11th October 2019

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to the 147 children who helped out with our Open Morning last Saturday and in particular to the 56 Year 6 tour guides who did a wonderful job in showing around our many visitors. I would also like to thank the staff and also the PPP volunteers who gave up their time to make this such a successful event.

Early on Wednesday fifty-three children and six staff leave on our Year 6 Hockey Tour to Holland. We hope they have a very special five days in Rotterdam and Amsterdam; their progress can be followed on Twitter (https://twitter.com/PersePrep).

Closer to home, we look forward to the Mental Health Awareness activities next week, with the whole school off timetable on Wednesday and Thursday; children should come into school in sports kit on both days. My thanks to Dr Syed for her assembly yesterday which set the scene about mental health with a focus on kindness and optimism. We shall also be carrying out some fundraising on the Wednesday for Eye Health UK, with Gingerbread Shapes on sale for £1 at break time ahead of some workshops with doctors from this charity telling us about their campaign to fight avoidable blindness around the globe.

As already mentioned to the children, in order to help with various activities on the Wednesday and Thursday, it would be a big help if they could bring in some of the following: Year 3 – empty egg shells; Year 4 – any old pairs of tights and one clean yoghurt pot; Year 5 – a bag of recycling material to make junk musical instruments (eg clean plastic pots and old tins, cardboard tubes, old packaging). Children should hand these in to Form Teachers. Many thanks.

Perse Overseas Schools Over the past week Pete Whitmell has been in Singapore, helping the team there with arrangements for the Perse Junior School. The school is very favourably located in Bukit Timah, overlooking the nature reserve, and is scheduled to open its doors to 6-12 year olds in January 2020. In addition to this, The Perse School Suzhou will open in September 2020 in China and will prepare 15-18 year olds for Cambridge IGCSE and IA level international qualifications.

The Perse overseas schools will operate on a regulated franchise model with Perse Cambridge quality assurance and training visits to maintain high standards. In time there will be some language and cultural benefits for Perse pupils, especially at the Upper. There will also be shared learning activities to promote cross cultural team work and understanding – all of which will help prepare Perse pupils for twenty first century workplaces. Aside from the educational gains the financial returns from Perse International will help subsidise Perse Cambridge, particularly in the areas of funding bursaries, our public benefit outreach programme and by being an additional source of income to pay for site improvements and to keep a downward pressure on fee increases.

Artwork This week’s banners are from Art Enrichment and from Year 5 Origami work from Open Day.

Pastoral Talk – Coping with Children’s Anger – Friday 1st March 8.00am Aware of common experiences and concerns that parents may face, we have devised a two year cycle of pastoral talks for Prep parents. These are held on the first Friday after each half term by our pastoral team of Mrs Crichton Maitland, Mrs MacDowell and Mrs Day-Small and are full of valuable practical tips. Each summer we cover E-safety, and recent winter terms have seen us cover Anxiety, Positive Relationships and Healthy Lifestyles. Our next talk is on the subject of Coping with Children’s Anger and will take place in the Drama Studio before the Friday Assembly. There will be coffee and pastries on offer from 7.45am, with the talk starting at 8.00am. Notes will be available for those parents unable to make this event.

Christmas Shoebox Appeal In Tuesday’s Assembly Year 10 students from the Upper introduced this year’s Christmas Shoebox Appeal run by Link to Hope. The charity delivers the Christmas boxes to disadvantaged families and elderly people in Eastern Europe. It is really easy to take part and an empty shoebox, a quick visit to your supermarket or local shops, and a cover-label with some wrapping paper is all it takes. Boxes need to be left in the foyer of Reception by 9.00am on Monday 4th November at the latest. Printed leaflets (with labels to stick on the wrapped boxes) have been handed out to your children; extra leaflets can be downloaded. Key points are:  Find a medium size shoe box.  Fill a 'family' or 'elderly' box by ticking the appropriate option on the leaflet & choosing a range of gifts from those listed, ticking off on the customs label.  Sellotape £2 on the leaflet to cover postage (complete the gift aid form if possible).  Wrap up the whole box with Christmas paper as a single unit (completely sealed) & sellotape the customs label on at the edges marked - so the postage slip can be torn off to leave the customs label on.

Sport Key events for the week ahead are:

Monday 14th: U11A Girls’ IAPS Hockey Tournament, Framlingham College (10.00am – 6.30pm) Tuesday 15th: U8 Football House Matches (8.50am – 10.15am) U9 Football House Matches (11.30am – 12.30pm). Not as advertised in Calendar as 11.00am start. U10 A/B/C/D Football v St Faith’s away at 2.50pm Wednesday 16th: Year 6 Holland Hockey Trip departs from the Upper at 6.30am.

Please note that we are currently halfway through our boys’ House Matches which will involve a round robin tournament between Barbarians, Corinthians, Foresters and Nomads; the girls’ Hockey House Matches take place at the end of term. As on normal match days, refreshments will be available to parents in the pavilion at our Porson Road playing fields, but this will be self-service. Normal clubs and pick up arrangements continue for the end of the day.

Well done to the U11 girls who won a silver medal in the IN2 Hockey Tournament that we hosted earlier this week, ensuring qualification to the Regional round. After drawing against Stephen Perse Foundation and then losing to eventual champions Kimbolton, we drew against St Faith’s before beating King’s College Cambridge, King’s Ely and St John’s to finish in second place. Well done to the following girls: Lexie Abensour, Elodie Bowen-Sanders, Orlaith Carey, Lottie Denny-Gouldson, Alexandra Goodricke, Eva Jonas, Stuthi Kambli, Poppy Rayner and Amber Smith.

PPP AGM – Monday 14th October The PPP AGM will be held in the Drama Studio at 7.30pm this coming Monday. This will include a summary of the PPP's activities over the last year and the appointment of new Committee members for the year ahead. All parents are welcome to attend.

Certificates and Awards Congratulations to Aadya Acharya, Alexander Martinez and Siobhan Monteith on their Perse Summer School Golf Awards; Mithi Chaki and Henry Tysome on their Year 5 Reading Badges; Hattie Dickinson on her Royal Academy of Dance Grade 1 Class Award; Etienne Lamb on his U9 Cambridgeshire Tennis Team Tournament Winner’s Medal and Sophia McDonald on her Imperial Society Teachers of Dancing Latin American Jive Honours Award, British Suzuki Institute Double Bass Level 1 Award, Cello Level 2 and 3 Awards. Congratulations to the following on their Head’s Commendations: Mark Scott who has been supported by Lexie Abensour and created and printed a small series of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ stories which are illustrated by Amy Scott; Aurora Broodbank for dreaming up and producing a wonderfully inventive game as part of her Maths homework.

Yours sincerely

James Piper Head

We value endeavour, intellectual curiosity and scholarship, breadth and balance, one another and our environment.