18 minute read
Juniors
COVID-19 No Barrier to Co-Curricular Inspiration
By Mr Halpin, Deputy Head of Prep
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The start of any new academic year focuses the mind on the exciting year ahead, and this year’s planning has included facing the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic head on.
Children are adaptable and resilient by nature, and we could not have been prouder of their committed approach, and that of staff, during yet another exceptional year: indeed, many have truly flourished. But the School’s vision is to inspire each and every student, and not just within the classroom, nor purely through external exam grades. Driving academic excellence for all students will always remain at our core, but equally important is the wider curriculum that typifies a Birkenhead School education – those sporting, creative and ‘out of comfort zone’ opportunities that grow a child’s confidence, character and perspective so key to success and happiness in later life.
It is why we have approached the Government restrictions on co-curricular activities not as a barrier to participation, but as an opportunity to be creative, to reassess our offering, and to increase our resourcing of this key area of School life.
In sport, the current staff roll already boasts many with international playing and coaching experience. However, in the Lent term, we have added further to the ranks, increasing the students’ access to coaches aligned with England Lacrosse and with the performance pathways associated with clubs from both the Rugby Premiership and the Netball Superleague.
The importance of physical activity and wellbeing begins in Prep where pupils participate in sport and PE several times a week within the standard curriculum, alongside further after-school sports sessions. To this has been added an even more extensive Clubs programme than usual: whether you’re a keen climber or budding scientist, an actor or dancer, or prefer Lego, board games, music, multi-media or nature, there’s a club for you at the School.
This summer saw the sad passing of Sir Ken Robinson, educationalist, author and supporter of creativity within the lives of children. It is a philosophy that includes the celebration of intelligence taking many different forms, and is an ethos that runs through a series of integrated programmes at Birkenhead School: ‘Enrich and Explore’ in Years 1 & 2; ‘Future Skills’ in Years 3 to 6, and subsequently ‘Beyond the Curriculum’ in Years 7 & 8. Here, students might learn skills as diverse as sign language to mindfulness, problem solving to philosophical enquiry, etiquette lessons to theatre skills, and we drafted in an accomplished National Theatre actor and choreographer to deliver this later module.
Recent months have posted multiple and complex challenges. But if we choose to embrace these hurdles with a positivity focusing on what is important to a child’s development: opportunity, academic and wider challenge, encouragement and balance, then they will emerge from this period of their schooling more resilient, resourceful and skilled than ever before. We aim for this to be our positive legacy during a time of considerable change and uncertainty.
Prep - Junior Highlights
Outside the Classroom, The Show Still Goes on!
By Mr Corran
With multiple restrictions to contend with and limited opportunities for inter-school fixtures this year, Prep can be justifiably proud of the extensive range of activities and competition that have taken place ‘in-house’ throughout the year both within our own curriculum and through our co-curricular programme.
From Table Tennis to Lacrosse, Yoga to Nature, Science to Climbing, and more, the vast list of opportunities provides something for all. Taking place before school, during lunchtime or after school, great enjoyment and fun is had by all whilst learning new skills delivered by our own dedicated staff.
Healthy competition always forms a key part of a child’s education at the The Prep. Nowhere is this more evident than in our inter House competitions. Whether it be on the crosscountry course, the various sporting pitches, the ‘Boccia’ field of play or in the classroom, everyone is encouraged to participate, do their best and come together to gain housepoints. Individual weekly housepoint winners for each year group are announced on a Friday during assembly together with the weekly housepoint totals. At the end of each term, cups are awarded to the pupil from Years 3 and 4 and from Years 5 and 6 who have gained the most housepoints for their house. The latest summer term’s winners were:
YEARS 3 AND 4 YEARS 5 AND 6 Beresford Auley Geoghegan Luke Ashton Bidston Hashim Burhan Chloe Cooper Kingsmead Samuel McCormick Georgia Alcock Shrewsbury Sasha Price Charlotte Fogg The final House activity is the award of the Housepoint Shield to the Year 6 House Captains of the winning House. This year it was extremely close with only 38 housepoints, out of over 15000, separating first and second. The final standings are listed below:
Bidston 15,747 Kingmead 15, 709 Beresford 15,196 Shrewsbury 14,998
Despite being restricted to year group bubbles, The Prep House Boccia tournaments proved another most popular and highly exciting event. Four separate year competitions, with over 150 children participating, ran throughout the last half term of the year.
Unfortunately, year group isolations mean that the Year 6 competition and Year 3 Plate Final will have to be completed at the beginning of next term, but our remaining successful pairs are listed below:
YEAR 3 WINNERS Jack O'Neil and Barnaby Smith for Bidston YEAR 4 WINNERS Cayden Barker and Jacob Thistlewood for Bidston YEAR 5 WINNERS Sam Smith and Leonardo Hirons for Kingsmead
YEAR 3 PLATE FINALISTS Maya Evans and Livvy Young against Philippa Hardy and Ava Grist, Both for Shrewsbury YEAR 4 PLATE WINNERS Izzy Halpin and Martha Ballantyne for Shrewsbury YEAR 5 PLATE WINNERS Sam Vicars and Eli Walters
BARNSTONDALE
Years 3 to 6
This year, we were delighted to return to Barnstondale, with Years 3 to 6, for their residential trips. The children thoroughly enjoyed all the activities on offer including abseiling, climbing, archery, target shooting and river crossing.
All the outdoor adventurous activities (OAA) allow children to support each other as they work as a team, learn new skills, and grow in confidence as they tackle challenges and overcome obstacles. In the evening we had a BBQ and campfire before settling down for the night. A night away from home was a new experience for some, but the part they had all been looking forward to the most! As they left the centre the following day with huge smiles on their faces and with a real sense of achievement over all they had achieved, they were already asking when they could return.
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Road Safety
All children in Prep developed their awareness of road safety through various activities in School during National Road Safety Week.
One of the optional activities was a Road Safety Poster Competition and lots of children entered and Mr FitzHerbert thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone's super designs. The winning posters have been professionally printed and are on display both inside and outside of School to remind us all of the importance of road safety and some of the important safety considerations on the roads around the School.
PGL Year 6 Trip
By Olanna Quinn, Prep Head Girl
Year 6 were fortunate enough to experience a wonderful trip to PGL in May. The trip was filled with sunshine, good fun and probably a few too many sweets. We enjoyed so many exciting activities kayaking, abseiling, orienteering, rifle shooting, giant swing, trapeze and lots more.
We had a lovely team leader named JP who made our trip even more enjoyable. The stand out moment for me was when I got stuck at the highest point of the giant swing with my friends Lottie and Sophia but on the upside at least we got to go three times on it! It was an experience that we all will remember and cherish for many years to come.
By Vivaan Arora, Prep Head Boy
PGL is one of the best outings of Year 6. The trip is one of a kind with fun activities, tasty food and amazing accommodation. Being away from our parents, it helps develop independence.
The joy of staying together with friends for a weekend away will create memories you will never forget. The course consisted of many activities which some children may never have experienced before. These included a giant swing, orienteering, trapeze, rifle shooting and many more. There are four activity groups and each activity group follows a different order. In some activities, such as orienteering, teamwork is a vital skill. In others, such as rifle shooting, you need to be accurate by yourself. You wear a harness for some activities that include heights to make sure you are safe.
Prep Sport
Tennis in Prep
By Mr FitzHerbert, Head of Prep
Post lockdown, it was wonderful to re-launch our Prep Tennis Programme, with the support of the Lawn Tennis Association. We were delighted to welcome back Phil Leighton, an experienced LTA Coach and Tennis Development Officer, who offered not only optional extra clubs for Junior pupils, but also “tennis for all” through our Games programme for Years 2 to 6.
Phil has an amazing talent for getting people enthusiastic about tennis, whether young or old. Our teachers thoroughly enjoyed working alongside him in Games lessons and various members of staff have now got the tennis bug! Prep playground was the perfect venue for setting up our mini-tennis nets and it was a great pleasure to see so many children developing their skills and enjoying the game throughout the summer term.
I encourage the children to keep playing tennis – it really is a wonderful sport and social activity that can be enjoyed by everyone.
S C I E N C E I N J U N I O R S
By Mrs Clarke This year we have run Science Club in Year Group Bubbles. The Infants have worked towards their Crest Awards and have completed Star Level. Here is a list of some of the favourite parts of this strange academic year!
1. Planting in Prep allotment during Mental Health Awareness Week. 2.
3. British Science Week in March and every class took part in a fun practical challenge. Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 and taking a tally of birds. 4.
5. Christmas Elf STEM challenges. Black History Month where pupils researched inspirational scientists.
Prep Crest Award
In Prep Science Club last Year, the children completed a range of science investigations with Miss Harris and gained their Crest Award.
Lots of them are now completing their Superstar Crest Award with Mrs Clarke in Year 3 Science Club. Very well done to our budding scientists!
Year 4 Charlotteʼs Web Dressing Up
As part of Big Write Year 4 studied ‘Charlotte’s Web’. During their lessons children got into character as Fern and Mr Arable and prepared questions for a ‘hot seating’ session.
Roman Day in Year 3
Year 3 had a day dedicated to Roman activities. During the day the children learnt about Roman villas, including the rooms in a typical Roman house and what decorations they would have had.
The children dressed up as traditional Romans, wearing togas in true Roman citizen style! The pupils were also taught by Mrs Washington (Head of Classics in Seniors) how to speak like a Roman; they learned Latin greetings such as "salve" (hello) and "vale" (goodbye).
They went on to discuss the Romans' love of the theatre, and learned that the actors used masks. Year 3 had a go at making their own masks (porci, lupi and militi), and acting "tres porci parvi" (three little pigs) - with the big bad wolf arrested by Roman milites (soldiers) — all in Latin!
Meet our new Prep Guinea Pigs!
The Parents’ Association have very kindly bought Prep two guinea pigs. They are yet to be named and there will be a naming competition in September. The Parents’ Association are hoping that they could be called something beginning with a P and A, so get your thinking caps on.
The Guinea pigs are part of the TheraPet initiative that many schools have invested in, and we hope as they settle into School, they will provide much joy and enrichment to all our pupils.
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Teach Rex
TeachRex Prep Year 5
By Mr Pillow, Year 5 Teacher
In April, Year 5 were incredibly lucky to have a visit from ‘TeachRex New Age Education’, who delivered inspiring and thought-provoking workshops on sustainability and endangered animals of the rainforest. I am sure they will all remember the day they met ‘Thomas’ the Gorilla.
During the first workshop the children came face to face with Thomas and were immersed in the story of Thomas’s life. Through story-telling by the TeachRex team, the pupils developed an emotional attachment with Thomas and his home, exploring the positive and negative impacts of human behaviours on our world. The story outlined the importance of sustainability and raised awareness of our human footprint on the world around us.
They made their own movies using iPads and green screen technology and developed their creating writing skills by writing persuasive letters to the poachers.
Thomas grew so attached to The Prep that he donned the famous red and black cap and joined the children for after school pick up. After what had been a challenging period of remote learning for the months before, a very enjoyable day was had by all!
Year 5 Travel Agents Triumph!
By Mrs Thomas, Year 5 Teacher
In the last week of the summer term, Year 5 enthusiastically took on the role of Travel Agents selling bespoke holiday packages to visiting teachers.
Pupils set up shop in their classrooms with stalls bursting with information on different countries, cultures and traditional food to sample. Impressive customer service skills were demonstrated and persuasive techniques were employed to convince teachers that they must purchase these once in a lifetime trips! Behind the scenes, the children worked incredibly hard in groups to research their chosen countries.
In learning about destinations around the world, they utilised geographical skills and developed their ability to problem solve and work as part of a team. Each group was most knowledgeable about their country of choice and the preparation and attention to detail was remarked upon by the teachers that came to visit. Well done Year 5!
Mental Health Week
By Mrs Brand, Year 4
Monday 1st February marked the first day of Children's Mental Health Week, a week that is recognised by schools up and down the country. With the current climate, Prep staff felt it was important to try and put a positive spin on the subject, which fitted in well with this year's theme ... 'Express Yourself'.
Getting the ball rolling, Monday saw the children embarking on a 30-Day Positivity Challenge. Over the next 30 days, the children had the opportunity to become powerful, positive thinkers with little tasks to undertake for example writing a happy note to a friend or writing down three of their strengths. The children responded well to this and were keen to share positive thoughts with peers.
Throughout the week, the children carried out numerous tasks across the curriculum, being given the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways.
On Friday, to mark the end of Children's Mental Health Week, the children were given the opportunity to turn up to school or Zooms, in an outfit that 'Expressed Themselves'. We were amazed at the variety of different ways the children chose to express themselves and we are very proud of all our Prep pupils.
Odd Socks Day
Odd Socks Day is an opportunity for people to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes them unique.
In the Michaelmas term Prep pupils and staff were invited to wear odd socks as an initiative to raise awareness of bullying.
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Prep Leadership
We would like to thank and congratulate all of the pupils who held leadership positions during the past academic year.
Prep Prefects
Holly Scarlet
Prep Head Students
Vivaan Olanna Sophie Swasti Kylan
Prep House Captains
Britney Chloe
Prep Music Prefects
Pri Lucca
Rishi
Vivaan Charlotte Peter Dylan
Prep Sport Captains
Imogen Patrick
Aaron, Athletics Daecey, Cross-Country Fern, Athletics Imogen, Rounders Jasper, Football
WORLD BOOK DAY
World Book Day 2021 was celebrated throughout the whole of Birkenhead School. Students were able to attend a variety of online author talks and activities to inspire a love of reading and improve their creative writing.
Working in conjunction with Linghams Bookshop, students were able to hear from authors Dermot O’ Leary, Liz Pichon, Radzi Chinyanganya and Ellie McNicoll along with not one, but two ‘Author Roadshows’.
On Tuesday 2nd March, Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 attended a Zoom Webinar where children’s murder mystery novelist Robin Stevens gave a detailed background into her world of writing. She explained her unusual upbringing on a university campus and her love of murder mysteries. She detailed how these experiences influenced her pursuit of a career as an author. Students participated in a Q&A session with Robin, compered by Mrs Reeve, answering a wide range of excellent questions. The talk was specifically for Birkenhead School students and Robin was the latest speaker in the School’s Inspiring Talks Series.
In Prep, pupils dressed up on World Book Day inspired by their favourite book. We were delighted to see that along with the key worker children on site, our Prep pupils, while remote learning at home, also dressed up for the special day.
World Book Day is an important date in the academic calendar and we believe it is essential that we mark the occasion to help inspire our pupils and to help them develop a love of reading that will last a lifetime.
