This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Message from the Preparatory School Headmaster
Dear Parents,
As the festive events begin to come at us thick and fast, I have been delighted to welcome families back into School to celebrate alongside us. The assembly concert earlier in the week was our first for two years! What a wonderful occasion to listen to our pupils from as young as 5 years old, perform in front of their peers and the Rossall community. We were treated to some incredible performances on the piano, trumpet, drums, guitar and saxophone, not to mention one or two excellent vocal displays! I was proud of every single child who stood up and performed, a task that demands confidence to go hand in hand with ability.
This afternoon’s Christmas Tree Light Switch On always signals the start of the run-in to the end of an incredibly busty term. It was lovely to hear our Chapel Choir perform and to once again welcome family members. Singing carols and sipping hot chocolate kept us warm against some rather testing elements. Well done to all of the pupils for their fabulous baubles that were created in order to support our charity, Brian House. My thanks also to parents who have already sent in gifts for the Salvation Army toy appeal.
Our School Council have been working hard again and have created waste paper baskets to go in all classrooms in order to support our push to become an Eco-School. On the flip side, they have also been busy organising Christmas parties for all year groups; I’m sure they will be very enjoyable events.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Assembly Concert Album
For the full photo album from the Assembly Concert click the image below.
Drawing Competition
Over the past couple of weeks the children have been beavering away coming up with the greatest and grandest ideas on what they love most about the Fylde Coast. From zoos to rollercoasters, sculptures to sandcastles, no drawing was the same. And even though the seagulls at Rossall can be a nuisance due to their acquired taste for pencils and rubbers they were still a popular choice for many creations and donned many of the drawings.
‘Every child is an artist’
Pablo Picasso
The children carefully and precisely drew all the things they love about the area in which they live. The array of locations drawn certainly made us realise how lucky we are to live in such an eventful and beautiful place.
Well done to all the artists who took part and I wish them the best of luck as their entries make their way to Vida Education for the Fylde competition.
Prep School Council
The Rossall Prep School Council have been busy working away, asking questions to their peers and making sure pupils’ voices are heard! The representatives are taking responsibility and acting with determination to make our school even more amazing. One of the main things Rossall pupils wanted was better recycling to make our school more environmentally friendly. So we have enacted a paper recycling initiative! Thanks to School Council, each classroom and photocopier has their own paper recycling bin, ensuring that the Prep School is recycling paper efficiently. Next on the School Council’s agenda is the Christmas Disco on 7th December! Keep it up, School Council!
Rossall U11 v Highfield Priory U11 Netball
Rossall hosted this netball fixture on Wednesday afternoon against Highfield Priory. All of the Y5/6 Rossall girls took part and enjoyed plenty of match play. We played four very competitive matches against our friends from Highfield Priory. Although all of the games were very close, we managed to win all four matches.
There were some fantastic individual performances, but more importantly it was brilliant to see the Rossall teams playing as a team, with such positivity and confidence. Well done!
Rossall Footballers Hit the Net at Highfield Priory
The torrential rain did not dampen the spirits and goal scoring capabilities of the Rossall football teams this week, and the children thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to represent the school at Highfield Priory.
The teams adjusted quickly to the six-a-side Astro-turf pitches and skidding ball, demonstrating impressive ball skills and fitness. The team performance was outstanding and after four ten-minute sessions, the Rhinos drew in an exciting game 4-4, and the Rams winning emphatically 10-0!
Well done, Rossall!
Fleetwood Schools Year 5/6 Indoor Athletics
Rossall’s state of the art Sports Centre was the venue for this annual exciting Indoor Athletics event on Wednesday. There were eight Fleetwood schools competing.
Every child was able to take part in a maximum of two field and two track events. The atmosphere was electric, especially when the track events started. The Rossall team performed exceptionally well and in the true spirit of the sport.
Imagine our delight when we were announced as runners up in the overall competition, which qualifies us for the District Competition that will take place in January 2022. Well done to everyone who took part, and to Shakespeare School who were the winners.
Thank you to all of the scorers, timers etc. and to Lee Cadwallader our School Games Organiser for organising such a superb event. Good luck to Shakespeare and Rossall in January!
KS1 Multi Sports Festival
Rossall took part in a fantastic KS1 multi sports festival in Rossall Sports Centre on Thursday afternoon. What a brilliant event, that involved; dancing, throwing, catching, jumping, shooting and kicking! The teams were from Fleetwood Schools and we were so proud when we were announced as overall runners up.
Well done to Charles Saer School for winning the event. Thank you also to Lee Cadwallader for organising the festival and the Rossall leaders for superb officiating. Well done to everyone who took part!
Year 6
Year 6 embarked on a journey of historical discovery this week as our investigation into Ancient Civilisations took us back in time 3500 years ago to study the lifestyle of those ‘Amazing Mayans’ of Central America.
The class relished the opportunity to find out about their beliefs and rituals, which included making our own headdresses, and a tribal match of ‘Pok ta Pok’ (the oldest team sport played with a ball!) between 6S and 6R.
In true Mayan style the winners were treated like heroes, and the losers sacrificed to the ‘Underworld’. We decided it was a bit harsh to sacrifice all of 6R as they have their final bikeability assessment, but you may notice Mr Rund is missing; he might be a fast runner but he’s no ‘Pok ta Pok’ player!
Year 5
The weather has turned colder this week but Year 5 are on fire!
We have been working incredibly hard to improve our writing skills and the results are FAB-U-LOUS ( for all you Strictly fans out there!) I could not be prouder of the work that the children are producing. The Winter poems that have been written are full of beautiful similes, adjectives and personification. The children have even impressed themselves.
There was great excitement around the Prep school on Tuesday morning, our first Assembly Concert for a long time. Nerves were conquered, pieces were played and sung and a real sense of achievement was felt by all the children who took part.
We continue to enjoy our research on the fascinating Vikings. Fabulous fact files were created and shared within the classroom.
Year 5 enjoy their Art lessons with Mrs Cox on a Friday morning. They worked hard to make their Totem Poles last half term and have progressed to making coil pots out of clay. The children have mastered basic skills in handling clay and coil rolling designs. I have seen these pots at each stage of their development and I can honestly say I was amazed at the craftsmanship and details that the children have included!
As another busy week in the Preparatory School comes to an end it is hard to believe that there are only two weeks left of the Michaelmas Term. I am not sure how many sleeps there are until FC comes to visit, but the excitement is certainly building!
Year 4
‘Supercharged’ would be the word I would use to describe this week’s activity for our Topic research into the ‘History of Entertainment’. The children energetically tried out dances from various decades; including Saturday Night Fever, The Charleston, the iconic Moonwalk by Michael Jackson, and ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles. Even Tom Jones got a look in with ‘It’s not unusual’ and the Carlton Dance. If I was a tiny bit worried that the dance sessions would be ‘a girl thing’, I need not have worried, the boys were as enthused and energetic as the girls, perhaps even more so.
Interestingly gender stereotyping was the hot topic of conversation in our discussion about toys through the ages. The children learnt how toys in Victorian times were gender-typical with tea sets and dolls for girls, and trains and soldiers for boys. They also examined evidence from archaeological finds which unearthed rocking horses, chariots, dolls and baby’s rattles from 4000 years ago.
In Maths this week we have been putting our detective hats on and undertaking lots of problem solving – including ensuring there is enough petrol in our vehicles to travel hundreds of miles or enough ingredients to ensure no one was left out after a visit to the bakers shop. This may outwardly seem quite straightforward but it involves the children being able to understand the problem, see what processes are needed to solve it and lay out their working and answers clearly. Quite an undertaking!
Year 3
Well, we’ve nearly been in Year 3 for a whole term and we are getting busier each week in the run up to Christmas! We are fervently rehearsing the Nativity to ensure a fantastic performance for everyone to see, we particularly enjoy the catchy songs!
We have also finished reading Winter’s Child and this week learnt how to use similes in our writing (we wrote as descriptively as Shakespeare!) In Maths we have been learning about the relationship between multiplication and division by looking at the 3 and 4 times tables.
We’ve continued our journey through the history of English monarchs in topic, this week learning about poor Queen Anne and how she brought about the Acts of the Union to bring England, Wales and Scotland together to form Great Britain. In Science we looked at different types of magnets and experimented to find out which magnet was the strongest, using paperclips to investigate!
Not to mention we had the music concert on Tuesday where many of our class members performed, showing off their musical talents. And topping off the week with singing carols around the Christmas tree was magical. Well done for a splendiferous week boys and girls!
Year 2
In Year 2 this week, we have been busy learning about how fossils are formed and dinosaur digestion! We learned from looking at photos of fossilised dinosaur stomach that dinosaurs ate stones.
We decided to investigate why they did this and conducted an experiment to see if stones helped the dinosaurs digest their food. We worked collaboratively to make predictions, create a fair test and write a conclusion.
We have also been finishing off our shoebox habitats and on Friday, we all loved our second session out in the Secret Garden during Forest School.
Year 1
This week we have been busy practising for our Nativity. The children have been working really hard to learn their lines, stage cues and songs. We can’t wait to do it in front of a real audience this year.
We have finished our monster puppets and are really proud of our creations. We have used the puppet theatre to make our own monster puppet shows. We will now be putting our sewing skills to good use to make our Christmas decorations.
In Science, we have continued to learn about materials and their properties, thinking about why certain materials are used to make different objects. We were excited to do Rossall Rotation this week and work with Mrs Payne to decorate biscuits, and to attend the Christmas tree light switch on.
Reception
The lure of all things cute and fluffy is irresistible to most children and many adults – but you don’t need to have your own pets to get your little ones used to animals.
Learning to care for animals and treat them with kindness is an experience that children can easily transfer to their relationships with other humans too – it helps to build empathy, understanding and respect for both their peers and adults.
And it doesn’t have to be all about the cute and fluffy. Demonstrate a respect and interest in all kinds of creatures – whether it’s a wriggly worm, a slimy slug or a pretty butterfly. This term we have been looking at lots of types of minibeast, including spiders, ants, worms, caterpillars and flies! We have used ‘pooters’ to collect minibeasts we found in our woodland area and looked at them through magnifying glasses. We carefully let the animals go at the end of the lesson.
In Spanish this week, the children have read the story of the ‘Hungry Caterpillar’, learnt the colour names in Spanish and created some beautiful caterpillar pictures. The children have found out more about anteaters this week and learnt that aswell as ants, they love termites too. We have carefully labelled some pictures and used our ‘Chatternatter’ book to record facts we could remember about anteaters as a class.
If your child would like to learn more about minibeasts you could watch Minibeast Adventure with Jess on CBeebies together, and use a minibeast spotter to record the creatures you could find when you’re out and about.
Nursery
Only four weeks until Christmas… we are definitely getting in the spirit at nursery!
The familiar sound of nativity songs, the decorations, the crafts and the cheer it really is the most wonderful time of the year. Preschool have been developing their fine motor skills by creating their own paper chain decorations, and various Christmas crafts. Sanderlings have enjoyed decorating their room with Christmas stars & trees, created through free paint activities with an extra large helping of glitter! Sandpipers have been making Christmas cards for their families and putting up their decorations.
Preschool have also been busy learning about rhyme in their circle times, whilst making silly soup. They have also spent their weekly cooking session learning how to make cookies with Mrs James… which smelt absolutely delicious! Well-being Wednesday was an opportunity to make their own healthy pizzas to take home and share with their families.
In Sandpipers room, the children have been busy revamping the mud kitchen with Miss Preston and creating all sorts of concoctions using natural materials found in the garden. Tumble Tots Tuesday was a big hit, which saw the room transformed into a soft play party. The children loved the opportunity to dance, climb, slide and roll on the equipment.
On Thursday, in Sanderlings we had a lovely visit from some animals from the petting farm, we listened well to how to safely hold with the animals and enjoyed watching how they move and stroking them. Sanderlings have also enjoyed a soft play day in their garden when they decided that jumping on the slide was much more fun that sliding on it. Our babies have also enjoyed lots of messy play opportunities including cloud dough, gloop, paint and water.
Award Winners
Year 6
Our certificates this week go to:
Year 6S:
- Lizzie for Outstanding Achievement in All Areas of School
- Ruby for Outstanding Effort in All Activities
6R
- Lockie for Outstanding Role Model
- Bailey for Excellent Leadership
Year 5
Our certificates this week go to Lulu for working hard in English and Kieran for an excellent performance in Music Concert.
Year 4
Our awards this week go to Eleanor and Alfie for outstanding enthusiasm in Topic.
Year 3
This week in Year 3 the certificates go to Ben for showing amazing resilience and keeping going even when things are difficult, and to Nilanth who always pushes himself in Maths to reach the challenge activities.
Year 2
Our awards this week go to Sophie and Emma for a super attitude in Nativity rehearsals.
Year 1
This week’s awards go to Fox for fantastic reading, both at home and at school, and Josephine for amazing effort in the Nativity rehearsals.
Reception
This weeks certificates of achievement go to Bow and Anand.
Bow is a very helpful member of our class and can always be relied upon to carry out any task sensibly. She is also a superb role model.
Anand has made huge progress in his swimming lessons. He has a positive approach to lessons and tries hard.
