What an exciting and interesting week of learning we have had in Pre Prep! A rigorous and wide-ranging curriculum must of course be at the heart of our teaching, but opportunities to bring that curriculum alive and enhance the learning experience is also so important. This week, I was invited to attend Year 1's Sustainable Fashion Show. The children worked in teams to create high fashion for their model which was made from entirely sustainable materials. The audience lined the catwalk and showed their appreciation of the hard work on display. Once photographed for prosperity, each and every part of those costumes was then sorted for recycling. Miss Ketley, one of our Pre-School teachers, worked hard to arrange a wonderful experience for all of Pre Prep on Friday as we were joined by a selection of beautiful owls. Tango, a cheeky Little Owl, flew beautifully over the children’s heads, but Murphy an Eagle Owl was a little more reluctant. Not even a treat from his handler could entice him at first, but eventually just because the children sat so still, he finally swooped above their heads for one majestic moment. Year 2 ended a busy week with a workshop which delved into the magic of a Victorian Christmas. We compared our own experience of Christmas with the traditions of the past, many of which remain today.
Year 3 - This week, English work has been based around the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit. Two children took on the roles of the main characters, Tranio and Livia. The rest of the class created a conscience alley and gave advice to Tranio and Livia about what they should do next. The children have used expanded noun phrases and powerful verbs to create vivid sentences describing what Tranio and Livia could see when the volcano erupted. In science, we have been rock detectives and have investigated the features of rocks. In maths, the children have been working hard to secure their understanding of addition and subtraction using the column method. Those children who have secured this method have moved on to investigative tasks with the focus on working systematically.
Year 4 - In English, Year 4 have been writing their own fables. Some of the children have based their fable on ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf,’ using the characters of Dog and Goose, while others have developed their own characters and morals. The children have spent time planning, writing and up levelling their work. In maths, Year 4 have been exploring areas of shapes. They began the week by looking at this in a visual context by counting the number of squares within a shape and comparing shapes based on the area. They then moved onto looking at the formulae for calculating areas of rectangles. In Science children finished their work on invertebrates and vertebrates. They then looked at how animals can be classified using a classification key. They then went on to create their own classification keys using different living things.
Year 4 have been working hard in their Pantomime rehearsals and the show is coming together. The children are looking forward to the opening night and will begin dress rehearsals next week! Year 5 - This week the children have been gathering together items for the reverse advent calendar. In form time year 5 have discussed the importance of charity at Christmas. In maths lessons the children have been converting between metric and imperial units. They used their understanding of conversion to solve real life word problems. In English lessons the children were challenged this week with a comprehension and SPAG test. Year 5 also looked at scenes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and discussed how they would direct the scene if they were the director. On Wednesday the children all took part in a wide range of fixtures. Well done to the year 5 girls who represented Edge Grove at the Haileybury Hockey Festival and to the boys selected to play at the St Albans Rugby Festival. Lower prep enjoyed an assembly hosted by a music technology company this week. This company will be starting a new after school club activity from January. Sign up quickly if your child is interested in joining as their assembly was a huge hit with the children! In science the children created their own paper helicopters to investigate wing span. The children enjoyed inventing their own gymnastic routines in P.E lessons, they used the lessons from the past few weeks to perfect their balancing skills.
Year 6 - This week saw a cohort of pupils in Year 6 complete their ISEB pre-tests. We would like to commend their hard work and resilience throughout this period. All pupils also took part in a brilliant assembly run by M:Tech where they were shown how music can be made using technology rather than traditional instruments. It was obvious they all left feeling inspired, I look forward to hearing what the first cohort produces.
In their lessons this week Year 6 have been learning about 3D shapes in Maths, they have been using practical methods to explore this topic. In Science they have been studying the three methods of heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation and have completed experiments to show these methods occurring.
In other news Aditya in 6D had the chance to train with Team GB Olympic kayaker Bradley Forbes-Cranes at Harefield wild water slalom.
Our Upper School business entrepreneurs have been incredibly busy working on designing, creating and marketing their company's products for the upcoming Edge Grove Christmas Fair! From bath-bombs to snow-globes, and from hand-made printed cards to bespoke bracelets, we can guarantee an eclectic and creative array of goods on offer! Please take the time to visit them in the Sports Hall on Saturday. All profits they raise will be donated to the wonderful charity The Watford & Three Rivers Refugee Partnership.
This week’s fixtures (see the Match Reports here) marked the end of the football season and it has been so good to see the boys and girls playing matches again and performing so well. It has in fact, statistically, been our most successful football season in a number of years which is very pleasing. The improvement that we have seen throughout the season has been very encouraging and all the boys and girls should feel very proud of their efforts. Well done all!
We finished the season by running our Inter House Football competitions in the last training season and the results were all very close. I will leave the announcement of the overall results for our final assembly of the term however the results of the individual competitions were as follows:
Year 3 & 4 Inter House football: 1st Sarnesfield 2nd Stratton 3rd Churchills 4th Gills 5th Hedgerows
Year 5 & 6 Inter House football: 1st Gills 2nd Hedgerows 3rd Stratton 4th Sarnesfield 5th Churchills
Year 7 & 8 Inter House football: 1st Gills 2nd Hedgerows 3rd Churchills 4th Stratton 5th Sarnesfield
Rookie Chess Tournament - Congratulations to the Edge Grove pupils who took part in the Rookie Chess tournament at Oakwood Primary School on Sunday. It was great to see our pupils taking part in this event and well done to Andreas who won the event and Xander who was second overall. Well done! Table Tennis - Congratulations to our U11 Boys team (Yousuf, Ben, Artem and Otto) who became County Champions on Friday along with the U11 Girls (Natasha, Amelie, Lilyrose, Sophia and Maria) who claimed 3rd place. The teams had qualified for the County Finals by winning the District Championships the Friday before (also at Edge Grove) and faced stiff competition from the other 7 District winners. The boys comfortably won their league of four with wins over Cuffley (7-1), St Ippolyts (6-2) and Gardenfields (8-0) but had to battle hard in the semi-final to win 5-3 v The Grove. As expected the final was a very close match with Edge Grove and Greenway drawing 2-2 in matches and 4-4 in games; eventually after several recounts Edge Grove came out on top 71-69 on points and, as County Champions, now move on to the Zone Finals at Morpeth School (London) on Jan 15th. The girls team lost their opening league game to Bengeo (1-7) but bounced back to record 6-2 victories over St Ippolyts and The Grove to gain a semi-final spot. Here they met a very strong Greenway team who won 8-0. Not too disheartened the girls rallied and won their 3rd place medals by winning 5-3 v Maple.
Congratulations must also go to Ellie who has been selected to play for the Girls Under 11 Hertfordshire County team in squash for the National Junior Inter-County Championships. The team has qualified for the National Junior Inter County Championships Plate Finals in Nottingham in January. Well done Ellie!
In Drama, the theatre is a hive of activity this week especially with the Year 3 and 4 pantomime rehearsals in full swing. We are now working on the finishing touches and perfecting our scene transitions, acting and dance moves. Earlier in the week Year 3 joined Year 4 for a rehearsal and it was incredible to hear the sound of such a large group singing once again in the theatre after all this time. Later in the week the Year 4 were very excited to do a costume parade and show off all the costumes they have brought in for the show. It's safe to say we are super excited for show night! Year 5 have been busy rehearsing their own fairy tale scripts and I’m looking forward to seeing their final pieces. Our Super Hero unit is coming to end and the children are in the process of perfecting their scenes and will be adding over the top narration to them and flash cars such as POW/ BOOM- think the old Batman series! Last week the Elective group performed Act 1 Scene 1 from Romeo and Juliet and performed brilliantly in their groups; thinking carefully about their characterisations.