Prep for the Week Issue Number 1883 – 23 February 2018
In this week’s issue… Headmaster's Blog Kingfishers Update Lower School News The view from Coach House Sport Updates House Bakery Competition Update STEM Club - Flying Start Challenge Art & DT Exhibition Invitation
a d a h l l a u o y e p alf We ho H g n i ax l e r d n e fun a m o c e v ha d n a n u Term r e h t r o f y d a back re r. e t s a E up to
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Headmaster's Blog
Dear Parents Welcome back! I hope that the Half Term break was just that and that the children are rested and ready for the second half of term. There is much to look forward to, not least those events which traditionally characterise the end of the Spring Term: the House Swimming Gala and the school play. The former takes place on Saturday 17 March whilst there are two opportunities, Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 March, to see the production of Treasure Island. I do hope that you are able to come to the school play: audiences normally being made up of relatives of those actually involved.
Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
Perhaps those parents of younger children might consider attending with their child as a way of inspiring him/her to be involved in the future? Another string to their bow? Mr Jon Whybrow Headmaster
Speed Humps Please be aware of the new speed humps in the Prep School car park. As the flow has improved, so has the propensity of drivers, especially those who are up against the clock, who drive too fast on their approach to the school.
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Kingfishers Update Kingfishers Clubs Kingfishers enjoy a wide range of different clubs. This week the children have been using a range of recycable materials in Construction Club. In Science they have challenged themselves to build a catapult and investigated how they could make a marshmallow fly further.
Super Skills Squad This week the children have been working together as a team. They are all keen to earn their Peter the Participation Penguin stickers!
Winter Olympics Kingfishers have been celebrating the Winter Olympics. In the Nursery even their weekly yoga session had a special wintry theme.
Kingfishers Speaking and Listening Week Before Half Term, Year 2 took part in the Speaking and Listening Week. They all worked hard at learning to research and talk about an item that interested them. The children brought in a range of different objects from World War models to pictures of their pets. They also practised reading 100 words from one of their favourite books. It is always difficult speaking in front of an audience but the children performed brilliantly and we are all very proud of them. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
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Kingfishers Update Superheroes Our topic in the Nursery this Half Term is Superheroes. This week we have read the book Michael Recycle with the children and we have been teaching them all about how they can save the world by recycling their rubbish at home. We had great fun making our superhero capes out of things we can recycle and enjoyed going out on a superhero mission to try and save the world!
Wellbeing This week the children in the Nursery took part in their first 'Wellbeing Session' with Miss Norwood. They had great fun learning about the brain, practising breathing techniques with the help of a breathing ball, taking part in yoga and story massage themed on the Winter Olympics. We ended the session with a short meditation which left the children feeling very calm and relaxed. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
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Lower School News
Science Fun Year 4 enjoy two lessons of Science each week and we have some exciting topics to study. Last Half Term our work on electrical circuits culminated in the pupils designing and building electrical game boards. A puzzle game where matching up correct answers was rewarded with a light bulb illuminating or a buzzer sounding. The pupils were very creative and were really pleased with their end products and being able to share them with one another. This Half Term children have been immersing themselves in their new Science topic - 'Keeping Things Warm.’ The pupils have enjoyed practising using thermometers to measure temperature, as you can see in some of photos of them being careful scientists. Quiz the children on what they have learned so far. Do they know a healthy body temperature and a comfortable room temperature?
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Many thanks to all who entered the whole school House Baking competition. This year the theme was ‘Music’ and we had an impressive 130 entries! There was an amazing selection of imaginative and beautiful music-themed cakes, as the photographs show.
House Baking Competition 2018
Our judges had a really challenging job trying to select the winners! Every cake was examined closely and tasted! It's a very popular role being a judge! Many of the cakes were sold at the end of the day to raise £159.41 for our school charity HEAL Romania. The prize winners will be announced in Assembly shortly.
Design &Technology Easter Course
Important information Pupils will design and build their own electric piano and chicken kitchen roll holder!
For Years 4 to 8 26 – 29 March, 09.30am – 3.30pm Cheltenham Prep D&T Room Cost: £180 to College by 24 November. REFERENCE: DT/ surname (account details can be found on termly bills)
Monday 26 – Thursday 29 March 2018 with Mr George Boyd, Head of Design & Technology Contact Details Course Leader: Mr George Boyd 01242 522 697 g.boyd@cheltenhamcollege.org Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
Pupils should wear casual, but not loose clothing and no open-toed footwear. Please bring a packed lunch, with enough drinks and snacks to keep the children going throughout the day. Additional Information • Numbers are limited to 20 children per day, on a first come first served basis. • All four days are required 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 9 6 March.
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The main aim of Coach House is to help pupils to enjoy learning and achieve their academic potential, despite having some specific difficulties which they need to overcome. We help pupils to become independent learners by encouraging and supporting them to finding strategies to use help themselves if they get stuck with their learning. We support pupils’ self-confidence, resilience and selfesteem; these are fundamental to successful learning not just in school, but in life. Coach House staff are fully involved across the school, being integral members of Houses, as well as being part of Clubs such as Bakery Club and Scouts. Such opportunities allow us to meet a wider cross-section of the pupil community, which is very rewarding. Learning Support Workers form an important part of the school’s teaching and learning provision offering some 1:1 and general support to pupils across the school, as well as running Maths clubs, Spelling lessons and Chill and Chat groups. Handwriting Club runs every morning in Coach House and is much enjoyed by pupils who attend: not only do they develop their handwriting but they also participate in fun, fine motor activities to develop hand strength. LSWs are attached to the Maths and the English Departments in Years 5 to 8 – this provides greater consistency of support to pupils and to staff. Lower School also benefit from having dedicated Year 3 and Year 4 LSWs for Maths and English. Many of the LSWs were able to attend a very interesting and informative TA conference held this January, here at The Prep. English as an Additional Language is also part of Coach House, led by Mrs Williams. Cheltenham Prep values its international students and is enriched by cultural and educational diversity. Some international pupils for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL) may require additional support in developing proficiency with the English language. The EAL department assesses proficiency and delivers a curriculum to develop students’ confidence and competence in speaking and writing English. These lessons are taught in an exciting and interesting way that promotes opportunities to develop speaking, reading and writing skills. Pupils enjoy taking part in learning walks; by walking around their new school they discover many new words. This year, we have been able to implement more support for study skills in Middle and Upper School, via Study Skills talks in Thrive sessions as well as providing Years 7 and 8 with Study Skills booklets and Revision Guides to help pupils with how to revise and ideas for Revision resources to create. There is also a talk for Upper School parents scheduled for 9 March to give advice on how to support pupils with revision and remain calm when anxious about exams. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
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Mrs Barrett organises several school wide events such as the annual Year 7 Independent Learning project, which has proved very successful – each year we are amazed by the high calibre of entries and this year was no exception. In the Summer Term, Mrs Barrett organises the Cheltenham Festival Young Scientist Day when Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from local schools visit Cheltenham Prep for an exciting and fun-filled day of Science experiments and Design Technology challenges. Mrs Buxton continues her keen involvement with the Scouts Club, including a fantastic week camping in the Summer Term. Mrs Barrett and Mrs Williams continue to develop their Bakery Club skills, having organised the House Baking Competition in the Spring term; we enjoyed seeing and tasting many tasty and exciting musical themed entries! Mrs Barrett & the Coach House team
SAVE THE DATE Friday 9 March 3.15pm Prep School library
Upper School Parents’ Workshop: Endings and Beginnings ‘How to support your child with revision’ & ‘Minimise exam stress & manage anxiety’. Sign up via the Clarion which will be sent round soon. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
With the Easter holidays on the horizon and preparations for Common Entrance and end of year exams ahead, this session is aimed at helping parents to understand the following: - How to help with revision at home. - Revision methods – come and see examples of resources. - Revision Guides / Apps available to support revision. - How the brain learns effectively. - Planning a revision timetable. - Be aware of strategies to minimise exam stress. 9
STEM CLUB - FLYING START CHALLENGE On Friday 9 February, STEM club, our excitable group of 12 boys, set off through the Cotswolds to Chipping Campden School. They were ready to compete against a group of Gloucestershire schools in the Regional Flying Start Challenge 2018.
Our three teams of four pupils had been preparing for the event in STEM club since September and were very excited! They had spent every Thursday night designing, building, testing and flying their homemade gliders. They were assisted by Andrew and Salma, two graduate engineers who came in every week from Safran Flying Start Challenge is an engineering Landing systems to teach our teams about competition in the South West of England the principles of flight and help with run by nine aerospace companies: Airbus, their designs. Atkins, BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran Our teams put on a fantastic performance Landing Systems and Triumph. and ‘The Indecisive Team’ consisting of Luke Richardson, Joe Coley, Maxim Murashov The aim is for teams composed of four and Tom Hesketh came a brilliant 2nd students to design, build and test a out of 12 teams from the Gloucestershire model glider that they will present at the area, qualifying for the Grand Finals held regional Fly-Off. At the Fly-Off, each team at the Yeovil Fleet Air Arm Museum, on has a chance to fly their glider against Wednesday 21 March, where our pupils will schools from the same region and teams be able to fly their gliders under the wings will be judged on the distance flown as of Concorde! A fantastic result, well done well as a poster presentation detailing to all who attended! the design decisions made. There was also an engineering team building task to assemble a replica of landing gear in the fastest time. Cheltenham College were second in this task by 0.2 seconds!!
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Girls Sport Netball Results U13A vs Wycliffe 9 - 21 U13B vs Wycliffe 13 - 16 U13C vs Wycliffe 14 - 14 U12A vs Wycliffe 18 - 11 U12B vs Wycliffe 15 - 2 U11A vs Pinewood 17 - 10 U11B/C vs Wycliffe 15 - 1
Team of the Week - U11B/C A very successful match today for the under 11 B/Cs against Wycliffe. Starting off strong, the girls within the centre third worked exceptionally well together to spread out and pass the ball down towards the shooters. Both the GA and GS in each half worked as a team to communicate within the circle to ensure they were successful. With a final score of 15-1 it is also fair to say that our defence has certainly improved over the Half Term break and we can’t wait to see the further improvement of this team.
U10A vs Wycliffe 21 - 5 U10B/C vs Wycliffe 12 - 2 U9A vs Wycliffe 6-3 U9B vs Wycliffe 8-2 U8A vs Wycliffe 1-4 U8B vs Wycliffe 2-3 Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
Tennis Academy Dates The names of those selected for the Tennis Academy are now up on the sports notice board. Please make a note of the training rota below if your daughter is involved.
Upper School
Middle School
Monday 26 February (Week 8) Monday 12 March (Week 10)
Monday 5 March (Week 9) Monday 19 March (Week 11) 11
Boys Sport The Severnside Hockey Tournament The Severnside are a group of prep schools who come together for various sporting events and meet regularly to debate key issues in prep school sport. On Wednesday afternoon, the hockey-playing schools in the Severnside Group came together for the annual Hockey Tournament, held at Clifton’s Beggar’s Bush site. There were six competitions running alongside each other, 1st VII, 2nd VII, U11A, U11B, U9A and U9B. Our 1st VII finished third overall after great draws with Clifton and the eventual winners Dean Close, however a loss to Beaudesert stopped the side pushing for the top honours. After earlier losses in the season to both Clifton and Dean Close, it was great to see the boys bounce back and play so well against them, but a lesson learnt about not slipping up in short matches. It was a similar story for the U11A who went unbeaten throughout the whole day. The boys only conceded one goal all day and beat the eventual winners Dean Close, but simply didn’t take our chances in games we dominated and the three 0-0 results meant, despite being unbeaten and beating the winners, we finished second in the competition. The U9A made a great start and were looking odds on to win the title for a second consecutive year, however in a winner takes all game against the Downs, the boys fell just short, finishing with another second place in the competition. So the A teams finished with two 2nd places and a 3rd place, but plenty of lessons learnt about taking our chances in tight games.
Football Results U13A Blue vs Clifton 0-0 U13A White vs Clifton 0-3 U13B Blue vs Clifton 0-1 U13B White vs Clifton 0-1
One of the things to look for when choosing a school for your child is to look past the A team results and focus on how well all the children are prepared. A ‘win-at-all-costs’ attitude can bring back trophies, but it is only with an inclusive ethos that you can give all the boys the same opportunities. With that said, I am delighted to say that we proved dominant in the B team competitions. Our 2nd VII won the competition for a second consecutive year. It was a very tight contest, with a lot of draws, but our boys managed to edge the title and continue their great season. The team of the day was certainly the U11B side who charged through their competition scoring 13 goals in 4 games and our poor old keeper not facing a shot all day. A superb performance from the lads. The U9B team played superbly and were so close to giving us a clean sweep in the B team competitions. They finished joint top, but lost out on the B team title simply due to goal difference. A superb day for the B team boys, coaches and parents. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1883 23 February 2018
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13+ Art and DT Scholars Exhibition With 11+ Art Scholars
Private View – The Prep Art Room Friday 2nd March – At 16.15 until 18.00
Please drop by, feast yours eyes, inspire thoughts and show your support.
We would be thrilled to see you! Refreshments served The Exhibition runs until the end of term in The Art Room, everyone is welcome.
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Notices Easter Fun Time in the Nursery
Happy birthday to Amélie Waite (4) who has her birthday this week!
In December, we ran our first Christmas Fun Time session in our Kingfishers Nursery. Children in Kingfishers and Reception were able to enjoy extra fun after the end of term. One of the favourite activities included numerous trips to the Forest School followed by hot chocolate and yummy biscuits. Our boys and girls enjoyed festive cooking in Lower School and making their own wrapping paper and Christmas decorations. With plenty of time to relax and play indoors and outdoors with their friends, our little ones had some wonderful Christmas fun. Look out for our Easter Fun Time week at the beginning of the Easter Holidays.
SWIM CRASH COURSE
Easter Camp Tuesday 3rd Friday 13th April 2018
AT CHELTENHAM COLLEGE SPORTS CENTRE
Monday 9th – Friday 13th April
ONLY
£50
30 minute lessons Small Groups LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE! DISCOUNTS 10% for Swim School 15% for NHS staff 20% for Cheltenham Activity Camps (Extended week ONLY!)
In partnership with
Swim School
www.cheltenhamactivitycamps.co.uk 01242 705 551 CAC-033 Local Answer Easter advert half page AW.indd
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11/01/2018
09:29
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Invites you to join our Private Marquee on CHAMPION’S DAY AT THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL Tuesday 13th March 2018 To Book
Cheltenham Racecourse
Ticket Prices £140 for Non Members £65 for Racecourse Members or those with entrance tickets £12 Parking Ticket
Card Payments: 01242 265694 Cheques Payable to: Cheltenham College Post to: Rebecca Creed Cheltenham College Bath Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 7LD
Included in the Marquee Cash Bar Private Tote Racing Coverage
r.creed@cheltenhamcollege.org
Invites you to aCollege performance of
WEST SIDE STORY Friday 16th March 2018 Big Classical, Cheltenham College
Card Payments: 01242 265694 Cheques Payable to: Cheltenham College Post to: Rebecca Creed Cheltenham College Bath Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 7LD
Price: £10pp for Refreshments Welcome Drink: 6.45pm Upper College Common Room Curtain Up: 7.30pm Interval Drinks: c 8.45pm Upper College common Room Curtain Down: 10.30pm
r.creed@cheltenhamcollege.org
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