Prep School Newsletter Friday 24 November 2023

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Prep. Josie and Shona helped select our annual Christmas trees for the Prep School from Pimms Christmas Tree Farm and the trees are starting to fill up with angels for the Mayor's Toy Appeal. Thank you for your generosity towards this excellent cause.

Prep School Notices

• Mini-modelling club - You are reminded that mini-modelling club for Years 3 and 4 will take place during lunchtime rather than after school on Wednesday 6 December.
• School Photographs - Gillman and Soame took portrait photographs at the beginning of term. If you haven’t already, please order these photographs as soon as possible (especially if you would like them for Christmas). If you did not receive an email with how to order, please contact Gillman & Soame directly at action@gillmanandsoame.co.uk or on 01869 328200 with your child’s name and quoting the security password kentcollegeprep386tvp2023 and they can assist. The order deadline has been extended to Thursday 30th November.

What happened in School this week?

Forest Explorers

Forest Explorers have been learning about why we celebrate Christmas and the very special story of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem We have also been busy practising for our special Nativity show, which we are very excited about.

Reception

In Maths this week the children have been learning about 2D shapes and their properties. They went on a circle and triangle shape hunt around the school. Then they looked at paintings by an artist called Paul Klee and talked about the different shapes they could see in each picture. The children then created their own pictures using a variety of shapes.

Year 1 and 2

In Year 1 and 2 we have been practising for our Nativity and we hope you enjoy the performance! Lots of our work in class has been done to the sound track of the Nativity as we rehearsed our favourite songs. In Science we have been looking at seasonal changes and have talked about the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees. We identified various types of leaves while spotting lots of signs of autumn and realised that the canopy which usually covers our seating area in the forest has gone!

Year 3

This week year 3 have been learning that pushes and pulls are forces. They all demonstrated and described different forces and really enjoyed a tug of war!

Year 4

This week, Year 4 set up an experiment to find out why their parents prefer them to drink water rather than cola. Using eggshells to represent tooth enamel, we put one egg in a glass of water and another egg into sugary cola! Each day we shall observe the shells to see how these liquids might effect our teeth.

Year 5

Prime numbers, multiples and factors have filled maths lessons in previous weeks, but this week learning moved on to square and cube numbers. Pictures here show the launch of our learning, building square and cube numbers with counters and multilink. We went on to use our findings to solve problems, calculate and explain. We explored numbers to the power of 10 and the calculators nearly exploded with our investigations. Year 5 mathematicians are great thinkers!

Year 6

Year 6 have continued to prepare for their Nativity play alongside thoroughly enjoying watching the Early Years and Key Stage One production. It’s a hard act to follow! We have continued to look at the work of Ted Hughes in English, whilst in science we went on a walk to identify deciduous and coniferous trees - we made quite a collection of leaves to study and classify. In maths we finished our topic on long division and some of the children made videos explaining how to work through the steps involved. We completed the week by studying BODMAS and applying that to a variety of questions. We were very busy in French, role playing food and drink scenarios and were proud to show them to each other. On Wednesday we started our netball training and are very much looking forward to our first matches.

Year 6 AIMS pupils joined the HALO lecture this week, with the very exciting topic of Behavioural Economics and what influences a consumer to make certain decisions about buying a product. They took part in a blind-tasting experiment where they had to taste soft drinks and had to decide if their choice was influenced by their knowledge of the specific brand. Thank you to Mr Muttitt, Head of Business Studies, for making this such an interesting topic.

Head Girl Isobel presented Bob, an ex-serviceman who volunteers for the British Legion, the money raised from the Prep School for the Poppy Appeal this year. Every year, Bob is responsible for collecting the charity poppy tins on behalf of Pembury. Thank you to all our Prep pupils for contributing to this wonderful cause. This year we raised an amazing £313.

STEM Club

This week in STEM the children had to start to build a hydraulic arm. This involved following the instructions VERY carefully and testing out how a hydraulic system would work. We aim to complete them next week, so hopefully you will be able to see them in action!

Sport News

The weather did not play along on Saturday with our very exciting Super Sport Saturday, but this did not dampen our spirits. Parents and children all got involved in the many activities that were on offer! It was wonderful to see so many current and new families attend this fun day.

Reading News

The superstar team are back for a winter adventure. Children can join in from 1st December and read three or more books before the 19 Feb 2024 to unlock special rewards.

I'm A Celebrity Comes to KC

We had some creepy crawlies for lunch this week. The fabulous Lexington catering team made Scotch bonnet smoothies, locust biscoff cake, mealworm flapjack and cricket brownies. A tin of Surströmming was on display but thankfully remained unopened (as it is often voted the worst smell in the world).