Newsletters

Newsletter - Friday 3rd December 2021

Dear Parents,

This week has been a week of celebration! On Tuesday I was delighted to be appointed as Head of St Bernard's Prep - my dream job! After 10 years here, I am honoured and privileged to be the new Head of this fantastic school.

We also celebrated Christingle, led by Miss Mehta's Year 4 class in a beautiful Liturgy. We have loved watching the Early Years Department perform their Nativity, particularly the sign language song, and the whole school enjoyed a brilliant afternoon at the Panto in Windsor. The children looked smart, behaved beautifully and really made me proud.

Finally, today The Sunday Times published their Parent Power Best Schools Guide and St Bernard's Preparatory is not only the best in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, but at Number 8 nationwide! This year's list is collated using the last three years of KS2 SATs results, and we couldn't be more proud. It's wonderful to have our high standard of teaching and learning reflected in national data. Please do buy yourself a copy of The Sunday Times this weekend and see us listed as one of the best schools in the country!

Spotlight on Success

Congratulations to Satinderpal in Year 6 for his outstanding attitude and tenacity in French. Satinderpal is always enthusiastic in class and consistently challenges and stretches himself with additional work. Well done Satinderpal.

Reminders and dates for your diary:

Tuesday 7^th Dec – Christmas Bazaar, please give children some change to spend at the Bazaar.

Tuesday 7th December - The date for Billings and Edmonds, on Eton High Street, to take over our uniform supplies has been brought forward. You can now buy uniform from Billings and Edmonds from 7th December.

Thursday 9th Dec - Victorian Day for Year 1.

Friday 10^th Dec – Christmas lunch and Christmas jumper day (all donations made via ParentMail will go to our chosen charity Mission Together).

Friday 10^th Dec - Last day for Bags of Kindness donations

Celebrating Success

Congratulations to Nainikka from Year 4 has achieved a Distinction in her piano Grade 1 practical exam.

Well done to Harmani in Year 1 who has passed her 10m distance swimming as part of the Swim England (ASA)/ English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) Rainbow Swimming Aware Scheme.

We have raised £285.50 as part of our Christmas Card designs. Well done everyone.

Year 3 organised and led the most beautiful Liturgy about Our World, guided by Mrs Rafferty. A special mention to Archie, Musa, Ria and Sahar who did a fantastic job. Well done!

Thank you

A huge thank you to the Robinson Family from Pinewood Nursuries for donating the beautiful Christmas tree that you can see at the school entrance. Thank you also to FOPS for donating everything for the Christmas Bazaar.

Mrs Verma's Big Ideas for Curious Minds

As a school we love to stretch and challenge our children, to enrich their education beyond the curriculum. Every week I will be sharing with you some discussion topics, new vocabulary, Maths riddles and book recommendations, that will infect our children with a love of learning. These will all be posted in the Parent Portal section of our website as well.

Word of the week - Verisimilitude

Something that merely seems to be true or real. Many writers or filmmakers try for some kind of verisimilitude in their stories, to make them believable. Including a great many details in a novel, for example, adds to its verisimilitude.

She was experiencing a nightmare of the most extraordinary verisimilitude.

The World This Week - Chilie

Chilie is in the news this week because scientists have just published their findings on a new species of dinosaur discovered there three years ago. The newly named Stegouros elengassen, lived in Patagonia, part of what is now Chile, between 71 and 75 million years ago.

They initially thought they were dealing with a known species of dinosaur until they examined its tail, which they discovered was unlike any other dinosaur. The armoured tail was made up of seven pairs of blades and would have been a formidable weapon.

"Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in this season, the whole Church is called to be hope, for itself and for the world."

- Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger).

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Verma