Late in the Summer Term the History of Art Department and its pupils hosted an art workshop on the theme of ‘season’ for a group of Year 6 pupils from Basildon Primary School. The workshop took place in the Stunt Pavilion on a warm summer afternoon. The pupils from Basildon Primary and Bradfield were grouped together, and each chose a painting from the College’s ‘Seasons’ Exhibition. Each painting was analysed in detail, with thoughts presented to the room. Matisse-inspired cutouts were a firm favourite with the young pupils, as they used their creativity to create their own designs, with inspiration from The Parakeet and The Mermaid. All the new creations were exhibited during Commemoration and enjoyed by the wider Bradfield community. The afternoon concluded with a well-earned ice cream before the pupils returned to Basildon.
Bradfield is always keen to engage in local community initiatives for mutual benefit. Benefiting from particularly good links with local primary schools, multiple events took place throughout the Lent and Summer Term. Towards the end of the Lent Term, 16 local primary schools travelled to Bradfield for The Annual Primary Schools Cross Country Championships. Nearly 400 runners made their way around the College grounds with the help of our Shell pupils who acted as course marshals as well as hares. This Primary School’s Science Afternoon was planned as a ‘Women in Science’ event. 20 Bradfield pupils from the Lower Sixth prepared and executed six workshops to 115 local primary school children on inspiring women from the scientific community such as Florence Nightingale and Ada Lovelace. The Bradfield pupils delivered inspiring talks and led practical experiments looking at DNA, fossils, bacteria, rockets and elements.
Additionally, we have continued to run our weekly activities supporting reading in local primary schools through the Assisting Berkshire Children to Read programme. During the Summer Term, 160 children from 16 local primary schools from across West Berkshire and Reading took part in the annual Primary Schools Kwik Cricket Cup. This year the festival took place at St Andrews Prep School as part of our ongoing partnership where 18 Shell pupils umpired and ran the competition. The Carwarden Olympics is a multi-sport festival with Carwarden House School, based in Camberley, that educates children with complex needs. 200 Carwarden pupils and staff came to Bradfield and combined with 90 Bradfield Lower Sixth pupils to make up the teams. These mixed school teams competed for the Bradwarden Olympic Trophy in a range of adapted sports. This event is much loved and lives in the memories of the Carwarden House and Bradfield pupils alike.
