Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School Parklife Newsletter December 2020

PARKLIFE
BEYOND THE SCHOOL GATES
Remembrance Assembly and Autumn Concert
On Wednesday 11th November, RPPS took time to remember armed forces members who have died in the line
of duty. The first part of our Remembrance Assembly was broadcast live, to all classrooms, so the children were
all able to join in with the one minute silence together. The second part of our assembly was recorded and the
children enjoyed some thought provoking poetry, a remembrance talk from Captain Edward Vos, some magnificent
singing and an important message from Reverend Collington.
The Years Five and Six choir sang a wonderful rendition of ‘We’ll gather lilacs,’ by Ivor Novello. Written as World
War Two drew to a close, the song describes the longing of parted couples to be reunited. It evokes the joy they
would feel when together once again, and the pleasures of the English countryside in Spring with its blossoms.
As tradition has it, the Orchestra
opened our Autumn Concert with a
socially distanced ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’
Here is an action shot
of Henry playing
‘Concerto in G,’ by
Vivaldi.
The Junior choir performed ‘Sometimes I wonder,’
by Mark and Helen Johnson for us all to
enjoy. To help them remember all of the words
they combined some appropriate actions.
Hudson so clearly recited the poem
‘Poppy poppy.’ Anon.
We all felt very fortunate
to still be able to enjoy our
popular Autumn Concert.
We had many children perform,
even some sending in
their recordings from home.
Congratulations to all of
those involved, and the best
part of it being recorded is
that we are able to enjoy it
more than once!
Issue 173 Autumn Term The Newsletter of Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School

Wellbeing Week
Our Autumn themed week this year was
dedicated to wellbeing and allowed us to
go on a ‘Road to Wellbeing’ throughout
the week, taking pit stops to pick up tips,
tricks and habits to use and carry forward
in our everyday lives. Sessions for the
children included workshops delivered by
external visitors, parents, staff members
and an adorable floppy-eared little visitor
too.
We were lucky enough to have Bugsy, Miss
Bennison’s dog, join us! Bugsy came into school
to give us an introduction to the benefits of
having a school dog. We learnt all about the
therapeutic and pastoral benefits that a school
dog can bring. Bugsy is able to teach empathy
and appropriate interpersonal skills, help us develop
social skills and reduce student and staff
stress anxiety. We really hope that Bugsy joins
us again soon!
Throughout the week, we took time to consider how to support ourselves and those around us, including animals.
With this in mind, Zoolab visited us and brought along many wiggly companions, including; a snake,
tarantula, guinea pig, snail, African millipede and a leopard gecko! We also learnt about how animals deal with
emotions, such as anxiety and happiness, understanding that all living things have feelings and coping mechanisms
in place, just like we do!
Here at RPPS, we understand the importance of
supporting our pupils at home as well as at school,
which is why we also considered ways to aid our
parent body with wellbeing at home. Specialist
staff from the Music, PE and Art department, produced
explanation videos on how to best support
children at home through their subject areas. This
was in addition to a live webinar delivered from the
Sleep Charity to discuss how to help children with
their sleep, raising a total £345, which was donated
to our school charity, Sparkle.

We also took time to look at how our
diet helps in many ways, including;
our sleeping patterns, energy levels
and general health. We were lucky
enough to welcome Amelia Harvey,
parent and owner of the yogurt company
‘The Collective’. She shared her
expertise in selecting healthy foods
and also made delicious dips to have
with our lunch. Lunches throughout
the week were suggested by children
and voted for by the RPPS comunity
to be featured on our menu throughout
the week. We also designed,
named and made nutritious, yet
delicious smoothies
Wellbeing for our wonderful staff body was also a
focus of the week. Staff had been nominated to act as
secret well- being fairies for one another, dropping
off inspirational notes, jokes and thoughtful treats
throughout the week to brighten up each other’s day.
To end a successful week, we took the time to sit back,
relax (a very important element of wellbeing) and enjoy
some popcorn that was delivered by some very familiar
faces!

School Council
We kick-started School Council this term with our new annual
election process, whereby the children who wanted to
run to be a representative for their class were asked to present
a speech on a ‘Right to Education.’ Audiences across the
RPPS community were impressed by the inspiring speeches
and then voted on official ballot cards for who they wanted
as their class representative.
The results were announced by a live broadcast from the
news team at RPPStv. The report included the weather,
interviews with members of the community, some statistics
brought up around the topic of education during speeches
and the results of who would represent RPPS as School
Council members for the next two half terms.
Since being elected, the School Council have been busy
spreading the term’s value of Kindness. Specially designed
worksheets have been made to give students ideas of how to
spread kindness such as, ‘Hold the door open’ and ‘Smile at
someone.’ They have also been heavily involved in United
Against Bullying week, giving stickers made by the team, to
their peers when they have identified them to be showing
kind hands and kind hearts.
Our School Council team have very much enjoyed the time
spent in their roles this term and look forward to taking on
further responsibility next term such as deciding privileges
in the Upper School.
Eco Committee
As part of our drive to gain the
National Eco-Schools Green
Flag Award, we are focusing
on reducing waste reaching the
landfill. We recycle all pens at
school through Terra-cycle,
and are part of a battery recycling
scheme. Each year group
has a box for recycling pens,
and then them to ensure all
items are suitable to be
Our first ‘Switch Off Fortnight’ was a
huge success! Over the two week campaign,
pupils learnt about the importance
of saving energy and considered
the ways in which small decisions can
have a national or global effect. They
also spent time thinking about how
they use energy day to day, at home
and at school, and what they could do
to reduce their carbon footprint. The
drive to save energy will continue long
after the campaign is finished!
Year Two and Year Four had the
pleasure of taking part in an
“Our World, Our Future” climate
change workshop, investigating
one of the most important issues
in the world today from an interactive,
drama-based perspective.
The workshop encouraged the
children to explore environmental
challenges, while empowering
them to take ownership of their
part in the world.
Year 3 Team Miss Plewman, Miss Fisher and Miss Brooks

Reception
The children have been
applying their knowledge
of digraphs in their writing
by generating their own
winter words.
Reception Team Miss
Kiddle, Mrs Taylor
and Miss Hawkins
Year 2
Year 3
In Year Three we had so much
fun working on our inferencing
skills! Each child received
an envelope with three clues
about a teacher in the school.
They had to use their own
knowledge, as well as the
evidence they were provided
with in order to find out who
their mystery teacher was.
The best part of the lesson
was learning so many new
things about our teachers
hobbies and interests outside
of school!
Year 1 Team Miss Boffey, Miss Bridges
and Mrs Collett
In Maths we have been learning to subtract. We
applied these skills to a game. As well as practising
subtraction, the game also involved strategy.
Each child chose a subtraction fact to solve in
their heads, before proving it to their partner on
a number line.
Year 2 Team Miss Davies, Mrs
Johson, Mrs Coles and Miss Stafford
Year 1
Year One have been using story
maps to orally retell the story of
Orion in the Dark. They used
puppets to tell the story in the
first person from the point of
view of The Dark. They thought
about the opening phrases for
each part of the story and used
time connectives and adjectives
to make their retellings interesting.
3P performed the most spectacular assembly,
teaching us all about Diwali, the festival of
lights and one of the major festivals celebrated
by Hindus. They told us Diwali symbolises the
spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good
over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.” They
also had us on the edge of our seats with the retelling
of the story of Rama and Sita, thankfully,
it had a happy conclusion, the meaning of the
story is, that good can overcome evil, and light
can drive away darkness.

Year 4 Team Miss Megoran,
Miss Hayman
and Miss Lakey
Year 5
Year 4
This half term, Year Four have immersed themselves
in a wonderful picture book called The Tin Forest.
The children have had the opportunity to be creative
and dramatic, for example hot seating and
playing instruments to emulate the sounds of the tin
jungle coming to life. They have also been asked to
delve into the feelings of the main character. They
have been keeping equally busy outside, participating
in cross-country running! They are all now
able to identify tips that help runners improve their
times during cross-country races and run 1.5km
without stopping.
Miss Dobinson, Mr Cooper and
Year 6 Miss Salisbury
In this lesson, the children were creating a
bush- fire report, after previously conducting
independent research on the computers. We
thoroughly enjoyed finding out a range of fascinating
facts, including how to stay safe, but were
saddened by the number of animals that are hurt
or killed in events like these.
Year 5 Team Mrs Bull,
Miss Amato-Pace and Miss Perez
Freddie and Camilla show resilience
as they try to solve a challenging tangram.
Year Six have continued to focus
on the 11+ process, ensuring that they
can be as prepared as possible.
To demonstrate their own
abilities Year Six performed
their own concert within
their classrooms. They
enjoyed listening to each
other, and it gave them an
opportunity to practise their
performance techniques.
This term Year Six developed the
formal elements of line, tone shade
and form. During this time they used
a range of shading pencils to help
them achieve the correct depth in their
drawings. Many pupils worked hard
to correct the proportions and basic
structure before adding detail!

Anti Bullying Week
Every year the children and teachers at RPPS recognise National
Anti-Bullying week and this year’s theme was ‘United
Against Bullying.’ Throughout the school, children learnt
the importance of taking an active stance against any form
of unkind behaviour. They considered the ways in which
they could work together to ensure all members of our
community feel respected, supported and championed, and
they reflected on who they could go to if they ever needed
help.
Alongside this powerful message, we also focussed on the
importance of kindness as, at the very centre of all we do
and all we are proud of as a school is kindness and compassion.
The children completed ‘kind hands’ activities at
school and were warmly encouraged to create ‘kind hearts’
at home in a baking extravaganza. It was wonderful to see
families working together to create a range of biscuits, cakes
and cookies with positive messages to support the work
done in school and every single one looked delicious!
Upper School Carol Concert
The Upper School Christmas carol concert was our penultimate festive performance this year. The Orchestra
opened the concert with Hallelujah, followed by Once in Royal David’s City, with the first verse sung by Theo
Hawes and Ella Jakes McKay. We were then fortunate to enjoy many more carols and poems, we do hope you are
able to enjoy the performance from home. We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Joyful New Year.

Nativity Plays
Reception helped us all to discover a particularly
special baby boy this Christmas, in their
Nativity called, ‘Bundle of Joy.’ While you
may have met some of the nativity characters
before, you probably haven’t met Grumble;
the grumpy, grumbly donkey who travels with
Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Our Reception
children proudly performed in their very
first staged show at RPPS and put a little sparkle
into our lives, in the lead up to Christmas.
Year Two launched us off to a festive start this year with their
wonderful production, ‘The Inn-spectors’. The inn-spectors
were not at all pleased to find a new-born baby being brought
up in a stable. Year Two put on a convincing performance to
sort out their Christmas health and safety nightmare. They
cleverly proved that the stable really was fit for a King!
There really is no better way to get into
the Christmas spirit than to sing-a-long
to a magical Carol Concert. Our Year
One’s finished off our festive trio of
performances, with a range of traditional
and modern choral classics. The children
had a lovely time spreading a little bit of
Christmas cheer, albeit behind the camera
this year, right before we all departed
for our festive holiday. Their cheerful and
joyous singing brought a smile to every
audience member’s face.
Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School 16 Ravenscourt Avenue London W6 0SL
Tel: 0208 8469 153 E-mail: office@rpps.co.uk