Match Reports
Please click on the link below to access this weeks' match reports.
Boarding Update
It has been a busy few weeks at school, not just for the day pupils, but for the boarders as well. Over the last couple of weeks, our boarders have had their annual Boarders’ Summer Party, where many of our flexi and ad-hoc boarders joined us for a day of fun on the back lawn with plenty of different inflatables to enjoy. As the weather has improved, it has given us the opportunity to do some slip 'n' slide down the bank behind the Art room, which is always a hit. Many of our international students and football-fanatical boarders have become fixated on the Euros football competition, which has been shown most evenings, and the scores recorded as the tournament unfolds. As everyone’s energy levels are starting to dwindle, it is lovely to be able to celebrate some of our boarders’ successes.
Over the last couple of weeks, the boarding team have noticed many lovely interactions between individuals, but we chose to celebrate Simon and Violet for two different reasons. Simon showed remarkable empathy for a young homesick boarder with whom he was sharing a room, offering him an additional pillow and helping to welcome and comfort the boy. Violet has been awarded boarder of the week for her continued positive outlook in every moment of every day and additional effort with her organisation. In boarding, we put different routines and structures in place to help scaffold the opportunity to learn key life skills such as time management and organising oneself for the following day. This is not easy, and Violet is making a concerted effort to improve these skill sets.
Learning This Week
Kindergarten
We carried on our theme ‘on safari’ this week. The children have been busy collaging, cutting, sticking and colouring lots of different animals.
Kindergarten 1 have enjoyed lots of water play this week, finding different animals and objects in the water and keeping cool!
Kindergarten 2 had a great time on Thursday making fruit kebabs with Mrs Riley and Mrs Russell. Everyone had a go at cutting the fruit and they were very much enjoyed at snack time.
Dates to remember for the final week of term:
- Nursery sports day - Wednesday 3rd July
- No parent and toddler group with Mrs Riley on Friday 5th July.
- End of term Friday 5th July -12pm collection. Please be aware the car park will be very busy, so if you can, come a few minutes early!
Transition
This week we have continued with the story Handa’s Surprise as our book of the week. Miss Easterbrook brought in an array of exotic fruits, and we were very impressed with how many of the children enjoyed trying and tasting new and exciting flavours!
On Monday afternoon, we spent an hour in the Reception class with Miss Crane, playing with the toys, reading stories, and drawing. It was lovely to see so many parents join us for the children’s open dance lesson on Tuesday. They have such fun with Miss Lana and, I hope you all agree, the children put on a fabulous show, and we are very proud of them.
We had another sports day practice this week, and now we are all very ready for our Assembly and Sports Day next week. Please join us on Wednesday, 3rd July; assembly will begin at 9:30 am in the PAC, followed by information from Mr Reed and Mrs King about Reception. Please then enjoy some refreshments before our Sports Day begins at 10:30 am. We cannot believe that we’re preparing for our last week in Transition! It has been a wonderful year, and the children have all been pleasures to teach.
Reception
This week Reception have been discussing the problem of pollution in our oceans, after reading the book ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’ by Sarah Roberts. We thought about the dangers of plastic getting into the oceans, and the effects it can have on the creatures and plants under the sea. The children learnt the terms ‘single-use plastics’ and ‘biodegradable’ as we used our Chatting Chums to talk about how we can help by recycling and trying to use less plastic. We loved recycling our plastic bottles into colourful fish, and the next step in the project will be to add the fins and the eyes – look out for the finished products coming home soon!
We have created posters to warn of the dangers of plastic pollution, and to persuade people to keep rubbish out of the oceans. We added catchy slogans and messages to our posters too! We have been reading plural words in Phonics this week. We thought of lots of words where we add an -s to the end of the word, and then learnt some words that need -es instead. We then used these rules to write our own plural words.
In Maths we have been looking at number bonds to 10. We have used games such as Spill It, where we tip 10 double sided counters out onto the table, and see how many are red and how many are yellow. We then all tried really hard to record our number bond as an addition sentence using the correct symbols.
We cannot believe next week is our final week in Reception! We are looking forward to Move Up Morning, Sports Day (fingers crossed the weather holds out!), the Pre Prep party on Thursday morning, our final swimming lesson and Speech Day too. Please could the children bring a plastic/reusable bag into school next week for us to send home wellies and waterproofs in. Please also don’t forget to check book bags each day for the artwork that will also be sent home over the coming week.
Prep 1
Prep 1 have become thoroughly immersed in their poetry topic this week and it's been wonderful to see the enjoyment they are taking from exploring our daily poems. This week, we have focused on 'The Sound Collector' by Roger McGough. The children imagined what a silent world might be like and were fascinated to hear about life for someone who is deaf, including learning some British Sign Language. Later in the week, we set about on a 'sound walk' around the grounds, identify and collecting noises to inspire our own Sound Collector poems.
In Maths this week, the children have been applying their learning from the year, in problem solving tasks. We have used the 'RUCSAC' method to unpick the problem amongst the words; Read the question carefully, Understand the question, Choose the correct calculation method, Solve the problem, Answer the question and Check the answer. The children have thoroughly impressed us with their perseverance and determination for these challenges which are really quite tricky!
Our learning about the environment has continued in our Topic work and this week, the children were inspired by Greta Thunberg's actions for our world. They then called upon the work we had been doing on rhyme to design their own placards. Look out for our campaign next week!
Prep 2
This week in Prep 2, we have been busy consolidating our knowledge in Maths by revisiting the topic of Money, including adding and subtracting different amounts and finding multiple ways of making the same amount, e.g. how many different ways can you make £1.50?
In our English sessions this week, we have explored the movement and appearance of kites. Following this, the children have all composed their own kite poem to describe how it moves. This linked nicely to our topic sessions where we have designed and made our own kites to test and fly next week.
We also caught up with Alex who was spending a few days in Kaula Lumpur with his family. We were lucky enough to see the incredible city view from the high-rise apartment he was staying in!
Book Recommendation
This fantastic book has Inspired many of Mrs King's 'Whizz Pop Bang' Science club experiments this year. All the instructions are clearly laid out in photographic form and the science behind them is explained in a child friendly manner. Most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen already and this book could inspire hours of fun in the summer. Would highly recommend!
Whizz Pop Bang Club
Over the past few weeks, the Science club have been preparing their own elderflower cordial. From picking the blooms from the grounds, to adding the ingredients, straining the liquid, making the labels, sterilising the bottles and diluting it with sparkling water - there has been a lot of science discussed, but lots of fun had too! On Thursday, the children got to enjoy the fruits of their labour and luckily, declared all their weeks of hard work had been worth it - it was delicious! They feel the next stage is to campaign for an elderflower flavoured Air Up pod...
A very special visit for Prep 4
Prep 4 were very lucky to have sports commentator and author, Rob Walker visit them this morning. Rob, who is preparing to commentate at the Olympics next month, spoke to the children about how important it is to follow their dreams and also the notion that anyone can achieve anything regardless of gender, race and religion. His incredible sporting knowledge meant he told the children some fascinating stories about the Olympics and Olympic athletes of the past. His infectious enthusiasm left the children inspired, excited and really looking forward to seeing the Olympics next month.
Prep 8 Cumulus Gallery
Beach Party Gallery
Thank you to all the families who came along and supported our annual beach party! What a thoroughly enjoyable (and rather wet for some!) afternoon for all!
Fencing
Our Prep 2 fencers graduated to metal swords this week as they said goodbye to foam and plastic swords. From here on they will be duelling with ‘proper’ swords (as they call them), slowly progressing through British Fencing Achievement awards to small competitions. Very well done everyone!
Fencers of the week
Senior
Freddie has been excellent all term, keen to always fence me and trying hard in everything we do. His blade actions have greatly improved and he absolutely deserves this award.
Junior
Olivia did brilliantly today with all our fencing activities before donning on her kit for the group foam swords duel. She fought to the very end, winning a memorable game!
Pre-Prep
Isla stood out today wearing full fencing kit and foil in hand. She fenced neatly and accurately and should be very pleased to be the last fencer of the week for this year. Very well done Isla