Yesterday the air was filled with frills, face paint, fur and fancy dress as we celebrated World Book Day. The children arrived with smiles of surprise, bubbling with excitement as they spotted friends donning painted cardboxes, cat ears and coloured tights.

Beyond the excitement of the costumes, and the creativity that had been poured into these, were the deep and earnest connections from so many of the children about the books connected to their chosen characters. In the Pre-Prep children shared stories with their younger peers, and teachers shared their favourite stories with their class. In the Prep School, Year 3 spent the day rehearsing for their Roald Dahl Play, Year 4 took part in a book cover competition, and our Years 5 to 8 children enjoyed a literary-themed quiz.

Our celebration of reading continues into next week, when our Book Fair opens. We hope the children have felt inspired and invigorated to find their next best read!

The Year 3 children enjoyed fixtures on Tuesday afternoon against Pinewood School. The boys had some fantastic football matches at the fields, with plenty of impressive goals being scored. Meanwhile, the girls played some excellent netball on our Astro. Our Year 3s look forward to fixtures against Hatherop and The Downs, Malvern before the end of term.

"Mud, glorious mud!" Beautiful spring weather, a challenging (boggy!) course and tough opposition - what could be better!

With 48 children representing the School at the annual Pinewood Rubberlegs Tough Mudder, this was a memorable afternoon. Running in teams of 6, this was cross country with a twist, as the teams negotiated the notoriously wet course, stream crossing included. They had to work as a team. With car tyres, sand bags and tackle bags to carry, it was wonderful to see the children work so well together, encouraging and helping each other throughout. The enjoyment on everyone’s face was plain to see, they all did marvellously! We hope your washing machines have recovered...

Today, our U11A netball team travelled to King's, Bruton to compete in the IAPS netball tournament. A very competitive pool round saw them end third, and through to the Plate competition.

Our team won their quarter-finals, were pipped to the post in the semi-finals, and went through to the playoffs for third and fourth place. Playing against All Hallows in their final match, they won third place convincingly.

Well done to all the girls on a long day of netball, representing the School exceptionally.

The Spring Maths Quest was launched this term: a treasure hunt Mr Cleaver has devised to find the 'Golden Compass'! Children had to solve ten mathematical, puzzle based clues before solving the final riddle which would take them to the Golden Compass. 20 teams (53 children) in Years 5 to 7 signed up, and break time became a frenzy of children in search of pentagons, trees, footholds and lines on the Astro. The lead changed a handful of times and five groups were hunting for the final location at the same time. With the compass hiding under Mr Cleaver's desk, at one point there were 16 children in the room looking for the prize! Finally, with her loudest and best victory shout, Scarlett F raised the compass, much to her team's delight. A wonderful result. Well done to everyone who took part, especially to those who came so close...

Our brass instrumentalists wowed us on Tuesday with their fantastic performances at our lunchtime concert. We heard from first-time brass players and seasoned musicians, and listened to a preview of the brass ensemble's Spring Concert number. It was a joy, indeed!

2N hosted the most exceptional event this morning, in which the children invited their parents to visit their ‘Class Museum’ to celebrate and share their learning from the term’s inquiry topic. Over the last couple of months, the children have been learning about the Victorian era, Queen Victoria, Victorian schools, work, clothing and customs; amazing artefacts and stories have been collated, from families within the class and across the school community as well as from further afield. The children shared their facts and reflections on the topic with huge confidence, pride and enthusiasm.

The Year 2 children also performed to the rest of Pre-Prep earlier this week in their internal assembly. 2B took the lead in developing their class assembly, collaborating with partners to identify which facts about Victorian life they wanted to include and how they were going to present this to their peers. It is wonderful to see our children taking ownership of their learning and organisation in this way.

Our Reception children have been immersed in stories and books this term and this has inspired them to create a whole raft of their own, from independent versions of the wonderful ‘Remarkable Animals’ to retellings of familiar tales, to narratives entirely from their own imaginations. Their motivation and excitement is a joy to behold.

Year 1 have been focused on boats this week, within their learning about Transport, and we were delighted to welcome Monty’s daddy to speak to the children. He brought in a model of HMS Queen Elizabeth which provoked many questions and great engagement, and led to experiments in which we made our own boats and had to estimate how many cubes they could hold before sinking. Designs were proposed, created, modified and enhanced and our winning boat held 211 cubes before submerging!

Out at Forest School we have been learning about the life cycle of a tree, learning to identify hazel trees, coppicing branches, whittling and making natural mobiles. There have been puppet shows and the wonderful story of Harry’s Hazelnut, which has linked beautifully with our learning about the acorns we planted in the autumn, which are developing well.

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep

Two of our budding Year 3 violinists, Rupert and Tristan, took part in the Gloucestershire ‘Big String’ during Half Term. Working alongside string players from across Gloucestershire, their hard work culminated in a spectacular performance at Tewkesbury Abbey. Well done, boys!

If you would like to read Accent Catering's March newsletter, you can download it below. The newsletter includes information about fresh, seasonal foods along with recipes and puzzles.

Accent newsletter