Newsletters

Newsletter Friday 21st May 2021

Dear Parents,

This morning we watched another beautiful assembly by Year 3, this time by LTS on the Pentecost. The children spoke and sang beautifully, and it was a reminder of how at St Bernard's Prep we value presentation skills and confidence. Well done Year 3.  Today, Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 all took part in a Road Safety session with an external provider, which they enjoyed and which we hope makes them safer when they're out and about. Year 1 have been busy raising funds to sponsor a lion at ZSL, as part of our Go Giver’s Community Project.  The children made fruit smoothies and then paid to taste their creations.  

Junior Maths Challenge

I had the honour of presenting some incredibly prestigious awards in assembly this morning.  Every year we enter our strongest mathematicians in Year 6 into the Junior Maths Challenge, which is a couple of years beyond their age, as it is pitched at Year 8 pupils and under. The Junior Mathematical Challenge is a 60-minute, multiple-choice competition which encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. The test papers are marked externally and moderated.

I am delighted and impressed to announce that this year's results are our strongest ever!  To think that this has been achieved in one of our most challenging years, with much of the teaching taking remotely, makes the success all the sweeter. In addition, the pupils who were awarded Gold have also been invited to take part in the Kangaroo round later this term.  Congratulations Mrs Bowen and Year 6. 

Gold: Ria, Sumant, Jaspreet, Hamed, Amaya, Vivek

Silver: Aishni, Rohan, Zara SH, Yuvraj, Roshan, Nikhil

Bronze: Shayo, Shaan, Sola

And well done to Mahaan, who only joined the group after Easter and did really well.

Enrichment

This week our Year 4 pupils have been enjoying some drama as part of their enrichment programme, recreating Sunday in the park by George Seurat. Elsewhere in school our Year 5s are enjoying chess, rummy and art in enrichment.

Eid Saeed

As part of our RE curriculum our pupils learn about Islam in Year 4. This week, Year 4 had an Eid al-Fitr celebration in class. They feasted on yummy food from Vazza’s Cuisine (Instagram - @vazzascuisine). 

They had Vegetable Samosas, Pakoras and Mini Aloo Tikkis. For Dessert they had Brownies and Dates. 

They also played musical statues to Bhangra music - well done to our winner, Mengi.

Our Early Years also celebrated Eid this week, with staff and children dressing up to mark the occasion. There were sweets and decorations, crafts and cakes.  

Owl Pellets

Our Year 2 children are enjoying learning about Barn Owls this half term, which is a cross curricular subject. They have enjoyed distorting images of barn owls in ICT, dissecting an owl pellet, complete with weasel bones, in science and producing some lovely written work in English. 

Next week will be the last week before half-term, and promises to be an exciting one with a school trip for the Year 1s and camping for the Year 6s.  

Have a wonderful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Mr N Cheesman