The sun came out for our third annual open day as pupils, staff, parents and visitors enjoyed a range of academic, craft and sporting activities.
There was a gymnastics display in the playground, a heritage trail around the various classrooms, musical performances from the school choir and the junior forms, country dancing, recital of 'The Little Red Hen' and a play by Form 6 in the hall. The Kindergarten and Pre-Prep were crafting, face painting and icing biscuits.
Meanwhile Split Screen Ice Cream’s VW camper ice cream van made a return visit to provide refreshments.
The morning was most enjoyable and there was a real 'buzz' throughout the school. We are sorry if you missed it, however, you can always phone for an appointment to visit us!
Cleve House’s annual conkers tournament was back by popular demand in October - with the media in full attendance.
A press pack of local newspaper, radio and TV journalists were in attendance as pupils battled it out for the junior and senior school trophies.
After an exhaustive round of matches, Emily Grimes emerged triumphant in the junior contest while Willliam Edlin dubbed “William the Conkerer” - took the senior prize.
“Conker matches were a regular event in the playground during my childhood at this time of year,” said the school’s joint principal, Mrs. Elaine Lawson.
“Last year was the first time most of our pupils had ever played the game, and they enjoyed it so much, as did staff and parents, that we wanted to give them another opportunity.”
Form 5 recently visited @ Bristol and enjoyed a laboratory session on the Water Cycle. This was followed by independent discovery time. The children found these "great fun"", "amazing" and were stunned by the fact that there were over 300 exhibits!
Frying pans were at the ready as Cleve House staged its first ever pancake race.
The entire school took part in a series of fun pancake challenges before they broke up for half-term.
Joint principal Elaine Lawson said: “We like to expose our pupils to traditional games and pastimes. Our conkers tournament has become an annual fixture on the school calendar and this year we decided it would be fun to hold some pancake races.
“Shrove Tuesday fell during half-term this year so we pre-empted things by a few days so that the children could enjoy the fun of Pancake Day before heading off for the half-term break.”
Stop Press: We made the front page of the Evening Post!
As part of Form Three's work on investigating patterns, we looked at the artwork of Heather Galler and then created our own folk art landscapes.
Caring Lucy raises a whopping £97 for Children in Need with the help of some class mates. Many thanks to everyone who chose a hobby for Pudsey! Congratulations to a delighted Zachary who took Pudsey home.
OFSTED 2012
CLEVE HOUSE PASSES OFSTED INSPECTION WITH FLYING COLOURS
Our staff, pupils and parents are celebrating after being praised by school inspectors.
Ofsted rated Cleve House as being “good” across all categories in terms of quality of education, pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their welfare, health and safety.
Inspectors described the school as being “a good school which successfully meets its aims.”
Pupils were commended for their behaviour and for their ability to develop strong relationships with friends and teachers, which has a “very positive impact on their learning and their obvious enjoyment of school.”
Inspectors also noted that pupils made good progress in their learning, as teachers know them well and support their individual needs in classes. “As a result, pupils have very positive attitudes towards learning and are motivated to succeed,” the inspectors noted.
“From the Early Years Foundation Stage, children arrive at school enthusiastically and are keen to learn and socialise with their friends.”
Meanwhile Cleve House’s recent Ofsted report also highlighted the fact that parents appreciate the way in which the school looks after their children.
“The wide ranging of extra-curricular clubs, outings and activities they participate in helps to extend their learning and broaden their skills,” added the inspectors.
“Good procedures are also in place to support their health and welfare and staff are very caring towards them and provide a safe environment. Safeguarding arrangements are robust and all staff regularly update their knowledge through relevant training in child protection and first aid.”
Joint principal Mrs. Elaine Lawson said: “We have always been committed to giving our pupils a good experience and we are highly delighted that this has been recognised by Ofsted. We are celebrating our silver jubilee at Cleve House this year and this is the best inspection report we have ever had.”
CLEVE HOUSE PASSES OFSTED INSPECTION WITH FLYING COLOURS
Our staff, pupils and parents are celebrating after being praised by school inspectors.
Ofsted rated Cleve House as being “good” across all categories in terms of quality of education, pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their welfare, health and safety.
Inspectors described the school as being “a good school which successfully meets its aims.”
Pupils were commended for their behaviour and for their ability to develop strong relationships with friends and teachers, which has a “very positive impact on their learning and their obvious enjoyment of school.”
Inspectors also noted that pupils made good progress in their learning, as teachers know them well and support their individual needs in classes. “As a result, pupils have very positive attitudes towards learning and are motivated to succeed,” the inspectors noted.
“From the Early Years Foundation Stage, children arrive at school enthusiastically and are keen to learn and socialise with their friends.”
Meanwhile Cleve House’s recent Ofsted report also highlighted the fact that parents appreciate the way in which the school looks after their children.
“The wide ranging of extra-curricular clubs, outings and activities they participate in helps to extend their learning and broaden their skills,” added the inspectors.
“Good procedures are also in place to support their health and welfare and staff are very caring towards them and provide a safe environment. Safeguarding arrangements are robust and all staff regularly update their knowledge through relevant training in child protection and first aid.”
Joint principal Mrs. Elaine Lawson said: “We have always been committed to giving our pupils a good experience and we are highly delighted that this has been recognised by Ofsted. We are celebrating our silver jubilee at Cleve House this year and this is the best inspection report we have ever had.”
Young and old came together to bridge the generation gap as Cleve House staged a musical Diamond Jubilee celebration.
A group of senior citizens joined Form 6 pupils for an afternoon of singing and dancing to mark the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.
Top of the bill was the specially written song “Diamond Day”, which is being performed in schools around the UK thanks to the Golden-Oldies charity and its “Time After Time” project, which organises school visits for the elderly.
The school’s special guests were also to share their memories of the Olympics in 1948, the last time the UK staged the games.
“These are amazing occasions and they bring smiles to the faces of young and old alike,” said Lizz Lipscombe, who works with the charity and also teaches music at Cleve House School.
“The children enjoyed learning old favourites like ‘Lambeth Walk’ and were interested to hear about the ‘Goldies’’ childhoods and school days, and this being an Olympic year of course, what they were doing in 1948 when the games were held in London .
“Some of the ‘Goldies’ I work with are in their 90s and many are quite lonely, so events like this are a great way for them to mix with people who they would not normally interact with.”
It’s the time of year when Cleve House stages its annual house matches, along with the eagerly-awaited X-Country competition and swimming gala.
Mixed teams from our four houses played each other at football, and after several closely-fought contests, it was Redcliffe which emerged victorious, with Cabot and Colston sharing the runners-up spot.
Cabot came out on top in the swimming gala, with Jensen Welch and Florence Long collecting the winner’s shield. Jensen also won the individual Pinniger Cup.
Our sponsored X-Country event at Redcatch Park saw Cabot again taking the spoils in the junior section, while Concorde won in the seniors. Individual prizes went to Eva Albert and Edward Harvey in the juniors, and Lucy Makin and Elias Stone in the seniors. This year our sponsorship proceeds go to the NSPCC.
For more photographs of these events, please visit the gallery section. Well done to all the children, staff and parents who make these days such wonderful occasions!
Daily Diamond (207k)
Tilly and Eva - Wicked Weekly (207k) UFO Newspaper Report by Grace and Darla (218k) UFO Sighting Ethan, Sam & Oliver (149k)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!
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.
