Page 2 - Abberley Adventures Oct 2022

ABBERLEY ADVENTURES
2
Awards
We were delighted to have been chosen back in early September as ‘Best Prep School in the Land’. It was an amazing start to the year and great that all the hard work over the past couple of years has been acknowledged. The final decision was made by a panel of educational experts and the process also involved a visit the school and meetings with children, parents and staff. It is a hotly contested and prestigious award and so we were absolutely delighted. The award itself was opened by our Head Boy and Head Girl in front of the whole school, and we were thrilled to find a beautiful, engraved silver bowl, which is now proudly displayed in the Front Hall. What an amazing start to the year! Do read this article if you have not already by clicking here
Pastoral Care
Next half term will see the implementation of the newly trained Peer Mentors. This is an exciting addition to our already comprehensive pastoral provision and child-centred approach to supporting each and every child. Eliyah has been chosen as Head of School Councils and is due to feed back to the prep school children after the first successful meeting of the School Council. Next half of term our Food Council and Online Safety Councils will also meet.
Dates for the diary:
» Anti-Bullying week (including ‘odd sock day’) – week starting Monday 14th November. Please look out for further communications after Half Term.
» Online Safety workshops for Years 5-6 (16:00-17:00), 7-8 (17:00- 18:00) and whole school parental talk (18:30-19:30) by Jonathan Taylor of Online Safety 4 Schools – Monday 5th December. Please look out for further communications from me.
As ever, if parents or Guardians have any pastoral concerns at all about their children then your first ‘port of call’ is your child’s Tutor. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact Mr Bennett-Tomlin, our Deputy Head, Pastoral on matt.bennett-tomlin@abberleyhall.co.uk
Academic Life
It’s been a busy term so far on the academic front and the children came back in September and hit the ground running. We have had trips out to Birmingham where a group of Art Scholars visited Deakin & Francis and were shown around not just the studio but also got to make a piece of jewellery. Pupils visited Malvern College for their Prep Schools’ Orchestra Day, which consisted of sectional workshops and full orchestral ones. Our Top Year visited London where they slept on HMS Belfast and visited the Imperial War Museum, Tate Modern and the National History Museum as well as seeing an amazing production of Life of Pi at Wyndham’s Theatre.
Around school it has been fantastic to see the engagement children have with their lessons and with staff and the interest they show in the subjects. Songs can often be heard coming from both of the MFL classrooms! In History with Mr Bee, the Year 7s held a very exciting moot trial for Richard III in the Chapel while the English department have been working towards the Prose Reading Competitions. The results were as follows:
» Year 5 - Emme
» Year 6 & Junior Winner - Athene » Year 7 - Florrie
» Year 8 & Senior Winner - Amor
iPads
The introduction of iPads this term has been a huge success and the focused work that children are producing with them is excellent. As hoped, they have been a great addition to lessons for pupils and teachers alike and they are being used creatively in every subject. The interactivity with the new screens is working superbly and children are able to share their work on the screen for the class to see. Apps such as padlet allow instant feedback as well as collaborative work in lessons. Many subjects are using the iPads at the start of lessons, as pupils come in and open up apps such as Mathletics or Vice Verba and this allows children to be engaged with a subject immediately while the rest of the class arrive and settle. We have seen the iPads being used for Prep in the evenings as well. Most children are excellent at remembering to charge their iPads for the day but we have found that some are leaving chargers at home and running out of battery in school so it might be worth having a spare that stays in school full time.
Exams and assessment
As you will have seen in the letter that came out recently, after Half Term the Year 8s will be preparing for mock exams starting on Monday 21st November. Children in Years 5 to 7 will have low key assessments in class at around this time but not in all subjects. We assess on a regular basis throughout the year but it is always good practice to understand the concept of thoroughly individual work.
Before Half Term, pupils in Years 3, 5 and 7 sat CAT4 tests. These allow us to differentiate our work accordingly for the pupils but also to benchmark the strength and ability of our children against pupils nationally. Later in the year all pupils will sit Progress Tests in Maths and English.