FROM THE HEADMASTER
Sport Captains
I am delighted to announce that Ludo Lindsay will be Captain of Boys Hockey for this term and Rafi Osborn will be Vice-Captain. This is in addition to the Captains of Netball, Isla Allsopp (Captain) and Ginny McAra (Vice-Captain), who were appointed last term as the girls were involved in the Cup competition. I wish all the hockey and netball teams the very best for the season ahead.
Cross-Country
On Monday, we host our annual Cross-Country event, the Spratton Hall Relays, with 15 schools attending. This is always a very special – and busy – event in the sporting year and I wish our teams the best of luck, ably led by the captains announced last term, Bessie Sanders and Elliot Glason (Captains) and Bella Smith, Joseph Barber (Vice-Captains).
Year 4 Maths Competition
Four Year 4 pupils travelled to Laxton Junior School last week to take part in a maths competition with children from schools across the county. Our teams performed brilliantly, with William Deane and Oliver Sharrock excelling across all rounds. Meanwhile, Arlo Crifò Garton and Jeevan Soomal achieved a very impressive 2nd place overall out of the 25 teams. Congratulations to our four competitors.
Clarion Call
Further to the email Mr Dow sent you yesterday informing you that ClarionCall is no more, in the interim while we are finding a new provider, I would be very grateful for time sensitive messages (such as a late return from a match), it would be helpful if parents upon reading the email could share the information on any relevant parent WhatsApp group so that information can be passed on more quickly than relying on emails being read. Apologies to ask this but it will help speed up the communication. We are in the process of finding a new service but it will take time.
Maidwell Hall
There has been much speculation and discussion regarding the sad news of Maidwell’s closure and in situations like this it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction from rumour. The latest development is that there is a group of parents who are looking to save Maidwell, invest in it and make it a ‘going concern’. This news has left things very much up in the air for the Maidwell children, families and staff and I very much hope that the coming weeks will provide some clarity for everyone.
Smart Watches
There have been a few minor issues in the last couple of weeks with children wearing smart watches at school. While we do not want to stop them wearing a watch to school, the watches should not be able to connect to the internet or indeed to a 4G or 5G network, as we then have no way of monitoring pupils’ internet use at school. We will be reminding the children that they should not be looking at / playing with their watch during lesson time. For us, a much better and safer choice would be that they are left safely at home. Thank you for your support in this matter.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Simon Clarke
Headmaster
PRE-PREP
A Sticky Situation in Year 1…
A rather sticky situation resulted in squeals of laughter in Year 1 this week! A jam sandwich making role-play led to the children recognising the need for instructions to be simple, to the point and carefully sequenced. Having guided their adults to put the butter on the bread, bemused faces watched as the tub of butter was perched on top of the loaf, which was still in its wrapper! A sticky, gloopy mess of jam, butter and bread soon demonstrated to the children the need for their instructions to be much clearer and far more precise. A fabulous way to bring imperative verbs and instructional writing to life – the children are already reflecting on this experience as they set about writing their own sets of instructions.
Easy ‘Pea-sy’ chopstick challenge!
Meanwhile, in Year 2, the children nimbly picked up cubes (or in 2W’s case, frozen peas!) with chopsticks, in a timed challenge that brought the mathematical concepts of place value, sequencing and ordinal numbers to life! As soon as the digital timers started there was a flurry of counting, with plenty of wonderful mathematical vocabulary being used as the children recorded and collated their results in a table. Mrs McKenna was very proud of her 14th position!
Year 2 – In the Swing with Musical Notation!
If children can say and remember tricky dinosaur names, like pachycephalosaurus or tyrannosaurus rex, then why not immerse them in a whole world of other fascinating words linked to their learning across the curriculum. This is exactly what Mrs King has been doing in her Year 2 Music lessons, where she has gradually been introducing the children to musical notation. Whilst pausing to listen to the children playing their recorders, it was a joy to hear them confidently using terms such as crotchet, minim, and semibreve to describe their learning. Even more impressively, they knew exactly how many beats each note represented!
Fiona Sanchez
Head of Pre-Prep
PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS
Pre-Prep
Congratulations to Micah Leung who has achieved his Diamond badge by fully completing the Numbots programme.
Very well done to Freddie Matts who has gained his Level 2 and 10m awards in Swimming.
Very well done to Freddie Matts who has gained his Level 2 and 10m awards in Swimming, and to Liliane Scott who has achieved Level 3.
Prep
Oliver Sharrock won gold for his 100m backstroke in a swimming competition in Nuneaton. He has also qualified for 2025 County Championships for his 200m backstroke and qualified for the 2026 County Championships in the same four events.
Well done to 8W boys who took part in a sponsored bike ride for Diabetes UK. A great achievement over Saturday and Sunday.
Lamda Results
Congratulations to the below students for their excellent LAMDA exam results.
Sofia Hopwell: Grade 3 Solo acting – DISTINCTION
Toby Blake: Grade 4 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Edward Gard: Grade 2 Verse & Prose – DISTINCTION
Amelie Wilson: Grade 3 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Annabelle George: Grade 1 solo acting – DISTINCTION
Archie Gowling: Grade 4 Solo acting – DISTINCTION
Archie Wright: Grade 4 Solo acting – DISTINCTION
Beatrice Harrison: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Bertie Glason: Grade 3 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Devraj Sehmi: Grade 3 Solo acting – DISTINCTION
Jack Brook: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – MERIT
Leilana Patel: Grade 4 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Lexi Vinamata: Grade 3 Solo acting – DISTINCTION
Lucas Fowler: Grade 2 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Martha Miles: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Nico Fraser Allen: Grade 3 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Olive Scott: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Oscar Keki: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Oscar Phipps: Grade 2 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Rory Corbett: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Stephanie Smith: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Elodie Farrow: Grade 2 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
Alice Ogbourne: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
William Ogbourne: Grade 1 Verse and Prose – DISTINCTION
MUSIC NEWS
Year 8 Informal Concert – Thursday 30th January
The Year 8 Informal Concert is always a lovely evening when the musicians in the year group get to show us their musical talent. All members of Year 8 who play an instrument/sing are invited to perform. A letter containing further details was sent out to all the children involved.
Mrs King
Director of Music
SCHOOL NEWS
Year 3 House Gaming
House Gaming kicked off today. The four competitors put in a brilliant performance representing their houses with Charlie Scott coming out on top with a win for Frobisher.
Spring Term Librarians
Please welcome our new Librarians for this term: Monty, Carrie, Kyla, Amelie, India, Isla, Martha and Toby.
Discovery Day – Friday 7th February, 2-3pm
We would love to welcome you to our forthcoming Discovery Day.
Our Discovery Days are a great chance for pre-school children and their parents to spend some time at Spratton Hall exploring our facilities and chatting to our fantastic Early Years teachers. This time we’re in the Sports Dome with our sports coaches, playing games and trying out some of the sports that our pupils do in Pre-Prep. Many of the children coming will be starting in Reception 2025, but all children between 2 and 4 are welcome to come and play!
Please note that places are limited – click here to book.
OUT OF SCHOOL
“Oh yes he is…”
Mr Bradnam will be treading the boards again as Widow Twankey in Rugby Theatre’s production of Aladdin this year. The show runs from Friday 24 Jan until Sunday 2 February. Tickets are on sale here
It is a great traditional family pantomime, to brighten up the dreary New Year evenings. Mr Bradnam will be available in the bar afterwards for photos with the Dame! It would be great to see you there.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Textile Club Reminder
Please could members of Textile Club bring in an old t-shirt (which they can cut up) for our next session on Tuesday 21st January. Thank you.
School Shop Opening Times
Please note that the School Shop will close at the earlier time of 8.30am on Friday 24th January.
Please click the link below to view the most up-to-date schedule for next week, including sports fixtures and clubs news.
