“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”
The Autumn Term, a term full of optimism, anticipation, concentration, reflection, admiration and celebration. A term that sees the end of summer and the joyful arrival of winter. A term where mistakes are made, growth is a daily occurrence and the delight in the company of others is embraced.
Optimism for the year that lies ahead, a sense of anticipation for what will happen next, concentration and reflection as pupils knuckle down for assessments and exams, a greater sense of responsibility and admiration for others as we step into new shoes. And, of course, not forgetting the celebration shared by us all as we ring in the festive period and come together for social gatherings and events. This term has seen the arrival of our new Nursery, welcoming girls and boys aged 3 for the first time. We have seen the children venture out on trips, take on new positions of leadership, share their thoughts and learning in front of others, participate in charity events and competitions, complete huge swaths of learning and rekindle friendships that may have been put on pause over the long summer break.
As staff, we have enjoyed watching the children settle back into their routines and relish the opportunities provided to them. All children are born with a natural love of learning, they take in everything with a sense of wonder and amazement, and it is a joy, and privilege to be part of that journey. However, it is argued that our society can suck this natural curiosity from us as we get older and perhaps prevent us from doing what only human can do – the ability to think and act creatively.
If you look on any school website, or watch any school promotional video, you will see and hear them talk about providing your child with the skills to thrive in the future. To be the best version of themselves and reach their potential. But what do these words really mean? What are we, as schools, really doing to ensure that these young minds are able to not only survive, but thrive in a future yet to be determined?
If we consider what has happened over the last 20 years or so in terms of the rapid technological developments across the world, then we can only assume that this movement will only continue to accelerate with many jobs become ‘extinct’ and taken over by machines. It is most possible therefore, that the jobs our children do will involve things that we can’t even begin to consider, that don’t exist yet and we have no concept of how they will develop further. Therefore, in preparing our future generation, we must rethink what we are teaching and how we are teaching it. They don’t need content. We need to help them develop traits that so far, only humans have been seen to possess, such as the ability to think and act creatively. The ability to question, to be curious and reflect.
I hope that in reading through our latest edition of the Falcons Prep Newspaper that you will see the steps we have already taken in reviewing and innovating our curriculum. The life and soft skills our children are having the opportunity to hone and develop and the experiences our staff are providing on a daily basis.
I hope that as you continue to read on, you get yourself comfy, perhaps enjoy a mince pie, or two and look forward to the year ahead.
Merry Christmas.
Miss Olivia Buchanan Headmistress
As we near Christmas and the end of term, the PA would like to thank all of our wonderful parents at the school who have baked, bought, created and volunteered throughout this term to help with fundraising for external charities, as well as our church, St John the Divine, and our own Falcons PA to help fund various treats and fun activities for our children.
As a PA we have welcomed several new parents onto our team, from our brand-new Nursery, all the way up to Year 8, so thank you all for the amazing job you’ve done as class reps this term.
We had our first bake sale of the academic year on the 3rd November. The Lower School were in charge of baking and selling and raised a fantastic £152 which was a wonderful way to kickstart the fundraising for the year. A huge thanks to everyone involved.
Next up was our inaugural Falcons Prep Frost Fair which took place on Saturday 3rd December. It was a huge success, with a host of stalls run by our Falcons pupils. There were fun games to get everyone in the festive spirit as well as plenty of Christmas-themed activities. There was also, of course, the all-important Christmas shopping to be done from the wonderful external stallholders who came along, and the visit to Santa’s grotto. Once again, thank you to everyone who got involved and helped the children organise a truly memorable fair and a fitting start to December! We will update next term on the money you all helped to raise at the fair, to help support our local charities as well as the PA.
As we look ahead, we have many exciting events and activities to look forward to over the course of the next two terms, from the Wooden Spoon Falcons Sporting Challenge to the Sponsored Walk and various charity fundraisers in between. Look out for our regular messages via SchoolPost and Whatsapp to keep up to date with what’s going on. Thank you once again for all your support and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday . . .
With our very best wishes
Anna and Rosie
Anna Harrisson: Chair annaharrisson@yahoo.co.uk
Rosie Orringe: Deputy Chair rosie.orringe@me.com
Anna Harrisson Chair & Treasurer (Y7 parent)
Rosie Orringe Deputy Chair (Y5 parent)
Eli Maclaren
Lara Symons
Louise Swanell
Kim Potter
Guilherme Marins
Wendy Musil
Georgina Cowan Y5
Fiona Bosman Facemire Y5
Alison Heath Y5
Jess Bird
Firas Bizzari
Alex Latti Y1
Liza Luneva R
Trisha Darkwah R
Nataliya Yener N
The Senior School Fair was a great opportunity for children in year 3 and above to discover and get in touch with senior schools for the future. We had around 30 schools coming and setting up stands with the school's information, some of these include Eton, Emanuel, St Paul's and many more. It was very important to me since it got me in contact with Charterhouse, Stowe and an interview with Wetherby. So thank you Falcons for this great push forward.
Milan B.
On Thursday 13th October we had our first annual Upper School & Alumni dinner. All the boys from year 7 to year 8 gathered at the RAA and had dinner with teachers and parents. Former pupils were also informed and came to this dinner. We had great food and delicious pudding, we had a prawn cocktail as a starter and beef, potato, and broccoli with a bitter oyster source. For dessert, we had a fan favorite, sticky toffee pudding with custard. There was also a vegetarian option which was squash.
A classic year 8 tradition is singing “Never gonna give you up” and a Falcons legend, Joohyoung came and joined in. We also played an incredibly fun game called “WA.” I know, I am coming back next year.
Adam R. and Mohammadreza N.
On Careers Day, we learnt about many different types of jobs and career paths. These jobs varied between architects, accountants, dentists and much more. Careers Day was important and helpful because it showed us another side of jobs and opened our minds to many different possibilities. We also learnt what to do in interviews, we were told about how we should: conduct research know the place you're interviewing for, be confident and never lie. The people that we interviewed also talked about the journey that they had along the way and for example who helped them along the way, what challenges they overcame and how they overcame them, challenges with the jobs they have and the degrees that you would need in university and when you do. This was extremely beneficial to us because we learnt so much about what could possibly be our future jobs.
Alberto and Theo Y8The pupils returned from the summer and were greeted with quite a few new surprises in the Music Department as Santa’s Elves definitely came early, delivering some exciting new pieces of technology.
Firstly, each pupil now has a new iPad freshly loaded with the latest sequencing App of Garageband, giving them access to loops, digital mixers with postproduction effects such as Reverb, Delay and Distortion to enable pupils to edit, arrange and create imported sound files as well as sample their own recorded voices. They have really enjoyed exploring and downloading different style libraries and wasted no time in mastering the new aspects of this exciting and intuitive music application.
No less exciting was the great reveal of the Music departments own cache of Surface Go notebook laptops that have been loaded up with Sibelius Ultimate, an industry standard notation app that allows pupils to input notes, chords and lyrics as part of composition tasks. Through this all aspects of musical theory can be discovered and perfected. These laptops also connect to the departments existing hardware such as the MIDI keyboards so the pupils can watch their notes appear within Sibelius as their fingers touch each key in real-time. All very exciting and a great investment.
Individual Peripatetic lessons continued throughout Autumn with a list of strong performers at the weekly assembly at St John the Divine church in Richmond. The pupils always benefit from sharing their talents before an audience of their peers and parents.
The Lower School thrilled and charmed parents with their Nativity Musical presentation “Starlight” complete with Kings, Angels and Shepherds. It was a moving and wonderful portrayal of the Christmas Story with some beautiful singing from our youngest pupils in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 3.
In further ensemble music-making, the combined voices of the entire school joined forces for their annual rendition of the Sussex Carol in an arrangement custom recorded for Falcons Prep School by Mr Peckham in the school carol service. Falcons Prep Choir also spread their vocal talent with their moving performance of “Softly Through the Winters Darkness”.
On Thursday 22nd September, to support their current study of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, all Year 6 boys were treated to an active lesson in which they painted their faces and took to the open air to tackle a competitive challenge.
Mr Evans is sneaky though and ought not to be trusted. Things were going well, but, unbeknownst to the boys, Mr Evans secretly gave roles to play, tasks to perform and liberally sprinkled the activity with seditious comments. Initially the boys were model Falcons boys (respectful, resourceful, cooperative, and sensitive), but when things went predictably bad, and factions began to emerge, Mr Evans did nothing; he simply chuckled into his sleeve like a villain. Before things got out of hand, however, Mr Evans, fearing that this might be a career-ending moment, calmed everyone, took them back to the classroom and led a discussion about characters, motives, and groupthink. By understanding such things first-hand, the boys will, we hope, develop a deeper understanding of the novel’s themes, Golding’s preoccupations, group dynamics and the need for codes of conduct in society.
Mr Evans would like to apologise for any strange looks parents might have received on the journey home with a face-painted, overtired and slightly ‘wired’ son.
On the 3rd October, we had the pleasure of welcoming our pupils’ grandparents. Our boys and girls amazed us all with their astonishing baking skills. It reminded us of the Great British Bake-off with such amazing cakes and muffins on display! What a delight for our taste buds.
Thanks to video conferencing, grandparents who could not travel/were living far (as far as Australia!) managed to join us and be part of this special occasion. Happy faces all around.
Lower School have loved visiting Forest School this term. They have been working hard to create new habitats in our woodland. We have been creating a pond and have been using spades and wheelbarrows to make it accessible to different animals. We look forward to observe what moves in!
We love visiting Forest School in all weathers and this term enjoyed visiting in the pouring rain! We built shelters, mixed muddy potions and searched for worms!
We have been so impressed with the curiosity, resilience and creativity displayed by the children this term as the they have led their learning with great enthusiasm.
In order to give our Year 5 boys insight into the plight of the young offenders in Louis Sachar’s novel, Holes, every boy, armed with a shovel, was marched out to our forest school and forced to dig. When they felt they had had enough of digging, they were urged to dig some more. Even when they had a look of mutiny in their eyes, the boys were told to dig again. Only when they were exhausted, mucky and totally fed-up with digging holes, were the boys marched back to school. We expect that they slept well that evening; they certainly had a healthy appetite at lunch.
On Monday 10th October, Year 3 went on a dinosaur adventure! We braved the wind and the rain to catch an underground train to South Kensington and made our way to the Natural History Museum. Once there, ten little dinosaur hunters went searching for evidence of dinosaur diets! We looked carefully at dinosaur teeth to decide if they were carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. We were brave enough to count a T-Rex’s teeth! We stood beside, underneath and inside some huge dinosaur skeletons. Meanwhile we kept investigating and reporting facts to our teachers.
We discovered so much about dinosaurs that we decided to be intrepid explorers in other parts of the Museum. We travelled up a huge escalator into the centre of a burning Planet Earth. We learned about earthquakes and volcanoes and even experienced what it feels like to be in a supermarket during an earthquake – we were very excited!
We spent time with lots of different creatures –including spiders and insects, birds (we spotted a Peregrine Falcon, but we couldn’t find any Merlin, Hobby or Kestrel falcons), mammals and marine animals. We were so surprised by the immense size of a Blue Whale.
We loved our day at the Museum and our teachers were super proud of us because we behaved beautifully, and we were so enthusiastic.
On Wednesday 16th November an excited group of little scientists (otherwise known as 3C) headed off on an adventure to the Science Museum. We started our day in the Wonderlab Theatre where we watched an exciting Science Show. We had to use our powers of observation and prediction when the scientist poured water into one of three beakers and kept swapping them around quickly. We had to watch carefully then point to the one we thought had water in it which she then tipped over her head! We were amazed when no water poured out. She explained that she had hidden a highly absorbent powder in the beaker which then turned the water into an immovable gel. The scientist then switched all the lights off and created a huge twisting moving glow stick by pouring two chemicals into a tube which caused a chemical reaction and lit up blue. She also combined chemicals in a glass jar causing a bubbling, erupting volcano of blue and green foam. We loved it. Finally, she showed us how sound travels in waves by lighting a long canister with flames popping out of the top – she played music and the flames bobbed up and down. We asked her for Jingle Bells and (because she had been so impressed with our behaviour) she played it and we all sang along whilst the flames danced along with us. We were an excellent audience, and she was impressed with our predictions and answers.
After a delicious packed lunch we spent time in 3 more interactive galleries – we used all our senses and our scientific knowledge as well as our natural curiosity to explore, test, play and investigate. We had so much fun but we realised that being a scientist is very tiring, so we decided to go back to school (some of us having a snooze on the train) and we have planned to return to the wonderful Science Museum next term. Watch this space…
A fantastic Field trip to Dorset – I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy being at / staying at Field Study Centres. And of getting away to study Geography in practice rather than just in theory. An uneventful journey down although an opportunity to discuss some aspects of The New Forest – one of our beautiful National Parks and possibly the largest area of relatively Ancient Forest in the country. Arrival at the centre, unload, packed lunch and straight off to our first study location.
Day 1 – Kimmeridge Bay Fossil Hunting: Good fun! A good few found – mostly ammonites, consideration of stratigraphy at its very basic level ie Kimmeridge Clays and Dolomitic Limestone. Most exciting aspect was, of course, and sadly, getting boots wet when caught by waves!
It was interesting, on reflection, that when we arrived at the beach that I noticed a petrol smell and only thought it strange at the time. Of course, on reflection and after further research reminded myself that within the clays are bituminous shales and that an old ‘nodding donkey’ oil well has been in operation here for some time – since 1959 apparently!
Evening’s entertainment – a series of 3 Orienteering courses in the dark was great and despite a couple of absolute downpours, was amazed at the boy’s positivity and they just kept going! Way to go boys!
Day 2 – River Piddle Study on hypotheses based on Bradshaw’s Model: Thought we were going to be soaked through, all day! Apart from a bit of a wetting at site 1 (Piddle Primary School) the downpours seemed to miss us and we had lots of blue sky! We’ll take that! Efficiency in investigation processes and ‘following instructions’ at Site 1 made it look as if we had Neanderthal children with us – by site 3, thank goodness the children had evolved into something close to modern man. A few ten’s of thousands of years needed to finish these guy’s evolution though! Good development and understanding towards CE Investigation / Project – a very good practice. We measured river width, depth, water velocity, load size and using Powers Index the angularity of the load. From this we could work out the shape of the river in cross-section, the cross-sectional area and volume of water flow.
The session that evening was to consolidate this work, the Investigation Process, use the data effectively and how to write it up. We finished off with hide and seek in the dark.
Day 3 – A Coastlines Study on Swanage Beach looking at coastal defences and coastal processes. Wooden groynes clearly indicate the key process is longshore drift and a simple experiment demonstrates that this is South to North! We could also measure the rate of potential movement. The different levels either side the groyne also emphasise the quite significant impact of this subtle process. We then finished off the session by doing a beach profile set of measurements with survey poles and a clinometer.
And back to school! And what a peaceful journey –zonked out boys in various sleeping shapes in the back! A joy for we staff at the front!
Mr Martin (Head of Geography)
We welcomed The Parent Team on Tuesday 8th November for our FEd Talk on Helping children thrive. The positive parenting workshop explored practical and effective ways to nurture children's self-esteem, how to develop their emotional intelligence and resilience, and how to help them prepare for new and challenging situations. Thank you to Juliet for the very informative session.
Our Diversity 3G Day began with a wonderful assembly, in which, all of the staff who speak another language at home said hello to the boys and parents – in their native language. It was a bit of a surprise as we had several staff members stand up and say a few words in their native language without any explanation as to what was going on. We could see those brains working hard trying to figure out what was happening! The theme of diversity continued when the staff were joined with boys from each section of the school who shared their native language and also discussed some of their favorite things about their cultures, such as food and celebrations.
When the boys returned to school they had a morning filled with diversity workshops looking at the different religions, languages and cultures all present in Falcons Prep. Chef David prepared several different cuisines from around the world for the boys to have as a special Diversity Day lunch.
The annual house harvest loaf competition took place on Wednesday 5th October. It was an exciting (and messy!) event with all the year groups getting stuck in. With only 20 minutes to make their loaves, the hall was a hive of flour, dough and enthusiasm. After baking in the oven and filling the school with the delicious smell of freshly baked bread, there could only be one winner...Merlin!
On Friday 4th November we hosted the House Public Speaking Final! We were delighted to welcome guest judges Andy Woodward (Deputy Head: Harrodian) and Catherine Crothers (Head of English: KCJS) who were extremely impressed by our boys. We enjoyed a range of speeches from swimming to Star Wars and all the boys performed brilliantly. It was a double win for Kestrel with Aesha (Y8) and Advik (Y5) winning first place.
Our students worked really hard creating hundreds of poppies to decorate the school Gallery and entrance. Furthermore, they had the option to create tissue paper or card paper poppies for our Remembrance Wreaths. On the 11th of November, we ran a mini competition about the best Wreaths across the school. The winners are Y8, Y5D and Y1-Reception. However, all the year groups created a series of beautiful illustrations inspired by the Great War and Remembrance. It was really difficult to choose and publish the best ones. All of the students were excited to contribute artistically to this important celebration for United Kingdom and Global Peace. Lest we forget!
On Friday 11th November the school came together for a special Remembrance service at St. John the Divine. We reflected on the different perspectives of conflict through war poems which were read beautifully by several pupils. Throughout the week pupils created special Remembrance artwork and learnt more about Remembrance Day in lessons. It was a very moving day and the local community were invited to join us as we remembered the fallen.
What a way to celebrate the new academic year, by coming together and enjoying The Falcons Prep Richmond Garden Games. Staff and boys took part in several fun and challenging outdoor games, including archery, minesweeper, naughts & crosses and many more. We do hope this gets to be a permanent fixture in the calendar, with many staff members and pupils getting the competitive juices flowing.
It has been another great season on the football field. All year groups have enjoyed several fixtures against Arnold House, Wetherby Prep, Fulham Prep, Tower House, St Christopher’s, and Westminster Choir School. Well done to all the boys for their efforts on the football field this term.
In October, we sent a team made up of Year 5 and Year 6 boys to the Prep4Sport Football Tournament at St George’s Park, the home of England Football. The group played some sensational football, eventually winning the Plate Competition and taking home a well-deserved trophy back to school.
Congratulations to several boys who successfully trialled for the Prep School Lions’ this term. Well done to Wyatt M, Sahaj B, George W, Adam R, Marcus C and Max B. These boys were selected from 250 triallists to represent the Prep School Lions in next summer's Gothia World Cup in Sweden.
