As we arrived at Hawkey Hall, I was so excited, I even had butterflies. It was a really big and brown hall. As I was waiting until our turn I sat down and was a bit nervous. I am in the Orchestra and I play the violin. After a while it was our turn to play Titanic. I could see my Mum waving at me. The hall was as big as 5 houses together. I saw my Dad crying ! Then we went off stage. Finally it was our turn to do Star Wars. At the end we sang 3 songs and I could see Mum and Dad were proud of me and I was definitely proud.
by Sohail - Year 4

Today we had our Year 3 Ancient Egyptian Class Assembly and although I was excited I had lots of butterflies in my stomach. I walked in nervously at first but then William came in and smiled bravely to the audience which made me feel better. When I got to my line I said it loud and clear so that everyone could hear it. After every song the audience clapped excitedly and it made me smile inside my head. The song ‘The Sand Dance’ was a bit difficult for me but I got it right at the end. We told them a lot of interesting facts about the River Nile, Mummies and Ancient Egyptians. It was a lot of fun and we all worked together to deliver a cracking show! At the end I was a bit sad that it was over and just looked at the drawings of the pyramids.

By Ben, William, Zoya, Reiss and Georgie

Thursday 26 January saw the much-awaited ‘Normanhurst’s Got Talent’ show. 28 acts had auditioned from which a group of 12 finalists were selected. They performed their acts to a packed audience on Thursday evening. The guests judges were Mrs Osborn, Headmistress; Mrs Jerrom, Assistant Head and Mr Farrow, School Caretaker and experienced musician.

The judges had a difficult task selecting Bronze, Silver and Gold medallists in the Junior and Senior categories. There were a number of vocal performances, dance items, musical performances and even a magic show. All finalists receive a special certificate and five housepoints. The medallists also win five housepoints along with their medals. The gold medallists lifted the trophies to much applause.

Many thanks go to Miss Scobie, the Drama Coordinator, for organising the event.

Junior Bronze medallists: Zain and Noah performing a street dance routine

Junior Silver medallists: Georgie and Tabitha with a performance of ‘California Girls’’

Junior Gold medallist: Zaman for his magic show.

Senior joint Silver medallists: Yazmin for her performance of ‘Someone Like You’ and Michael’s Irish violin medley

Gold Medallists: Jacob and Alexander for their diabolo routine .

Congratulations to everyone who took part.

Starlight Children’s’ Charity, which grants wishes for seriously ill children came to Normanhurst School in North Chingford to receive a cheque for £1119. This money was raised by the children in a number of ways, from a sponsored walk, a cake sale and a non uniform day. Jo Castleton, a representative from the Starlight Foundation attended a special assembly lead by Head Girl Isobel Barry, where she told the pupils about children in hospital who benefit from visits by magicians and face painters, a touring pantomime, extra toys and games and special wishes such as going to meet the team at Manchester United or going on a shopping trip with Gok Wan. Charities Coordinator for the school, Judith Reeve said “ It is really good for our pupils to hear first-hand how their efforts at fundraising go towards making life a little better for other children who are not as fortunate.”

Starlight Foundation is a national charity established in 1986 by British actress Emma Samms.

For more information go to http://www.starlight.org.uk/

A special assembly was held at Normanhurst School to present a cheque for £250 from a sponsored walk in nearby Epping Forest. Sam Goonetillake from Help Lanka charity came along to receive the cheque.  The charity supports victims of the tsunami which claimed many lives on December 26 2004. The association between Normanhurst and Sri Lanka first helped to rebuild communities and give immediate first aid, now 6 years on the charity has developed its range of support to helping individual children in a sponsor scheme. The children of Normanhurst were shown slides of the children they help and some of the new educational toys and games they helped provide. A special award in recognition of the aid that Normanhurst has given over the years was presented to Headmistress Claire Osborn who said "it is so important for our children to realise how fortunate they are and how raising money on a sponsored walk can make a big difference to a child’s life five thousand miles away”

More information can be found at http://www.helplanka.co.uk/

On Friday the 30th September, Normanhurst School took part in the regional heats of the ISA Art competition at the Corus Hotel in Elstree, Hertfordshire. This included entries from schools across the London North area from as far south as Knightsbridge and as far north as Bedford. The standard of work this year was particularly high and there was a record number of participating schools. Despite stiff competition our pupils won in 13 different categories (yes 13!!), 6 of which were first prize meaning they will be competing in the National Finals later in the year.

The regional winners are as follows:

1st place Ben Maclean for Textiles (16 and under)
1st place Natasha Vassileva for Sketchbook work (11 and over)
1st place Christopher Dennis for Art (14 and under)
1st place Chandni Nakum for Art (16 and under)
1st place Natasha Vassilieva for Three Dimensional Art (16 and under)
1st place Siena Reed for Three Dimensional Art (14 and under)
2nd place Lillian Delves for Design (14 and under)
2nd place Chandni Nakum for Photography (14 and over)
2nd place Nico Martini for Textiles (16 and under)
2nd place Chandni Nakum for Sketchbook work (11 and over)
2nd place Andrew Stylianou for Art (14 and under)
2nd place Andrew Stylianou for Three Dimensional Art (14 and under)
Highly commended Paul Chadha for Textiles (16 and under)

Students from Years 8 and 9 enjoyed a varied trip involving a range of activities at the Imperial War Museum on 23 May. After visiting the World War galleries and walking through an authentic World 1 trench, they walked through a recreated 1930's home in the Children's War Exhibition. After lunch in the gardens, our pupils had an interesting
taught session on the British home front during World War 11. As part of this session they handled a variety of artefacts such as gas masks and ration books.

The table was laid, the bunting flying high and the scene was set.

The whole Junior School came together to celebrate the Royal Wedding.  Nursery through to Year 6 sat down and enjoyed cake and juice to toast the happy couple.

The party was the ending of two days of work related to the Wedding and the Royal Family.  Every member of the Junior School created a patch for our Patchwork quilt, which is now on display in the School Hall.

Fun, laughter and enjoyment was had by all as they all felt like Princes and Princesses for the day.  We were even featured in the local newspaper!

An exciting event was launched by the Art and Design department last month inviting all pupils from Nursery to Year 11 (and staff!) to submit a photo for an inter-house photogpraphy competition. The categories were nature, landscape, portrait and the prize, huge amounts of house points! The response from pupils of all years was fantastic and as a result judges Mrs Osborn, Mr Tuvey and Mr Beint had the arduous task of choosing winners and runners up from each category.

The overall winner was Sienna in Year 9 with her atmospheric black and white image of Westminster (pictured)

The total of money raised by student led charity events in the Autumn Term was £1468.00 – from Poppy Appeals to Breakfast Bite. Forthcoming charity events will be Red Nose Day on Friday 18 March ‘Doing Something Funny for Money’ when we will have a Red Themed Day and a special afternoon of events all organised by the student charity committee.

On the 20th of January Normanhurst Art and Design GCSE pupils of Years 10 and 11 made a visit to the Saatchi Gallery to seek inspiration and ideas for their coursework.

On arrival we were amazed to see Charles Saatchi himself deep in discussion at the front of the building. We were promptly greeted by our guide who introduced the pupils to the current exhibition by giving us an excellent tour highlighting some of the shows key features.

The pupils came to see the latest exhibition at the gallery entitled Newspeak 2 which features an array of cutting edge artists, some not much older than our Year 11’s!

During the visit our pupils were able to make annotated sketches of the most inspiring works on show. We are looking forward to seeing all the exciting artwork produced as a result of this visit.

Mr Beint (Head of Art and Design)

Here are some examples of the fantastic work by Year 9 in DT, which was inspired by Rachel Ducker who produces wire sculptures.

We exhibited a collection of Art at the ISA London North annual art competition on Friday 1st October. Mr Beint was thrilled that we won three of the categories.

Winners were:
Deniz Karaman - Under 14 3D Prize
Rosemary Dand - Sketchbook Prize
Jovan Menville - 16 and under 3D Prize

Our three winners are now carried forward to the national competition that takes place in November in Crewe.