pre prep students playing with water
Pre-Prep Reflections

Pre-Prep Reflections Week 18 2024

Dear parents,

It seems to be that time of year where lots of germs are in the air and half the school has been unwell with colds and coughs. Earlier in the week, I visited Monkton Pre-Prep School in Bath for this term’s IAPS South West district meeting, where all the other pre-prep heads were saying the same. We are reminding the children to wash their hands regularly and cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing. It won’t be long before everyone can rest and recover over half term – just one more week to go!

7+ assessment morning

Today, our Year 2 children completed their 7+ assessment morning for Exeter School, ahead of the assessment morning for external applicants tomorrow. The children enjoyed the morning and were well looked after by Mrs Van, Mrs Hardy and the team.

Assemblies

On Monday, I talked about the child protection charity the NSPCC and Childline – can they remember the telephone number? We looked at their brilliant PANTS video, as we do every year, to remind the children that their private parts are private, how to stay safe and what to do if they are worried. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t seen it before. February is LGBT History Month and we have been looking at a range of acronyms this week, as well as learning about the history of the rainbow pride flag and sharing the story And Tango Makes Three about a family of penguins.

Interviews

Yesterday, we held interviews for a full-time teacher to cover the summer term in Reception, following Mrs Martin’s departure at Easter. We had a strong field of nine applicants, which we shortlisted down to three. Mrs Van came over to help me interview each one, while Ms Richards and Mrs Dray observed them teaching a phonics session with Reception. The children were, of course, fantastic and certainly not shy about giving me their feedback! The post has been offered and verbally accepted and I look forward to sharing further details with you once contracts have been signed.

Trampolining success

Many congratulations to Ollie in Year 2 who completed in the South West regional trampolining competition last weekend. He competed in the 7-8 age group, despite only being six years old, and came away with a silver medal. What an amazing achievement! We are all very proud of him.

Next week

Next week there is lots going on as we head towards half term: it is Children’s Mental Health Week across the UK and we will be having a special focus on mental health and wellbeing across the week. Each class will be taking part in a special workshop on Tuesday to mark Safer Internet Day and, on Friday, we will be off-timetable for the whole day for our new International Day, our first theme day where the children will be grouped in their houses, which is set to be lots of fun. Please note that I have added the summer term dates to the list below, some of which are ‘to be confirmed’, but hopefully these will help you plan ahead to the end of the academic year.

I look forward to seeing some of you at the quiz tonight and wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Diary Dates

Spring Term 2024

Tuesday 6 February – Safer Internet Day

Wednesday 7 February – Open morning for prospective families

Thursday 8 February – Reception trip to Pizza Express

Friday 9 February – International Day

Monday 12 to Friday 16 February – Half term

Monday 19 & Tuesday 20 February – Staff INSET days (school closed)

Wednesday 21 February – Pancake races

Thursday 7 March – World Book Day

Wednesday 13 March – Spring Reviews issued

Friday 15 March – Science Day and Red Nose Day

Wednesday 20 March 4.00-7.30pm – Parents’ Evening

Wednesday 27 March – Easter Theme Day

Thursday 28 March to Tuesday 16 April – Easter holidays

Summer Term 2024

Wednesday 17 April – Summer term begins

Monday 22 April – Head’s coffee morning

Tuesday 23 April – Year 1 and Year 2 RE trip

Friday 26 April – Whole school theatre trip (afternoon)

Thursday 9 May – Exeter School open evening

Thursday 16 May – Open morning for prospective families

Saturday 18 May – Devon County Show

Friday 24 May – Staff INSET day (school closed)

Monday 27 to Friday 31 May – Half term

Wednesday 19 June – Transition Day (TBC)

Friday 21 June – Sports Day (TBC)

Wednesday 3 July – Year 1 fire station trip

Monday 8 July 3.00pm – Parent drop-in

Tuesday 9 July 2.30pm – Summer showcase

Wednesday 10 July – Summer term ends at 3.30pm

A list of term dates for the academic year 2024-25 is now available on the school website.

Spotlight on Nursery

We have certainly had a busy and exciting week in Nursery! It began by exploring Google Earth on the interactive whiteboard and finding the continent of Africa. The children have enjoyed looking at our planet Earth each week and have had lots of fun trying to spot the different countries that we have learnt about, including the UK, Italy, Australia and the USA. We then continued our topic of ‘food from around the world’ by reading the wonderful story Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne. The children especially enjoyed using their senses to explore and taste a variety of fruits, such as banana, orange, mango, pineapple and avocado. We were very proud of how many fruits the children tried and it was clear to see that the orange and banana were their favourites! The children have taken part in a variety of activities related to our story of the week. These have included exploring and naming African animals at the sensory tray, drawing different fruits, threading beads to make African necklaces and buying and selling fruit at our roleplay fruit shop. In literacy, we have continued to learn our phase 2 letter sounds, trying hard to listen for the initial sounds in words and playing some fun oral blending games. In mathematics, we have been practising our counting and number recognition skills. We have counted lots of fruits, matched them to Numicon pieces and have even tried to write the numerals.

Miss Adams and Mrs Wannell

Young Artists’ Summer Show

We would like to encourage any budding artists to take part in The Royal Academy of Arts Young Artists’ Summer Show this year. This is a national event for 4-19 year olds, which pupils in the junior and senior school have also been invited to enter. There is no set theme; instead, children need to choose one piece of artwork that they have created in their own time and bring it into school. I will then scan and submit the artwork using our school account. You can find examples of work from last year by clicking here. Good luck!  

Mrs Goodwill

Subject Leader for Art

Book Week

Every year, we hold a very special Book Week to celebrate books and promote a love of reading with the children. This week’s Book Week will be from 4 to 8 March, with activities taking place every day on the theme of ‘adventures through books’. The highlight of the week is World Book Day on Thursday 7 March, when everyone is invited to come into school dressed as any book character of their choice. We look forward to sharing more details with you in due course.

Exminster Roadworks

A reminder that road resurfacing work is due to start along Main Road from Monday 5 February. The first phase is due to start at the junction with Sannerville Way, extending past The Avenue and up to Exminster Garage at the junction with Reddaway Drive. We have been informed that the works will take place between 9am to 4pm each day and that a diversion will be in place, but access will be maintained for residents and the school; however, there may be delays, so please allow extra time for your journeys. Please can we also ask parents to be extra vigilant with children on The Avenue outside school, as there may be increased traffic and vehicles turning in the road.

Stars of the Week

students sat on a sofa

Nursery

Nikola

For working hard in our mathematics sessions and recognising lots of numbers. Well done!

Miss Adams

Reception

Jake

For having a brilliant attitude to learning and growing in confidence when writing independently. Well done!

Mrs Martin

Year 1

Oscar

For trying hard to present his writing neatly and form his letters in the cursive style. Well done!

Miss Lawrence

Year 2

Louisa

For working hard in all our lessons, answering lots of questions in class and always trying her best. Well done!

Ms Richards & Mrs Goodwill

Head’s Star of the Week

Henry (Reception)

For making a noticeable effort to be helpful and polite around school over the past few weeks. Well done!

Mr Ayling

Lunchtime Tidiest Table Award

Congratulations to Nursery!

Nativity dress rehearsal 🌟

Nativity dress rehearsal 🌟 ...

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Pre-Prep News

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