Pre-Prep Reflections

Pre-Prep Reflections Week 21 2024

Dear parents,

It has been another busy (and rather wet!) week in school. It has been quieter than usual in the office without Mr Ayling, Mrs Furniss and Ruffles in school on Thursday and Friday, but it has certainly been business as usual! A highlight of this week has been the delivery of beautiful daffodils from the junior school gardening club which have brightened up the school and classrooms.

Governors meeting

As history subject leaders, Miss Lawrence and Mr Evans presented to the governors on Monday afternoon on how we teach history in the pre-prep and junior schools. Much work has taken place over the past two years to align the curriculum across the two schools, removing repetitive content and ensuring that skills and knowledge are carefully sequenced as children move through the year groups. There are also exciting plans to further develop trips, visiting speakers and links with the senior school in the future.

Class reps meeting

On Wednesday, Mr Ayling met with the class reps to discuss feedback on Tapestry in Early Years, the new house system, ideas for future parent workshops, and involvement in the new Exeter School family society. Thank you for all your feedback, which will be shared with staff in the first instance, and to the class reps for collating this and giving of their time.

Key Stage 1 science workshops

On Wednesday, Years 1 and 2 welcomed Hannah Farnie from the Devon Education Team at Resource Features to lead two science workshops on materials. Hannah was an engaging and enthusiastic speaker and the children (and adults!) thoroughly enjoyed her sessions. The children took home some mementos of her visit and hopefully they have been able to share what they learnt with you.

Torbay Music Festival

Congratulations to Louisa, Alex and Alicia in Year 2 who took part in the Torbay Music Festival last weekend. They each played the piano and received excellent scores and feedback from the judges. Good luck to Louisa who is playing the violin in another music festival this weekend!

Next week

A reminder that next week is Book Week. The theme this year will be adventure stories and we have a number of exciting activities planned throughout the week. We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 7 March, when children (and staff!) are invited to come into school dressed as a book character of their choice. Forest School sessions will take place as normal with a World Book Day theme. Please note that Mr Ayling is away on an inspection next week from Tuesday to Thursday. Please do not hesitate to contact me in his absence – I will be in school on all three days.

Diary Dates

Spring Term 2024

Thursday 7 March – World Book Day

Wednesday 13 March – Spring Reviews issued

Friday 15 March – Science Day and Red Nose Day (non-uniform)

Wednesday 20 March 4-7.30pm – Parents’ Evening

Monday 25/Tuesday 26 March – Charity Fun Run

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

Saturday 15 June 1-4pm – Family Society summer fayre

Wednesday 19 June – Transition Day (TBC)

Friday 21 June – Sports Day (TBC)

Wednesday 3 July – Year 1 fire station trip

Monday 8 July 3pm – 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 Reception

In Reception, the children have been learning about Minibeasts and we have been looking particularly at ladybirds this week.  Our story of the week has been ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’, through which we have been learning about emotions and how to be a good friend. We have also looked at how this links with our school virtues and how to be a ‘kind kingfisher’, ‘helpful heron’ and ‘teamwork turtledove’. The children also enjoyed being ‘curious curlews’ when going on a minibeast hunt in our beautiful school grounds, looking for ladybirds and other minibeasts. In our ICT session, we used search engines to further our knowledge and find out interesting facts about ladybirds, and in literacy, we used the information found to create a fact file. In mathematics, we have been learning about odd and even numbers, numerical patterns and ordering numbers. All the children thoroughly enjoyed completing the challenges independently. We have had a wonderful week in Reception being lively little ladybirds who love to learn!

Easter Theme Day Reminder

On Wednesday 27 March, the last day of the spring term, the children will spend the whole day off-timetable, taking part in Easter-themed activities. We would like to invite parents to come in at 3pm for a special Easter assembly, where the children will share some of their learning with you. This will be followed by a tea party in the hall in honour of Mrs Martin, as this will be her final day at Exeter Pre-Prep School. There is no need to book. We hope you will be able to join us and, if you would like to bring a nut-free cake, please feel free!

 

Charity events

Red Nose Day

Friday 15 March will be a non-uniform day for Red Nose Day. The suggested donation is £1-2 per child. A limited supply of 50 red noses will be available to buy in school on the day at £2 each. They are also available to buy from Amazon, but last year stocks ran out quickly!

Fun Run Event

In the final week of term, we are planning to hold a charity fun run event to raise further money for our friends at Westbank in Exminster. Our children seem to be very keen on running lately and so we thought we would try to run a marathon collectively, with all children and staff running laps of the school grounds on 25 or 26 March, weather permitting! Children could either be sponsored per lap or for the total distance they accumulate. We will soon be sending out forms so that the children can approach family and friends for sponsorship. We will then aim to collect the money in after the Easter break. Thank you for your support.

Mrs Wannell

Charities co-ordinator

House Points

The children are doing so well with earning their new house point tokens and depositing them in the tubes in the front entrance hall. We are currently counting house points every two weeks and revealing the totals in celebration assembly on Fridays. Here are the totals from today:

Brixham (Yellow): 169

Bridgwater (Green): 164

Devonport (Red): 161

Bideford (Blue): 154

Congratulations to Brixham!

Stars of the Week

Nursery

Rose

For always being enthusiastic and curious to learn new things. Well done!

Miss Adams

Reception

Arthur

For always working hard, trying his best and making great progress with his learning. Well done!

Mrs Martin

Year 1

Ben

For his fantastic reading during our daily reading sessions. Well done!

Miss Lawrence

Year 2

Theo

For working so hard to improve his reading and writing. Well done!

Ms Richards & Mrs Goodwill

Lunchtime Tidiest Table Award

Congratulations to Reception!

Nativity dress rehearsal 🌟

Nativity dress rehearsal 🌟 ...

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Pre-Prep News

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