The Lower School - Summer Term

THE 

LOWER 

SCHOOL 

Summer Term 2023 

Welcome 

Welcome to the final Lower School Newsletter 

of this academic year. Although short in length, 

the past four and a bit weeks have seen a dazzling 

array of activities and trips, a fitting culmination 

of energetic adventures after an industrious year. 

Both First and Second Form have enjoyed a 

jam-packed Enrichment Week, grasping the 

opportunities presented both at school and offsite 

in Oxford and London, and the First Form 

relishing adrenalin-filled weeks at Pen Arthur, 

culminating in both year groups competing for the 

coveted Inter-Form Challenge trophy. 

This final Lower School instalment marks the end 

of the current Second Form’s stint in the Lower 

School, and we thank them for their positivity 

and exuberance, their charitable endeavours, 

their dramatic and musical entertainment, their 

sporting prowess and especially for being such a 

cohesive, kind and engaging bunch and we look 

forward to watching them as they continue to 

succeed academically and personally in the Third 

Form. 

The First Form should be very proud of how 

much they have developed in confidence, and 

attainment this year, approaching their learning 

with enthusiasm and determination, forging 

strong friendships, sharing memories and proving 

themselves worthy of being St Albans School 

pupils with their kindness and empathy, following 

the Headmaster’s motto in every area of school 

life, being the best that they can be. We look 

forward to them returning in September, refreshed 

and vigorous and excited to be role models for the 

incoming First Form. 

Wishing you all a lovely summer holiday. 

Mrs Victoria Ginsburg 

Deputy Head of Lower 

School

THE LOWER SCHOOL 

SUMMER TERM 2023 SUMMER TERM 2023 THE LOWER SCHOOL 

HAMPTON COURT PALACE 

On Tuesday 27 June the Second Form kicked off 

their highly anticipated Enrichment Week by visiting 

Hampton Court Palace. 

Both the year and day was split into two. One group 

started by having a tour around King Henry VIII’s 

vast apartment, led by their group teacher and 

studied the incredible and extremely old tapestriesof 

which he had 2000 and also learnt about the 

history of the artefacts inside and the building itself. 

After a short period of time set for lunch and a swift 

tour of the Palace maze- which was extensive and 

beautiful, the year groups swapped. 

Now the group doing the tour was met by an 

authentically dressed Tudor. They then were told 

about the trading system at the time and how 

England fluctuated between trading with Europe 

and the rest of the world. We also discussed whether 

England should have fought other countries to gain 

power in Europe and as a group decided against the 

idea. 

Lastly the whole year had a swift look at the Palace 

shop before heading back to School. 

The whole year loved the trip and it was a successful 

way to start Enrichment Week. 

DRAMA WORKSHOPS 

On Thursday, the Second Form were lucky to have 

three different sessions showing us different aspects 

of the theatrical world. 

We started the day with a special effects makeup 

session. Over two hours we learnt how to 

make someone look like they had a bruise and a 

bad cut. Using different materials including an 

adherent, a wax, putty like material, baby lotion, 

coloured powder and fake blood we were given the 

opportunity to create these wounds on each other. 

This was great fun and looked extremely realistic. 

Our second session was with a drama teacher, who 

showed us improvisation skills, and how to think on 

the spot. We were taught how this could be used in 

our everyday lives. This was livened up with some 

games, which everyone got stuck into, including 

a ‘trip advisor word game’. There were some very 

interesting reviews, with it taking a twist with each 

person. 

Our final session was stage combat, learning how to 

play out a fight scene, without fighting at all by using 

some slick moves to hide the metre space between 

the thrown punch, and the person it was directed 

at. We were taught a slap, a punch, a hair pull, and 

a strangle. With a bit of acting to create the illusion 

that we had actually been hit and were in pain, we all 

really enjoyed learning the techniques and tricks! 

We were very fortunate to have a day ‘behind the 

scenes’, so I thank everyone who organised this, and 

all other activities throughout the week. 

Zachary Second Form 

Ollie, Second Form



STEM ACTIVITY 

On Friday the 29 June, my year and I participated 

in a STEM activity. We were split into groups with 

around fourteen people in each group. STEM 

stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and 

Mathematics. During the activity we combined all 

these subjects together to create a fun, interesting 

and challenging experience. We started off by going 

over what STEM was, what it involved and what 

topic we would be covering. 

The general topic was human augmentation. Human 

augmentation refers to technologies that enhance 

human productivity or capability, or that somehow 

add to the human body. There are different types 

of augmentation. Biological augmentation involves 

a change in the body of a human. One example is 

Spider-Man, who was bitten by a spider and received 

enhanced senses, strength, and resilience. There are 

also mechanical augmentations, such as bionic arms 

and prosthetic legs. 

After learning the different types of augmentations 

and what they involved, we were given a practical 

task. We received a set of instructions and materials 

to create our own hand which could function as 

a “normal” hand would. This proved to be a very 

challenging task but also very enjoyable. Most 

groups, including mine, finished just about in time 

and were able to test out their new prosthetic hand. 

These hands proved to be fairly effective considering 

how simple the materials we used were. Overall, 

it was an extremely fun activity which taught me 

and the others about a new topic that we wouldn’t 

normally cover in our lessons in school until we are 

much older. 

PSHEE DAY: TEAM BUILDING, CONFLICT 

RESOLUTION AND PUBLIC SPEAKING 

The team building session involved us thinking 

hard about communication, problem-solving and 

collaboration. To build these skills we undertook 

a practical challenge where we had to move three 

cylinders into a closed box. We were not allowed to 

stand near the box and the only tools to help us were 

four ropes. By getting two members of the team to 

hold the ends of a rope tightly to create a taut line we 

managed to open the lid of the box. By identifying 

which members of the team were good at lassoing, 

we managed to capture the cylinders and complete 

the challenge. 

The conflict resolution session was given by two 

representatives from the Herts Young Homeless 

charity. They spoke to us about how to stop 

arguments from escalating by listening to others’ 

views and expressing your own opinions calmly to 

try to find a compromise. 

The public speaking session was provided by Nick 

from Forging People. We undertook an exercise 

where we found that the atmosphere in the whole 

room can be changed by a speaker’s words and how 

they are said. We took turns talking about something 

which makes us happy, such as being on holiday, 

and something which makes us cross, like being in a 

long queue. It was amazing how everyone felt much 

happier or less happy depending on what we said. 

Nick gave us tips on using breathing and eye contact 

exercises to help with public speaking. 

PSHEE day was very useful, and the skills learned 

will be very useful as I get older. 

Finn, Second Form 

James, Second Form



OXFORD TRIP 

SPORTS DAY 

After a fun coach journey, we arrived at the 

Ashmolean Museum. First of all, we looked around 

the museum in small groups. My group went to 

the Ancient India and Ancient Rome sections. We 

learnt about the leaders of the two empires like 

Emperor Augustus. We looked at replicas of popular 

Ancient Greek statues and the Middle East in the 

time of The Silk Roads, which was interesting. After 

lunch, we went to an exciting exhibition about the 

minotaur and the Temple of Knossos. We watched 

two excellent videos. The first was about how game 

developers made the temple and labyrinth in the 

game ‘Assassins Creed’. The second was a video about 

how experts think the temple and gardens were 

made. To do this, pictures were collected of objects 

and the area and were then sorted by AI. We had 

a talk about statues and artefacts. We learnt how 

to inspect objects and imagine what they might be 

and had to find different objects around a room and 

guess what they were. We were split into groups and 

given a box of real ancient artefacts. I enjoyed being 

able to inspect and talk about a chosen one to the 

rest of the class. My group chose an Ancient Roman 

denarius. Finally, after a gift shop visit, we travelled 

home from a great day at the museum. 

Hector, First Form



PEN ARTHUR 1.1 

Pen Arthur was one of the best weeks of my life so 

far! I enjoyed spending time with my classmates and 

understanding everybody much more than before, 

and the teachers’ cooking was excellent. One of the 

first activities I did was caving. On the way there, 

we crashed into a police car which nearly broke the 

tyres on the minibus! The caving seemed slightly 

daunting to begin with, but the experience taught me 

not to be afraid of doing anything once I got more 

confident and started enjoying it. The next day was 

a relaxing day kayaking and canoeing which got 

everyone very wet (mostly from splashing everyone 

else using canoe paddles). However, the best day 

in my opinion was the final day because my form 

and I spent an incredible day at the beach soaking 

each other and playing rounders, and then watched 

the best possible performance of Pen Arthur’s Got 

Talent in the evening. We had the chance to try 

to understand Welsh on the trip – it is a difficult 

language. If I had to take one thing away from my 

trip to Wales, it would be that life is too short not to 

enjoy, which I think is an accurate description of Pen 

Arthur. 

Joe, First Form




We set out for Pen Arthur on Sunday. The journey 

was fine – apart from Aaron abandoning me and 

Reuben for the back of the coach. Then had to walk 

the 2 miles up the hill to Pen Arthur (which some 

people were not happy about). We then had dinner 

before we went to bed. 

The next day I accidentally woke everyone in the 

dorm up at 5:45 as I moved my bag to get my clothes. 

Our first breakfast was a full English, which was 

amazing. After this we travelled to a castle where we 

climbed around and got stuck in a hole. We then had 

a fun game of handling and manhunt. 

Then came Tuesday where I woke everyone up at 6 

(by request this time) and after breakfast set out for 

caving (it was boiling inside the wet suits (everyone 

else was freezing though I don’t know why)) and 

waterfall walking (less warm but it was still a 

scorching day). We then had a barbecue followed by 

a cricket tournament. 

Wednesday was great as we had another English 

Breakfast and I started off the day by waking up 

Aaron and Reuben. Then we had our beach day 

where we had a sandcastle competition before, all of 

us dug a hole in the beach that reached water. The ice 

cream and the fish and chips were amazing. When 

we arrived back at Pen Arthur, we played a game of 

Footy (handy but with your feet) before bed. 

On Thursday I woke up at 6:30. After this we had 

breakfast duty before we set out for the kayaking 

place. I was put in a canoe with Dhilan and 

Abdullah. In the canoe, we struggled for an hour 

because we couldn’t turn or work as a team so we 

had to get out and push. Eventually, we all got the 

hang of it and began to relax. Then we changed 

boats. I was put into a kayak. Kayaking was fast and 

easy to turn which was amazing from our game of it 

in the water and our boat “football”. 

Once back we had a game of manhunt before an 

amazing lamb roast dinner. We (the Castles) lost 

Pen Arthur’s got talent and both the Dragon’s and 

Red Kite’s (who won) performances were amazing 

and the Mountain’s was impressive. We also lost the 

overall point competition. 

On Friday we left Pen Arthur. They didn’t charge our 

phones for the bus so we had to use power banks. 

At the service station most of the class (myself 

included) got KFC. The rest of the trip was just us 

sitting there. 

Pen Arthur was fun. 

Michael, First Form




During our week at Pen Arthur, we had a wonderful 

time experiencing the joys of the house and 

surrounding area, with every day jam-packed with 

exciting and fun activities to do. On Our first official 

day at Pen Arthur, Monday, since we had spent the 

majority of the Sunday traveling, we went to Carreg 

Cennan castle and went deep into what I believed 

were it’s dungeons. We then returned to Pen Arthur 

to have a den building competition in the afternoon, 

which my team won. Tuesday started with a long 

waterfall walk where we stood under a waterfall, 

followed by some exploring in some dark caves. 

We spent almost the entirety of Wednesday on the 

beach, where we had water gun fights, sandcastle 

competitions, and fish and chips. My personal 

favourite day, Thursday, was filled with kayaking 

and canoeing down a river, which I enjoyed lots, but 

resulted in my arms aching for the next few days. 

On the Friday, we sadly had to say our goodbyes 

to Pen Arthur and set off back to school. Overall, I 

thoroughly enjoyed our experience in Pen Arthur 

and will remember it as one of the best moments in 

my school career so far. 

Fionn, First Form



ROBINSON CRUSOE

St Albans School 

Abbey Gateway, St Albans, AL3 4HB 

www.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

The Lower School - Summer Term

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