Upton Update Autumn 2019

Upton

Update @UptonHouseSch

Special Features Co-Education Plans

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Technology Week

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Nativity Magic

Welcome from Mrs Thornton Firsts all round at Upton House.

This incredible Autumn term has delivered an abundance of firsts, and opportunities for all. Our first assembly entitled ‘What will you do for the very first time this term?’ has certainly been a theme for the term!

First fixtures at The York Club; a stunning setting for matches and training. Sport continues to leap from strength to strength with an outstanding performance and success this year for the first time at IAPS Hockey and planned entries for the first time to IAPS Netball. The Upton Swim Squad was born this term and the first House Gymnastics Competition showcased such talent and skill.

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We never deviate from our core values, our academic success and preparation for life.

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Little Upton was fully open this summer for the first time. It is exciting to see it evolve and offer the wonderful EYFS care during holidays. Nursery were amazing in their performance of ‘Mary’s Knitting’, Transition excelled in ‘A Wriggly Nativity’ and Pre-Prep delighted us with ‘The Lucky Reporter.’ What fabulous performances!

The love of music is so clear to see at Upton. The choirs have performed at Maidenhead Festival and Windsor Festival and another first for Upton will be a performance in a choral concert at Charterhouse in March 2020. Form 3 participated in the Upton soirée for the first time as they begin their Prep journey.

We were delighted to showcase our co-ed curriculum to parents this term for the first time and share the many exciting plans and future investments for our boys and girls as we become a fully co-educational school.

Flowing alongside our many exciting firsts this term we never deviate from our core values, our academic success and preparation for life. These are at the heart of everything we do.

With so much uncertainly in the world it is a privilege to work with and build, in partnership with parents, such rounded young people who will most uncertainty make the world a better place.

Wishing you all a peaceful, healthy and happy Christmas.

Rhian Thornton

Contents 2 Welcome from Mrs Thornton 3 Co-Education Plans

It’s Parliament Week!

4 Lively language learning

8 Nativity Magic

5 Little Upton holiday learning &

10 Sporting Success

Meet Miss Solomon 6 Music Report 2

7 Technology Week & Order Order!

12 PTA News & Future Events

Co-Education Plans We are delighted to be welcoming our boys into the Prep department next year and offering a full co-education from 2 to 11 years. Upton has been successfully educating boys alongside girls to PrePrep and this will now continue into Prep. We fully understand the needs of girls and boys and believe that co-education offers significant benefits for both genders. The change will be phased in gradually from September 2020.

Mrs Thornton said, “Upton exists to educate children to the highest levels and to equip them with all the life skills they need for their important next steps. We are a very special, progressive school and overwhelmingly successful and popular with parents. In recent years many of our parents have expressed genuine sadness that their boys could not stay through to Year 6. We are delighted to address this need and proud to be able to offer the same excellence in education and preparation for Senior school entry for all children. While our proven track record in preparing girls for Senior schools is exceptional, we also have incredibly strong relationships with Senior schools for both boys and girls, and now look forward to extending our expertise to include boys.

Our focus here at Upton is always on the individual, whether boy or girl. Our small, nurturing priority and strong family ethos and values will continue, alongside our commitment to small classes, smaller tailored teaching groups and high staff to child ratios. These are extremely important to us.”

Mr Thomas Brown, Head of Upton’s Prep Department said, “Our staff have a proven track record in preparation for girls but also share a wealth of experience in teaching boys. We fully understand the demands and requirements in educating boys and are delighted to be able to welcome them as we move forward. We have exciting plans for boys and know Upton will remain as successful as always.”

The new model will be implemented on a smooth and gradual basis with the boys currently in the PrePrep department moving through the school into the Prep department in September 2020.

Exciting co-educational investments are planned:

• New multi-purpose sports court

• Flood lighting

• New minibus

• Improved changing facilities

• New boys’ uniform and sports kit

• Design Technology equipment

• Computing and IT equipment

• New school reptiles!

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@UptonMFL

Lively language learning Here at Upton House we are fortunate to welcome children from around the world and we benefit enormously from our international vibrancy as we learn languages together. As our wider society continues to become more diverse, so the benefit of speaking more than just one language is becoming increasingly apparent. This brings great rewards; not only in terms of communication but also in our cultural appreciation. It also helps with cognitive development by increasing problem solving skills and creativity. There is no doubt that helping children to learn an additional language is a great way to set them up to succeed as an adult.

Upton language lessons are fun and relaxed. We teach through repetition and active engagement. We use gestures and props to support the language input.

We encourage learning through play-like activities such as dancing, singing, games and storytelling and progressively include more reading and writing activities. All of this creates an environment in which the children are more open to communicating in the target language. They quickly build confidence and learn from their mistakes.

We encourage parents to support this learning at home by finding books, television shows, CDs, restaurants and other means of exposing children to the second language. Of course, any opportunity to visit the country where the language is spoken should also be grasped. The more we can immerse the children in the language, the better the language acquisition.

Our budding linguists grow in self-confidence as they embrace multiple additional languages. These children develop into caring global citizens who can communicate with and appreciate people from other countries and cultures.

Mrs Charlotte Morris, Head of Modern Foreign Languages

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Language Lessons at Upton Nursery to Form 6 French Nursery to Form 4 Mandarin Form 5 to 6 Spanish Form 5 to 6 Latin Form 1 to 6 Language Clubs

@UptonPreNursery @Upton Nursery

Little Upton holiday learning

Children in Pre-Nursery and Nursery benefit from Little Upton being open 48 weeks a year. Here Mrs Adnan outlines some of the activities in our extended weeks provision.

Children enjoy our full, outstanding Early Years curriculum, learning through play with exciting topic work stretching across all areas of development and learning. We love celebrating festivals from around the world and have plenty of engaging and practical activities such as cooking, construction, growing our own vegetables and storytelling.

We have access to the gymnasium in the hall, the Pre-Prep library, food technology room and sports astro pitch. The children love to make full use of our space! Each day follows the structure of a usual school day and is operated by our fully qualified, professional staff. Our catering staff are on site and offer the same high-quality meals and snacks as in term time.

Over the Christmas period we are open week commencing 16th December.

Closed from Monday 23rd December -1st January.

Open Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd January.

Closed for INSET training 6th and 7th January.

Term starts again Wednesday 8th January.

Please register your children online via our website one the Little Upton page.

Mrs Zainab Adnan, Head of Pre-Nursery

Meet Miss Solomon @UptonEng

Our Heads of Innovation and Enterprise interview our new Head of English, Miss Fiona Solomon.

have to say F. Scott Fitzgerald because of how he cleverly depicts the colour and flamboyancy of the 1920 roaring jazz era.

could see how happy they were to be at school, that is most definitely a sign of a great place to be.

How did you become interested in English?

What are your interests outside of school?

Will English be different with boys joining Prep?

My English teacher Mrs Rhodes was absolutely inspirational! She made Literacy come to life and helped me to develop a passion for the subject which eventually led me to study English at university and finally become a specialist English teacher myself.

I love doing anything creative from heading to the ballet or a West End theatre show, to photographing landscapes and I’m also an amateur cook and love to travel.

Why did you choose Upton?

Our Prep pupils already experience a very diverse English curriculum filled with debates, speech writing, research projects, drama, games and use of multimedia to explore their ideas in a fun and creative way. The addition of boys will just enhance what we already offer because it will help us all to take on board new perspectives of the issues we cover.

Who is your favourite author and why?

Do I really have to pick just one? I would

I was truly impressed with the ethos of the school and how articulate and confident the students were. They truly were the biggest selling point for me because I

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@UptonMusic

Music Report The music department continues to expand with over 78% of eligible pupils having one-to-one music lessons. Little Upton children benefit from specialist music teachers teaching simple songs and using a range of percussion instruments.

Further up the school, the Upton orchestra continues to grow and an unusually high number of Upton pupils qualified for participation in the orchestral fun day at Downe House School this year. This was a hugely inspirational day of music-making in an orchestra of over 300 pupils from across the country.

A group of soloists and senior choir represented Upton at the schools’ coffee concert in Windsor Parish Church as part of the Windsor Festival. The senior choir then performed at Maidenhead Festival of Music and Dance where they gained a distinction.

Several soloists also had great success in the festival’s vocal and instrumental sections.

Our pupils’ music exam results were excellent again this term with many gaining distinctions. Several Upton pupils took their brass

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exams for the first time after starting to learn their instruments only last year.

October saw harvest festival celebrations throughout the whole school while the second half term focused on Christmas music.

The music calendar has been packed with bookings for Christmas singing in the local community, including care homes and church lunchtime clubs. The term was concluded with a delightful Carol Concert at Windsor Parish Church.

Miss Olya Shafikova, Head of Music

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With over 78% of eligible pupils’ having one-to-one music lessons.

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@UptonComputing

Technology Week From internet safety to virtual reality, robotics and coding, Upton technology week was packed exciting and progressive technological experiences and jaw-dropping moments. The whole school, from Pre-Nursery to Form 6 took part in a range of immersive and educational technology workshops organised by the @UptonComputing department.

Virtual reality Forms 3 to 6 took part in virtual reality sessions in which they came face-to-face with gladiators in the colosseum, experienced volcanic eruptions and took walks into tropical rainforests. Form 6 walked into outer space finding it very hard to come back down to earth.

Coding and robotics Robot workshops have been held from Nursery to Form 2.

Children came face-to-face with Mip the sensor robot and were

able to code their own robots using colour and drawing on iPads.

Even Pre-Nursery had a visit from Form 6 pupils and the Ozobots.

Internet Safety Online safety has been reinforced for all children from Transition to Form 6 using an interactive drama-based safety game. Pupils were reminded of the safety rules and encouraged to STOP, GET OUT and TELL an adult if something isn’t right.

Upton is committed to delivering an exciting and progressive computing and media curriculum across the school and we continue to invest in new IT equipment such as iPads, smart boards and robotics.

Mrs Lauren Smith, Computing and Media Teacher.

Order Order! It’s Parliament Week!

Why do we need laws? What is UK Parliament? What happens at an election?

Parliament week was a wonderful opportunity for pupils to learn about the workings of Parliament and government. The children have been investigating the House of Commons, House of Lords and the processes that take place in Westminster. We even had our very own school election! Prep pupils were involved in a very lively debate on ‘Who should take responsibility for plastic in our oceans?’

The highlight of the week was a highly informative and valuable visit from Chris Wilkins – the former Director of Strategy and Chief Speechwriter to Prime Minister Theresa May. During his

time working at Number 10 Downing Street, Mr Wilkins wrote the Prime Minister’s major policy speeches on Brexit, domestic and foreign policy.

The morning was filled with mini workshops based around Mr Wilkins’ experience working in politics. Forms 4 and 5 had the opportunity to find out about more about a day in the life of a speech writer, followed by a very interesting Q&A session which really kept Mr Wilkins on his toes.

Form 6 enjoyed an in-depth speechwriting workshop, where they were able to practise their own presentation skills by writing an award-winning speech explaining ‘What Makes Upton Great’. The outcome of their work was a true sentiment to the rich talent constantly being nurtured here at Upton.

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@UptonDramaDept

Nativity Magic Mary’s Knitting by Nursery

A Wriggly Nativity by Transition

The Lucky Reporter by Pre-Prep

The children in the Nursery have been so excited to share the Christmas Story with their families. They have been bursting to sing the songs and try on their costumes.

They have worked hard and presented a real treat to their families as they performed a Nativity play called ‘Mary’s Knitting’. Working co-operatively together to produce a joint show builds a wonderful sense of community and gives joy to everyone involved. The children certainly started our Christmas celebrations in style as they wished everyone a very special and merry Christmas.

The children of Transition delighted us all with their lively performance of ‘A Wriggly Nativity’. Something exciting was happening in the stable and it made the whole cast want to wriggle with joy.

Stop Press! Upton House School in Windsor had some breaking news to report this week and simply had to tell everyone about it! On Friday 6th December the Pre-Prep children performed ‘The Lucky Reporter’ in front of a packed house. The play is a modern day version of the traditional Christmas story, told by three narrators. The story is about two news reporters who are desperate to make it to Bethlehem in time for the big event; the birth of Jesus. Thank you PrePrep for reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas.

Mrs Sue Bish, Head of Early Years

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The children rose to the challenge of performing on the big stage and made us all very proud, demonstrating their enthusiasm for singing and a confidence beyond their years whilst performing.

The rehearsals were so much fun and the excitement on the actual day was palpable.

Mrs Susi Broad and Miss Jessica Shaw, Transition Teachers

Mr Craig McEvoy, Head of Pre-Prep

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@UptonSports

Sporting Success The Autumn term began with a flying start for Prep hockey and clear wins from both Form 5 and 6 against Dolphin School. Training sessions at the York Club have been exciting and rewarding for all our pupils in Pre-Prep and Prep. The expanse of space and facilities at the club has allowed further development of skills and stamina as we train for an increasing number of football, hockey and netball matches next term. Forms 1 and 2 have been training at the club on Thursday afternoons in preparation for further rugby matches next term. Form 2 also participated in the annual football tournament at Papplewick and played incredibly well demonstrating significant improvement and progress in many areas.

In September, Form 6 triumphed at IAPS Hockey Nationals walking away with third place in their group. This is a significant achievement and testament to the team spirit and determination led by their fantastic coach, Mr Baber. We now look forward to next year and further IAPS successes in Rugby, Netball, Fencing and Swimming as our Prep department becomes fully co-educational.

In netball this term all age groups in Prep have played matches against neighbouring schools such as Bishopsgate and St George’s Windsor.

They have all been rewarded with wins and big smiles in their matches. We look forward to playing further netball tournaments in the new year and the girls are training hard in preparation.

Upton Sports fixture schedule 2019/20

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Autumn

Football, Hockey

Spring

Rugby, Netball

Summer

Cricket, Athletics

Gymnastics has been thriving this term and the House Gym Competition saw strength, stamina, and determination with plenty of competitive team spirit. Congratulations to the winning house St Christopher.

Our newly formed swimming squad are training incredibly hard for IAPS Swimming rounds in the new year. Further swimming galas have been added to the busy calendar so that pupils can prepare.

The PE department at Upton House is thriving in our growing school and sports teams are expanding to suit all. As we move to become fully co-educational, both boys and girls will participate in many sports on offer both in classes and for fixtures. As the children move into Form 5 and 6 colt teams will be introduced to maximise opportunity for play and build our teams in all sports.

Ms Ellie Walsh, Head of Sport

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The expanse of space and facilities at the club has allowed further development of skills and stamina.

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PTA News

@UptonPTA

A big thank you from the PTA for all your support already this school year! We had a wonderful time hosting your little monsters at the Halloween Disco before the half term break and managed to raise over £800. We then had lots of fun at the cinema nights where the popcorn machine had to work overtime to keep up with demand and managed to raise a fantastic £550! Finally, we managed to squeeze in our Christmas Party where we hope you all enjoyed the disco and a visit to Santa and his donkeys.

Thank you again and wishing you all wonderful Christmas break.

Sam Young, Co-Chair PTA

Future Events -2019/2020 Autumn Term Ends - Friday 13th December 12 noon Christmas Holiday Club - Monday 16th - Friday 20th December & Thursday 2nd to Friday 3rd January 2020 Spring Term Begins - Wednesday 8th January Wellbeing Workshop for Parents - Friday 31st January 8.50am Children’s Mental Health Week w/c Monday February 3rd Half Term - Monday 17th February to Friday 21st February The Infamous PTA Pub Quiz - Friday 6th March 7.30pm Form 1 Grandparents’ Tea Party - Friday 20th March 2pm Spring Term Ends - Friday 27th March

Open Morning Saturday 14th March 9.30am Weekday tours available | Please call or book online: uptonhouse.org.uk

UPTON HOUSE SCHOOL A progressive co-education in the heart of Windsor 12Boys and Girls age 2-11 years | IAPS Independent Prep School

@UptonHouseSch