The Preparatory School – 2022 Highlights

The Preparatory School

2022 Highlights

Learning at the Preparatory School is not a passive exercise. Boys learn best when they are actively involved in exploration. Immersive opportunities crafted within active learning experiences allow them to question, explore, collaborate, test ideas, find solutions, experience failure, learn persistence and make their own connections.

We believe our boys respond well to authentic learning experiences that are connected to their world. Often, they do not realise that through their experiences, they are demonstrating practical implementation of Mathematics, Science and other learning disciplines. Experiential learning can also be important for allowing children to encounter failure or learn how to overcome setbacks and challenges. They feel personally rewarded when they succeed through their own experimentation and persistence.

Importantly, experiential learning is collaborative and enables children to discuss strategies, listen to other ideas and work through problems rather than following a set formula to arrive at an answer. Often experiential learning spawns more questions and wonderings. These become the seeds for further personal inquiry.

Most importantly, learning at Prep is holistic, centred on real-world experiences and fun, as the following snippets from life at the Prep School will attest.

Mr Peter Allison Head of the Preparatory School

Year 6 choir

Year 6 boys take action for a positive change

The inaugural Global Issues Symposium was hosted by Year 6 students at the Preparatory School. As part of the PYP Exhibition, Year 6 students discussed and offered solutions to real-world problems. This student-led symposium allowed the boys to present both knowledge and hope to the School community.

Year 6 identified 27 issues of global significance. The boys’ interests ranged from endangered species to food security, from sustainable farming to artificial intelligence. They worked in groups to conduct in-depth research, interview primary sources, and take action for positive change.

At the symposium, each group presented findings and fielded questions from the audience. During the closing ceremony, Year 6 joined as one group to perform This is our Home, a rousing choral work composed by the students in collaboration with Sam Weiss, a professional composer.

Following the event, the symposium reached a global audience. A website was shared with IB schools around the world. Students from multiple countries viewed the boys’ presentations and left constructive feedback.

Year 6 students have shown themselves to be inquisitive, passionate young men. They understand global issues and are determined to make a positive impact on the world.

Year 6 choir performs at International Baccalaureate (IB) Global Conference in Singapore The first class of Kingsbridge graduates from the Prep School

When Kingsbridge opened its gates in 2015, it gave 18 boys the opportunity to begin their King’s experience from the earlier age of 4, immersing themselves in the School’s culture and embracing all of the Pre-Kindergarten experiences that nurture little minds and bodies in preparation for the primary years.

“For the past eight years, Pre-Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Anna-Claire Coore, has been at the Kingsbridge gates welcoming the boys each morning with a smiling face as they said goodbye to mum and dad before starting their busy day of learning and play. Anna-Claire has been an integral part of Kingsbridge from the very first day,” says Belinda Baxter, Deputy Head – Students & Community. In 2022 the first class of Pre-K boys and Anna-Claire said their farewells to The King’s School, Preparatory School, with the boys setting their sights on Senior School and Anna-Claire retiring.

The boys, along with Anna-Claire, and Pre-Kindergarten Teacher’s Assistant Mrs Erin Strawbridge, recreated the photo taken with the first Pre-Kindergarten class in 2015. While the boys are much taller, wiser and ready for their next challenge, we can still see the same happy faces and the mateship is as strong as it was seven years ago.

A 2022 highlight for the Prep School was the Year 6 performance at the International Baccalaureate (IB) Global Conference in Singapore. The boys delivered a choral performance showcased by video for hundreds of teachers and educational leaders from IB World Schools across the globe. The boys sang Ngailu: The boys in the stars, composed by Dan Walker, a song that was embedded in the ‘How the world works’ inquiry into the solar system.

High tea at Kingsbridge

Pre-Kindergarten students welcomed their parents to Kingsbridge for the annual Biggest Morning Tea. Dressed for a high tea and looking incredibly dapper, the boys performed a rendition of ‘I’m a Little Teapot’ amongst other songs, before serving an array of treats and tea to their loved ones, all while raising awareness of Cancer Council NSW.

Pre-Kindergarten 2015

Prep camp

Adventure is the key to a King’s education

In 2022, there was a greater focus on aligning the Outdoor Education program with the learning outcomes from the boys’ PYP Units of Inquiry.

Outdoor Education gets more exciting every week at Prep. From learning to build shelters in the bush to cooking damper over the fire pit, the boys are learning life skills as well as participating in a range of physical activities, including the introduction of canoeing to develop their gross motor skills.

Year 3 students created an Indigenous garden filled with bush tucker and native plants as they undertook a geography inquiry. Meanwhile, Year 4 and Year 5 boys learned about the benefits of exercise, balance, coordination and road safety through an outdoor educational bike riding unit. As part of a ‘Who we are’ inquiry into wellbeing, the boys developed sensory awareness, spatial reasoning and visual attention, as well as practising mathematical skills of mapping and measuring time, speed and distance.

For the first time at the Prep School, Year 6 boys participated in a Cadet experience involving a range of Cadet lessons including camouflage and concealment, how to march, physical training and how to prepare and pack. The experience culminated in a camping event on campus where the boys set up camp for the night on the Massie Fields, before heading off on the Lake Parramatta bush walk with their hiking packs.

On Tour with sport Art for peace

Prep School footballers headed to Central West NSW at the end of Term 3 for a football tour. Practice games against the Senior School 13 As gave the boys a chance to practice playing games with 11 a-side. The tour was extremely successful, with the boys winning three of the four futsal games against Macquarie Anglican Grammar School and convincing wins against Orange Anglican Grammar School (10-2) and Scots All Saints Bathurst (14-1). The tour was well supported by approximately 24 parents and siblings, many of whom had never been to Dubbo. The group enjoyed some time off the field as well, visiting Taronga Western Plains Zoo and the Royal Flying Doctors Base during their stay.

Rugby teams travelled to Armidale to participate in the 16th Annual TAS Rugby Carnival at The Armidale School. The competition included more than 43 schools and club teams from NSW and Queensland, with more than 900 competitors, team coaches and supporters. The boys put in a great effort and displayed fantastic sportsmanship over the five games. The boys and their coaches said the tour was an opportunity to celebrate their strengths and identify areas of focus for the season ahead. In a Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum, students learn about global contexts to become open to the experiences and perspectives of others. When news unfolded of conflict in Europe the boys realised war impacts human rights.

Year 1 students decided to take action to create a more peaceful world. As Global Thought Leaders, they used artistic skills to communicate compassion. They looked at pictures of children leaving their homes in Ukraine and walking to safety. They realised it would be difficult for these children to play, attend school, have a home and stay warm. They referred to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to understand all children have a right to safety, protection and shelter.

In consultation with teachers at Pechersk International School (PSI - Kyiv), the boys were advised to send messages and stay connected to their global peers. Year 1 created artworks depicting love, care, peace, and safety. The messages were delivered to PSI and shared with primary-aged children in Ukraine.

This inquiry did not explore politics and was not distressing. Rather, the Year 1 boys developed understanding and compassion for children other than themselves.

Prep musicians take to the stage

Music at the Prep School continues to attract a large number of boys. Last year there were more than a dozen Prep ensembles, with almost 300 boys having instrumental lessons each week.

“The Prep School has a strong and longstanding appreciation for music and its influence on both the students’ education and the social environment of the School. From Pre-Kindergarten to Year 6, boys regularly perform for one another,” says Greg Blackman, Deputy Head - Co-Curricular.

Friday Soirees in Horrocks Hall welcome an appreciative audience of parents, staff and boys, and performances are a chance to celebrate the boys’ progress. These concerts include the Prep School Intermediate Band, Concert Band, String Orchestra, Chamber Strings, String Chamber Group, Guitar Group and Chamber Choir, as well as solo performances.

Performances also extend past the School gates, with musicians visiting the ARCARE Nursing Home for short concerts warmly received by the residents. Year 1 celebrated their mothers and the special women in their lives with a Mother’s Day chapel service and lunch. This event is a long-standing tradition at the Preparatory School and is a special day that is cherished by boys and their mothers, past and present. It is a time for the School to celebrate the bond between mothers and sons and to teach the boys to show gratitude for all their mothers do. In the lead-up to the day, Year 1 boys worked tirelessly to make thoughtful gifts and create the most stunning art pieces for their mothers. They also sang with angelic voices, not leaving a dry eye in the Trophy Room.

Kindergarten was thrilled to have their dads visit for the annual Father & Son Breakfast. The morning started with a Chapel service, followed by breakfast in the Trophy Room. The boys sang ‘I’m a Kingsman’, composed and conducted by Alexander Young in Year 6, ‘Nursery Rhyme Rap’, and ‘I love my Dad’. The traditional gift exchange, led by Mrs Baxter, provided an opportunity for fathers to give their sons a handmade item or a family heirloom to treasure for life. This day will live long in the memories of boys and dads.

Grandparents are treasured at The King’s School. To acknowledge and show appreciation for the ways in which grandparents enrich the boys’ lives, Pre-K to Year 2 brought in their special relatives or friends for a day of connection and celebration. The boys performed a series of their favourite songs before opening the classrooms to share their work with their special guests.

Immersive Indigenous education

Indigenous perspectives are embedded in the Preparatory School curriculum, within every grade and every subject area. They are woven intentionally through Units of Inquiry to give the boys deeper understandings and stronger connections to the oldest living culture on earth.

Throughout the year, a variety of learning experiences unfolded at Prep:

• Year 6 students visited the Tent Embassy in Canberra. They also studied the film

Rabbit-proof Fence to consider the struggle for rights by Aboriginal people throughout Australian history.

• Year 5 students learned about the role of the night sky and constellations in

Indigenous cultures as part of their inquiry into the Solar System.

• Year 3 students learned to dance from the Gumaraa mob. They learned about kinship, lore and ceremonies that have been passed down via oral storytelling.

• Kindergarten students learned about the deep connection the Dharug people have with the land and water around

Parramatta.

• All students regularly sing in Indigenous languages. In Buruwan Elegy by Luke

Byrne, they mourn the lives lost at the

Appin Massacre. The boys performed this song at the Global IB Conference in Singapore. They shared Torres Strait

Islander culture with educators from more than 47 different countries.

“We expect through regular and rich learning experiences, we are teaching our boys the appreciation, respect, integrity and courage they need to be a leader in Australia’s reconciliation journey,” says Shannon O’Dwyer, Deputy Head Academics.

Reconciliation matters to me because it fosters our relationships and grows stronger bonds in society. – Jaiden, 6S

Reconciliation matters to me because we need to remember what has happened in history and make sure we become friends who can forgive each other. – James, 6M