Prep Newsletter Friday

29th January 2016

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Dear Parents,

Behaviour

This week we have reminded the children about good behaviour and

being our best self to ensure that we ‘treat others as you would wish to

be treated’.

What is good behaviour? Treat others as you would wish to be treated ~ Be organised

Know the difference between right and wrong Be kind and caring ~ Be respectful, honest and polite

Behave maturely ~ Work to the best of your ability Be a role model ~ Recognise there are limits and rules

Accept responsibility for your actions ~ Listen and follow instructions

We believe that children want to be good and it

is our job to ‘catch’ them at it. On a daily basis

there is so much that is good and through

assemblies, lessons and indeed all areas of

school life, we promote and celebrate this.

Parents are the first educators of our children

and in partnership with parents the emphasis

must always be on promoting good behaviour.

At St Margaret’s we have high expectations for

pupil conduct and through working

collaboratively we can ensure that these high

standards are maintained. Courtesy, good manners and consideration for

others, together with self-discipline and a proper respect for authority

and safety are encouraged at all times and are important for our school

to be a true, caring community.

With the girls in assembly we discussed what good behaviour is and

came to a consensus of opinion. We will continue this theme in future

assemblies and keep you up to date.

School Council

This week we held our first School Council meeting of the

term with Mansi (Reception), Dyana (Year 1), Sia (Year 2),

Zoya (Year 3), Anya (Year 4), Sienna (Year 5) and Amisha

(Year 6) in attendance to express their class’s views on

certain topics. The meeting was overseen by our Head and

Deputy Head Girls Ami, Kalyani and Bryony.

The first agenda item was to update the Prep School’s

‘Golden Rules’. Sienna suggested that ‘No interrupting and

Listen to adults’ was included and Amisha agreed saying

that the rules should also include ‘Don’t open the door for

strangers’ and change ‘Don’t waste people’s time’ to ‘Don’t

take up people’s time’. As everyone agreed that the poster

needs to be more eye catching, Ami, Kalyani and Bryony

have been tasked with this job. We will see the final updated

‘Golden Rules’ poster in a future Newsletter.

The School Council were given £200 to spend and asked

their class how they felt the money would be best spent.

Ideas included Year 1 wanting a bigger garden and Years 3,

4 and 5 wanting more wet playtime games and outside toys.

However they voted 9 - 10 that more money should be raised

for an end of year workshop. Ideas for workshops currently

include animals, art, electronic games, cookery, a magician

and a skipping workshop. First the School Council need to

decide how they will raise at least another £400 and decide

which workshop they think all of the Prep School girls would

benefit from/like...

We also had a positive discussion about the food at St

Margaret’s. The girls have requested hot chocolate at break

times and a variety of fruit. At lunchtime noodles and wraps

were popular with Fish Friday being on a rota with pizza,

nuggets and hot dogs. We are a healthy school but the girls

would like an opportunity to be a little unhealthy at times!

Themed lunches were discussed and we heard ideas for 101

Dalmatians, a Pancake Day and a Roald Dahl themed lunch!

Mufti Days are always popular and the decision for what we

Mufti Days are always popular and the decision for what we will be

wearing on Friday 12th February was made - onesies. Please do not go

out and buy one especially for the mufti day.

At the end of the School Council meeting the reps were asked to bring up

any other business. A popular comment came from Sienna (Year 5) who

suggested that we invite parents to talk in assembly about their religion.

What a great idea! If you are interested, please let me know.

‘Going the extra mile’

I regularly ask if any children have gone ‘the extra mile’ and this week

Chuwen in Year 5 was so inspired by her Science lesson that she

designed and carried out 2 experiments at home. The class had been

learning about insulation materials. Chuwen’s first experiment was to find

out: Does different insulation affect water temperature? Chuwen used 4

beakers and taped a different material to each (cotton, plastic, paper, fur).

She poured an equal amount of boiling water in each and each minute

measured the water temperature. Chuwen discovered that fur was the

best insulator because the water stayed warmer for longer.

Does insulation affect ice melting? For this experiment Chuwen took a

piece of tablecloth, fur and plastic, wrapping each around a beaker. The

fourth beaker was not wrapped with any material. She shared the ice

equally between the beakers and observed the ice every 5 minutes for 1

hour. She discovered that the ice inside the beakers lined with fur and

plastic melted more quickly than the uncovered beaker and the one

covered with the table cloth.

Chuwen then tabulated her results into a scatter graph.

In addition this week Chuwen presented a

PowerPoint about Chinese New Year to her

class, how Chinese people celebrate the

occasion and what they eat. We are always

thrilled when girls talk about their cultural

background and can tell us stories, explain

meanings and show us interesting items.

Chuwen certainly did this, again, proving that

she is an exceptional student who works

above and beyond expectations at school.

Mufti Day

On Friday 12th February we encourage all of our Prep School pupils to

come into school in mufti. Lower Prep children may wear their home

clothes with sensible shoes, appropriate for school. The Upper Prep

decided to wear their onesies again. Please do not go out and buy one

especially. If your daughter does not have one, she may come in home

clothes appropriate to school. All girls will need their school coat, hat

and gloves. As Year 2 will have their Swimming lesson as usual please

ensure that the mufti she wears is easily removed and put back on again.

Year 6 will have PE as usual.

Projects

I mentioned in a previous Newsletter that I would be very keen for our

pupils to do a self-directed project about something they are very

interested in. Your daughter can select a topic, do some research to

develop her ideas and organise the information into a finished product

which could be a talk, PowerPoint presentation, collage, model, piece of

artwork, computer based presentation, fashion show, photographic

montage, dance or written report. During the project a range of skills will

be used which may include interviewing others, finding information from

books and the internet, note taking and/or writing up findings.

Undoubtedly a number of extremely important skills such as problem

solving, making decisions, thinking critically, creatively and flexibly and

presenting the project to a selected audience will be involved, leading to

a final product of which your daughter feels proud.

How to organise the project:

Select an area of interest.

Make a mind map of what is already known.

Add in questions that you would like to find answers to.

Research the answers using a range of sources.

Begin to organise the project, considering how you would like to

present it and who your audience will be...

Complete the project.

Deliver the project / presentation.

Mrs C Aisthorpe

Head of St. Margaret’s Preparatory School

Congratulations Lower Prep Star of the Week

(last week)

Reception: Alexa

Year 1: Morayo

Year 2: Ore

Achievement

We are very excited to learn that Scarlet, Year 4, has some

exciting news! After some recent tough battles in the

British Championship and the Junior Four Nations Chess

League Scarlet has received her new grades.

She is currently ranked 11th

in England for Under 9 girls in

rapidplay and 5th

in England for Under 9 girls in longplay.

Scarlet has even entered the top 100 Under 14 girls long play

competition.

Over the next fortnight we have a number of exciting events:

Monday 1st

- Upper Prep Swimming Gala in our swimming pool.

Thursday 4th

- Year 2 - 6 Spring Concert - parents invited - Letter home

today.

Monday 8th

- Upper Prep Lunchtime Concert - performers parents

invited - Letter home today.

Thursday 11th - Valentine’s Disco for Lower and Upper Prep - Letter

home today.

Friday 12th

- Mufti Day. Half Term commences - finish at usual time. After

School Club will run as usual.

Radio 2’s 500 Words

competition

We encourage each girl to enter

this wonderful competition. Last

year Heeya in Year 5 entered

and was a semi-finalist! This

year we would like as many of

our pupils to enter as this

develops her literacy skills and

is just a great thing to do! For

more information please visit

www.bbc.co.uk/500words . If

you do enter please let us know.

February

1st Upper Prep Swimming Gala

4th 17:00-18:00 Preparatory School Spring Concert (No M:tech, Gymnastics, Ballet)

8th 13:00-13:30 Upper Prep Lunchtime Concert

11th 15:30-16:45 Lower Prep Valentine’s Disco - £3 (no Co-Curricular Activities)

17:00-18:45 Upper Prep Valentine’s Disco - £3 (no Co-Curricular Activities)

12th Mufti Day - £2 Half Term commences

22nd Term recommences

22nd-26th

Prep School Sponsored Spelling Week

25th 09:30-12:00 School at Work Open Morning

29th-4th

Prep School World Book Week

March

1st

St David’s Day- girls may come to school wearing their Rainbow/Brownies/Guides/Beavers/Cubs/ Scouts uniform.

1st Year 6 visit to Lincolnsfield Centre (school uniform)

2ns 13:30-14:00 Upper Prep Inter House Spelling Bee

3rd Year 5 visit to St Albans Abbey

4th Prep School “Dress up as your favourite book character”

7th 16:15-17:20 Years 5 & 6 Netball v St Hilda’s (Home)

8th 09:00-09:45 Mother’s Day Assembly, Senior School Hall

10th Lower Prep Environmental Day

16th Year 4 visit to Water Works

Dates

Reception

“

In Reception

Class we have

been learning all

about

Cinderella. We

have written our

very own

invitations, made

beautiful tiaras

and held a

fantastic

‘Cinderella Ball.’

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Year 1

“

In Year 1 we have enjoyed story writing. Just

look at these wonderful pieces of writing and

amazing artwork. Well done Year 1!

Year 2

“

After admiring all the wonderful

houses that Year 2 made, Miss

Pares will be speaking to an

architect soon to see if a

combination of these designs

can be created for her. Ideally

she would like a tennis court and

swimming pool in the grounds,

energy provided by solar panels

and a covered roof top jacuzzi!

Year 3

“

We have been busy designing umbrellas. We looked at a

variety of designs on different umbrellas and discussed

the patterns. After thinking what designs we wanted, and

looking at the various things that we had which we could

use for decoration, we created our designs. We were able

to use buttons, doilies, feathers, sequins and other little

treasures.

It was fun to make our designs and we felt proud and

happy when we had finished.

With the storm that is just arriving across The Atlantic we

would be pleased to have another umbrella! The only

problem is the rain might blow them away if they were

real!

It was fun to make our designs

and we felt proud and happy

when we had finished.

With the storm that is just

arriving across The Atlantic

we would be pleased to have

another umbrella! The only

problem is the rain might blow

them away if they were real!

Alliteration

During Writing

Year 4 discussed

alliteration. In

groups we created

sentences using

alliteration.

Year 4

“

The silly squirrel sat on the soaked sofa.

A parrot peeked through a pink prickly hole.

The rude rabbit ran through the wrinkly floor.

The treacherous tiger told Tracy to try.

The obnoxious octopus opened his owl eyes.

The squeaky squirrel told Scarlet to scare the bear.

The dodgy dolphin dived in the deep dark ocean.

The pink parrot pecked the purple peanut to play with Priya.

The plump pig playfully picked the yummy plums.

A scary spider spun the web in the cellar.

The remarkable rabbit ruined the running race.

The terrifying tiger trembled terribly through the trees.

The orange octopus plays the oboe in the orchestra.

The dangerous dog dug under the dirty ground.

The creepy, creative cat crawled through the cold tunnel.

The lucky lion looked at the lumpy lamb.

The fat frog frowned in the flowery field.

The smelly spider climbed up the silver spout.

Year 5

Year 5 have been

writing some

fabulous stories in

their creative

writing lessons.

The stimulus was a

bunch of keys. The

girls discussed their

ideas with a talk

partner to help them

clarify their ideas

and then recorded

them on a story

plan prior to writing

them. The stories

the girls wrote were

fast paced and

imaginative and

there was lots of

exciting vocabulary

included to add

interest for the

reader.A brilliant

effort girls - well

done!

In Year 6 we have been

continuing our studies of

World War 2. In a recent

lesson we learned about

the miraculous

evacuation of soldiers

from Northern France and

the notable ‘Dunkirk

spirit’ of the many people

who came in boats of all

sizes despite the many

dangers. It is a theme of

St Margaret’s to always

believe you can

overcome anything,

particularly if you work as

a team and this piece of

history represents that

ideal perfectly.

We have also been

exploring life in Britain

during the war and the

girls have been

discussing the idea of

rationing and what it

would have been like for

families at this time. Gas-

masks became part of

everyday life at this time

and the girls had the

opportunity to try some

on; needless to say they

were not hugely

impressed by the feel or

smell of these.

Year 6

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