FROM THE HEAD MASTER
Scholarship Success
I am delighted to announce that Olivia Woollcott-Price has been awarded a Foundation Award to Rugby. This is an excellent achievement and hugely deserved by Olivia. Many congratulations to her.
Athletics Captains
I am very pleased indeed to announce the following as Captains of Athletics for this year:
Captains – Ellie Allsopp and Ezekiel-David Peat
Vice-Captains – Maisie Gowling and Stephen Upton
I wish them and the team the very best of luck for the season ahead and particularly in the first Athletics meeting of the term, which is our own annual event taking place next Tuesday evening.
Coronation Picnic
The Coronation next weekend is a momentous event for the country. For the entire school community of staff and pupils, none of us have witnessed a Coronation before. To celebrate the event, we will be having special assemblies and, as you may have noted in the School Calendar, we are also having a whole school picnic next Friday at lunchtime. The picnic will be provided by our catering staff and will actually be a barbeque/picnic affair. This is an in-house event, ie for pupils and staff. To give it a more celebratory feel, the children are all welcome to wear home clothes on the day with, not surprisingly, the theme being red, white and blue. There will be no charge for this home clothes day as it is not a charity event. It should be a most splendid occasion ahead of the big day itself.
Outdoor Concert – Parents’ & Staff Choir
Looking ahead to the ‘Best of British’ Outdoor Concert on 30 June, we are very much hoping that, as we had previously at our outdoor concerts, there will be a parents and staff choir. The plan is that this choir will sing two songs: Amy Winehouse’s Valerie and Robbie Williams’ Angels. If you fancy yourself as a budding Amy or Robbie and would like to take part, we would very much welcome you doing so. No previous singing experience is necessary! Please do contact Mrs King on NCK@sprattonhall.com.
Bank Holiday
Do enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend and I look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday.
Thank you
Simon Clarke
PRE-PREP
Exploring the Beauty of Natural Art … and Some Petal Bashing!
An opportunity to take the children’s learning outdoors has rarely been missed over the last couple of weeks. There is certainly a well-worn path heading down to Five Acres Wood!
In Year 2, having explored the beautiful, natural landscape artwork of Andy Goldsworthy, the children set about creating their own symmetrical arrangements, using only natural materials, with a focus upon repeating patterns. The results are stunning and, just like Andy Goldsworthy, the children have photographed their work with another project in mind.
Meanwhile, bomping noises echoed from the forest school, where the Reception children were arranging fallen leaves and petals between thin squares of cotton, before bashing them with sticks and stones! It sounds quite a forceful activity, but again, the resulting leaf and petal patterns left behind on the fabric were just beautiful (a great activity for developing upper arm and shoulder strength to aid writing too!).
Talk4Writing – The Sleepy Bumblebee Takes Off
Talk4Writing is an innovative way of helping children to internalise the wonderful language structures and vocabulary linked to stories. This in turn, has a powerful effect on the development of writing skills. Year 1 have been using techniques such as ‘hot seating’ and story mapping to retell and explore the story of The Sleepy Bumblebee – they know all words, with cleverly added actions reminding them where to place punctuation.
Open Morning Special Guest Stars … the Year 2 Choir!
If there is an event, I will always campaign for our wonderful Year 2 Choir to sing. Such an uplifting group of singers, they sparkle with energy and pour their hearts into every song. Performing one of their favourites, ‘Sing of a Rainbow’, the children excelled themselves once again, much to the delight and applause of a large smiling audience of prospective parents.
Come Year 3, I will be chasing these children into the arms of Mrs King’s Junior Choir – they absolutely must keep on singing!
Pre-Prep Cake Sale – Ready, Steady, Bake …. Or Buy!
As you will know from the email that I sent out yesterday, and from the brightly coloured posters dotted around the school, Pre-Prep are preparing to host a cake sale this coming Tuesday 3rd May. The Pre-Prep children always pore longingly over the fabulous array of cakes when Year 8 organise the event, and now it is our turn to provide the treats for everyone. This is where the help of Pre-Prep parents is much needed please! Baking or buying cakes to donate to the sale, it really doesn’t matter – what is important is that they are absolutely nut free. From rainbow sprinkled cupcakes, to gooey, chewy marshmallow crispy bars, brownies and chocolate chunk cookies the children will adore arranging, selling (and choosing cakes. All money raised will go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a charity very close to our hearts.
Pupil Achievements
Congratulations to the following children for their recent swimming achievements – Robyn Scott (RG) Level 2 and 5m, Kai Patel (RY) 10m, Dakshan Premkumar (2M) Level 3, Jai Chavda (1N) Level 3 and 5m, Phoebe Tilston (RY) Level 3, Rufus Roworth (RG) Level 2 and Freddie Roworth (2M) 10m.
Well done to Bertie Brady-White (1S) and Thomas Hassell (2A) who both achieved medals for their effort and skill in this year’s rugby season.
The following children loved sharing their ski awards for their effort and skill on the slopes – Bethany Lofts (2A), Evan Boyson (2A) and Rory Waite (2A).
Very well done to Alex Schwartz-Jones (2L) for achieving his gymnastics Level 1 award.
Further congratulations must go to Dakshan Premkumar (2M) for the stunning piece of art work that he created for the Rugby Tamil Sangam Art Competition.
Our final congratulations go to Bodhi Higgott (2L) for successfully completing a challenging W.O.L.F run and to Orion Adam (1N) for gaining the ‘Student of the Year’ award at Mighty Monkeys mixed martial arts club.
Fiona Sanchez
Head of Pre-Prep
MANAGER OF SCHOOL SHOP
We are looking for somebody to step into the shoes of the Shop Manager who will be leaving at the end of May. Ideally, it will be a parent or a former parent with a few hours to spare each week. We would like the shop to be open three times a week, two afternoons to include a Monday, and on a Friday morning during term time. Additional hours will be needed at the end of the summer term and during the summer holiday. Some flexibility will be required regarding the exact working hours. The role involves keeping the shop in order, controlling the stock, answering emails and assisting with uniform orders. If you are interested in applying, or require any further information, please contact the Bursar, Mrs Clare Cull, on 01604 847292 or email bursar@sprattonhall.com
TOWNSEND LIBRARY
Welcome to the summer term’s librarians:-
Imogen J, Tiggy, Tabitha, Imogen P-J, Mimi, Lara, Zara, Teddy, Thomas and Jehan.
SPORT
The U13 Girls’ Cricket team did incredibly well to progress to the ECB Indoor Regional Finals this week at Cambridge University. The standard of cricket was extremely high and the girls should feel really proud of their team performance on the day. The pool was tied between three schools, going down to run difference, with Spratton finishing runners-up in the pool and missing the final by only three runs! They finished the tournament in a credible 4th place.
A fantastic experience and many positive lessons learned going forward.
Mr Barnard
ART
Two weeks into the summer term and Years 3-5 are really enjoying building the van Gogh bedroom installation.
MUSIC
Exam Success
Congratulations to Claudia Penman for achieving a distinction in her Grade 2 saxophone exam.
Outdoor Concert
We have a small number of parents signed up for the choir for the outdoor concert. It is not too late to join! If you are interested, please let Mrs King know.
NMPAT Auditions
It has been wonderful to see so many of our pupils involved in the external music groups organised by Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust.
Should your require further information about auditioning to take part next academic year, please click on the link below.
NSPCC ASSEMBLY
On Thursday, Years 3-6 enjoyed an NSPCC assembly, ‘Speak Out Shout Out’, which raises awareness of personal safety.
Here are Year 3 with ‘Buddy’ the mascot!
CAKE SALE
Pre-Prep will be holding a whole school charity cake sale next Tuesday 2nd May with cakes costing 50p each.
All monies raised will be donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a charity which lies very close to our hearts.
Thank you for your support.
CORONATION HOME CLOTHES DAY
To celebrate the Coronation next week, the children will be having a picnic lunch on Arthur’s Square, bunting and all!
We are also making this a Home Clothes Day, no payment necessary, where children can wear a combination of red, white and blue.
ARCHERY CLUB
Archery Club is another popular club which only runs in the summer term and is for Years 3&4.
Pupils learn how to protect themselves with their arm guard and how to loose their arrow at an archery target or even a balloon!
PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS
Well done to Jaypaul Sehmi who did very well in last weekend’s Black Belt Championships, taking part in individual kata, team kata and sparring, gaining two medals and a trophy!
LOST PROPERTY
Found – Red Lancome lipstick
SHSPA EVENTS
Tickets are still on sale, however, there is now limited availability.
NATIONAL ONLINE SAFETY GUIDES
If you’ve ever worried about children seeing content online that’s not appropriate for their age, becoming the victim of cyber-bullying or naively giving out personal information to strangers over the internet, then you’re not alone. Those are three of the most common concerns for parents and carers in relation their child’s digital activities.
That’s just one of the findings of this year’s ‘Media Use and Attitudes’ report – Ofcom’s annual ‘temperature check’ of how children and young people are engaging with the digital world and what trends we’re seeing emerge. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide brings trusted adults some of the report’s most relevant – and, perhaps, most concerning – discoveries.
Here is the link to the school website where you will find more details and further helpful information.
