This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Dear All
Those of you who have read my newsletter pieces in the past, will know what an advocate I am for learning beyond the confines of the classroom. Rossall provides an abundance of opportunities for this to happen and when we were offered the possibility to take part in a national Outdoor Learning Day, we obviously jumped at the chance. The focus of Thursday was to teach lessons away from the classroom. The seaside provides amazing opportunities for art, poetry and on this occasion, Maths.
Children also visited senior school laboratories (not strictly outdoors but a change nonetheless), our woodland glade, the sand dunes, the pond for a spot of dipping, and The Square to complete some breathtaking sketch work of our wonderful buildings. It is fair to say that the day was a huge success, complimenting our broad curriculum in so many ways. For a look at the photo album of the day, please visit this link.
The children across the Prep School have once again been involved in a variety of sporting endeavours throughout the week. Year 3 & 4 took part in the Striking and Fielding festival, ending up as Wyre champions for the second year running. The children will now represent Wyre & Fylde in the regional championships – huge congratulations!
The cricketers continued their incredible run of form, as they beat a strong side from our friends at Westholme. That result took us through to the final of the windball competition – another fixture to fit into an already busy second half of the summer term schedule. Hopefully some silverware on the horizon?
The Junior Mathematical Challenge is a 60-minute, multiple-choice challenge. It encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. The problems on the Junior Mathematical Challenge are designed to make students think. Most are accessible, yet still challenge those with more experience. The challenge paper is set predominantly for Year 7 and 8s. However, on occasion we enter pupils from the Prep School who have displayed incredible problem solving skills. Oskar, Roman and Jack were all entered and performed incredibly well, earning two silver and a bronze award – quite incredible results!
Mr Shaw from Senior School, said that the results obtained were an, “Astonishing performance from Prep; you should be very proud of them.” We absolutely are – congratulations to our very able mathematicians! For any of you fancying a go at one of the questions, please see below:
Beatrix was born in this century. On her birthday this year, her age was equal to the sum of the digits of the year in which she was born. In which of these years will her age on her birthday be twice the sum of the digits of that year?
A 2027 B 2029 C 2031 D 2033 E 2035
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Cricketers shine in the Rossall sun!
Congratulations to the Under 11 Cricket team who welcomed Westholme School this week in the AJIS Cricket Pairs Cup semi-final.
Batting first Rossall made a steady start, and by the end of their innings had amassed a healthy total of 163. In reply, Westholme batted confidently but were unable to defend their wickets against the accurate Rossall bowling attack, ending their innings on 92.
This victory means that Rossall will compete in the final after half term.
Well done to all the children who represented the school so impressively.
Year 3 & 4 Strike Gold!
Poolfoot Farm played host to yet another fantastic Wyre schools competition on Tuesday afternoon. A Rossall team of ten Year 3/4 boys and girls competed in this annual Striking and Fielding event. The children had to move around eight exciting activities such as; catching, throwing, hockey, cricket, tennis, target throwing and many more! The team performed magnificently at each discipline, achieving an incredible overall score. Imagine how proud the team felt when Rossall was announced as winners, for the second consecutive year! The Rossall squad have now qualified to represent Wyre at the Lancashire Youth Games in July. Thank you to everyone involved in organising this competition and ensuring it ran so smoothly. Well done to all of the children that took part.
Year 6
The Prep School enjoyed a day of ‘Outdoor Learning’ on Thursday, fortunately the weather was kind. Year 6 enjoyed a relaxed morning channeling their inner Shakespeare by writing poetry by the sea. The breeze blew any cobwebs away and the view seemed to inspire the children, they wrote some fabulous poems.
Our ‘Exhibition’ continues to inspire some interesting and often inspiring research, teamwork and discussion. Year 6 are overcoming the challenges of working in teams, organising themselves and making decisions about content, display and workload!
Mrs Harris was impressed with the children’s effort and enthusiasm in dance this week. They are learning a new piece based around the musical, ‘Wicked’. Recorders are the instrument of choice in Music lessons this term, I am sure you are all enjoying the practice sessions at home!
Keith Siddle is inspiring our artwork at the moment. We have used the skills gained over the course of the year to recreate some of his marine based pieces.
Mr Condon and I have been very impressed with some of the Home Learning tasks that the children have created. From T-shirts and recycled fish art to Solar ovens (complete with Turkey rashers!) the children really immersed in their Topic.
Year 5
This week, Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed Outdoor Learning Day by which they have extended on their Topic lessons through looking at renewable energy sources. We took a walk around the School campus to investigate the energy sources that we already had, such as solar panels, and also came up with ideas on where the School could install a wind turbine. Year 5 were provided with a map of the area and planned the route in which we would follow to pick the best spots. They took into consideration the pros and cons that we had already discussed in previous lessons for them to be able to find the most suitable location.
During Science, we have continued to look at the different types of mammals and have also moved onto studying Jane Goodall who entered the forest of Gombe in 1960 to explore and investigate chimpanzees. She immersed herself in their habitat to understand them not only as species, but also as individuals with emotions and long-term bonds. Year 5 will continue to create an advert to promote the ‘Jane Goodall Institute’.
In English, we have finished ‘The Paperbag Prince’ novel and have moved onto looking at landfill sites. They have carried out research to discover the advantages and disadvantages of having landfill sites in our area and have put forward and presented their arguments in groups to the rest of the class.
Year 4
As the weather warms and the children enjoy more outside activities, it’s not surprising that our thoughts turn to the environment. This week in our English lessons the children had the opportunity to channel their inner David Attenborough. After watching extracts from wildlife documentaries our budding presenters were given the task of rewriting the voiceover to create even more suspense and drama about the wildlife events. Once written, the children had the challenge of performing their piece in real time, alongside the wildlife clip. It’s safe to say that even Sir David Attenborough would have found himself with stiff competition to rival the energy and enthusiasm that went into each of the children’s performances.
We have also moved on to our new Maths topic – statistics. The children have been learning all about different ways to present data using graphs. They particularly enjoyed creating pom-pom bar charts and getting outside to create life-sized pictograms.
Our outdoor learning day also took us to the beach for our Art lesson. The children used pebbles on the beach to create artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. An array of various rainforest animals were created, including monkeys, snakes and tigers.
On top of all these activities, some members of Year 4 headed off to represent the school in a Striking and Fielding competition which they won for the second year running. Those of us in school still had plenty of fun, we had the pleasure of meeting Rossall’s latest arrivals – Fred the five day old lamb and his friends, four adorable three day old goat kids. What a treat!
Year 3
The half term is whizzing by and soon coming to an end, and Year 3 are still filled with energy and enthusiasm for our learning!
We have finished the book Journey in English, with the adventure coming to a wonderful conclusion. We wrote sentences describing the final scene of the book using prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs, Next week we will be writing our own versions of the story!
This week was our final week on Fractions in Maths, finishing off learning about fractions of amounts and doing some problem solving around this skill.
In Science this week we focussed on the final step of the plant life cycle: seed dispersal. We learnt about different ways that plants spread their seeds.
In our topic about Modern Europe we learnt about the difference between natural features (mountains, rivers, beaches…) and human-made features (landmarks, castles, buildings, statues…) in European countries. We will be finishing this topic by creating our own posters showcasing a particular European country, and this week the children researched facts about their chosen county to use in their posters.
This Thursday was Outdoor Learning day and we had a wonderful time taking our normal lessons outside and into nature. We did Maths on the beach, practicing our knowledge of fractions of amounts with different beach objects. For English we did guided reading of ‘The Secret Garden’ in the wooded area by Prep. It was so lovely to be outside, apply our learning in a different environment and enjoy some time in the fresh air!
Well done for a fantastic week Year 3!
Year 2
Our numbers have been down a little this week, however, we have still been incredibly productive. In Mathematics the children have been furthering their understanding of time and I have been incredibly impressed with the work they have been doing, the class are incredibly confident when telling the time using words such as “past and “to”, and have begun looking at the concept of duration.
Our book “The Last Wolf” has been the catalyst for some fabulous written work, the class have been writing diary entries and after putting Mrs Santamera through a conscience alley completed a fabulous piece of persuasive writing.
Our bean plants are flourishing in the classroom and will be ready to take home next week, we have also been growing some cress, with the hope that it will provide hair for our artistic creations.
Thursday was outdoor day and we took the opportunity to do some art on the beach and a Maths treasure hunt in the Secret Garden. It was great fun and the children not only answered the questions and solved the anagram, but also got some edible delights for their efforts!
Year 1
Another fantastic week has flown by for Year 1 with lots of new learning and plenty of growth too. There’s been so much reading happening in our class this week; we are learning about what a Fairy Tale is exactly, as well as reading quite a few too! We are really enjoying our story, a modernised version of Goldilocks, and we practised acting out the main plot of the story too. The storytelling from the children this week has been the best I have ever seen- ever!
Alongside all of our reading we are continuing in Phonics with tricky sounds whilst consolidating our previously learnt sounds. We’ve even played alphabet race games naming as many nouns as we could for each letter of the alphabet. Well done Year 1!
In Topic we’ve been looking at towns in England and some of our beautiful, English countryside too. We are learning about the difference between a town and the countryside and discussing all of the different features you will find there.
In Science we are still looking after our plants and watching them grow, whilst adding to our diaries too. They’re really growing tall and it’s so fun to measure them each week too. This week we have enjoyed a day of Outdoor Learning; we have spent some time in the fresh air, reading in pairs, in our Secret Garden and we have been observing and drawing the deciduous and evergreen trees just outside of our classroom on the grass.
What a wonderful week!
Reception
We really enjoyed celebrating Outdoor Classroom Day together on 18 May! Although, Outdoor Classroom Day is about more than one day outdoors – it’s a year-round movement to make time outdoors part of every child’s day. Over 12 million children have taken part in Outdoor Classroom Day so far!
On Outdoor Classroom Day itself, which has two dates each year, we celebrate with a special day outdoors for our class. We decided this year to have a theme … Dirt and water… 2 very simple and basic ingredients which have and continue to be the source of so much activity, creativity, joy, and sensory fun for children and adults.
Playing in the mud is not only fun, it engages all the senses and it’s good for children too! When researching mud play, I have uncovered some surprising facts behind this magical material, as well as some amazing and interesting statistics related to why our children need to get their hands dirty.
There is evidence suggesting that mud play is a basic biological need, and this type of play has many physical, psychological and emotional benefits for children.
Children are spending less time outdoors than ever before and this is affecting their health, wellbeing and development. Time outdoors – on Outdoor Classroom Day and every day – will make children happier and healthier, as well as equipping them with the skills they need for life. Why not get outside and enjoy some new adventures together this weekend?
Nursery
“Restore balance. Most kids have technology, school and extracurricular activities covered. It’s time to add a pinch of adventure, a sprinkle of sunshine and a big handful of outdoor play.”
Penny Whitehead
This week in the Nursery we have focused on outdoor learning. On Thursday 18th May it was National Outdoor Learning day.
The Sanderlings
The Sanderlings started the week with a wild animal gloop tuff tray to encourage exploration, sounds in play and social interactions. The activity was then extended to the outdoors where the water tray was filled with warm water and sea creatures were added. The younger babies loved splashing, while the older babies were able to copy some of the animal names.
On Tuesday the babies joined together with some Pre-School children for a walk around the school grounds. Pre-School were excited to show the babies where the ‘Rossall Dragon’ lives as well as helping to push the pram. It’s lovely to let the younger and older Nursery Rossallians interact and spend time together. Some of the babies’ interests at present are cars and vehicles, Miss Schofield brought out a big piece of paper and various colours of paint. Finally, The Sanderlings had such a fun time making marks with the wheels, they made some lovely patterns.
The Sandpipers
The Sandpipers have been enjoying the outdoors and have taken the majority of their learning into our outdoor environments. The children have been fascinated by insects so this was the ideal starting point to begin their outdoor learning journey. The children have been learning about the common insects that we could find in our gardens. The Sandpipers went on an adventure to the forest with all sorts of outdoor learning tools such as insect observers, magnifying glasses, binoculars and writing tools to find insects and living things. The children found a “green spider” which was later identified to be an ant; they discovered that insects make their homes (called habitats) on flowers, grass, twigs and leaves. The Sandpipers were encouraged to look closely at leaves with their magnifying glasses and the children could tell Miss Chapman that caterpillars eat leaves. Finally, Mrs Mayer read the book of the month ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to the children in the garden.
Pre-School
Pre-School has had another lovely week whilst enjoying spending time outdoors. The Pre-School book of the month is ‘What the ladybird heard’, and the children were lucky enough to find ladybirds outside during their outdoor investigations. The children looked after each ladybird making them houses out of sticks, leaves and plant pots. The Pre-School children have also taken music and dance outside and have really enjoyed having singing competitions outside with their microphone. All of the children did an amazing job at reciting the song lyrics to their favourite songs, it was so lovely to see them have the confidence to participate in the activities. The children have been mark making with chalk in the garden which has been super fun! On Thursday Pre-School had a yummy picnic in the garden, to celebrate outdoor day! To finish the week Miss Emsley took the children to the beach to do beach school, the sunshine just made it even better.
Awards
Year 6
Our Year 6 certificates this week go to:
Alexia for Outstanding role model.
Muhammad for Outstanding enthusiasm in all sporting activity.
Oskar for Excellent enthusiasm and work in Dance.
Dawood for Excellent enthusiasm and work in Dance.
Year 5
5S Certificates:
Monty for excellent effort and perseverance in Maths.
Jude for showing excellent leadership and teamwork in Games.
5R Certificates:
Nilanth for being a fantastic role model to others.
Grace for excellent letter writing in English.
Year 4
In Year 4 our certificates this week go to Eryn for excellent documentary writing and Ethan for great collaboration in Maths.
Year 3
The certificates this week in Year 3 go to two children with wonderful research skills in our ‘Modern Europe’ topic: Sophie for researching information about Denmark, and Anthony for research about Germany!
Year 2
The certificates this week in Year 2 go to Fox and Harry, both for fabulous creative writing.
Year 1
This week’s Certificate of Achievement in Year 1 go to:
Nektarios for extending his learning this week by choosing tricky challenges to complete in English and Topic.
Millie for successfully making arrays in Maths and for understanding the link between arrays and Times Tables.
Reception
This week’s certificate of achievement go to Tabitha and Joshua
Both children have demonstrated a good awareness of pets as living animals with needs and feelings, through roleplay and class discussions. They have also enjoyed investigating the responsibility of pet owners to meet the needs of their pets and to keep them happy and healthy.
