Prep for the Week Issue 1863

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1863 – 16 June 2017

In this week’s issue…

Headmaster's Blog and Commendations Kingfishers' Sports Day Kingfishers, Lower and Middle School News Letter from the Library Mad Hatter's Tea Guernsey Sports Tour: The Return Leg: Sports Day Calendar Notices

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Headmaster's Blog Dear Parents My thanks to all for their support of last weekend's House Sports Day. It was a perfect combination of excellence, with 24 records being broken, and total inclusion. This weekend sees the turn of music as we enjoy the Summer Concert and House Singing competition; again, another blend of excellence and inclusion.

As you are all aware, we are hurtling towards the end of the academic year and the traditional events, which characterise the end of the Summer Term and the academic year, are arriving thick and fast. Please be assured that the academic curriculum continues as normal whenever the children are in school and one must not forget that valuable lessons are being learned whilst away from the site too.

As I stated last week, we aim to publish the new class and tutor groups on Wednesday 21st June.

We will have tried hard to create groups which complement the children's wishes and what the School feels is right for all children. Please also

remember that I reserve the right to make changes in the light of the recruitment to the School which happens during the Summer break.

And finally...

We have over forty families signed up to the Friends of the Prep "Camp Out" and the weather is set fair. It should be great fun, so, if you suddenly find yourself yearning for a night under the stars and/or canvas, do come and join us.

Jon Whybrow

Headmaster’s Commendations Angus Wragg, Noah Campbell-Black, Autumn Conner, Eloise O’Connor, Toby Krauer, Eva Colbourne, Isobelle Mace, Aidan Portch and Sky Jamieson for acting as excellent ambassadors for The Prep during Young Scientists' Day

Well done to all our pupils who played host to our friends from Elizabeth College, Guernsey, during their return tour to Cheltenham this week. It was great to see teams from both schools socialising and enjoying each others' company both on and off the pitch. Read more about the tour on page 9.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1863 16 June 2017

We love this great picture of Caspar Aylott, who won the cup at the Headmaster's tennis tournament last weekend.

The tennis tournament and cricket match, which ran concurrently, took place to raise money for The Prep's charity of the year, Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court.

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Kingfishers Sports Day

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After a grey start to the day, the weather held and the sun even emerged to accompany the excitement and enthusiasm that the children of Kingfishers brought to their sporting event. Jumps were jumped, objects were thrown and races were raced. Probably most rewarding was seeing the smiles on the children's faces, demonstrating happiness and enjoyment. We cannot forget the Mums and Dads who also played their part, supporting their children and participating in races themselves, showing the children how they thought it should be done! A wonderful afternoon with a healthy balance of competition and fun.

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Kingfishers Lower School

As part of the Year 4 to Year 5 transition, the Year 4 pupils visited the Science Labs to experience life in a Middle School Science lesson. Donning white coats and safety glasses, the pupils took part in several different experiments to find out about chemical reactions. Everyone was amazed with the results of the methane burnt in bubbles and the magnesium reacting acid. The children then moved on to prove that hydrogen was present with the 'squeaky pop test', which they really enjoyed.

Kingfishers enjoyed a super healthy workout on Wednesday morning alongside famous sports coach, Joe Wicks, in his live stream of The Body Coach Schools Workout. Children from Nursery to Year 2 enjoyed ten 30 second exercises, including running on the spot, lunges, squats and burpees, before having a well-deserved 2-minute rest and repeating! As they were working out, they waited patiently for a Shout Out from the man himself! Although they didn’t get a shout out this time, they all felt much healthier after the exercise, talking about how their hearts were working so hard to pump oxygen around their bodies and how they needed to stay hydrated after working out! The children all agreed that they would all love to take part again, describing it as “fun” and “making their muscles stronger”.

The Year 4 children will continue to experience life in Middle School over the next few weeks to prepare them for life in Year 5.

That's Joe!

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Our Future World Cheltenham Prep is proud to host the annual Young Scientists' Day in partnership with Cheltenham Science Festival. This year's theme was ‘Our Future World’ and pupils, from both The Prep and a number of other schools, experienced an exciting carousel of Science and Design Technology lessons.

Pupils worked in The Prep's dedicated, university-grade science labs and thoroughly enjoyed a variety of practical experiments, looking like real scientists wearing safety goggles and white lab coats.

In the Biology activity, pupils were able to see onion cells and then their own cheek cells under a microscope. They also enjoyed making (and eating) DNA made from sweets!

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1863 16 June 2017

In Chemistry, the pupils were treated to an exciting experience as they investigated the use of fuels of the future. Balloons filled with hydrogen went off with a bang and a flash, and the pupils conducted an experiment to see if they could get that ‘squeaky pop’ to show that hydrogen was present. It was an explosive and memorable session led by Mr Webber in his rainbow-coloured lab coat. As part of an amazing controlled experiment, Mr Webber also set his hands on fire!

Very dramatic!

The Design Technology activity allowed the pupils to build and design their own buildings of the future. Working in teams, they had to meet the challenges of achieving height, stability and an aesthetically pleasing structure.

The buildings were then tested

by Mr Boyd by placing weights on them. There were many tense moments as more and more weights were added! Several designs did withstand the experience, a sign that our pupils really could be the architects of the future...

The exciting day finished with a fantastic talk by the charismatic Professor Andrea Sella, with his batch of dry ice and a large slice of a delicious future-themed cake!

Organiser, Mrs Gill Barrett, said "My thanks go to Cheltenham Festivals for giving us the opportunity to host this special day, designed to promote Science and Design Technology to our young and enthusiastic learners.

The pupils had an amazing day, which was wonderful to see." 5

Middle School

Finding Feathered Friends at Slimbridge On Tuesday, Year 5 enjoyed a day out at WWT Slimbridge, where we were lucky with the weather and there were lots of birds, mammals, amphibians and insects to find.

Pupils loved feeding all the swans and geese and meeting the newlyhatched ducklings. The otter talk was a highlight for many, as the three very cute otters swam and played in the water whilst eating their fish.

During lunch, we had to protect out sandwiches from the clutches of cheeky geese and burned off some energy in the playground. We all tried our hand at pond dipping and were able to identify a variety of fresh water invertebrates, and discovering many interesting facts.

During the day, pupils had some quiz questions to find the answers to and space to record their other findings: congratulations to those of you who completed it all and to those who won the top prizes. It was a great day out, so thank you to all the staff who led a group and to the pupils for their enthusiasm and getting involved.

Ngonie Mudange "It was the best experience ever. The best part is we went to see otters. The otter is mostly found in the Amazon rainforest and the biggest otter is two metres. I wish I could go back to Slimbridge tomorrow!"

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1863 16 June 2017

Kate Officer "Today, I went to the amazing WWT Slimbridge. It was very fun as we

went pond dipping and fed ducks, ducklings and geese. My favourite part was the pond dipping as Grace and I found an interesting beetle that the lady wanted to inspect."

Hattie Keen "My trip was so much fun. We saw flamingoes and the three cutest otters ever, called Minnie, Flow and Haha. They played around so much.

I went in the tropical section, which was so hot and humid. They have a mixture of amphibians, mammals, insects and birds."

Tulliah Shaw "My partner and I found a lot of pond snails and water skaters as well as catching a three spined stickleback, which is a fish. I loved Slimbridge so much! Thank you to all the staff who organised and took us."

Paras Aggarwal "The flamingoes and otters were my favourites of the animals I saw. It was really fun doing pond dipping. Felix and I found eggs and a dragonfly nymph."

Matilda Culpan "Isla-Rose and I caught a lot of water boatmen and snails. I learned that snails lay eggs. It was really fun as we had nets and magnifying glasses so we could identify which bug they were."

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Letter from the Library Launched by the company Empathy Lab, just this year, Empathy Day (13 June) highlights empathy’s importance in our divided world, and the power of stories to develop it. With this in mind, we asked our Librarian, Mrs Carson, to recommend books which inspire empathy in children.

We have all of these books in The Prep's Library, and Mrs Carson recommends them all!

Wonder by RJ Palacio To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas War Horse by Michael Morpugo Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman These books are great for young adults and adults alike, but if there are any parents out there looking for a grown up dose of literary inspiration on the theme of empathy, Mrs Carson recommends Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt.

"Off With Their Heads!"

Mad Hatter's Tea Party Boarders had a great time at a Mad Hatter's Tea-themed feast in The Prep's dining hall, with fantastic decorations, themed treats and incredible carved fruits! The Queen of Hearts was seen wandering between tables... but fortunately everyone managed to keep their heads!

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Houses Come Together for

Sports Day!

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Guernsey Sports Tour: The Return Leg For many years now the school has enjoyed a strong relationship with St Elizabeth College Junior School, based on the island of Guernsey.

Every year in the Spring Term we send across our Year 6 boys and girls for a Hockey tour. Our pupils stay with the families of the Guernsey pupils and enjoy wonderful hospitality.

In the Summer Term, it is our turn to host the Guernsey pupils. After a delayed flight they arrived on Monday afternoon and had a terrific afternoon in competition with

our pupils. The boys played a 20over cricket match with Guernsey coming away with the win, whilst the girls spent the afternoon competing in athletics. On Tuesday the girls played a rounders fixture whilst the boys were joined by pupils from Richard Pate in a 6 a-side triangular tournament.

At the end of each school day, the visitors went home with our pupils for a terrific range of events from trampolines to BBQs and were warmly looked after by our parents.

This year we had so many families

volunteer to host that we ended up drawing them out of a hat, which shows the generosity of this year group.

The Guernsey pupils headed home on Wednesday morning after a wonderful experience, with staff already discussing the dates for next year’s visits.

Boys' Cricket Results TEAM OPPOSITION RESULT SCORE U10A Dean Close U10A Won By 49 runs U10 Barbarians Dean Close U10B Won By 58 runs U9A Pinewood U9A Won By 28 runs U9B Pinewood U9B Lost By 30 runs U9C Pinewood U9C Won By 1 run U8 Blue Dean Close U8 Won By 79 runs For new s, fi u p d a U8 White Dean Close U8 Lost By 5 runs tes, foll xtures and ow us on @chelt U11A VI Down’s Wraxall Tournament Came 5th out of 10 N/A N/A prep_b Twitter! oys U11A IV + Dean Close U11A IV Berkhampstead U11A Won U11B VIII Berkhampstead U11B Beat Berkhampstead U11B VIII Dean Close U11B Lost to Dean Close Team of the Week - U10A XI (119/4) beat Dean Close U10A XI (70/2) In the beautiful sunshine on Wednesday, the U10A team had the pleasure of a game on the 1st team square against our local rivals, Dean Close. Cheltenham batted first, yet again mixing up the order to give a chance for different boys to open up the batting. The pitch was superb, with the ball pitching up to be hit and the boys took advantage. Our big coaching point of the week was to try and turn single runs into doubles and the boys took to this challenge with Prep for The Week Issue Number 1863 16 June 2017

aplomb, picking up at least 20 runs through this method. After retiring a number of boys, we finished the 20 overs with a solid total of 119 – just one run short of the run a ball mantra that Mr Hall strives for.

After a quick tea the boys took the field and it became very evident that the Dean Close batmsen were hunting for leg side runs. The Cheltenham boys quickly picked up on this, altered the field and altered their bowling line from the stumps to just outside off-stump to change

the game. Every member of the team bowled and the ball was consistently put just outside off stump, making it very tough for Dean Close to score runs. Their opening pair batted well, punishing the bad balls, but these were so few and far between that it was hard work to get the runs. The game was slightly delayed as the apache helicopter circled overhead, but once that landed on College Field the game was wrapped up as the boys took the game away from Dean Close. A very professional performance from the boys.

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

Calendar

Monday 19 June 2017, Week 10, 19 - 25 June

Year 7 24 Hours at College. Pick up 16:30 00:00 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra string workshops for Years 1-4 (all day) Cancelled 08:15 Year 4 to Year 5 moving up to Middle School experience 08:30 Year 8 Post CE programme - Cotswold Way Walk 09:30 Reception and Cottage Summer Performance dress rehearsal (Assembly Hall) 14:30 Years 1 and 2 Summer Performance dress rehearsal (Assembly Hall) Tuesday 20 June 2017

Year 8 Post CE programme 09:00 Whole School Photograph 11:00 Author, Annabel Claridge talk to Years 3 and 4 (Lower School) 14:00 Kingfishers Summer Performance, Years 1 and 2 1st Performance (Assembly Hall) 14:00 Author, Annabel Claridge talk to Year 7 pupils 14:45 Transition Meeting for parents of children in Year 1 moving into Year 2 (Library) Wednesday 21 June 2017

Year 8 Post CE programme 08:30 Depart for Year 4 Bushcraft Residential Trip (Returning Friday 23 June) 09:30 Open Morning for Prospective Parents 12:45 Departure for Tennis v Bromsgrove (A): U13 15 pairs. Start 14:15. Pick up 17:00 12:45 Departure for Cricket v Pinewood (A): 1st XI. Start 14:15. Pick up 18:00 13:15 Departure for Cricket v Dean Close (A): 5th XI. Start 14:00. Pick up 17:15 14:00 Kingfishers Cottage and Reception Summer Performance (Assembly Hall) 14:00 Cricket v Dean Close (H): 6th XI. Pick up 17:00 14:15 Tennis v Bromsgrove (H): U13 8 pairs. Pick up 16:15 14:15 Middle School House Tennis and Rounders. Pick up 16:15 14:15 Cricket v Pinewood (H): 3rd XI, 4th XI. Pick up 17:15 14:45 Transition Meeting for parents of children in Cottage moving into Reception (Library) Thursday 22 June 2017

Year 4 Bushcraft Residential Trip

Year 3 Activity Day and Sleepover (Lower School Grounds)

Year 8 Post CE programme 08:30 Invited Years 6-8 visit the New Design Museum in London. Pick up 19:30 08:30 Year 5 History Trip to the Imperial War Museum. Pick up 18:00 14:00 Kingfishers Summer Performance, Years 1 and 2 2nd Performance (Assembly Hall) 16:30 Transition Meeting for parents of children in Year 6 moving into Year 7 (Library) Friday 23 June 2017

Council Day followed by Buffet Supper 00:00 Year 8 Post CE programme 08:30 Year 3 Trip to Cattle Country. Pick up 16:00 13:15 Kingfishers Moving Up and Joining In Afternoon 14:15 Chapel (Parents welcome) 16:00 Year 4 return from Bushcraft Residential Trip 18:00 Year 8 Arts Alive Performance (Assembly Hall) Saturday 24 June 2017

Year 8 Post CE programme 08:30 Departure for Rounders v The Downs Wraxall (A): U8A, U8B. Start 10:00. Pick up 12:30 08:45 Departure for Cricket v The Downs Wraxall (A) U8s. Start 10:00. Pick up 13:00 10:00 Rounders v The Downs Wraxall (H): U11A, U10A, U11/U10B. Pick up 11:30 10:00 Departure for Cricket v The Downs Wraxall (A): 2nd XI, U10A XI. Start 11:30. Pick up 16:00 10:15 Tennis v The Downs Wraxall (H): U13 10 pairs. Pick up 11:45 11:30 Cricket v The Downs Wraxall (H): 4th XI, U11A XI, U10B XI. Pick up 15:00 Sunday 25 June 2017 10:00 Boarders' Trip to The New Forest Aqua Park (Full and Regular Flexi-Boarders Only) Prep for The Week Issue Number 1863 16 June 2017

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NOTICES Happy Birthday to the

following pupils this week!

Evalyn Pittack Otis 6

Evie Ward 8 Harry Whitney 8 Lawrence Young

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Key Dates With just two more weeks to go until the end of the 2016-17 academic year, don't forget to add these key dates to your diary!

Saturday 17 June Summer Concert and House Singing Competition (Chapel) Tuesday 20 June Whole School Photograph Friday 23 June Kingfishers Moving Up and Joining In Afternoon Saturday 1 July Parents Day and end of Summer Term

Don't forget to come and find Cheltenham Prep at the Royal Three Counties Show in Malvern, from Friday 16 - Sunday 18 June! Find us on stand 7017 on Row 7.

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