Pre-Prep News, Friday 3 March
What a wonderful Book Week!
From Mrs Ross
Our visiting author captivated the Pre-Prep boys during his workshop. (more details in Mrs Kent's article). It was truly inspiring to hear him read his poems and talk about the things that capture his imagination.
The boys' enthusiasm for World Book Day was delightful, with many exciting and excitable book characters amongst both boys and staff. The boys have created a large book of 'World Book Day 2023' that can be viewed in our Library.
Our newly revamped Pre-Prep Library (thank you, Mrs Brill and Mrs Leslie) became the setting for a marvellous competition and the boys were very keen to search for Story Book clues hidden within the bookshelves.
The central focus upon the joy of books and reading this week, has I hope, rekindled parents' and boys' enthusiasm and interest in stories and poetry. We want our Pilgrims' boys to become confident, fluent, discriminating readers. During their time in the Pre-Prep, we help them to make the important transition from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. However, the value of sharing a story or poem cannot be underestimated and the importance of reading aloud to children continues to be crucial in promoting successful language and cognitive development. Happy reading!
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Pilgrims' Shell Awards
- Year 2 – to Isaac M for his impressive work on times-table recall and clever problem-solving.
- Year 1 - to Keijiro for super progress all round and for his blossoming confidence.
- Reception - to Dario for creating and reading his fantastic Three Little Pigs story map.
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Diary dates
| Diary dates | Times | The week ahead |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 6 March | All day | Year 1 trip to Portchester Castle |
| Thursday 9 March | 1315-1515 | St Swithun's Year 2 girls join Forest School session |
| Friday 10 March | 1500 | Pre-Prep Cathedral Assembly |
| Wednesday 15 March | 1630 | Pre-Prep Parents' Evening (booking will be available soon) |
| Friday 17 March | all day | Red Nose Day |
| Wednesday 22 March | pm | Christ Church School's team visit to lead Pre-Prep Assembly |
|
Friday 24 March |
0800-0900 1115-1145 |
|
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Notices
Menus - Please find a link to next week's menus here, on My School Portal.
Message from the Head Nurse, Nicki Beaumont:
Reminder: we have boys with severe allergies to certain foods, and therefore have a policy whereby 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
What an entrance the boys made into school on Thursday. Can you be Sherlock Holmes and spot Smaug the dragon, a Spiderman and perhaps do a double-take of Harry Potter? Can you see a very smart Cat in the Hat yet perhaps the Smartest Giant in Town and a miraculously uneaten bar of Wonka Chocolate. Don’t forget to look for the best listening ears available from The BFG and the kind boy from The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse? There was quite a Buzz around the arrival of a spaceman from Lightyears away, Peter Pan thankfully appeared out of the grip of Captain Hook and if you are ever in need of A Dragonsitter, we have Edward Smith-Pickle available in Year 2. To top it all off, a Bumblebear and a Mrs Pleming from the book that has yet to be written also made an appearance.
What a hoot!
In amongst swimming and Forest School, the boys had an opportunity to draw their character, take part in a treasure hunt in the library to find clues from various children’s books and, perhaps, their favourite time of the day was seeing what characters they could spot from the Junior and Senior boys when eating lunch in the Octagon. Funnily enough, the Octagon provides the best ‘spotting point’, as one boy noted, in the whole school!
Mrs Ford
The first column.
The second column.
Year 1
The boys have been fully engaged in their learning this week, and what fun we have had with our World Book day celebrations on top of other jobs! Activities have included.......
- Using books to find information about Knights
- Creating Knights from tin foil to explore tearing, scrunching, cutting and sticking skills
- Drawing a Knight in armour and finding words to label the correct parts of a Knight's armour
- Listening intently to AF Harrold - Author and Poet, while he performed his poetry to the Pre Prep, such an inspiring character
- Dressing up as different book characters for World Book Day - teachers and staff included!
- Swimming - super progress shown
- Searching for objects that link to different books in the Pre Prep library
- Surface Go Maths, AND
- PE and Music
Wow!! Such a lot has been covered, enjoyed and learnt by all.
A fun packed week! Well done, boys; have a restful weekend, everyone.
Mrs Huntley
The first column.
Reception
On Monday morning the boys were treated to yet another fantastic workshop at the Cathedral, led by Emma Bourner, Winchester Cathedral Director of Learning, and also our school Safeguarding Governor.
The boys each made their own Green Man using their colouring and sticking skills to create unique and beautifully decorated masks. In the afternoon, the boys used natural materials found in the garden to make another face, thinking about feelings and how we show this on our own faces. There was much discussion about veins; those both on a leaf and on our own bodies, and the jobs that they do.
Many thanks to Mr Lombardo who accompanied us on this trip.
AF Harrold
The boys were transfixed from the moment they entered the Pre-Prep Hall by AF Harrold who was, for want of a better word, tinkering on the piano. The time flew by as he read/performed poetry, mostly about food, and who when addressing the boys to share ideas and answer questions would say: “My young friend…”. The boys were encouraged to engage their imagination to think up names for sweets after listening to a poem by Christopher Reid, An old Man remembers his Childhood Sweetshop. Then they were asked to think of questions to ask their grandparents having been reminded: "Don’t mention the teeth!" when listening to his poem, Grandma.
During Pilgrims’ Time, the boys have been enjoyed working on the Surface Go’s, each creating their own picture.
Mrs Kent
Forest School
World Book Day and Forest School came together this week, through the beautiful story of ‘The Adventures of Leaf Man’ by Rebecca Shelley. On our journey to Elizabeth Mead, I told Year R the story of ‘The Leaf Man’ who was created by fairy magic and only had one day to live. Once at our destination, the boys used natural resources and their own fairy magic to try and create their very own leaf man. I was pleased with how the boys worked cooperatively with each other.
This week Year 1’s Forest School session linked in with their Science Curriculum. We chatted about the 3 main categories of animals – Herbivores, Carnivores and Omnivores. The boys played a game trying to decide which animals fitted into which categories. During free exploration time, some of the boys tried to find some minibeasts and work out if they were a herbivore, carnivore of omnivore.
The birds are singing, which means spring isn’t too far away! With the Year 2 boys, we chatted about life cycles and how at this time of the year birds are thinking about finding a mate. The boys were then given the challenge of becoming ‘eggsperts’ and tried to match up the images of some bird’s eggs with the descriptive riddles, that then identified the owner of the eggs!
AF Harrold
The boys were transfixed from the moment they entered the Pre-Prep Hall by AF Harrold who was, for want of a better word, tinkering on the piano. The time flew by as he read/performed poetry, mostly about food, and who when addressing the boys to share ideas and answer questions would say: “My young friend…”. The boys were encouraged to engage their imagination to think up names for sweets after listening to a poem by Christopher Reid, An old Man remembers his Childhood Sweetshop. Then they were asked to think of questions to ask their grandparents having been reminded: "Don’t mention the teeth!" when listening to his poem, Grandma.
