The Preparatory KINGSLEYMOMENT School Edition

Edition 31 News Events Photo Galleries 31. October 2017

@kingsley_school /thekingsleyschool www.thekingsleyschool.com I hope that you have all managed to get hold Headteacher’s of a copy of the new 1884 magazine which was published this term and that you enjoy all Welcome that this edition of the Kingsley Moment has to offer. These are the best ways to find out what The first few weeks of a new academic year has happened throughout the term, as well as always pass in a blur of new friendships and our Facebook and Twitter feeds. those rekindled after a long summer break; adjustments to new routines and rediscovering So, as the nights begin to draw in and the jingle the self-assurance of the previous July. In all of sleigh bells can be heard in the distance, this, our first half-term has been no exception. I wish you all a happy and restful holiday We welcomed many new families joining before the new half-term starts on Monday 6th the Kingsley community and saw lots of new November. faces in the playground. We are delighted that everyone has settled in so well and have already made such a positive contribution to Mrs Rachel Whiting our school. Head of Prep

It would be appropriate to drop in grateful thanks to some longer standing members of our community here as well. Several members of the Friends of Kingsley put on a truly spooktacular Halloween Disco for the pupils on the last evening of school, which served as a wonderful finale to the half-term. Your hard work and organisation was very much appreciated by all who attended.

For our Year 6 pupils however, there was no time to rest on the laurels of being the eldest in the school; they were straight into leadership roles and Senior School examination preparation. It has been a busy and occasionally anxious time for many of them, but they have really impressed the staff with their ‘Kingsley can-do’ attitudes. I am extremely proud of them for the hard work and dedication they have already shown this term. Without exception Thank You Friends! they have demonstrated determination, The new Prep School Council would like to perseverance and courage in their academic thank the Friends of Kingsley for buying all endeavours. I look forward to seeing what they this wonderful playground equipment. have up their sleeves for the rest of the year!

Toy Story On Thursday 12th October Reception class had some very special visitors - their toys! Each child brought in their favourite toy to spend the day with them at Kingsley. They started the day by writing a teddy register and attending assembly where everyone sat and listened beautifully.

2D Shapes One of the main learning outcomes in Reception this half term has been learning to name and recognise 2D shapes. The children have used 2D shapes to make pictures, hunted for 2D shapes, photographed 2D shapes in the environment and they have made 2D shapes using natural materials. After assembly the children had a circle time which gave them the opportunity to share why their teddy is so special to them. After that it was time for their last dance lesson before the Prep Gym and Dance Smashing Pumpkins Showcase. The toys made an excellent audience and were very impressed with Reception Class explored and learned about the pupils’ dancing! pumpkins as part of their learning about Halloween. They carried out observational drawings of pumpkins and then used tac hammers to decorate them with pins before they finally had a wonderful time smashing the pumpkins to explore what was inside! Ice Cream Parlour The Reception children have had a fantastic time in the Ice Cream Parlour Role-play area making different ice creams, adding a variety of toppings and selling them to their friends as well as taking orders. They even had special scoop-able ice cream play dough, which smelt yummy!

A Bag Full of Worries Reception Class have been learning about their feelings. They were particularly fascinated by the book, ‘A Bag Full of Worries’. The children sewed their own bags to keep worry friends in, so that they always have someone special to talk to about their worries and to help them feel better. Year 1 and 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 few weeks have been...

Miki is learning to work very Liana, who is often an Matilda: for always independently and strives to independent learner and persevering and taking continue to build on and works extremely hard in on some new learning improve her work each day. all of her lessons. Liana challenges Miki has increased her always has a determined independently. She is knowledge of working with and positive approach beginning to sound out larger two or three digit and strives to achieve more challenging words numbers to solve complex her best learning each for spellings, and is using mathematical sums and is day. a range of strategies to learning to add detail and solve number bonds to description to create some ten and twenty. super sentences in her writing!

Seren is learning to recall her number Aisha has made excellent progress in bonds to ten and to use number lines and her learning since joining Kingsley in a hundred square to add and subtract September by reflecting on her work larger numbers. Seren is growing into an and striving to achieve her best. Aisha is independent writer and is learning to always kind and courteous towards sound out and spell words using her others and arrives each morning ready phonics skills. to learn. Olivia’s Adventures Key Stage One have been very welcoming towards the new addition to their classroom since the beginning of the school year. The children have been joined by Olivia, the ostrich, and have been keen to find out all about her life, favourite foods and hobbies.

At the end of each week, one lucky member of Year One and Year Two receives the privilege of Taste Testing taking Olivia home with them for a weekend trip. The Year 1 and 2 children continued their Olivia’s first adventure science investigations exploring their senses was shared with Lara, by conducting a series of taste tests in small where she took Olivia to groups. a dancing party, conker collecting and even her The children tasted a range of foods they were swimming lessons too. Olivia had so familiar with, as well as some unusual new much fun! foods they had not experienced before. The only catch was, the children took it in turns to Please feel free to pop into our classroom be blindfolded while their partners gave them to visit Olivia. She is very friendly and is samples of foods to try! known to give the best cuddles! The children used the words sour, sweet, bitter and salty to describe some of the foods they tried and the textures they experienced while tasting them. It was certainly an exciting experience for them and they were pleasantly surprised by some of the foods they liked such A Day of Languages as dates, apricots, cacao nibs, fig rolls, chickpeas On Tuesday 26th September, the Year 1 and and even chia seeds! 2 children took part in a variety of activities to celebrate European Day of Languages. The children began with a lesson in German to have a taste for what the language was like to listen to and speak. The children learned to say simple greetings, recite their numbers to nine and write their favourite colours in German.

The class also shared and discussed the native languages they spoke or other languages they had experienced in their learning. The children had learnt or experienced Hindi, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic.

4 Amazing Shapes! Year 1 and Year 2 continued their fortnightly Outdoor Learning afternoon at the School Playing Fields by collecting natural and man-made objects from the grounds. The children used their Don’t Worry About A Thing items to create a variety of 2D or 3D shapes as part of their maths Year 1 and 2 shared the story, through the use of pictures lessons which have explored shapes ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ and actions. and patterns. by Virginia Ironside, which describes a girl who carries In their next PSHE lesson, The class were sent off in groups a bag of all of her worries they used their previous to work together to select suitable around with her, both big learning to find ways to objects and plan how they would and small. It feels like an manage their worries and use them to create their shapes. enormous burden for her to decide whether they can There was a lot of team work manage and she does not sometimes be resolved using involved and the children even know how to cope with it. simple strategies or help added creative touches by making from others. The children pictures containing a variety of The class used the book to found worries are often not shapes. It is amazing what you discuss and act out their as big a problem as they may can create with just a few recycled feelings when they were initially seem, and they can materials and objects from nature! worried and depicted what sometimes work as a team to their feelings might look like overcome them.

What can we hear? On Monday 25th September, the Year 1 and 2 children continued learning about their bodies and the different senses in their science lessons, by using their sense of hearing on a sound walk at the Kingsley Playing Fields.

The children began by making extra-large ears to increase their listening powers to help them to hear more clearly and from further away. They recorded the sounds they could hear inside the pavilion and then continued to record sounds around the fields using pictures and a list of words to describe the sounds. The big ears certainly worked as they created an enormous word bank of sounds they could hear all the way to the surrounding roads and tennis courts! Amazing Me! The Kingsley children have been exploring their new topic for this year, ‘We are Amazing!’ In Year 1 and 2, the children began their ‘All About Me’ class topic with lots of launch activities. It provided the children with an excellent opportunity to learn more about each other, too!

The class began by getting to know each other by sharing their memories from their holidays and their favourite things like colours, foods and animals. They also named people who were important to them and explained why. The class then learnt how to spell each other’s Amazing Olympics names and count the number of letters and Year 3 launched their new Creative sounds in each name. Curriculum topic, ‘We are Amazing’, by planning and organising their own mini- It was then time to get creative! The children Olympic tournament at the Kingsley Playing used mirrors to explore their facial features Fields. Esha was the overall champion, and drew self-portraits, paying close attention winning the gold medal and laurel wreath. to their individual characteristics. In their science lesson, the class named their body parts and drew around their bodies. It was fascinating to see that while they may share similar hair or eye colours, the shape and characteristics of their faces and bodies are what help to make them look individual. However, most importantly, the children realised after learning about each other that it was their personalities which made them each unique and special.

The children are certainly amazing, each with their own special and unique qualities. They are looking forward to leaning more about each other and taking part in plenty more exciting activities as a team. It’s all Symmetrical During Year 3’s Outdoor Education lessons at the fields, the pupils have been creating symmetrical artwork inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy.

In their science lessons, Year 3 pupils have been investigating how the spine in vertebrates helps with movement, support and balance. In their experiments, the pupils found out how many different positions they could get their bodies to make. Greek in Colour Year 3 have been finding out how the ancient Greeks dyed their fabrics. The group collected plants, leaves and berries during their outdoor education lesson on Monday and then made natural dyes back at school. They also made dyes from red and yellow onion skins, raspberries and blueberries. They found out that yellow onion skins, raspberries and blueberries made the best dyes.

At the Arte Café

Year 3 visited Arte Café in to paint clay plates. The pupils designed patterns and pictures in the style of the ancient Greek pots and vases they have studied during their Creative Curriculum lessons. Sima, Imogen and Emily painted the Cerberus dog that guarded the Underworld, Sima and Amy painted the Cyclops and Georgia painted the Minotaur.

The girls found out how the ancient Greeks made their clay pots and why they were red or orange in colour. The colour was created by controlling the amount of oxygen in the kiln when the plates were fired. The pots were fired three times. The first time at a very high temperature, with lots of oxygen and the pots turned red/orange. The second firing lowered the temperature and no oxygen was let into the oven. This turned the pots black. Finally, the third firing lowered the temperature even more and a little oxygen helped turn the unpainted clay orange.

House Building - Greek Style Year 3 found out how ancient Greek houses were made. They made model houses and learnt how to draw scale plans. The girls also wrote estate agent leaflets describing each house, its location, rooms and cost. Junior Dentists Year 4 became the teachers and visited Reception class to teach them all about how to care for their teeth. The group taught them which food groups and examples of food that could help their teeth and what was bad for their teeth. They also taught them some fun facts about teeth!

It’s all in the Numbers Year 4 have practised reading up to 6 digit numbers. Each pupil had a 4 digit number and everyone organised themselves into ascending order.

The group have also been working on rounding up their numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

Master Chefs Year 4 became chefs recently when they cooked a healthy vegetable pasta dish to fuel their amazing bodies in line with the whole school Creative Curriculum theme. The pupils had researched the vitamins and minerals contained in various different vegetables to come up with a recipe filled with goodness. Vegetables were all washed, chopped and prepared by the pupils before being roasted to perfection and added to wholemeal pasta with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese - delicious!

There was even time for a bit of Lego fun in the Innovation Station! Year 5 launch their mission into space... Year 5 were set a task to design and create a new style of spacecraft that would launch the UK’s Space Race in 2020. The pupils worked in teams and came up with several designs. It was tricky deciding on just one to build. It was a tough choice but after much debate they went for...

Our 21st Century Spacecraft!

Solar System Journey As our topic is all about space, we are studying our solar system in science lessons. Year 5 recreated the solar system to show why each planet’s year lasts for different lengths of time. Each Year 5 pupil became a planet, then walked the orbit and we timed it to show the relationship between the distance from the Sun and the length of the orbit. Here, the pupils have lined up in planetary order with Elka acting as the Sun! Do you know the correct order for the planets orbiting the Sun? Out of this World Art With a collapsing cloud of material which is mostly made of Hydrogen, the lightest, simplest element of a star is born! Here is a photograph of the center of the Swan Nebula, or M17, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. Year 5 were amazed at the beauty of nebulae and went on to create ideas that would be the start of their very own nebula art! Here are some of Bonjour! Hola! the pupils developing their ideas. For European Day of Languages, the pupils in Year 5 learned how to say ‘hello’ in lots of European languages! They then went on to create labels to show the different ways that Europeans say ‘hello’ to one another across all the different countries.

License to Poem Choose your Work For National Poetry Day, Mrs Holmes New for Autumn 2017, pupils have challenged the pupils across all year been given a choice of a wide range groups to create a poem about being of suggestions/tasks from which they in their respective classes. Here are Year can choose, one each fortnight, as their 5 collaborating to create a poem that Creative Curriculum Homework. As you describes life as a member of the class. We can see, Year 5 have been inspired by the can’t wait to hear about what Year 4 and choice of tasks and have come up with Year 6 are doing along with our younger many amazing ideas for their mini project children in the school. We’re hoping to based homework. Everyone was very combine all the classes’ efforts into one enthusiastic when it came to showing off ‘Life at Kingsley School’ poem! Watch this their first pieces for the new homework space for the preview... scheme! Introducing the New Leadership Team!

House Captains Angi (Gadesden) Aleesha (Huckwell), Rasna (Loveday), Natalia (Milroy)

HeadEmily and Girls Isabella

Charity Reps Maya and Leah LilyCouncil Rep

Sports CaptainGrace Playground Scarlett Buddy Kingsley Big Sisters Year 6 have been paired up with their younger Kingsley brothers and sisters, agreeing to help:

• Cross to and from the Senior School safely and sensibly • Feel welcome in the Prep School Playground before school and during lunch time • Support and encourage a love of reading by sharing story and reading books • Collecting and encouraging them during Kingsley School House Meetings and competitions • Taking their Kingsley School Little Brother or Sister to Whole School Assemblies and House Meetings

Andy Warhol Art A Hearty Blood Soup Year 6 have recreated the Year 6 learned about the functions of different Campbell’s soup cans and portrait parts of the blood by making blood soup. Council Rep pictures in the style of the pop They used marshmallows for white blood cells, Lily artists - very bright and fun! cranberries for red blood cells, rice for platelets and orange squash for plasma. They have also been learning about the functions of the heart and made 3D clay models of the heart. Harvest Festival Thanks to everyone who supported this year’s Harvest Festival. An uplifting service was held at Holy Trinity Church, with Reverend John Reese helping us to celebrate how blessed we are.

A special thanks must be extended to all the parents who made donations of foodstuffs, which were received with huge gratitude by the and Leamington Food Bank. There was so much collected by the Prep School that it took quite a long time to load the van! Science Club Miss Knight-Adams’ Science Club for Years 1 and 2 has kicked off this year with a few sessions: using pipettes, sinking and floating, labelling parts of the body on life-sized body paper, and testing materials to see if they are waterproof or not!

Infant Agility Competition 2017 Over 300 children from 8 different local schools competed in The Central Schools’ Sports Partnership annual Infant Agility Competition alongside hosts The Kingsley Preparatory School on Wednesday 11th October.

The competing schools included Brookhurst, Clapham Terrace, , St Joseph’s and St Peter’s from Leamington Spa, alongside St John’s School in and St Lawrence’s School in Napton-on-the-Hill. There was friendly competition but with a lot of determination, teamwork and supportive cheering throughout the day.

Children competed across nine different agility athletic events with a few children trying new events for the first time. St Lawrence’s School team were the overall winners.

The Kingsley School’s Sixth Form A-level PE Students assisted in the planning and organisation of this hugely successful sporting event, accompanied by Sports Ambassadors from both and Campion School, who were supporting the younger children throughout the day. December 2017 Dates for the Diary... 4th - LAMDA Examinations - all day October 2017 4th - Scholastic Book Fair in Senior School LRC - all week Monday 23rd October to Friday 3rd November 4th - Last Rugby Tots of Autumn Term inclusive - Half Term Holiday - wishing you a happy half term with plenty of spooktacular fun! 5th - LAMDA Examinations - all day 5th - Christmas Nativity ‘It’s A Party!’ Foundation, November 2017 Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 - Senior School Hall - 9.15am 8th - Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 - 5th - Last Let’s Get Cooking Club of Autumn Term Nasal Flu Immunisations - am (makeup session) 8th - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Bablake School - at St Nicholas Park, Warwick - 4pm 6th - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Carrdus at Tudor Hall - 4pm 9th - Prep School Tea Time Concert in Senior School 6th - Whole School Christmas Concert - Senior Hall - 4.15pm - Refreshments served from 3.45pm School Hall - 7pm - all welcome and enjoy the festive music! 10th - Biathlon (for some selected pupils) at Pingles Leisure Centre, Nuneaton - tbc 7th - Last Spanish Club for Autumn Term (makeup session) 16th - Friends of Kingsley Meeting in Senior School 7th - Last VP Tennis of Autumn Term LRC - 7pm 8th - Whole of Prep School to attend the ‘Sleeping 17th - Children in Need Day Beauty’ Pantomime at Royal Spa Centre, Royal Leamington Spa - am 22nd - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Crackley 8th - Senior School Prize Giving at the Town Hall, Hall School at St Nicholas Park, Warwick - 4pm Royal Leamington Spa - an evening event

24th - Preparatory School Open House - 9am to 11th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity 10.30am - all welcome! Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 6.30pm. All Pupils, Parents, Grandparents and Staff most welcome! 25th - (Saturday) Friends of Kingsley Christmas Refreshments will be served after the service in the Fayre - in Senior School Hall - 11am to 2pm - all Senior School Hall most welcome to enjoy the festive music, stroll around the Christmas stalls, visit Father Christmas 12th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity and relax with a warm mince pie! Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 2.30pm. (A pupils and staff event) 27th - Prep Parents’ Consultation Evening - 4.05pm to 7pm - in Form Rooms 14th - Autumn Term Ends - 12.40pm - For All Year Groups - Happy Christmas Holidays! 30th - Second Hand Uniform Sale - Basement of Prep School - 3.30pm to 5pm 15th - Staff INSET Day - School Closed 30th - LAMDA Tea Time Concert ‘Preparation for Christmas’ - in Senior School Hall - 4.15pm - Refreshments served from 3.45pm 30th - Last Rock Climbing Club of Autumn Term