Prep for the Week - Easter week 11

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1887 – 23 March 2018

In this week’s issue…

Headmaster's Blog and Commendations Kingfishers Update Lower School News Big Bang Science Day Treasure Island Photos Prep Sleep-Out Review Boarding House News Sport Updates Birthday Announcements

erm t g n i z a m a n a at e r What g a e v a H . d a we've h ! e n o y r e ev r e t s a E

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Headmaster's Blog Miss Charlotte Allen, who has covered Miss Charlotte Lewis’ maternity leave, leaves at the end of this term after a job very well done. We welcome Miss Lewis back at the beginning of next term.

Dear Parents We have made it to the end of the difficult bit in the middle and the school community is to be congratulated on how it has handled itself during an immensely busy and tiring time. Congratulations must go to those involved in the excellent production of Treasure Island which brought the term to a close. This, and the outstanding House swimming gala, are the important events which offer a focus to the end of term.

At this time, plans for the future begin to become clearer and it is important that I communicate some staffing news to you.

Mrs Di Stovold has announced her intention to retire at the end of the Summer Term after more than 25 years of service to the College. Di has been the mainstay of and inspiration for our nursery.

Many Old Cheltonians, who started their education in the nursery, speak warmly of their experiences and always make an effort to go and see her when they visit.

Mrs Christina Conner has been appointed to lead the Learning Support Department in the pre-prep at Richard Pate and will also leave at the end of the Summer Term. Christina’s 15 years' service to The Prep has been characterised by enthusiasm, warmth and, most of all, energy! Whether it has been as a highly motivated, and motivating, Head of House or a sympathetic ear as Deputy Head in Kingfishers, she has always offered nothing less than her best.

Mr Sam Powell has decided to teach abroad in the next academic year and is to be congratulated on his appointment to Dulwich College, Singapore.

Sam, in the short time that he has been with us, made an immediate impact in Lower School, inside and outside the classroom.

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As you would expect, preparations are already in hand to fill the vacancies created by these departures and I will keep parents informed of our progress in these matters.

During the Spring Term, many pupils face the challenges of examination, whether they are for scholarships or for entrance to other schools. The Prep has enjoyed some remarkable success this term and a full list is included in this week’s edition. However, let us also not forget those who tried for a scholarship or entry to another school but were unsuccessful and also those who found the gala challenging or auditioned for the play but didn’t get the part that they wanted. My favourite quote immediately springs to mind.

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the person who points out how the strong one stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who knows great enthusiasm, great devotion and the triumph of achievement and who, at the worst, if they fail, at least fail while doing greatly – so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

In other words, all who participate are worthy of praise whether they are successful or not; at least they had the courage to give it a go!

My thanks to the whole school community for their efforts during the term and, as always, to all parents who have supported not only the various activities, but also, and more importantly, the underlying ethos of The Prep.

I do hope that you are able to enjoy some time with your children over the Easter period and I look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 17 April. Even I, a keen skier, will be happy if we are not playing cricket and tennis in the snow!

Mr Jon Whybrow Headmaster

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Notices Scholarship Awards to Cheltenham College - 2018 ACADEMIC Alice Lily Willoughby Ruby Harry Sophie Eliana Henry Archie Finn Luke ART Isabelle Freya DRAMA Tillie DT Ben MUSIC Tom Charlie Jamie Tallulah Josh SPORT Ben Eva Isobelle Ollie Verity Isaac Joseph Nastya

Bradley Brown Cooke Coull Dawson Essenhigh Hale Hiscock McNeill Merheim-Kealy Richardson

Academic Exhibition, Sports Exhibition Academic Scholarship Academic Exhibition, Sports Exhibition Academic Scholarship Academic Scholarship, Sports Scholarship Academic Scholarship, Music Scholarship Academic Exhibition, Music Exhibition Academic Exhibition, Music Scholarship Academic Scholarship Academic Scholarship The Prain Scholarship (top Maths & Science), DT Scholarship

Hillman-Cooper Wood

Art Exhibition Art Exhibition

Dessalles

Drama Exhibition

Barltrop

DT Exhibition

Hesketh Keene Reid Thomson Yang

Choral Scholarship Music Scholarship Music Scholarship Music Scholarship Choral Scholarship

Cunningham de Quincey Adams Mace McGrath Rudin Tagg Tagg Zinoveva

Sports Scholarship Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition Sports Exhibition

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Notices

EXTERNAL AWARDS Lily Brown

Academic Scholarship, Malvern College

Willoughby Henry Eva

Academic Scholarship, Malvern College Sports Scholarship, Dean Close Art & Sports Scholarship, King's Gloucester

Cooke Hewer de Quincey Adams

11+ Sienna Grace

Baggioli Ren

Tom

de Quincey Adams

AWARDED PLACES AT: Isabella Mawdesley-Thomas Beatriz Martin-Artajo Tessa Leung Pavneet Harrar Alexander McCombie Ben Richards

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Art Exhibition, Downe House 11+ Acdemic Exhibition, Wycombe Abbey Academic Scholarship Cheltenham Ladies College Sports Scholarship, King's Gloucester

Cheltenham Ladies College Cheltenham Ladies College Cheltenham Ladies College High School for Girls, Gloucester Sir Thomas Rich's School Marling School

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Headmaster's Commendations Josh Yang

For gaining an improvement of over 10% in his English mock exam.

Alice Wheatley

For creating an original Easter Card for the charity 'Give Them a Sporting Chance'.

Tillie Dessalles

For gaining an improvement of over 10% in her English mock exam.

William Hall

For a significant improvement in his English mock exam score.

Verity Rudin

Molly Ropner

An outstanding piece of independent research on 'Great Women Who Changed the World'

James Futers

For a 20% increase in his English mock exam result. An excellent effort!

Isabella Hillman-Cooper For a significant improvement in her English mock exam score.

Angus Wragg

For a significant improvement in his English mock exam score.

Nina Blakey

For a 14% increase in her English mock exam score.

Outstanding achievement in Spanish.

Jason Mawundula

Finn Merheim-Kealy

For a 10% increase in his English mock exam.

A truly exceptional Microbit game, done completely independently.

Claudie MacInnes

Excellent effort and achievement in Spanish.

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Kingfishers Update Loony Languages Kingfishers enjoyed a special treat at Super Saturday with a visit from Miss Gooch, who taught them the days of the week and names of fruit in French through the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They enjoyed fruit bingo, followed by creating their very own days of the week fruit salad and finishing the session with pomme de terre paintings of caterpillars.

Très amusant!

KS1 Landing Day...

A host of famous people descended on Cheltenham Prep this week. To celebrate the end of our 'Hall of Fame' topic the children have come to school dressed as their favourite famous person. We had Florence Nightingale, Amelia Earhart, Lionel Messi and Michael Jackson just to name a few. The children took part in catwalks, interviews and painted life-size portraits of their famous self.

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Year 4 Enrichment – Persian New Year

Lower School News

To conclude this term’s fascinating Year 4 Enrichment topic where we have been looking at and making bread, we had a fabulous and inspirational visit from one of our parents Mr Navaei. He told us all about Persian breads and how they were made. The children thoroughly enjoyed sampling them with Persian dips and sweets. Following this, the class celebrated the Persian New Year, with Ryan Navaei explaining the significance of the Haft Seen Table. The pupils enjoyed a Nowruz feast; shirazi salad, Persian cucumber and yoghurt salad, feta and olives and baklava. Finally, they made cards and learnt some dances. Happy Nowruz to all our Persian friends!

Happy Holiday from Lower School We come to the end of another jam-packed term in Lower School and what fun we have had with our learning. From visits to Gloucester Cathedral and Viking Days for Year 4, to trips to our local area of Bath Road, Dundry Nursery and days in Forest School for Year 3, everyone has worked hard and played hard.

Even up to the end of term, we have had fun taking part in the annual Easter Egg Hunt. These are days that will not be forgotten. Neither will our Snow Day with fun sledging, snow ball fights with the teachers, building snowmen and hot chocolate for break.

As we finish for the term, our pupils know they have tried their best and achieved lots. Everyone is looking forward to the rest and fun of the Easter holidays.

Now we look forward to the Summer Term when we start our transition towards the next stage of school.

Over the term there will be a huge variety of events to help us all get prepared for our new learning and new responsibilities. We introduce these through a carefully crafted programme of events that allow everyone time to find out more about their next year. This helps our pupils go forward confidently and happily. Much more will be sent out about this at the start of next term, so please look out for the information to follow.

As ever, if you have any concerns or questions about this or any other aspect of Lower School, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mrs Grieves

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Treasure Island Performances Upper School Drama Activity’s production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, Treasure Island, was a triumph this week.

The spectacle of having real, working sails, the multi-purpose set that turned from ship to jungle, atmospheric music and special effects, sailors, redcoats and pirates, all contributed to a feast for the senses and very appreciative audiences. Congratulations to the cast, crew and all those involved.

Here are some of the best pictures from the week's performances...

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Year 7 Big Bang Science Day

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Prep Sleep-Out

To support the Cheltenham Open Door Charity, pupils from Year 7 took part in a 'SleepOut'. This links with the work they have been doing recently on homelessness. Here's what the pupils had to say about their experience...

Sleeping outside was a great experience for all of us that took part. We may not have been sleeping outside for the whole night, but we certainly got a glimpse of what it would be like to sleep rough. During the night we met the school security guard, who used to be a policeman. He talked to us about homelessness and how it felt having to move homeless people on. We also finished reading the book, Stone Cold (by Robert Swindells) which we were reading in our English classes. The book very much influenced the idea of sleeping rough. Stone Cold opened many of our eyes to what a growing problem homelessness is. We finished the evening with a well-deserved hot chocolate. After this experience, we have certainly learned to empathise with the plight of the homeless more than we did before.

All that took part in this activity would like to thank Mr Clarke for organizing it. We had a lot of fun and it was denfinitely very beneficial to all of us.

Molly Ropner 7J

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On Monday 19 March our Year 7 English class met with Rosie to interview her about the work of Open Door, a local charity which supports homeless people in Cheltenham. They are based in Grosvenor Street, and provide a variety of services such as hot food, laundry, washing facilities, as well as helpful advice and a friendly face.

We asked her questions such as 'What sort of dishes do you serve at Open Door?’, 'For how much longer would you like to work at Open Door?', “Why did you choose to work there?’ and so on. Rosie is passionate about her job and is Head Chef at the charity. She loves helping out the homeless. She told us she had been working at Open Door for four years, yet she showed no intentions for stopping working. She told us: 'I would do this until the end of forever.'

This truly shows how much she loves her job. Open Door's biggest challenge is a lack of space.

At the start of the interview, Rosie talked to us about her work, and asked us about our views on homelessness. The work of Open Door is interesting because their charity does not receive any money from the government: they get their funding solely from charitable donations. However, Rosie also said that the money she earns is only a reward for something she ‘loves doing'.

The reason we organised this interview with Rosie is because we are exploring homelessness in our Year 7 English class; we have been studying a book about the homeless called Stone Cold by Robert Swindells. Overall, we felt the interview was successful; we learnt more about the homeless and we were fascinated by her charity and the work of Open Door.

By Ethan Feinson and Ed Carter (Year 7 pupils)

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Boarding House Update The Boarding House enjoyed a busy final weekend of the Spring Term. Many of our Year 7s and 8s spent their Sunday rehearsing for the upcoming productions of Treasure Island. Luckily this time the snow didn't stop our trip out to Bristol Zoo, where the Boarders enjoyed meeting many different animals. They made the most of having the Zoo to themselves as not many people seemed to brave the weather and head outside. I enjoyed hearing accounts of encounters with Boarders' favourite animals at Sunday evenings' roast dinner. Many also returned with a stuffed version purchased from the gift shop!

Many thanks to Mr Patterson and Mr Yiend as well as Miss Shephard and Miss Roberts for braving the Arctic conditions and making the trip so much fun. We look forward to all the trips we have planned for the Summer Term, and fingers crossed for a little less snow and a bit more sun!

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Wednesday Wonder We were delighted to welcome dad of Bella and Poppy, Mike Charlesworth, to deliver our Wednesday Wonder. The theme of the talk, 'Being an Entrepreneur', focused on the decisions and challenges faced by Mike as he has journeyed through the development of his various business interests. What resonated most with the children as they participated in the session, were the close links between many of our Key Skills and Attributes and the qualities the group decided were necessary to be successful. Words such as resilient, determined and creative were used often and the children could begin to see how important these are outside the world of The Prep. Hearing how important it is to take risks in life which will, at times, result in valuable mistakes to be learnt from went hand in hand with the message that runs through our classrooms where the children are encouraged to push themselves outside of their comfort zone. Realising it's OK to be 'stuck' sometimes and develop the skills to use resources and collaboration to find a way out, in our safe and nurturing environment, is an integral part of the challenges we ensure the children face in their learning. The sense of achievement felt once a problem is resolved is huge and that internal motivation incredibly important for lifelong success. At the end of the Wednesday Wonder, the pupils, from both The Prep and College, had the opportunity to ask some super questions which demonstrated their genuine interest in the subject and certainly put Mr Charlesworth through his paces! Many thanks to him for giving up his time to inspire those who were able to attend.

More information about how we are further enhancing our Learning Culture at The Prep through the introduction of Building Learning Power will be shared in September but if you would like to learn more in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact Mrs Hamlyn, Deputy Head (Academic) or Mr Jenkins, Deputy Head (Pastoral).

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Participation y h t a p Em Challenge

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Sport Update Girls' Rugby Festival On Thursday, six Year 7 girls travelled to their first rugby festival, run by the RFU, at Newlands Park. It was a blustery day, but that didn’t dampen their spirits and they threw themselves into the games of touch, used as a warm up. A couple of schools couldn’t make it, however, we played two teams from Pittville School in a triangular competition. Although training has been disrupted this term through adverse weather and also choir practices, the girls hit the ground running and opened the scoring in each of their matches. There were some silky skills on display, with a pirouette getting them out of tackles on more than one occasion, as well as some hard hits in the tackle area to knock their opponents down.

Our girls ended the festival with 3 wins and 1 loss, a great achievement! I cannot fault the girls’ enthusiasm, integrity and commitment through both the weekly training sessions, as well as the festival, and they should be very proud to have taken themselves out of their comfort zones and into the wonderful world of contact rugby.

Boys' Hockey Results 1st VII vs The Elms, 3-2 win.

2nd VII vs The Elms, 4 - 0 win.

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U8 Hockey vs St Hugh's The Year 3 boys were delighted to fit in one final set of hockey matches to end the season. St Hugh's travelled to Cheltenham and took part in a brilliant festival with all teams playing four games each. The festival was mixed ability, but the hockey skills demonstrated showed how much progress has been in made in a short space of time. The two Cheltenham teams were unbeaten throughout, with one team winning all of their matches. It was a great way to finish the hockey season, as we now turn our eyes to the forthcoming cricket season.

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Staff vs Pupil Netball Match In what has become a much anticipated event in the Girls’ Sport calendar, the U13A 1st VII Netball Team, ended their season with a competitive match versus the staff. Traditionally this is always a good, close contest since many of the staff do play Netball outside school in the local fun leagues.

This year topped them all though – throughout the four quarters, there were never more than 3 points separating the teams. It was end to end, fast and furious Netball. It was looking like the staff had a slight edge, as they were always out in front during the first three quarters.

In the final quarter though, the determination and spirit of the girls shone through as they went on the attack, first closing the gap and then equalising. With less than 2 minutes to play, the girls went ahead by one. It was a tense finish, and with practically the last touch of the game, the staff managed to steal an equaliser, finishing the game at 15-15. A great game for the spectators as well as the players. Well done all!

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Notices Happy birthday to the following pupils who have their birthdays over Easter: Harry Dawson (13) Arabella Parry (12) Eva de Quincey Adams (13) Teddy Bennett (12) Harriet Keen (11) Claudie MacInnes (13) Amelia Jenkins (12) Martha Keene (7) Charles Mills (11) Beatrix Thomson (8) Jasmine Walker (7) Sarah Anstey (10)

BIRTHDAYS Daisy de Quincey Adams (8) Hector Evans (10) Joanna Robson (10) Maddi Gill (12) Benjamin Arnold (9) Zac McCarthy (9) Eliana Hale (13) Angus Wragg (13) Kitty Corbyn (8) Jules Hazeldine (10) Craig Simpson (10) Eva Tabatabai (7)

SWIM CRASH COURSE

Easter Camp Tuesday 3rd Friday 13th April 2018

AT CHELTENHAM COLLEGE SPORTS CENTRE

Monday 9th – Friday 13th April

ONLY

£50

30 minute lessons Small Groups LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE! DISCOUNTS 10% for Swim School 15% for NHS staff 20% for Cheltenham Activity Camps (Extended week ONLY!)

In partnership with

Swim School

www.cheltenhamactivitycamps.co.uk 01242 705 551 CAC-033 Local Answer Easter advert half page AW.indd

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Notices

Friends of The Prep invite you to join in the fun at the...

PARENTS’ CRICKET AND TENNIS TOURNAMENT

SUNDAY 10 JUNE If you would like to enter the Doubles Tennis tournament, please contact Lucy Hill on lucy24bennerley@yahoo.co.uk Don’t worry, you don’t need to have a doubles partner - this is a friendly tournament where partners swap after each match!

If you are a cricketer and wish to participate, please contact Tim Buttress on tim.buttress@hotmail.com A delicious match tea will be served at 15.30.

Thank you and we really hope you can come, the event will be a lot of fun!

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