Prep Newsletter Friday 30th

January 2015

Dear Parents,

Keeping Safe

As part of our curriculum to help children to be even safer we have been

encouraging and teaching them to be safe, whether at home, on the

computer, outside in town or at school. Therefore this week we began

with the topic of ‘Stranger Danger’. As parents and teachers we want and

need our children to be safe at all times. With the number of high profile

cases in the media and having up to date news available 24/7 we

understandably are concerned. However these cases are rare and we

need to remain grounded. It is important that we teach children about

stranger awareness and give them the skills to stay safe, be responsible

and know how to protect themselves in an uncomfortable or unsafe

situation. As parents and teachers we can help by talking with our

children on their level, answering their questions, according to their age

and level of maturity, about what they can do.

In assembly this week we learned about the kind of strangers who are

safe for children to speak to if they are faced with such a situation. It is

important that we do not scare children; rather that we give them skills

needed to stay safe. We talked about:

who safe strangers are e.g.police officers, traffic

wardens, shopkeepers, shop assistants and others.

which are safe buildings e.g. banks, post offices,

libraries, medical centres, shops, supermarkets, leisure

centres, and others.

what to do if they get lost, feel unsafe or if a trusted

adult is not around by looking for as safe stranger or go

into a safe building to ask for help.

In school we regularly risk assess to ensure that our children are safe in

and around school. Supervision is key and our adult to child ratio is high.

Useful links for parents:

http://www.childnet.com/kia/parents - Childnet’s Know it All for Parents

resource CD – available in 10 languages.

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents - CEOP’s website – aimed at

parents including videos and a webcast.

http://www.childalert.co.uk/ safety - out and about - stranger danger

http://www.netmums.com/ Essential safety for kids: Stranger Danger

Most important, whilst keeping our children safe, is to allow our children

to be children.

What can parents do when you feel your child is ready?

(These are common sense and in no way am I trying to teach ‘grandma to

suck eggs’.)

Ensure your daughter knows her phone number and address.

Discuss safe people and safe places in a positive relaxed way.

Discuss never going off with anyone without telling you (or a trusted

adult) first.

Help your child become accustomed to and aware of her local area -

well lit roads, avoiding shortcuts etc.

Teach your child road safety rules and safe conduct for walking,

scootering or cycling.

Enable her to understand why it is not safe to walk whilst on the

phone or listening to loud music

All pupils are regularly taught and reminded

how they can keep themselves and others safe

and know that they can talk with any adult in

school about a concern. I am very grateful to all

of our staff who always put our children first

and demonstrate warmth, understanding and

compassion - they certainly do go above and

beyond to care for every individual.

Chess Tournament by Yukie and Anika (Year 6)

Lunchtime concert

Congratulations to all the girls who participated in this lovely, informal

event. For some this was their first performance to an audience and for a

couple of girls this was an opportunity to demonstrate what they had

learned after only 11 lessons. All performances were played with

confidence and every girl should be incredibly proud of her achievement

in the concert. The audience of parents and friends certainly enhanced

the atmosphere and were very appreciative. Well done to:

Beatrice (Y3) violin

Iman (Y3) violin and piano

Karisma (Y4) violin

Chuwen (Y4) piano

Charlotte (Y4) harp

Afrah (Y4) violin

Hannah (Y5) piano

Ami (Y5) violin

Angel (Y5) alto saxophone

Camille (Y5) piano

Anjali (Y5) violin

Kalyani (Y5) flute

Amisha (Y5) piano

Aryana (Y5) guitar

Mia (Y5) alto saxophone

Yoana (Y6) singing

Our Chess Team attended the Hertfordshire County Chess Tournament on Wednesday 28th January. This was the second round (there are three rounds altogether) and at the end of the third round the team with the most points will win. Everybody in our team played their best and tried hard. In the first match we had two wins and climbed up the leader board. We all hope to play even better in the final round. Congratulations to our team: Scarlet (Y3), Sarah (Y4), Chuwen (Y4), Lucy (Y4), Ami (Y5), Anika (Y6) and Yukie (Y6).

Sports News by Milly and Yoana (Y6)

On Monday 26 January, Year 5 and 6 girls took part

in a netball match against Reddiford.

Although we put in a lot of effort, due to Reddiford’s

amazing skills, the results were 7:4 to Reddiford. It

was a pleasure to play against the school and we

are sure our team would love to play another

rematch soon.

Spotlight on… MFL (Modern Foreign Languages)

In the Prep School we follow the ‘Discovering Languages’ programme

which arouses an interest and leads to wider cultural awareness than if

the children learned one language. It adds value to literacy work and

contributes to the pupil’s general communication skills. Through

learning a variety of languages the children gain a strong foundation in

how language works, how languages differ but also how they resemble

each other and encourages each to use terminology that is required to

understand grammar and language structures at an appropriate level.

Our girls clearly enjoy learning a variety of languages throughout their

time in the Preparatory School and gain an appreciation of other

languages and cultures. This academic year we are teaching:

Year 1 - Mandarin Year 2 - French Year 3 - German

Year 4 - Spanish Year 5 - Spanish and Latin

Year 6 - Mandarin and Discovering Languages programme

Information Technology is frequently used in the MFL

lessons and this week Year 4 were really engaged

playing the Linguascope online memory game. Year 2

followed up their visit to the National Portrait Gallery

when Mrs Hammond emphasised the cultural aspect

and introduced the most famous Museum in Paris, Le

Louvre. They looked at paintings by Monet and as the

girls are also learning about fashion in the past, they

looked at a picture of the artist and discussed many

aspects which included revising colours in French.

Mrs C Aisthorpe

Head of St. Margaret’s Preparatory School

Commendation

CONGRATULATIONS TO…

Afrah (Y4) Kaiyana (Y3)

Ruby (Y5) Suzie (Y4)

Certificate

CONGRATULATIONS to…

Ishiya (Y3) Melina (Y3) Remi (Y3)

In the next fortnight…

Good luck to our Year 5 + 6 Netball teams when they play 2

matches, one home and one away.

Good luck too to our Quiz Team in the area heat of the Quiz Club.

Internet Safety week begins on the 9th February. In assemblies,

class and ICT lessons all pupils will learn more about being safe

when online and taking responsibility.

PCSO Ainsley will talk with the girls during this week about how

they can keep safe in a variety of situations.

Our Lower Prep Valentine’s Party and Upper Prep Valentine’s

Disco are on Thursday 12th February. Today you will have

received an email about these events.

Mufti Day in aid of Comic Relief 2015 is on Friday 13th February.

On this occasion the girls have decided that they would like to

wear their home clothes. This is the day when we can wear our red

noses! Part of their advertising campaign this year is to make a

funny face for money. We welcome your daughter designing and

making her own mask to wear on Mufti Day and will celebrate all

funny face masks in assembly.

Please see www.rednoseday.com for more details.

Congratulations: Iman (Y3) for passing her grade 1 violin.

Reception

This week we have

been using our

imaginations to write

our very own fairy tales

using a story planner.

The results were

wonderful, here are two

for you to enjoy.

Miss King

Year 1 Year 1 have been learning about 3 dimensional shapes

this week. On Tuesday they created wonderful cubes and

pyramids using Blu Tack and straws. They watched

carefully while the task was explained and demonstrated

and then set about making their own. It took a great deal

of skill and determination but every girl succeeded in the

challenge and some went even further to build triangular

prisms. It was so impressive to observe their

concentration levels while they were measuring their

straws and assembling their models. The results were

fabulous.

Mrs Jolley

tf

Year 2

Miss Pares

The computer consultants of tomorrow, hard at

work. Today they are honing their word processing

skills but who knows what the future may have in

store. . . .

Year 3

Amazing Art in Year 3 We had a wonderful Art lesson this week. We have begun to learn about the work of Pablo Picasso. We looked at some of his pictures and discussed what we could see. The girls had never seen pictures painted in the Cubist style. They were rather shocked and wanted to know lots more about them. By looking carefully at them we began to understand what they were showing and the ideas behind them.

Remi thought that they were “rather scary and weird.”

Neha thought that “they were funny and spooky.” Anna liked them and thought that they were pretty. One thing is for sure, everyone agreed that they are unusual. After lots of discussion everyone settled down to look at one of the pictures carefully and try to draw it. Once they got started the work was amazing and some of the results are fantastic.

Mrs Franklin

Shriya said “When I was

about to draw I felt scared

but when I started drawing

I was really proud of

myself.”

Lots of girls agreed that they thought it would be really hard and they felt confused at the beginning. However, when they started drawing they could do it. Next week we are going to create more pictures in the cubist style and paint them. How exciting to learn about something so unusual!

In Year 4 we

have been

learning all

about time. We

made clocks

to help us with

telling the time

and learn the

difference

between ‘to’

and ‘past’.

Miss Smith

Year 4

We created some colourful clocks. Please come in

and see them. Try to figure out what the time on each

clock is!

Year 5

Year 5 have begun researching a famous Victorian as part of our History studies. They will be collecting as much information as they can; creating a PowerPoint slideshow before presenting their findings to their classmates in a few weeks’ time. Here are a few interesting facts they have found out this week:

Ms Caher

Alexander Graham Bell was

a famous inventor but also

a scientist and engineer.

Camille

Grace Darling was

born 24th November

1815 in her

grandfather’s cottage.

Nikita

Florence Nightingale

was named after a

town in the country

she was born in.

Bryony Sadly, one of Charles Dickens

daughters only lived for a

year.

Aryana

Lewis Carroll wrote the famous

book ‘Alice in Wonderland’, but

there is also a sequel called

‘Through the Looking Glass’

Kalyani

Marie Curie was the first

woman to win the Nobel Prize

Hannah

Thomas Edison was responsible for

helping us all to see more clearly as he

invented the electric light bulb.

Marina

Grace Darling became famous

because she helped her dad save

many lives when a ship sunk.

Ruby

Isabella Beeton was famous for

writing the first ever cookery book

and died on the 6th February 1836.

Rebecca

David Livingstone was a

missionary who travelled to

other countries to encourage

others to become Christian.

Mia

新年好呀

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6 are still celebrating New Year – Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year of the goat will be celebrated on 19 February 2015. People born in a year of the Goat (1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015) are generally

Year 6

believed to be gentle mild-mannered, shy, stable, sympathetic, amicable, and brimming with a strong sense of kind-heartedness and justice. 6C have made lanterns representing the moon, decorated calendars and have learned about Chinese celebrations at this time of year. Happy New Year !

February

2nd 16:15-17:30 Years 5&6 Netball vs Northwood College (home)

5th 2.00-3.00pm Prep School Quiz Club Area Heat

9th-13th

Internet Safety Week

12th 3.30-5.00pm Lower Prep Valentine’s Party

12th 5.15-6.45pm Upper Prep Valentine’s Disco

13th Mufti Day

12:30-2.00pm Gordon Cake Sale

3.30/4.00 Half-term begins

23rd Term resumes

Dates

020 8416 4501 prepoffice@smbushey.com