This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Dear All,
What a difference a week makes! Our (non) beach day was somewhat dampened by the weather although this did not affect our spirits, as the children danced, played beach games, produced some beach art, ate a ‘seaside lunch’ and generally had a great deal of fun, albeit without the sun – and not actually at the beach!
Unfortunately the girls cricket matches were cancelled due to the rain,however the tennis matches went ahead and I was delighted to hear of some incredible games on the courts as Rossall performed exceptionally well. Congratulations should most definitely be paid to our U11 Cricket Team. On Monday they battled some strong winds to win the AJIS Cup, defeating Oldham Hulme School in the final. We batted, bowled and fielded superbly to claim the trophy! A magnificent end to our sporting calendar for the year!
On Wednesday I was fortunate to attend the Scholarship event, where scholars for next year were awarded their badges and certificates. It was an incredible proud moment for all the parents of our current as well as external joiners. However, I felt a great deal of pride as I watched many of our current Prep pupils take to the stage after displaying such admirable qualities through the selection process; well done!
The scholarship event indicates the drawing to the close of one year and the cyclic stages of moving on and up. This will be followed next week by our Prize Giving event on Wednesday afternoon, and our rearranged Year 6 party (the weather has played its part again – we are in June aren’t we?). Equally, today the children met their new teachers for next year. Year 6s had their transition day in Senior School and this afternoon, all staff met their new classes (being reminded just how far their current cohort have progressed!). It is an exciting day for the pupils and the teachers – another nod towards the end of a terrific academic year.
I finish with a huge well done to our staff and children of Year 2. The pupils, expertly marshalled by Mr Rund, Mrs Loy, Miss Simpson and Mrs Lawton, enjoyed a wonderful ‘Big Sleepover’ in their classroom on Thursday evening. They enjoyed kite flying. roasting marshmallows for smores, playing plentiful games, and eating a hearty breakfast in the dining hall. One small step for residentials, one giant leap for Year 2!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Errata
Due to editor error last week’s newsletter was published without the news from Year 1 or the awards for the Pre-Prep. This has now been corrected and you can view those items via these links:
LAUNCHING SEPTEMBER, ROSSALL FOOTBALL PREP PROGRAMME
We are delighted to announce that our incredibly successful Football Programme will open to Preparatory School pupils in years 4 to 6 from September!
This is a hugely exciting development for all those budding footballers in Prep who have had to stand on the sidelines waiting for entry into the senior school before taking up a place. We have heard from pupils and parents alike that they would like to join and so we have created a bespoke programme for children in the Prep School.
The Prep Programme will combine training for both boys and girls, giving everyone the opportunity to learn and play together.
Parents will receive a mailer next week with more information on the programme. Pupils moving into years 4, 5 and 6 in September can express their interest in the programme by filling in the Prep Football Programme form.
Anyone moving into Year 7 should fill in the Senior School form if they are interested in joining the Elite Football Programme.
School Council
Well done to our Prep School Council for a wonderfully successful year! The representatives have worked tirelessly and given up numerous playtimes in order to plan, organise and help with all the wonderful events. Thank you to everyone who supported and donated to all the various charity events over the year. It was wonderful to end the School Council tenure with a fantastic party this week, and the representatives did especially well rearranging this to the indoor option when the beach got ruled out! Congratulations on a brilliant year, School Council, you should be very proud of yourselves.
U11 Cricketers Win the AJIS Cup in Style!
Congratulations to the U11 Cricket Team for winning the AJIS Cup, defeating Oldham Hulme School in the final. Rossall batted, bowled and fielded superbly to claim a memorable victory by 20 runs. Well done, Rossall Prep School!
Anyone for Tennis?
Rossall Prep School hosted a U10/11 tennis festival on Wednesday afternoon. Eight keen Rossall tennis players took part in doubles matches against pairs from a variety of schools. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to experience tennis in a competitive environment, as well as improve their skills. Well done to everyone that took part. Thank you also to Nick, the tennis coach, for organising such a fun event.
Year 6
“When this adventure ends your next one will begin.”
George Ezra
The penultimate week…. A week full of excitement, hard work and change. Year 6 have embraced their final weeks in the Preparatory School with enthusiasm and a commitment to make the most of every second.
Mr Condon and I are so proud of all their achievements over the last year, whether in the classroom, on the stage or on the sports field. We have spent the week preparing our final Chapel Service, having great fun on our last beach day and taking part in the Year 7 Transition Day.
Mr Condon and I enjoyed watching the children interact with the new, soon to be Rossallians on Friday and were excited to see the warm welcome our children gave their new classmates.
We have much to look forward to next week, Prize Day, House Challenge Day and our Leavers Party to name but a few exciting events.
Year 5
We have had another amazing week at Rossall! Year 5 were sad to see the end of Stoller; they created so many memories and took on many frightful challenges that were in store. We were very proud of them all.
On Tuesday, Prep School enjoyed our rainbow themed ‘none’ Beach Day that was organised so well by the School Council. They loved the arts and crafts, disco and sports themed events (dodge ball and football).
In Science, we have consolidated our learning from the lesson with Mrs Turner by continuing to look at puberty and the similarities and differences that happen to boys and girls.
We have also immersed ourselves into our Design and Technology project – creating cam toys- which has been a follow on from last term. Year 5 planned their invention first, before starting their decorating. They are now moving onto implementing and constructing the cam, the shaft and the cam follower into their model.
In English, we have come to the end of our fantastic book, ‘The Hunter’, and have started planning our own fictional story. They have used aspects of ‘The Hunter’ to support their story and have changed characters and the plot to enhance their imagination and creativity.
It’s coming to the end of our Rossall Rotation and one of the last times the Year 5s will step on the farm this year! They will also take part in an exciting pond dipping activity to find different creatures and report back to the rest of their group.
We can’t wait for the celebrations and exciting activities to carry on next week as we finish our year!
Year 4
What an eventful penultimate week we have had at Rossall. The children enjoyed hearing the musical talents during the Assembly Concert, disco dancing at our (non)Beach Day, and meeting their new Year 5 teacher during the Transition Afternoon.
In English the children have been learning about the precious mineral ‘Blue John’ and the caves where it can be found. They have written some fabulous setting descriptions and imagined what it would be like to explore the caves for the first time.
In Science we have been learning about electricity and the children were very fortunate to visit the senior school science department to complete a variety of investigations and create numerous simple series circuits. Safe to say the most popular component was the buzzer – I can still hear ringing in my ears.
In Topic, our Iron Age theme continued with the children learning all about the jobs they may have undertaken, often at a very young age. They were somewhat relieved to be born in an era where careers include video game designers instead of daub mixers.
We are now looking forward to a final eventful week to round off Year 4 in style.
Year 3
It’s difficult to believe that it’s our second last week together in Year 3! The excitement of the end of term, the looming summer holidays, reflecting on the last year and how much we’ve grown have all contributed to our feeling of pride and joy. We absolutely loved the Non-Beach Party on Tuesday, organised by the School Council, and it was a wonderful celebration of the year. However we have also done lots of learning! In English we finished reading Zeraffa Giraffa, a story we all loved, ending with the gorgeous giraffe settling down in her new Paris home in the Jardin des Plantes. We wrote some persuasive adverts for our own giraffe-merchandise and then made a start on our final writing piece of the year – a persuasive leaflet for the Jardin des Plantes zoo!
In Maths we have moved on from mass to volume and capacity. We have learnt about litres and millilitres, how to measure the volume in a container and how to compare measurements.
In topic, we are loving discovering more and more about Ancient Egypt. This week we learnt about pyramids and pharaohs, we built our own pyramids and researched about the young king Tutenkamun.
For Science, we learnt about how light can create shadows. We conducted an investigation when we drew around objects to see the shadow they cast. This showed us that when opaque objects block light, a shadow is formed on the opposite side of the light source!
We loved Rossall Rotation this week, and enjoyed cooking tuna pasta salad – very healthy!
And of course we finished our week with our transition afternoon, we are starting to get very excited for Year 4! Whilst we are very sad that there is only one week left in Year 3, we know it’s going to be a good one!
Year 2
Wow! I’m not sure it could get any better or busier in Year 2. I promise we have done some hard work in class, but we have also been taking full opportunity to enjoy our penultimate week in the Pre-Prep. Our excitement has consisted of a Non Beach Day, a visit to Year 3, the Sleepless Sleepover, and Transition Day. We have danced, played games, done crafts, been on hunts, had a BBQ, eaten ice cream, made dens, drunk hot chocolate and most of all made wonderful memories.
It has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of the year and the children must be exhausted after all the excitement, the teachers definitely are. We suggest you all have a well-earned rest, because the fun does not stop there. On Monday we go again with House Challenge Day! Have a great weekend and see you all next week for even more memory making delights!Wow! I’m not sure it could get any better or busier in Year 2. I promise we have done some hard work in class, but we have also been taking full opportunity to enjoy our penultimate week in the Pre-Prep. Our excitement has consisted of a Non Beach Day, a visit to Year 3, the Sleepless Sleepover, and Transition Day. We have danced, played games, done crafts, been on hunts, had a BBQ, eaten ice cream, made dens, drunk hot chocolate and most of all made wonderful memories.
It has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of the year and the children must be exhausted after all the excitement, the teachers definitely are. We suggest you all have a well-earned rest, because the fun does not stop there. On Monday we go again with House Challenge Day! Have a great weekend and see you all next week for even more memory making delights!Wow! I’m not sure it could get any better or busier in Year 2. I promise we have done some hard work in class, but we have also been taking full opportunity to enjoy our penultimate week in the Pre-Prep. Our excitement has consisted of a Non Beach Day, a visit to Year 3, the Sleepless Sleepover, and Transition Day. We have danced, played games, done crafts, been on hunts, had a BBQ, eaten ice cream, made dens, drunk hot chocolate and most of all made wonderful memories.
It has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of the year and the children must be exhausted after all the excitement, the teachers definitely are. We suggest you all have a well-earned rest, because the fun does not stop there. On Monday we go again with House Challenge Day! Have a great weekend and see you all next week for even more memory making delights!
Year 1
I cannot believe what a wonderful week it has been – another one! We started off our week with an exciting trip to Blackpool Zoo and we saw so many animals. It was so pleasing to see our children asking curious questions about the animals and also offering facts they already knew to share with their friends.
Our Year 1’s truly represented our school well whilst making sure they were having a great time. We got so excited when we spotted the tiger and it was so intriguing to see the lion without his mane. Lots of the monkeys were playing… and, of course, I’m not referring to our class! Well done Year 1 for such a super day out together. In Art this week we designed and created our own brand new planet using watercolours and oil pastels- what interesting creations you made!
In writing we have come to the end of our unit and we really enjoyed reading ‘Toys in Space’. We felt really sorry for the character Hoctopize, the alien, because he had lost his toy so we wrote a letter pretending to be Hoctopize and wrote to his lost toy telling him how we felt. The children worked so hard and used really good adjectives and feeling words.
Another ‘Wow’ moment this week was when we had our Beach Party! Although the weather didn’t show up we all still had an amazing time rotating around different activities. It was fantastic to enjoy a dance with our children and to see them playing Dodgeball and tennis, as well as making beach art using Lego and recycled materials. Well done for another fantastic week!
Reception
What we eat can play a critical role in determining our health, whatever our age. The eating patterns established in the first few years of life influence our health during childhood and adulthood. Encouraging good nutrition during the early years of life is therefore an investment in the health of our population for years to come. Recently we have been looking at a healthy diet and the children have looked at foods we should eat and foods we should only eat some of the time. They have also learnt that they need plenty of energy (calories) and nutrients, eg protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. They have sung songs and rhymes that tell them these needs can be met by including a variety of foods from each of the main food groups in every meal.
General eating habits and patterns are formed in the first few years of life. We therefore have a key role to play in introducing our children to a wide variety of foods and establishing a pattern of regular meals and healthy snacks. The children have loved our new arrangements for snacks, choosing and serving their own cereal or fruit and of course, washing up afterwards too! The children can choose to eat their snack at any point in the morning. You may have heard your child use the term ‘pussycat plate’, where a plate looks like it’s been licked clean by a cat. This is to encourage the children to eat all their lunch or at least try all the food on their plate and believe it or not … it works! After reading ‘Supertato’ the children are definitely more eager to eat their vegetables, especially to stop any more peas from escaping!
It has been shown that children who develop an active lifestyle when they are young are more likely to maintain a healthy active lifestyle as they get older. We encourage our children to be active all year round and not just in the summer months. Visits to the beach, a run on the field, free flow into an outdoor classroom, daily playtimes or through special events such as, House Challenge Day, all happen regularly for Reception. Outdoor play provides great opportunities for learning; children can learn about the environment around them and playing with other children can develop their social skills and help build their confidence. Where will you venture to this weekend?
Nursery
“Talking to infants and toddlers about the real things they’re doing is the most powerful, natural way for them to form language”
Janet Lansbury
This week in the Nursery we have focused on Communication and Language.
The Sanderlings
This week Sanderlings focus on communication and language involved group times using a variety of different songs and stories. Our babies love to join in with key words from their favourite songs and stories. The babies have been on a wet, welly walk around the school grounds where they splashed in huge puddles, explored creating different sounds whilst using a variety of words to describe the puddles and the sounds they create. The Sanderlings have also had different sensory activities including an array of different sensory lights and objects to touch and feel. The babies’ speech and language is supported daily in everyday conversation during meal times and during all focused activities.
The Sandpipers
The Sandpipers have been to the library looking at all the wonderful books, the children have been using vocabulary to recall the stories, talk about the pictures and discuss what might happen next. To further extend their vocabulary and language skills The Sandpipers have also been role playing in the home corner and using puppets from well known stories this has also enabled the new children who have recently transitioned from The Sanderling room to establish new friendships along the way. Miss Chapman has introduced flash cards to the children to help them to understand instructions and key language used in the room; a green card meaning well done, a yellow card meaning calm down and a red card meaning no more or stop. The Sandpipers staff have also introduced flash cards with new words and pictures to expand and support the children’s communication and language. Finally, the week ended with dancing, soft play, group play and singing and outdoor play.
Pre-School
Pre-School started their week by rounding up all of their learning centred around their book of the month ‘Zog’ by Julia Donaldson. The children have been fascinated with creating maps to help Zog get to Princess Pearl. With the introduction of key worker time, Pre-School have continued to build upon their learning, taking part in activities to strengthen their fine motor skills, matching objects and creating a healthy lunchbox. The children are getting very good at giving descriptions to add reasons for adding certain food groups to the lunch box. Everyday the children have been encouraged to talk about their thoughts and feelings, each session was finished with a positive where the children shared what makes them happy. The learning intention this week was a focus on daily tasks and supporting one another during tidy up time, the children have been very helpful. Finally, as some of our children are leaving Pre-School for their new school adventures, the whole class have been learning the song ‘you’ve got a friend in me’ from Toy Story. We are so proud of all of our Pre-School children.
Awards
Year 6
In Year 6 the awards go to: Alfie for effort and progress in cricket; Jacob for teamwork and performance in cricket; Alexia for outstanding creativity and artistic talent; and Roman for outstanding effort and progress in Cricket.
Year 5
5S:
Eleanor for creating a fantastic voiceover for our English novel.
Sebastian for amazing effort and creativity during our DT project.
5R:
Reuben for cooperation and enthusiasm at Stoller.
Huxley for being an excellent role model, always working hard and choosing the right behaviour.
Year 4
In Year 4 our certificates this week go to Dolly and Aaron for taking on all challenges at Waddecar.
Year 3
The Year 3 certificates this week go to Emma and Abrianna for fantastic participation and enthusiasm for our Waddecar residential activities!
Year 2
Our awards this week go to Harry for being a kind and caring friend, and Josephine for outstanding creative writing.
Year 1
This week’s Certificates of Achievement in Year 1 go to:
Lena for writing a well thought-out letter as one of the characters in our story, and for using lots of adjectives.
Nektarios for writing a detailed letter as the alien in our story, and for using questions too.
Reception
This week’s certificates of achievement go to Vova and Ares.
Vova has made excellent progress this year, especially with his communication and language skills.
Ares always has a positive attitude to all aspects of school life and attempts every activity asked of him.
