Prep Newsletter Friday 27th February

2015

Dear Parents and Friends,

I hope that you had a lovely half term and were able to relax and spend

some family time together. The girls have certainly returned re-energised

and as you can see in this week‟s Newsletter, school life continues at its

usual busy, exciting pace. The Reception Class loved going on a bear

hunt on Wednesday, despite the drizzly weather. They even found the

bear and wrote about their experiences afterwards. Can you remember

your favourite toys and books from when you were a child? Discussions

were certainly lively in the Year 1 class this week when they were talking

about this.

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Teaching about instructions

can be quite a dry subject,

so Miss Pares livened the

English lessons this week

and the class discovered

that it‟s always best to read

the instructions before they

start to follow them. How

many times have we not

done this and had

interesting results?

Consolidation of the learning

in school continued for Year

3 on Tuesday when they

visited Verulamium to

explore and discover more

about the Romans. What a

fabulous time they had!

Working hard is one of our St Margaret‟s values and Chuwen and

Karisma in Year 4 took this on board totally by „going the extra mile‟ to

compile a project about Chinese New Year. All too often we do the

required work, but how many of us go above and beyond what is

expected? Year 5 were expected to work hard with their families to learn

more about their family tree. The results are amazing, so please have a

look in their classroom and the wonderful display. With the upcoming

General Election Year 6 have certainly been developing and extending

their knowledge about politics and British values. Following their

research I am very much looking forward to their debate and taking part

in the voting.

Thank you for your support with the Sponsored

Spell. The children have all been tested. The winners

from each class, in each House in Years 3 - 6 will go

forward to the semi-final, and the winner of each

House will enter the Spelling Bee final on Thursday.

Please would you return any sponsor money to your

child‟s class teacher as soon as possible.

This week we welcomed

prospective parents to take a tour

of the Prep School with some of

our children in Years 5 and 6. I had

so many positive comments

regarding how polite and delightful

our girls are and how they

enthusiastically painted a

wonderful picture of life at St

Margaret‟s. Each and every tour

guide was a true credit to the

school and to their family. Our

numbers continue to be very

positive for next academic year

with many prospective parents

having been recommended our

school by friends and family. Thank

you for your support and please

continue to spread the positive

messages about St Margaret‟s.

Next week is World Book Week so in school there will be many

opportunities to participate in discussions, hear book reviews and take

part in a variety of activities to continue to encourage the children's love

of reading. This culminates on Friday with coming in to school dressed

as their favourite book character. Please do not feel that you have to

Spring Soiree

Our Prep School Soiree is on Tuesday 5 - 6pm involving all children in

Years 2 - 6. The Year 2‟s will be playing their violins, we have a variety of

soloists, a couple of Speech and Drama plays, the orchestra will be

playing and the Prep School choir will sing. It is anticipated that this will

be a lovely hour of music and drama. The children may stay in school

until the concert and they will be fully supervised. A letter is in your

daughter‟s book folder giving more information about this. We would be

delighted if you would join us to hear and support the children.

buy an outfit especially and if you are stuck for ideas please visit

http://www.netmums.com/activities/fun-at-home/dressing-up-ideas. For

more information about World Book Week please visit

http://worldbookday.com/ as there are so many ideas that you can use at

home too. On Friday we will be holding the „Mad Hatter‟s Tea Party‟ at

lunchtime with a variety of healthy party foods that children have

requested.

Later on in the term…

Today you will have received an email about the Parent Consultation

Evenings in March. This is an opportunity for you to hear of your

daughter‟s successes and progress in school and areas for

development. We work very hard with each girl to ensure her academic,

social and personal development, often seeing children during

lunchtimes to provide further support or challenge. There will also be

visits out of school for Year 4, 5 and 6. LAMDA Speech and Drama

exams take place towards the end of term and I hope that the girls are

practising at home, as per their teacher‟s instructions and then on 25th

March we invite you to „Our Special People‟ Assembly - again more

about this nearer the time.

Mrs C Aisthorpe

Head of St. Margaret’s Preparatory School

020 8416 4501 prepoffice@smbushey.com

Commendation

CONGRATULATIONS TO…

Caitlin (Y6)

Hannah (Y5)

Certificate

CONGRATULATIONS to…

Yukie (Y6)

Communication

As you are aware we value communication with parents, seeing positive

benefits when the triad of child, parent and teacher works in harmony.

We do have an open door policy, but I am aware that due to busy lives

some parents are not always able to come into school as often as they

would wish. If you are not able to pop in at drop off or pick up time,

please email your question, thoughts or information that we need to

know about your child to the Prep Office, addressed to the teacher

concerned, who will reply within 24 hours during the working day.

I am also aware of the powers of social media. If you have a concern

about an aspect of school life please contact the relevant person in

school. Inherent in all our teaching, both in and out of the classroom, is

respect. As role models we aim to set a good example to our children

whose behaviour can be learned by what they see and hear. Age

appropriate teaching allows us to teach the children to understand how

they come across to others and encourage each to take into account the

views and sensitivities of others. Therefore please contact the school in

the first instance if you have a question, thought or information, as by

working together we will understand the bigger picture and ensure the

best for your child and the school.

March

2nd-6th

World Book Week

3rd 17:00-18:00 Prep School Spring Soiree

6th Book Character Fancy Dress Day – come to school dressed as your favourite character

9th Year 5 Victorian Day

10th 16:00-19:00 Upper Prep Parent/Teacher Consultation Evening

11th 16:00-19:00 Lower Prep Parent/Teacher Consultation Evening

12th Year 4 visit to Science Museum

13th Years 5 & 6 – visiting author, Caroline Lawrence

16th Year 6 visit to RAF Hendon

18th-20th

LAMDA exams

25th 09:00-09:45 Prep School – “Our Special People” Assembly, Senior School Hall

27th 14:00 Term Ends

Dates

020 8416 4501 prepoffice@smbushey.com

Book Day 2014

Reception

This week we have been on an adventure and have

been using our imaginations. We hunted high and

low as we enjoyed our very own “bear hunt”, our

bear was found warm and dry in the wendy house!

Miss King

Year 1 This week we

have started

thinking about

toys both old

and new. Some

toys like

footballs and

dolls houses

we still play

with, as did our

parents and

grandparents.

However, many

of the toys we

have now had

nt been

invented

during our

parents'

childhoods.

This week we

have played

with some old

and new toys.

Mrs Jolley

Year 2

Miss Pares

Year 2 have been thinking hard about the

order of instructions. The girls were

given a muddled up cake recipe to write

out correctly. See if you can work it out -

answers next week!

Chop the fat and rub into the flour

until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Bake in a moderate oven for 25

minutes.

Spoon the mixture quickly into the

greased tin.

Add the sugar.

Eat it all up for tea!

Slowly fold in the beaten eggs.

Sieve the flour into the basin.

Weigh out the ingredients.

Year 3 On Tuesday Year 3 visited

Verulamium Museum and

Amphitheatre. We were all

very excited because we

absolutely love History

and we were very keen to

see lots of Roman

artefacts in the Museum.

When we arrived we had a

“Handling Session” with a

lady called Judith. We

were able to touch and

investigate lots of

artefacts and some

replicas. We saw building

objects, a variety of

things to make people

beautiful, things that

would be found in a

kitchen and objects that

were used in food

preparation. It was great

fun and we had to think

like detectives in order to

work things out from

clues. Luckily we have

learnt a lot in class and

we remembered many

things. It was wonderful

to see and touch things

that had been found by

archaeologists and were

used by the Romans 2,000

years ago!

Mrs Franklin

After the session in the classroom we had a look around the Museum. It was fun to see so many interesting things. The mosaics were amazing! We had a delicious lunch, a good sit down and a rest before we

went over the road to the

Amphitheatre. The

Amphitheatre is an exciting

place to be. While we were

walking around we felt as if we

could hear the crowds cheering

and shouting for their favourite

gladiators.

After a look around the remains of some Roman shops and a villa, we went into the park and had a look at the lake. We saw the ducks and swans looking for food. The sun even came out for us. It was a lovely day and one that I am sure we will all remember.

Year 4

Chuwen and

Karisma did an

amazing

presentation on

Chinese New Year

with the class.

They told us about

the history and

origin of Chinese

New Year and what

the traditions are

during this

celebratory part of

the year. Chuwen

brought in items

that are related to

Chinese New Year

and told us about

them and what they

mean. They both

worked very hard

on the project

which took them

around 2 months to

prepare!

Miss Smith

In Year 5 in PSHE we are examining different groups to understand how people‟s lifestyles differ according to the communities to which they belong. The girls were asked to complete a project researching their family history to gain a greater understanding of any differences and similarities in celebrations, festivals, food and dress. Their response has been fascinating:

Year 5

Miss Caher

Camille told us about her

Grandad who was

awarded a knighthood

for his work with kidney transplants.

Suzie learned that her uncle was born in a

refugee camp in Cyprus after the war with

Turkey, which made her feel very proud of

her grandma and appreciate how lucky

they were to survive the invasion.

Bryony had not

realised her

ancestry included

Italian and

Spanish heritage.

Rebecca found on that her

grandmother was only 14 when

she first met her granddad, and

they were married for 54 years!

Nikita found it

astounding that her

grandma’s great, great

grandmother’s brother

had one blue and one

brown eye!

Arabella solved the puzzle

about her family’s names; ever

since her great grandfather

Alfred died, everyone in her

family was given a name

beginning with the letter A.

In the run up to the general election, Year 6 have been studying politics in PSHE lessons. They have learned about how Parliament works, researched the main political parties, found out about the House of Lords and Commons and about how The Monarchy fits into our political system.

Year 6

Mrs Charlesworth

This term the class will be learning how to debate – just like the real MPs. They will be split into three parties and will discuss education. It should be an interesting discussion.