Prep for the Week Issue 1844

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1844 – 25 November 2016

In this week’s issue…

Headmaster's Blog and Commendations Chess Team's Competition Debut 'What to do when it all gets to much' - Seminar Kingfishers and Lower School News District Cross Country Race Girls' and Boys' Sports Calendar and Notices

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Headmaster's Blog Dear Parents As we break to catch our breath before the final run up to the Festive Period, I would like to use my ‘blog’ to ask parents to encourage their children to rest over this weekend. As a parent I have already received exhortations from my daughters’ schools (Cheltenham College and Bloxham) which, quite rightly, almost insist that children avoid socialising and instead ‘chill’. The illness bug, which has laid low nearly 100 children in The Prep this week, has made it essential that not only do we recuperate, but also that we use this extended weekend as a ‘firewall’, hoping to end the movement of this bug through the school community. My assembly on Monday did remind the children to be mindful of their personal hygiene, especially washing hands, but it did not prevent the illness from spreading. Therefore, I would ask for your support in three areas when we return on Monday: Please do not return your child to school on Monday if you suspect he/she is still unwell or is sickening.

Please encourage your children to wash their hands after visiting the toilet and before they eat. The latter we can monitor, the former less so. Please provide your children with tissues and encourage them to cough/ sneeze into one. If we all work togther we have a better chance of arriving at the business end of this term with the children tired, but fit and well.

My apologies if I sound like an exasperated doctor/ referee/traffic warden – I do hope that you enjoy your weekend and, if your child is unwell, do wish them well from all of us!

FInally, I am delighted to announce that Mr Dickon Baird (pictured below) has been appointed to succeed Mr Bob Wells as Boarding House Parent. He will be joined in the House by his wife, Lucy, who will undoubtedly play a full role. The timing of this appointment will ensure that, between now and September, Messrs Baird and Wells will be able to effect a full and exhaustive handover.

Jon Whybrow

Two more polite requests.

Please ensure that your comments on the touchline are restricted to encouragement for both sets of players. Neither our staff, nor members of staff from the opposing schools require guidance, however well meant!

And finally, to ensure the relatively free flow of traffic past the front of school, please do not park in the clearly marked drop off zone, nor encroach on it whilst waiting to turn left into the playground car park. I do realise that a degree of ‘swing’ is required to negotiate this left turn, but one does not need to prepare for this 15 metres away.

Headmaster's Commendations Sienna Baggioli for an excellent independent project on Paris Izzy Anton-Smith for scoring a hat-trick in her 1st VII hockey debut as a Year 6 pupil Leah Richardson, Eva de Quincey Adams and Joseph Tagg for finishing in the top 12 at the District Cross Country and qualifying for County Emmiline Cyphus-Hocken for rescuing Mr Whybrow's pig

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Prep Chess Team's Competition Debut Cheltenham College Prep Chess Team played their first competition this Saturday. 15 schools took part with 165 players in one hall to compete in The Musketeers' 27th Annual Junior Chess Congress. 48 matches were played. Our team played 6 matches of 40 minutes, between 9.30 and 16.00, so a long day.

Each player was awarded points, 3 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and 1 point for a lose. The points are accumulated throughout the day and prizes were awarded to the winning school and to the winning individual in each age category.

All matches started at the same time and as games ended the players would return to base, saying win, lose or draw to the other team members. Even every loss was congratulated by a high five, as another point had been awarded towards our total score.

At key matches, noses were pressed against the window into the silent match room, and a boy would come running back to base, saying “It looks

like Sean is winning, he’s taken more pieces”.

Well done boys, you represented your school impeccably... Although next year I am going to force you to wear neon yellow, so that I can spot you in a crowd of 165!

Our team were a delight, all behaved beautifully in an intimidating situation. I could see individuals' confidence grow throughout the day. Mrs Alison Campbell-Black Boys who were worried about losing, learned that it was alright to lose and do so with a smile on their faces.

Confidence was boosted in the middle of the day by a surprise visit

by Mrs Buttress. By the end of Round 4 we were in joint first place with Berkhampstead, nail-biting stuff.

We ended at Round 6 with 57 points in joint 2nd place with Berkhampstead, beaten by only one point by the defending champions, Oldfield Park.

Michael Warr won the Under 8s boys' prize with a fantastic 20 points.

• • • • • • • •

Sean Degnan, Year 2 - 12 points Max Muirie, Year 3 - 11 points Sam Albutt, Year 3 - 7 points Monty Campbell-Black, Year 3 16 points Michael Warr, Year 3 - 20 points Felix Warr, Year 5 - 10 points Finn Keatinge, Year 6 - 9 points Noah Campbell-Black, Year 6 - 12 points

What to do when it all gets too much Tuesday 29 November at 17.00-17.45 Prep Assembly Hall All parents are warmly invited to attend the first of a series of presentations in which we will be looking at different aspects of child development and the ways in which you can help your children to achieve their “personal bests”.

Belinda and Rachel will be presenting ideas on: • keeping calm when things get stressful • understanding difficult behaviour • improving peace between siblings

This is a parenting seminar to help with the ups and downs of family life, offered by Rachel Melville-Thomas and Belinda West, of our Prep School Pupil Support service. Rachel and Belinda are vastly experienced practitioners in their field and work with many of our pupils individually. They have also recently spent time with all pupils in Years 7 and 8, introducing them to some of the key ways in which they can try to manage themselves when they feel under pressure.

This could be especially helpful around exam time and approaching a busy holiday season but will provide invaluable support and practical advice for all parents.

There will of course be the opportunity to ask questions.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1844 25 November 2016

We very much hope that you will be able to join us.

The session will run during activity / catch up time and, therefore. we would prefer for children not to attend with you.

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Committed to Innovation. Dedicated to Style.

January Sale 1/3 Off rd

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Begins 28 December *While stocks last Online Only st

Ends 31 January Prep for The Week Issue Number 1844 25 November 2016

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Kingfishers

Kingfishers Open Afternoon

Our current parents had a fantastic afternoon last Friday, when the Kingfishers welcomed them into their classrooms. The children were very pleased to have the opportunity to show how hard they have been working in their lessons. In Reception, parents also had the opportunity to help their children paint hot air balloons and make paper aeroplanes.

Advent Art The children in Kingfishers have been busily making decorations for the Christmas trees in the dining room. This year's theme throughout the school has been different religions. The children have enjoyed gluing, sticking, painting and, most of, all using the glitter!

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Lower School Amidst another busy week of lessons, sport fixtures and play rehearsals, Lower School have found time to have some fun creating freeze frames for a ‘mannequin challenge.’ This is the latest viral craze to sweep the Internet, where people video themselves standing completely still, like mannequins in a shop window. Here are some of our photos we’ve created of classroom mannequins and look out for our playground mannequin video, which was launched on our Facebook page this Thursday (to view it, go to www.facebook.com/CheltenhamPrep).

Rehearsals for the Lower School production of A Christmas Carol got underway in earnest this week; please do encourage your children to learn their lines and practise the songs at home so that we can dazzle you with their performances towards the end of term.

Look out on Friday for the Christingle money collection boxes your children will be bringing home. We hope they will busy themselves doing useful jobs around the house over Exeat to earn pennies to fill their money boxes. We look forward to hearing how they have set the table, made their beds and tidied their rooms – enjoy!

Letter from the Library

A huge thank you to all the children and parents who wandered into the Library to buy books from our Book Fair. There were shrieks of joy from day one and… they didn’t die down for the duration! The books were really interesting, some whacky and fun and generated an enormous amount of enthusiasm from all age groups. We greatly appreciate all the support and encouragement and hopefully everyone will be reading up a storm! Scholastic give the school some wonderful discounts for holding a fair from which we will all benefit. A round of applause and thanks from the literary team!

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Cross Country District Race at St Edward's

Year 7 Girls 7th Leah Richardson (qualified for County) 11th Evie de Quincey Adams (qualified for County) 15th Claudie MacInnes 16th Matilda Kitson

It was the perfect day for this tough, undulating race; dry, cool with no wind and the sun was shining to warm the spectators.

Year 7 Boys 4th Joe Tagg (qualified for County) 31st Rui Palmer

Each race had approximately 90-100 runners taking part. We performed extremely well and ran with grit and determination. Three of our pupils came in the top 12 in their race and have therefore qualified to represent Cheltenham in the County race on 10 December. A great afternoon of running.

Year 8 & 9 Boys 13th Finlay Hurst 23rd Theo Nicholson 31st Jack O’Connor 33rd Tom Peck 52nd Ollie Callon Hine 53rd Matthew Albutt 54th Harry Garbutt

Girls' Sports Girls' Hockey Results TEAM OPPOSITION DATE SCORE U8 A Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 4 – 0 U8 B Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 3 – 0 U9 A Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 5 – 0 U9 B Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 3 – 1 U10 A Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 2 – 0 U10 B Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Lost 0 – 5 U11 A Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 4 – 1 U11 B Berkhampstead Wed 23 Nov Won 5 – 4 1st VII Severnside T’ment Wed 23 Nov Finished 3rd in group 2nd VII Pate's Grammar Wed 23 Nov Won 2 – 1 3rd VII Pate's Grammar Wed 23 Nov Drew 0 – 0 4th VII Pate's Grammar Wed 23 Nov Won 3 – 2 5th VII Pate's Grammar Wed 23 Nov Lost 0 – 5

and , fixtures s w e n itter! r Fo us on Tw w o ll o f , updates eltprepgirls @ch

Team of the Week: U9B Our first win of the season and the girls were thrilled. We have been practising our attacking in training: after gaining possession, we've focused on getting a player ‘high’ in front of the ball in readiness to receive a pass. The girls put this into practice more in the game and as a result we scored the first goal.

The opposition played well and our goal keeper saved a couple of attempts one on one. They did manage to equalise and the score at half time was 1-1. We dominated the second half and never gave up and scored 2 more goals for our efforts. Well done to all the girls and let’s hope now they’ve got a taste of winning there will be no stopping them.

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Boys' Sports

For n update ews, fixtures a s, follo w us o nd n @chelt prep_b Twitter! oys

Boys' Rugby Results TEAM OPPONENT RESULT SCORE Won 50-0 U13A Abingdon U13A Won 45-10 U13B Abingdon U13A U12A Abingdon U13A Drew 5-5 U12B Abingdon U13A Lost 10-40 1st VII Pinewood 7s Won the Vase N/A U13B St Hugh’s U13B Won 35-15 U12A St Hugh’s U12A Won 35-10 U12B St Hugh’s U12B Lost 35-40 U11ABC Cheltenham Festival Festival N/A U10ABC Dean Close Festival Festival N/A U9A St Hugh’s U9A Lost 10-35 U9B St Hugh’s U9A Lost 30-45 U8ABC Prior Park Festival Festival N/A

Team of the Week: U13A v Abingdon School – Won 50-0 Before I mention the 1st XIII match special credit must go to the boys who took the field this Wednesday.

From the U9B to the 1st VII we took sides short of players and containing some who were a long way from 100% fitness - yet the boys played like warriors and we still produced fantastic performances.

Highlight of the week must again go to the 1st XIII, as many of you have seen from the weekly scores, they have had quite a season. Putting 50 points on massive names in the rugby world such as Bromsgrove and Clifton gives a measure of how successful the side have been. We have struggled at times to find prep schools willing to take on our side, but in Abingdon we faced a huge Senior School and believed we faced a challenge, however the game was called midway through the second half as we had reached 50 points and had been forced to lend players to the opposition to complete the game.

If you see the boys moving around school you will notice they are not a small group of boys, however it is not their size that has dominated games, it has been the team spirit. In 15 years I have never had a side so determined to work hard to support each other and this is why every break is finished, why every tackle turns from a 1 v 1 into a 2 v 1 and why their results have been so big. Their team spirit is the key in every game and this was evident again on Saturday. Once the boys realised that one of the team’s mother had travelled an awfully long way to attend the game they took it upon themselves to do everything humanly possible in order to allow Mum to see her son score a try. They worked incredibly hard to create space and at the start of the second half opened up the gap and put him in for a try, which led to huge scenes of celebration.

If any younger boys finish their matches early and see the team still playing, I do advise them to come over and learn from their play. Although they may see some big hits and tidy handling, it is the noise from their communication and the monstrous work rate when they don’t have the ball to organise themselves and support each other that others can learn from.

The boys don’t have many regular matches left to complete an unbeaten season. I know they will make this wonderful achievement, but I am more proud of the way they have achieved it than the actual numbers on paper.

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All changes and additions to the School Calendar appear in pink.

Calendar

Sunday 27 November 2016 10:00 The Cheltonian Association & Society Christmas Fair until 16:00 19:00 Boarders return, latest return 19:30 Monday 28 November 2016, Week 13 (13) 28 November - 4 December 18:15 Parents' Evening for parents of Year 7 Tuesday 29 November 2016 17:00 “When it all gets too much” talk for parents Wednesday 30 November 2016 07:15 Departure for Bryanston 7s (A) Start 10:00. Pick up 18:00 08:15 Coach House and EAL Coffee Morning 12:35 Departure for The Downs Wraxall Rugby Festival (A): U11B IX, U11C IX. Start 14:00. Pick up 17:30 12:35 Departure for Clifton Rugby Festival (A): U9B VII, U9C VII, U10B VIII, U10C VIII. Start 14:00. Pick

up 17:30 12:35 Departure for Prior Park Rugby Festival (A): U9A VII. Start 14:00. Pick up 17:30 13:00 Departure for Hockey v Bromsgrove (A): 4th VII, 5th VII. Start 14:15. Pick up 17:00 13:00 The Barbarian Xs (H): U13B. Pick up 17:00 13:00 Departure for Dean Close Rugby Festival (A): U10A VIII. Start 14:00. Pick up 17:00 13:30 Departure for Hockey v Bromsgrove (A): 1st VII, 2nd VII, 3rd VII, U10/U11C. Start 15:00. Pick up 17:30 14:15 Hockey v Bromsgrove (H): U11A, U11B, U10A, U10B. Pick up 16:15 15:30 Hockey v St Edward's (H): U9A, U9B. Pick up 16:45 16:00 Hockey v Richard Pate (H): U8A, U8B. Pick up 17:15 Thursday 1 December 2016 08:30 Year 4 India Day 18:15 Parents' Evening for parents of Year 7 Friday 2 December 2016

House Cross Country Competition 09:00 Fun Friday Pre-3s Stay and Play (Kingfishers Cottage) 14:00 Middle and Upper School Music Scholars' Recital at local Care Home 14:15 Chapel (parents welcome) Saturday 3 December 2016 08:00 Departure for Hockey v The Downs Wraxall (A): U11A, U10A (start 09:30), U11B, U10B (start

10:15). Pick up 12:30 08:45 Departure for Rugby v The Downs Wraxall (A): U10A VIII, U10B VIII, U10C VIII, U9A VII, U9B

VII,U9C VII. Start 10:00. Pick up 13:00 09:30 Hockey v The Downs Wraxall (H): U9A, U9B, U8A, U8B. Pick up 10:45 09:50 Departure for Rugby v The Downs Wraxall (A): U13B XIII. Start 11:30 Pick up 14:00 10:00 Rugby v The Downs Wraxall (H): U11B IX, U8A VI, U8B VI, U8C VI. Pick up 12:00 10:15 Hockey v The Downs Wraxall (H): 1st VII, 2nd VII. Pick up 11:30 10:30 Rugby v The Downs Wraxall (H): TEAMS TBC. Pick up 12:30 11:00 Hock ey v The Downs Wraxall (H): 3rd VII. Pick up 12:15 Sunday 4 December 2016 14:00 Boarders at the Movies (Full and Regular Flexi-Boarders Only) Prep for The Week Issue Number 1844 25 November 2016

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Monday 19th to Wednesday 21st December Drop your kids off while you go shopping

3 day Camp & Swim just ÂŁ135 or half hour swimming lessons each day for ÂŁ25

www.cheltenhamactivitycamps.co.uk

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NOTICES Cheltenham College Christmas Shopping Fair

Happy Birthday

to the following

pupils this week!

Lily Flatman 7 Finn Keatinge

Alice Wheatley

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Jay Wheatley 11 Polina Solovyeva Gabby Bifulco

Design & Technology Christmas Course Book now - only 4 places remaining!

Monday 19 – Thursday 22 December Pupils in Years 5 to 8 can enjoy a few days of crafting and making as part of the new D&T Christmas Course. Running from 19 to 22 December, 9:30 – 15:30 in the fantastic new D&T facilities, the course will allow children to design and make their own bird feeder. This will call on and improve a variety of skills, using a selection of tools and processes.

A session of free making will also be laid on, allowing children to explore their creativity. Places on the course are limited, and disappearing fast, so book now to avoid disappointment.

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Sunday 27 November 10.00 - 16.00 Wrap up Christmas before December at our exclusive shopping event! There will be over 70 stallholders offering a variety of treasures and treats.

Admission £5, children under 16 free. Tickets available in advance or on the day. Call 01242 265694 by 23 November to book and receive a complimetary glass of fizz on the day!

Additional Information Pupils will need to wear casual, but not loose clothing, with no open toed footwear. They should also bring a packed lunch, with enough drinks and snacks to keep them going throughout the day. Before lunch, there will be a planned activity for the children to run around.

The course will cost a total of £180, which will be added to your end of term account. Numbers are limited to 20 children per day, on a first come basis. All four days will be needed to guarantee completion of the project.

The cost covers all materials, services, activities and private tuition.

Book via email to Mr Boyd no later than Friday 25 November.

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