Yarm Preparatory School Issue 561

Friday 9th February 2018

Head’s Message . . . After our ‘digital detox’ we focused on our use of the internet this week. It is clear that the majority of our pupils do spend time online, sharing ideas, thoughts and playing games together. Learning to make these interactions respectful is a positive step towards empowering them to develop a healthy and safe approach to the connections they make with known friends. I am pleased to say that in learning about being respectful online our pupils have also demonstrated a really good working knowledge of how to stay safe online by not sharing any personal details and keeping any account settings private. Do explore this further through the brilliant resources at https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2018/ and read on in the Phoenix Flier for more advice. With the vast majority of Year 5 in London, we haven’t all been at school this week. It was lovely to see via Twitter and hear via some of the messages from the accompanying staff how much fun was had by all. The schedule was action packed and certainly gave every child an intense burst of some of the delights of our capital city. I am sure we will hear more about this in the coming weeks which I look forward to. I am glad they are back safely and would like to thank Mr Stone for expertly leading the trip and all of the staff who went along.

Bill Sawyer @HeadPrepYarm

Head’s Challenge: What London Underground station is this: 500KGken500KG?

Visit the Prep School Pages:-

www.yarmschool.org

Congratulations to Eve on her recent ice

skating successes! Fingers crossed we have a

future Winter Olympian in the making!

Year 5 meet The Prime Minister! One of the many highlights of the London trip was the incredible

moment the children got to meet Theresa May! As we were waiting

for our tours of the Houses of Parliament to begin, the Prime Minister

and her entourage approached. She responded to the smiles and

waves of the children and spent some time talking to the children!

House Chess Report 2018 - Round 3

‘It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish…’ would make a suita-ble theme tune to the seesaw battle for this year’s House Chess Championship. Remarkably, all four teams shared the top spot after two of the three rounds, leaving the fate of the title hanging in the balance until the final fixtures had been completed. Further drama was added by most of the Year 5s absconding to Lon-don rather than face the pressure of the big finale. All of the players knew the title was there for the taking. The battle between Brunel and Stephenson was fierce and Brunel eventually won by the narrowest of margins, taking the match 8-7. Oscar Thomas, an inspirational captain throughout the event, won three games and his fabulous score was matched by Adam Addison. Noah Coulman, Shlok and Elizabeth Neilson added to Brunel’s tally. Henry Parker was Stephenson’s captain for the day and he was also the team’s top scorer with two wins. Frankie Parker, Natasha Poin-ton, Niamh Boddy, Sai Sidaginamale, Max Worrall and Kate Howell added points for their team too, but it wasn’t quite enough to get the better of the very determined Brunel team. The key game of the match was the lengthy encounter between Elizabeth and Kate which ended in a draw. Our Year 4 girls are really making the headlines this year - and rightly so. Meanwhile, in the other room, Arkwright and Telford both knew they had to push for a match victory and hope to build up a seriously good ‘goal difference’ to navigate a potential tie-break situation. Arkwright, brilliantly captained by the talented Grace Crawford, got off to a flying start with several wins be-fore Telford started to fight back. Arkwright, the defending champions, pulled out a terrific team performance with two wins each for Oliver Cochrane, Aditya Paul and Isobel McGlade (see? It’s those Year 4 girls again) and further points from Jack Pritchard, William Jeavons and Minu Palat-Meethale. Indeed, the House Chess matches have really brought the best out of Minu, who played her best games to date and won in all three rounds. Telford’s late flurry of wins came courtesy of captain Yusuf Syed - desperately trying to make up for missing the first round through illness - Seth Holland and Mustafa El-Sherif.

However, the late comeback wasn’t enough to swing the contest away from Arkwright as they won 10-4 to stay way ahead and clinch the match. This left Arkwright tied with Brunel at the top of the table with two match victories each and led to further excitement as we scrutinised the score card to determine which of the two teams had the better ‘goal difference.’ This turned out to be Arkwright, who thus retained their title. This was a particularly meritorious achievement by Arkwright as they had lost their first match and had to ride out the storm to step up sev-eral gears and put their title defence back on track. They proved that ‘It’s not where you start…’ Say - this is where we came in! When the Arkwright players realised they had retained the title they could be forgiven for exclaiming ‘We’ve got it!’ It was a case of ‘poor everybody else’ - with the consolation that all teams knew they had played their best and had pushed for the title from the first push of a pawn until the last. Well played everyone - this was the closest House Chess contest we can remember! Sean Marsh (Yarm Prep Chess Coach)

The U11B hockey team travelled to Red House on Friday 2nd February at 14.30pm . The game began with Oscar Thomas in goal and soon saw Yarm going 1-0 up with a spectacular goal from Oscar Studholme. Red House came back strongly after a moment of weakness from the Yarm side drawing level 1-1. The first half was fairly close fought with some chances on both sides but no further goals. After a bit of a motivational talk from Mr Underwood at half time, the second half thankfully got off to a good start. Receiving the ball Matthew Parker smashed it into the box and for a second time Oscar Studholme buried the ball into the back of the net making 2-1. There were no further goal but some promising play from all the Yarm players and Jack van Niekerk was awarded Man of the Match by Mr Underwood for some great defending.

Jack VN, 6P

On Friday 2nd February the U11 A and B teams travelled to Red House. When we arrived we could straight away see that Red House were going to be a strong opposition and we would have to work hard to successfully achieve our goal of winning. The B team played first and they played tremendously well to secure a 2-1 win. Then it was the A teams turn to play some hockey. When we first started it was very tight with us on the attack and then a few minutes later, they were attacking. It was 2-1 at half time and although we were winning, we felt quite low as they had scored before the break, but after an amazing team talk from Mr Underwood we had a growth mindset and believed that we could go on and score more goals. That is exactly what we did. We started to find our rhythm and soon enough we scored again and again until in the end it turned out to be a victorious day for the Yarm boys, as we comfortably won 5-2! On the bus on the way back we were all complimented on our game, especially me as I scored a hat trick and Mr Underwood was so pleased with me he asked me to write this match report. Max M 6G

Yarm School Sport

On a cold afternoon the U11 A&B hockey teams visited a strong Redhouse squad at Norton. The B team played first, the opening exchanges going to Redhouse, however, Yarm opened the scoring with an excellently worked move. Yarm then extended their lead by another goal. As the game progressed Redhouse gradually came back into the match, pushing for the equaliser, but Yarm held on to the end to claim the victory. The U11A team fixture was a bit more straight forward with Yarm demonstrating some excellent phases of play in attack and defence. Yarm pulled away with a quick succession of goals which Redhouse struggled to contain. As the match progressed Redhouse started to push back, limiting the score admirably. Well done to both teams! U11B 1-2 (won) U11A 2-5 (won).

Mr Underwood

U8 Netball v RGS

All of the year 3 girls were given the opportunity to play some competitive high five netball games against RGS. In 5 short weeks the girls have devel-oped their passing, shooting and understanding of the game. We were delighted to see how successful all of their shooting was and how well they adapted to changing their positions. The girls hosted their opposition beautifully and have now begun to work towards developing their attacking and defending skills. Well done.

Miss Routledge

U9 Netball v Olaves

It was a cold and windy afternoon over in York but all of Year 4 were invited to play against St Olaves School at high fives. A special mention to Alisha Thakkar and Kate Howell who demonstrated a much improved level of skill and understanding of the game within their team. The U9 A won their match with the B, C and D teams all battling hard against a competitive St Olaves. Well done, girls!

Miss Routledge

Last Friday the U11A team played a friendly netball match against RGS. Both teams played very well as we were

both good at defending and attacking. Each player worked extremely hard and it all payed off with juice and

biscuits

Kyra H, 6G

After school on Friday, we travelled to Newcastle to watch the Eagles play against the London Lions. Excited, we raced into Sports Central at Northumbria University, we sat at the top of the stand and had a great view of the court. During the game we were allowed to stamp our feet and loudly chant "Let's go Eagles!" as well as wildly waving our foam fingers! The atmosphere was thrilling, even though the Eagles lost 82-85, they fought a good battle. At the end of the night, we were allowed to go onto the court to have our photograph taken with the players. It was such an amazing trip, we are looking forward to watching more exciting basketball games in the future.

Oliver M 4P, Frankie P 4P, Mara M 4P

Reverend Ford Visits the Prep School

Revd Ford was fascinating. He is a Christian vicar and works in the church. I would have liked to ask him some questions such as how he became a vicar and when he first became interested in religion"

Hadi Y, 3J

Revd Ford is the vicar at Yarm Parish Church. He came to talk to us in our assembly last Thursday. He explained that he wears a white plastic collar because it represents the metal collars that the slaves wore around their necks many years ago.He showed us pictures of famous people because he wanted us to now that everybody is special and famous in God's eyes. At the end, he said a lovely prayer.

Spencer H, 3J

Revd Ford talked to us in assembly and he said that we are all equal in God's eyes. It does not matter if we are silly, cool, big or small we are all famous in his eyes. He also said it does not matter which religion you choose to follow because we are all special.

Sanju V, 3J

Revd Ford wears a little strip of plastic around his neck to show he is a vicar. It reminds him that slaves wore a metal ring around their necks. He told us a story and compared different faiths explaining that all people are special whichever religion they choose.

Connie D, 3J

Prep School New Year

Disco

Internet Safety Week

As always, we have spent the past week discussing internet safety across the school. Part of this was to highlight the growing dependency on digital technology with our Digital Detox Challenge (read more about this elsewhere in the Flier). This week, Year 6 (and Year 5 once they have returned from London) have been exploring work based on using new online technology safely, developing skills in resilience, self-esteem and positive attention seeking behaviour. It has been produced by the National Crime Agency’s child protection education programme Thinkuknow.

About Live Streaming

In particular the Thinkuknow educational activities introduce scenario’s and reflection about ‘Live Streaming’. Live streaming is the broadcasting of real-time, live video to an audience over the internet. All you need to be abl e to live stream is an internet enabled device, like a smart phone or tablet with a camera, and an app that has a ‘Live’ function, such as Instagram Live or Musica.ly.

#Live Skills

To help support children to enjoy live streaming safely, if they are currently doing it, or for those that may be introduced to it when they start secondary school, these educational activities focus on building children’s skills to know who to trust online and how to get affirmation in positive ways at home and school. These skills are important for navigating both the online and offline world.

How you can get involved

Schedule planned attention: One on one time, doing something together that is largely child-directed.

Give personal and positive feedback to child: focus on praising good behaviours more than focussing attention on minor bad behaviours. Specific praise to be emphasised and inclusion of emotions: i.e. You are being such as kind sister sharing the toys with your brother. You are playing with him so gently. I’m sure he feels very happy to be playing with you! Practicing this daily can demonstrates to a child what they are specifically doing well and they know what behaviour to show again.

Try and see the learning in mistakes

Be involved in your child’s internet use: The best learning and the safest children are those who are able to share what they have been doing online with their parents.

Be good to yourself: When children see us being critical of ourselves and our appearance or abilities that becomes normative for them to focus on the things they are doing wrong. It can help to notice when we are doing this and try and focus on the positives of our own lives and actions.

Encouraging choice and consent from an early age: Children are socialised to do as they are told- especially when adults ask. Adults online can exploit this when chatting to children. Giving a child a choice from an early age develops their autonomy and good decision making skills. For example not forcing a child to hug a relative etc. Give them the option to be polite in another way.

Visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents for information and advice to help to keep children safe online.

Apollo 5 Workshop

On Tuesday, we went down to the Senior School for a magnificent Apollo 5 workshop and I am sure everybody was mind blown by the amazing skills, tricks and talent that they had up their sleeves. Working with them we produced terrific sounds by doing fun warmup games and singing an excellent song. We all had such a great time and are very grateful for the experience.

Coming Up: Mon 19 Feb Staff INSET all day—SCHOOL CLOSED TO PUPILS

Tue 20 Feb Pupils return

Telford House Duty

House Pancake Races

Food Week Taking place in April

Thu 22 Feb Year 2 trip to Seven Stories, Newcastle

U9 Netball v RGS (away; 12.15pm depart, 2pm start, 5pm return)

U9 Boys’ Hockey v RGS (away; 12.15pm depart, 2pm start, 5pm return)

Fri 23 Feb U10/11 Boys’ Hockey v Bradford Grammar School POSTPONED

5L Class Assembly

U11 A/B Netball v Teesside High (home; 2.15pm start)

U10/11 Netball v Cundall Manor (away; 2pm depart, 3pm start, 5pm return)

Pre-Prep Movie Night (Studio Hall; 5.30pm finish)

Sat 24 Feb UK Chess Challenge - Yarm round (Prep Hall; 2pm finish)

Mon 26 Feb Quiz Club regional qualifier (Prep Hall; 10-11.30am)

Arkwright House Duty

U8 Football v Dame Allan’s (home; 3pm)

Tue 27 Feb U8 Netball v Ashville (home; 2pm)

5B/5J to Guisborough Woods (12-3.30pm; tbc)

Wed 28 Feb Curiosity Emporium (Prep Hall; 12.35pm)

ABRSM Theory examinations (4pm)

IAPS U11 Netball qualifier (Rugby School; 4.30am depart, 7pm return)

Thu 1 Mar World Book Day

Peer Mentor of the Week—Florrie

Name: Florrie

Friends: Christina,

Eve H, Eve G,

Annabel, Tilly,

Charlotte, Laura,

Lexie

Favourite lesson:

History

Favourite chocolate

bar: Crunchie

Best thing about

school: Home time!

When I grow up… I

want to do something

with animals.

The most exciting thing that has happened in my

life so far: Robinwood!

Florrie carries out her duties with a warm smile,

marking her out as an approachable individual.

Mobile Phones

We only expect children to bring in a mobile phone if they take the

school bus. If your child intends to bring their device in, we would

expect you to request and fill in the Mobile Phone Information Form,

which is available from Miss O’Hara. Once this has been done, any

mobile phones are left with Miss O’Hara for the school day and can

only be used with permission from a teacher to make calls only,

otherwise they are not to be turned on, on the school site. Do speak to

Mr Stone if you have any questions.

Coats

Please can we remind parents that children are to wear

the school coat, available from the school shop. The

school uniform shop can be contacted on (01642)

786023. With the unpredictable nature of the weather

at the moment, it is important that the children come

fully prepared and dressed appropriately. We would

also appreciate it if you could check all coats

carefully, as some (named) coats have gone missing.

Thank you.

Certificates Values Endeavour

3J Laurie E. Sam L.

3N Luca S. Alfie A.

3P Ava H. Seren A.

4A Jude C. Niamh B.

4M Charlie B. Martin F-R.

4P Danny D. Gracie R-H.

5B Hannah M. Paddy W.

5J Poppy F. Hannah W.

5L Amelia S. Phoebe N.

5P Nawaal A. Zaara S.

6G Tilly G. Annabel P.

6H Hanna O. Cecily D.

6M Akash C. Charlie B.

6P Rhianna G. Haris S.