Prep for the Week
Issue Number 1950 – 20 March 2020
That was the week that was...
Prep for The Week Issue Number 1950 20 March 2020
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Prep for the Week
Issue Number 1950 – 20 March 2020
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Included in this week’s issue… • Kingfishers Update • Lower School News • Celebrating Learning in the English Department • Three Musketeers Photos • Sports News • Birthdays • Scooby Awards Prep for The Week Issue Number 1950 20 March 2020
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Kingfishers Update St Patrick’s Day To be sure, to be sure, to be sure, the Reception children enjoyed celebrating St Patrick’s Day this week. It was lovely to have a surprise visit from Lenny the Leprechaun. Helping him to find his lost gold coins certainly inspired their imagination and creative writing.
Time Reception have been busy making clocks and learning to tell the time this week. They can now make sure Cinderella leaves the ball on time!
Cinderella Ball The Nursery children ended the term with a Cinderella ball. They wore their party clothes, made crowns and enjoyed a disco with the Reception children. What a way to finish the term!
Clay Creations On Super Saturday, Kingfishers made an amazing array of animals out of clay to join Noah in his Ark.
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Kingfishers Update Masai Mara Year 1 had a great time at Forest School creating their Masai Mara villages. There was so much co-operation and wonderful discussions going on within their teams. The children thoroughly enjoyed having an excuse to get really muddy; they needed mud to ‘cement’ the sticks together!
Walk of Fame Year 2 had a great time at their Walk of Fame Landing Day, dressing up as their favourite famous person and creating beautiful drawings of other famous faces.
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Lower School News Lower School Young Apprentice Day 2020 On Tuesday 11 March, Lower School pupils took part in a Young Apprentice Day. The pupils were mixed in to six groups, which soon became company names, with logos, brand information and entered Board Room style conversations. Their task was to design a new cereal product, make the cereal packet, write a radio jingle and then pitch this to the judges. The six groups had great fun deciding on cereal characters, mottos, special offers and then used their creativity to sell their ideas. The first set of pitches saw the three groups upstairs go up against each other and the groups downstairs go up against each other to find two winners. Mr O’Sullivan then joined for the final and was chief judge to decide who he would fire and who he would hire! The winning cereal was ‘Scooby Snax’. We have no idea why Mr O’Sullivan was drawn towards this product! If you would like to see the incredible work given to producing the cereal boxes, then please visit Lower School this week to have a look.
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Celebrating Learning in the English Department The Prep School English Department have had a super busy and very successful Spring Term! We began the term for our Year 7 groups by focusing on the topic of street homelessness, especially for young people who sleep rough. Inspired by our reading of Robert Swindell’s celebrated novel “Stone Cold”, Year 7 pupils then braved the elements one cold, January evening to undertake a ‘sleepout’ in the grounds of school. This gave our pupils a small but important taste of what life might be like having to sleep rough on a winter’s night with only a sleeping bag and a cardboard box for comfort. This was followed a few days later by a very honest, open and moving discussion with Rosie Radford from Cheltenham Open Door, who explained what life might be with no home to call your own and the trials and tribulations of living out on the streets, especially for vulnerable people in Cheltenham. Rosie was a most interesting guest speaker who shared lots of information that was new to us all, including telling us all about the valuable work of the charity in supporting the local population. Our Year 8 Scholars have enjoyed two trips to the theatre this term! Firstly, on the 22nd January, we took the short walk down to the Playhouse to watch the College drama production of “Love in Idleness” by Terence Rattigan, where our pupils were impressed by the incredibly high standard of acting on show from their peers from over the road. This was followed by a trip to the West End to see the amazing stage production of “The Woman in Black” which was the perfect culmination of the study of the text in preparation for their examination. The trip included a lovely meal at Zizzi’s and some very entertaining street performers in Covent Garden before the production itself. Prior to World Book Day we had a very exciting visit from author Virginia Clay, who told us all about her book “Warrior Boy”. Ginny signed lots of her books for children, including some Year 6 pupils from St John’s Primary School. She contacted us once she arrived back home in Kenya to say what a wonderful time she had had at the Prep and we certainly enjoyed hosting her!
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Celebrating Learning in the English Department World Book Day What a spectacular day!! The effort children and staff put into their outfits was quite unbelievable…Vivienne Westwood would have been amazed by some of our wacky and very extravagant costumes! Mr Dawson excelled as our compere for the annual Fashion Parade and staff and pupils alike had lots of fun and games strutting our stuff down the catwalk. It was wonderful to see all of our pupils and staff so enthused by books and their wonderful characters... but we all know that every day is World Book Day at the Prep, thanks to the fantastic reading done by our pupils!
500 Word Story Competition What a lot of effort all of the children went to for the annual 500 Words competition! There were some outstanding and very imaginative pieces of creative story writing. Well done to all those pupils who entered. We wait to see whether any of them have got through to the next round. Fingers crossed! Rounding off an incredibly busy and successful term, on Friday 6 March Year 6 were treated to a trip to Malvern Festival Theatre to see a stage version of “Holes”. The production was fantastic and a great finale to our study of the book as class reader. And of course the English staff could stay in their Holesthemed World Book Day costumes for an extra day!
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As you know, at the beginning of this term, we launched our 20 in 2020 campaign here at the Prep, in which we are challenging all our pupils to spend at least twenty minutes reading each day in 2020. The Easter holiday provides us with another opportunity for all of us to read, and for parents to support their children with our campaign to promote reading this year. The Accelerated Reader statistics once again prove just how many fantastic readers we have here at the Prep. Since September, pupils in Years 3-8 have now collectively read over 96 million words and successfully passed nearly 3,100 book quizzes between them. We now have fifteen members of the prestigious ‘Millionaires Club’, for those pupils who have individually read over a million words since the start of this year, as well as four further Double Word Millionaires and a Triple Word Millionaire. The contest to see which House is meeting the most Accelerated Reader targets is also in full swing, and as we approach the half term break, it is now Troy House who hold a slender lead over Persia closely followed by Rome House. For our readers, it has been an excellent Spring Term, ably supported by the efforts of the English department, the Lower School team and, of course, Miss Richardson our Librarian, in engaging and supporting our young readers. Prep for The Week Issue Number 1950 20 March 2020
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The Easter Holiday Reading Challenge We simply ask you to encourage your child to read as much as possible over the holiday period. With so many wonderful books available, there has never been a better time to be a young reader. It need not be expensive either. All pupils have been encouraged to take out at least one book from our fantastic Libraries here in school, but please do support your local libraries and booksellers too. Many charity shops have excellent stocks of books too, such as the Red Cross Bookshop on the Bath Road. All pupils will have the opportunity to quiz on any AR books which they read over the holiday when they return next term, with the Book Review pages of their Reading Record recommended to help them recall the details and their response to each book. Of course, the current coronavirus may well mean some restrictions in terms of how pupils and parents might normally access or purchase books. Online retailers such as Amazon, Waterstones, Abe Books etc are alternative options, and of course e-books are widely available from a number of sources such as Audible. Others may also have ebooks on Kindles and other e-readers, and we would encourage people to share wherever possible. We are sure that our school community will show their usual creativity and imagination when it comes to sourcing books to read!
How Can Parents Help Over the Holiday? 1. Firstly, do please continue to support your children with their reading whenever possible. The more they read, the better! 2. Secondly, please do ask to see your children’s Reading Record on a regular basis. Talk to them about the reading, and even better, read with them, or allow them to read aloud to you. 3. Lastly, please sign your children’s Reading Record before they return to school after the Easter break. 4. Choosing appropriate books for your child to read can be a challenge. We highly recommend the Accelerated Reader Bookfind website (www.arbookfind.co.uk), as well as www.schoolreadinglist.co.uk These websites allow you to conduct detailed searches for books by level of difficulty as well as areas/genres of interest. They are well worth a browse.
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Easter comes early in the Science Department As part of the Year 5 Lifecycles topic the Science block has been lucky enough to watch 10 chicks hatch from their eggs and rapidly grow in to little fluffy bundles this week! 7W have been on chick duty and have turned out to be fantastic at caring for the chicks. They will be sorry to see them go back to the farm at the end of the week.
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Three Musketeers The Upper School production of ‘The Three Musketeers’ was a great success with a fabulous set, costumes, lighting/soundtrack and some super acting and camaraderie amongst the cast and crew. It’s pity that, with the current situation, we were unable to perform to parents, families and friends but we were able to run the show to full audiences of Prep pupils and staff. It has also been filmed so look out for the link to this within the next week. Many thanks and congratulations to all those involved.
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Three Musketeers
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Artist Willow Winston visits The Prep Last week the artist Willow Winston came in and year 8 set 1 spent the Monday and Tuesday working with her. We did a project where we all chose an element from the periodic table and made a creative piece responding to the element. As the two days went on, I found out that she is very knowledgeable in many different fields and that really shows in her art. I chose aluminum as my element as I was inspired by the versatility it has. For example, it can make something so fragile as aluminum foil but something as strong as an airplane. I originally had problems with wrapping the plane with foil. But Willow instantly had the idea to use something stronger but still made from aluminum. Whereas it would have taken me ages to think of what to do. Overall, I had a great time and it made me think in a different way about science as I never thought of science as a creative subject. The experience has really opened my eyes to a different way of art and how you can incorporate other subjects into it. It was a great pleasure to work with Willow and I had lots of fun. Written by Ellie M
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Sport News Hockey Success It is not often that we put a great deal of focus on one team over others, however at the end of the season we need to acknowledge the efforts of the U11A team. After one of the most successful Hockey seasons in many years, they have denied the chance to go the National Finals and have a crack at the top prize. This term they have won the Severnside Tournament, won the Cricklade Tournament, won the Malvern Tournament, won all matches at the Winchester House Festival, won the Gloucestershire County Champions Title and qualified for the IAPS National Hockey Finals and the South West Regional Finals – both of which they will be unable to attend. The team have been superbly coached by Mr G Williams and will be back as Year 8s to go one step further. Well done to: The starting 7 – Will G, Jack E, James S, Archie H, Lewis M, Lawrence Y and Ollie C. Others who have played in the team at tournaments this term – Max M, Gennaro B, Joey R, Imam BA, Theo A and Ted M.
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Birthdays and Scooby Awards Happy birthday to all of our pupils who have had their birthday in the last week:
• Hector M (12) • Trinnie N (11) • William M (10) • Archie C (8) • Ngonidzashe M (13) • Bertie B (12) • Henry C (5) • Freddie S (4)
Scooby Awards
Congratulations to Max C H and Jasper H who have earned 25 pluses and their first Scooby Award of the term. Congratulations to the following pupils who have reached the 50 plus mark and have earned a Scooby Award.
• Harry B • Helena B
• Victoria H • Mikhail S
• Ruby S • Ted M
Well done to Imam B-A who has earned a third Scooby Award by reaching 75 pluses. Congratulations to the following pupils who have reached the 100 plus mark and have earned another Scooby Award.
• Thomas C
• Shannon E
• Jasper S
• Chloe W
Finally, a huge well done to William B who has now earned 125 pluses, a fantastic achievement! Prep for The Week Issue Number 1950 20 March 2020
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And finally... Dear Parents and Guardians, In case you missed my letter from yesterday, outlining The Prep’s plans for the coming weeks, you can find it by clicking here. I will be in touch at various stages throughout the Easter period to update you on developments. In the meantime please stay safe and we all hope to see you back at The Prep as soon as possible. Yours sincerely,
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