February has arrived and half term is fast approaching! January has been a busy month with sports fixtures, our first swimming gala and the start of rehearsals for the upcoming production of Edwin Drood, not to mention the tremendous amount of learning happening in classrooms and outdoors.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone in the Theatre tomorrow, 3 Feb, for Showtime Saturday. It promises to be a fantastic morning of drama, music and dance. Registration is at 8.45am!
Competition time!
Get ready for an unusual challenge! Join our unique Reading Competition.
How to enter?
- Get a good book.
- Read it in an unusual or extreme place.
- Take a photo (Email your entry to your teacher or print your photo and bring it into class)
- Closing date: Wednesday 6 March.
White Rose Maths Evening
Thank you to all our parents who attended the White Rose Maths Evening. We have added the recording of the evening for parents who were unable to come along and a PDF version of the slides along with the progression of calculation documents, for your information.
Prep School Notices
- Please take note that the weekly Prep School lunch menu is available on the iSAMS Parent Portal. It is located under the Information tab in the Latest Documents and Files folder.
- There will be no Trampolining Club on Tuesday lunchtime.
- Sport fixtures - we kindly ask our afternoon bus users to take note of the return times for next week.
Save the date!
What happened in school this week?
Forest Explorers
This week we have been enjoying the Elmer stories and lots of fun Elmer activities. We even wrote Elmer a letter and posted it in the post box. We are very excited to see if we get a reply. We went on an Elmer treasure hunt, we painted Elmer and had fun mixing colours to make new ones. What a super week.
Reception
During Forest Fun, Year 6 helped Reception to create maps of our forest area. The worked brilliantly together and also had a lot of fun.
Year 1
It has been a busy week in Maths this week as we have been making number bonds up to 20!
Year 2
In Science this week Year 2 learnt all about the inventor of ear muffs, Chester Greenwood. We then had great fun investigating which materials would make the warmest ear muffs. Take a look at our brilliant creations.
Year 3
As part of our topic on the Egyptians, Year 3 have made their own giant sarcophaguses! Working together they planned and drew their designs before painting them with pearlescent paint. Once dried they will be carefully outlined in black pen and proudly displayed in our forthcoming art exhibition.
Year 4
Year 4 had lots of fun this week taking part in challenging science quizzes about Living Things. With lots of questions about animal groups, they had to consider the main characteristics of each group and place a variety of creatures into the correct category. They also learnt the terms 'vertebrates' and 'invertebrates' and 'carnivores' and 'herbivores'.
Year 5
Testing air resistance was Year 5's reason to make and launch parachutes. Together, they devised an experiment, taking care to ensure accuracy and fair testing. Each group made three parachutes, of differing dimensions, but each had the same length string attached and each parachute had the same weight. Not wishing to involve other variables in the test (wind or rain), the parachutes were dropped inside a building, from the heights of the PE balcony. In summary, the results showed Year 5 that the larger the parachute the greater the air resistance and the smaller the parachute the smaller the air resistance. The largest parachutes, on nearly all occasions, took longer to fall. Each group worked collaboratively and were happy with the way they undertook the experiment.
Year 6
Year 6 pupils are making every moment count in the last weeks of this half term! Our focus this week revolved around preparing for our upcoming 'Hot Writes.' We delved into the fascinating world of blood-sucking creatures, uncovering both astonishing and revolting facts.
After that we thought about the setting, using powerful descriptive language as well as the adventure our main character would face and whether we will leave the whole piece with a cliff hanger ending – so many decisions! In Science we studied the effects that exercise has on our heart rates and in music we are still mastering the ukulele. Meanwhile, our artistic endeavors involved tie-dying one half of the fabric destined to become our future cushions. We had a wonderful time helping Reception learn about map making in their Outdoor Learning lesson!
Edwin Drood Set Build
The set is built for our forthcoming production of Edwin Drood and the hard work of painting the walls and props has begun. Under the expert guidance of Mr Hougham, the production is taking shape, as pupils actively contribute to the painting and prop-building process. Year 5 and 6 joined their first rehearsals this week and we cannot wait to see yet another wonderful production by our Drama Department.
Sport News
We had our very first Swimming Gala this week with Year 5 and 6 competing at Wally Hall on Tuesday. Some brilliant performances resulted us coming 4th place overall!
Reception PE – We made an obstacle course for Reception and they enjoyed a turn on the trampolines too! We worked on our balance, coordination and agility skills all in one lesson.
Congratulations to the U11 Gymnasts who competed at Aberdour School, Burgh Heath in the BSGA regional championships this weekend. We are so proud of you!
- The U11 Regional team with Jendayi, Cyra, Emilia B, Isabella and Jessica, won Gold in the tournament .
- The U11 National team with Eva, Arianna, Amelie, Emilia P, won Bronze in the tournament.