Trinity Prep Newsletter 2021

Trinity Newsletter Prep School

Newsletter Trinity 2020-2021 Introduction from the Head Our new Termly Newsletter is a collection of just some of the highlights of the previous term here at Wellingborough.

It will give you a glimpse into life here and some of the things that have happened over the last few months. .

Katharine Owen Head of Prep

Week 2 Lower Prep Update Welcome to our first complete week back at school this Trinity Term and goodness this has been a busy one!

It has been so lovely watching the children enjoying being outside in the fabulous sunshine. The mornings are still somewhat chilly so please would you make sure your child has a coat with them, by lunchtime these remain firmly on their coat pegs but we have needed them for first break.

Swimming started again this week for Years 1 and 2 which was very exciting.

It is just so uplifting to be able to return to some of the activities we took for granted pre-Covid. Many of the co-curricular clubs have restarted, bringing enjoyment and enriched experiences for the children involved.

We welcome Keira to the Nursery and hope she has a very happy time with us, every time I see her she has a smile on her face, which is a good sign.

Nursery have started their study of ‘The World around us’ and they have been observing how the natural world within our school is changing as Spring arrives.

On our walk to lunch on Wednesday we stopped to admire the beautiful pink blossom on the flowering cherry trees. The children enthusiastically told me that pink is Mrs Gutteridge’s favourite colour. I couldn’t help but smile when on our return to the Nursery one of the children instructed Mrs Gutteridge to go and see it!

Our initial focus is to help the children learn lower case letters and in particular the letters the children need to enable them to write their own name. This skill is empowering as they can then add their name themselves to family birthday cards etc. Capital letters can be very confusing as many are dissimilar to their lower case partner, think about a and A, totally different!

The children have been choosing stones from a pot and have arranged them to form the shape of their initial letter. This required lots of concentration but you can see the pride when they completed this successfully. Each child will then write the rest of their name on their own – a huge achievement.

What an exciting ‘Experience Day’ Year 2 had this week making reading dens!

In their Literacy lessons the children are studying a parody on the traditional tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The story the children will be focusing on is ‘Little Red Reading Hood’. The children talked about the sort of books they like to read and where they feel comfortable reading. They then made comfy reading dens within the classroom, many choosing cosy covered spaces where they could quietly enjoy their book.

Then they went outside and the challenge was to find a place where they could relax and read outside in the sunshine! To quote Mrs Wood, ‘It was a blissful and relaxing 20 minutes.’

Mrs Girling Head of Lower Prep

Week 3 Eco-Schools Update Clear progress is being made to achieve the Green Flag aims and initiatives. This week has been Food Waste Action Week in conjunction with Chartwells Catering.

We have carried out surveys of pupils taking water bottles into lunch; the Upper Prep are particularly good at this!

The amount of salad, vegetables and fruit being chosen has also been monitored and pupils in Upper Prep were awarded pluses for clean plates on Tuesday and Friday.

Other developments have included the regeneration of the old Secret Garden. We now have new bedding areas ready to plant the herbs for use in our lunches and the governors have funded the installation of water butts.

More ideas implemented include the signage on bins and in the car park.

Forthcoming activities will be transport and car surveys.

The Eco-Warriors

Nursery Congratulations to everyone for the amazing work you are doing on Seesaw, I have really enjoyed looking at the children’s videos and pictures. Thank you to Mrs Gutteridge and her team for so quickly adapting the week’s learning to being delivered remotely.

Last week I shared with you the start of an activity where the children used stones to create the initial letter of their name. These were completed on Friday and now make a lovely display outside in the Nursery play area.

Reception The children have continued their study of the world around us and have been looking at pebbles. They have been amazed by the variety of shapes, colours and textures. Great fun was had exploring what happens when pebbles of different sizes are dropped into water, the children had to predict what they thought would happen before the pebble was dropped – there were some impressive splashes!

Year 1 The enthusiasm and interest in the topic The Great Fire of London is wonderful to see. The children have sequenced the events and have started to make Tudor houses to put on the display in the classroom – this is why we have been collecting cardboard boxes.

In Science the children are learning about Growing Things and have ‘planted’ a bean in a plastic bag so they can see what happens when the bean germinates.

These make a dramatic display on the classroom window and I am very pleased to say that every bean has now started to grow.

Week 4 Head’s Report It has been lovely to see Year 6 pupils back in school this week and Nursery back in today. Thank you to all staff, pupils and parents who managed remote learning so well over the past week or so.

Mrs Owen, Head of Prep

All Systems Go For The New Sixth Form Centre !

The Governors have announced that work will begin this summer on the new Sixth Form Centre, to be completed by April 2022.

The project will cost £1.7 million, and we are asking all parents to help us raise the money needed for this vital investment in our children’s futures.

The simplest way to help us is by pledging to waive the return of your child’s deposit when they leave the School. In return, your child will earn the right to be named for posterity on a ‘Brick’ on the Wall of Donors in the new Centre. ht ps:/is u .com/wel ingboroughscho l/docs/ws_parent_brochhere ure_0421?fr=sYmEwYzM1NjQ3MTI to view the Appeal You can see the names on the Wall already by clicking Brochure.

Those families able to support the Appeal even further might be interested in ‘Buying a Breeze Block’ for £2,020! There are also naming opportunities for larger donations.

Every penny pledged means that the School will not need to borrow so much from the Bank.

My own family has pledged to buy a Breeze Block, as have the Chairman of the Governors and Mrs Owen in the Prep School. Already we have about 100 pledges or donations from OWs and parents.

Next week we shall be emailing you with a link to a video explaining the School’s ambition for the new Sixth Form Centre and why we need your help to make this a reality. There will also be a link taking you to an online Reply Form. And next week we shall be erecting a Barometer in the Car Park, so you can see how much support the Appeal is attracting: we shall be updating this on a fortnightly basis.

School fees alone do not produce a sufficient surplus to cover the cost of this new Centre. Throughout our 426-year history, each generation has ‘done its bit’. This new Centre is our biggest development project in 40 years. We have weathered the Pandemic, now we must ‘Build for the Future’ and ensure that our children have the facilities they deserve. We ask for your help with this vital investment in our future.

Andrew Holman, Headmaster

Week 5 This week has been Mental Health week with a focus on Nature. Research has shown that looking at and being outside with nature reduces stress levels and helps us understand how being calm really feels. Each year group in Lower Prep has enjoyed an activity this week focusing on the nature we are so fortunate to have in the amazing grounds of our school.

Nursery On Thursday the children went to see Carl from Estates and learned how to place flowering plants into their welly planters. As you can see from the photographs the children were enthralled by all there is to see in the Estates compound, the blue tractor was a favourite! Carl had set up planting stations and demonstrated how to ‘plant a welly.’ Carl even showed the children where a robin family have chosen to make their nest this year – everyone was very quiet at this point.

Reception The BBC Countryfile show has set the nation a challenge to plant a tree for every child in the Reception Year across the country, which would be 750,000 new trees.

Thanks to an anonymous donor from within the School community, who bought a sapling for each of our Reception pupils, Tuesday was our planting day! Carl had prepared the site brilliantly, each sapling had a space clearly identified and the initial digging pre-prepared. Carl talked to the children about the saplings and why the different ‘trees’ would be good for the birds, insects and animals that live in our grounds. It will be so exciting for our Reception children to watch these saplings grow and mature alongside themselves.

Year 4 Update This week has been Mental Health week with the theme of 'nature'. In PSHE we have focused our lessons on the joy of bird song and the moments of peace that can be found by being in the fresh air. The weather has not been kind to every class, but the majority have been able to enjoy some fresh air and moments of relaxation during their PSHE lessons. The children have all made beautiful multi-coloured birds to be displayed around the School as a reminder of the calming effects of being outside.

The Year 4 pupils have had a really busy few weeks as they have been fully immersed in their Science topic covering Living Things and their Habitats. The children were horrified to learn about the devastating effects of deforestation on rainforests and the implications that this has for their generation. The children produced some amazing writing on the rainforests and put together some wonderful cross-curricular work. Considering how little time the children have spent in school over the year, I am extremely proud of the quality of work they are producing. The highlight of the week has to be building classification keys based around our favourite sweets and the results speak for themselves!

Mrs McDougall, Year 4 Teacher

Week 6

This has been a momentous week - we have had our first Prep School trips happening since March 2020! On Thursday, Year 3 pupils spent a day of fun and adventure at the Frontier Centre, returning to school happy but tired. Today it is the turn of Year 4 and, at the time of writing, I am hoping that the weather will be kind to us. Thank you to all the staff for organising and supervising the trips, you could tell by the look on the pupils’ faces how excited they were to be going.

As we head into the final week before the half term holiday, just a reminder that school finishes for pupils at the end of the day on Thursday 27th, as the Friday is a staff INSET day. In the meantime, I hope you all have a lovely weekend (I imagine Year 4 pupils will sleep well tonight).

Mrs Owen, Head of Prep .Year

2

In Year 2, we have continued our study of life cycles and this week we looked at the life cycle of a chicken. We were really fortunate that my bantam hens went broody 3 weeks ago, Mrs Shah gave me some eggs which potentially could be fertile. I placed the eggs under my hens and the children and I have waited to see whether any of them would hatch. The timing was perfect, one hatched on Thursday and one on Saturday! I brought one of the hens and her chick into school for the children to see, both the hen and the children behaved impeccably.

We then studied a hen’s egg and were amazed by how complex they are and the different jobs each part of the egg has to do in order for a chick to hatch. None of us will look at a boiled egg the same again!

Let’s hope the weather sorts itself out soon and we have warm sunshine and blue skies next week.

Mrs Girling, Head of Lower Prep

Week 7

Head’s Report When I wrote in last week’s newsletter I was about to head off with the Year 4 pupils on their trip to the Frontier Centre in Irthlingborough. The excitement levels were high and rightly so, as we had a wonderful day. It is testament to the pupils and staff that the strong winds, low temperature and pouring rain did not dampen spirits in the slightest. My favourite part of the day was the bushcraft activity where the children were challenged with building their own shelter. As you can see from the photographs above, they did an excellent job and it made us all even more excited about the outdoor learning area we will be developing on our school fields from September.

Mrs Owen, Head of Prep I thought I would share with you some of the ways we celebrate success in Lower Prep. Friday afternoon is always a time where we have our Golden Time. This is one way we say ‘Thank you for following the Golden Rules’. Sometimes our Friday afternoons become even more special and last Friday was one of those. .

Year 2

Year 2 opted for a Teddy Bear picnic and a video, again the photographs reflect the delight the children had celebrating together.

Nursery Spring Parade

I have put a few photographs of Nursery’s Spring Parade, it is enchanting and the children must be congratulated because time for rehearsals has been very limited – Bravo!

The sun has been trying to shine today and the forecast for the weekend is good.

We all need some warm sunny weather, May has been severely lacking in both.

We all hope you have a relaxing half term and come back refreshed in June.

Mrs Girling, Head of Lower Prep

Year 4 Year 4 have had a busy few weeks learning about life in a developing country.

The children were captivated by the topic and wrote some wonderful diaries about life in a small village community in India. They were horrified to discover how many children did not have any shoes and, in some countries, if children do not have shoes, they are unable to attend school. 4CM have now donated 20 pairs of shoes to children, via a charity called Sal's Shoes, to children who walk miles every day in bare feet. The children were also horrified to learn how many school days are lost around the globe because children are suffering from diseases associated with dirty water. As such, Year 4 have pledged to raise at least £200 to fund the installation of fresh water taps and toilets to rural communities around the globe.

More information about this fund raising will follow in the coming weeks.

Mrs McDougall, Year 4 Teacher

Year 6 English

Usually, we would be having a visit from The Young Shakespeare Company to perform a modern twist on a play to Year 6. This week we watched an interactive video on the comedy 'Twelfth Night' instead and weren't disappointed. The pupils were encouraged to join in with actions and reciting the famous quotes from the play. It has proved to be a memorable way to learn about the plot, character motivations, vocabulary and Shakespeare humour.

Next half term, Year 6 will be rehearsing and performing a Shakespeare play. We are hoping to be able to invite the parents of each form to watch on the afternoon of Tuesday 29th June. 6CP will be performing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 6CW will be performing 'Macbeth' and 6RR will be performing 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

Mrs Simmons, Head of English

Week 8 Nursery have started practising for Sports Day. There are lots of new skills to learn, running within a lane is not the way young children naturally run and understanding that the finish tape is not a STOP sign. The first race concluded with all the children coming to an abrupt halt just before the tape on the ground! They quickly understood that they had to ‘keep on running’! The second race was even trickier, running in a lane but they also had to balance a turtle on a bat. The children really enjoyed the activities, and it was lovely when a group of Senior pupils spontaneously cheered the children on. In Music, the children were working on playing rhythms whilst singing the nursery rhyme Lucy Locket – very impressive and as the photograph shows thoroughly enjoyable.

The sun has continued to shine this week and the children have been able to enjoy being outside. They have sat under trees listening to stories, played on the grass without coats and enjoyed exploring the fabulous ‘Bug City’ Mr G made for us – thank you. We are hoping many minibeasts will make their home amongst the logs, leaves and moss.

Mrs Girling, Head of Lower Prep

Week 9 Nursery Nursery have been continuing their topic of Oceans and have been making Sea Shakers. The concentration required to pour a teaspoon of glitter into a bottle and choose the right shell is incredible. The children have also sailed around the oceans on the pirate ship, which has also had a fresh coat of paint aka water!

There are just so many uses for a piece of guttering, including using it as a ramp.

Year 2 This has been the week Year 2 have been so looking forward to. On Monday they had a Castles Day and it was utterly tremendous. Everyone dressed up and the company History off the Page came to us for the day. The children spent the morning learning crafts like making pease pastries, clay grotesques, fragrant soap and nose-gays that were filled with lavender and rosemary to help mask unpleasant smells! Everyone learned the rudiments of using a bow – a very useful skill in Medieval times. The excitement continued in the afternoon with the children putting on entertainment for the Nobles sitting at the High Board. We had jousting, which was very energetic, juggling, tight rope walking and acting.

It was a fabulous day and one of the children said, ‘I just wish this day would go on and on!’’

Later in the week Year 2 prepared and planted bedding plants into the bed beside the Hall – now we need to remember to water them.

The above is just a flavour of the activities the children have been doing this week, we also have had maths, phonics, swimming and much more – life is very busy but lots of fun too.

Mrs Girling, Head of Lower Prep

Year 5 Go to Hilltop On Thursday 10th June, thirty-six excited Year 4 pupils set off for Hilltop, an outdoor activity centre nestled in woodland close to the town of Sheringham in Norfolk, for two days of adventure and fun with their friends and teachers.

It was a fantastic experience and a wonderful opportunity to participate in group activities following a year with so many restrictions on social activities.

There were different activities to encourage teamwork, including a high rope challenge course, crate stacking and team tasks. There were also opportunities for exploring the woods, playing in the games room and enjoying ‘Mad Hatters’, on the field.

The children have created lifelong memories, strengthened bonds of friendship and have even more stories to share. They left happy and buzzing, proud of their achievements and increased independence.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the children of Year 5 for being one of the best groups I have ever taken away. They behaved impeccably, listened carefully, threw themselves into every activity with gusto and were a credit to the School throughout the trip. Thank you also to Mrs Whitaker, Miss Allan and Mr Owen for ensuring that the pupils had a wonderful experience.

Year 5 Geography Club

Year 5 Geography Club used the eco-warriors collected natural resources to create pinecone art of the world. Look closely you can even see the equator, Japan, Madagascar and Iceland!

Mrs Whitaker, Head of Geography

Week 10 Lower Prep Update I really would like to start this week’s newsletter with a rather sentimental but hugely significant event that happened on Monday. 14 students in Year 13, who have been at Wellingborough School since Nursery affectionately known as ‘Lifers’ will be leaving School at the end of June..

Many of these students gathered together on Monday, with their parents on the patio outside Lower Prep. It was a time to reminisce but they also wanted to say thank you for a wonderful start and the amazing journey the children have had from 3 to 18 years of age at Wellingborough School. The ‘Lifers’ parents have bought a fabulous wooden bench which will be placed in the Nursery garden reminding us all of their time here. We have photos of our Year 13 ‘Lifers’ around the bench. It was a moment which made me reflect; my three children have all been through the School and listening to the students on Monday talking about their experiences in Pre-Prep really resonated with me. Many of the students had been in G3 which was my class, it really was such a special event. Cheekily we have taken a photograph of our current Nursery on the bench, we are hoping that many of them will become ‘Lifers’!

Charity Pizza Sale On Thursday afternoon, the Pupil Council and Charity Committee combined forces to deliver a pizza sale in support of our school charity, HemiHelp. With Council members donning serving gloves and looking after the distribution side of the operation, the Charity Committee collected the donations. Both these groups, as well as the many other pupils who helped, did a superb job, and a fantastic total of £246.82 was raised. Special thanks to Kirstie and her team at Chartwells Catering for supplying the pizzas.

The Pupil Council and Charity Committee

Year 2 Year 2 have been learning how to make an electrical circuit to make a bulb light up. The children really enjoyed this activity and were able to represent their work in a circuit diagram.

The children have been using the skills they have learned in Literacy lessons to write their own version of a well know traditional tale. This week all the work has been done independently, Mrs Wood said she was amazed by the confident and enthusiastic way the children approached the task. It was fabulous to see how the children applied the skills they had learned through The Write Stuff in their own writing. This is an example of an opening sentence one of the children wrote: ‘A long time ago, not now but then…’ I am so looking forward to reading their completed stories.

Everyone enjoyed the pizzas on Thursday and the indoor Wheelathon, both were excellent ways to raise money for our charity HemiHelp and also have lots of fun.

I hope you have a lovely weekend and the sun remembers to shine.

Mrs Girling, Head of Lower Prep

Week 11

It was so lovely to be able to walk the full circuit of the school fields on Wednesday to see six different cricket matches being played by Year 5 and 6 pupils. As I write, I am looking forward to seeing the Year 4 children playing their matches this afternoon too. There was also a lot of excitement for Year 3 earlier in the week following a visit from Leo’s dad with his tractor.

Staying Home or Going Out As your child gets older, it is likely they will want a bit more independence.

Staying home or going out without you is a natural step for them to take when the time is right. For some useful information on this topic, please click ht ps:/learning.nspc .org.uk/media/26here 14/home-or-out-alone-guide.pdf to read a guide to help you decide if your child is ready to stay home or go out alone.

Mrs Rowley-Burns, Head of Pastoral Care

Nursery It was so lovely to be able to welcome parents to the Nursery Teddy Bears Picnic.

It was touch and go with the weather but we were lucky and the rain held off. The children were so excited to be able to bring their teddy to school. The photographs show just how special this event was for everyone – we had a fabulously huge hamster which required parental help when the ‘teddies’ were placed on the parachute, we couldn’t lift him into the air.

Thank you for your help, it was the cause of many giggles! The Summer House was decorated and prepared for the children’s tea. Happy Helpers carried out their tasks of laying the table as usual and the delicious food was enjoyed by all. A super afternoon of fun – just what we all need.

Reception Reception children have delighted in watching how the plants they sowed are thriving outside. The children have been looking after the sweetcorn, mint and French bean plants tending to their every needs... water and sunlight. The children and Mrs Mellor are very impressed with how beautiful the Clematis Flower is growing too! "It looks just like the photograph!" commented the children.

Reception children have been reinforcing their understanding of odd and even numbers. They each chose a number, counted out the number in chocolate drops, used their skills to find out if it was odd or even (arranging in 2's) and then added them to the iced shortbread biscuit. Super skills and very delicious!

The Eco-Schools Moasic

The Prep School have been collecting used green, blue and white milk bottle tops to create a recycling mosaic. The idea is to highlight the need to re-use and re-purpose items around our houses. We are hoping that the large mosaic can be a feature in the new outdoor classroom spaces that are to be developed next school year.

Mrs Whitaker, Head of Geography

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact our dedicated Admissions Team on 01933 222427 or admissions@wellingboroughschool.org. Further details, and the dates for key admissions events and deadlines, can be found on our website at https://www.wellingboroughschool.org/ Wellingborough School