Prep for the Week Issue | 1793

Prep for the Week Issue Number 1793– 17 April 2015

In this week’s issue…

Headmaster’s Welcome Upper School News Notices The Art Department News Kingfishers News Girls’ and Boys’ Sport Lower School News Birthday Celebrations Middle School News The School Week Ahead

Special Achievements

Miss S E Ramsay, Head of PE, Swimming and Girls' Sport England and Olympic Hockey Player, Georgie Twigg, attended Cheltenham Hockey Club’s award evening last month, giving an inspirational speech highlighting her love of hockey, whilst juggling her studyies to pass her Law degree at Bristol University.

Fifi and Annie in Year 6 were awarded Gold Medal status for their stick skills, which is a huge achievement for the age group and rarely awarded.

Isabella, also in Year 6 achieved a high score to be awarded a Silver Medal.

As a result of her training with JAC Hockey (Junior Academy Centre), Jemima in Year 8 has now been selected to attend the next level training camp for the Bristol Centre.

The competition at JRPC (Junior Regional Performance Centre) is at a much higher level and we wish Jemima all the best with her goal keeper training.

Miss S E Ramsay, Head of Girls' Sport

Well done girls!

Well Done to Zak in Year 5, who won the first round of the Belgium Max Challenge over the Easter break.

TO KEEP UP TO DATE ON ALL THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE PREP PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE Prep for The Week Issue Number 1793– 17 April 2015

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Headmaster’s Welcome Welcome back! How lucky we are to start the Summer Term with such beautiful weather and all have returned in good heart.

Much was achieved in the holidays and my thanks to Messrs Dawson and Simpson for running the mini rugby tour, which included a highly creditable quarter final appearance in the National Rugby 7s tournament at Rosslyn Park. My thanks also go to Mr Murray and Mrs Seamark for a very successful ski trip. My congratulations to Mr Hall and the 1st boys’ hockey squad who reached the quarter finals of the IAPS national hockey tournament.

In my first assembly I have emphasised three themes for the term: 1. Inclusivity – it is essential that we all work to involve the whole community in all that we do. From the simple games organised by children to the ethos of the whole school as promoted by the staff, we must strive to offer all appropriate opportunities.

2. Engagement – we must ensure that we avoid going through the motions, instead striving to engage with the people around us. Whether it is a crucial lesson on a challenging topic or a simple greeting in the morning, we must all seek to engage with each other.

3. Finishing the job – the Autumn Term is when we set off at the start of a new adventure in a new academic year. The Spring Term is the difficult bit in the middle.

The Summer Term is when we finish off the job.

At the end of last term, I referred to several children who definitely had 'Finished the Job' by achieving successes in scholarship and entrance examinations.

However, I must apologise for omitting the following: Ian Chakravati has passed into Pate's Grammar, William Henry to Sir Thomas Rich’s and Bella Isaachsen to Ribston Hall. Ollie Elliott gained a Sports Scholarship at 11+. Congratulations to all and, once again, my sincere apologies.

Since my arrival, it has been necessary to appoint several members of staff and, in doing so, I have aimed to achieve three things: 1. The appointment of the best teachers available. The successful appointees are expected not only to be first class teachers, but also to make a strong contribution to all other aspects of school life.

2. The introduction of new ideas and attitudes into the staff room.

3. A recognition of existing strengths within the staff room, hence the appointments of Dr Gilmour, Mrs Wells and Mrs Conner.

There is always a balance to be achieved between a healthy turnover of staff and a settled Common Room. I now hope that we have achieved that balance.

To complement these appointments, I can confirm that the refurbishment of the Prep School will begin with the transformation of the Middle School building. This will become our Science and DT block. The Science labs will be improved to the standard of the recently refurbished College Science labs whilst the new DT suite will await the arrival of Mr Boyd before being completed next Summer. In this way, the teacher responsible for Design Technology can ensure that the rooms are fitted out exactly as required.

As well as welcoming several new children, I am also happy to introduce three new members of staff. Mr Webber will teach Science to Years 5, 7 and 8 for the Summer Term and Mr Rees will teach Science to Year 6.

Miss Kerry Brown joins us as our new Resident Matron in the Boarding House.

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Ongoing is the detailed planning for the second and final phase of the refurbishment of the Prep.

An underlying attitude will be the re-arrangement of the classrooms so that Years 5-8 will be taught in departmental areas. Although Middle School will exist as an important administrative unit, it will not be re-housed as one entity. Forms will have their base wherever their form teacher teaches. For example, if your child’s form teacher is Mr Dawson, who teaches English, the form room will be in the English Department. If it is Mr Baird, the Head of History, it will be in the History Department. I can assure you that this is not detrimental to pastoral care, especially those in Year 5. The success of pastoral care is 99% people and not buildings.

Further information about this re-organisation and the exciting plans for the Cottage, Kingfishers and the Library will be offered to you as final decisions are reached.

Minor alterations, which have already taken place, involve the re-organisation of office accommodation at the front of the school: What was my office is now 'The Drawing Room' and this will be used to receive parents. Where my PA used to be, now accommodates the Registry. Mrs Jenkins has moved to a new office adjacent to Mr Jenkins’ office and her old office will be used my new PA, Miss Sally-Ann Kent, who arrives in June. I now occupy the final office in the row, in Yard Hall.

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1793– 17 April 2015

Included in the preparations for the new academic year in September is the re-forming of classes and allocation of classes to teachers. Please be aware that we will not be making these decisions until after half-term and I will aim to communicate them to you by 12 June at the latest.

I have already mentioned the fine weather. However, as we know warm early Aprils do not necessarily mean a consistently warm Summer Term. Therefore, please use common sense when advising children what to wear, whether it is their Summer or Winter uniforms. All that I ask is that whatever the choice, it is the correct uniform and that when the whole school photo is taken, you adhere to our choice of uniform for the day.

To conclude, a mention of four new arrivals. Last Thursday, with the invaluable help of Mr Alan Hocken and his brother Paul, I took delivery of four Saddleback pigs from Cirencester Market. They are now happily ensconced in our embryonic farm (Lake Farm perhaps) and hopefully will soon be joined by sheep and chickens.

My best wishes for a successful term and I look forward to seeing you out and about around school.

Mr J F Whybrow

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Notices il: T hursday 23 Apr Trip to Weston Year 6 Geography

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Kingfishers It has been lovely to welcome back our boys and girls this week. They have returned to school ready to learn and engage with their friends and staff. This week I have seen all manner of things happening around the department. A trip in a sea plane in Year 1, to learn about our seas and oceans; a number of alarmingly large minibeasts crawling around in Reception and the Cottage, and Year 2 participated in their ‘cross country’ around the school field.

Our children are thrilled to play with their friends again and this term they will continue to learn some traditional playground games. In addition to the usual football on the field, watch out for some quick cricket, skipping, basketball and even four square. Our boys and girls are outstanding playmates and it was super to see so many special yellow leaves awarded by Mr Whybrow this week in assembly. Well done Kingfishers!

Mrs R L Buttress, Head of Kingfishers

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Lower School Our Year 4 children will be investigating explorers and discoverers from the past in History this term.

This week, the children have been learning how early explorers would not have had maps and therefore not known where they were travelling.

The children’s task was to use their knowledge of the world's continents and countries and try to draw the world map from scratch...!

Have a go yourself and see how many continents and countries you can draw in the right place!

Miss K E Stovold, Lower School Class Teacher

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Middle School Year 6 3D Printing.

Explore, Plan, Do, Improve. That is the mantra in ICT lessons in Middle School. Last term, as part of their weekly ICT lessons, pupils in Year 6 used an app called 123D Creature to design creatures of their own. The app runs on the iPads used in lessons and allowed the classes to design, construct and refine creatures of their own design.

Each of the three classes read each other’s work to see who planned, built and reviewed their work to the highest quality. The top two designs from each class were printed on the Ultimaker2 3D printer which we borrowed from the Design & Technology Department in the Senior College.

The figurines you can see in the pictures above took in total, 17 hours to print. While the figurines may only be small, our pupils can now understand how the potential of computer aided manufacture is huge and, at least at the Prep, more accessible than ever before.

Well done to Jemimah, David, Rory, Matt, Laura and Finn for their excellent work.

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Dr A H R Isaachsen, Director of ICT

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Upper School News Positions of Responsibility: 2015, and beyond.

We have started to think about future Prefects and Positions of Responsibility for the next academic year, and I would like to see Year 7 becoming more visible around school, and to think about what they understand as being important in leadership and responsibility.

I have spoken this week to Year 7 about what positions of responsibility they would like to hold, and invited them to write letters of application, setting out their reasons for applying for that position, as well as what they think they could bring to that role.

Staff will be looking carefully at how all of the year group conduct themselves and how they encourage other children to speak up, do their best and act in a way which inspires all of our community. How can they act as positive role models? This is a difficult question to answer at an age when there is pressure to act independently, perhaps, but one which should be considered by those keen to aim for any position of responsibility.

We look forward to seeing Year 7 and 8 continuing to show the way in terms of behaviour and performance, in all areas of our school and community. In addition, we will be monitoring how the Year 7s perform when they work with the current prefects during their duties, and then later, when they carry out these duties independently towards the end of the Summer Term. I am sure they will rise to the challenge and enjoy taking some responsibility for the smooth running of the school!

Mrs S Reid, Director of Upper School

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The Art Department News Prep parents and friends are warmly welcomed to the following event in June. Places are limited, so please do contact us soon if you would like to attend.

Portrait Master Class with Jacob Sutton Thursday 18 June 2015 6.30pm - 9.30pm

ÂŁ20 per person To include materials, wine and nibbles Limited spaces available All proceeds to TURF Charity

Register now A.Parsley@cheltenhamcollege.org Tel. 01242 522697

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Girls' Sport

Tennis trials got underway this week on our brand new Linton Astro!

Boys’ Sport Following on from the outstanding achievements in the IAPS Hockey the Boys’ Sport continued through the holidays. First up was the IAPS Small Schools 7s, a rugby tournament for schools with 50 or less boys in their top two years.

Our 1st VII were nothing short of outstanding. Strong wins over Spratton Hall, St Mary’s and Pinewood in the group stages put us through the quarter finals. Great Walstead were beaten 54-7 and Woodcote 31-7 in the semi final. We then came up against Sedbergh and their outstanding (and rather large) player. We fell just short in the final. However, finishing second in the country, for a Prep School of our size, is a great achievement.

Having finished this tournament we travelled to London to take part in the National School 7s at Rosslyn Park. For the third year in a row we topped our group, with strong wins over Cundall Manor, Barndardiston Hall and the Kenyan IAPS side. This put us through to the last 16 in the UK (as with our hockey). However, we fell just short against a well organised Millfield side on the show pitch, streamed live over the internet.

The end of the holidays saw the arrival of the sunshine and with it, the start of the cricket season. A couple of good days of pre-season prepared us for our pre-season matches against Cheltenham Cricket Club (CCC). Our boys showed us that there is plenty to be excited about in this coming season.

Our relationship with CCC was firmly cemented with the amazing cakes baked by our kitchen staff !

Mr Dawson and I are very proud of our boys and their achievements, both on and off the field.

Fingers crossed for a successful and sunny summer!

Mr D E Simpson, Head of Boys Sport

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Sunday, April 19, 2015 - Sunday, April 26, 2015 Sunday, 19 April 2015 11:00

Boarders in The Zoo (Full and Regular Flexi Boarders Only)

Monday, 20 April 2015 Week 2 (27) 20 - 26 April Speaking and Listening Week for Year 2

Wednesday, 22 April 2015 13:00

Departure for Tennis v St Hugh's (A): U13 7 pairs. Start 14:30. Pick up 17:15

13:15

Departure for Cricket v St Edward's (A): Colts A XI, Colts C XI. Start 14:15. Pick up 17:45

13:30

Departure for 3rd and 4th XI Rowing. Pick up 16:30

14:00

Cricket Training for 1st XI, 2nd XI, 5th VIII. Pick up 16:30

14:15

Cricket v St Edward's (H): Colts B XI, Colts D XI, Colts E XI. Pick up 17:30

14:45

Tennis v St Edward's (H): U11 2 pairs, U10 2 pairs. Pick up 16:30

14:45

Rounders v St Edward's (H): U11 IX, U10 IX. Pick up 16:30

Thursday, 23 April 2015 08:30

Upper School Assembly with Mr Tom Lambert until 09:00

09:00

Year 6 Geography Trip to Weston Super Mare. Returning at 16:00

11:00

Presentation on D-Day World War II History for Year 5. Visiting speaker Mr Kirk Steel (Assembly Hall)

16:30

11+ Experience for Current and Prospective Families (Years 4-5)

Friday, 24 April 2015 08:15

Coffee morning for parents of children in Middle and Upper School (Library)

09:15

Kingfishers Choir Recording (Chapel)

11:00

Chapel and Chamber Choir Recording (Chapel)

14:10

Congregational Practice Recording (Chapel)

14:50

Lower School Recording (Chapel)

Saturday, 25 April 2015 08:45

Departure for Cricket v Beaudesert (A): U9A, U9B, U9C, U9D (to include selected Year 3 boys). Start 10:00.

Pick up 12:45

09:00

Year 2 Cricket Club. Pick up 10:00

12:30

Departure for Cricket v Beaudesert (A): 2nd XI, 3rd XI, Colts B XI, Colts C XI, Colts D XI. Start 14:15. Pick up 18:00

14:15

Cricket v Beaudesert (H): 1st XI, 4th XI, Colts A XI. Pick up 18:00

Sunday, 26 April 2015 13:30

Boarders' Mountain Boarding (Full and Regular Flexi Boarders Only)

All changes and additions to the School Calendar are highlighted in yellow.

Cheltenham College Preparatory School Tel - 01242 522 697 Thirlestaine Road Fax - 01242 265 620 Cheltenham Email - theprep@cheltenhamcollege.org Gloucestershire GL53 7AB Website - www.cheltenhamcollege.org

Prep for The Week Issue Number 1793– 17 April 2015

Duty Mobiles: MS/US 07867 505721, LS 07789 938512, Kingfishers 07789 938514 Please email absentprep@cheltenhamcollege.org should you need to inform us of any absence from school

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