There have been so many exciting events in Pre-Prep this term. In May, we had the
Pre-Prep Concert and Art & Design Exhibition when every member of Form 8, 7 and 6 rose to the occasion to sing, play and perform with real confidence and infectious joy whether en masse, in a solo, or small group. Congratulations to each of our 13 soloists who owned the stage during their performances. Read about our Pre-Prep Concert & Exhibition.
Sports Day was a brilliant success with the children braving the blustery conditions to take part in the long jump, high jump, rounders ball, 80m, 400m and 800m, not forgetting the fun races where we saw all sorts of tactics and techniques for the sack race and the potato spoon race. Well done to Lochie and Annie who were the Victor and Victrix Ludorem winners. Read about our Pre-Prep Sports Day 2024
On our 'Moving-Up Day' in June, all the children spent time in their future classes, meeting their new teachers and learning about their new routines. Form 6 found this particularly helpful as they will be making the transition to the Prep School in September. We also welcomed children joining Belhaven after the holidays so that they had another opportunity to get to know the staff, pupils and their surroundings. The Pre-Prep are now all very excited about going up to a new class.
Trips have been great fun this term – before half term, Form 8 and 7 went to Craigie’s Farm and Edinburgh Zoo and Form 6 visited Discovery Dundee and Blair Drummond Safari Park. For the first time in 7 years, a monkey decided to climb up the Belhaven bus and look at the children through the sunroof!
The final trips saw Form 6 enjoy a wonderful art lesson in North Berwick with Mrs Haddon before a boat trip out to the Bass Rock (and delicious fish and chips with Form 7 in the Rocketeer!). Form 7 had a brilliant trip to Dynamic Earth and Form 8 went to East Links where they enjoyed seeing all the animals, playing in the woods and taking a few rides on the train. View our photo gallery below.
Summer Trips Pre-Prep 2024
Other highlights include: a fantastic talk from Abi Elphinstone about her latest book, 'Ember Spark and The Thunder of Dragons'; Rock-pooling with Restoration Forth; a trip to the Hamilton's Farm; a Camp-out Experience with The Wild Outdoors and so many other Outdoor Ed adventures (Read Mrs Lang's Review from the first half of term).
Staff Highlights
Mrs Macdonald’s favourite moment this term was seeing all the children show courage when performing in the Pre-Prep Concert, especially the soloists.
Mrs Gibson’s favourite moment has to be watching all of Form 7 and 8 gasp with excitement when we saw the giraffes at Edinburgh Zoo. Everyone was so tired due to their walk up the hill in the heat and when we finally stepped inside their enclosure and saw the giraffes, it was absolutely breathtaking! We were all amazed by their beauty.
Miss Birrell’s favourite moment was watching so many of the Pre-Prep runners beat their P.B.s and set new records during the final Thursday Run of the year. It was amazing to hear the other children cheer on their friends and be so supportive.
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. Mr Dryburgh’s feedback was so good after each attempt that it took ages to get through to the end! An added bonus was the only rain we had that day was while we were inside doing the high jump.
Form 7 & 8 admiring the giraffes at Edinburgh Zoo; Thursday Run Record Attempt; Sports Day High Jump advice from Mr Dryburgh
Courage, Courtesy and Creativity Prizes
Courage – Will – Will signed up for the 800m race on Sports Day. On the morning, he started to feel nervous and wanted to drop out. He made the decision at the very last minute to join in. He ran the entire race with a smile on his face and was so proud of himself!
Courtesy – Patrick – Patrick is consistently polite and courteous to every member of our school community. He is always smiling and is a good friend to everyone in our class.
Creativity – Cleo – This person has won this prize because she is a very creative girl across many areas of the curriculum. She is always drawing and has worked very hard during her Art and DT lessons. She has played the guitar in two concerts and even did a duet with one of the school governors before their board meeting! And finally, her Spoken English which she performed at the concert a term late due to illness. She was very brave and engaged confidently with the audience.
Classwork – Final Fortnight
Form 8 – In recent weeks, Form 8 have been consolidating a lot of their learning from the year. This has included applying their phonics knowledge to construct interesting and exciting sentences in their writing.
Our factual writing unit has been based on Amara and the Bats and we also completed a holiday account to describe our half-term break.
In maths and number work we completed a unit on fractions – figuring out a quarter of an amount was particularly tricky. We are now finishing place value within 100, which has led to some very exciting counting in 10s! Mrs Gibson
Form 7 – The children have ended the year on a real high, with fun trips to North Berwick and Dynamic Earth – the perfect opportunity to consolidate our Spring Term learning on space and the planets.
In maths, we’ve recently been learning how to measure length, mass, capacity, volume and temperature. The children are getting better at selecting the correct unit of measure and have shown a particular interest in tonnes and nanometres. We won’t be using those in Form 7 though, unfortunately! The children have learnt how to read scales and can now measure and estimate confidently.
In our literacy work, we’ve been reviewing the sounds we’ve learnt and practising our red words. The children have made so much progress this year which is reflected in their amazing reading and writing. Miss Birrell
Form 6 – Trips have been the highlight of the past few weeks. The excursion to Discovery Dundee really helped to bring to life our polar explorers topic and the Bass Rock boat trip just so happened to be on the warmest and calmest day of the year!
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In maths we have been learning to tell the time to 5 minutes, which is quite difficult, particularly on the ‘to’ side of the clock. I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities to put this into practice over the summer. We have continued to work on multiplication and division focusing on the 4- and 8-times tables. In fractions we have been looking at numerators and denominators, and ordering and sequencing unit fractions.
In our science lessons we have had great fun learning about light and shadows. We drew our shadows in the morning and came back and drew them again at two more points in the day. Not only did the change position but they also changed in size.
Form 6 have been great fun. They have grasped every opportunity, often loudly, but with an incredible amount of enthusiasm and gratitude. When asked recently to write a card to a buddy and say what they love about Belhaven, the response was ‘but I love everything’! I will miss you all, and I wish you the best of luck next year in the Prep School. Mrs Johnstone
