The Bulletin Edition 17

Just over a week ago, we held our first-ever Year Group Assembly in classrooms in the Prep. Year Group Assemblies are a new initiative that we embarked upon this term, designed to be more intentional and even more proactive in supporting the boys’ social and emotional growth. These assemblies will take place periodically, with both Forms in each Year group coming together with their Form Teachers to discuss matters directly relevant to them, including topics that other Year groups don’t necessarily need to hear.

Mrs Howard, Mr Ford and I made our way around the building, popping in and out of the different assemblies, and it was excellent to see the boys engaged in discussions that were particularly valuable for them at their stage in school.

Year 3: In addition to some timely reminders about the behaviour we expect at lunchtime, Mr Johnston (who is Scottish) treated the boys to a recital of the traditional poem used to welcome in the haggis, in honour of Burns Night just a few days earlier. The boys were delighted to hear him deliver it in such a wonderfully authentic way, complete with all the idiosyncratic language they wouldn’t normally be exposed to.

Year 4: Mr Hitchen-Hoy and Mr Addis focused on the specific behaviours for learning that the boys in Year 4 need to be even more mindful of in order to get the most out of every lesson.

Year 5: Ms Busby and Mrs James used the time wisely to prepare the boys for their upcoming trip to London to see the musical Wicked, which was due to take place later that day.

Year 6: This was perhaps the most fascinating assembly for me. Mr Bendelow and Mr Barber spoke with real clarity about the importance of understanding the difference between gentle ribbing, (so-called ‘banter’) and how, even with the best intentions, words can sometimes be received differently than intended. They also explored the impact of deliberately hurtful language. I was reassured to see the Year 6 boys taking this topic very seriously, as they should in my opinion. It’s an important discussion, not just for managing friendships in the remainder of Year 6, but also for preparing them to join much larger cohorts of pupils when they start in Year 7 in September.

The variety and relevance of each Year Group Assembly were impressive, and this initiative is now firmly established as a key part of getting into the hearts and minds of our boys in a way that we hope will stay with them.

At Hampton Pre-Prep & Prep School, we are committed to staying ahead of the curve, in so far as we are able, in terms of innovations, resources, and celebrations around digital learning. Although Safer Internet Day is officially taking place next Tuesday 11th February, our brilliant Year 6 digital leaders have already introduced the theme of ‘Online Scamming’ to the Prep school through an interactive and engaging whole school assembly this week. They expertly presented what online scamming is, what it could look like and how to protect ourselves from being scammed online. During computing lessons over the next week, the boys will delve further into recognising and protecting themselves from online scams. The boys will also be in competition by testing their knowledge in three quizzes that cover a range of contextual examples of online scams – highest scores from each class will be earning an online safety commendation during our next Celebration Assembly!

The U9s have had a good half term of rugby. In all teams, their developing understanding of the game has been a pleasure to witness, and not just to us. Last Friday the boys, travelled to King’s House Sports Ground. They were split into 5 teams, C and D playing touch and A,B,C playing contact. The Hampton Prep boys more than held their own against the bigger year group (in the A team’s case bigger boys), recording a draw, 3 wins and a loss. The result wasn’t the only testament to the way the boys played. A King’s House parent kindly took the time to compliment them on the way they played, keeping their head, passing to space, and tackling assertively.

This week, as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we have been exploring the theme Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. We began by discussing mental health and agreed that it relates to our feelings, thoughts, and how these influence our choices and behaviour. We then took time to recognise different emotions we experience and realised that understanding them helps us become more self-aware. People experience a range of emotions in different situations, and sometimes these feelings can be uncomfortable. In such moments, knowing what helps us feel better is essential – and this is where truly understanding ourselves becomes so important.

It’s been a ‘cosmic’ week in Kindergarten, where we’ve learned fascinating facts about the eight planets in our Solar System. Some planets are made of gas, while others are composed of rock or ice. We also discovered that the Sun is a star—much, much bigger than Earth—and that some planets are scorching hot, while others are freezing cold. Some have raging storms that have lasted for thousands of years, some are gas giants, and others are rocky worlds.

This week, Reception have been exploring the world using their ‘Five Senses’. The children learned in detail how each sense works, taking part in exciting experiences to deepen their understanding. We ventured into the playground with our clipboards for some ‘Sensory Fieldwork’, using all our senses to observe our surroundings.

Year 1 have been busy continuing with the very comical ‘Pigeon’ stories in English this week, reading ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!’ and ‘The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!’. The children then wrote their own versions: some of our favourites were, ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Eat the Strawberry Cake!’ and ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Ride the Rocket!’. The children tried hard to use the contractions they learnt about last week, in their stories. Super job, Year 1!

The children in Year 2 have thoroughly enjoyed becoming news reporters in our English lessons this week. Many of them were able to retell significant events from The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, reporting what eyewitnesses saw and writing in the past tense. Our expert writers even used apostrophes for possession and incorporated Mrs Wordsmith’s exciting vocabulary to bring their articles to life!