Goodness me the year just seems to fly by – I cannot believe that we are in the final part of the school year. Wednesday saw the children in Kindergarten, Reception and Year 1 moving up to spend time in their next classroom with the opportunity to meet not only their next teachers but also new classmates.
On Thursday we had great of fun at our Centenary Pre-Prep Sports Day & Picnic and hope you enjoyed it all as much as we did! I think you will agree that the children were all superstars, running their races with such energy and commitment. I felt immensely proud of them, so goodness knows how you all felt!
Year 2 rounded off their busy week with a trip to The Living Rainforest and had an exhilarating time spotting the different types of flora and fauna within it. Mrs Leissle writes in more detail about their visit but it is always music to my ears to hear how beautifully the children behaved. Outings and trips have such huge benefits for children – promoting independence, confidence, knowledge of nature, physical skills and much more besides. They help to create curious learners and provide rich learning experiences to build on the children’s learning and development. It is important to add here how very grateful I am to our parent helpers who make outings like this possible but also such fun – we really do appreciate your valuable time.
Recently I happened upon this quote by the speechsisters, ‘Parents who read one picture book with their child EVERYDAY will expose their child to approximately 78,000 different words each year. From birth to kindergarten those children will have been exposed to 1.4 million more words than children who are not exposed to books. It is a fact that reading to your child will directly impact their future language skills and academic success’ so, with this in mind, it is important to let you now that the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival turns 10 later this month. It is the UK’s biggest children’s book festival with a fabulous line-up of authors and illustrators, for example Michael Rosen, Sophie Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Axel Scheffler, Lauren Child, Liz Pichon and Rob Biddulph. Tickets can be booked for June 22 – 23 at https://www.barneskidslitfest.org/
This week the Courtesy Cup and Badge went to Finlay M (Year 2) for being such a kind and considerate friend, and for trying his absolute best at all times.
and Stars of the Week were awarded to:
Year 2: Akshen for being a ray of sunshine in the classroom and for wowing us all with his expressive reading voices – well done!
Year 1: Tristan for super speedy mental maths work in class. What a star!
Reception: Zaki for always presenting his work to a very high standard. Well done, Zaki!
We congratulated the following Year 2 pupils: Finlay M for attending the We Make Footballers camp and being awarded the Player of the Week trophy and also his medal for fielding at his cricket club, Hampton Hill CC; Anne for receiving a 25m swimming certificate; and to Willem for being selected as the “on-side” football player of the week and for his medal, and also to his brother, Henri and friend Chuck, who similarly each received a medal.
Shreyan (Year 1) for receiving a football trophy from Ashford Town football club for being a great defender.
Oscar (Reception) for gaining his ‘Learn to Cycle’ certificate from the Bike Academy.
Special mention to Neeth (Year 2), who as part of School Council Nominations promised to do a 62K bike ride for charity. I am pleased to inform you he not only successfully completed this but actually beat his target, reaching a little over 75k in May. In doing so, he has raised money for a cause close to his heart – Operation Orphan. He has a fund-raising page which I am happy to share with you, if you email me directly.
Bring on the HPPPA Centenary Summer Fair – we look forward to seeing you there on Saturday!