The Year 3 and 4 pupils hosted a Nature to Nurture showcase afternoon at the Auden Theatre to friends and families.
They performed poems, plays, dances and sang songs with Climate Change as the theme. This was their first opportunity at performing at the Auden Theatre and everyone did such an amazing job.Â
On Monday 6th February, Dr Louise Betts brought 17 Prep School pupils to the Dyson Building to build and fire some air powered rockets with Dr Taylor (Head of Chemistry). During this after school activity, the pupils all designed, built and decorated their own rocket before launching them. As it was dark, they attached glowsticks to the rockets before launching them across Chapel Lawn. The event was a great success and Dr Taylor is already looking forward to the next batch of Prep School pupils coming to build more rockets.
This rocket building activity will also form a new addition to the STEAM Outreach events, where pupils from over 25 local primary schools will spend an afternoon enjoying STEAM activities in the Dyson Building.
Congratulations to Teddy, Hugo, Beatrice and Santiago who beat off fierce competition and qualified for the Quiz Club National Science Championship finals!
Elastic Band have been practising hard during their Tuesday morning sessions. Beginner players are always welcome!
Year 7 and 8 mountain biking club enjoyed a trip out to Letheringsett.
A group of pupils from Years 5, 6 and 7 have joined with Dr Rose to create a Gresham’s Green Team. They are aiming to help make the school an eco-friendlier place and have pledged to encourage pupils to turn off lights and waste less food, plant new trees around the school, organise a litter pick and create birdhouses.
“Nicholas McCarthy is a concert pianist specialising in left-hand repertoire, and Gresham’s School created a brilliant opportunity for him to visit our school and showcase his musical ability as well as share his backstory. Across the two-day visit, there is not a shadow of a doubt that Nicholas gained the greatest respect of all the pupils and staff of Gresham’s School.
On Friday 13th January, a selected group of musicians at Gresham’s were treated to a masterclass by Mr McCarthy and then he demonstrated left-hand repertoire with a performance. Some lucky pianists were given a one-to-one session with Nick to improve their piece of choice and how to enhance the performing aspect of playing the piano.
On Saturday 14th, Nick McCarthy gave an inspirational talk during the School Chapel Service and also demonstrated left-hand piano-playing. His talk was on the topic of his life story and how, even though he was born with one hand only, he decided, after seeing a friend play the piano at school, that he too would like to not only play the piano but become a concert pianist. Initially, he did not even have a piano, although he did get a keyboard for the following Christmas; he taught himself to play, and used Radio 3 as his inspiration and teacher. One day, his father told Nick to turn the radio down, and in fact it was Nick playing! This was when he knew he was good and he subsequently applied for multiple music colleges across the UK. He made history when he became the first one-handed pianist to graduate from the prestigious Royal College of Music in London. Ultimately the main takeaway from the talk was: no matter how many people put you down or discourage you, no matter what the obstacles standing in your way, nothing is impossible and no matter how crazy your dreams may be, you’ll be able to achieve them if you put the effort in.”
The pupils braved some very low temperatures to camp out in the school woods during a January weekend. They enjoyed a take-away curry, flame-grilled popcorn and a breakfast fry-up, as well as sleeping in the outdoor cabin’s hammocks. This was a great opportunity to develop resilience in both staff and pupils; a great time was had by all!
At the beginning of term, a group of 15 Year 7 & 8 pupils visited the Productivity East building at the University of East Anglia. During their visit they learned about what it takes to become a fully qualified engineer. They toured the building and were able to see a range of sophisticated equipment, used to do anything from 3D printing to milling components out solid blocks of metal and testing the stresses and strains on materials.
Carol Services
Gresham’s Prep and Senior Schools ended the term with a series of traditional Christmas Carol services in Chapel. The beautiful Christmas songs and Carols performed by our amazing Chapel Choirs provided the perfect end to the term, and a super start to our festive celebrations.
Nativity Services
On the final weekend of school this year our Prep and Senior pupils enjoyed a festive Nativity Service in Chapel. They had enormous fun singing Carols and watching a hilarious adaptation of the Nativity story written and performed by Year 12 pupils. The star of the show was Spice the Donkey who made a dramatic entrance into Chapel to help Mary and Joseph in their hour of need.
