As part of their wellbeing development, our Junior Section students were visited by the amazing “Shooting Stars” circus group on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th May.

The workshop consists of a fast-paced circus show with the amazing instructor, Dave, demonstrating how to perform with circus equipment. This included juggling balls, rings and scarves, spinning plates, diabolos, flower sticks, and larger equipment such as stilts, fun wheels, pedal racers, unicycles and mini-bikes.

After this, the students enjoyed the opportunity to try the circus activities themselves, with Dave supporting them and providing top tips for success!

The main focus of the workshop was to support our students’ wellbeing, by improving the girls’ team-building abilities and encouraging them to kindly support and effectively help each other to develop their circus skills. Many of the personal HPL characteristics that we aim to encourage at school were developed during the session, such as resilience, perseverance, risk-taking, and collaboration. Additionally, the science behind each activity was also blended into the workshop, explaining the concepts of Forces and Motion and a lot more.

A huge “thank you” goes to FOSJH, our wonderful Junior Section PTA, who have been keen to support a pastoral event in school and have kindly funded part of this visit. They have also prepared a fantastic gift for the students to receive after the workshops.

Here are some quotes from our students about the workshop: 

• “I really surprised myself with how good I was on the unicycle because it was a brand new skill!” – Rosa, Year 3.
  
• “I surprised myself with how good I was at juggling and also riding the unicycle!” – Jessica, Year 3.
• “I really enjoyed learning how to juggle, I was proud of myself for persevering with it!” – Rose, Year 4.
• “It was great to learn new tricks that I didn’t know I was capable of like the unicycle and diablo!” – Meera, Year 4.
• “I particularly enjoyed learning to ride the unicycle because it was a brand new experience for me.” – Cayla, Year 6.
• “My favourite part was the spinning plates when me and Miss Coe managed to pass the spinning plates to each other!” – Nimi, Year 6.

Mrs V Hutchinson 

Junior’s Pastoral Lead