From Mrs Hall

The boys were all attentive and each learnt something new about 1666 and the Great Fire of London. We then ended our week sharing the afternoon with our grandparents for a lovely Tea Party. They were all impressed with the boys' singing and enjoyed various activities in the classroom, finishing off with a cup of tea and a slice of cake!  

Events next week: The Pre-Prep are unable to join in with the Cathedral Harvest service due to the boys' other commitments, so we will still celebrate Harvest in our own celebrations during the week. All parents are invited to join in with the Cathedral service; parents who do wish to join should arrive from 1030 for a 1045 start. 

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

• Year 2 – to Seva for showing impeccable manners and always trying his best.
• Year 1 - to Dario for his thoughtful behaviour and kind manners towards the rest of his class.
• Year R - to Skerdi for showing very polite and friendly manners to grown-ups when arriving at school in the mornings.  He even said 'Bonjour' to Mrs Ford when he greeted her at the front door this week, remembering that she teaches him French!

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Save the Dates!

A reminder of upcoming events next week and other dates for your diaries for this term. Please keep a look-out for further details.

Thursday 5 October	School service for Harvest Festival
Friday 6 October	Pre-Prep Parents' Coffee morning (after drop off) outside the Pre-Prep
Monday 16 October	Pre-Prep Parents' Evening, 1700-1930
Tuesday 17 October	Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly 1500-1530

 

 

 

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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

Year 2

Year 2 trip to the Tudor House, Southampton 

Year 2 had a truly marvellous day on Monday. We were met by Andy, our tour guide, who allowed us to handle and smell some actual artefacts and replicas, dating back to 1666. He encouraged the boys to develop a great curiosity and interest in this era. Digby was given the opportunity to dress up as a nightwatchman, complete with lantern and pistol, while Ian dressed up as a 'rich man' and donned a very curly wig. They learnt where the fire started, how and why the fire raged for four days. The cannon and cannonball were a firm favourite of the boys; however, they came away with a greater understanding as to what they were used for during the Great Fire of London.

After a short break outside in the sunshine, we stopped beside some neatly planted hedges to discover that the herbs would have been used, just one year earlier, during the plague of 1665. William M dressed up as the 'beak doctor' and the boys gained further knowledge of the era.

The Tudor House was most definitely a 'unique and atmospheric' place. The boys showed impeccable manners and a thirst for learning. It was a fantastic way to start the week and engage the boys in history, igniting their interests. If you have a spare day during half-term, The Ford family highly recommend a trip to London's Great Fire of London family walk | Museum of London
Mrs Kent 

Last Friday, the boys enjoyed an afternoon snack of apples dipped in honey whilst learning about the Jewish New Year and The Star of David. Meanwhile, on the other side of the classroom, the boys revised colour mixing, using primary colours to make a secondary one. This week we are working on warm and cool shades of one colour (hue), before we embark on painting our very own Great Fire of London masterpieces. We look forward to sharing these with you in a few weeks' time. 

 

Year 1

Literacy – Beegu 

Last week, the boys investigated different adjectives they could use to describe Beegu.  

She is kind – Arthur J; She is thankful – Tymur; She is golden – Ben; She is glowing – Rhys; She is afraid – James; She is worried – Arthur OB; She is lonely – Guy; She is helpful – Dario. 

They also applied their adjective knowledge to describing an alien friend that they designed and drew. This week, the boys have been thinking about how Beegu feels when, as an outsider, she is accepted by a group of children. They have written a letter in their role as one of the children when they had to say goodbye to Beegu. I was so impressed with the thoughtful word choices the boys shared, their considerate feelings towards the characters and their motivation to independently write their letters. We have been trying to use our phonic knowledge to sound out words and spell them by ourselves. 

Phonics 

Each week, we will look at two or three new sounds as well as some common exception (red) words. We are currently working our way through the Set 2 Speed Sounds, building on their knowledge of Set 1 Speed Sounds from Reception. This week, we have focused on -igh (Fly High) and -ow (Blow the Snow) sounds. Included in their reading wallet this week is a copy of the phonic sounds that we shall be covering in Year 1. This is a useful document to refer to when reading with your son to help them to remember how to say these sounds when they come across them when reading with you at home. Can they find any words around the house that use -igh or -ow? Let us know on Monday! 

Other activities the boys have really enjoyed this week have involved experimenting with colour mixing and ordering major events from the history of space. 

Best wishes for a happy weekend.  
Mrs Ford

Year R

What a super week we have had in Year R. All boys are now fully in the flow of our class rules and routines and often remind me of what is happening next, which is lovely!  The boys love our class visual timetable, which really helps us all to see the plans for the day and these are broken into morning and afternoon sessions.  Sometimes, when things don't always go according to plan, we chat about this and call this a 'whoops' moment in our day.  We have also chatted about how it is okay for plans to change, and it does happen, and it doesn't matter.  

This week in our Maths sessions we have been learning to compare different sizes of objects, from the biggest to the smallest using conkers in particular.  We made lots of lines showing this and thought our conkers looked a bit like a snake or caterpillar!  Lots of confident ordering shown.  We then moved on to explore weight/mass. The boys really enjoyed using the scales to try and match weights of different objects, the conkers again proving to be very popular.

Maybe at home or when you are out and about you might like to talk about different sizes of objects and even collect some conkers of your own to make creatures like snakes from smallest to biggest.  A good item then for show and tell next week!

Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Huntley

 

Forest School

This week at Forest School, Year R had a wonderful time throwing leaves up into the air. After all this entertainment, they put their creative skills to good use and had a go at using painting pens to decorate some of the huge leaves they found. We chatted about the veins and their purpose, and then used the pens to follow those veins as well as adding in some extra details. The boys proudly opened up their leaf art gallery!

Year 1 had fun creating some wonderful fir cone bugs that dangled from a piece of wool. After chatting about the various features of insects, the boys used their imagination to create their very own unique flying insect. They had a lot of fun playing with them as well.

Working with clay is always a very popular session in Forest School. This week in Year 2 we thought we would try and capture some natural patterns in the clay. The boys carefully selected some natural resources, and using a rolling pin and clay, the boys created an imprint of their natural items in the clay. They then continued to explore the various patterns they could make in order to create a natural clay tile.
Mrs Walker