Pre-Prep News, Friday 4 July
The Pre-Prep Plant Sale in May
From Mrs Hall:
As we rapidly approach the end of a wonderful Summer Term, we are delighted to share some of the highlights from our final full week in the Pre-Prep. It has been a term filled with exciting activities, memorable performances, and heart-warming moments—a perfect celebration of the boys’ learning and growth over the year.
This week has been a joyful reflection of everything that makes our Pre-Prep so special.
Year 2 have continued their fascinating studies of Charles Darwin and the Galápagos Islands, exploring the natural world with curious minds and thoughtful discussion. Their enthusiasm for discovery has been a joy to witness, and we know they are ready to take their next big step into the Lower Prep School.
Year 1 had an extra-sweet experience as they enjoyed making their very own ice cream! It was a delightful way to celebrate the end of term, and the perfect treat for the warm summer weather. The boys were rightly proud of their delicious creations—and we may have a few future chefs in our midst!
Reception ended their week with a magical Teddy Bears’ Picnic, made even more special by welcoming the new boys who will be joining us in September. The children brought in their favourite teddy bears and shared an afternoon of games, stories, and a cheerful picnic. It was a gentle and happy introduction to school life for our new families, and a lovely way for our current Reception boys to show their kindness and confidence as they prepare for Year 1.
As the term comes to a close, we want to say a huge thank you to you, our Pre-Prep families, for your continued support, encouragement, and warmth throughout the year. It has been a pleasure to watch your boys flourish—academically, socially, and emotionally—and we feel so proud of all they have achieved.
We wish you a restful and happy summer break, filled with adventure, laughter, and plenty of time to simply enjoy being together. We can’t wait to welcome the boys back in September—whether to Reception, Year 1, Year 2, or the Lower Prep School.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
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Shell awards:
Reception: to Maxi for his great attitude towards learning and also to Joshua for making great progress with his writing and for practising at home.
Year 1: to to Maximilian for his attentiveness towards his learning and his willingness to work to the best of his ability. Well done, Maximilian!
Year 2: to Tymur and Arthur J for their perseverance and resilience.
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Save the Dates !
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Monday 7 July |
0815-0845 |
Pre-Prep Open Classrooms |
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Tuesday 8 July |
0815-0845 |
Pre-Prep Open Classrooms |
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Wednesday 9 July |
1500 |
Pre-Prep Final Celebration Assembly, Octagon |
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Thursday 4 September |
0830 |
Term resumes |
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Tuesday 23 September |
1900-2130 |
PPA Book Club (see flyer at bottom of newsletter) |
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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Year 1
An action-packed last week in Year 1! There has been so much going on that has made each day interesting, varied and, above all, exceptional fun. It is a true pleasure to have had all these special experiences with this class as we count down to the end of term and the end of our memorable time together in Year 1.
The highlights of our week, as provided by the boys have been:
- Move up morning in Year 2 – the boys positively bounced out of the classroom.
- Finishing our Paul Klee Sailing Boats for the Pilgrims’ Summer Exhibition on Friday.
- Practising our tricky words and excelling!
- Fun in the swimming pool with the floats for a final lesson.
- Making ice cream and eating it!
- Watching Year 3 perform their pirate-inspired play especially for us in Year 1.
Isn't school just brilliant?
Mrs Victoria Ford
Year 1 Teacher
Year 2
A Week of Thank Yous in Year 2!
A big thank you to Miss Erasmus, our wonderful Year 3 teacher, who kindly welcomed the boys into her classroom last Friday afternoon, for a move-up session. She took time to explain a few of the routines and helped the boys feel right at home. The boys loved meeting their Year 3 cousins and getting a sneak peek at the exciting adventures ahead!
We also want to thank Mr Buck, who gave the boys a special tour of the Year 3 changing rooms and set them the challenge to keep them tidy next year.
He even introduced them to, 'In or Over and 'On the grid'. These two phrases will quickly become familiar to the boys, the first at the end of break, and the second when an adult wishes to walk across the grid when the boys are playing football. It indicates to all boys to stop playing momentarily.
A heartfelt thank you to Miss Whitmore for sharing the most amazing photos from her adventure to the Galápagos Islands. The boys were fascinated and became little Darwins themselves, heading to the riverbank to sketch the trees and plants, noticing every detail like true explorers.
We are super-proud of each and every boy in Year 2 – for their enthusiasm, kindness, energy, and the joy they bring to Pre-Prep every day. We are all looking forward to our trip to the beach on Tuesday – a well-earned celebration of a fantastic year! And we can’t wait to welcome you, our wonderful parents, to our final celebration assembly, on Wednesday 9 July at 3pm, when the boys will share their memories of what makes our Pre-Prep such a happy, fun, energetic, and welcoming place to grow and learn.
Mrs Maxine Kent
Year 2 Teacher
Reception
We have had a super penultimate week in Reception Class this week. The boys have been busy completing tasks of their choice alongside more structured tasks in preparation for Year 1, and they had a great morning experiencing Year 1 with Mrs Ford and Miss Jackson on Tuesday. I was very impressed with the delightful paintings and writings of themselves that they worked on with their new teachers. The boys were very keen to tell me all about their morning and asked if they were now Year 1s for real and if they would be going every day!
Transport has been a big focus for us this week. The boys love cardboard boxes of any size and shape. They worked together using different-sized boxes to create a train with doors, windows, a stove with coal, and a tall funnel, using some of the boxes we had saved up. Lots of fun, imagination, cooperation and perseverance were shown through the sawing skills the boys completed using the new cardboard tools Mrs Ford had ordered for the Pre-Prep. Constructing is a big passion this year! What a great train creation the boys made, and all very much their own ideas without the need of any adult support.
Show and Tell continues to be very popular! We were very pleased to be able to welcome Cheeky the sheep to our Show and Tell session. The boys were able to ask questions about Cheeky, feed and stroke him. It is always lovely to see how animals support well-being. Thank you to the Streets for bringing Cheeky in for the boys to enjoy.
The end of this week allowed the boys to showcase their caring and kind natures by looking after the new Reception boys who were joining us for a teddy hunt and picnic. I remember this from last year when it was your boys who were joining us for our teddy bears' Picnic. The time really does go by so fast.
What a fantastic year we have had with many great memories and learning experiences. We look forward to next week when we can share our best memories of Reception Class with you during our end-of-year Celebration Assembly.
Have a fantastic weekend.
Mrs Sarah Huntley
Reception Teacher
Forest School
With the end of term drawing nearer, Year R became kings of nature for the day. The boys created some wonderful summer crowns and wore them with pride. At the end of the session, the boys thought about how they would help nature if they were king!
Year 1 learned about the importance of camouflage. After spending some time hunting for some woolly caterpillars cleverly hidden within the grounds, the boys took this knowledge and understanding of their surroundings into account when making their own moth. The boys thought about the colours, the patterns, and where they would like their moth to hide. We then had fun trying to find each other’s moths.
Year 2 used their session to prepare for our beach school trip next week. Inspired by the theme of pirates, the boys had a wonderful time making some huge flags to place on the beach. Forest School skills were recalled from Year 1, and the boys had to make thick mud paint that they could use to stencil some pirate images onto their flags. Look out for our flags in the newsletter next week!
Mrs Fiona Walker
Forest School and LAMDA Teacher
From the PPA
Tuesday 23 September
In the Old Library at Pilgrims' 19.00-21.30
1. Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
'Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest' Independent
2. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Winner of the Guardian First Book Award 2011
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-fiction 2011
Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2011
Shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize
3. The Names by Florence Knapp
(see below for the blurbs)
1. Written in secret during the darkest days of Stalin's reign, The Master and Margarita became an overnight literary phenomenon when it was finally published. It signalled artistic freedom for Russians everywhere. Bulgakov's carnivalesque satire of Soviet life describes how the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow one Spring afternoon. Brimming with magic and incident, it is full of imaginary, historical, terrifying and wonderful characters, from witches, poets and Biblical tyrants to the beautiful, courageous Margarita, who will do anything to save the imprisoned writer she loves.
2. In The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee, doctor, researcher and award-winning science writer, examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with – and perished from – for more than five thousand years.
The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience and perseverance, but also of hubris, arrogance and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out ‘war against cancer’. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories and deaths, told through the eyes of predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary.
3. In The Names, it is 1987, and in the aftermath of a great storm, Cora sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register the birth of her son. Her husband intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and call the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Going against his wishes is a risk that will have consequences, but is it right for her child to inherit his name from generations of domineering men? The choice she makes at this moment will shape the course of their lives. Seven years later, her son is Bear, a name chosen by his sister, and one that will prove as cataclysmic as the storm from which it emerged. Or he is Julian, the name his mother set her heart on, believing it will enable him to become his own person. Or he is Gordon, named after his father and raised in his cruel image - but is there still a chance to break the mould?
Powerfully moving and full of hope, this is the story of three names, three versions of a life, and the infinite possibilities that a single decision can spark. It is the story of one family, and love's endless capacity to endure, no matter what fate has in store.
