This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Message from the Preparatory School Headmaster
Dear Parents,
Thursday served as an incredibly poignant reminder of the casualties of conflict, be they on the battlefields or those left behind.
The Remembrance Day two minute silence that was held in the Square, was impeccably observed and I was immensely proud of all of the pupils across the Prep and Pre-Prep. The manner in which they not only conducted themselves, but also in the lead up to the event in which they took time to learn about why we remember, and what poppies represent, was simply outstanding.
Furthermore, the two Year 6 Prep School representatives who laid a wreath and attended the Chapel Service, did so with great dignity and responsibility. This was a fitting tribute to all who must be remembered, but more specifically to Old Rossallians who laid down their lives.
It has been another hectic week in the Prep School. There have been plenty of sports fixtures including a brilliant run out on Thursday by our awesome cross country team at the Stonyhurst Championship! Congratulations to the U11 Boys for an admirable fourth place, and to the U11 Girls for bringing home the team bronze medals.
The children loved their next challenge in our exciting Rossall Rotation lessons. Whether it be in the planetarium, on the beach, in the farm, baking, or in the forest, they all thoroughly enjoyed a different and new challenge.
Indeed, our Year 5 children were getting to grips with the latest addition to Rossall Rotation; golf! As a top performing school for golf, it has been an ambition of mine to find a place within our busy timetable for this exciting opportunity, in order to both try and develop skills in this wonderful sport. Mr Hemmings was on hand to demonstrate and coach, as we endeavour to identify the next Nicklaus or Sörenstam. Suffice to say, golf was a big hit!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Anchor Newsletter
U10/11 Hockey Rossall v St Mary’s Hall
This Wednesday Rossall hosted two hockey matches against our friends from St Mary’s Hall. We had 17 very excited girls from both Year 5 and Year 6 awaiting our visitors.
Rossall Reds showed a great deal of determination and played as a team, creating many scoring opportunities. Unfortunately we were unable to capitalise on these chances on this occasion. St Mary’s Hall were strong, but we more than held our own. Rossall battled from start to finish, with some super individual and team performances. The final result was 4-0 to St Mary’s Hall.
Rossall Whites played an extremely competitive match against our visitors. We were evenly matched with St Mary’s Hall, which meant is was a nail biting end to end match. The overall score was 2-2\.
Well done to all our girls for the inspirational defending, attacking and goalkeeping skills that were there for all to see. More importantly though, for the positive team spirit that was evident throughout the afternoon.
Rossall Rhinos and Rams Rugby Teams in Unstoppable Form at AKS!
The Rossall rugby players couldn’t wait to travel along the Blackpool Promenade for another away fixture with our friends from AKS Lytham. This was a perfect opportunity to put all our training into match practice, and both Rossall teams were in unstoppable form.
The tackling by the Rhinos and Rams was fantastic, and the confidence the teams showed as the game progressed was wonderful to watch. The passing in attack was superb, and there were plenty of tries with Josh, Freddie and Michael all scoring for the Rams, and Zac, Harry and Kameron crossing the try line for the Rhinos.
At the final whistle, both Rossall teams were victorious with the Rams winning 5-2, and the Rhinos just edging a brilliant match 8-7.
Well done, Rossall!
Year 6
Year 6 were delighted to take the opportunity to go on the first Rossall Prep School trip of 2021!
Our whistle stop tour of Liverpool museums was the perfect way to round off our topic on peace and conflict. We were able to see how Liverpool had been affected by the Blitz. Our learning did not stop there, we took the opportunity to explore the entirety of the World Museum, there were so many wonderful displays, full of information, which the children absorbed. The exhibition on endangered species was of real interest and leads us nicely onto our new topic.
We have just started our new book “Can we save the tiger?”, the children have already written a persuasive piece; encouraging individuals to take responsibility for our environment. Very topical with the recent COP26. The discussions we have had have shown this is something the children have strong opinions about.
After such a successful trip, we are very keen to organise another for next term, but we will keep the destination a surprise!
Year 5
Another busy and productive week for Year 5. We have investigated what it takes to be an author this week as we have delved further into the world of Jub (our main character). The children have worked hard to find similes, metaphors, noun phrases and personification in the text and then write their own.
Mr Newell has kindly sent an update from Drama lessons,
‘This week Year 5 started work on our new duologue unit! Pupils will be working in pairs on one of five hand-picked duologues, including pieces from ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, ‘Pinocchio’ and Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. Along the way we will be looking at key vocal and physical techniques, as well as engagement with the key themes of the texts. It promises to be a challenging, but ultimately rewarding, half term!’
Viscous Vikings have plundered the Abbey on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Luckily Year 5 were there to report the raid! The children enjoyed making their own newspapers and writing news reports to tell of the raids.
As another busy week draws to an end, I am proud of the progress the children are making in all aspects of school life. Well done Year 5!
Year 4
Our new science topic is all about sound. The class began by jetting off around the school on a ‘sound walk’. We visited a variety of areas in the Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior School. We even visited the goats and determined they were noisier than anticipated. They came a close second to the dining hall, which was full of laughter and animated conversations.
This was emulated in our classroom this week when we began a new book entitled ‘Leon and the Place Between’, by Angela McAlister, about a boy who goes to a circus and is drawn into a mystical world. The children loved the idea of circus performances and began creating leaflets to inspire people to attend their own circus. I have mentioned before that Year Four have vivid imaginations and this activity proved again to be the case, although I’m not sure we will sell many tickets for the encounter with tyrannosaurus-rex.
We are also able to link this magical book with our topic sessions and are creating a timeline from the Mesozoic Era to the present day, thus formulating the building blocks to more readily understand the historical context of our future sessions on entertainment through the ages.
In Maths, the children have been introduced to ‘Carry’, a number steeling character, who supports the children when exchanging four-digit numbers. Carry was also helped by Harry, Larry and Sally, to aid memory association with mathematical problems.
Year 3
Another fun week in Year 3! In English, we have used our book Winter’s Child to learn about past tense and adverbs, writing our own diary entries for the main character Tom.
In Maths, we have been conquering subtraction with 3-digit numbers which can be tricky especially with exchanging – the children have approached the challenge with determination and have done really well! In Science, we have started learning about magnets and conducted another experiment to find out what objects in our classroom are magnetic and why. We loved our first Rossall Rotation session on Astronomy, linking to our learning about forces.
In Topic this week, we finished our own Bayeux Tapestry display, and then moved on to our next Riotous Royal, the most hated king of all time, King John! We wrote our own ‘Magna Carta’ inspired by the 800-year old charter. All very exciting. Well done Year 3 for a fab week!
Year 2
This week in Year 2 we have become authors of our very own version of ‘Katie and the Dinosaurs’. Over the week, the children have written their own book which includes a setting description, an acrostic poem, a list and a cartoon with speech bubbles.
We even painted our own front covers in the style of ‘paleo art’. In Maths this week, we have been consolidating our knowledge of column addition and subtraction and have started to use the knowledge to problem solve. In Science, we learned what a microhabitat is and went on a hunt around the school to see if we could identify any on the school grounds.
Year 1
Nibbles has caused more mischief in Year 1 this week. He has managed to nibble his way through lots of books and ended up in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. He has caused lots of damage in the house of the Three Bears and we have had to help Daddy Bear to write a list of things he will need to replace. We have also written about how the characters have felt when Nibbles has destroyed their things. We have tried really hard to remember our capital letters and full stops, and have even been using joining words.
In Topic we have thought about how stories are used to entertain people and have been using our puppets and theatre to retell stories and make up our own adventures. We will be making our own puppets and have been practising weaving and making patterns to help us when we start to sew. In Science we have searched the classroom for different materials, and continued to think about the difference between an object and the material it is made from.
In Rossall Rotation this term it is our turn to use the Rossall Kitchen with Mrs Payne. This week, keeping with the monster theme, we have made our own chocolate monster creations. We linked it to our work in Science and thought about how materials can change through heating and cooling. We used chocolate! Yum!
Reception
Remembrance Day is an occasion of national significance, I believe that by helping children to understand why the nation comes to a halt at 11am to remember the war, we can safeguard its future. We completed several activities to help the children understand what we are remembering on Remembrance Day in an age-appropriate way.
We started by asking the children if they have ever done anything they didn’t want to do but that they knew they had to do. Here are some of our replies… “I get asked to tidy up at home and I don’t want to but I know I have to”, “I don’t like Prep but I have to do it”, “I have to eat my vegetables. They are good for me”, “I have to put my coat on when it’s cold. I will get sick if I don’t”.
We then watched an animated short film about the journey of the poppy and what it means. It was written specifically for very young children so was an excellent introduction to the poppy and remembrance. The children stood sensibly and quietly in the Square for our two minute silence. We came back to class and printed some beautifully poppy pictures using an apple! We also used our Math’s skills to count some poppies, traced some poppy outlines and practised our scissor skills by cutting out some poppies.
Nursery
I’ll wear a little Poppy
As red as red can be
To show that I remember
Those who fought for me
There a lots of ways that out children can show support and mark Remembrance Day. Creating poppy pictures, doing poppy related crafts, or even making and wearing their own poppy, are a great way to facilitate conversations with younger children and for them to engage and take part in the occasion.
Nursery has been an abundance of red this week in every room. Poppies have been made in a variety of ways using different media. Sanderlings have enjoyed using apples to print their poppies, Sandpipers used biscuits to create theirs and Preschool used, handprints, finger prints, stones and squashes to create theirs. Seeing these familiar images of poppies that they have created at nursery around in their community this week will make them understand the world around them better.
Sanderlings have also been exploring play dough to develop their hand muscles and to introduce tools. Mrs Beddis brought the story of ‘The Bear Hunt’ alive by creating some story spoons for them to hold whilst she read the story.
Sandpipers have been exploring autumn all around us whilst making a detour to the farm to look at our animals. The story ‘Goodnight Hoot’ has given the opportunity for the staff to talk about bedtime routines to the children including the importance of brushing our teeth before bed. They have had the opportunity to practice these skills on the dolls.
Preschool have been out and about around the school this week. They began with a Autumn walk collecting leaves, a trip to Rossall kitchen to make pizzas and a stroll to the beach to practice their mark making skills. Mrs Farrell has been teaching the children to count to 5 in Spanish whilst Miss Ward has been helping them create their own Goldilocks stories.
Award Winners
Year 6
Our certificates this week go to:
- Asser for outstanding contribution the class.
- Jasmine for a conscientious approach to all areas of school.
- Alicia for outstanding written work.
- Charlotte for outstanding effort, enthusiasm and teamwork.
Year 5
Our certificates this week go to Molly and Jacob for fabulous work in English.
Year 4
Our awards this week go to Cara and Sam for outstanding effort in English.
Year 3
This week’s Year 3 certificates go to Jude for brilliant progress in reading and writing, and to Spencer for fantastic effort in Maths with subtraction.
Year 2
Our awards this week go to Annaiya for being so brave during swimming and Wyatt for writing a super acrostic poem about a pterodactyl.
Year 1
This week’s certificates are awarded to Darius and Arabella for fantastic writing in our language lessons this week.
Reception
This weeks certificate of achievement go to Aria and Dylan. Both children have tried very hard with their letter formation this week and have also demonstrated the correct formation of the letters taught in their independent writing.
