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From the Headmaster

Dear Parents

I hope this finds you well and that you enjoyed having your children at home for the half-term holiday. While the second week seemed to be one of torrential rain and overflowing gutters, we have been blessed with some fine autumnal sunshine and glorious colours on the trees during this first week of November.

While I don’t expect there to be quite the same levels of anticipation as with the John Lewis Christmas advert, we are about to release a short film for our website and I am keen to share this with you today ahead of its formal release. It was a project that we really enjoyed: designed as a child’s eye view of Cargilfield and we hope that it captures something of the energy and variety of the School. Please click on the link in the news story below, and we hope you enjoy it.

Seeing the film (and sharing a handful of conversations with you at pick up or on a touchline), I am acutely aware of how little you are able to share in the life of the School at present. With the return of spectators at matches and events like our outdoor Act of Remembrance at 10.45am on Armistice Day on Thursday, we are moving towards having parents more involved. We are currently looking at how we can share some of the magic of the Christmas preparations with you and I am determined to have some parents onsite to be with us for these: more detail will follow in due course.

Thank you again for all the support you are giving us and the patience you continue to show in supporting our approach to the guidelines. From my position, the great reassurance is that our children are now having an almost normal routine and there are so many lovely aspects of school life to which we have returned this term. I do hope that you have a sense of this from the feedback your children give you.

One other way in which you can support us is to circulate this film to any friends, colleagues or family who may enjoy it – especially if they are considering school choices at the moment. We aren’t a school that goes in for significant promotional campaigns and the majority of prospective parents that we meet have come on the back of a recommendation from a current parent: just as it should be. Through COVID, however, it has been difficult to reach out to those parents and so anything that you can do to help us in that process would be much appreciated.

I look forward to seeing you soon and having the chance to share some of the exciting plans that we have for the next few years at Cargilfield.
 
As always, you can keep up to date with things here at Cargilfield by following our various social media channels which are constantly updated; the links to these are at the bottom of this newsletter. Our news page on the website is updated daily and can be accessed here.

Rob Taylor

New School Film

As you will be aware, we had a film crew in earlier in the term to produce a professional film of the school and we are delighted to share it with you today.  We hope if gives a flavour of what goes on at Cargilfield and please do forward the link on to any friends you have who might be thinking of a Cargilfield education for their children. 

Watch it here.
U13 Girls reach National Finals

Many congratulations to the U13 Girls who have reached the IAPS National Hockey Finals to be played at Cheltenham College later in November. At the qualifiers at Repton, they won their group, beat Sedbergh in the quarter final before narrowly losing to Repton in the semis. The top four qualify for the Finals, so Cheltenham here we come!

Read more here.
COP26 Art Exhibition

As part of the COP26 Edinburgh Climate Fringe, a large number of our children’s art work was displayed at St Cuthbert’s Church the week before the important climate conference of World leaders in Glasgow began. It was lovely to visit and see so much creativity on show, linked to concern for our planet and climate change.

Read more here.
Book Swap Shop

We had our termly Book Swap Shop today where children brought in some favourite books from home and swapped them for books others had brought in. There was lots of excited chatter on the library and then time to read their new books. Thank you to Mrs Lyall for organising a fabulous event!

Read more here.
Fettes Classics Day

Form 7 enjoyed a fabulous Classics Day at Fettes!  The day’s activities included Roman combat training, mosaic making, mythological storytelling, and a re-enactment of scenes from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur as depicted on ancient ceramics. The day finished with a vocabulary competition, in which Cargilfield’s “gladiator”, Daniel, took 2nd place!  Well done.

Read more here.
Mini Concert 8.10.21

Once again, we have enjoyed some marvellous music making over the past few weeks and well done to all those children who have performed in our recent mini concerts!  The highlight though has undoubtedly been the return of our choir singing in Chapel for the first time since March 2020: our Form 8 choir sang at our Junior Chapel service and we look forward to more singing later in the term!

Watch it here and all our other concerts on our YouTube channel.
Pipe Band performs!

It was lovely to go down to Cramond foreshore last Friday and for the Pipe Band to play at the Boardwalk Beach Cafe, for their first performance of the year!  Despite some drizzle, a number of parents came down to watch and the Band were in fine form and we look forward to hearing them play again soon!

Watch their performance here and see photos here.
Form 4 meet the Police!

Police Scotland visited Form 4 today to talk to them about people who help us. They learnt not only about the emergency services, such as the ambulance, fire brigade and coastguard but also about the role of the police. Police Scotland explained the types of transport and equipment they use and the various gadgets they carry with them.

Read more here.
Numeracy in the Nursery

The children have been doing all sorts of autumn based numeracy tasks including threading numbers in the correct order, making a quantity of items, ordering and sequencing numbers as well as matching a quantity to a numeral. What fabulous learning from everyone!

Read more here.
P1's erupting Volcanoes!

P1 have been learning letter sounds v and y, so they made volcanoes in the sand using coke bottles and mento sweets. Nobody predicted quite how dramatic the eruptions would be! They also worked in teams to build yurts using sticks, rubber bands and pieces of fabric - the weather made it particularly difficult, but everyone managed to create a structure that they could shelter in. 

Read more here.
The Choir sings again!

For the first time since March 2020, we had a choir sing in Chapel last week!

Well done to the Form 8 choir who have been rehearsing hard since the beginning of term, and we look forward to them singing with Form 7 very soon.

Read more and watch them sing here.
Faraday Challenge

Form 8 took part in the Faraday Challenge Day competition, sponsored by IHEEM. During the day, they worked in teams to understand the project brief, plan a workable solution, produce a working prototype, and present their project to their peers. Congratulations to Lucy, Mariella, Amalia, Amenah, Alexander and Harry who scored the highest number of points across the day.

Read more here.
P2 Castle Day

Our P2 Castle Day took place last week on a day of unexpected sunshine and the children arrived in splendid fashion all dressed in their medieval costumes. There was medieval dancing, a feast, using weapons and even a jester! Lots of fun and History was certainly brought to life!

Read more here.
Form 7 meet the Police

As part of the PSHE syllabus, the Form 7s have been learning about the effects of drugs. To complement this, Police Scotland came in to talk to them about the law and alcohol and drugs. They began by stating the law and legalities of alcohol, before allowing the children to try on some "Beer Goggles" - goggles that mimic what it is like to be drunk. There were lots of stumbling and laughing!

Read more here.
Nursery visit Lauriston Castle

Nursery went on a trip to Lauriston Castle this week to observe the changes that are happening in Autumn. The trip was split over two glorious days when the sun shone! The children climbed trees, found conkers, rolled down the hills and made observations of signs of autumn. What a fun trip out!

Read more here.
P3 Harvest Festival
 
Well done to P1, P2 and 3 for a brilliant Harvest festival service! It was the first Pre-Prep service in the school Chapel since March 2020. They all presented, sang and spoke with great gusto and confidence. The service ended with a thankful prayer from P2 for all the food we have. Thank you for the food donations for families in need and they will be collected by the charity Fresh Start.

Read more here.
Golfing success!

Many congratulations to Felix and Charles who took part in Loretto's Simmers Cup played at Craigielaw Golf Club in East Lothian. After a very competitive day, Charles ended up winning the U13 competition with Felix in 2nd place - a fabulous achievement!

Read more here.
Form 8 visit Lindores Abbey

For their CE Geography fieldwork project, Form 8 went to Lindores Abbey distillery in Fife. They were given a fascinating tour of the whisky manufacturing process, and the bottles are now for sale if anyone is interested!  We also had an exciting role play tour of the abbey ruins and learned about the history of the abbey and local area and its importance to Scottish monarchy.

Read more here.
Friends of Cargilfield

After over 18 months of remote meetings, the Friends of Cargilfield enjoyed their first face to face meeting together last week, and are starting to plan a number of events over the course of the year! We cannot wait to see you back in school soon!
Padel club

Padel is the fastest growing racket sports in the UK, and Mrs Mackerron takes a group to Thistle Padel Club at Craigclockhart every Tuesday evening. They are coached by Jorge Martinez, who is the UK's No1 doubles player.  Padel is a fast-paced sport played by two people on an enclosed walled court about one-third of the size of a tennis court.

Read more here.
Remembrance Service

We look forward to welcoming General Alastair Bruce, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, to preach at our annual Remembrance Service on Friday 12th November. This year, it also coincides with the 100th Anniversary of the building of our School Chapel, which was built to commemorate the 126 former pupils who died in World War 1.

 
Tatler Schools' Guide 2022

Once again, we are delighted to appear in this year’s Tatler Schools’ Guide which features the very best Senior and Prep Schools in the UK.  

Find out what is different and so special about a Cargilfield education by coming to our Open Morning on Friday 1st October. Register by clicking on the link.

https://www.cargilfield.com/open-morning
Calling all Former Pupils!

We are always keen to reconnect with former pupils and parents. We are beginning to plan a number of exciting events as we look forward to Cargilfield's 150th anniversary in 2023; we hope that our former pupils will take a central part in the celebrations of this important milestone in the school's history.

Please do pass this Newsletter on to any former pupils or parents; we would love to get back in touch and keep you updated as to our plans for 2023 and #Cargilfield150.

Click here to add contact details.

Click here to read the latest news from our former pupils.
The Week Ahead

Sunday 7th November
U13 Rugby at Ardvreck 7s

Monday 8th
Music Theory exams
U11 Rugby Tour returns 

Wednesday 10th
Matches - see iSAMS Parent App for details

Thursday 11th 
0830 2nd Assessments for Forms 4 to 8
1045 Armistice Day Act of Remembrance in Ash Court - parents welcome
1700 Form 6 Parent Teacher Meetings via SchoolCloud

Friday 12th 
0945 Service of Remembrance - no parents allowed
1stXV v Giggleswick (a)

Saturday 13th
Forms 5, 6, 7 Hockey v George Heriot's - see ISAMS Parent App for details

Sunday 14th
1stXV v Aysgarth (a)

Monday 15th
1stXV v Sedbergh (a)
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Telephone : 0131 336 2207
Email : admin@cargilfield.com

Cargilfield Prep School, 45 Gamekeeper's Road,
Edinburgh, EH4 6HU
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