Headmistress’s Newsletter

Issue 159 5 November 2021

Diwali – Festival of Lights

During this week classes have been finding out about Diwali, with some children celebrating
this Festival with their families yesterday.

Reception enjoyed a time of

happiness and light as the children
made clay divas, tasted Indian food
and sweets and dressed in
traditional clothing.
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The Reception
children also made
(and ate) their own
chapattis (yummy).
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Kindergarten were also learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. They enjoyed
listening to the story of Rama and Sita. The children then explored the many ways this festival is
celebrated: with families coming together to pray, exchange gifts and enjoy special foods.
Kindergarten made yummy chapattis, created Rangoli patterns and visited Reception class to join
them in a Diwali food tasting session.
 National Parliament Page 4

Week
This week has been National parliament Week which gave us the
perfect opportunity to hold a whole school ballot. Each child from
Reception to Y6 participated by ticking a ballot paper with their
preferred choice of: 1) Visiting Joss Bay every summer, 2) Holding a
Beach Day in school each year, or 3) Alternating between these two
wonderful and very popular events.

We were joined by Mr Adam Holloway (Conservative MP for

Gravesham) who gave a short talk about democracy before inspiring
our voters to make their decision. Class MPs gave out the ballot papers,
while the ballot boxes were overseen for fairness (and names strictly
checked against a school register) by our Year 6 MPs, Veer and Naveen.

124 pupils participated in this democratic process, which at one point

had involved a pretend revolution against a 'dictator' and chanting by
Year 5 of "Mrs Green Out!" all in good fun and led by Mr Holloway.
With our British Values firmly in place and a great opportunity for us to
hear from the pupils about their preferences about future trips,
children were able to engage with this process in a fun way and
experience what it would be like to vote officially one day.

The long-awaited results were so close that three recounts took place,
assisted by our Head Girl and Boy, Ruby and Jai. They were were
announced in Assembly this morning, and are as follows:

Beach day at school every year (28 votes)

Joss Bay every year (47 votes)
Alternate between the two (49 votes)
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Year 3 have learnt much about Diwali as part of their Religious

Education studies this week. Mrs Botley shared some Indian
sweets called Bessan with the class. Some children thought they
were too sweet, some children thought they were too sticky but most
children thought they were delicious!

Happy Diwali everyone, from all of Year 3!

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This week in Science Year 5 were investigating the question: 'How many coins will
my foil boat hold until it sinks?' The children were putting two forces to the test:
gravity and upthrust. Before the investigation, they considered the controlled,
independent and dependent variables.

Take a look at these pictures to see them in action!

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I am delighted to let you know that Year 1 to Year 6 will be

attending the pantomime ‘Robin Hood’ at The Woodville,
Gravesend on Thursday 9th December (during the school day).

’Oh no, you’re not………Oh yes WE ARE!!!’

Poppies, wristbands and keyrings will be available

at the gate next week – please bring in a donation.

Also, Year 6 will be presenting our Remembrance

Assembly on Friday 12th November at 9.00am. All
parents are welcome to attend.

Congratulations to the following children who have worked hard to receive

Mathletics certificates:

Gold
Cattleya (Y1)Martha (Y1)

Silver
Preet (YR) Cattleya (Y1) Chloe (Y1) Lila (Y1) Martha (Y1) Bella (Y2)
Electra (Y2) Lewis (Y2) JJ (Y2) Yuvraj (Y2) Zac (Y2) Johnny (Y3) Taran
(Y3) Aashkiaa (Y5)

Book Fair – Mrs Green reminds

everyone that we will be running a Book
Fair next week before and after school on
Monday to Wednesday.
Cash only payments please.
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One of our most successful developments over recent months as a school has been the Parent Guest
assemblies that we have enjoyed. On Monday 18th October, we welcomed a professional musician and
teacher, Mr Bahra, (father of Hukam in Year 1) who demonstrated his skills at the table, a pair of twin
hand drums used either as a solo instrument, accompaniment or within ensembles.

Mr Bahra is greatly experienced and has played in many venues globally, including national orchestras.
His skill was clear to see, including helpful answers to questions from children including 'how old were
you you when you started learning the tabla?' and 'is the instrument used for religious reasons?'

It was a delight to see Hukam and one of Mr Bahra's own pupils (Jeevan, Year 4) come to the stage and
create an impromptu jam session along with Mr Hardwick on guitar. This was a great moment of
spiritual reflection and wellbeing for the school, perfectly summed up in the words of a Year 3 child who
commented "I never wanted that assembly to end."

Thank you Mr Bahra and we look forward to a return visit in future

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GERMAN MORNING
Just before half term, Bronte School celebrated its annual German morning. This year
we asked ourselves the question - What are the best foods to try on a visit to Germany?
- we found this out thanks to eight very brave, blindfolded taste tasters. Jack and Abigail
(Y3), Nyah and Jeevan (Y4), Kaelo and Elliot (Y5) and Denzel and Taya (Y6). Our brave
volunteers tried a range of German foods and gave them all a score out of ten. There
were very varied and vocal opinions on some of the foods, the pumpernickel definitely
wasn't a hit! The results of the taste testing are as follows:

Last place: Pumpernickel - 8 points

7th: Sauerkraut - 9 points
6th: Stollen - 16 points
5th: Black forest gateau - 17 points
4th: Liquorice - 34 points
3rd: Bratwurst - 39 points
2nd: Pretzel - 48 points
1st place: Lebkuchen - 55 points

After the assembly the children had a chance to play German board games and to
design a German menu assisted by A level German students from Mayfield. They were
also able to learn more about German foods by having fun with Linguascope in our ICT
suite.

Hopefully if any of our pupils get the chance to travel to Germany in the future, they will
have a good idea about the types of German foods they would like to try (I don't think
pumpernickel or sauerkraut will be at the top of their lists!).

Our thanks to Frau DaCosta for organising such an engaging and interesting morning
for our Upper School children.
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