Priya Ahluwalia visits NHP
This morning, British designer, Priya Ahluwalia, came into school to speak to the children in Middle and Upper School in assembly. She spoke about how she started her career in the fashion industry, her studies, setting up her own business and the process of designing clothes. She told the children what inspired her designs: her heritage and the music she loves. She then tasked the children with their own task – to design an outfit inspired by their own musical tastes. Priya will be judging these designs and prizes will be awarded to the winners after half term.
Thank you to Priya for coming to talk to us. It was an inspirational talk and has sparked the creative minds of all our future young designers at NHP! What a fantastic way to end our celebrations for Black History Month.
We would also like to say thank you to our incredible kitchen team for providing the most yummy food in honour of Black History Month. It was fantastic to try a range of delicious dishes to celebrate Black History Month!
Read MoreBlack History Month: Art lessons
As part of Black History Month, Year 2 have been learning about the quilters of Gee Bend in Alabama, USA. The ladies here are from a long line of quilters who, for generations, have been coming together to sew and make quilts. Year 2 learnt how, over a hundred years ago, they did this from old cloth scraps, making quilts to keep themselves warm in the winter. Now their work has become world-renowned and can be viewed in galleries across the globe. Year 2 made their own quilt squares using collage, each table collaborated to choose a colour scheme and then the class put their squares together to make a large class quilt. Each class will put their quilts together to make a whole year collaborative quilt in the style of these amazing African-American artists.
Year 4 have also been busy learning about the artist Augustus Savage. They thought of links between her sculpture ‘The Harp’ (1939) and a hymn they listened to called ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing’, before discovering that this hymn was actually what inspired Savage to make this sculpture. The poem was written by James Weldon Johnson and was written as a song of freedom and liberty for all black people. Year 4 learnt about Augusta Savage’s life growing up in Florida where she used to play in her back garden and make little clay figures. She became an artist and teacher, becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance and opening her own art school in Harlem which paved the way for many other black artists. As a group, Year 4 made their own version of ‘Harp’ by lining up in height order. They then worked collaboratively and used their photo as a plan to make their own clay version of ‘Harp’.
Read MoreSharky and George visit NHP
On Monday morning, the thinking skills of Years 7 and 8 were put to the test. Sharky and George and NHP’s Thinking School worked together to create a unique morning of fast, fun and curious challenges to test the brains.
Using Edward de Bono’s thinking hats, the children were split into groups of 6. They discussed different strategies for each task and the group who collected the most coins were crowned the winners. From building the tallest towers, to memory tests to who could carry the most shoes (not forgetting flipping the frisbee with flippers.) The children worked hard to collaborate and think flexibly to win the gold coins.
Read MoreNational Poetry Day
Poetry in schools suffers from a bad reputation: often thought of as stuffy and dryly taught, it is not unusual to hear groans of dread from children and adults alike when poetry raises its head. A Punch cartoon, supposedly written by A. E. Housman, perfectly skewers the popular opinion of poetry teaching:
Two English teachers are walking in the woods in springtime. The first, on hearing birdsong, is moved to quote William Wordsworth:
TEACHER 1:
Oh cuckoo, shall I call thee bird
Or but a wandering voice?
TEACHER 2:
State the alternative preferred
With reasons for your choice.
This approach might feel familiar to many of us when looking back on our own school experiences. At NHP, we want to take every opportunity to inject joy, accessibility, and collaboration into poetry instead. This Thursday presented the perfect opportunity.
On National Poetry Day, we all enjoyed reading a selection of poetry together to celebrate the occasion. In English lessons at the start of term, pupils read a range of poetry and voted for their favourites. With best-loved poems decided for the Lower School (How to Turn Your Teacher Purple by James Carter), Middle School (I’d Like to be a Teabag by Peter Dixon), and Upper School (The Mrs Butler Blues by Allan Ahlberg) and a special project for Year 8 (Speech Balloon by Imtiaz Dharker), pupils set about readying themselves for performance. They worked with their English and form teachers to prepare a rousing performance. In culmination, we enjoyed two recital events: Lower School and Year 8 pupils performed to one another, and the Middle and Upper school exchanged recitals. I was so thrilled to see pupils performing with gusto, good humour, and expression. Teaching staff were cajoled into a recital, too, sharing a rendition of My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson. There was something magical about speaking aloud together, a feeling of unity and purpose that provided a feel-good tingle. Stuffy, it was not.
Thank you to all the teachers involved for their support, especially Miss Coffey for her coordination in the Lower School, and a huge well done to all our marvellous poetry performers. You were fantastic!
Read MoreLanguages Week at NHP
In celebration of the European Day of Languages, the MFL department were busy providing a jam- packed week full of language learning! Each day, the children began their mornings by saying “hello” to their teachers in a different language, followed by a discussion of that country’s culture and the similarities they have to ours.
Our wonderful kitchen team have been providing an array of European foods for the children to try throughout the week. Our Lower School children enjoyed a ‘secret reader’, where a ‘secret’ parent would come in to read to them all. The Middle and Upper School children enjoyed code breaking and translation activities and school assemblies.
We love to celebrate this diverse linguistic heritage each year by creating a day surrounded by assemblies for the entire school, which helps to ignite our students’ passions for languages at an early age. The children have had a week where they have embraced the culture, food and heritage of their classmates and teachers in a fun-filled, educational environment. We can’t wait to do it next year!
NHP Parent Workshop
On Wednesday evening, The Parent Team delivered a talk to parents on ‘Developing Healthy Friendships’. In this 90 minute workshop, we learned all about how boys and girls develop, how they experience friendship and ways in which we can help them navigate and maintain relationships. As teachers, dealing with friendship issues is part of the job and, through our PSHE programme, we explicitly teach the children about healthy relationships and what it means to be a good friend, as well as supporting children on a daily basis with issues which arise in the playground.
Friendships are an integral part of all our lives and learning how to model and teach healthy friendships to our children is important, but falling out is also part of growing up, so having some strategies to support children when things go wrong with friends is really useful. In the workshop, we learned not to try and always jump in and fix the problem, but to teach them to problem solve themselves. This is an approach we take with the children when they are in school. Every mistake, every falling out, is a learning opportunity, a chance to reflect and improve.
Thank you to those parents who were able to attend. The feedback I have had has been extremely positive so I hope to organise similar talks over the course of the academic year.
Mrs Harry Fryer (Deputy Head Pastoral)
Read MoreCongratulations Ivy!
This week, we were thrilled to learn that we will soon have a published poet among us. Ivy in Year 6 submitted a poem about Egyptian gods to a ‘Young Writers’ competition earlier this year. Ivy says the poem was inspired by a school assignment responding to ancient civilisations, and that she that she spent a lot of time editing it until it was perfect.
All her hard work paid off: Ivy’s poem won a merit award and has been selected to be published in an anthology at the end of this year. We are all so proud of Ivy’s achievements and wish her our mightiest congratulations.
Read MoreTatler Schools Guide 2023
We were delighted to be featured in this years’ Tatler Schools Guide 2023, amongst the UKs top prep and public schools. And to top off a fantastic review, it was great to see NHP alumnus, Braxton, on the front cover!
“Head Sarah Knollys…is committed to the prep’s Thinking School status, believing it creates academic rigour while preserving the joy of childhood.”
“You won’t find many schools that nurture children’s minds by following the principles of Edward de Bono’s theory of Six Thinking Hats, but Notting Hill Prep likes to do things differently. Philosophy is taught from Reception; dancing, yoga and mindfulness are a part of the school day; there are woodland forest lessons and trips to hike up Pen Y Fan and Ben Nevis. It’s easy to forget you’re in London, especially when you see real reindeer at the annual Christmas Fair.
Head Sarah Knollys, described by parents as a ‘powerhouse’ and pupils as ‘very funny and kind’, is committed to the prep’s Thinking School status, believing it creates academic rigour while preserving the joy of childhood. It’s certainly no slouch on academics, with pupils leaving for the likes of Westminster, Eton and St Paul’s Girls.” Tatler Schools Guide 2023
It was also an honour to be shortlisted for the Tatler Schools Awards 2022 for their Eco-Warrior category, recognising the environmental work we do here at NHP. Lots more to come, watch this space!
Read MoreRA Young Artist Summer Show
We were extremely proud to see the work of Braxton in Year 6 displayed at the Royal Academy this summer, as part of their Young Artist’s Summer Show.
Braxton’s stop frame animation video piece, ‘Back to the beginning’, was selected amongst a huge number of entries to be shown in this prestigious annual exhibition. His concept was thoughtful, the final piece well edited and produced with accompanying music. This was a very enjoyable show to see with a huge variety of inspiring pieces, and what an excellent achievement it is to be part of it. Well done Braxton!
Unfortunately the physical display is now over but you can still view the online exhibition here: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/2022/galleries
Read MoreLewisham Donation Hub
NHP were incredibly fortunate to be able to offer our old and unused school laptops to the Lewisham Donation Hub which does incredible work every single day to provide for those most vulnerable in our society…
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