lots learnt to improve and develop your games. Thank you to Dean Close for hosting a super day!

Tuesday 27th September looked more like mid July as an excited group of Year 6 children headed off for Cheltenham. What will we be doing Sir? Will it be hard?  Answer: Wait until 4.00pm!

After a super hearty lunch the head of Cheltenham CCF welcomed the children and briefed them on the challenges ahead. Each challenge tested the group’s decision making and team skills as problems arose. Lower Sixth pupils were on hand to score, guide and monitor but not help out. After an initial rush of enthusiasm by individuals the children caught on that everyone had to contribute in order to succeed. It was fantastic to see tyres being hauled, ammo boxes lifted and planks balanced as the clocked ticked by. The day finished as it started in baking heat and everyone had enjoyed the opportunity to partake in tasks never experienced before at their age.

The Headmaster congratulated all the children and awarded the wonderful trophy to the overall winners, Ashfold, before the children were given a super cool T-Shirt to pose in for the photo shoot. Well done to the Pinewood team of Freddie Williams, Amelia Heard, Howard Hawkes, Issy Sanderson, Lucas Arkwright, Honor MacFarlane, Ben Shamash and Mia Collins and a big thank you to Cheltenham College for hosting a fun and energy packed day of challenges. 

Following on from our successes on the polo field in the past, it would be good if we could encourage some new polo players at Pinewood.

Lynt Polo Club are running trial polo lessons over Half-Term (no previous riding experience necessary).

For more details, please click here.

It was a long hot day for our Pinewood riders at Hartpury this Saturday where we contested some of the final qualifiers for the inter-schools National Championships at Addington taking place later this month.  Fortunately it was well worth the effort as we came home laden with prizes and qualifications after performing with great maturity and consistency throughout the competition!

First up in the mini JWS class was our team of Alex Norris, Jess Tregonning, Ben Ryder and Ryan Lockwood who rode very well despite having all manner of setbacks before even arriving that morning including one member having a blowout on the A419 with ponies on board - police, new transport and temporary closure of the carriageway and all before 8am!!  Somehow we managed to scrape in having next to no warm up before they closed the class.  The team came second and thereby qualified for the Champs with Ben and Jess being placed individually equal 3rd.  Next was the mini Show Jumping in which Honor McFarlane rode individually and was placed a brilliant 3rd having jumped a good fast double clear and jump off.  Then it was  the Novice JWS class in which our team of Alex, Jess, Ben and Ryan, who were the first team to go, clearly set the standard by doing 4 very stylish rounds, and then went on to win the class thereby gaining another qualification for the Champs!  In addition to that Jess was also 4th individually in this hotly contested class.  Finally the same team was placed 4th in the Novice Show Jumping class and Ben was 3rd individually after producing a super fast double clear.

So mission accomplished and quite a tally of rosettes, prizes and qualifications for our great little Pinewood riders who all did a fantastic job to keep their cool in the searing heat - well done everyone - great team effort all round and we wish them all the best of luck up at the Championships again this year!

Natasha Ryder

Another  very hot day and another early start did not deter our young riders at Berkshire College for the show jumping on Sunday.  It was good to see some new faces in the team with Wanda Criswell riding with great confidence in the 70 and 80cm classes.  The star of the show however was Ryan Lockwood who rode a very speedy round in the 80cm class to win outright qualifying for the championships in the process. In the 70cm Jess Tregoning came second, also securing qualification.

The team of Alex Norris, Wanda Criswell, Ben Ryder and Ryan Lockwood put in a terrific performance to come third in the 80cm class just missing out on qualifying by a whisker and Honor McFarlane rode a very positive clear round in the same class but was unplaced. We now look forward to the championships on 22/23rd October.

Melanie Norris

The author, Sarah Singleton will be visiting Pinewood on Tuesday 11th October to talk to Years 7 and 8 on the gothic genre. Following her presentation she will continue to explore the theme with some creative writing workshops for Year 8.

Sarah writes exclusively for young adults and her gothic novel, "Century", won the 2005 Booktrust Teenage prize. If you would like your child to have a signed copy of one of Sarah’s books, please click here to download the letter from Mrs Matthews and complete the slip at the bottom. Alternatively you can e-mail the library on library@pinewoodschool.co.uk. All books cost £6.99 and monies will be added to the bill.

To find out more about Sarah and her writing, visit her webpage www.crowmaiden.plus.com.

Mark Forsyth (Head of IT) is running in the London Marathon next year for the charity IT4CH (IT for Children in Hospital) and he is obviously trying to raise as much money as possible for this very worthwhile cause.

IT4CH aims to ensure that every child who is in hospital or at home, and is missing out on main-stream education, has access to PCs, laptops, colour printers and educational software to enable them to communicate with their family and friends during their time in hospital. It is also essential that they are able to keep up with their peers so that when they return to school they are able to cope.

If you would like to sponsor Mark please go to his e-giving page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MarkForsyth

We would like to say a very big thank you to all the Pinewood Community who kindly donated harvest gifts for the older citizens of Bourton and the Salvation Army at Gorse Hill in Swindon.  They were much appreciated and well received by the recipients.

Equally we were pleased by the attendance at our various Harvest Services.  The church in Bourton looked fantastic and the singing, poems and other contributions clearly sent out a good message. Particular thanks to the Reverend Richard Hancock, one of the Shrivenham ministers and Chris Stevens, Deputy Headmaster at Marlborough College, who both spoke on the meaning of this time of year.  In addition we must not forget the pupils from school Geordie Hall, Harrison Biggs and Oscar Wray  –  who helped out on Saturday afternoon with the distribution

AC

We are proud to be once again sponsoring a jump at the Calmsden Horse Trials on Sunday 9th October.

A number of current and old Pinewoodians (and a parent) competed at last year's event and we are pleased to have the opportunity to support our riders.  This year, Year 8 pupil, Alex Norris, will be competing, so do go along and support him.

For more details on the event, please go to their website: www.calmsdenevents.com.

The author, Penny Dolan will be visiting Pinewood on Tuesday 4th October to talk to Years 5 and 6. Penny’s new book, A Boy called M.O.U.S.E is a thrilling, near-Dickensian tale of lost parents, wicked uncles, evil schoolmasters and theatrical extravaganza.

If you would like your child to have a signed copy of A Boy called M.O.U.S.E. please click here to download the letter from Sally Matthews, complete the slip and hand it to form tutors or e-mail the library on library@pinewoodschool.co.uk

Books cost £6.99 and monies will be added to the bill.

You can find out more about Penny by visiting her website www.pennydolan.com

We are delighted to announce that the first phase of the Nursery extension was completed over the summer holidays.

The alterations, which have doubled the size of the Nursery and refurbished the existing space, will allow the children to enjoy more space for learning and play.  Phase 2 which is expected to be completed by the end of the Autumn, will see a canopy over some of the outside playground, providing an outdoor learning environment that can be used year round.

To view more pictures of the Nursery this term and their fantastic new facilities, please click here.  If you would like to visit the Nursery to see the changes, please contact the school office.

A date for your diary! Our very popular Bonfire Night will be on Friday 4th November from 5.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing you all there.

The evening starts at 5.30pm with a BBQ, Bar, tuck and children's activities, the bonfire will be lit at 6pm and the fireworks display will be at 6.30pm.

Friends of Pinewood committee members will be selling tickets every morning from Monday 17th October until Friday 4th November in the Hall, the Pre-Prep and Lower School.

Please do not bring sparklers, but torches and weather appropriate clothing/footwear are a good idea.

For more information, please speak to any member of Friends of Pinewood.

NB Treetops will be out of bounds for the evening.

If your daughter does ballet activity, there have been a number of changes to lesson times. The updated list of timings is on the Activities notice board outside the Dining Room.

Sunday 16th October, at Pinewood, 2.30pm kick off.

We would love as many Old Pinewoodians as possible to come and support or play in the rugby or hockey matches.  These are always close fought, but great fun matches against the old rivals.  It is always good to see as many former pupils as possible back at Pinewood, so why not come and support the teams, even if you are unable to play.

If you would like to play or come and support on the day, please contact Jim Bischoff, so that he has an idea of numbers.

Pinewood has received an excellent write up in the latest edition of the Tatler Good Schools Guide. Well done and thank you to everyone for making Pinewood "fizz"!

Choral Society starts again on Thursday 22nd September and will meet every Thursday at 6.30pm in the Music School, finishing at 7.15pm with a drink in the Hall.

Please do come along and join us, we are always look for new members; this term we will be working towards the end of term carol service, but we will also have an interesting repertoire before Half-Term.

For more information, please contact the School Office on 01793 782205

The school is now operating a minibus run from South Cerney, in addition to the runs from Marlborough and Chilton Foliat.

The bus operates in the mornings only and picks up at 7.40am from the Cotswold Water Park Main Car Park.

To book a place on the minibus, please contact Chris Field via the school office on 01793 782205 or on chrisfield@pinewoodschool.co.uk

For full details of all minibus runs, costs and timings, please click here.

There is a rich variety of music ensembles and choirs at Pinewood, who meet regularly to practise together. Some of these practice sessions take place during the normal school day, but others take place after 4.15pm, potentially affecting pick up times.

Please click here to view the full list of activities, their timings and the list of pupils involved.

We would be delighted to welcome any prospective parents to our Open Morning on Wednesday 12th October at 9.30am.

Come and see the Pre-Prep and Nursery at work and take the opportunity to meet our staff and pupils.  We are also looking forward to showing you our newly refurbished and extended Nursery; we have created a fantastic new facility and a wonderful space for the children. To view photos of the new Nursery, please go to the Pre-Prep & Nursery Gallery.

To register for the Open Day, please click here or telephone Mrs Janey Nelson, the Registrar, on 01793 782205.

To arrange a visit to meet the Headmaster and tour the Prep School for children aged 7-13, please telephone the Registrar.

We welcome everyone back to school and in particular we welcome all our new pupils, members of staff and Gap student.

Summer uniform may be worn.

Please note that the first weekend of term is an exeat, but there is an U13 rugby tournament at Clifton College and an U13 & U11 hockey tournament at Cheltenham College on Sunday 11th September. 

This will take place on Monday 12th September from 9am in the Surgery.  Parents can pick up a booking form from the table in the Hall or book online on the OPRO website.

The School Shop also stocks an excellent range of self-fitting gum shields that are perfect for rugby and hockey at prep school level.

Congratulations to the following who will be Head of House next year:

Farnborough: Miles Brandi & Amelia Rupp

Melchet: Alex Norris & Emily Acheson-Gray

Motcombe: Dominic Hutchinson & Georgia Whittal

Postbridge: George Tregoning & Lucy Shamash

Thank you to everyone who supported The George Bailey Trust on this day, through the Bike ride and Rubber Legs Challenge and through individual donations and buying t-shirts.  We raised over £1,700, which is a fantastic sum of money.

Thank you to all those who donated home made cakes, to the committee members for their continued help over the last three years, to James Siebert for organising the Rubber Legs Challenge and especially to Henrietta and Philip.  A special thank you from me to all of the 2009 leavers from George's year group who returned to join us, it was lovely to see them again and I hope they will return next year.

The money will go directly to two local children's charities who care for children with cancer, donated in memory of George Bailey, a very brave boy, who was loved by many.

Cathy Bailey

An enormous thank you to everyone who supported us at the Summer Evening, it was a wonderful evening and we are very grateful to everyone who helped us and attended the event and in particular to Mr Noll for very gamely allowing us to shave off his beard.

We are delighted to announce that we raised over £2,600, a fantastic sum!

Congratulations to Gabby Cook who won the IAPS National Athletics Championships U13 Discus gold medal with a throw of 23.13m. Gabby finished just outside the medals in the shot, two great performances.

A reminder that the Woods Family are visiting a school in Shonda, Mombassa, Kenya in August and are collecting items to take out that will be useful to the school. We would be really grateful if anyone felt they would be able to contribute any of the following:

Calculators (solar powered)

Dictionaries (small)

Balls - cricket, netball, volleyball (deflated!)

Musical Instruments (small)

Picture books

Old lap top computers

Geometry sets

T shirts

Hair ties

Details about the school can be found on www.shonda.org.uk. The school is largely supported by donations from this area and any contributions you make go only, and directly, to help the children there.

Please bring any items to Pinewood and place in the box in the hall (under the table by the front door) marked SHONDA.

THANK YOU!                         

Liz Woods (liz.fyfe@btinternet.com)

Pinewood pupils achieved 2 golds and 4 silvers in this year’s UKMT Maths Challenge for years 7 and 8. Over 235,000 pupils from across the UK sat the Challenge, with roughly the top 6% receiving a gold certificate, the next 13% silver, and the next 21% bronze.

Ben Massey-Leahy won best in school and narrowly missed out on the national final. Dominic Hutchinson also won gold, with Andrew Rainbow-Ockwell, Amelia Rupp, Ema Lazic and Fergus O’Keeffe winning silver.

Congratulations to all who took part.

The Year 8 trip to the Pyrenees was a fantastic trip of outward bound activities, giving everyone a chance of doing something they had never done before.

Congratulations to Lucas Arkwright who finished a creditable 2nd place overall, gaining the silver medal, in the U11 at the Wiltshire Quadkids Athletics Championships.

Unfortunately we had to postpone the Year 3 camp and it will now take place on Thursday 30th June.

Due to all the other end of term events, there will be no more Athletics Club on a Monday evening this term.

Jim Bischoff

Well done to all our Common Entrance candidates on a fantastic performance, matching last year's achievement of gaining an average of 65% across all subjects.

This year's Year 8 leavers will be starting at the following schools in September:

5 to Cheltenham College

4 to Marlborough College

2 each to: Abingdon, Kingswood, Milton Abbey, and Monkton Combe

1 each to: Sherborne,  Bryanston, Tudor Hall, Shrewsbury, Malvern, St Mary’s Calne, Prior Park, Bradfield, Dean Close, Dauntsey’s, Clifton, and St Edwards, Oxford.

We wish them all success and happiness at their new schools.

As Jonnie Leach is unable to talk to Year 8, his colleague, Dr Aric Sigman will give a talk in his place. Dr Sigman is well known and respected for his opinion on both drug and alcohol abuse. For more details on the talk and Dr Sigman, please go to:

http://www.jonnieleach.com/presentations/aric/presentation_details.html

The talk to Year 8 will be from 3-4pm and for all parents from 4.15-5.15pm in the Theatre.

All parents are very much welcome and encouraged to attend his talk on "How to Protect our Children from Today’s Drinking Culture".

The Pinewood Equestrian Team have yet again qualified for the National Championships in the 70cm show jumping with a resounding win at Millfield School at the weekend.

Despite horrendous weather conditions and slippery going, the team of Alex Norris, Jess Tregoning, Ben Ryder and Katy Meehan managed three double clears with fast times to easily outpace the opposition.  Jess rode a spectacular round coming 1^st and gaining qualification as an individual, and Ben came 4^th.

In the second class Pinewood also won and brought home the Millfield Cup, with Jess coming second and Ben 5^th.

A brilliant achievement in rather soggy conditions!  Well done to all involved and good luck at the championships in October!

Melanie Norris

Photos from the recent superb Lower School production of "Rats" are now available to view in the Events Gallery.

The pictures were taken by Tracy Dening-Smitherman, who can be contacted on familyds@btinternet.com.

On the day we built a Tudor house we made a poor house (hovel) and a house for a richer Tudor, like a merchant.

The first thing I did was whittled to make pegs for the house. They had to be a certain length and width to fit the holes. Then we did thatching. Half of the group thatched and the other half tiled. I have to say the thatching was the harder of the two.

Then we had to assemble the large pieces of wood to make the hovel. It was quite hard because you had to get all the pieces of wood in the right places to make a cruck frame and if you didn’t you had to take it down and re-build it again. After that we weaved the wattle so that later we could daub (put mud, sand, straw, cow dung and horse hair in the mixture) for the rich Tudor house. Then we started to put the pieces of the rich house together. We daubed the wattle and Mr Burchnall and Mrs Hawley put the last ten pieces in. We all cheered!

Thomas Hartley 5R

There will be a Chapel Choir rehearsal on Thursday 16th June for the upcoming concert (Thursday 23rd June), starting after school and finishing at 7.15pm.

Concert - Thursday 23rd June: There will be a rehearsal for Chapel Choir at 6.30pm, so supper will be provided for Chapel Choir members.  Please ensure Vox Choir members are back in school by 7pm for the concert.  School uniform should be worn.

ASB Music Exams - Friday 24th June: these will take place at school, BUT Jazz Piano and Rock School Drum exams are taking place outside school at venues in Swindon and Abingdon - as a minibus is not available, parents need to please ensure that travel arrangements are made for their child. 

Theory exams are taking place at school from 10am on Saturday 18th June.

Congratulations to Franziska Goess-Saurau (OP 2010), who has been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Pony Championships in Jaszkowo, Poland in July.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to our collection for the Swindon Foodbank last week. We collected a phenomenal 1003.2 kg (about 1180 meals for the average family), over 2.5 times as much as any school in the Swindon area has ever collected. One pupil even brought in his body weight in food!

Richard Belsham from the Foodbank was thrilled with the incredible amount that we had collected and said what an enormous difference it would make to people in crisis in the Swindon area.

We held a competition to see which part of the school could collect the most food and the results are as follows:

1. Pre-Prep - 402.1kg

2. Lower School - 201.2kg

3. Upper School - 182kg

4. Middle School - 162kg

5. Staff - 55.9kg

TOTAL - 1003.2 KG

We will definitely be supporting the Foodbank again next year with a collection and a visit by the Year 8's to the Foodbank warehouse.  We are also hoping to contribute towards the cost of a new van for their collections.

For more information on the Swindon Foodbank, please go to www.swindonfoodbank.co.uk.

More photos from the collection can be viewed in the Events Gallery.

There will be an official photo of all our Year 8 Leavers on Thursday 16th June in the morning. Please ensure that all Year 8 pupils are in school at that time as this will be the only opportunity to get them all together for a photo.

Please note the following changes to Activities in the remaining weeks of term:

Thursday 2nd June - no paid Tennis.

Thursday 9th, Tuesday 14th or Wednesday 15th June - NO ACTIVITIES.

Tuesday 21st June - No polo

Wednesday 22nd June - Fencing and Gymnastics Displays (normal lesson times).

Thursday 23rd June - Ballet Display (15.00 in the Performing Arts Centre)

The Judo Display will take place outside (if wet it will be in the Village Hall).

Tuesday 28th June - No Polo

Tuesday 5th July - No Polo

Thursday 7th July - NO ACTIVITIES

Please note that collection times for Half-Term are as follows:

12 noon - Pre-Prep & Lower School

12.30pm - Middle & Upper School

Five-year-old Lyndon Chen was among one hundred young pianists chosen to play with world renowned concert pianist Lang Lang at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre in London on Sunday.

Having been learning the piano since the age of 3, Lyndon’s parents found out about the massed piano day aimed at inspiring young pianists through Lyndon’s teacher.  Lyndon sent in the piece he was learning for his Grade 1 examination and was fortunate enough to be accepted.  Lots of rehearsing followed, practising the pieces he played on Sunday.

Asked what he liked about Lang Lang and why he wanted to play with him, Lyndon told his mother that he liked having the same Chinese name as him, YunLang, but that he didn’t want to practise the 8 hours a day that Lang Lang used to practice – “I’m only small” he said!

Ruth Hall went to watch Lyndon on the day along with his parents.  “It’s an amazing achievement for someone so young and everyone is very proud of him.  The atmosphere at the Royal Festival Hall was incredible and it was wonderful to see Lyndon, barely taller than his piano stool, enjoying the excitement of it all and playing alongside 100 of Britain’s youngest pianists.  He is a super boy who really is remarkably talented!”

Lang Lang, who was heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, has played in sold out concerts all over the world.  He is the first Chinese pianist to be taken on by the Vienna Philharmonic, and has been seeking to mentor, inspire and educate young pianists through a range of different events organized by The Lang Lang Foundation.

We are organising another collection for the Swindon Foodbank and we need YOU to be as generous as you can and donate essential food items to our collection.

During the week following the Bank Holiday weekend (Tuesday 31st May to Friday 3rd June) there will be collection points in Pre-Prep, Lower School, Middle School (Wakeham Porch) and Upper School (Hall), and there will be a competition to see which area of the school can collect the most, so please BE GENEROUS!

For our collection the Foodbank have asked us for the following items, as they are particularly short of them at the moment (other items are also useful as long as they are long life and would form a sensible part of a meal pack):

Pasta Sauce

Pasta (500g or 1kg)

Tinned Spaghetti

Tinned Fruit

Baked Beans

Biscuits

Long Life Milk

UHT Fruit Juice or 1 litre Squash

Quantity is the most important thing and "Basics" or supermarket own brands are perfectly good.

Swindon Foodbank is an amazing local charity that provides meal packs to local families and individuals who have suddenly fallen on hard times. At present they are giving away over 3 1/2 tons of food a month to people from all areas of society - from middle managers who have lost their jobs in the current economic climate to those teenagers who have left home at 16 and are just not coping.

For more information about Swindon Foodbank, please click here.

We have helped the Foodbank on a number of occasions in the past and it would be lovely if we could continue to do so in the future.

Thank you for your support.

STOP PRESS ... Richard Belsham from Swindon Foodbank spoke to the children in Assembly on Monday morning about the work of the Foodbank.

The Pinewood Equestrian Team of Jess Tregonning, Alex Norris, Ben Ryder and Katie Meehan performed extremely well again to take 2nd place behind a stronger (and older) Stonar team at last weekend’s one day event.

Good dressage marks in 3 out of 4 arenas gave us a flying start and with 3 clears in the show jumping and the same in the cross country, we were always in with a chance. The home team just pipped us at the post, however, to leave us in a very creditable second place.

Individual honors go to Jess who was 2nd, Ben 4th and Alex who won the best dressage in his arena. (Ben was delighted to win a very pink grooming brush for coming 4th – they were obviously not expecting a boy to do so well!!)

Valuable experience was gained by competing at this level with all the pressures of being in a team competition. Well done to you all!

Melanie Norris

The Reading Group are shadowing the Kate Greenaway award for outstanding illustration. Visit our homepage to read our reviews of the short listed books, vote in our poll and keep up to date with our news via our blog.

The short listed books are on display in the library if you would like to join the debate!

To view our home page on the Carnegie Greenaway Shadowing site, please click here.

Please note that the Parents Forum that was due to be held on Thursday 26th May has been postponed.

Mrs Matthews is running a Horrible Science Challenge for Years 5 and 6 in the Library.

There are five separate challenges; each based around one of the Horrible Science books: Deadly Diseases; Disgusting Digestion; Blood, Bones and Body Bits; Nasty Nature and Chemical Chaos. When a child completes a challenge, they are awarded a book. There are five books to collect in total.

Children will need to visit the library to start each challenge and will need to use the resources in the library to answer the questions.

Please come and have a go now!

The school currently operates 2 school minibus runs, starting in Marlborough and Chilton Foliat, and from September we will also be doing a run from South Cerney. For full details of costs, pick up times and venues, please click here.

Last Saturday we were very lucky to have Andy Salmon from Thinkalink (aka Sir Linkalot) presenting to years 5, 6, 7 & 8, sowing the seed of linking amongst the children (and teachers!) with great success. They thoroughly enjoyed it and walked away having armed themselves with an innovative twist on an underused learning tool. 

Andy's book 'Think-Of-A-Link! How To Remember Absolutely Everything' published by Scholastic Children's Books is now out on the market costing £6.99 and fits in with Scholastic's ethos which is to make learning fun, very much like their extremely successful 'Horrible Histories' titles.

It contains 'links' (and cartoons, where appropriate) for all sorts of key facts like Historical Dates, The Meaning of Words, Kings & Queens, Spelling, World Capitals, Maths & Science Formulae, Grammatical Errors, French Words and, of course, the first 10 'Mr Men' books! It also includes Sir Linkalot's 'Tips & Tricks' throughout the book about how to link.

I highly recommend it as this has not been done before to the extent that Andy has taken it. It's engaging and conveys a great message that learning is fun. For what it's worth, the Dyslexia Association hugely endorses Thinkalink and feel his technique 'Letter Linking' is groundbreaking.

Andy had a meeting recently with the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, who loved Thinkalink and embraced the concept. He has asked him to come in and present to the senior officials in his department.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book then either:

1. Make a cheque out to 'Thinkalink Ltd' for £6.99 and hand it in at 'Reception'. Once I have theorders in, then Andy will send the books to the school for collection.

2. If you would like to pay by bank transfer, please contact Jim Bischoff or the School Office for account details.

JB

On the Pinewood Adventure Weekend Year 4 went to Mill on the Brue in Somerset. We had a really busy time, but it was a lot of fun.

Everyone was in a group called either Badgers, Magpies, Swallows or Otters. Some activities you took turns with, such as grass tobogganing, the Zip Wire and Archery. Others were meant to encourage teamwork such as the Night Line, the Spider’s Web, the Mushroom Maze, The Great Wall, Low Ropes and The Assault Course.

The Great Egg Drop on Saturday was really good too. We had to design a way of saving an egg from breaking when it was dropped over a high balcony. Only one egg survived!! On the last morning we all played the colony game; each group was given various things which we had to trade so that we had everything we needed to build a shelter, a fire and cook cocoa and marshmallows.

At night we slept in dorms, which for some was a new really fun experience. There was even a tidiest dorm competition which Beech, one of the girls’ dorms won.  All the instructors were kind and fun and helped us do things we might not have tried before. Now we’re looking forward to going sailing in Year 5.

4K

Photos from the trip can be viewed in the Events Gallery

On Friday 30th April, Year 6 went to the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Although the journeys there and back were long, it was totally worth it for the activities ahead.

When we got there we were split into 4 groups: group 1 with Mr A-G, group 2 with Mr King, group 3 with Mr Siebert and group 4 with Miss Grayshon; then we were given our room numbers. After lunch we started our first activity. Group 1 went off and did rifle shooting, while group 2 and 3 did abseiling; group 4 were doing the assault course while the other groups were doing their activities.

That was the last daring activity on Friday, but over the weekend we did many more like:

Canoeing; Kayaking: this took place on a five acre lake with two islands within it, we played lots of games including cops and robbers in the kayaks, and canoe polo in the canoes; Zip wire: this took place in a tree house that used a large rope ladder to get up to it, it was about thirty foot up, and lastly High ropes.

These were all really fun and really daring.  Not only were the activities great but so were the facilities, staff and food.

The staff took us on an evening walk the first night which was really fun and they told us about the red kite and a food reserve for them and how they are nearly extinct. The next night they provided space and set up a disco for us and danced with us. They did dance routines for YMCA and cha-cha real smooth. In quiet time every night they set up a DVD, then we went to bed at 9:30.

Then we said good bye manor adventure and set off home.

We need to say a huge thank you to all the teachers who gave up their weekends to come and give us a great experience including: Miss Grayshon, Mr A-G, Mr King and Mr Siebert

Caitlin O’Farrell, Abigail Wylie, Tom Goddard & Joseph Salter

Photos from the trip can be viewed in the Events Gallery

The C.Y.E trip, to Chichester, was a lovely and amazing experience for everyone. It brought people together and was based on teamwork. The activities were so much fun on water and land and there was lots of encouragement going round all the teams.

When all the year 5 got their big bags and went to their dorms everyone put their duvet covers and pillow cases on and then quickly got used to the room and snuggled in. The dorms had two bunk beds on either sides of the room and a bathroom.

All the activities were always a very enjoyable adventure. We got to do 4 activities, 3 which were on water. We were split up into 4 teams. Team 1 were called Number one, Team 2 were called The Randoms, Team 3 were called Pinewood and Team 4 were called SPS (standing for Self Preservation Society).

The first activity was Treasure Seekers Challenge in which you had to do several small challenges including the climbing wall and the assault course. The second activity was Pico sailing when we went in pairs on a yellow boat and we tried to sail it successfully without capsizing! The third activity was Kayaking. We played lots of games and nearly everyone capsized!! The fourth activity was long boating; we had two boats, five in each and we had to sail to different points to get letters and at the end we had to make a word with all the letters. 

And last is the food, which was great! We were starving after all those amazing activities!

The C.Y.E trip was so, so, so, so, so much fun and a huge thank you to all the C.Y.E staff and the C.Y.E kitchen staff for making our time there so enjoyable. Thank you so much also to all the Pinewood staff: Mr Lewis, Mr Bloem, Mr Downe , Mrs Robinson and Mr Caird, who made it happen and such an unforgettable experience.

Mia Collins and Esme Foster     

Photos from the trip can be viewed in the Events Gallery

Friends of Pinewood are delighted to announce that this very successful and enjoyable event raised over £1400, a proportion of which will be donated to Lambourn Riding for the Disabled.

We are very grateful to everyone who donated their beautiful clothes and made delicious cakes and to all those who came and supported us and bought things on the day.

Finally, a very big thank you goes to Jane Hawkes, who hosted the event and worked tirelessly to make the event such a success.

We hope to repeat the clothes sale, so watch this space for details!