Prep School Weekly Round Up

I thoroughly enjoyed my walks around the school this week. As ever, working with children continues to show me how adaptable and resilient they are (and, this week, in the case of Year One that when you mention something to them, they never forget!).  Photos of many of the week’s activities are shown in this newsletter.

I have seen three year olds sewing hand puppets in Pre-School. They know the colours of the puppets and have the freedom to put any number of eyes on their puppet to create something really special. They also have learnt about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, even having the opportunity to make their own porridge with milk and honey!

Reception pupils have been working on their Maths skills, looking at 2D shapes and sequencing. Using repeated patterns they were able to make some wonderful designs and create patterns using colours, shapes and numbers. They then were able to use shapes to make some beautiful pictures. Aurora, Ophelia and Lola are pictured holding their designs.

Year One pupils have started story writing today. I will be very interested to see how they turn out as they were able to include unicorns, dinosaurs or princesses or perhaps even a mixture of all three. Rex has started his story with a dinosaur who flew to the shops and Talia started her story with a unicorn galloping with a princess on it. Her name was Rosie. This afternoon, they will be using crafts to make characters to go with their stories.

Year Two pupils have been learning about the Russian story of Baba Yaga. This comes from a Russian legend based on a house with chicken legs that talked. They wrote stories based on this and drew some delightful pictures in Art. I also know that they have worked so hard in their Maths lessons they completed all of their work early and earned themselves a special treat this afternoon. Well done Year Two!

Year Three have been working hard on their handwriting this week as they build up to earning their pen licences. I was very pleased to hear that the first person has been awarded their pen licence this week – well done to Freya! They also produced some wonderful art work based on their class reading book ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes.

When I went to speak to Year 4 about their week, I was totally amazed by the work going on in the classroom. Their debating skills are astounding. The English lesson I saw was on abstract nouns and poor Mr Paull was being subjected to some very in depth thinking and philosophical reasoning from our youngsters. How do you see importance was one question. “Mr Paull, you are important because you are wearing a suit” was the response. The debate then continued that it was the suit that could be seen and not the importance. They have this for homework this weekend – good luck to all parents!

In Year 5, pupils have been busy preparing for Harvest and I listened to a wonderful rehearsal of their Harvest poems. We will be recording these on Monday as part of our virtual Harvest Festival next week.

Year 6 have shown how capable they are of working in small groups. We have seen some excellent biographies and I was impressed with their problem solving skills in Maths. They used blocks to try and turn on lightbulbs in a building where no more than two lights were able to be on in any direction. They showed great resilience as their first, second and further tries continued to be close, but not quite right!

This week the awards go to:

Community Award

Preschool - Achilles Servis for being a ray of sunshine

Reception -  Aurora Davey for maturity and helpfulness around the classroom.

Year 1 - Cora Llewellyn-Rees for great enthusiasm and dedication towards her work.

Year 2 - Reeva Mountjoy for an amazingly dedicated and positive approach to all aspects of school life.

Year 3 - Anna Bol for being calm, positive and courteous.

Year 4 - Jake Veater for a mature and conscientious approach to his learning.

Year 4 - Maki Paice for settling in well to his new school.

Year 5 - Cas Bol for diligence when approaching challenges in his learning.

Year 6 - Lucas An for a consistently positive towards his learning

Commendation Award

Awarded to Edie Russell in Year 4 for her project on Russia.

Other achievements

Congratulations to Caden Wray-Williams in Year 6 having passed his Grade 2 Piano.  His exam was in the rather daunting location of the Main Hall at the Plymouth Guildhall.

Thank you for all of your ongoing support and I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

Regards,

Miss J. Newnham

Prep School Lead

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