Prep Newsletter Michaelmas Term Week 6

This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.

Dear All,

The balance of opportunities on offer in our Prep School never ceases to impress me. This week there have been netball matches, Pre-Prep multisport fixtures, a house poetry competition, a music concert, and our footballers have been over to Birkenhead. It is no wonder that the children looked tired in assembly and well-ready for their half term break! Congratulations to all the children who took part in these events.

As the half term draws to a close, so too does our focus on inclusivity across our assemblies and form time. It has been so refreshing to hear the children actively discussing inclusion and what it means across so many walks of life, society, as well as within a school context. 

It has been a delight to speak to so many of you throughout this week at our Parents’ Evenings. Being able to talk with you face to face rather than through a screen, reminds us just how important the home-school partnership is. Throughout the next half term, we will be looking to build on these foundations by offering further opportunities for parents and family members to join us in School; we will have a family open afternoon, our first Parent Forum of the academic year, as well as the multitude of events that lead us through to the festive season.

I hope you all have a well-deserved rest if you are able to over half term. I realise it can be somewhat scary for the children coming back into School after a holiday, but probably never so much as returning on 31st October!

All best wishes,

Mr M Turner

Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery


Inclusivity

Our well-being theme for this half term has been Inclusivity. The Prep and Pre-Prep children have been participating in assemblies and discussions in class surrounding this theme. We have all talked about how important it is to include people regardless of ability, race, gender, religion or nationality. This has tied in with Black History Month and European Day of Languages. We have talked about how everyone is different in their own unique way but we are equal. 

Here are some quotes from the children’s discussions in class demonstrating how they feel about inclusivity: 

  • “It means including others even when we are different.”
  • “It doesn’t matter what shape or colour you are, everybody is beautiful.”
  • “We are all a Rossall family.”
  • “People who are different from us are still welcome.”
  • “No matter how you look or what you believe, we are all the same inside.”

Next half term’s well-being theme will be community. 


Rossall U11 v Highfield Priory U11 – Netball

Rossall Prep hosted two netball matches against our friends from Highfield Priory on Wednesday afternoon. Many of the girls had never experienced a competitive match, however they took on the challenge with gusto! There is a lot to learn in netball: positions, rules, movement, passing, catching, and shooting and much more.

Well done to the whole Year 5 and 6 squad who have been practising their skills at every opportunity, this really paid off. We managed to win both matches, which demonstrated the progress the squad have made already. We are really looking forward to seeing this enthusiastic squad improve and develop even further.


Year 6

Vergil was indeed right when he wrote the phrase ‘Tempus Fugit’. This half term has certainly flown by!

We were treated to some superb performances by members of Year 6 in the Music Assembly Concert this morning. I am always in awe of the children’s talent and indeed bravery to perform in front of such a sizeable audience at such a tender age.

House Poetry was a delightful way to end our Half Term and a super opportunity for the children in Year 6 to lead their respective houses. They showed their creative sides and more importantly, their ability to nurture and encourage the younger children in their houses.

Mr Condon and I have thoroughly enjoyed our book, ‘Star of Fear, Star of Hope’ and I felt quite emotional as I read the end of the story to the children this week. Their thoughtful and mature responses to the book have really impressed us both. As a result of what we read and discussed, we decided to think about our hopes for the future. Again, the children astonished me with the level of maturity that they showed. They hoped for happiness and health for their families and friends, an end to wars and suffering and that they would be part of the solution for the environmental problems that the world faces.

 The responses reminded me of a quote from a remarkable young woman who we have learned about in our Topic, ‘Peace and Conflict’.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  These words were written by Anne Frank in her famous diary. Our children certainly have every intention of making the world a better place.


Year 5

This week has seen the completion of our class book ‘Queen of the falls’, where we have found out whether Annie Edson Taylor was successful in her daredevil feat of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. We have completed our final piece of writing; a diary written as if we are Annie and what she experienced and felt at different key events in her life that we had learnt about in the book.

In Maths, we continued to learn about place value, but with numbers up to a million. We built on our previous work with place value to understand the value of each digit in a number, then compared and ordered 6 and 7 digit numbers. 

We had our last Forest School session this week and created our own artwork using natural materials. There were hedgehogs, dinosaurs, birthday cakes and even an erupting Mount Vesuvius.

It was lovely to see the children perform some of their poems in the preliminary round of the House Poetry, and well done to everyone who participated. There were some amazing original efforts too, we definitely have some budding poets among us.

There have also been some excellent team efforts this week too, with some of the Year 5 children being chosen to represent the school in Netball and Football. They have proven to be great ambassadors for Year 5 and Rossall.


Year 4

This was our final week delving into the lives of Anglo-Saxons and learning about the key moments in our history when excavations at Sutton Hoo revealed a remarkable set of elaborate artefacts which revolutionised our understanding of the Anglo-Saxon period.

When asked what the children would miss most if they had to live in Anglo Saxon times; a large proportion of the class said they would miss their computers, iPads, phones and video games. Also high on the list of missed treats were cakes, pizzas, and chocolate!  Luckily for the children, they avoided a practical lesson in the art of building Anglo Saxon houses from wattle and daub. I’m not sure how many children would have been excited mixing poo and mud to create the ‘daub’.

I’m sure by now you are all well acquainted with the key character in our English lessons – a gorilla. This week we sadly had to say goodbye as he needed to return to the zoo. However, before he left the children wrote their own version of events in the story and let their imagination fly by adding characters and animals of their own choosing. Certainly the book gave the children lots to think about and act as inspiration for their own adventures. Long may they continue to enjoy the magic of storytelling.

In Science, it was time for the conclusion of our eggs-periment (groan)! After waiting patiently it was finally time to reveal what had happened to the eggs immersed in various solutions. The class were ready and waiting for an egg-citing lesson and egg-static to find out about the disappearing eggshell. Children presented the results and they did egg-ceptionally well entertaining the class with their egg-cellent teaching skills. 

Wishing you a happy Fry-day and an egg-cellent half term.


Year 3

What a jam-packed way to finish the first half term of the year! It is wonderful to see the super progress the children have made in the last six weeks. We finished off our English unit on Seal Surfer with a spectacular piece of writing: a letter from the boy in the book to his Grandad. I was so impressed with everyone’s dedication to their writing. In Maths we have been looking at exchanging ten tens for one hundred when adding and subtracting – another tricky concept to grasp and everyone is working hard on it! 

In Topic we have finished learning about the British Coast by researching a chosen coastal location, and then creating eye-catching posters!

To finish of our Keeping Healthy unit in Science by writing our own Personal Trainer adverts, sharing the tips we have learnt about healthy living and our bodies.

Rossall Rotation this week brought us glorious sunshine for our final Beach Schools session where we enjoyed making beach art!

Well done to Isla, Emma, Roman, Ryan and Matilda for their musical performances at Friday morning’s Music Assembly.

Finishing off the week with House Poetry was the cherry on top of this brilliant half term, well done to Emma, Sarah and Matilda who performed in front of the whole school and to Hope, Wyatt, Sophie and Lexi for putting themselves forward to compete as well!

Well done for a fab half term Year 3, enjoy the break!


Year 2

The final week of his half term has been full of fun and learning, we have reached the end of our class book Troll Swap, the children recreated various scenes from the book to help demonstrate their understanding. I was just glad that there wasn’t too much head bumping in the process. This led us onto our final write, the quality of the children’s final written pieces was absolutely fabulous and reflected the learning that has taken place over this first half term. Our Astronomy sessions have now come to an end as part of Rossall Rotation, the children have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and have been nagging me to find out what is next, but they will just have to wait till after half term to find out.

On Wednesday ten members of the class had the opportunity to go to Cardinal Allen High School to take part in a multi skills competition, I was delighted with their effort and attitude at this and I know that there are several boys who did not attend this time, but cannot wait for the opportunity to go next term.

I have been so impressed with the children over the last six weeks, they have really embraced all the learning, activities and challenges that have been put in front of them with real enthusiasm and determination, and even though I think we all deserve a well earned rest, I am really looking forward to the second half of term and watching these children continue to develop and flourish. Thanks for a wonderful first half term Year 2 you’ve been awesome!


Year 1

Can you believe we have completed nearly 6 weeks of school, Year 1?

It’s been such a wonderful first half term with you all and I am so proud of how far we have come from the beginning of September to now. This week we have been tying up our topics and working hard to showcase our learning. In Maths we have moved on to looking at adding using Part-Whole models and plenty of counters! It’s been interesting to learn this new concept of adding two numbers to find a whole number, but it is a concept we are securing really well.

In English we have been really ready to write the story of Lost and Found; we have all had a great try at writing the entire story as we know it! Well done! We did this using our best handwriting and we are starting to use joins and lead ins in our letters. We can also use capital letters, full stops, and we are remembering well to always have finger spaces.

We have also made boats this week, thinking back to floating and sinking, and it was great fun working with our friends to create a boat out of reusable materials and seeing if they could float! Have a wonderful holiday Year 1 and I can’t wait to see you all again at the end of this month. 


Reception

It’s a typical but frustrating scenario for parents – you take your bathed and neatly dressed child to school and return with one who is grubby. Their hands, clothes and sometimes their hair too can tell a story of their fun day at school – mud under their fingernails, thick paint on their top and glitter in their hair.

Rest assured, we don’t deliberately make your washing machine work overtime, but we do want to enable your child to explore a wide range of textures and materials. This form of play is called ‘messy’ – or ‘sensory’ – play.

The main feature of messy play is giving your child the freedom to investigate materials. This can include playing with sand and water, digging in mud or investigating porridge oats, shaving foam or ‘gloop’ (cornflour and water mixed together resulting in a fascinating substance). We will try to keep your child protected by providing aprons, overalls and opportunities to wash their hands, but it is impossible to keep young children totally clean without inhibiting their important investigations. ‘Messy play’ seem to lack a particular focus as there is often not an end product, but the benefits of getting hands-on through messy play include:

-Development of coordination and body control as children practise hand-eye coordination and develop their motor skills. You may have noticed playdough under fingernails over the past few weeks as we have rolled, pinched, splatted, cut and squeezed the playdough into various shapes. Next term we introduce ‘Dough Disco’!

Building curiosity and concentration as they have the freedom to experiment with different substances and investigate cause and effect. The sand and the water are definitely popular areas of the classroom and the children love nothing better than mixing the sand and water together to get the correct consistency for the perfect sandcastle.

Developing prediction skills as they start to learn that their model needs a firm base, or putting too much liquid into a bucket will make it overflow. Our potions lab for Halloween is always an exciting addition to the classroom.

Nurturing early writing skills by encouraging mark-making, such as using their fingers to make patterns in shaving foam or dragging a piece of chalk across the playground. The large blackboards in the playground are decorated daily with a variety of patterns, colours, letters and numbers. The children also love to create maps and paths on the floor with chalk for their friends to follow.

Nurturing early numeracy skills by introducing them to concepts such as bigger and smaller, heavier and lighter, along with sequencing, patterns and problem-solving. The children love using our indoor or outdoor balances whether it’s with playdough or natural resources.

Encouraging social interaction such as turn-taking, negotiation and conversation skills as children work together. The children have loved painting with their hands and then mixing their hands together to create different colours. The children have used cars to create colourful tracks and always try hard to negotiate their path to wash their hands without touching anything!


Nursery

The Sanderlings started their week with a walk to collect autumn leaves ready to create leaf pictures. It was a messy activity full of gluing and sticking but lovely to be able to use natural objects too. The Sanderlings have continued building their artistic sides using crayons for mark making, this week’s mark making focus was colour recognition, the practitioners used the names of the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) to encourage the babies to repeat the colour names. The Sanderlings have also taken part in song and story time based around traditional tales, it is always such a happy time in The Sanderlings room during this time. Finally, to encourage self care and looking after others the children have been looking after their baby dolls in the role play area. 

The Sandpipers book of the month is ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson this week. In keeping with Halloween, the children have been making Witches’ potions. This provided the children with a sensory activity where they were encouraged to discuss the smell and colour of their potion. The Sandpipers craft activities have been focused on Autumn; the children made their own interpretation of a pumpkin and created leaf portraits. One of the Sandpipers’ intentions this week was self care so just like the Sanderlings they have taken part in a self care activity using the baby dolls, the children used a tough tray and washed then dressed the babies. Outdoors The Sandpipers have been making houses using the crates, mathematical language was used throughout this activity to compare the size of the houses. 

The Preschool had a lovely yoga session with Miss Emsley. It was a calm session which allowed the children to relax as well as take part in a physical activity. Miss Simms has been exploring Autumn colours with the children, talking about what happens when we go into the season of Autumn; the children discovered that not only do the trees lose their leaves but the leaves also change colour. In teacher time this week Miss Ward and Mrs Gaynor have been helping the children to count how many syllables are in our names by clapping the patterns. This week Preschool had a visit from another mystery reader, thank you to Mrs Trippier our Reception teacher and EYFS lead, for coming to see us and reading us a story. Preschool week finished with a stay and play session, it was so nice to see all of our parents and Grandparents. We look forward to inviting you to our next stay and play.


Awards

Year 6

Our award winners this are:
Finley for super work in History.
Oskar for fabulous work in English.
Lincoln for outstanding contribution to school life.
Rio for good progress across all areas of the curriculum.

Year 5

This week’s awards are awarded to Sophie for an excellent performance in the netball match, Ahill for fantastic creative writing in English and Nicholas and Sebastian for amazing presentation and ideas in their writing.

Year 4

In Year 4 our certificate winners this week are Eryn and Ben for excellent story writing in English.

Year 3

Our certificates in Year 3 this week go to Anthony for a fantastic poster for our topic, and to Mykhailo for his excellent effort in English.

Year 2

This week’s certificates go to Josephine and Rupert for outstanding attitude and effort at multi skills.

Year 1

This week’s certificates go to:

Anand for trying his best this week to complete tricky challenges in writing!

Millie for being such a caring friend and for always trying to help others when they are stuck!

Reception

This week’s certificate of achievement goes to Clark and Kennedy.

Kennedy has tried very hard in recent Phonic lessons and is a keen participant.

Clark has completed some lovely independent writing this week and even asked to do more!