A leading independent prep school in Somerset, offering excellence in education for 2-13 year olds
It was a pleasure to welcome our bagpipes teacher, Rob Walker, into school last week for a potted history of the bagpipes to Years 3 and 4. Year 6 pupil, Harry, performed his first piece on the chanter (the stepping stone instrument towards learning to play the full set of pipes), and then Rob lifted the roof of the Music School by serenading us with the pipes – it was fabulous!
Our Nursery children have been consolidating their topic work on ‘Knowledge and Understanding of the World’, which is one of the seven areas of learning. They had great fun using bubble wrap to make beehives, and making hanging minibeasts using recycled materials.
Many thanks to our friends at Sherborne Prep and Millfield Prep for a cracking afternoon of cricket in the sunshine on Wednesday! Our 1st team enjoyed a brilliant afternoon at Sherborne – well done to player of the match, Tommy, for his superb batting. We’re looking forward to seeing Queen’s College Taunton this weekend.
Congratulations to our Year 6 debaters who spoke fluently and persuasively on Friday (top marks from Mrs Byrnes!). The motion ‘This House would ban scientific testing on animals’ was defeated by the slimmest of margins with 50 votes to 49 – a surprise result and largely based on the strength of the counter-arguments put forward by opposers Daisy, Rosie and Scarlet. Very well done to both teams and to chair, Henry, and timekeepers, Chloe and Arata.
We are delighted to share the news that Year 8 pupil, Harry, has been awarded a Sport Scholarship to Radley College; this is in addition to the Thompson All-Rounder Award which we reported on earlier in the year. A fantastic achievement Harry and thoroughly deserved! .
To support Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme of ‘nature’, pupils across the school have been taking part in land art projects with Mrs Palmer. Seeking inspiration from the natural world, they have created some fantastic pieces of work and have also enjoyed discussions with our trained Mental Health Team, Mrs Manley and Mrs Tarrant, about our emotions and how they can be represented by the colours around us. A fantastic week which has encouraged us all to think about our emotions and the positive effects of nature on our mental health.
Last Thursday Years 7 and 8 listened to an inspirational lecture on the work of Key4Life, a charity which aims to reduce youth reoffending for prisoners and those at risk of going to prison. The charity’s founder and CEO, Eva Hamilton MBE, and former prisoner turned mentor, Renardo, spoke passionately about the charity’s rehabilitation programme and the importance of giving young men a second chance. Joining Eva and Renardo was Rick Wates OBE of the William Wates Memorial Trust, who has been instrumental in funding Key4Life’s ground breaking work. It was an extremely enlightening and worthwhile lecture for our senior pupils.
Our Nursery and Reception children welcomed a very special visitor last week – none other than the Nick (aka the Bugman) from the brilliant Bugfest. Armed with his troupe of many-legged friends, Nick showed off his selection of minibeasts, including giant centipedes, scorpions and tarantulas, and talked to the children about their characteristics and natural habitats. The visit consolidated the children’s learning about minibeasts as part of the EYFS curriculum and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Thanks for another entertaining and educational morning, Nick.
We finally broke our duck in style on Wednesday afternoon with the long-awaited return of competitive sports matches against other schools. Many thanks to Hazlegrove for a great afternoon of cricket – big smiles all round!
Our Pre-Prep tennis players have been in fine fettle this week. Under the watchful eye of coaches, Richard Douglas and Jan Vincent, the children have been practising their volleying at the net. Great work Years 1 and 2; keep it up!
