Pre-Prep:
It has been another happy and busy term in Pre-Prep, characterised by sunny weather and sunnier children, and punctuated by energetic, challenging and joyful events. Before half term, we had the excitement of the Pre-Prep Summer Concert (read review) and Pre-Prep Sports Day (read review) and since half term, the children have maintained their high energy and enthusiasm as they threw themselves into the Record-Breaking Thursday Run, Moving Up Day and Trips! Read on to see how they got on in these most recent events, for a catch up on their classwork and to find out our teachers' highlights from the term.
Record-breaking Thursday Run – Mr Curry was very impressed by everyone’s attitude and effort. Many of the children beat their personal bests and there were also a number of new school records. In Reception, Milo established the boys' 1 lap and 2 lap records and Flora M established the girls' 1 lap record. In Form 8, Lettie L set the new 1 lap, 2 lap and 3 lap records for the girls and Jasper H did likewise for the Form 7 boys.
Our Moving-Up Day was a huge success – it was wonderful to meet some of the children who will be joining us in September and to introduce the children to their new teachers, classrooms and routines for September – Form 6 found this particularly helpful as they will be making the transition into the Prep School. The children are now all very excited about moving up to their new classes.
As ever, Pre-Prep Trips have been a highlight for children and staff. On the Thursday and Friday of the penultimate week of school, the Pre-Prep enjoyed the following outings:
Form 8 & Reception went to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh by train and Conifox Adventure Park.
Form 7 went to Dynamic Earth and Go Ape.
Form 6 visited Discovery Dundee, Blair Drummond Safari Park, Fort Douglas and finally, the Bass Rock by boat.
Pre-Prep Trips 2025
We also enjoyed a day out all together and went to Winterfield Golf Club for a delicious lunch followed by a very blustery play on the beach and swim in the sea!
Staff Favourite Moments
Mrs Macdonald’s favourite moment this term was seeing all the children show courtesy during Pre-Prep Sports day, in particular watching Scout congratulate Lettie on her 400m victory. It was a truly heart-warming moment to see Scout's pure joy for her friend’s success, especially as she managed her own feelings regarding her loss. Her ability to recognise and celebrate Lettie’s achievement exemplifies true sportsmanship. I felt an immense sense of pride for her in that moment, and their hug brought a tear to my eye. These are the kinds of moments that truly shows the children’s success and it’s been a pure joy to see them grow and develop over this last year.
One of Mrs Hutchison’s favourite moments of the term was taking the class on trips to the Museum of Scotland and Conifox Adventure park. The class were so well behaved on both trips and represented the school beautifully, it was a joy to share those experiences with them.
Miss Birrell’s highlight this term was the Form 7 trip to Go Ape. Every single child demonstrated the Belhaven value, ‘Courage’, as they balanced, swung, traversed and climbed through the trees. They also demonstrated ‘Courtesy’, not only towards the staff at Go Ape who called them, “One of the best groups we’ve had in a long time”, but towards each other too. They encouraged and supported each other so well, cheering on their friends and offering a helping hand when people were struggling to overcome their fears. A special shout out has to go to James, who was so supportive of Lara, and Rory, who guided his friends so confidently through a ‘minefield maze’. It was a day filled with smiles and lots of laughter!
Mrs Johnstone’s favourite moment was the high jump at the Pre-Prep Sports Day. There was a brilliant atmosphere, and the children were all very supportive of each other. Well done to Archie for keeping going even when it got tough! It was wonderful having such a large audience with lots of the Prep School joining us from their lessons. Thank you also to all the Form 1s for all their help during Sports Day.
Music
Since the Pre-Prep Concert in May, the choir has enjoyed learning new action songs, cup songs, and clapping games—I Let Her Go, My Hat It Has Three Corners, and Tall Straw Hat have been particular favourites. This informal, circle-based singing is a fun, pressure-free way to bond as a group. Every year, I wonder how we’ll cope when our Form 6s move up to the Prep School, but somehow a confident new cohort always emerges!
Form 6 have spent the past month sharing their favourite pieces of music with the class, learning how to analyse musical elements such as genre, dynamics, and tempo. This will give them a solid foundation for music in the Prep School. We’ve also been exploring and conducting different time signatures—although, with rock music a popular choice, 4-beat bars have dominated!
Form 7 have had an early introduction to rhythm reading and writing, laying the groundwork for adding pitch reading in Form 6. While we’ve touched on note names like minim and crotchet, the focus has been on understanding the feel and length of different beats, using ‘Blue Jello’ language to ‘speak’ the rhythms.
Form 8 have revised xylophone skills and can now work out simple tunes like Hot Cross Buns independently. They’ve also composed their own ostinato (repeating) patterns using do, re, mi or do, mi, so. I’ve been especially impressed by their knowledge of orchestral instruments—we’ve explored all four families and begun identifying instruments by sight and sound.
Reception have focused on developing musicianship through games that establish pulse and pitch awareness. Using scarves to express musical speed and energy has been a highlight, and we’re beginning to sing and sign with solfa (do, re, mi, etc.) with the help of Nigel the Puppet.
Classwork
Form 8 & Reception
This term in Form 8 and Reception, we have continued exploring plants and trees. We’ve been learning to identify the differences between deciduous and evergreen trees and discussing the changes that take place in autumn. A highlight was our tree hunt around the school grounds, where we identified various trees and even created beautiful leaf rubbings.
In numeracy, Reception pupils have been working hard on ordering numbers, while Form 8 have been learning about fractions, position and direction, and how to tell the time to the hour and half hour.
During our literacy lessons, we have been consolidating our knowledge of phonics and enjoying lots of turns at our favourite sounds game, Charlie Over the Ocean, a fun and engaging way to reinforce our learning.
We have also enjoyed our Seven Station Challenges, which included activities such as making our own clocks, rolling toy cars along number lines to see how far they could go, creating patterns with lollipop sticks, playing Splat the Red Words, and many more exciting learning games.
Mrs Hutchison
Form 7
Our literacy lessons this term have been inspired by our class text, The Great Kapok Tree. This culminated in our final assessed piece of writing, a persuasive letter, which the children wrote on behalf of the orangutans living in the rainforest. The children have been using the four sentence types to make their letters more impactful, for example, ‘I need this tree to raise my offspring’ (statement), ‘Do you deserve this tree more than I do?’ (question), ‘How selfish you are!’ (exclamation), and ‘Put down your axe and leave!’ (command). I am so incredibly proud of the progress the children have made this year with their writing.
In maths, we have finished our units which focussed on fractions and time. Pleasingly, all of the children have securely grasped o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, with many of the children now confidently telling the time to 5 minutes. They have been learning about a.m. and p.m., and have looked closely at daily routines, noting the duration of time that has passed. Many of the Form 7s are loving wearing their watches to school and are always reminding me that it’s time for playtime!
In science, the children have loved observing our class caterpillars, and latterly, butterflies. Having the opportunity to witness a life cycle up-close has been highly engaging for the class. We enjoyed taking our newly emerged butterflies down to the shrub and setting them free. In our weekly French lessons, we’ve been reading ‘La chenille qui fait des trous’ (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) and have learnt new French vocabulary to describe the life cycle of a butterfly.
Miss Birrell
Form 6
In Literacy, we have been enjoying reading the book ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’. We started out this unit by solving a riddle and then using this same method to write their own. Each line was the clue to a letter of a word so if the riddle was four lines, it would make a four-letter word. They enjoyed this and did it very well – it was particularly fun trying to solve the others in the class.
We then moved on to writing a funny rhyming poem about a dragon. We started by discussing the various places we might want to take Flicker (pet dragon) and think of things that could go wrong. Once we had those ideas we then looked at possible rhyming words for our sentence pairs, for example, park and spark. The children had great fun with this and really enjoyed reading out their poems for the others in the class to hear. Next, we started to look at information texts and the different features such as subheadings and how to organise the information in a clear and organised way.
In Maths, we started our unit on fractions, which children can find tricky. We were all a bit rusty on this topic and had forgotten some of the terminology such as numerators, denominators, equivalent fractions and unit fractions. One of the most difficult elements of this unit is ordering fractions when there are different denominators. We always choose to refer to pizza when discussing fractions – ‘would you prefer to have 1/12 of a pizza or 1/5?’ Then, instantly, we have clarification! We have continued to work on our times tables and the children have been working hard on ‘Gig’ on Times Table Rockstars. This is a test which records their progress over time, but they can also win coins to buy items for their rock band.
Science lessons have seen us finish our topic on light and turn our attention to plants. This is always a good topic in the summer because there are so many different plants and flowers around to look at. We have been focusing on the parts of plants and their functions but also how plants reproduce. We have looked at the male parts of the flower, the stamen and the female part, the pistil and discussed the importance of pollinators such as bees, in plant reproduction.
Mrs Johnstone
