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Malvern Prep Headline News
Variety has been the keynote of Mini Malvern this Easter, as it has the weather! Sometimes we went for a walk in gloves and hats and felt snowflakes, and other days we enjoyed the sun without our coats. We’ve been egg rolling; played lots of ‘1-2-3-Where are you?’ at Forest School; had a picnic break time; enjoyed walks; played hockey and cricket, all outside. Rainy weather days sent us inside where we nonetheless enjoyed fun-packed days. Other activities included: pottery with the pottery lady; potting-up Spring pansies; baking; computing; the infamous ‘messy play’; and many more art and craft projects besides.
Furthermore, Mini Malvern introduced the first ever ‘Super Teams Challenge’. The teams? The Winners: Ted, Matty and Matt; and, The Champs: James, Tom, and Ollie.
The first activity involved designing and producing a team flag out of scrap materials. Initially included in the schedule of events with the sole purpose of providing the all-important flag for the afternoon’s main challenge, long game ‘Capture the Flag’, flag making in fact turned out to be a profound test of team morale. Felt-tip pens, as it turns out, dry out astonishingly quickly on heavily flocked wallpaper.
Task Two: giant Spillikins, or Pick-up Sticks. A mass of metre-long Spillikins required, above all, steady hands. Teams claimed point-carrying Spillikins by selecting and removing them from the heap without disturbing nearby sticks. By Round Two strategic thinking was in action as Teams began throwing goes in order to protect the 10 and 5 point sticks from the clutches of the opposition.
Task Three: Dodge Ball. By popular demand a last-minute addition to the SuperTeam event, the Dodge Ball contest will primarily be remembered for the creativity and imagination that the teams brought to an evolving rulebook. (Also likely to be remembered by Mrs Walters for the dent this twenty-minute activity will be found to have caused in the Pre-Prep soft ball budget).
After a somewhat frosty lunch break during which the validity of the ‘five points if you catch the ball’ Dodge Ball amendment was debated, the Super Team event reconvened on the Hampton Lawn for a run down of the goal of ‘Capture the Flag’. From the start, team The Winners battled to recover from a -25 point penalty meted out to Matt for ‘silly behaviour’ approximately 30 seconds after the ‘silly behaviour’ penalty was explained! Matt redeemed himself later by catching team The Champs’ flag. But, despite sterling support from team members Ted and Matty, the Winners failed to get the flag back to base.
The Champs benefited both from the inexhaustible stamina of Ollie, and his camouflage clothing as James and Ollie executed an excellent decoy movement. Tom and the Champs swiped the Winners’ flag and successfully returned it to base for 50 points, and for the esteemed title ‘Mini Malvern SuperTeam Easter 2008’.
Prize giving and a photo call in front of the scoreboard was a time to congratulate the teams and reflect on the day’s true prize: ‘sportsmanship’. This was just as well as the teams appeared to find the material prizes (‘these Easter eggs are not even branded!’) somewhat underwhelming!
What do the Mini Malvern-ers say about Malvern’s premier Holiday Club this Easter?
‘cool’ – Elizabeth (Hillstone, Class 3)
‘fun, and silly, and quite mini!’ – Emily, (The Downs, Year 1)
‘exciting and fun’ – Jamie, (The Downs, Year 3)
more fun than…‘a barrel full of monkeys’ – Matty, (Hillstone, Year 5)
Coming soon: Half-term Holiday Club ‘a week in the castle’ theme! This will involve a Court Jester competition. So, Mini-Malverners please have your jokes and special skills rehearsed and ready to impress and entertain!
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