Warden Hill Primary School Cheltenham

Year 6 Pantastic Production

Over 2 nights last week, our Y6 pupils performed their leavers’ performance of Pantastic.

The end of year show is a real rite of passage for our children and, as ever, the show did not disappoint. The show is always a spectacular event: an audition process, rehearsals and dress rehearsals, full staging, costume, make up, professional lighting and even ice-creams at the interval make this an incredible annual event, and our wonderful Year 6s did not disappoint.


Two nights of performances filled with smiles, laughter, an abundance of talent and wonderful songs (and a crocodile with a water pistol) will live long in the memory. The children did the most incredible job learning the play in such a short time – it was a full 1 hour 40 minute performance – and thanks must also go to their parents for their support with learning lines, songs and providing costumes.

Special thanks from us go to Tom Wilkes, who helped us to create a set to remember featuring a cannon and a free-standing window for Pan, Tink, Wendy, Michael and John to access Neverland.

We give you our cast of Pantastic 2023.

Prince Of Wales Athletics 2023

Last Friday, the Prince of Wales stadium played host to the Cotswold Shield Athletics 2023. The Cotswold Shield is the top division of Cheltenham schools based on previous performance at the athletics and is a prestigious event in its own right. Our junior children all competed in run offs as well as jump offs and throw offs to earn the right to represent Warden Hill at the event – and didn’t they do us proud! There were sprint events and relays for years 3 – 6 as well as long distance, vortex throw and standing long jump for years 5 and 6. 

Our children performed incredibly. The determination, camaraderie and mutual respect shown by all of our children was phenomenal. An enormous thank you to all the staff who came, to all the children who came along to compete or as part of the wider relay teams and to the parents for coming along to support. It really was an event to remember. All of our children were amazing – we ended up finishing an incredible 3rd place overall and winning the Field Events trophy. Our medallists were:

Bronze:
James Hockley (Long Jump),
Year 5 Girls Relay – Ivy Cleevely, Hanna Barska, Annabel Brazier and Ruby Sollis

Silver:
Jonny Higbey (Y6 Sprint)
Toby Ashenhurst (Vortex Throw)

Gold:
Evie Barrowcliffe (Y6 Sprint and Long Jump)
Year 6 Girls Relay – Millie Wilkes, Ellie Sandford, Darby Rudman, Evie Barrowcliffe

Year 1’s Epic Expedition to Cotswold Wildlife Park

Year 1 embarked on an unforgettable adventure to Cotswold Wildlife Park. The children’s excitement sprang to life in an instant as they witnessed the incredible sight of penguins during feeding time.

The thrill continued as they encountered towering giraffes and mighty rhinos. Adding to the excitement, the children hopped aboard a train and saw zebras gracefully grazing, while camels strolled across the landscape.

Year 1’s exemplary behaviour made the trip truly exceptional. Well done to our adventurous Year 1 explorers.

The Wildlife Quiz

The Wonderful Wildlife Team of Warden Hill

Once again, our school entered The Wildlife Quiz, run by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The quiz started in 1976 with just six schools. This year it celebrates its 47th anniversary, with over 400 children from 70 schools taking part. Our team met every Wednesday lunchtime to learn about British Flora and Fauna. Mrs Catchpole, who led the club, was extremely impressed by not only the children’s knowledge but also their commitment and enthusiasm to learn about all aspects of British Wildlife. The team of five children selected to represent our school this year were Louis, Tom, Thomas, Orla and James.

Louis and Thomas have written about their experience of taking part in the quiz:

Round 1
We all felt the pressure in round one. As it is a knockout out quiz, we did not want to leave in the first round after all our hard work. We had a strong start and a few great rounds of answers. Some of the questions we were asked were: What is the name of a male and female duck? Answer: drake (male) and duck (female). What is an aphid? Answer: a Greenfly
By the end of the quiz, we were announced as the winners, with an unexpected ten-point lead on the opponents.

Round 2
We found this a tough round, with our individual questions being the hardest. Going into the specimens round, we only had a lead of 1 point. The specimens had us on the edge of our seats, we had to identify which plant was a Shepard’s Purse, we had never heard of it before, luckily we did get it right! It was a close match, but we came out victorious and through to Round 3 – The Cheltenham Area Final!

Round 3 (Cheltenham area final)
We knew that winning this round would crown Warden Hill Primary School to be the best wildlife quizzing team the Cheltenham Area, so we once again felt under pressure. We found the question difficulty had ramped up noticeably from the last rounds. After the first round, we were drawing with the other teams and felt that victory was in our grasp. After the next two rounds however, we were down four points. Despite this, the will to win remained in the team and we did not give up. In the final round, we managed to squeeze ourselves onto the Cheltenham Area winner’s podium, narrowly avoiding elimination by one question. We were through to the Semi-Final – something that has never been achieved by a team from Warden Hill before!

Round 4 – Semi-finals
We arrived at Robin’s Wood Country Park – the headquarters of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust – to find that they had set out the quiz in the shade of an oak tree. We were against other area winners – Lakefield and Sherborne. At the end of each round, the scores were close, often with us drawing with Sherborne. After the final round, the scores were added up and a draw between Sherborne and us was announced. Therefore, a tiebreaker question was needed. We were given a tube full of small bones which we had to look at to identify which animal the skeleton had come from. The atmosphere was tense and our parents were nervous wrecks! Nevertheless, we kept our heads. Tom thought the bones were from a Mole, as he had spotted a claw, which he recognised from when he dissected owl pellets in Year 5. Sherborne thought it was a Pygmy Shrew. After a hushed moment, it was announced that we were the winners! We were so proud of such an amazing achievement!

Sadly, we cannot compete in the finals because we are on PGL Residential. However, taking part in the quiz has been incredible fun, we have learnt so much and it has opened our eyes to the nature all around us.

Thomas and Louis

Forest School: Year 1

1B and 1R have both had four lovely forest school sessions each including an afternoon of clay work when we were threatened with downpours. The children are so good at engaging despite the last minute change of plan and really enjoyed drawing a detailed picture of the creature they wanted to sculpt, and adding exciting adjectives to the drawing to help it come alive for the reader.

They then really took their time to bring it to life in clay, with some really fabulous outcomes that I was incredibly impressed with. Marcellus’ dragon was in a league of its own and showed extraordinary imagination and great skill.

Inevitably with differing dynamics, every class plays in different ways and certain resources become more or less popular. With spring on the march and everything starting to grow quickly, bright green sticky weed has been a really big feature for this year group – who knew that a weed could be so much fun? We made sticky weed crowns and a lot of sticky weed made it into the mud kitchen inspiring some fabulous dishes.

The chalk boards are new this year and proved really popular too, with children variously writing, shape making, doing maths, writing out recipes and drawing in the shade under the trees. The wooden board games were used a lot too in base camp with long running, fiercely competitive noughts and crosses competitions. Seeing that some of the children really appreciated these more quiet, thoughtful pastimes I started to take some picture books and non-fictions books out too for the first time offering some children the opportunity to just take a moment, which was lovely to see.

Den building can be a wonderful solitary activity giving a child the opportunity to take the time to bring something they have envisaged to life, but this year group made big collaborative dens which was great to see. Working in this way on a group project required lots of conversation, team work compromise and adaptability which are such important skills to learn.

For the first time there was lots of building work in this group as well, plastering mud on to the tree branches to make them smooth, painting them with water and chopping thing with the side of the trowels. It is fascinating to see where their imaginations go and always interesting to see who the children chose to play with depending on what they are doing.

As we move into the summer our reception children are having their first taste of spending time in our lovely site, and I look forward to getting to know them and support them as they continue their learning through play.

Mrs Chavasse

County Cricket

On Friday the 23rd June, our cricket team represented Warden Hill in the County Finals. The final was played at Cheltenham College, which was the perfect setting.

The children had a wonderful experience in the glorious sunshine at the home of the Gloucestershire Cricket Festival.

The children were excellent ambassadors for our school showing everyone ‘the spirit of cricket’; they were positive, respectful and competitive.  The team were amazing and made it all the way to the semi-finals, narrowly missing out on the final.

This season has been very successful for all our teams and it has been my pleasure to teach all of our cricket teams.  

Mr Antonious  

Feet First Dance Festival

Monday 19th June was the date that the famous Feet First Dance Festival returned to the iconic Cheltenham Town Hall.


Fifteen year 6 girls took to the stage, in their tie-dye outfits, performing spectacularly to Eric Clapton, Signe.


We have spent months choreographing and perfecting our dance, and they performed brilliantly, wiping the floor of the other competition! (Or so I like to think!)


I’m am so incredibly proud of their commitment, dedication and talent. Thank you, girls, for such a marvellous day.

Mrs Andrews

Cricket Festival

Cricket is all about having fun and enjoying it with your friends. You always have a role to play:
• Bowling
• Batting
• Fielding

We played two amazing matches, where we won both so we were able to represent Warden Hill in the Semi Finals. Sadly, we lost but we had a great time at this event. We hope in the future more girls will try this enjoyable sport.

Jemima and Faye
Year 6


On Tuesday 6th June 2023, Mr Antonious entered two teams with children from Year 4, 5 and 6 into a cricket festival. We had lots of fun representing Warden Hill Primary School. In the group games, both teams did very well with the A team going through and the B team narrowly missing out.

The A team had an exhilarating Semi Final and just beat Leckhampton with a difficult run chase. In the final, we played Dunalley and to our surprise we won. This meant that we made it through to the County Finals. Everyone had a brilliant day and it was great to see everyone grow in confidence and improve their skills.

Toby and Joseph
Year 6

Take One Book Week

Warden Hill is welcoming back Take One Book Week on Monday 12th June.

The purpose of this week is to allow the children to explore and delve deeper into a novel, chosen carefully by our wonderful teachers that allows for rich and inspiring learning across the curriculum. The chosen novel will also inspire other areas of the curriculum ensuring that the children produce high quality outcomes in many subject areas.

This week has the potential to open up different reading worlds to the children, scaffold deeper understanding of a narrative along with supporting and inspiring writing.

Here is a list of books that the different year groups will be learning from:

Reception: Supertato by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
Year 1: Man on the Moon by Simon Bartram
Year 2: The Night Gardener by Eric Fan and The Fan Brothers
Year 3: Journey by Aaron Becker
Year 4: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare
Year 5: Varmints by Helen Ward and Marc Craste
Year 6: The Savage by David Almond

Why not ask your child about the book they are studying during this week!

SPORTS WEEK 2023

The final week of term has once again seen all of our pupils compete in our annual sports week. We were blessed with perfect weather conditions for the week and the children competed brilliantly all the way through. Throughout sports week, the children all competed in house rounders, house Frisbee, field events (KS2 only) and – of course – sports day athletics. It was the perfect celebration of sport at Warden Hill and leads to the awarding of the house cup. As a PE team, we would like to pay particular thanks to our house, vice and sports captains who cheered, helped and stickered across the week to make sure the events ran smoothly, not just for their own houses, but for all children. Thanks also to Mr Roberts for his support in running our events this week.

House Frisbee

Our week opened with everyone taking part in House Frisbee. Mr Roberts and class teachers took all of the children for a House Frisbee skills session. This involved developing the skills of throwing and catching the Frisbee, accruing points for houses depending on how quickly and accurately the children threw. The day culminated in the playing of the House Frisbee tournament, in which a team comprised of Year 6 pupils competed against one another. The results of the tournament were combined with all the scores accrued in the morning. These were the final results:

COLN

246

LEACH

247

CHURN

270

WINDRUSH

275

House Rounders 

Over the first few days of the week, each year group competed in house rounders. For the infants, this consisted of kick rounders and for the juniors it took its more traditional form. Each team played in a round robin format playing a match against each other house – resulting in over 30 matches being played in all! The final standings were as follows: 

LEACH

55

WINDRUSH

62

COLN

67

CHURN

60

WINDRUSH

96

COLN

112

CHURN

95

LEACH

97

Field Events

Our KS2 children competed in the field events on Friday, which consisted of 4 different events: Standing long jump, shot put, discus and vortex throw. Each child was selected for at least 1 event where they competed against seven other members of their class or year group. The results for this were totalled and led to the awarding of the field events trophy.  

House Athletics

Our 3 sports days were each a pleasure to be a part of. We want to thank so many parents, wider family and friends who came to watch the children compete in their individual sports day events – all 3 were wonderful occasions. Our infant children were simply superb, each taking part in a sprint race and an obstacle race and accruing points for their houses.
Our LKS2 and UKS2 sports day were also resounding successes. Again, thank you so much for coming in your droves to support your children. For the KS2 children, each child competed in the sprint and had the opportunity to be part of the long distance races too, before the days culminated in the house relay races. The overall house cup is awarded for a combination of infant and junior sports days and the results were as follows:

LEACH

167

WINDRUSH

199

COLN

213

CHURN

213

Thanks again to all our wonderful children who competed so brilliantly throughout the week and to all those pupils who helped to make it happen. It makes us very proud to be a part of Warden Hill’s school sport.
Mr Williams and Mrs Taylor