Category: Pre-Prep News
This year has surpassed all expectations and the results are simply wonderful! Congratulations must go to every one of our hard-working pupils for their outstanding GCSE achievements. 41% of all grades were at 9-8, and 59% of all grades achieved were 9-7, making this year our best GCSE results year ever! Woodbridge prides itself on providing a unique, balanced and holistic educational experience; this recipe clearly brings out the best in every child when you see such outstanding academic success. We would like to thank all the dedicated staff and supportive parents. Well done to all.”
The children in Year 1 have been taking part in a maths investigation based on the story “One hundred hungry ants”. They have been finding all the different ways to put a set number of ants into rows of equal lengths. They have worked collaboratively to solve the problem!
The children worked in small groups researching facts about planet Earth. They used laptops, books and watched video clips and recorded their findings on a poster.
The children were curious, independent and focused and found out some fascinating facts to share with the class.
This week we emptied our potato grow-bags and revealed masses of large white new potatoes. Like discovering buried treasure, the children were extremely excited with each potato they unearthed. They then took them to the kitchens where John very kindly cooked them for lunch the next day. It has been so exciting to plant, nurture and eat our own produce this term. So far we have harvested radishes, potatoes, rocket and red mustard. Fingers crossed we will have carrots and strawberries by the end of term.
On Tuesday 5 June, Year 2 visited Southwold as part of their topic on the Victorians. They were all dressed the part and were very excited to learn more about Victorian seaside holidays. The day started with a tour of Southwold museum where the children looked at Victorian artefacts. This was followed by a Victorian picnic, complete with jam sandwiches wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string, a sausage roll and a miniature Victorian sponge cake. After lunch the children enjoyed playing games on the beach and sketching the beach huts. The day ended with a well-deserved ice cream and a walk along the pier.
Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed their transition afternoon to the Abbey. They were excited to see their new classrooms and meet their new teachers. They had a tour of the school and afterwards had great fun making spinners and circuits.
Over the past forty years (or maybe more!) there have been many subtle, and not so subtle, changes in education; from how we teach reading and the bridging method in maths, to how we support children with their emotional development and well-being.
It used to be considered that well behaved children were seen and not heard. Fortunately times have moved on. However, it would seem that one change may have had unintended consequences.
We used to prepare children for the road ahead; with all its bumps and potholes, in a bid to ensure that each child was equipped for their own future; securely packed off with a toolkit to ensure that they could navigate said road with confidence.
Then, the change; for a number of years it seemed to be expected that teachers and parents should do their utmost to drive ahead of our children, with a steam roller, trying desperately to smooth the path they were about the tread. This clearly had benefits; less trips and hazards and fewer issues to deal with and obstacles and hurdles were moved out of the way.
This is where we come back to the ‘however’… Children do not learn from pages of ticks, easy lessons and flat footpaths. They need appropriate challenge, disappointment and undulations to build resilience, develop self-sufficiency and fine tune empathy.
We should not be setting children mountains to climb; but we do need to prepare our children for the road ahead and not the road for our children. In a supportive environment children should have the confidence to learn from mistakes, move on from set-backs and develop the character and skills they will need in later life.
The cross-county event is always a perfect example of this. Children pushing themselves beyond their previous limits, working together as a team, supporting their friends and having fun through the exhaustion and, often, the rain! This event could be avoided, everyone could stay inside in the warm but the children are richer for the experience and learn as much, if not more, about themselves than they would do in a classroom for that hour.
Setting challenges that are just a little out of a child’s comfort zone builds confidence, allows the acquisition of skills and invigorates pupils with the desire to strive to succeed.
On a day to day basis the rules at school are easy to enforce; there are not too many of them and they are all there for a reason. Examples such as: stay within the boundary fencing, clearly for the children’s safety and obvious when the line is crossed.
Others that are not so visible are also clear; be kind to each other, calling pupils by insulting names is obviously unkind.
Both examples are quickly dealt with and parental support is a given.
However, there is a grey area that is creeping ever more into school life. The power of technology. School rules across the country are being updated due to the necessity to remove the ability to connect to the internet through a watch; as clearly we have no means of securing the children’s safety if their school access is not through the safeguarded systems.
Equally, and even more difficult to contain, are the discussions about inappropriate games and apps that the children have access to. Now these games are not accessed at school so therefore surely it is not our problem? However, the discussions in playgrounds and re-enactments of scenes played on a sofa have repercussions in our safe environments.
It is a delicate balancing act. Schools do not want to interfere with family life and home rules, however, we have a duty of care to ensure that those parents who do not wish for their underage child to have knowledge of content that is deemed inappropriate by ratings, and individuals, to come home with information gathered in school.
Schools spend a huge amount of time trying to teach the children the importance of kindness, compassion and solving conflict through discussion and understanding. These are key skills that they will need as they grow up to be young adults of the future. Prep school age pupils do not have the ability to successfully filter appropriate language and actions when transferring them from a screen to the playground.
Whilst I am in agreement that we do not need to wrap our children up in cotton wool and protect them from all that is going on in the world, equally I do not think that we should be ignoring advice and allowing our young children access to games that have been age limited for good reasons.
Childhood is precious and we need to support the children to enjoy it in an age appropriate manner.
Happily, when recently walking this tightrope between home and school rules the surge of support that bounced back was huge. Clearly working together with the best interests of ours sons and daughters means that the line is increasingly blurred, and for good reason, as we all seek to support and nurture the next generation in their development.
Year 6 have now had a chance to calculate their final profits from our Stepping Into Business Market Day just before half term. In total, they made just over £1500 profit, which is a phenomenal achievement!
This money will be split between prizes for all the children, experiential prizes for the group who made the most profit and the group who demonstrated the best teamwork throughout, as well as a sizable charity donation. More information on the above will follow in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I am very pleased to announce the group prizes awarded below:
Best Teamwork – 10x Crazier
Most Profitable Business – Busy Bombs
Most Units Sold – Poppety Keyrings
Best Branding – Smileys
Resilience Award – The Freezers
Best Financial Planning – Smoothshakes
Best Service Industry Award – Tearoom Delight
Most innovative Product – Sharp Fire
Excitingly, lots of these stalls will be reopening for the Summer Fete on Sunday 17 June so the Year 6 entrepreneurs look forward to welcoming back to their stalls then.
It is so important that children understand the correlation between the creation of Art work and seeing that art on display for people to enjoy. Our “Woodbridge Views” exhibition was a great opportunity for children to celebrate their creations and share them with friends and family. It was so lovely to see so many parents and grandparents talking about the Art work with their children!
At Woodbridge our children are lucky enough to experience a diverse range of media; sculpture, ceramics, painting, collage, drawing and digital art to name but a few. We even had parents asking to purchase sculptures; this is indicative of the standards our little artists are capable of achieving!
Thank you to everyone that came along, we hope you enjoyed the afternoon.