FROM THE HEAD MASTER
End of Term
It is hard to believe we have finally reached the end of term, some three and a half months since the school year began back in the September sun.
The children are to be congratulated for all they have achieved throughout this long term, culminating in such wonderful Christmas events over the last couple of weeks, from the wonderful Christmas lunch last Friday to the superb concert on Monday. Yesterday’s Carol Service was a really special occasion too with beautiful music and singing from the choirs, and excellent readings from the children. I have no doubt this afternoon’s senior carol service will be just as special.
As ever at the end of a term, we have a small number of leaving pupils. Well done to each and every one of them and I wish them all the best for the future. Do please come back and visit us!
SHSPA Christmas Fayre
All who attended the fayre on Wednesday could not fail to have been thoroughly impressed. The children appeared to enjoy every aspect of it, but the two reindeer clearly stole the show! Huge thanks and well done to the SHSPA co-chairs, Angela Smith and Raine Wallens Foyer, and all of the SHSPA team for their enormous amount of hard work, but particular thanks to Emma Drage for the enormous amount of time and effort she put in to make it such a success.
End of Term Grades and Report
Just a reminder that for those children in the prep school, parents will receive notification that the end of term Grades will be available for you on the school’s Engage Portal. Please do take the time to look through these carefully and to sit down with your child so that you can talk them through together. You will find the Form Tutor reports situated below the Attainment grades.
Sport
With this term’s sporting season having drawn to a close, it has been a very successful term with much enjoyment and progress made. The girls’ Hockey teams are to be congratulated as collectively they have achieved the best results since 2016 with 430 goals scored from the U8s all the way up to the 1st VII. Special mention to the 3rd VII, Jets B and Jets D who have had particularly impressive seasons. The boys’ Rugby teams have also done well with the 1st XIII only losing two regular school matches and the U10As winning 7 of their 9 games, scoring 290 points in the process. Very well done to all.
On the subject of sport, I was delighted to hear that we have again been included in the top 50 prep schools for cricket in ‘The Cricketer Schools Guide 2024’ for the fifth year running – a fine achievement.
Christmas Holidays
I wish you all the very best for the next three weeks and hope the children have a thoroughly good rest before returning in the New Year with term starting on Monday 8th January. If you are travelling, I wish you safe journeys. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
Thank you.
Simon Clarke
PRE-PREP
Pre-Prep Christmas Parties – Ho, Ho, Ho
Monday’s Christmas parties proved tremendously exciting, especially as, amidst the excitement of all the party games, a loud ‘ho, ho, ho’ could be heard, shortly followed by the appearance of a very special guest …Father Christmas! Laden down with an enormous sack of gifts, the children nestled around his feet and listened wide-eyed as Father Christmas entertained them with tales of mischievous elves, rascally reindeers and his unending love of mince pies! Of course, a party would not be complete without a few tasty snacks to nibble on and the platters of fruit, sandwiches and iced, gingerbread biscuits that the children enjoyed at the end, certainly went down a treat!
Theatre Visits ~ Stickman
Also this week, each year group has ventured off on a theatre trip, where they have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to sit back and admire how professional actors move about the stage and project their voices. Heading to the Derngate Theatre, the children were treated to an interactive retelling of the much-loved Julia Donaldson story, ‘Stickman’. A truly brilliant production, the children (and staff!) were absolutely mesmerised!
A Cheery Elf Pops into Assembly!
Giggles and gasps of astonishment rippled throughout Pre-Prep earlier in the week, as Mr Clarke arrived for his usual ‘Head Master’s Assembly’ … dressed from head to toe as an elf! Complete with bells on the end of his shoes and big pointy ears, Mr Clarke enlightened us as to how the tradition of having a decorated tree in your home, as part of the Christmas festivities, first came about. It was certainly an assembly which left us with much to remember and think about!
Numbots Over the Holidays!
In my Computing lessons, I have recently been introducing Reception to the ‘Numbots’ programme. Numbots is an online learning tool to which all the children in the Pre-Prep are subscribed. Using the mastery approach, it is a super way of developing the children’s quick recall of number bonds, addition and subtraction facts, and subitising skills. The children’s mission is to upgrade Rusty the Robot and, by earning coins and stars, they get to visit the Custom Shack to buy new parts for their own robot too.
Numbots can be accessed from any device by visiting Numbots or by downloading the Numbots app. For more information, I have included a link here. Parent Guide to Numbots. The children all have their login details on their reading record books, alongside their Purple Mash logins. Whilst screen time certainly needs to be carefully managed, even just 10 minutes each week will help to keep those number skills ticking over.
Phonics Presentation – An e-Book Guide for Parents
Following on from our Phonics presentation to parents back in October, I have been working with the Pre-Prep staff to put together a digital flipbook guide, just for parents, that can be permanently situated on our website. At Spratton, we teach Phonics in a fun, interactive, systematic way, so that the children learn to read, write, segment and spell all 44 sounds of the English language both in real and in nonsense pseudo words. The wonderful world of Phonics can sometimes prove to be rather complex though, so we hope this user friendly guide will help anyone who is keen to learn a little more to support their child’s phonetic development at home. Our Phonics Guide can be located on each of the year group pages of our website.
Finally, as we close for the Christmas holidays, it is wonderful to look back and reflect on all that the children have accomplished and enjoyed since September. When entering their classrooms, it is such a rewarding sight to see the children immersed in their activities, happy and settled as they pursue their learning. We are immensely proud of the children and they truly deserve a well-earned rest and some wonderful family time. Happy Christmas to all our families and we very much look forward to welcoming you back in the Spring term.
Pupil Achievements
Congratulations to the following children who have gained swimming awards – Elisa Phipps (2L) 50m and Grade 5, Daya Soomal (1N) 15m, Reuben Lofts (RY) 5m, Thomas Norton (1S) Level 2, Harriet Turculet (2L) Level 1 and George Al-Azzawe (1N) 5m.
A huge well done also goes to the following children, who have achieved success in Karate and Tae Kwondo – Giles Bushell (2L) green belt with purple tag, Rudy Boswell (2M) purple belt, Leonardo Dep-Shepherd (1S) red belt and Orion Adam (2L) black belt.
Orion Adam must also be congratulated for achieving ‘Rock Legend’ status on Times Tables Rockstars, alongside Harriet Turculet who gained her family badge at Rainbows.
Congratulations to Jai Chavda (2L) for gaining an award for his progress in Drama School.
Fiona Sanchez
Head of Pre-Prep
MUSIC
Christmas Concert
The Christmas Concert on Monday was an absolutely brilliant evening of entertainment. All of our music ensembles worked really hard in rehearsals to prepare a wide variety of music to perform. The children really did rise to the occasion and showcased the fantastic musical talent that we have throughout the school. The audience definitely left feeling very Christmassy! Well done to all those that took part.
Exam Success
Congratulations to Ben Beaumont for gaining a distinction in his Grade 4 singing exam.
Instruments
Please can pupils ensure that all instruments and music folders are collected before we finish for the Christmas holiday.
Finally, we would like to thank everybody for their continued support throughout the term.
HOUSE COMPETITIONS
House Chess
1st Raleigh, 2nd Frobisher, 3rd Grenville, 4th Drake
House Bake Off
This term’s Bake Off was the closest, and arguably the best we have ever had – even though this was Year 6 and our youngest competitors. The teams were judged, not only on their final bake’s look and taste, but on how they worked together, worked independently from an adult, organised themselves and, (most importantly!) tidied up! Every team this term was brilliant and the results were almost too close to call. Three teams scored within two points of each other!
1st Grenville, 2nd = Frobisher & Raleigh, 4th Drake (but ONLY because the judges felt they were just TOO blue – everything else was equal to Frobisher and Raleigh in the scores!)
Star Baker – Amelie Inman
STEM WEEK 2024
PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to Sachpreet Bhangra and Sophia Hodgkins who passed their RAD Grade 1 Ballet exam.
SHSPA
Christmas Fayre
