Week Ending 03rd March 23
6th March 23
Dear Parents
This year for World Book Week we have been focusing on the theme ‘You Are A Reader’. We have had special English lessons focussing on reading and how we can explore different books that we all love. We have thoroughly enjoyed learning about each other’s favourite books and taking part in random Stop, Drop and Reads throughout the day.
As part of our celebrations, we have been lucky enough to welcome two authors this week at The Prep. Anne Chapman, who is a local author, came to speak with Reception – Year 4 pupils about a story she has written called ‘Tales from Africa’. The children were able to look at this brilliant book and learn more about the writing process behind a story. They were amazed to hear that an idea you might have when you are young, no matter how small, could one day turn into a story or a collection of books. Sarah Hagger-Holt, author of ‘Proud of Me’ and ‘Nothing Ever Happens Here’ visited the Year 5 – Year 8 pupils specifically focussing on creative writing and how we can make reading enjoyable. Sarah was also able to answer plenty of questions talking from her own experiences as an author and the importance of representing all types of families. It was great to see how engaged the children were with both authors, especially when trying to get tips about how to become a famous writer one day – they certainly were inspired!
We loved gathering as a whole school to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March. The sports hall has never looked so colourful with an array of wonderful characters filling the room. Well done to Mrs Granger’s Year 1 and 2 choir for opening our assembly with a lovely song about books! A big thank you to all the children, parents and staff for creating some wonderful costumes. The costume parade was a huge success with a variety of characters from all types of books. We had some Harry Potter enthusiasts, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Paddington Bear, Grannie Island and Granma Mainland, The Gruffalo, Willy Wonka… too many to say!
Classes have also been busy decorating their doors in the theme of a book or author. In Pre-prep, we have been creating some magical book doors to showcase our favourite books, such as The very Hungry Caterpillar, The Enormous Turnip, Katie Morag, The Colour Monster and Jack and the Bean Stalk. In Prep we have created imaginative doors, such as Willy Wonky, Harry Potter, SuessVille, The 13-Storey Treehouse, Space Stories, Mr Men and Little Miss. We are looking forward to judging these at the end of the week and announcing the competition winners next week.
We hope you enjoy looking at the photos showcasing our Book Week activities. A huge thank you again for your support.
Kind regards
Mrs Doherty and Mrs Wake
Dear Parents,
We have had so much fun this week!
We kickstarted Monday morning with our celebration assembly. Mrs Granger and her school choir opened up with a fabulous World Book Day song, which immediately brought smiles to everyone’s faces. The other children enjoyed it so much that many of them have asked their class teachers if they can learn it this week too! On Thursday, we had a whole school assembly, and we were so pleased that the children were invited to showcase their song there too! Please remember that today we have our Bake a Book cake sale in the Pre-Prep hall from 2-3 pm. Parents across the school are invited into the Pre-Prep hall to come and purchase some delicious treats to take home. Please support this event as all the monies raised will go towards purchasing new books for our library. A huge thank you to both Mrs Wake and Mrs Doherty for organising a wonderful week full of exciting events for our lucky children.
On Tuesday, I had the privilege of accompanying some of our Y2 children to a Cross Country event, which was held at Hilden Grange School. I was incredibly proud of all the children who ran a tough and gruelling race in very cold conditions. Tom, George, Theo, Daniel, Harry, Noah, Sicily, Elora, Aveline, Emily, Ella and Grace were incredible. Very well done to both Tom and Sicily who came first in the boys and girls races respectively and also to Theo who gained a bronze medal in the boys’ race. Overall, our Year 2 runners came first in the competition for their age group, which is fantastic. I now need to purchase a trophy cabinet so that we can start to display all of these wonderful trophies. Superb effort by all. Their classmates were particularly proud of them and congratulated their joint success the following day. Mr Bailey, Head of Boys’ Games, will be coming across to our Pre-Prep celebration assembly next Monday to present all our Year 2 runners with their medals and their collective trophies for both the girls and boys teams.
On Wednesday, Year 1 enjoyed an exciting visit to RHS Wisley Gardens as part of their topic this term. Both Mrs Barber and Mrs White came back brimming with pride as several members of the public, who were visiting that day, made a point of speaking to the class teachers to tell them how wonderfully behaved our children had been and they were incredibly impressed by their manners for such young children. Well done Year 1!
I hope that you all have a very enjoyable weekend.
Kind regards,
Helen Cook