Warwick Prep Life - Spring 2020

Warwick Prep Life APRIL 2020

What’s inside

SPACE DAY

FLOUR FRIENDS

QUESTION TIME

Read all about Reception's out of this world day!

Find out more about Year 4's Skills for Life projects.

Our editors interview Mrs Earl, Reception Coordinator.

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www.warwickprep.com @WarwickPrep

ASPIRE ACHIEVE ENJOY King’s High School with Warwick Preparatory School An Independent Day School and Nursery Girls and Boys from 3 to 7, Girls from 7 to 18

• Stunning new school • Sunday Times School of the Year • Excellent transport links • Tours of our new school welcome all year

Banbury Road, Warwick, CV34 6YE 01926 494485 admissions@kingshighwarwick.co.uk www.kingshighwarwick.co.uk www.warwickprep.com

Meet the Editors We are delighted to introduce our seven new editors for this term’s edition of Warwick Prep Life. Zara, Rosetta, Tiggy, Mia, Amrit, Annabel and Maya have been busy conducting interviews and writing up their articles.

Let’s find out a little more about why they have enjoyed being our editors:

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Warwick PrepLife

Welcome from the Head A very warm welcome to the Spring Term edition of ‘Warwick Prep Life.’ As ever, our editors have done an incredible job in capturing the true essence of life at Warwick Prep through these pages and I hope you enjoy their work.

Our children have travelled from the Arctic to space and travelled back in time to visit the Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Tudors! We continue to benefit enormously from our big sisters at King’s High being next door: Nursery children thoroughly enjoyed their Teddy Bear Hunt in the Quad and Year 6 have described their DNA Day in the labs as one of the best days ever!

None of us could have envisaged, just a few short weeks ago, that these Skills for Life would now be the foundation for our temporary way of working from home. Whilst we may be working and learning at home, we are still ‘Warwick Prep Together’ and I have no doubt that the experiences gained and the skills developed will ensure that the Warwick Prep community emerges stronger and more spirited than ever.

Our Music, Sport and Drama departments continue to flourish as we were treated to the first performance from our Year 2 String Orchestra as well as receiving excellent Associated Board and LAMDA examination results. We have achieved notable success in an ever expanding range of sports, the most recent being qualification of the U9 and U11 biathlon teams for the British National Biathlon Finals.

Regular readers will know the value we place on our Skills for Life curriculum and it has been a particular joy this term to award the first of our new badges, generously purchased by WPSA, recognising how the children are demonstrating their competence in all eight areas.

“I loved being an editor because it has given me the opportunity to interview teachers and find out what’s going on around the school.

It has also developed my writing skills.”

“I have had lots of fun being an editor and I have really enjoyed the experience and working with the other editors.”

Zara

Amrit

“I loved being an editor because I have had some amazing opportunities to show my writing skills and it has really helped with my confidence.”

“This has been a good opportunity for me because I’ve been able to reach my goals and I have had fun finding out what has been happening in school.”

Maya

Mia

“Being an editor has given me such a great opportunity to meet new people and I have loved learning what all the other year groups have been doing throughout the term!”

“Being an editor has been an amazing experience and has given me many opportunities to work with different people.”

Tiggy

Rosetta

“Being an editor has been a great experience because it has helped me with my writing.”

Annabel

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news NURSERY NEWS

Story Time!

The Nursery children have been enjoying their stories this term with visits from the school librarians, who have been reading stories to them after lunch. Mrs Gardner welcomed each Nursery class into the Library for a story session. World Book Day was very exciting with Warwick School pupils dressed as ‘Wild Things’ reading ‘Where the Wild Things Are!’ Trip Trap, Trip Trap!

The children love telling stories with puppets and ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ is always a Nursery favourite!

Billy Goats Gruff

Grandad!

The children loved their visit from local author, John Carter.

John is a real life Grandad and his eleven grandchildren are the inspiration for ‘The Grandad Stories’. The children enjoyed listening to John read his heartwarming rhyming stories, their favourite being ‘Grandad's Fish-Pond!’

NuL with local Author, John Carter

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Emily and Jeeva

NuT on World Book Day

Warwick PrepLife RECEPTION NEWS

Out of this World…

Reception have enjoyed finding out all about space this term. They have been learning about the Sun, the Moon and the different planets in the Milky Way. They were visited by Astronaut Wilby who talked to them about the first moon landing and Tim Peake’s visit to the International Space Station. At the end of the topic, Reception enjoyed Space Day, making clay aliens and junk model rockets, practising space dancing and decorating alien biscuits.

Astronaut Wilby visiting Reception

Harrison building his junk model rocket

Anna, Zac, Avery, Abigail and Gregory

Superheroes

Supertato Paintings

In the second half of term, Reception began their new Superhero topic. They thought about which powers would be important to have as a superhero and looked at some examples of real-life heroes. They enjoyed reading ‘Supertato’ and making their own ‘Super Veggies’ to help Supertato capture the Evil Pea!

Amy, Kabir, Meera and Benjamin with their Super Veggies

By Noah

By Martha

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news YEAR 1 NEWS

Adventures in the Arctic…

Year 1 have had an amazing term learning all about the polar lands.

They had a wonderful ‘flight’ to the Arctic to start their topic and they really enjoyed creating passports and boarding ‘Brotherhood Airlines’ for a bumpy trip! Once there, Year 1 explored the terrain and made notes about all the animals that they could see! The children have been enthusiastic to find out about life for the Inuit in the Arctic and which animals can be found at which Pole. They particularly enjoyed a visit from Andrew Cooney, who became the youngest person to walk to the South Pole. They were inspired by his story and loved exploring the expedition equipment. They went on to create super posters about his expedition.

Maxwell getting ready to board the plane Thinktank Museum

1JF visit the Arctic

Fun was had by all as Year 1 visited Thinktank Museum. The children explored, with interest, all the scientific displays and found out interesting facts about the stars, day and night in the Planetarium.

Lottie, Karen, Miles

Sweeney

Getting Creative Year 1 have also enjoyed visiting the Art room to create ceramic pinch pot monsters. They look fabulous and the children are very proud of their designs.

A collection of 1HD's Pinch Pots

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Warwick PrepLife YEAR 2 NEWS

Sunflowers, Fairies and Dinosaurs!

Problem-solving fun was key to Maths Week, where Year 2 had great fun using their weighing skills, following recipes to make bags of bird seed, and honing their stop watch skills, in challenges set by 'The Happy Puzzle Company’. In English, they have been in correspondence with Fairyland, helping the fairies with various tasks - including punctuation. They learned about rhythm and rhyme in poetry, and enjoyed performing and writing poems about cheeky aliens. In Art, Year 2 have been exploring the different styles of a variety of artists. They have replicated their styles very successfully - Well done Year 2!

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We have been so impressed with how hard the children have worked to develop their Skills for Life this term. It has been wonderful to see the presentations Year 2 have created during Project Fortnight and how they are developing their Skills for Life at home as well.

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Skills for Life

L I F E

Susannah weighing bird food

Sunflowers inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, by Hattie

Sunflowers inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, by Sam

2JW’s Alien Poems

Musical Extravaganza Year 2, supported by the Music Department, worked exceptionally hard to put on their first Strings Project concert this term. We were incredibly proud of them as they demonstrated their plucking, bowing, rhythmic and pitching skills. The children showcased the music they have been working on during their Monday afternoon lessons since September and left the audience with huge smiles on their faces. Year 2 had a real treat, joining professional musicians for a Dinosaur Disco at the CBSO in Birmingham. They worked together to learn about pitch, volume, timbre and rhythm, and Year 2 left truly inspired.

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news YEAR 3 NEWS

Ancient Egyptians The girls in Year 3 had a wonderful Egyptian Day to support their topic in History. They all got into the spirit of being an Ancient Egyptian, as they all came dressed in fantastic Egyptian costumes.

They thoroughly enjoyed sampling lots of delicious Egyptian food, including dates, pitta bread, yogurt with honey, olives and feta.

The girls worked hard to make papyrus, write messages using hieroglyphs, and create clay scarab beetles. Professor McGinty came in to talk to the girls about life in Ancient Egypt and was extremely entertaining as well as informative. He brought some great artefacts, including a mummified cat and his very own time machine!

Isla and Rosie

Daisy

News Just In...

In Geography, the girls have been finding out why so many people in the world live in megacities. They particularly enjoyed using the iPads to film their own news reports, announcing the creation of a new capital city in Brazil.

Maths Week

Skills for Life

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The girls have worked incredibly hard to develop their Skills for Life during Project Fortnight, showing creativity of approach, and confidently sharing their presentations. Well done, girls!

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During Maths Week, the subject was brought to life through a range of reasoning and problem-solving contexts, with ‘The Happy Puzzle Company’ workshop proving to be a particular highlight. Find out more on page 13.

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Sophia and Grace problem-solving during Maths week

Warwick PrepLife YEAR 4 NEWS

All about the Romans!

Year 4 started the term with Roman Day in January! The girls dressed in their finest Roman clothing to enjoy a day of mosaic making, jewellery creating, drama, singing, and learning about the Roman numeral system. As part of their Roman topic, they also visited Chedworth Roman Villa, a new trip for Year 4, to learn all about what life was like in Britain during Roman rule. The girls enjoyed dressing up, making medicine and exploring the fascinating remains of the villa and its impressive mosaics.

Sustainability Geography has focused on the topic of Sustainability. The girls produced some impressive homework (on recycled paper/card) about Greta Thunberg, drawing inspiration from her speeches.

Georgia and Martha making their mosaics

Florence and Charlotte at Chedworth Roman Villa

Roman Day Flour Friends

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LS FO R

SK

Year 4 have loved completing their Skills for Life project: looking after your Flour Friend!

Girls were each given a large bag of flour to take home and look after for two and a half weeks. The Flour Friends were given outfits, names, accessories and taken on many trips during half term.

The girls used their skill of resilience to fix their "friends" if their sides split! We have all really enjoyed hearing about everyone's adventures with their Flour Friends.

L I F E Sophie, Ellie, Zara and Ayva with their Flour Friends

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news YEAR 5 NEWS

Once Upon a Term in Year 5…

Year 5 had an amazing start to the term, with the Young Voices concert in Birmingham. The girls spent the day singing their hearts out, and showing their best party choreographed moves. Being part of a choir with six thousand other children was a wonderful experience for the girls. They also enjoyed watching their parents join in with the 90’s medley!

Tudor Explorers As part of their Tudor Explorers topic, the girls had the opportunity to Skype call The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth. They were able to ask one of the experts questions about life on board the ship. This really sparked the girls’ interest and developed their historical enquiry skills.

Fairtrade In Geography, Year 5 have been focused on trade, and developing their understanding of Fairtrade, which coincided with Fairtrade Fortnight. The girls were shocked to learn of the tiny percentage that farmers receive for their products when they are not part of a Fairtrade Co-operative.

Olivia's work on Fairtrade

STEM Day The girls thoroughly enjoyed working collaboratively with the Year 6 girls to produce a rollercoaster. The aim was to keep their marble rolling as part of a STEM workshop. Read more about STEM Day on page 18.

Maths Week gave all the opportunity to measure out ingredients to make smoothies, make a scaled ‘mini-me’ and design their own area robot amongst other whole school mathematical opportunities. Find out more about Maths Week on page 13.

“Spit Spot” On our exciting World Book Day, Year 5 visited the Bridge House Theatre to watch Mary Poppins ‘with a spoonful of sugar which helped the show go down in the most delightful way!’ Find out more about World Book Day on page 17. Earlier in the term, as part of National Storytelling Week, some of the Year 5 girls enjoyed sharing books with Lower School, bringing the stories to life for their younger friends.

5KC celebrating World Book Day

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Ava, Georgia, Purdie, Betsy, Sophie and Megan

Warwick PrepLife YEAR 6 NEWS

A Term of Collaboration

By Tiggy

6SW visiting King's High

Collaboration

Ellie's Skills for Life Portfolio

Skills for Life Portfolio As part of our Skills for Life portfolio this term, we had to redesign our bedrooms with a budget of £1000. As part of our portfolio, we have also been setting up our own businesses, hoping to make a profit with our ‘Make Your Money Grow’ challenge.

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LS FO R

We have taken part in many different science days and activities this term. Just before half term, we took part in STEM Day, with Year 5, where the key focus was engineering. See more about our STEM Day on page 18. In our classes, we have been to visit the new Science laboratories at King’s High. We met the technicians who are responsible for all the practical work that goes on in lessons. In the second half of term, we took part in DNA Day at King’s High where we had to extract our own DNA! See more on page 18 for the DNA Day article.

In Computing, we have been learning about animations, and have been using green screens to create our own! Another highlight was a talk from the architects of Project One Campus. They talked us through the initial planning phase to the final build, which we found quite inspiring!

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Year 6 have had another busy term! Before half term, we were excited to find out about our end of year play. We all auditioned for our roles and we have been busy with rehearsals, for Peter Pan Jr. learning our lines and finding out about technical theatre roles.

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Abi's Skills for Life portfolio

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art

Artist in Residence

By Holly Burt, Art Captain Our artist in residence this year was Adebanji Alade, also known as ‘The Addictive Sketcher’. His main mission is to inspire, motivate and entertain people through his art. His paintings are all about people and places.

Adebanji delivered two workshops for Year 6. He introduced us to sketching portraits and shared his wonderful passion with us.

He sketches every single day no matter where he is or what he is doing, even sketching on the train to work. He showed us many of his incredible techniques to help create magnificent self-portrait masterpieces. We really enjoyed working with acrylic paint as well as concentrating on light and dark tones.

During our Art lessons, we are continuing to work on our self-portraits to develop the skills that Adebanji taught us.

Art Gallery

Emily in Year 6 - Expressive Portrait

Aimee in Year 6 - Expressive Portrait

Maggie in Year 3 - Surprised Portrait

Abigail in Year 3 - Surprised Portrait

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Florence in Year 4 - Continuous line drawing

Warwick PrepLife

+ Maths = Week ÷× SK

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This term we introduced many practical challenges and crosscurricular activities during our bespoke Maths Week. So much fantastic learning went on across all year groups LS FO IL and the children were buzzing with enthusiasm about learning Maths. ‘The Happy Puzzle Company’ visited during Maths Week, bringing with them many mini tasks that stretched the children’s logic and strategic skills and developed trial and error methods. The children used many Skills for Life during Maths Week L I F E including: resilience, collaboration and communication.

Isabella and Alishia building an igloo

Lowenna using the Pi number sequence to plot an urban landscape on graph paper

Eva with her Penguin

Zara met with Eva and Hugo, in Year 1, as well as Connie and Georgie, in Year 3, to find out more about what they did during Maths Week.

Q What did you enjoy most about Maths Week?

A Connie – I enjoyed ‘The Happy Puzzle Company’ visit. That was lots of fun!

Eva – I liked using shapes to make penguins.

Hugo – Building igloos out of sugar cubes was my favourite!

Q What different Maths activities did you do?

A Connie – In Year 3 we played Maths games and we did lots of penguin activities as we read ‘365 Penguins’.

Eva and Hugo – We measured Arctic animals using metre sticks, our strides and we used the length of us. We even measured an orca whale!

Cassius, Ossy, Bronte and Beatrice Q What is your favourite Maths fact you have learnt?

A C onnie – That you can use your fingers to work out the 9 times table.

Hugo and Eva – Learning that 50 is in the middle of 100 and 0!

Q Which puzzle did you enjoy most when ‘The Happy Puzzle Company’ came to visit?

A Hugo and Eva – Working in teams to work out the animal puzzle. It was so much fun!

Connie – I loved the musical marbles. We had to make a marble trail which hit musical notes on the way down to make a tune!

Georgie – The fishing activity! Someone in our team was blindfolded and we had to give them directions, so they could catch the fish.

Q Why do you think Maths Week is important?

A Connie – I think it’s important because you can practise your Maths in different ways and it has shown us that Maths is used for lots of different things.

Q What Maths skills did you enjoy using most?

A Georgie – I liked how we linked other topics with Maths. We looked at how people counted during the Stone Age and how they recorded counting.

Hugo – Doing sums and measuring was my favourite.

Eva – I enjoyed doing addition.

Connie – I liked using multiplication and division to work out how we would group the penguins from the book ‘365 Penguins’.

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sport

Sports Round-up Netball This term has been full of exciting tournaments for our netball teams, as well as our weekly fixtures. Our U11 teams have performed so well in their tournaments, with the U11A team gaining silver medals at Foremarke Hall as well as at our own tournament. They faced some tough opposition at the IAPS (Independent Association of Prep Schools) Regional Tournament but performed excellently in the knockout rounds to win the Plate! The U11B team won a bronze medal at our own tournament, and our U11D team have had the strongest season with an undefeated run! The U10A team have many talented players, winning the Foremarke Hall tournament out of eight schools and performing strongly in their matches.

Our U9 Central Warwickshire district champions have started their own preparations for the County Championship later in the year with early morning training before school.

We look forward to seeing how our teams progress.

U7B Gymnastic Team Gymnastics

U10A Netball Team Football Warwick Prep football continues to grow! It was a great sight to see ‘Alice in Wonderland’ dribbling her way past ‘The Pink Panther’ to smash the ball into the net on World Book Day! Having had some reservations at the beginning of the year, Year 2 girls have shown a lot of determination to score goals as they continue to learn that the game is indeed a lot of fun!

The U11 football team have resumed where last year’s very successful team left off and have produced some very impressive results so far this term. In January they proceeded through a tough competition at Coventry City FC’s Academy Headquarters to become the ESFA (English Schools’ Football Association) Warwickshire County 7 a-side champions. They have also made a good start in their efforts to hold on to the South Warwickshire League Championship, remaining undefeated, having scored 23 goals and conceding just 2 in their last three games.

U11 Football

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Our Gymnasts have had another busy term with the ISGA (Independent Schools Gymnastics Association) 4-piece Competition in January for a mixed Years 5 and 6 team.

Congratulations to our girls Jessica (Captain), Charlotte, Olivia, Amber and Ellie who finished in team 6th position.

Our two Year 2 gymnastics teams attended the Central Warwickshire Schools Sport Partnership Gymnastics ISGA Gymnastic Team Competition and placed 1st and 2nd! The team who placed first have qualified for the County Finals. Well done to all who took part!

Swimming and Biathlon Congratulations to the U9 and U11 team of Isla, Eleanor, Olivia, Annabel and Florence, who qualified for the British National Biathlon Finals after finishing within the top four schools in the regional round.

Our swimmers have been busy with lots of galas this term against Windrush Valley School, Kitebrook, Sibford, Bluecoat, Bromsgrove and Warwick Junior School. Our U10 and U11 teams, including two incredibly hardworking and talented Year 4 girls, attended the IAPS national qualifying round at Bluecoat. Our girls were quick off the blocks and showed great determination and speed. We now wait patiently for the results of whether we have qualified for the National Finals at the London Olympic pool. Good luck girls!

U9-U11 Biathlon

Warwick PrepLife

Question Time Mrs Earl, Reception Coordinator

By Tiggy and Rosetta Tiggy and Rosetta went along to interview Mrs Earl to find out more about her role as Reception Coordinator.

Q What do you do as Reception Coordinator?

A I look at all the topics we cover in Reception and do all the planning, so we have lots of exciting things to do. I also arrange trips and visitors as well as assemblies for the special days we have. We recently had Space Day, which was new this term.

Q Which topics have you been teaching Reception this term?

A This term we have been teaching Reception all about space and superheroes.

Q What is your favourite topic to teach?

A That is a really tricky question! I enjoy all the topics we teach the children. However, space has been a new topic this year, which I have really enjoyed teaching. My favourite would have to be dinosaurs though. I love that one! We go on a lovely trip and ‘Teach Rex’ comes to visit which we all love.

Q What do you enjoy most about teaching Reception?

A That’s a tricky question as well. It is very exciting when the children learn to read. I also love all the practical activities we do with the children, like using the mud kitchen. That’s lots of fun!

Q What are your hobbies outside of school?

A I like to read and spend time with my family. We enjoy going on walks together. I also spend a lot of time watching my children do their hobbies: football and Irish dancing.

Cyril Investigates…

German Club

By Maya and Amrit Cyril went along with Maya and Amrit to find out more about German Club. They met with Mrs Varney-MacLeod who runs the club every Thursday and Friday lunchtime.

Q Which year groups are involved in German club and what do they enjoy most?

A Girls in Years 3-6 can join at any time throughout the year. I think they enjoy the role play the most, which we do once we have learnt the vocabulary. It makes it fun and we like to add a comedic spin!

Q What activities do you do at German Club?

A At the beginning of every term, we learn some new vocabulary and try to think of ways we can remember it. Sometimes we sing songs and use lots of actions. We then use the vocabulary in role plays. I choose topics which I think the girls will like.

Q What topics do pupils learn about?

A They tend to be everyday situations which you could find yourself in when visiting Germany. For instance, checking into a hotel, eating out, visiting the hairdressers. I like to make sure the girls learn vocabulary which they can use in different situations.

For example, chores in their performance of Cinderella last term.

Q Have you got any assembly performances planned?

A We have! We are planning an assembly with five different role plays on the topic of food. Some of the girls will be performing an international ‘Bake Off’ and different restaurant scenarios.

Q What do you like most about running German Club?

Cinderella Performance

A I love the girls' enthusiasm for learning. It is so great listening to the girls speak German and making their own sentences as it shows they have understood what I have taught them. It really impresses me when the girls tell me they have been on holiday and have been speaking German. I really want to bring language to life for the girls.

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music

Musical Matters This term has been another exciting one, seeing much talent on display, with the number of children receiving instrumental tuition and ensemble playing growing! Excitement mounts as we see the new music building taking shape from our classroom windows.

The Young Voices Concert was once again a fantastic experience. Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed the evening with lots of singing in one of the largest children’s choir concerts. It was a huge success and a memorable musical experience for all involved.

Musical Horizons Some of the girls in the Prep department have enjoyed performing in the King’s Musical Horizons Concerts, aspiring to achieve a higher standard of performance after listening to the senior girls. The concerts – Piano as well as Woodwind and Brass - featured individual solos as well as an assured performance from Reeds Rule! It was lovely to also see the Junior Choir performing at the Singing Concert.

The younger performers were so excited to be performing in their first concerts. We have also had our own informal concerts where it has been encouraging to see talent on show and the progress that the girls are making in their own individual studies.

Sophie, Beatrice, Ava, Maddie, Ava and Antalyia Benedetti Foundation String Day Victoria, Annie and Alice in Year 6, were very privileged to attend the Benedetti Foundation String Day with Nicola Benedetti, the Grammy Award Winning violinist, at the Symphony Hall. Mr Laing is one of the tutors and conductors with the Benedetti Foundation and was thrilled that the girls were able to attend. It was a very memorable day for them playing alongside a hundred aspiring young musicians.

The Junior Choir The String Project The String Project is in its second year and we are extremely pleased with the progress that Year 2 have made in their string lessons since September. This year we have added a new element into the lessons and explored with improvisation on open strings. Year 2 enjoyed performing to their parents in a String Showcase this term and it has been wonderful to see last year’s graduates performing in the tea time concerts this term.

Year 2 String Project

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Music Horizons Piano Concert

Reeds Rule! performing at the Woodwind and Brass Concert

Warwick PrepLife

World Book Day

By Maya On Friday 6 March, we celebrated the 23rd annual World Book Day. Children and adults alike looked amazing in their costumes. Our school’s initials were our theme this year, which encouraged the whole school to dress up as a character or title beginning with W or P. As part of our World Book Day celebrations, we had our ‘Warwick Prep Reading Challenge’. The aim was to try to read as many books as possible with titles beginning with the same letters as Warwick Prep. We also took part in a book swap which encouraged us to bring in a pre-loved book to swap with someone else! I really enjoyed this as it gave me the opportunity to not only recycle, but also to read a new book.

4LG

King’s High pupils helped begin our celebrations with a fantastic and interactive assembly. Pre-Prep then enjoyed visits from King’s High and Warwick School pupils who came to read their favourite children’s books.

Warwick Prep staff enjoying World Book Day

Piglet, Tigger and Winnie-the-Pooh

Harrison in his Costume

Year 6 all ready for World Book Day

Warwick School pupils reading to Reception

King's High pupils leading the assembly

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foundation

STEM Day

By Annabel Years 5 and 6 enjoyed STEM day, working with the Engineering Development Trust. In mixed groups, we were given engineering challenges to complete. Throughout the challenges, the STEM experts were on hand to give advice and help with our designs.

The first challenge was ‘egg dropping’. In our groups, we were given an egg and a budget for materials, such as sponges, plastic and foil. The winning group were able to keep their egg protected from breakage as well as spending the least amount of their budget.

Needless to say, there were a couple of messy accidents, but it was all very eggciting!

Our next challenge was to design and build a rollercoaster. Each group was given a marble, with the aim to demonstrate whose rollercoaster ride would last the longest. We all learnt so many new skills throughout the day.

Flossie, Izzy, Emilia, Kitty and Sophia

Madeleine, Akaash, Ava, Charlotte and Shania

Annabel, Beatrice, Ellie, Leila and Jessica

DNA Day

By Zara On Friday 13 March, Year 6 had an amazing time investigating DNA at King’s High! We looked into how DNA forms, where you can find it and how it looks. We were introduced to DNA as the ‘code for life’ and took part in some code breaking challenges, which we all had great fun doing. We then extracted our own DNA from our cheek cells! By the end of an impressive scientific process, we all had our own DNA inside a pendant and left proudly wearing them around our necks!

Anna and Tiggy

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Miya and Ava

Warwick PrepLife

Foundation News In January, our Nursery children had a great time visiting King’s High, where some of the Year 9 girls arranged a Bear Hunt for them. The children enjoyed exploring the Quad and looking for numbered bears in small groups.

Year 2 enjoyed a visit from Year 6 boys from Warwick Junior School. They came along to share the Mr Men e-books which they had created. Year 2 loved listening to all the boys’ stories and looking at their amazing illustrations.

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book reviews

Book Reviews

The Ice Monster

by David Walliams

Billionaire Boy

by David Walliams

by Rosetta

by Amrit

Storyline Ice Monster is set in 1899 in Victorian London. A girl called Elsie escapes from an orphanage and finds a woolly mammoth at the Natural History Museum. They go on an adventure together to try and get Woolly back to the Arctic.

Genre Fiction Storyline Joe’s dad is rich and has always bought Joe everything he has wanted.

Joe even has his own bowling alley and cinema, but he isn’t happy because he doesn’t have any friends.

Characters Joe Spud is the main character in the book. He has some lovely traits but is a bit socially awkward. Leonard Spud is the father of Joe, who is a billionaire.

Plot Joe has been trying to make friends, but he keeps being bullied.

He asks his dad if he can move to another school, but it doesn’t quite work in Joe’s favour as he learns that you can’t buy family and friends. I found the book a very enjoyable read and it teaches many lessons throughout the book, including to be kind.

Your opinion I loved this book! My favourite part was when Joe tried to make a friend as he puts a lot of effort in. The funniest part was when I found out that his Dad made toilet roll! I learnt that just because you are wealthy, it doesn’t mean you’re always happy.

Would you recommend the book? Definitely! This book is great and teaches very valuable lessons. However, I would say that younger readers may enjoy it more.

Your star rating 5 out of 5

SilverFin

by Charlie Higson

by Mia Genre Adventure Storyline A young boy called James Bond has just started his first term at Eton College. On his way to Scotland to visit his Aunt and Uncle, he meets a boy called Red Kelly, who needs help to find one of his cousins who has gone missing.

Characters The main character is James Bond, who is a fearless young boy who would do anything to help others. As well, there is Red Kelly who enlisted the help of James to help with the disappearance of his cousin.

Plot James goes on an adventure with Red to help find his missing cousin. They travel around Scotland in order to try and find the answers. It is the best book I have ever read!

Your opinion I loved the book, especially at the end when the story pieces together. It was a great read!

Would you recommend the book? I would definitely recommend this book because it was really interesting!

Your star rating 5 out of 5

Genre Adventure

Characters The main characters are Elsie who is 10 years old and Woolly a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth. As well as Dotty, who is the Natural History Museum cleaner. Even Queen Victoria makes an appearance in this book!

Plot When Elsie heard about the Ice Monster (a woolly mammoth), she is determined to go and find it! Elsie arrives at the Natural History Museum, where she meets Dotty and Woolly.

Together with the Chelsea Pensioners and the Sticky Hand Gang, they go on an adventure of a lifetime, starting in London!

Your opinion I thought it was a super funny book to read and there was a great range of interesting characters. Dotty is my favourite character!

Would you recommend the book? I would absolutely recommend this book because I think it is a great read and it really made me laugh! It is another amazing book by David Walliams.

Your star rating 5 out of 5

Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott

by Annabel Genre Fiction Storyline The story follows the March sisters as they face their first Christmas without their beloved father, who is away serving in the army. Following their journey, the sisters explore their relationships with each other as well as their neighbours.

Characters The four main characters are: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. They are all sisters with different personalities which can sometimes clash. There is also their Mother, Marmee and their neighbour Laurie. I really enjoyed how we got to see the different journeys of each character throughout the book.

Plot It takes place during the American Civil War but focuses on the small domestic world of the four March sisters as they grow up. The family is poor and Jo and Meg (the two older sisters) must work in order to support the family.

Your opinion I really enjoyed this book because there is a beautiful positive outlook throughout. I also loved how the sisters were always supporting each other in everything they did.

Would you recommend the book? I would recommend this book to Years 5 and 6 as the story is full of emotion: love, comedy and tragedy.

Your star rating 5 out of 5

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Warwick PrepLife

Charity News A wonderful sight filled part of the school fields when the whole school enjoyed a spring morning out in the fresh air, walking one mile to raise money for Sport Relief. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of friends and family, our pupils raised over £4,000 for the charity.

This is a truly exceptional achievement, well done to everyone who took part!

Our pupils have continued to support good causes outside of school.

Ella, in Year 3, and her brother Ben, in Nursery, counted birds for the RSPB's Big Bird Watch. Georgie, in Year 3, collected donations for Helping Hands from members of the audience after a pantomime performance, and Georgia, in Year 5, has been helping at a night shelter in Rugby. Congratulations to Isabel, in Year 4, who earned her charity badge at Brownies by supporting the Cats Protection League.

A special mention must go to Henry, in Year 2, who asked his friends to make a donation to Birmingham Children's Hospital instead of buying him a birthday present; his selflessness raised £160. Tess, in Year 4, supported Warwick Junior School, baking for their cake sale which raised money for victims of the devastating Australian wildfires.

We are delighted to confirm that over the Christmas period, we donated in excess of £3,400 to various charities. Thank you to everyone who bought Christmas cards, and gave a donation at our performances and carol services.

The Landor Association Lecture was given by the historian, broadcaster, and King’s High Old Girl, Dr Helen Castor. Author of Blood and Roses and She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Dr Castor gave a fascinating insight into the history of female monarchs. Drawing parallels with today, she explained how particular attacks on female leaders, such as Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher, can be traced back to Medieval times. After her talk, Dr Castor spoke with pupils, parents and staff.

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www.warwickprep.com Warwick Preparatory School, Banbury Road, Warwick CV34 6PL info@warwickprep.com | 01926 491545 | www.warwickprep.com Warwick Preparatory School is part of the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation, together with King’s High School and Warwick School, providing high quality education for boys and girls aged 3-18.