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PARK HILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL THE DEERSTALKER ISSUE 164 - 25th Febuary 2022

From the Headmaster:

I know.

I am reminded of it on a regular basis, in fact a certain Mr Papps would indulge in a little sweepstake with his class in years past as to how long the assembly will be.

I can’t help myself. Especially when it means that we are all, each and everyone one of us, brought together to have fun and celebrate the multitude of successes from across the school.

You have been warned. Birthdays must be celebrated. Whether you are from KT2 or from slightly warmer climates (a bit of time on Manly Beach would do me good right now) I love hearing about the birthdays and the glee at which turning 5 or 6 or 21 (again) can bring.

Looking ahead to what promises to be a busy week. The most hotly discussed topic each year in the staff meeting is always the Book Character Day theme for the staff.

I was harshly accused of riding roughshod over democracy when it comes to the selection, Marvel-ous. Well, not this year. Without ring-fencing anything, although by goll(um) I did try not to get distracted by playing with the lego(las). But (Ar)wen the time came to boromir bricks they had all been Pippin Took…

Again. You have been warned.

I look forward to seeing your costumes on Thursday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Alistair

In the news…

I think it fair to say that events from the last two years, the ease of access to news 24/7 and unfathomable scenes in Ukraine do affect us all. With thanks to Mrs Walsh for forwarding the BBC article, I would like to encourage you to read through these articles as I think we could all do with strategies when dealing with what can feel like a pretty grim news feed.

Class News

Year 6

What a busy week in Year 6.

A new book has been started; ‘Holes’. We have begun exploring the character of Stanley, and how the author using foreshadowing int the first few chapters (particularly chapter 8).

Maths is all about measuring. We’ve been exploring how we convert between metric and imperial measurements, as well as what we would use each measurement for.

Science is evolving…literally. This week, the children were challenged to change one animal to another through 24 stages of evolution. It was fascinating to see how the small shanked built up to something big over millions of years.

In computing, we have a plan. As part of our ‘publishing’ topic, the pupils have been around and are seeking articles to add to our own newsletter. Watch this space!

Year 5

Year 5 have been ploughing ahead with their work on fractions. In between the termly formal assessments in maths and reading, this week we have been worked with a focus on converting mixed numbers and improper fractions and back again.

The week ended with a trip to the garden centre as we transfer from the theory side of growing our own food to the practical. After each researching and selecting seeds to grow, as with true gardeners, the children entered fierce negotiations with each other to set up deals, develop trading blocks and swap spare seeds with each other. Also true to the culture of being a ‘proper gardener’ no trip to the garden centre would be complete with a hot chocolate and a slice of cake.

Year 4

It has been lovely to have Year 4 back in class after half term. The class have been very busy this week completing their assessment in Reading, Writing and Maths and the children have shown super effort and resilience.

We enjoyed going to Canbury School and using their science laboratories. It was very exciting learning how to be safe around Bunsen Burners and hazardous chemicals and we have ordered all the class their own laboratory white coats and goggles to keep them safe over the next four weeks, as we investigate microbes.

Well done Year 4 - keep up your hard work.

Year 3

Year 3 have hit the ground running with their mid term assessments, I have been really impressed at their focus and concentration. They were so proud of their writing assessments we shared them in class afterwards!

Along with learning about the tree cycle in Science, we are continuing our work on Anglo-Saxons in Humanities which leads into our art lesson learning about and making Anglo- Saxon jewellery. In Maths, we revised our knowledge on 2D and 3D shapes, building on our knowledge of their properties using Carroll and Venn diagrams to sort.

Year 2

Busy but exciting week in Year 2!

With assessments throughout the week, I was throughly impressed by everyone in Year 2 for their determination and focus to complete them with a brilliantly positive attitude!

Our creative ideas have developed tremendously and this is a testament of hard work throughout the term.

In science we began with an exciting new topic! We explored the bones and muscles in the human body and learnt all about the skeleton. We were able to name certain bones in the body with great confidence! In maths we revised our knowledge on fractions using shapes and solving word problems!

In art we began exploring a new artist named Anthony Frost and we created our very own abstract art projects with various materials and some paint!

Well done Year 2, we’ve had a brilliant week!

Busy but exciting week in Year 2!

Year 1

Assessment week progressed well and the children in Year 1 impressed me with their focus and determination writing independently and answering maths or comprehension questions.

We have also explored length as ‘ruler readers’ this week investigating cm and mm and learning how to use a ruler effectively.

For a challenge we even converted cm into MM using our knowledge of counting in tens.

In literacy we began to look at the wonderful story of Beegu creating speech bubbles and using technology to enhance our learning. The highlight of this being designing our own planets and animating them to create a 3D image and also adding our own voices to the character Beegu.

In art and design we began a new topic - portraits

Working on our understanding of proportion to draw a half portrait in pencil.

Reception

A great start to the second half of Term for everyone in Reception!

We have been reviewing all the very difficult phonic sounds that we have learned so far and using blending to read together as a whole class. We have also carefully segmented words and sounded out to spell and write sentences together…..and of course that has all been in our best Park Hill handwriting. What wonderful authors we will be in future!

In mathematics we have been measuring height and length in non standard units and using accurate mathematical language to make comparisons. We even managed to put everyone in class in height order!

We followed on from Mr Bond’s assembly by exchanging random acts of kindness with year one - we hope that our happy word flowers help our year 1 friends feel as special as their origami heart messages made us feel!

Second Steps

Second Steps should be well and truly worn out this week.

Our letter of the week is ‘N’. We did have a hunt around the class and school trying to find things beginning ‘N’. We had a few very good Finds. Bethan found an knot on one of the threading shapes, focusing on the initial sound. Mia wanted to put the caster nets in the letter sound box because they made a noise. All the children have found lots of different N words.

We have had been concentrating on our letter and number differentiation. Identifying when we use letters and when we use numbers. To help the children’s understanding we used measuring tapes. We went up to the bark area to measure as many things as we could find. The children measured the tree, branches, bark pieces, the walking beam, the slide, stepping logs, the bench and each other to see in their words “which number they were”.

While they were busy measuring we were incorporating mathematical words like height, length, width and circumference, longer, shorter, smaller, bigger.

The children have continued their People who help us topic by wrapping their friends up in bandages and using the hovercraft and helicopter to take them to hospital.

We will be having a visit from the Police in a couple of weeks and have let the children know they are coming. They have been dressing up and rushing to emergencies to help people.

We definitely made the most of the muddy puddles in Richmond Park this week. It was the first thing they wanted to do after all the rain in the morning and thankfully there were plenty.

All the children wanted to paint so we set up a painting session with classical music playing in the background. The children were all really calm and focused and produced some really lovely pictures.

Miss Finch & Miss Wood

First Steps

First Steps children loved discovering the boxes. They began to explore the enclosing and positional schemas by hiding both themselves and the teddy bears inside and behind the boxes. Each game with the boxes helped us to develop the children’s positional language.

We continued to explore different textures in our sensory tray mixing lotion and cornflour. The smell of the lotion was really calming and the children enjoyed talking about how did they feel. The children have been developing their fine motor skills as they have used their pincer grasps and spoons to transfer the mixture between different containers, this has also helped to develop their hand-eye coordination.

On Wednesday, we had have a fire drill and discussed what we would do in the case of a real fire. Many children said they would call Firefighters and they would save us. And all children lined up very quickly and quietly when the bell went rang. Well done First Steps!

The children also have had so much fun touching and smelling the daffodils at art table. After a long explore children painted their very own daffodils. As they painted their daffodils they ascribed meaning to their marks. We certainly have some inspirational artists in First steps. Every child is an artist!!

In our letters and sounds phase 1 sessions this week we have begun to explore the aspect of “body percussion”. We have explored how we can make sounds by tapping our feet, clapping our hands, stamping our feet and using our voices to make quiet and loud sounds. We have used the Boogie Mites songs “clap, clap, clap”, “hello high” and “one man band”. We then used sticks and our hands to tap out simple rhythms and counting 1,2,3 and 4 beats.

Thursday, March 3, we will dress up as our favourite book character and will join the assembly in the church! Cannot wait to see you in your costumes!

Mrs Guniz

Mrs Mousi

Physical Education and Games

In sports science the Year 6's have finished learning the different training methods and have even created their own where they will be leading it to their peers in the coming weeks. The year 5's have finished presenting the different training methods tot their peers and will begin to explore how to create a training program. The year 3 & 4's are practically identifying and linking the variety of training methods.

In P.E we have continued to develop our hockey skills for our upcoming fixtures in the coming half-term against a variety of schools. Reception and 2nd steps are learning different tagging games with a focus on attacking and blocking the space. First steps are learning to move like different animals to help them activate different muscle groups to improve their gross motor skills.

French

Year 4 & 5

Welcome to our Spring 2 term! This term, we will be starting a new Theme “Food”.

This week children have discovered vegetables “Les légumes”. As a warmer, children had to read from a list of words and cross out all the words that were not vegetables. Then we introduced our vocabulary by asking the question “Qu’est-ce que c’est?” and answering using the trigger structure “C’est un …./ C’est une … / Ce sont des ….” This way, offering the children plenty of opportunities to practise the structure form provided.

We then analysed our answers to work out when to use the indefinite demonstrative pronouns “C’est un …./ C’est une …/ Ce sont des ….” before completing an activity where they had to look at pictures and decide which form to use.

We also reviewed:

* The definite articles “un - for masculin / une - for féminin / des - for plural

* Words’ gender

* The sound /oi/ in the word “oignon”

* The transformation of the /on/ into /om/ when followed by the monster letters “b,p, m”.

Reception

Welcome to our Spring 2 term! This term, we will be starting a new Theme “Food”.

This week children have discovered vegetables “Les légumes”. We started the lesson with our ritual circle time then children listened to the story “ La soupe de la sorcière” and they had to recall the vegetables used by the witch to make her soup.

Using flash-cards to help with their visual memory, I introduced the vocabulary as a first step, children then had to listen carefully and point to the correct picture and finally they had to name the vegetable presented and to wrap up, we played a memory game.

Year 2:

Welcome to our Spring 2 term! This term, we will be starting a new Theme “Food”.

This week children have discovered vegetables “Les légumes”. To give them a gist, children listened to the story “ La soupe de la sorcière” and they had to recall the vegetables used by the witch to make her soup.

Using flash-cards to help with their visual memory, children listened and repeated the presented vegetables and drilled the vocabulary. We named out vegetables that sounded like English “une carotte, un concombre, une courgette, un oignon, une salade, une patate, une aubergine”. Children had to guess which item was the intruder and that was not a vegetable “ une tomate”.

Children also practised spelling the vocabulary introduced by completing a matching activity before playing a Vegetable Dobble game. To wrap up, we sorted and named all the vegetables according to their colour and sang along our new greeting song.

Well done Year 2!

Music

In KS1 Music pupils are learning about pitch using do-re-mi and xylophones. Students are also learning how to play together and improvise. We are singing spring songs about butterflies.

In KS 2 we have started songwriting project and students will compose their own songs this term. We are also getting ready for our two big performances, ISA A Capella competition in Reading (small group of year 4 and 5 students) and ILG choir music festival (all students from year 4, 5 and 6.

Images from the Week

Covid-19 Regulations

You will be aware that there has been a significant alteration to the Covid-19 regulations announced this week.

Key Dates

Whilst the dates for the term can be downloaded from the website, I would like to draw your attention to the following events –

Thursday 3rd March – World Book Day

Parent Consultation Meetings running throughout the first two weeks of March.

Monday 7th 14th and 21st March – Adventure School Expedition (Yomp) (Y6, Y5 and Y4)

Thursday 10th March – Inter-House Poetry Competition

Thursday 17th March – Inter-House Quiz

Friday 25th March – End of Term

Social Media

#confidentcurioushappy

There are also some wonderful images from our Little Adventurers available through their own instagram page -

Useful Links -

Book Character Day is all about the children, I promise….

Created By
Park Hill
Appreciate

Credits:

Alistair Bond