Dear Parents,
Which piece of a puzzle are you? Are you a linking edge? Are you an excellent starting point corner? Are you a brightly coloured, easily distinguishable feature? Or are you, perhaps, a bit of hedge or sky or cloud, part of the essential fabric of life that is sometimes overlooked, but is no less essential?
As you can tell, I was quite taken with the theme of the Assembly picked by our Trans T children today - as they spoke on the subject of 'Celebrating Differences'. They used a 'piece of the puzzle' skit to try and emphasise the essential nature of human relationships, outlining the fact that no-one is complete without other people, and that we all bring something different to the picture.
Their presentation was wonderful - with confident, considered speaking, and fun games interspersed with serious messaging. They talked about why we are attracted to the familiar - people who look like us and speak the same language as us - but they also asked why some people are taught to see difference and to fear it, where others accept and respect it? It was a great question, I'm sure you'll agree, and one that we might all take time to consider.
I'm so happy with all the pieces of my own puzzle this week - from seeing the fantastic efforts made for World Book Day and hearing about the children's favourite stories, to meeting a real life mountain climber - my week has been filled with fascinating people. I hope you get a chance to think about all the puzzle pieces that make up your lives too, and to celebrate both the special and the mundane.
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Flagging up talent
Cast your minds back a couple of weeks, and see if you can recall us asking you to design a flag for the school as part of World Geography Day...
Today we announced the winners of that contest - it was an incredibly tough pick so we chose three runners up and an overall winner.
Samaa - Year 3 - runner up
Safi - Year 5 - runner up
Ameya - Year 2 - runner up
Simran - Year 6 - winner
Simran won the overall accolade thanks to her eye-catching but simple design, which my teacher judges really thought encapsulated the St Bernard's Prep school spirit. I particularly loved the doves holding the school name in their beaks - what brilliant handiwork.
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Crumble at bedtime?
It was an exciting week in Design Technology as our Year 6 children learned how to use 'Crumble' to programme the lighting sequences and colours of their very own nightlights.
The children created commands with code to make their bulbs flash in different sequences and colours.
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Ancient reflections of nature
Our Year 3 children have been studying the Stone Age period of history this term and in Art, they recently made their own models of the world heritage site of Stonehenge, jotting down loads of interesting facts about this special landmark.
They also recreated some beautiful cave paintings, using pastels and charcoals, choosing shades that reflected the colours from nature that would have been used by artists all those thousands of years ago.
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World Book Day bonanza
How wonderful to welcome so many children in for our World Book Day breakfast - and wearing such fabulous costumes. We appreciate the effort that you put into meeting the theme of nursery rhymes and fairytales.
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Mountain climbers in the making
It was thrilling to welcome a real life mountain climber to our school this week. Jenny Cooke was so impressed with our use of the virtual geography tool 'Odizzi' that this week she popped in to visit our children and tell them all about her route to base camp.
It was brilliant to see the Year 6 class relive her journey asking questions about the temperature and the training she had to undertake. As part of the session the class acted out climbing up the mountain, thinking about the clothes they'd have to wear and how difficult it might be to scale a summit of that size.
What a wonderful way it was to immerse ourselves in a geography lesson!
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Don't worry, bee happy
Our Head of Science Mrs Thapar took our Year 3 students to a bees and honey workshop at Baylab in Reading this week.
They had a brilliant time learning all about the types of bees, how honey is made, seeing the world through a bee's eyes and even making their own lip balms.
We hope they came home buzzing and told you all about it!
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Your special achievements
I'm thrilled to have a few announcements this week, with some brilliant achievements taking place.
Raman in Year ?'s highlight from last weekend, was that he competed for the first time for Berkshire County U11s for this year's Athletes Sports Hall. He had some astounding results: 2nd of the Berkshire boys, with a standing long jump of 1.86m, coming 17th overall. His team achieved 7th overall, a fantastic result.
We've received a lovely photo of Tulsi in Year ? who performed a special dance called Pushpanjali. She's been practising for months learning the intricate moves with her hands - known as hasthas - as well as the steps with her feet.
This pose is known as the Parvati pose, named after a Hindu god.
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Mr B's sport report
Football festival is a whole lot of fun
On Saturday 25 February we hosted our annual Under 9 Football Festival, welcoming teams from The Beacon School, Claire’s Court, Herries and Thorpe House. The overall winners were Thorpe House (A – Section) and The Beacon (B-section).
The standard of football played was very high and although there was healthy competition the children were very sporting throughout. A big thank you to Mr Hawkes and Mr Baig for looking after our players on the day.
Mr Barendse would like to give a special thank you to Mrs Tina Jalaf and her team for all their help on the day for preparing such a delicious 'match tea’ for our visitors.
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Netball vs Gayhurst:
On Friday 24 February, our Under 10 A and B Netball teams played a home fixture against Gayhurst. The A team started strongly and dominated the first and second quarter and led 6-0 at half time. In the second half, St Bernard's became a little complacent and sloppy and let Gayhurst back in the game in the third quarter!
In the final quarter, we returned to our normal selves and ended the game with a convincing 14-6 victory. Well done to all players, you have shown tremendous skill and commitment over the past few weeks in netball. A particular well done to MVP Ellie.
The Under 10 B team also played against Gayhurst, and their game was thrilling! Gayhurst started strongly, winning the first quarter 3-1, but we came back strongly to draw 3-3 at half time. In the third quarter Gayhurst raced into a 5-3 lead before we scored a quick fire double before the end of the third quarter to even it up at 5-5!
The final quarter saw Gayhurst lead again by two quite quickly and this time unfortunately, we could not reply and ended up losing 5-7. What a game, the girls showed unbelievable resilience and commitment to come back from losing positions. Well done to all girls and to the MVP who was named by Gayhurst and to Nandini who had an outstanding game!
Netball vs Langley Hall
On Wednesday, our Under 11A and B Netball teams played a home fixture against Langley Hall. The A and B teams both competed well against a very strong, tall, and competitive team. Unfortunately, the results didn't go the way of St Bernard's and our guests dominated both games and won convincingly. Well done to all children who kept positive and continued competing well throughout.
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Under 10A and B Football vs Thorpe House
On Friday the 24 February our Under 10 A’s and B’s travelled to Thorpe House to play their second fixture of the season. Both teams were eager to get onto the pitches to rectify a few errors form a couple of weeks back and they certainly did that!
Our A team blended very well amongst each other and put up a phenomenal performance in beating their opponents 5-3, with both Raman and Eesah sharing the goals. Special mention must be made for Arbaaz who was nominated as the MVP of the match for his outstanding contribution as the team’s goalkeeper.
Our B team had a real tussle of a match. Although we trailed at 1-2 for quite some time, we came back with a spirited fight to win the match 4-2. This was something spectacular to watch as our boys really dug deep and put up a remarkable performance to secure this result. Aarav K, Arav M and Anas scored our goals and Anas was also nominated as the Team’s MVP. Well done to both teams for their amazing efforts!
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World Wildlife Day - we're going on a worm hunt!
During Nature B's, our Reception children went worm hunting this week, just in time for World Wildlife Day. They were learning about the way that different creatures camouflage themselves in order to hide from predators.
Different coloured pieces of wool represented the worms, with some easier to find than others! Can you spot any woolly wrigglers in the photos below?
Once back in the classroom the children also thought about the kinds of birds that they might see near our school, and what their preferred snacks might be.
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Upcoming dates
Holi Festival - Wednesday 8 March
International Women's Day - Wednesday 8 March
Ufton Court Year 3 visit overnight - Thursday 9 March - Friday 10 March
Year 6 Heart Mechanics Workshop - Thursday 9 March
Swimming Year 3 - Thursday 9 March
Open Evening - Tuesday 14 March - 5:00-7:00pm
Open Day - Wednesday 15 March - 9:30am-11:30am
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A huge thank you to all of the children volunteering to do extra lessons for our twilight open evening! Please spread the word that the event is happening among your friends, neighbours and colleagues. Email admissions@stbernardsprep.org for more information.
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Tulsi's weekly book review - The Bumble Bear, by Nadia Shireen
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One day, a curious new bee joins Bee School. Norman is big, furry, and unlike any bee you've ever seen. This is because he is actually a bear dressed in a bee’s costume, intent on eating all the honey in the secret storage room that lies in the middle of the school! Shh, don’t tell anyone! This is where all of the world’s honey is kept by bees – but Norman desperately wants some honey, so he dresses up as a bee to enter Bee School.
Much to his surprise, Norman enjoys the happy days of smelling flowers, taking naps, and learning to fly (though he is quite bad at that.) He makes friends and begins to forget about the honey entirely.
But Amelia, a clever bookish bee, is suspicious of this giant creature. She begins to think he might be a bear, of all things…
Funny, heartwarming, and friendly, ‘The BumbleBear’ is a perfect book for children aged 5 – 7 years old. I hope you enjoy it!
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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 imbue our children with a love of learning.
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Word of the week: Endearment: (noun)
The act of showing affection
"She loved it when she was called by her nickname Scooby, it was her favourite term of endearment."
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In the news this week - letter arrives after 100 years!
A letter written more than 100 years ago arrived recently at a flat in South London.
The envelope, which has a Bath postmark and a 1d (1p) stamp bearing George V's head, arrived at Finlay Glen's flat on Hamlet Road, Crystal Palace, in 2021.
It was addressed to Katie Marsh, the wife of a stamp magnate.
The man who received the post, said: "We were obviously pretty surprised and mystified as to how it could have been sat around for more than 100 years."
Royal Mail said it remained "uncertain what happened in this instance".
The letter was sent two years before World War One rationing was introduced and King George V had been on the throne for five years.
Future prime ministers Harold Wilson and Sir Edward Heath were both born later that year.
Credit: BBC onlinettps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64647166
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Whatever you do this weekend, whether it's puzzles or playing out, writing letters, jumping great distances or dancing, don't forget to let me know!
Yours sincerely,
Mrs A Verma
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