Newsletter 24 November 2017

This week it was the turn of the Year Two children to visit a place of worship to learn about Advent. They went to St Andrew’s Church in the Parish of Kinson in Bournemouth. The Rev. Lee Shervill helped the children to compare and contrast this Christian Church with the Hindu Vedic Temple which they had visited earlier in the term. Many of the children have visited churches before but were unfamiliar with the terminology used and so were taken on a tour and shown the pews, the chancel, the choir stalls and Altar amongst other things. Undoubtedly, the Bell Tower left the biggest impression as Rev. Shervill rang the bells especially for the children who waited with bated breath to see if the parishioners would pour from their houses to see what emergency was upon them. Luckily, no one was disturbed! My thanks go to the Rev. Shervill for welcoming Year Two into his lovely church and providing them with such an informative and enjoyable visit. Over this sleep-out weekend we are going to put some parking bays in place near the central tree stump and fence in the Pre-Prep car-park. This is an experiment to see if we can make the parking in this area easier and safer. Please let us know what you think either in the Pre-Prep or the Bursary. Obviously, the safety of all those who use the car-park is of paramount importance to us. Enjoy your weekend. We will see you back at school on Tuesday and then for our play on Friday!

 

Newsletter 17 November 2017

We have had another busy week in Pre-Prep with a super trip out to the Cathedral to learn about Advent and lots of interesting learning happening within the classrooms and grounds. (I was driven nearly mad by the delicious aroma of cooking Naan bread on Thursday!). Salisbury Cathedral is the most awesome and wonderful place. I think that it is important for our children to know that they are a part of the Salisbury Diocese and that this amazing building is a part of their heritage. I also believe that it is important for children to gain an understanding of the liturgical rhythms of the year, regardless of any religious persuasion, as these still dictate the pattern of our daily lives and are so much a part of our history and literature in this country. To visit a place like the Cathedral, constructed by men of faith and for an incredibly powerful Church, just puts in place an impression of how rich our heritage is and how impactful upon the present day. On another note entirely, I was wondering what you think about the testing of spellings? Obviously, the teaching of spelling is something which we do in class, both formally and informally but the testing of spelling is a regular debate for us. What is its value? Many children can learn well for the test, though for some it is a demoralising struggle, and the majority of children very rarely apply their spellings outside the test situation. They generally learn through context. There has been a lot of research into this, but I was just curious to know your opinion.

Newsletter 10 November 2017

Dear Parents

Today, in Pre-Prep, our usual Friday Celebration assembly was replaced with our own little service of Remembrance. This took place, as it always does for us, in our Hall with the focus being our Seasons table. Mrs Carver has set this up to contain poppies, crosses, our wreath, books and the Union flag. Our service is not long. The children come in from play and they are asked to sit quietly. I then speak to the children about why we have a Remembrance Day, what the poppies mean and why we wear them. I then say the Ode of Remembrance and the children join in with ‘We will remember them.’ We then observe the minute’s silence together and I have to say that all the children, even the Nursery, are brilliant and very respectful. It is obviously a difficult service for many of the children to understand. However, I believe that it is important for the children to have the seeds for this concept planted early in their childhoods as much of what we teach in this country such as democracy, tolerance and rule of law – what we know as British Values – arguably stems from the motivation behind the sacrifices made by many of the children’s own families both in their home life and on the battle fields. I tell the children that their parents may well be able to share the stories of what their own families did in the First and Second World Wars and in conflicts since this time. Perhaps you can think of a couple to share.

 

Newsletter 3 November 2017

Halloween seems to becoming bigger and bigger in the UK and certainly in the Pre-Prep the children have been very excited by it and have fully embraced it. We have gone down the route of pumpkins and they have been everywhere in the school this week and every possible aspect of them has been explored. The Nursery even went to pick them at a local farm which they thoroughly enjoyed. Who knew that they grew from the ground? Year One will be showing off some of their Halloween work this afternoon in Celebration Assembly, so do join us for that if you can. The Reception class visited Alderholt Mill yesterday. Like the Nursery class, they were given some insight into where their food actually comes from. They were able to see the mill in action and observe the grain being ground into flour. To round it off they were offered biscuits made from the flour from the mill as well as being able to bring some back to school. Great experiential learning. You may be pleased to know that we, the Teachers, never stop thinking about and discussing Education and the well-being of children – we make very interesting dinner guests! This week, the topic of conversation has been an article about the up-bringing of the current generation of children. The link to the article is below. It is a brilliant follow on for anyone who went to Dick Moore’s talk earlier this year but it would be interesting and eye-opening for any parent. It’s well written, but quite long, so grab a coffee and enjoy! https://reason.com/archives/2017/10/26/the-fragile-generation