Friday Headlines
the weekly newsletter from EHS
Nursery to Year Six Highlights
14 March 2025
Creativity has been at the forefront of activities across the Prep School this week.
The Queen of Hearts!
In Nursery, our activities have been inspired by the rhyme ‘The Queen of Hearts’. The girls have loved bringing the rhyme to life through role play, taking turns as both the Queen, busy baking tarts, and the mischievous Knave, sneaking in to steal them! Role-play has been a fantastic way to support communication skills, confidence, and imaginative storytelling. Through this, the girls have developed their speaking and listening skills, taken on different roles, and explored early problem solving—all key areas within the Early Years Foundation Stage framework.
Let’s Make Lemonade!
In Kindergarten, girls have been exploring lemons as part of their work around the phoneme ‘l’. Lemonade in the tuff tray was definitely a popular choice. Girls squeezed, chopped and mixed real lemons to make their lemonade and enjoyed using pipets to fill their bowls and cups! They worked on their fine motor skills as they tried hard to form the letter and write about lemons too. As part of their Mathematics work, the girls were challenged to count counters onto their lemons to match the corresponding numbers that they had chosen. Some children even created homes for dinosaurs in amongst the lemon trees and duplo bricks!
Expressive Art
Part two of Reception’s flower pictures took place this week with pupils painting still-life images of daffodils. The girls discussed the yellow petal shapes, delicate stems and different colours and the results were amazing to see. Alongside this, pupils enjoyed the sensory experience of finger-painting other flowers using the vibrant paints we had to offer. Well done girls, you turned your observations into wonderful works of art!
Super Story Writers
Year One girls have been working hard on their story writing. They have created some incredible characters, including aliens, dragons, monsters, fairies, queens, and owls, just to name a few. Using the Pie Corbett approach to storytelling, the students planned their stories with a clear structure—starting with an opening, building up the plot, presenting a problem and solution, and finishing with an ending. The girls then turned their ideas into sentences and proudly shared their stories with the class. They were all thrilled with their creations!
London Landmarks
The Year Two pupils have been exploring cross-curricular links between their work in Geography and Art and Design lessons this term. They have been learning about London and its famous landmarks in their Geography lessons and have then applied this knowledge to create stunning pieces of artwork featuring the London skyline. The pupils started by carefully considering which colours are found in a sunset then added pastels in these colours to their background, carefully smoothing with their fingers to merge them. They then cut out a range of silhouettes of famous landmarks they had studied in their Geography lessons such as the London Eye and Tower Bridge and attached these to create a skyline. A metallic moon and windows were a lovely finishing touch. Well done Year 2!
Big Read
Year Three had a fantastic time dressing up as their favourite book characters for World Book Day. Many students showcased their creativity by participating in the "Book in a Box" competition, demonstrating their imaginative and artistic skills. As part of the celebrations, they joined schools across the UK to watch a BBC live lesson, where they took part in the "Big Read" and explored both fiction and non-fiction books they would love to read. Additionally, they designed their own World Book Day National Book Tokens to enter a national competition.
Design and Paint
Year Four have been studying Islamic art- looking at beautiful geometric and nature designs. They have designed their own tiles, thinking about where they would put them and what colours to paint them. They thought carefully about raised work and indented work and have produced some beautiful tiles.
Clay Images
Year Five are concluding their portrait topic by creating their own image in clay. This is proving quite tricky as they study their own features and attempt to recreate them! Dexterity skills were required as they shaped the features and the girls are looking forward to the painting and adding the finer details in the coming weeks!
Still Life Drawing
Year Six have been refining their still life drawing skills, focusing on musical instruments as their subject. They have practised sketching accurate outlines
before exploring techniques to add depth and realism. Pupils experimented with shading, cross-hatching, blending and stippling to create contrast and texture. They also used
contour shading to enhance the three-dimensional effect. This required patience, a keen eye for detail and perseverance. Through careful observation and steady hand control,
pupils have developed both their artistic confidence and their ability to create lifelike drawings. Well done, Year Six, for your dedication and creativity!
Prep Highlights
Click image for full view
