Mrs Bennett’s Bulletin, Tuesday 12 May 2020

Posted: 12th May 2020

Good morning, Prep School!

It’s Tuesday and it’s raining here in Nottingham! It is continuing on from yesterday. It’s been dark and drab here since Sunday but I hear you have had a bit more lovely sunshine in Birmingham than I have had here, although it’s been very chilly for us all!

So those of you who know me well, will know that I love a good photograph. I love taking photographs, I love looking at photographs and I love editing photographs. I go on courses to help me take better photographs (unsuccessfully, I may add). I am always taking photos of everything, from frost covered spider’s webs to pictures of my food to gatherings with my friends and family. I love the fact that these are pictures that will last a life time and they are memories that make me happy to share with people and look back on. My house is covered in photographs and the memories that these evoke. Everyone complains when I get my camera out but they are also the first to say thank you when I send them a photo that has captured a perfect moment!

I have over 25, 000 digital photos stored on my computer since 2007. I have boxes and albums full of photographs before they became digital and I used to love sending the film in my camera off in the post to be developed and waited eagerly for what would come back! In those days, you only used to be able to take 24 or 36 pictures on a roll of film and usually at least half of those had someone’s finger in the way of the lens or someone had moved just as you took the photograph resulting in a blurry mess! There was none of this taking 100’s of photos to achieve the one perfect shot, selfies were a rarity and if you ran out of film half way through an event – you ran out of film – no more photos!

There is nothing I love more than sitting with a cup of tea and going through these photos to make albums for people or to find a special shot from an occasion that has been otherwise forgotten about. It is true what they say ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’.

Last week, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, launched a nationwide photography competition for people to try and take some photographs that have summed up their time during the Coronavirus pandemic. She has entitled it ‘Hold Still’. I thought it would be a lovely idea for us at Highclare Prep to do this as well.

It is going to be a house competition for the children in R to Year 6. Please submit your entries to myself via email. House points will be awarded for participation and there will be prizes for the winning entries in both key stages. The closing date for this competition is Friday 22nd May. Photos can have been taken at any time throughout the pandemic. Your photograph also needs a fitting name e.g. In every storm, is a rainbow. Entries can be in black and white or colour and be taken using whatever camera you have in your household.

I have attached the poster for the competition to this email along with a photo I took on VE Day during my walk as an example. I haven’t thought of a suitable name for it yet – I’ll have to get my thinking hat on! I have also attached a few of the photographs that Kate Middleton used to launch her competition – they are very thought provoking and emotive for many, many reasons. I know which is my favourite. Do you have one? For those of you who are interested, I have also included the link to the National Portrait Gallery, as it gives more explanation of ‘Hold Still’. https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/

Teachers, please feel free to take part too – I have a different prize on offer for you!

I really cannot wait to see what you produce! Good luck and happy snapping!

So each day I promised I would be sending you a life skill task to complete and also a joke, poem, picture, fact or reflection. Here we go for Tuesday 12th May 2020:

Life skill of the day: Can you clean the inside of a car?

Day of the year themes: ‘Poem On Your Pillow Day’, ‘Odometer Day’, ‘Nutty Fudge Day’ and ‘Limerick Day’.

Thunk of the day: Remember, Thunks are unusual questions that are designed to make you think. There are no right or wrong answers -just your answer. The only rule is that you must be able to justify and explain your answer. You cannot just say the first thing that comes into your head. Really think about the question and discuss with your family!

Question: If you read a paper in a shop without paying for it, is that stealing?

TOPS activity of the week: Can you find something in your house that starts with every single letter of the alphabet? Once you have collected all of these, can you take a photograph and send them to me please?

Quote of the Day: “Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb; it is about how well you bounce”

Joke of the day: Thank you to Joseph Thomas for this one (Yr3W)

Q: Why are fish so clever?

A: Because they live in schools!

And we cannot forget a very important countdown. . .

Sleeps til Santa: 227

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

Mrs Bennett 😊

Highclare School is proud to announce its newest Sixth Form Scholarship

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For more information email admissions@highclareschool.co.uk