The Echo Spring 2019

THEECHO ECHO ECHO

Spring 2019 Edition

Year 6 Exam Successes!

Children in Year 6 have impressed once again this year with an excellent set of examination results. As ever, they all acquitted themselves extremely well and the wide-ranging list of senior schools to which they will go in September illustrates the importance we place upon matching our pupils to the senior environment that will best enable them to thrive. The children’s achievements come as a result of their diligence, positive attitudes and a real desire and Olivia ​​​​Abbeyfield Teigan​​​​ Abbeyfield Alexander​​​ Dauntsey’s Elis​​​​ Dauntsey’s Xanthe​​​​ Dauntsey’s​​​ Harry​​​​ Dauntsey’s ​​​​ King Edward’s, Bath ​​​​ Kingswood ​​​​ Leehurst Swan ​​Academic Scholarship ​​​​ Millfield Prep​​​ All Rounder Scholarship ​​​​ Stonar​​​​* Music & Sport Scholarships ​​​​ Westonbirt​​​ All Rounder Scholarship ​​​​ Warminster​​​​​ Frederick​​​ Kind Edward’s, Bath Hugo ​​​​King Edward’s, Bath*​​​​​​​​​​

Stonar​​​​ Sport Scholarship

determination to be the best that they can possibly be. Alongside that, they are without doubt one of our most supportive year groups, encouraging each other and celebrating individual and collective successes along the way; they will undoubtedly be an asset to their respective secondary schools! We offer congratulations to the children and sincere thanks to all the staff for their unstinting support and guidance along the way…

George ​​​ Saskia​​​​ Zahara​​​​ ​​​​ Hermione​​​ Georgina​​​ Bo​​​​ Fenella​​​​ Millie​​​​ Amelia​​​​ Sophie​​​​ Luke​​​​ Kirsten​​​​ Max​​​​ Aimee​​​​

Prior Park College Rendcomb College Rendcomb College* Westonbirt Sherborne Girls St Mary’s, Calne St Mary’s, Calne​​ St Mary’s, Calne St Mary’s, Calne St Mary’s, Calne St Mary’s, Calne Stonar​​​​ Stonar The Dragon Warminster

* Denotes chosen school

Welcome to the Spring 2019 Edition of The Echo As we reach the end of the spring term, the school year is already two thirds completed. The dark January mornings and the snowy February days are long gone and there is much to look forward to as the summer months approach. Whilst always the shortest term in the school calendar, this is also the time when we start to notice significant changes in the children. The very youngest are becoming confident and secure in their knowledge of school life, its routines and expectations.

Reading begins to have a purpose and there is an increasing understanding that those all-important squiggles on the page actually mean something!

At the other end of the school, having worked extremely hard for their recent examinations, the Year 6 children, alongside their normal day-to-day school activities, are also eagerly anticipating an exciting term including residential trips, cookery, the summer production and many other wonderful things designed to enrich their final months here at St Margaret’s!

I hope you enjoy reading this edition of The Echo and find something special in the content. I send children, staff, parents and friends my good wishes for a peaceful Easter holiday and look forward to seeing you in April for the final term of this academic year.

Music Scholarship

Sport Scholarship

@StMargaretsPrep

Brilliant Bakers in 5G Children in Year 5 had an excellent series of lessons this term with Peter Vaughan (Adopt a Chef), learning about bread making. Initially, they were shown how different grains affect the taste of bread and how important the wholegrain is for healthy eating. It is the gluten in wheat which gives bread its elasticity and kneading the dough stretches the gluten. Of course, tasting was important too! Having learnt about the science behind baking, the children made their own soda bread, using natural yogurt as well as two types of flour; the results were delicious!

Next, the children were introduced to yeast and its role in making bread rise. The aroma of yeast was soon filling the room as the bakers created a dough, which was allowed plenty of time to ferment before it became the base for their pizzas. They combined strong white flour and wholemeal flour to create an individual base and learned how to stretch the dough using just their hands. For the topping, everyone chose his or her own ingredients and herbs to make a personalised pizza. The finished results were scrumptious! To finish the programme, the children had to design their own bread product, using all the knowledge they had gained.

Year 6 Embrace Acids and Alkalis As part of their scientific study this term, Year 6 have learnt about the importance of acids and alkalis in our world. Many of the children were aware of acids used in laboratories, but were surprised to learn about the many natural acids found all around them, from vinegar to sour fruits; acid is even found in your stomach.

In the Science laboratory, the children tested a range of household items ranging from lemon juice to washing powder. Using universal indicator paper and the pH scale, they were able to identify whether the solutions were weak, strong, or neutral. The class could not wait for the following week when it was their turn to make a natural indicator by chopping red cabbage, mixing it with water and heating the mixture with a Bunsen burner. The laboratory smelt of hot cabbage! The resulting mixture was strained and the bright purple liquid was used as an indicator. The remaining red cabbage was poured over filter paper, dried and then painted using different strengths of acids and alkalis. The filter paper pictures are a work of art!

Poles Apart in 1C This term, the children in 1C have learnt all about explorers.

During their work on Scott of the Antarctic, they got into character and immersed themselves in role-play, acting out Scott, his wife (Kathleen) and son (Peter). They retold events and explored feelings and emotions resulting from the illfated Terra Nova Expedition. To engage fully with this activity, everyone dressed-up and used a range of voices to depict the characters. Other activities included writing letters from Scott to his family and using a timeline to sequence historical events. The children were then introduced to the adventures of Captain Cook. Everyone worked hard to make geographical and historical comparisons between the two explorers. Their learning was consolidated further through a class assembly, which included the children retelling Scott’s expedition by adding their own historical lyrics to a familiar tune!

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Alternative Fairy Tales in 2J Kindergarten Blossom!

The children in Kindergarten love exploring different ways of painting, and as part of their Chinese New Year celebrations, Mrs Harris came and showed them yet another way to be creative!

Everyone put a splash of paint onto paper and then gently used a straw to blow it into patterns that resembled tree trunks. They then used cotton buds to add blossom to their trees; what perfect Chinese blossom artwork!

The children in 2J enjoyed looking at fairy-tales this term. They started by looking at ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and had great fun acting out this familiar story using stick puppets. The class then read an alternative version called ‘The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig’. Everyone enjoyed this story so much that it was acted out for the class assembly. Finally, the children had a go at writing their own alternative Three Little Pigs story by changing the characters. They had the ‘Three Little Dogs and the Big Bad Rat’, ‘The Three Little Fishes and the Big Bad Shark’, and ‘The Three Little Goats and the Big Bad Bull’, to name but a few!

4T are Shaping up Well!

This term, ‘Maths No Problem’ has proved to be great fun in 4T. The children learnt how to calculate the area and perimeter of different shapes. They also investigated if shapes could have different areas but the same perimeter, or the same area and different perimeters. They then used grids and squares to challenge each other to make a variety of shapes. The class discovered that it is important to divide units of measure equally and that they can use their understanding of fractions to help with this. The most important thing that they learnt was that immediate recall of their times tables is vital!

1H Explore Materials In Science, the children in 1H have enjoyed their unit on Materials.

They loved becoming scientists and exploring different everyday materials. Everyone demonstrated excellent knowledge in naming a variety of materials and identifying their properties. They were also very keen to learn new vocabulary such as ‘opaque’ and ‘brittle’, in order to describe the materials that they studied; skills, which they then then used to investigate the school grounds during an exciting material hunt!

Trainee Embalmers in 5S As part of their learning about Ancient Egypt, Year 5 visited Bristol Museum to find out more about this fascinating civilisation. As well as the opportunity to handle artefacts from this ancient era, the pupils were able to visit the Egyptology section of the museum and come face to face with some 5000-year-old mummies. Back at school, they were given bodies of their own (tomatoes) to mummify.

These ‘bodies’ were cleaned, packed with natron (a mix of bicarbonate of soda and salt) to dry them out, and their organs stored in Canopic jars. To help them find their way to the Afterlife, the children learnt how to write in hieroglyphs, and made cartouches for the journey.

Place Value Professionals in 2N! 2N have been working hard to extend their place value knowledge in Maths. With tens and units well understood, they have been able to tackle trickier calculation methods this term and they are feeling proud of themselves! The children have enjoyed practising the column addition and subtraction methods and they know to be especially careful when the units add up to more than 10. In order to master these more challenging methods, they have taken opportunities to practise here, there and everywhere around school – practice makes perfect! Their favourite spot to consolidate this learning has been out in the winter sunshine, using chalks on the playground.

3L Box Clever In Design and Technology, Year 3 have been exploring different types of packaging. The children really enjoyed a visit from the company ‘Tin Horse’ in Marlborough who create packaging for different companies including Unilever. They were able to ask many interesting questions and learnt about the process of creating and making a range of different designs. They particularly enjoyed looking at the different shaped bottles and how they are designed to appeal to the user by colour, texture and size. The children worked hard on their own designs and practised their skills of measuring, designing and scoring to create boxes. They enjoyed learning how different nets create different shaped boxes and the importance of cutting the correct lines to make their shapes.

THEECHO ECHO ECHO SPRING 2019 EDITION

Environmentally Friendly 4NC 4NC have studied sustainability in Geography this term.

They began by looking at personal sustainability; how to look after themselves with a healthy lifestyle including daily exercise, sensible food choices and getting enough sleep. They used their Design & Technology lessons to cook using a range of vegetables and even enjoyed their first homemade vegetable curry, as well as a Middle Eastern salad! The children also went for a walk around the school grounds, measuring the distance and deciding how they might include exercise on each day of the week. After completing questionnaires about their recycling at home, they then started writing letters to key people at school to improve what we do here. Next, they investigated different forms of eco-friendly energy. Do you think we could have some solar panels on the school roof or maybe we can find a site for a wind turbine! The children will be following up this work on their field trip to Mill on the Brue in May, an environmentally friendly site where they can study and experience all these things in action.

Maths is No Problem for 3R! As part of their ‘Maths No Problem’ lessons, the children in Year 3 have loved developing their understanding of all different kinds of measure - volume, mass and length.

They learnt which standard unit of measure is correct for different questions and challenged themselves with great practical activities. Everyone managed to link this newfound learning with their science investigations and put their skills to practical use by measuring the size of people of various ages. The children’s work culminated in some deeper level challenges, which saw them explore the playground. They measured with improved accuracy and then set about trying to problem solve ‘How many playgrounds would fit into a kilometre?’ It was a difficult task but everyone loved stretching their minds and working in teams to share their ideas about how to tackle the problem.

The Chinese Dragon Roared into Reception!

Reception children had an exciting time this term learning about celebrations from around the world and their favourite celebration was definitely Chinese New Year. Amazing crosscurricular learning took place as the children learnt the story behind the festival. This in turn led to a wonderful maths activity where they ordered the animals by the place in which they finished the great race. Everyone thought about feelings linked to the animals and how kindness is something we should always show to others. The culmination of the children’s activities was to make a creative mask and perform as a Chinese dragon.

Everyone danced around the school and even played instruments to accompany the dancing!

www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk School Council Showcase The School Council at St Margaret’s comprises four Officers from Year 6 and a representative from each class. The Officers’ roles include the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary.

During the first week of term in September, children who are keen on becoming Officers prepare a speech and present it to the Prep Department in assembly. Each child then votes for the person they think would be the best Officer.

The entire School Council meets once a term and the Officers meet every week to plan events and to check suggestions that children have raised via the Ideas Box. So far this year the School Council has organised two events to raise money for Evie’s Gift - a stall at the Christmas mufti day event that raised around £690 and a Valentinethemed cake bake, which raised over £200. They also organised a pyjama day in February to raise funds jointly for Evie’s Gift and for equipment for the playground and collected £170. In the past, school council projects have included designing and arranging the construction of the weather vane and clock in the playground, as well as providing class backpacks for outdoor learning. New and enthusiastic Reps and Officers will be required in September!

Regional and National Success in Sport During the autumn term, a group of Prep children travelled to Millfield School to attend the regional heats of the British Schools’ Modern Biathlon Championships. An amazing 10 children subsequently qualified for the National Finals, which were held at Crystal Palace Stadium in March.

We are also eagerly awaiting the results for the children who competed in the IAPS Regional Swimming Heats held at St Margaret’s in early February. Any qualifying swimmers will go on to compete at the London Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park in the summer.

This term, a team of runners from the Prep department took part in the annual Westonbirt Cross Country Tournament, with some stunning team results. Both the U8 girls and U9 boys finished as bronze medallists, whilst the U9 and U10 girls were awarded silver medals in their respective categories.

St Margaret’s Preparatory School, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 0DF Tel: 01249 857220 Email: office@stmargaretsprep.org.uk Website: www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk

@StMargaretsPrep