Friday Headlines

28 May 2021

The better weather this week has seen many year groups outside in the school grounds for some of their learning.

As an extension to their project on toys and linking with their Science work Year 1 girls visited the playground in the Botanical Gardens next door to school.  They were evaluating the safety of the playground equipment and the best way to test this was to try it out!

Year 2 meanwhile had been learning to write a program on an iPad to move a BlueBot robot around the United Kingdom.  They worked together to write an algorithm and then sent it remotely for the BlueBot to travel between UK cities.

Year 5 moved outdoors for their Science lessons to undertake some biology fieldwork.  They utilised the area ‘down the hill’ and the school allotment in the Guinea Gardens.  As part of their studies, the girls used quadrats, pooters, hygrometers and sweep nets to study the abiotic and biotic components of a local habitat.

For their Enrichment this week some of Year 6 visited Priory Centre for an introduction to the game of squash whilst others entered ‘The Dragons’ Den’.  As part of this year's enrichment program the Year 6 girls spent an afternoon working on a 'Dragons' Den themed project. Having watched a clip from the children's version of the series, the girls worked in groups of 3 or 4 to come up with an idea for a new item, designed to fill a gap in the market! Some took inspiration from fashion, some from the idea of wellbeing and others from an ecological perspective.

It was travel back in time for Year 4 this week as they enjoyed a Tudor Day, which has been reported on separately. 

Our assemblies this week have focused on the qualities of tolerance and resilience and included details of Sally Ride Day, which for the American Astronaut needed both, in abundance. 

We ended the last week of this half term with our Celebration Assembly.  We presented our Key Stage 1 Well Done awards and congratulated 25 Rookie Lifesavers in Year 6 on the award of their Bronze level 2 badges and certificates from the Royal Life Saving Society UK.   There were also individual awards for Hana Aslam, Year 2 and Marlah Gill, Year 6 for their independent work on Bees, following World Bee Day last week and for Holly Robinson, Year 1 for her research and art work on World Turtle Day.

We also presented Arabella Armstrong in Year 2 with a trophy from Bournville Rugby Football Club for being the most improved player of the 2020-2021 season.

After such a busy week I am sure that everyone is looking forward to the Half Term break and I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday 7 June.

Mrs Sally Hartley

Head of Preparatory School