Pre-Prep News, Friday 22 May

As our ducklings have hatched, there have been many lovely opportunities for curiosity, conversation, and care.

From Mrs Hall:

As we reach the end of another busy half term, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. The boys have worked incredibly hard and there has been such a wonderful buzz (no pun intended, despite it being World Bee Day on Wednesday!) around the Pre-Prep in recent weeks.

The boys were absolutely fascinated to learn all about bees on Wednesday, from the important role they play in pollination to the different types of bees found in a hive. My STEAMers also thoroughly enjoyed behaving like bees and pollinating the flowers themselves!

Another highlight has been the arrival of our ducklings! The boys were completely captivated watching the eggs hatch and observing the ducklings grow and develop. It has provided so many lovely opportunities for curiosity, conversation and care, and there has certainly been great excitement throughout the department.

A huge thank you to Mrs Ford and Year 1, who have led a fantastic awareness campaign for the RNLI. Thanks to their enthusiasm and the generosity of our families, we have raised a tremendous amount of money for this life-saving charity. It has been heartwarming to see the boys so engaged in understanding the important work the RNLI does and wanting to make a difference. (Please click through to their article from the newsletter!)

We are also delighted to invite Year 1 and Year 2 parents to an Open Swim Session in June. The boys are very proud of the progress they have made in swimming this year and would love the opportunity to show off their newly learnt skills in the pool. Further details and timings will follow after half term, but we hope many of you will be able to join us.

In addition, I am very pleased to share that Sarah Cobb will be returning to deliver another of her fantastic ‘Positive Parenting’ sessions. This will take place on Tuesday 16th June at 6.30pm. More information will follow after half term, but I wanted to give you advance notice so that you can add this exciting evening to your diaries.

I hope you all enjoy a restful and happy half term break, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back for the final part of our summer term.

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Save the Dates !

Diary dates for next half-term appear below. Remember the whole school diary is displayed on My School Portal here:

The Pilgrims' School – Whole School Diary

Monday 1 June	0830	Term re-starts
Tuesday 2 June	all day	Pre-Prep Drama Workshops
Thursday 4 June	0930-1030	Musical Shells for preschool girls and boys
Friday 5 June	1000-1100 1500-1600 1530–1630	Little Shells for preschool girls and boys Pre-Prep Cathedral Assembly - ALL MOST WELCOME Uniform Shop open for Year 2 parents
Saturday 6 June	0900-1100	PPA Walk
Monday 8 June	all day	Year 2 trip to Dell Quay
Wednesday 10 June		Year 1 visiting River Keepers Lodge for Forest School
Thursday 11 June	0930-1030	Musical Shells for preschool girls and boys
Wednesday 17 June	0930-1100	Father's Day in the Woods
Thursday 18 June		Whole school photograph
Friday 19 June	1830-2100	School of Rock
Saturday 27 June	0830-0930 1630	Wellbeing Matters 'Live' Staff and Parents Cricket Match
Tuesday 30 June		New Boys' Day
Wednesday 1 July	1900-2000	Pre-Prep Introduction Meeting for Parents
Friday 3 July	1600-1700 1700-1900	Pre-Prep and Lower Prep LAMDA Showcase Summer Art and D&T Exhibition
Monday 6 July	0815-0845 1330-1500	Open Classrooms Pre-Prep Sports Day
Tuesday 7 July	0815-0845 0915-1545	Open Classrooms Pre-Prep Trip to Meon Shore
Wednesday 8 July	1500-1530 1545	Celebration Assembly Term ends for Pre-Prep

Notices

Menus are available here on My School Portal.
^{Reminder: no food is to be brought into the school and/or given to boys at any time, especially at sign-out.}

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Please can you help us?

After half term, Year 2 will be starting an exciting art project to help raise awareness of ocean pollution. We would be very grateful for donations of clean recyclable plastics that would otherwise be thrown away, such as crisp packets, chocolate bar wrappers, bottle lids, can ring pulls, and the net bags that oranges and lemons sometimes come in. Thank you for your support with this important project.

There will be a box outside the Pre-Prep door for your donations after half term.

Year 2

Year 2 have had a fantastic week! The boys have amazed us with their wonderful dragon stories. Their imagination and creativity have truly flowed this week, and they have worked hard to include exciting adjectives to make their writing even more interesting for the reader. They have also been remembering to use capital letters and full stops, conjunctions to extend their sentences, and verbs to add movement and action to their stories. What a lot there is to remember as a writer!

In Maths, the boys have been working hard and having lots of fun learning about fractions. They have been making equal parts and developing their understanding of equivalence, including learning that two quarters are equal to one half. We have been so impressed with their enthusiasm and confidence during our fraction work.

Have a wonderful half term, and I look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return for the final half term of Year 2!

Mrs Maxine Kent
Year 2 Teacher

Year 1

Scrapbooking!
This week, the boys have been busy creating scrapbook pages all about our fantastic visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It has been wonderful to revisit such a memorable day and hear the boys enthusiastically recount the many fascinating details they learned during the trip. Using photographs, drawings and written captions, they carefully reflected on the ships, artefacts and stories that captured their imagination most.

The boys particularly enjoyed recalling their time aboard HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, remembering details such as lifting cannonballs, lying in hammocks, exploring Nelson’s quarters and listening to the dramatic story of the Battle of Trafalgar through the audio guides. Their scrapbook pages have shown just how much information they absorbed from the visit, as well as the excitement and awe they experienced throughout the day.

Did you know that sailors had to sleep with their heads towards the front of the ship otherwise they believed it unlucky, and the ship would sink? Did you know the French marksman who shot Horatio Nelson on the poop deck of HMS Victory is believed to have spotted him because of his shiny gold buttons? Did you know that HMS Warrior was the first warship to have washing machines on board? Well, ask Year 1 any of these questions and they will proudly reply, “We know!”

It has been especially pleasing to see the boys making thoughtful links between our classroom learning about pirates, ships and seafarers and the real historical objects and places they encountered at the dockyard. One of the Challenge Jobs in the classroom this week has been to create a ship out of Lego. Some boys have chosen to work together on this task, some boys are working solo and using their imagination and some boys are certainly trying to build their own version of a Navy ship they saw last week at the Dockyard.

Mrs Victoria Ford
Year 1 Teacher

Reception

What a super half term we have had in school, it truly seems to have zoomed by! The boys have enjoyed so many wonderful experiences this term, and it has been lovely to watch all of the life cycle activities growing and changing before our eyes.

Our classroom nature projects have continued to inspire and excite the boys each day. The caterpillars are now safely inside their chrysalides in our butterfly garden, growing and transforming (we hope). The boys have been fascinated by every stage of the process and have loved checking on them daily. If they do not emerge as butterflies before half term, I will take them home over the break to continue caring for them. Meanwhile, our sunflowers continue to flourish and grow taller each week!

We have finished the term on a very special high with the arrival of two adorable ducklings who hatched this week. The boys have named them Patch, because of his black and yellow patchy webbed feet, and Beebee, named after the sweet noises this gorgeous little duckling makes. They both have very different personalities! One is calm, placid and loves cuddles, while the other is quite feisty and loud, always ready for a new adventure! They have brought so much joy to our classroom.

The boys clearly adore Patch and Beebee and spend lots of time simply watching, talking to them and eagerly waiting for their next cuddle. One of the highlights of the week was helping the ducklings enjoy their very first swim – thankfully we did not get too wet!

Over the half term break I will look after Patch and Beebee at home and they will return with me after the holiday, so the boys can care for them once more before going to their new home with Louis' Grandparents.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this half term and our theme has been so inspiring for us all. I know the boys have gained so much from the many different experiences we have shared together.

Wishing you all a very happy and restful half term holiday!

Mrs Sarah Huntley
Reception Teacher

Forest School

This week, Year R, 1 and 2 all enjoyed a session around the fire pit, which is always a popular session.

Fire safety skills were recalled, and the boys confidently helped build the fire, collect suitable sticks, and enjoyed watching the popcorn pop, as well as, cooking some delicious toast on the open fire. The boys in Year 2 learned how to make campfire bread twists and had fun cooking them and dipping them in honey!