Haiti, Crawley Open House and the Queen's English benefit from skills of Holy Trinity students

Al-Aqeel Mohamed Mirzan, put pen to paper to describe a trip to Blacklands Farm enjoyed by Year 7 students from Holy Trinity School.

The project was assigned by Sheila Whelan, Year 7 director of learning, who had asked the children to describe the convey the excitement and enthusiasm of the day.

Al-Aqeel’s article about the “sublime Sussex countryside” and “scrumptious lunches” saw him take first prize, while Kylie Ahwaye-Heistere and Faustina Stevenson were the runners-up.

The discovery of some decent writing talent among the younger students was just one of the good news stories at Holy Trinity.

The school’s harvest festival saw 10 boxes of food handed over to Crawley Open House, while sixth-formers organised a non-uniform day which raised £1,200 for the Haitian victims of Hurricane Matthew, where 145mph winds left hundreds dead.

Mrs Whelan said: “Our sixth-formers are incredibly community minded, and they raise a lot of money for local, national and international charities.

“The non-uniform day was prompted by their desire to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, and the rest of the school were right behind them.”

As for the harvest collection, she added: “As a school, we have a long tradition of supporting Crawley Open House.

“There are so many good causes out there, and it is important that young people realise that they can help vulnerable people in their own town, and that everyone doing something small can have a big impact which makes a positive difference.”

Praising the start made by the Year 7 children, Mrs Whelan added: “The new Year 7 students have settled in so well, and it is brilliant to see them starting to get involved in the wider life of the school.

“We work really hard at Holy Trinity to nurture our students, and also to challenge them and hopefully, to help them to become well-rounded young adults who contribute to society.

“Our new students have made a great start!”

The Year 7 Trip to Blacklands Farm, by Al-Aqeel Mohamed Mirzan, 7C1

“On the 16th of September, the whole of Year 7 left school for an exhilarating day at Blacklands Farm, situated in the sublime Sussex countryside. The aim of this trip was to help us cooperate together and learn more about each other.

“Arriving at the activity farm, all of us were eager to get out of the airless coach and to find out what was in store for us.

“After getting into groups, we set off to the low ropes, where we faced a series of challenges, interconnected and impossible to complete without teamwork.

“Fall by fall, laugh by laugh, we eventually conquered the course and then moved on to team building. In our group, we were set a number of problems to solve as a team.

“One of the many problems was to transport as many balls as we could into a bucket, using only two ropes that we held. At first, it was quite confusing, although nearer the end, we got the hang of it, and we managed to get 32 balls into the bucket!

“Subsequently, it was everyone’s favourite time of day, lunchtime!

“Under tents, we ate our scrumptious lunches, and then set off, well-rested, for the final activity of the day, crate challenge!

“This is a treacherous test of endurance in which you must build a tower on which two members of the group must stand. The higher you go, the more it wobbles, and when it falls, you are left dangling in mid-air!

“Sadly, our action-packed adventure came to an end. We all definitely connected really well, and made a lot of new friends.

“What a great end to a great day!”

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