Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
In the last week we have taken a grand total of £1,363.56 at the book fair. This gives us £758.14 to spend on books for the school; we are delighted with this result.
The attached picture is of the 4 raffle prize winners who were drawn on Tuesday afternoon each winning £5 voucher to spend at the book fair.
Three local youngsters who are worried about the environment have started their own campaign to ‘save Somerset’ and have held their own beach clean in the town.
Ben Whitrow, Kayden Wright and Archie Shaw, Year 7 students at Hugh Sexey Middle School, did their bit by collecting plastic rubbish from the town’s beach this week.
The boys, all aged 11, are currently studying a school Humanities topic called ‘what effects do we have on the environment’.
They were so shocked to hear about global warming, deforestation, fossil fuels, pollution from vehicles and litter that they wanted to ‘do their bit’ in helping tackle the issues locally.
Ben’s mother, Louise Whitrow, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “They recently had an assembly at school about plastic pollution and, after also watching David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2, the boys were inspired to do something constructive to help the environment and Burnham.”
“Together with their friend, Will, they came up with the campaign name ‘Save Somerset’ and organised their first litter collection on Burnham Beach on Sunday (November 25th).”
“The equipment they needed included a litter picker, black bags and protective gloves. They wrapped up warm, and decided on the two stretches of beach either side of the pier, keeping well away from areas of soft sand and mud! They ended up collecting a bin bag full of rubbish.”
“During their collection, they were stopped by a number of people who wanted to know why they were collecting, and the boys were pleased to receive some very positive feedback for their efforts.”
Their aim now is to carry out regular litter collections in the Burnham area and, hopefully, encourage more of their friends to join them in the campaign.
Well done to all of the year 7 boys who took part in a lovely morning of running rugby. With a disproportionate number of boys chosen to play in the tag contest, the decision was made to combine Houses for a full sized contact game. The Saxons/Vikings emerged as the winners of the contact group. Inevitably George, Ollie and Max were prominent in all of their games but equally important were Will, Jack, Hugo, Charlie, Eddy and Ethan. All of the boys contributed to a solid team performance and should be very proud of the way they played.
In the tag group it was a hard fought win for the Vikings. Dennis, Dylan and Zak played well throughout but all of the players involved should be thrilled and proud of their efforts.
Clive Pig
Year 5 were treated to a wonderful day of storytelling and legendary characters created out of thin air by the talented Mr Clive Pig. This tied in very closely to our current Literacy topic of Beowulf - one of the classic legends that has been told over the ages!
He was very enthusiastic - with great expression, especially when he was Sir Brangwen, the swaggering, spittle-spraying Lord of the Manor. Here is one of the glowing reviews from the Yasmin, 5OM...
Clive Pig was very funny, I especially liked the legend of the unicorn. All the legends were really funny and easy to listen to. My favourite part in the unicorn legend is when Sir Brangwen asked one of his slaves to follow the little girl. He kept on saying "Yes, Sir Brangwen." He said it so many times, it was funny!
And another from Ale, 5NR.....
My thoughts of Clive Pig:
I loved Clive Pig's stories, they were so interesting. My favourite was the eel story when it acted as a belt. I also liked the big, funny character, which was from the unicorn story. I also liked the story about the little boy who ate the dragon's pearl and turned into a dragon. When he went into the sky he made 27 cracks and today there is a river that has 27 bends in. It was really cool because I thought I was there and he brought it to Hugh Sexey School.
Towards the end, he played the drum, each side made a different sound. It looked really old and ripped but that made it cooler!!
Thank you for bringing your stories to life.
On the 13th/14th November, Year 5 did a bridge building project. Some people from the company Costain helped us with the project. First of all, we had to put all of the safety equipment on like: safety helmets; work gloves; goggles and high viz jackets.
They explained that the type of bridge we were making was going to be a suspension bridge.
There are three main parts of a suspension bridge - the road below and the two poles at the sides.
The jobs that were needed to be done were the transporters that transported the parts of the road one by one. The people who put the support under the road. The people who connected the cables to the bridge and finally, the connectors, who put steel connectors in the middle of the planks of road to conjoin them together.
After we got to walk along the bridge, at the end we all got a pen or a ruler. Year 5 had a lot of fun doing this exercise.
A crisp and bright Wednesday afternoon played host to some beautiful and thrilling year 5 rugby. The boys had been working very hard in lessons and at clubs and with a fair proportion of the club players distributed amongst the houses, it didn't disappoint as a close and entertaining event.
The Saxons were many people's favourites to win with club players like Harry, Noah and Ronnie alongside boys who have shown a real aptitude to learn. With Ronnies potent ball carrying and Harry's ability to identify space it looked like they may be too much for the other houses. Izzak gave a good account of himself as did Archie who started to back himself more frequently and take players on. Alfie provided good go forward ball for his team. The Saxons certainly played well and with good spirit throughout. I think on reflection they will have noticed that perhaps they should have moved the ball to the players in space rather than relying on individual scores.
One of the reasons why individual scores were rare in this competition was down to the defensive work of Rory in the Celts. Sometimes House competitions can be dominated by powerful ball carriers who run through would be tacklers. Rory ensured this did not happen and must of easily made 20 dominant and technically correct tackles throughout the games. Often a player would attack the line and be thwarted by him on the gain line and sometimes behind it. He even showed the understanding to corner flag and make timely interventions. Whilst the Celts didn't win any of their games for me they were the stand out team as they did not ever make excuses or give in. They simply rolled their sleeves up and battled on pushing every team close. Jack also played well and showed a real feel for the game. A late break by him almost resulted in a key score but he was just desperately scrambled into touch. Tristan, Reuben and Jack also gave wholehearted displays. On another day the Celts could have won and that shows the competitive element of the games.
The Vikings were a credit to their title. Brave, physical and willing to take risks. Dillon and Xavier gave everything and made good space for Fynn to display his silky running. Over time Fynn has become very skilled, running straight and beating players with footwork. Oscar and Harry also played well with both players grabbing good scores.
In the end the Normans took first place. Inevitably Josh made a big difference with crucial scores and timely defensive interventions. Like a number of the boys he is a stand out player with some very good attributes. However the standard was so high that 1 player alone would not win it. Josh was supported throughout by Dylan. Dylan gave one of the most selfless performances I have seen in schools rugby. He tackled, offered himself as a carrier, passed to players in space and cleared rucks, and boy did he clear rucks. His ability to provided quick ball was the catalyst for the Normans play. It might not be seen by all the spectators but it is invaluable on a rugby pitch.
In short it was a great contest and thanks should also be extended to the staff who supported and Ollie and Will who helped as sport leaders. Will showing real quality as a referee.
1st - Normans
2nd - Saxons
3rd - Celts/Vikings
The tag-rugby house matches on Wednesday 21st November showed an amazing amount of sportsmanship and enthusiasm. The boys really showed off what they have learnt so far in rugby and continue to surprise themselves with what they can do. The skills really shone through in every game, even towards the end. They thoroughly enjoyed playing with children they don’t usually learn with.
The result of the tournament was a joint 1st position with Celts and Vikings, who took great pride in their achievements. The games were tough, yet the children persevered, especially in the cold weather!