Pre-Prep

By Mr Davies, Pre-Prep

It has been a wonderful year in Pre-Prep with so many exciting and memorable experiences to look back on.

Back in Michaelmas term, the children went on their very first school trip to Greenacres Farm. There were many exciting experiences during our visit, not least the visit to the Lemur house, howling along with the wolves and the tractor ride through the fields, seeing highland cows, llamas and the Cameroon sheep. It was a fantastic day and one that led to many exciting learning opportunities during the rest of term.

Michaelmas term came to a close in Pre-Prep’s traditional and well-loved Nativity Play. The children had practised extremely hard and this was evident in their final performance in which they sang exceptionally and looked fantastic in their costumes. The applause at the end highlighted how proud staff and parents alike were with the children for their effort.

As part of our ‘People Who Help Us’ topic, the children were lucky enough to have a number of special visitors come into School and talk about their professions. From dentists to anaesthetists and vets to police officers, the children were treated to some inspiring stories about life in these professions as well as the chance to explore different resources and equipment used in their daily work lives.

Throughout the year Pre-Prep looked at different ways to promote a love of literacy and stories. The ever-popular reading buddy initiative returned with classes from Year 6 partnering up with a Pre-Prep buddy each week to share stories. Once again, we were also fortunate to welcome a number of ‘Mystery Readers’ into School. Relatives of the children have volunteered to come to Pre-Prep and share their favourite stories with the cohort. This proved to be an extremely exciting and popular scheme with both children and adults alike.

The lockdown proved to be a challenging time for all involved but as a team, we were immensely proud of the home learning that was undertaken by the children, supported by their parents. There were so many lovely stories and photographs of the activities, games and experiences that the children had whilst at home. The Early Years’ YouTube channel was a particular hit, with staff reading stories, teaching phonics and delivering fun activities and ideas.

What a fantastic year it has been, despite the challenging circumstances, and all of the Pre-Prep team are very proud of the children’s endeavour and achievements.

What our children got up to during lockdown

As part of our Home learning tasks we challenged our children to create a ‘Zoo Poster’.

Thomas enjoyed learning new letter sounds and developing his pencil control skills.

Rose enjoyed making binoculars and used them on her walk on Bidston Hill.

Pre-Prep Nativity

Early Year s YouTube Channel

During lockdown, the Early Years team launched across Nursery and Pre-Prep a new YouTube channel to help support children and parents at home. The channel has proved extremely popular!

You can follow us on YouTube

/Birkenhead School Early Years

Little School Highlights

There’s Something Amazing Going On – Little School Christmas production

By Miss Harris, Head of Little School

This year’s Little School production was ‘There’s Something Amazing Going On’ and wasn’t there just!

Directed by Miss Harris and under the musical direction of Miss Parry it saw children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 perform to family and friends who had come for an afternoon of entertainment during the festive period. The musical talents of Little School were fully on display and the children performed with great gusto, filling the Prep Hall with an abundance of festive cheer. All the children acted, sang and danc ed beautifully and the teachers beamed with pride as the confidence and talents of such young children were showcased in such a spectacular way.

B&M Waste Services Year 2s had a fantastic trip to B&M Waste Services in March where they learnt all about what they can do to save the planet using the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. During the visit they played lots of games, discovered how long things take to biodegrade and made some junk models. They then learnt about the different machines that are used to recycle waste. Maria Williams at B&M waste was a fantastic teacher and even sent the children their own “Little Litter Pickers” keyrings with their picture on. When the children returned to School they created posters promoting the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle slogan and will be writing letters to persuade others to do their part in saving the planet.

Chinese Dragon Dancing Reception had a great time performing their Chinese Dragon dance to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Wirral Civic Award By Miss Harris, Head of Little School The Wirral Civic Award programme is growing in momentum in Prep with children in Years 1 to 4 now taking part. With Miss Harris first introducing the award in 2017, the award has grown in popularity that much that she has had to recruit some support from Mrs Coyne to help her with participants in Junior Prep. Mrs Coyne now supports participants from Junior Prep, with Miss Harris supporting Infant participants and continuing to oversee the programme as a whole. The Civic Award consists of five levels including the introductory Fender Level, Arrowe Level, Birket Level, Clatter Level and Dibbin Level. Within each level there are five areas that the children have to demonstrate their abilities in becoming good citizens and serving their community including: local awareness, self-reliance, physical achievement, service to others and wide use of leisure. This is a fantastic initiative and the children are really enjoying developing their life skills as they progress through each level. Last October successful candidates visited Wallasey Town Hall to receive their awards from the local Mayor. It was a lovely event that truly celebrated the huge achievements that the children had attained from completing their particular level of the award. Due to current Covid-19 restrictions this year’s ceremony has had to be temporarily postponed until next academic year. Rest assured this will take place as soon as it is safe to do so and all children will receive their awards. Miss Harris is looking forward to welcoming the new Year 1 pupils who wish to embark upon the Civic Award journey in September.

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day on 8th May was celebrated whilst the School was in lockdown for

Covid-19.

The School was still open for the children of Key Workers. Here are some of the children at School today marking VE Day with Mrs Baker and Mrs Loftus.

World Museum Liverpool Visit In February, Reception visited the World Museum in Liverpool. Each class had an education session about minibeasts. They also looked closely at different minibeasts such as a tarantula, millipede, stick insects and cockroaches learning some interesting facts about them. Afterwards they had the opportunity to view them close up under a microscope to observe them. The children enjoyed exploring the different exhibits in the museum. The Aquarium exhibit was very interesting and the children really enjoyed the ‘Dinosaur’ and ‘Bug House’ exhibits.