Displaying items by tag: Foundation

Foundation

Pre-Prep

Prep

Pre-Prep

The children in Foundation and Pre-prep had a great time on History Day. They arrived at school very excited and in some amazing costumes. The children all spent the day working in their Hobby Groups instead of their class, this gave them a chance to work in a different group.

The Foundation children made some medieval jewellery with Miss Wood, some medieval biscuits with Mrs Jovic, royal crowns with Miss Ascough and castle construction with Mrs Maulkerson.

Meanwhile the children In Pre-Prep made medieval coin purses with Mrs Okuwadigbo, created Egyptian hieroglyphics with Mrs Vass, Plasticine fossils with Miss Casiraghi and decoupage castles with myself.

The children really enjoyed the range of activities and learnt lots of interesting historical facts. It was a great end to a busy first half-term.

Prep

Beech and Holly had a fantastic first trip to the National Space Centre in Leicester. When we arrived we saw a real life rocket. It was enormous and the children were very impressed. We were invited inside to explore different aspects of space and travel. In the Tranquillity Base we explored the inside of a moon buggy and took it in turns to drive a hover chair. We also had a go at measuring our heights, weights and bone density to see if we could also be astronauts. In the solar system section we found a tiny-tarium. In the tiny-tarium we met Astronaut George who took us around the solar system. We had to answer his questions about the different planets by pressing the buttons around the walls. The children discovered that not all planets have water, air and friends. We also used our sense of touch to feel different types of rocks they have found on the earth, the moon and in space. In this section we also saw a model rover robot which could be steered with a remote control.

In our packed lunch we had sandwiches, yogurt, fruit and raisins. After lunch, we were fortunate enough to then go to the big planetarium where we discovered the history of light travel from Earth and were blown away by how many people it took to land men on the moon. At the end of the day we met some of the Space Centre staff who showed us how to make our own alien slime which we could take home with us. We had had so much fun on the trip that a lot of the children fell asleep on the coach trip back to school. What an exciting adventure!

Miss Ascough & Mrs Maulkerson

Beech and Holly had a wonderful trip to Whipsnade Zoo in the glorious sunshine. We were fortunate enough to arrive in time to watch the very cheeky lemurs eat their breakfast then made our way to the penguins. We spent a long time in the African Animals part of the zoo and were delighted to watch the giraffes being fed and the sleepy lions doing what they do best-sleeping! Then we made it up to the tigers before stopping for lunch and a little play. The next part of our adventure took us on the train where we spotted the beautiful elephants and the rhinos wallowing in the mud. After a stop for an ice cream we visited the petting zoo and got very friendly with the pygmy goats and finished our trip in the butterfly house. It was here that the children were complimented on their wonderful behaviour and we were told that we were the best school to have come through this part of the zoo that day. With lots more still to explore we sadly had to leave but the children were brimming with excitement about the amazing animals they had encountered that day and eager to return at the next available opportunity! Thank you Beech and Holly for a wonderful day, we were all incredibly proud of you and impressed with the knowledge and facts you had retained from our exciting day at the zoo.

Mrs Collins

The Foundation children were really fortunate this week to have a visit from Bruno, a beautiful labradoodle, from Pets As Therapy and his owner Julie. We invited Bruno into school to support our topic on animals. The children were able to have some hands on experience with a pet and they were very taken by him. Julie spoke to the children about Bruno and answered all their questions about how to care for him and his likes and dislikes. He loves to eat sausages and he gets them as a treat. We found out that Bruno has two lovely walks a day, both up to an hour. He loves running in dirty puddles and searching in the woods for his ball. He gets so dirty that he needs a shower each morning to wash the mud from his paws and around his beard! We all had a chance to give Bruno a stroke and he was lovely soft. Thank you for coming to visit Bruno.

Mrs Okwuadigbo

In this May’s concert the tables were turned!

Instead of the musical items sprinkled through with a few Speech and Drama performances the opposite was true. Many of the children had their LAMDA exams this weekend and were able to show off their favourite poems before the day. Twenty Speech & Drama pupils brought their best to the party so to speak, so it will be impossible to mention all of them.

We loved the slobbering, belching alien that Kiaan Fesharaki invited, Eleanor Yeoman’s vulture was a lot of fun and Patrick Kingsman’s Big Fat Budgie was very lazy! Their performances were engaging and full of imagination.

Giovanna Opoku, Siya Patel and Elisa Illingworth won our hearts with their very expressive and dramatic performances. Their poems were ‘Ballet Lesson’, ‘The Falling Star’ and ‘Shadow Collector’ respectively.

The musical offerings were equally enjoyable. Vera Padhiar played her cello confidently for the first time in a concert, Lillian Goodman’s ‘Dinosaur’s Bedtime March’ was so well played that I felt sure there was a sleepy dino in the hall with us and Oyindamola Omotosho played the left hand tune in her piano piece ‘Mysterious Procession’ very clearly.  

A big thank you goes to all forty children who took part and performed so well.

Keep practising!

Mrs Hodges

On Friday 4^th May on a gloriously sunny day the children at The Grove had the opportunity to take part in a non-competitive duathlon hosted by The British Triathlon Trust. Mike Jubb started the day with a whole school assembly and set us the challenge of cycling and running 717 Kilometres as a whole school.

The children in their departments then took it in turns to go over to the field and take part, cycling on static bikes for 1 minute followed by running on a circuit for 1 minute. This went on for 45 minutes!

Other activities were planned at school, the Foundation children made healthy fruit kebabs, and took part in other physical activities outside as well as creating a healthy menu. Pre-Prep designed a sports outfit to wear, talked about healthy teeth, created a new water bottle as well as making a healthy food plate.

In Prep the children took part in various other activities such as food tests, a skills circuit, designing an eat well plate as well as fitness tests.

The children all had a really enjoyable day and  managed to beat the 717Km challenge set at the beginning of the day, well done everyone!         

Emma Carlin