Dear <<Salutation>>

The weeks are rushing by in our new state of normal, and we continue to be very impressed by the boys’ “remote” efforts. Thank you to parents for supporting the boys’ efforts too. This week, we heard our Head Boy give a Thought for the Day on Thursday. 

Many thanks to those boys who have already sent in their Challenge 100s. We will continue to find ways of sharing those. There is an impressive array of challenges coming in. The boys have shown great creativity, and already we have had videos and pictures of boys completing an interesting range of challenges, from learning 100 words in French or Dutch, kicking 100 conversions, running 100 kilometres, completing 100 answers correctly in TT Rockstars in under a minute, taking 100 catches, facing 100 cricket bowls, completing 100 seat drops on a trampoline - they have thrown themselves into the challenges wholeheartedly. Many are raising money for charity in ingenious ways too: boiling 100 eggs for the homeless, donating 100 essential items to Milton Keynes food bank, and delivering 100 cupcakes to spread cheer to those in isolation. As I said, we have been very impressed by them all, and proud of their kindness and thoughtfulness in these trying times.

We appreciate that boys are really missing their sport and, most importantly, their friends. It is really important that boys continue to keep fit, by doing the sport and PE exercises we have provided, or an alternative fitness programme if that works better at home. It is also important that the enrichment programme is used to either do some of the enrichment provided, keep up to date with work, or enjoy reading (not gaming online in the day, please!). I would also recommend that boys keep a journal of all they have learned and got up to in the last few weeks - I am sure that these will be fascinating to look back on as a unique (and hopefully never to be repeated!) time in history.

In this bulletin, there is a link to a piece on Bedford School written by the Good Schools Guide, who visited on World Book Day. 

Finally, we are continuing to plan for a return to school, and whilst we await, like the rest of the country, clear guidance from the Government on how this will look, we are preparing as much as we are able to. A central group is meeting daily, as well as a number of sub-groups. We will also offer you the chance to feedback on how remote learning has gone so far, and thank those who have already given feedback to date. A survey will be with parents next week. 

I hope you enjoy the bank holiday. 

Information for pre-season rugby training can be found in Mr Hinkins’ letter here.

Letter from the Head Master
Attached please find a newsletter from the Head Master.

Good Schools Guide
The Good Schools Guide visited the Prep (and Upper) School on World Book Day in March, and their write-up of the school is now published. Here is a link to our website, which has a summary, followed by the full report. 

Enrichment Sessions
We have heard that some boys are gaming during the school day. We would strongly recommend that this doesn’t happen. The enrichment sessions are definitely not for gaming and we feel this is detrimental to good learning habits, and not helpful for boys gaining independence in their work habits. We would like the boys to take responsibility for their learning, by either following some of the many ideas given in the enrichment documents, or by extending their research or by reading. We would be grateful for your support with this. 
 
Magical Harry Potter 
As an addition to the list of Independent Enrichment Activities already available, any boy who is a fan of Harry Potter but has not yet read the books might like to start by looking at this website and specifically at this section where Daniel Radcliffe reads the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book. It might offer the encouragement needed to get started on this magical book series? 

You can use this link to General Resources to Enrich Remote Learning sheet.
 
General note: if your son is a reluctant reader, reading the first chapter(s) of a book to him is an excellent way of hooking him into the story (for any book, for any age) – and who better than the Harry Potter actor himself! Enjoy!
 
Poetry Competition - Time Machine
Next week all boys in the Prep School will be engaging in this year's poetry competition, entitled the Time Machine (more information here). Your sons' teachers will explain all in next week's lessons and they will all be entering typed and handwritten versions.
 
This year, in addition, we would love entries from parents. If you would like to enter a poem to this year's competition please email them to me by the Monday after half term to daffleck@bedfordschool.org.uk with the subject title as The Time Machine - Parent entry.
 
Accelerated Reader 
Congratulations to all our new millionaires. Please do listen out for mentions in the Headmaster’s assembly of our latest millionaires. Two boys have read and quizzed on over 5 million words - find out who in the Headmaster’s Monday assembly.
 
The School has passed 7,300 quizzes and read a staggering 241,376,655 words. If you piled all these books on top of one another this would equate roughly to a stack of books 60 metres high!
 
Well done to all millionaires, and indeed to the whole school - keep reading and quizzing.
 
SCHOOL SONG - AT HOME BUT NOT ON HOLIDAY
As mentioned by Mr Groom in his assembly on Wednesday, all boys are invited to record (video) themselves singing the chorus only (first 30 seconds) of the song. 

The lyrics are below, and the mp3 of the backing track can be accessed by clicking here. The lyrics video is on the assembly video and also here on Mr Groom's youtube channel.

We’re all at home, but not on holiday,
We got lots of remote learning and we’re feeling OK,
We gotta stay home to help the NHS!
We’re apart but we’re together, we are BPS!

 
When videoing yourself please remember to wear headphones playing the backing track. So, we shouldn't hear the backing track in your video recording.

Please name your video after your name then song (eg. JoeBloggssong) and email your videos to agroom@bedfordschool.org.uk (Google Drive/One Drive/Wetransfer links are also fine). 

Deadline for submission is Friday 15 May.

When all videos are received they will be made into an amazing music video along with soloists in the verses who will be contacted directly.
 
PE and Games Lessons
We would like to remind all boys that when they have completed their PE and Games lessons they need to record their activity by submitting it on Google Classroom. If you have not yet done this please start now, there is no need to back date. Thank you to those boys who already do so! 
 
DRAW-A-DAY-THROUGH-MAY 
Many thanks and congratulations to the boys who have already taken on the first four challenges posted from the start of this week. The idea is to foster an enjoyment of drawing but also exercise creative and observational skills. 

A Google Classroom has now been created for the Daily Draw Challenge for those boys who wish to access the activities other than through Instagram. Would any boy wishing to be involved in this classroom please email their name to Mr Studd (pstudd@bedfordschool.org.uk) to be invited.
 
Prep School Sport - Summer Term 2020
A letter from Mr Phillips, Director of Sport, regarding ‘remote’ sporting activities being offered can be found here. 

Michael Ball and Captain Tom
As some of you may already have seen on our social media channels, on Tuesday we were delighted to welcome Michael Ball into school to film some footage from the centre of the sea of cards, which was at the start of a documentary he presented about Captain Tom. 

It was great fun watching him present to the camera, and with his overgrown lockdown hair he couldn't resist testing out the acoustics of our Great Hall and treating us to a quick rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone (this wasn’t in the documentary!). 

The documentary is called Captain Tom: We Salute You and was on BBC1 on Wednesday evening at 7:30pm. You can watch it, if you missed it, by clicking on this link.
 
Thought for the Day
To access the Thoughts for the Day for the week gone by, please click here.