From the Head Master
Year 8 Positions of Responsibility
As already announced at the end of last term, Hester Milne and Alfie Fowler are the Head Girl and Head Boy for this year (and both have made an excellent start!) and I am now delighted to announce the following:
House Captains
Drake – Florence Campion and Felix McAra
Frobisher – Isla Pasley-Tyler and Teddy Green
Grenville – Hannah Evans and Jenson Hill
Raleigh – Maisie Gowling and Theo Ryan
Heads of Music
Finn Coker and Ezekiel-David Peat
Chairs of School Council
Charlotte Suggitt and Olivia Woollcott-Price
Captains of Sports
Captain of Rugby – Jonty Collins, Vice-Captain – Teddy Green
Captain of Hockey – Bea Thorpe, Vice-Captain – Emily Coe
I wish them all the very best in their roles for the year ahead.
Dinner with Year 8
It was an absolute pleasure to be in the splendid company of Year 8 over the past two Friday evenings. Both Mrs Clarke and myself, along with Mr Roberts & Mrs Williams on ‘Evening No 1’ and Mr Dow & Mr Ray on ‘Evening No 2’, thoroughly appreciated seeing the children enjoying the first of these special privileges of being at the top of the school.
Harvest Festival Services
Our first church services of the year take place on Monday in St Andrew’s Chruch, Spratton with the Years 6, 7 and 8 service at 8.45am, followed by the Years 3, 4 and 5 service at 9.10am. Parents are very welcome to attend the services. Although we are only three weeks into the term, I am pleased to report that the Choir and Junior Song will be singing in the services.
SHSPA Race Night
You should have received by email the Parents’ Association newsletter yesterday, carrying news from last year and planned events for the year ahead, the first of which is a Race Night for parents, taking place next Friday at 7.00pm in the Hunter Hall. This is a great opportunity for parents to come together over food and drink, and the chance to get to know one another and enjoy an evening of fun and laughter.
As always, my huge thanks to those parents on the SHSPA Committee who give up their time to organise these events. I do hope many of you are willing to support and attend.
Changing Rooms
Please could I remind parents that you must not, at any time, enter the changing rooms. This is a straightforward matter of safeguarding and something we do need to enforce. It should only be pupils or school staff entering the changing rooms. Even if the children have given you the code, please refrain from entering as per the notices on the doors.
Similarly, we would be most grateful if parents did not drive round into the staff car park area to drop off games kit. Cars are often doing a three-point turn to get out of the car park and, as well as being a danger to children, staff are arriving at school and cannot get through the car park. Kit should be dropped off on the top car park and then the children can carry it round to the Underwood. Thank you very much for your support in this matter.
Do have a good weekend.
Thank you
Simon Clarke
HOUSE FLAG
The recently appointed House Captains of Drake, Felix and Florence, proudly raised the blue flag following the first Pluses Total announcement of the term.
Will it still be blue next week though??
House Captains
MUSIC
Exam Success
Congratulations to the following pupils for their excellent music exam results:
Saxophone
Grade 3 Jazz
Theo Ryan – Distinction
Jaypaul Sehmi – Distinction
Tenor Horn
Grade 3
Florence Campion – Merit
Trombone
Grade 1
Zac Smith – Merit
Grade 4
Ezekiel-David Peat – Merit
Cornet
Grade 1
Freddie Hill – Merit
Barnaby Walker – Merit
Tabitha McAra – Distinction
Heads of Music – Finn & Ezekiel-David
NMPAT Music Groups
Well done to Jehan Jasinarachchi who has gained a place in the County Junior Wind Orchestra following his successful audition.
Oakham Music Day – Tuesday 4th October
A letter has been sent out this week by Clarion to all the Year 6 Choir members containing further information.
Harvest Church Service – Monday 26th September
Junior Song and the Year 5 Choir members will be singing as part of the Junior Service and the Year 6, 7 and 8 members of the Choir will be singing as part of the Senior Service. Parents are welcome to attend.
ART
Years 5&6 Art Club
To celebrate the 900th anniversary of St Andrew’s Church in Spratton, former member of staff and good friend of Spratton Hall, Pam Townsend, is directing a play in the church commemorating the event. The short play depicts the life of Sir John Swinford (who is to be played by our very own Mr Clarke!), lord of the manor of Spratton, and how the church building came to be in its current form. Cee-Cee Guest in Year 7 is also in the play. ‘If Stone Could Talk’ is on this weekend, but tickets are sold out!
Our Years 5&6 Art Club have been busy making an effigy of the figure of Sir John to stand outside the church.
Artist of the Week
Year 5 have made a start on their Cubist style Christmas cards and here are three by Byron Dayman (5C) – Stag, Isabella Szechenyi (5C) – Mary & Joseph and Alice Foster (5W) – Christmas tree.
SPORT
Fixture Additions, Amendments & Cancellations
Please see the link at the bottom of the newsletter which takes you to the Sports Fixtures page on the website where you can check your child’s fixtures for the following week to ensure you are up-to-date with any changes to the published calendar that may affect you. The website Calendar also provides this information. Please note that Clarioncall messages regarding changes to the calendar will only be sent if they fall within the current week.
2nd VII Hockey Tournament
The 2nd VII Hockey team had a hugely successful day at the Bedford Modern 2nd VII tournament last Saturday.
They started the day by beating Stephen Perse 1-0 and drew 0-0 with Bedford Girls. The girls followed this with a 3-0 win over Northampton High School and a 2-1 win over Stamford, with goals from Cee-Cee, Immy and Maisie.
The final two matches were tough, but a compelling 2-2 draw with Felsted, coming back from two nil down, meant they were unbeaten going into the final match against the hosts Bedford Modern. Spratton came out on top 1-0, thanks to excellent defensive play from Olivia and Hannah, and the team finished with four wins and two draws and remained unbeaten.
An excellent effort all-round and especially from goalie Grace (Year 6), who stood in at the last minute. Without a goalie, we would never have won the tournament!
Miss Blason
HARVEST
Leading up to our school Harvest Festival next week, we are asking all our children to bring in products we can send to HOPE. This is a local organisation that supports the homeless or those in real need of support in our community. Some Year 8 pupils will be visiting the HOPE learning unit to learn more about how they provide a vital service within the community. Each year group has been asked to focus on a particular product, although all contributions are hugely appreciated. These should go into the box by the Hunter Hall foyer where the Year 8 pupils will display them.
Pre Prep – bringing items off the Summer Wish List
Y3 Breakfast items – cereal: UHT milk, coffee, tea, sugar, breakfast bars, porridge, long life juice
Y4 Tinned products – meat, fish, spaghetti hoops in particular as well as fruit, beans, tomatoes etc.
Y5 Toiletries – toothbrushes, tooth paste, deodorant (especially men), shower gel, toilet rolls
Y6 Dried foods – various pasta, rice (microwave rice is particularly useful), pulses, oats, lentils
Y7&8 Selected items off the Summer HOPE wish list (suggesting 4 if possible)
Other items often asked for are second hand towels, gloves, hats, socks and new pants (male).
OPEN MORNING
With unprecedented demand in 2022 and waiting lists for several year groups, we want to make sure that friends and family of current parents have the best opportunity to secure their own Spratton Hall place.
If you know anyone ready to start their Spratton Hall journey, please do share the date of our forthcoming Open Morning.
Bookings can be made here.
Current parents are also welcome to attend with their family and friends (there will be cake!).
We are already taking registrations for 2026!
BOOK FAIR
The Book Fair will be visiting us next week! It will be open for parents (with or without their children) to visit on Monday (26th September) afternoon from 4.00—5.00 pm. A letter has been sent home for you to indicate if your child can choose a book which will be added to your school account. If you have not seen this letter please ask for another one or alternatively, email saa@sprattonhall.com indicating how many books or how much you are willing for your child to spend. All the children will visit the Book Fair during their English lesson at some point during the week.
Sally Alexander
Librarian
PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to the following girls who have successfully made it into the Northants U13 County Netball Squad:
Cecilie Jackson
Bea Thorpe
Florence Campion
Ellie Allsopp
Elsa Miles
Olivia Woollcott-Price
Well done also to Immy Turney who is joining the Training Partners Squad.
Congratulations to Elsa & Martha Miles, Jehan Jasinarachchi and Mara & Mimi Hamilton who all completed their stage 1 RYA sailing certificate over the Summer and then also completed their RYA stage 2 last weekend.
PRE-PREP
Imagine the perfumed aroma of ground cardamom seeds, smothered in deliciously sweet condensed milk and flavoured with rose syrup – it sounds divine doesn’t it! Year 2 have been exploring the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, a holy day where siblings exchange gifts in celebration of the special bond that exists between them. Learning about the symbolism of exchanging sweet foods, the children really enjoyed making and tasting the traditional Indian and Pakistani treat of barfi for themselves this week.
Ripples of laughter have emanated from my Reception Computer lessons recently, as the children discover the wonderful results that controlling a computer mouse on screen can produce. With their ‘clicky fingers’ at the ready, it never fails to excite when an image of a furry mouse, complete with whiskers and a tail, pops up on the smartboard.
Entries are trickling in for the Sponsored Sunflower Competition that was set last term. If you have been carefully nurturing sunflower plants at home (and if hungry squirrels and deer haven’t munched the tops off!) then please do send in a photograph, along with details of their height and any monies raised. We will be announcing the winner of the tallest sunflower in our Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly on the 6th October. All sponsorship raised is for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Reading and writing are extraordinary skills. There may be 26 letters in the alphabet, yet they combine to make approximately 44 unique sounds. Learning to recognise letter shapes and link them to sounds forms an essential part of every child’s early learning journey. However, when you hear children using words like digraph and phoneme, then the whole world of Phonics can feel rather mystifying. Next Thursday, we would love parents to join us for a Phonics Presentation, where we hope to unravel some of mysteries and demonstrate how important (and enjoyable!) developing children’s phonetic knowledge can be.
Pre-Prep Pupil Achievements
Congratulations to Charlie Scott (1S) for achieving his 5m Swimming Award and to Florence Lindsay-Smith (2M) for gaining a swimming medal for her improved effort and skill. Charlie also completed the Library Summer Reading Challenge.
Very well done to Dakshan Premkumar (2M) who achieved ‘Player of the Week’ at his football club.
Congratulations go to Lexi Mercer (2M) who won 1st prize in a village craft competition.
Finally, very well done to Bethany Lofts (2A) who has achieved every one of her Rainbow badges.
Pre-Prep Forthcoming Events
Thursday 29th September, 3pm in the Hunter Hall – Pre-Prep Phonics Presentation for Parents
Friday 30th September, 10am-12pm – Open Morning
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