Newsletters

St Bernard's Preparatory School - Newsletter 6th March 2026

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Dear Parents and Carers

Celebrating Book Week

It has been another wonderfully busy week here at St Bernard’s Prep, with the highlight undoubtedly being Book Week.

As a school, we place great importance on reading for pleasure, recognising that a love of reading and a rich vocabulary can open so many doors of opportunity for our children. Developing this passion early not only strengthens academic success but also nurtures imagination, curiosity and confidence.

It was lovely to see children of all ages attend the BBC – Breakfast Book Club, where the day began with the simple pleasure of sharing a good book together. The enthusiasm continued throughout the week, culminating in a fantastic World Book Day celebration. The costume parade was hugely entertaining, and it was wonderful to see the children’s creativity and effort reflected in such imaginative outfits.

A special thank you to Mrs Kimberley, who organised a brilliant World Book Day Quiz for all pupils in Years 1–6. Working together in their Thinking Families, it was a delight to see children of different ages collaborating, sharing their knowledge and encouraging one another.

World Book Day

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Year 1 Brooklands Museum Visit

There was much excitement as the Prep children arrived at Brooklands museum this morning. The sight of Concorde amongst other aircraft on display was thrilling! The children were fortunate enough to go inside, see the cockpit and imagine what it was like to be passengers. They also learnt about biplanes and vintage cars and buses. Highlights included sitting upstairs in a Routemaster bus and seeing all the vintage aircraft. A brilliant trip!

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Mini Drone Masters

Four of our pupils had the exciting opportunity to take part in the first ever Mini Drone Masters event, held at St George’s School in Ascot. Representing the school were Jeevan and Ameena from Year 5, and Pranav and Mia from Year 6, alongside pupils from five other schools.

Throughout the day, the children learnt about the many real-world uses of drones and explored some of the careers that involve drone technology. After practising how to safely fly the drones, they took part in a range of exciting missions. These included completing a medical supply drop, using a drone simulator, coding a drone to navigate around obstacles, and even applying their maths skills by calculating the mean of their medicine drops.

A huge thank you to Drone Legends for inviting us to such a superb event, and also to the Upton House pupils, who were very kind in sharing their knowledge and expertise.

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Sports News

This week, our Under 9 Footballers played against Thorpe House, with all three of our teams winning their matches. Our Year 5 Girls' Netball teams faced St Benedict’s, where the A team won and the B team narrowly lost.
Meanwhile, our Year 5 footballers travelled to Gayhurst School and took part in several friendly matches. Looking ahead, next week will be very busy with both our Annual Under 9 Football Festival and the Year 6 Catholic Inter-Schools Football Tournament.

Our children have represented our teams brilliantly, showing great skill, scoring plenty of goals, and achieving fantastic success through excellent teamwork.

As we conclude such a vibrant week celebrating books and reading, I am reminded of the extraordinary power that stories and words can have in shaping young minds. As the author Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Similarly, Roald Dahl beautifully captured the magic of books when he wrote, “If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.” These sentiments perfectly reflect our belief that reading opens doors to imagination, knowledge and opportunity for every child.

With this in mind, I wish all of our families a wonderfully restful Wellbeing Weekend: a chance to pause, recharge and perhaps even enjoy a good book together. Of course, here at St Bernard’s Prep we never like to rest on our laurels for long, and I am already looking forward to Science Week, which begins next week with our second annual Science Fair. I cannot wait to see the curiosity, creativity and discovery that our young scientists will bring to the week ahead.

Mrs Asha Verma

Headteacher