This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Dear All,
It has been somewhat of a whirlwind of a week… and I am not just talking about the weather! Indeed, despite the weather, we managed to go ahead with our first round of sports fixtures of the year, as the netballers travelled to Highfield Priory on Wednesday, with the footballers playing the reverse fixture at Rossall. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the children participate in some entertaining matches and was proud of the number of pupils who took part – all girls and boys from across Years 5 and 6 represented the Prep School. Congratulations on some wonderful results and performances! Further information can be found in our sports reports!
Earlier today, some of our pupils also took part in a local community event being held at Rossall. ‘Big Kick’ is aimed at primary school-aged girls wanting to get involved in football – what better place to do that than at Rossall, who are the ISFA national champions twice over. What a fantastic and aspirational event it was for the girls, and a big well done to all the Senior pupils who ran the football sessions.
I am very much looking forward to welcoming many of you to our Harvest Assembly on Friday 29th September at 8.45am in Chapel. Harvest is a lovely time of year in a primary setting. I remember my own harvest festivals at school and the images of incredible iconic bread sculptures that accompanied this time of year! I may just have a go this weekend…
We are pleased to announce that our very good friend of the School, Reverend Ayoma, will be leading the service alongside Year 6S. As always, we will be supporting a local food bank charity and would therefore welcome any donations of cans, tins, packets or cereals to be brought in from Monday onwards. Thank you for your continued support as we try to help those most in need in the local community.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Year 6
It has felt autumnal this week, the wind, rain and falling leaves have left us in no doubt that summer is over. However, the learning in Year 6 is still red hot!
We continue to enjoy delving into our books, ‘Star of Fear, Star of Hope’ and ‘Friend or Foe’. Both books tackle the subject of World War 2 in very different ways. The children are thoroughly enjoying reading and predicting what might happen next in the fast moving, exciting plots. We have been working on adding the passive voice and expanded noun phrases into our writing. Mrs Scott and Mrs Kenmare have been impressed with the results.
Our Topic, ‘Peace and Conflict’ links seamlessly with our texts and is encouraging some excellent discussions.
The children continue to enjoy visiting the art room and their World War 2 inspired work is looking incredible.
We were proud to watch the Year 6 children all receive their roles of responsibility during assembly on Monday morning. They are already thriving in their new roles.
Year 5
Year 5 became forensic scientists this week as we continued our pursuit of scientific discovery to learn about the amazing process of chromatography. Our crime scene investigators relished the opportunity to try to separate mixtures into their components to learn about how the process works in a lab, and we clearly have some budding detectives in our midst, as they were able to solve the crime of the ‘Mysterious Rossall Graffiti Artist’!
Now three weeks into the term, I am so impressed and proud of the way the class are working together as a Year 5 team and supporting one another in class with praise and positivity for each other’s work.
Dance, Music and Drama have been a big hit this week, and with auditions for this year’s production coming soon, I am confident we are going to have a whole cast of Year 5 children performing in the spotlight come next Easter!
Year 4
This week, Year 4 were particularly excited to meet a Roman Centurion! Straight away he signed the children up for the Roman army and began their rigorous training. The sounds of marching feet and “sin, sin, sin, dex, sin” aka “left, left, left, right, left” was heard loudly in Big School before a guide to the intricacies of swordsmanship. They all attended a Roman dinner party where Felix was a slave and served the Romans many of their favourite delicacies; stuffed elephant trunk, roasted peacock and to finish off, a lesson on how to brush their teeth with powdered mouse brains! It was great for the children to be able to link this learning in with their Topic about the Anglo-Saxons.
In Science, we have continued to learn about teeth and how to keep them healthy. We conducted our first experiment of the year involving 4 boiled eggs, milk, water, orange juice and lemonade to answer our inquiry question ‘Do sugary drinks cause tooth decay?’. Throughout the week, we have been monitoring any changes that have occurred and have noticed that the lemonade has caused a pretty bad change already!
In English, we have continued to look at our book, ‘Gorilla’, and have started to design our own fact files about them. Their writing focus for this week has been expanding noun phrases through modifying nouns and also using fronted adverbials within their fact file pieces.
Year 3
Another wonderful week in Year 3! Despite the crazy weather we have managed only to be swept away by our amazing learning, and not by the strong winds!
In English this week we continued reading Seal Surfer, and got to the part where the boy has a surfing accident and is saved by the seal. We learnt about paragraphs and wrote diary entries from the boy’s perspective explaining what happened before, during and after the accident. We then wrote a setting description, depicting a stormy walk – very fitting for this week’s weather!
In Maths we are reaching the end of our Place Value unit, this week we have looked at the number line up to 1000, comparing and ordering three-digit numbers. Then children have done really well extending their knowledge in these areas.
For our Topic this week we revised the features of the coast, and then moved on to learning about the water cycle. We discovered what the words precipitation (again, very apt!), condensation and evaporation all mean.
In Science we are continuing our Keeping Healthy unit, this week focussing on bones! We learnt about the three functions of a skeleton: to help us move, to support our bodies and to protect our organs. We also learnt about the different names of bones, including some scientific names. We also looked at some animal skeletons and compared them to humans.
We also finished off our seal artwork which is now up on display for all to see!
Well done for another fantastic week Year 3!
Year 2
Although there has been plenty of wind and rain this week it has not dampened the year 2 spirit. The children are full of enthusiasm and have been working hard in the classroom. In Mathematics the class have been flexibly partitioning numbers and writing numbers to 100 in expanded forms. The children thoroughly enjoyed designing their own disgusting trolls, they then used their noun phrases to write wonderful descriptions of these terrifying beasts.
Wednesday was the highlight of the week, as Mrs Payne came down to Year 2 to teach Art. She taught the children all about L.S, Lowry and they completed some fabulous scenes in the style of his work. Not only this it was also National Fitness Day, so we took the opportunity to have a go at Bow’s (or should we call her Joe!) home fitness video she completed as part of her Home Learning. We are looking forward to having the opportunity to do a few more, so do send those videos in!
Year 1
We have had lots of wonderful writing this week in Year 1. We have been using and applying our phonics to our English work to help Mr Forgetful, from the lost and found office, who needed help to organise all of his animals that had been found. We needed to use our phonics to write labels for him to use.
In Maths, we have been learning about counting forwards and backwards, finding one more and counting on from a given number.
After looking at where we live last week, we have been thinking about maps, what we need them for and how they can help us. We have been drawing our own sketch maps of the route from our home to school, thinking carefully about local landmarks that we might pass and help us find our way.
In Science we have been learning about the 5 senses and thought about things around us that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. We investigated different scents and discussed which we liked and disliked.
Reception
You may have heard your child talk about ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We have had an exciting few days as we have found footprints in our classroom and some ingredients to make Gingerbread Men.
Luckily images of the Gingerbread Man have been caught on the school CCTV cameras around school … he has been in the swimming pool, in Chapel, in the Nursery and even in Mr Quartermain’s office! He has even been appearing around the Pre-Prep building. Who knows where he will turn up next?
The children are excitedly planning ways to catch him and have painted pictures of what they think he looks like. We have also created lots of ‘Wanted’ posters, their first independent attempts at using their new phonics knowledge to write some adjectives about the Gingerbread Man.
Nursery
“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million” – Walt Streightiff
This week in the Nursery we have focused on Understanding The World!
The Sanderlings
The Sanderlings started their week by looking at pictures that had been sent in from their families. The pictures were used to talk about their whole family and the exciting days out and activities they get up to when they are not at nursery. The children loved looking at their pictures and sharing them with their friends. The Sanderlings also explored flowers and talked about the colours, what each type of flower was called, and how lovely they smelt. The children then used the flowers to make prints with paint to see what marks they could make.
Finally, Miss Schofield, Mrs Beddis and Miss Heatley have encouraged tidying up in the Sanderlings room, to help the older children in their transition into The Sandpipers rooms.
The Sandpipers
The Sandpipers have been to the Library to learn about Technology and all the important uses of computers. The children have used the Smartboard to develop their fine and gross motor skills by mark making on the screen using lots of different colours. The children have been developing their imagination skills to create masterpieces using loose parts. There have been rockets, castles, binoculars and towers all created using everyday household objects such as cotton reels and wooden shower curtain rings. The Sandpipers have also been in the secret garden developing their understanding of the natural world. The children talked about the things they could see such as pine cones, leaves and twigs. During circle time The Sanderlings have spoken about people we love and have looked at family photos.
Pre-School
The children in Pre-School have been experimenting this week. Miss Emsley poured a “magic potion” into the water. The children all stood quietly and patiently for the noise the potion was going to create. Some of the children described the sound as a “crackle “ whilst others said it “sounds like the rain” and “a shower at home”. The children used lots of excellent descriptive phrases to analyse what they could see and hear happening before their eyes.
The children have also loved creating gloop every day! Getting messy with their friends is the Pre-Schoolers’ favourite thing to do when at nursery. To end the week the children used the yellow paint to make a big Banana milkshake mess.
Extra News
Rossall Prep U11 Netball v Highfield Priory U11
What a fabulous first fixture of the year! On Wednesday, a mini bus of extremely excited Year 6 girls travelled over to Preston to play netball against Highfield Priory. There were many girls making their debuts. Luckily, the sun appeared just in time for the start of the matches. All four matches were fast and furious,resulting in; three wins and a draw. Those extra practices really paid off.
Well done to all the girls that took part, we truly have built some solid foundations to improve on even further! Thank you also to Highfield Priory for your amazing hospitality.
Rossall Footballers Start the Season in Style Versus Highfield Priory
We were delighted to welcome our good friends from Highfield Priory to play in a triangular fixture against the Rossall Rhinos, Rams and Raccoons this week.
The game was scintillating from start to finish and there were some outstanding goals from Jude, Rocco, Archie, Nick, Sam and Ralph.
The packed viewing gallery of Rossall Sports Centre filled to capacity with parents were treated to a fine feast of football. After a morning of wind and rain, the players basked in the sunshine once play started, and thoroughly deserved their tasty refreshments on the balcony, where everyone enjoyed celebrating a perfect afternoon of sport together.
Well done, Rossall!
Awards
Year 6
This week our certificates were given to Jude for showing fantastic independent learning skills, completing extra tasks at home related to World War 2 and inspiring others; Lulu for being respectful to everybody in the school community and showing leadership in his learning; Nilanth for showing collaboration and courage in all areas of his learning and Hollie for amazing perseverance during her Mathematics lesson.
Year 5
Our certificates this week were awarded to Delilah for excellent enthusiasm and progress in creative writing, and Seb for excellent focus and concentration in all aspects of learning.
Year 4
Our certificate winners in Year 4 this week are Larry for showing outstanding effort and enthusiasm in Maths and Abrianna for having an excellent attitude to all aspects of School.
Year 3
The Year 3 certificates this week go to Harry for wonderful effort and knowledge in Science and to Rocco for fabulous perseverance in English and Maths.
Year 2
This week Theo won a certificate for demonstrating perseverance and resilience, and Bow won hers for fabulous independence during home learning.
Year 1
This week’s certificate winners are Kennedy, for beautiful writing with excellent letter and number formation, and Vova, for improved concentration and persevering when he finds something tricky. Well done!
Reception
This week’s certificate of achievement go to George and Celia. Both children have demonstrated excellent independent skills this week. Well done!
