SCRIMPY STOCKINGS! Christmas began early in Lower School with our annual celebration in St Anne’s church. The children performed with great enthusiasm saying their lines and singing their songs with real gusto! Taught and conducted by our talented Head of Music, Mrs Birchall, who also wrote the play, music and song lyrics! The children clearly enjoyed performing to the packed congregation. I would like to thank all of the teachers and assistants for their work on this production with a special mention to Ms Neil for her direction of the Year 2 acting parts and to Ms Acus for her outstanding props and ‘stage setting’. I was very proud indeed of all of our Lower School children, perhaps our best Christmas production yet? Miss Morgan. Our Christmas show was called ‘Scrimpy Stockings’. It was about a grumpy bank manager called Scrooge. He never, ever spent any money. His assistants were called ‘Cratchitts’. When Santa went to the bank to get some money for Christmas stockings, his loan was refused and Mr Scrooge said ‘No!’ A group of children fell into a daze and accidentally called the ghost of Christmas post! He was very friendly but dropped a letter for Mr Scrooge, luckily it happened in the bank. Surprisingly it was an invitation to the town Christmas party. Scrooge was so excited that he paid for the whole thing! Spencer 2G ‘My favourite part was when the ghost of Christmas post said ‘coooooeeeee!’ I loved it. My mummy and daddy laughed. It was the best day of my life! Amelie 2G 1 THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTMAS AT ST ANNE’S There is something heart-warmingly familiar about the Upper School Christmas Music Concert. As I sit and watch the children perform in St Anne’s Church I am proud of their musical talent and skill and smile at the endless flow of really excellent performances. Each child beams with confidence as they sing and play together and await their just rewards of rousing cheers and loud clapping from the gathered congregation. This is a truly all-inclusive evening involving everyone in Upper School in choirs, orchestra, guitar ensemble, class performances, readings and let’s not forget the staff parent choir! With Chamber choir opening with a haunting 15th Century choral piece ‘There is a flower Springing’, to Year 3’s twelve bar blues ‘Reindeer on the Roof’ and the staff parent choir swinging the church with ‘Little Saint Nick’ by the Beach Boys. To the beautiful version of ‘Walking in the air’ by Year 6, ‘The Nut Cracker’ played by the orchestra and the whole of Upper School singing ‘Hail Holy Queen’ from Sister Act. You can be sure that Christmas has definitely started! Father Nigel, who was sitting next to me, confided that, although his church is full of carol services and Christmas events, it is Kew Green’s concert that he most looks forward to. I was also contacted by a local Headmistress who I don’t know, asking if she could attend the evening as she had heard how excellent it is. Guests and new staff, who hadn’t witnessed Kew Green in full musical flight, were stunned by the quality of the evening. Me too ! Happy Christmas. Mr Peck A choir of Angels! WE’VE CREATED A MONSTER! We looked at these originals by Roland Garrigue, they were amazing! A choir of Angels? On Thursday, 21st November, as part of the French Institute’s Youth Festival celebrations the French author/illustrator Roland Garrigue came to year 4 to show us his illustrations. He drew monsters, vampires and zombies, he focused on make-believe animals. He gets his inspiration from nightmares and has written and illustrated a book about nightmares called Comment Ratatiner les Cauchemars, which we read with Madame Thorpe-Woods in our French classes. We had a go at drawing our own monsters; some of them were very silly! He showed us the programme he used to colour his pictures and his sketch books which were fascinating. The workshop with Roland was really good because he told us all his illustrating techniques and then let us create our own characters. At the end Roland drew Miss Fleming as a vampire teacher! He was very good at copying her but made her scary. Amélie, Sanna & Marco. Year 4 2 On Friday, November 22nd, the French illustrator /author Marion Billet visited Year One. Marion has had around 80 books published in 11 different countries and her characters have appeared in magazines, on stationery and toys, as well as on children’s furniture and clothes. She read stories to the children and explained how she creates her book illustrations. Marion creates her drawings on a graphic palette in Photoshop. She does everything directly in Photoshop, from the rough stage to the final colour version. After reading her latest books ‘Au Pays des Tout Petits’ and ‘Whizzy Wheels’ to the class it was time for the children to make their own moving London buses. The children were truly inspired when Marion showed them how to create their own animal characters aboard the bus, showing them how to draw un lion, un ours et un chat. Marion explained how she loved animals saying; ‘ If I could I would love to have cats, dogs, koalas (I once had the chance to hug one and it’s the softest animal ever!) donkeys and tigers as pets! Unfortunately I live in Paris so creating them for my books is a way to keep me close to them’. Madame Thorpe-Woods and did a litter pick on the Tow Path. We told him about the Green Day event last year and Luke explained about the Wastebusters clothes collection that we did in September to raise money for Joodon School. (On the day after Mr Barlett’s visit, Luke and Aaliya presented a cheque for £106 to the Joodon Committee as a result of the Wastebusters collection.) I showed him the project we did for Kew Life last December with the chart and stickers that we made for families so they could see how much they recycle and how much goes to landfill. He liked that a lot. We are proud that our Green Flag is renewed as it means we are an environmentally friendly school. The photo by Florence shows us holding the Green Flag. Jessica Yr 5 and Luke Yr 6 Typical ... there hasn’t been a bus along for hours ... and now look! That’s certainly what the Reception children have been doing since they started school! This term Reception have been learning all of the letters in the alphabet, the children have been sounding, blending, segmenting and spelling and are now all reading and writing confidently. On December 12th Reception decided to celebrate this enormous achievement by dressing up as the initial letter of their name. With support of their highly trained and talented parents they put together some fantastic costumes. The children spent the day on a letter hunt, making letter booklets, dancing to letter songs and presenting their letter knowledge in assembly. I think the photos show what a wonderful time they all had! Miss ‘Mouse’ MacDonald LETTER ‘C’ WHAT’S GOING ON IN RECEPTION “Read like nobody’s watching, learn your letters like no one is listening, write like you just can’t stop, live life like a Reception child at Kew Green” RAISE THE FLAG, WE’RE OFFICIALLY STILL GREEN! Eco club continues to do a terrific and worth while job On the 21st of November, Mr. Bartlett came to Kew Green Preparatory School to assess us for our Green Flag renewal. We were awarded the Green Flag by Eco Schools 2 years ago and we are assessed every 2 years. Mrs Parker, Luke and I showed Mr Bartlett the Eco display which is located outside the year 4 classroom on the top floor. It has information about Switch Off Fortnight at the moment. We had a chat about all the different things we had done in our Eco team and we told him that we thought it would be a good idea now for the School Council to have Eco representatives on it, instead of always meeting separately. Mr Bartlett asked us many questions about what we have done in school. He also looked at a display and pledges in Year 6 classrooms and seemed impressed that even the Year Ones joined in on an Eco project for Switch Off Fortnight, creating posters with eco-friendly pictures and information. He commented on our litter-free playground and thought it was good that as we don’t have much litter in school, that we went From Captain America to Zsa Zsa Gabor (via Luke Skywalker) all the initial sounds where covered 3 It also topped the charts as the best-selling wedding gift of the century! Alongside the medieval artefacts were the modern works of Jan Fabre, a living sculptor from Belgium. His bronzes of insects and mythological creatures glistened like solid gold and complemented the ancient relics. After viewing the Impressionist paintings in the permanent collection, including the Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet and Van Gogh’s Cows, we made our way to the centre of the town to Brasserie Flore for lunch. Moules Marinières, Carbonnade de Boeuf, Tarte Maroilles, Crème Brulé, and Pain Perdu were just some of the dishes enjoyed by the hungry children. Next on the itinerary was our tour of the famous Marché de Noël where the children had a chance to practise their spoken French whilst shopping for gifts for their family. We then proceeded to the historic centre of Lille La Grande Place and visited the Old Stock Exchange. What is now a stunning covered vintage book and toy market was once a thriving trading centre for all kinds of merchants. My group suddenly burst into a spontaneous sing song of the Salve Regina carol on the steps of the Opera which generated an admiring throng and applause from passersby. After looking at the statute of Isis and spotting France’s largest bookshop we admired the Christmas animatronics of Arctic animals and then made our way to France’s oldest tea room, Café Meert, where we warmed up with cups of chocolat chaud and the signature gaufres (waffles). Here are a few of the Gems that we have heard recently from our lovely Reception class children. Funny and adorable, they keep us smiling! Zita asked: “Guess what I am going to be when I grow up?” Phaedra thought long and hard and replied “An adult?” Mr. Ward had a pretend phone call from the Queen. Yamina put up her hand and said: “Oh Mr Ward, do you really believe in the Queen?” During our Nativity song practise, the young man playing Santa began to cry at which Zachary said, “Uh! I didn’t know that Santa cries!” Mrs Beaumont told the class that her daughter wasn’t feeling well and that she had a sore throat. Mijo looked concerned and replied “Mrs Beaumont maybe your daughter has swallowed a fish bone?” Oliver was waiting for the bus at the end of the day. Waiting patiently he said to Miss Lucy: “My mum’s late, I think she might be stuck in the mud!” OFF TO THE CHRISTMAS MARKETS On Thursday, December 5th, we met in front of the school at the crack of dawn ready for an exciting day trip to France. The early morning Brussels Eurostar from St. Pancras whisked us off under the English Channel and through the Nord Pas de Calais to the beautiful city of Lille. After a petit déjeuner à bord we walked through the cobbled streets towards the Palais des Beaux Arts. First we visited the current exhibition called Les Trésors des Illuminations. I was very impressed by the children’s inquisitiveness and deep interest in the artworks on display. The exhibition dealt with the most exquisite objects and illuminated books from the Middle Ages. The pupils were amazed that the huge books and the drawings had been done entirely by hand using plant pigments with gold and silver leaf, as the printing press had yet to be invented. We learnt that the top best seller of the fifteenth century was The Book of Hours which was an illuminated calendar. Following a short walk to the Lille Europe station we boarded the London-bound Eurostar after a truly memorable day. Madame Thorpe-Woods 4 BISCUITS, PURSES, FRUIT KEBABS AND THE LONDON SKYLINE? Design Technology day this term was launched by Paul Newman, a toy inventor. He came in to speak to the children about his own inventions. He was inspirational and made toys in front of the children and invited them to make toys with him. Some of his toys were powered by a wind-up mechanism, some used electricity and others were simply powered by air! The children spent the day on their own Design Technology projects. The school was filled with an air of industrious enthusiasm! Reception designed and then built the London skyline using junk. They included the Shard, Buckingham Palace, the Gherkin and a few London buses. Year 1 designed and skewered fruit kebabs. Christmas puppets were made out of textiles by Year 2. Inspired by Roald Dahl, Year 3 decided to design their own ‘Willy Wonka’ style cookies. Both classes spent half the day at Kew House using their Food Technology facilities to make their cookies and packaging. Studying Ancient Egyptians, Year 4 had ‘Pharaoh Phriday’. They dressed up as Ancient Egyptian’s, made Egyptian purses and had a Pharaoh’s Party. Both Year 5 classes made moving toys. 5K went to Kew House and used the Design Technology workshop to make moving wooden toys and 5G made electric fan buggies of their own designs and Year 6 had a very calming afternoon practicing their needlework skills. All in all, a very successful day and we are looking forward to the next one! Mrs Girardot 5 WE LOVE WHISTLER! It was amazing to play as part of a ‘proper’ orchestra! Loving your work Mr Whistler! From Year 2 Here’s what the children thought: ‘My favourite bit of the afternoon was playing Handel’s Water Music with the grown ups because I got to play in my mum’s orchestra with her and it sounded amazing sitting next to all the brilliant players! I think that the Come and Play session was a really good idea because it encouraged people to try new instruments and I was surprised that lots of people were keen to try my mini-bassoon and some had excellent puff, especially William in Year 1.’ Tilly, 3K This term Year 2 have been exploring the topic of seas and rivers in their art lessons. They created a range of beautiful work, including collages, paintings and sculptures of koi carp fish and driftwood boats, some of which you will notice around school in the New Year. In November, we were able to visit the Dulwich Picture Gallery for a guided tour of the Whistler exhibition. James Abbott McNeill Whistler, born in 1834 was American by birth, yet spent many of his years here in London where, amongst many other famous works, he completed his beautifully harmonic oil paintings of the Thames. Whistler was known for his fiery temper but ironically it was his quest to use colours to create tranquillity in his work. Prior to our visit, we had looked at some of Whistler’s paintings of the Thames and the children had made some chalk pastel studies of them. Although they were clearly intrigued by the work that they had seen in the classroom, nothing prepared me for the interest that they displayed during the gallery session. The staff conducting the tours were also impressed by their questioning and insightful comments. To further develop their understanding of the type of colour palette that Whistler employed in his beautiful ‘Nocturne’ paintings, we invited Jo Lewis, from Dulwich picture Gallery, to come to school on 28th of November to work with the children. Each class spent half a day creating collages of the River Thames. Jo taught them the technique of marbling using coloured inks, a technique new to the majority if the children. This is a process of using a pipette to drop a few different coloured drops of ink in to a water tray, then rolling paper over the top of the water to create the effect. The art room soon became a sea of paper, the muted blues, greens and silvers laid out on the tables and the floors created a real sense of calm. Each child then spent the rest of the session tearing and sticking down various papers from their collections, adding doilies and pale blue coloured ribbon to make the most beautiful tranquil river collages, true to the style of Whistler. He is one of my favourite artists, and I was pleased the children enjoyed the whole experience as much as I did. You can visit the Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the beautiful paintings, drawings and etchings of Whistler until 12th January 2014. Mrs Elden-Ford ‘After our rehearsal, children from Kew Green tried out LOADS of different instruments like the trumpet, bassoon, oboe, trombone, euphonium and violin. Then it was the concert and I got to sit right in the middle of the orchestra! I had a really nice trumpet buddy called Imogen who helped me. I thought it was a great, great performance!’ Sebastian, 5G Amélie looked like a pro, sitting in the middle of the orchestra ‘It was an amazing experience to play with a professional orchestra. We learnt lots about how the orchestra works and the ‘Come and Play’ session was excellent because we had the opportunity to try lots of different instruments. My favourite was the flute. I learnt that an orchestra is like a machine, once it’s started it’s quite tricky to stop and start it. Sammy and George tried to conduct the orchestra and they found it very hard! The orchestra played Pulcinella by Stravinsky which is about a naughty puppet who makes friends with all the other puppets and is a little bit cheeky along the way! One of the movements was like a circus scene and it had some rude noises in it! I’d love to play in a professional orchestra when I’m older!’ Amélie, 4G COME AND PLAY WITH THE ERSO! On a wintry Sunday afternoon, musicians from Kew Green gathered at St. Anne’s Church for an afternoon of music-making together with the renowned Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra. The schedule consisted of a rehearsal for the orchestra and choir, a ‘Come and Play’ session for anyone interested in trying out a musical instrument and a concert for the parents. It was a terrific event and special thanks must go to Fiona Cairney who worked tirelessly to remind Mrs Birchall to get everything organised! Mrs Birchall 6 YEAR PHOUR PHARAOH PHRIDAY YOUR CHILD IS SAFE WITH US! ... needs little explanation... but suffice to say that everyone wanted a piece of the Pharoah Phriday action! Year 5 recently had an extra special science lesson. As a treat we walked over the bridge to Kew House to use their amazing resources and to meet Mr Lees, their Head of Science, who helped us through our lesson. To start with we were put in partners and had to pass a test. All we had to do was light a Bunsen burner safely (more complicated than you think!). We had to light a splint Health & Safety first always! while our partner turned on the gas tap. There are two flames: orange flame, also known as the safety flame, and a blue flame that is also called the roaring flame. Everyone had to keep the Bunsen flame on safety flame or it would have been dangerous (luckily there were no burnt fingers!). Once we had passed the Bunsen burner test (which we all luckily did) we started learning about combustion. We were given a small piece of magnesium, a malleable metal. Using tongs, we held the magnesium in a roaring flame, then suddenly the whole thing was a beam of white light. When the magnesium came out of the flame it was a different material. Instead of a strong metal it had turned into brittle white ash. We thought this was a chemical change, which is irreversible. To finish this memorable experience Mr Lees set fire to peoples’ hands! He used detergent to make bubbles, which you had to cover your hands with to make a protective coat on your skin. Then he used the bubbles to create a flame and burn the bubbles and BOOM!!! The lucky victims were all perfectly safe. We all had a great time and learnt a lot, including which elements can go ‘POOF!’ and burst into flames. Hannah, 5K SMART COOKIES In the Summer Term of 2013, Year 5 pupils (currently in Year 6) learned about Plants in science and were given a project: ‘Falling Seeds and Biscuits’. They had to investigate a way to slow down the fall of a digestive biscuit, based on plant seeds. The quality of work produced by all pupils in Year 5 proved that the challenge fell on fertile ground! First they researched the myriad ways in which plants disperse seeds, particularly those that use wind/ explosive dispersal methods. From the germ of an idea that arose from this research they each designed and made a contraption, attached it to a digestive biscuit and timed its fall from different heights and compared the amount of damage to the biscuit. Their plans and practical work bore fruit and so the budding scientists wrote up their results and presented them to their peers for review. Year 5 pupils reaped the rewards of all their hard work and effort when, in November, 11 children were announced as the winners in the Year 5-6 category of the CLEAPSS Primary Competition 2013. Mrs Philpott, the Biology Advisor at CLEAPSS came to school on 2nd December to award certificates. CLEAPSS provides advice to schools all over the world on science and technology practical work. Although she joked that she wished a school from Luxembourg had won, so she could go abroad, Mrs Philpott was very glad to visit the school and to hear from us about the work that all of Year 5 did and to see the display. She explained that the judges were very impressed with the science and the standard of work shown by the children and they particularly liked the range of ideas- no On Friday, 6th of December, because of our humanities topic about Ancient Egypt, Year 4 had a Pharaoh Phriday. We played lots of games and ended the day with a big Egyptian party. Everybody was dressed up as someone from Ancient Egypt. Almost all the girls were dressed as Cleopatra! First we had a hieroglyphic treasure hunt outside. It was really fun decoding the message. The message said, “Do you think Egyptians ate mince pies?” Then we did some sewing. We started to make purses but with Egyptian decoration. It was also really good fun. After lunch, we had a party and an Egyptian banquet. There was a pyramid cake made by Trey’s mum. It was amazing! All the parents came and some dressed up. 4G taught their assembly dance to 4K. Then we had a quiz and the adults had to join in. It was so funny. Pharaoh Phriday was AWESOME! Sanna, 4K 7 two investigations were the same; showing a lot of freedom to be creative. Well done everyone! Mrs Parker Mrs Parker emailed me since the award was made to say: I have been invited by CLEAPSS to be a judge at next year’s competition and to go the national conference of the Association for Science Education to receive some resources for the school. Mary Philpott was really impressed with the entries and particularly that the investigations were clearly CLEAPSS (Consortium of Local Education independent and Authorities for the Provision of Science child led, focusing Services) winners! on something. that they found interesting and explored. I think a lot of other entries probably followed an investigation template and had little variety and I wish I could somehow convey this to parents to show the true value of what the children did. FROM THE FRIENDS As the most frenetic term of the year comes to a close, we would like to thank everyone who has volunteered, donated, participated, organised, emailed, cajoled, set up and swept up over the last twelve weeks. In the last half term, we are very grateful to Jo Midgley and Michelle Coulter who ran another very successful Xmas Pudding sale, Penny Pritchard and Donna Merritt who continue to sell the KGPS Cookbooks and Vanessa Jefferey and Kirsten Fenton who organised the Lower & Upper School Christmas treats. The weekly cake sales continue to be a major fund raiser, and we are very grateful to all the classes for their efforts which have raised around £2000. The committee have been busy with the Friends’ section of the school website, adding new pages and updating it with the latest activity, so do check it out regularly to keep yourself informed (especially the new Friends Shopping page!). Finally, on behalf of the whole parent body, I’d really like to say a big thank you to Hannah, Susan and Jackie for all their hard work on the Committee - its their behind-the-scenes efforts that keep the whole show on the road, and we are very lucky to have such a great team. Tara Whyte HUNTING FOR BERRIES, LEAVES & NUTS Well Mrs Parker, you have and congratulations from me! Mr P YEAR 4 FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT On Friday, 15th November, Reception donned blazers and hats and walked around the corner to Kew Gardens. The sun was shining brightly and we had an amazing morning investigating the different types of trees and their berries and nuts. We had a workshop which was held outside and we learnt about three trees: the Plane tree, the Tulip tree and the Cedar tree. We also learnt how to measure the height of a tree: “we had to put our heads between our legs and look up at the top of the tree. If you can see the top of the tree you then counted the number of steps back to the tree”, Darcey described articulately. “My favourite part was when we collected the leaves” Baxter “I liked it when we smelled the trees.” Isobel “I liked it under the tree when we finded the pine cones” Roxy “I liked it when we found coloured berries” Lucas. Miss Gibson ... and finally ... A very smooth term, well done everyone. Year 6, good luck in January - you will be fine! I hope Santa is good to you all? Merry Christmas. Jem Peck - Editor Mr Searle? ... just a teeny bit star struck! 8 Layton House, Ferry Lane, Kew Green, Richmond, Surrey. TW9 3AF Tel: 020 8948 5999 www.KGPS.co.uk The November sporting calendar is always a highlight for our year 4 footballers as it brings about the annual RPPS football tournament. This is always a unique fixture as it is played on astro-turf as opposed to grass, thereby bringing a very different feel to the game. The football rolls faster, bounces higher and tends to skid along the ground, often making the simplest of passes difficult to perform. The boys took to the field for their first clash, against old rivals Falcons who were early favourites to play in the final. After a closely fought match with a total of 5 goals being scored, Kew Green managed to get a very important win. With points on the board, the team had a short break between games and gathered for a team photo, but not just any team photo... this one was with David Beckham! The football legend was supporting his children at the tournament and was kind enough to have a photo taken with the boys and to offer them a few words of encouragement. Along with the 11 other schools at the tournament, our completely star-struck football team now had the task of getting into the finals. The competition was fierce and they managed to end up in 6th place overall which is a pleasing result considering the high standard of football displayed throughout the event. Play in a tournament, meet a legend and enjoy a post tournament Kitkat with teammates. It’s a tough job being a kid! Mr Searle
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