SO Magazine May 2021

Education

EDUCATION WITH Early Years speech

SO Magazine Every month SO magazine brings you a round up of the local and national education stories making the grade…

Pupils’ performances praised

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Tunbridge Wells school has been commended for their production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream in the Independent School’s Association (ISA) Drama Festival. Pupils from The Mead School were awarded Best Junior Production for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ‘Best Junior Boy Performer’ for Thomas Gerrish’s portrayal of Bottom. A spokesperson for the ISA praised the performance: "This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t fault it. The staging outside worked

This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t fault it

perfectly and every costume was beautifully thought through. Very well done to the cast and crew for achieving such a high standard and an enjoyable production in these difficult times. I commend you all.” In order to keep performances in line with lockdown restrictions, rehearsals were held principally online, and the production was filmed outside.

OUTSTANDING

Victoria Hall, Head of Performing Arts at The Mead, celebrated all the performances and everyone involved: “I am sure you will join me both in congratulating our children and having a huge sense of pride in them. What they have achieved this year under incredibly difficult and unprecedented circumstances is outstanding.” Casting has recently been held for the school’s next performance, ‘Oliver!’ which will be put on at the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells in July.

and language skills affected by lockdown LOCKDOWN has impacted young children’s language skills according to new research published in April. A report by the BBC has revealed that more children aged between four and five are needing help with language in school. The research from the Education Endowment Foundation surveyed 50,000 pupils across 58 primary schools in England and found that 76 per cent of children aged between four and five-years-old needed more help with communication than previous to the pandemic. To combat the rise in issues with children with communication issues, the government says it is investing £18million in early-years catch-up. The problems have been attributed to the lack of socialising and the wearing of face coverings. Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford explained: "On top of the

£3.5bn we have spent in each of the past three years on our free childcare entitlements, we have also invested £18m to support language development in the early years, part of our new £700m package to provide extra support to children who need it as they return to the classroom.

FUNDING

"This includes funding to build on the early successes of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention scheme and roll it out to more schools, so that thousands more four-

A HISTORICAL HAUL FOR BENENDEN BOARDERS Pupils at Benenden School have discovered a collection of wartime artefacts after exploring a disused cupboard in the 19th Century Building. The historic haul happened upon by inquisitive boarders, Olivia Boyce, Ella Gouriet, Izzy McLean and Hailey McNally, included an array of chocolate wrappers and other packaging from the 1940s as well as letters to Second World War soldiers. The girls’ boarding school - whose main building, Hemsted, dates back to the 1860s - was used as a military hospital during the war. A spokesperson for Benenden said: “During a study session in a room in which the layout had recently been remodelled, the Year 10 pupils ––

and five-year-olds whose language, communication and literacy skills have been impacted by the disruption of the past year will benefit from targeted support." But Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green criticised the plans: "Government 'catch-up' plans fall far short of what is needed for children to recover lost learning, including nothing on wellbeing or social development. In addition, their stealth cut to the pupil premium hinders schools' ability to put their own plans in place.”

spotted a hatch almost entirely hidden by a wardrobe. “They pulled the wardrobe out and found the hatchway gave access to a small portion of the eaves.” Items retrieved included Bourneville, Aero and Milky Way wrappers, a Lux soap packet and packaging from Player’s Weights Cigarettes and Swan Vesta matches. Hailey, one of the pupils who found the historic items added: “We are living in history. As it’s the time of coronavirus we thought about leaving a face mask inside the cupboard and in 30 years’ time some other girls will say ‘hey, look what I found!’”

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