The Bulletin Edition 3

I look forward to catching up with Mr Smith upon his return from the annual IAPS conference, where no doubt at some point over the course of his three days at Celtic Manor the topic of digital learning and technology in schools would have been explored.

As another exciting academic year at Hampton Prep is now well-underway, you may have heard directly, and I am sure enthusiastically from your son if their response is anything like their in-class one (!), about the brilliant progress pupils are making with their digital learning skills.

Boys in Year 4 and Year 5, have been learning in Computing, supported by other subjects, Microsoft Teams, using it to receive, complete, and return assignments with increasing ease and confidence. SharePoint has become their digital ‘hub’, a place where they access regularly used resources and websites, seamlessly integrating it into their daily learning here at school and from home. Year 6 are leading the way, comfortably operating more advanced systems like OneNote over the last six months, which allows them to organise their thoughts, notes, and assignments in a more sophisticated manner.

For our Year 3 boys, this is all to come! They have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks as they begin familiarising themselves with these digital platforms. Once they are fully comfortable with the daily routines here, they will embark on the same digital learning adventure.

There is of course more to digital learning then navigating platforms such as these, and we recognise the importance of fundamental skills such as typing.  In Year 3, boys begin with a touch-typing course during their Computing lessons. Additionally, we are excited to be able to offer a touch-typing CCA, with an external provider, for those looking to master this skill. Mrs Andrews has kindly provided links to some resources (some of which are free) to help support the development of typing at home should you wish to take advantage of them.  I know from speaking to boys here that many already enjoy such activities at home.

While we are committed to embracing digital learning, we are equally committed, and passionate, about maintaining a healthy balance between the digital world and more traditional teaching and learning methods. Technology is an amazing tool.  However, the joy of holding and reading a book, the ‘organised chaos’ (sometimes!) of hands-on activities, face-to-face discussions and meaningful interaction remains at the heart of what we do.

Have an excellent, restful weekend.

Mr Ford

Deputy Head

It was the first week of block fixtures this week with the U11s and U9s facing Newland House and coming away with some impressive results.

We began our week thinking about our new assembly theme for the term ahead, ‘100 Wonderful Years!’ and we wholeheartedly agreed how much life has changed over time on so many different levels – families, farming, transport, holidays and food to name but a few. We will be considering the changes in greater depth and no doubt discussing how some have made life all the richer, vibrant and interesting - or possibly the converse – time will tell! One thing is for sure, we will all make up our own minds and, in true Hampton Pre-Prep style, we may differ in our views, but will always do so politely. My sister and I often have conversations along the lines of “what would granny think of life today”…!

Kindergarten have enjoyed the topic, ‘getting to know you’ this week. The children loved talking about and showing the class their family photograph, pointing out and naming their family members; these are on display in our classroom, so if you would still like to send a photograph of your family then please do.

Reception have been thinking about our topic, ‘Magnificent Me’. We talked about our feelings and emotions in our Jigsaw circle time. We enjoyed the book, ‘Marmaduke the Very Different Dragon’ by Rachel Valentine, and talked about how our differences make us special, and how important it is to celebrate these. We discussed how we are all different and what makes us unique. We enjoyed finding out about our finger prints with Mrs O’Brien, and using ink made prints, and then used magnifying glasses to see the amazing patterns!

In Year 1 this week, we learnt about vowels and consonants – ask your child to sing you our new vowel song! Then we used our phonic knowledge to spell CVCC (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) words; putting them into a sentence, and remembering to use capital letters and full stops. During our shared reading session, we practised reading with expression, especially when noticing an exclamation mark, and spoke about the difference this made for the listener.

Year 2 have had another busy week of learning! The children continue to explore number and place value in maths, and they are becoming adept at explaining their understanding verbally. They looked at intervals on a number line that were multiples of 10 and then considered the numbers that lie between multiples of 10 as they look at 10s and 1s on a number line. We have been so impressed with the children’s ability to check the start and end points of the number lines and the different number of intervals when estimating values – to avoid making any unnecessary mistakes!