Recent Events at New Hall Preparatory School
Swimming Gala
The Inter-House Swimming Gala took place on Tuesday with the usual noise and excitement that we have seen in recent years. There were some very close competitive races in the individual events. Eleanor McCaffrey and Joe Pitt broke school records, both in the Year 5 freestyle events.
Well done to everyone who took part and gave us such an exciting spectacle. Years 5 and 6 played water polo again which proved very popular with both swimmers and spectators who, at one point, included the Year 2 swimmers who were getting ready for their races and cheering on their House-mates.
A big thank you must go to the small army of parents who gave up their time to help with the gala, especially those who volunteered to go into the water with the younger children. Thank you also to the staff for helping the gala run smoothly and to the lifeguards for their help with equipment. Finally, congratulations to all the swimmers in St John whose combined team effort won the trophy which means that “blue is the colour” for 2008!
National Festival of Music for Youth
Congratulations to the Chamber Choir who have been invited to take part in the national rounds of the Music for Youth Festival. This is a tremendous achievement as the children have been shortlisted down to a final 22 choirs from hundreds of choirs across the whole of the UK. The National Festival of Music for Youth is the largest event of its kind bringing together more than 10,000 musicians. Our children will be performing at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on Tuesday, 8 July – further details to follow shortly.
Thank You
A big thank you to all the children from the Chamber Choir who led the music at Mass here at New Hall last Sunday. They sang beautifully and many parishioners contacted us to say how the music really made the service special to them and added to the prayerfulness of the occasion.
Non-uniform day to celebrate World Book Day
Class 6W in character
English Speaking Board Examinations
Congratulations to the following pupils who achieved excellent results in their ESB examinations last week. Miss Harmer is really proud of Year 6 as they learnt all their work in half a term and then polished it up this half term. A special thank you to Mrs Eva for taking the club this half term.
Name Level Result
Lucy Ashfield Grade 1 Distinction
Alice Baxter Grade 1 Merit
Michelle Choi Grade 1 Merit +
Emma Dickinson Grade 1 Merit
Olivia Gills-Galpin Grade 1 Distinction
Isabel James Grade 1 Merit +
Thomas Macfarlane Grade 1 Merit +
Emma Marler Grade 1 Distinction
Isabel Miller de Vega Grade 1 Merit +
Sophie Nixon Grade 1 Merit +
Renee Panayiotou Grade 1 Merit +
Joseph Peacock Grade 1 Merit +
Rebecca Stead Grade 1 Distinction
Dominic Walmsley Grade 1 Merit +
Year 4 History Workshop
Report by Kavin Kugan (4R)
On Monday, 26 November a lady from the Essex Records Office called Natalie came and taught us about how Chelmsford looked in the Tudor times. We also learnt a little bit about their lifestyle and the clothes they wore. She showed us a picture which had buildings and people in. A building that was in the picture still remains here. It is called Saracen’s Head Hotel. The thing that interested me the most was the census. A census is a list of people from all the country with their information on it.
Year 1 Trip to Chelmsford Museum
Report by Lucy Barrett (1B)
We went on the coach to the museum. Dot showed us some toys. There was the cup and ball. You had to swing the ball up and catch it in the cup. My favourite was the orange tree where the oranges fell off. We were put in groups and played with some toys. I liked the spinning top with coloured cards and the colours changed. The trip was great.
Report by Thomas Hughes (1B)
The biggest doll in the museum opened and closed her eyes. You pulled a wire backwards and forward to do it. The zoetrope was round. You put a paper with pictures on inside and spin it round and look through the holes and the pictures move. I liked all of the toys.
Report by Matthew, Alfred, Eden, Charlotte, Stephanie, Ella, Lara, Rebecca, Zoe, Mikhaela and Hannah (1C)
We went on a Jackson’s coach. The lady who talked to us was called Dot. Some of the toys were 150 years old so Dot wore gloves to hold them. The dolls were made from wax. We loved playing with the toys. We played with spinning tops, flick books and diabolo.
Year 5 Victorian Workshops
Report by Zoe Robinson and Joe Pitt (5K)
Natalie from Essex Records Office brought pictures and information from the Victorian era. We looked at pictures of rich and poor Victorian children. We looked at how it is quite easy to identify the rich children from the poor. After that we looked at Victorian education and also learnt about their money by looking at an inventory. Then we learnt about the writing and tried it out by writing our names on slates. We really enjoyed learning about Victorians.
3F Trip to Sandford Mill
Report by Holly May
At Sandford Mill we learnt about how a suspension bridge works and how Marconi sent out the first radio signal by using a huge kite. We saw a 200 year old fire engine and we all pushed the handles up and down to work the pumps which pumped up water for the hose. Then we met in the barn to build a bridge out of wood and metal and we all walked over it. I really enjoyed the trip.
4D Trip to Sandford Mill
The force was with us when we visited Sandford Mill on Monday. We enjoyed a number of activities which included a tug of war and attempts to walk along rollers. We had the opportunity to carry out some hands-on experiments, measuring pushes and pulls using a Newton meter.
The highlight of our day was a technology challenge to build and test-fly an aeroplane. We used our scientific knowledge to design a streamlined model. We all had fun and it was an exciting introduction to our Science topic.
Thank you to the parent helpers who joined us for the morning. If you are interested in visiting Sandford Mill there is an Open Day this Saturday from 10.00am to 5.00pm with free entry.
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Pre-Reception Trip to Tropical Wings
On Friday, 22 June, 38 children and 12 helpers left Pre-Reception on 2 coaches to visit Tropical Wings World of Wildlife. We went prepared with rain macs and umbrellas, however, the rain stayed away for most of the day and we just had a little shower whilst we were eating our picnic!
The children enjoyed meeting ‘Anya’ the rat and ‘Flapjack’ the rabbit during our sensory session with a lady called Lucy. Other highlights of the day included the talking parrots, wallabies, otters and, of course, the beautiful butterflies.
“I liked the rabbits because they were so big” said Peter.
“I liked the goats, they were cheeky” said Emma-Jane.
Mathematics Quiz
On Tuesday, New Hall Preparatory School sent two teams to compete in the Heathcote School Mathematics Challenge. Both teams battled gamely through the ten challenges and performed to a high standard. Our first team, the New Hall Smarties, triumphed in the event and made off with gold medals and the winner’s plate whilst the New Hall Crusaders edged out Heathcote in the tie-breaker to win deserved gold medals.
Team members were as follows:
Smarties: Michael Choi, Carrie Leader,
Katie Thompson, Hannah Todd
Crusaders: Christina Lan, Ciaran Moore,
Joseph Peacock, Helen Winterbone.
Congratulations to all of the children involved for demonstrating their mathematical prowess in such a prestigious event.
Sports Day
Mr Fannon, Subject Leader for PE
Tuesday saw a fun day’s competition on the Cedar Plot and the Athletics Track. The infants produced a fine display in the morning, in various events, leaving the crowd cheering rapturously whilst the juniors powered around the track in pursuit of valuable points for their House.
The afternoon’s entertainment began with eight fun activities in which all the children participated and the final junior sprints. After the results were collated and checked, it was revealed that this was the closest contest for many a year with St Mark’s House pipping St Luke’s to the post by the margin of just three points. A further three points back stood St John’s with St Matthew’s in fourth place.
St Mark 1st place 290 points
St Luke 2nd place 287 points
St John 3rd place 284 points
St Matthew 4th place 242 points
Well done to all who took part and thank you to all parents who came along and supported the children. Thank you also to the Parents’ Association for providing refreshments.
MEPSSA Swimming Gala
Mrs Bracken
The swimming team successfully defended both trophies won last year in the Mid Essex Primary Schools Swimming Gala on Saturday. Conor McCaffrey opened the points scoring with an emphatic win in the one-length freestyle. Courtenay Mee came a very close third in her freestyle event, against tough opposition. Darius Roohi swam superbly to come second in the one-length backstroke, closely followed by Darcie Imbert who eased home to win her backstroke event by quite a margin. Joshua Jones and Helen Winterbone both swam an excellent race to make it a breaststroke winning double.
The prowess of the boys’ winning Medley Relay team of Darius Roohi, Daniel Cotton and Sam Odell was matched by the girls’ team of Courtenay Mee, Reyhana Stuart-Skeggs and Harriett Bartram-Baird. The girls’ freestyle team of Helen Winterbone, Harriett Bartram-Baird, Reyhana Stuart-Skeggs and Darcie Imbert was just pipped into second place, despite a storming last length from Darcie. The boys’ freestyle team of Sam Odell, Daniel Cotton, Joshua Jones and Conor McCaffrey continued its winning streak to finish half a length ahead of the opposition.
These fantastic performances earned our team enough points to win the medium-sized schools trophy for the third year in a row. We then swam against the other group winners and the runners up in an 8x1 squadron relay event which we won easily. We had wonderful support from parents. The team spirit was fantastic and I was very proud of the whole team. Well done everyone and thank you for all your hard work in training over the year. It really paid off!
Year 6 Trip to York
Report by Frances Talbot (6H)
On 21 May, Year 6 was buzzing with excitement. Everyone was up bright and early for the big day. Armed with suitcases and backpacks, we set off on our journey, waving to our parents as the coach rolled away.
Our first stop was Rutland Water, a wildlife centre where we learned about Ospreys and had our pastries. After a short break, we were back in the coach heading for our next stop, Sherwood Forest, where we had lunch, right next to a statue of Robin Hood and Little John’s battle on the bridge. Before we knew it, we were at The Blakeney Hotel. We found our rooms, unpacked and had dinner, followed by chocolate éclairs! Led by Mr Fannon, we had our first walk, to Monk Bar (a gate) to walk the city walls. It was really pretty but we had to walk all the way back to the hotel! It was a long way and we were all tired but we changed into our pyjamas and had hot chocolate afterwards. Bedtime!
During the week we visited the Jorvik Centre and York Minster, The Castle Museum, The Railway Museum and had an open top bus ride around the city. My favourite place was Eden Camp, a recreated World War II site. Some parts were scary and very dark and we ate our lunch in a Mess Hut. I really enjoyed the puppet show, where an odd-looking puppet of Gracie Fields splashed water on us. The evenings were the best with bowling, a Ghost Walk and the long-awaited disco. It was a chance to dress up and have fun, even the teachers!
Now we will have to get used to not having waitresses and cooked breakfasts! If you want to see some pictures, please go onto the school website and follow the link to the York Trip. We were all happy to see our families again and to go home but we will never forget our adventure up north.
