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 Weekly Newsletter
23rd September 2022

Sisi Ni Moya

Dear Parents,
After a sombre, reflective first two weeks of term, it is such a joy to watch your children learning inside and outside their classrooms. They all seem very happy to be back at school and the new children have settled in extremely well.

We have already secured wins in hockey and football fixtures against Rossall, and the rugby team had a successful Saturday morning training session in readiness for their first match. We are also delighted with the younger children's progress in their weekly swimming lessons. Getting wet of a different kind was had by Years 4 and 5 during their Introduction to Watersports day in Fairhaven Lake!

Congratulations to the Prep Choir who will sing 'Sisi Ni Moya' or 'We are One' in Swahili, with the Senior School Choir and delegates from around the world this evening at our Round Square conference.

My thanks go to the PTA Committee for welcoming the new parents so warmly at an initial coffee morning, and to the Parent Ambassadors who have already had their first meeting. I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events of the Grandparents Afternoon Tea, the whole school Open Day, and the Harvest Festival.

Amanda Ilhan
Head of Nursery and Preparatory School

Nursery

It is never too early to develop a love of books and here in the Ducklings we have already seen what fun they are. As the children have explored our books they are also developing their early language skills. Accelerated Reader stars here we come!

This week in the Butterflies, we have been looking at the topic around animals, where we have been doing lots of fun activities to support within play. The children have been creative by painting animals to go onto our display, we have also been creating footprint marks in the playdough using small world animals. 

Nursery Team

Reception

It has been delightful to see friendships and teamwork developing over the first few weeks in the Reception classroom.

The children have been learning to share the resources, taking turns whilst playing games and sharing ideas whilst learning with a partner.

Well done to all the Reception children for settling into the school routine so quickly. 

Miss Allen and Mrs Walsh

Year 1

The new academic year has begun with smiles, energy and lots of evidence of good work from Reception; this class is primed and ready for their Year 1 learning challenges!
 
We have been asking ourselves ‘What evidence can we find that we are at the end of Summer?’ The children used our school grounds to find lots of different ways of answering this question. They have also been observing the plants in our school grounds to explain what a plant is.
 
The children have been ordering our number tiles forwards, backwards and sometimes in steps of 2, in hopscotch format. This week they have been explaining what we mean by more, less and equal to, using tens frames to demonstrate their thinking.

Mrs Smith and Mrs Brooker
Year 2
This week, we are thinking about our healthy balanced diets and understanding what is good for our bodies.

As part of our homework, Year 2 gathered ingredients to make a balanced meal then made it and enjoyed eating their meal.

We are learning about life in the trenches for History and after school Art and Lego clubs are proving very popular and lots of fun.
 
Mrs Bleasdale
Year 3

The children have had a fantastic first few weeks in Year 3. This week we have been using our Dienes apparatus to explore 100s, 10s and 1s, and how to partition numbers in different ways.

In Art, we have been working on self-portraits, with a particular focus placed on eyes this week.

English lessons have seen the children learn about synonyms and antonyms, and use them creatively within their sentences.

Mrs Blinston and Mr Worthington

Year 4

Year 4 have settled in well to the new term. They are working hard on their targets already and trying to 'deepen the moment' in their lessons.
 
We are enjoying reading and writing about 'The Iron Man'. In our effective sentences, we have been including similes and metaphors. We drew some splendid iron men from the novel's description. 
 
For our Science lessons, we now know that classification means to sort into groups with similarities. Some of us learnt that a snake does have a backbone and therefore has an endoskeleton. 

Mrs Briggs

Year 5
In Year 5, the highlight of the week was our water sports morning at Fairhaven Lake; the children tried canoeing, kayaking and stand up paddle boarding. Despite the cold and rainy conditions they all worked really hard and had a great time.

Later in Art, the children used a light box to transfer a photo onto paper, this is the first step in creating the Julien Opie portraits in paint.

Mrs Whitaker 
Year 6
Year 6 are enjoying learning about 'Light' in Science, investigating how all objects reflect and absorb different amounts of light – well done Esme and Joe for their outstanding  'anatomy of the eye' diagrams.
 
In Maths, the children have been learning about the rules of BIDMAS, solving a range of expressions using all operations including Indices (powers), both inside and outside of the brackets! Well done Rupert, Brody, Freddie, Sam and Lucy for superb explanations.

Well done to the girls for their incredible hockey win this week and the boys B-Team victory at Rossall - it was great to see lots of passing and shooting when practising these basic skills!

Mr Avis and Mr Rice 
Speak Out, Stay Safe - NSPCC Visit
The NSPCC visited the Prep to spread their very important message to 'Speak Out, Stay Safe.' The morning started with a whole school assembly led by Mrs Briggs. We talked about trusted adults helping us if we feel sad, worried or upset, and the importance of telling so we can feel better and stay safe. We looked at different things that can hurt or upset us.

Year 5 and Year 6 then had separate workshops led by Ann from the NSPCC. The workshops were very informative. The pupils really like 'Buddy' the mascot for the NSPCC. This is an annual event in our school calendar and is an important part of our PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) and Wellbeing provision.

Mrs Briggs
PSHE and Wellbeing Co-ordinator
Sports News
AKS Prep Sport fixtures got back underway this week with a double header against Rossall School. 
 
Our U11A Hockey squad welcomed Rossall to AKS with both sides kicking off their seasons in this friendly fixture. AKS worked well with Alyssa, Sadie and Bella scoring along with Sophia who recently joined us in Year 6 scoring in her first game for the school. Well done to all the squad and Ms Dixon. 
 
Our U11 Boys travelled in the other direction for 2 friendly football fixtures. The boys did well playing together for the first time and played some great football with goals for Max, Jack and Zach, along with some fine saves from George in goal. Well done to all the squad and to Mr Worthington and Mr Rice for supporting the team. 
 
Looking forward to next week with AJIS Cross Country and U11 Rugby Festival. 

Mr Moretti
Nursery and Prep Sports and Whole School Football Co-ordinator
PTA New to You Uniform Sale

Our PTA are running their New 2 You sale in the Pavilion on Friday 30th September 8.30am - 10.00am.
Sports Information
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