30th April 2021

MESSAGE FROM MRS RICHARDSON

Dear Parents

Today there was another first for me at Wellington Prep School. In the Prep Hall today, six of our Year 6 students pitched for the two main School Charities, one national and one international. WPS will donate to each of the charities and so every one of the six will benefit. The children in Years 3 to 6 voted and the national charity was chosen as the 'Children's Hospice South West' (Joseph Sharpe) and the international charity, 'Sea Shepherd' (Mary van der Beugel). Congratulations to them all; the standard of presentation was high, and the confidence and passion for their choices was evident.

On Friday next week, everyone is invited to wear a hat to school and donate money to the charities. The children will place their donations (suggested £1) on the top of their heads before they 'raise their hat' for charity! We to get our fundraising off to a good start.

Tomorrow is our Open Day, we have families booked in to tour, both in person and virtually. The School looks fabulous and ready to receive potential Wellington families. We have been delighted to hear of recommendations from so many of our current parents and we thank you for doing so.

Next week we are holding a Parent Representatives' meeting, please do get in touch with your Parent Representative if you have anything to raise.

With best wishes for a lovely weekend. Vics Richardson

Year 6 Positions of Responsibility – Summer Term Sports Prefects: Sam Harvey-Knight and Peer Mentors: Alex Stapleton and Edith Mortimer

YEAR 6 CHARITY SPEECH FINALISTS

National Charities Joseph Sharpe Children’s Hospice South West Amy Colman Diabetes UK Anouk van Dijk Guide dogs

International Charities Shayan Barthakur SOS Children’s Villages Mary van der Beugel Sea Shepherd Henry Barker Save the Elephants

L E A R N I N G F O R L I F E

EARLY YEARS The Nursery children often have their own ideas and interests that spark their imagination and creativity. This week the planning went in a different direction and Mrs Lucas used this as an opportunity for the children’s learning to be joyful and different. The children talked about the ‘Queen of Tiny Things’ and then Mrs Lucas a fairy doll. The children made playdough fairy cakes with glitter, made little fairy Queens, created small stories about the adventures of the Queen and used Lego to make houses for the Queen to live in. Through play, the children were learning to use language for story-telling, creativity, using their imagination, and were totally engrossed in their learning. That is the beauty of Early Years, through play the children don’t even realise they are learning, learning skills for a lifetime and developing a love of learning. Mrs Wheller and Mrs Lucas

YEAR 1 Year 1 had a very busy Forest School this week. The children experimented with an alternative photographic process, known as ‘Cyanotyping’. All the children collected natural materials from the woodland to compose their own unique blue print and they learnt about the importance of UV light when working with light-sensitive paper. The children made wild garlic bread for their snack, they had to be detectives to find the wild garlic that grows in our woodland, which then needed to be chopped and mashed into butter, before being spread on French bread, wrapped in foil and toasted on the campfire. Delicious! Mrs Perry

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YEAR 2 Year 2 have started building their bridges and have completed Phase 1 of their build. It was amazing to see so many different designs inspired by beam, suspension, truss and arch bridges. Next week, the children will have to face the task of completing their bridge: two-way traffic and a special weight to see if it will hold in the middle! In English, the children have enjoyed writing about Goldilocks. Towards the end of the week, 2W enjoyed a slightly different twist to the tale that featured one bear who is lost in the middle of a city. Meanwhile, in Maths, the children have been building their own 3D structures using a range of different 3D shapes. A busy but very ‘constructive’ week. Mr Warren

YEAR 3 Year 3 had an exciting start to their ‘History of Clothes’ topic by getting to handle and try on clothes kindly brought in by Mrs Handley, the Bishop family, Lily in Year 2 and Raffaele in Nursery. The children were intrigued by the different fabrics, colours and styles, the clothes sparked and inspired great conversations. Mrs Webber and Mrs Coate

This week Year 3 started their Plants topic in science. Piece by piece the children dissected a lily using tweezers and identified the parts of the flower.

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YEAR 4 In Science this week we have continued on States of Matter. We have been investigating whether we can weigh gas and had great fun with fizzy drinks. We weighed the fizzy drinks then shook them and allowed them to go flat before weighing them again to see how much the gas weighed. We were trying to find out which was the fizziest drink, 4M discovered that Coke was the fizziest, 4N found that Fanta was the fizziest.

In Maths this week, we have been working hard on decimals, the children worked together to try and make the biggest decimal number that we could.

In PSHE, we have learnt a new magic word……..YET! Year 4 discussed the power of ‘yet’ and came up with some things that they were not too good at ‘yet’, but will be with practise and hard work. Mrs Needs and Mrs Middleton

YEAR 5 Year 5 have loved reading the first few chapters of ‘Stormbreaker’ by Anthony Horowitz. They are intrigued by the many questions generated at the beginning of the book and have produced some great character descriptions of Alex (the main character).

Year 5 have been learning about different forces, and took part in an experiment to measure how the extension of a spring varies with different loads. 5S plotted out the results of their experiment and found a surprisingly accurate straightline graph, showing the extension was proportional to the load applied!

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YEAR 6 Year 6 have been investigating acids and alkalis. The children have experimented with Litmus paper, Universal Indicator paper and final made their own indicator out of red cabbage! A fantastic, “wow!”, Science lesson!

TAKE ONE PICTURE 2021 The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi (c1630) Each year, The National Gallery in London runs an initiative for schools where a painting from the Gallery is selected and used as a stimulus for cross-curricular learning. This term, Wellington Prep School pupils will take a voyage of discovery starting with ‘The Finding of Moses’ by Orazio Gentileschi. Children will learn about the painting itself, as well as the history behind it, using a process of looking, thinking and imagining; themes will include leadership and power, journeys, storytelling, connections and families, textiles and water. We look forward to sharing our work with you later this term! Mrs Middleton

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GARDENING CLUB On Monday afternoon, the official opening of the new WPS Allotment, named ‘Magnolia Corner’ took place. Mr du Toit, Mrs Richardson, Mr Hitchin and Mrs Solvo joined our Year 5 and 6 Gardening Club members to hear about the project and see the transformations that have taken place so far. Our Gardening Prefects spoke about their involvement and guests were given a tour of the site and shown the different vegetables, fruits and herbs currently being grown and the ways we are encouraging wildlife. Mr du Toit and Mrs Richardson also planted up some of our tomatoes, grown from seed. We hope the British spring and summer months now bring us the crops we hope for….

POLITE REQUEST: Enthusiasm has been so high, that we have almost run out of space in our raised beds already. We are looking to add more pots to the site and would be hugely grateful for any donations of large, unwanted pots or containers to plant more in (ideally large saucepan/bucket sized). If you have anything suitable that you no longer need, please do let us know. Mrs Lyon Taylor or Mrs Stanton

MUSIC NOTES

Nursery - Year 2 In our final week of lessons before the performance, children in Nursery through to Year 2 have been listening to, and talking, about ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. We have also started work on some songs for the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ at the end of term.

Years 3 – 6 Pupils across the Prep School have been working hard this week listening to Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ which they will hear live during next week. Many pupils have also produced artwork which will be displayed in the Prep Hall, to be admired as the music plays. We hope that it will inspire the pupils, in the same way as Mussorgsky was inspired by his friend Hartman’s original paintings.

Year 5 will continue with their group violin lessons next week. The whole year group will demonstrate their violin playing skills in the Year 5 Showcase at the end of term (Thursday 1st July at 3.00pm).

Tuesday 18th May, 4.00-5.30pm Music Parents’ Evening - Advance notice that if you would like to know more about the musical life of the Prep School, or to come and meet Mrs Shaw and Mrs Ridley, we will be sitting in the Prep Playground from 4.00pm holding an informal Music Parents’ Evening. In the meantime, please let me know if your son/daughter would like a free taster on any of the musical instruments they could learn in school. Mrs Shaw and Mrs Ridley Wellington School Music Vimeo Channel https://vimeo.com/channels/wellingtonschoolmusic

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DRAMA Our first week of Stage School was a success with children learning choreography to the song ‘Naughty’, from Matilda! Up this week will be some characterisation work and further choreography! There are now very limited spaces available but if you would like further information please email drama@wellington- school.org.uk

SPORT UPDATE Well done, to our early morning swimmers from Years 5 and 6 on Thursday morning, it was a great session and I hope to see each of you there each week. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate any more swimmers in this group. If there are any swimmers who cannot attend next week do please contact [email protected] so we are aware for catering purposes.

Aquathon training: Training continues this Saturday. We had an outstanding turn-out last week, well done to everyone who attended and I hope to see even more of you there! Please note there is a change to the drop off this Saturday due to the school Open Morning. All parents should enter the school through the Senior School main gates, drop off by the swimming pool (not the quad) and then exit promptly via the groundsman’s hut. Timings below:

Years 5 and 6 - 9.00am - 10.00am Years 3 and 4 - 10.00am - 11.00am

FRIENDS OF WELLINGTON PREP SCHOOL (FoWPS) Our Walk n Talk initiative is really starting to grow in popularity, with parents from Nursery, Years 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 joining us this week. It is great to meet so many new families too - Ecuador, Oman, Hertfordshire and Stawley were all represented this week! We even had a few four-legged friends join us and we managed an outside cafe trip after our walk. Do come along if you are free - everyone is very welcome. Next week, we are meeting on Friday 7th May, again at 8.30am. We are also hoping to organise a meet up in the May half term too, so keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information. Wellington Prep School FoWPS

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STARS OF THE WEEK Per Teig Reception Isaac D'Souza and Monty Legg 1P Sam Whitehead 2W Charlie Eustace 3C Tore Teig 3W Sophie van Dijk 4M Thomas Luter 4N Freya Govier 5L Zac Sparey 5S Alex Stapleton 6H Matthew Hitchin 6L

Sport Star of the Week: Leo Farinha 6L Writing Star of the Week: Benjamin Woodford Reception Drama Star of the Week: Mollie Garrett 3W Music Star of the Week: Jenny Eden 5L and Martha Pipe Reception Music Merits: Lily Park 3C, Gracie MacAlister 3C and Evangeline Stone 5S

HOUSE POINTS PIONEER 470 APOLLO 485 VIKING 465 GALILEO 478

DIARY FROM SATURDAY 1ST MAY

09:00 12:00 Open Morning 09:00 10:00 Years 5 and 6 Swim/Run 01.May.21 Sat 09:00 10:00 Years 1 and 2 Stage School (pre-booking required) 10:00 12:00 Years 3 – 6 Stage School (pre-booking required) 10:00 11:00 Years 3 and 4 Swim/Run 02.May.21 Sun Pictures at an Exhibition (week of concerts and art exhibition in Prep Hall) 03-May-21 Mon 13:00 15:15 Nursery and Reception - Forest School 15:00 Cricket Girls-U8 and U9 vs Taunton School 04-May-21 Tue 13:30 15:00 Years 1 and 2 Swimming 08:30 09:30 Reception - Swimming 13:00 15:30 Year 1 Forest School 13:00 Cricket Boys-U10A and B vs Blundell's Prep School 05-May-21 Wed 14:00 Cricket Boys-U11A and B vs Blundell's Prep School 14:00 Cricket Girls-U10A and B vs Blundell's Prep School 14:00 Cricket Girls-U11A vs Blundell's Prep School

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06-May-21 Thu 13:00 15:30 Year 2 Forest School am pm Raise Your Hat for Charity! (fundraising event) 07-May-21 Fri 13:00 15:15 Nursery - Forest School 09:00 10:00 Years 5 and 6 Swim/Run 09:00 10:00 Years 1 and 2 Stage School (pre-booking required) 08-May-21 Sat 10:00 12:00 Years 3 – 6 Stage School (pre-booking required) 10:00 11:00 Years 3 and 4 Swim/Run 09-May-21 Sun

H0CKEY CAMP Inspire Hockey will be hosting a two-day Hockey Camp during half term at Wellington School, held on the 1st and 2nd June. This promises to be a fun and insightful opportunity to develop your son or daughter’s hockey skills. Please use the following link to book a place! https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing?eid=17889

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