In the Press

In DT, Year 1 have been making kites, inspired by our book 'The Secret Sky Garden' by Linda Sarah. Once they had completed making them, the children had great fun testing them outside. The squeals of delight could be heard across the valley as they watched them fly!

The children spent this morning at a sweet factory learning about the ancient tradition of confectionary making. They then made their own sweets, adding flavours, shaping and eating them.

The rest of the morning was spent on the expansive sandy beach at Berck-sur-Mer playing games. The group enjoyed an interesting tour of historic Rue in the afternoon and seeing the famous belfry listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The belfry houses a museum dedicated to the pioneers of aviation as the first flights took place in this area. The group visited the supermarket, post office and finally the café & loved placing drinks orders in French! Another fun and busy day.

The weather might be miserable here, but it certainly isn't at Berck-sur-Mer in France! So much fun playing on the beach this morning.

On Saturday, the four Heads of House had the privilege of representing the school at the St George's Day Parade in London. We paraded to the cenotaph in London alongside members of the Society of St George, Camelsdale School and the armed forces. The children laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. Afterwards, we continued to Westminster Abbey where the Heads of Houses welcomed people to the abbey and gave out programmes before everyone attended a ceremony around the tomb of the unknown soldier to remember those who had lost their lives. It was a day the children will never forget.

In true St Ives fashion, we enjoyed our annual Easter Egg Hunt around the grounds today, complete with our very own Easter Bunny. And that's a wrap for this very busy term. Have a lovely Easter break everyone!

On Wednesday, Year 5 went on a trail of Haslemere in search of clues as to what it was like in WW II. The children started the trail in the High Street, looking at where bomb damage had occurred and where different war time activities, such as mattress stuffing for evacuees, took place. They found out the locations of local bomb shelters and schools set up for evacuees, and considered what it would have been like to be an evacuee arriving at Haslemere station. They also went to see where people would have enrolled for the army and visited the site of the Rex cinema war time plane crash. As well as looking for a variety of war time clues around the town, pupils also visited the Canadian camp and memorial at Bramshott and went to look at the rows of war graves - a poignant reminder of all the young soldiers whose lives were lost in war.

A great first week of Forest School for Year 1 who spent a lovely morning in the forest! After hunting around for some suitable sticks, the children worked hard using their potato peelers safely and precisely to create rods suitable for toasting marshmallows! The children did a fantastic job, and the end result was lots of happy, sticky faces!

Our aim has always been for our pupils to leave us as kind, caring, bright, community-spirited individuals, so to have received feedback like this from our recent ISI Inspection is testament to everything we do here.

"We are thrilled to announce that St Ives School has been awarded ‘Double Excellent’ by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) review conducted in January 2023.

Schools are measured in two areas – the quality of the pupils’ academic and other achievements and the quality of the pupils’ personal development. St Ives has been regarded as excellent in both areas! This is the highest level of feedback you can receive and is testament to the high standards and committed team we have here.

The comments and observations in the report are outstanding and really sum up our special community."

Kay Goldsworthy, Head, St Ives School

We're very proud of all our Nursery children for taking part in their sponsored Bunny Hop this week and thank you to their families for sponsoring them. There was lots of puffing and panting as they made their way around the course, persevering when they were tired little bunnies!