From the Housemistress

We welcome 2 exchange students from Germany, hosted by Year 10, Lusha and Emily.  We hope they enjoy their stay with us!

Head of House Team

House Captain

Sarah Peel

Deputy House Captains

Lucy Lawson

Anna Turner-Major

Birthdays

We wish Isabel B and Tabea belated Happy birthdays as they celebrated thiers during the Easter holidays. 

Forthcoming birthdays in May will be cebrated by Jacqui (22nd), Annys (25th), Nina (28th) and Emily (31st)

House Colours

Awarded in Lent Term 2011:   Violet Bennett, Sarah Peel, Anna Turner-Major and Lucy Lawson

Forthcoming events

Michaelmas Term 2012

Tue 28 August
New L6 students arrive

Wed 29 August
L6 Induction Day and U6 students arrive

Thur 30 August
BEGINNING OF TERM

Nut Policy

Please be aware that we have a girl in PG with a severe nut allergy, we ask you not to send high risk products back to Park Grange with your daughters, these include: Whole nuts, Nutella, Peanut Butter, Crunchy Nut cornflakes and nut oils. We continue to update the stores we provide to enable the girls to make healthy options, particularly when they are hungry outside of meal times.

Guests

Boarders and day students are welcome to visit PG at lunchtimes and after school until homework time (6:30pm) during the week. All students are very welcome to visit on Saturday evenings and on Sundays. On Tuesday and Friday evenings, 6th form are allowed guests in the Games Room between 21:00 and 22:00.

Naming clothes

We are trying to tackle the amount of lost property that seems to be generated within a week. Please could you help us on this front by ensuring all of your daughters clothes are clearly named. We provide laundry pens, particularly useful for newly purchased clothes, but name tags (sew on or iron on) are clearer to see. Matrons are happy to help out - although I am sure this is a task the girls could take on themselves!

Housemistress: Mrs Liz Bassett    emb@sevenoaksschool.org

January 2013

On January 17th, we had the Boarders' Quiz night. Each house was represented by a team of four and competed University Challenge style for the coveted trophy.

This year, held in the Pamoja Hall, it was clear from the moment we stepped in that it had been taken up a notch. Nervously, we took our seats at the front and waited anxiously for the chance to prove our house proud. First up, reigning champions proved that the teacher isn’t always right, thrashing the Staff team. Then, it was us. Luckily, we were up against the junior house, Lambardes – a little less intimidating than the unbeatable IC. Despite their extra players, it was all over quickly, and we were through to the second round. Then followed some more bouts of academic prowess from the other houses, till PG became the only girls house left in the running. However, our hopes were dashed as we sat down to face IC in the semis. A final score of 360 – 60 to them knocked us thoroughly out of the running, but it was still fun to participate – even if the team insist there must have been a buzzer failure on our end. It was a great night, and IC reigned supreme, at least until next year.

Taba Gibb

Congratulations to our team, Flo (Captain), Nina, Taba and Sophie who did us proud!

Mrs Bassett

November 2012

Boarders' football was great fun, particularly because none of us had played football before! The atmosphere was electric as Boarders filled the Sennocke centre and shouted for their houses from the balconies of the Sennocke Centre. PG was represented by 3 teams, a Sixth Form, a Year 10 & 11 and a Year 9.   I was in the year  9 team and played two matches, one against Sennocke and one against Lambardes we managed to win both meaning that we won the tournament!   Year 10 & 11 won theirs too meaning that PG middle school were undefeated!   It was great fun, and I will definitely do it next year.

£5015! What a grand success!

PG lunch is a lunch that Park Grange boarding house runs every year to earn as much as possible, for charity. We charge £5 per person (bargain!) to be able to attend. Each student or teacher receives a scrumptious meal, a deliciousss slice of cake baked by one of the PG girls, and other yummy snacks. We also love to show off a few of our school superstars in an open music concert that runs during the lunch. PG lunch has always been led by the lower sixth form girls of Park Grange and has always been organised and run perfectly. This year, more time pressure to organise than usual, not only was teamwork our greatest asset but the love we put into making this lunch the best it could be, made it, in my opinion, one of the most enjoyable PG lunches we have had so far. (Well….perhaps it was thanks to the few rays of sunshine that for once decided to say hello for the day, that made it the best PG lunch so far- but, as a lower sixth former myself, why wouldn’t I say that it was all us that made it happen! )  The money we raised for the charities selected by the Charity Action Group was not only raised by the support of all the students and teachers of the school that attended the lunch, but without the other tutor groups that decided to hold their own activities and sales during PG lunch itself, such as the sale of Krispy Kremes or throwing water-filled sponges at people for a certain price (how enjoyable,) we would never have made this huge sum of money that goes to such important causes. I’m proud to say that I am a PG girl!

Jenny Hack 

7th September 2012

September 2012

The London Paralympics was such a memorable experience.  Just seeing the stadium and exploring the Olympic Park was amazing but seeing the sport took it to th next level; we didn't imagine that we would be so moved and exciting by what we would see.  The atmosphere inside the stadium was electric and heightened whenever a British athlete appeared. We were fortunate enough to have athletic tickets and experience the enthusiastic atmosphere when GB won Silver in the Womens Longjump and Gold in the mens Javelin.  It was extremely inspiring to see all the athletes so focused, determined and skilled despite their diabilities.  After the Athletics we could make use of our 'Day Park' tickets and enter any other event that had space.  Most people enjoyed events such as Wheelchair Tennis, Wheelchair Basketball and Goal ball (when the athletes are blindfolded and play with a ball with a bell inside - you have to be very quiet!). We had a great day out and are very glad we all went.

Isabel Law 

24th June 2012

Athletics was held on Sunday, 24th of June along with a tasty barbeque prepared by our kitchen staff. Park Grange took part in all events, ranging from the classic 100m race to the exciting three-legged event. We performed exceptionally well in the egg-and-spoon race, where we finished first. While all these track events were happening, those who weren’t involved in the race had our burgers and ice creams or racing on the inflatable obstacle course. I would like to thank all the boarding staff and the kitchen staff for organising such an amazing event!

Jacqui Cho  PG Yr10

20th June 2012

Throats sore from screaming, heads pounding from noise, hearts galloping from excitement, the spectators shrieked at the swimmers in the first event as they lined up. The girls took their positions gracefully while the boys, as to be expected, were still winking at the girls. Silence floated across the audience as the coach’s whistle blew out crisp and clear. From that sound all hell broke loose! People were jumping up and down, screaming themselves hoarse and panicking like this was the end of the world. For each race the same pattern continued while the competitors were reeled in like, I don’t know, haddock…? Finally all races had been won and lost and the spectators looked almost as exhausted as the swimmers, when the powerful microphone brought the room to order. Each person held their neighbour’s hand (well, until you reached the line separating the boys and girls) and every head was awaiting the all-too-important results. IC won overall and they shouted and then ran head first into the pool – dragging one of their supporters with them. The next were announced; Johnsons, School House, Park Grange, Sennocke, GIH and then Lambardes. PG raced back to, well, PG and disturbed all the L6th with the news of our win over the girls! The evening finished with celebratory ice creams from Miss Nairn. Overall, not a bad way to avoid doing prep…

Congratulations to the PG Swimming team: Charlotte McNally, Issy Baldwin, Isabel Law, Sophie Hazel, Stacey Zakharova, Charlene Chau and Clementine Bennett for such a great result.

Sophie Hazel  PG Yr 9  

17th - 19th June 2012

The Bronze D of E was incredibly enjoyable, we had lots of fun and are all closer because of it. On the first day when we arrived at our campsites we set our tents the quickest and tucked into frankfurters and bread. The next day was extremely hot, by the end of the day we were so close to the coach but still had to climb the seven sisters. The views were great but those seven hills were extremely tiring!

Overall an amazing time with our team members Emily Gray, Chloe Rouse, and PG Girls Charlotte McNally Alice Grishkov, Zoe Brandon and Issy Baldwin

Alice Grishkov  PG Yr 10

All year groups have now finished exams (except for our Year 11 girls, who continue bravely through their GCSEs) and I trust that everyone breathed a big sigh of relief on Friday and then spent a restful exeat, enjoying the sunshine!  Year 9 and Year 10 girls will be receiveing their results this week and their tutors (Miss Gladstone for Year 9 and Miss Nairn for Year 10) will be sitting down with each girl individually after half term to reflect on this year's achievements and set targets for next year. 

The staff spent Friday evening and Saturday wishing a fond farewell to our Upper Sixth girls, who have now left us to start their adult lives!  The picture above is of the girls looking stunning before the Leavers Ball.  We had a lovely evening with them, before joining them and their parents for the Leavers Day lunch on Saturday and our final, slightly emotional, farewells in Park Grange. 

With the appearence of the sun and the absence of exams the girls have finally been able to use our lovely lawn, we have changed our homework time to 'summer prep times'  which means 6:30 through to 8:00 for Year 9 and 6:30 to 8:30 for all other year groups, with the lighter evenings this enables the girls to make use of the lawn after homework time is over.  please keep your fingers crossed for continued sunshine!  Please note these times and as always please try to avoid calling your daughter during prep.

We are now looking forward to the Boarders Olympics next half term.  Each week there will be a different event and all boarding houses put forward a team.  The events will be

Week 1:    Volley ball and Tennis  PG lawn

Week 2:    Swimming

Week 3:    Athletics and BBQ at 5pm on the last Sunday of term

We have been asked to conduct a survey of who reads the parents pages.  I would appreciate it if you could let me know by email that you have read this message! emb@sevenoaksschool.org

 Liz Bassett