Nursery to Year Six Highlights

Life at the Beach

This week in Nursery, the girls have been learning all about the beach, exploring the different clothing we might wear on holiday and the items we may need to take with us. They have particularly enjoyed our beach hut role-play area, where they have shown great progress in negotiating roles, sharing ideas, and playing collaboratively with one another. They have had lots of fun using their imaginations to choose and discuss different ice cream flavours, while also developing their communication skills. In addition, the children have been busy catching fish and learning new vocabulary related to sea life, helping to broaden their understanding of the world around them.

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

Kindergarten pupils were challenged to create their own rockets this week. They explored the themes of ‘space’ and ‘flight’, sparking their curiosity and imagination. The pupils used various craft materials to design and construct their rockets, learning about the basics of aerodynamics whilst also making their finished products look attractive. The fun and interactive project tied into the sound of the week, ‘z’, as the pupils used power from a fan to make their rockets zoom horizontally. Later in the week, the eagerly awaited moment arrived when the Kindergarten pupils had the chance to launch their rockets vertically! Thankfully they all returned to Earth safely so could be taken home to participate in future space explorations.

Animals and Their Habitats

Reception have been enjoying their new topic, Animals and Their Habitats. Their learning has focused on farm animals this week and the children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different animals that live on a farm. They learned about what farm animals provide for us, such as milk, eggs, wool and meat. They also discovered the names of different baby animals, including calves, lambs, piglets and chicks. The children loved sharing their knowledge and learning new facts about their favourite animals.

As part of our learning, the children worked together in groups to design and create their very own farms. This activity encouraged them to communicate their ideas clearly, listen carefully to one another and work cooperatively as a team. It was wonderful to see the children sharing resources, solving problems together and supporting each other's creative ideas.

Year One Sentence Queens!

This week in Year one  English Language, the girls became true Sentence Queens! We began by recapping jumbled sentences and working out how to put the words into the correct order so that each sentence made sense. The girls then worked in pairs to solve the code, carefully checking capital letters, full stops and question marks to find the correctly punctuated sentences. They collaborated brilliantly with their partners and showed great focus, careful reading and super sentence-checking skills. Well done, Year One Sentence Queens!

Rolling Into Robotics!

Year Two have launched into an exciting new Computing topic this week, exploring the amazing Sphero Bolt+ robotic balls. There was a real buzz of excitement as the girls were introduced to the technology, and they could hardly wait to get started! The girls showed excellent focus and perseverance as they carefully connected their devices to a Sphero ball and learned how to control it. Before long, they were confidently driving their robots around the classroom, experimenting with different features and discovering all the things their Spheros could do.

The fun did not stop there! The girls learned how to change the colour of the lights, create images on the Sphero's screen face, and explore the many ways they can interact with and programme their robotic companions. There were lots of smiles, gasps of amazement and excited conversations as the girls made new discoveries. This was a fantastic introduction to coding and programming, and the girls are already looking forward to their next lesson when they will delve even deeper into the world of robotics. Well done, Year Two — we have a class full of future programmers and engineers in the making! 

Year Three Paint Mixing

This term, Year Three have been developing their painting skills by learning how to mix different tints, tones and hues of green. They collected a variety of leaves and carefully observed their colours, using their paint-mixing techniques to match and paint each one as accurately as possible.

This exploration of colour is preparing the children for their study of the work of Claude Monet. Later in the term, they will apply their new colour-mixing skills to create their own paintings inspired by Monet’s famous landscapes. We are looking forward to seeing their creativity and artistic progress reflected in their finished artwork.

The Priory Tennis Club in Edgbaston

Our Year Four’s had a fantastic visit to The Priory Tennis Club in Edgbaston. We enjoyed an exciting tennis lesson led by the club's friendly coaches, who taught us new skills and helped us improve our tennis techniques. After all the activity, we relaxed on comfortable deck chairs, watching the giant TV screen (showing Centre court) while enjoying our snacks. We also had lots of fun in the play zone, which was filled with exciting Tennis games and activities for everyone to enjoy.

Later, we watched some excellent ladies' singles matches and doubles games. It was amazing to see the players' skill, speed and teamwork on the court. One of the highlights of the day was a question-and-answer session with a professional tennis player from Poland. We learned about his training, competitions and what it takes to become a professional athlete. We had a wonderful day and would like to thank everyone at The Priory Tennis Club for making our visit so enjoyable and memorable.

Year Five Girls Inspired by William Morris

The Year Five girls have been busy exploring the work of famous designer William Morris as part of their art lessons. After studying his beautiful wallpaper designs, which often featured leaves, flowers and other natural forms, the girls created their own decorative tiles. Using Morris's love of nature as inspiration, the girls carefully sketched and designed patterns based on flowers, leaves and plants. They then created a single tile that could be repeated to form a continuous wallpaper pattern.

The finished designs showed great creativity and attention to detail, with colourful repeating patterns that reflected Morris's distinctive style. The project helped the girls develop their artistic skills while learning about one of Britain's most influential designers.

Year Six French Film Workshop at West House School

After an exchange of letters, Christmas cards and envelopes, Year Six at both EHS Prep and West House Boys had the opportunity to finally meet their French pen pals.

The EHS girls walked to our partner school, West House, dodging the showers. When they arrived at West House, the girls and staff were warmly greeted by the staff and boys. With French biscuits and a drink in hand, the children settled down to watch the film. It consisted of a three-part play by Onatti Productions, called ‘Écris-Moi’, about an English and French pen pal writing to each other and finally having the opportunity to meet. There was a twist in the story though; they believed that they were meeting a pen pal of the same gender and received a shock when they finally met at the train station in Lille! The children then formed groups with their pen pals to complete a Kahoot quiz based on the film they had watched, comprising key French words and phrases. It all became very competitive as there were prizes for the winners. (See the winning team in the photo.) An enjoyable experience for all!