This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Message from the Preparatory School Headmaster
Dear Parents,
As Thursday approached this week, we were cautiously yet optimistically looking forward towards a future not bound by the restraints of Covid.
In the none too distant future, we have a Year 3 trip to the Sealife Centre and Year 4 are off to Chester to be Romans; we have the ski trip quickly approaching; the outward bound residential visits for Years 3 to 6 to Stoller are on the horizon; the Music trip to Bridgewater Hall will soon be upon us; and there are numerous sports fixtures including the Rugbys 7s tournament here at Rossall, and the Year 3 and 4 football tournament at Poolfoot!
Not to mention our Roald Dahl World Book Week celebrations, the Oliver rehearsals that are in full swing, and our new curriculum areas of study. The whole School & Nursery Open Day also takes place on 12th March. There really never is a dull moment at Rossall!
Congratulations to our swimmers who took part in a wonderful event at St Mary’s Hall on Thursday – the late finish and wonderful performances were definitely a reason to not have Prep handed in by the next morning!
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our ‘in person’ Parents’ Evening. I know that the teachers at Rossall genuinely look forward to discussing the children in their care. And the teachers really do care as well; indeed one member of staff said to me about the children, “I’m lucky I get to spend so much time with them. Getting to know them is the best part of my job!”
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
U11 Rugby Rhinos on the Rampage Against Altrincham Prep!
Congratulations to the U11 Rugby team for battling a powerful Altrincham Prep team and Storm Franklin at the same time this week.
The match was perfect preparation for our 7-a-side Festival next week, and the Rossall team played some impressive rugby to match Altrincham in defense and attack. The teamwork was superb and there were fantastic free flowing tries from both sides. Roll on next week’s festival, now in it’s 43rd year!
Year 6
Year 6 have so much to look forward to in the second half of this term with Music and Science trips, fixtures for all, and a grand production of ‘Oliver!’ coming soon.
Recharged and ready to learn, the children have enjoyed the final activities with our topic on ‘Politics and Parliament’. Their enthusiasm and interest in current affairs has been incredible and the morning discussions about worldwide issues are sure to carry on long after we move onto our next theme.
The highlight of our week has been scripting and performing news reports on the actions of the ‘Suffragettes’ in their plight to gain votes for women. The reports were very entertaining, as well as being informative; I think the BBC News team could learn a lot from our amusing and dramatic performances, so watch out Munchetty and Stayt!
Year 5
Wind, rain, sleet and hail, we have experienced it all at Rossall over the last week. Non of this extreme weather could dampen our spirits or the excitement of being back for the second half of Lent Term. As always we have had a busy week and achieved more than should be possible in such a short space of time. Where the week goes, I really do not know!
In Mathematics we are enjoying learning all about fractions. The children have reminded themselves of the terminology and have worked hard solve some of the Challenge questions posed.
Although we have not yet read any of our new book, ‘The Darkest Dark’ we have had some fabulous conversations predicting what it might be about, aliens, the moon, rockets, eerie houses in the middle of forests, the space race, there is even a pug! What’s not to be excited about! We cannot wait to actually open the book!
Our History and Geography Topic, the Tudors continues to engage and enthral the children. We have been learning about the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 and researching the explorer, Sir Frances Drake.
In Music, we have been preparing for our trip to see The Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. The concert will introduce the children to the Orchestra whilst being exposed to a wide variety of pieces. As part of the concert, they get the opportunity to sing with the Orchestra, Year 5 have been learning the song ‘A Certain Kind of Imagination’ this week.
The song was written in 2016 by ‘Out of the Ark Music’ when Manchester was the European City of Science. It celebrates many of the amazing innovations and inspiring scientists linked to Greater Manchester and encourages everyone to develop their curiosity, imagination and determination.
Year 5 have learnt the song extremely enthusiastically and we are all very much looking forward to the exciting opportunity next week!
As I said at the beginning, another busy week!
Have a super weekend.
Year 4
The children blew into school on Monday refreshed after their half term holiday and ready to embark upon the topics for the new term. Having seen the power of the wind this week and its effects locally we began our Topic for the term – natural disasters. This resulted in an animated discussion about the influence of nature on our planet and the environment. With much enthusiasm the children came up with the following questions they would like to find answers to:
- Do natural disasters happen in space?
- How do tsunamis get so big?
- How does an earthquake happen?
- How old are volcanoes?
- Where have the most hurricanes happened?
- What’s the Bermuda triangle?
With only six weeks to cover the above questions we are going to have an intense and dramatic time.
In science, our new topic involved living things and this week the children asked the question, how do we know when something is alive? To achieve this they carried out a series of mini experiments involving Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Excretion and Nutrition.
On Tuesday the children learnt about an event that would not occur for another 200 years as it is not very often that a date is both a palindrome and an ambigram, given that the date can be read from left to right, right to left and upside down. On ‘Twos Day’ – 22.2.22, the children learnt all about sentences that can be read the same both forwards and backwards, i.e. racecar; step on no pets; was it a cat I saw?
In Art, the number two was also used as the drawing stimulus to create artwork-animals incorporating the number two hidden in the drawing. The children had great fun finding the number hidden in each other’s artwork. There were lots of swans, parrots, snakes and even a dragon.
This provided the perfect close to our previous topic on Romans as palindromes were found dating back to around 70AD when they were discovered as graffiti concealed in the ash of the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Year 3
Welcome to the second half of the Lent term Year 3 – we are now officially half way through the year!
It’s remarkable to think how much Year 3 have matured into Prep School pupils over the last few months! This week has seen us starting a lot of new units. Our new book for English is Big Blue Whale, which is a nonfiction book told in a storybook style. We have been learning about different sentence types: commands, statements, questions and exclamations.
The book connects to our new topic ‘Protect the Planet’ which explores climate change, plastic pollution and wildlife conservation. We conducted an experiment with our own mini ice bergs to see what effect climate change is having on sea levels and polar wildlife… and this has motivated us to do our bit to protect the environment!
In Science we have started our twelve week unit on plants, beginning with an investigation to see what plants need to survive. We have sacrificed 3 plants to the investigation, we will see if they survive… but we have an extra plant for our ‘control’!
In Maths, we have finished data handling and the children have really enjoyed interpreting and creating their own pictograms, bar charts and tables. We finished off the week with our first session on the Rossall Farm for Rossall Rotation. Well done for a fantastic first week back Year 3!
Year 2
In Literacy, we have started to read our new book, ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy’. We have learned about the main characters and have been making predictions about who the soldiers are and where they are living.
On Wednesday, We learned that the Great Fire of London started 350 years ago and worked collaboratively to write curious questions to find out more information about the fire. We continued our learning on Thursday and worked in groups to research facts about the specific days that London was burning.
In Art, we learned that St Paul’s cathedral had been burned down in the fire and created ‘zoomed in’ charcoal sketches of a part of the old cathedral.
Year 1
Welcome back! After a restful break we are well and truly back into the swing of things in Year 1. We have started our new topic ‘Down in the jungle’. In Language, we have started to look at our new class book ‘The Lion inside’ by Rachel Bright. We have made predictions and started to think about the setting of the story. We have written some fantastic descriptive sentences. Here are some examples of our amazing writing.
“The sun is shining bright” Harry
“The gazelle has long horns” Oskar
“The lazy lion is sitting on the big rocks” Junior
In Topic, we have become weather reporters for the week, and what an unusual mix of weather we have had – wind, snow, hail, sleet, sun. We have been surprised by the different types of weather we have had in just one week. We have thought about the seasons and matched the months, changes in the environment and events that happen in the different seasons. We have already spotted a few signs of spring around our school grounds.
Thankfully the weather took a turn for the better today just in time for our trip to the beach, as part of Rossall Rotation. We read a story, ‘Little turtle and the sea’, which looked at pollution in the sea and it’s harmful effects on wildlife and the environment. After the storms earlier this week we thought that it would be a good idea to take the litter pickers with us to collect any litter left behind, and prevent it from being taken away by the tide. Great thinking Year 1!
Reception
On Wednesday the children entered the classroom and found out that they had ‘visitors’. The visitors have left a suitcase. This gave the children a great opportunity to discuss with each other and ask questions: What has happened? What have you found? Who could have left this here? When do you need a suitcase? Shall we look inside?
The suitcase was packed with various travelling themed items that the hen in our new story ‘The Journey Home’ may need e.g. a map, an egg, camera, sun cream, umbrella, seeds and our new book. We opened the suitcase together and allowed the children to explore what was inside.
This again prompted great discussion with questions and links to their own experiences: What would you need a map for? Would you pack this if you were going away? Who might pack these items? Where could they be going? We found our new book and used the front cover to discuss and predict: Why was this book in here? Who is this bird? Where might the hen be going to? Why? Although I think the egg provided the most excitement as the children began to help the animal in the egg to hatch out! The predictions of what would hatch varied from a chick, a crocodile, a shark, a dinosaur, a snake and even a turtle. All very sensible guesses and super examples of animals that lay eggs.
We used our floorbook to record what the word ‘journey’ meant to the children and if they had ever been on one. We discussed if maybe the hen went on a journey like one of theirs? This led to the children creating their own maps of a journey that they have been on. Maybe you could go on a journey and create a ‘Journey Stick’ this weekend?
Award Winners
Year 6
This week our award go to:
Betsy- Outstanding contribution to all aspects of school.
Kameron- Outstanding Commitment in Sport.
6R: Summer- Excellent Start at Rossall.
Bailey- Outstanding Written Work.
Year 5
This week’s certificate winners are Lincoln and Xanthe for always giving of their very best in everything that they do.
Year 4
In 4R our awards this week go to Grace and Mia for outstanding effort in all activities.
In 4S the awards go to Eleanor and Cara for showing kindness to other pupils.
Year 3
This week’s certificate winners are Ben for being a knowledgeable and curious learner and to Dolly for being an independent learner.
Year 2
This weeks certificates of achievement awards go to Isla and Matilda – for applying their knowledge to create an outstanding piece of Prep.
Year 1
This week’s awards is awarded to Rupert for improved concentration and excellent writing
Reception
This weeks certificates of achievement awards go to Bow and Millie.
Bow always works to the best of her abilities and work is beautifully presented.
Millie always makes excellent contributions during class phonic lessons and is making excellent progress.
