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Edition 32 1. December 2017 @kingsley_school /thekingsleyschool www.thekingsleyschool.com

Headteacher’s Welcome What a half term it has been already; we have had odd socks, Pudsey bears, Tesco shopping and we are looking forward to the pantomime next week (oh yes we are!). In amongst reports and Parents’ Evening, there have been nativity rehearsals and LAMDA performances, Gym and Dance showcases and tea time concerts that have astounded their audiences. The talent and hard work of our pupils never ceases to amaze me and the results are always impressive for children so young. Thank you to all the parents who encourage practice, correct tempo, notes or pronunciation and could, if we really pushed, probably perform the entire musical score from this year’s nativity or carol service! As always, your support at home is very much appreciated. However, in the run up to a time filled with excitement, hectic schedules and at least one last minute dash to the shops on Christmas Eve, the children of the Prep School have also been asked to think about those less fortunate than themselves. Mrs Bickerton and Alexa (Reception) delivered a thought provoking assembly around the homeless charity ‘Helping Hands’ on Wednesday, encouraging our children to think about the relative comfort of their lives. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm with which our community has pulled together to support those in need through filling the shoe boxes. The results of this will be shared in the next newsletter. With Christmas around the corner and the winter weather well and truly here, I wish you all a happy end to the term. Mrs Rachel Whiting Head of Prep

On the cover... The Prep School get all spotty (or fully embrace the glory of 80s dress!) for Children in Need. Lots more pictures later in this issue!

Travel and Traffic Surveyors This half term the children in Reception are learning about ‘Travel and Transport’. They have carried out some research to find out what the most popular ways are to travel to school by carrying out a tally chart survey, asking the children in the other classes and lots of teachers they found along the way! They discovered that the most popular way of travelling to school was by car but the least was by scooter with only one child travelling to school each day on their scooter - Alexa!

Minibus Mania To kick start their new topic, ‘Travel and Transport’, the Foundation and Reception class children carried out a traffic survey. They watched all of the traffic going past on the extremely busy Kenilworth Road and made a mark on their charts every time a vehicle went past. The categories they were looking for were: cars, buses, vans, lorries, motor bikes and bicycles.

As a class the Reception children looked at the school mini-bus. They each took two labels and attached the words with adult support to label the different parts of the mini bus. They then spent time looking at the different parts of the engine and discussing their uses.

Where in the World? The children have begun to learn about different places around the world. They discussed and shared the different places they had visited on holiday and worked as a class to find where they had been on a map and stuck a photo of their own faces on to the world map to show where they had visited. Foundation have also recently visited the travel agents on The Parade.

Year 1 and Year 2 Stars of the Week At the end of each week in Key Stage 1, the children look forward to finding out who will be awarded the special class award of ‘Star of the Week’. The achievement is awarded for high standards of learning, work ethic, behaviour around school and attitude towards different aspects of school life. The winner receives a special certificate and can choose a surprise treat from the treasure box. The Stars of the Week over the past weeks have been...

Mina: for always having a positive and determined attitude towards d her learning. Mina is also very kin and and courteous towards adults children across the school, and . always offers her support to others

Holly: for always being carin g and courteous towards others. Holly is always first to offer to help her pe ers with their learning, or to carry out cla ssroom roles. Holly continues to excel in her writing activities as a result of the perseverance and care she has shown to improve her work further in each lesson.

When I Grow Up... Year 1 and Year 2 continued their learning about what makes each of them special in their art lessons. The children took a step into the future and shared what they dreamed to be when they grew up. The class shared all of their wonderful ideas for which occupation they would like to have. There were so many roles including; doctors, teachers, popstars, parachute jumpers, horse riders, swimmers and police officers. The children began by designing their outfits for their role onto a body template and then used their designs to create clay models of their future selves. It was certainly a messy but very fun activity and the children learned a great deal about each of their aspirations. What wonderful skills they each have to offer and many exciting dreams they have to look forward to striving to achieve!

Autumn Days The weather was beautiful on the first day back after half-term for the Year 1 and Year 2 children to enjoy a sunny autumn walk around the school playing fields, as part of their Outdoor Learning. The children began their walk using all of their senses, beginning with sight and then using their sense of hearing, touch and even smell while exploring the grounds. The children applied the learning they had done in their science lessons where they had investigated how they use their senses in lots of different ways. The class also used their imagination to interpret their surroundings. For example, the clouds became dragons and the sand pit even turned into the beach for them to explore!

After recording all of the items they found in a table using four of their five senses, the children further investigated their sense of touch by collecting items of different sizes, colours and textures from around the grounds. Most objects were natural and a bit cold from the crisp frosty air, but the children learned lots about their origins and what role they served in nature. There were prickly conker shells, bird feathers and a variety of plants, twigs and stones. When the children shared their collections, it was an excellent opportunity to apply their creative writing skills to create a word bank and sentences to describe each item using a range of adjectives.

Magnets and Balloons Year 1 and Year 2 have been busy using magnets to test what is magnetic and non-magnetic in Science Club. The children recorded their results in a table, developing their scientific skills. The Club also made a balloon blow up using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar!

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Nature Poems Year 3 used their Outdoor Education sessions at the school field to gather ideas about the colours, sounds, smells and textures associated with autumn. Using their senses they wrote poems about the nature palette that makes up autumn.

Autumn’s Seasonal Palette

A peach coloured leaf flutters in the breeze A cotton wind tickles my nose like a sneeze. Chestnut brown trees rest on the bumpy hill Stick green leaves heaped in piles and still. Yolk yellow clouds passing by Dark blue colours in the sky. This is the colour palette of autumn. By Esha

Confusing Autumn

tty The sky blue is joyful and pre light. d an Fog grey clouds are pale bri a ck wall Rosy red berries as dark as . Baby orange light in the sky light no rk, da Brick brown bark too ers. nk co Horse brown logs dark like und. Lettuce green leaves lie aro autumn. of te let This is the colour pa By Georgia

Makey Makey! Mrs Roberts (Senior School Head of ICT) and her Year 12 students visited the Prep recently and set up an exciting ICT lesson for the pupils in Year 3. As part of their A-level work, the students in Year 12 had to set up an input device called a ‘Makey Makey’ on the Prep computers and instruct the Year 3 pupils how to use the device to test materials for conductivity. The activities included testing apples, bananas and other strange materials using the Makey Makey device. The pupils in Year 3 said it was the best ICT lesson they had ever had, so thank you to all the students in Year 12 who organised the session.

Greek Masquerade Year 3 made some very scary Greek masks in their Creative Curriculum lesson this week. The pupils have been finding out about how in ancient Greek times, the actors were always men and they wore masks so that everyone in the Greek theatre could see them clearly from the back. Can you guess who is behind each scary mask?

In the Shadows Year 3 have been finding out about Ancient Greek myths and how drama played an important part in the lives of the Ancient Greeks. The pupils in Year 3 wrote their own Greek myths and then turned their stories into play scripts.

Junior Cartographers Year 4 have been very busy in their Creative Curriculum lessons learning all about the United Kingdom. Using iPads and atlases to help them, they located major towns, rivers and mountains in Scotland, Wales and England to produce excellent topographic maps.

In science, the class were learning about how shadows were formed. Putting this knowledge to the test, they made shadow puppets and a Greek theatre and performed their plays to an audience.

Inspiring Poetry Moments This term in Year 5 started with a new English topic: an exploration of poetry. To get the pupils started they were tasked with collaborating to create a simile and metaphor filled poem about a selection of animals, before performed their writings for each other. Here are Year 5 deep in thought and allowing the creative poetic juices to flow!

Space Explorers As part of our Creative Curriculum topic, Year 5 have been exploring our Solar System to see what they can find out about the planets. In order to share their knowledge, each member of Year 5 collaborated with a partner to put together a fact-file about their chosen planet. They were able to showcase their developing skills in using Microsoft Publisher, too!

I am Iron Man The futuristic theme of our Creative Curriculum topic was developed after reading the children’s book by Ted Hughes, ‘The Iron Man’, as the pupils created a whole family of robots as part of their work on 3D shapes!

Christmas has Arrived in Year 5 Year 5 are feeling very Christmassy! Here are all the pupils designing some very fetching Christmas decorations for the set of Kingsley’s Nativity.

Out of this World Art Year 5 have finally completed a series of Nebula inspired compositions. I hope you agree that they are really are out of this world!

The Year 6 Water Cycle Year 6 have been learning about the water cycle in their geography lessons. They recreated the water cycle in experiments in the classroom to see evaporation, condensation and precipitation in action. The group learned how rivers, lakes and oceans get water by recreating a model of watersheds. They created mountains using different sized containers and covering them with plastic bags. They made precipitation by spraying water onto their model and observed where the precipitation collects and travels too. Miss Knight-Adams added some ‘pollution’ (glitter) to the models for the girls to consider where the pollutants may travel to, how quickly and what impact the pollutants have on the water collected in the rivers and lakes.

Poetry Slam Year 6 are learning all about free-verse poetry and poetic techniques in their English lessons. They are busy composing their own poems watch this space. As part of their topic about poetry the girls created visual poems using photography. What mood do you think their images create?

Children in Need On Friday 17th November, the Kingsley Preparatory School came to school dressed in either something spotty, 80’s style, bright colours or as a Pudsey Bear. There were many leopards, colourful accessories and plenty of bear ears walking around the school on the day. The children kindly brought in donations for the event, and as a result of their efforts, a total of £137.90 was raised for Children in Need! This was a very generous contribution made and one of the highest we have raised in recent years. We would like to say a big “thank you” to all parents, children and staff who helped to make it a fun filled and very successful day of fundraising!

Council Matters... The Prep School Council has been working very hard this term carrying out a survey for Mrs Whiting. Mrs Whiting asked the pupils in the School Council to find out what new clubs the pupils in the Prep would like for next year. Working in their year groups, each School Councillor has been creating a survey about which new clubs the pupils would like to see being offered in the new term. Some suggestions included Reading Club, Skipping Club and a Gardening Club. Watch this space for news of the results.

Christmas Cross-Stitch Prep School Cross Stitch Club have been working hard to sew Christmas card designs, in time to send to a loved one at Christmas.

Dates for the Diary... December 2017 4th - LAMDA Examinations - all day 4th - Scholastic Book Fair in Senior School LRC - all week 4th - Last Rugby Tots of Autumn Term 5th - LAMDA Examinations - all day 5th - Christmas Nativity ‘It’s A Party!’ Foundation, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 - Senior School Hall 9.15am 5th - Last Let’s Get Cooking Club of Autumn Term (makeup session) 6th - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Carrdus at Tudor Hall - 2pm 6th - Whole School Christmas Concert - Senior School Hall - 7pm - all welcome and enjoy the festive music! 7th - Last Spanish Club for Autumn Term (makeup session) 7th - Last VP Tennis of Autumn Term 8th - Whole of Prep School to attend the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Pantomime at Royal Spa Centre, Royal Leamington Spa - am 8th - Senior School Prize Giving at the Town Hall, Royal Leamington Spa - an evening event

11th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 6.30pm. All Pupils, Parents, Grandparents and Staff most welcome! Refreshments will be served after the service in the Senior School Hall 12th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 2.30pm. (A pupils and staff event) 13th - Christmas Lunch 14th - Autumn Term Ends - 12.40pm - For All Year Groups - Happy Christmas Holidays! 15th - Staff INSET Day - School Closed 25th - Merry Christmas! January 2018 1st - Happy New Year! 8th - INSET Day - School Closed 9th - Spring Term Resumes - Welcome Back! 15th - The Kingsley Art Prize Submission Date ‘Best of British’ - Drawings, Sculptures and Paintings of all sizes welcome - Reception to Year 11

If you are seeing the Leamington Spa or Coventry pantomime, or the RSC’s producution of ‘A Christmas Carol’, keep your eyes peeled for some fun Kingsley appearances!