Preparatory School Weekly Bulletin
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Preparatory School Weekly Bulletin
Claremont Fan Court School
Week Ending 15 January 2021
Dear parents,
I trust that this week has been a positive experience of remote learning for the chil-
dren? Certainly, for the staff, they are all reporting back that they are enjoying the
amount of contact with the children and we are all so impressed with their ability to
make the most of their learning from home experience.
We have and continue to work hard to provide the full curriculum for the children
over the course of the week and a full day’s supported learning every day. I know
most of you are grateful for this and the children are reassured by the clear struc-
ture. There are inevitably some drawbacks to this approach, the most obvious being
the large amount of screen time that this requires. Google classroom has come a
long way but is still essentially a tool designed for adults in the workplace to meet
virtually on an occasional, rather than continual basis and we recognise the challenges this digital
learning presents. Our learning programme is certainly not intended to cause additional stress at home
and, if there are choices to be made, these are my suggested priorities:
English, maths and science. In these subjects, the curriculum will progress from lesson to lesson
and the children’s learning will be best served if they attend the lessons in real time and com-
plete the work as directed, even if at the expense of attending other sessions during the course
of the day.
Form time. This is a time designed to support the sense of belonging to their school community
and sharing a social moment. The last lockdown showed that this is one of the aspects of
school that children missed most. A prompt arrival at 9am shows respect for the class and sets
the tone for the day ahead, as well as building camaraderie.
Afternoon sessions. These lessons are where the children will find variety and enrichment, with
the opportunity to refine and apply skills learned in core lessons and to extend their own
knowledge and understanding of the world. They should endeavour to catch up missed lessons
through recordings, in order to be able to benefit from the sequence of lessons over a period of
weeks.
11.45am session. Monday’s assembly is recorded and can be watched at any convenient time.
Other sessions at this time of the day tend to be practical and/or physical in nature. If it works
better for your family to take the dog for a long walk at this time, please do so.
I hope that this guidance helps; if you have individual concerns, please contact your child’s form
teacher.
As a means of further support, as an IAPS School, we have access to a current affairs podcast– Fresh
Thinking – which aims to help independent school parents. This week’s episode featured Julie Robin-
son of ISC and two fellow IAPS Heads discussing ways parents can be kind to themselves and support
their children during this lockdown. If you are interested, do listen at:
attainparents.com/freshthinking/
With best wishes for the weekend,
Mrs Helen Attenborough
Headteacher
www.claremontfancourt.co.uk
Pastoral
The teachers have been most impressed with the dedication and diligence shown by all chil-
dren. We continue to consider the best balance of maintaining high expectations academically
and the need to know when to stop and take a break; I know Mrs Attenborough has mentioned
this too. It is clear that the novelty of working from home has probably worn off for most and
we need to establish a sustainable way of working. This is different for each child and each
family but there are key consistent features that it is helpful for everyone to keep in their daily
routine. The need for some time outside and away from screens is crucial for the well-being of
all of us and we are working on more lessons that encourage moving away from screens where
possible.
The daily form times are allowing children the opportunity to share their experiences and stay
connected. This has helped class teachers and me to catch those moments when your children
are struggling, hopefully at the early stages, and offer some support. Please do stay in touch
and seek help early. As much as the internet is awash with advice and strategies, it is helpful for us to be part of this
process as it may impact the way we teach and support children in lessons.
English
Year 3 have worked hard on prefixes, suffixes and up-levelling. Next week we will be
focusing on writing instructions. It would be wonderful if the children could get 125g of
dark chocolate, 400g can of sweetened condensed milk and 100g of marshmallows. If you
are unable to get these ingredients do not worry there is an alternative task that does not
require resources.
Year 4 worked hard this week when planning an invention that would help to improve the
world and be environmentally friendly. They used their new skills to write fantastic expla-
nations which introduced their inventions to the Dragons Den. Finally, the children were
able to bring their creations to life and produced some incredible junk models of their ex-
tremely creative inventions! Next week we will be looking at lots of different topics to dis-
cuss and debate - all opinions welcome.
This week Year 5 have started work on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan using a version retold in rhyme by Caryl Hart. The
children have shown engagement and understanding and have written excellent pieces to describe the flying journey
towards Neverland. We have also developed our summarising skills. We will be continuing the story next week and
hope to see more fabulous writing from Year 5 as the story unfolds…
Year 6 teachers have been very impressed with the children’s biography writing on the bard himself, the ONE AND
ONLY William Shakespeare. Packed full of connectives, sub headings, quotes and a WOW introduction and conclu-
sion, the children have been working very hard on their writing. Next week we will be looking at one of Shake-
speare’s most famous plays – Macbeth. “Is that a dagger I see before me”….. HA, HA, HA!
Maths
Watching an exciting video or listening to a fun song can be
great ways of learning about different topics within mathemat-
ics. BBC Bitesize is a website full of great videos, quizzes,
songs and practice activities to help children with new mathe-
matical themes. The game Guardian: Defenders of Mathemati-
ca is a personal favourite of mine which now has new sets of
challenging questions each week. I wonder how many weeks
you can complete?
Topics which will be covered next week are:
Year 3 - We will be working on statistics and learning all about different types of charts and
how to read them.
Year 4 - Next week we are starting capacity, recapping measurement and working on measurement word problems.
Year 5 & 6 - Both year groups will be continuing with decimals at the beginning of the week and will be moving
onto percentages as the week progresses.
Do not forget that the Times Table Rock Star League challenge is still!
www.claremontfancourt.co.uk
Student Initiatives
Congratulations to those that have just achieved this esteemed status! Here are the current members of this
exclusive club:
Sophie W Catherine W Elizabeth C Steve K
Oscar I Magnus O Lily S Arabella F
Adeline I Josephine G Toby C Amber-Lily C
Toby B Christina-Mae H Lola C Max S
Samuel B Ella S Rachael S Edward C
Dexter T
Write letter to a child in 2030!
Kids of 2020 Letter Writing Project—if you are looking to keep busy at the weekends and like to write
letters this looks fun and your work could end up on display in the Postal Museum.
Usborne author PG Bell, creator of the children’s book series The Train to Impossible Places, has part-
nered with the National Literacy Trust and The Postal Museum on a letter writing project inviting children
to share their experiences of the pandemic with future generations.
Launched on Wednesday 13th January during Universal Letter Writing Week (10th-17th January), the pro-
ject aims to create a historical record of children’s experiences in the UK during the past 12 months, and
support schools and children in their literacy development. It invites children to write a letter to a child in
2030 about their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic and the project will run until the 2021 East-
er holidays. It will culminate in a display of the letters at The Postal Museum. According to a survey run
by the NLT, a quarter of children it surveyed said writing helped when they felt sad in lockdown and
couldn’t see family and friends, and for one in three letter writing specifically made them feel happy and
helped them to express their feelings. Usborne will provide children with loads of letter writing tips.
For further details please see website https://usborne.com/kidsof2020
www.claremontfancourt.co.uk
Resources Required
We held our first live PE session yesterday, which was enjoyable and key worker chil-
dren were able to work out alongside their friends, albeit via a small screen! We were-
n’t sure how clear the sound was, but a recording of the lesson is now available for
viewing in the Whole School Classroom. In an attempt to appeal to all our pupils, the
PE activities will be varied and content will be dependent upon the weather forecast,
but all sessions will be available on Google Classroom for pupils to attempt on any day
should they wish to.
The following are required for lessons next week:
Year 5 Science (Monday afternoon)
• a makeshift ramp. This could be a large book, a plank of wood, a clipboard or a tray or chopping board
from the kitchen.
• In addition they will require some items that can sit flat on the surface (e.g. tea towel, hand towel, pa-
per, card)
• Some small items to slide down (e.g. rubber, pencil, shoe, plastic tupperware box).
• They will also require a long ruler or tape measure and/or a protractor and small blob of blu-tac.
Technology (Wednesday 11.45am)
The children will be making lava lamps and bug hotels.
Equipment requirements:
Lava Lamp: Clear plastic bottle, vegetable oil, food colouring, Alka Setzler tablet.
Bug Hotel: Tin can (e.g baked beans/soup), cardboard
Food Tech (Friday 11.45am)
Muffins will be on the menu for Friday’s food tech lesson.
Ingredients
250g self-raising flour
2 x 5ml spoon baking powder
1 x 5ml spoon cinnamon powder
100g caster sugar;
250ml milk
1 egg
90ml oil
150g blueberries
Equipment
Weighing scales, sieve, large bowl, measuring spoons, small bowl, fork, measuring jug, wooden spoon,
muffin cases, muffin tin, oven gloves, cooling rack.
www.claremontfancourt.co.uk
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