Pre-Prep Reflections Week 9 November 2024

Diary Dates

Wednesday 20 November 2.15pm – Year 3 Entry parent information meeting

Thursday 21 November – Autumn Reviews issued to parents

Wednesday 27 November 3.50-7.30pm – Parents’ evening

Wednesday 4 December 3.45-4.45pm – Pre-Prep Disco

Tuesday 10 December 3pm – Informal parent drop-in

Thursday 12 & Friday 13 December 2pm – Nativity performances

Monday 16 December – Christmas jumper day

Tuesday 17 December – Christmas pantomime

Wednesday 18 December – End of autumn term (12 noon)

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

Spotlight on Nursery

We have had a very busy week in Nursery learning about ‘Forest and Woodland’. In literacy,  our story of the week has been Percy the Park Keeper. We discussed and drew our favourite characters from the stories and even had a go at writing the initial sounds of their names.

We have been looking at different woodland animals and their habitats, sorting them between nocturnal and diurnal. We thought about what it would be like to be these animals, where we would live and how we would move. We then linked this to our dance lessons in PE, moving around and using our bodies to express the animal we chose. To help develop our fine motor skills, we also created a collaborative collage of Percy himself!

In mathematics, we had a visit from a cheeky squirrel and bunny who brought us some acorns, which we used to learn about comparing quantities. We compared who had the most and then divided them out as a class, discussing different ways in which they can be shared and using language such as ‘equal to’, ‘more than’ or ‘less than’.

The children are continuing to amaze us with how well they are settling into their school routines, welcoming the new starters and practising their name writing. We are very proud of them all!

Mrs Dray and Mrs Wannell

Nativity 2024

We are already looking forward to this year’s school Christmas play, which will feature a traditional nativity play set within the story of The Polar Express – with a fair amount of artistic licence, of course! You will receive a slip in your child’s reading diary explaining their role and some costume suggestions. We would be grateful if you could provide a costume for your child in a named bag by Friday 6 December. You are welcome to bring their costume into school before this date. Please do let us know if you have any questions or difficulty sourcing a costume as we would be very happy to help. Each class teacher has chosen the roles for their class, so please speak directly to them in the first instance if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your support.

Ms Richards, Deputy Head

Entry to Year 3 parent information meeting

In response to requests from parents, we will soon be holding an information meeting with Exeter School about entry to Year 3. This will be in the school hall next week on Wednesday 20 November from 2.15-3.15pm. Parents from all year groups are welcome to attend and there is no need to book. Leah Hardy, Head of Lower School at Exeter Junior School, and Liz Williams, Director of Admissions and Marketing, will be coming over to speak about the 7+ assessment morning and transition arrangements for pupils progressing to Year 3. There will also be an opportunity for parents to ask questions.

Ms Richards, Deputy Head

Pre-Prep Disco

The Family Society have kindly agreed to run a disco at the pre-prep, following the success of last year’s junior school disco. This will take place on Wednesday 4 December from 3.45-4.45pm. The team from Sporty Stars will be hosting a ‘glow in the dark’ disco in the school hall. There will therefore be no multi-sports or art club that day. Late Room will continue to run until 5.30pm in the Nursery classroom. We hope you will support this new event and look forward to sharing more details shortly. In the meantime, please save the date!

House point totals

The house point tokens have been counted after the first two weeks back in school. The totals are as follows:

• Bideford (Blue): 99

• Devonport (Red): 97

• Brixham (Yellow): 93

• Bridgwater (Green): 92

Congratulations to Bideford!

Mrs Lawrence-Jones, Head of Pastoral Care