THEECHO ECHO ECHO
Summer 2014 Edition
And What of the Future?
As this academic year draws to a close we start to look forward to 2014/15, secure in the knowledge that the plans we have been working on for many months will finally come to fruition. September 2014 represents an exciting time in education, both nationally and at St Margaret’s. An opportunity for a revised national curriculum, focusing more specifically upon what we want the children to learn, supplemented with new assessment arrangements measuring not only knowledge, but also the development of learning styles and wider skills.
As part of our vision for St Margaret’s, working in partnership with St Mary’s, this will also include further development of the school site. Construction of the first component, a full size, floodlit astroturf, alongside three additional netball courts is already underway and will be fully operational by October. Later in the year the builders will once again be returning to St Margaret’s, but more of this to follow. In the meantime, we look forward to sharing our vision with you over the coming months…
Welcome to the Summer Edition of The Echo The academic year 2013/14 has been a triumph and as I write, members of the St Margaret’s community are preparing to head off for the summer break; definitely ready for a holiday, but fulfilled in every respect. Our Year 6 children reminded us once again at this year’s Leavers’ Assembly that they feel proud to have been a St Margaret’s pupil; we are certainly very proud of them! We bid a fond farewell to all of our leavers, both children and staff. Individually and collectively they have all given much to St Margaret’s and, in addition to everything they have learnt, we hope that they have established lifelong friendships. We wish them all well and look forward to hearing of their successes in the future.
‘We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.’ I hope you enjoy reading this edition of The Echo and I send you and your families good wishes for a restful summer – I look forward to welcoming you back to school for the start of the new academic year in September.
www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Kindergarten go Exploring in the Jungle! This term the Kindergarten children had their own jungle in the classroom! They painted giant leaves, made animal masks and created their own animal footprints. They also had great fun camping in their tent, and even used animal puppets to tell each other stories! One very wet day Kindergarten went exploring in their ‘jungle’ and took with them binoculars and cameras to see what animals they could find! The children found worms, spiders and butterflies, which they thought were much smaller than real jungle animals, and much quieter too! On their way back to Kindergarten they explored different jungle animal sounds and sang some jungle animal songs.
Fantastic Fire Fighting in Year 2! In their History lessons, the children in 2H have been busy learning about The Great Fire of London. They discovered how important the event was in British History and learnt all about how and why the great fire started and ended, from looking at a range of sources, including Samuel Pepys’ diary. From this they were able to write an excellent piece of empathy writing in the form of their own diary. They thought carefully about how they would have felt if they were there to experience the event for themselves. To link in with this unit, Year 2 were lucky enough to receive a visit from a Wiltshire Fire Safety Officer to educate them on how to prevent fires and what to do if there was one. Some lucky volunteers had the opportunity to try on real Fire Fighter uniforms and some important lessons were learnt about being safe. Everyone enjoyed acting out the ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ saying and agreed it was a motto that should be in every home!
Take It Away Reception KC! This term the children in Reception KC have been exploring subtraction. One of the activities that they thoroughly enjoyed was playing snack subtraction. They used their raisin snacks to help embed the concept of taking one group of objects away from the other. The children also used single and double-digit numbers, which involved very careful counting! Everyone enjoyed the challenge of trying to ensure that they were left with zero raisins (with the added bonus of lots of great number sentences)!
THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2014 EDITION
Year 5 Paint the Town! 2B Investigate Habitats As part of their Science this term on Plants and Animals in the Local Environment, the Year 2 children have been out investigating the different habitats in the gardens of St Margaret’s and St Mary’s. Carefully lifting and replacing logs and leaves gave many squeaks of delight, as they found busy homes of woodlice, worms and slugs. These were the easy insects to name but when the children found an Ichneumon Wasp they had to refer to the identification books! Other than the daisy and buttercup, naming the wild flowers was a challenge, even when given the clue, you can’t forget this one. On returning to the classroom, the children recorded their findings and gave explanations about why different animals and plants were found in the various habitats. Fortunately the sun shone whilst finding and comparing the plants and animals in their local environment, enabling everyone to make the most of the beautiful grounds. Even the charity walk provided the children with the chance to spot more plants and animals. They never miss an opportunity to learn!
Following on from their detailed study of the local community, the Year 5 children have thoroughly enjoyed painting a wall hanging which is now hanging in pride of place in the main entrance hall at school. During their field trip into Calne, each child chose a view of either the town or school that they wished to paint. In their Art lessons, the children had been investigating different methods of enlargement, and so everyone experimented with the zoom facility on the camera to ensure that a key feature became the focal point of their photograph. Back at school this was transferred onto fabric using the grid method and then painted. Great care had to be taken as only fine brushstrokes are successful for this technique. As well as ensuring that the correct tones of colour were created through careful mixing of the base colours, other details such as the patina of bronze, use of the purple palette to recreate reflections in glass, and shading were reproduced very successfully. Finally, all the individual panels were sewn together with two pupils also working on panels showing the school emblem of a lily and a title in our school colours. The finished article is a super celebration of St Margaret’s and its strong links within Calne – come and have a look!
Greek Food Tasting in 4NC Year 4 had a wonderful post exam treat tasting a variety of Greek food to link with studying the Ancient Greeks in History, and modern Greece as part of their European theme in Geography. The children looked at foods that were available at both times, researched their origins and why they were eaten and finally got to taste them if they were brave enough! They discovered that no citrus fruits, tomatoes or sugar were available in ancient times but foods were sweetened using honey, dates and figs. The Greeks were only able to grow a few basic crops so needed to trade with other countries for grains and meat.
The favourite food was greek yogurt with runny honey, even though Mrs Nelham Clark tried hard to convert the children to taramasalata and pitta bread - her favourite. Feta cheese was felt to have a very strong flavour so best used in a salad. The children persuaded the adults to try haloumi cheese and advised on methods to cook it!
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Marvellous Time for Year 4 at Mill on the Brue! Year 4 had a fantastic experience on their annual residential weekend to Mill on the Brue. As soon as the children arrived, they were split into 3 day groups: Magpies, Otters and Swallows, ably led by Jack, Grace and Tom. Activities began at 9.00am on Saturday morning and, by 11.00am, any fears about heavy downpours were soon allayed when the sun came out and stayed shining for the rest of the weekend! The children were very fortunate to experience activities ranging from the zip wire, archery, grass tobogganing and the assault course, to name but a few. The weekend also presented them with the opportunity to work on their team-building skills, learning to break down the boy/girl barriers within the group. This included moving an entire group across an enclosure using just 6 tyres and not being allowed to touch the ground. Before boarding the coach to return to school, everyone said that they had learnt something new, made a new friend and had really enjoyed their time at Mill on the Brue. The teachers were exceptionally proud of the children’s behaviour over the weekend and of the enthusiasm shown for every task. Well done Year 4 on all of your achievements.
3R Have Seen the Light! This term the children in 3R have been investigating light and shadow in Science. Everyone explored the difference between the shadows made with different objects and the children are now all really confident using the words opaque, translucent and transparent. They managed to find some sunshine and investigated how shadows change during the course of the day. Leo said ‘Investigating is fun!’ and Bella commented ‘I loved using the torches to experiment’. The class even took time to share their wonderful science knowledge with their parents and friends in their class assembly, with the help of a few monkeys!
Calne Captivates 3G The Year 3 children have had an adventurous term exploring the historical and geographical aspects of their local community; Calne. First, they looked at various different maps of the town and located the physical landmarks, for example the river Marden, as well as the human landmarks, for example the canal. They then went on a trip to the Calne Heritage Centre and learnt a lot about the Harris factory, which was the main employer in the town until the 1980s. Walking through the town, the children spotted various Blue Plaques denoting any person of significance who has lived in Calne. The discovery that Joseph Priestley, who is credited as discovering oxygen, lived in Calne in 1773 was very exciting! Everyone enjoyed learning more about the locality of the school.
THEECHO ECHO ECHO SUMMER 2014 EDITION
Milkshake Madness in 1J In 1J, the children have been learning about keeping healthy and read the story Oliver’s Milkshake. The story inspired everyone to have a go at making their own milkshakes. The class thought carefully beforehand about the different types of fruit that they would like to have in their milkshakes to create their designs. To make the milkshake, the children cut up their fruits and put these with half a banana, some ice cream and milk, then popped all the ingredients into a blender and whizzed until smooth. The best bit was being able to drink the milkshakes - YUMMY!
1T Watch That Bean Grow! The children in 1T have been learning about how things grow. They have learnt that plants need light and water to germinate and then in order to grow strong, they need more light and water and some nutrients. Everyone really enjoyed planting bean seeds in a cup with blotting paper, so that they could observe the seed germinating. There was then great excitement to see whose bean would grow the tallest and if one bean stalk would survive being half snapped... much to the children’s relief and surprise it did. The class can’t wait for the bean flower and then the runner bean to eat. YUM!
Year 5 Explore the Tudors The children in Year 5 have had a busy term learning about the different Tudor explorers, the characteristics needed to be an explorer, the lands and countries that were discovered during the Tudor dynasty and the rewards that these valiant men were given. The class assembly described the brave exploits of Columbus, Drake, Raleigh and others. Queen Elizabeth I knighted those brave enough to return with spices, goods and lands named after the monarch. However, they also learnt that she was less impressed with the potatoes brought by Raleigh, and Frobisher incurred her wrath when he brought back metal ore instead of the gold that the queen was expecting! As an explorer, men had to be determined, courageous, team players and have the resilience to persevere, even when others doubted them. Everyone decided that these characteristics were important for each other too, whatever challenges we are facing.
Slithery Times in Reception HC The Reception HC children have been learning all about minibeasts. Everyone went on a minibeast hunt in the wildlife garden to see what they could find. As part of their Show and Tell, each child brought in a snail they had found in their garden. They then put the snails onto black paper and observed the trails they left behind. Everyone watched how the snails moved and made simple comparisons between each others’ trails. The children were really keen to let the snails move onto their hands and they thought it felt very wet and slimy. After watching the snails, everyone used clay to make their own snail, looking carefully at the shape and patterns.
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www.stmargaretsprep.org.uk Year 6 Master SCRATCH! In ICT the Year 6 children have been enjoying working with a program called SCRATCH. This is a programming language that enables users to create interactive art, simulations and games. The children have been using their imagination to produce chasing games, by using code blocks to perform a given task. They also used the program to create interactive games in the medium of French. It has proved very popular with the pupils, Murran said ‘What’s so great about SCRATCH is that people of all ages can use it.’ What are you waiting for? Please visit http://scratch.mit.edu/ for more information.
A Singing Community! A love of singing unites pupils, staff and parents at St Margaret’s, with choirs and groups for all ages and tastes. We are a flagship school for the national Sing Up initiative, and our School Council and Sing Up Leaders were recently asked for their views for the Sing Up Magazine. The children discussed how leadership and teamwork qualities are fostered through singing. We encourage everyone to have a ‘can do’ attitude towards singing, as we do for everything else at school; this results in high standards and a sense of ensemble throughout the school and wider community. We are often asked to perform at local events, such as the Bowood Christmas Fair and with the Swindon Choral Society, as everyone loves to hear children sing! Look how many opportunities there are to sing at St Margaret’s: Early Years Music Club; Key Stage 1 choir (all welcome in Year 1 and 2); Key Stage 2 choir (well over a hundred strong!); Year 5 boys’ group (led by Mr Browne on guitar!); Rock Band (Year 5 and 6, by audition); Multiple award-winning Chamber Choir (open to Year 5 and 6 by audition and led by Mrs Cordon) and not forgetting the staff and Ladies’ Choir who recently performed at Open Day!
Year 6 Enjoy Brilliant Black Rock Everyone in Year 6 had an amazing time on their Black Rock adventure holiday! Right from the first set of activities, challenges were set and each group had to rely on teamwork in order to succeed. In high ropes each different task demanded belief in the safety harnesses. Among the favourites was the leap of faith where a rope swing transported the competitor from the start and onto a small square platform. Then the leap was to jump for a large orange ball hanging just out of reach. Another was all aboard where four people were to stand together on a square platform. Factor in the height and the wobbly platforms and there was a real sense of achievement once they were completed. By the first evening everyone was keen to see their dorms and settle in for the night.
Many had tried kayaking or biking before but no-one had been caving. This is probably why it was voted favourite activity by most people. Going through tight squeezes and sliding down the rock made this a very exciting experience. The children commented, ‘Overall we had a great time and had lots of laughs. Everyone found their strengths and conquered their fears. The activities were all spectacular and the instructors supported us throughout the experience. We had a great time and we would love to do it again.’
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