Unicorn School’s end of spring term round-up

Thank you for everyone’s contribution to this busy spring term: my colleagues for their diligent work and support; parents and governors for their involvement in the school’s activities; and of course the children who have worked hard and taken part in the fun and games of the term with their usual enthusiasm. It has been a particularly busy term for our Year 6 who deserve huge congratulations for their results and even more praise for the way they have conducted themselves throughout the 11+ process.

We had our Regulatory Compliance Inspection last month and the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) has now published its resulting report. Unicorn has successfully met all the requirements of the inspection, with the report’s key findings as follows:

The school meets the standards in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, and relevant requirements of the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, and associated requirements, and no further action is required as a result of this inspection.

The School Committee deserves praise and our thanks for the work they do; the children immensely enjoyed the school disco and the sponsored swim where they collectively swam an amazing 71.27 km, almost as far as Unicorn to Oxford! We have also had a second hand school uniform sale, Mad March Hair Day, Cake Sale, Mother’s Day / Spring Sale, which combined have raised in excess of £3,400 (with sponsored swim money still coming in!). All monies will be split equally between our charities, Friends of the Earth, West London Action for Children and the School Bursary Fund.

Congratulations to all our Unicorn swimmers who qualified for the Borough Gala Finals, at Pools on the Park.

Also on sport, we have had a number of other fixtures and triumphs this term, primarily in hockey. Both boys and girls have played in 45 matches this term, including 9 tournaments. They have won a very impressive 29, drawn 6 and lost 10; not a bad set of results for a small school! We have also been unbeaten on the Netball courts in recent fixtures.

Ethiopia was the theme of this year’s Arts and Culture Week. The children enjoyed a week of art, music, drama and dance which also included eating Ethiopian bread!

We have enjoyed many interesting and exciting assemblies; the Sailing Adventure with around the world sailor, Ineke van der Weijden, Animation Club, Year 2’s Dinasaur Assembly, NSPCC, James Shone, Virtues and Year 5’s Dream Masterpiece ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; a truly unforgettable performance.

Trips have been plentiful and included visits to Kew Water and Steam Museum, Brooklands Museum, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, The Discovery Centre and UV’s Junior Citizenship at Holly Lodge. We were also thrilled to welcome visiting poet, Ruth Rooney, to talk to the children about how her career started. She had the children writing their own poetry and we now have our own selection of unique poems.

An annual firm favourite trip for Years 3 and 4 is their stay at Sayers Croft and this year did not disappoint. There were plenty of opportunities for orienteering, archery, climbing, night-walks, WWII dressing up, early evening star gazing, campfires with lots of singing and, of course, toasted marsh-mallows!

This term has been extremely busy with all our musicians, instrumentalists and singers. Well done to all who took their ABRSM music exams. We have had two Tea Time Music Recitals and enjoyed listening to pieces on guitar, violin, piano, saxophone, clarinet, cello, double bass, trumpet, oboe, baritone horn and flute as well as vocalists. The Unicorn Singers sang beautifully in the Richmond Festival and performed in the National Music for Youth Festival, with the adjudicators saying their performance was wonderful, noting the excellent energy and focus they all displayed.

Musical Theatre’s ‘Mary Poppins’ extravaganza was also brilliant; actors and crew put on such a polished production. Hair, make-up, costumes, lines and songs were delivered word and pitch perfect.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter.