Prep for the Week Issue 1851

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1851 – 10 February 2017

In this week’s issue…

Headmaster's Blog and Commendations Boarders' Magical Night Kingfishers, Lower, Middle and Upper School News Easter Design & Technology Course Girls' and Boys' Sports Swimming Calendar Notices

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Headmaster's Blog Dear Parents Half Term has arrived at an apposite time. Probably the main reason that I am relieved that we have arrived here is the need for the elder children to reflect on the challenges that they face in their final term and a half at The Prep. I was able to take a final assembly on Friday afternoon (the Chapel organ is being rebuilt) and the theme was 'Cage Rattlers'. Aimed at all children who are growing up and drawing on examples of those people in history who have changed the course of our lives through their energies, I tried to warn the children that there are positive ways of going about changing their lot and, of course, ways which result in children having to suffer the consequences of their misdirected actions. This is as relevant to a child in Lower School, who is finding the attentions of just one class teacher too cloying, as it is to a young adult in Year 8 who finds The Prep, its rules and ethos, too ‘babyish’.

Wherever the children are in The Prep, all must understand that there is a way of expressing dissatisfaction as well as a need to conform to the norms and standards of the institution.

My advice is simple. If an approach or action seems unjust, childish or just downright ridiculous, engage the staff in reasonable dialogue. If the approach is made in an appropriate fashion (which is code for ‘politely’!), then a young adult can expect a reasonable explanation, given without condescension or sarcasm. The answer may not be what they want to hear, but at least the situation can be understood.

Individual Achievments Football Contract for Gennaro Congratulations to Gennaro Bifulco, who has been selected to play for the Bristol City Football Academy against Derby this Saturday and Chelsea next Monday, both away fixtures. Bristol City have said that they are going to offer Gennaro a contract on the third Saturday of May (earliest legal time they can sign him).

We are now in the middle of the 13+ Scholarship results season. Rather than offer our successes in these, and also external entrance examinations, piecemeal, I will wait until all results are in and publicise them all towards the end of the term.

Parking We have now settled on a system which works. There will be one more minor tweak, but this will not happen until we are able to complement it with the necessary road markings.

Head Lice There have been reports of these unwelcome visitors and so I encourage all parents to take the opportunity during the break to do to them as the daleks would do to Dr. Who...

Exterminate!

And finally...

As always, please try to balance rest and recuperation with activity over the Half Term. I hope that you all enjoy your week.

Jon Whybrow

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

Musical Success Sophie Essenhigh had an audition this week for the Bromsgrove Young Musicians Platform and has been informed that she has been selected to compete in the Final - well done Sophie! Sophie's parents have expessed their thanks to Mr Kit Perona-Wright for his help, encouragement and musical expertise.

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Headmaster's Commendations Poppy Watkins for taking the time to teach a teammate individual skills Simon Evlyn-Bufton for a skillfully painted, colourful and creative acrylic horse Minette Tombleson for showing compassion, support and kindness to a Middle School student who was upset

Please Refrain from Parking on Waterfield Close Parents are reminded that the parking area beyond the playground on exiting the school is strictly for residents’ use. Whilst we appreciate that parking is at a premium on occasion (particularly on Saturdays), the bays on Waterfield Close are not available as an overflow option.

Boarders share a magical night On Thursday evening the Boarders enjoyed the third annual Harry Potter Book Night. This year was an evening focused on the 'Professors of Hogwarts'. It began with some activities (with a background of the Harry Potter soundtrack and some readings from the famous books!). There were some brilliantly expressive readings from keen fans whilst others munched on snacks. We have some

impressive entries for the national 'invent a magical professor' competition to try and win a trip to the Harry Potter Studios.

The second part of the evening was filled with pizza and a viewing of The Prisoner of Azkaban.

The Boarders enjoyed sharing their Harry Potter knowledge and enthusiasm and some of their creations can be seen in Mr Baird's window display.

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s e s o M n Bria Poet of over 200 published works visits The Prep the 'Snake Hotel', inspired them with his 'Shopping Trolley'... and taught us some of the most wierd and wonderful ways of saying the word 'Iguana'.

All the children at The Prep, from Reception to Year 8, were totally charmed and enthused by world-class author and poet, Brian Moses, this week. He wowed and inspired everyone with his fantastic poetry performances, and inspired the creation of some incredible Year 5 poetry.

Brian has published over 200 works during the last 30 years, making him one of the most prolific children's authors alive.

Supported by a cast of really cool props, he wowed his audiences with some amazing drumming, frightened them with stories of Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

During his visit to The Prep, not only did he bring his works to life through music and acting, pupils also had the chance to ask lots of questions. Brian shared his thoughts on becoming an 'ideas detective' - seeking out creative ideas wherever you go, rather than simply waiting for inspiration to strike!

Googling “Brian Moses Iguana” for some seriously fun and interesting entertainment!

"Brian’s poetry is more watched and listened to than any other," Mrs Carson said. "A quick listen to some of his work will explain why our children are now all budding poets!"

Poetry was really brought to life and in the afternoon, he did a workshop with Year 5 which culminated in them writing a piece of exotic and wildly imaginative poetry with each child as the centre of the poem, in a new and all powerful persona.

Organiser of the visit and Prep Librarian, Mrs Pippa Carson, recommends that all parents try 4

Kingfishers A special Kingfishers assembly with Father Adam

Father Adam The children in Kingfishers were delighted to welcome Father Adam to their assembly. He talked to the children about the meaning of names and asked if they knew why his name was important in the Bible.

Kingfishers String Group The Kingfishers String Group outdid themselves with a very special performance of The Hundred Pipers, based on a Scottish traditional folk tune.

Folk tunes with the Kingfishers String Group

Goldilocks and the Three Bears The children in Reception have been reading the story of Goldilocks this week. Their challenge was to try and make a new chair for Little Bear. The building process was full of problems. Which materials should they use? How should they be constructed to ensure the chairs were strong enough to hold their bears or even themselves?

Reception Class Assembly Reception enjoyed showing their parents how much they had learnt this term in their topic. They talked about their New Year's Resolutions, showed their artwork, put music to the story of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and performed a Dragon Dance. Well done children, you have learnt so much this term!

Are you a little bear? Then you can sit here!

Well done to everyone who took part in assembly!

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Kingfishers and Lower School Chess Challenge On Friday afternoon, Lower School was filled with the excited buzz of 16 Kingfishers and Lower School children who had assembled for a fun afternoon of chess.

The Kingfishers children enjoyed some coaching on a 1:1 basis from a member of the more experienced Lower School and consolidated their knowledge of how the pieces move and game strategy.

Finally the competitions were held: one for the Kingfishers and one for Lower School.

After several rounds the finalists of both sections emerged. These were Monty Campbell–Black and Craig Simpson for Lower School and Theo Archer and Ted McQuitty for Kingfishers. After epic battles on both boards,

Monty and Ted were crowned champions.

There are plenty of opportunities to become involved in Chess both in and out of school. Pupils can play in Kingfishers, Lower School and also with Mrs Carson in the Library.

There are also two local tournaments coming up soon, which they can be involved in. We are always keen to welcome new members to investigate the wonders of this amazing game, and we have a range of abilities at the school. Please do come along, but in the meantime, have a go at Mrs Carson’s Chess Conundrums on the next page - can you master the fantastic fork manoeuvre?

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Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

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Year 5 Mathematicians

This week four of our Year 5 pupils represented The Prep at a Maths Competition hosted by Cheltenham College. The pupils, working in a team, pitted their wits against each other in a series of challenges which saw them testing their mathematical skills, including mental arithmetic. A vast variety of puzzles were set, including cross-word puzzles, word problems, sequences and logic puzzles.

This week in Science Year 7 have been learning about respiration. They have been investigating how much energy is stored in different foods. They have really enjoyed planning their own experiments and lighting the food! They discovered that Wotsits contained an awful lot of energy!

Although they were not the overall winners, it was a delight to hear our pupils say that one of their favourite weekend activities is to solve Suduko puzzles. Some great potential awaits…

Easter Design & Technology Course The D&T department are delighted to be offering another Design & Technology holiday course this Easter.

Available to all children from Years 5–8, the course will run from Monday 27 to Thursday 30 March, from 09:30–15:30.

Pupils will be making use of our brand new D&T equipment, designing and building their very own propeller-powered racing car!

Please see Tuesday's Clarion email, which includes a leaflet detailing all the necessary information and includes an application form. Printed copies are also available from the Technology Centre.

There are only 20 places available, which will be filled on a ‘first come, first served’ basis - so book soon to avoid missing out!

All application forms must be in by Tuesday 21 February.

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Girls' Sports d tures an er! x fi , s w e For n Twitt w us on o ll o f , s e updat repgirls @cheltp

Team of the Week – U10/U11C Pinewood had slightly bigger numbers than us in Middle School, so where we had a mixed U10/ U11C team, they had a full U10C and full U11C team. As a result, we played 2 matches of thirds, subbing our Year 5s when we played their U11’s and subbing our Y6s when we played their U10s.

To come away with two good wins under these circumstances is fantastic, and a credit to how hard the girls are working and the progress they have made both individually and as a team since the start of term. They coped with playing against bigger girls, as well as a number of positional changes, and also playing on the smaller Barn court that they are not used to. They were calm and composed and played some impressive flowing netball. Well done!

Team of the Week – U8 B A great game and a strong result for the U8B team. The girls started with some good passing from the centre, up the court. This continued as a theme throughout the match and gave the shooters lots of possession and opportunities to shoot. The team are really beginning to work well together and in particular in the shooting circle. Whilst we are marking with more determination, this needs to continue and we now need to work on not letting the opposition intercept our passes. Great match girls, well done.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

Girls' Netball Results TEAM OPPOSITION DATE SCORE 1st VII Pinewood Saturday 4 February 12 – 11 2nd VII Pinewood Saturday 4 February 16 – 8 3rd VII Pinewood Saturday 4 February 2 – 11 4th VII Pinewood Saturday 4 February 15 – 5 5th VII Pinewood Saturday 4 February 5 – 9 U11 A Pinewood Saturday 4 February 19 – 6 U11 B Pinewood Saturday 4 February 11 – 4 U10 A Pinewood Saturday 4 February 8 – 13 U10 B Pinewood Saturday 4 February 0 – 7 U10/U11C Pinewood U11 C Saturday 4 February 7 – 4 U10/U11C Pinewood U10 C Saturday 4 February 5 – 3 U9A Pinewood Saturday 4 February 7 – 6 U9B Pinewood Saturday 4 February 1 – 13 U8A Pinewood Saturday 4 February 7 – 2 U8B Pinewood Saturday 4 February 2 – 3

Girls' Netball Results TEAM OPPOSITION DATE SCORE 1st VII RGS Worcester Wednesday 8 February 5 – 22 2nd VII RGS Worcester Wednesday 8 February 1 – 22 3rd VII RGS Worcester Wednesday 8 February 3 – 20 4th VII RGS Worcester Wednesday 8 February 5 – 16 5th VII RGS Worcester Wednesday 8 February 2 – 30 U11 A Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 12 – 6 U11 B Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 2–7 U10 A Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 8–9 U10 B Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 3–5 U9 A Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 8–2 U9 B Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 4–5 U8 A Berkhampstead Wednesday 8 February 5–0 Wednesday 8 February 5–0 U8 B Berkhampstead 9

Boys' Sports Boys' Football Results Team Opposion U8A Pinewood U8A U8B Pinewood U8B U8C Pinewood U8C U9A Pinewood U9A U9B Pinewood U9B U9C Pinewood U9C U9ABC St Hugh's U10A Pinewood U10A U10A St Hugh's U10A U10B Pinewood U10B U10B St Hugh's U10B U10C Pinewood U10C U10C St Hugh's U10C Pinewood U10D U10D U11A Pinewood U11A U11B Blue Pinewood U11B U11B White Pinewood U11B U11 Blue St Hugh's U11 Red U11 White St Hugh's U11 White

Result Lost Lost Lost Lost Lost Lost Festival Lost Won Won Win Won Won Won Lost Drew Lost Lost Lost

Score 1-5 1‐5 1-5 1‐5 0‐2 0‐5 N/A 2-3 4-2 7‐2 3-0 4‐0 4-0 8‐1 4‐3 1‐1 0‐1 3-4 0‐7

U10C v Pinewood Won 6-0 We were a little apprehensive playing a school which only plays football in the Spring Term but we managed to come away with a stunning victory against Pinewood on Saturday. The boys excelled in passing and their skills were really very good considering we major in hockey. We put pressure on the opposition right from the start and must have spent more than 70% of the game in their half. A big well done to the C team and also to all the boys who played so well on the day.

Boys' Hockey Results Team Opposion 1st VII Pinewood 1st VII 1st VII College U14A 2nd VII Pinewood 2nd VII 2nd VII Prior Park 1st VII 2nd VII St Hugh's 2nd VII 3rd VII Pinewood 3rd VII 3rd VII Prior Park 2nd VII 3rd VII St Hugh's 3rd VII 4th VII Pinewood 4th VII 4th VII St Hugh's 4th VII 5th VII Pinewood 5th VII 5th VII St Hugh's 5th VII 6th VII Pinewood 6th VII 6th VII St Hugh's 5th VII 7th VII Pinewood 6th VII 7th VII St Hugh's 6th VII 7th VII Prior Park 3rd VII U11A Richard Pate U11A

Result Score Won 7‐0 Training game Won 10‐0 Won 2‐0 Won 3‐0 Won 6‐1 Won 4‐1 Won 3‐1 Won 3-0 Won 7-2 Won 6‐1 Won 4‐0 Won 2‐0 Lost 1‐0 Drew 1-1 Drew 0-0 Drew 0-0 Drew 3‐3

and For news, fixtures on Twitter! updates, follow us @cheltprep_boys Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

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Swimming Swimming Gala

Cheltenham Prep v Dean Close and St Edward's, Years 3 – 6 When we changed our swimming provision last year, the idea was that we would have less gala dates, but that we would try to involve more schools and make each event more of an exciting and competitive meet. This was certainly the case for our Years 3-6 gala last week. Due to cancellations last term, this was actually the Year 3s first ever gala and they certainly started off their swimming careers

in style. Opposition was Dean Close, a school who we have a pretty strong record against in the pool, and St Edward's, a school which has a lot of club swimmers and who we have had some tough meetings with in the past. After the first few races, it became clear that it was going to be a tough one to call with many of the races almost needing a photo finish. It was fantastic to see how much some of our young swimmers have progressed: there were some outstanding individual performances that Miss Ramsay, Mr Hall and Mrs Simpson were very,

very proud of. We looked strong in the relays as well, taking first place in many of them, and as we neared the end everyone felt we must have been in with a great chance of the overall win but there was a collective sigh of relief and shout of happiness when the final results were announced: Cheltenham 292 St Edwards 263 Dean Close 184 A huge congratulations to all of our Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 boys and girls who played their part.

NOTICES Don't forget you can stay on top of news and events on our Twitter and Facebook pages:

Happy Birthday to the

following pupils this week and next!

Henry McQuitty

5

Norah Fielden

7

Harry Noble

10

Nastya Zinoveva

12

6

Alice Bradley

7

Henry Hewer

Magdalen Archer

9

Duniya Banda

Lois Jeveons

9

Freddie Birch Jocasta Aylott

Ted Mann 8 Emily Grant

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Heidi McCay-Martin 10

www.facebook.com/ cheltenhamprep

Temwani Banda

12 12

13 13

Evie Cook 13 Theo Nicholson

www.twitter.com/ cheltprep

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Don't forget your House Baking entries are due on Monday 20 February - what

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1851 10 Febraury 2017

will you bake?

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