From Mrs Hall

Their thirst for learning has been impressive, as has the amount and quality of work produced this week. It has been a pleasure to see many of the children come up to me, bringing me examples of amazing independent work. The children have a sense of pride in their achievements, and it’s wonderful to see their confidence blossoming.

As it was national Winnie the Pooh day yesterday, Gratitude has been our focus this week. We have discussed what makes a good friend and what they are grateful for about their friendships. It has been a wonderful way to foster positive values and interpersonal skills amongst the boys and continue to build a strong sense of community.

‘Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.’

With the cold weather, it is important the children are dressed appropriately. Please ensure that your child comes to school in the correct uniform and looks smart. It is essential that on days with sport and Forest School they have warm clothing, waterproof trousers, and wellington boots. Can we also please reiterate the importance of having all clothing named!

We have some exciting events planned for this term, so please keep an eye out for these.

Wishing the entire Pre-Prep community a fantastic weekend!

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

Year 2 - to Hugh for expressing gratitude for his friendships and the people who care for him. He is caring and thoughtful.
Year 1 - to Ben for working so hard this week! Fantastic independent sentence work describing mythical creatures and super texture-techniques to sketch a castle. Well done, Ben!  
Year R - to Christopher for making good progress with his phonics and reading knowledge, and being very focused.

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Save the Dates!

Friday 26 January	Pre-Prep Open Morning 0915-1200
Friday 9 February	Half-term begins 1200

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Notices

Menus for next week are available here on My School Portal. 
^{Reminder: no food is to be brought into the school and/or given to boys at any time, especially at sign-out.}

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From the PPA

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After School activity: Cartoon Commoner with Mrs Kent

Cartoon commoner began this week with the boys eager to get started. After watching five minutes of a classic Tom and Jerry, (what else would be more fitting), the boys were shown how to draw their name in Graffiti Art style. With pencils, fine liners and colouring pens, they set to work personalising the front covers of their sketch books, and it was not long before squeals of excitement could be heard along with much praise for one another’s work.

 

Year 2

In Music, the boys enjoyed getting to know Mrs Willcocks. They have been working on putting percussion into a story with great effects and interest. 

Mrs Kent

Year 1

Maths 
The start of this term has focused heavily on the boys gaining an in-depth understanding of what makes up a teen number. We have investigated the numbers 11-20 in lots of different ways and with various concrete resources, including Numicon, bead strings, tens frames, Deans and counters. It is really important that the boys have a clear understanding that one 10 ten is made up of 10 ones as we move forward in our place value learning. They have worked really hard on this concept and enjoyed all the practical investigations, treasure hunts and games we have played as we have explored the concept.  

English 
Linked to our topic of Knights and Castles, we have started reading The Story Book Knight by Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty. We have thought carefully about different types of adjectives we could use to describe some of the characters in the story. The class are developing their creative writing skills really well and are gaining confidence to have a go independently too. Leo, the knight, is a mouse. He comes across a few different creatures on his journey; so far, we have met a griffin and a troll. The class has shown a real interest in different mythical creatures, which has led us to borrow some further books from the Briggs Library on the subject. We learnt about a new mythical creature each day during snack time. So far, we have encountered dragons, yetis, mermaids, griffins and trolls. This is setting us up perfectly to create our own mythical creature and describe it using adjectives next week.  

Mrs Ford 

Year R

In Reception this week, we have been busy continuing with our Goldilocks and the Three Bears theme, and a Challenge Board has been introduced in class. 

Each week on a Monday, there will be three jobs set for the boys to complete by the Friday. The jobs can be completed at any time and in any order, but tasks need to be tackled as independently as possible. When the jobs are completed, the boys place a coloured tick next to their name on the board. A green tick represents full independence with the task, an orange tick means a little support was required, and a red tick is used for full support needed. The boys have been really engaged in this new way of working. 

Over time, independence, assessment for learning and challenge at individual levels will really further the boys' learning. 

With this in mind, the boys have enjoyed creating split-pin bears and Goldilocks; one of the challenge jobs this week. I have been extremely impressed by the progression shown with intricate cutting and joining skills. Hardly anyone needed any help with this task and the boys were thrilled with their final moving character. Some boys have even wanted to create all the characters! I have displayed the final pieces in the Pre-Prep Library to share. 

Well done boys! A super week.

Mrs Huntley

Forest School

With the start of a new year, we thought we would celebrate this at Forest School by making Planet Earth a birthday cake - using mud, of course, and natural decorations. The boys worked sensibly with each other to make a very special cake. We even sang happy birthday and thought about the promises we could make to our planet to help protect it. The boys enjoyed watching our unexpected visitors that joined in with our session!

The boys in Year 1 were exploring weaving, using nature. After carefully choosing a suitable stick, they learned how to weave wool around it; they then went on the hunt for suitable natural items to weave into their creations. The boys were very proud of the end results; in fact, they make attractive garden decorations too.

Year 2 was given the challenge of creating a huge woodland map of the arboretum. In pairs, the boys were given a small section of the arboretum to map out. They were required to make some careful observations, and were tasked with trying to replicate what they could see, but on a much smaller scale. Together we created a wonderful overview of the arboretum!

Mrs Walker
Forest School Leader

 

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