Henleaze Junior School opened in September 1952. To celebrate our platinum jubilee we decided to have our first post-covid enrichment week, and to make it one of our biggest and best ever!
All of our HJS70 activities are centred around our core values of belonging, respect, creativity and inspiration. To get the year off to a good start, we revamped our school logo and gave everyone a smart enamelled lapel badge to wear with pride!
As a school with a strong musical tradition, we decided to get in touch with past pupils to join our HJS70 Choir and Orchestra. In March, we held a musical afternoon workshop when past pupils, parents, staff and governors were invited to come along and sing or play with our current school choir and orchestra. it was an inspiring occasion, and you can see the results in our Photo Album.
In May 2023, we invited 4 local artists to work with us to create some new artwork to display in the school hall. The 4 panels represent the school's core values, which we have distilled into 4 powerful words, as seen on our new HJS70 logo.
Each artist chose one of the words, and organised a half day workshop to teach children some new skills and gather their creative ideas. Over the course of three mornings, each artist worked with a total of 90 children and three teachers.
Children worked in mixed age groups, supporting each other and making new friends over the course of three mornings as they worked around a carousel of three different activities. One activity was the art workshop. Another was a morning of sport and drama, organised by Shine, and the third was a creative activity led by one of our teachers.
Coinciding with our Enrichment Week, we decided to participate in the Unicornfest project organised by Leukaemia Research. During the summer of 2023, large unicorn statues will be displayed all over the city of Bristol. We bought our own small unicorn statue and held a competition to paint it. A group of winners worked with local artist Jenny Jenkins to decorate the unicorn with symbols of the past 70 years of history.
As a record of our jubilee year, School Council suggested burying a time capsule. We commissioned mosaic artist David Bowers to work with us to create an outdoor feature representing the rich curriculum at Henleaze Junior School. Contained at the centre of the feature, underneath our playground canopy, will be a sealed metal canister containing objects or symbols representing significant people, inventions or events of the current year. Won't it be exciting, in 30 years time, for the children who celebrate our centenary, to open it up and look back at our lives today?
The week of celebrations ends with a picnic and treasure hunt on the school playing field. Children research the history of the school to create questions which are hidden around our beautiful school campus. On Friday afternoon, along with our nieghbours from Henleaze Infant School and Claremont Special School, teams of children will explore the site looking for answers.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra helpfully scheduled a live-streamed concert performance for schools in the middle of Enrichment Week. Celebrating dance music, the concert included two specially composed pieces which the children could join in. Mrs hughes taught the words and the body percussion in an extended music assembly the day before.
https://bsolive.com/events/explore-the-orchestra-dance/