Everything’s shipshape!
Although we were attacked by midges, the launch of the junior school’s new wooden ship was a huge success. After we had entertained our visitors with sea shanties and poetry, Mrs White performed the opening ceremony with the words; “I name this ship ‘HMS Whitehall’! May God bless her and all who sail in her and all who play and work on her.” The name chosen was Lewis de Silva’s idea. The teachers felt that it was a lovely way of remembering our school’s history and the fact that Mrs.Scargill, who had left the money to us in her will, used to be Head of the Junior School when it was called Whitehall. We then showed our parents around our outdoor area and they enjoyed going on the ship and seeing our Willow Den, ‘Wigaloo’, and our butterfly and bee garden before having fruit punch and cakes.
A big thank you to: Mrs. White for launching the ship, Mr. Wormald who designed and constructed the ship with his colleague, Jimmy; the PTA for providing the ropes; Mr. Freer for transforming a bottle of water into a pretend champagne bottle; Mr. Squirrel who overviewed the work and Mr. Dunn who painted the name of the ship. All these people received hand drawn cards of ‘HMS Whitehall’ as a memento of a very special day. Each class was given a bottle made of chocolate which we hit against the ship and shared.
By Form 3
