week ending 13th January 23

Dear Parents

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

I hope that you all managed to get some rest over the festive period. Family Harrison were at home for
Christmas but spent a most interesting new year in Belgium at the NATO military base outside Mons. I have
a university friend who is stationed there, and the base itself is fascinating; highlights include the
supermarket that has aisles of specialist foodstuffs to remind the represented countries of home and the
English primary school that stands next to an American high school – seeing a cricket pitch next to an
American football field is a strange experience. It is also interesting to see the different new year traditions
observed by each country. I shared this with the pupils during my assembly on Monday – but said that the
biggest issue for someone of my age is getting to new year and wanting to go straight to bed at 12.01am,
only to be forced by others to stay up another hour to see in the British new year! (I know I am getting
old…)

Mrs Hougham is doing a wonderful job preparing for what I know will be a memorable creative arts week
later in the term. I have seen the plans as they stand thus far and am very excited about the activities in
place for the pupils – and I know that there are things yet to be finalised. You will see later in this
newsletter an invitation to come and watch Mr Beharrell and Miss Richards “live in concert” – please do
join us for what I know will be a wonderful event.

Best wishes

Luke Harrison

Dear Parents,

This week we started the week with our usual Monday celebration assembly and
we began with introducing our four playground buddies: Arty, Theo, Tilly and Arlo in Year 2. The buddies are
there to help and support all of the children at playtimes, so if any child feels like they need help to play a
game or to find a friend to play with, our buddies are on hand to help and assist them. What a fabulous
young leader opportunity.

We have also purchased some lovely new play equipment for the children to play with in the coming term.
Our buddies will be in charge of bringing the equipment out to play daily and they will also ensure that
everyone is looking after our new equipment in the right way too!

This week, our staff have also been learning! Every day is a school day here in the Pre-Prep and we never
stop improving and enhancing our teaching skills. The early years staff from Nursery to Reception have been
involved in some bespoke training all about the early years curriculum and they have already begun thinking
about enhancements to our offer, which is fabulous. Meanwhile, Miss Young has been training our Year 1
and 2 staff about new ideas and methods for teaching reasoning and mastery skills in maths.

Finally, a huge well done to our winning house, Seal, who gained a whopping 540 Pom poms last term and
therefore gained a special treat of some extra play time. As well as this, the Seal flag will be flying high on
the fort to celebrate their join efforts.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,

Helen Cook