Busy Bee Spring Term 2023

Spring Term 2023

Headmaster’s Message

A shorter term produces a feeling of intensity as we just seem to fit more in, and it is amazing just how much your children and the staff have managed to achieve since January! The children have excelled in so many ways, but, for their teachers, the smaller moments of triumph when young people take a risk, work hard and improve in whichever area of school life they involve themselves are just as precious. Confidence is gained from all these moments, and you can see from this version of Busy Bee just how many confidence-inducing experiences have been created this term.

I am very grateful to all the staff here at Fettes Prep for all that they do to make this possible and hope that you enjoy reading this latest version of Busy Bee.

A note from the Editor

The Spring Term has raced by, beginning with the short days and long, dark nights of January and ending with the arrival of Spring; the snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils have bought much welcome colour to our beautiful campus over the last few weeks. So much commitment has been on show from the entire Prep community. Whether this is displayed in amazing musical and sporting performances, fundraising endeavours, classroom and field trip learning and teaching, or overcoming obstacles and showing perseverance. At Fettes Prep we are all about learning together and supporting each other and everyone should be proud of all they achieved.

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School Life

World Book Day

The Prep School enjoyed a brilliant and fun filled day on World Book Day, for which the national theme was ‘You Are a Reader.’ We started the day with a short assembly followed by a ‘Drop Everything and Read’ session before the first lesson.

There were lots of competitions and lessons which focussed on the theme and lunch was very special too with staff dressed up in Alice in Wonderland costumes. The pupil costumes were an amazing sight too- what a range!

Fettes Charity Runs

For this year’s Fettes Charity Runs we were raising funds for the DEC’s Earthquake Appeal, set up to help the victims of the Syria and Turkey earthquakes. Our dress up theme was ‘Stars’ and there was a fantastic turnout for the 5K run. Whether this was run in super quick time or was a matter of digging in and getting to the end, everyone was a winner. To date we have raised £3,680.

Burns Supper and ClothesPop-UpSwap

Our traditional Burns Supper is one of the highlights of the year and once again featured original music composted by Mr Mill as well as performances by the Pipe and Drum Band, vocalists and of course the hilarious Toasts to the Lassies and Lads.

We held our first ever Pop-Up Clothes Swap and were thrilled that so many pupils took part in this initiative. The idea behind the event was to highlight the environmental impact of the textile industry and to enhance our wardrobes with a swap rather than buying new.

Boarding Life

Arran and Iona Highlights

Last term was a busy one for our boarders, and their local activities included trips to Xtreme Karting, Ryze Trampoling Centre, and the Climbing walls at Ratho. The Arran Challenge took place at Glenshee where there was just enough snow for everyone to learn or improve their skiing technique. The Iona Adventure was a mix of a circus skills workshop and a day at a local cookery school where they produced some delicious food.

Learning

In School Abi Elphinstone, Languages Week, Trash Mob

Author, Abi Elphinstone visited and brought with her bags of enthusiasm for reading and writing as well as some brilliant tips to help our budding authors. Learning is fun whether in the lab, classroom or out on campus. For Languages Week we turned to our many talented linguists who enriched our learning and made the week very special.

For British Science Week, T Form were tasked with helping Surfers Against Sewage with their annual ‘Trash Mob’ survey, which involves collecting and sorting litter to find out the percentage of plastics. We owe a big thank you to the entire year group who did a brilliant job.

Out of School

1st Form Geography

Field Trip

1st Form headed to Callander to see for themselves the affect that glaciation has had on the landscape. They were blessed with a chilly but sunny day, and after a brisk walk they found a suitable location to stop and draw the landscape, labelling all the glacial features. It was a fabulous learning experience.

Learning Trips

Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Flight, Sky Studios

Activities Co-curricular

The co-curricular programme is put together to provide opportunities for the pupils to try something new or focus on skills improvement and in the spring term we enjoyed activities including cookery and baking, gymnastics, roller skating, watercolours, knitting and Lego building!

We are so lucky to have the cultural vibrancy of Edinburgh on our doorstep and M Form set off with much excitement to the National Museum of Scotland to learn more about the Egyptians.

S Form visited the Sky Studios at Livingstone where they tried their hands at a wide variety of broadcasting roles, learning how to put news stories together and finished the day by filming a ‘live’ broadcast. They also took a trip to the Museum of Flight to extend their World War Two History learning.

The Arts

S Form Hockney Inspired Landscapes Art

S Form have looked at the work of David Hockey to inspire them to create colourful and impactful landscape paintings. After spending time using their sketch books for research, they set to and produced some spectacularly vibrant landscapes.

Music Informal Concerts, Instrumental and Piano Competition Finals, Spring Concert

So much wonderful music making took place this term. We were out and about at the Edinburgh Singing Competition as well as performing for the Charlotte Chapel’s Seniors Lunch Club. We held the usual Informal Concerts for all ages and abilities, and pupils participating in the finals of the Piano and Instrumental Competitions produced outstanding performances. S and T Forms collaborated with Scottish Opera ahead of their performance in April. The term finished with a flourish at the Spring Concert at Stockbridge Church, with all of the pupils participating.

Drama

T Form - Maya and The Whale

As well as creating a moving play in a day, responding to the theme of Climate Change and the visiting performance of 'Maya and the Whale', T Form were self-directing performances for radio, which will be recorded in the first few weeks of Summer Term.

Meanwhile the other year groups created Greek Chorus performances, developed superhero characters, extended learning of studio and location filming, and prepared for next term’s 1st and 2nd Form performance of The Lion King.

Hockey Sport

This season a total of 11 boys' teams from across the Prep School took part in fixtures.

The under 9s enjoyed their weekly festival type games, which allowed them to get lots of fun match experience on games afternoons. The Under 11s showed significant improvement during the term, particularly in their individual skills and understanding of game play. The Under 13 and 12 boys had some extremely competitive matches across the season and it was super to see seven teams out on a couple of afternoons. A special mention to the U12s, who were unbeaten.

Both the U13 and U11A teams attended two tournaments this term. In the IAPS, which was held at Fettes, both teams reached the semi-finals.

Netball

The U13s had a fantastic and busy netball season this year; the A team played 13 matches and 2 tournaments and the B team 7 matches. The highlight of the season was the A team making it through to the final of the Scottish Schools Cup, which takes place on the 27th of April.

The U12 A and B teams had a very successful year, with the A team unbeaten and the B team winning most of their games.

The U11A team won 6 of their 8 fixtures. They finished the season off with a flourish winning the Ardvreck tournament. The Under 11 B team particularly enjoyed their matches against some touring teams. The U10s and U9s listened hard to their coaches and had a wonderful time on court, playing plenty of super netball.

Cross Country

It was an action-packed term of cross-country activities. At the Scottish Independent Schools’ Cross-Country Championships, Charlie came 1st in the U13 boys' event. The Under 13 girls came 2nd in the team event and the Under 13 boys and Under 11 girls came 3rd overall. The Under 13 boys won the Merchiston relays on a photo finish, the Under 13 girls and Under 11 girls came 2nd and the U11 boy's 3rd. The weekly lunchtime sessions were well attended, and we had another exciting House Cross Country event before half term. We were so proud of all the children who took part. Some of the Under 13 pupils competed in a relay event which took place alongside the individual runners. It certainly made the finish line exciting!

We hope you have enjoyed the latest version of the Busy Bee and we look forward to many more adventures in the Summer Term.