Prep School Weekly Round Up

November 20th 2020

This week has been Anti-Bullying week and our pupils used resources sent from Mr Irish to focus on communication. They were able to complete a quiz using resources provided by The Diana Award and complete activities involving Art and role play.

On my walk around the school, I continue to see excellent, really exciting activities going on. There is also a feeling of great anticipation as we get closer to December as all Year groups are involved in some sort of Christmas production.

In Pre-School pupils have been story mapping. They have listened to the story of the Gingerbread man and used this to order numbers as well as retell the story using pictures. There was also great excitement when Mrs Willoughby took them on a Bear hunt during the week.

In Reception there has been great excitement at the ‘re-zoning’ of their rooms. They tell me that they now have a work room and a play room. This is because they are so grown up they need to have these separate areas as they work really hard!! Their work on Anti-Bullying involved learning how mean words can still affect someone even after apologies have been made. This was demonstrated by using a piece of paper that had been screwed up. Even when they tried to smooth it out, the crumples were still visible. A lot of work has continued on measuring. Some very tall towers were made!

Year 1 have been working hard learning about hibernation and migration and made little clay hedgehogs their own cosy nests for their winter rest. I am very interested with the range of verbs they could think of when describing funny monsters! Some examples are monsters that are messy at home, tickle when they are happy and like burping best of all! In Maths the children had great fun using containers to compare capacity and start learning about some simple units of measurement.

Year 2 were delighted that Mrs Spence took time to build cars with them during a DT session. They were then able to experiment with these cars during Science lessons and test how far the cars could travel. When I visited them during an Art lesson, every single one of them took time to show me their beautiful chalk drawings of Space. I was impressed not only with their pictures but also the knowledge that they shared when describing the planets.

It was Roman Day for Year 3 on Monday and everybody had tremendous fun! We started the day writing Roman numerals on scrolls and making analogue clocks. It was then time to sample Mrs Bales' home-baked honey cake, made from an original Roman recipe. It wasn't to everyone's liking but some children did ask for the recipe!! Year 3 then learnt lots of interesting facts about the Roman Army and practised marching with their shields in straight lines and using different military formations. After lunch, the children had a chance to get creative and make a clay pinch pot. Finally, after all that excitement, the children enjoyed a story based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii. Of course, the best part was seeing the children all dressed up in their fabulous Roman costumes.

Year 4, along with Years 5 and 6 swapped sports in Games this week. The boys got to experience hockey and the girls rugby. I asked Year 4 how they found their Games lesson. Jack enjoyed the hockey and said it was really good to try a different sport and he enjoyed it (although still prefers rugby). Isla said she had to have words with herself after trying rugby. She really wasn’t looking forward to it and found out that she loved it. Although seeing the girls afterwards, I think it was the mud face painting that they enjoyed. Apparently Britta even found a mud volcano on the pitch! Maybe we will have a girls’ rugby team in a few years’ time!

Year 5 have focussed on learning about angles in Maths. They are able to work out angles between clock hands and around a compass point and have started to calculate angles on a straight line and around a point. They have been enjoying Science lessons with Mrs Burnman, learning all about Space. I was very impressed with their amazing posters that have made an excellent display outside the Science Lab.

Year 6 also love their Science lessons with Mrs Burnman. This week they have been looking at bioluminescence and had a most exciting lesson in the dark with glow sticks. Amelia and Megan have written This term in Science Year 6 have been studying light including bioluminescence (living glowing organisms) and chemiluminescence (chemically created light). An example of chemiluminescence are these glow sticks and the chemicals are luciferin, ATP and O_2.An example of bioluminescence are watching fireflies.

Also included in this week’s newsletter are photos from the winner of the giant pumpkin, Freya, who had great fun carving her pumpkin and making soup over half term.