Daily Diamond (207k)
Tilly and Eva - Wicked Weekly (207k) UFO Newspaper Report by Grace and Darla (218k) UFO Sighting Ethan, Sam & Oliver (149k)The traditional playground game of conkers is back on the curriculum at Cleve House. More than 70 pupils and 14 adults took part in our inaugural conkers tournament, which was played under official championship rules.
Three trophies were presented to our ‘conkering heros’: parent James Ince, in the adult category, Luke Norman, in the senior category, and William Edlin, in the junior section.
“Conker matches were a regular event in the playground during my childhood at this time of year,” said joint principal Mrs. Lawson.
“Some of our pupils do collect conkers but few of them have ever played the game, so we wanted to give them the opportunity.
“We didn’t want to go down the route of making the children wear protective goggles as we believe that it’s excessive and that if you wrap them up in cotton wool, they never appreciate risk.
“Contestants played on a voluntary basis and were well supervised. The conker tournament was a bit of fun and a great way to finish school before the half-term holiday began. It was a great success and we are planning to hold another one next year.”
There are many more photos of our tournament in the gallery.
Form 3 entered a summer holidays - inspired poetry competition. We are delighted that William Edlin (7) has had his poem selected for publication in ‘Postcard Poets, Picture Perfect’. A copy of the book will be kept at the British Library and further libraries across the UK.
On Holiday
One day I went to France and it made me want to dance.
We went to see our house
Then we found a mouse
Its tail was low
And I said “Whoa!”
Then we got in the pool
Now that’s cool.
The next day I played in the garden
When I saw a starling
I went to get some bread
That one’s the size of my head
I had a lot of fun
But not it’s time for me to run
Goodbye.
Pupils visited one of Bristol’s biggest construction sites.
Form 3 and 4 pupils donned hard hats and high visibility jackets for a tour of the former Courage Brewery site at Finzels Reach.
The city centre site is being transformed into a development of apartments, office space, shops and cafes.
Staff from contractors John Sisk & Son also judged the youngsters’ efforts in a bridge design competition which was run at Cleve House.
“We were pleased to welcome the pupils on site as part of our commitment to the ‘Considerate Construction’ scheme,” said site manager Richard Witcombe.
“There is still a bridge connecting the old brewery to Castle Park, so we thought that setting them a bridge design challenge would be a good way to stimulate the children’s imagination and get them thinking about engineering and construction techniques.”
At 7.15 am we arrived in school, and after a three hour trip we finally arrived in London and began to make our way over to the Imperial War Museum. The exhibits were fascinating; there was such an amazing range of artefacts from navel uniforms belonging to American and German sailors to humongous tanks to VI and V2 rockets. Our favourite part of the trip was experiencing an air raid in a public shelter and seeing a fake bombed street. After the amazing trip to the museum we strolled over to the London Eye. On the eye we say many famous buildings such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. By the end of the day we were exhausted however, we had a fabulous day in London. By F6 Girls
Forms 3 and 4 turned detective for a day as the library was taped off and transformed into a crime scene!
Pupils enjoyed a visit from Jenny Williams, who runs CSI Kids. Jenny a former detective with Avon and Somerset Police, came to run a forensic science workshop. After trying their hand at fingerprint analysis, ink chromatography and looking at handwriting clues, the children donned their investigator suits and carried out their very own crime scene investigation.
“It was the best morning of my entire life!” exclaimed Miles Form 4. “Plus Jenny our crime scene teacher was really kind” added Carla. “The crime suits made me hot and sweaty” mumbled Sam.
Pupils trained for a marathon with a difference - playing non-stop music for over two hours.
Cleve House staged its very own music marathon.
Participants played a range of musical instruments for two hours, three minutes and 59 seconds - equal to the world record time for a conventional marathon, run by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin in 2008.
Proceeds from the music marathon will help to buy a commercial rice cooker for the 130 children living in the Haven orphanage in the Indian city of Visakhapatnam. Martyn Poole came in and explained that while the children were cooking their staple of rice, a terrible accident occurred and one of the children got burnt badly.
We need to raise £600 in order that no other child will get burnt cooking their rice on an open fire.
Thank you for your generosity
The whole school joined together to buy and sell their toys for Haven Orphanage in India. An amazing £263.18 was collected - we definitely have some budding salesmen in Form 4, most notably Harry Hudson and Mashang Zhu, who could sell coals to Newcastle!
A huge thank you to everyone who gave and bought - we understand that it was quite difficult giving up some of your toys!
Cleve House was a hive of activity as a host of academic, craft and sporting activities were laid on for visitors to our open day.
The event kicked off on a musical note with performances from the school choir and cello group, featuring soloist Hannah Wilkie, while pre-prep youngsters sang and played percussion instruments.
Parents had an opportunity to try their hand at fencing against their child while Pre- prep pupils showed off their circuit training skills. The school was buzzing with dancing and African drumming while visitors were enticed by some French nibbles served by Form 2.
Meanwhile an ice cream van with a difference - Split Screen Ice Cream’s VW Camper Van - was parked up in the playground to provide refreshments. The van, which comes complete with its own serving hatch, is thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK.
“In these tough economic times we can reassure parents that private education need not cost the Earth and in addition to our very competitive fees, Cleve House offers excellent academic results, a central location, small class sizes and a traditional yet nurturing environment.”
A huge thanks to all staff, pupils and parents for making the event such a success!
"That was the best school day ever!" exclaimed Alex G from Form 6.
Take a look in the gallery for a snap shot of the fun we had this morning.
Forms 2 and 3 enjoyed meeting the creators of ‘Pozza and the Wuzativs’. The author Julian Kendel and the illustrator Alistair Hunt closely collaborated to produce the book and came to Cleve House to share their experiences with some pupils.
The children listened intently to the story’s rhyming text read by the author and following a workshop run by Alistair, enjoyed producing their own illustrations.
Edward told his teacher that his favourite part was definitely the workshop where we had to draw two characters from the story step by step.
“I have learned that I must not rush when it comes to drawing,” commented Jacob.
Pupils were able to treat themselves to a copy of the book which were beautifully illustrated with a personal dedication on the inside cover.
Three charities are set to benefit following our annual X-Country competition, which was held at Arno's Park recently.
Form 3 and 4 pupils completed two laps of the park with Forms 5 and 6 doing three circuits, all in aid of St. Peter's Hospice, Help for Heroes and the PDSA.
In the junior boys' section, Elias Stone finished first, followed by Sam Thorpe and James Ince. Lucy Makin came first in the girls' section, with Eva Albert second and Carla Bates third. In terms of House points, Concorde took the honours, followed by Redcliffe, Cabot and Colston.
To date over a thousand pounds has been collected - Well done everyone!
Ella and Reece present St Peter's Hospice with a cheque for £375 to further aid their sterling work.
Youngsters learned about the art of mask making during a visit from a children’s drama group.
Matt Reynolds, of London-based Theatre Tots, was at Cleve House School in Knowle to talk about traditional Venetian Carnival masks.
He played the role of fictional mask maker Matteo, who is unable to complete all of his masks in time the impending carnival celebrations, and so has to ask the children for help.
The event was organised by teacher Alessandra Ascari, who hails from Italy. It continued last years Venetian Carnival theme, when staff, parents and pupils staged themed processions, dancing and music, costume making and cookery.
