Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Harvest Sale

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Our Harvest Thanksgiving Assembly and Sale are the highlight of October.

We would appreciate any goodies you may be able to provide us with to sell on our stalls.

*This year we are inviting the pupils from Pre-Pre-School to P7 to dress up in Halloween / Harvest fancy dress. A winner will be chosen from each class on the day.

(Normal clothes may be worn instead)*

Jewellery and hair decorations (new please) Bath and beauty Flowers and fruit Sweets and cakes (nut free) Books, toys and games

Please send all contributions into the Prep Hall by Wednesday 22nd October 2014. Following our special assembly, the children will have fun shopping from the stalls. 25% of the money raised will be retained for the benefit of girls in Prep. The remaining amount will be shared between Stand By Me and the NSPCC, charities chosen by CAG girls from each class.

Please ensure that all money sent into school is in a named envelope.

Welcome to our October Newsletter! The girls have made a wonderful start to the new academic year. We are delighted to see them enjoying school so much and working so hard! We have many exciting events this month, and we hope you are looking forward to them as much as we are! Dr Mitchell-Barrett

HALF TERM

School closed from Friday 24th October until Friday 31st October 2014 (inclusive)

Happy half-term!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Thursday 9th October 2014 – Individuals Friday 10th October 2014 – Groups (including

whole school)

P1 Information Session

Thursday 16th October 2014, from 2.15-3pm in the Prep Hall This is an opportunity for parents who have made applications for Prep 1 entry 2015 to find out

more about our school.

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

International Languages Week

Pupils from all classes across Prep have enjoyed participating in a range of exciting activities as they have celebrated International Week of Languages from 22nd to 26th September. Whole school projects involved the creation of colourful map displays depicting countries visited and languages spoken by the girls during the summer holidays while individual classes focused on studying a specific country or culture. Special visitors and friends with links to the girls made appearances throughout the week to classrooms, where they shared their language and culture and even allowed the girls to taste some goodies from their native countries. Pupils from Prep 6 and 7 were particularly delighted to participate in an African drumming workshop at the end of the week. At a special assembly on Thursday 25th September, Mrs. Burnett outlined the global focus on celebrating languages throughout Europe on 26th September and invited two of our staff members to talk to the girls about their backgrounds. Mrs. Munoz, from Pre- Pre School shared a very interesting presentation about her native Mexico while Mrs. Bari-Vig from Pre-School gave us all a flavour of life in her native Hungary. On Friday 26th September, the girls and staff were delighted to have the opportunity to round off our celebrations by dressing up in colourful and imaginative costumes from different cultures and by feasting on international snacks at break time! A big thank you to the staff, pupils, parents and friends for your enthusiasm and participation in the celebration of this special week in Prep! Your support is much appreciated. A special thank you to Mrs Boyd and Mrs Burnett for organising such fun and informative international events!

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

A Fun Day of Dress Up for International Day!

Beautiful customes and great effort from pupils throughout school from Pre-Pre-School to Prep 7

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Parent Representatives We would like to thank the following parents for volunteering their support this year: PPS – Mrs Martin (Parent Forum Rep) PS – Mrs O’Flaherty & Mrs Surphlis (Parent Forum Rep) P1 – Mrs Shaw and Mrs Young (Parent Forum Rep) P2 – Mrs Meyer & Mrs Looney (Parent Forum Rep) P3 – Mrs Stevenson (Parent Forum Rep) P4 – Mrs Irvine and Mrs Mullen (Parent Forum Rep) P5 – Mr Crawford-McCann (Parent Forum Rep) P6 – Mrs Harrison and Mrs McGale P7 – Mrs McQuoid, Mrs Caldwell and Mrs Marty Mr Meyer (Parent Forum Rep) Parent Forum

The first Prep Forum meeting for this academic year will take place on Wednesday 15th October. The Prep Parent Forum provides the opportunity to further strengthen parent feedback across our school and provide the opportunity to continue to seek school improvement, with parents and staff working in partnership to achieve the very best outcomes for all of our pupils, at Victoria College Prep. The Parent Forum is in addition to our annual parent questionnaire. The Autumn Term Parent Forum meeting will be held on Wednesday 15th October at 6pm in the Prep 7 classroom. The top three issues to be raised should be discussed with your recently appointed Class Representative who will pass these on to Miss Wright (Deputy Head of Prep) in writing by Monday 6th October 2014. These issues will then be added to the Parent Forum agenda for 15th October meeting. One Class Representative from each class will then attend the meeting where the issue will be discussed. Feedback from this meeting will be available for all parents.

FRIENDS OF PREP Invite you to an

Evening At Deane’s at Queens Friday 10th October 2014

Tickets - £30 All parents and friends are warmly invited; it's a great way to start off the new school year and get to know other parents. The evening starts with a drinks reception at 7.15pm, with dinner at 8pm.

Please support us by buying some raffle tickets during the evening; you will not be disappointed with the great range of prizes as always! The evening wraps up with a DJ and dancing - a night not to be missed.

You can book your own table or join in on the class tables.

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Friends of Prep

This year's Friends of Prep committee members are listed below. To contact Friends of Prep, the following email address should be used: vcbfriendsofprep@gmail.com

Chair – Linda Murray Treasurer – Alex Besga (Doran) Lucy O'Flaherty Joanne Wilson Peter Crawford McCann Vanessa Collins Lesley McGuire Tara Meyer Caroline Young Una Mallen Cathryn Gibson Heather Caldwell Please let us know your comments or ideas, and volunteers for specific events, or serving tea and coffee, are always welcomed.

Request for Parent Helpers *** Halloween Party *** Thursday 23 October 2014 Friends of Prep are working closely with Inchmarlo IPA to organise the Halloween and Fireworks Party which will be

held on Thursday 23 October at 6pm in the grounds of Inchmarlo.

This annual event is an evening full of fun and Halloween atmosphere, with dressing up, lots of activities and food - where entire families of both schools come together, however it does take a lot of organising in the setting up,

running of BBQ/ stalls etc. and in the clearing up!

For this year we are seeking to recruit parents to volunteer their time in the running of the event on the afternoon (set up only) or during the evening of 23 October (including clearing up!) and would appeal to parents who traditionally go,

to please get involved. If you can help (even for an hour) please e-mail vcbfriendsofprep@gmail.com with your name, e-mail address and

telephone number.

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Prep 7 House Captains

Congratulations to our new House Captains & Vice Captains:

Crescent – A Caldwell/C Hamilton

Howard - L Patterson/E Ross

Marlborough - E Azuara-Lois/H McCloy

Pakenham - B Roberts/E Neville Forrest

Richmond - I Meyer/L McQuoid

Wellington - M McGuire/A McCoy

Well done girls!

STAFFING UPDATE

In order to prepare for transition, Mrs McLuckie has been appointed as temporary Special Education Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) and Early Years’ Leader. This will allow time for support and hand-over before Dr Mitchell-Barrett moves post on 1st December 2014.

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Prep Action Group Aims 2014-15

Welcome Team - The Welcome Team are busy each year helping new girls to settle into their classes, make new friends and show them where everything is around school. This year we will be leading games in the playground and ensuring that all new girls feel like part of our school family!

Community Action Group - We hope to raise awareness of our school, and all the good things we do, in the local community, create and maintain links in the local area, and work alongside other Action Groups in school to promote links to the community in as many ways as we can. We are also choosing charities to support throughout the school year. SNAG - This year we have a consultant chef working with us and so there will be different and exciting meals offered on our menus. As always, we will be listening to the views of our girls and they have already been busy offering their opinions on ‘Gerry’s Fab 5’ questionnaires. Please remember to consider your daughter’s menu choices carefully as once selected, girls will not have opportunity to change their minds on the day. Packed lunches should ensure girls are having enough energy for their busy afternoons without a huge sugar rush and subsequent dip, and we hope these girls will also join in Fruit of the Week. Remember, there is a SNAG suggestion box in the P1 room. Your daughter’s class SNAG members will look after any suggestions. We are looking forward to some great ideas at the start of another busy year. As parents, we are always seeking a variety of ways to encourage our children to eat their 5 a day, and this can require some ingenuity when children are reluctant fruit-eaters. In line with our healthy eating policy, smoothies would be considered to be healthy choices, however as we are continuing to work under our Save our Smiles policy, we would recommend milk or water as preferable healthy and tooth-friendly drinks. School Council - This year the School Council will focus on inviting the pupils of Victoria Prep to express their opinions about making positive changes and improvements in our school. The Council will also continue to consider and promote ideas for whole school fundraising ventures to further improve and increase our range of interactive playground equipment. Members will also be responsible for welcoming important visitors and giving them a guided tour of our school grounds. In October, they will liaise with the School Governors on ‘Governor Drop In Morning’ and represent each class as Prep ambassadors. Eco Action Group – This year the Eco Action Team will continue to focus on our school grounds through our development of a sensory garden. Already in our first 5 weeks in school we have seen some new additions, our winding path, bird table and our colourful weaving frames. Watch carefully over the coming months to see our next additions and also if our new sensory garden is working well. Remember our aim is to create an environmentally friendly area for ourselves, and our local plants and animals to use. Once again, any support from Prep parents or friends is also greatly appreciated! IAG - The International Action group recognise and celebrate cultural diversity in our school and local community. This year we will be busy organising and celebrating International Week, Chinese New Year, International School Meals Day and Diversity Week. We aim to highlight and use our international connections within our school community. Throughout International Week in September, we welcomed international parents, grandparents and friends of Prep to share their language with their daughter’s class. Pupils enjoyed this enriching experience as they sang nursery rhymes, traditional songs and practised simple greetings. Thank you to all our volunteers who helped to make this a successful and enjoyable week. Thank you to the IAG representatives last year who worked very hard to gain The Foundation Level Award, well done! We will build on this excellent work and we hope to gain our Intermediate Level International School Award this year. This will involve with taking part in The British Council’s Connecting Classroom Project. This exciting project will help develop global learning partnerships through establishing and enjoying regular contact with students and adults living in another country. Through the work of IAG we aim to encourage all pupils to become global citizens as we will work towards attaining The British Council International School Award.

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Welcome Team

Prep 1 Kitty McMullan Amelia Green Prep 2 Amelie Moore Ana Garcia Kehoe Prep 3 Matilda Gibson Sarah Mallon Prep 4 Isabella Doran Ali Crawford-McCann Prep 5 Luca Moore Maddie Crawford-McCann Prep 6

Sophie Luke Beth Thompson Prep 7 Anna McCoy Claudia Murphy

CAG

Prep 1 Rebecca Murray Grace Nelson Prep 2 Poppy McMurray Chloe Young Prep 3 Aimee Jackson Eliza Stevenson Prep 4 Lola Armstrong Jessica Byrne Prep 5 Lucia Anderson Rachel Cheevers Prep 6

Aoife Mallon

Anna McPherson Prep 7 Fiona Ferguson Katherine Ward

SNAG

Prep 1 Lettie Stevenson Orla Mallon Prep 2 Alex McMahon Emily Wilson Prep 3 Annabelle O’Flaherty Connie Morrow Prep 4 Alice Looney Maya Mullen Prep 5 Sophie Johnston Clara Wilson Prep 6

Sarah Frazer Evie O'Sullivan Prep 7

Elise Donnelly Grace Corscadden

School Council

Prep 1 Katie Shaw Sophie Corscaden Prep 2 Poppy Leathley Grace Looney Prep 3 Imogen Magee Raine Martin Prep 4 Erin Glenn Aimee Hilman Prep 5 Katherine Irvine Beatrice Toogood Prep 6

Isabella O'Brien Lily McGuire Prep 7 Holly McCloy Emilia Azuara-Lois

Eco Group Prep 1 Georgia McCausland & Ella Gordon Prep 2 Lola Meyer & Safia Smith Prep 3 Erin McGuire & Ella McKenna Prep 4 Caitlin McGrath & Eva Kelly Prep 5 Bridget Kennedy & Emma McCloy Prep 6

Katherine Jack & Amy McMurrough Prep 7

Emma Kirk & Minaahil Shahzad

ACTION GROUPS AND TEAMS

IAG Prep 1 Emaane Azim & Maria Garcia Kehoe Prep 2 Isabella Kiliokaitis & Alexandra Hughes Prep 3 Eppie Hughes Jennett & Chloe Murphy Prep 4 Ellie Fogarty & Annabel Hunter Prep 5 Charlotte Roberts & Emma Brow Prep 6

Alex Boal & Amy Fogarty Prep 7 Anna Marty & Amber Young

We welcome our new Action Group members and wish them well in their busy action plans this year!

Good luck!

Victoria College Preparatory Department

Newsletter

October 2014

Our Pretty Prep Garden

Our lovely Prep garden is now decorated with a soft bark path and beautiful colourful weaving frames that the children can have fun weaving ribbon through.

We also have two lovely reading and games benches very kindly provided by Dr Mitchell-Barrett as a leaving present for the girls.