Our Year 8 children have spent this week off timetable, as they dive head first into daily rehearsals for their production. The set is now in place, and the children have been polishing their scenes and songs to put the sparkle on their show next week. We are so excited to see the finished performances next Thursday and Friday.

Between their rehearsals, the Year 8 children have been in the Art Room this week, designing lino prints to hand press onto togas. These togas will form part of their costumes in the production next week. They look brilliant!

We had more fantastic singers performing on Tuesday at our Lunchtime Concert. From an ensemble piece of 'The Bare Necessities' by our Years 3 and 4 children to our most senior singers, it was wonderful to hear the children at all levels stand up tall and sing confidently to a packed audience. It makes us even more eager to hear our Year 8 children in their upcoming production!

The icy weather had us entranced in Pre-Prep this week, with children loving the hunts for ice on puddles and ponds over recent days. Down at Forest School, we have been using magnifying glasses to look at crystals of ice on the leaves and have learnt facts about robins and played games to keep us warm.

We have been out and about on walks to see how the grounds have changed since the start of term. We noticed the colour of the leaves, the evidence of our bonfire night and the colder temperatures.

We also announced our Year 2 Ambassadors this week. These are children who have caught the attention of staff over the course of the term for consistently upholding our BPS Values and Pre-Prep Golden Rules, showing traits such as compassion and resilience, and who have been acting as role models to our younger children. We have explained to other Year 2s that, while they may not have been announced as an ambassador yet, there are opportunities throughout the year for this group of ambassadors to grow. Well done to our children for displaying a growth mindset with this!

In other news, we have been baking, party planning, setting up shops to help with our learning about money, deepening our phonic knowledge and creating some beautiful weavings to enhance our fine motor skills.

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep

Nursery are not the only ones celebrating birthdays this week, as the residents of Horsfall House and our visitors from Beaudesert celebrated Miss Mulliner's birthday this week during their time together. The group sang birthday songs and played birthday games together, to much delight.

3D craft club have been getting into the festive spirit this week, as they have been decorating candles to make beautiful Christmas presents for their family members. From holly leaves to jolly elves, all the candles looked fantastic.

7PJ led our Prep School assembly this week, which was themed around not 'judging a teacher by their cover'! The children were given clues about a teacher's hobbies and interests and had to guess which of their teachers it could be. They were very surprised by the answers, proving that you truly cannot judge a book by its cover.

In the Dining Room on Thursday, the children were greeted by a hive of activity, as our caterers had organised a bumblebee take over. The specials for the day were based on crops that rely on bees for pollination, to show how much we rely on bees to enjoy our food every day. From the Greek salad to the blueberry and courgette muffins, we have the bees to thank for our full and happy bellies.

Friday’s downpour really washed out our plans, but the children stayed brilliantly buoyant! Our boarding community are a hardy bunch, and even with the slight disappointment of a postponed Boarders' Breakout, the children saw the positives and had a superb evening. It began in the Sports Hall with a fairly competitive dodgeball competition, followed by full-school hide and seek. When we know we have a cold outdoor evening planned, we always try to warm them up first. Although we didn’t get the cold part thanks to the rain, we still treated them to a fantastic hot-chocolate bar, which the children absolutely loved. There is something truly magical about sitting together with a warm cup of hot chocolate and good friends.

This week the temperature has dropped, but the energy has remained full. On Monday and Wednesday, Year 4 and Year 8 managed to complete their Boarders' Breakout. Year 4 were first and quickly learned that running and screaming will get you spotted rather quickly. They adapted, overcame the challenge, and all made it back in the end to celebrate around the fire pit.

The Year 8s, Breakout veterans, talked a very good game before the evening began. We had previous winners and some hoping to complete the course multiple times. Well… this must have put a bee in the bonnet of the gappies, who were like modern-day William Tells, armed not with bows and arrows but torches. The Year 8s were resilient, but had to use their wits and sneakiness to outsmart this new breed of gappies. Some made it through once, some twice, all showing plenty of agility and stealthiness.

After a week of outdoorsy evenings, Thursday brought the usual trip to the driving range, or bead jewellery making, and Britain’s Got Talent; a lovely indoorsy evening.

Have a lovely Leave-Out.

Oli and Debbie Jones, Houseparents

Our caterers, Accent, have created a newsletter with recipe ideas and children's activities. You can download a pdf of the newsletter below.

Download Accent Newsletter