Pre-Prep Reflections Week 26 April 2025

Diary Dates

Wednesday 23 April – Term starts

Friday 2 May – Year 1 trip to World of Country Life

Monday 5 May – Bank holiday (school closed)

Monday 19 May – Open morning for prospective families

Monday 26 to Friday 30 May – May half term (school closed)

Monday 2 June – Staff INSET day (school closed)

Monday 30 June – End of year reports issued

Tuesday 1 July – Transition Day

Friday 4 July 1.30pm – Sports Day

Monday 7 July 3pm – Informal parent drop-in afternoon

Tuesday 8 July 2.30pm – Summer showcase

Wednesday 9 July – Term ends at 3.30pm

Term dates for 2024-25 and 2025-26 are available to download from the school website. 

Spotlight on Reception

This week in Reception we have been getting ready for Easter. In literacy, our focus text has been We’re Going on an Egg Hunt. The children have enjoyed acting out the story in the school grounds and writing a list of the things they can see over Easter. In mathematics, we have been looking at the properties of 3D shapes. The children were able to name the 2D shapes they saw on the faces of 3D shapes, and explored rolling and stacking with 3D shapes. The children really enjoyed exploring a range of materials when creating and decorating an Easter egg, especially the paint sticks and jewels! It was lovely to take part in all the wonderful Easter activities today and the children did a wonderful job of sharing their digital artwork in this afternoon’s Easter assembly. What a great term we have had! We hope you all have a wonderful Easter and look forward to seeing you in the summer term.

Mrs Rickard, Mrs Smyth and Miss Adams

Staffing Update

New appointments

We have been busy this term undertaking recruitment for various roles in the school. Following rigorous interview and selection days, I am pleased to announce the following new staff appointments:

• Mrs Anna Higgins will be joining us from next term as a teaching assistant in Year 2. Mrs Titchin is reducing her working days to Mondays and Tuesdays, while Mrs Higgins will work Wednesdays to Fridays. Mrs Higgins is currently a teaching assistant at Exminster Primary School, following a long career as a senior cardiac intensive care nurse in London and Swansea hospitals. Mrs Higgins completed her A levels at Exeter School and has three children; her youngest daughter was a former pupil in our Nursery.

• Miss Harriet Mulchrone joins us after May half term to cover Mrs Wannell’s maternity leave in the Nursery. Miss Mulchrone is a qualified teacher, relocating from south west London, where she has been teaching at The Russell School in Richmond. After graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music with a BMus degree in performance and opera, Miss Mulchrone spent five years working as a professional classical singer, before undertaking an Early Years diploma and then doing her teacher training at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.
• Miss Polly Wheller is due to join us in September to cover Mrs Lawrence-Jones’s maternity leave. Miss Wheller grew up in Somerset and attended Wellington School. She holds a BA degree in Education Studies from Reading University and a PGCE from Cambridge University. Having taught Year 2 at a primary school in St Neots, she then moved overseas to Marlborough College Pre-Prep in Malaysia, where she has taught Year 2 and Year 1 over the past two years. Miss Wheller is due to return to the UK in July and I am hopeful that she will be able to come in to meet everyone before the summer holidays.

Looking ahead to next year

The plan for next academic year is to move some teaching staff in Key Stage 1 around. This will mean that:

• Year 1 will be taught by Ms Richards and Mrs Goodwill, assisted by Mrs Thomas and Mrs Higgins.
• Year 2 will be taught by Mrs Lawrence-Jones (Miss Wheller during her maternity leave from September), assisted by Mrs Titchin and Mrs Tyler.
• Mrs Lawrence-Jones’s leadership responsibilities will be shared between myself and Ms Richards, with Mrs Rickard acting as deputy designated safeguarding lead.
• Early Years staffing will remain unchanged, with Nursery being led by Mrs Dray and assisted by Mrs Wannell (or Miss Mulchrone while she is on maternity leave), and Reception being taught by Mrs Rickard and Mrs Smyth, assisted by Miss Adams.

Message for Year 2 Parents

To allow for continuity with Mrs Titchin leading the spelling tests in Year 2, we will be moving spelling tests to Tuesday mornings from the start of the summer term.

The first spelling test will therefore be on Tuesday 29 April, so the children will have a few extra days to practise. This is also noted in the children’s spelling books. Thank you.

Ms Richards