prep newsletter - friday 30th january
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Prep Newsletter Friday 30th
January 2015
Dear Parents,
Keeping Safe
As part of our curriculum to help children to be even safer we have been
encouraging and teaching them to be safe, whether at home, on the
computer, outside in town or at school. Therefore this week we began
with the topic of ‘Stranger Danger’. As parents and teachers we want and
need our children to be safe at all times. With the number of high profile
cases in the media and having up to date news available 24/7 we
understandably are concerned. However these cases are rare and we
need to remain grounded. It is important that we teach children about
stranger awareness and give them the skills to stay safe, be responsible
and know how to protect themselves in an uncomfortable or unsafe
situation. As parents and teachers we can help by talking with our
children on their level, answering their questions, according to their age
and level of maturity, about what they can do.
In assembly this week we learned about the kind of strangers who are
safe for children to speak to if they are faced with such a situation. It is
important that we do not scare children; rather that we give them skills
needed to stay safe. We talked about:
who safe strangers are e.g.police officers, traffic
wardens, shopkeepers, shop assistants and others.
which are safe buildings e.g. banks, post offices,
libraries, medical centres, shops, supermarkets, leisure
centres, and others.
what to do if they get lost, feel unsafe or if a trusted
adult is not around by looking for as safe stranger or go
into a safe building to ask for help.
In school we regularly risk assess to ensure that our children are safe in
and around school. Supervision is key and our adult to child ratio is high.
Useful links for parents:
http://www.childnet.com/kia/parents - Childnet’s Know it All for Parents
resource CD – available in 10 languages.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents - CEOP’s website – aimed at
parents including videos and a webcast.
http://www.childalert.co.uk/ safety - out and about - stranger danger
http://www.netmums.com/ Essential safety for kids: Stranger Danger
Most important, whilst keeping our children safe, is to allow our children
to be children.
What can parents do when you feel your child is ready?
(These are common sense and in no way am I trying to teach ‘grandma to
suck eggs’.)
Ensure your daughter knows her phone number and address.
Discuss safe people and safe places in a positive relaxed way.
Discuss never going off with anyone without telling you (or a trusted
adult) first.
Help your child become accustomed to and aware of her local area -
well lit roads, avoiding shortcuts etc.
Teach your child road safety rules and safe conduct for walking,
scootering or cycling.
Enable her to understand why it is not safe to walk whilst on the
phone or listening to loud music
All pupils are regularly taught and reminded
how they can keep themselves and others safe
and know that they can talk with any adult in
school about a concern. I am very grateful to all
of our staff who always put our children first
and demonstrate warmth, understanding and
compassion - they certainly do go above and
beyond to care for every individual.
Chess Tournament by Yukie and Anika (Year 6)
Lunchtime concert
Congratulations to all the girls who participated in this lovely, informal
event. For some this was their first performance to an audience and for a
couple of girls this was an opportunity to demonstrate what they had
learned after only 11 lessons. All performances were played with
confidence and every girl should be incredibly proud of her achievement
in the concert. The audience of parents and friends certainly enhanced
the atmosphere and were very appreciative. Well done to:
Beatrice (Y3) violin
Iman (Y3) violin and piano
Karisma (Y4) violin
Chuwen (Y4) piano
Charlotte (Y4) harp
Afrah (Y4) violin
Hannah (Y5) piano
Ami (Y5) violin
Angel (Y5) alto saxophone
Camille (Y5) piano
Anjali (Y5) violin
Kalyani (Y5) flute
Amisha (Y5) piano
Aryana (Y5) guitar
Mia (Y5) alto saxophone
Yoana (Y6) singing
Our Chess Team attended the Hertfordshire County Chess Tournament on Wednesday 28th January. This was the second round (there are three rounds altogether) and at the end of the third round the team with the most points will win. Everybody in our team played their best and tried hard. In the first match we had two wins and climbed up the leader board. We all hope to play even better in the final round. Congratulations to our team: Scarlet (Y3), Sarah (Y4), Chuwen (Y4), Lucy (Y4), Ami (Y5), Anika (Y6) and Yukie (Y6).
Sports News by Milly and Yoana (Y6)
On Monday 26 January, Year 5 and 6 girls took part
in a netball match against Reddiford.
Although we put in a lot of effort, due to Reddiford’s
amazing skills, the results were 7:4 to Reddiford. It
was a pleasure to play against the school and we
are sure our team would love to play another
rematch soon.
Spotlight on… MFL (Modern Foreign Languages)
In the Prep School we follow the ‘Discovering Languages’ programme
which arouses an interest and leads to wider cultural awareness than if
the children learned one language. It adds value to literacy work and
contributes to the pupil’s general communication skills. Through
learning a variety of languages the children gain a strong foundation in
how language works, how languages differ but also how they resemble
each other and encourages each to use terminology that is required to
understand grammar and language structures at an appropriate level.
Our girls clearly enjoy learning a variety of languages throughout their
time in the Preparatory School and gain an appreciation of other
languages and cultures. This academic year we are teaching:
Year 1 - Mandarin Year 2 - French Year 3 - German
Year 4 - Spanish Year 5 - Spanish and Latin
Year 6 - Mandarin and Discovering Languages programme
Information Technology is frequently used in the MFL
lessons and this week Year 4 were really engaged
playing the Linguascope online memory game. Year 2
followed up their visit to the National Portrait Gallery
when Mrs Hammond emphasised the cultural aspect
and introduced the most famous Museum in Paris, Le
Louvre. They looked at paintings by Monet and as the
girls are also learning about fashion in the past, they
looked at a picture of the artist and discussed many
aspects which included revising colours in French.
Mrs C Aisthorpe
Head of St. Margaret’s Preparatory School
Commendation
CONGRATULATIONS TO…
Afrah (Y4) Kaiyana (Y3)
Ruby (Y5) Suzie (Y4)
Certificate
CONGRATULATIONS to…
Ishiya (Y3) Melina (Y3) Remi (Y3)
In the next fortnight…
Good luck to our Year 5 + 6 Netball teams when they play 2
matches, one home and one away.
Good luck too to our Quiz Team in the area heat of the Quiz Club.
Internet Safety week begins on the 9th February. In assemblies,
class and ICT lessons all pupils will learn more about being safe
when online and taking responsibility.
PCSO Ainsley will talk with the girls during this week about how
they can keep safe in a variety of situations.
Our Lower Prep Valentine’s Party and Upper Prep Valentine’s
Disco are on Thursday 12th February. Today you will have
received an email about these events.
Mufti Day in aid of Comic Relief 2015 is on Friday 13th February.
On this occasion the girls have decided that they would like to
wear their home clothes. This is the day when we can wear our red
noses! Part of their advertising campaign this year is to make a
funny face for money. We welcome your daughter designing and
making her own mask to wear on Mufti Day and will celebrate all
funny face masks in assembly.
Please see www.rednoseday.com for more details.
Congratulations: Iman (Y3) for passing her grade 1 violin.
Reception
This week we have
been using our
imaginations to write
our very own fairy tales
using a story planner.
The results were
wonderful, here are two
for you to enjoy.
Miss King
Year 1 Year 1 have been learning about 3 dimensional shapes
this week. On Tuesday they created wonderful cubes and
pyramids using Blu Tack and straws. They watched
carefully while the task was explained and demonstrated
and then set about making their own. It took a great deal
of skill and determination but every girl succeeded in the
challenge and some went even further to build triangular
prisms. It was so impressive to observe their
concentration levels while they were measuring their
straws and assembling their models. The results were
fabulous.
Mrs Jolley
tf
Year 2
Miss Pares
The computer consultants of tomorrow, hard at
work. Today they are honing their word processing
skills but who knows what the future may have in
store. . . .
Year 3
Amazing Art in Year 3 We had a wonderful Art lesson this week. We have begun to learn about the work of Pablo Picasso. We looked at some of his pictures and discussed what we could see. The girls had never seen pictures painted in the Cubist style. They were rather shocked and wanted to know lots more about them. By looking carefully at them we began to understand what they were showing and the ideas behind them.
Remi thought that they were “rather scary and weird.”
Neha thought that “they were funny and spooky.” Anna liked them and thought that they were pretty. One thing is for sure, everyone agreed that they are unusual. After lots of discussion everyone settled down to look at one of the pictures carefully and try to draw it. Once they got started the work was amazing and some of the results are fantastic.
Mrs Franklin
Shriya said “When I was
about to draw I felt scared
but when I started drawing
I was really proud of
myself.”
Lots of girls agreed that they thought it would be really hard and they felt confused at the beginning. However, when they started drawing they could do it. Next week we are going to create more pictures in the cubist style and paint them. How exciting to learn about something so unusual!
In Year 4 we
have been
learning all
about time. We
made clocks
to help us with
telling the time
and learn the
difference
between ‘to’
and ‘past’.
Miss Smith
Year 4
We created some colourful clocks. Please come in
and see them. Try to figure out what the time on each
clock is!
Year 5
Year 5 have begun researching a famous Victorian as part of our History studies. They will be collecting as much information as they can; creating a PowerPoint slideshow before presenting their findings to their classmates in a few weeks’ time. Here are a few interesting facts they have found out this week:
Ms Caher
Alexander Graham Bell was
a famous inventor but also
a scientist and engineer.
Camille
Grace Darling was
born 24th November
1815 in her
grandfather’s cottage.
Nikita
Florence Nightingale
was named after a
town in the country
she was born in.
Bryony Sadly, one of Charles Dickens
daughters only lived for a
year.
Aryana
Lewis Carroll wrote the famous
book ‘Alice in Wonderland’, but
there is also a sequel called
‘Through the Looking Glass’
Kalyani
Marie Curie was the first
woman to win the Nobel Prize
Hannah
Thomas Edison was responsible for
helping us all to see more clearly as he
invented the electric light bulb.
Marina
Grace Darling became famous
because she helped her dad save
many lives when a ship sunk.
Ruby
Isabella Beeton was famous for
writing the first ever cookery book
and died on the 6th February 1836.
Rebecca
David Livingstone was a
missionary who travelled to
other countries to encourage
others to become Christian.
Mia
新年好呀
Mrs Charlesworth
Year 6 are still celebrating New Year – Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year of the goat will be celebrated on 19 February 2015. People born in a year of the Goat (1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015) are generally
Year 6
believed to be gentle mild-mannered, shy, stable, sympathetic, amicable, and brimming with a strong sense of kind-heartedness and justice. 6C have made lanterns representing the moon, decorated calendars and have learned about Chinese celebrations at this time of year. Happy New Year !
February
2nd 16:15-17:30 Years 5&6 Netball vs Northwood College (home)
5th 2.00-3.00pm Prep School Quiz Club Area Heat
9th-13th
Internet Safety Week
12th 3.30-5.00pm Lower Prep Valentine’s Party
12th 5.15-6.45pm Upper Prep Valentine’s Disco
13th Mufti Day
12:30-2.00pm Gordon Cake Sale
3.30/4.00 Half-term begins
23rd Term resumes
Dates
020 8416 4501 [email protected]