The Pre-Prep have been nothing short of superstars this September – not only did they shine for the Affixxius film crew but they have also settled into their new routines brilliantly, making new friends and hitting the ground running in all their endeavours. Let’s see what they have been up to so far this term....
Classwork
Form 8 & Reception
The children in Form 8 and Reception have made a fantastic start to the new school year and are settling well into their daily routines.
This term, our topic is "All About Me", and the children have been enthusiastically exploring this theme across a range of subjects.
In Science, we have been learning about the human body, with a focus on identifying body parts and discovering our five senses. The children have shown great curiosity and engagement during these lessons.
In Literacy, we are enjoying the story Ivy and the Lonely Raincloud, which has prompted some thoughtful discussions around emotions. Inspired by the book, the children have also created beautiful raincloud themed artwork.
In Maths, Form 8 have been working on place value to 10. They have been practising counting, sorting objects, counting on from various numbers, and counting backwards.
Our Reception children have been focusing on numbers 1 to 5, exploring these through activities such as sorting, matching, and comparing quantities.
They have also enjoyed a range of hands-on challenges at our seven activity stations, which have included threading, using scissors, setting a table, balancing bears on a bridge, solving jigsaws, and more.
Mrs Hutchison
Form 7
The Form 7 children have settled into their new routines exceptionally well. It has been a very smooth start to the new term.
In our writing lessons, our focus text is, Toby and the Great Fire of London. This has sparked a lot of interest from the children and has resulted in some lovely pieces of writing already. The children have been learning to use adjectives to describe and have successfully used commas to separate two adjectives in a sentence, e.g. red, fiery skies and hot, ashy cobbles.
In our topic lessons, we’ll be furthering our knowledge of The Great Fire of London. The children have been learning about timelines and have organised the key events from 1666 in chronological order. We’ve also used this skill to create our own personal timelines. We look forward to taking our learning outdoors in the coming weeks during our lessons with Mrs. Lang, who will help us to learn about fire safety.
In Maths, the children are learning about place value to 100 (and beyond for some). They’ve been very excited by flexible partitioning e.g. 70+5=75, 60+15=75, 50+25=75 etc., and have enjoyed using concrete materials to demonstrate their understanding.
In Science, the children are learning about the survival needs for humans and animals. So far, they’ve discovered that humans, mammals and birds all have the same basic needs: water, food, air and shelter.
Miss Birrell
Form 6
Our focus text for this term is Stone Age Boy. The children have loved exploring the Stone Age period and the difference between now and then. We have been focusing on writing a diary entry, imagining we have travelled back to the Stone Age just like the main character in our book. We have been exploring ways to improve our language to help create imagery in our writing. This has led to the addition of expanded noun phrases and the impact this has on the reader.
In Maths we have been learning about place value to 1000 with others challenging themselves up to 10,000. We have been focussing on partitioning and using concrete materials to help show this visually. The children have continued to build upon their mental math strategies working on their times table recall.
Our class topic for this term is The Middle Ages. We have begun to explore the key events and important dates throughout. We are now going to look at castles and their features with a focus on the history of Tantallon Castle.
In Science, the children have been learning about skeletons, identifying the skull, ribcage, spine, pelvis and femur in both humans and animals. We have had great discussions asking if all skeletons are the same, spotting similarities and differences in both humans and animals.
Miss Masterton
Music
Form 6 have become very well acquainted with the musical alphabet A-G and how to read the pitch of notes on the stave in treble clef. Hopefully this will be very useful for the cohort who have started instrumental lessons with our team of Visiting Music Teachers this term.
Form 7 showed an interest in playing instruments this term, so they are putting their musicianship skills to the test, learning songs and them playing the melody on recorder and xylophone. This is great for aural skills and memorisation as well as coordination.
Form 8 are building fundamental musicianship skills (beat, rhythm and singing) and then putting these to the test with tuned percussion, which is proving very popular.
Reception have struck up a strong friendship with (puppets) Bob and Nigel who are helping our youngest learners to cross their mid-line, copy-back short rhythms and keep a beat using hands, feet and percussion. Nigel is particularly helpful at encouraging children to use their voices in different ways as we start to develop the foundations of singing in a group, and individually, with confidence.
Miss Lloyd – Pre-Prep Music Lead
Outdoor Education
Those returning to Pre-Prep this term have delighted in introducing our new friends to Outdoor Education within our brilliant grounds and notably the shrub where we have been observing all the changes that have taken place in our natural surroundings over the summer months, and continually each week as autumn takes hold around us.
In and amongst team building challenges and games we have been reminding ourselves of how important it is to work together in both exploration and in keeping ourselves safe. We have made some class promises and set some goals for the coming terms.
We have begun our term by using our senses to spot, document and describe shapes in nature. We have then built on this by producing our own shapes, patterns and pictures using only natural goods. It is wonderful to see the world through the eyes of the Pre-Prep classes and a delight to see them proudly sharing their finds and creativity with their classmates.
Pre-Prep Outdoor Education (Sept 2025)
Mrs Lang – Pre-Prep Outdoor Education & Teaching Assistant
Games
In Form 7, 8 and Reception, the children are developing their gross motor skills and coordination through a range of skill-based activities and games.
We will be following the Australian ‘Net Set Go’ programme which teaches ball skills and movement, which we’ll then put to good use in Term 2 when the children play netball.
Form 6 have started rugby and hockey this term, focusing on handling skills and game understanding in rugby, and stick work, passing, and shooting in hockey.
Mr Brown – Pre-Prep Sport Lead
After School Club
In our 'Thread Skills' after-school activity with Mrs Lang, the children have been developing their fine motor skills with cross-stitch and weaving.
After-school baking with Mrs Townshend has seen the children making great use of the Walled Garden orchard, with traditional apple cookies and apple & caramel turnovers on the menu. They have also made cheese and bacon scones - we can't wait to see their recipe book at the end of the term!
