Disco night!

This Wednesday's activity was our famous boarders' disco! Over this past year, it has always been a favourite activity of the children since we always get the largest amount of day pupils wanting to board specifically for that night.

Straight after supper, the boys raced up to get changed into their 'party' clothes and the girls raced up to do their hair and makeup - however, only a little bit of makeup was allowed of course. It seems that half the fun of the disco is dressing up! The majority of clothing was bright neon and items that didn't appear to suit each other - it seemed the more mismatched the clothes, the better!

Meanwhile, Mr Callow, Mr Gardiner, and Mr Garcia set up St Bede's so that there was fluorescent disco lights, and a DJ booth - run by none other than the school's DJ, Mr Wheatley. Mr Gardiner even managed to hook up a laptop to the flat screen TV so that a visualiser played on the TV whilst the songs went on - adding to the disco-tech atmosphere.

"All about that bass" seemed to be one of the most popular songs which everybody got up and danced to, as well as "Let her go" by Passenger which served as a slow dance - even though many of the boys were too embarrassed to ask anyone to dance!

Overall, it was once again a very successful All Hallows' disco with every child - as well as some of the teachers - getting up to have a boogie on the dancefloor!

Signing off,

Miss Donato :)

T-Shirt Painting

Last Sunday the boarders had more of a relaxed Sunday with a lot more of free time activities than actual planned activities. Fortunately, it was a very sunny day and so the children were allowed to ride bikes, play some tennis and/or football, and also played some 'Mariokart' on the Wii console.

After a big roast lunch, the boarders headed over to the art room - the newly redecorated art room - to start their afternoon activity of T-shirt painting. Lizzie - the artist that came to help with this specific activity - handed out a clean, white t-shirt to everyone, as well as giving them fabric paints of all different colours so that they could start decorating their shirts.

There were many different patterns, shapes, and words on the shirts, in lots and lots of different colours - ensuring that each shirt was completely original.

Will update again soon,

Miss Donato :)

Year 7 Sleepover

Last Thursday was our first Year 7 boys and girls sleepover which many were very excited for.

As soon as they had finished dinner, they rushed up to the dorms to get changed for their first activity of the night. We were originally hoping to head up to Forest School to make pizzas and have hot chocolates around the fire but the weather didn't favour us that day. Instead, we changed to Plan B which was a massive game of "Doctor dodgeball" in the gym and then a movie with pizzas, donuts, and lemonade in St Bedes.


Myself and Mr Roberts took charge of the dodgeball game, and headed over to the gym with them to explain how to play this altered version of dodgeball. "Doctor dodgeball" has one person on each team standing in a circle on either side of the playing field who is named the team's 'Doctor'. When someone on their team is hit with the ball, instead of going out straight away, they have to go down to a 'crab' position and if the Doctor tags them then they are saved and can carry on playing. However, if they are hit with another ball whilst they are in a crab position (before the Doctor can tag them), the person is officially out. Also, if the Doctor is hit with a ball when they are not inside their circle - or 'surgery', as we called it - then the game ends and the other team immediately wins. As there were so many children joining the boarders for the sleepover, they were split into three teams and we conducted a small tournament. Though a couple of children refused to go out, overall everybody got into the spirit of the game and had a really good time!


After all that exercise, the kids were allowed to relax on beanbags and pillows and couches, whilst eating pizza, donuts, and sipping lemonade - the duty staff were all quite jealous! They chose to watch "Now you see me" which they seemed to really enjoy - especially with the 'big twist' at the end...


Eventually it was time for sleep and, fortunately, from all the night's activities, they were quite tired out!

Open Mic Night

Last Wednesday was our first Karaoke night of the new school year and I can definitely say that it definitely lived up to the previous ones!


Instead of the music room, St Bede's was used for the activity night - a big thank you to Mr Callow and Mr Gardiner set up all the electronics as we were luckily able to plug a laptop (which the singers used for their lyrics) into the big TV so that the crowd could also sing along if they wanted to. In the mean time, all the boarders headed upstairs to get themselves ready for open mic - some of the kids even used props for their songs!


The night started off with an amazing first act from Mr Wheatley who sang (unwillingly, I might add) "That's what makes you beautiful" by One Direction. Luckily all the kids joined in on the singing to help him with any nerves he may have had. Fortunately, that got the ball rolling as boarder after boarder begged to sing their song next!


Some of the more memorable performances were when Archie, Yago, Alfonso, and Juan (Year 7) sang a popular LMFAO song, the junior girls sang "Dumb ways to die", and Georgina (Yr 8) amazed everybody with her wonderful singing talents when she sang "Light Up" by Leona Lewis - for the first five minutes, none of the teachers could work out whether it was her or Leona Lewis singing! Another great performance was by the Year 3 and 4 girls - Tatiana, Kodie, and Minty - who wrote and then sang a poem that they wrote for Mrs Roberts' dog, Daisy. It was very, very cute.


Overall it was a very fun and energetic night, with absolutely everybody getting involved in at least one song - even those that have only lived in this country for a few weeks or so!


Signing off,


Miss Donato :)

Year 3 Girls Sleepover Night

Last Thursday night was our first Year Three sleepover night for the new school year. It was not surprising that many of the Year Threes - both boys and girls - were a little bit homesick and apprehensive about boarding as for many of them, this was their first time in a boarding house.

However, after a delicious dinner and after-dinner activities in the Junior Common room with Mrs Weir and Mrs Roberts, the majority felt much more comfortable and ready to enjoy the night.

Fortunately, it was also Minty Wakelin's birthday which meant a delicious birthday cake to share around with all the other Year Three girls - luckily everybody enjoyed it since it was chocolate cake. They then settled down in the Girls Common room with all their stuffed animals and duvets/blankets, ready to watch "How to Train your Dragon", as well as getting their toenails painted by a couple of our Year Eight girl boarders.