Friday 20 May 2016
Dear parents, families and friends of Yarrells,
Common Entrance Exams Begin
This week at Yarrells has been an interesting mix of academic application and great sporting and creative endeavours. For
our Year 8’s Common Entrance has started with the mental maths oral paper and the French listening and speaking exams.
We wish them every success in pursuing their places at independent and state senior schools, Bryanston, Clayesmore, Milton
Abbey and Corfe Hills.
Learning by Doing
A great example of getting children to learn by having a go was the French assembly
where Years 2-4 demonstrated their ability to communicate in French to the school
and parents. We set the objective this year for modern foreign languages that we
would like children from Years 6-8 to be able to communicate with children of their
own age in a foreign language. It is interesting to note that our pupils that go on to
grammar and senior state schools at 11 & 13 respectively are generally a minimum of
a year ahead with their French. This helps them when it comes
to the English baccalaureate, which is the government
requirement at GCSE where students are measured on their grades in English, maths, science, a
humanity and a modern foreign language.
In order to enhance our language skills in preparation for senior school we will be teaching Spanish to
Years 6 – 8 starting in September. A recent study from the British Council indicated that Spanish was
the most important foreign language for British citizens to learn for the future.
We were also very fortunate to witness the expertise of Mr Tim Fisher (Violin Teacher) as a bee keeper
in our assembly this morning. He is both passionate and very knowledgeable about our friends who
help to pollinate 80% of the fruit and vegetables we eat. Mr Lewis looked particularly fetching in Mr Fisher’s bee keeping
outfit!
The highlight of the week has been the Big Dance where the whole school was involved in a worldwide event run
simulateously across 44 countries with over 42,000 dancers taking part. The dance was designed by Akram Khan who also
choreographered the opening ceremony of the London Olypmics.
Out and About
Often the best way to learn something is to experience it first hand and this week has seen
various year groups benefiting from these opportunities. Reception had a fantastic trip to the
Weymouth Sealife Centre where an expert guide showed them all the wonders of marine life
and they even got to touch a starfish.
Meanwhile the other half of Year 3, accompanied by myself later this evening, has been up in the wilds of North Dorset at
the Ancient Technology Centre dressed up as Vikings and spending the night in a long house. I am looking forward to the
whole experience.
On Thursday the Year 6s had a fascinating trip to see the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Poole Lighthouse where they
learnt about all the elements of the orchestra and listened to different genres of music.
Sporting Success!
Despite rain calling a halt to the cricket and rounders on Wednesday our teams were able to compete during the rest of the
week with a notable success. Teams for Years 3 & 4 were in the Poole round of The Dorset Schools Tennis Tournament and
both teams qualified for the finals at Bryanston School.
It was also good to see our Year 2 pupils playing in a training rounders match with Upton Infant School, while Year 4 boys
played some very close games of cricket against Clayesmore. The A Team only lost by 3 runs and the B Team snatched a
draw.
Looking forward to next week
I have witnessed and heard a great deal of excitement from Year 1 & 2 as they prepare for their ‘Pirates versus Mermaids’
play closely followed by squeals of joy from Transition and Reception as they master the ‘Scarecrows Wedding’. I look
forward to seeing many of you at these performances.
Next Friday the whole school will be dressing up for “Wear it Wild” in support of WWF, and the Yarrell’s Tennis
Championship finals will be happening.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Andrew Roberts-Wray
Headmaster
This morning, we were proud to present ‘Pupil of the Week’ certificates to the following children:
Abdelghffar Alsharif and Jessica Greaves (Tran); Jakob Goodes (RC); Hope Johnson (RW); Anne Guillon
(Yr 1B); Matilda Watson (Yr 1N); Charlotte Moyes (Yr 2R); Saffron Chewins (Yr 2W); Thomas Jupp (Yr 3I);
Lily Daniel (Yr 3M); James Emery (Yr 3S); Joe Caton (Yr 4GW); Jacob Marshall (Yr 4L); Eleanor Roper
(Yr 5B); Olivia Howard (Yr 5S); Freya Tudberry-Swain (Yr 6B); Rosetta Lucchesi (Yr 6G); and
Isabelle Milson (Yrs7/8). Well done everybody.
In next week’s assemblies we will also congratulate the following children for recent achievements: Euan
McPhail (Yr1), Isla McPhail (Yr3) & Marnie Dodd (Yr3) Ultm8 Warrior Obstacle Challenge Medals; Jayden Coombes
& Ayden Dirks (Yr3) player awards for Oakmeadians RFC; Fergus Taylor (Yr7) has run 100 5km Park Runs and
Matilda Raynor (Yr5) was awarded her certificate for her BBC2 500 Words entry.
We are having a slight change of procedure in that only Pupil of the Week certificates will be handed out in Friday's assembly. Any other
awards will be handed out in the Years 3 – 8 assembly on a Monday and the Pre-Prep assembly on a Tuesday.
Things to remember for next week
Tue
14:00 Year 2 Boys Cricket v Upton Infants (H)
Wed
09:30 Transition & Reception Play “The Scarecrows’ Wedding”
14:00 Years 1 & 2 Play “Pirates vs Mermaids”
14:00 – 16:00 Yrs 5 – 8 Boys Games at Upton Rec
16:30 Parents (Yrs 4 – 8) Sex Education Workshop
Thurs
Fri
09:30 Years 1 & 2 Play “Pirates vs Mermaids”
14:00 Transition & Reception Play “The Scarecrows’ Wedding”
Nursery – Year 8 “Wear it Wild Day” in support of WWF
Yarrells’ Tennis Championships
Join our Yarrells Team for Race for Life run on
Sunday 19th June 2016 at Poole Park, 11am.
Have you signed up yet?
Group ID Code: LN9024
https://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/rfl/forms/rac
e/enter.jsf?groupNumber=LN9024
Please support & sponsor us.
https://www.justgiving.com/YarrellsSchool2016?utm_source=Sharethi
s&utm_medium=fundraisingpage&utm_content=YarrellsSchool2016&
utm_campaign=pfp-email.
FRENCH FRIDAY WORDS
patentez – wait
réfléchir – to think
une boisson – a drink
quelle heure est-il? – what time is it?
passez un bon weekend! – have a good weekend!
Is happiness something you find
or something you have?
News from Kindergarten & Pips
Mrs Wilkinson & Mrs Huish
Lots of fun for Kindergarten and Pips this week as they set a bug trap in the garden overnight and observed what they had
caught: never have slugs, snails and woodlouse caused such excitement! The children used the theatre to present a puppet
show which was very entertaining and even Batman came and painted a butterfly picture. Playing together outside in the
sand pit, building brick towers and blowing bubbles make for a fun day in Nursery.
Transition News
Mrs D Hayes & Miss Z Salter
Over the year the children in Transition have been learning letters and sounds with
the Read, Write Inc. phonics programme and love to use the sound cards even in
play, William and Eli were asking each other the letter sounds and 'being the
teacher'. We had a fun science lesson with the children discovering that the water
was filled with clear balls that initially they could not see. There was lots of
excitement and the use of many descriptive words! The children cooked up some
delicious meals in the outdoor kitchen and many minibeasts were found in the
garden. We have had a good time this week in 'Little Woodpeckers' our parent and
toddler group and the children enjoyed sharing songs and activities with our visitors.
Reception News
This week in Reception we have been working really hard on our preparations for
forthcoming events. We have had great fun trying on our costumes, practising our
lines (loudly) and singing our show songs for our Scarecrows' Wedding production
which you will be able to see next week. We have also been working really hard on
our running, jumping and egg and spoon races in preparation for our races just after
the half term holiday. On Tuesday we even managed to fit in a whole school rehearsal
for the BIG DANCE. It's a wonderful time of the year with every day bringing new
opportunities and learning.
Senior Maths News
Children across the Senior Prep continue to work hard on developing their maths
skills, with pupils in Year 5 using Polydron to further their awareness of 3-dimensional
shapes and their properties. Fractions have been the focus of Year 6 and Year 7 work
over the recent weeks, with some stunning work being produced relating to
population growth across the planet as well as students adding, subtracting,
multiplying and dividing algebraic fractions! Ask some of our eleven-year-olds what
4x2/7 divided by 3x/4 is! Year 8 pupils continue to work hard towards impending
Common Entrance examinations and are relieved to have completed the mental
arithmetic paper this week.
#BigDance
Mrs B Chappell & Mrs J Williams
Mr A Small
Mrs A May
Today all of the children from Transition to Year 8 had the opportunity to take part in The Big
Dance 2016. The school performed three dances. The first was choreographed by Mrs May using
the idea and themes of Akram Khan. This followed with a free style piece where the children had
the opportunity to choreograph their own work and show off their talents. The final piece was set
and choreographed by Akram Khan. The children enjoyed their experience. You will be able to
watch the videos online shortly.
Year 4 Cricket vs Clayesmore
Monday 16th May 2016
Joe Caton reports… We arrived at Clayesmore and luckily it wasn’t raining! Yarrells batted first. The first pair was Joe (me)
and Max Phillips. The second pair was Sam Calvert-Lee and Ollie Crowe, then David Sherry and Jacob Marshall followed by
Josh Somerville and Thomas S and Jacoby and Sam W. We did our best and scored lots of runs. Clayesmore caught one of
us, which resulted in us losing 5 runs. After half an hour we swapped and Clayesmore were batting. We all had a go at
bowling but although we tried our best but we didn’t take any wickets.
Clayesmore won the match by three runs. We can’t wait to play against
them again to try and win next time!
Thomas Covell Reports… On the 16th May 2016, we went to
Clayesmore to play a cricket match. The Yarrells A team lost their
match but the B team drew their match with 243, it was very exciting
time for me in the B team because I scored a six.
I enjoyed the match. Thank you to the staff and parents who came
supported us.
Year 2 Rounders vs Upton Infant School
Tuesday 17th May 2016
Lottie Vavasour reports… On Tuesday we had our very first training match
against Upton Infant School. We were all very excited! Mr Williams talked us
through the match and explained the rules and asked us questions as we
played. We practised our hitting, bowling at the right height, and we learnt
about fielding. Mr Williams also reminded us that we have to run around the
outside of the post. It was really good fun and we are ready for our next
match!
Dorset School Games Mini Red Tennis Qualifier for Poole Schools
Thursday 19th May 2016
Yesterday selected children from Years 3 and 4
competed at Poole Park. It was a lovely sunny afternoon
with over 100 children competing from schools
throughout Poole.
The children from Yarrells played some great tennis
throughout the afternoon, winning the majority of their
pool matches.
The second round saw some of our children facing each
other with some very closely contested matches.
I would like to thank all of the children for their great
attitude and relentless desire to play hard but within the
rules, showing good sportsmanship towards their
opponents.
I'd also like to thank the parents for their brilliant support and help with transport and for releasing their children from other
commitments in order to compete, also to Brett and Sabian, our Virgin Active Tennis Coaches, for their time and effort in
tutoring the children during lessons at Yarrells.
The A and B teams have qualified for the county finals to be held at Bryanston School on 29th June with a chance to be
crowned county champions!
Friends of Yarrells – SUMMER NEWS!
A glorious day was enjoyed by all who attended the 3rd annual Spring Fair held in the grounds of our beautiful school.
Friends of Yarrells (FOYS), in partnership with the school, organise the ever popular Fair which celebrates spring and enables
our families to get together to enjoy a fun-filled family event. This year's fair was incredible - beautiful sunshine, fabulous
families and smiling faces a-plenty! Friends and family of Yarrells were able to enjoy tombolas and pocket money stalls like
“Tin Can Alley” and “Beat the Goalie”. One of the popular stands was “Soak the Teacher!” There was entertainment from
the school’s “Yazz Jazz” and “Glee” groups and Year 2 danced around the May pole.
A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event and especially to our wonderful Yarrells families.
As part of the spring fayre we also hosted a Race for Life. Sixty parents and children signed up to run around the school
grounds and woods (800m) raising an amazing £290.00 for Cancer Research UK.
Edward Wilson, age 8, ran a sweet tombola and raised £185.00, where he is splitting the money between his Cub pack and
Macmillan. Sophie Stickney, age 8, ran a tombola stall and raised £38.65 for WWF.
FOYS CHILDRENS TOY STALL
AT LYTCHETT MATRAVERS
FAIR
Last Saturday the sun shone
down on all at the Lytchett
Matravers Fair. Friends of
Yarrells hosted a hugely
successful stall selling toys
donated by the school and
promoting our beautiful
school to all.
Emma Crowe (mum of Oliver, Grace & Scarlett Crowe) did an amazing job managing the stall and was the key to its huge
success. James Neesam did a superb job of promoting the school to anyone who would listen and certainly perfected his
sales pitch by the end of the day!
The stall made over £200 in total - thank you so much for all your used toy donations which made a lot of children very
happy. The profits of the stall will go towards the new FOYS End of Year School Disco, which is taking place on Wednesday
29th June, and the lollies for sports day.
Amanda Neesam
FOYS Chair
PS. Congratulations to Esme Miles for her very professional and wonderfully received performance of the Lion King on stage
at the event!