Week ending 02nd December 22

Dear Parents

I hope you are all well.

Last Friday we had a fabulous time at House Music, with Knole, Seal, Weald and Vine battling it out for the
coveted title. It was a memorable event, with talent, determination and good humour all on
show. Congratulations to Knole for winning the overall competition and well done to all the Houses for
taking part, particularly pupils in Year 8 for putting the programme together. We followed on from this by
having a whole school assembly on Monday where the Houses performed their group songs to Pre-Prep
children, who looked like they enjoyed the experience!

Continuing the music theme, festivities got into full flow on Monday evening at the Christmas Concert. It
was a varied programme, from traditional seasonal favourites to George Michael. Our orchestras and
choirs performed with tremendous skill and enthusiasm, and our solo and group performers played with
confidence and joy. Thank you to all the pupils and music staff – your hard work certainly paid off.

It was lovely to welcome KG parents last Friday to our celebration assembly and for our Year 8 pupils to
tour them around the Prep site. There will be similar events to for parents of children in Reception, Year 1
and Year 2 early next term.

This Friday will be an exciting time for Pre-Prep pupils as they take to the stage to perform their Christmas
nativities. Then it is a quick staging turn around as we ready ourselves for the Years 7 and 8 senior drama
production: “The War of the Worlds”. Do come along and support them!

I cannot quite believe it but this is the final newsletter of 2022. However, we do have something planned
that we will send out at the end of term that will give you a visual insight into all the wonderful Christmas
activities the children have been taking part in.

To finish, I’ll end on a Christmas note. At this time of year, pupils delight in telling me their best and worst
festive jokes; I have heard many but, being an English teacher, I think this has been my favourite so far:

What’s the difference between the Christmas alphabet and the ordinary alphabet?
The Christmas alphabet has Noel.

(Cue groans.)

Best wishes

Luke Harrison

Dear Parents,

Christmas has most definitely arrived in the Pre-Prep this week. Our week has
been jam packed with nativity rehearsals and I have loved watching and listening
to the children who are so excited to be performing to you all today.

They had the opportunity to do their dress rehearsals yesterday and a photographer was able to take
photographs of all the children in each production. A link for these photos will be sent to parents shortly
and we very much hope that you will be able to find that special picture to keep in your
memory boxes. Please could I remind parents that you are very welcome to take photographs or videos of
the children performing, but please do not share these pictures via social media.

I am excited to announce that after the huge success of our football tournament last week, Mr Worgan has
managed to arrange for Pro Soccer Academy to come to The Prep and run our after-school football
programme. Pro Soccer Academy will replace Charlton Athletic and will run on the same days and
times. Further information will be shared very shortly about how to book your place on this club. I also
know that lots of parents were keen to have further opportunities for tournaments and Mr Worgan is
already planning some exciting future events which we will write to parents about in due course.

On Wednesday, I held an assembly for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 to share our Reverse Advent
Calendar idea for this Christmas. The children were told about our ‘advent shop’, which they will use to
come and find their food item for the relevant day. We discussed the importance of giving as well as
receiving and I was so proud of how well they seemed to understand that it was important that we think of
others and not just of ourselves. Please could I remind and encourage all of our families to take part in this;
it really would be incredible to collect as many food boxes as possible and deliver these to those who really
need them over the Christmas period.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for supporting your children with learning their lines
at home for their nativity shows and also for sourcing and providing their costumes. I know that they are
going to sing their hearts out this morning and dazzle you with their brilliance.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the various productions and I hope that you have a wonderful,
Christmassy weekend ahead of you.

Best wishes,

Helen Cook