Message From the Head 
Dear Parents,
A great week for mind, body, and spirit at BHS!
We all love a good run, and at the Cross Country Competition at King Edward’s, we showed our heels to the 10 other prep and senior schools with our overall victory. A special mention goes to James in Year 6, who overcame pre-race nerves to run like the wind and secure first place in the individual category.
To get into a good headspace, we enjoyed ‘growth mind-set’ workshops delivered to all our children, from Kindy to Year 8. As part of STEM week—and much like our running—we felt the need for speed! Pupils took part in Formula 1 engineering workshops, with huge thanks to Mr. Childs, Teddy’s dad from McLaren Racing, for his time. Extending from cool cars, we also managed to snag a whole fire engine and crew to inspire our Reception Class—thank you to Surrey Fire Service.
On the theme of soul, alongside Head Girl Emilia and Head Boy Bo, we proudly represented Barrow Hills at the Bridewell Service at St. Bride’s Church, London. The event was an opportunity to reflect, celebrate, and renew the centuries-old history of our charitable foundation, established by Edward VI in 1553. As ever, our students conducted themselves with grace in the presence of the Lord Mayor and city dignitaries.
We will also stage a smaller version of the event here at Barrow Hills on the 26 March for our children and for any parents who may like to attend.
Have a great weekend.
Mr Towers, Head
News from Upper Prep
The weather has been beautiful this week at Barrow Hills and it has been lovely to see the children playing football and cricket outside in the sunshine.
As we race towards the end of the spring term, the weeks seem to get busier and busier. All the children in Upper Prep enjoyed a fantastic STEM week with many interesting activities. These included a talk from Mark Childs from McLaren, some science based investigative workshops making paper roller coasters and learning about hydraulics, and the Wonderdome Mobile Planetarium. Thank you so much for organising this wonderful week, Mr Behan!
On Tuesday, Miss Tyrrell spoke to the children about creating a ‘Growth Mindset’. This positive attitude will help them develop a love of learning as well as resilience. These are great attributes to have and will help the children in Year 7 and Year 8 as they prepare for their exams in June – and life after Barrow Hills!
The children in Yr 8 have also spent this week analysing the poetry of Ted Hughes while the children in Yr 7 have been reading and discussing the short story The Red Room by H.G Wells and then using this as inspiration for their own ghostly creative writing.
On Thursday, Bo and Emilia, our Head Boy and Head Girl, and Josh and Delilah, our Bridewell Head Choristers, joined Mr Towers in London for Bridewell Day. I know they all enjoyed the beautiful service at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street and the delicious lunch afterwards.
I wish you all a lovely weekend,
Mrs Mason, Head of Upper Prep
News from Prep
What an exciting STEM Week we have had at Barrow Hills! From guest speakers to hands-on workshops and the magic of the Wonderdome Mobile Planetarium, it has been a week of exploration and discovery. Research shows that those who engage in STEM learning in childhood develop stronger analytical skills and become more innovative thinkers. It’s been a joy to watch the children problem-solve, experiment, and think outside the box this week.
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of running Growth Mindset workshops for the children from Kindy all the way to Year 8. With the younger children, we explored the Power of Yet—understanding that if we can’t do something now, it simply means we haven’t mastered it yet. We talked about how our brains are like elastic; they grow and stretch when we practise and persevere. The children were fascinated to hear how neurons form new connections when we try hard and learn from mistakes. With the older children, we focused on the importance of grit and determination—learning to embrace setbacks as stepping stones to success. I shared examples of famous figures who faced significant failures before ultimately achieving greatness, from Thomas Edison’s thousands of failed attempts at the lightbulb to Michael Jordan not making his high school basketball team. Hopefully these lessons will stay with them as they encounter challenges of their own.
Final rehearsals for “Matilda – The Musical” are now in full swing, with our hard working cast singing confidently and performing with such professionalism and enthusiasm. If you get a chance over the weekend, a final run-through of lines or lyrics with the children will cement all their recent efforts. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Year 5 parents on Wednesday 19th and Year 6 parents on Thursday 20th—it promises to be a spectacular show!
Parent consultations also took place this week, which were a valuable opportunity to check in on the children’s progress and share insights about their learning and development. These meetings provide a chance to celebrate achievements and reflect on areas for growth. Thank you to all the parents who attended—it’s always so valuable to strengthen the partnership between home and school.
It’s been a week of creativity, problem-solving, and personal growth, and we couldn’t be prouder of how the children have embraced every challenge. As always, thank you for your ongoing support.
Miss Tyrrell, Head of Prep
News from Pre-Prep
STEM Week underpinned many activities in Pre-Prep this week. Year 2 explored habitats in the Pre-Prep garden at the beginning of the week, looking for evidence of animals, insects, birds and plants in their local habitat. In fact, Year 1 and Year 2 children spent most of this week’s play times working together at the top of the garden to create habitat cities and with moss, stones, and sticks, and digging tunnels for visiting wildlife to use.
Year 1 were extremely fortunate to listen to Mr Childs (Teddy’s Daddy) on Tuesday morning who explained all about his role within Formula 1 and the importance of teamwork and collaboration. Kindy were busy making pizzas and investigating the effects of yeast and Forest School lessons looked at the life cycle of a sunflower, before the children planted their own sunflower seeds. In Reception class on Monday, they explored air resistance and investigated which materials make the best parachutes. Using carrier bags, they created their own parachutes and launched them from Mr. Towers’s balcony. This morning Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all had a fantastic experience exploring the visiting planetarium. We were all transported on a cosmic journey, a thrilling adventure exploring the wonders of the Universe.
On Tuesday morning children from Kindy to Year 2 joined Miss Tyrell’s Growth Mindset Workshops which focused particularly on the power of ‘yet’. The children listened to how they should embrace challenges, deal with obstacles and learn from their mistakes, and considered various scenarios where the children had to decide whether these would be regarded as a fixed or growth mindset.
Tuesday morning was also when the Fire Engine came to visit Reception and our Early Years classes. They were able to explore the vehicle, meet the firemen and look at some of the fire equipment on board. There was an emergency call towards the end of their visit so the children got to watch the fire engine depart promptly and hear the sirens as they headed off down Roke Lane!
Year 1’s class assembly took place on Thursday morning. The children did a truly tremendous job of performing to a chapel full of parents, staff and pupils, sharing everything they have explored as part of their topic work on Castles this term, from their trip to Guildford Museum and Castle to their Castles Day last month. Their assembly had music, dance, costumes and confident, clear speakers. The children did a wonderful job and the audience were keen for an encore of the clapping song!
Reception class visited the Art Studio this week. As we gear up to the annual Art Exhibition at the beginning of next term, they had the opportunity to work with different media, using pastels one week and this week they created ink drawings using real goose feathers as quills.
Well done to Alexander (Rec), Mia (Year 1) and Lenny (Year 2) who each received Work of the Week certificates this morning. Congratulations also to those who were presented with their Silver Awards for all the house points they have earned this term. Annabelle, Valo and Leo (Reception), Holly, Kit, Matthew, Austin and Luke (Year 1), and Ben, Ethan, Hannah, Rafferty, Jake, Lenny (Year 2) were all given their Silver Awards in assembly today.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Barnett, Head of Pre-Prep
BHCC
Bacon Butties have brightened up the morning last week and this, raising £138.96 on 7 March and £190.99 today. Additionally uniform sales today raised income of £484.00!
Thanks to our amazing team and the community for your support!
