mini winnies - winchester-house.org · thank you to all who attended the reading presentation last...
TRANSCRIPT
Important dates for your diaries:
Winchester House Pre-Prep
Manor Road
Brackley
Northants
NN13 6EE
Phone: 01280 703070
E-mail: [email protected]
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-
If the absence is for longer than 1 day
or includes Upper School siblings,
permission should be sought from
Mrs Goldsmith via Mrs Blake -
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.