The Echo Summer 2013

THEECHO ECHO ECHO

Summer 2013 Edition

A LEARNING CENTRE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY! In the last few weeks of term, the excitement has been mounting in terms of what is going on within the confines of the building compound.

The erection of the partition boards to enable the ‘knock through’ to take place only served to heighten the excitement! However, when the children return to school in September, all will be revealed...

What is actually being constructed is a learning centre for the 21st century, comprising a multi-media Information and Communication Technology Suite, alongside a language rich fiction and non-fiction Library and Audio Centre. This much awaited addition to St Margaret’s will provide children with the opportunity to immerse themselves in ‘books’ and discover the joys of a wide range of literature, as well as enabling them to develop their study and technological skills.

Much research has taken place to ensure that the library will provide a welcoming and stimulating environment for learners of all ages.

As well as a vast array of reading matter, children will delight in the quirky seating areas, which include a large bay window, a variety of assorted bean bags and a selection of contemporary furniture which can be easily moved to take advantage of the large picture windows that span much of the building.

Children will be encouraged to visit the library at regular times throughout the school day, both during lessons and in their own free time. Those in the photograph were fortunate enough to have a sneak preview, but everyone else will have to wait until September...

Welcome to the Summer Edition of The Echo The academic year 2012/13 drew to a wonderful conclusion with a flurry of outstanding events, all celebrating the children’s achievements over the past twelve months. The words of our Year 6 children in their self-penned leaving song ‘see the pride on our faces’ perfectly reflect how we feel about, not only our senior pupils, but about every child at St Margaret’s. We bid a fond farewell to all of our leavers and send them off into the wider world secure in the knowledge that that they will individually and collectively make a significant contribution to society.

‘Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.

Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.’

I look forward to seeing you at the start of the new academic year and in the meantime I send you and your families good wishes for a restful summer.

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Reception HC Cash in on Coins!

As part of the Mathematics curriculum, the Reception HC children have been exploring ‘money’. To support their ‘growing’ theme they turned their role play area into a flower shop.

On not quite such a beautiful day as in the story, Kindergarten put on their coats and wellington boots and went on a Bear Hunt! The children weren’t scared. They went through the swishy swashy grass, through the river with a splash and a splosh, went squelch squerch through the mud, stumble tripped through the forest, heard hoooo woooo as they went through a snowstorm, tiptoed through a cave and found a BEAR! He had one shiny wet nose, two big furry ears, two big googly eyes...and so everyone ran back to Kindergarten as fast as they could! Kindergarten WILL go on a Bear Hunt again - it was great fun!

They created their own flowers and decided how much each one should cost;; they then made their own price labels and enjoyed selling the flowers to each other. The children had lots of fun taking orders, paying for flowers and even trying to work out how much change to give. Everyone enjoyed completing team money challenges; trying to find out how many ways to make a total amount and using ICT to play coin recognition games on the interactive whiteboard.

Waterworks in Reception KC The children in Reception KC have been learning all about everyday uses of water. As well as observing routine uses, they also went on a trip to Cotswold Country Park and Beach, where they observed water being used for recreational purposes. They then engaged in exploring floating and sinking, making predictions about a wide range of everyday objects. Since then the children have been busy working in pairs to make their own boats, which will hopefully float on water! Everyone loved doing bubble printing and exceeded expectations when they initiated joining forces to create a rainbow. Bubble trouble!

1J Visit Westonbirt The children in 1J had lots of fun on their visit to Westonbirt Arboretum. They enjoyed playing different games to find out what trees need in order to grow; everyone found out that trees need soil, light, air and water. They also had great fun making soil soup and, in order to find out what goes into soil, they mixed up grass, leaves, stones and even animal poo! The children thoroughly enjoyed working together as a team to build a den in the woods.

One of the highlights of the trip was collecting things from the ground to put into their collecting bags. The children found twigs, leaves, petals, pine cones and stones. When everyone got back to school they had fun creating a tree collage out of the things they had found. A fantastic and fun-filled day was had by all!

THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2013 EDITION

2B on Charity Walk

1T Grow a Tiny Seed 1T had enormous fun showing everyone how much they have learnt this term about how plants grow. During the term they planted various things, including sunflowers, broad beans and potatoes. The children investigated where plants will grow best - they put cress seeds on the window sill, in the cupboard, in the fridge and on the radiator. They then waited and waited and while they were waiting they worked hard to retell the story of Jasper’s Bean, using their imaginations to decide what Jasper’s seed would grow into. The children also printed symmetrical bean patterns, practising their doubling skills at the same time. They then spent a frantic week learning lines, painting costumes and practising their drama skills to finish the week by showing the school all they had learnt in their class assembly. They wowed their parents with their performance of ‘A Tiny Seed was Growing’. Well done 1T!

2H ‘Like to be Beside the Seaside!’

Year 2 were very lucky to spend a day at Cotswold Country Park and Beach, along with the Reception children, to support their Geography learning on ‘Seasides’. The outing began with an adventure through the park’s Nature Trail.

The children were able to find the hidden clues to spell a mystery word and spotted some excellent wildlife along the way. Waving to the canoeists at the end of the trail was a definite highlight and helped to kick off the children’s data collection for recording the amount of boats in a graph. Year 2 were very quick to see how the land has many different ways of being used as a beach and were able to then compare these to what you might find at a natural seaside. Although very busy, there was time to fit in some important traditional seaside activities and 2H loved the opportunity to take part in a sandcastle challenge with the Reception classes. There were some excellent designs and they all loved the opportunity to support the younger children.

Despite the weather, the children were determined to brave the temperature and enjoy a well-deserved ice-lolly to complete the fantastic day.

The children in 2B thoroughly enjoyed their charity walk. The morning started well, with plenty of enthusiasm, energy and no rain! With coats zipped up they set off down the track. It was a perfect opportunity for the children to try out their identifying skills on the local plants, from their science work earlier in the term.

On the walk, the woods were carpeted with bluebells and wild garlic; everyone agreed that the scent through the bluebells was definitely sweeter. Along the way the children discussed why they were raising money and who it would benefit. Let’s hope other young people will be able to enjoy the countryside just as much as Year 2B, after the whole school’s fundraising efforts on the walk.

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Year 3 Scrumptious Sandwiches!

The children in Year 3 have been learning all about sandwiches as part of their Design and Technology programme. They have made their own healthy sandwiches and have been busy taste-testing, as well as learning some basic culinary skills.

First they tried some shop bought sandwiches and had to comment on how healthy the fillings were, as well as the texture, appearance and taste. Next, it was time to evaluate different types of bread, such as pittas, ciabattas and bagels. For some, it was the first time that these breads had been experienced.

Perhaps the most important lesson was learning about hygiene and cutting and spreading skills in the kitchen. Each child had the opportunity to spread Marmite, jam and butter onto a slice of bread and then practise their cutting skills on tomatoes, celery and carrots.

The penultimate session saw the children design their own healthy sandwiches, taking into account all their research and taste testing from the previous weeks. As a year group, they discussed ways of making sandwiches both original and appealing. The finished products had a variety of fillings and great care was taken to ensure the sandwiches looked appealing and creative. Well done!

4B ‘Visit’ Belgium During European Week, 4B learnt about the physical and human geography of Belgium. Everyone researched the rivers, mountains and lakes in the country, they discovered the countries that border Belgium and found out that Brussels is the capital city.

3R Bring Calne to Life Everyone in 3R has been researching into their local area, concentrating specifically on Calne. The children have been fascinated by the history of the town and loved singing a song about the famous people in Calne’s past. They made up a new verse all about the famous Harris brothers once they had learnt about them! The children were lucky enough to have a descendant of the Harris family come into school and share lots of artefacts and photos about the Harris factory and its importance within the town. Everyone also went for a walk into Calne and spotted lots of blue plaques and had an interesting talk at the Heritage centre. 3R are now expert Historians on Calne!

The children enjoyed sampling some typical Belgian delights – chips and garlic mayonnaise! Mme Blackford explained to them that in Belgium the chips are sold in cones on the streets and so the children ate their chips in similar style. Dessert was a Belgian waffle and cream - delicious!

The class discovered that Hergé was a Belgian author. The adventures of Tintin were read with enthusiasm and everyone also had a go at using Hergé’s drawings of the boy reporter to try to copy the character. Research discovered that Snowy and Captain Haddock were two of Hergé’s favourite characters.

At the end of European Week the children enjoyed ‘travelling’ around Europe with their passports, in order to visit different countries and discover facts about them. Visitors to ‘Belgium’ were very interested in the display of posters and the facts that 4B had found out.

THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2013 EDITION

The Magnificent Mary Rose The children in Year 5 had a highly exciting day when they were among the first people to visit the new Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. Arriving at the museum, the children were taken for a gun drill activity; the gun crew had to take apart the cannon and clean out the barrel with a sponge. Next they placed the shot and gunpowder into the chamber then reassembled the gun. With a cry of ‘Have a care’ the leader of the gun crew set light to the fuse while everyone else took cover!

After lunch, Year 5 headed into the museum itself, bypassing the queue.

The museum is built around the remains of The Mary Rose with the thousands of artefacts placed where they were originally on the ship. There are exhibits showing the life of some of the crew members through their remaining possessions and even their faces recreated to bring them back to life. Interestingly, more of the wooden artefacts have survived than metal in the silt of the Solent. The skeleton of the ship’s dog was particularly poignant: he is believed to have been a type of terrier who was on the ship to keep down the numbers of rats. He was actually a paid member of the crew but when the ship started to sink, he was trapped by the sliding door of the carpenter’s cabin. He is now known by the name of ‘Hatch’.

4NC Learn About Road Safety The children in Year 4 have been learning how to keep themselves safe when out and about on the roads in Calne.

Everyone had a classroom session with the Wiltshire Road Safety Officer and looked at an interesting series of situations in which they might find themselves; they then discussed the best way of dealing with each one.

The children were given a booklet full of road safety information which they studied as part of the non-fiction section of this term’s reading challenge, so by the time they did their assessed walks they were full of useful information.

Groups of six children then put on fluorescent jackets and went out to test their knowledge in practical situations.

We are pleased to say that everyone did very well and even the teachers and helpers learnt a great deal!

Hopefully we can now all keep safe on the roads.

Year 5 Enjoy Swanage Earlier in the term, Year 5 went on a Geography field field trip to Swanage. Despite the rain on the first day, everyone enjoyed their three days and they managed to fit a lot into the short time spent there. On the second day, the children put aside their soggy surveys from Swanage town centre and drove west to look at the physical aspects of erosion at Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. The rocks and cliffs looked magnificent in the spring sunshine and everyone wrapped up warmly to protect against the strong breeze which was battering them on their walk. The trip was both productive and enjoyable, and inspired Year 5 in their work for many weeks after they returned.

It was an excellent way to experience Tudor History from first-hand evidence and gave everyone plenty of new information to discuss back at school.

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PRIZE-GIVING & SPORTS DAY

2013 PRIZE-GIVING & SPORTS DAY

2013

THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2013 EDITION

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6C Get Creative!

6G Try Tie-Dyeing The Year 6 children had a morning designing the latest fashion garment – a tie-dye t-shirt! Carefully thinking about how the pattern would look when revealed, they set about using a variety of different sized marbles and balls to create the required shapes.

Realising that an enormous amount of string was needed to make the tie-dye obvious, the children swirled it around their chosen sphere in a metronomic way. They chose to mix the primary colours and some secondary, although one colour Mrs Gordon mixed was not a pleasant looking green, so they decided not to use that dye! Blessed with a sunny day, the t-shirts were placed on the ground to dry after being in the buckets of dye for an hour. We hope you will agree, the end result looks amazing!

The Year 6 children had enormous fun this term in Art and Design lessons when making items for their bedrooms. To start with they all designed their own container made out of clay, most chose to make a cylinder shaped pot, but some opted for ‘sausage’ pots or cubes. Some of the containers even had lids! Rolling and joining the clay was challenging, but very successful.

Everyone then decorated these using 3D shapes that best represent themselves. The finished pots were painted in a range of beautiful colours and, finally, varnished. Next the children all designed a cushion, again destined for their bedrooms. Their plans were immensely varied; everything from little green monsters to penguins was chosen and all in a wide variety of colours. Some children bought in material from home, but most chose to dye fabric the exact shade that they thought would bring their design to life the best. Wadding, decoration, ribbons and other fastenings were all discussed! Finally came the sewing; ably abetted by a group of parents and Mrs Chester.

The children all cut out their fabric, made decorations and sewed their cushion using machines themselves. The final results were outstanding and will look fantastic back at home.

Lots to Learn During European Week Passports, please! The children spent European Week travelling around Europe gathering fascinating facts about the countries they visited and getting their passports stamped. They had breakfast at the St Margaret’s brasserie, made Swedish buns, Maltese Pastizzi, Austrian Kaiserschmarrn and tasted Belgian waffles!

Apart from these gourmet delights, the children also learnt about rivers and capitals, flags and famous people. The week ended with ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ and a closely contested battle between the southern and northern European countries.

Do you know which country supplies over 60% of its electricity by sources? We do! Can you say ‘hello’ in Icelandic? We can! rrenewable re n

St Margaret’s Preparatory School, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 0DF Tel: 01249 857220 Fax: 01249 857227 Email: office@stmargaretsprep.org.uk Website: www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk