SNAPSHOT It’s who we are.
ST SWITHUN’S PREP SCHOOL A REFLECTION OF THE SPRING AND SUMMER TERMS 2021
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Hello everyone Welcome to our reflection of the spring and summer terms of 2021 at St Swithun’s Prep. The majority of the photography within this magazine was taken between March and July: those months when we were allowed to be based in school and not working via electronic platforms. We are extremely proud that every single programme of study (sadly with the exception of swimming) was completed by the children, both in spirit and to the letter, despite the restrictions imposed on schools by the pandemic. The curriculum coverage experienced by pupils here was not adversely affected in any way by the need for us to teach and learn via video links. We simply carried on with our existing timetable and were delighted that, when the time came for us to be allowed back into the school building, we had actually got ahead of ourselves and many classes had embarked upon work planned for subsequent terms. We could, therefore, focus on the social, emotional and collaborative aspects of school life when the government allowed us to revert to operating in a conventional manner. Here at St Swithun’s, learning is always fun: we just took our school’s characteristic enjoyment of all things to a new level once we were allowed to return to campus. It is, therefore, highly appropriate that we are now expanding our traditional credo of It’s who we are, a phrase that runs throughout everything we do and, indeed, is the culmination of the prep school mantra that we talk about each day in assembly. It is undoubtedly the case that the kindness, learning characteristics, positive mindset, and social awareness of St Swithun’s children shine through not only in their school lives but also in everything they do once they have moved on to senior school, university and the world of work. Our daily interactions and activities in school concentrate on six key areas of making a difference: nurturing, discovering, investigating, celebrating, being proud of our achievements and then sharing them, thus showing the world what we can do. You will see from the pages of this magazine that these six aspects now quite rightly showcase who we are. The post-pandemic return to a semblance of normality was, without doubt, a learning experience in itself, and I am sure we all felt certain rites of passage as those aspects of our lives that had been denied for over a year gradually returned. For Ms Gandee and myself, never was this more obvious than when we were invited (in person!) to an awards dinner hosted by High Performance Learning; both the prep and senior schools had been judged World Class during an assessment day when lockdown measures were at their worst, and it was a real pleasure to be called up to receive our certificate. The award recognises and celebrates the fact that we blend an appropriately ambitious curriculum with explicitly planned cognitive processes and attitudes to learning, consequently ensuring the children in our charge receive an optimal education in its widest sense. I very much hope that you will see examples of this within the activities outlined in the pages of this publication. Finally, a huge thank you to 2021 year 6 leaver Adeline whose calligraphy features throughout this edition. With very best wishes Jonathan Brough
SCHOOL LIFE
A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD
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Year 1 spent lots of time in the kitchen in the summer term and made Challah bread to learn how Jewish children celebrate Shabbat. There were so many skills to be learned, including hygiene and nutrition.
GROWING CROP
TAKING CARE OF TONKA
Children learned to cultivate and grow their own crop in gardening club with much success. Their crop included strawberries, radishes, runner beans, peas, sweetcorn, chard, beetroot and rocket. They learned gardening skills such as appropriate use of clothing and tools; plant identification; breaking up the soil and sowing.
Preschool and reception children were in charge of Tonka in the last term. They learned which wild plants he can eat and also fed him some of their crop -he particularly loves rocket. They even made an adventure playground for him and he loved all the attention.
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COOKING, BAKING AND FOOD TASTING
The children in year 6 explored the theme ‘People in Action’ in their art lessons and studied the work of well-known artists, including Joan Miró, Keith Haring and Banksy. They created a variety of drawings in response to this theme.
Reception children enjoyed some role play, applying the number bonds learned in their maths lesson. Preschool and reception children took cuttings in their science lessons. Mrs Brown was very impressed with how well the children followed the instructions.
A number of year groups were lucky enough to visit Moors Valley Country Park. Year 3 spent a lovely afternoon in the woods getting to one with nature. They created mini treasure boxes and filled them with all the wonderful things they could find. They then tried some natural weaving, creating pictures from the interesting foliage they could find in the woods.
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
In French lessons reception children learned how to name the people in their own family and drew some lovely pictures of them too.
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OUT OF THIS WORLD
Preschool and reception children loved every one of their Forest School sessions come rain or shine. The outdoor learning area became really wild; the grass was long and full of wild flowers, and the children enjoyed using the pathways that were mown through them. They can now identify a wide variety of invertebrates as well as the names of some trees and flowers. They created some delightful natural art and many are now really confident in using basic tools for woodcraft. Their fine motor skills improved as they tried knot tying and delicate crafting activities, whilst their gross motor skills developed through tree climbing and physical exploration.
Year 5 learned about a wide array of space-based topics from planets, through constellations to nebulae. They produced some stunning work and models.
IT’S WHO WE ARE
STEXTCHOOL LIFEWHO WE ARE IT’S
FOREST SCHOOL
WILDERNESS AFTERNOONS On two of the hottest days of the year, years 3 and 4 walked to the far corner of Magdalen Hill Down to take part in educational workshops with the fantastic team from Butterfly Conservation. The girls used quadrats for surveying the plant life in the meadow, created natural ‘happa zoma’ printing art, used sweep nets for bug hunting and, with great care, passed around some of the inhabitants of a moth trap.
HABITATS At Chilton Manor Farm, year 2 immersed themselves in a wonderful day of focused outdoor exploration to further their scientific knowledge about habitats. Tasting the locally produced honey was an added bonus.
Year 5 discovered how shadows change throughout the day due to the apparent movement of the sun. They are developing their enquiry skills: planning, predicting, fair testing and observation.
OCEAN-INSPIRED ART Year 1 children made discoveries about the ocean, producing artwork inspired by the sea in the form of wave paintings and sea collages.
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SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS Our preschool children experimented with bubbles and gases. They made dancing raisins, effervescing vinegar and their own shaped bubbles.
Children in year 6 investigated how to make an electrical device.
IT’S
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SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE Children in reception investigated their fingerprints, classifying them as whorls, loops or arches – detectives in the making. Preschool children investigated static, using it to move objects including hair, tissue paper, foil and even bubbles.
Year 6 became palaeontologists for a day like Mary Anning. They excavated fossils and then inferred from partial remains what the prehistoric organism might have looked like.
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A fun-packed week was had by the year 6’s. Monday was Sustainability Day; after getting their hands dirty in some worthwhile activities they enjoyed a game of hockey and some yummy crêpes. Tuesday was a trip to Southampton Water Activities Centre where they tried paddleboarding, raft-building and sailing.
HOW TO WRAP YOUR MUMMY!
CREATIVITY WORTH CELEBRATING
The children in year 3 learnt about Ancient Egyptian art and symbols. They designed and made death masks using a variety of media and techniques including papier-mâché and then had great fun discovering the mummification process.
Years 3 and 4 had a wonderful time at their first concert in well over a year. They were lucky enough to have the fabulous Piatti String Quartet visit and perform a fantastic selection of music which they could join in with too.
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YEAR 6 LEAVERS’ WEEK
Wednesday was a fun day at the beach in Lepe. Thursday was French day, which ended in style with their leavers’ dinner. Friday was problem solving and team work day.
Beautiful artwork by all year groups, including some pop-up story books designed and made by the year 4 children.
LET’S GO FLY A KITE The reception children had enormous fun making kites and then running free across the field to fly them.
The year 2 children had a great time performing with some percussion instruments.
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
And then came their final lap of honour of the school. We wish all our year 6’s good luck in their new schools.
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SOME ART TO BE PROUD OF
Earlier in the year it was back to remote learning. Once again the children showed resilience as they rose to the challenge and produced some fabulous work, whether at home or in school. Everyone should be incredibly proud of what they achieved.
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REMOTE LEARNING
In year 5 the children learned about the art of Batik. They experimented with liquid wax and fabric dyes to create flower textiles, inspired by the famous flower paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. The year 2 children learned about the art of printmaking, experimenting with a variety of objects, materials and techniques to create interesting symmetrical patterns and pictures. They also explored the different features of vehicles, looking closely at how wheels, axles and chassis work. They then designed and made their own moving vehicles- something to be very proud of.
It was great to see some of year 5 showing their support for Marji Poutinen and her work to prevent climate change.
Huge congratulations to year 2 who raised £400 for the World Land Trust. That’s, enough money to buy four acres of tropical rainforest, protecting and conserving it for everyone forever.
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
SAVING OUR PLANET
Years 4 and 5 showed their support for the bees by taking part in the BBC’s Big Bee Challenge to design a bee friendly garden. The children learned why bees are in decline; all about their favourite plants and what we can do to help them. Meanwhile the preschool and reception children had lots of fun making bee bombs to help create diverse wild flower habitats for the bees.
CLEVER CLAPPING Year 4 loved learning about Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. Exploring the phasing gave them a great brain workout but they loved the challenge.
PRE-PREP SPORTS DAY The younger members of the school were lucky enough to dodge the awful weather so could compete in a fun afternoon of running, jumping and throwing activities. They were all superstars! Despite not having a full sports day due to the dreadful weather (twice) the older girls still managed to get the majority of field events finished and there were even some new school records.
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During lockdown the children became published authors of their very own book, a 300-page anthology of stories, poems and reportage. With much excitement, every child in the school contributed at least a page of the finished text. A few lucky children were also given the opportunity to perform their poems for a radio audience on Winchester Today Arts Plus. This was a fantastic experience for everyone in the school and will become an annual initiative so that the children can see their creativity growing and developing year after year.
The whole prep school took part in the Captain Tom Moore’s 100 challenge to raise money for charity. From speed bounces, to star jumps, lacrosse ground balls to football passes, each year group set out to complete 100 repetitions of their challenge in a row. Everyone did brilliantly and had fun whilst doing it.
The children joined schools across the world to take part in global Outdoor Classroom Day. The programme for the day, which involved the whole school, included work on grid references, map reading, digital photography, distance calculation, programming robots to complete athletics challenges, using compass bearings to create shapes, investigating chemical reactions by making bottle rockets and designing a parachute for a hard-boiled egg. The children were completely undeterred by the wet and windy weather and had a wonderful and memorable learning experience.
SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS The summer term was dominated by athletics and cricket with pre-prep also working on their tennis skills. It was brilliant to see cricket games being played during lunch and break times, showing the fun and engagement the children have with the sport. Cricket matches returned with great success. Every child in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 had the chance to represent the school, both home and away. There were some very competitive matches, some pressure moments and some testing of new skills. Most encounters were close, decided by the odd wicket here and there but the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
CAPTAIN TOM MOORE’S 100 CHALLENGE
GLOBAL OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY
IT’S
IT’S
WE ARE WRITERS
ST SWITHUN’S WILL ROCK YOU In an exciting week at the end of the summer term, year 6 pulled off an amazing production of St Swithun’s Will Rock you to four different audiences... and they really did rock.
The girls took part in the regional round of the ISFA (Independent Schools Football Association) national cup. Having had no competitive matches previously they didn’t have the best preparation but the girls did themselves proud growing into the tournament as they went. With some close calls, successes and the odd disaster, they narrowly missed out on the semifinals by the barest of margins.
St Swithun’s Prep School, Alresford Road, Winchester, SO21 1HA 01962 835750 prepoffice@stswithuns.com www.stswithuns.com Registered Charity Number 307335