The Bulletin – Edition 30
The HPPPA Summer Fair was, in every way imaginable, a rip roaring success last Saturday! It was excellent to see so many parents present and of course to see the pupils having such a lovely time. The Fair raised £5500 for WarChild UK, which is an incredible amount. My grateful thanks now to all parents and staff helpers who pulled together a really enjoyable day for us all.
This week I have begun to see all the boys in Year 5 for what we call here a ‘Headmaster’s Cheerful Catch up’. This is part of a carefully planned process that Mr Ford, Mrs Tinkler and I run, which sits alongside the support the boys’ Form teachers provide, to prepare the boys in our penultimate year for their transition to Year 6. We also aim to very gently encourage them to start thinking about (as sad as this is for us, at least!) the time when they shall be off at their next school and in Year 7. I have to say, the boys I have managed to catch up with so far have most definitely been very cheerful indeed and I am looking forward to hearing from them all before the end of this term. If you are the parent of a boy in Year 5 do please ask him what we talk about. The catch ups are brightening my days and I am pretty sure the boys’ enthusiasm and very mature reflections will be illuminating for their mums and dads too!
Prep
Year 6 Residential Week in Wales:
This year’s residential trip to Wales was much anticipated by both the Year 6 boys and the staff team alike. I know they had a tremendous time. There were mountains to climb, waves to surf, the cold sea to leap about in and of course camp fires to sit round and reminisce. The boys were excellent, and we know they will have fond memories of their time together on the Pembrokeshire coast to take with them into the future.
The L.I.O.N. Award:
Mr Barber and I keep in touch about the exceptional effort the boys put into their L.I.O.N. Award, as the year progresses. It has been terrific to hear that this week, in order to complete his ‘YET’ section, a boy in Year 4 has chosen to learn Ballroom and Latin dancing and has made such tremendous progress that he has been encouraged to sit his dance exams in the Rumba and the Mambo in two weeks’ time. He has remarked at home to his parents thus: "Isn't it funny how the L.I.O.N. Award makes you try new things and sometimes those new things become new hobbies?". We could not agree more!
Humanities Theme Day – The Middle Ages:
Please see these photos of our most excellent and glorious Middle Ages Theme Day, which hath occure-ed across our realm on Monday. Twas indeed especial and wondrous to learn about the merry manners and not so merry tribulations of those who came before us. Serfs, peasants, knights, noblemen and noblewomen hath attended this most hallowed place – twas a fair and jolly sight to behold!
News from Mr Salt, Head of Games:
Yesterday, York House recorded a well needed victory at Sports Day. It has been a tricky year for the green house with House Point discs being in short supply so it was satisfying to award their House Captains, Will Meehan and Fred Owen, the trophy at the end of the event. The way the York House boys celebrated their victory demonstrated how much it meant to them and they certainly deserved it, winning by a comprehensive margin.
Pre-Prep
A word from Mrs Murphy
What a busy week it has been here in Pre-Prep and it started with a fun-filled Medieval Day on Monday! The children’s costumes were amazing; thank you so much for embracing this theme, we do appreciate that days like these mean extra work for you at home. Great fun was had by all with a range of art and craft activities to support learning about life during this distant period in the past.
Kindergarten
It has been a buzzing week in Kindergarten learning all about bees and in particular why we need to protect them. On Monday we learned all about medieval gardens, looking at bee hives and how people dressed in the past. We had fun making salt dough bees and using the watercolours to paint dragon pictures.
Reception
Another busy week in Reception! On Monday we enjoyed humanities day learning about Medieval life. We especially enjoyed showing our friends our fantastic costumes and taking part in the fun workshops!
Year 1
Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed travelling back in time to the Medieval period by looking at all our amazing costumes, learning about the story of King Arthur and generally immersing themselves in all things medieval! The children were delighted to create stained glass windows, shields, flags and detailed drawings of dragons – what a thrilling day!
Year 2
Year 2 have enjoyed reading a new key text in English this week, ‘Buddy’s Rainforest Rescue’ and creating persuasive posters to encourage people to take care of our rainforests. The spelling focus for the week has been changing ‘y’ to an ‘i’ when adding the suffixes -ed, -er and -est. Naturally, this led to discussions about comparatives and superlatives too.