Newsletters

Newsletter Friday 10th December

Dear Parents,

This is the last newsletter of what has been a wonderful Advent term. It started well in September, when our baseline testing showed that our children had made great progress despite the challenges of remote teaching and learning. This positive start was quickly followed by a number of national awards in SATIPS Handwriting, resulting in our school being awarded 2nd Best school nationally. The successes continued, thick and fast, with great results in the Primary Maths Challenge, inter-school sports, inter-school science quizzes and music exams. But it hasn't all been about academic achievements, we have had some incredible responses to charity appeals - thank you all for your continued generosity - and beautiful Liturgies. We've enjoyed some wonderful school experiences; Victorian day, dance masterclasses, Christmas lunch and last week's wonderful trip to the Panto! For me personally, to be awarded the Headship has been a highlight, and the cherry on the cake has to be being ranked as the 7th Best Prep School in the country! None of this could happen without a great team - our brilliant staff, supportive parent body and of course the lovely children. I look forward to next term and all that it has in store for us.

Christmas Jumper and Christmas Dinner

There has been a wonderful atmosphere at school today with some fantastic Christmas jumpers and a delicious festive feast.

Spotlight on Success

This week's spotlight on success goes to Veeran and Aadarshan in Year 2. Veeran and Aadarshan wrote beautiful letters of apology from Edgar the Dragon, from John Lewis' Christmas campaign, to the villagers. Their use of persuasive language was excellent they read it out beautifully to Mrs Verma and in front of the whole class. Well done.

St Bernard's Prep Follow

We are hosting an Open Morning and Meet the Headteacher on Saturday 15th January 2022. Come along and see what makes us the 7th best prep school in the country. Book your place by emailing admissions@stbernardsprep.org https://t.co/k56KE1m6gC

1 day ago

Bronze reading badge

Well done to these children for achieving their bronze reading badge this term.

Year 6: Sai, Divya, Okuse, Ayannah, Daniel, Satinderpal, Aarush and Aleena.

Year 5: Ruby, Eveleen, Anish, Sasha, Oscar, Rhia, Rudra, Evan, Esha, Aryaman, Annika, Sukhmani, Mylan and Hailee.

Year 4: Kaiden, Ayesha, Nainikka, Vamika, Tulsi, Hafsah, Raman, Elle, Navraj, Kishin, Adam, Meraya, Meena, Isabella and Shyla.

Year 3: Jasmine, Dea, Ria, Evani, Sacha, Jai and Christina.

Year 2: Avni, Hargun, James, Joshua, Mia, Shrey, Veeran, Anuj, Avani, Akaal and Rhea.

Advent Term Sports Summary:

It has been an absolute blessing for our children to be able to participate in inter-school fixtures once again. This term provided wonderful opportunities for every child across KS2 to represent our school’s teams in both Hockey and Rugby. Considering that our children have not participated in competitive matches for over 18 months, the results delivered were absolutely outstanding.

Our Hockey teams had a win rate success of 75% with 64 goals being scored, and an average of 5 goals per match! Our Rugby teams finished the season with a 67% win rate scoring a colossal 132 tries – An average of 8 tries per game! We were also very fortunate to be represented at the IAPS Under 11 Football Tournament which was held at Lambrook School during the half-term, in which our boys showed plenty of heart and played some outstanding football. We look forward to attending this event next year again.

We as a school are extremely proud of how well the children have performed and we look forward to the Netball and Football fixtures that await us next term. Well done boys and girls!

Music exams

Well done to the following pupils who have been practising hard and gained the following music grades in the past few weeks:

Devam Year 6 Piano Grade 5 with merit

Annika Year 5 Piano Grade 2 with merit

Please let the school know of pupils that have taken music exams on any instrument so we can celebrate their achievements.

Music lesson vacancies next term

These lesson times have become available for pupils for start lessons at the beginning of next term:

Drum lessons

Monday   3.30 – 4pm Years 2 – 6 only
Tuesday 3 – 3.30pm   Year 6 - Remove C only
Wednesday    3.30 – 4pm   Years 2 – 5 only

Piano or violin lessons

Tuesday 9.30 – 10am Year 1- Prep H only

Please note – Pupils will not be charged for homework club if waiting for music lessons and will receive a drink and snack at the end of the school day.

If you would like your son or daughter to begin drum lessons next term please complete and return the Instrumental lesson letter that can be found on the parentportal section of the school website. Please return the letter to reception electronically or print off and send into school.

House Points

During the term our children have once again participated in collecting as many points as they could for their respective Houses, in order to compete for the termly House Shield.

Awarding House Points:

These are some of the areas in which we normally award the house points:

A very good piece of schoolwork / homework.
A child that is being helpful - both to children and adults.
A good deed/gesture.
Tidy Uniform / Tidy desk / Tidy Lockers.
Politeness and well-mannered.
Inter-House Competitions.

As always, there was strong competition amongst the four Houses across the whole school and in the end the final scores were very close. A very well done to House Luke who were the overall winners this term with 2016 points. In 2^nd place it was Matthew with 1951 points, John in 3^rd place with 1910 points and Mark being 4^th with 1830 points.

Well done to all the children for keeping up this inter-house rivalry! We look forward to plenty more of this throughout the course of the year with competitions such as Football, Netball, Rounders and Athletics still to come.

Nativity

Our Early Years children performed a beautiful Nativity.

Celebrating success

Well done to Kaiden in Year 4. Kaiden passed stage 5 swimming and he won the tennis tournament in orange ball at Richings park tennis club.

Reminders and dates for your diary:

Our new uniform supplier is now Billings and Edmonds in Eton.

Monday 13th December - The rescheduled Christmas Bazzaar. Please send your children in with change (20p, 50p & £1s).

Mrs Verma's Big Ideas for Curious Minds

Christmas

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 - Christmas

Christmas is a shortened form of "Christ's mass", or "Cristes Maesse" as it was first recorded in 1038.

This was followed by the term Cristes-messe in 1131, according to the The Catholic Encyclopedia.

The term "Christ" - or Crīst as it originally read - comes from the Greek word Khrīstos, a translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means "anointed".

The second part of Christmas - maesse - is a version of the Latin word missa, the celebration of the Eucharist tradition of eating bread and drinking wine in memory of Jesus.

The World This Week - France, Notre-Dame Cathedral

Notre-Dame has made the news this week as plans for the extensive refurbishment, following the devastating fire of 2019, have created controversy. Although the area of the Cathedral most damaged by the fire is being restored to its former glory, other areas are getting a modern revamp. Part of restoration will see confessional boxes replaced with modern art murals, and new sound and light effects to create “emotional spaces”. Classical sculptures and altars will remain, but the new plans have divided opinion.

What do you think, is traditional better than modern?

Christmas family games

Articulate has long been a family favourite in the Verma household, and you can now play with the children with Articulate for Kids. Players are competing to describe as many words in a time period, without saying the word.

The Logo Game - Compete to recognise as many logos from brands, adverts and packaging.

What Came First is a great game to play with older children. Mayonnaise or Ketchup? Star Wards or Star Trek? Get the chronology right to win points.

An Advent Prayer

The gifts I'd leave beneath your tree,
Aren't those that you can touch or see,
No toys meant just for pointless play,
But gifts to bless you every day.
The gift of friendship warm and true,
Is one that I would leave for you
Good health and happiness and cheer
To keep you smiling through the year.
/the gift of peace that comes from God,
With prayer to guide each path you trod.
And when your heart has lost its song
The gift of hooper to cheer you on.
These are the gifts I'd leave for you.

Have a wonderful Christmas and wishing everyone health and happiness in 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Verma