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Important dates for your diaries:

Winchester House Pre-Prep

Manor Road

Brackley

Northants

NN13 6EE

Phone: 01280 703070

E-mail: preprep@winchester-house.org

Please monitor this carefully as we are sure

that you would consider, as we do, that some

of the language is inappropriate for our Pre-

Prep age children.

Year 2 Drop off and Pick up

Please note that the children should now be

dropped off and collected at the double

doors at the back of the Year 2 classrooms.

Communicating with teachers

Email has changed the way we communicate

and can be very effective. When there are

matters which require discussion however it

can often be more efficient and better for all

concerned to meet in person. Please do not

hesitate to make appointments with us.

General Notices Please take time to read the bulletin published each week it does contain important pieces of Pre-Prep information

the normal school day.

Early Birds

Early Birds sessions are offered to those

working parents who need to drop their

child earlier than 8:30am. Please note

that due to limited space Early Birds

places must be booked in advance and

are for Pre-Prep children only. A

prompt 8:10am drop off is

appreciated.

Hats and Gloves

Please ensure that your child has a

school hat and navy gloves in school.

All items of clothing need to be named.

Mobile Phones

In the interests of courtesy and our

children's safety, we politely request,

that mobile phones are not used within

the building.

Language on the playground

We have noticed on the playground that

some of the children are using more

mature language of the type that is used

in computer games and some older

children’s DVDs or television shows.

Child illness

Whilst we encourage children to be in

school as much as is possible we do

ask that if children need to have calpol

in the morning that you do not bring

them to school. Recently this has

happened and when the calpol wears

off the children have not been well

enough to enjoy being in school.

The Fit for School policy is in the

class handbooks which gives advice

and will help you to understand the

School’s expectations regarding when

a child should not be in school due to

illness.

Permission for absences

Please could all permissions for

absences of 1 day or part of a day,

including for appointments, be di-

rected for the Pre-Prep to-

sarah.leftley@winchester-house.org .

If the absence is for longer than 1 day

or includes Upper School siblings,

permission should be sought from

Mrs Goldsmith via Mrs Blake -

jenny.blake@winchester-house.org.

All schools have a legal obligation to

record any absence, along with the

reason, when children miss any part of

Thursday 2nd March Word Book Day - Book swap and Carnival of Animals dress up day

Tuesday 7th March 4:30pm -

8:30pm

Parent Teacher meetings . Crèche will run from 4:30pm to 6:00pm

NO TAILENDERS or ASAs except ballet

Wednesday 8th March EYFS trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park

Friday 10th March 12:00 noon EXEAT - Home clothes for charity day in aid of Dogs for Good

Wednesday 15th March 2:00pm Years 1 & 2 visit Juniper House

Monday 20th March No Pre-Prep afterschool activities this week

Tuesday 21st March 4:15pm -

4:45pm

Ballet Performance in the Forum

Wednesday 22nd March Pre-Prep Fabulous Finish Families Day.

Years 1 & 2 9:15am-10:00am

EYFS 10:30am - 11:30am

Friday 24th March Pre-Prep Easter Egg Hunt and End of Term

Did you know

that Pre-Prep has

its own Twitter

account? Follow

@PrePrepWHS

to find out what we

are getting up to.

The Nursery children were

wonderful ambassadors for

the school during their

‘Come and Play’ session this

week. Our visitors had a

lovely time singing about the

‘elephant’s wrinkles’ and then

decorating elephant biscuits

with ‘sprinkles not wrinkles’.

Miss Bray has been in school

getting to know the children

and she already feels part of

the team. We all wish Mrs

Squires the very best for the

next few weeks as she starts

her maternity leave. We will

miss her greatly, but look

forward to meeting her new

baby soon.

We are so lucky in Pre-Prep

that no matter what the

weather is doing outside the

building, the children inside

are bright and happy. We

were lucky enough to have a

smattering of snow during the

school day this term and the

children had a great time

playing in it before it melted.

Although the temperature

outside is cold and sometimes

wet, our classrooms have been

full of thoughts of warmer

climates this term. Please see

the inside pages for more

information about their topic

work on Africa

On Wednesday 1st February,

Year 2 joined with Years 3 and

4 for the Poetry Recital. They

enjoyed listening to their

friends in the upper year

groups before making us very

proud with their choral recital

of ‘Warm Memory’.

Years 1 and 2 had a maths

lesson with a twist when the

Quantum Theatre visited to

perform for them. The

children really enjoyed the

show; it was ‘out of this

world’.

Thank you to all who

attended the Reading

Presentation last month. We

were so pleased that so many

of you came; in the whole

school newsletter Mr Morse

has issued more information

including the requested

reading lists.

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

So far this Term

Sainsbury’s

vouchers

1

1

Kinetic Letters 2

The Winchester

House Way

2

Come away with

me to Africa

3

Important Dates 4

General Notices 4

Mini Winnies

Issue 2016-2017 #5

Date February 2017

P A G E 1

Once again we are collecting the Sainsbury’s

Active Kids vouchers. Please place any you

receive in the box in the corridor.

Kinetic Letters You may have heard some interesting things about animals helping with the

children’s writing or that they have been crawling or hopping between the

classrooms. Since the start of the year we have been using a new scheme called

Kinetic Letters which is designed to ‘make handwriting easy for everyone’ and we

are teaching it throughout Pre-Prep.

The children work in a variety of positions to strengthen the

core muscles. These include lying down like a lizard (see right),

kneeling up like a meerkat (see left) and crouching like a lion.

They also practise exercises like holding themselves up with their

hands in the seated position and doing the ‘plank’!

When putting pen to paper, the scheme uses two monkeys -

Bounce (a brave monkey) and Skip (who is scared of heights) -

which show the children the correct height to start their letters. The monkeys sit at

different heights on a tree at the side of their work so that the children have a

constant reference point as they work across the page.

The children also learn mnemonics to help them form their

letters. For example the letter j is part of the Fisher Family,

which starts at the scared monkey and we say “Down-on

down and pull around (to catch the fish).” Do ask your

child to teach you the letters mnemonics over Half Term.

When we introduce something for the first time there is

always a period of transition, and we are careful to embed the learning before

moving the children on too quickly. Year 2 will start the joining phase of the

programme when they are ready.

In our assemblies we focus on the values in the Winchester House Way.

The Best Self Board is in the main corridor where we celebrate the children's

achievements.

Please help the children to be their best self by promoting these values at home.

Treat others as you would

be treated

Forgive

Share

Listen

Be honest

Be kind and helpful

Be gentle

Do your best to be your best

self

P A G E 2

The Winchester House Way

P A G E 3

The children also performed some African

Dancing; they had great fun showing off their

moves. Thank you Quamé.

The children in Year 2 had a wonder-

ful time at the airfield in Turweston

learning about aviation. They looked

around a hangar and the control tower

and waved at the planes.

Year 1 children have enjoyed learning about

African animals; writing poetry about them

using expressive language and creating some

lovely artwork. They also looked in more detail

at Zambia, comparing its geographical features

with the UK. Everything is taller, deeper and

longer in Zambia!

The children in Early Years have been learning

about the different types of houses that people

have in some areas of Africa, modelling their own

mud huts in their art sessions. The classrooms

are full of colourful artwork form their tie dying,

plate making and weaving activities.

Come away with me to Africa

The topics of Key Stage One’s ‘Come away

with me’ and Early Years’ ’Africa’ were given

a wonderful boost when Pre-Prep was visited

by Quamé from Out of Africa Workshops.

Quamé brought with him all sorts of

instruments and took us on a number of

journeys through Africa.

Nursery had a very gentle safari to start the

day. They met the slithering snake and the

slow, but gentle elephant and a cheeky

monkey or two. Before long they were up

and dancing and joining in. It is amazing

how well even such young children can play

to a beat.

Throughout the day the music and laughter

could be heard across the Upper Quad and in

the surrounding classrooms: we had a lot of

attention from the Upper School children.