17th March 2017

What a treat this week with the Year 4 play! Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits did not disappoint as we sang and laughed our way through the show. For me, the pure enjoyment and joy on the pupils’ faces was priceless. I commend them all and also their fabulous and hardworking teachers. A show like that takes considerable work and the result was certainly superb. I also would like to commend the performers in the Spring Concert this week. Again, a superb showcase of the outstanding abilities of the Wellingborough pupils. We look forward to welcoming our Year 8 pupils back later this afternoon from their Geography Field Trip. They have had superb weather in Dorset and have been busy improving their skills and knowledge. Good luck to our U10A, U11A and U13A teams competing in the Rugby National Schools Rugby Finals at Epsom on Sunday. You can get immediate results by following us on Twitter @WboroPrepSchool.

Summer Ball
The ‘Friends of Wellingborough School’ invite you to the Family of Schools Summer Ball to be held on the school grounds on Saturday, 1st July 2017. Tickets are now on sale. For more information click here.   

Lockdown Exercise
As part of our emergency event planning, we will be holding a Major Incident Exercise on Friday 24th March between 9.15am and 10.00am. Unlike the Fire Drills to which our pupils are accustomed and perform so efficiently, this exercise helps us practise our lock-down procedures – rather than simply evacuation. We held an assembly last week to let pupils know what to expect which we will again talk about in our assembly on Monday. A letter has been sent by clarion to all parents from Mr Bowe.

Mrs Sue Knox
Headmistress

This week has been a very busy one across many areas of the curriculum.  Here is a sample of some of the highlights of the Prep School's curriculum from this week including reports from James Denton, Mrs Staughton, Mrs Rowley-Burns, Miss Machin and Mr Dennis.

Bloodhound Model Rocket Car Challenge
I found out about the competition at Goodwood Festival of speed 2016, then I passed it through to Mr Whitby. During DT club we started building the cars out of foam, my car had a point at the front and had straight lines in between the areas where you can’t cut. After the point the sides are straight a few millimetres from the area when you can’t cut. Tuesday 7th March 2017, race day. On race day we arrived at Sir Christopher Hatton School at around quarter past one. We moved to the track just in time to see another school finish their runs. Unfortunately they only had enough rockets for one run per car. My car went first and did ok. When it was Jamie's turn to run his car flipped over and crashed! Overall, we did not get through to the first round but are keen to try again next year. By James Denton (Y8)

Science Week
This week is National Science and Engineering week and so in recognition of this each pupil will have the opportunity to do an activity that is not normally part of our curriculum.

As Year 4 are busy with their play, next week they will have a trip up to the lab, where they will learn how to light Bunsen burners and then make sparklers to burn!

Year 5 have further investigated a concept explained to them at the recent Funky Food talk from Chartwells. They have made red cabbage indicators and investigated the effects of acid and alkali substances on their indicator. This knowledge was then used to make a rainbow fish, using the different colours to make patterns.

Year 6 became food scientists for a lesson and developed their own choice of flavoured yogurt. They had to use precise measuring and weighing skills to obtain the correct ratio of flavouring to yogurt. It certainly took longer to make than to eat!

Year 7 have covered small snippets of DNA in their curriculum lessons this year but had the opportunity to find out a lot more this week. This included a brief history of its discovery, structure and making a model of it. They also extracted some DNA from a strawberry.

Year 8 were given the equipment and instructions to make a 3D dome. To successfully complete the task the pupils had to read the instructions carefully and work as a team. Some did better than others! They also completed a quiz to research the names and locations of famous dome shaped buildings around the world.

Many thanks to the science staff and technicians for their support in preparing, delivering and clearing up these sessions!

Word Pi Day
Last Tuesday was world Pi Day, the reason being of course is that 3.14 and 14th March (in America at least) are represented as the 14th day of the 3rd month. Also the children discovered that 3.14 backwards makes a fairly reasonable spelling of the word PIE – a coincidence? During the day all maths sets in all year groups found out about Pi - what it is and what it represents. Additionally Year 5 made loom band bracelets so that the colours of the bands reflected the sequence of the numbers in Pi. Year 6 had the task of following the pattern so that they wrote a story starting with a 3 letter word, then a 1 letter word followed by a 4 letter word and so on. Years 7 & 8 had two tasks. Firstly they had to solve “dingbats” which all had Pi/pie in their answer, they then had the difficult task of memorizing Pi to as many digits as possible. One Year 8 group got to 54 with only about 10 minutes to achieve the task! Both pupils and staff were delighted that even our lunches followed the theme of the day with cottage pie and apple pie on the menu!

Onatti Theatre Visit for Years 4, 5 and 6
On Tuesday, younger pupils and some parents enjoyed a complete change of scene as Period 3 was exchanged for a visit from Onatti, who perform plays to allow pupils to experience the French language in context. Following the story of a lost tourist trekking along a French beach, the play allowed for all sorts of strange encounters. Plenty of audience participation (in a surfing lesson, a beach closure for a presidential visit and a case of mistaken identity) saw the pupils actively involved in their learning, and the visiting actors commented on how engaged the pupils were. Thanks to Niall Mahon, who wrote a short review: "It was very funny and they did very well with only two people! I could happily watch it all day."

Year 4 Play
This week Year 4 have been performing the musical extravaganza - Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits. All the children had a speaking part including the evil Vizier and his cute monkeys, Bongo and his band of enthusiastic bandits, Ali Baba with his side kick Flossy and a sprinkle of sparkle from the genius Genies. The Year 4 corridor has been a hive of singing, dancing and acting for the last few weeks and the children's dedication to the play has been fantastic. The children sang and performed their hearts out and the sheer joy on their faces was wonderful to see.  A big thank you to all those who have been involved.

History Competition
‘My EPIC Era’ is a history competition run by historian, Kevin Hicks where entrants are asked to name their favourite era in history and tell us all about it – they can write about it, draw it, make it – they can even sing or film it.  For more information click here.

Mrs Owen
Deputy Head - Curriculum

Focus Groups
Gemma Saunders has continued to meet with a randomly selected group of pupils both juniors and seniors over the last few weeks about their views on school.  The pupils have been very open and honest and we already have a great deal of feedback which we are going to present to staff during our INSET training next term.  Thank you to all pupils who have participated in this project.

Your Child's Online World
I often present links in the newsletter around the topic of internet safety and it is a topic we could all learn more about, both as adults and children.  I am delighted that Gemma Saunders is going to be leading a presentation to pupils and parents next term and I hope that it will informative and eye opening for both. More details to follow next term.

School Council and Charity Committee
We are very much looking forward to our Pupil Feedback assembly on Monday morning.  At WPS we take pupil voice very seriously and the School Council and Charity Committee will feedback to the school about their work during this term.  A full report will be in next week’s newsletter. 

Mrs Petrie
Deputy Head - Pastoral

Wellingborough Rotary Music Festival Results
Congratulations to the following pupils who were placed in last week's Rotary Music Festival:

3rd= Kiran Thakrar (Junior Strings)
2nd  Fiona Kidd (Intermediate 1 Piano)
2nd  Kiran Thakrar (Junior Woodwind)
3rd= Fiona Kidd (Intermediate 1 Woodwind)
3rd= Lottie Heaver (Intermediate 1 Woodwind)
2nd  George Leahy (Junior Brass)
2nd  Rihanna Ali (Intermediate 1 Brass)
1st   Lili Howe (Junior Vocal : Show Songs)
2nd  Erin Docker (Junior Vocal : Show Songs)
1st   Hettie Ivory (Junior Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
2nd  Lili Howe (Junior Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
3rd   Isabella Haines (Junior Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
1st   Maddalena Nakash (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Show Songs)
2nd  Molly Barnes (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Show Songs)
3rd  Lucy Dickinson (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Show Songs)
1st   Molly Barnes (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
2nd  Maddalena Nakash (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
3rd=  Lucy Dickinson (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
3rd= Tommy Martin (Intermediate 1 Vocal : Non-Show Songs)
1st    Prep School Brass Group (Intermediate 2 Instrumental Ensemble)

Special congratulations to Lili Howe and Molly Barnes, who were awarded Young Vocalist of the Year for the Junior and Intermediate 1 Classes respectively. Well done to everyone who took part this year.

Music Lesson Timetables
To view next week’s timetables of individual lessons, which are also displayed just inside the main entrance to the music department, click here.

Mr Leutfeld
Head of Music

Sports Announcements
National Rugby Finals
I would like to wish all the pupils competing at the National Schools Rugby Finals this weekend the very best of luck.  The draw for the tournament has been made and can be seen below:

U10s – Chinthurst, Wetherby, Hoe Bridge,
Wellingborough, St Piran’s

U11s – QEGS, Priory, King’s House,
Wellingborough, The New Beacon

U13s – Wellingborough, Rokeby,
Wetherby, Danes Hill

Girls Games Provision – Summer Sports
I would like to take this opportunity to inform all parents and pupils of the changes being made to the games provision for the summer term. As you may or may not be aware the GCSE PE curriculum has changed over the past few months and rounders have been removed. There is currently no pathway for rounders throughout the UK. The Prep School has now made a decision to remove rounders from its games curriculum and instead replace it with Girls’ Cricket. I am very pleased to inform you that we have managed to get block fixtures throughout the summer term with most weeks every girl having the opportunity to play and represent the School. Girls’ cricket will be played every Wednesday afternoon and during their games lesson on either a Monday or a Friday. Regarding clothing and equipment; the girls will still be required to play in their current summer games kit and no additional equipment will be required. Alongside girls’ cricket we will run girls’ tennis and have increased the number of fixtures this year. We have also entered a few tournaments and will look to build our provision and give as many girls an opportunity to play and represent the School. Tennis will take place after school as a club and matches played on a Thursday (after school) or Saturday morning.  Many thanks and we look forward to receiving your continued support throughout the summer term.

Sports Fixtures Week Commencing 20th March 2017
Wednesday 22nd March
Football 2nd XI v Quinton House – Away – 3.45 KO
Football U11A v IAPS Tournament @ Repton School – 1100 Start
Football U10A & B v Akeley Wood – Home - 2.30 KO
Netball U13A & C v Akeley Wood – Home – 2.30 start
Netball U12A & C v Akeley Wood – Away – 2.30 start
Netball U12B & U13B v NHS – Away – 3.45 start
Netball U10A v Pitsford – Home – 2.30 start
Netball U10B v Akeley Wood – Home – 2.30 start
Netball U11A v Quinton House – Away – 2.30
Thursday 23rd March
Football U9A, B & C v Spratton Hall – Away – 3pm KO
Netball U9A & B v Spratton Hall – Away – 3pm start
Friday 24th March
Football U10A WPS Football Tournament – 3.30 start
Netball U10A WPS Netball Tournament – 3.30 start
Saturday 25th March – Monday 27th March
Hockey PS 1st VII at Gresham’s Tournament

Extra-Curricular Achievements
Emilie Adams (Y8) took part in the County Level 9 Vault and Floor competition and achieved overall Level 9 County Winner for 13+ age group. A fantastic achievement for her first competition.
Isabelle Thomas (Y7) competed in a Just for Schools showjumping competition at Arena UK and achieved 2nd in the 80cm and 1st in the 90cm riding Duke.
Thomas Naylor (Y5) passed his Black stripe grading in Taekwondo, meaning his next one will be his Black Belt!

Results
To view this week’s results please click here.

Mr Irvine
Head of Sport and Extra-Curricular

Country of the Day
To continually improve location knowledge in the Prep School, here is a daily challenge from 6LW. Your focus for each day is to locate the country on a map! If that is too easy, there are some extension questions too…

Daily challenge:
Monday 20th March - Bosnia
Tuesday 21st March - Chad
Wednesday 22nd March - Zambia
Thursday 23rd March - UAE
Friday 24th March - Rwanda

Extension questions:
1.   What is the capital city of this country?
2.   What does the flag look like?
3.   How many people live in this country?
4.   What are the most notable features of this country?

Dr Fordham
Head of Geography

Easter Sports Camp
Monday, 3rd-7th April
Lots of sport and lots of fun! Early Booking and Sibling Discounts available – don’t miss out! For more details and a booking form click here.

Mrs Petrie
Camp Leader

Easter Art Camp
Monday, 10th April to Thursday, 13th April
There are a few places left. For more details of what is on offer and to book a place click here.

Mrs Hennessy
Camp Leader

Sainsbury’s Active Kids
Sainsbury's have launched their Active Kids vouchers scheme which runs through to 2nd May. We have been collecting vouchers for many years now and have exchanged them for a number of sports items for the pupils. Any donations will be greatly appreciated and these can be handed in to the Prep Office.

Information to parents
To view copies of letters sent by Clarioncall and weekly team sheets please click here to be redirected to Parents Login. If you do not know the login details please email prep-office@wellingboroughschool.org.