On Saturday 4th May, the Senior School String Quartet made up of Lucy D viola, Isadora A violin, Ilana B violin and Zinnia-Claire B cello, took part in an evening of music organised by Keith Hobday of the Belfry Centre for Music and Arts in Overstrand, at Aylsham Church. The concert was a platform to showcase young talent in Norfolk and a challenging programme included music by Elgar, Massenet, Monti, Schubert, Beach, Grieg and Bach. Two pianists performed alongside our strings players, who performed as a quartet as well as soloists. Sophie D violin from the Prep School opened the concert.
The Year 7 arrived safely in the Peak District and started off with a walk to Ringing Roger!
On Wednesday, the group went on an adventure abseiling, team building and a river trek. This was all based around Miller’s Dale, Buxton.
On their last day, the pupils had great fun visiting a theme park.
The Prep School hosted its third annual ‘Shark Tank’ event to conclude the Year 8 ABE Endorsed KidsMBA programme 2023-24. The programme is delivered to Year 8 pupils as part of the curriculum to teach real world business and entrepreneurship skills. Ten teams of Year 8 pupils presented their final business concept to the year group cohort, a large body of parents and the three guest judges. There were varied and creative business ideas, ranging from an eco market place to sustainable mountain biking jumps to gardening services and much more.
The eventual winning team, ‘Safety Chains’, consisted of Elisabeth, Minky, Imogen, Cristina, Esme, Emma and Georgie, with their jewellery product idea to help keep females safe. However, the judges noted there could have been many winning teams and that all ideas were ‘investable’. We would like to thank the ABE and Reuben Davison for supporting the programme, the guest judges Mr Paul Devlin and Mrs Liz Marsden for giving up their time to provide excellent feedback to the teams and the Year 8 pupils for engaging with the course. All of the Year 8 pupils will receive their course completion certificates from ABE on Speech Day 2024 and the winning team will be entered into ABE’s ‘Future Entrepreneur of the Year’ global final.
Earlier this month, all the Year 10 girls were invited to a wellbeing evening in Big School. The girls were taught valuable skills of breathing, meditation, calming yoga stretches, journaling and mindful colouring as well as understanding the importance of nutrition to help with our mental fitness. The evening ended with delicious snacks consisting of smoothies, ginger shots and gluten free wholefood oat bars. All the girls were provided with a booklet of ideas to help support their mental fitness. It was a wonderful relaxing evening for all.
Both Prep and Senior Schools held special Chapel services giving thanks for the founders and benefactors of our school on Saturday. We were joined by Peter Capon, Head of Collection at The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, who gave a superb talk on their historic links with Gresham’s.
A fun time in the sun was had by all at our Chapel Fete. Thank you to everyone who came along, with your help we raised £2,000 for The Holt Youth Project.
Gresham’s Sixth Form pupils Sarah and Aaron spent Friday afternoon helping Head of History Mr Kinder and School Archivist Izzy to restore books from the school’s Foundation Library. These works date back to the 1530s and the original volumes were gifted to Gresham’s in the will of the former headmaster Thomas Tallis. Now the books have been restored it is hoped that they can be returned to public display.
The U17s had a fantastic win in Round 2 of the National Cup, beating last year’s champions Ipswich by 84 runs.
Liv M opened brilliantly with 45 off 24, followed by Georgia D’s 28 off 18. Captain Grace H-K then scored an excellent 55 as we posted 148.
Ipswich were all out for 64 in reply. Georgia took 3 for 7 off 2 overs, Year 9 debutant Angelica H took 2 for 12 off 3 and Grace again excelled with 4 for 13 off 4.
The team progresses to the next round with some great momentum, as the 1sts are now unbeaten in 6 matches at U17 and U18 level so far.
We marked Ascension Day, Thursday 9th May, with our wonderful Gresham’s tradition of choral singing from the Chapel roof top balcony. Schola Cantorum sang beautifully as the gathered Senior School listened from below bathed in the morning sunlight.
Year 3 have been enjoying their residential trip to Hilltop. The children are challenging themselves to climb higher, swing faster and stretch further as they work together to overcome different obstacles and fears. Learning valuable skills whilst having great fun is a must!