Prep Newsletter Friday

22nd May 2015

Dear Parents and Friends,

This has certainly been a week full of hard work, achievements and a lot of

fun. Before I begin to explain this week I want to celebrate the initiative of

Sarah and Chuwen in Year 4, who a few weeks ago came to see me about

an idea. They had been affected by the plight of those in the Nepalese

earthquake and wanted to help. They decided that selling cakes to the

Upper Prep would hopefully raise money. With help they planned the

tf

event, prepared the posters, made the

cakes, and organised friends to help sell

the cakes. This was a lot of hard work,

mixed with determination, perseverance

and as a result they raised a magnificent

£132.19. Impressive was Sarah and

Chuwen’s desire and motivation to help

On Tuesday this week we were awed by the wonderful Year 5 assembly

taking us through the achievements, innovations and inventions during

the Victorian era. We are very grateful and appreciative that our lives feel

so much more comfortable compared to the Victorians, many of whom

lived in terrible conditions and were affected by tragedy. The Year 5s had

learned their lines well, spoke clearly, were dressed beautifully and sang

with enthusiasm. This was an excellent, very enjoyable assembly and

thanks go to all of the girls and especially to Miss Caher.

those who are less fortunate. Equally impressive were their

entrepreneurial skills - they are a true inspiration! Well done girls, we are

so proud of you!

At the end of the afternoon (approximately 3.30pm) prizes will be

awarded after which the girls will return to their class teacher. Lower

Prep girls may be collected directly from the playing field, book bags will

not be sent home that day but please take home her PE bag. Upper Prep

girls will return to their classrooms, please collect your daughter from

her classroom as normal. Any girl who is not collected by a parent or

guardian will be looked after until normal pick up time. After School

Activities will continue as usual.

In the event of wet weather, it is likely that Sports Day will be cancelled

and lessons will continue as normal. If you are in doubt about this,

please refer to our school website, www.stmargaretsbushey.co.uk, for

information.

Also on Tuesday all the Lower Prep visited Aldenham Country Park and

despite the awful weather forecast, escaped most of the bad weather.

They had a wonderful day in the fresh air and learned so much through

exciting activities designed to teach them more about our environment

and the importance of the animals and minibeasts in the wild.

On Wednesday PCSOs Esther and Carol visited the

Lower Prep to talk about how they help everyone in

Bushey. The girls explained their understanding of

how the police help us, with examples of how their

families have been supported. They asked many

questions and at the end of the enjoyable session they

certainly understood more about how the police help

us.

Today has been the delightful Year 4 assembly and the Nicholson cake

sale (for the Upper Prep), as well as being Mufti Day, in aid of the Save

the Children Nepal Earthquake fund. More about each of these events in

the next Newsletter.

After half term we have even more events interspersed between all of the

important teaching and learning.

Sports Day An event, starting at 2pm on the Senior School playing field,

led by the Games department, involving every child in the Prep School.

The children will need to bring in their water bottle and wear their PE kit,

but with a plain t-shirt in their House colour.

Gordon = blue Nicholson = green Raleigh = red Wesley = yellow

The Year 6s will be off on a residential to Wiltshire to take part in team

building activities at the PGL camp.

The Informal Concert will involve invited Upper Prep pupils playing their

instrument to the Lower Prep children. Your daughter will have brought

home a letter today if she has been invited to play.

The ‘Big First Aid Lesson’ with St John

Ambulance is a specially designed 1

hour course for primary aged pupils

involving our pupils in Years 3 - 5

participating in a national event to learn

about how to keep safe and teach the

skills how to deal with and treat minor

accidents.

Living Eggs Mrs Walsgrove has organised for a set of live eggs to be

delivered. They will be kept in the Science Room and all pupils will be

able to see them and hopefully see the eggs hatch. This will undoubtedly

be a memorable experience as we are sure that everyone will be touched

to see a chick hatching.

During the whole Prep School Maths Morning all of the children will be

involved in a variety of activities.

The Upper Prep Swimming Gala is always a delightful event with the girls

competing against each other in Houses to score points for their team.

Due to the lack of space we are not able to invite parents to this event.

In the middle of June as part of the Father’s Day celebrations and

following fathers asking if there was an event for them (Mothers, you had

the Mother’s Day/Special Person Assembly in March), we are inviting

fathers into the Upper Prep Dining Room between 8 - 9am to have

breakfast with their daughter. Please e-mail Mrs Daws

(prepoffice@smbushey.com) to book a place.

Induction Morning is a great morning when the children move up into

their next class to have lessons with the teacher who will be their Form

Teacher in September. This is also an opportunity for those who will be

new in September to join us and to begin forging those friendships that

we hope will last a life time.

Mrs C Aisthorpe

Head of St. Margaret’s Preparatory School

Certificate

CONGRATULATIONS to…

Anna (Y3) Maya (Y3)

Year 6 have a variety of events planned for them to help continue to

develop skills and encourage teamwork and decision making. Events

this year include a visit to Reveley Lodge, a charity bake off and

swimming survival lessons.

Our annual Celebration of Achievements Ceremony is on Thursday 26th

June 9.30 - 10.30 am in the Sports Hall. After the ceremony parents are

invited to stay for refreshments before the girls resume lessons. We

would be delighted for you to attend to share in your daughter’s

celebration of her achievements this year. There will be a letter about

this nearer the time.

At the end of term we are organising environmental walks and picnics

for the Lower and Upper Prep separately. These are annual events

celebrating the summer environment and wildlife and are always hugely

enjoyable.

The Year 2 Scooter lesson was such a success last year that we decided

to organise the event again for this year. The Y2 children will need to

bring in their scooter and helmet. Please do not go and buy one if you do

not have one as we do have some in school. There will be a letter about

this nearer the time.

My goodness, what a wealth of opportunities in addition to all of the

classroom and Co-Curricular experiences! I hope that you have a

wonderful half term.

STAR AWARD

for 120 commendations Afrah (Y4) Ishiya (Y3)

Kaiyana (Y3) Melina (Y3) Sienna (Y4)

June

1st 08:30 Term resumes

1st-5th

Upper Prep Exam Week

9th 14:00-15:30 Prep School Sports Day

10th-12th

Year 6 PGL residential trip

11th 14:45-15:15 Informal Concert for Lower Prep children

15th Upper Prep Swimming Gala

16th Year 3 visit to Whipsnade Zoo

Year 6 visit to Reveley Lodge (morning)

Senior School Junior Concert (featuring Years 5 & 6)

18th 08:00-09:00 Father’s Day Breakfast – RSVP please

19th Induction Day

22nd-26th

Year 6 Swimming Survival Week

23rd 08:45-09:00 Year 6 Class Assembly – Parents Invited

24th 14:00-14:30 Wesley Cake Sale (Upper Prep only)

25th 09:30-10:30 Prep Celebration of Achievements Ceremony, Sports Centre

27th 19:00 – late Connections Grand Summer Ball

30th 15:45-16:05 Lower Prep Zumba Show,Upper Prep Hall

16:15-16:45 Upper Prep Zumba Show, Upper Prep Hall

July

1st Upper Prep Summer Picnic & Walk

2nd 10:30-11:30 Year 2 Scooter Training

3rd 14:00 Term Ends

020 8416 4501

prepoffice@smbushey.com

Dates

Lower Prep

Lower Prep had an

absolutely amazing day

out at Aldenham Country

Park on Tuesday.

Some of us went on a bear

hunt, while others were

finding bugs and looking

carefully to find the three

body parts: the head,

thorax and abdomen.

We had great fun on the monkey nets seeing how far up

we could go, fed the chickens, were licked by calves,

loved the baby bunnies (which are called kittens),

spotted reindeer and 'aaghed' at the lambs, all before

lunch!

After we had eaten we set out for the 100 Acre Wood to

play Pooh sticks on the bridge, hunt the heffalump, have

tea at Pooh corner, play in Roo's sandy pit and go on an

expedition to the North Pole; all between rain showers.

What a lot to fit into a day, it's

no wonder some of us fell

asleep on the coach on the way

back to school!

Thank you Mrs Jolley for

organising such a great day out.

Year 3 As the half term comes to an end it is time to celebrate many more achievements and successes. We have worked very hard to develop our story writing. We have been typing up our Easter Chick stories and we are going to make a class book of them all. When it is finished and ready to read it will be exciting to see them all. We have been enjoying our Art lessons and have been learning to draw faces. We have been paying attention to the position of the features and practising drawing them. We all know that practice makes perfect! We have to look carefully and draw what we see. We will continue with this after half term and keep working to improve our skills. It is exciting to see how much we are improving.

Happy half term everybody.

Year 4

On Friday some girls from Year 4 decided they would have a Cake Sale.

The aim was to raise money to give to people in Nepal who have been

affected by the earthquake. The girls put up posters, talked to classes,

and made a lot of cakes! Altogether the total amount raised was £132.19

which was an amazing achievement.

Well done to the following girls who contributed to the cake sale: Chuwen, Sarah, Sienna, Elif, Anais, Lucy and Afrah. You should all be very proud of yourselves. Thank you too, to all the parents who beavered

away, making cakes.

Year 5 This week Year 5 had the opportunity to perform their assembly piece in front of girls in Upper Prep and their parents. We took the audience on a journey through the Museum of Victorian Childhood where they could see what life was like for a range of young people from that era. The girls acted each part to a very high standard; managed scene changes with great professionalism; and sang the accompanying songs beautifully.

How this term is flying by!

The girls have been presenting their ‘Women during

World War 2’ talks this week and we have even more to

enjoy next week. Well done to those who have already

presented their work; we have learned just how women

took on some of the more traditionally male jobs and then

often had to hand them back, when the war came to an

end. Very interesting.

We have also been learning how to write play scripts, and

after half term we may get a chance to perform them to the

class.

Much of our week has been taken up with maths revision,

so the girls should be able to enjoy the half term sunshine,

confident that they have put in the hard work this year.

Year 6