Clarendon Cottage

Preparatory School Newsletter September 2019

Dates for Diary

Thursday 3rd October 2019—Pop Project (workshop for Prep 2—Prep 8)

Friday –18th October 2019— Junior Ski Trip to Ski Rossendale

W/C 21st October—Half Term (for 1 week) —Please book your child in to holiday club.

Monday 28th October—Flu Vaccinations at 11am (Prep 2—Prep 8)

Thursday 14th November—Prep 2 Open Evening 4:15—7pm

W/C 2nd December—Test Week

Thursday 12 December—P1 Trip to the Lowry Theatre to watch ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’

Thursday 12th December—Prep 2 - 8 trip to Manchester Opera House to watch Snow White.

Mrs Waghorn’s Corner

Welcome to the first newsletter of the

academic year. The children have all settled

well in to their new classes and, as you will

see in the class round ups, have been

extremely busy.

The new PE kit looks great and, from personal

experience, the black shorts are definitely

easier to keep looking smart.

Mad Science came in to assembly last week. I

was so proud of how much knowledge they

had to share with Neutron Naomi.

Thank you to all of the parents who have

been asking after Nathaniel (my son) he is

excelling at Bolton Grammar School and the

love of learning he developed here has made

the transition very smooth.

Next week Pop Project are back and both the

children and staff are very excited at the

prospect It is a fantastic, interactive and

musical way to explore the key ideas of British

values.

School Events

Roald Dahl Day we spent celebrating the

characters by dressing up and exploring his

writing style.

Jeans for Genes Day was well supported and we

raised money for a very worthy cause.

Harvest festival was a great success and Salford

Food Bank were delighted with our donations.

Prep 1—Miss Madden

We have been very busy in Prep 1 as we all settled into school

life, explored the new environment and made lots of new

friends. We have learnt all about our similarities and

differences, and made beautiful self-portraits for our ‘This is

me’ board. We thought about the colours that we needed for

our different features, and then added bright, colourful

clothing. We even thought about how those colours make us

feel. Yellow was definitely the winner for our favourite happy

colour!

After talking about growing up and being big boys and girls in

school, we thought about other changes that are happening.

The children noticed the change in the weather and the falling

leaves. That’s right; we’ve been exploring all things autumn. Our

budding explorers went on a scavenger hunt for autumn leaves,

conkers, acorns, and helicopter seeds. We loved using the

magnifying glasses to take a closer look, and then find the

matching objects in our nature books. We made patterns with

the bright leaves and different shapes, and used lots of

descriptive language. What a wonderful first half term it has

been, I can’t wait for more adventures with our amazing Prep 1

class.

Prep 2 & 3—Miss Taylor

What a wonderful start to the Autumn term in Prep 2 and 3. All

of the children have settled in beautifully and we are starting to

create some new friendships. We have had lots of lovely stories

relating to our learning to help us too. We have read ‘Dear

Dinosaur’ in English. Prep 2 wrote a letter and posted it to a

dinosaur and Prep 3 wrote a draft letter and then emailed the

dinosaurs. We are having a tea party with the dinosaurs too and

are very excited.

In Science we have read ‘The Owl who was afraid of the dark’

and we then explored light and dark and our feelings about the

dark. Our topic is ‘extreme places’ and we are learning about

Robert Falcon Scott and Antarctica. In Maths we are

consolidating our number knowledge too and we especially

enjoyed using the Numicon for this.

We have introduced a class reward system. We have to fill our

rainbow jar with pom-poms when we all work together to listen

and look after out classroom then we will receive a class reward

( the dinosaur tea party )

We are very much looking forward to our trip to the theatre in

the next half term and of course all the excitement of Halloween

and Bonfire Night .

Prep 5 & 6 —Miss Brookes

The start to the new term has been a fun, busy and challenge -

packed time for Prep 5/6. The children have been learning

about place value in Maths and especially enjoyed their Roman

numeral lesson using lollypop sticks.

In our English lessons our focus book has been ‘The Great

Choco-Plot’. We have written excellent character and setting

descriptions using our ambitious vocabulary.

Science this term is focusing on ‘Forces and Magnets’. We

conducted a classroom experiment testing different materials

to investigate if it was magnetic or non-magnetic. Topic this

term is focusing on Extreme Places and we have explored

Volcanoes and Polar Regions. The children have created

unique and lovely Polar Abstract Art .

Prep 5/6 took part in a Money Sense Workshop which involved

the children planning for a party. The children worked really

well and understood the value of money.

I am extremely proud with all their efforts and hard work; what

an amazing start to the new school year!

Prep 4—Mrs Cooper

In Prep 4 so far we have established a settled, working

environment and have enjoyed learning about Place Value in

Maths. We used chalks on the playground to draw place value

charts, and have been very enthusiastic about learning our tens

and units.

We have really enjoyed writing our own historical story about

George and the Dragon, and have been using lots of techniques

to enhance our writing.

Our topic this term is Extreme Places; our children have been

working hard to identify the features of the Sahara desert, and

how this differs from a rainforest.

As a school we participated in Roald Dahl Day, where Prep 4

demonstrated some fantastic, imaginative costumes. What a

great start to the year Prep 4, well done!

School Roles

Prep 7 & 8—Mrs Waghorn

What an amazing start to the school year from my class. The

advantage of having taught all the children before is we can get

straight down to work (I don’t think the children agree with me

on this).

English this month has been based around a short film

advertising the Winter Olympics called ‘The Dreadful Menace’.

We have explored the poetry in the film and have been

analysing the personification, similes and hyperboles focusing

on the impact they have. The children have written their own

stanza to complete the poem and all the hard work shone

through in the quality of their final piece.

Topic this term is Extreme Places and we have been

investigating volcanoes. We have looked at how and why they

erupt and the impact that has on the human and physical

geography of the area. We have identified and located the 10

most active volcanoes and recorded them on a world map

along with a numbered key.

Finally , congratulations to two of my class who qualified for the

regional gymnastics team to compete at the national event later

in the year.

Head Girl Head Boy Prefect Prefect

House Captain House Captain House Captain

We are delighted to

announce our School

Roles for this academic

year!

As well as…

Sports Captain—Rudi

Head Prefect—Richard