Prep for the Week - Week 5 by Cheltenham College

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1870 – 6 October 2017

In this week’s issue… Headmaster's Blog Kingfishers Update Charity News Earthquake Testing Moving & Growing Science Update - Chicks! Sports Update OSCAR Foundation Visit Boarding Update Next week's calendar Birthday Announcements

her t o n a n It's bee ek e w d e ck a p n o i act am h n e t l e h C t a e r he of l l a t u o k c e h C s i Prep! h t n i ts h g i l h g i the h rep P f o ion t i d e s ' week ... k e e W e h T r o f Follow us on Twitter: @CheltPrep

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

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Headmaster's Blog

Dear Parents The Friends of the Prep are designing and producing a bespoke cookery book which will be available for sale in time for Christmas and throughout the rest of the academic year. It is an extremely worthy project as the money raised will go towards the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charity. It also relies totally on contributions from the school community so I do encourage you to dig out your own favourite and submit it to those compiling the book. All submissions will be entered into a raffle and the winner of that raffle will have a three course dinner party cooked for up to eight people, in their own home, by me!! Wine not included though. Preparations for the music tour to Vienna continue and I am truly delighted that such an event is now part of the cocurricular provision. When I arrived here, the opportunities for touring were limited to sport and the arrangement whereby sport and the arts alternate is proving very successful. We have also been mindful of the financial burden on parents and although the temptation might be to tour further afield than Europe, by keeping costs as low as possible, we are able to attract more participants. These opportunities to engage in learning experiences outside the classroom are an integral part of the independent sector and I encourage all parents to consider planning so that their child(ren) have an opportunity to take part in such a tour.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

And, once again, a plea to cut our speed in the car park and in the drives leading to and from the Prep School. The College and Prep were built long, long ago without considering the need to provide access for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;motor vehiclesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the scale seen today. Consequently, there are times when students from College and The Prep do cross these drives and car parks and it is absolutely essential that drivers are aware of this and cut their speed to an absolute minimum. The chances are it is not the obvious stream of children who will be endangered by our failure to do this. Instead, it will be a student late to a lesson having forgotten books, who will then charge, unexpectedly through a car park or across a drive.

The ‘Grow Your Own Cash’ entrepreneurial group need your help for their first event. They are planning a book and toy sale but need your unwanted items.

Fundr

aisers need y our help!

Please have a clear out this weekend and bring your unwanted books and toys to the Assembly Hall on Monday 9 October, from 8.00-8.30am. The sale itself will be held later this month – look out for further information! Thank you in advance for helping this group make its first profit for the school’s charity.

Student Support Services

We hope by now that you will have received our new 'Student Support Services' booklet which outlines what we offer to support your child's emotional health. We would now like to set up a regular parents' forum offering workshops on the issues that you are most concerned about. Workshops could be based on issues such as 'Your child and social media', 'Coping with exam stress', ' Family changes'. We would very much welcome your input and invite you to email us at (sss@cheltenhamcollege.org) with your ideas. We look forward to hearing from you. Rachel Melville-Thomas and Belinda West

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

Kingfishers OPEN MORNING FUN Thank you to all our Kingfishers for coming in for fun on Open Morning. We know that you loved your yoga and wake and shake. You were great at exploding your volcanoes and your puppet theatre production was fantastic! You were super ambassadors for Kingfishers and we are very proud of you. Well done!

COOL SCIENCE It was another exciting week for our budding scientists. They exploded a bicarbonate volcano and then created their first pots of home-made slime. They are looking forward to the visit in the next few weeks to the Science Labs.

SCHOOL ADVENTURE The children enjoyed exploring the extensive Prep School grounds looking for human and physical features. They had a go at sketching the different buildings but they had to hold their nose when they came to the pigs!

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

Lower School YEAR 4 MOVING AND GROWING On Thursday 5 October, the Year 4 pupils were visited by Dr Ward, who delivered a fascinating presentation about the human body. With the children learning about â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Moving and Growingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, they were able to ask questions and learn more about how the body works. A large selection of bones were handled and discussed and the children were able to demonstrate their knowledge of the scientific names of the bones. If you see any of our Year 4 pupils around school, ask them where their cranium, ulna, tibia, patella and any other bones are located and hopefully they will be able to surprise you with the amazing knowledge. The highlights of the morning were some very interesting photos of broken bones, x-rays and what life is like inside the operating theatre. However, even more interesting was the spectacle of Mr Powell being bandaged up and looked after with a bright pink cast for a theatrical broken wrist. The children would like to say a huge thank you to Dr Ward for giving up her time to talk to them and bring the topic to life.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

Earthquake Testing This week, Year 7 Geography students have been taking on the role of disaster management strategists by designing and constructing earthquake resistant buildings in lessons. The children had to utilise what they had learnt in classes using nothing but paper clips, rubber bands, drinking straws and A4 paper to produce a simple structure that would protect 'people' in an earthquake. 15 brave hardboiled eggs volunteered to test the structures using Mr Newson's earthquake simulator (aka a desk) and students had to evaluate the success of each other's designs, based on how cracked or damaged the eggs were after their test. Overall this was a really 'eggscellent' task that tested students' knowledge and creativity, and a wide range of 'cracking' designs was produced...

CHARITY SWIM Peer mentoring, looking after our community On 14 October four intrepid staff are going and doing our bit for the Prep Award Scheme to swim 5km of the Lido for Macmillan. This week in our Section Assembly we were joined by Peer Unfortunately, the heating has Mentors been turned Josh Yang, Imogen Mansell-King and Ben Cunningham. mentors are off since 1 October so thereforePeer it could beYear 8 pupils who have undergone training so that they can help support pupils with friendships, school life or a bit chilly. Mrs Conner, Mrs Simpson, Mrs listen to any other worries that younger pupils may have. Pupils will know who they are because they wear a special yellow badge Reeves and Miss Gooch have their wet suits on their blazer. Josh, Imogen and Ben have also agreed to come and are ready to take the plunge.and If you be reading buddies with Year 5 on Wednesdays. would like to sponsor the staff there will be Whilst it is clear to see how much mutual benefit there is in a pot at Reception for any loosehelping change or each other, Middle School pupils have been thinking aboutsite: what roles they could do in order to support teachers and they have set up a JustGiving

pupils in other areas of the school. If any pupils are interested in helping, I have put up a list of suitable roles that you can sign up for outside MS Office â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from supporting pupils in Kingfisher at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ or with their reading, to running a Lower School book christina-conner3break-times clubs in the Library, or helping out in the Art room. All of these jobs will go towards earning Community Service and Leadership credits towards their Silver Prep Award. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

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On Tuesday afternoon, Cheltenham Prep played host to the OSCAR Foundation, a charity set-up to support and mentor children from slum communities in India by teaching them the value of education, using football as a tool. Following a tour of the school, where they took part in music and art lessons, the boys aged between 11-13 were surprised by a visit by local football star Aaron Downes. Aaron is the Captain of Cheltenham Town FC and treated the visitors to a skills workshop, alongside boys from the senior school. Nick Nelson, Director of Internationalism and Culture at Cheltenham College, who last year organised a fundraising "World Cup" to help bring the OSCAR children to England commented, "Aaron was fantastic with the children. They were in awe to meet him and he was a real gentleman. It was very kind of him to take the time to come and support such a great cause before their match in the evening. Thank you Aaron!" Later in the afternoon, the boys, who have to stay in school and out of gangs to be eligible to play, took on a Prep School team made up of Year 7 and 8 pupils, winning a tight match 1-0. The fixture was played in a great spirit with both squads giving their all! For more information on the OSCAR Foundation, visit their website here: http://www.oscar-foundation.org/

OSCAR Foundation Visit

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

Many thanks to those parents who were able to join us for our bi-annual 'How We Teach' event which proved to be an extremely successful and enjoyable evening for all! A brief introduction set the scene of learning at The Prep and identified the importance of aims and values in underpinning what we do and the opportunities we hope to provide the children in order for them to reach their full potential and enjoy the learning process. Developing skills such as resillience, perseverance, the appetite for and ability to cope with challenge (and failure!), as well as the ability to solve problems creatively were all discussed briefly. These, as well as, of course, developing empathy towards others and actively participating, are all part of our new Key Skills and Attributes reward system which aims to identify characteristics for life rather than define pupils through subjects and knowledge alone. After that, the 'pupils' took a glass of wine (not our usual offering!) and headed off to their first of three 'lessons'.

HOW WE TEACH EVENING

During the sessions, staff delivered lessons as the children would experience them within the different age groups and subjects offering parents an insight into how our fantastically talented staff engage, inspire and facilitate the development of our young learners. Questions about the format of the curriculum and particular teaching methods could also be addressed but mostly these were answered by everyone getting stuck into the experience! As ever, the partnership between school and home is essential in ensuring the best for our children and we welcome your feedback, questions and dialogue so don't hesitate to contact us about your child's progress or experience. Do keep your eyes peeled for a copy of the PowerPoint, notes and video extracts from the night which will be sent out to all parents in due course. In the meantime, a plus goes to all those parents who joined us for participation!

Democracy & Parliament Talk Upper School pupils were visited this week by Roz Birch, who works on behalf of Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Education Service. Before lunch, pupils were given an overview of the three key parts of Parliament and how they work together to make laws. In addition, they were reminded that even below the age of 18, it is easy to be part of the democratic process through petitions and contact with your local MP. In the afternoon, we split into year groups to look at the history of voting through a timeline activity and discussed what the future of voting could be in the UK. We rounded off with a Commons-style debate and it would be fair to say that all members of the groups were forthcoming in their views!

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

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In Science lessons, Middle school have been learning about life cycles. They have learnt about the life cycle of mammals and other animal groups. During one lesson they focused on the lifecycle of birds. On Monday morning we received an incubator of eggs. A fertile egg will hatch after 21 days and by Friday they had started to hatch and we captured this on the web-cam that was set up. On Open Morning we had a group of beautiful chicks and the Year 7 children spent some time researching the stages of development from embryo to chicks. The children have really enjoyed watching the chicks and learning how to handle them safely. We now await the hatching of our butterflies over the course of the next week.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

Boar

On 30 September, the Boarders travelled to Dorset to camp overnight at Mrs Baird's parents' farm. It took us a few hours to travel to the farm but as we arrived, Mr and Mrs Hosford welcomed us with a gazebo, two fire cauldrons and showed us to where we were setting up camp. After we had set up our own tents, we had dinner which was hot dogs straight off the barbeque. Then we had hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows on an open fire. We all enjoyed this a lot, because it was like a game not to burn your marshmallow!

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Years 3 to 6 were put to bed first, then Year 7's and the Year 8's slightly after, which gave us a good chance to sit around the fire and spend time with friends and staff. It rained all night, keeping some people up for a bit, but in the end we all got a very good night's sleep. In the morning, we all got dressed and went for breakfast. Mrs Hosford and the staff had prepared ‘pain au chocolat’ and bacon sandwiches! Everyone enjoyed breakfast, which gave us the energy we needed for the great day ahead. During the day, we were split into two groups, one with Upper School Boarders and the other with Lower and Middle School. Upper School went first to have a tour of the farm with Mr Hosford. He showed us where all of his crops were grown, told us the problems he faced with modern farming and what he grew and sold on his farm. While Upper School were having a tour, Lower and Middle School packed their bags and went on a nature walk with Mrs Baird and Mrs Hosford, and they also played some classic camp games such as ‘Grandmother’s Footsteps’! Then we switched and Upper School were taught a very unique ‘Hosford Family Game’ called 'Frisbee Football'. It was a bit like Ultimate Frisbee, only you had to get the frisbee through two posts, like football, and then catch it to score. It was a close game with the winning team winning 7-6! Then it was time for lunch, where Mrs Hosford had heated our sausage rolls so we had a warm lunch. After lunch, it was time to leave. We thanked Mr and Mrs Hosford for all of their hard work and generous hospitality, then we got back onto the coach and came back to school. It was a great experience and a good opportunity to get to know each other better at the start of the school year. Aidan Portch, Head Boarder

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

GIRLS' SPORT THIS WEEK'S HOCKEY RESULTS 1st VII vs The Dragon 1-6 2nd VII vs The Dragon 0-5 5th VII vs The Dragon 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;4 U11A vs Richard Pate 7-0 U11B vs Richard Pate 1-0 U11C vs Richard Pate 2-1 U10A vs Richard Pate 5-2 U10B vs Richard Pate 1-1 U10C vs Richard Pate 0-1 U9A vs The Dragon 2-3 U9B vs The Dragon 1-1 Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

BOYS' SPORT House Rugby On Wednesday afternoon, the Upper and Middle School boys came together for an afternoon of House Rugby. Due to the mix of year groups and abilities, the format is tag rugby, allowing all to partake and involve themselves. The standard of play was outstanding; a combination of superb running lines and offloads that would make a Fijian 7s team applaud… if we can transfer this to the higher pressure of Saturday, we will be fine against Clifton. In the Middle School competition, it was the slowest starters who managed a late charge for victory, whilst the Upper School came down to a winner takes all final game between Athens and Troy. Interestingly, the winners weren’t the teams with the most older A team players, but were the teams who managed to integrate the mix of age groups and abilities and play as a unit.

Results – Middle School: 1. Persia, 2. Corinth, 3. Rome, 4. Sparta, 5. Athens, 6. Troy Upper School: 1. Athens, 2. Troy, 3. Sparta, 4= Corinth + Persia, 6. Rome Prep for The Week Issue Number 1870 6 October 2017

CALENDAR

Sunday, October 8, 2017 - Sunday, October 15, 2017 Sunday, 8 October 2017 13:00

Boarders' Bowling (Full and Regular Flexi-Boarders Only)

Monday, 9 October 2017 Week 6 (6) 9 - 15 October 09:30

Year 5 visit to Cheltenham Literature Festival

11:15

Year 6 visit to Cheltenham Literature Festival

11:15

Year 8 visit to Cheltenham Literature Festival

12:00

Kingfishers Parents' Lunch

18:15

Parents' Evening for parents of children in Year 6

Tuesday, 10 October 2017 09:30

Years 1 and 2 visit to Cheltenham Literature Festival

12:00

Kingfishers Parents' Lunch

18:15

Parents' Evening for parents of children in Year 6

Wednesday, 11 October 2017 09:30

Year 7 visit to Cheltenham Literature Festival