Category: Trips & Workshops

13th October 23

On Monday 2nd October our Year 6 prefects joined a team of Finton staff to deliver the generous Harvest Festival donations from Finton families to Wandsworth Foodbank. (more…)

7th September 23

We are proud to have held a rewarding programme of outreach events last term which saw us sharing our resources with local schools.

Our partnership initiatives are made possible due to donations made by Finton families to the Annual Fund, which enables the school to reach into the local community and develop meaningful partnerships for the benefit of all children. To read more about these initiatives please click here.

On Wednesday 21^st June, to mark Make Music Day, our Year 4’s were joined by Year 4 pupils from Furzedown Primary School at Trinity Chapel for a big musical bonanza! “Children from both schools enjoyed an interactive workshop by Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, and specifically by Connaught Brass ensemble. The children were introduced to the different sounds of brass instruments – some of them even got the chance to conduct the ensemble!” says Miss Maria, Finton’s Head of Music. The event involved performances by the children from each school as well as a collaborative performance of the song “Let Love Shine Through”.

The sun shone down on Trinity Fields on the afternoon of Tuesday 23^rd May, when Year 3 pupils from Finton House and Earlsfield Primary School came together for an afternoon of cricket skills development. Pupils worked in collaborative groups under the instruction of cricket coaches from Spencer Cricket Club, alongside staff members from both schools. Four coaches worked with all of the boys and girls through a circuit of different activities, which they thoroughly enjoyed. It was reported that all of the pupils impressed the coaches from Spencer Cricket!

We were also delighted to host the inaugural Junior Trinity Shield on Monday 26^th June, in collaboration with Trinity Fields. Year 4 pupils from Finton and three neighbouring primary schools, Fircroft, Smallwood and Furzedown, were delighted to spend a fun afternoon together playing in a cricket tournament. All the pupils were excited to all go home with a medal and a huge smile on their faces.

A very big thank you to Miss Olivia (Assistant Head: Partnerships) and Miss India (Head of Marketing and Development) from the Finton community together with Miss Maria and Mr Anthony (Head of Games).

Click to donate now to the Annual Fund and make more of these partnerships possible!

22nd May 23

Year 4 Finton House pupils created sculptures and paintings for Single Use Planet: A Collaborative Art Exhibition at Southside Shopping Centre from 19^th April to 5^th May 2023.

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5th April 23

Finton House’s More Able Quiz Club continues to go from strength to strength, having succeeded in reaching the National General Knowledge Finals. Each week the pupils take part in fun interactive quizzes, small general knowledge team games, and keep up to date with current affairs in this before-school invitational club.

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10th February 23

Finton’s Wind & Brass Band, led by Miss Maria (Head of Music), performed at the Mayor’s Charity Gala at Wandsworth Civic Suite this week.

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1st April 22

On Tuesday 22 March, Year 5 pupils visited their collaborative ‘A Place to Call Home’ exhibition at Southside Shopping Centre, Wandsworth.

Year 5 pupil Krish describes the event:

“This was a collaboration across Wandsworth with fifty other schools taking part. Each school brought something new to the table, whether it was self-portraits or even Covid particles with words on them that students thought described home (this was our idea; pretty cool right?). This exhibition brought a sense of community and hope as we emerge from this global pandemic – we’re all affected by this and we’re in this together. For me, it highlights how we have stuck together through the toughest of times and shown resilience.

We were inspired by Miss Sophie Potter who painted Covid particles and we were allowed the artistic licence to put our own spin on them. I was blown away by the artwork on display and as soon as we were allowed to look around, we all rushed to find our panel. It was a scramble, to say the least, as everybody was super excited. Our facilitator gave us all sheets and we were split into groups with one group per panel. We were told to draw a picture of one of the artworks on the panels’ and answer a few questions based on our chosen piece. I chose a self-portrait of a boy who I thought went into amazing detail with his mark-making and his use of cross hatching. We all gathered back up again and this time the facilitator gave us a soundscape to ‘watch’ or should I say listen to. A soundscape is a video recording of lots of different sounds that you want to hear, it sometimes makes you feel you want to be where these sounds have taken place. This was interesting as lots of us said we ‘saw’ something even though we did not see anything! This to me highlights the power of sound and how you can visualise things with sound in more detail – two senses are better than one.

Finally, we were split into groups again and created some self-portraits and put our favourite things around us. Overall, this was a really fun trip, and it was so good to work as a team with 50 other schools, and I hope we can all do more things like this in the future.”

5th November 21

Year 1 had a visit from a range of exotic animals on Thursday, including boa constrictors, an armadillo and a five month old skunk!

The workshop, which forms part of the Year 1 science topic on living things, was tremendously popular with both pupils and staff alike. Oreo and Friends is an organisation that aims to raise awareness about exotic animals, and Year 1 met some rescues and were able to stroke or hold them. They met a number of different animals, including a tenrec (looks like a hedgehog but is native to Madagascar), an armadillo, a tarantula called Charlotte and a five month old skunk.

To see some more photos, visit our Instagram page.

31st January 20

“Poetry week was jazzed up by our visiting poet Joseph Coelho! He started his assembly off by talking about a useful method that he uses called MORERAPS, which stands for M-metaphor, O-onomatopoeia, R-rythm, E-emotion, R-repetition, A-alliteration, P-personification, S-simile. Then he read from some of his books and poems. Apparently he even has a poem that’s an hour-long! He explained that he writes novels, poems, non-fiction, fiction and picture books.

Later on the School Reporters, well two of us, had the opportunity to interview him. When asked what advice he has for future writers, he replied that he recommends always carrying a notebook for ideas, getting into the habit of observing what is around us and asking lots of questions. Joseph told us that science and non-fiction museums had a big influence on his writing, but he also got inspired by lots of other poets and writers, like Michael Rosen. We asked what he would do if he felt uninspired and how he gets his creativity flowing. He recommended to do something completely different and to take your mind off writing with for example gardening, watching a documentary or cooking. Lastly, he explained that the whole process of writing a book can take around 2 years.

We enjoyed the assembly and especially loved interviewing him.”
By School Reporters Sicily and Rosie (Year 6)

21st January 19

The action takes place in Victorian London…

Children in Reception stepped back in time to experience the daily life in Victorian Britain this week. As the ‘new servants’ at Sudbury Manor the children had to complete household chores to the housekeeper’s satisfaction. After a day of hard work, they got to play with some typical Victorian toys, which they absolutely loved. What a memorable way to teach children about historical characters, periods and events!

26th April 18

Finton House School were tasked with a challenging space mission on their STEM Day recently. The children arrived at school in the morning to discover a crashed spaceship in the playground which had appeared overnight. This rapidly fuelled some early morning speculation as to what may have happened.

The children were then quickly ushered into assembly where a newsflash told them that an alien had apparently crash-landed at Finton House. A few CCTV clips showed the alien in various parts of the school, including sitting at the Headmaster’s desk. As the assembly continued there was sudden uproar as the alien walked past the window behind the presenter. Clearly something had to be done.

Throughout the day, children completed various problem-solving activities (relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to return the alien to its home planet. Our young engineers in Year 1 helped the alien by designing their own rockets and making straw rockets with fins to give them stability. Working in teams, Years 5 and 6 used Spheros (controlled by the iPad) to calculate and programme a route through a giant map of the universe back to the alien’s home.

Everyone visited the giant Science Dome, which was like a planetarium, to see footage of the space station, enjoy a journey to each planet and even a rollercoaster ride through the rocks and ice of Saturn’s rings. “It was totally awesome” reported one Year 3 pupil.

Another highlight of the day was the self-built rockets launching in the playground. To the amusement of the children, one of the rockets was so well built that it landed on the School’s roof.

At one point in the afternoon, a UFO was spotted in the sky: “Perhaps that’s the alien’s friend coming to rescue him”, cried the children in Year 1.

It was a very memorable day filled with valuable hands-on learning experiences, engaging the whole school and every member of staff!

Ben Freeman, Headmaster of Finton House, said: ‘there’s nothing like this kind of immersive learning to trigger massive enthusiasm for a whole range of subjects. It takes a great deal of planning and resource, but the dividends are incalculable.’