Upton Update Autumn 2020

Update

AUTUMN 2020

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Upton

Special Features CAROL CONCERT STAFF PANTOMIME HARVEST CELEBRATIONS NATIVITY SPARKLE WELCOME TO OUR FORM 3 BOYS

01753 862610 | www.uptonhouse.org.uk

Welcome from Mrs Thornton I don’t think any of us could have predicted the events of the last eight months. You, our Upton parents, are so important to us and we love seeing you in school and enjoying our events. We very much look forward to welcoming you back onto the school site when the time is right.

In the meantime, to keep our Upton spirit alive and vibrant through the restrictions needed to keep our community safe, we have embraced the situation creatively and passionately, delivered ‘normality in a time of uncertainty’ and ensured the children have not missed out on any events or memories. Our aim has been for the children and yourselves to all be together as much as possible through newsletters, parent teacher meetings, communications and many lovely, virtual events. Ensuring the children have the wellbeing tools to work through this unusual time mentally, and the opportunity to take part in outside sport to keep physically active, have also been our key areas of focus.

I hope you feel cherished and enjoy reading this edition of our ‘Upton Update’ which is sent with love and pride. It is a period that will certainly mark history.

To create those special memories for the children we have filled every moment this term with opportunities to cherish, with poignant celebrations such as Harvest and Remembrance, charity events, Move-Ember and Bring Back the Music, Nativity shows, House Hockey and House Gymnastics competitions, our annual Carol Concert for Prep and, of course this year, the big Upton Staff Panto!

To be able to share the Carol Concert with Prep parents in the Parish Church on the last week of term was quite incredible. An annual event we may have previously taken for granted in the past, this year took on an even deeper meaning and sense of wonder.

Thank you Reverend Sally for allowing us to use The Holy Trinity Garrison Church and also the Parish Church during these challenging times.

I am so proud of all our Uptonians.

Whether aged two or 11, they have embraced these last two terms with such enthusiasm and dedication to everything they have done. They have all worked so hard with much fun along the way.

We are extremely proud to be such a strong part of the Windsor community. We are surrounded by local shops, restaurants and businesses we value and we look forward very much to the time when our Upton family and community can come together again.

Mrs Rhian Thornton Headmistress

Contents

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Welcome from Mrs Thornton

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Pre-Nursery

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Upton House Wellbeing

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Parents’ Evening, Upton Style

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Upton House Sport

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Music Exams

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Hello Yellow and Children in Need

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Pre-Prep Nativity

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Transition Update

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ART!

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Welcome to our Form 3 Boys

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Panto Fun!

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Harvest Celebrations

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Transition Nativity

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Assemblies

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Remembrance

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Carol Concert Joy

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French

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Little Upton

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Form 6 Interactive Media Workshop

10

ART!

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Where we say our goodbyes...

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www.uptonhouse.org.uk

Parents’ Evening Upton Style A SENSE OF NORMALITY IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY Who would have thought this school year would be so different? Or is it?

The children are learning, they are happy and safe. Our expectations are as high as they have ever been. As a certain famous builder might say “Can we do IT?” “Yes, Upton can!”

The ‘IT’ came to Parents’ Evening.

What did we want? To catch up with all our families to feedback all the wonderful things about our Upton children.

EYFS: Let’s get our coats and PPE on and have socially distanced meetings with the doors of the classrooms open. It worked brilliantly.

Pre-Prep: Let’s get Teams up and running, book in the appointments and meet online. It was seamless.

Prep: Let’s be really creative.

What about a 360 degree virtual

Parents’ Evening for each class?

Parents sitting at home whilst the Prep staff move around the socially distanced hall, talking to each family individually. Our fantastic Tech team organised the timings, the computers and the headphones – and off we went!

could relax from the privacy of their own home without the worry of arranging childcare. A wonderful experience in these challenging times.

Mrs Kate Newcombe Deputy Head

We stayed on time with great sound effects and the buzz in the hall was wonderful. Each class had their own Parents’ Evening meeting with their form teacher and some of the specialist teachers.

Slick and smooth, it certainly was, and so lovely for us to see our families thanks to the wonder of technology.

Another first at Upton and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. What’s not to like? Parents

Hello Yellow AND CHILDREN IN NEED This year we combined our annual celebrations of World Mental Health Day and Children in Need with our own Yellow and Spotty Day. Upton glowed brightly, matched by huge smiles and laughter as we came together to raise awareness and funds to support the amazing work of Young Minds and Children in Need. Both charities help vulnerable children and young people to not feel alone and to fulfil their dreams for a happier future. Thank you so much we raised a for all your generous donations; together we raised a whopping £575.54 which whopping £575.54 will be split between the two charities.

hank you for celebrating Thanksgiving at Upton. These things really do matter and have an impact T – it definitely makes the children feel special.

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Form 6 artwork

Form 6 artwork

Form 3 clay

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Form 6 clay

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Harvest Celebrations Harvest is such a special time at Upton House School. The celebrations start in Pre-Nursery and Nursery with favourite songs such as Cauliflowers Fluffy and their own special harvest thoughts including the traditional blessing of the coins.

We were thrilled to be able to walk almost all the rest of the school to The Holy Trinity Garrison Church for our annual Upton House Harvest Festival. Transition recorded their beautiful songs at school and we cleverly added them to our recording.

It was a moving and extra special event as it was our first outing for a while. Each form walked down to the Church separately at different times, in their bubbles, and recorded their songs. We certainly have some budding, professional recording artists! Thank you to our skilful Tech Team who spent endless hours stitching all the recordings together to create this beautiful service which you can watch here: https://bit.ly/harvest2020upd

this special event as much as we enjoyed and appreciated being in Church. Thank you Reverend Sally for supporting us with all our virtual and creative plans.

Mrs Rhian Thornton Headmistress

We REALLY hope you delight in

Remembrance Day Situated in Windsor with the Combermere Barracks and the Victoria Barracks on our doorstep, and located only a two minute walk from Windsor Castle with its regular Changing of the Guard parades, Remembrance Day is always a very important day in our school calendar.

We are used to seeing the soldiers and guards on their beautiful horses going about their daily work and that really is a privilege to be part of.

Jedge Lewin from the Blues and Royals who has served in the British Army for 27 years. Colonel Lewin told us the incredible story of his great friend who lost his life whilst on military service leaving behind three young children.

His true story touched all our hearts and really brought home the danger the armed forces face and the bravery

they so resolutely show. Thank you Colonel Lewin, and all our armed forces neighbours and families serving in Windsor from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, the Coldstream and Welsh Guards.

Mrs Rhian Thornton Headmistress

Poppy Day therefore has a very special place in our hearts. Some members of our staff have family serving in the armed forces as do some of our families and it is important to us to recognise their incredible bravery and work each year. On November 11th Upton was filled with the most beautiful artwork depicting aspects of remembrance and we held our annual two-minute silence which was powerful and reverent.

This year, we were honoured to be joined by Surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel

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Little Upton NURSERY We were delighted that we could welcome the children into school in September and have the opportunity to offer them a full and exciting curriculum. We started with settling in which went very smoothly. The children have been amazing and so independent, following the new routines of hand washing and registration.

Wonderful harvest celebrations took place with Transition taking part in a recorded celebration that was shared with parents. Pre-Nursery and Nursery gathered together to share seasonal songs and poems and to share their harvest giving in aid of The Alexander Devine charity.

Autumn is an exciting time with lots to talk about and explore especially with the leaves changing colour and falling in piles from the trees in the garden. The children have been very busy collecting them with their wheelbarrows and exploring their texture and colour, experiencing

counting games and leaf rubbing which highlights the detail of the leaves so well.

The children have had fun with their explorations of fish, feathers, phonics and friendships. They have played, painted and performed songs and dances together. They have acted out stories, asked questions and have always been busy.

After half term, the fun began with talking about Bonfire Night and sharing the story of Guido Fawkes.

We had a happy day, wearing yellow for Children in Need, followed by a sad day of remembrance with the children making poppies and holding a two-minute silence.

After this came the preparations for the Nativity plays, performed by Nursery and Transition. Although sadly, parents were not able to come into school in person to watch, the performances were professionally recorded so that families could share

the fun at home together. The aim was to give the children a community experience and the joy of sharing and creating something together.

To end this lovely term, we shared in the happiness of a Christmas party with the children playing games and enjoying a visit from Father Christmas as well as the delights of a traditional Christmas lunch. A lovely way to end the term at the end of a very strange year.

Mrs Sue Bish Head of Early Years

Pre-Nursery It has been lovely to welcome our newest pupils to Upton House Pre-Nursery. They have all settled in so well and are enjoying all the fun activities we have on offer: We learnt about hygiene - how to keep our hands, face, and teeth clean and how we can look after each other’s feelings. We also enjoyed learning about diversity.

We celebrated harvest, where the children brought in leaves decorated

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with coins for The Alexander Devine charity.

It was lovely to see the children decorating poppies for Remembrance Day and participating in a two-minute silence with the whole school.

Lots of fun and laughter was shared on our Diwali Day when the children dressed up in traditional Diwali clothes!

Finally, we celebrated our Pudsey Day learning about children in need. The children were all glowing in yellow!

What an amazing term. You all make us so proud.

Mrs Zainab Adnan Pre-Nursery Co-ordinator

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Upton House Sport HOUSE HOCKEY: FORMS 5 AND 6 This year marked our first House Hockey tournament. Forms 5 and 6 were the first competitors, followed by Forms 3 and 4 who played later that same week. The House Captains and Deputies came down to the glorious York Club to support their players and they did an incredible job – coaching and managing the team, warming them up and cheering from the side-line.

After a close joint first position, the team with the most goals scored over the two afternoons won.

Congratulations to St Christopher for winning House Hockey 2020.

HOUSE GYMNASTICS The children from Forms 3 to 6 have been working hard this term putting their routines together for the House Gymnastics competition. Each class was given a list of skills and tricks to include in their routine and they have shown excellent teamwork and creativity, adding elements of dance to their wonderful displays.

The beam was a new addition to the competition this year and one child from both Forms 5 and 6 from each house was selected to put together a routine using this apparatus. There were also solo performances from Form 5 and 6 girls from each house. The afternoon was filled with exciting floor, beam and solo performances, snazzy leotards and smiles. Well done to everyone who took part and particular congratulations to St George who were our winners.

“ZINZAN BROOKE” Rugby has had the most exciting lift off here at Upton with former All Black, rugby legend, Mr Zinzan Brooke teaching the children in Prep.

Mr Brooke has offered masterclasses during their games sessions, teaching ball skills and techniques required for match play. Having a professional rugby player teaching our children is beyond exciting and we’ve all had the best time.

Long may it continue.

Ms Ellie Walsh Head of Sport

The children are so lucky to have such amazing teachers and staff in such a beautiful environment.

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Pre-Prep Nativity It was full steam ahead with Christmas in the Pre-Prep. We haven’t let Covid-19 get us down!

The children have worked hard to produce, yet again, the most wonderful Christmas production, The Nativity.

The Nativity is the traditional story of the birth of Jesus, told by five narrators, and follows Mary and Joseph’s journey after the angel tells her that she will be having a baby. The Form 2 children rose to the challenge, delivering their lines with aplomb and along the way we were introduced to a heavenly host of angels and a dance crew of shepherds, beautifully performed by Form 1.

Whilst we have not been able to offer the live experience this year, we do hope that you will enjoy watching your children on film and that you agree how beautifully and enthusiastically the children have performed. As the Christmas songs reverberate around the building, we are now well and truly in the festive spirit and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Mrs Emma Pritchard Head of Pre-Prep

Welcome to our Form 3 Boys Boys were able to continue the next step of their Upton journey through to the Prep department for the first time this Autumn Term and we have been watching their progress with huge excitement and pride. We asked our little trailblazers to tell us about their favourite things in Form 3 so far...

We love playing with our friends in the playground and being together in class.

Sometimes (and don’t tell our parents), we prefer being in school to being at home

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Sport – particularly learning rugby with Mr Brooke, going to the York Club and taking part in the House Gymnastics competition

Playing maths games Singing in the Harvest Festival

Learning about gladiators

Remembrance Day

Telling stories and reading about the big, wide world

www.uptonhouse.org.uk

Transition Nativity Transition have been so excited to perform this year’s nativity A Bundle of Joy. Rehearsals started in earnest after half term and there was great excitement when the big stage went up and the children took their places for the first time. The story is about a very grumpy donkey called Grumble who is a bit fed up when a newborn baby shares his stable. All the usual characters make an appearance as the story unfolds and the songs are catchy and lots of fun. Transition have put their hearts and souls into this year’s nativity to make it extra special, singing with great gusto and joy. A very memorable performance that put a smile on everyone’s faces.

Mrs Susi Broad Transition

Carol Concert Joy We were over the moon to be able to welcome parents to the Prep Carol Concert in the Parish Church this festive season. After such a difficult and unique year, being able to celebrate Christmas with our Prep parents in person was absolutely magical.

around the church gave us all a chance to reflect upon a year that has been filled with challenges, and gave us hope that 2021 will be better.

We are so grateful to those who joined us for this socially distanced event. It was choreographed perfectly, with one adult from each household able to join us, and only six adults per pew.

Enormous thanks go to Reverend Sally, who put so much love and effort into organising this special occasion and delivered a heartfelt service that was truly memorable.

Hearing the children’s singing echo

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Form 6 Interactive Media Workshop On Friday 13th November Form 6 had the amazing opportunity of teaming up with hundreds of other schools across the country to participate in The 2020 Agora Interactive Media Workshop hosted

by The Economist magazine. This workshop immersed the girls in an unfolding fictional news story which had them making pivotal key decisions throughout the day as more facts were revealed. They were shown a series of breaking news stories based on the theft of classified Government information which formed part of a national ‘whistle blowing case’. The scenario was set in the fictional land of Namovia where ex-secret service

agent Ana Webber had released classified information to the media regarding the Government’s invasion of people’s privacy against their knowledge.

Based on the facts presented to them throughout the day, Form 6 had to explore the meaning of National Security, Rules of Law and Public Interest as well as investigate arguments for and against each side of the story before arriving at a final verdict: should someone sharing classified information be punished? Other key questions that arose throughout the day were –

is it ever okay to break the law?

Should the Government be allowed to keep secrets from the public?

And finally … is it okay for the Government to record and listen to private conversations without the public knowing? Form 6 had to work in teams, debate key issues, evaluate evidence and experience what it is like to be a reporter for the day. Definitely a truly memorable experience!

Miss Fiona Solomon Director of Studies

Definitely a truly memorable experience!

Upton House Wellbeing AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO Looking after the mental health and emotional wellbeing of our children, staff and families has always been at the heart of life at Upton House. As we came back together this term, we launched weekly wellbeing lessons for Pre-Prep and Prep extending our PSHE curriculum further to enable our children to learn skills so they can understand and manage their emotions, build self-care habits, challenge their inner critic, boost

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resilience and find their inner calm.

Our new break time drop-in sessions have been very popular with children too. Being able to positively manage our own wellbeing and to identify when to ask for help has never been more important following such a challenging year of uncertainty, change and loss. These life skills enable our children to build their own personal emotional toolkit to use across any future challenge.

Please look at our Family Support and Wellbeing Pages on the school website for resources and across social media for regular wellbeing updates and useful parent links.

The 14 days of Wellbeing leaflet is available should your child need to self-isolate and offers creative activities to support their wellbeing during this time.

Mrs Anna Hewitt Wellbeing Co-ordinator

www.uptonhouse.org.uk

Music Exams Several music students were lucky enough to perform to a live audience outside of school at an art venue - a formidable luxury in these recent times. Although it was a very small audience, it was a hugely rewarding experience and brought some normality back to our musical lives. Our talented musicians held their ABRSM music exams at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in the first live exam session since March 2020.

They all did incredibly well, despite the fact that the majority of exam preparations took place online and, for some children, this was their first ever music exam. Huge well done to our violinists, pianists and cornet player!

Our upcoming set of exams feature our singers and these will be held online. Good luck to these vocalists – the video recordings so far have been impressive!

Miss Olya Shafikova Head of Music

You continue to amaze me with all the things you are doing to entertain and support our children.

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Transition Update This term Transition have delved into three topics which they have really enjoyed. We started the school year by learning ‘All About Me’, where the children were encouraged to talk about themselves, their families, their bodies plus their likes and interests.

They produced beautiful self-portraits, mosaic names and Funnybones craft.

One of their favourite tasks was learning the Funnybones dance which we are sure they had their families learning at home too!

We then moved on to learning all about autumn and harvest.

The children put on a fabulous performance for Harvest Festival and created vibrant paintings of fruit and vegetables. Whilst exploring autumn and harvest, we looked at shapes and patterns, the children completed super-shaped hedgehogs and enjoyed creating patterns using the various resources around them!

during the pandemic. We have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the children’s discussions, where they have identified these important workers before choosing which of the roles they most admire and would like to have when they grow up. The ‘People Who Help Us’ collages are brightening our classrooms and have drawn lots of positive praise around the school. A busy but fun start to the school year!

Miss Jessica Shaw and Mrs Susi Broad, Transition teachers

Our final topic of the term was ‘People Who Help Us’. We thought this topic was poignant and well suited, recognising the many people who help us now more than ever

A busy but fun start to the school year!

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Panto Fun! Oh yes it is! The team proudly presented Upton’s first ever staff panto to great excitement. As we normally take the children to Windsor’s Theatre Royal to watch the panto it seemed only fair that they didn’t miss out purely because of Covid-19, so in true Upton House spirit, this year, the panto came to us! The staff performed the much-loved classic, Cinderella, in the final week of term, having been secretly and exuberantly rehearsing for weeks. It was enormous fun and the show was filled with all the glitter, fabulous costumes, singing and dancing you would expect from a pantomime.

We hope the children enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed performing it!

Assemblies

We may not have been able to gather together in the traditional sense, but whole school assemblies continued throughout the Autumn Term at Upton. Thanks to our outstanding Tech Team, the children were able to enjoy thoughtful assemblies hosted by our fabulous staff each day, ensuring that we continued to provide normality in a time of huge uncertainty.

French In their French lessons this term, Form 5 have been describing their personalities using different adjectives. This project was called Derrière le masque (behind the mask) and involved the children designing and describing their own masks which open to reveal the personalities behind them - with much fun had by all!

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Form 3 artwork

Form 6 artwork

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www.uptonhouse.org.uk

Goodbye to Mrs Allies After 16 years working as Bursar at Upton House School, Mrs Allies retires this week! Mrs Allies joined Upton in 2004 and has been instrumental in the school’s development and success. Always one of the last to leave each evening and dealing with everything and anything that may come up from a leaky roof, to planning applications, pigeons, budgets, invoices, contracts, fees, trees and fire alarms!

At every UHF event Mrs Allies was always there until late at night helping to tidy and clean up afterwards. With quite an extraordinary memory and a love of gardening and travel we send Mrs Allies off with lots of love and best wishes for her new adventures growing wonderful things and travelling the world.

Mrs Rhian Thornton We asked the children what they thought Mrs Allies did every day and how she helped us all...

Mrs Allies helps Mrs Bates do her work, answering the phone and the door.

Sometimes she turns the fire alarm off.

She keeps the school’s money safe.

Mrs Allies has lots of notes to write.

Mrs Allies looks after her puppies.

We also say goodbye to...

MRS SUE SELISKO Today we say a fond farewell to lovely Mrs Sue Selisko, who is taking early retirement after 11 years at Upton. She took over the role of Head of Learning Support and made it her own. Her wealth of knowledge and experience made sure that all those children who needed a little bit of help were supported with one to one sessions as well as in the classroom to make sure they were the best they could be. Mrs Selisko gave the children strategies to help them love learning and not see their challenges as anything to worry about, that differences were normal and okay.

I always worked closely with her, especially when we were both form teachers and we would laugh about who knew most about The Tudors! She was also Head of Prep leading the department forward and providing us with delicious homemade cakes. She ran a Food Technology club and had a great sense of fun, most notably wearing her Dalmatian onesie for World Book Day. She was always impeccably dressed - even her glasses matched her outfits! Mrs Selisko has had such a positive impact on so many children and we wish her all the best for her new adventure.

Mrs Kate Newcombe Deputy Head

MRS DENITA TODD Mrs Denita Todd has worked as an Early Years Practitioner in the Nursery since June 2019. She has shared her experiences and interests with the children, giving tirelessly of her time and showing much care and love to them. We wish her well in her future life as she moves on to new adventures in Bermuda and we look forward to receiving the postcards!

Mrs Sue Bish Head of Early Years Huge thanks to Mrs Thornton and everyone involved in organising the silent disco. My daughter was on an absolute high when she got home and we had to listen to YMCA for the rest of the evening.

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I am sure you will agree that there is a ‘can do’ attitude and approach at Upton House School, leveraging the Upton spirit and our amazing staff and technology to deliver ‘normality’ innovatively and creatively. Be it socially distanced, on site events or augmented virtual events we are challenging ourselves to make sure our children, parents and families don’t miss out on these precious years and moments.

Mrs Rhian Thornton Headmistress

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

UPTON HOUSE SCHOOL

An exceptional co-education in the heart of Windsor Boys and Girls age 2-11 years | IAPS Independent Prep School 01753 862610 | www.uptonhouse.org.uk

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