Easter 2015 • Issue 17
Inside this issue:
A few words...
Our Open Morning this term was hugely successful and a great
opportunity for parents to see the Junior and Senior Choir
performances, look around the classrooms, see the excellent
work being done, talk with staff and gain insight into life at
Bramley where we have one overarching vision and that is one
of Excellence. This is evident when we consider the success
of our Tops girls in securing their first choice of senior school.
Congratulations to the Tops girls this year who have who gained
a place and passed examinations for:
Epsom College, St John’s School, Caterham, Wycombe Abbey, Rosebery, Greenacre,
Woldingham, New Hall, Westonbirt, Ashcombe, Dunottar, St Swithun’s, Manor House,
City of London Freemen’s and Reigate Grammar School.
The number of schools our girls progress on to reminds us of the importance of finding
the right school for the right girl and at the right age, 11 years old, when they and their
parents are more in tune with who they are as a young person and where best they are
going to flourish.
Enjoy the Easter holidays and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on
Thursday 16th April for the Summer Term.
Ms Paula Burgess
Headmistress
News and reviews from
Little Bramley, Pre-prep and Prep
•World Book Day
•Maths success
•Le Café Français
•Science in action
•DT and Art
•Sports Reports
•Little Bramley and
Pre-Prep activities
•Public Speaking
Competition
•Instrumental Concert
& Tops Soiree
•Charity fund raising
•Bramley Ball
www.bramleyschool.co.uk
[email protected]
Tel: 01737 812004
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”Aristotle
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World Book Day
On Thursday 5th March, Bramley School girls and teachers got into the spirit of World
Book Day by dressing up as their favourite book character. Costumes ranged from
Paddington Bear and The Ugly Sisters to the Hunger Games. The winning costumes
all received books or book tokens as prizes. There we many activities that the children
participated in throughout the day including; watching performances of ‘The
Gingerbread Man’ or ‘Aesop’s Fables’; participating in different competitions such as
‘Guess the Teacher’s bookshelves’ or writing their own version of fables. The girls all
thoroughly enjoyed the day and we would like to thank the parents for their support.
A particular well done to the following
girls who won the ‘dressing up’
competition:
S p o r ts r e p o r t . . .
Little Bramley
Cherry Francis-Mazzocchi as ‘The Little
Princess’
Reception
Scarlett Huggins as ‘Puss in Boots’
Year 1
Emilie Lumbard as ‘Q Pootle 5’
Year 2
Isabella Quayle as ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Lowers
Georgie Hamilton as ‘Willy Wonka’
Middles
Charlotte Gadd as ‘John Clayton’ (Tarzan’s
father)
Uppers
Madison Ladell as ‘Tigger’
Tops
Maisie Williams and Aoife McDonnellChappell as ‘Thing 1 and Thing 2’
Overall Pre-Prep Winner
Hannah Griffiths as Paddington Bear
Overall Prep Winner
Hana Blackman as Gangsta Granny
Bramley vs Seaton House
Gymnastic Competition
Tops Theatre Trip
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
In January, Tops enjoyed watching Shakespeare’s 4 Kidz
performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ The girls
found this adapted version of the play, which included
songs and modern references, very entertaining and
it helped them to understand the nuances of the
language. They particularly liked the character ‘Puck’
who was especially mischievous. It also reminded them
of their own performances of the show which they
undertook when they were in Middles. I look forward
to going with Tops next year to a different Shakespeare
performance.
Mrs Dziedziela
Well done to the following girls who participated in and won the Bramley vs
Seaton House Gymnastic Competition in Year 2 - Year 6.
Year 2
Niamh Maddick
2nd Place
Kate Morten
4th Place
9.1 Points
Year 6
Molly Nunn
1st Place
18.6
8.9 Points
Allegra Martin
2nd Place
18.5
Anna Russell
18.0
Rowena Fogarty
15.9
Chloe Micallef
Year 3
Evelyn Nallen
Joint 1st Place with Seaton House
Annie Gadd
3rd Place
Year 4
We had 7 girls who participated in this event. They were all so
eager and did incredibly well against the Seaton House girls.
All that hard work in lesson time and afterschool paid off.
Hana Blackman scored the highest points - only 0.5 off full
marks
Hana Blackman
1st Place
19.5
Jules Martin
3rd Place
18.5
Maisy Nunn
15.0
Sophie Barrows
17.0
Sofia Micallef
12.1
Maia Pendower
12.8
Anna Morten
12.0
Year 5
Madison Ladell
1st Place
18.5
Cerys Denny
2nd Place
18.0
Maya Cripps
17.4
Emma Shilton
15.9
Cristiana Ouatu
13.0
Between Molly and Allegra there was a (0.1) difference very
close indeed.
Overall Scores
1st Place
Bramley with 185.9 points
2nd Place
Seaton House with 173.1 Points
Epsom Cross Country
Anna Russell, Madison Ladell, Emma
Shilton, Niamh Mclaren-Morton,
Amelie Ortu-Baker and Maya
Cripps put in 100% effort to keep
up with the competition. The girls
ran approximately one and a half
miles around Epsom School fields
showing great determination and
managed to come 13th. Anna
Russell achieved 16th out of 78
competitors. Miss Georgiou
Thank you
Thank you to FOB and School Council for the new mats - the
girls have been able to excel using more space in the Gym and
so many more advanced moves are now being performed. It
was great to see our girls use such a wide variety of skills and put
together unique performances. Having watched and worked
with the girls, I feel they showed dynamic skills and took chances
which paid off in their performance. A special mention must go
to Molly Nunn who completed one of the most difficult skills of
a Round off Flick.
Thank you for all for the support and help on the day. Every
member of the team gave a great performance and I am so
proud of you all. Miss Georgiou
“When a team outgrows individual performance & learns team confidence, excellence becomes reality.” Joe Paterno
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Science Department News
Lowers are very excited about the sunflowers
that they planted. They have planted three
different varieties so that they can compare
and contrast their growth and yield. They have
also been investigating light and reflections.
Middles have been exploring different states
of matter and have investigated the effects of
different variables on ice melting.
Uppers have been exploring a range of
materials and have investigated how to
separate mixtures. They are looking forward
to planting their flowers and vegetables and
using the new greenhouses to propagate
their seeds.
Have you spotted the bird feeders in the
school garden? Year 6 have been topping
them up and recording the variety and
frequency of birds that visit us. The most
frequent visitor is the jackdaw and many other
birds have come to feed. Even some longtailed tits have been spotted.
Miss Martin and Mrs Dearlove
Maths
creative. Please encourage your daughters
to show off their linguistic skills if you get the
chance to travel to France within the next year,
and I shall be listening to them all intently on
the school trip to France in 2016!
Mrs Abbott
Uppers and Tops have been working hard in Humanities this term resulting in some
fantastic displays in Uppers’ classroom. The themes: endangered species and cities in
Europe. Not only did they have to produce an informative and creative poster illustrating
their chosen species or city but they had to present it in a lively and engaging way.
Tops were equally effervescent with their far-reaching cities and Gracie CaterhamAshford particularly delighted everyone with her spread of food samples from her
chosen city, Frankfurt. Mrs Abbott
Uppers and Tops have been learning
about Fauvism and created a landscape
for the hare using perspective. They
then coloured it with bright, bold vivid oil
pastels in fauvism style.
Mrs Tejura
Humanities
Uppers got passionate about endangered species ranging from snow leopards to
spider monkeys and covering all continents. Particular mention should be made of
Amélie Ortu-Baker who showed particular engagement with her chosen animal (the
hawksbill turtle), presenting her knowledge (without reading notes) in an interesting,
anecdotal way. Well done, Amélie!
The Tortoise and The Hare. Lowers and
Middles made 3D tortoises. They had to
blend different shades of paint and look
carefully at the pattern on the tortoise’s
shell.
Many thanks to Friends of Bramley who
contributed to our new Art Aprons.
Le Café Français
Lowers and Middles have been enthusiastically preparing
themselves for a future visit to a French café or restaurant.
Parents at Open Morning were greeted by several girls
enquiring, “Vous désirez, Madame?” and were then treated to
all sorts of imaginary delicacies. It was lucky that the cafés that
Lowers created were not real as their orders of “103 crêpes” and
“2000 tasses de thé” may have
been cause for concern and the
demands of the waitresses for
“un million euros” were a little
over the top! Middles had help
from Bart and Maggie Simpson
in dictating conversations to
one another in French during
their lessons and the menus
that they all produced were very
Art
Design and Technology
Middles have investigated Anglo Saxon helmets this term and designed and produced
their own replica. They are currently designing Anglo Saxon purses, having explored
the features of them.
Uppers completed Victorian musical instruments last term, which they played for me
and are in the process of designing Victorian biscuits, following their tasting session and
internet research to determine the different ingredients that Victorians used.
Tops designed and made World War II air raid shelters which incorporated functional
lighting and are now enjoying practising their sewing skills in preparation for making a
stuffed teddy for an evacuee. Miss Martin
The girls have all been working extremely
hard this term on the New National
Curriculum in Maths. The expected
standard has been raised for each group
and we have been working hard to close
any gaps as quickly as possible. Tops
girls have passed all their Entrance exams
in Mathematics and it has been good
to hear positive feedback from several
schools on their excellent performance –
Congratulations girls! You see all that hard
work and extra homework really did pay
off! I would also like to congratulate Anna
Morten for being the first Middles girl to
receive her Tables badge. I wonder how
many more of you can achieve this by the
end of the Summer Term? Keep practising
those multiplications and divisions girls!
Please encourage all your daughters to
practise their tables. Even the girls in Years
1 and 2 have started to learn them now. Is
it possible for us to have a girl below Year 4
receiving their table’s badge? Please rise to
the challenge Years 1, 2 and 3!. Mrs Blake
“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” Ralph Marston
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Chessington Zoo
Little Bramley
Instrumental Concert
Year 1&2 visited Chessington Zoo for the morning. The girls had
a workshop on African animals and their habitats and then a
tour of the zoo. The trip enhanced their Geography lessons in
which they have been learning about Kenya and its wildlife and
their ongoing learning about animals in science. The girls got to
hold a snake, feed the giraffes and find out about animals such
as zebra, lions, monkeys, foosa and meerkats. They returned to
school enthused and full of information.
The girls in Little Bramley have been busy exploring life in
the jungle. They have created lots of amazing animals for
our jungle in the classroom for their Rumble in the Jungle
Assembly to parents in the last week of term.
We had a wonderful evening of music from our Prep girls and some of
our Pre Prep girls. They sang as a choir and group and many individually
and there were many instrumental pieces beautifully performed. Many
thanks to all our peripatetic staff for their hard work, I am delighted with the
progress the girls have made this year.
Mrs Bate
Mr Morton
Mrs Butt, Mrs Turbervill, Miss Murphy
St Peter’s
Church visit
St Peter’s Church in Walton-On-The-Hill kindly showed Year 1 & 2
girls around the inside of the church. The visit was an important
part of their RE this term as they have been learning about the
church, the role of the minister and the Baptism ceremony. The
girls saw and found out about features such as the font, the altar
and the stained glass windows. They all enjoyed being allowed
to speak from the pulpit, play the organ and ring the church bell.
Reception
Public Speaking
Competition
Cristiana, Jemima and Madison from Uppers
formed a team to represent Bramley in a public
speaking competition at Epsom College. They were
one of eleven teams taking part and most of the
opposition were boys! The girls posed the question
“Why do we have to do so much homework”
and used research, humour, clever ideas and
suggestions to put forward their ideas fluently.
Although we were not the winning team, all three
girls received some complimentary feedback from
the adjudicators.
These were some of the comments from the
leading Judge: “Cristiana - very clear, very
poised to begin with, convincing. I believed
what you were talking about, which is very
important. Jemima - very accomplished, sure,
nice clear voice, very easy on the ear and, once
again, a sense of enjoyment. Madison - very
well measured and a composed performance,
well structured, followed the traditional
pattern well. You came across the most
courteous and polite team”.
All the Reception girls enjoyed performing to their parents
and the whole school in their assembly. They entertained us
with a song about wonderful animals and the story ‘Giraffes
can’t Dance’. They tango-ed, cha cha cha-ed and waltzed
their way around the stage and twirled to a Scottish reel. At
the end of the story, Gerald realised he could dance in his
own unique way. It was a fantastic performance, well done!
Mrs Nunn
WELL DONE! Mrs Phillips
Mrs Butt, Mrs Turbervill, Miss Murphy
Tops Soiree
At the annual Tops Soiree, the girls performed a selection of
extracts from Shakespeare combined with works in progress
for their LAMDA exams. A group recited poems from their
English class. Parents were pleased to share the evening and
commented on how much the girls had enjoyed preparing
and performing as a celebration of their time at Bramley. A very
enjoyable evening. Well done Tops!
Mrs Dziedziela and Mrs Phillips
Leading the way in educating girls
8
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Diya and Annabel, both in Lowers, each donated a
large amount of their hair, up to 17cm, to The Little
Princess Trust to make a wig for a child who has lost
their hair to cancer. It is a charity for children that is
not yet highly recognised and both girls are incredibly
passionate about supporting it. Diya was featured in
the Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser and Annabel in
the Epsom Guardian. Well done girls.
Bramley Ball
Wow! What a wonderful evening was had by parents, staff and
guests at Chipstead Golf Club for our Annual Bramley Ball!
Everyone agreed that the room looked amazing and definitely
had the wow factor! The food was delicious and much fun was
had at the casino and photo booth! Well done to Mr Curry for
winning the Irish Bingo and to Mrs Nunn for winning the casino
prize - she likes a flutter!
The ladies looked gorgeous in their finery and the men
scrubbed up well too!
There were bids aplenty flying around the room and the auction
raised a staggering £2,230 with the help of banter from James,
the impromptu auctioneer! Mary Pendower did an impressive
20+ press-ups as a farewell party trick that raised £80 alone! The
raffle made an amazing £668.
June, Charlotte and I would like to thank you all for attending the
ball and for being so generous on the night and in the weeks
leading up to the Ball, and to those who donated auction and
raffle prizes. We couldn’t have done it without you!
The whole evening made an outstanding £4,650 that will be put
towards further projects for the girls.
Tara Wright
Open Morning
Red Nose Day
We had a wonderful array of ‘redness’
around the school on Red Nose Day
with the whole school enjoying the
opportunity to dress up, make up
and accessorize!
The girls enjoyed a range
of great activities on Open
Morning whilst their
parents looked around
the school at the work
on display and took the
opportunity to talk with
the staff.
Bramley School & Nursery
Chequers Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill,
Tadworth, Surrey KT20 7ST
www.bramleyschool.co.uk
[email protected]
Tel: 01737 812004
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Summer Term 2015 starts
Thursday 16 April 2015
Admissions – please
contact Faye Gale, PA to
the Headmistress,
to arrange a visit to
the school