The Reception children had an opportunity to experience a fun and exciting day out at Drusillas Park where they learnt all about many different exotic animals.  As the children walked through the Zoo Route, they were able to participate in a range of hands-on activities like milking a cow or hanging like a monkey! Everyone raced around flipping Flap Facts, competing in Zoolympics or working interactive displays as they continued to gather fascinating information about different animals like the red-handed tamarin, the ring-tailed lemur or the white-faced saki monkey. Then the children listened to a story about Lenny the land snail and met some of his friends, which included a snake and a rat! We finished the day with a thriling ride around the park on Thomas the Tank Engine and a visit to the 'Go Wild!' playground. A fantastic day for all which ended with some exhausted 5 year olds meaning a nice, quiet ride back to the Pre-Prep.

Cake Sale

Splat the Rat

Winning Privileges

Once again blessed with good weather 'fun in the sun' was enjoyed by all! From apple bobbing to lucky dip, face painting to biscuit decorating or simply bouncing on the bouncy castle, the Pre-Prep was alive with excited children as they dashed from one activity to the next; and with 'chilled out' parents, some sipping Pimms as they assisted in activities or simply caught up with old friends.

Apple Bobbing

Bouncy Castle

Face Painting

The School now has an increasing number of Service connections and with Afghanistan a constant presence in the media, it seemed fitting that Brambletye held it’s own ‘Help for Heroes’ day. Our day was about having fun, raising pupils’ awareness and collecting a good sum of money for the charity. For a donation, children and staff came in to school dressed as their hero. The mix was… eclectic. Elvis, ABBA and Jedwood sat down with Ellen Macarthur, Bill Oddie, Nelson and Einstein. By fitting of course, I do not mean the uniforms a good number of staff wore - they probably fitted once! Mr Walker’s toe caps were, however, buffed to a brilliantine shine which would have met the exacting standards of any Parade Adjutant; and a good thing too, with royalty on parade! Morning line-up for chapel was delayed a few minutes as the school waited for ‘Her Majesty’ to arrive, although the game was nearly up when William's prep diary was seen poking out of her handbag. She was seen later writing in Lizzie's maths book! There were no knighthoods but Churchill got his cigar. The whole school entered into the day with great enthusiasm; Tigger bounced all the way to Geography and the England 20/20 team even tried to eat breakfast with their gloves and helmets on! A number of displays helped to remind us of the more sobering reasons behind the fun.

Brambletye School were fortunate to welcome back a past parent, Richard Noble, OBE to talk to pupils and parents about his latest World Land Speed Record project, Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car). During the afternoon, years 7 and 8 had a presentation from Richard’s Education Programme Director, Dave Rowley who talked the children through the project and described how they proposed to build a car powered by jet and hybrid rocket power plants which was capable of achieving 1050mph (faster than a bullet from a 357 Magnum). The children had plenty of questions to ask afterwards and even had an opportunity of building their own balloon powered Bloodhounds. They were particularly impressed to hear some of the statistics – as powerful as 180 Bugatti Veyrons, 0-1000mph in 42 seconds and able to cover a distance of four and a half football pitches per second. This was top trumps at its best! Bloodhound SSC aims to demolish the existing record of 763mph (which was set by Richard’s Thrust SSC team in 1997) over a ten mile track in South Africa in eighteen months time. At 1000mph, Bloodhound will also beat the low level jet fighter record. The audience wished the driver the best of luck and hoped that the deployment of airbrakes at 860mph, parachute at 600mph and disc brakes at 200mph all went to plan!

In the evening, Richard opened Brambletye’s newly redeveloped science labs and then gave a similarly fascinating talk to parents, pupils and friends of the school. His mission is that through the Bloodhound project they will “confront and overcome the impossible using science, technology, engineering and mathematics and motivate the next generation to deal with global 21st century challenges”. Richard originally took the World Land Speed Record in 1983 when he drove Thrust 2 to 650mph. He was then Project Director of Thrust SSC which was the first car to break the sound barrier in 1997. It was an inspirational day, full of fun and of great interest to pupils and adults alike. We wish Richard and his team the very best of luck.

Further information can be found at www.bloodhoundssc.com

Well… in the Pre-Prep, a hero is Cinderella, Spiderman, Hannah Montana or James Bond.
Add a sprinkling of ‘army’ men and women as well as nurses and the picture is complete!

The children loved dressing up for this excellent cause and interesting discussions took place in the classroom about what ‘makes’ someone a hero.

‘Special’ and ‘brave’ were the most popular, which we thought beautifully summed up our armed forces and gave us all ‘food for thought!'

The Brambletye Charity Art Auction, in aid of this year's school charity, The Chestnut Tree House Hospice for Children was held on Friday, 21st May, and was a runaway success.

The auction raised a total of £6,475.00 and every work exhibited sold. The top buy was a portrait of Audrey Hepburn in her heyday by David Holden, it fetched £700.00. The cricket scene of Nasser Hussain’s century at Lords brought in £500.00 and Piers Nathan’s Venice paintings made £325.00. The group painting by our Art Scholars of 2009 sold for £475.00.Dulcie Pearson’s ‘Still Life with apples’ went for £375.00. Former pupil Tristan Pigott’s Figure painting made £300.00.

It was a truly amazing night made possible by all our artists and a fantastic audience.

Year 7 were taught how to programme the lego mindstorms robots

They then had to get the robots to follow a track

There was a lot of rewriting programmes

And more testing

Until they could all perform the task

Other tasks included writing programme to have a conversation with the robot and getting them to do simultaneous aerob(ot)ics

Some pupils became particularly attached to their robots

 

It was a thrilling Friday morning, as the children in the Pre-Prep Department participated in their first ever Point-to-Point Ramble around the grounds of Brambletye. The children had to reach various points of the course and get their ‘Point-to-Point Passports’ stamped before they reached the finish.

The excitement began with most of Year 2s setting off to run the course, which proved to be quite challenging. However, with perseverance, they all managed to complete it with smiles on their very red faces.

It was then the turn of Reception and Year 1 and they were very focused on finding the different points in order to get their ‘passports’ stamped. Many eagerly ran while others kept a steady pace in anticipation to find out which stamp they would receive next. The Nursery children were just as enthusiastic, on a much shorter course, and raced around to collect their stamps.

In the end, all the ‘ramblers’ who sprinted, jogged or even walked to the finish line, felt very proud to have completed the course and help raise money for the Chestnut Tree Children’s Hospice. There was only one thing on their minds –LUNCH !

Mr John Mawson, the Returning Officer for Brambletye School, West Sussex declared that the votes cast were as follows:

Just over 90% of pupils in Years 3 to 8 voted.

Thirty-six Year 4 children from three schools responded magnificently to the adventure theme of ‘Teamwork and Fun in the Jungle’ on Tuesday 27th April at a new event hosted by Brambletye School.

Three challenges with a Jungle theme were presented to the three groups of twelve children: building a model platform to escape from wild animals took place in the DT workshop; testing substances for food to eat in the Jungle in the Science labs; playing African drums and discovering exciting rhythms was organised by the Music Department.

The climax to the day came with the final challenge: which team could construct a shelter out of poles, string and plastic sheeting and stay dry when the tropical storm arrived? Such was the success of the shelter building that every team avoided getting wet!

Ashurst Wood Primary School were the best-placed team for the DT and Science elements; Brambletye proved to be the best African Drummers; Hornsby House School, London won the final challenge and the shield for the winning school.

Alastair Gerry, Deputy Head at Hornsby House School, commented before leaving: ‘our children have had a wonderful day and have enjoyed every minute of it in beautiful surroundings and wonderful sunny weather’.

• “The Toughest Footrace on Earth”.
• 6 marathons over 6 days across the Sahara Desert, carrying all food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag and some water.
• 154 miles - the longest MDS ever.
• Day 4 – 2 consecutive marathons.
• (or Birmingham to London and then a full marathon)
• (or once around the M25 and down to Brighton)
• Oh, yes, and all the above in a desert at 100 - 120°F, carrying 12-15kg.

The Marathon Des Sables is a multi stage self-sufficiency foot race through the Sahara Desert. The course varies from year to year but is always approximately 250 kilometres in distance over seven days, with a double marathon on day four. A Dune day is also normally included, which as the name implies involves running over continuous sand dunes for about 40 kilometres.
You have to carry all your food, sleeping bag and mat, personal items, spare clothing, cooking utensils and obligatory kit (anti venom pump, space blanket, distress flare, signalling mirror, a minimum of 2000 calories of food per day, knife and space blanket) in a back pack and water ration for each day. Around 800 people take part each year with 250 – 300 of these from Britain.
The stages are broken up over six days and camps are set up by the organisers each night, with runners sleeping in open sided traditional Berber tents with eight people per tent, shoulder to shoulder on a rug thrown over the hard desert rock.

On Thursday year 5 had a science trip to the British Wildlife Centre. This is an excellent resource so close to school and a brilliant way to start our Life Cycles topic this term. We visited the animals in their enclosures and had Keeper talks from Laura.

	Four Year 6 scientists represented Brambletye at this years Haileybury Science Challenge. This year there was a Harry Potter Theme.
The first challenge, held in the Physics labs, involved building a raft to cross the Thames as the Death Eaters had destroyed the Millennium Bridge. The contestants could use one piece of A4 paper for each raft along with glue, Sellotape and paper clips. After a bit of investigation and a few sinkings, the teams had to submit their final raft for testing. Ours held a massive 650g – the fifth highest out of 20 schools.
	After a fantastic lunch the teams went off to the Chemistry labs to sort out some potions that had lost their labels. The use of Dragons blood (Universal Indicator) and reaction notes helped but our team were a bit sleepy in this task with such full tummies!
The final task was to see which snack gave off the most energy for hungry Quiditch players. To find out the teams had to burn the crisps, Frazzles, Hula Hoops and Monster Munch to see how much they could heat up water in a test tube. Our team conducted a rigorous survey and were certainly prize winners in the ‘leave your area neat and tidy at the end of the experiment’ competition.

IRP

Year 6 pupils recently took part in a Stop Motion Animation workshop delivered by Mr Adrian Chorlton, from Days of Wonder, where they worked in small groups to produce their own stop motion animated film with the same software used to make Wallace and Gromit.

Prior to the workshop, pupils scripted and planed their short, animated film. On the day they learned the basics of how to make stop motion work so that they were able to make full use of the time available to shoot and edit their film.

Here’s what they thought – in their own words!

It was really fun and interesting afternoon-T.B. It was an enthusiastic and optimistic afternoon, and it was fun-L.H. We loved making our story about a wedding being invaded by a dinosaur- IP, XN and H.T-S. I will definitely remember it; it was really fun-V.M. I really enjoyed seeing all the funny videos- F.W.
	I thought it was a very interesting and exciting day especially making my own movie. I.R. I really enjoyed making the films as well as watching them – L.M. It was fun  -W.B. It was really fun and I liked making the films – S.B. It was a shame to leave early but I really enjoyed what I did – A.G. I had a great laugh and now I know how much hard work you have to put into a proper film – G.T.
I thought it was a fun and interesting day! Making the movie at the end was really enjoyable and fun! H.B-S. I thought Monday was a very fun and exciting day and really loved making my own film. E.R.S I thought that Monday was a great experience it was a lot of fun and I would like to do it again! C.M. I thought the workshop was amazing and I learnt a lot about stop motion animation and computers. F.F.

The Brambletye A team won both their matches convincingly by 5 goals to nil. Our girls kept it simple by passing the ball to feet and we took our chances with some lethal finishing. A hatrick in both games by Claudia 'Messi' and goals from Charlotte 'Roony' and Victria 'Gerard' proved too strong for the oposition. Two clean sheets by the Brambletye goalie was also the key to victory because if the opposition don't score you can't lose the game. We hope to keep this as an annual fixture. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves including the supporters who outshouted me!!

To demonstrate how control technology works, pupils used CoCo simulation software to develop procedures for controlling traffic lights, CoCo the clown and a house. Pupils were then given the opportunity to test their procedure on one of the models to see how their instructions worked in a ‘real’ situation.

STEM Sussex is an organisation that aims to raise awareness of engineering and technology by promoting Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians.

• One of the top three Academic Scholarships for Benenden School
• An Academic Exhibition to Wycombe Abbey School
• The Ken Shearman 'All-Rounders' scholarship to Lancing College
• Art Scholarships to Brighton College, Millfield School and Stowe School
• A DT Scholarship to Tonbridge School

Members of the Science club performed the demonstrations and got their audience to join in.

	Affinity reaction show how metals compete with each other for oxygen
	The best affinity reaction is between aluminium and iron oxide. This is so dramatic it needs to be done outside!
	Even steel wool will burn if there is enough oxygen around it
	Iron filings also burn – this is how sparklers work
	Sodium is so reactive it will take the oxygen from the hydrogen in water, it burns with a classic bright orange flame
	Potassium does this too but burns with a lilac flame. These metals give fireworks their colours
	This reaction is the speedy decomposition of hydrogen peroxide with a little washing up liquid to help it look more dramatic. Its know as the Elephants Toothpaste reaction.
	When you pour concentrated sulphuric acid on sugar (C6H12O6) it steals all of the water from the sugar
	This creates lots of heat and leaves lots of carbon
	An Old Brambletyean helped demonstrate the Methane Mamba
	You can even make your hand appear to burn
	No visit to surgery for this marine biologist
	The Lieutenant Commander has a go.

 

Below are some of the comments made by the Brambletye pupils after the talk:

“It’s an amazing fact that 2 billion animals are slaughtered for food and 220 million animals are killed by domestic cats but only 3.7 million are used by animal researchers”

“Animal researchers only use three mice and one rat per person per lifetime for research in UK”

“It is incredible to see how many diseases have been either cured or treated using drugs and techniques developed using animal research”

“It is exceptional the lengths the animal units have to go to in order to keep the animals well and safe and happy. For example the animal house must be kept at 21oC +or- 1oC. The air in the room is filtered in and out and changes 35 times a day.”

“All of the researchers have to have a shower when they enter and leave the building so that they do not bring any viruses or bacteria into the animals”

“His talk has made me realise that animal research isn’t all bad”

“Every scientist has to have a special qualification to handle animals”

“It is incredible how they endure so much criticism but still manage to do their work”

“The inspectors from the government can do spot checks 24/7 for 365 days a year and will close a unit down if they aren’t following the regulations properly”

“It is better that they use rodents and fish rather than ‘higher animals’ like primates”

“Many of the rodents used are genetically modified especially for the experiments and can cost up to £60,000 each”

“The unit has a vet on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year”

“Happy well cared for animals give better results in the experiments so Glyn only hires people who really care for animals”

“For each experimental project you have to have approval from the Home office who issue a licence for that project”

“83% of the animals used are rodents, specially bred inside the facility”

“Animals used have to be disease free before the experiments start”

“Most of the experiments are classified as ‘mild’ which means the animal feels no pain at all”

“All the genetically modified mice have to be killed at the end of the experiment as it would be dangerous to set them free and let these genetic modifications get out into the wild”

IRP

This term Year One are learning about toys from the past.  We have written letters to our Grandparents asking them about the toys they used to play with when they were little.  We went to the post box to post our letters and are all excitedly waiting for our replies!

AL

 

	On Friday 22nd January, Year Seven went on a science trip to the Natural History Museum in Kensington.   They started off with some hard work in the Human Body gallery, this term’s topic, before moving to the Investigate hands on activity in the basement. Here the pupils saw and handled real specimens from the store rooms of the museum. They had to ask questions and use their observations and measurements to deduce information about the samples.   Towards the end of the session the museum staff turned on the computers so they could find out exactly what the specimens were and whether their deductions were correct. Next we moved to the new Darwin Centre and tried more simulations and activities like grouping beetles, preparing for a specimen collecting expedition and examining a tick microscopically. This was a packed day with plenty of good quality learning.   The best moment, as a teacher, was when the museum staff, not once but on three separate occasions, sought me out to compliment me on the interest shown by our students, the quality of their questions and their excellent behaviour.   IRP