News Events Photo Galleries Edition 3131. October 2017

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KINGSLEYMOMENTThe

Preparatory School Edition

Headteacher’s WelcomeThe first few weeks of a new academic year always pass in a blur of new friendships and those rekindled after a long summer break; adjustments to new routines and rediscovering the self-assurance of the previous July. In all this, our first half-term has been no exception. We welcomed many new families joining the Kingsley community and saw lots of new faces in the playground. We are delighted that everyone has settled in so well and have already made such a positive contribution to our school. It would be appropriate to drop in grateful thanks to some longer standing members of our community here as well. Several members of the Friends of Kingsley put on a truly spooktacular Halloween Disco for the pupils on the last evening of school, which served as a wonderful finale to the half-term. Your hard work and organisation was very much appreciated by all who attended. For our Year 6 pupils however, there was no time to rest on the laurels of being the eldest in the school; they were straight into leadership roles and Senior School examination preparation. It has been a busy and occasionally anxious time for many of them, but they have really impressed the staff with their ‘Kingsley can-do’ attitudes. I am extremely proud of them for the hard work and dedication they have already shown this term. Without exception they have demonstrated determination, perseverance and courage in their academic endeavours. I look forward to seeing what they have up their sleeves for the rest of the year!

I hope that you have all managed to get hold of a copy of the new 1884 magazine which was published this term and that you enjoy all that this edition of the Kingsley Moment has to offer. These are the best ways to find out what has happened throughout the term, as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds. So, as the nights begin to draw in and the jingle of sleigh bells can be heard in the distance, I wish you all a happy and restful holiday before the new half-term starts on Monday 6th November.

Mrs Rachel WhitingHead of Prep

Thank You Friends!The new Prep School Council would like to thank the Friends of Kingsley for buying all this wonderful playground equipment.

2D ShapesOne of the main learning outcomes in Reception this half term has been learning to name and recognise 2D shapes. The children have used 2D shapes to make pictures, hunted for 2D shapes, photographed 2D shapes in the environment and they have made 2D shapes using natural materials.

Toy StoryOn Thursday 12th October Reception class had some very special visitors - their toys!Each child brought in their favourite toy to spend the day with them at Kingsley. They started the day by writing a teddy register and attending assembly where everyone sat and listened beautifully.

After assembly the children had a circle time which gave them the opportunity to share why their teddy is so special to them. After that it was time for their last dance lesson before the Prep Gym and Dance Showcase. The toys made an excellent audience and were very impressed with the pupils’ dancing!

A Bag Full of WorriesReception Class have been learning about their feelings. They were particularly fascinated by the book, ‘A Bag Full of Worries’. The children sewed their own bags to keep worry friends in, so that they always have someone special to talk to about their worries and to help them feel better.

Smashing PumpkinsReception Class explored and learned about pumpkins as part of their learning about Halloween. They carried out observational drawings of pumpkins and then used tac hammers to decorate them with pins before they finally had a wonderful time smashing the pumpkins to explore what was inside!

Ice Cream ParlourThe Reception children have had a fantastic time in the Ice Cream Parlour Role-play area making different ice creams, adding a variety of toppings and selling them to their friends as well as taking orders. They even had special scoop-able ice cream play dough, which smelt yummy!

Year 1 and 2 Stars of the WeekAt the end of each week in Key Stage 1, the children look forward to finding out who will be awarded the special class award of ‘Star of the Week’. The achievement is awarded for high standards of learning, work ethic, behaviour around school and attitude towards different aspects of school life. The winner receives a special certificate and can choose a surprise treat from the treasure box. The Stars of the Week over the past few weeks have been...

Liana, who is often an independent learner and works extremely hard in all of her lessons. Liana always has a determined and positive approach and strives to achieve her best learning each day.

Miki is learning to work very independently and strives to continue to build on and improve her work each day. Miki has increased her knowledge of working with larger two or three digit numbers to solve complex mathematical sums and is learning to add detail and description to create some super sentences in her writing!

Matilda: for always persevering and taking on some new learning challenges independently. She is beginning to sound out more challenging words for spellings, and is using a range of strategies to solve number bonds to ten and twenty.

Aisha has made excellent progress in

her learning since joining Kingsley in

September by reflecting on her work

and striving to achieve her best. Aisha is

always kind and courteous towards others and arrives each morning ready

to learn.

Seren is learning to recall her number bonds to ten and to use number lines and a hundred square to add and subtract larger numbers. Seren is growing into an independent writer and is learning to sound out and spell words using her phonics skills.

4

Olivia’s AdventuresKey Stage One have been very welcoming towards the new addition to their classroom since the beginning of the school year. The children have been joined by Olivia, the ostrich, and have been keen to find out all about her life, favourite foods and hobbies.

At the end of each week, one lucky member of Year One and Year Two receives the privilege of taking Olivia home with them for a weekend trip. Olivia’s first adventure was shared with Lara, where she took Olivia to a dancing party, conker collecting and even her

swimming lessons too. Olivia had so much fun!

Please feel free to pop into our classroom to visit Olivia. She is very friendly and is known to give the best cuddles!

At the end of each week, one lucky member of Year One and Year Two receives the privilege of taking Olivia home with them for a weekend trip. Olivia’s first adventure was shared with Lara, where she took Olivia to

Taste TestingThe Year 1 and 2 children continued their science investigations exploring their senses by conducting a series of taste tests in small groups.

The children tasted a range of foods they were familiar with, as well as some unusual new foods they had not experienced before. The only catch was, the children took it in turns to be blindfolded while their partners gave them samples of foods to try!

The children used the words sour, sweet, bitter and salty to describe some of the foods they tried and the textures they experienced while tasting them. It was certainly an exciting experience for them and they were pleasantly surprised by some of the foods they liked such as dates, apricots, cacao nibs, fig rolls, chickpeas and even chia seeds!

A Day of LanguagesOn Tuesday 26th September, the Year 1 and 2 children took part in a variety of activities to celebrate European Day of Languages. The children began with a lesson in German to have a taste for what the language was like to listen to and speak. The children learned to say simple greetings, recite their numbers to nine and write their favourite colours in German.

The class also shared and discussed the native languages they spoke or other languages they had experienced in their learning. The children

had learnt or experienced Hindi, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic.

Amazing Shapes!Year 1 and Year 2 continued their fortnightly Outdoor Learning afternoon at the School Playing Fields by collecting natural and man-made objects from the grounds. The children used their items to create a variety of 2D or 3D shapes as part of their maths lessons which have explored shapes and patterns.

The class were sent off in groups to work together to select suitable objects and plan how they would use them to create their shapes. There was a lot of team work involved and the children even added creative touches by making pictures containing a variety of shapes. It is amazing what you can create with just a few recycled materials and objects from nature!

Year 1 and 2 shared the story, ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ by Virginia Ironside, which describes a girl who carries a bag of all of her worries around with her, both big and small. It feels like an enormous burden for her to manage and she does not know how to cope with it.

The class used the book to discuss and act out their feelings when they were worried and depicted what their feelings might look like

through the use of pictures and actions.

In their next PSHE lesson, they used their previous learning to find ways to manage their worries and decide whether they can sometimes be resolved using simple strategies or help from others. The children found worries are often not as big a problem as they may initially seem, and they can sometimes work as a team to overcome them.

Don’t Worry About A Thing

What can we hear?On Monday 25th September, the Year 1 and 2 children continued learning about their bodies and the different senses in their science lessons, by using their sense of hearing on a sound walk at the Kingsley Playing Fields.

The children began by making extra-large ears to increase their listening powers to help them to hear more clearly and from further away. They recorded the sounds they could hear inside the pavilion and then continued to record sounds around the fields using pictures and a list of words to describe the sounds. The big ears certainly worked as they created an enormous word bank of sounds they could hear all the way to the surrounding roads and tennis courts!

Amazing Me!The Kingsley children have been exploring their new topic for this year, ‘We are Amazing!’ In Year 1 and 2, the children began their ‘All About Me’ class topic with lots of launch activities. It provided the children with an excellent opportunity to learn more about each other, too!

The class began by getting to know each other by sharing their memories from their holidays and their favourite things like colours, foods and animals. They also named people who were important to them and explained why. The class then learnt how to spell each other’s names and count the number of letters and sounds in each name.

It was then time to get creative! The children used mirrors to explore their facial features and drew self-portraits, paying close attention to their individual characteristics. In their science lesson, the class named their body parts and drew around their bodies. It was fascinating to see that while they may share similar hair or eye colours, the shape and characteristics of their faces and bodies are what help to make them look individual. However, most importantly, the children realised after learning about each other that it was their personalities which made them each unique and special.

The children are certainly amazing, each with their own special and unique qualities. They are looking forward to leaning more about each other and taking part in plenty more exciting activities as a team.

Amazing OlympicsYear 3 launched their new Creative Curriculum topic, ‘We are Amazing’, by planning and organising their own mini-Olympic tournament at the Kingsley Playing Fields. Esha was the overall champion, winning the gold medal and laurel wreath.

It’s all SymmetricalDuring Year 3’s Outdoor Education lessons at the fields, the pupils have been creating symmetrical artwork inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy.

In their science lessons, Year 3 pupils have been investigating how the spine in vertebrates helps with movement, support and balance. In their experiments, the pupils found out how many different positions they could get their bodies to make.

At the Arte CaféYear 3 visited Arte Café in Leamington Spa to paint clay plates. The pupils designed patterns and pictures in the style of the ancient Greek pots and vases they have studied during their Creative Curriculum lessons. Sima, Imogen and Emily painted the Cerberus dog that guarded the Underworld, Sima and Amy painted the Cyclops and Georgia painted the Minotaur.

The girls found out how the ancient Greeks made their clay pots and why they were red or orange in colour. The colour was created by controlling the amount of oxygen in the kiln when the plates were fired. The pots were fired three times. The first time at a very high temperature, with lots of oxygen and the pots turned red/orange. The second firing lowered the temperature and no oxygen was let into the oven. This turned the pots black. Finally, the third firing lowered the temperature even more and a little oxygen helped turn the unpainted clay orange.

Greek in ColourYear 3 have been finding out how the ancient Greeks dyed their fabrics. The group collected plants, leaves and berries during their outdoor education lesson on Monday and then made natural dyes back at school. They also made dyes from red and yellow onion skins, raspberries and blueberries. They found out that yellow onion skins, raspberries and blueberries made the best dyes.

House Building - Greek StyleYear 3 found out how ancient Greek houses were made. They made model houses and learnt how to draw scale plans. The girls also wrote estate agent leaflets describing each house, its location, rooms and cost.

Junior DentistsYear 4 became the teachers and visited Reception class to teach them all about how to care for their teeth. The group taught them which food groups and examples of food that could help their teeth and what was bad for their teeth. They also taught them some fun facts about teeth!

It’s all in the NumbersYear 4 have practised reading up to 6 digit numbers.Each pupil had a 4 digit number and everyone organised themselves into ascending order.

The group have also been working on rounding up their numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

Master ChefsYear 4 became chefs recently when they cooked a healthy vegetable pasta dish to fuel their amazing bodies in line with the whole school Creative Curriculum theme. The pupils had researched the vitamins and minerals contained in various different vegetables to come up with a recipe filled with goodness. Vegetables were all washed, chopped and prepared by the pupils before being roasted to perfection and added to wholemeal pasta with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese - delicious!

There was even time for a bit of Lego fun in the Innovation Station!

Year 5 launch their mission into space...Year 5 were set a task to design and create a new style of spacecraft that would launch the UK’s Space Race in 2020. The pupils worked in teams and came up with several designs. It was tricky deciding on just one to build. It was a tough choice but after much debate they went for...

Our 21st Century Spacecraft!

Solar System JourneyAs our topic is all about space, we are studying our solar system in science lessons. Year 5 recreated the solar system to show why each planet’s year lasts for different lengths of time. Each Year 5 pupil became a planet, then walked the orbit and we timed it to show the relationship between the distance from the Sun and the length of the orbit. Here, the pupils have lined up in planetary order with Elka acting as the Sun! Do you know the correct order for the planets orbiting the Sun?

Bonjour! Hola!For European Day of Languages, the pupils in Year 5 learned how to say ‘hello’ in lots of European languages! They then went on to create labels to show the different ways that Europeans say ‘hello’ to one another across all the different countries.

License to PoemFor National Poetry Day, Mrs Holmes challenged the pupils across all year groups to create a poem about being in their respective classes. Here are Year 5 collaborating to create a poem that describes life as a member of the class. We can’t wait to hear about what Year 4 and Year 6 are doing along with our younger children in the school. We’re hoping to combine all the classes’ efforts into one ‘Life at Kingsley School’ poem! Watch this space for the preview...

Out of this World ArtWith a collapsing cloud of material which is mostly made of Hydrogen, the lightest, simplest element of a star is born! Here is a photograph of the center of the Swan Nebula, or M17, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. Year 5 were amazed at the beauty of nebulae and went on to create ideas that would be the start of their very own nebula art! Here are some of the pupils developing their ideas.

Choose your WorkNew for Autumn 2017, pupils have been given a choice of a wide range of suggestions/tasks from which they can choose, one each fortnight, as their Creative Curriculum Homework. As you can see, Year 5 have been inspired by the choice of tasks and have come up with many amazing ideas for their mini project based homework. Everyone was very enthusiastic when it came to showing off their first pieces for the new homework scheme!

Introducing the New Leadership Team!

Head GirlsEmily and Isabella

Sports CaptainGrace Playground Buddy

Scarlett

Charity RepsMaya and Leah

Council RepLily

House CaptainsAngi (Gadesden) Aleesha (Huckwell), Rasna (Loveday), Natalia (Milroy)

Kingsley Big SistersYear 6 have been paired up with their younger Kingsley brothers and sisters, agreeing to help:

• Cross to and from the Senior School safely and sensibly• Feel welcome in the Prep School Playground before school and during lunch time• Support and encourage a love of reading by sharing story and reading books• Collecting and encouraging them during Kingsley School House Meetings and competitions• Taking their Kingsley School Little Brother or Sister to Whole School Assemblies and House Meetings

Council RepLily

A Hearty Blood SoupYear 6 learned about the functions of different parts of the blood by making blood soup. They used marshmallows for white blood cells, cranberries for red blood cells, rice for platelets and orange squash for plasma. They have also been learning about the functions of the heart and made 3D clay models of the heart.

Andy Warhol ArtYear 6 have recreated the Campbell’s soup cans and portrait pictures in the style of the pop artists - very bright and fun!

Harvest FestivalThanks to everyone who supported this year’s Harvest Festival. An uplifting service was held at Holy Trinity Church, with Reverend John Reese helping us to celebrate how blessed we are.

A special thanks must be extended to all the parents who made donations of foodstuffs, which were received with huge gratitude by the Warwick and Leamington Food Bank. There was so much collected by the Prep School that it took quite a long time to load the van!

Infant Agility Competition 2017Over 300 children from 8 different local schools competed in The Central Warwickshire Schools’ Sports Partnership annual Infant Agility Competition alongside hosts The Kingsley Preparatory School on Wednesday 11th October.

The competing schools included Brookhurst, Clapham Terrace, Cubbington, St Joseph’s and St Peter’s from Leamington Spa, alongside St John’s School in Kenilworth and St Lawrence’s School in Napton-on-the-Hill. There was friendly competition but with a lot of determination, teamwork and supportive cheering throughout the day.

Children competed across nine different agility athletic events with a few children trying new events for the first time. St Lawrence’s School team were the overall winners.

The Kingsley School’s Sixth Form A-level PE Students assisted in the planning and organisation of this hugely successful sporting event, accompanied by Sports Ambassadors from both The Kingsley School and Campion School, who were supporting the younger children throughout the day.

Science ClubMiss Knight-Adams’ Science Club for Years 1 and 2 has kicked off this year with a few sessions: using pipettes, sinking and floating, labelling parts of the body on life-sized body paper, and testing materials to see if they are waterproof or not!

October 2017 Monday 23rd October to Friday 3rd November inclusive - Half Term Holiday - wishing you a happy half term with plenty of spooktacular fun! November 2017 8th - Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 - Nasal Flu Immunisations - am8th - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Bablake School - at St Nicholas Park, Warwick - 4pm 9th - Prep School Tea Time Concert in Senior School Hall - 4.15pm - Refreshments served from 3.45pm 10th - Biathlon (for some selected pupils) at Pingles Leisure Centre, Nuneaton - tbc 16th - Friends of Kingsley Meeting in Senior School LRC - 7pm 17th - Children in Need Day 22nd - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Crackley Hall School at St Nicholas Park, Warwick - 4pm 24th - Preparatory School Open House - 9am to 10.30am - all welcome! 25th - (Saturday) Friends of Kingsley Christmas Fayre - in Senior School Hall - 11am to 2pm - all most welcome to enjoy the festive music, stroll around the Christmas stalls, visit Father Christmas and relax with a warm mince pie! 27th - Prep Parents’ Consultation Evening - 4.05pm to 7pm - in Form Rooms 30th - Second Hand Uniform Sale - Basement of Prep School - 3.30pm to 5pm30th - LAMDA Tea Time Concert ‘Preparation for Christmas’ - in Senior School Hall - 4.15pm - Refreshments served from 3.45pm30th - Last Rock Climbing Club of Autumn Term

December 2017 4th - LAMDA Examinations - all day4th - Scholastic Book Fair in Senior School LRC - all week4th - Last Rugby Tots of Autumn Term 5th - LAMDA Examinations - all day5th - Christmas Nativity ‘It’s A Party!’ Foundation, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 - Senior School Hall - 9.15am5th - Last Let’s Get Cooking Club of Autumn Term (makeup session)

6th - Year 5 and Year 6 Hockey Match v Carrdus at Tudor Hall - 4pm6th - Whole School Christmas Concert - Senior School Hall - 7pm - all welcome and enjoy the festive music! 7th - Last Spanish Club for Autumn Term (makeup session)7th - Last VP Tennis of Autumn Term 8th - Whole of Prep School to attend the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Pantomime at Royal Spa Centre, Royal Leamington Spa - am8th - Senior School Prize Giving at the Town Hall, Royal Leamington Spa - an evening event 11th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 6.30pm. All Pupils, Parents, Grandparents and Staff most welcome! Refreshments will be served after the service in the Senior School Hall 12th - Whole School Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church, Royal Leamington Spa - 2.30pm. (A pupils and staff event) 14th - Autumn Term Ends - 12.40pm - For All Year Groups - Happy Christmas Holidays! 15th - Staff INSET Day - School Closed

Dates for the Diary...