Newsletter – 17 November 2023

A highlight for the children this week has been our Remembrance celebrations, as we have come together to mark Remembrance Day as a school. This term Harris have been excited by their learning in Geography and History.  They have learnt about dinosaurs  and the formation of volcanoes and earthquakes.  The children demonstrated their in depth understanding of the features of a volcano by creating small scale models into which they integrated dinosaurs.  Mr Goodman was very impressed with your models Harris and how you presented your learning to your peers, well done.

On Wednesday UC worked hard in Gymnastics on their rolling skills.  The children focused on perfecting their forward rolling technique and incorporated the different rolls that they have mastered this term into gymnastic routines.  The children worked to sequence and link their movements together and Miss Taswell was impressed with their final routines.  On Wednesday afternoon the Prep school shone in the pool with their swimming skills.  Two of the swimming groups were working to hone their skills in front crawl, backstroke and the dolphin kick.  Their progress with these strokes was impressive to see.  Meanwhile a further group were practising their survival skills and swimming in their pyjamas while selecting a stroke that would help them conserve energy.  The swimming coach congratulated the children on their stamina. 

Pre-prep were excited to begin rehearsing for their Christmas Performance this week.  For some of our Pre-prep it will be the first time that they have taken to the stage and they loved being introduced to the songs and the speaking parts that they will be learning.  It was a delight to see the joy on their faces as they had their first practice of some of the choreographed dance moves.  We cannot wait to see their performance at the end of term!

We were pleased to welcome parents with Pre-school aged children to our Tiddly Peeps Toddler Group and Mini Melody Makers Sessions this week.  Mrs Battersby and Mrs Orr-Ewing are looking forward to welcoming parents back again next week when they have got more play based and musical activities planned.

The staff have been pleased to meet parents this week either face to face or online to discuss their child’s progress and current targets in our Autumn term Parent Consultation Meetings.  The staff have been pleased to share the children’s learning with you all and delighted to receive your positive feedback about your child’s attitude to learning and their school experiences.

On Thursday our Pre-prep children enjoyed their Remembrance Activity Morning where they learnt about the importance of remembrance in an age appropriate way.  The children had fun making handprint poppy pictures and are very proud of their stained glass poppies.  The whole of Pre-prep came together to create a soldier decorated from head to toe with poppies which is very effective and will take pride of place on our school remembrance display.

This morning I was proud of our Prep School as they led our Remembrance Assembly.  The children performed songs they had learnt singing in cannon and with harmonies, the delivered emotive war poetry they had written and told the narratives of war.  It was a moving occasion in which our Prep School children, their families and some Old Cerdics came together to remember.  On Sunday our Head Boy, Head Girl and members of our Student Council are looking forward to taking part in Chard’s Remembrance Parade and laying our Chard School poppy wreath at the war memorial in Chard.  We will remember them.

Next week on Tuesday our Prep School are taking part in the Area Cross Country Running Tournament at Holyrood. On Wednesday Mrs Battersby will welcome Pre-school aged children and their families to our ‘Tiddly Peeps Toddler Group’.  On Thursday Mrs Orr-Ewing is running Mini Melody Makers for Pre-school aged children and their families and on Friday Pre-prep are looking forward to returning to ROAM for Forest School.

• Wyndham and Harris class have been finding out about soil in their science lessons. Here you can see them working together to find out how permeable different types of soil are.
• Wyndham class are beginning their new science topic on bones. They had fun working together to make a child-sized skeleton trying to work out where the bones went.
• Cerdic classes are immersing themselves in learning about our universe . One of their first tasks was to scale down our solar system to a one metre length.