Category: Prep News

Year 6 Drama at The Abbey – ‘The Nativity Story’ in a series of freeze-frames

ON Tuesday 24 November, we had our second Lunchtime Recital of the term. A warm and appreciative audience were treated to twenty- three performances. Everyone performed well, and it was a lovely interlude in a busy day at the Abbey!

Congratulations to Chapel Choir who rehearsed so thoroughly to give the first Evensong of the academic year. They sang settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Geoffrey Burgon, and it was a lovely, reflective way to end a busy day.

Congratulations to Henry Dinwiddy, Oliver Laxton and Isla Richardson who, along with Georgia Dawson from the Senior School performed magnificently in the St Mary’s Church Prom concert on Sunday afternoon. It was lovely to perform for such an appreciative audience and the performers all gave confident and convincing performances.

On 24 September the Abbey School brave Swimmers from year 4 to 6 girls travelled to Ipswich High to challenge them to a swimming gala. There was tension in the air as both schools filled the leisure centre. There was an eerie silence as Ipswich High started their warm up, The Abbey watched and grew ever more excited. First up was the year 6 Back Crawl, went up to start us off followed by the year 5 and 4.

Year 6 Back crawl start off neck to neck till the final stretch where the opposition powered ahead to take the lead from both our pairs to grab the top two spots. As fate had it the year 4’s had a very similar result. However not for the year 5 pair which took 1st and 3rd place.

We left the first race behind us and looked onward to Breast stroke. Just like last time the Year 6 pair were up first. They got into position, off they went was neck and neck till the last length were Ipswich High A team slowly pulled ahead to take first place, closely followed by I.H.S B in second. Hoping they could change the flow, off the year 5 pair went, however could not beat the strong I.H.S pair. After the disappointing start the year 4 girls weren’t going to lose quietly and fought back in the breaststroke and took 1st and 2nd away from the home side, we were back in the race.

Butterfly was next, arguable the hardest stroke to do. Yet we had some talented enough swimmers to compete. Sadly though I.H.S where stronger in the year 6 and 5 races and took an early lead to grab the two spots. However the same can’t be said about the Year 4’s, which Abby B team narrowly lost to the I.H.S A team but grabbed 2 place for the team.

Freestyle, the year 6 pair was up first. Sadly though the races weren’t going our way and I.H.S seems to ease to victory in this race but the Year 6 weren’t giving up still full of excitement they continued to fight on. Seeing this, the year 5 pair weren’t going to be shown up and took 2nd place followed by the year 4 B freestyle swimmers who grabbed 1st and 3rd in their race.
Next up was the year 6 medley relay, however luck wasn’t on our side as I.H.S was just too strong this year and we ended up taking 3rd and 4th places, similarly in the year 5 race, Although year 4 was a different story which we took 1st and 3rd place leaving all to play for in the final race.
The final race was the freestyle relay, The Year 6 and 5 Team took their place on the starting blocks, they made a valiant effort to narrowly lose to I.H.S A and B team to take 3rd and 4th place respectively. A big race for the year 4 teams as they lined up. After a thrilling race the Abbey took 2nd and 3rd hoping it was enough to keep them in the lead.

Over all I.H.S year 6 Team won comfortably with a combined score of 18 compared to the Abbey’s of 42. With the year 5 doing slightly better but still lost with a score of 38 compared to I.H.S score of 22. However the Year 4’s results were a different story with the Abbey having a score of 29 and I.H.S achieving 31.

On Monday, the children at The Abbey came back to school to find a mysterious object had landed in the grounds. Shrouded in mist, it was all very dramatic! Mr Brett explained to the children in assembly that there had been a disturbance in the night and some people had seen bright lights and heard a strange humming sound. Whatever it was had landed in the grounds of the school and the visitors had vanished, leaving just a few clues.

The children got a chance to investigate and have a good look at the site, then they were asked to write the story of what they thought had happened. The government were investigating the landing, but were a bit stumped and wanted the children’s ideas. And they had lots of ideas! Some told of aliens having to leave their imploding planet in a terrible rush and choosing Earth as a place to seek refuge; some described aliens searching the galaxies for other life forms and finally finding us here on Earth; some believed that the aliens were here to teach us about looking after our planet; and some described aliens burrowing beneath the grounds of The Abbey, building an underground city.

It was such a fun day and one that the children will certainly remember.

Our first game was against Ipswich Prep. We started well and had the ball in our attacking circle for most of the game. Unfortunately, we were not successful in finding the back of the net, however, the team should be congratulated on their continued effort, trying to score. Abigail Thomas made a great pass across the front of the goal, but unfortunately we could not convert it into a goal. Final score 0 – 0.

Our second game was against Littlegarth and this was a team we wanted to beat as they had beaten us the previous week. This game saw the ball move from one end to the other, with great attacking and defensive play from both teams. Again, we were unable to convert and the final score was 0 – 0.

Our third and final game was against Orwell Park. After a quick team talk before, the girls knew that they had to give 110% in order for them to be in a chance of coming 1st or 2nd. What a game this was; every single member of the team fought for every ball and tackled perfectly. Lara Hoffman Leatherdale and Isabelle Kershaw-Jervis were superb in defence, tackling hard and distributing the ball out to the wings. Chloe Morgan, Caitlin Maggs, Abigail Thomas, Sophie Fry and Lily Waterer played excellently in attack and as a result we scored 4 goals. Abigail, Lily and Chloe set up Sophie Fry’s 3 goals and Caitlin helped Chloe to find the back of the net. Final score W4 – 0. Imogen Melrose had a fab afternoon in goal as she managed to keep a clean sheet and she captained the team v Littlegarth.

2nd place overall!! A great performance by all – well done!! Thank you to the parents who were supporting from the sideline!!

In History Year 4 learned about the Romans and so early on in the Michaelmas term they enjoyed a visit to Colchester Castle. During their visit they heard the story of Colchester, learnt about some of the roman artefacts discovered, enthusiastically dressed-up and built model houses.

Jonjo Walker 4J
The Roman temple of Claudius was built around 55-60AD. The Romans made the Celts build the temple and pay high taxes to pay for it. Boudicca, head of the Celts, burnt the temple and Colchester as a revolt.

Marina Pommier 4J
In the doctor’s grave I saw an old pair of tweezers exactly like ours right now. There were objects I have never seen before. We can tell that they had doctors and what medical instruments they had in Roman times. We also saw the board game. It looked like he was in the middle of a game because the pieces were in different places than the starting places. It was so well preserved it looked like it was just made!

Isabel Deacon 4J
For the house building activity we built a Roundhouse and a Roman villa. It was fun because we had to work together and it was quite hard because some of the blocks were longer than others and we sometimes put them in the wrong places!