Moyles Court School

Week 8 Spring Term 2019

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”

William Styron

Diary dates

Sunday 10th March Boarders’ Trip to Rock Reef

Monday 11th March Mad Hair Day

Wednesday 13th March Yr.2 Spring Trip to Winchester Science Centre 1000 -1400 U11 Netball vs. Avondale (Home) U11 Rugby vs. Avondale (Home) 1415 U9 Hockey vs. BCS (Away) 1415

Thursday 14th March Junior Parents’ Evening R – Yr. 6

Reminder!

Don’t forget Mad March Hair Day on Monday.

We’re really looking forward to seeing

you all.

Please do not forget your £1 entry.

Message from the Headmaster

I am very aware that World Book Day is bit like Marmite. Some people love it and some

people hate it and, as a parent, as well as a Head, I appreciate that getting a costume

together for World Book Day has become yet another annual challenge that we could

probably all do without (as if parenting wasn’t already hard enough I hear you cry…).

However, I do love World Book Day. Not just because I enjoy dressing up, but because I

actually love books and I love reading. Being a teacher is such an enormous privilege and

being able to share one’s own passions and interests with young children is quite simply one

of the best things in the world. I see it every day here at Moyles Court, but this Thursday was

very special indeed. Our teachers all shared their love of reading and their favourite books

with our pupils and the pupils responded, not just with great costumes, but with enthusiasm

and excitement for the books being discussed.

Sadly, for many young people today, books seem to have a negative image and are viewed

as nothing more than tools required for school and exams – the notion of reading for simple

pleasure is slowly extinguishing. This week, a survey of children and young people carried

out by the National Literacy Trust, found only 52% of eight to 18-year-olds read for pleasure.

And just a quarter of those will read daily, dropping 17% from 2015 figures. It is a fact made

worse by findings of Nielsen Book Research’s annual survey on British children’s reading

habits, which found that as few as 32% of children under 13 are read to daily by an adult, for

no other reason than the pure fun of it – this is down from 41% in 2012, with most parents

stopping reading to their child by the age of eight (Lola Okolosie in the Guardian).

For me, reading is a fabulous escape; one that takes you to new places and introduces you

to new people and ideas. I started my assembly on Monday by talking to the pupils about a

friend of mine. I was able to share with them what this friend looked like, what he was like as

a person, where he lived, who his friends were and shared with them some of the fabulous

adventures we got up to together. It just so happened that this friend of mine was called

Asterix and I got to know him in a book.

My thanks to all of you for supporting World Book Day so positively and for finding the time

to encourage your children to read to you and for you to read to them. For a child, is there

anything more comforting than curling up under a blanket and listening to the soothing

sounds of a story being read to you by your parents or grandparents?

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and I hope it involves a book somewhere along the

way,

Richard Milner-Smith

House Points

Week Ending: 08.03.19

House Strikes Merits Total House

Points

Dockens 111 1259 1148

Latchmore 57 1118 1061

Linford 70 1372 1302

Linford is managing to keep the lead again this week with 1,302 points! Well done Linford!

The Moyles Court School ‘Word of the Week’

Next week’s ‘Word of the Week’ is: ‘Judicious’ – ‘having, showing, or done with good judgement or sense’. This was suggested by Leo in Year 10. We would be very grateful if you could use the word ‘judicious’ as much as possible in your conversations at home over the coming week to try and familiarise your children with the meaning and spelling of our ‘Word of the Week’.

Focus of the week

What a wonderful week we have had in the Junior School! Thursday was another amazing World Book Day, with the pupils coming into school wearing their magnificent costumes and with the excitement that only a special day like this can bring. It is always important to remember why we celebrate these special days. Yes, there is a functional aspect to reading, but we read for pleasure, enjoyment and for the opportunity to be transported away to far away magical and mysterious lands. We read for inspiration, and the costumes that we saw on Thursday were truly inspirational. This week, we would like our children to take the time to sit down and enjoy a story that they have never read before, perhaps even by a brand new author. Therefore, the focus of the week is to "enjoy a new story" and to spread the message to others. In all of our busy lives, there is always time to enjoy a good book!

Mr. Babur

New Forest National Park Visit

On Wednesday, Sue Palma from the New Forest National Park Authority visited all pupils from Year 3 to Year 9 to talk about how we can take better care of the local environment. In the assembly that she delivered, she read a beautiful and inspiring story called "What If?" which looked at the dangers of plastic. As our school is in such a unique setting, it is important that we do our best to look after the environment around it. After the assembly, Sue delivered workshops to the pupils and talked about how we can recycle in a more effective way. If we all made one simple change, such as reusing the same bottles instead of buying a new one, then the impact of that could be tremendous. Sue also discussed how plastic can be a hindrance to animals and how plastic is often found dumped in the sea, which can cause great trouble for sea life. "It was very interesting and a great learning experience," Daisy. "It was interesting and I learned many new things," Tom "Inspiring!" said Poppy Thank you to Sue for coming to our school and for inspiring the children on this topic. Let's all make a change today to build a better world for our children!

Pupil Achievements We have had lots of wonderful news about some of our pupils in their endeavours outside school. They really are a talented bunch! Well done to them all.

Maximus in Year Two has won bronze in the Southampton Area Ski Association winter league series U9 category. The series consisted of four ski races, each with three timed races over the last few months. Well done Maximus – what a great achievement.

Eliza Grace in Year Three has done incredibly well, gaining distinction and a gold medal in her latest ballet exam. Well done Eliza Grace!

Sophia in Year Six competed in the Dorset floor and vault competition last Sunday despite suffering a training accident two weeks ago (where she strained her knuckle which hindered her training) she still managed to achieve 4th on vault and 2nd on floor, which combined gave her a very respectful 2nd overall in the competition.

Well done Sophia!

Spring in the Pre-School

We have been looking at the topic of Spring, the children have decorated lambs, counted lambs, made hoof prints and ordered animals into size order. The children also practised writing their names into fresh cut grass (green glitter!) Our sounds of the week have been 'a' and 't' we have explored how we recognise them by looking and listening. We have also introduced a kindness tree into Pre-School which the children can gain a heart to hang on if they are spotted doing something kind. The children are all working really hard to gain hearts. During our morning circle time we have been learning how to tell the time, the children are really impressing us with how quickly they are picking up the ‘o'clock times’.

World Book Day

World Book Day was a wonderful colourful day at Moyles Court as usual and was enjoyed by pupils and staff alike!

The Moyles Court School Annual Pancake Race

There was tremendous excitement at Moyles Court on Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) as all the houses competed for the annual ‘Pancake Race’ trophy. In the end when all the results were taken into consideration, Latchmore came out on top. Well done Latchmore!

Year 10 Maths

Year 10 have been looking at distributions, particularly finding the quartiles, median and interquartile range. They tackled the following problem taken from brilliant.org and, in a team effort, managed to solve it.

In the population census of 2011, India reported that she had a population of 1. 210 billion.

The median age was 24, and the lower quartile was 12.

Which of the following is a reasonable estimate for the number of teenagers aged 13- 19 in

India in 2011?

120 million 270 million 220 million 170 million

Where are they now?

On Saturday we were delighted to see some Old Courtians at our Open Morning. Beth Younger, Jamie Haycox, Douglas Murdoch and Jessica Evans all returned to have a look around the school and to reminisce. Beth is now living in Southampton and is a chartered accountant. Jamie graduated from Royal Holloway with a BA in Geography and is now working as a complaints handler for Amigo loans. Douglas graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. He then did a masters in Script writing. He is now working in retail, but he has just started a theatre company. Jessica graduate from Exeter College, University of Oxford, with BFA in Fine Art. She is now working freelance in graphic design and illustration. She is working to save for a masters in Fine Art in London.

Boarders’ News

After a busy morning showing prospective pupils around the school last Saturday, the boarders let off steam by playing football out in our beautiful grounds – enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine. Balla Moussa showed us all just how good he is!

On Sunday the boarders had a fabulous time at Splash Down, which is definitely the best place to be on such a rainy day.

Dorm of the month

The first winners of this competition were the boys in Hicks and Cromwell. Well done for keeping your dorms so tidy! The boys thoroughly enjoyed their snacks which were their reward.

Friends of Moyles Court Easter Fete 22nd March 3-5 pm

We welcome the whole school, parents, carers and friends to join us for an eggstravagant

afternoon of fun, games, competitions and chocolate!!

Please note the fun starts at 3 pm and you are welcome to join your children then, otherwise

they will remain under the supervision of the school staff until the usual collection time.

Get creative for the Easter hat competition for all year groups. The winner receives a yummy

chocolate Easter egg. £2 to enter.

Join the Easter Bunny for our egg hunt and look out for hidden golden tickets (some fab

prizes to be found including Snowtrax and Ringwood Lesuire Centre vouchers) Everyone

who enters receives some scrummy treats. £2 to enter.

Please bring your pocket money for cakes and craft stalls, face painting and games. Check

out the large bear at reception who is looking for a new name and home, also guess how

many eggs are in the jar. £1 a go on the day.

We would be most grateful for cake donations and items for the tombola (unwanted

Christmas presents etc warmly welcomed)

Please join us for lots of fun and help use raise money for FOMS (PTA)

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA