We have had a lovely week in school this week. The Nursery have been enjoying lots of outdoor learning, consolidating their work on Mini-Beasts. The Reception class have gone off on a bit of a tangent following their interest in the Royal Wedding. They have been learning about Kings and Queens and they have made some gorgeous castles. Year One have been making things too. Following their trip to Portland Bill last week they read ‘The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch’ by Rhonda Armitage in which Mrs Grinling is faced with the problem of how to send her husband’s lunch down a zip wire to the lighthouse. The children worked in teams to make their own containers, investigating friction and 3D shape along the way. There was a lot of trial and error and reconstruction along the way but in the end everybody’s lunch made it down the zip wire in one piece. Year Two have been outdoors too. They had a super tour designed for them by Mrs Carver on Thursday. Their wellies took them into Fordingbridge where they learned that the town was a centre for cloth making and also for Smuggling as the infamous Captain Diamond spent much of his time there. They found out that William the Conqueror held his court in Queens House in Lyndhurst, which is why it’s known as the capital of the New Forest and they also visited the grave of Alice Liddell, the little girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Brockenhurst has strong military connections as WW1 soldiers were hospitalised here and further back still, the oak trees hid the troops when they gathered for the Battle of Normandy. The symbol of the town is a badger because Brockenhurst means badgers home. They visited the Anglo-Saxon town of Lymington, which was known for its salt making, smuggling, ship building and sailing and they finally went to Burley, one of the most popular villages in the New Forest. People have lived here since prehistoric times and the children recognised the barrows. Burley was also known for witchcraft as a ‘white witch’ lived in the village who used to wear a long black cloak and used to keep a jackdaw on her shoulder. What an amazing tour. The children learned such a lot and so did I. Have a great half term!
We are always looking for an excuse for a celebration in the Pre-Prep and the Royal Wedding, taking place tomorrow, was too good an opportunity to miss. As you can see the children, and the staff too, are all decked out appropriately in red, white and blue and many of our lessons today have been based around the Royal Wedding. It has been a rather lovely theme! We hope that you will be able to join us this afternoon when our Celebration Assembly will be in the form of a cream tea on the lawn outside the Pre-Prep. We will have our usual Birthday candles, but otherwise it is an opportunity to get together informally in the May sunshine in our beautiful school. Year One had a fabulous day yesterday. The sun was shining, as it always seems to do for the Pre-Prep and we went to visit the Lighthouse at Portland Bill. It is an amazing place. We climbed the 153 stairs spiralling right to the top and the children were told why we have lighthouses, how the lighthouse worked with both the lamps and the fog-horns and the specific history of Portland Bill lighthouse. We then had a picnic and a run around outside before travelling back to the Pre-Prep. Many thanks to Mrs Rogers who made all the arrangements for our trip. The children had been studying lighthouses in the classroom but there is nothing like experiencing something first hand to fully appreciate it!
FSM School Pre-Prep 