Weekly News - Friday 30th April 2021

Posted on: 30/04/2021

General Knowledge Quiz Team Successes!

We are thrilled to let you know that three of our General Knowledge teams have made it through to the Prep School General Knowledge National Finals! Our Year 4 team, Year 5 team and Year 6 team all qualified from their heats and are now continuing to work on their General Knowledge, preparing for the national finals which will take place in June. Competition is fierce in this contest so the children have already done extremely well and we are very proud of them. We all wish them luck in the Finals!

The Big Pedal

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Pupils, staff and parents at Lower School and Upper School have taken part in the national Big Pedal Week this week to promote physical activity and active travel to school. 

Everyone was encouraged to include walking, scooting or cycling in their daily travel to and from school between Monday 26th - Friday 30th April and there was a challenge to see which class completed the most active journeys. At Upper School, 5A completed the most cycling journeys, 3M completed the most scooting journeys and 4T completed the most walking journeys. At Lower School, 1C and 1R were joint winners of being the most active travellers to school.

Every child from Nursery to Year 6 enjoyed Big Pedal/Push bike/scooter sessions in PE lessons this week, and we saw a great increase in the number of people actively travelling to school, whether on foot or using bikes and scooters. The children's proficiency in scooting and cycling was noticeably improved and we feel that this could be one of the benefits of the lockdown period, when so many of you took to the outdoors. It was great to see parents and staff travelling in different, more active ways too, and it was good to hear that many of you found the lovely new walking distance zone map that has been produced for us useful when planning your journeys. This map will remain available in the School Documents page of the website for the future and we hope that it will encourage you all to try to incorporate some foot travel into your school journeys.

Our Premises Manager Mr. Smith also took up the challenge. A keen cyclist himself, he undertook a long distance bike ride each evening and challenged the children to guess where he had got to before returning to school. Children were told which direction he was travelling each day (North, South, East or West) and the distance of the round trip. Photographs of his final destinations were shared daily and we hope that the children enjoyed trying to work out where he ended up each day! Mr. Smith has cycled over 250 km this week on his bike - an amazing achievement!

We hope that you all enjoyed your active travel this week and that you will all now keep it up, finding more active ways to travel to and from school for the rest of this term and into the future. You can see more photographs from the week on our Photo Galleries page.

Upcoming Author Visit - Baroness Floella Benjamin

On Tuesday 11th May at 10 a.m. pupils in Years 1-6 will have the privilege of joining a live online event with Baroness Floella Benjamin, a truly inspirational speaker. The Baroness is celebrating the publication of both her picture book Coming to England: An Inspiring True Story About the Windrush Generation, and the 25th anniversary edition of her ever-popular memoir Coming to England: two books that give a powerful reminder of how courage and determination can overcome adversity.

Parents and children have the opportunity to pre-order copies of these books if you would like to do so.

THE PICTURE BOOK for younger readers (rrp £6.99) - Suitable for Years 1 & 2

Picture BookA story about the triumph of hope, love, and determination, Coming to England is the inspiring true story of Baroness Floella Benjamin: from Trinidad, to London as part of the Windrush generation, to the House of Lords. When she was ten years old, Floella Benjamin, along with her older sister and two younger brothers, set sail from Trinidad to London, to be reunited with the rest of their family. Alone on a huge ship for two weeks, then tumbled into a cold and unfriendly London, coming to England wasn’t at all what Floella had expected.

Coming to England is both deeply personal and universally relevant – Floella’s experiences of moving home and making friends will resonate with young children, who will be inspired by her trademark optimism and joy. 

THE MEMOIR (25th anniversary edition) (rrp £6.99) - suitable for Years 3-6

KS2 bookWith a foreword by the author and some additional historical information, this is the incredible story of Floella’s journey from Trinidad to London, as part of the Windrush generation, to the House of Lords. 

Floella Benjamin was just a young girl when she, her sister and two brothers arrived in England in 1960 to join their parents, whom they had not seen for fifteen months. They had left the island paradise of Trinidad to make a new home in London – part of a whole generation of West Indians who were encouraged to move to Britain and help rebuild the country after the Second World War. Reunited with her mother, Floella was too overwhelmed at first to care about the cold weather and the noise and dirt from the traffic.

But, as her new life began, she was shocked and distressed by the rejection she experienced. She soon realized that the only way to survive was to work twice as hard and be twice as good as anyone else. 

If you would like to buy copies of Baroness Floella’s books, please click on the link below to order

https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/product-category/baroness-floella-benjamin/

Important: as you go through the checkout, you will be given the option to have your book(s) delivered directly to the school, with no delivery charge. If you choose this option, please state your child's name and class in the 'Details Required For School Events' box, as this will ensure correct allocation of the book(s) to your child in school.

This link will be open until midnight on Thursday 13th May.

Residential Days

We are delighted that we are now able to offer Year 3 to Year 6 a residential day in the local area. Information about each year group's plans has been sent to parents this week. Please ensure that you read this as there is a lot of information. Some of the trips require parental support with transportation so please add the dates to your diaries now.