Pre-Prep: Tremendous Trips & Times Ahead
And so another academic year draws to an end. It’s hard to believe that Form 6 are moving on into Form 5 already. What a year it has been and, oh how much we have loved teaching these wonderful children. It is quite an emotional time at the end of the year because you reflect on your year and all the achievements, fun and experiences that you have shared. This last fortnight has been no exception and we hope the children will move on with plenty of happy memories that will stay with them.
Pre-Prep Trips Week
The fortnight began with our very exciting "Trips Week". We were fortunate with the weather on all three days. On the first day, the Pre-Prep set off with great anticipation for Edinburgh Zoo. When we arrived we had a brilliant talk from one of the Zoo Keepers at the Education Centre about endangered animals. In the afternoon, we hiked up to the top to see the giraffes and the rather amazing giant anteaters.
On the second day we stayed in "Sunny Dunny" and had a lovely day at the beach paddling and building sandcastles. We also picked some delicious strawberries from our Walled Garden and dipped them in melted chocolate.
Day 3 saw trips to the Bass Rock and Fort Douglas! On arriving in North Berwick, we had a play on the beach before making our way to the harbour and setting off on the catamaran cruise to Craigleith and the Bass Rock. We saw many types of birds including puffins, gannets and guillemots and we learned lots of interesting facts, which the children wrote about on their return to school. The Bass Rock was as impressive as ever and completely takes your breath away. 
On our return to land we went to the delicious Rocketeer for some lunch. After a short break, the next stop was Dalkeith Country Park where we had booked into the incredible Fort Douglas. The children played on the fort and had a scrumptious ice cream before heading home. What a brilliant three days we had! On several occasions during the trips, we had members of the public commenting on how well behaved and polite the children were. Well done!
Back in school, Form 8 wrote some lovely accounts of their adventures:
We were all inspired by the wildlife we saw on our trips, in particular our boat trip, and the children in Form 6 researched and produced fact files about the different birds we encountered. These included puffins, guillemots and gannets. They also produced beautiful watercolours of the Bass Rock in After School Club.
Before Form 6 went on their trips, they had started to learn about the features of newspaper articles. They then used their experiences to write their own articles based on something that might have gone wrong on the trips. We had several animals escaping the zoo, children missing at Fort Douglas and a boy stranded on the Bass Rock over night! Wonderful imaginations and some super newspaper articles.
Moving–Up Day
The next day, it was back to school for our ‘Moving-up Day’. Everyone in the school moved up to the year group they will be joining in September. This gave both the children and their new teachers a chance to get to know each other. We also invited in the new Pre-Prep starters for a fun morning and another opportunity to meet their teachers and classmates.
Whole School Beach Day
Head Girl Eliza announced the annual surprise day at the beach at 11.15am on 1st July. The whole school went down to Belhaven Bay together and enjoyed picnics in the sunshine surrounded by children, staff and not forgetting all our wonderful school dogs. We even managed a swim, teachers and dogs included! 
Classwork
We have also had a very busy time in the classroom as we finished our topics for the term. Form 6 presented their habitat presentations to Mr Townshend, Head of Geography, who was very impressed by their hard work and enthusiasm and gave the children some valuable feedback.
In Science, Form 8 had great fun conducting taste, sight, smell and hearing tests. They also worked with the rest of the Pre-Prep to deduce the 'non-tasters', 'average tasters' and 'super tasters'!
Form 6 continued with their topic of healthy eating and designed a meal that included ingredients from all the main food groups. They came up with some great ideas and worked brilliantly in their groups to produce a recipe. The staff voted on the recipes and the winner was the ‘Italian Surprise’, which included pasta in a tomato sauce with dough balls, chicken and salad. On the final Friday of term the children cooked the meal and it was delicious.
In Form 6, our stars of this fortnight have been all of Form 6 but I would like to give a special to Meme for all her hard work, perseverance and helpfulness and to Oak for his enthusiasm and kindness.
A very fond farewell to Rex who leaves Form 8 to live in Singapore. He has brought so much fun and joy to the Belhaven Pre-Prep and wider community and will be much missed.
We so look forward to welcoming Mrs Rachel Gibson who will be joining as the Form 8 Class Teacher and all our new starters joining Forms 6, 7 & 8. In the meantime, I hope you all have the most wonderful, well-deserved holiday and wish you all the best of luck for next year. Thank you for such an enjoyable year and for keeping us on our toes. Thank you also for looking after Cora so well. She is a very lucky dog!
