April 11th 2008

Dear Parents,

Welcome Back to the Summer Term

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter Break and that the children are well rested and full of chocolate!

This term is again quite short but we have a lot to fit in. We shall be having a French Day, a trip to the beach and a day out at Houghton Hall for our end of term trip. If you would like to join us at Houghton  please let us know, you will be more than welcome.   Don’t forget the afternoon tea invitation from the parents’ committee on the 24thth June at 3pm ; this meeting will be taken by Mrs Lewis and  Mrs Maud  in the Division I classroom where you are invited to find out all about the move to the next Division. We also have sports day on the 17th June at 2pm and we hope you are all able to come and support. This will be followed by tea and biscuits on the field, weather permitting! On the 13th June there is a whole school photograph ; all children should be in the current summer uniform for the photograph (not blue t-shirts).  Summer Week begins on the 16th of June and culminates with an invitation for Grandparents  to join us for afternoon tea outside at 2.30pm. The  children will spend a taster day with Mrs Lewis on Tuesday 24th  June. Finally on 26th June you are invited to come and watch your child between 2 and 3pm in their swimming lesson. April. The School Calendar also mentions a meeting for Reception Parents on Thursday 5

This half term we shall be looking at a topic on Holidays. It would be wonderful if the children could bring in any holiday memorabilia that they have such as postcards, photographs, leaflets, travel brochures, old passports, tickets etc for discussion, role play and display purposes.

There are not too many changes to the timetable this term; swimming will take place on a Thursday afternoon. ICT will continue to take place in the classroom.  I will also be taking the children out as the weather improves to prepare for sports day so PE Kits need to remain in school all week please. PE lessons will now be on a Friday morning rather than the afternoon. We have also added a library slot this term. The children will visit the school library on a Friday morning; they will chose one book and bring it home to share with you. I would appreciate it if you could then return it to school the following Friday.

Children will all need trainers for outdoor play times. Please could you ensure that these trainers have velcro fasteners that the children are able to do up. They will also need a sun hat and sun cream as the weather improves.

Homework this term will be as follows:-

• Monday – Word Lists
• Tuesday – Reading books
• Wednesday – spelling lists
• Thursday – Reading books
• Friday – Reading books

Please feel free to pop in after school should you have any concerns at all.

Thank you

Mrs Skipper

Pre prep visit to Park Farm

On Thursday 13th March the children in pre prep once again visited Park Farm in Snettisham courtesy of Mrs and Mrs Stanton.  It is a hugely popular trip and luckily the weather this year was kind to us.  The children enjoyed egg collecting and feeding the newborn lambs and goats whilst being expertly guided by Trevor the farm manager.  We even got to meet the farm tortoises who had woken early from their winter hibernation! 

The children returned to school excited and eager to talk about, draw and write about the things they had seen and done.  The children in the Reception class learnt how to make egg and cress sandwiches using the eggs they had collected and the cress they had previously grown in class. 

Once again the children were a credit to their teachers and parents and to Glebe House School.   Many thanks go to Mrs and Mrs Stanton from all of us.

Spring Week in the Pre-Prep.

The week beginning Monday 10th March saw spring descend on the Pre-Prep. The week was jam packed with special events as well as children doing their own spring studies in class.

On Monday the children began the week looking for signs of spring in and around the School. Tuesday parents were invited to watch a very colourful Springtime Arts Festival, with the overall winners being the Saint Edmund’s team. On Wednesday some of the children visited the school pond, only to discover it was full of frogspawn! Thursday the children had a fantastic time at Park Farm, Snettisham feeding the new born lambs and egg collecting. The highlight of the week was Friday when we ended the day with an Easter disco run by Mr Reed (Jack and Joseph’s Daddy). Division 2 made a lovely selection of sandwiches for the party and Reception and Division 1 made cakes. Mr Crofts judged the Easter bonnet competition at the disco, which was won by Grace Owen (Reception) with Isabella McRann (Reception) and Sophia Basset (Division 1) as runners up. Overall it was a very busy week but the children threw themselves into everything they did and produced some lovely work as well as having lots of fun!

Watch this space for Summer Week – coming to a classroom near you soon!

The Soldiers’ Christmas

Pre-prep Christmas Play – 2007.

The play begins with the marching of feet approaching the stage from the rear of the Hall.  In come the soldiers.  The story is narrated by Jade Sandy and Jack Harvey who sit very smartly on the side of the stage.  The tale unfolds telling us of the soldiers who carry out their various tasks many miles from their homeland at the time of the birth of Jesus.  The angel meets with Mary and Rosie Gillet sings a lovely solo.  We are introduced to Joseph and then the travellers as they all begin their journey to Bethlehem.  The soldiers are back with us as we are led to the stable by the innkeeper and his wife, where baby Jesus is born guarded by two friendly looking donkeys.  Tom Sowerby starts off solo with one of my favourite songs in the show ‘Snuggled in the Straw’.  Also looking for the stable are the shepherds and their sheep, the angels daintily flapping onto the stage to give them directions.  The soldiers meet with the shepherds, executing brilliant bopping up and down during the next rendition of ‘Soldiers in a Foreign Land’.  The next bit is beautifully organised as the stars come up onto the stage in a line formation and India performs a perfect solo of ‘Pretty Little Twinkling Star’ before being joined by the others.  Great balance was shown by all stars exiting the stage as they did their twirls!   We needed sunglasses for the arrival of the kings due to the glittering first king as they strutted round the stage before giving their gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby.  The stage is now filling up and once again we hear marching as the soldiers find the stable.  The children raise the rafters with the last rendition of ‘Soldiers in a Foreign Land’.  A Christmas play wouldn’t be a Christmas play without an old favourite, so they all sang their hearts out with ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’.  They take their bow and how sad, its over for another year, when our children will all be a year older, slightly taller, a little cleverer! 

The costumes were wonderful, all the children sang the songs with enthusiasm and knew the words perfectly.  These productions are so special to all the parents and grandparents, etc.  To the teachers and helpers who throw themselves into making it so wonderful, a special thank you not just from me but everyone I am sure who sat and watched and, yes, probably shed a tear or two!  It was splendid.

A proud mum.

REVIEW!

Pre- prep Inter House Arts Festival

A wonderful afternoon was spent watching the Inter House Arts festival by the parents and carers of pre prep.  We were amazed by the confidence and enthusiasm of the children in their performance.  Well done to the Barbers bunnies who bounced beautifully across the stage managing to dodge the farmers’ guns.  Meanwhile L’Estrange got very muddy with their ‘walk in the country’ poem and convinced us all to take our wellies!  The brave children in St Edmunds had spiders crawling all over then with their poem ‘there’s a spider on my neck’.  It was wonderful to see the festival end with all of pre prep singing ‘the ugly bug ball’ with everyone joining in with the actions.  It was a spectacular show.  We must give a big thank you to all the teaching staff for their hard work and well done to all the children.  We look forward to the next show!

Jo Morrison and Vicky Kite