Upton Update Autumn 2021

Upton

Update @UptonHouseSch

AUTUMN 2021

Special Features CAROL CONCERT • CHRISTMAS NATIVITIES HARVEST FESTIVAL • PARLIAMENT & MATHS WEEK • SPORTS NEWS

Welcome from Mrs Thornton Your support and patience throughout this time is appreciated so much.

Thank you.

Sixteen weeks ago we started the Autumn Term with our theme of ‘New Beginnings’.

The weeks that followed have been filled with hard work, creativity, laughter and fun. We have had over thirty whole school assemblies online; Form assemblies in the marquee, Harvest Festival in the Garrison Church, a Musical Soirée, our Remembrance Service on November 11th, carols in the Parish Church and the nativity performances for Nursery, Transition and Pre-Prep! Alongside our performances we have had our many sporting fixtures in Prep including the wonderful gymnastics competition, maths competitions and an abundance of other events and activities including a sleepover, Halloween discos, Parliament Week, our first Music Technology week, sponsored carol singing and, of course, a visit from Santa himself!

whilst also live streaming to those at home.

We have, this term alone, broadcast to 26 countries! The Nursery Nativity had an incredible 700 views. Being able to share these special moments with you and with your wider family means so much to us and the feedback and excitement from grandparents and aunties/ uncles all over the world has been wonderful.

Prep have been purposeful. Form 6 is in the midst of assessments for senior schools. The Prep School Council have been busy with incredible ideas including The Uptonian which will be coming out to you next term.

The school is immersed in beautiful artwork with a Christmas theme. Mrs Lewin is very talented, inspiring the children in so many different art forms. We look forward to the time when you can all be in the building and see the work displayed.

It really has been a full, rich and vibrant term.

Reading stories to Pre-Nursery was certainly one of my favourite moments. Our youngest Uptonians joined in and were great fun as they sat enthralled and happily talked about the story. How smart our little Uptonians are!

Nursery are always busy, enjoying exploring new opportunities and Transition keep me constantly amused with their conversations as they walk past my door and stop for a little chat with me. The reindeer placed outside my door have been a constant source of fun for Transition as they talk to them and give them a little pat as they pass in the corridor.

Keeping everyone safe is my key priority, alongside ensuring your children are happy and enjoying the very best educational experiences and success.

Next term we have much to look forward to including Mr Phillips joining the team, and a parent v children football match at the York Club. Don’t forget to put in some practise over Christmas!

Wishing you all a healthy and peaceful Christmas and New Year from myself and all at Upton House School.

Nursery, Transition, and Pre-Prep delivered wonderful performances in their nativity plays and we were delighted to be able to invite one parent per family to join us in the hall,

Mrs Rhian Thornton 1

Donations went to The Windsor Foodshare Project and The Slough Foodbank.

The whole school sang the beautiful hymn Everybody Praise Him by Mark & Helen Johnson.

The Staff Choir performed the wonderful song Look At The World by John Rutter and we all joined together to sing our favourite hymns.

Harvest Festival This year’s service took place at the Holy Trinity Garrison Church and was also live streamed for the first time from the church. This was our first hybrid event serving two audiences simultaneously. It was a lovely event with parents, children and staff united once again. Through the readings from our Heads of Charity and poems and prayers read by the Form 6 girls, we were reminded of just how grateful we are to have so much in a world where so many have so little.

The event reached 1,200 people in 10 countries, allowing extended family to enjoy it. We were able to transmit the warmth and wonderful music through five cameras mounted throughout the church including one in the organ. Transition and Pre‑Prep participated in pre-recorded footage.

The music united us and lifted our spirits. Thank you to all of the children and staff for their hard work and dedication and also to the parents for their support and generous donations.

You can watch the event here https://bit.ly/ush21hfev

Carol Service We gathered in the Windsor Parish Church for our annual Prep Carol Service. The decorated church was the perfect setting to come together to celebrate this special time of year. The service offered a blend of traditional carols, modern songs, instrumental performances, poetry, and bible readings, all celebrating Christmas.

It began in darkness with one lit candle and a single voice; Form 6 soloist Aaliyah sang the first verse of the traditional carol Once In Royal David’s City, to a silent church. She was then joined by the rest of F6 as they processed up the aisle holding lit candles. After F3 to F6 performances, the staff choir and the orchestra, the service ended with the joyous and uplifting song Merry Christmas To You, sung by all of the children in Forms 3 to 6. We had 130 people watching the event during the service and 500 enjoying it later. Families can watch this event online throughout the festive period. We displayed fantastic Christmas artwork during the changeovers enabling 2

extended family to see a total of 89 pieces of art from Prep and providing an immersive experience for those watching online. We were able to capture the romance of the Parish church and show the children with clarity as we could only have one parent physically. It was a magical Carol Service and the start of the festive season.

Please enjoy this event here https://bit.ly/uhsprepxmas21

Science This term, Form 3 have had a brilliant time learning about plants, growing their own ‘grass heads’ and turning celery blue! Form 4 loved exploring electricity and sound. They created some incredible musical instruments and earmuffs for an imaginary rock concert and were so excited making working circuits and building their very own working electrical switches. Form 5 have been investigating forces and space. They designed and built the most air-resistant parachutes

which they tested from the art room balcony and had fun exploring up-thrust by loading their homemade boats with marbles and seeing how much they could hold before sinking. They are now researching for a space project and finding out some amazing facts! Form 6 have learnt all about the body, organs and systems.

They have created their own labelled moving skeletons and even dissected a lamb’s pluck (heart, lungs and trachea)!

Mrs Sarah McKinlay

English This term Prep children had the honour of being invited to be a part of the 2022 Scholastics Laugh Out Loud Book Awards. It’s a book award that celebrates the best and wittiest children’s books in the UK and Ireland, voted for solely by children. Funny books are so important because they draw you in and you have a wonderful time and feel good.

In the lead up to the winners being announced, the children had the opportunity to create funny tongue twister poems with lead judge Michael Rosen. Our second workshop was a creative writing workshop with Award winning author Sylvia Bishop, creating original stories with crazy consequences. In this session, classes explored the world of The Midnight Thief, a captivating boarding school mystery full of moonlit adventure and animal mayhem. In addition to the Scholastic workshops, 3

Mathemagicians During maths week Forms 1-6 took part in a Mathematics Scavenger Hunt. They were given a sheet with thirteen age-appropriate questions on it. Once they answered a question, they had to search around the school for a card with that answer on it. That gave them a letter to put in a thirteen letter word back on their sheet that they were trying to find out. The word was ‘Mathemagicians’, which is what the new Times Tables Badge is called and also the pupils who managed to complete the sheet! Many pupils from each year group successfully completed it and were awarded five house points.

Gus feeling festive on party day!

we also had a live workshop with the author of Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard and Maz Evans – historical children’s author which was absolutely amazing and full of creative writing tips.

Forms 5 and 6 children have been rushing to Mr Cook to try to get awarded this badge by answering a mixture of multiplication and division with remainder questions.

So far about fifteen pupils have been good enough to achieve the newest and most exciting badge available at Upton House.

Forms 5 and 6 also took part in the Primary Mathematics Challenge. At Upton we believe in the importance of problem solving and this challenge is designed to make pupils think outside the box with questions that are not heavily reliant on formal mathematical knowledge but can be solved by logical reasoning. This challenge is taken by many schools around the country during the same week. Our children did very well and I am very proud with the results achieved.

Mr Edwin Cook

We ended the term with a workshop with superstar singer, TV presenter and author Alesha Dixon who led a Scholastic Schools Live Talk about all six of her best-selling children’s books, including her superhero series Lightning Girl, and brand-new standalone novel, Girls Rule! Pupils were inspired by her trademark themes of self-belief, teamwork and reaching for your goals so what better way to end then by quoting her direct ‘When it comes to writing, the key thing is simply getting started and putting something down on your blank page’. Happy writing!

Miss Fiona Solomon 4

Upton House Sport How are you going to organise the boys’ teams?

Until there are enough boys in each year, we will need mixed year group teams. If we have younger boys ready to play it will help them develop. It’s about ensuring everyone enjoys it and gets challenged. We will have a clear structure with a training syllabus for each squad. If we make it fun, they will learn, develop, and have more interest.

Welcome to James Phillips Head of Boys’ Games James studied Geography and wanted to be a teacher but when he finished his degree, an opportunity to coach and work at Chelsea came up.

Are you planning to organise regular fixtures?

I would like to play football in both the autumn and spring term. There will be a crossover with rugby with boys playing in both but when numbers increase, we can maybe have separate squads. This is part of the long-term plan. The idea is to organise regular fixtures with other schools, attend tournaments and trips when possible for football and rugby.

For how long have you been a coach?

For more than 10 years coaching both in female and male groups. I have also played football from 3 to 15 years old. I played both for my school Hampton and for an Academy.

Have you ever worked in a school?

I have delivered PE lessons and football sessions in different school environments and work in the Academy, so I am very excited to be able to work in a school and coach. I went to an independent school myself and I understand the values and how important sport is within the school.

What’s your favourite sport and position?

Football! I play and watch it all the time.

Although my family are all Chelsea supporters and I work at Chelsea, I do support Manchester United! My favourite position is attacking midfielder. I like scoring goals!

Which sports person inspires you?

The current Chelsea Women’s team manager, Emma Hayes. She is very passionate about the psychology behind the sport. I also like Cristiano Ronaldo and his winning mentality.

What sports will you be teaching at Upton?

I will be mainly teaching football and rugby.

Are you planning to offer football to boys and girls? Together or separate?

I will be driving the boys’ side as the school moved to fully coeducational recently. My remit is to increase the provision of football for the boys, the standard of coaching and offer them regular competitions. In addition, as I have worked in female football for so long, I would like to help with the girls’ football.

Female football is very popular. We can provide good quality sessions and see if we can play some competitions and get good results. If there is a talented girl that wants to play in the boys’ team, this can also happen.

Best thing about being a football coach?

Seeing players develop. There are three players I coached in the Women’s’ first team.

To see them represent both the country and the team makes me feel proud. Being part of someone’s journey, getting them where they want to be!

When you are not coaching...

I like cooking and spending time outdoors. I like taking my nephews paddle-boarding.

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U10 Football Tournament At the beginning, of October Upton took part in their first U10 Girls and Boys football tournament organised by St George’s School Windsor in the Home Park. The boys were very excited to take part in their first Prep football tournament for the school. Despite being younger than the other teams, they showed great enthusiasm and teamwork. The girls played four matches and claimed the overall win. A great achievement for the Girls football.

Oscar and Alice were awarded Players of the Tournament for Upton.

ZinZan Rugby with Early Years The children in Nursery and Transition have enjoyed their rugby lessons with ZinZan Brooke. The former All Black legend has passionately been teaching them ball skills and coordination. Having an ex-professional player as a rugby coach in the school is such an inspiration for the children. Next term, Mr Brooke will be working with Prep children to enhance their rugby skills and teamwork.

House Hockey Tournament Our second edition of the House Hockey was a huge success. Forms 3 and 4 played the first games at The York Club followed by Forms 5 and 6. Lots of goals, cheering from the sideline and a great team spirit marked a new successful edition of this hugely popular event. The tournament is here to stay and has proven to be a favourite in the sports school calendar for the children. Congratulations to St Christopher for the overall win!

House Gymnastics The children from Form 3 to 6 worked very hard putting together their routines for the Gymnastics House Competition. Organised by year groups, they showed excellent skills and creativity and the displays were incredible. One child from each house in Form 5 and Form 6 performed a solo floor exercise as well as a beam exercise. Amazingly dressed for the occasion, the children had a great afternoon and parents were able to watch via online streaming. Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to St Christopher who were the winners.

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Form 3 Christmas Trees

Form 4 Winter Trees

Form 6 Nativity Scenes

Form 3 Golden Harvests

Form 4 Autumn Trees

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Fo

orm 5 Angels

Art This term we have been painting autumn pictures using printing techniques to create golden autumn leaves. To represent harvest time, we painted orangey golden backgrounds and used gold pen to form cornfields. For remembrance, we used watercolour paints to create our stunning poppy paintings. Finally, to celebrate Christmas we painted Christmas trees, nativity scenes, angels and snowy winter scenes, as well as using clay to mould into the Three Kings, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.

Mrs Sandy Lewin

Form 5 Poppies

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Form 6 Paint Dribbling

Wellbeing Odd Socks Day! The theme for the nationwide Anti Bullying Week this term was One Kind Word is all it takes. One of our school values is to treat others as we would have them treat us, that includes being kind. We sent a ripple of kindness throughout the school led by Mrs Thornton. She started the week off by sharing the One Kind Word song with us and asking everyone to share the kindness around, with kind words, kind post its and hearts. In PSHE lessons we thought about what kindness meant, what bullying was and what to do if we were unhappy. Forms 5 and 6 were challenged to think about why people bully and the impact it has on others. Words of kindness flowed throughout the week ending in everyone wearing Odd Socks to remind us that we are all unique and special. From Pre‑Nursery to Form 6 to staff, everyone looked fantastic!

Happy Learning The children with our Upton Minds Team have been practising their breathing techniques, thinking about their emotions, and taking time to notice things around them. On Hello Yellow day, the children found wellbeing cards around the school and spent time sharing their time with each other. Wellbeing continues to be a strong focus at Upton and, as you know, happiness is the key to happy learning.

Mrs Hewitt ran an assembly about being thankful and showed us a lovely leaf necklace with quotes on it. She has also provided parent sessions to EYFS on separation anxiety and to Form 6 on exam pressure. Form 5 children and parents learnt how to harness their Lion Minds in her workshop about mindfulness. Upton is a happy place to be and if any of us have an off day, we all have strategies to help us and there is always someone to talk to.

Upton Minds Team 9

Music Tech Week During Music Technology Week we focused on creating sound for a specific purpose, within a theme. It seemed entirely appropriate that in the lead up to Halloween, we should experiment with some of the sound effects and musical techniques required for creating the spookier side of music, as well as the craft involved in putting sound to images. The children were shown a short Halloween cartoon with the original sound taken out. Their task was to create sound to accompany what was happening in the cartoon. The clip included a

witch flying over a haunted house on a broomstick, a boy and girl walking through a graveyard, ghosts appearing, a bell tolling and finally the appearance of a skeleton, a witch, Count Dracula and of course a werewolf. It sounds absolutely terrifying but I can assure you it was a lovely childfriendly clip! The children had to create and assign a different sound or piece of music to each of the markers and the results were fantastic. In some classes we used real instruments to create the soundtrack; great practice for our Foley artists of the future!

Parliament Week Straight after half term we were into Parliament Week. The children found out about Parliament, democracy, and fun facts about the UK Government. Form 5 had lively games of Parliament bingo. The older children found out about what it is like being an MP and tried out their debating skills. The House Captains planted chilli seeds as seeds of democracy and they have started growing! Who knows we may have the next Prime Minister or the Minister of Education already planning their ideas!

The School Council is up and running and they already have wonderful ideas and plans. The week ended quite aptly with Bonfire Night, so we also talked about the Gunpowder Plot and what might have been.

Mrs Kate Newcombe 10

It was a wonderful week and the children had the opportunity to understand how sound and music can be used to create a soundtrack for a film or moving images.

Mr Craig McEvoy

Early Years Christmas The youngest Uptonians have had an amazing time celebrating Christmas in school. On party day they really enjoyed our hat parade, the Hokey Cokey, Christmas lunch and meeting Santa.

This was an unforgettable moment for them all. Our little snowmen made their hats in school. We also explored the Penguin display with Mrs Thornton. It’s been a busy end of term for them.

Mrs Zainab Adnan

Nursery Nativity Play Nursery delighted their audience with their performance of A Miracle in Town! Rehearsals started after half term and there was a big excitement when the stage went up. The singing was beautiful and the children were very confident.

You could feel the air of excitement running through the whole Nativity with clip clopping little grey donkey, kings, camels, shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the miracle himself.

The children did such a 11

wonderful job in making sure everyone far and wide could hear the songs they had worked so hard to learn!

Their animated faces really made us feel Christmas is nearly here. A truly amazing performance, thank you to everyone who watched from school and online. Our Nativity reached 23 countries and had 700 views.

We are very proud of our youngest performers!

Mrs Jennie Phelan

Pre-Prep Nativity Play The children were very excited to perform for a “live” audience. Pre‑Prep prepared busily for their play Busy, Busy Bethlehem. Bethlehem was very busy with visitors returning to their hometown to be counted and the little soldier was quite preoccupied with counting them all until, that is, Mary and Joseph arrived and he realised this was no ordinary couple. In telling this traditional story, the children sang their little hearts out and shone like true stars. Form 2 gave us wonderful, professional performances in their speaking roles. The Form 1 shepherds danced their way through the streets of Bethlehem and the angels were magical. We were all so proud of them and hope that you enjoyed watching them as much as we enjoyed preparing for it. Roll on next year!

Mrs Emma Pritchard

Transition Nativity Play Transition gave a polished, professional performance of Everyone Loves a Baby, the story of an Inn keeper, his wife and their children who have just had a new baby born. The children, grumpy with their new noisy sibling, set off to see their friend Bill the shepherd boy. On their journey they discover wise men, shepherds and another new, very special baby who has just been born. Everyone gathers in the stable and they decide that babies aren’t so bad after all!

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The children rose to the challenge with great confidence, big voices and superb singing. It was overall a rousing, happy and heartwarming performance in front of an excellent audience that even participated in the play! We also had 400 viewers enjoying the play online. The children worked with great enthusiasm to produce the most wonderful Christmas production and we are all very proud of the result!

Mrs Susi Broad

Clubs Judo Restarted Judo was back at Upton after half term. Every Friday afternoon, Pre-Prep first and then Prep have a judo session with Core Judo. Its goal is to encourage children, through judo, to develop into better, more grounded human beings.

The syllabus is designed to help children reach their full potential in judo. In the first sessions, children have learnt all sorts of pins and throws.

Languages Pre-Prep and Prep have really enjoyed their Spanish club. They have learnt about the traditional Latin festivities including El Dia de los Muertos and even made guacamole! With songs and lots of fun, the children have enjoyed learning Spanish. Upton is a very international school and we put a lot of emphasis on languages. We teach French, Mandarin and Latin and we are very happy to offer Spanish and more Mandarin to Prep as extra clubs.

More Clubs Coming Little Musketeers will start its fencing club at Upton this January. The children had a demonstration last month and everyone had a great time. Fencing appeals to a child’s sense of play and provides physical and intellectual stimulation, the benefits of which can be transferred to the classroom. This will be offered to both Pre-Prep and Prep children.

Indoor rowing, football, netball, rugby, running and tennis are other sports provided as clubs.

We will continue with our popular cooking, coding and art clubs and we have added broadcasting, STEM, debating and chess!

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UHF Once again, UHF organised the Santa’s Grotto with an amazing setup in the marquee. It was magical to see the children from Pre‑Nursery to Form 6 having so much fun meeting Santa and the elf. For the first time, it was live streamed with a peak live audience of 70 and a total of 930 views during the day from 28 countries. The parents loved being a part of the wonderful and hilarious Santa’s Grotto. The UHF team delivered wonderful events this term including Halloween silent disco, Halloween Costume sale, Wreath making, Tea Towels, and the amazing Christmas Hampers which raised £1,400.

Carol Singing for Wexham Park We asked the Upton community to help raise money for the children’s ward at our local hospital, Wexham Park. The money will also support the children of front-line workers, fully dedicated to the NHS during the pandemic, mainly through improvements to the on-site nursery. Family and friends sponsored the children to learn Christmas songs and carols off by heart. We recorded them singing the carols in front of the Christmas tree and live streamed the event with the children’s ward to cheer those children who will be spending Christmas in hospital. Thank you to the families who have donated so generously. It is greatly appreciated by all the children.

You can still donate at https://bit.ly/uhs21carolsdonate Watch the carols at https://bit.ly/uhs21sponsoredcarols 14

Key Events Spring Term F2, F3 & F4 parents STEM Information Evening Thursday 13 January 6pm

F1 to F6 LAMDA Exams Thursday 3 March & Friday 4 March

F2 Parents & children football match Thursday 3 February 2pm

Prep Swimming Gala Thursday 17 March

F5 & F6 Choral Competition at Heathfield Tuesday 8 February

F1 Grandparents Virtual Tea Party Friday 18 March

House Music Competition Thursday 10 February

F4 Sleepover Friday 18 March

IAPS Netball (selected) Thursday 24 February

IAPS Swimming (selected) Thursday 24 March

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