Hatherop Messenger 24th November 2023

On Wednesday afternoon the children went to explore Forest school with Transition and on Thursday we went for a walk through the woods looking for places where owls might be living. Next week the focus will be Foxes. Why not have a go at this at home as we will be learning about different textures next week. https://nfamilyclub.com/try-this/whats-inside-the-box/

Transition

This week our transport focus has been boats; we have been looking at all different types of boats and discussing who has been on a boat. The children found it very exciting that some people have driven their cars on to a boat!

The children had great fun exploring floating and sinking, we started by predicting what we thought may float or sink and then put our predictions to the test in the water tray. This activity then led on to the children having a go at making their own boats that floated from recycled materials.

Our rhyme of the week has been ‘A Sailor went to sea, sea, sea’. During our daily rhyme time, we have looked at what words rhyme, how we can say the rhyme in different ways, such as quiet, loud, slow and quick. The children are all really enjoying our sounds of the week and are doing a great job with listening out for words beginning those sounds. Please remember, that we concentrate on the auditory sounds, and we don’t not look at the letter formation at this stage. Therefore, we suggest that you discuss starting sounds of words by playing games like I spy. Our sound next week is P.

A couple of reminders:

1. You should all have received the leaflet advertising Christmas in the stable yard, which is on Tuesday the 5th of December at 9:30am. If your child attends Nursery on Tuesdays, they will be taken down to the event, but you are also more than welcome to come along. If your child does not usually attend on this day, you and your child are more that welcome to come along to the event too.

2. Nativity preparations have started! The Nativity will be on the 6th of December. The children are welcome to wear any Nativity costume such as angel, a star, a sheep, or a Christmas jumper if they would prefer.

3. On the 13th of December we will also be holding a Christmas sing along at 3.00pm in the Dr. Moorhead Room. This should be a lovely event to get us all in the Christmas spirit.

An activity to try at home https://nfamilyclub.com/try-this/boating-adventure/

Reception

This week Reception have been learning all about Thanksgiving – we have worked as a team to build the Mayflower from wooden blocks, written about what we are thankful for, created handprint turkeys in art and finished it off by having an amazing feast in the classroom! We have also discussed how Thanksgiving is celebrated around the world (and by some of the children at Hatherop!) and compared it to the special days that are important to us. In Maths, we have been looking at 2D shapes, particularly circles and triangles. We have been busy sorting these shapes by their properties, and have looked at the work of the artist Kandinsky, who often represented these shapes in his abstract artwork. This week has also focused on learning some new digraphs – ask us about “Quick, it’s the Queen!” or “Chew the cherries children!” to find out more about our new sounds.

Next week we will be looking at how birthdays are celebrated, and Christingle. We will be busy learning a Reception poem to recite in the church at the Christingle service, as well as making our Christingles and perfecting the songs for the Nativity performance! In Maths we will be looking at the numbers 4 and 5, and practising representing and identifying these numbers, as well as more subitising. Our sounds for next week will be: sh, th, ng, nk.

Optional Maths Home Challenge

Prep 1

Having encountered the Wicked Witch on the Jolly Postman’s route, Prep 1 considered which traditional tale she might have escaped from! They then used Anthony Browne’s wonderful retelling, full of fascinating illustrations, to explore the tale of Hansel and Gretel. The children used visible thinking routines to explore the character of the witch portrayed in this version of the story and next applied their understanding of adjectives to describe the witch. Later in the week, having spotted that the witch had been leafing through a flyer, the children explored some flyers before designing and labelling their own products that the witch might have liked to purchase. It is very helpful if you can look for opportunities to build your child’s vocabulary by drawing their attention to interesting words during book talk and modelling the use of rich language in your own descriptions.

Phonics

In Maths this week, Prep 1 have focused on addition; adding two amounts, adding more, finding a part and then applying their understanding of addition in word problems. Please continue to support your child in learning number bonds to 10, as being able to draw immediately on these facts makes the concept of addition much easier. This quick recall will also support them as we move on to learning about subtraction next week.

At Hatherop, we use the White Rose Maths scheme as a basis for our Maths teaching. The White Rose 'One Minute Maths' App is a free resource that may be helpful to support your child with what we are learning in the classroom.

Optional Maths Home Challenge

In their Topic learning this week, Prep 1 explored cardinal directions (North, South, East and West) and compasses and enjoyed making model compasses, playing a Jolly Postman themed game using compass points and exploring the Stable Yard using a compass. In DT, the children created a final design for their pop-up scene and are looking forward to beginning the making stage of the design process next week. The children also learnt about what a bully is in their PSHEE lesson and will further explore how they can be an ‘upstander’ if they encounter bullying linking to November's Anti-bullying Week. There are some fantastic resources for parents on the website, which are designed to start the conversation about bullying no matter the age of your child and give other ideas about anti-bullying at home.

We are beginning to learn our Nativity songs and the children will shortly be receiving their parts. Prep 1 children will be playing angels, soldiers and citizens and we will of course advise you on any costume requirements (which will be very simple) ASAP.

Prep 2

Chocolate has been the buzz word in Prep Two this week. We have used our senses to explore a piece of chocolate, watching it melt in our hands and linked this to a wide range of adjectives before tasting it.

On Tuesday Prep two made hot chocolate complete with squirty cream and marshmallows then wrote a set of instructions using time connectives to explain each step. In topic we have learnt about the origins of chocolate, where it is grown in the world and how it is harvested and changed from its natural form into the chocolate we buy off the shelves.

In Maths, we have continued our work on addition and subtraction. Prep Two have really focussed in on partitioning numbers for subtraction and used base 10 material and number lines to understand what happens when we cross a ten. There is a fantastic White Rose '1 Minute Maths' App which you may wish to use with your child.

Optional Home Maths Challenge

We are very excited to have launched our “Noisy Nativity” to the children this week and they are busy learning songs and words for this production in two weeks time. In terms of costumes your child will now know whether they are a child or a teacher. If your son/daughter is a child they can wear their school uniform and if they are a teacher, please can they wear smart home clothes and we will provide them with our lanyards to wear. Please could you ensure the scripts are brought to school each day for further practice in school. Any problems please email Mrs Pearce or Mrs Houghton-Brown.

Mrs King's Book Recommendation

Leonard does not conform to the stereotype of how a lion should behave. He is gentle, writes and reads poems and, most disconcertingly in the opinion of other lions, has no intention of chomping his duck friend Marianne with whom he has much in common. Leonard and Marianne go to their thinking hill and come up with an idea to show the other lions they are wrong and that there is more than one way to be, although the ending implies that there no easy answers to these questions. A gorgeous story to share and discuss.

Sport Match Reports

1st Team Rugby - Hatherop Castle v Wycliffe College

The 1st Rugby team travelled to Wycliffe on Wednesday to take on their U12A team. The Hatherop boys started strongly, scoring three tries in the first five minutes. As the game progressed, the boys grew in confidence as they started to play fast flowing rugby and attacking space well throughout. Most pleasingly, the team are far more cohesive and playing an attractive style of rugby. The game finished with a comfortable win for Hatherop. Well done to everyone!

1st Team Hockey - Hatherop Castle v Cokethorpe

Another great game of hockey for the Girls 1sts, showing that, despite having fewer pupils in the cohort, we can compete with larger schools. Cokethorpe were a very physical side, picking us off the ball several times within the first half. We managed to hold our own, creating problems for their midfield and defence with some accurate passing and fantastic movement. At half time, the game was so balanced. A few key conversations about ensuring we win our 50-50s and maintain possession for a little longer. The second half ebbed and flowed, both sides managing to just keep out the attackers. Neither side could quite find the back of the net to sneak the win so it was a 0-0 draw. All in all, a fair result and another excellent performance!

U13B Rugby - Hatherop Castle v Wycliffe College

The boys acquitted themselves confidently against a tall Wycliffe team! In our game of touch the boys improved during the game and passed and ran with gusto. Defensively we left some gaps which enabled Wycliffe to score some tries. However, we also, through our lines of running and secure passing scored tries of our own. The game ended in a draw which was a fair result. Hamish, Joseph and Nicholas all contributed towards the tries.

U11A Rugby - Hatherop Castle v Wycliffe College

A really pleasing performance from the boys on Wednesday 22md November. As a team, the boys chased well from the kick-off, they passed well and generally covered more space across the pitch. The tackling from Arthur was super, the passing was swift and the ball along the line looked a lot more cohesive. A really well-matched game, with both sides running in multiple tries. Well done to Arthur MH, Jasper S & Huw M for scoring one or more tries. We head to Kitebrook next week for our last rugby fixture of the season. Final score HCS 6 – Wycliffe 4. Well done!

U9 Girls Hockey - Wishford Tournament

A Monday afternoon trip to Cricklade to play in the termly Wishford tournament is always a sporting highlight of the term.

The girls played three matches; Westonbirt, Heywood and Cricklade. After Hatherop winning it the two previous times, there was a mounting pressure for a decent performance. Fortunately, the girls were up for the challenge, dispatching Westonbirt and Heywood with two very dominant performances. Knowing that Cricklade had won their previous two matches, we had to win in order to take home the trophy. With some fantastic battling and link up play, we managed to go 1-0 up from a strong strike. Sadly, not long after Cricklade put together a move that was completely split our midfield and defence, equalising. With 2 minutes to go, we forced our way through the middle and took an early shot giving us the victory 2-1.

What an incredible day, with so many encouraging signs for Hatherop’s hockey!

U8 Girls Hockey - Wishford Tournament

Our U8s hosted a Wishford festival, welcoming Heywood, Cricklade and Westonbirt for an afternoon of hockey. In what was a non-stop afternoon, the girls went from strength to strength each match, playing some lovely hockey. A fantastic afternoon with smiles on every face!

U8 Boys Rugby - Wishford Festival

On Monday 20th November we visited Westonbirt and I as thrilled with 3 wins from 3, for both the U8A and U8B teams, I was thrilled with how well the U8 boys played on Monday. The boy’s ran brilliantly into the space scoring lots of tries. We very nearly got everyone from both teams on the score sheet. There was good support of the ball carrier, however, we often didn’t look to pass the ball or ended up running into touch. The most important thing was to witness all of them playing rugby with a smile . A great team effort from everyone who played. Well done on representing school. It’s been a super rugby season – we now move onto hockey and football.

Fencing - Prep 2

Walter is the latest fencer of the week because his small and efficient blade movements when fencing. Keeping blade strokes small gives opponents less time to react as many of Walter’s friends found out this week. Well done Walter!

Fencing - Juniors

Our fencer of the week from Prep 3 and 4 was William Eddy. He can always be depended upon to listen carefully and try his best with each new blade stroke he learns. A great performance this week William!

Fencing - Seniors

Jack Dowling had an excellent session this week, doing well with the coin footwork exercise before sparring with children older the himself and more than holding his own. Very well done Jack.

#Adventure

Other news from the Castle

Open Book Afternoon

The whole school thoroughly enjoyed welcoming their parents and loved ones in to show off all the hard work and achievements thus far this term. Thank you so much to all the parents who were able to join us, it was a lovely way to end the week.

Prep 5 English - Journey to the River Sea

In English, Prep 5 have become very familiar with the key characters in their class book ‘Journey to the River Sea’. They are now using their excellent inference and comprehension skills to discuss what they think of each character and their associated storylines. More recently, we have met a new character, Finn, and this week Prep 5 have been discussing the moral dilemma that Finn is facing. 'Should Finn stay in the rainforest in Brazil?' or 'Should Finn return to his Grandfather in England?' To help the children write some inspiring persuasive letters, they created a ‘conscience alley’ along which a pretend Finn walked, listening to each side of the argument. Prep 5 were very convincing with their discussion skills, well done.

Rehearsals for the Prep 4 & 5 Production - Hagbane's Doom

Our Prep 4 and 5 children have been working tirelessly over the past week on their production of Hagbane's Doom. They are all really looking forward to performing it to loved ones next week. Below is a little sneak peek of their rehearsals.

Christmas at the Castle

Wow, what a way to kick start our Festive Period at Hatherop!

The Castle was brimming with excited shoppers at our annual Christmas at the Castle event. As always, these events would not be able to happen without a tremendous amount of work and support from many parents and staff.

We had an outstanding 620 adults pass through the main Castle door on the day, compared with 530 in 2022. The raffle raised £778 and the PTA toy and book stall raised £674, so thank you so much for all your kind donations. The PTA in total will have raised £13,500 from the event, compared to £11,250 last year and so a record breaking year all round!

We would like to say thank you to all the helpers who helped to decorate the Castle on the Friday and to all the helpers on the day - the event would have been impossible to run without you. An extra special thank you to Katie Bonas, Helen Campbell and Rachel O'Brien for all their hard work over the last ten months to make the event such a success and also to Millie Richardson for the beautiful floral arch and wreath display at the entrance to the Castle which the children, parents and staff have enjoyed all week - it is simply stunning!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!

Molly raises thousands for AMMF charity

Molly has raised £3,439 for the charity, AMMF - a charity very close to Molly's heart - https://ammf.org.uk/. Molly embarked on this admirable challenge to raise awareness about the charity and to support her grandad. With this in mind, Molly, this week has had 41cm of her beautiful hair cut to send to the Little Princess Trust to make a wig for a little girl in need. Congratulations Molly on such an amazing fundraising achievement.