Published on 12/12/17
The festive spirit has been taking over the Foundation this season!
The last few weeks of term have been full of Christmas cheer, whilst also promoting the importance of fundraising and charity during the festive season.
Among the many wonderful charitable activities were an extremely successful shoebox appeal at Dame Bradbury's, Christmas cake stalls and a Christmas bazaar at our Senior School, and most entertainingly a Disney dress-up for teachers organised by Year 9! Our student Charities Committee warrant a special mention for their candy-cane selling and 'wear a Christmas item day' too, all proceeds of which go to good causes. A massive thank you to all our student Charity reps for their hard work.
Read on for all festive highlights, or use the links below to skip to a particular event:
- Carol Concerts
- 'Ebenezer', A Junior School production
- The Nativity Plays
- Community Carols by the Pre-Prep
- PFA Christmas Fair
- Dame Bradbury's Christmas Disco
- Early Years Hanukkah Morning
- Collaborative Cake making
- Dame Bradbury's visit to Saffron Hall to see "The Night Before Christmas"
- Christmas card competition
Carol Concerts
Senior School
The beautiful Great St Mary's Church in central Cambridge offered an atmospheric setting and great acoustics for our Senior School carol singers. As always, our Carol Service was very well attended, and it was great to hear so many students, parents and staff joining together in festive song.
Junior School
The Junior School Carol Service took place on 14 December in St Andrew the Great in the centre of Cambridge. The children offered an enthusiastic mix of classic carols and modern festive songs to get everyone into the Christmas spirit, along with with some confident readings from students in years 5 & 6. Well done to everyone involved in this wonderfully festive celebration.
Pre-Prep
On Monday the 11th December the children from Madingley Pre-prep treated their families to some beautiful carol singing in the local church. Each class performed their own Christmas songs from ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ by the Reception children to ‘Jingle Bells’ in sign language from Kindergarten the audience enjoyed a range of musical styles. Our Year 1 and Year 2 classes sang French Christmas songs and entertained us with their actions and everyone finished by singing ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’. After the performance the audience enjoyed delicious mince pies and mulled wine provided by the catering team in our School Hall.
'Ebenezer', A Junior School production
On Tuesday 5th December, the Year 6s performed a fast paced, visually attractive and hugely entertaining production of 'Ebenezer' in the Senior School Hall. Read more
The Nativity plays
This week we have been treated to excellent nativities from Madingley and City Pre-Preps, as well as Dame Bradbury's Early Years. All the lines were delivered very confidently and the costumes were inspired! To read more and see some lovely pictures, click here.
Community carols by the Pre-Prep
In the last week of term, Year 2 have been proudly sharing their love of singing with other members of the community. They visited St George’s Care Home to sing Christmas carols, which they had spent time and care learning by heart.
Upon entering the Home the children introduced themselves to the residents. They confidently answered questions about themselves and returned the curious questioning to discover more about their new friends. They were also pleased to see some familiar faces from previous visits!
The carol singing was a great success enjoyed by children, residents and staff alike. Everyone joined in the singing wonderfully. A special thanks to St George’s Care Home for having us.
PFA Christmas Fair 
The Parents and Friends Association launched the festive season with their annual Christmas Fair. It was an extremely happy occasion with lots of stalls and activities and it really got everyone in the festive spirit! A huge thanks goes to everyone involved and the support given by the Junior School and Pre-Prep families!
Dame Bradbury's Christmas disco
Years 4 to 6 came together in the Theatre for our annual Christmas disco. With Christmas fancy dress as an optional extra this year, we filled the Theatre with Christmas jumpers and tinsel!
The main theme was UV face paints and the partygoers did not disappoint. The room was awash with neon colours jumping to the rhythms of the night. The party scene would not have looked out of place in Ibiza’s trendiest 
clubs.
All disco divas threw themselves into the spirit of the evening, as they danced in year group ‘dance off’ competitions. The obligatory Y.M.C.A and Macarena were both dusted off and played, much to the reveller’s delights, with another highlight being the Teacher’s ‘dance off’, which was won by Mrs ‘Head Banger’ Bootman no less!
It was a great night!
Early Years Hanukkah Morning
Earlier this week the Early Years children at the City Pre-Prep have been learning and finding out about Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. We have learned about the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Maccabees and how the oils lamps stayed alight for eight days on the special candelabra called a Menorah. We had lots of fun in the role play area, lighting the candles of our menorah and cooking potato latkes and we enjoyed creating our dazzling Star of David decorations. Some of us practised our counting skills and learned to play the dreidel game and we also practised our fine motor skills, making Hanukkah cards using dried peas and pasta.
Collaborative Cake Making
On Tuesday 12 December, Madingley KS1 went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for a Christmas cake using ingredients from around the world. They made sure that they bought everything on the shopping list and looked on the food packaging to see where the food had come from. When they returned to school, the two classes collaborated to make a delicious cake using different skills such as grating, stirring, cracking eggs and chopping.
They were interested to learn knew baking techniques including soaking, beating and folding of different ingredients. As they combined the mixture one child voiced that it ‘smelt like Christmas!’
During the afternoon the children entrusted their Christmas treat to the wonderful kitchen staff, who expertly set it to bake in the SPF oven. Once ready it was returned to the eagerly awaiting students. Even the more cautious cake connoisseurs agreed that it looked and smelt delicious and all were curious to give it a try. The next day, the cake was iced with apricot jam and the children enjoyed a festive treat!
Dame Bradbury's visit to Saffron Hall to see 'The Night Before Christmas'
Year 3 visited Saffron Hall on a suitably chilly day at the end of November to see a performance of 'The Night Before Christmas' by the Russian dramatist Gogol. In this retelling of Gogol’s story, storyteller Matthew Sharp and the musicians of classical music ensemble CHROMA whisked us off to a snowy Russia at the time of the Tsars. Ukrainian folksongs were mixed with Russian classics to cast a seasonal spell, as the blacksmith Vakula hunted for the perfect Christmas gift for his girlfriend Oksana. We enjoyed the concert which put us all in the Christmas mood!
Christmas card competition
This year, we held a Foundation-wide competition to 'design your dream snowman'. Congratulations to the winners, Bryce Sia (Year 1) and Elena Rowe (Year 10) whose designs have been featured on the school Christmas card this year. The entries were all so diverse and imaginative that we have featured them in a video for all to see!