Prep Newsletter Summer Term Week 9 | Rossall - Independent Boarding School

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

Dear All,

What an incredible week of trips and residentials! Our children have climbed, kayaked, archered, and enjoyed campfires, giant swings, bushcraft, raft-building, fell walking, axe-throwing, to name but a few. Most importantly, the children have smiled, laughed, and enjoyed spending time with their friends. The importance of spending a night away from home after the last few years, has taken on so much more meaning and I would like to take an opportunity to thank the parents for entrusting us with your children; I am positive they will have returned with a great many stories.

It is incredible that we only have two weeks left of this academic year. There are an array of events taking place within these nine and a half days of school and I look forward to welcoming many of you into School.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mr M Turner

Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery

Year 6 say “Adiós” to their pen pals for Summer

We contacted our Spanish pen pals one last time, as they broke up for their Summer holidays this week. We learnt about differences in the school day and it was interesting to hear pupils’ contrasting opinions. Our pen pals thought it was great that we got to do so many different lessons and clubs each day and our pupils loved that they start school at 9:30am and finish at 2:30pm every day! We hope to keep in touch with them in the future.

Year 2 go to the ‘Heladería’

Year 2 has been learning how to order different ice creams in Spanish, so what better way to bring the language to life, than by creating our very own ice cream café? Pupils firstly revised the vocabulary they needed and completed differentiated reading tasks, before visiting the ‘Heladería’ to order for themselves in Spanish! Well done, Year 2!

Year 6

As the form teachers of such a wonderful group of Year 6 children, we are treasuring every day of our time together before the end of what has been a special year. There could be no better way to make lasting memories than our residential trip to the Lake District, which has been idyllic with the sun shimmering on the Windermere water as we take part in our activities.

The children and teachers have loved the team challenges, giant swings and water sports, but most of all the quality time that we have had together and the funny moments we have shared that we will be able to laugh about in years to come.

What a wonderful way to begin their final two weeks. Recharge this weekend Year 6, and be ready for your last ten days in Prep School. Thank you for an amazing trip!

Year 5

It has been another busy and exciting time in Year 5 as we kicked off the beginning of the week with the residential to Stoller! The Year 5’s had an absolute ball as they challenged themselves to take part in difficult but exciting activities throughout the two days.

The big hit activities were the blue tubes which consisted in the children manoeuvring their bodies through a series of tube obstacles holding a cup of water. They also loved king swing- not only did it promote their team working abilities but also their ability to conquer their fear of heights! There were lots of screams and smiles as each Year 5 swung between the trees.

The campfire activity was also enjoyed by all as everyone toasted marshmallows and shared their sweets with each other before heading off to their rooms for the night. Some Year 5’s were super excited about day two after waking Mr Turner, Miss Finney and myself up at 5:15am that morning! We had an absolutely fantastic time and the children simply cannot wait to go back next year.

In Maths, the Year 5’s have been continuing to learn about decimals and positioning them correctly on a numberline along with working out different rules and counting steps for different types of questions. We have also moved on to problem solving with decimals which has challenged the children further in applying their mathematical skills.

In English the Year 5’s have enjoyed reading more of our book ‘The Hunter’ by Paul Geraghty. They have described how Jamina (the main character) is feeling whilst hearing desperate cries and becoming lost in a forest full of wildlife and hunters.

Year 4

“The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves.”
Roald Dahl

We have had the most amazing week in Year 4 with our first residential trip away from home. Understandably there were anxieties and worries about the unknown, the unfamiliar. However, from stepping off the minibus on Tuesday morning, the children could not stop for a second to think about any of those concerns. They have all thrown themselves into new activities and thrived off conquering those small fears. Whether that be battling their way to the top of the ladder and leaping off, sailing off in a canoe and then jumping into a passing friend’s boat, or simply spending a night away from family. All of the children have cheered each other on, consoled their peers and succeeded in their own personal challenges, and Miss Thomas and I could not be more proud.

Back in school, our lessons have continued, although at a slightly slower pace! In Maths, the children have been hunting for quadrilaterals around the school campus – who knew the chapel roof was a parallelogram?! We are halfway through our class book ‘Blue John’ and the children have used hot seating to find out more about the mysterious ‘Queen of Darkness’…

We have also enjoyed the glorious weather out on the beach to create our own hillforts in the sand, and constructed some roundhouses using clay and straw.

There are two action-packed weeks left, and we have so much to look forward to.

Year 3

This week Year 3 impressed me more than they have the whole year – and that’s saying something! We had our amazing residential trip to Waddecar on Monday to Tuesday and it was unbelievably awesome! For almost all the children, this was their first time away from home without family which was a huge step outside their comfort zones – and all they smashed it. Everyone was so brave and embraced the fun of the trip. We participated in fantastic outdoor activities such as archery, tomahawk, pond dipping, rock climbing – and even finished off with a river hunt for pirate gold! Everyone gave everything a go and pushed themselves to participate. We thoroughly enjoyed our campfire, roasting marshmallows and singing campfire songs. To top it off the weather was glorious – simply put, it was an absolutely perfect trip! Well done and of course… GO BANANAS YEAR 3!

The rest of the week we have been somewhat tired but of course powered on with our learning! In English we’ve continued to follow the journey of Zeraffa Giraffa who has now made it to Paris. We wrote captions using time conjunction sentence starters, and eye witness accounts imagining the first time we’d seen a giraffe. In Maths we have been learning about mass, how to read scales and how to covert between grams and kilograms. For our Science we conducted an investigation into how reflective different materials are. Finally in our Ancient Egypt topic we learnt about mummies and some of us even got mummified! This connected to our art where we learnt about hieroglyphs and designed our own Egyptian cartouches.

Only 2 weeks left in Year 3, it’s hard to believe!!

Year 2

Year 2 have had another super week!

In Maths, we have been learning about position and direction and have been using the vocabulary: clockwise, anticlockwise, quarter, turn, forwards and backwards!

In our Topic work, we visited the beach to identify the human and physical features of Rossall beach. We looked carefully to spot the features and drew pictures of our favourites.

Today, we had so much fun on our trip at Brockholes. We had two separate workshops, Environmental Art and Habitats. In Environmental Art, we worked in groups to create artwork using natural materials and mud in the woodland.

In our habitat session, we went on a habitat walk, looking at the types of habitat that Brockholes have and their different features. We also looked at the animals and minibeasts that live in the habitats and what they eat.

Year 1

Another busy week in Year 1. We really enjoyed our trip to Brockholes Nature Reserve in Preston. We took part in two activities; environmental art, where we created artwork using natural material in the woodland, and habitats, where we went on a habitat walk looking at the types of habitats that can be found at Brockholes and learnt about the different features of each of the habitats. We also look at the animals and minibeasts that live in these habitats and what they eat.

We were also very pleased that as part of our learning about space we were able to visit the Astronomy Centre and ask Dr Lister some of our fantastic questions that we had written earlier in the week. These are just a few of them;

Did Neil Armstrong visit any other planets?

If the sun is in space, why is there light on Earth but darkness in space?

How hot is the sun?

Do any of the other planets have mountains on them?

Dr Lister was very impressed with our questions and the things we already knew about space. I think we definitely have some budding astronomers among us.

In Maths, we have been learning about position and direction. We used treasure maps to help the pirates find their treasure by following the directions we were given, and we also worked with a partner on the playground to give and follow directions too.

Reception

“Yes, children love technology. But they also love Lego, scented markers, handstands, books, and mud puddles. It’s all about balance.”

In Reception, we believe that every week the children should take part in broad and balanced curriculum so this week we have shared stories in the sunshine, practised our handwriting on our giant blackboards, put on puppet shows for our friends and got wet playing hook a duck in the water tray whilst learning about odd and even numbers. We have built amazing models with Lego, learnt more about numerical patterns by sharing sweets, created fruit faces in the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo and then used the iPads to take a photo of our masterpieces. We have hunted for gold coins in the sand tray to help us make mystery words.

On Friday we ventured to Brockholes Nature Reserve near Preston. We enjoyed a habitat walk looking at the types of habitats they have at Brockholes (e.g. woodland, lake/wetland and meadow) and the different features of each of the habitats. We looked at the animals and minibeasts that live in these habitats and what they eat. The children also looked at wetland birds and learnt to identify some trees in the woodlands. We also got to do some fabulous environmental art – creating artwork using natural material in the woodland. Of course, we may have also gotten a little muddy whilst we were having fun and learning!

Nursery

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky”
Margaret McMillan

Another week has flown by full of excitement and the children (and staff) have certainly enjoyed being able to utilise our wonderful outdoor area, beautiful grounds and of course we have taken the opportunity to spend lots of time on the beach.

The Sanderlings have been cooling down by rescuing animals that had been encased in ice, the babies had paint brushes and used their fine motor skills to melt the ice away using brush strokes until all the animals were free. Mrs Beddis set up a sensory water activity with lots of sweet fruits for the babies to smell and touch. Finally, Miss Sumner, Miss Heatley and Mrs Beddis have taken the babies to the beach to build sandcastles; some of the older babies even had the chance to practise walking holding onto the pram.

The Sandpipers have also been to the beach where they used mathematical language of size whilst seeing who could build the biggest sandcastle. In the garden, Mrs Mayer and Mrs Gaynor had set up a water tray where the children could further extend their mathematical language by emptying and filling numerous containers of varying sizes; it was the perfect, cool activity for a sunny day. The Sandpipers had more outdoor fun in the Secret Garden using their senses of sight and smell to observe the flowers that have been growing, the Secret Garden has a rainbow of colours and it’s a lovely, cool garden to spend time in on a hot summer’s day. To finish the week The Sandpipers enjoyed a game of follow the leader with Mx Preston.

The Preschool children and Miss Simms have been using their sense of smell with natural wax melts, the children were tasked with discussing whether they recognised the scent and if so where and when they had smelt it before. As you know the weather has been glorious this week so the Preschool children have had their circle times outdoors where they were really able to utilise our outdoor provision. The Preschool children have also been on walks to the beach and have spent many afternoons at the seaside. The week finished with re-reading our book of the week ‘Zog’, the children then worked with Miss Emslie to check our first aid bags to see if we have the same supplies as the flying Doctors who Zog works with.

Let’s hope for another sunny week!

Awards

Year 6

Year 6 were away on their residential so no certificates were awarded, but check back next week!

Year 5

Amelie: For awesome teamwork during your whole time at Stoller and for having super determination in completing all activities before you.

Rio: For not giving up during your fell walk at Stoller and showing sheer determination to get to the top of the fell. Great teamwork shown during the king swing activity also.

Year 4

In Year 4 this week the awards go to Amelia, Poppy, Archie and Thomas for their amazing positivity and ‘can-do’ attitude to every activity while away at Waddecar.