At the start of a new academic year the Pre Prep is the place to be! Lots of shiny new shoes and smiley faces glow as old friends are reunited and many children join us for the very first time. It has been wonderful to spend the first week or so just getting to know each other and establishing routines, but that doesn't mean that no learning has taken place. My office is already busy with very proud pupils sharing their various achievements and as I type this newsletter, Year 1 are making a beautiful sound in their music lesson with Mr Leutfeld. Year 2 have taken on their responsibility to be my eyes and ears very seriously and they have set a fine example to the younger children. Pre-School and Reception children have been remarkable in the way that they have approached so much change and we are grateful that the mild weather has enabled us to be outside exploring as much as possible. There are many signs that signal a new term, including the fact that the Tooth Fairy has her first treasure box to look out for and as I head to our Sharing Assembly for Reception and Years 1 and 2, I am already excited about next week!
Year 3 has had a fantastic start to the new term. It has been great getting to know the children and hearing about their holidays. We have been so impressed with their maturity and independence as joining Lower Prep is no small task! Our topic for this half term is Stone Age to Iron Age which the children have also been exploring in their English lessons. They have been reading ‘Stone Age Boy’ by Satoshi Kitamura and thinking about questions they might like to ask the main character about his adventures. In maths, the children have been using their investigative skills to explore number and place value.
The beginning of this term has been fantastic getting to know the children in Year 4 and also welcoming new starters into the year group. The new starters have settled in well and have enjoyed making new friends. The topic this half term is Passport to the World. The children have been learning about continents, oceans and lines of longitude and latitude. Year 4 have enjoyed locating different holiday destinations they have visited on maps. In English the children have been learning about persuasive writing and the features used to make a piece of persuasive text effective. They are now planning and writing their own piece of persuasive text based on holiday destinations and theme parks.
It has been wonderful to see Edge Grove back in full swing this week with the Year 5 pupils enjoying fixtures, music lessons and swimming lessons in the new pool. The children have been quick to adapt to their new timetables, receiving praise from various staff for their mature attitudes and resilient nature. This week in English the children were challenged to describe their ‘Perfect Day’. This creative writing piece described all expenses paid trips to Wembley Stadium, exotic beach holidays to the Maldives and even camping adventures with breakfast cooked over an open fire, delicious! In maths lessons the children used their understanding of place value to partition six digit numbers and to order negative numbers on a number line. This week Year 5 have been taught to greet each other at different times of the day in French. Challenge your child to use these different greetings with you over the weekend. Art lessons were a highlight for the children this week as they were asked to take part in a creative drawing assignment. Year 5 were challenged to incorporate a kidney bean into their piece of artwork. The outcomes were particularly imaginative.
In Year 6 it has been a pleasure having the pupils back for their first full week. They have settled back into school life very quickly and are enjoying being able to participate in the ‘normal’ life of the school once again. Wednesday matches have restarted and the Year 6 girls hockey teams took part in a triangular tournament with Beechwood Park and Heath Mouth whilst the boys football teams competed in the Haileybury Festival and matches against Lochinver House. This week the year 6’s have also had the opportunity to take part in mock interviews with mentors from Oppidian Education providing invaluable practice for those taking part in secondary school interviews later this year.
Looking back, our Year 6’s have been very busy over the summer. Aria was chosen to represent the borough of Harrow at the London Youth Games this August. This weekend Aria also received the U10 Player of the Year for Harrow and also ‘hot shot’ award for highest junior goal scorer for Harrow (that’s out of the boys and girls). Well done Aria!
Jesse in Year 5 completed a 5km muddy run for Cancer Research at the weekend. This was the final 5km of a 50km challenge he set himself in January, along with reading 50 books (he’s at 47 so far!). Altogether so far he’s raised £1128 for Stand up to Cancer. What an amazing achievement!
Lily-Rose - Science Project
Aria representing the Borough of Harrow in hockey at the London Youth Games in August
Jesse's 5km Muddy Run
We've had a fantastic first full week back for Years 7 and 8 including two exciting days of bushcraft activities for Year 7. Here are a couple of newspaper reports which bring the experience to life perfectly!
It has been fabulous to return to normal school life with a host of sports fixtures already having been played and a very busy term ahead of us. You can view all the Match Reports here. We have also been able to take advantage of the fantastic, newly refurbished swimming pool by swimming in PE. We hope to continue with this for as long as the outside air temperature is not too cold. The water in the pool is lovely and warm so this is not an issue. It has been exciting to hear about what the pupils have been doing outside of school and special mention goes to Niccolo in Year 7 who over the summer qualified for and competed in the Swim England - East Region - Future Champions Meet. Niccolo performed extremely well and following a good number of PBs and medals, he was delighted to become a Regional Champion and is now ranked in the top 5 at National Level on a number of strokes. Well done on a fabulous performance.
A fantastic start to the new school year in the Music department which Mr Leutfeld and Miss Saville have now joined!
Year 3 were learning all about pitch and learnt the ‘do re mi’ scale. Hopefully they’ve been practising at home and you can hear! They have also started rehearsing for the Harvest Assembly with the entire year learning a number.
Year 6 have been exploring musical elements and going further within their knowledge of tempo & dynamics. They put their learning into practice through song. A big well done to those who were brave enough to sing it on their own!
The first Chamber Choir rehearsal went ahead (and is continuing to run on a Thursday after school) as well as the Lower Prep chorus (Friday lunchtime). We were overwhelmed with how many pupils turned up to audition so a big well done to everyone.
During Photography Module the Upper School were out taking Photographs this week on the theme of ‘Objects’. Next week they shall be starting to edit them in a range of ways.
Photography Elective consisted of starting to edit photographs that they took last week. They have started off using the Colour Select tool, with this you are able to desaturate a photograph and then edit in certain colours of your choice. The results were amazing. Well done all!