THEECHO ECHO ECHO
Summer 2019 Edition
From the Headmistress… And Finally Welcome to the Summer 2019 Edition of The Echo. As I write, I am mindful of the fact that, like the children currently in Year 6, my time at St Margaret’s is rapidly drawing to a close. That I share something in common with such a wonderful group of eleven year olds has indeed brought me great comfort in recent weeks! The modern Prep School is still rooted in the best of the educational values and standards advocated by their 19th century founders and the successors of the early and middle 20th century. Excellence in academic, cultural and social spheres matters, as does having outstanding sports teams, choirs and orchestras. Teaching is, more than ever, about care and support, with a significant focus upon highlighting timeless, inclusive values such as helping others, serving the wider community and putting the needs of others first. Inspiring, caring individuals are the lifeblood of a good school and always have been; in working with such a wonderful team at St Margaret’s, I have always considered myself to be beyond lucky.
Every time I go down to the Kindergarten, I am reminded of a famous article by Robert Fulsham, in which he wrote: ‘Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in the Kindergarten. I learned these things: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Live a balanced life. Live some and think some and draw and paint and dance and play and work every day, some!’ I believe that education is not ultimately about what you know or do. It is about what kind of person you become and how you shape the world around you. To that end, I would also like to acknowledge the outstanding contribution made to St Margaret’s by Miss Cath Jones, our Deputy Head, who has spent numerous hours nurturing and moulding children and adults alike; her own retirement is richly deserved and everyone will undoubtedly miss her patience, wise words and friendship.
So where do we go and what happens next? The future undoubtedly lies with the children in our schools. They are our hope, and when I look at the pupils at St Margaret’s, I cannot help but be optimistic. For the most part, they are gentle, kind, warm-hearted and tolerant. They are far more likely to be able to solve the world’s problems because they instinctively avoid the prejudices that are often the cause of so much suffering.
So, thank you for allowing me to spend the last thirty years helping to prepare children to leave St Margaret’s armed, not only with the skills to successfully navigate the challenges of the 21st century, but also equipped with a range of values, to educate and develop, to challenge injustice; all instilled with vision and compassion.
The example that adults give children has a profound effect on them. Children can spot injustice very quickly. If we want St Margaret’s to be full of good, caring citizens who are pursuing all aspects of school life with vigour, honesty, integrity and enthusiasm, then that is what we must do ourselves. Children learn to be what they live.
To our Year 6 leavers, I bid you a fond farewell – the world is now yours for the taking. And to the rest of St Margaret’s, thank you for the pleasure of your company and for your trust and support during my time here. The future is bright, you are all part of the most wonderful community and must continue to do everything possible to be the best that you can be.
Working in education is the best job in the world – the training and preparing of young minds is a profound responsibility. Schools need to be havens of care, compassion and consideration for the needs of others, with every pupil knowing their worth, and believing in the worth of everyone else.
This edition of The Echo is, as ever, filled with just a selection of just some of the very many wonderful events and activities that have taken place this term. I hope you enjoy reading it and I send you and your families good wishes for the future.
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Reception’s Special Delivery! This term, the children in Reception were extremely excited to receive a special delivery of wriggly creatures that transformed into butterflies. They all named their caterpillars and were very eager to observe all of the changes that happened - such as growing 5 times bigger in just 5 days! The children were fabulous at using their phonic knowledge to sound out the words that they wanted to write in their ‘Caterpillar Diaries’ and loved taking photographs to accompany their sentences using the iPads. They also enjoyed EcoOL School, where they built the life cycle of a butterfly using natural resources. Once the metamorphosis was complete, the highlight of the term (and probably the year!) was releasing the butterflies into the wild in the school garden.
Plant Detectives in 3L In Science, the 3L children had fun learning about plants this term. They particularly enjoyed creating their own life cycles of a plant, which included pollination, germination, seed dispersal and fertilisation. They created different experiments to test the requirements for growth, whilst making predictions and observations. The children were able to label the different parts of a plant, even identifying the stamen and carpel. Whilst weeding in the St Margaret’s garden, everyone managed to explore and identify different types of British plants and flowers!
Year 5 are Habitat Experts The children in Year 5 have impressed with the quality of their Habitat Projects this term. They were introduced to the assignment back in the spring, and have been observing and monitoring changes to a habitat of their choice over the last few months. The idea is to encourage the children to apply their learning at school to a real-life setting. The Habitat Project is a cross-curricular activity which links many areas of the curriculum: using weather data to create graphs and tables; writing animal and plant fact files in Literacy; studying animal adaptations in Science and illustrating in watercolours in Art. The children designed an entertaining variety of experiments ranging from: ‘Do worms prefer sun or shade?’ and ‘Which type of food do birds prefer?’ to ‘Does the length of the grass affect the diversity of insect species?’ We hope you enjoyed looking at the projects in the Year 5 classrooms on Open Day.
THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2019 EDITION
Year 4 Flying Along to a Sustainable World In May, the Year 4 children visited Mill on the Brue for their annual residential trip, which proved to be as big a success as ever! They flew on the zip wire, balanced and climbed on the crates, clambered and crawled along the assault course, spun and spiralled through the spider’s web, and wiggled and wobbled along the low ropes whilst building not only confidence and self-esteem, but also long-term friendships.
Sustainability might be a buzzword elsewhere, but at Mill on the Brue, the children discovered it was a reality, learning about everything from recycling tyres into roof tiles and steps, as well as the value of leaving a clean plate and reducing our carbon footprint by calculating the food miles of every meal. The children and staff all agreed that it was a most memorable and valuable three days!
Year 5 Enjoy Super Sunshine in Swanage Back in May, the hugely anticipated ‘best day in Year 5’ had finally arrived in the midst of some wet Wiltshire weather. The residential trip to Swanage, promising fun aplenty, was about to begin. Would it be nice on the coast? All the wet weather clothing was packed just in case… During the journey, 5G complained that it was raining inside the bus as well as outside, but thankfully, the mystery was traced to a leaky water bottle! When Year 5 arrived, the sun came out and the sea was tropical blue, making every activity fun. It was hard to believe that it was still raining in Calne! After a trip to the beach, everyone enjoyed the views at Durlston Country Park, especially the giant globe and the lighthouse perched on the cliff. Back in Swanage there was time for an ice cream and the Scavenger Hunt – a trail around the town to photograph key sights. Day 2 was all about the fabulous coastline and how the sea created features such as Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove. All of the children managed the walk up the cliff path and were amazed at the size of Durdle Door, where they stopped to eat and sketch. There was also time for sandcastle building on the beach at Studland. On the final day, the children interviewed people about the town. They also managed a little retail therapy in the lovely gift shops, before a final ice cream in the sunshine. What a fabulous trip!
Open Day, P and Sports Aft
Prize Giving, ternoon 2019
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Amazing Animal Adaptations in 2N! 2N have been keen geographers and scientists this term, exploring how animals adapt to the environments in which they live. Showing a particular interest in penguins, the children have done some careful map work and discovered that all 17 types of penguin live in the Southern Hemisphere. They have learnt that many penguins survive life in the extremely cold conditions of the Antarctic and a real highlight has been conducting some experiments to find out about these penguins’ survival skills. The class tried out a ‘Blubber Glove’ in icy cold water to see how useful a layer of fat can be for keeping penguins warm. They also put a waxy (crayon) layer on their penguin pictures to see how feathers are made waterproof. This helps the penguins to stay warm and dry when they are diving in freezing waters for their food. All of this interesting learning was supported by an informative trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park, where the children saw the Humboldt penguins in action!
Reading Rocks in 3R! Children in 3R have loved improving their reading skills this year. They have had great fun learning about new authors and using studies of their books to write their own very funny stories. They have taken time to read many different genres, with play scripts being a favourite for one group and non-fiction ticking the box for others. The group reading texts have allowed the class to explore the fact that not everyone will like the same books and may in fact have some very different opinions on what they think characters within stories should have done. This has led to some exceptional debates within the class. The focus this term has been on sharing their passion for reading with their Year 1 peer-reading partners. 3R children listened to the younger pupils read, gave them tips on how to get even better and then improved their own questioning skills when quizzing them about what they have read and whom their favourite characters were. Everyone is more than ready for the reading adventure to carry on into Year 4!
Kindergarten Have Fun in the Jungle! This term, the Kindergarten children have enjoyed their very own jungle! To begin their role-play extravaganza, they had a fantastic afternoon in the Art department at St Mary’s, with Mrs Pallot and her team helping them to create the most amazing pieces of art to put in their jungle. The children came back from the afternoon exhausted and a little covered in paint, but with giant leaves, boulders and even their own waterfall! In the weeks that followed, they continued creating and added their own animal masks and footprints. They had great fun camping in their tent and even used animal puppets to tell each other stories!
THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2019 EDITION
Castle Crusades in Year 1 Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed preparing for their Castle Day activities, in order to support their work on castles. They baked jam tarts, designed their own placemats and wrote short stories, poems and a medieval prayer, which were all shared during their royal banquet. On the day itself, the children engaged in listening to a visiting dragon, writing with quills and learning some banquet etiquette, as well as taking part in a carousel of dragon, page and squire training activities. Castle choir and a battlefield event rounded-up their fascinating castle-themed day!
Sound Studies in 4NC 4NC have been listening very carefully! The children started their unit on Sound by using a digital map of the school to map different sound levels around the site. This varied from the school garden with bees buzzing and birds flying overhead, to the astro-turf, with tennis matches taking place and the ventilation system at the swimming pool. The sound levels were carefully recorded using an iPad app, where the children could see the average decibels as well as the sound waves live; it was a very interesting afternoon! Everyone realised that many of the sounds they perceive to be louder are actually just different frequencies and that when they are quiet, it is amazing what they can hear!
The Great Fire in 2J! 2J enjoyed finding out about The Great Fire of London in History this term. The unit started with a visit from the Fire Safety Officer, learning about the importance of fire safety. Trying on the helmet, jacket and boots was undoubtedly the highlight of the visit! The children were fascinated to learn all about the events of The Great Fire and how this episode in history, was the start of the creation of the fire service that we know today. In Art, the class recreated a silhouette scene of London during this time. They also read extracts from Samuel Pepys’ diary and wrote their own diaries using ‘old paper’. Everyone had great fun thinking about which of their treasured items they would bury to keep them safe from the fire, just like Samuel Pepys did with his cheese and wine!
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Culinary Happiness in Year 6 Shortly after half term, the Year 6 children were very excited to have the opportunity to prepare and cook a three-course lunch. Four enthusiastic parents had spent weeks preparing for the morning and arrived with the ingredients, as chosen by the children. Everyone worked in groups to measure accurately, slice neatly, chop carefully and mix the ingredients. Each group followed a recipe card and with the help of their adult helper set to work. Maggots sounded like a professional kitchen with instructions
and advice flying around the room! All of their hard work culminated in a delicious meal of mouth-watering watermelon, followed by juicy beef burgers, healthy potato wedges and a refreshing rainbow side salad. For dessert, the children devoured an enormous piece of rocky road and they still had some left over to take home. We need to say a huge thank you to all the parents who helped and especially to Mrs Fry who was responsible for co-ordinating the whole memorable event.
Year 6 Learn Valuable Life Lessons on the Isle of Wight At the beginning of May, Year 6 left St Margaret’s for their residential trip on the Isle of Wight. As the coach reached Southampton harbour, the excitement grew. Everyone boarded the Red Funnel ferry and the adventure began! On arrival at the home of the United Kingdom Sailing Academy (UKSA) in Cowes, everyone settled into the dorms, called ‘Invincible’. The children subsequently proved that they were invincible all week. The weather was very changeable and often windy, which meant that some of the activities became more challenging.
Each day involved water activities on larger keelboats, smaller dingy sailing, kayaking and paddle boarding. Following an enormous evening meal each night, the activities continued with crabbing, archery, team games and beach combing. The children learnt many life skills: resilience, perseverance, tolerance, organisation, collaboration, teamwork and overcoming their fears. They were very proud of themselves and most importantly, supportive towards each other. The staff were full of pride at their ‘have a go’ attitudes; undoubtedly an experience that will stay in everyone’s memories for a long time.
Year 6 Develop Their Speaking & Listening Skills For the past two terms, children in Year 6 have been working on their ESB projects. Some children worked towards the Junior Medallion Award, whilst others brushed up their skills in debating! The Junior Medallion requires candidates to research and present on a topic of their own choice, which this year ranged from koalas, endangered animals and bulls, to gaming and Arsenal football club! The children were fascinated to discover facts such as a baby koala is called a joey, there are only 38,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, bulls are colour-blind, online gaming didn’t exist in their parents’ time and football hooliganism was a huge problem in the 1970s.
They each chose how to present their work, which included either a display board or a PowerPoint presentation and after many weeks of practice, they perfected their skills and became confident at speaking and answering questions about their chosen topic in front of a group. Additionally, the children were also required to recite their own choice of poem and read a passage from one their favourite books.
Developing these essential life skills will undoubtedly benefit the Year 6 leavers as they move on to their senior schools in September, secure in the knowledge that they can organise themselves, present to an audience with confidence and hold up their side in a discussion with knowledge and self-assurance.
The debaters challenged themselves, each other and the staff with some extremely interesting questions, such as ‘Is Artificial Intelligence good?’ and ‘Should children start school at 4?’ They clearly all acquitted themselves well, with Merits and Distinctions awarded across the board.
St Margaret’s Preparatory School, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 0DF T: 01249 857220 E: office@stmargaretsprep.org.uk W: www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk @StMargaretsPrep
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