Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School Newsletter – Michaelmas Term 2021 – Week 9

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

Message from the Preparatory School Headmaster

Dear Parents,

When lesson discussions go off at a tangent because children ask related questions that do not follow the lesson plan, I absolutely encourage those conversations. It is so important that teachers feel empowered to be able to veer off the path from time to time, in order to follow the interests of the children.

This week in Year 5, our scientific discussions led us to knowing the answer to the £64000 question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire! Talking about how experiments are conducted ended up with us discussing discoveries such as penicillin and stainless steel, the latter forming the question that would have been worth a great deal of money for charity. In true armchair fashion last night, I was shouting at the television (because Vic Reeves could clearly hear me!) that the correct answer was Chromium – if only Year 5 could have been his phone a friend!

The children across Prep have been taking part in anti-bullying week. With specific PSHE lessons aimed at understanding what bullying is and how to confront and deal with it, as well as receiving targeted assemblies, I am proud of some of the sensible conversations that have taken place. Our children are growing up into a world where there are so many more opportunities for people to display an imbalance of power and whilst I am pleased that it is not an issue that we face daily at Rossall, we should certainly teach our children about not only what they see and hear in person, but also online. If only the world could follow these simple rules and take time to think before speaking, or typing, I am certain it would be a far kinder place.

As always, the Prep School has been a flurry of activity throughout this week. Hosting the indoor athletics event for local schools (congratulations to Rossall for their 2nd place finish), we launched our Christmas bauble competition (on sale now for £2, proceeds to Brian House), we travelled to sports fixtures against Giggleswick, the Year 6 began their Bikeability program, and we managed to fit in a great deal of learning too! Please do read a little more about the exploits of the children in our further news section.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mr M Turner

Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery


Anchor Newsletter


Rossall Rhinos Rugby Team in Try Scoring Action at the Giggleswick 7s

The Rossall Rhinos played some scintillating rugby at the Giggleswick Rugby Festival this week. It was well worth the long journey, with the team playing five matches and winning four; but most importantly their progress throughout the day was outstanding. There were some fantastic tries scored, and it was a wonderful experience for the team to play against schools from all over the North West. Well done, Rossall!

Rossall Cross Country Runners Win Team Bronze at Stonyhurst!

The wet and muddy conditions did not deter the Rossall Cross Country Team from putting in a committed team performance at the Stonyhurst Championship last week. The demanding course on the hilly slopes of the nearby golf course was a challenge that none of the children were expecting as they scrambled and slipped against children from schools all over the North of England.


Both teams ran superbly with the boys finishing in fourth place, and the girls achieving a superb team bronze! The whole day was an experience that the children will never forget, and although it was tough they all felt proud of their achievement. Well done, Rossall!


LAMDA


Year 6

It has been yet another busy week in Year 6, we haven’t half got into fraction work this week, our new topic is well underway and the children have been thoroughly enjoying the activities related to our book “can we save the tiger?”

If all the work in the classroom wasn’t enough, there have been a number of extra-curricular events that all the children have been involved in, in one way or another.

On Wednesday a group of ten boys went to Giggleswick for a rugby 7s tournament, we hosted and competed in the Fleetwood Schools’ indoor athletics tournament and today the children had the opportunity to complete the first day of their Bikeability training.

Having seen the manner in which the children whizzed around campus, I think there may be some Evel Knievels in the making! All this and so much more to fit in before the end of term, next week’s highlight being the transition afternoon. Lots of rest this weekend is the order as we have an incredibly busy 3 weeks ahead of us before the end of term!


Year 5

Year 5 have enjoyed another very productive week in the Preparatory School. 

They have loved practicing their writing skills in English and have written some fabulous character descriptions and Winter Poems. 

In Mathematics they have been challenging themselves with some rather tricky word problems. The children have had to use all of their skills and mathematical knowledge to solve them. 

Mr Newell is very pleased with the progress that is being made with the Drama pieces, I cannot wait to listen to them. 

Miss Mullin has kindly sent this report from the Music lessons:

Over the past few weeks, year 5 have been preparing for the Prep School Christmas Showcase under the wonderful expertise of Miss Silverton and Miss Mullin. Together we have been preparing ‘When Christmas Comes To Town’ from the Polar Express. This is a beautiful song describing the wonders of Christmas and how families come together at this special time.  Year 5 have been stars in learning this song and conquering the harmonies! Not only have we been working on this, but we have been working on ‘Walking in the Air’ from ‘The Snowman’ which they will sing alongside all of Years 4 – 6. One thing we must say, the enthusiasm Year 5 have for music fills us with joy and the excitement. 

I love this Term, the build up to Christmas is so exciting and there is not a more magical place to be than Rossall. 


Year 4

Anyone entering our classroom on Wednesday morning hearing the peals of laughter may have wondered what evoked such hilarity, especially if I told you it involved a baby eating crocodile and a string of sausages. You may, understandably, have some reservations about the content of the lesson; however be assured that the age-old Punch and Judy show (350 years old actually) appeals to this current generation of children as it did to their grandparents and possibly great grandparents before them. 

Our topic on ‘The History of Entertainment’ this week concentrated on the Blackpool area and how holidaying in the town became popular in Victorian times aided by the development of the railways. Punch and Judy was just one form of entertainment that endured the test of time which thanks to YouTube we could relive and imagine Victorian children enjoying themselves on the beaches of Blackpool. The children also researched the broad spectrum of entertainment in the area including many iconic buildings – The Winter Gardens, Blackpool Tower and the three piers.

In a timely coincidence, the children also had the opportunity to enter an Art competition for primary schools organised by Vida Education. The challenge was to draw and colour ‘What I love most about the Fylde coast’, so we spent time busily thinking about what we could include in our artwork. The final drawings contained many of Blackpool’s attractions including the Illuminations, trams, rollercoasters, seashells and interestingly one of the children’s favourite topics – seagulls!

The loud sounds created by seagulls led us to our science topic and how we perceive sound. After completing our ‘Sound’ survey last week we moved on to understanding how sound travels through a series of vibrations. To gain an appreciation of how this happens the children used tuning forks and water to gain a visual understanding of how vibrations create movement. The children were fascinated by the relationship between sound and the waves that were produced in the water. We also watched as salt and rice jumped around on drums caused by vibrations made with tuning forks. Fascinating!


Year 3

Can you believe we are halfway through the half term? The weeks are whizzing by with all the fun learning we are doing in Year 3! This week we welcomed a new member to our class – Sebastian joined us on Monday and has settled in amazingly, already a real part of our class community! 

We have continued reading Winter’s Child and used it to practice writing with conjunctions. We also learnt about using commas in lists and continued to practice our reading and comprehension. In Maths, we finished our addition and subtraction unit by looking at bar model and problems solving; these skills we’ve built up will serve us well for the rest of the year. We started our new Maths unit on Multiplication by looking at equal groups, and continuing to practice our 3 times table.

In Science we have been exploring further about what magnets are, what their features are, and about how they attract and repel. We even looked at whether magnets work through water… ask one of us to find out! In Topic, we enjoyed learning about the killer-king Henry VIII and the appalling way he treated his six wives, and we learnt about poem to remember what happened to each wife! To top it all off, we made Tudor Roses using card and tissue paper in Art. Well done for a fab week Year 3!


Year 2

This week we have been super busy in Year 2. We have been continuing to learn all about habitats. In Science, we revisited what a habitat is and how a good habitat provides basic needs for the animals that live in it. We looked at the different types of habitats around the world and we chose an animal that we wanted to create a ‘shoebox habitat’ for.

We haven’t quite finished them yet, but I can tell they are all going to be masterpieces! We finished off our front covers for our ‘Katie and the Dinosaurs’ books which are now proudly on display in the classroom. We loved sharing our stories with each other and comparing them to our own version.  In Literacy, we have continued to learn more about why Plop is afraid of the dark and have used noun phrases, adverbs and adjectives to describe him. We have also been working hard on our Nativity and the children are all doing so well with their lines.


Year 1

This week, in Year 1, we have started our new Maths unit on subtraction. We have used lots of different methods to help us with our work, including number lines and part-whole models. We have found that if we know the addition facts that will help us with subtraction too. 

In Topic we have shared our favourite stories with the class, and talked about our family members favourite stories too. We have also started to think about the Christmas Story and why it is still important, and with only a matter of weeks until Nativity time we have started to think about our characters and their role in the Christmas Story. 

We have been designing and making our own monster puppets. We chose the shape we wanted and then designed what we would like our monster to look like. How many eyes will it have? Will it have sharp teeth? Or horns? We have started to use sewing to join our puppets and have soon realised that it is trickier than it looks!

In Language, Nibbles has continued to nibble through another story. This time it was Little Red Riding Hood’s turn. We have continued to think about how the characters would be feeling when Nibbles has destroyed their story, but we did find it funny when he turned the Big Bad Wolf into a fluffy chicken.


Reception

This week we have enjoyed taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week and have been joined by Pre School for some of our sing-alongs. Over 5 million children from 113 countries have taken part since 2013. Nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education.

As well as being fun they are excellent teaching tools: Nursery rhymes and children’s songs boost vocabulary and language development. They help children to develop literacy skills and provide a fun way to support early numeracy skills. Nursery rhymes also help children to develop social, physical and emotional skills.

Each year, they choose 5 rhymes and encourage children to take part in a ‘Rhyme a Day’ challenge by singing the nursery rhymes and taking part in supporting activities. The 5 official rhymes for 2021 are:

  • Incy Wincy Spider
  • Sleeping Bunnies
  • Wind The Bobbin
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
  • Down In The Jungle.

We have enjoyed a variety of follow-up activities including: tracing spiders webs, counting spiders, cutting along threads to the bobbin, reading through ‘Do the Bunny Hop’ game, sequencing the rhyme ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and making binoculars or telescopes to spot the animals hiding in the classroom.

We’ve had some much fun this week, the children want to carry on learning through Nursery Rhymes so watch this space! Please do not forget to complete your World Nursery Rhyme quiz sheets too and return on Monday.


Nursery

“Research has found that when a child knows eight or more nursery rhymes by heart, at the age of 4, that they are usually one of the best at reading and spelling in their class by the age of 8!”

This week is World Nursery Rhyme Week and the nursery children have embraced this within all their areas of learning and play. Sanderlings have listened so well to each song of the day, and loved joining in with the actions, especially to head shoulders knees and toes. This inspired a very messy free painting activity where the babies could paint and print their feet and hands.

Sandpipers have headed outdoors to the secret garden for their song time, the song of the day was ‘sleeping bunnies’ so the children enjoyed hopping and burrowing like real rabbits would. They have made some fantastic ‘incy wincy spider’ inspired artwork and have enjoyed a ‘down in the jungle’ themed play dough activity too.

Preschool have used ‘incy wincy spider’ to learn about counting, estimating and matching the right number of legs to the spiders they had made. They have also used ‘wind the bobbin up’ to develop their fine motor skills by threading string through bobbins. Preschool have also celebrated anti bullying week, by spending their well-being Wednesday handing out ‘notes of kindness’ to staff and students around the school grounds. Cookies were on the menu this Tuesday as the children headed to Rossall Kitchen for their weekly cooking session, we are so lucky to have access to so many exciting opportunities.

As always the children have experienced an abundance of outdoor experiences, playing football on the fields and taking part in Forest School sessions on Thursday. The babies have enjoyed exploring ‘soft play’ in their garden to help enhance their physical development, whilst Sandpipers have been cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen. What a busy week we have had!


Award Winners

Year 6

Our certificates this week go to:

  • Josh; Outstanding effort in Mathematics
  • Eyad; Fabulous contribution in class activities
  • Betsy- Outstanding Academic Work and leadership  Qualities 
  • Isabelle- Outstanding Academic Work and leadership  Qualities

Year 5

Our certificates this week go to Lincoln for amazing extra Prep and Xanthe for being a super friend.

Year 4

Our awards this week go to Poppy and Seluleko for outstanding enthusiasm and teamwork in Science.

Year 3

This week’s Year 3 certificates go to two children who always have a  fabulous attitude and make determined efforts towards their learning: Eryn and Aaron! 

Year 2

Our awards this week go to Larry for amazing mental partitioning in Maths and Marcel for super perseverance in all his learning.

Year 1

This week’s award winners are Jessica, for amazing independent Maths work, and Rupert for a fantastic first week and amazing writing. Well done!

Reception

This weeks certificates of achievement award go to Theo and Jessica.

Jessica has made fantastic progress with her reading, phonics and high frequency words.

Rupert for a fantastic first week at Rossall and amazing writing.