CUMNOR HOUSE SCHOOL 23 JANUARY 2015 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Science Outreach - Professor Brainstorm On Wednesday, Rick Turton, aka Professor Brainstorm, visited the school as part of our outreach programme. In the Exploding Science show, he wowed us all with his demonstrations of moisture absorbing polymers and various types of rockets. There was lots of audience participation and boys managed to balance a balloon on a bed of nails without it popping, hammer a nail into wood using just a banana and deflate then re-inflate a balloon using liquid nitrogen. In the Mission to Mars show, boys and some staff enjoyed tasting space food including dried strawberries and astronaut ice-cream, which was a rather strange experience given the warmth and dryness of the food. Ken's face was a picture. He clearly didn't think much of the space strawberries. In the Magical Science show, boys managed to turn a cupful of water upside down without leaking thanks to moisture absorbing polymers. They were able to complete a circuit using their own bodies so that Zog the Robot lit up. But perhaps the most entertaining demonstration of the day was the "spud gun" which shot potato bullets out of the end using just air pressure. Professor Brainstorm was extremely engaging and entertaining. The boys were involved throughout and had great fun while learning. He clearly demonstrated that "Science is fun". Ms. Smith Continued..
2 Here are some of their impressions of the day. I enjoyed the experiments and how interactive Professor Brainstorm made it. He taught us how some rockets launch. Nayan Visrolia 5V I loved it when you could eat space food. Kian Patel 5V I loved everything. Thank you for coming to our school and please come back again" Bhavin Gnanasampanthan 5B My favourite part was when he poured water into the rocket and added the (antacid) tablet and after a while, BANG!" Veer Patel 5B The funniest thing was the spud gun where the air got compressed then forced the potato out very fast and hit the wall". Boris Hall 4G He made it look like magic but it was science! Daniel Tollit 4N I could have watched it over and over again. Pavel Baldwin 5V
3 Year 6 and 7 visit The Ashcroft Theatre Year 6 and 7 pupils were mesmerised by the musical version of A Midsummer Night s Dream from start to finish. Shakespeare's comedy was condensed into two bite size acts spread over two hours to give the children an easily understandable taste of his work. Every aspect of the performance was delivered with gusto, pace and energy by a company who were clearly enjoying the performance as much as the audience. There was a huge emphasis on fun and travesty with comedy invading the stage at every moment. The boys roared with laughter at Puck who dominated the stage with his acrobatic, comical and mischievous character. The panto-esque show scored a standing ovation from our boys, proving that Shakespeare can still be relevant for modern audiences and young children. The clever blend of Shakespeare s original text, modern language and music made the production a super introduction to Shakespeare. Well done to all the boys for their impeccable behaviour which was recognised and praised by staff at The Ashcroft Theatre. Many thanks also to Mrs Watson, Mr Parkes-Reeves, Mr Gray and Mr Jones for their hard work, enthusiasm and contribution to what was a most successful trip. Mrs Jones The play was brought to life by the extremely dynamic Puck and the line everyone will remember from the actors own parody of Let It Go!, Puck never bothered me anyway. Arjun Gobiraj - 7L
4 1N ASSEMBLY On Monday 1N performed their assembly all about winter. They read an acrostic poem, which they all helped to create using the letters in winter. They also displayed their winter paintings, which looked wonderful. All the boys performed really well speaking loudly and clearly and performed their winter song beautifully. Well done boys! Miss Chadburn YEAR 1 - HOUSE HUNT This week, the boys in Year 1 went on a house hunt along Pampisford Road. We have been looking at different types of homes in our Geography lessons, and we have also been describing our own homes. On our walk we spotted detached houses, semi-detached houses, bungalows, terraced houses and flats. We also looked at the building materials used, which linked with our Science topic Materials. When we got back to school we used our mapping skills to draw a map of our walk. Mrs Curtis
Swimming success for Cumnor boys at Club Championships Five boys from Cumnor House (Zak and Zain Mirza, Rayyan Ahmed, Arun Oelkers and I) participated in the Club Championships of Sutton Altantis swimming club in October and November last year. At the Awards Ceremony held on Saturday 17th January, between the five of us we collected 24 medals and numerous trophies in the Under 11 category. It was a very successful evening for the Cumnor House boys. Well done everyone. Aarav Ganguli - Year 5 Swimming 5 STAR OF THE WEEK This week s Stars are:- Danes Aayush Manjiani 6W Normans Abdelrahman Abdelwahed 8C Romans Trishan Patel 7S Saxons Daniel Tollit 4N EVENTS FOR WEEK BEGINNING 26 JANUARY 2015 Monday 26 January Tuesday 27 January Wednesday 28 January Thursday 29 January Friday 30 January 1st XV v Hawthorns (A) 3.30 p.m. U10 A - E v Dulwich Prep (A) 2.45 p.m. 1st XV v New Beacon (A) 4B Assembly (Parents Welcome) 8.35 a.m.. 2nd XV v New Beacon (H) Cake Sale U9 A, B & D v Hawthorns (H)