Dear parents,

It has been an exciting start to the Spring term. The children and staff have returned to school with refreshed energy and enthusiasm as we enter our new topic for the following weeks, ‘into the unknown’. To launch the theme the children have been immersed in a variety of activities to help them understand the concept of the unknown and to begin to think about what the unknown means to them.

On Wednesday the children built machines to take them to them to an unknown place and thought of questions to ask an explorer. They looked in atlases to find countries that they have never visited and used construction toys to build landscapes predicting what those places might look and feel like.

They also created new worlds and planets out of everyday objects like stones, pinecones and shells. Some pupils built a bridge to a secret garden, and this garden always tells you the truth.

In our first assembly of the year, the children were keen to share their thoughts about the unknown. Elaina in Year 2 wanted to know about her future and for Candy in Kindergarten the unknown was understanding how an aeroplane can take her to visit her grandparents. Exploring the unknown has sparked the children’s imagination and already they are helping their teachers plan the direction that their lessons will be taking.  If you have an experience of stepping into an unknown situation that you would like to share with the children please do speak to your child’s class teacher.

I wish all of our Pre-Prep families a happy new year and a happy new term,

Sarah Holyoake

Head of Pre-Prep

Read more Pre-Prep news here.

See full Pre-Prep calendar here

Notices

PFA Christmas term update

Many thanks to all who supported the Stephen Perse PFA in 2018.

We had a great Christmas Fair, hosted by the Junior School in December, which raised just over £1,000, making a really good surplus for us to invest in 2019 activities - thanks go to all staff and parents who helped with arrangements. The Panto sold out exceptionally quickly this year, but while we sold a fair number of Christmas puddings, supplier issues mean we may not repeat this again.

Parents signing up to Classlist have put Stephen Perse in the top 10 of schools using Classlist - a total of 71% of parents in our community have now signed up, so do join us so you don’t miss out! Please sign up to communicate with other parents and year groups, and to get notices about the PFA and our events to support students across the school. You will have been sent an email (over the summer holidays last year) to the email address that you have indicated to use for school communications, so please check your email for the link and sign up asap, or look out for a reminder from the Classlist app.

PFA - Looking forward in 2019

The PFA is always keen to engage with parents as committee members, as Class Reps, or for one-off events and activities. We are specifically looking for a parent volunteers to help organise the Valentine's bake sale and the Summer Fair as well as to manage second-hand uniform sales.

Activities planning for 2019 will kick off at the PFA meeting in FMR1 at the Senior School on Monday, 14th January (7pm arrival for 7.30pm start).  We'll be discussing a PFA-funded, student-led competition to invest in new equipment or new activity(ies) across the SPF schools - so we'd welcome volunteers who'd like to get involved!

If you want to bring more to the table, we would very much welcome your input about what else we can do to support the parent community and get the most out of parents joining in for the students! Please do get involved by attending the PFA meeting on Monday, 14th January, by getting in contact by email (stephenperse.pfa@gmail.com) or via Classlist.