Walthamstow Hall School

A snapshot of the week at the Junior School. Early Years experimented with balloons for their topic of journeys and methods of travel. Year 4 experienced Viking life at Butser Ancient Farm, having a go at wattling, spinning, archaeology and chalk carving. In ICT, Year 2 used the search engine Espresso to research subjects such as volcanos, sea villages, Pompeii and puppies.

It's Friday end-of-exam week fun here - bad weather means today's charity walk is postponed, so instead it's energetic musical fun in the Main Hall.

We've livened up the latest additions to our Junior School bus fleet, to reflect the lovely adventures they will be taking the girls to. Class 3F are seen here climbing in after their swimming lesson at the Senior School.

Congratulations Chloe in Year 6 who has won the Jacque Emery Award run by Soroptimist International, for her essay on whether women are treated as full equals to men. The award is open to Y6 girls and boys in the South East. Chloe's work came first out of 67 entries in Sevenoaks and then was selected winner of winners overall.

The annual old girls' summer reunion takes place at school on Saturday 8 June from 2:00pm. We're looking forward to welcoming old girls back to explore their old haunts, look through the archives and catch up with friends over tea.
All old girls are welcome with a special invitation extended to the classes of 2009, 1999, 1989, 1979, 1969, 1959 and 1949! If you would like to come along and are yet to RSVP please email marketing@whall.school.

We couldn't resist ending this half term with a photo of Miss Ferro with actress Gwyneth Powell, who has been examining Trinity Drama all week. For those of you old enough to remember watching the BBC TV series Grange Hill in the 1980s, you will recognise Gwyneth as the fictional school's headmistress, Mrs McClusky.

The sun went in just as this photo was taken... Year 7H trying to capture the main arts and crafts building in their outdoor drawing lesson a minute ago.

Girls took part in a range of track and field events at the Junior School Sports Day at Tonbridge School Athletics Track on Wednesday. The final event was the staff v. girls relay, which was won by the girls and the overall House winner was Streatfeild. A big thank you to the Senior School Sports Leaders who helped run the day seamlessly.

Congratulations to these four who represented Wally to win silver medals at the Kent Primary Schools Tennis 9U competition at Bromley Tennis Centre this week.

Here's a glimpse of Year 6 enjoying their adventurous residential trip to Bowles last week. The girls threw themselves at everything on offer: abseiling, archery, kayaking, raft-building, rock climbing and The Leap of Faith, where you ‘leap off’ a high pole and grab a trapeze in mid-air.

It was a close-run thing but the Sixth Form edged it over the staff in their annual rounders match, with a final score of 17-16 to the students. Both sides emerged with dignity.

The annual Wally Pop concert on Friday raised £1,066 for this year’s School charity, A21, which campaigns to abolish slavery. It was a great night: an impressive turnout from Year 7, four students performing songs they'd written themselves, and an unforgettable attention-grab by the "Manic Street Teachers" performing a Whitney Houston classic. More details and photos on the website.

Presenting the winners of this year's Mulberry Challenge. Girls in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 chose a poem to recite and a piece of prose to read out loud to the two judges: Senior School Head of English Miss Mehaffey and former School librarian and English teacher Mrs Evernden. Choices ranged from Julian Clary to T S Eliot - but all the winners shared praise for their understanding of the work, and articulate delivery.

"It's not a magic show, it's a chemistry show!" shouted Dr Andrew Szydlo as he set off chemical reactions to make liquids change colour and flames to explode. Dr Andrew - who is a force of nature himself - gave a thrilling display of chemistry to end our Science Week. Junior School girls and pupils from Lady Boswells and St John's also attended.

Early Years visited Bore Place on Monday for some hands on experience of farm life. They shared the story of The Little Red Hen and baked their own bread before seeing the flowers and vegetables growing in the kitchen garden. Girls planted some seeds of their own which are now being carefully tended back in the EY outdoor area. At the end of the day girls met the organic dairy cows and their calves.

Physics hosted day two of Science Week fun at lunchtime. In CSI:Wally every member of the Science Department is under investigation for the crime. Teacher and student sleuths learnt about WiFi triangulation and fingerprinting to try to discover Who Dunnit.

We were thrilled to receive this photo from 2018 Leaver Sophie who was presented with her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at a presentation at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Fantastic news and an inspiration to our current Sixth Formers going for Gold.