OUR VERY BUSY LOWER SCHOOL
Nothing stops our Lower School learning and developing new skills.
A typical day at Warminster involves a great deal of laughter, kindness and support between the Lower School pupils, older pupils, their tutors and all staff. This is true across the year groups and something that I'm really missing (in person) at the moment. However, these aspects of our day to day lives are not lost. In fact, in the first week of virtual learning before the Easter holidays, the Lower School pupils embraced their tutor group forums on Firefly, sharing stories, their baking achievements and the odd bad joke or two! I look forward to this continuing next week and I am sure the pupils are too.
The Lower School spirit and enthusiasm remains. It has been a delight to hear of family and community projects, the pupils keeping busy and learning new skills. Several Lower School families are greatly enjoying having the time to eat together three times a day. Many pupils have developed their love of reading and families have walked and cycled miles, making the most of their daily exercise time. Between us we have explored previously undiscovered nature trails and fields and, in the words of one parent, become 'more knowledgeable about the world on our doorstep, little things but ones that our former day to day life had all but eliminated'.
There isn't space here to list all the accomplishments of our pupils in the last few weeks, but the fact that I have awarded many 'virtual' merit certificates in the last week is a testament to the pupils' continued motivation. Niamh Crinion (Y8) and her family built a fantastic outdoor mud kitchen for another Warminster family, Sam Thomas (Y7) and Bronwen Rogers (Y7) have both been learning to bake and cook, to the delight of their families, and Phoebe Symonds (Y7) has produced some fantastic short animation films. Jessica Saunders (Y8) has worked with her family to make and plant vegetables, Oliver Spurrier (Y7) whittled wood to make a family member a present and one of our Year 8 pupils has produced some excellent art work, encouraging us to reflect on the fact that “every storm in life is followed by a rainbow”. Poignant words.
We remain here to guide and support our pupils pastorally and academically, in the usual Warminster way, even if we cannot do so in person.
Georgia Jukes, Head of Lower School, Teacher of MFL