Crown House Preparatory School, High Wycombe

Mysterious Artefacts

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:15:18 +0000

In Geography, Year Five have been investigating a location many thousands of miles away. This week they looked at some objects from a mystery location and tried to predict what the objects were and how they might be used. As they studied each artefact they tried to build up a picture of what type of location they will be studying in the weeks to come. Can you guess what the object Erin is clutching might be used for? (For the answer ask a Year Five child)

There’s Always Space for a Question

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:13:53 +0000

Schools and questions go pretty much hand-in-hand. It is the teacher’s job to ask children questions as part of their learning and it just so happens that children ask some of the most interesting and challenging questions back. So, here is an apparently simple, childlike question to start this week’s Newsletter:

If you removed all the empty space from your body, how big would you be?

Grown-ups frequently operate in their day-to-day existence without having to answer fundamentally challenging questions – a lot of the rudiments that are required to help us negotiate our world are already in place. Furthermore, we can become all too dismissive of questions that we do not know the answers to, as we can simply ignore them or cheaply label them as ‘silly questions.’ Children do not have the same luxury and perhaps we should not always either.

Inter-House Spelling Competition.

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:13:41 +0000

It was our annual Inter-House Spelling Competition on Monday afternoon and I was pleased to see so many children in the whole who were eager to proudly answer some very tricky questions ranging from ‘shop’ through to ‘onomatopoeia’. After some excellent and closely fought rounds which demonstrated some seriously good spellers, a class champion was found for each year group, with some of the competition so close that joint champions were declared:
Year One – Sam and Lily
Year Two – Aryaman
Year Three – Aysha
Year Four – Daniela, Arunesh and Allegra
Year Five – Joseph
Year Six – Talia

In order to discover the overall winner, the champions were all subjected to a further batch of tricky spellings which were tailored to their own particular levels. Following some more superb spelling which may have taxed some of the grown-ups in the room, we were able to declare a whole school top three.

Congratulations to Aysha for her excellent third place; Aryaman for his very impressive second; and hats-off to this year’s Champion Speller – Talia.

Monday’s Assembly

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:12:03 +0000

Monday’s assembly had a very strong Scottish theme. Year Two performed a wonderful assembly on the famous Scottish Poet Robert Burns. They explained to the whole school the history behind Burn’s Night and all about the traditions. The Class also proudly displayed their own tartans, which they had made during their Art lessons. To top off the assembly, we were treated to two very traditional songs and even linked arms during a stirring rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

Funky Frames

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:09:41 +0000

In art Year Four had fun creating funky frames for their favourite photo. Below you can see a few examples of their designs:

Opening Doors

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:37:58 +0000

Many of you, may be looking forward to opening the first door on your Advent calendar this Saturday morning. Similarly, many of you will be rather surprised that we are somehow in December and only 10 school days away from the end of our Autumn Term.

This week we opened our doors for a series of Parents’ Evenings when we formally invite you to spend time with staff discussing your children’s progress. Once again, the overwhelming majority of feedback has been incredibly positive and we have enjoyed discussing how many new ‘doors’ have opened in children’s minds over the last ten or so weeks. The few questions or concerns that did arise, will swiftly be or have been dealt with and it has been reassuring (and rather nice) to hear enthusiasm and positivity about the school from parents!

I hope this is in no small part down to our open door policy and accessibility of all staff. If doors are open – the full picture is available and nothing significant can be lurking!

Monday’s Assembly

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:36:35 +0000

The school opened the door to a special visitor for our assembly on Monday, The Reverend Doctor Gwen Collins from the Trinity United Reformed Church came along to talk to the children about advent. She made some christingle with the upper school children, explaining very clearly to the children what each element signified.

Pre-School Soup Making

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:36:12 +0000

Pre-School have been making soup this week at Crown House:

“This is just what you need on a cold winter’s day!” proclaimed Rayhan as he tucked into Pre- School’s homemade minestrone soup.

The children enjoyed smelling the various herbs and ingredients and observing the pasta go from “bouncy and jangly” on the table top to “just right for eating” in the bubbling pan.

All Conquering Footballers

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:34:55 +0000

After their success last Tuesday, Years 3 and 4 took to the football field on Thursday to take on High Wycombe Church of England School. The two teams worked their socks off and both came away with very good results. The Year 4 team (pictured to the right above) competed in a very even match and after 25 minutes of excellent football they came away with a well deserved 2-1 victory. The mixed Year 3 and 4 team (pictured above to the left) dominated their match and finished up 14-0 winners! Now the dark nights are upon us, it is time for some hard training before fixtures resume in the Spring.

Netball vs Griffin House

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:33:05 +0000

On Friday our Year Five and Six netball team braved the elements and headed over to Griffin House School to take on their netball team.

The team’s first match of the season ended in a 10 – 5 defeat. The girls took a while to adjust to the slippery underfoot conditions and found themselves 6-1 down at half time.

They demonstrated great character in the second half and learnt from their mistakes and vastly improved to make the second half a 4 – 4 draw.

Unfortunately the Year 3 and 4 netball match, on Tuesday, had to be cancelled due to poor weather conditions.