Prep Positive Press

Nursery – Collaboration is Our Superpower 

Every girl in Nursery has special Sutton High Superpowers. Reflecting on the last few weeks, the power of collaboration has been strengthened as the girls have spent more time together. Collaboration is not just about working together; it is about connecting with others, solving problems as a team and celebrating shared success. 

Friendships are being formed and the girls are showing more empathy towards one another. The results of this have been amazing to see and the girls have truly experienced the joy of working collaboratively.  

As the girls have become more independent in accessing the resources in Nursery, they have begun to work together with other girls, either on joint activities or by supporting one another. We have seen some wonderful models made in the atelier, large jigsaws completed together and even dens built as a team at Forest School. Our beautiful autumn and winter trees displayed on the window of the classroom were created through collaboration with each girl printed sections to join together for a large-scale mural. The girls even helped the adults to hold leaves and put blue tack on them to secure them in place. 

Whenever a familiar adult is with the children, the girls invite them to join their collaborative play. This ranges from being served pizza to washing the bikes or helping to solve problems together. 

We are currently practising hard for our Christmas Nativity and the girls have joined pupils from other classes to share their singing and it has been wonderful to hear the power of unity.

Collaboration is such an important skill for the girls to develop and it has been exciting to see the kindness, resilience and the pure joy of learning that shines through in Nursery. We have no doubt this will continue to grow over the next few months together and we cannot wait. 

Year 1

Year 1 have had a couple of very busy weeks exploring both inside and outside the classroom.  They went on a ‘rock walk’ as  part of their Materials investigation in Science.  They had to look closely at examples of rock using their magnifying glasses to look for the differences between them.  They discovered that all rock does not look or feel the same.  Outside they found so many different types of rock in the school grounds and thought about why rock was the most suitable material for the purpose.

They have also been investigating how wheels and axles work in DT.  Not all the holes in the wheels were in the centre so they had to discover what happened to the axle and what was the best combination to make the wheels travel in a straight line and give the most comfortable ride.  There were some interesting results!  They are definitely some engineers in the making in Year 1!

Year 1 have presented some stunning Open Homework projects on the theme of ‘We all celebrate’.  They gave detailed talks and answered questions from their audience confidently. Well done Year 1!

Year 3

Y3 went to visit Bough Beech. Here are photos some quotes from Y3:

‘The trip to Bough Beech was amazing. First we went up to see the dam and reservoir. Then we saw an overflow and went down a tunnel to see the pipes. We also went to see how the water was cleaned and treated. Finally at the end, we played some games.’

‘I liked the trip because we played fun activities. Looking down from heights feeling scared that I might fall’

‘My favourite part was the Blue Zone. I would recommend it because it was fun and you could see how much water you used. To see if you were a water waster or water saver’

‘ On the trip, I like how they told us how chlorination kills bacteria’

‘The best bit was the Blue Zone. There were 3 games that I highly recommend’

Year 5

On Tuesday 12th November, Year 5 went on a fantastic trip to Baitul Futuh Mosque, which is one of the largest mosque complexes in Europe. The girls posed plenty of probing questions and our host insightfully taught us about the pillars of Islam, as well as specifics about the Ahmadiyya community, enriching Autumn Term’s RE learning. The children loved seeing the library; segregated prayer rooms; the minaret (sadly it doesn’t amplify the call to prayer); as well as learning about the design of the building and seeing the Quran in many different languages. They particularly enjoyed shouting as loudly as they could outside a sound-proof room, which serves as a creche! The girls represented Sutton High School admirably, as we travelled there and back by public double decker bus, making this trip even more memorable.

Inspired by the British Film Institute’s short film competition, Year 5 have been writing narratives inspired by ‘Brew-Tali-Tea’, an award-winning, 2-minute stop-animation about an unfortunate tea-bag!

Over the last week, pupils have learnt about how to construct an effective narrative by composing an exposition, rising action sequence, climax and resolution. Some girls chose to end their stories with a happy ending, whilst others went for more spine-tingling options!

We even brought in tea-bags and named them, creating characters for the final written outcomes and they now have pride of place on our working wall. Pupils’ learning included how to use prepositions and paragraphs accurately, and working on their understanding of character by using drama, such as role-play and hot-seating. Year 5 are publishing their final outcomes over the next few days, with accompanying illustrated comic strips and can’t wait to share them with their class-mates and teachers! Who knew tea-bags could be so dramatic!