THEECHO ECHO ECHO
Christmas 2015 Edition
Try Everything -
Look What Can Be Achieved! Every term at St Margaret’s is busy, vibrant and purposeful - and none more so than the autumn term of 2015. The children have enjoyed success in so many ways, not only in and outside of the classroom, but also both academically and personally. Further, the triumphs reflect the ‘all-round’ education upon which the school prides itself. The increased focus on learning outside the classroom saw every child in the school designing and building dens earlier in the term. Running simultaneously, the children in Years 5 and 6 found time to take part in the Primary Maths Challenge, with a number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards being gained. The Chamber Choir has enjoyed a highly successful term, winning not only their choral class in the Devizes Eisteddfod, but also being acknowledged as the best overall choir in the competition. Their success was matched by our outstanding Recorder Ensemble, as well as the many children who won individual classes, both in Music and Drama categories; collectively, this led to St Margaret’s being recognized as the best overall group in the Eisteddfod.
Towards the end of term, the Year 6 children represented the school in the Wessex heat of the LEGOLeague Competition. Their overall knowledge and extraordinary composure under pressure saw them win not only the Robot Performance Award, but also the Champion’s Prize; they will now represent the South West in the National Finals in Loughborough next year. On the sports field the children have enjoyed many successes and the Girls’ Fencing Team has just been awarded the Bath Schools’ Millennium Foil for the second Year running. Whilst we celebrate these externally recognized achievements, what is much more important is the whole school commitment to becoming effective learners, because that is what enables every individual to strive towards being the best that they can be. The triumphs acknowledge not only excellence, but the diversity in our pupils and in our provision, and we look forward to the children continuing to challenge themselves and discover that there are no barriers to what they can achieve...
Welcome to the Christmas Edition of ‘The Echo’ As I write, I am listening to the glorious sound of children singing Carols and Christmas songs around school. The growing excitement is palpable and I know that everyone is looking forward to sharing not only in the St Margaret’s Christmas celebrations, but also to enjoying the forthcoming holiday season with their families. The achievements have been many since September and we are extremely proud of how the children settled quickly to the new school
year and faced a wealth of new challenges with a positive and determined attitude. We look forward to this continuing when we return in January and we especially wish good luck to our Year 6 pupils as they prepare to take their entrance examinations for senior schools. In the meantime, I send you and your families my good wishes for a blessed and joyous Christmas, and a peaceful and happy 2016.
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk 3R Become Budding Artists! This term the children in 3R have explored colour and tone in their Art lessons. This work culminated in a study of the artist Paul Klee. The children loved looking at his work and discussing how abstract art can mean different things to different people. They were enthusiastic to recreate some of his famous pieces and we are sure you’ll agree the results are fantastic!
3H go Back to the Stone Age! Year 3 relished the opportunity to bring their History studies to life during Culture Week; this is no mean feat when studying the gruesome Stone Age! The children stepped outside the safety of the classroom and lived a day in the life of a Palaeolithic man! First on the agenda was making sure they looked the part. The class put on their fur jackets (no animals were harmed in the process!) and made sure to alter their usual tidy appearance by muddying their faces and tangling their wellgroomed hair. It was then off to the Wildlife Garden to discover what could be used as natural paint for the prehistoric cave paintings. The children soon realised that mud, berries and leaves gave just the right colours they needed, often if mixed with saliva! Year 3 know that hunting was a central part of their survival so were keen to collect materials for tool making. In a blink of an eye branches and stones were transformed into spears, bows and axes, by learning how to sharpen sticks and attach rocks using string. Finally, after their trip to Avebury everyone had a good understanding of the importance of sacred sites to the Stone Age people. They found the best spot where the sun would rise and built their very own St Margaret’s stone circle. All in all a very realistic experience!
6G Evacuee Experience Everyone in Year 6 was really excited about being ‘evacuated’ on their trip to STEAM in Swindon. To get into the true spirit of wartime Britain, the children and staff were in Second World War dress, complete with gas mask box, identity cards and ration books. It was important to keep these at all times because there were people to check papers at the museum, just as there would have been during the war.
2T Time Travellers The children in 2T started the year travelling back in time to Sevington Victorian School. They spent the day pretending to be Victorian children with appropriate names and learning all the things that they would have been expected to do in 1889; writing on slates, being seen and not heard, playing with wooden toys and Mrs Talbot’s favourite part - calling their teacher Ma’am! The highlight of returning to 2015 was knowing there wouldn’t be the cane or the finger stocks! The children then presented their experiences in assembly. They used their new iPads and MORPHO software to pretend to be Miss Squire. Parents and peers were amazed at their use of technology to link Victorian times with the present day.
The first part of the experience was getting on the train and being billeted with some of the staff, who had parts to play as villagers at the countryside destination. It was fun for the teachers to get into a role and choose children who fitted their needs. The children imagined what it would be like to not be chosen by anyone whist being in an unfamiliar situation far from home. When the siren rang everyone had to file into the air raid shelter and wait for the ‘all clear’ to sound. Inside the shelter people sang to keep their spirits up. The children also got to play war time games; in particular they all loved skipping using chants such as: I’m a girl guide dressed in blue. These are the actions I must do: Salute to the king and bow to the queen. Turn my back on the German submarine. The day demonstrated how different life was in wartime!
Kindergarten’s Christmas Stable The Kindergarten children created their own stable as part of their Christmas role play. They have different costumes in their stable so that they can dress up as characters from the nativity, and can act out their own nativity story. The children’s favourite costumes were the animal costumes, and they have also been practising dressing and undressing independently. The stable also proved to be the perfect place to rehearse Kindergarten’s Christmas songs!
5D Experience the Exotic Year 5 may initially have perceived the Amazon Rainforest as being a distant, dreamlike environment, but a trip to the Living Rainforest in Newbury worked wonders in bringing this excitingly exotic location to life! It was an assault on the senses from the moment that you walked through the door; the overwhelming humidity, the maze of entangled plants, the orchestra of animal noises, the vibrant colours of the birds and butterflies that roamed freely. Eyes were out on stalks as the children hunted for camouflaged creatures and a clear sighting of the elusive sloth was undoubtedly a highlight of the day. By the end of the visit there was a palpable sense of awe at the way in which plants and animals adapt to survive in this incredible environment.
4NC Get Reeling!
Body Matters in 1A In Science this term, the children in 1A learnt about their bodies. They learnt the names and locations of bones and organs in the body, along with exploring the senses. They were also asked to create their own science investigation and discuss ideas about what they wanted to find out, how they would conduct this, predicting and recording the results whilst using scientific vocabulary. They thoroughly enjoyed conducting their investigation on Sound. By working as a team they explored new ideas and used appropriate language to express these. We undoubtedly have some budding scientists in the class who are looking forward to their science investigation next term!
Year 4NC started the autumn term learning about Scotland. The children used OS maps to travel around, looking at landmarks and places they might like to visit including Aviemore. They studied the key of the map to plan activities for different weathers, rather essential in Scotland! The class also looked at organic farming and planned menus using locally sourced food. One of the highlights of the children’s work was learning to reel. This needed careful attention to instructions and good listening skills. Everyone was very proud to be able to enthusiastically perform ‘The Dashing White Sergeant’ by the end of the hour!
THEECHO ECHO ECHO
CHRISTMAS 2015 EDITION
5C Enjoy the Wonders of Maths in Nature As part of their regular outdoor learning activities, the children in Year 5 have been exploring the wonders of Maths in nature, as well as carrying out other investigations in the St Margaret’s garden and wildlife areas. One such investigation was to find out what factors affect a pendulum. Initially everyone predicted what might do this. Factors such as the mass of the bob and the height that it was dropped from were investigated using conkers found in the grounds; after much testing the class found out that only the length of the pendulum altered the time that it took to swing. During Culture Week the children carried out a Maths Trail in teams. They had to use their observational skills and knowledge of specific mathematical vocabulary (such as perpendicular and parallel) to find the solution to a number of clues. Using their problem solving skills the class also had to answer other associated questions. Did you know that the oldest part of the school was built in 1888 when Queen Victoria was on the throne? The tiles on the school roof provide examples of tessellation... Finally, everyone investigated how Maths is used in nature. First the children looked at the Fibonacci sequence and then realised that it is everywhere! The petals of many flowers, the pattern on a pinecone, and the spiral shape of a snail’s shell all use this magic sequence to optimise the use of space. Have you ever wondered why all bubbles form spheres? It’s amazing, it’s all to do with surface tension; whatever shape you blow through, the bubble always turns into a sphere! Finally, the tastiest part of the week was the investigation into hexagons and why a honeycomb is so strong. As well as getting to eat some honey on crumpets, the children found out that 100g of honeycomb can support twenty five times its own weight; 4kg in fact. Everyone agreed that Maths really is fun!
4B Get Eco-Friendly! During Culture Week, the 4B children enjoyed helping the school to complete its eco-schools audit. The class split into two groups, with one looking at water usage around the school (loos and hand basins) and the other looking at litter (compostable waste and litter bins). They discovered that our new changing rooms have eco flushers and sensor taps. The children would like these installed in every changing room! The other groups found out that Early Years have their own small compost bins but most other classrooms don’t. 4B would like to see every classroom provided with its own compost bin! It was also discovered that many children are putting their fruit peelings into the blue litter bins on the playground. A good suggestion is that we need posters on these bins reminding children to take peelings to a compost bin. Year 4 were very lucky to take a trip to see Mr Pennock to learn about what happens to all of the St Margaret’s compostable waste. They were shown a large piece of machinery called ‘Samurai 5’, which breaks down all the waste (including polystyrene) into much smaller pieces which is then used to help grow plants around school. It was very exciting seeing and hearing it in action! So the message from 4B is: turn off the taps after using them, separate compostable waste into the eco bins and put general litter in the blue bins!
iPads Meet Macbeth in 6B In Year 6, everyone has been studying the Shakespeare tragedy, ‘Macbeth’. The children in 6B looked at the opening scene when the witches foretell Macbeth’s rise to power and then studied the scene when Macbeth kills King Duncan. Using the iPads the class made comic strips with the app ‘Comic Life 3’. Joe told us: ‘I did the first scene about the witches’ prophecy, using pictures from the internet and a photo of friends’. ‘My comic strip is about the first scene where the witches tell Macbeth that he will be king. I used pictures from the internet and edited them to make them into a comic version of Macbeth’ said Charlie.
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Bright Sparks in 2J The children in 2J had fun in the classroom recreating the firework displays that they had seen in November. They started off listening to and then watching fireworks on the Smartboard to give them ideas on how to write firework poems using alliteration, onomatopoeia and similes. Everyone was very enthusiastic and had great fun with creating these: Fizzing like luscious lemonade and Shimmering like a silver star. During Computing the children drew fireworks using the software ‘Revelation Natural Art’. In Art they zoomed out from a single firework to create a bonfire night scene using different media. This created a ‘layering’ effect and created a ‘wow’ picture.
Mixing it up in 1W In Design and Technology, the children in 1W learnt all about how to prepare fruit and vegetables. Everyone brought in a vegetable from home and explored cutting, chopping, mashing, grating, peeling and slicing the different items. The children then designed their own milkshake, choosing which fruits they wanted to include and thinking about the equipment they needed. The class used their new skills to prepare the fruit; the children added some milk and ice-cream and then had great fun watching it mix in the blender. Finally, everyone got to taste their milkshakes; they were delicious!
Super Sound Searching by Reception P
Reception C Children have a Roaring Time Building Dens
During Culture Week, the Reception children were very lucky to explore their listening sense through an exciting sound trail created by Year 6 pupils, using the iPads. The children had a fantastic time listening to the sounds and moving around the school grounds to locate the sound that they heard. It provided a wonderful opportunity for Reception P to have an activity led for them by their older peers and a super time was had by all!
Children in Reception C joined in with a wide range of activities including the whole-school den building event during Culture Week. They all took this big change in routine in their stride and confidently contributed to both the planning and building activities, alongside peers in their own House groups. The den building event encouraged each child to develop confidence in engaging in team building and problem-solving activities; Reception C loved being in teams alongside adults, siblings, friends and familiar peers. The following day the children excelled at sharing stories around the mock campfires and took part in lessons in the dens. They then decided to build their own ‘dinosaur den’ role-play area, in the classroom!
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Trash-Tastic LEGOLeague! What happens to our waste? Have you ever thought about what happens to the disposable plastic straw in your drink at a restaurant? Year 6 have been thinking very carefully about these questions as part of the annual First LEGOLeague Challenge. The theme for the joint Computing/Design & Technology competition this year was ‘Trash Trek Project ‘. The Year 6 children were challenged with making less ‘trash’ or improving the way people handle the waste we make. In terms of the Design and Technology aspect of the project, the children investigated what happens to the empty Pritt Stick containers that are used to hold our glue; it seems that nearly everyone throws them away! Schools will often use over 1000 glue sticks a year, so the children set about creating a presentation that would make people stop and think, as well as suggesting innovative ways to recycle these empty glue tubes. The other part of the project was a series of demanding Robotic Missions, all revolving around the theme of recycling. First, a team of LEGO builders had to assemble the complex missions and then had to design and construct a suitable robot. When the strategy for achieving the missions was finalised, the team had to program the robot with the most recent software. After many hours of programming and debugging they were able to successfully complete many of the missions. On November 24th the team of ten, enthused by their solid background of research and programming, set off to the Hewlett Packard Labs in Bristol.
They were supported by all of Year 6 and competed admirably against the other 15 teams in the South-West. The flashing lights and pounding music helped to create a fantastic atmosphere, as well as taking some of the staff back to their youth! There were four categories to compete in and the team worked well together to win the Robot Performance Award. They continued to do very well across the board and we are delighted to report that the team were placed first overall! An enjoyable and successful day was had by all; thank you to everyone for your support, including our very generous sponsors! Good luck to the team when they head off to the National Finals at Loughborough University in February.
Fascinating STEM Science! As part of the extension programme for Science, an outreach team from Badminton School visited St Margaret’s this term to deliver a session mysteriously called ‘Physics in the Freezer’. The morning definitely focused upon Physics, but the children did not get in the freezer at all! In fact, liquid nitrogen was used to demonstrate what happens at very cold temperatures. For example, balloons when cooled down deflate because their particles slow down. If the gas inside the balloon gets cold enough, it turns into a liquid and the balloon collapses. The Badminton Science team comprised three senior pupils and Mr Williams who all took turns presenting. It was fascinating to see how materials became hard and brittle as they became colder. So a blutack nail was able to go through wood and a banana smashed! At the end of the session everyone made ice cream by using liquid nitrogen to cool the ingredients quickly. This resulted in a really creamy textured strawberry and balsamic vinegar flavoured ice cream - delicious!
French Pen-Pals in Chantilly Every year at the start of the autumn term, the Year 6 children establish pen-pal friendships with children in a French school. This year St Margaret’s is linking with Ecole St Louis in Chantilly. Chantilly is a small town, north of Paris, famous for horseracing, horse training (it has the largest stables in Europe) and Chantilly cream! This is the first time the children have contacted this school and everyone is very excited to learn more about their peers in Chantilly. The first letters have been written to the new French pen-friends and the Year 6 children are now eagerly awaiting their replies from Tatiana, Baptistine, Phileas, Capucine and Victoire, to name but a few!
St Margaret’s Preparatory School, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 0DF Tel: 01249 857220 Fax: 01249 857227 Email: office@stmargaretsprep.org.uk Website: www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk