Dear Parents,

As December and the beginning of the festive season is fast approaching, the Pre-Prep children have been reflecting on the new experiences and skills they have been practising in their first term of the year. Kindergarten have just embarked on developing the early steps that lead to phonics and reading and writing. In their daily session they are focusing on listening more closely to sounds and recognising patterns in what they have heard. Copying clapping rhythms and using sticks to bang items outside are all aimed at developing their ability to hear sounds change and the order that sounds can be heard.

In Reception the children are learning to speak another language. Madame Foreman visits the classes once a week to teach them French. They have already begun to understand the conversational phrases Madame Foreman uses each week and are gaining confidence in replying to her questions. All of the children enjoy learning songs in another language and the Spanish club in the City are experts at singing about colours and feelings in Spanish. If you would like to join your children in learning songs in another language this is the website that we use for our Spanish singing - rockalingua.com.

Our oldest children have been making use of the new Foundation sports facilities. Each week Year 2 join Year 3 to spend the morning fencing in the activity space, improving their body control in the gym and playing tennis in the sports hall. Throughout the year every child will have the opportunity to develop their skills in each of these sports. The specialist coaches and teachers have been impressed with how engaged the children are and how quickly they have mastered new skills. In the fencing session the children have the opportunity to compete against each other, getting points for their attacks and already they are proud of the number of points they are accumulating.

For our Year 1 children their trips to Latham Road sports ground has become a highlight of the week. In the first half of term they worked with the Cambridge United coaches to develop their ball skills. After rigorous weekly warm ups the children have practised a range of skills such as keeping control when dribbling the ball, changing direction and accurate passing. This half term they are honing their throwing and catching skills. Throughout the term all the children have demonstrated their resilience and self belief as they have challenged themselves to try something new I look forward to seeing what they can achieve next term.

Kind regards,

Sarah Holyoake

Head of Pre-Prep

Notices

Stephen Perse Christmas cards for sale!

Please support the 6th Form Charity Committee

Artwork by 6th Form student - Rebecca Sheng. All proceeds to benefit British Heart Foundation. Cards are £5 for a pack of 8, 14.8cm square high quality matt card.

Cards are available for sale on WisePay. To buy in cash directly, please email rponek@gmail.com.

PFA Christmas Fair

Saturday 1 December ***Save the date***

Please come and support this popular event. More details will be published on Classlist. Volunteering for the Christmas Fair will be coordinated via Classlist (you can also email pfa@stephenperse.com for further details).

PFA on Classlist

Please remember to accept the Classlist invitation that was sent by email at the start of term, in order to stay up to date with parent and PFA communications, events and notices. Classlist is also a great way to stay connected to other parents in your child’s year group or class, and ask questions to other parents, as it's GDPR compliant.

CCSS inspection report

As you know, Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies (CCSS) has recently joined our family of schools, and we will now be able to offer boarding places to students across both CCSS and the 6th Form College. We are therefore delighted to share the news that CCSS have just been graded "excellent" in their ISI inspection report across both the achievements and the personal development of students, with inspectors praising both teaching and boarding. You can read more about that inspection on our website.