Prep Newsletter June 2023

Prep Newsletter

Fun with Phonics

They have been making potions using things that begin with ‘s’, you can see the enjoyment they have had mixing string, socks and snakes together!

Kinetic Letters

is for socks, slippers, snakes and spoons...

Nurseryenjoyedawalktotheoutdoor learningareaonasunnyandfrosty morningTheyweregoingonaSoundHunt withMrBrown.Thechildrenwere fascinatedbythefrost,makinghandprints andwriting‘s’intheice.Takingthe children’slearningoutsideisboth rewardingandbeneficialforthem.Weare soluckytohavethisdesignatedarea nowandMrBrowntoleadit.

sunshine, sausages...

Mrs Gutteridge introduced the children to some football skills in Games. They learned how to control the ball and kick it towards a goal.

Then the children improved their stamina by going for a jog across the School fields.

Nursery children had a wonderful afternoon at the Fire Station meeting the Red Watch team. Firefighter Ronny and Firefighter Helen showed us around their new fire engine and children who wanted to, were able to sit in the cab – it was really high up. Everyone had chance to spray water using one of the hoses – this was a real highlight.

Nursery children have been introduced to air writing. This uses whole body movements to form letters in the air. Research has shown, by using this method the movements in the brain become secure four times faster than by starting with small movements using pencils.

Nursery children were inspired by Andrew Goldsworthy’s work and when they went to the Outdoor Learning Area, they collected natural objects and collaboratively made a beautiful heart sculpture.

Mrs Gutteridge and her team have reorganised the outside space so there are clearly defined spaces reflecting the seven areas of learning.

The children have been using the pumps in the mud kitchen to strengthen their fingers while making potions, mixing paint in the puddles and planting some seeds. The grass we grew inside at the beginning of the year has been transferred outside in the hope that we can use it for fairy and dinosaur worlds.

They have enjoyed playing with the rockets and planets and have tried to make their own rockets using the wooden blocks.

The craft table is always popular. It is lovely to see how proud they are of their finished pieces.

Our hammered butterflies are nearly finishedthis skill will be useful when they make their own rocket in a few weeks time.

Kingfishers and Owls completed their science topic on Materials with a Bridge Challenge. Working in small groups they were given limited resources and asked ‘to make a bridge that will support the weight of a toy car’. The bridge had to be longer than 40cm and they could only use eight sheets of A4 paper and masking tape. They worked wonderfully together, and I am delighted to say each group built a successful bridge – some budding engineers in Year 2.

OwlsandKingfishersare learningaboutthe conditionsthatplants needinordertogrow successfully.Theyare beingveryconscientious lookingaftertheseeds theyhaveplanted.

Butterflies performed a dragon dance to celebrate Chinese New Year. It proved more difficult than they first thought it would be. However, the children quickly recognised they had to work together to avoid the dragon falling apart! The children also made decorations and dragons. It is the year of the rabbit so many of the activities were based around that theme.

Year 5 created wall hangings that depicted “The Great Race” which is all about how the Chinese New Year came about. We have made them into bunting and hung them in school.

The children wanted to brighten up their windows so they carefully made 'stained glass' hearts and wrote about something or someone that is special to them.

Exploring the history of toys

The Hedgehogs really enjoyed learning about the history of toys. Then everyone had a super time making making six toys of their own - a split pin bear, magnetic fish, spinning top, thaumatrope, a football game and peg doll.

OwlsandKingfishersmadepropsand sceneryforthefortheirplay,LittleRed RidingHood.Thechildrenworkedvery hardlearningtheirlines,tryingtoget loudervoicesandpractisetheirbeebuzzes.

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2023

Everyone in Lower Prep had fun learning to identify garden birds and making bird feeders in readiness for the Birdwatch. The children had high hopes of spotting all kinds of species. While we weren’t lucky enough to spot a flamingo, which had been predicted by a few children, we did see land gulls, starlings, blackbirds, robins, magpies, wood pigeons and a couple of red kites.

Owls and Kingfishers recorded their bird sightings carefully and made tally charts to keep an accurate check on the number of each species they saw. It was lovely to hear the spontaneous conversations about birds when the children were in the playground and when walking to lunch. It is so important we help the children value the nature we have on our doorstep.

Every Wednesday, Year 6 pupils come to Hedgehogs, Owls and Kingfishers to hear the children read. Huge thanks to all the pupils who volunteer to help. It it always enjoyed by everyone involved.

The Hedgehogs delighted everyone - children, parents, staff and Governors - with their wonderful production of The Enormous Turnip. They all sang beautifully, said their words clearly, and confidently performed to three audiences – Bravo!

Hedgehogs had a marvellous time with Mr Brown in the Outdoor Learning Area for their art lesson. Mr Brown had ‘forgotten’ to bring paintbrushes with him, so the children had to solve this problem. They were very creative using natural resources such as grass, leaves and feathers.

Butterflies enjoyed the Outdoor Learning Area this term They searched for natural materials to make a home for Oakley our Outdoor Learning Bear, and made some wonderful natural art faces that are remarkably expressive The children really are very creative

The Bee Musical

Owls and Kingfishers delighted everyone with their fantastic production of The Bee Musical. Well done to all the children for singing beautifully, delivering their lines clearly and confidently and for making the scenery. Thank you for reminding us of the important job that bees do in pollinating our crops ensuring we have enough food to eat.

Year3TriptoStanstedAerozone

Year 3 enjoyed a fabulous trip to Stansted Aerozone to learn about the busy workings of an airport. The children completed a range of classroom activities such as dressing up in 'airport' costumes, interactive STEM activities and world globe activities.

While there, the children were lucky enough to be paid a visit by the airport firefighters who showed one of their large fire tenders including a 50ft water spray system - this was the highlight of the day for many of the children and Mrs Petrie!

Four members of the Jet2 team came to speak to the children about their jobs at the airport. As if that wasn't enough excitement for the viewing e airport.

Year 4 were given a talk by Tom Blakely our CCF support instructor. Both the staff and pupils were in awe of what he has achieved and where he has been We all felt quite boring afterwards

He told us tales of his journeys around the world as a Paratrooper and shared some amazing photos of him as a “red devil” skydiving above famous landmarks such as The Palm in Dubai

The children many thought-provoking questions and they loved him so much he is returning for another session.

Upper Prep pupils had the best tickets in town for a captivating performance of The Secret Garden, (an adaptation of the story by Frances Hodgson Burnett) performed by M&M Theatrical Productions. The Prep School Hall was magically transformed into the set, and the talented actors brought the stage to life with fun, laughter and music. There were moving scenes cleverly balanced with uplifting moments and hilarious comedic lines. Songs from ‘Matilda’, ‘Encanto’ and ‘The Greatest Showman’ had the audience singing and clapping along.

After the show, the actors spent time with Year 5 and 6 discussing stage production. The changes in scenery and costumes were amazing, there were wooden walls on wheels that twisted and turned to create different rooms and an evolving secret garden, not to mention a bed that appeared as if from nowhere.

Pupils were challenged to consider how pitch and tone of voice, facial expression and costumes were used to create ten characters of different ages and class that would transport everyone to that period of history. Some pupils tested the sound and lighting while a few budding thespians tried out some of the lines to entertain us further.

Year 6 have been inspired by the work land artist Andy Goldsworthy. Below are a watercolour painting of a whale and a tonal study of broken stones.

Year 4 have been working on body paintings. It was challenging to draw around their body but with the help of their classmates all the pupils created really interesting forms. Then they layered media, starting with inks, paints and oil pastels, before adding repeating patterns through print.

Year 5 have learnt about Northampton's shoe making history, and created these amazing drawings.

Year 3 created artwork from marble rolling, blowing ink through a straw and splatter pictures all inspired by Jackson Pollock. They have also been learning about the Japanese woodcut artist, Hokusai, and have been drawing Koi carp in preparation to create Japanese fish kites.

Year 3 have been looking at the topic of water. As an introduction they enjoyed a water tasting. They unanimous preferred the flavoured water over the sparkling. The pupils then tested the absorbency of kitchen roll by creating some chromatography rainbows.

Year 6 were given three scenarios to consider as part of their Moving People topic - all of which involved fleeing a situation such as war or a natural disaster. They had to decide what they would take, how it would be transported and what essentials they would need to stay alive.

Year 5 have been studying rivers. As part of this topic they visited the Embankment looking at the river, analysing the land use either side and discussing the historical value of river transport.

Year 4 have been enjoying a science-based topic about materials and their properties. They had a wonderfully messy time creating slime and deciding if it was a solid or a liquid, which prompted lots of useful discussion about the properties of a solid.

World Book Day was great fun, the children and adults looked amazing in their costumes. The Upper Prep theme of animals in stories was seen in the variety of costumes and activities throughout the day. We finished by reading a selection of ‘Revolting Rhymes’ as an alternative to the traditional versions of the fairy tales.

World Book Day

The focus for the day in Lower Prep was the picture book The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert. The illustrations are amazing and inspired lots of thoughtful conversations. We finished by mixing up the children and going in small groups to listen to a story, visiting other classes was a real highlight.

We celebrated Pi Day in our Maths lessons on 14th March. Some pupils made paper chains with the colours being coordinated with a particular digit, while others tried to recite as many digits of Pi as possible. A group of Year 4 pupils managed to recite 94 digits, which was incredible!

Year 6 completed a tremendous module on speech writing and presentation with an event in the Hall mimicking speaking at the United Nations –Greta Thunberg would have been very proud!

Year 5 had tremendous fun exploring Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3. For many their first real introduction to the bard and they grasped the opportunity with enthusiasm and creativity.

Year 6 have been studying the unit, Living things and their Habitats. They have been classifying animals into the major taxonomic groups and creating branching and number keys in order to identify unknown organisms. They are currently studying microorganisms and their effect on our health and our food.

Year 6 have enjoyed a fabulous end to their Climate Control topic with a hands-on Lego coding. The pupils spent half a day completing a variety of Lego coding activities which culminated in them coding their own Lego wind turbine and electric vehicle. Their coding abilities were challenged trol motors, sensors, lights and sounds.

Fortheotherhalfoftheday thepupilsstagedtheirown Climateprotestcentredaround speechesinspiredbyGreta Thunbergtheyhadworkedon intheirEnglishlessonsand activitiestheyhavebeen developinginDrama.

Our A team / tournament squad went to the Winchester House School netball tournament. The seven other teams, mainly from boarding schools, were a daunting challenge to us. We played well and came in 3rdplace as bronze medallists in the tournament. It was a pleasure to take the girls, their behaviour was impeccable, and they represented our school well by winning and losing with graciousness.

Fixtures v The Grove

In February the U11B and U10A netball teams along with the U11A, B and U10B football teams played at home against The Grove. We got off to a flying start. Skill, talent and enthusiasm were all on show by our pupils. Very competitive fixtures for all the teams and a tense 1-1 draw for the U11A football team.