Mrs Bennett’s Bulletin, Monday 4 May 2020

Posted: 4th May 2020

Good Monday morning, Prep School!

Welcome to another exciting week of distance learning and this week is a short week! We have a bank holiday on Friday so you only have 4 days of school this week! I can hear your mummies and daddies cheering from here! Make these four days count though – work as hard as you can, do your best for your parents and try and be a little bit more independent than you were last week. You can do it! Then we can all have Friday off and relax for the weekend in the knowledge that you have tried your absolute hardest all week!

I know I have said this before but I am so proud of you all and how hard you are working at home. It isn’t easy trying to be motivated when you are outside your normal learning environment but I am so pleased with your determination and resilience. I know it is really hard at times and that you are all missing your friends and teachers – I can assure you, they are all missing you terribly too. It’s ok to feel like this. Next time you are missing someone, whoever it may be, pick up the phone to them, drop them an email, write them a letter – any small act of kindness makes such a big difference to people!

The quality of the work that we are getting sent through is super and a joy to mark. You should be proud of your achievements so far. Please can I take this opportunity to remind you of a few small things..

Just remember, your presentation should be like it is in school – date, learning objective, title – should be underlined! If it isn’t, teachers, will ask you to do it again! Long date for all tasks and lessons, except maths (short date here please). In school our classroom-based lessons are usually an hour long – please do not go massively over these timings. If you work your socks off for the hour, you will have achieved everything that your teacher would want you to do as if you are in school! We don’t expect you to concentrate for huge amounts of time without a short break – so remember to be kind to yourselves. Listen really hard to your parents, they are helping you to learn at home. Be patient with them, the way that we (your parents and your teachers!) were taught at school is sometimes different to the way that we now teach you at school, their way isn’t wrong, it might just be different to what you are used to! Remember, if you need any help with your work, you can email your class teachers or drop them a message on the VLE, they will get back to you as soon as they can!

Also remember that your class teachers, specialist subject teachers, myself and Mrs Griffiths are also here to help you! If you are worried or sad about anything, please don’t hesitate to talk to us – just like we are in school. We cannot promise to make everything better, but we can promise to listen and we can try to help you work out a solution or accept the situation– remember the great saying that ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’. Talk to us, that is what we are here for! That also goes for your parents too, please can you remind them of this for me? I have attached a little picture to remind you of this saying!

So enough of work for now! Did you all have a lovely weekend? What did you do? Any adventures to tell me about? I had a lovely weekend. I tried to not work all weekend as I felt really tired last week – and I know all of your teachers felt the same as well – I’m sure you did too – so I tried to relax a little. . .I had a windowsill coffee with my neighbour (she sits at her windowsill and I stand in her garden 2 meters apart) to check she is ok and we have a general catch up! I did all my neighbours shopping and delivered that for them. I went on two massive walks which was fantastic – very good for the soul! Mr Bennett and I tidied the house, did some washing, watched a film and cooked some delicious food. It was just what I needed! I hope you managed to relax as well so you are ready for the week ahead.

So each day I promised I would be sending you a life skill task to complete and also a joke, poem, picture, fact or reflection. Here we go for Monday 4th May 2020:

Life skill of the day: Can you learn to sew on a button?

Day of the year themes: ‘Star Wars Day’, ‘Candied Orange Peel Day’, ‘Petite and Proud Day’ and ‘Firefighters’ Day’.

May is also ‘Bike Month’, ‘Get Caught Reading Month’, ‘Hamburger Month’, ‘Golf Month’ and ‘Barbeque Month’.

Thunk of the day: Remember, Thunks are unusual questions that are designed to make you think. There are no right or wrong answers -just your answer. The only rule is that you must be able to justify and explain your answer. You cannot just say the first thing that comes into your head. Really think about the question and discuss with your family!

Question: If a rabbit ran in front of my car, should I feel guilty for hitting it?

TOPS activity of the week: On Friday this week, we are going to be celebrating the 75th anniversary of VE Day. This week can you please complete the following tasks:
Find out and research what VE Day is
Create a poster/short film/bake/model etc to tell me something about VE Day – be imaginative!
Quote of the Day: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

And we cannot forget a very important countdown. . .

Sleeps til Santa: 235

Have a wonderful day,

May the Fourth be with you (sorry, couldn’t resist!),

Mrs Bennett 😊

PS Merit Assemblies this week – HPP – Wednesday 9:15am. HPW – Thursday 9:15am (due to the bank holiday! NOT Friday!) – Zoom invites to follow soon.

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