Year 6 Stop Motion Workshop

Year 6 learned how to make stop motion movies in a half-day workshop with Chocolate Films.

Here are two of the films ...

Staff v Parents Netball

Whilst the men were running around and getting muddy in the cold, the Brambletye mothers challenged the female staff on the netball court in the Sports' Hall.

The game was played at great pace and in a good spirit with the staff team coming out on top in both matches this time around.

Staff XI v Parents XI

Sunday 13th March is a day that will be remembered along with cup finals and local derbies. The Parents' XI (all 20 of them) challenged the Staff XI to a match on our Top Field. 

The match was a close fought battle, with the Staff eventually being outnumbered by the Parents and losing their early advantage to finish second when the final whistle blew: 5-3 to the parents.

The game was played in good spirit and the curried 'match tea' afterwards was particularly well received!

The Pink Fury that is the Staff XI

Parents XI: Part I

Parents XI: Part II

The Honours might currently held by the Parents, but that was just the first round ... the rematch is planned for the Autumn Term.

Brambletye Space Programme

The Science Department, in conjunction with a couple of Brambletye Parents, are planning to launch a camera and perhaps a Brambletye Bear up into near space at the very top of the atmosphere. 

The children have already learned how to track a balloon when it has come back to earth, now they are launching their first 'test' balloons to see how high they fly and how far they are blown using trackers.

The tracker read out from one of the balloons

To find out more read the Science Pages.

Damon Hill Uncovered

 Last Saturday we had a very distinguished guest ...

Damon Hill is one of the founding patrons of The Halow Project, our charity this year. He came to tell us about his life and how, with the birth of his son, Oliver (the 'O' in Halow), he had to learn about Down Syndrome and help children and young adults with learning difficulties have a meaningful life and be part of society.

He grew up around cars, with his father, Graham Hill, being a very successful racing driver. However, life is never easy and he talked through many of the events of his life (including the Schumacher moment!).

He was easy to listen to and a relaxed and inspirational speaker who we could have listend to for much longer and kept on asking questions, such as 'What do you think about when you are racing?', late into the night.

Afterwards Damon signed autographs for young and more mature fans alike. This was a very special evening and helped to raise funds and the profile of The Halow Project. A huge thank you to Damon (and his wife 'Georgie' and their dog who both came to watch).

One and Two in Ashdown Sevens

The proud victors and runners up

This was a very successful performance from the two Brambletye Teams at this annual event at Ashdown House School. The 'A' VII won and the 'B' VII came second. A huge 'thank you' to Ashdown for putting on the event and organising the wonderful weather!

Second in the Nationals

Saturday 12th March saw the Brambletye U12 team head back down to Roedean for the IAPS National Finals. Having qualified in 3rd place at the Regional Finals, the girls knew there was a mountain to climb but nothing could suppress their excitement. 

On arrival, the girls had time for a brief warm up before their first match and being thrown in so quickly meant they were not as focused and drew their first match which should have been a comfortable win. Nonetheless, the girls fought hard and went on to win all of their remaining pool matches beating the likes of Eagle House, Cranleigh (who won the Regionals) and Millfield. This put the girls through to the semi-finals as winners of their pool and they faced Godstone School. The girls showed great composure and played some outstanding netball to win by several goals and go through to the final where they faced Millfield once more. 

I think a combination of nerves and the overwhelming situation made the girls extremely anxious heading into this final game and, despite going 4-0 up on the first half, they allowed Millfield back into the game with some unforced errors and frustration with their play and unfortunately could not keep them at bay with the game finishing in a 7-6 defeat. The girls were naturally a little disappointed but overwhelmed by how well they had done and delighted with their success. The standard of netball that they displayed throughout the tournament was the best netball that I have seen from a team in my time at Brambletye. They are all fabulous girls and they have such bright futures ahead of them.

C Parker

Running for Halow

Mr Holden would like to say a huge thank you to all parents who kindly sponsored him in the Eastbourne Half marathon run which he and Mr Burgess completed in 2 hours: 12 minutes: 11 seconds, raising £1645.00. for the Brambletye School Charity, The Halow Project. 

Your support is very much appreciated.

#running for @halowproject

U12 Netballers through to the Nationals

Congratulations to the Brambletye U12 Netball team who came 3rd in the Regional Qualifiers at Roedean on Saturday and have got through to the Nationals this weekend.

Sussex Classical Reading Winners

The Sussex Classical reading competition on Tuesday was a huge success. We entered 12 pupils, some doing solos and some working in pairs. There were over 50 readers in the competition, which was held at Roedean School, and they came from secondary schools from all over Sussex. We were the only prep school there.

We took home the first and second prizes of both age groups that we entered. Our Year 7 children were competing against Year 8 students and they still won!

The Brambletye Space Program

With the help of a couple of Dads we aim to send a meteorological balloon into the outer atmosphere or to Near Space as it is sometimes called. The idea is to get photos all the way up to 33km high in the outer reaches of the atmosphere. In order to do this lots of complicated electronics need to be assembled and tested. Today we had the first chance to test out the tracking device in the Brambletye grounds.

It is also very cold at these tremendously high altitudes and so we have been using dry ice to help calibrate some of the electronic equipment. You can see the fun we have had with dry ice on the Science Blog.

Year 3 learn how to make Pizza

Both 3H and 3D went out to Pizza Express in East Grinstead this week. Not for a meal and a chat, they had to make their own Pizzas ...