RPPS PARKLIFE Spring 2 - we open our doors

PARKLIFE
Spring. We open our doors.
Head’s Message
It was a pleasure to welcome so many parents to our Open House work sharing event on
Friday 4th March. Our last such event took place in 2019, as the impact of Covid-19 meant that
it was not possible to have visitors in school in 2020 and 2021. This year’s Open House not
only included the children’s work being available in classrooms, but also live demonstrations of
learning in action, including Music, Drama, Science and P.E. Mrs Griffiths, who organised our
World Book Day, also opened the library so that visitors were able to see the wonderful array
of books on display. In addition, during this term we have organised opportunities for parents
to come into school to view their children’s artwork in Miss Raduca’s ‘Open Studio’ events,
and to enjoy their musical performances at our Spring Soirée. We have chosen to devote this
edition of PARKLIFE to showcase the wide variety of work that goes on at RPPS in each of our
departments, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Carl Howes

Open House Event Highlights
Parlez-vous français?
French
This half term in French, the children had the
opportunity to explore journalism and develop
their news reporting skills by asking teachers
questions and by writing newspaper articles about
them. They described what their teachers like,
what they do in their free time, and even what
their superpower is! It has been such a lovely
opportunity to feel the positive sense of community
we have at RPPS. Year Three have also been
busy with an exciting croissant-making activity, as
part of our topic on French culture and food habits
in France. A fantastique half term!

How do we bring Maths to life?
LS Maths
In Lower School we have been bringing Maths
to life with a range of deep-thinking problems
and practical activities which allow us to
explore, discover, discuss, use and apply the
mathematical vocabulary we have learnt. In
Year One and Two, we have been exploring
skip counting in multiples, representing this in
different ways and looking for patterns.
We are currently
exploring and deepening
our understanding
of weight and mass
across Lower School
and have especially
enjoyed the opportunity
to compare the weights
of a range of objects, to
measure using nonstandard
apparatus and
to problem solve by
applying what we know.
The Best Year Ever!
US Maths
This term, twelve pupils qualified for the Bonus
Round of the Primary Maths Challenge organised
by the Mathematical Association. Congratulations
to the particularly high scorers in Year Six who
went on to achieve our highest results ever with
six Gold awards, five Silver and one Bronze.
There were only four hundred Gold awards
achieved in the whole country which shows the
high level these pupils attained. The Primary
Mathematics Challenge is a fun and exciting
mathematical challenge designed to make pupils
think outside the box, applying the skills which
the children learn throughout the school in Maths.
The questions really challenge pupils logical
reasoning.
The Challenge starts with easier questions:
Information from a spacecraft on Mars takes about
three hours to travel to NASA headquarters on
Earth. Mars is about 171 million miles away.
At how many million miles an hour is this information
travelling?
A 57 B 60 C 86 D 120 E 172
Which then get harder:
Gregory Growmore has dug up all of his potatoes,
carrots and onions. It turns out that he has twice as
many potatoes as carrots, and twice as many carrots
as onions. In total, he has 84 vegetables.
How many onions does he have?
A 8 B 10 C 12 D 14 E 42
Aim high!
P.E.
As this edition goes to print our U11
Netballers are on their way to the
IAPS national finals at Bryanston
School. As a P.E. Department, we
are so proud of all our pupils’ efforts
in Sports. Scan the QR code to see
what they have been up to and to
follow us on Twitter. You can also
watch the video from Open House
Event in case you missed it on the
day.

How do you like your couscous?
Geography
From the Amazon rainforest to the summit of Everest, The children have been discovering new and
exciting locations this half term during their Geography lessons. Not only has there been fantastic
teaching and learning going on within the weekly lessons, but also during workshops run by
external visitors. Smart Raspberry Cookery School taught Year Four why the Mediterranean diet is
so healthy whilst showing them how to make delicious vegetable couscous which the children took
home to eat that evening.
From sugar to space and back!
Science
This half term, Year Three have become health experts and have
been giving advice to our client. In one of our lessons, we used
our Maths skills to tally our client’s sugar intake and record our
findings in a bar graph. Year Four have been learning all about
the digestive system. We recreated the process using crackers,
water, juice and tights (which got a bit messy!). We have also
been using drama to remember the names of each part of the
digestive system and their function. Year Five went on a trip to
the Science Museum to support their ‘Space’ topic from last half
term. They enjoyed watching ‘A Beautiful Planet 3D’ in the IMAX
theatre and were eager to explore the ‘Space’ and ‘Making a
Modern World’ exhibitions. Year Six have been learning all about
light. They enjoyed creating their own periscopes and drew
diagrams to explain how they worked.

Where next?
Art and Design
Year Four Project
The body as a hard cover
The Art Department has hosted the very first set of
Open Studio events. We have thoroughly enjoyed
welcoming the Year One, Year Two, and Year Four
parents. The Open Studio Events will culminate in
the Year Six personal project exhibition at a local
gallery in May. We are keen in showing children
the professional journey one my take when joining
the creative ecosystem. The history of the artist
studio dates back to the Renaissance when if you
were an aspiring artist you would join a master’s
workshop as an apprentice. The artist and equally,
the public, became infatuated with the studio in the
19th century. To understand the beginnings of the
artist studio and how this might take form in the
future, we recommend (to parents) the classic text
by Émile Zola, The Masterpiece and (to children
and parents) the well-curated Whitechapel Gallery
show A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920-2020
(24th February - 5th June, 2022).
Anna, Year Three

Can you create mood through your vocabulary choices?
US English
This half term, Year Three have been exploring the Power of Reading
book Gregory Cool by Caroline Binch. The story follows Gregory, a
young boy from London, who is sent to Tobago by his parents to visit
his grandparents. Despite struggling to adapt to the Tobago way of life
initially, Gregory eventually falls in love with the island. Using the story,
the children have been learning how to create mood in their writing
through their vocabulary choices.
Trinidad and Tobago
United Kingdom
Sara, Year Three

What makes a good story?
LS English
Lilah, Reception
In Reception this half term, the children have been exploring the
wonderful works of Julia Donaldson. We have enjoyed listening to her
stories and poems, picking out the rhyming words and phrases and
joining in with the repeated lines. Sharing her terrific tales also inspired
some writing of our own, we imagined we were the Snail journeying
around the world with the giant whale and wrote postcards about our
escapades, and particularly enjoyed writing some new adventures for
Zog.
Susu, Reception
Casper, Reception
Do you love books just as much as we do?
World Book Day
World Book Day 2022 was a celebration of engineering, drawing and reading! Shard
engineer Roma Agrawal MBE talked about How Was That Built & the history of engineering
up to now, with illustrator Katie Hickey leading the Upper School in a draw-a-long of The
Shard. You could hear a pin drop with the concentration in the hall! Author & illustrator Frann
Preston-Gannon taught our youngest pupils to draw a bird in flight, and read her beautiful
book Bird’s Eye View. The costumes celebrating favourite books were hugely creative, have
a look!

Compassion, purity, and wisdom.
R.E.
In Year Four, we were lucky enough to visit
the beautiful Buddhapadipa, Temple, a Thai
Buddhist temple in Wimbledon. It was the first
of its kind to be built in the United Kingdom.
We had a wonderful talk about the incredibly
detailed structure of the temple and learnt
about how to meditate, and also about some of
the main values that Buddhists live their lives
according to. When we got back to school, we
had an opportunity to draw the temple and to
write a reflection about our visit.
Appreciation portrait
by Cecily, 5R
Are YOU being kind?
PSHEE
Creativity and Commitment have been the values on everybody’s
minds this term and classes have been celebrating their
nominated peers for demonstrating these values the most
during our recent Celebration Ceremony. The audience,
including some of our parent body, were wowed with an array of
performances including children singing in shower caps, news
reports and poetry. Other values are also frequently re-visited
such as Kindness, which we are continuously reminded of in
our playground through our ‘Kindness Rocks’ display. Any more
decorated kindness rocks are very much welcomed to be added
to the existing colourful array outside the Vicarage Building,
because let’s face it, kindness really does rock!

Operation
Eco
Children arrived at school wearing all sorts of recycled
and environmentally inspired costumes, in our aim to
raise funds to save an area of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest as
part of Operation Ocelot. Only 7% of this once vast forest
remains intact today, but it continues to hold incredible
life. Hunting and logging for farms and pastures remains a
threat, but by fundraising through Operation Ocelot, these
habitats can be preserved! We had a parade of costumers
in the playground, followed by a performance by the
Senior Choir. We collected enough money to save an
area of forest equivalent to over thirty times the size of our
playground! We are so pleased to have helped to protect
one of the worlds’ top five biodiversity hotspots!
celot

Code it!
Computing
This half term in Computing Reception
have started exploring robotics by
creating algorithms and programming
the Bee-Bot floor robots. They also
programmed a virtual Bee-Bot on the
computer. Year Four have been studying
HTML (hypertext mark-up language), the
language in which web pages are written.
They have learned some common HTML
tags, and then used this knowledge to
create webpages that share stories,
posters, recipes and more. In Coding
Club, we have been using Makey Makeys
and Crumble microcontroller boards
to create and program Play-Doh game
controllers, coloured spinners and traffic
lights!
Can you hear the sound of music?
Music
The music has been a hive of activity during this short half term.
In Reception the children have started exploring percussion
instruments, the materials they are made from and how they
make their sound. Year One have been learning about pitches
and how to write them down, using ‘sol-fa’ note names. Year Two
are continuing their recorder playing, and composing their own
pieces as well. Year Four have been preparing for their trip to the
Cadogan Hall, where they took part in a performance given by the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra about the Great Fire of London.
Year Four have been embracing all things theatrical in preparing
for their production. Year Five have been exploring the music from
‘West Side Story’, learning how Caribbean and Latin American
rhythms are used in the work. Year Six have started rehearsing
for their production of ‘Mary Poppins’, which is bound to be
Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious!

Would you work for Emperor Claudius?
Drama
Year Two were employed as Roman Advisors to Emperor
Claudius, leader of the Roman army in 43AD. They spent
a lot of time deliberating both reasons for and against the
invasion of Britain, presenting their findings to those in
charge. After a long debate and despite the arguments
presented to him, Claudius decided to invade! In the
following lesson, the legion assembled and got straight to
work on their scutum (shield) designs, remembering that
every shield required both eagle wings and lightning bolts.
Setting ourselves up in a straight line and practicing our
marching, we were ready for the action!
We’ll Meet Again
Drama
Year Four showcased their many months
of hard work in their poignant and mature
production of ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ Detailing
the difficulties families faced during World
War Two, Year Four sensitively, and at
times humorously, conveyed the stories
of London’s evacuees while sharing
timeless messages of hope, comradeship,
resilience and compassion. Every child
shone and the performance was an utter
delight.

Issue 181 | Spring Term | 2022 | The Newsletter of Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School
PARKLIFE reflects our school’s ethos. Therefore, it is a collaborative project in its entirety. We would like to say thank you to all
our teaching and non-teaching staff for the effort that they put in to write, edit, and deliver this project on time every half-term.
Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School
16 Ravenscourt Avenue
London
W6 0SL
W: www.rpps.co.uk E: office@rpps.co.uk T: 020 8846 9153
@RPPSlondon