The Bulletin Edition 4

School life has been trotting along merrily for more than a few weeks, with matches played, violins strummed, stories written, and maths problems solved. In short, we are all very busily into the swing of things here at Hampton Pre-Prep & Prep now, which feels rather marvellous to me!

The Values and Learning Skills we launched at the start of this academic year are becoming embedded, and it has been excellent to see how the pupils in the Prep especially have taken these revised dimensions of school life to heart so swiftly. For example, a highlight this week was the assembly from 5W this morning on the importance of creativity. The boys spoke from their own personal experience to explain how and why creativity plays a central role in their learning. They backed up their own individual reflections with examples from a selection of famous and inspiring creative geniuses whose work continues to teach us about the value of imagination and innovation, and the responsibility we all have to ensure those critically important creative juices keep flowing.

Parents may recall that a fortnight or so ago I attended the IAPS Heads’ Conference. The CEO, Dominic Norrish, began his keynote address to the hundreds of Prep school leaders gathered with the timely reminder: “As Heads you are responsible for developing the quality of the character in the young people in your care.” There was a collective ‘gulp’ moment from all of us in the room!

Jokes aside, that responsibility – and the joy that comes with it – never leaves me and is a large part of what keeps me going at our fabulous school on a daily basis. Whatever the skills, qualities, dispositions or personal characteristics that we are all in the process of nurturing in the pupils in our care, one thing is for sure: it’s always great fun!

You may have noticed a flurry of new photos and videos covering life at the Pre-Prep & Prep on our Instagram account. This is the excellent work of our new Communications and Media Assistant, Miss Martha Willis. Miss Willis has joined us to capture special moments in the classrooms, in the playground, and at our key events to share on all our media platforms.

Here’s a flavour of what Miss Willis has featured this week:

Make sure to follow us on Instagram for regular updates and snapshots of daily school life.

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It’s been another busy week of tournaments and year group fixtures with some lovely football being played, resulting in some well earned silverware.

A week full of joyful moments and meaningful learning across Pre-Prep. Year 1 ventured out to Carlisle Park for their first outing of the academic year, where they basked in the glorious early autumn sunshine and explored seasonal changes all around them.

In Kindergarten, we have been learning about the story of The Little Red Hen.  We explored different versions of the tale, noticing that each one featured different farm animal characters. One thing remained constant, none of the animals offered to help the Little Red Hen! We discussed how they should have been kind and helpful, which, of course, is one of our Golden Rules. 

Reception have been learning about our bodies, discussing the functions of different body parts, and exploring ways to keep ourselves healthy and hygienic. We talked about personal hygiene and the essential daily routines that help maintain our health. 

We have had an action-packed week in Year 1! On Thursday, we were delighted that the autumnal sun was shining, and we could enjoy our Autumn Walk in Carlisle Park.  We were excited to become nature detectives and spot lots of signs of autumn and nature within the park.  We also busied ourselves collecting plenty of autumnal woodland treasures for a display in our classroom.  We listened carefully to an autumn story before heading back to school. The children all walked so smartly on our first outing and listened very well, earning themselves three marbles for our jar!

It’s been another busy week for Year 2.  In maths, we have come to the end of our place value unit, concluding with the children revisiting counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, and marvelling at all the patterns that can be made on a 100 square. They are all ready to add and subtract next week!