Pre-Prep News, Friday 5 December

What a magical week it has been in Pre-Prep as we proudly presented our Christmas nativity,

From Mrs Hall:

The Shining Stable – Our Nativity Celebration
The Shining Stable. This year’s script was beautifully written by Mrs Sue Webb, and we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to her for crafting such a warm, engaging, and joyful story for the boys to share.

The boys truly shone on stage! From their heartfelt singing to their enthusiastic and expressive acting, they brought the nativity story to life with charm, confidence, and a wonderful sense of Christmas spirit. Their hard work and dedication were evident at every moment, and we really couldn’t be prouder of their incredible performance.

A huge well done also goes to all of our teachers and staff, whose guidance, patience, and creativity supported the boys every step of the way. It was a real team effort!

We hope you, as parents, enjoyed the show as much as we did. It was truly a festive delight and a wonderful start to the Christmas season. Thank you for joining us and cheering on the boys during this special celebration.

Wishing you all a warm and joyful start to December! 🎄✨

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Shell awards:

Year 2: to Maximilian, for his 'star' performance in our Nativity and to Macarthur for his word perfect singing,

Year 1: to Hammie for his sensible and mature approach to all Nativity practices and the clear delivery of his lines. Well done, Hammie!

Year R: to Oshin for trying very hard to make good choices at school.

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Save the Dates !

Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 December	08:15-08:45	Open Classrooms (You are warmly invited to join us during Open Classrooms. A special time for your sons to proudly share the work and learning they have been exploring over the past term.)
Wednesday 10 December	am 13:30	Pre-Prep to the pantomime: Puss in Boots End of term for Pre-Prep
Thursday 8 January	08:30	Lent Term begins

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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Upcoming Events

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Year 1

The Nativity
A huge, huge well done to the whole class for their hard work towards our Pre-Prep Nativity. We have asked a lot of the boys this week to sing loudly, to stay still, to practise that again, to stay seated, to try again, to stand up, to wait… and the list goes on!

Despite all the rehearsing and repeating, they have approached every challenge with smiles, enthusiasm, and an impressive amount of resilience... most of the time! It has been wonderful to watch their confidence grow each day, and to see them supporting one another as teammates. The excitement has been high throughout the week in preparation for the big day when you will all be able to see their hard work. I am sure you will have enjoyed just how brilliantly they have brought the story to life.

Marbling paper
We also had a wonderful time exploring marbling this week to create our Christmas cards. The boys were completely captivated by the magic of watching the swirling colours settle and then appear on their paper as if by surprise. There were plenty of gasps, smiles, and proud moments as each unique design was revealed. It was a lovely chance for them to be creative, experiment, and enjoy a bit of artistic wonder together. The boys chose their colour combinations, and we were pretty chuffed with how they turned out. Next step is to practise our careful scissor work to use this special paper as a final Christmas design.

Mrs Victoria Ford
Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Science, Scotland, and Surprises!
Last week’s Show and Tell in Year 2 was absolutely fantastic! A huge thank you to all our parents for supporting this event and allowing such wonderful items to come into school. The children loved sharing their treasures and stories. These sessions are a brilliant way to develop speaking and listening skills in Year 2, helping children build confidence in expressing ideas and asking questions.

Our scientific theme began with Maximilian’s Stirling Engine. He confidently explained how it works, and together we explored fascinating facts about its inventor—a Scottish engineer, which was a wonderful coincidence as we’ve been learning about Scotland in Geography! The highlight was Maximilian’s memorable question: ‘Which way is left and right? If you turn it one way, it will explode!’ You can imagine Mrs Anderson’s and my faces at that moment! After carefully rereading the instructions, we lit the wick, waited for the tips to turn purple, and then I startled the flywheel with great caution. All was quiet, and the boys were transfixed, watching the engine in motion. There was a slight disappointment when the meths ran out and the wheel slowed to a stop, but what an incredible learning experience it was!

Next came Rory’s child-sized bagpipes, and right on cue, Miss Willcocks happened to walk into our classroom! She was invited to share her experience of playing this traditional instrument, and we listened in awe as some incredibly interesting notes filled the room. Rory was also proud to be able to make some peculiar noises.

Lucas then suggested closing the blinds to enhance the glow of his lantern, and generously shared step-by-step instructions, so anyone could create a lantern just like his.

We discovered fascinating facts about axolotls thanks to Christopher, explored Skerdi’s incredible fossil book! Well done, boys—this truly was a memorable Show and Tell.

These moments not only spark curiosity but also strengthen key skills such as observation, questioning, and making connections across subjects.

Well done boys, we are proud of each and every one of you, for your hard work, enthusiasm and energy in our Nativity, The Shining Stable!

Mrs Maxine Kent
Year 2 Teacher

Reception

Our Reception boys have well and truly embraced the magic of Christmas this week, and what a joyful time it has once again been!

The excitement reached a whole new level when a very special parcel arrived from the man himself, Father Christmas! Inside was a letter, an Advent calendar and a stocking for all the boys to share as they experience the countdown to Christmas together. This has been a truly valuable opportunity to develop the boy's sharing, patience and kindness skills, as they take turns to open a pocket each day. They support one another even when it has not yet been their turn. They have been fantastic, and we are so thrilled to see how thoughtfully they have approached this exciting task.

The boys arrived bursting with excitement for Christmas Jumper Day on Tuesday, proudly wearing their festive knits and spreading smiles from the moment they walked through the door. The buzz continued as they thoroughly enjoyed being part of the whole school community by heading to the dining hall to share a delicious Christmas lunch together, complete with crackers, festive cheer and the singing of The Twelve Days of Christmas, Mr Butcher style!

The Christmas spirit has also extended into our learning. The boys have been sequencing and creating sticker pictures of the story of the First Christmas, exploring how baby Jesus was born and fully immersing themselves in the Nativity Bible story. They made wonderful links between the characters in their play and the people in the story from the Bible. One standout moment came when a member of our class proudly exclaimed, “That’s me!” as the angels were read about, such a perfect example of how deeply involved and engaged the boys have become.

We are incredibly proud of all the boys' efforts towards taking part in the Nativity play. It is not a task to be taken lightly with 4-7 year olds! The confidence they are showing and the enthusiasm they bring to every rehearsal is truly heart-warming. It is really quite something to be behind the scenes of practising a Pre-Prep Nativity—and for us as teachers, there have certainly been some real chuckles along the way too!

What a magical way to end the week as we celebrate learning, community and the true meaning of Christmas together.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Sarah Huntley
Reception Teacher

Forest School

This week took on a festive feel at Forest School with the arrival of our woodland Christmas tree. Year R enjoyed decorating our tree with some lovely festive pinecones. Sparkly pipe cleaners, ribbon, and bits of wool helped create a festive decoration. The boys also learned how to drill holes in a wooden disc in order to make a reindeer decoration, which they proudly hung on the tree.

With Year 1, we learned about hedgehogs this week and how they are just one of the species that hibernate during the winter months. We chatted about the requirements a hedgehog needs in order to survive the long, cold months, and the boys learned how to create a warm and dry home for the hedgehogs to hibernate in. In free exploration, some of the boys made some wonderful woodland baubles for our Christmas tree.

The Christmas theme continued with Year 2 and the boys enjoyed learning how to make a woodland star. The boys connected several sticks together using sparkly pipe cleaners to make some lovely festive star shapes. We also had fun making some Santa decorations during free exploration time.