Friday Headlines

13 September 2024

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly pupils adapt to the routines of the new academic year and this week has been no exception. I was lucky enough to join our Prep Swimming squad during their first early morning session of the academic year and it can only be described as spectacular! Scores of girls in bright yellow EHS swimming caps, flying off the starting blocks and confidently making their way up and down our fantastic 25 metre pool was extremely impressive. My grateful thanks go to the incredible team of staff who train these girls… I just wonder if it is the lure of breakfast at the end of the session that keeps them going! 

This week, we held several of our Parents Information evenings. These are key dates in our school calendar, an opportunity for parents of girls from Nursery to Year Six to find out a little more about what to expect from their daughter’s year group. 

Working collaboratively with our families is key to ensuring we are able to appropriately support your daughter and we look forward to many more opportunities to welcome you into school over the coming year. 

Mrs Nina Hobson 
Head of Prep School 

Pre-Prep and Prep Highlights

Colour Monsters 
In Nursery and Kindergarten, all of our girls have settled happily into their rooms and have been busy making lots of new friends. 

The focus this week has been ‘All about Me’ and the Kindergarten girls have looked closely at their five senses. They discovered what braille is and enjoyed creating sensory hands, where they discovered the feel of a wide range of objects and surfaces. They loved the opportunity to carry out smell tests and developed their spoken language by discussing their likes and dislikes. 

Working collaboratively, the Kindergarten girls created some fantastic colour monsters, which are now proudly on display in the classrooms. 

Little Miss Sunshine  
In Reception, the girls love listening to stories. This week they heard the story of Little Miss Sunshine by Roger Hargreaves. It is a wonderful story, with a happy ending and girls chuckled all the way through it.  Just like Little Miss Sunshine!  

In Creative Writing, the girls had the opportunity to write about the story and their work is now proudly displayed on the walls of the classrooms for everyone to see. 

Smiles were also in abundance during our Topic sessions which have been centred around food this week. After finding out about how oats were harvested, they made their very own flapjacks - which certainly brought smiles to their faces! 

Happy Holidays 
In Year One, the girls have created some fantastic paintings of their Summer holidays, using colour, shape and form to great effect. These are now looking wonderful up on the wall in the classroom and have sparked lots of conversation around the exciting things they got up to over the Summer break. 

It has been lovely to see the girls confidently ordering numbers to 20 and immersing themselves in their new Science topic of materials. The girls were tasked with feeling lots of objects made of different materials and we were impressed by the ambitious vocabulary they used to describe how the objects felt. Well done, Year One! 

Artistic Illusions 
In Art, Year Five have embarked on their Cubism topic. Cubism broke away from traditional European art and the girls have been fascinated to discover how art that depicts subjects from multiple angles simultaneously can be so inspiring. 

Splendid synonyms 
Year Six have continued to busily prepare for their 11+ exams this week. They were delighted when this involved taking part in a synonym competition. Whoops of delight could be heard as they raced to find the most ambitious vocabulary they could. 

It has been lovely to see the girls so engaged and eager to do well in every aspect of school life this week and we will continue to support them to ensure they are well placed to navigate what can, for some, be a somewhat anxious time. 

Year Six Leadership team 
Congratulations to the new members of our Year Six Leadership team: 

Prefects 
Emiley, Agniya, Natalia, Ariane, Avani, Jessie B and Reah 

Sports Captains 
Robyn, Arabella, Ellise 

Music Prefect 
Davica 

Curie House Captains 
Ava, Eliza 

Nightingale House Captains 
Ruby, Hana 

Johnson House Captains 
Lara, Zuli 

Frank House Captains 
Clara L, Clara S