Prep Newsletter Summer Term Week 6 | Rossall - Independent Boarding School

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

Dear All

Incredibly, we are already at the halfway point of a rather hectic summer term. The last week or two have provided the children with a plethora of activities and opportunities that they have most certainly embraced! In Monday’s assembly, I spoke with the children about stepping outside of their comfort zone in order to challenge themselves across all areas of School life. They absolutely rose to the occasion and I was delighted by the awards they received in Thursday’s assembly, that pointed towards pupils who have pushed themselves, accepting that mistakes are absolutely part of the learning process.

On Wednesday, I was delighted to attend the penultimate Music Assembly Concert of this academic year. The children played and sang with such confidence that one could not fail to be impressed. The hours of practice that have clearly gone into the performances were well and truly worth the time given. I was especially pleased to listen to two pieces performed by our Chapel Choir; congratulations to all children involved in the performances.

Every term ends with a House competition as Assheton, Hesketh and Clifton go up against each other in a healthy battle! This term it was time for House Singing – a competition that is taken very seriously by not only the pupils but also the staff!

The end of each half term sees the culmination of topics and the children completing some final ‘big’ writes. I was delighted to hear that Year 6 opted to write poetry after some sensory sessions sitting on the sand dunes in order to write about what they could see, hear, smells, feel, and taste. The results are truly magnificent. The end of half term also indicates a final change in our series of experiences that form our Rossall Rotation lessons. This week has been particularly kind to our children who have enjoyed the outdoor sessions, particularly golf and the beach… I don’t fancy standing in that queue!

Next half term we look forward to Ocean Day, our Y6 exhibition, the Year 3 – 6 residentials, sports day, our world famous beach party, prize day, and house challenge day, to name but a few! I am positive that those 5 weeks will pass exceptionally quickly!

Have a lovely half term break!

Mr M Turner

Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery

Wyre & Fylde U11 District Netball Tournament

Last Friday we took the Rossall U11 squad to their final netball fixture of the 22/23 season at Stanley Park, Blackpool. It was the last time the Y6 girls would play competitive netball before moving to Senior school. What an incredible opportunity it was to play against teams we had never played before. The standard was high, and we more than held our own.

The progress the girls have made this season has been outstanding. Well done to all the girls for their dedication to school netball over the past few years, it really has prepared you well for Senior School. You can see from the photographs we start netball young at Rossall!

Teddy Bears Picnic

As a celebration of our learning this term around the book ‘Silly Doggy’, we had our own ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’.

Rossall Prep Strikes Gold at the IAPS Athletics Championships

Congratulations to the U11 Athletics Team who performed superbly at the North West Independent Schools Athletics Championships in Manchester. There were some exceptional performances, particularly in the Hurdles, High Jump, Javelin, Shot Putt and 1500m, where Michael, Lex, Ralph, Lincoln, Jude, Sophie and Ethan all achieved first place.

Well done to all the Rossall competitors!

Year 6

As much as the Year 6 children enjoy the quality learning time they share with their form teachers each day, there is always a buzz of excitement and anticipation when the class leave the Prep School for their weekly lessons with the senior school teachers in Music, Drama, PE, Spanish and Art (starting again soon).

This is an excellent opportunity for the children to develop their ability and passion in these areas, as well as being an invaluable part of the transition process in preparation for Year 7, now only seven weeks away! 🙁

This week we were treated to an ‘enlightening’ experience at the school Science lab, where we had the opportunity to get hands on with batteries, bulbs, wires, switches and buzzers in our pursuit to learn about electrical circuits. The children thoroughly enjoyed creating series and parallel circuits, as well as using all the various devices; it was pretty noisy once everything was connected but we returned to school buzzing!

Year 5

This week we have been working on our final piece of writing in English. We have researched and created an information poster about landfill. We have thought about its effects on the environment, and the local communities, where landfill sites are situated. We learnt how waste can become toxic over time, and what we can do to make things better.

In Science we have continued to learn about Jane Goodall and her important work with chimpanzees. In groups, we created television adverts to share information about her work and talk about fundraising for the Jane Goodall Foundation.

Following on from our Outdoor Classroom Day last week, we talked about the pros and cons of having a wind turbine on the school grounds. We are using these ideas to write a proposal to Mr Turner and Mr Quartermain with a suggestion of the best place to position the wind turbine, and the benefits it could bring, not only to the school, but to the environment.

In our last Rossall Rotation at the beach we embraced the glorious sunshine and visited the ice cream van for a very British seaside trip. Sun, sand, sea and ice cream all round!

Have a wonderful half term!

Year 4

In the blink of an eye we have reached the end of term which itself has led to the conclusion of our rainforest topic. The children are now full of knowledge about rainforests across the planet and the importance of looking after them.

Even though it is the final week of term it has still been action-packed with activities and learning. In Geography, we have looked at how we can help save the rainforest from the devastating impact of deforestation. The children created bright and bold posters highlighting what we can do to reduce our footprint on the Earth.

In Science, the children have been discovering the impact humans are having on animal populations across the globe. They have created a class book containing an abundance of facts about many endangered animals from the fluffy panda to the hefty rhino.

All the skills and knowledge taught across the week have then culminated in the creation of our final writing piece of the term. The children have developed their skills as graphic designers by creating their very own display boards for a rainforest area in a zoo. I am sure we will soon receive phone calls from Blackpool Zoo asking for the children’s artistic assistance.

Year 3

So hard to believe it is the last week of the half term and we only have a short time left in Year 3 together! We have had a wonderful week enjoying the sun and warmer weather in School. Being the final week, we have done lots of finishing off.

Having finished reading Journey in English, we have planned and written our own stories to go with the book. The children really challenged themselves to do the best writing they could, using similes, time conjunctions and adverbs. It is wonderful to see how much everyone’s writing has progressed since September!

We have finished off our 12-week Science unit all about Plants, and the children’s final project was to make a fact-filled leaflet showing off everything they have learnt about plants. We had some plant-tastic, eye-catching and very informative creations!

We also ended our topic about Modern Europe. Last week the children researched a chosen European country, and this week they transformed that research into excellent posters. Everyone was so invested in learning as much as they could about their country and became Euro-experts!

We have also started something new this week, and have begun to learn about telling the time in Maths. This can be quite a challenging concept to grasp, this week we have looked at days, months and years, before moving on to tell the time with o’clock and half past, then telling the time to 5 minutes and 1 minute. We will continue this after the break.

Well done for a wonderful half term Year 3, see you again soon for the last leg!

Year 2

The final week of this half term has been equally as productive as the first. We have finished our book “The Last Wolf” and the children have written some persuasive letters related to the important message of conservation that the book conveys. In Mathematics we completed our unit on time and are now looking at problem solving, a difficult concept, but something we are working hard to develop our understanding of. In Science our work on plants has been most productive, and as you can see from the photo our bean plants are really flourishing, they will be making their way home on Friday and I very much hope they provide parents with some greens children can be encouraged to eat.

The big event of the week was our visit to the Prep School Computer Suite. I thought it would be prudent to allow the children the opportunity to experience the process of logging on and completing research. After a few teething problems we all managed to access the internet and find Word, we are hoping that the next half term will see us achieve even more. The week concluded with house singing and the children did particularly well when singing their medley. The children deserve a restful week off, as there will be plenty of excitement on their return!

Year 1

What a week it has been! We cannot believe it is almost Half Term and this week we have been learning so much as we come to the end of our Topic. We have been writing our entire story, a fabulous edition of ‘Goldilocks and Just the One Bear’ and it has been so impressive to see our children writing in huge quantities! You are so ready for writing in Year 2!

In Maths we have been learning how to share objects into equal groups and we are now able to spot equal and unequal groups too. In Topic we have been looking at the great place we live in…the UK! We have learned about the 4 countries that make up the UK and we can recognise their flags, capital cities, and even features of them. We really enjoyed looking at Atlases and looking closely at the United Kingdom. Year 1 truly has an eye for detail and everyone was so curious to learn about new geographical features.

In Art we have created a Fairy Tale collage, using old bits of magazines, newspapers, and even leaflets. What a great way to reuse paper AND to create fantastic art at the same time too.

Well done for this fantastic term Year 1, I can’t wait to see what the end of our Summer Term shall bring us!

Reception

Over 58.4 million animals are kept as pets in the UK, so it’s important we understand what they need to be happy and healthy. This week we have been learning how to care for our pets. The children told each other about the pets they have at home and we reminded each other about the five basic needs of animals. In class we have had a pet hamster, two rabbits, several dogs and a snake to look after. Oh, and of course Silly Doggy! Using our toy pets, the children took it in turns to hold a pet and help create a list of what resources they needed to help them look after the animals. This involved food, pet bowls, beds, cages and vet accessories.

We listened to a true story about Smoky the pet rabbit, who lived in the same boring hutch every day – he never got to run outside! Some days his water got dirty and no one brought him his favourite food. Some weeks no one cleaned out his hutch and it got very dirty and smelly. Living like this, Smoky was unhappy and soon began to feel ill. Luckily for Smoky, an RSPCA inspector came and took him to an animal centre, where he got well looked after and eventually rehomed.

The activities this week have aimed to make the children aware of pets as living animals with needs and feelings. We have learnt that pets should be handled carefully and only when it is appropriate to do so. We have also investigated the responsibility of pet owners to meet the needs of their pets and to keep them happy and healthy. If you have a pet at home, hopefully the children now understand how to help to look after them?

Nursery

“The child begins to perceive the world not only through his eyes but also through his speech.”
Lev Vygotsky

This week in the Nursery we have focused on Communication and Language.

The Sanderlings

The Sanderlings started their week in the garden washing the dolls in the water tray, talking about the items that were being used such as soap and water. The babies have also been using chalk to make marks on the chalkboard in their garden. The Sanderlings group time has been full of songs and stories to encourage language and communication. The babies enjoyed books such as ‘Dear Zoo’ and ‘Kipper’s Blue Balloon’, both of these books are particularly exciting for the babies as they can lift the flaps to reveal key elements of the story. Mrs Beddis always makes story time so interactive! Finally, Miss Heatley made some peppermint scented playdough and added some natural resources, leaves, twigs and lavender fresh from our nursery garden. The Sanderlings were supported to use descriptive words whilst using their senses.

The Sandpipers

The Sandpipers have been learning lots of new vocabulary during Teacher time. Miss Chapman has introduced words to the children such as: big, little, tiny, enormous, small and scary. The children have been communicating with each other during role play, mark making, small world and outdoors. During circle time in the morning and the afternoon the children have been communicating their own thoughts and feelings – which is one of The Sandpiper’s learning intentions of the week. The children have participated in a game called “What’s in the box”? and the children can understand and respond to what? where? why? and how? questions. The children have also been introduced to a new song called “The feelings song”, the children showed Miss Sumner their happy, sad, worried, mad faces. The story of the week is the traditional tale ‘The Three little pigs’. Miss Chapman decided to expand on the story as the children showed an interest in the big, bad Wolf. The children used paint to huff and puff like the big, bad Wolf and blew the paint over paper to create art work. Finally, The children have held their own puppet show which also assisted them in expanding their vocabulary.

Pre-School

The Pre-School children have also been focusing on communication and language. The children have enjoyed lots of interactive stories that they then used as a basis to use their imaginations to develop their own stories using the small-world people and animals as props. The children created lots of exciting scenarios with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. On Wellbeing Wednesday the children had a sensory morning in their new dark tent, Miss Simms gave the children resources such as sensory toys, musical instruments and colourful lights, Miss Emsley then sat with the children encouraging them to take part in conversation around sight and sound. The conversation was further expanded through questioning such as what colours do you see? What does it feel like? And how does it make you feel? The Pre-school felt very relaxed after this activity and the children responded well to this mindful activity. Finally, Pre-School spent their afternoons on the School field, where they played a group game called ‘duck, duck, goose’. The children are eager to play this game again next week.

Awards

Year 6

The award winners this we are:

Lincoln: Outstanding performance in Athletics

Roman: Outstanding ability and interest in Science

Daisy and Molly: Excellent work and contribution across all areas of the Curriculum

Year 5

In 5S awards went to Caitlin and Millie for challenging themselves in Maths. In 5R certificates go to Rhiannon also for challenging herself, particularly in Maths and Mia for enthusiasm and engagement in Topic and English.

Year 4

In Year 4 our certificates this week go to Rocco and Spencer for excellent work in English.

Year 3

This week in Year 3 our certificates go to Matilda for being a superstar even though her arm has been in a cast, and to Henry for challenging himself across all elements of school.