Weekly Newsletter 11th June 2021

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed the glorious weather that the half term break brought. I certainly made the most of it and apart from a very soggy game of golf on Friday afternoon, the Oldroyds fired up the BBQ, caught up with friends and family and made the most of Norfolk’s beaches and the broads.

Our very short second half of term is jam packed and hopefully we will be able to go ahead with what has been planned – we should know on Monday when we get the next government update. This week the children in Prep have been doing their assessments, but there has been no shortage of other activities for them to experience, too.

On Tuesday, Years 3 and 4 had a team building day on the field. When I popped along in the morning there was much collaboration and head scratching as the teams worked together to solve a fun variety of challenges that combined physical agility with clarity of thought. Today was the turn of Years 5 to 8 and I hope they enjoy themselves as much as the younger children did. I would imagine that Year 5 and 6 in particular will sleep well tonight having camped at school last night. They pitched tents with the help of some parent volunteers (thank you!), had a BBQ, played cricket and rounders, sat around a campfire and enjoyed the Forest School area before hot chocolate and bedtime. After about three hours of sleep they were up with the dawn and back to cricket and rounders and a swimming session with Mrs Burnett before breakfast! Next Thursday will be the Years 7 and 8 camp out.

The girls had cricket fixtures against Ripley Court and the boys played House matches on Wednesday and Thursday. There was some excellent talent on show and I was particularly impressed with the skills from our girls’ Colts ‘B’ team with some great bowling, amazing catching and powerful hitting. It was also wonderful to, once again, stand on the boundary chatting to parents as we all encouraged our teams.

It has also been a pleasure to have watched the Pre-Prep children having a wonderful time, too, especially yesterday with their ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ themed story and tea, which Mrs Harris has mentioned in her newsletter.

I thank everyone who has organised and contributed to everything to make these events happen. The children seem to be having a fabulous time. The rest of the term is bound to fly by, but I am determined to enjoy it and, hopefully, not get too exhausted!

Best wishes for the weekend,

Philip Oldroyd

Head

Pre-Prep

Yesterday we were treated to a reading of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by our Head of English, Mrs Mason, in the butterfly garden by Pre-Prep. The children were amazed to find Mrs Mason there and showed fantastic listening and wriggling of their fingers being caterpillars! Super activities were also set up around the gardens, my personal favourite being the scavenger hunt. The children searched for parts of the story and Nursery and Kindy helped me to fill in my tick list. Butterflies have been a bit of a theme this week with the children searching for them in the gardens by Forest School. They have also been observing how our Kindy classroom caterpillars are getting on.

Children and staff have been busy decorating ‘Barrow Hills Bunnies’ for a woodland trail in the woods. The decorations have been taken from their topic work throughout the year, which includes Egypt and Castles. We hope to be able to share further information with you on this soon.

Today, Reception went to RHS Wisley for an ‘exploring trees’ workshop; we are so lucky to have such wonderful places so nearby!

Please don’t forget to apply sun cream and have a hat and water bottle in school every day.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Rachel E Harris

Head of Pre-Prep