The Bulletin Edition 18

On Monday, the boys were treated to a fascinating assembly from Prep parent Mr Prehn, who spoke about his passion for and deep interest in the development of e-bike technology. He took us on a journey through the mechanics of how e-bikes function and the remarkable ways in which innovation is making them ever more accessible to more and more people. It was eye-opening to hear how this technology is in a constant state of evolution, meaning that e-bikes will only continue to become more advanced and widely used in the years ahead, it seems.

Mr Prehn wheeled his own impressive e-bike into the James Hall, which he uses daily to commute into central London after also making the journey on the school run. It was brilliant to see the technology in action as he explained how his particular model works and the benefits it brings. The session was not only hugely informative but also incredibly inspiring.

Whether for leisure or for work, it was clear to us all how much of a difference e-bikes can make, not just for our own health and wellbeing but also for the environment. Each e-bike journey, however small, contributes to a more sustainable future. Mr Prehn’s presentation reminded us that technology, when harnessed with purpose, has the power to transform lives and improve the world around us. It’s up to each of us to think about how we can embrace innovation and make a positive impact, one small step, or one pedal stroke, at a time!

On Wednesday this week the boys and I, along with other colleagues, visited the Lightbox Gallery in Woking. The visit was an important opportunity for the boys to build on their knowledge of portraiture, faces and figures through guided observation. They took up the challenge and impressed with their thoughtful commentary and confidence in sharing their personal responses to sculpture, painting and drawing. The clay workshop, undertaken during the visit, produced an exciting range of expressive self-portraits that we will develop further at school. They are a lovely bunch of boys and were a credit to Hampton Prep!

At Hampton Prep, we strongly believe in the importance of kindness and the impact that small thoughtful actions can have on our school community, every day. On Wednesday morning we, the School Council Representatives, presented an assembly on Random Acts of Kindness. Even though our assembly theme is all about technology this term, it seems there is no app (yet!) to track kindness in action. Thinking about Random Acts of Kindness however, encourages everyone to spread positivity through unexpected acts of generosity. We asked our audience ‘What is kindness?’ and ‘Why does kindness matter?’ We offered ways to incorporate kindness into our daily lives.

The Year 5 team of Adrian, Siddarth, Aryan and Nikhil had a wonderful morning representing the school at a fun and taxing Epsom maths contest! After three varied rounds of puzzling problems, the team finished in a very respectable fifth out of fourteen schools. Congratulations to those boys for being selected and for doing so well and we will now build towards entering a team in the Hampton School Maths Wizard Competition in the summer term.

It has been an action-packed last week of the half term and has left me in the happy position of having plenty to write about (and celebrate) due to the boys’ hard work! We’ll kick off (pun intended) with the Kings House U9 and U11 Rugby Festival that took place last Saturday. To get straight to the point, both year group teams dominated in their respective games, and this was not a small achievement. The festival was attended by some big schools, such as Kings, RGS, Danes Hill, Caldicott and Shrewsbury House. But the boys went undefeated in their group games in no small part to the outstanding defensive organisation and consistently excellent tackling.

Firstly, a reminder that Eco Warriors, School Council and the HPPPA are joining forces to bring you an eco-friendly fundraising initiative after half term, which they hope will raise funds for London’s Air Ambulance Charity. Half term presents the perfect opportunity to search out any pre-loved World Book Day costumes – do look out for the flyers!

Wow, what a busy week it has been! We’ve had so much fun in Kindergarten exploring the story Alien Loves Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. We read it over and over again and, of course, the aliens wearing pants on their feet and heads was the funniest part! We also enjoyed Aliens Save the World by the same authors, as well as many other alien themed stories. While we loved these funny alien stories, we also learned an important lesson about pants – that they are private, and what’s in them is private too. We listened to the song by Pantosaurus the Dinosaur, who helped remind us of this message.

We have enjoyed learning all about road safety this week in Reception. On Friday the children were so excited to take part in three road safety workshops with our Prep ‘Junior Travel Ambassadors’, using their scooters and our special road safety set. They practised safe stopping, scooting fast, slowing down and navigating a tricky obstacle course! We also played at being lollipop people and drivers, making sure our pedestrians carefully crossed the road. In the classroom, we have spoken at length about safe crossing of roads and the children demonstrated good understanding of the need to ‘stop, look, listen and think’.

In English, on Tuesday, we designed impactful posters for Safer Internet Day – thinking about the messages we wanted to share and using capital letters to hammer home our ideas. Linked to our science lesson, we also sequenced the text from The Three Little Pigs and wrote about our favourite part of the story. The children had to remember to stretch out their sentence using the conjunction because.

This week, Year 2 have turned their attention to all things Roald Dahl! Having enjoyed many of his books during our fruit and story time, we set to work analysing some of his most brilliant characters in our English lessons. By studying a range of his spectacular character descriptions, the children learned how to build a vivid picture of a character using descriptive language. They also explored how a cleverly chosen name can help bring a character to life. In pairs, they created their own Dahlicious Descriptions—Cecil Tittletattle and Albert Smartypants were just two of the imaginative names penned by our budding Year 2 authors!