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Home / Middle Department News – Friday 2 December 2022

This week in Year 3

“The Stars Come Out” Performances

The Year 3s are working really hard in their dance and drama and music lessons to put together a festive production of The Stars Come Out  for you all. Could I remind you to please send in the costumes in a named bag by Monday 5th December. Details of costumes can be found here

Christmas Baubles Fundraiser

Thank you to those who have brought their baubles in and hung them on our beautiful tree. Please don’t forget to donate your £2, either via the justgiving page here or by sending in the money. Many thanks for your generosity.

Mrs Greenwood helped some of the Year 3s decorate the tree.

Reception Nativity Dress Rehearsal

The whole of Year 3 happily accepted the invitation to watch the dress rehearsal of the Reception Nativity. They were very excited to watch and spot the roles that they performed when they were in Reception. The children spoke beautifully and were a joy to watch. Well done to all involved! 

Year 3 Ancient Egyptian Day

Year 3’s Egyptian Day was enormous fun and an excellent learning experience. The children looked amazing, as did the parent helpers, who were fantastic. Thank you to everyone who helped or offered to help to make this such a special experience for the children. Please find the pictures here:  

Year 3 Egyptian Day December 2022

 

Year 3 Tree Planting

Ch Year 3, along with the rest of the School took part in Mrs Le Bas’s tree planting initiative. We planted a Mirabelle tree, with the first trowel full being thrown by Arthur, Amelie and Lela. We very much look forward to watching the tree grow and bear fruit. 

Year 3 Tree Planting

Year 3 Christmas Production

Tickets Available!

We are delighted to invite you to join the Christmas trees, cards, Santas, Christmas dinner eaters and Beth the star at this year’s Year 3 and 4 Christmas production – The Stars Come Out. The children will be performing on Thursday 8 December at 1500, and Friday 9 December at 0910. The performance is roughly 40minutes long.

We are initially offering two tickets per family as we have over 120 pupils in the cast. We may be able to release further tickets once all parents have received their allocation. Please click here to reserve your tickets.

Refreshments will be available in the Great Hall after the Thursday performance, and from 0840 on the Friday.

Doors open ten minutes before each performance.

We look forward to seeing you all, and sharing the children’s amazing work from their drama and music lessons!

Warm and festive regards,

Una Oatham, Libby Mann, Sophie Porter and Pauline Pope

The Year 3 Team

This week in Year 4

Maths Multiplication and Division

Year 4 have been continuing their topic on multiplication and division this week and, even though we are sure most parents are familiar with TT Rockstars as a means to practise your recall of times tables, the Year 4 Maths team thought it would be useful to share some of the language, models and concepts we teach the children in order to help them better understand multiplication and division facts.

Language

Within our scheme of maths, language variation is key and teachers and questions will use a variety of terms interchangeably.  Children will be aware of terms such as; repeated addition, lots of, groups of, product, times and multiply for multiplication.  When discussing division, children are taught the ideas of sharing or grouping amounts equally.  Why not mix up the language you use when working alongside your child at home?

Arrays

Arrays are a fantastic way of actually ‘seeing’ multiplication and division.  By considering how dots are arranged in rows or columns suddenly the answers become clear and they are a fantastic way to visualise what can be an abstract concept to many.

Year 4 Christmas Production

Tickets Available!

We are delighted to invite you to join the Christmas trees, cards, Santas, Christmas dinner eaters and Beth the star at this year’s Year 3 and 4 Christmas production – The Stars Come Out. The children will be performing on Thursday 8 December at 1500, and Friday 9 December at 0910. The performance is roughly 40minutes long.

We are initially offering two tickets per family as we have over 120 pupils in the cast. We may be able to release further tickets once all parents have received their allocation. Please click here to reserve your tickets.

Refreshments will be available in the Great Hall after the Thursday performance, and from 0840 on the Friday.

Doors open ten minutes before each performance.

We look forward to seeing you all, and sharing the children’s amazing work from their drama and music lessons!

Year 3 and 4 have been working really hard in their Dance and Drama and Music lessons to put together this festive production.  Please provide your son/daughter with a costume for their performances. All items should be brought into school, in a named bag on Monday 5 December. Please ensure everything is named. Details of costumes can be found here

This week in Year 5

Our Sporting Highlights

As we approach the end of the Michaelmas term, we thought that we would offer you a sporting round-up of the first term in Year 5!  The children can look back on so many sporting opportunities that they have experienced in the past couple of months: from hockey to football, swimming to basketball, the Year 5 pupils have been involved in a wide range of sports on offer here at Beechwood.

Although the children have experience of match days in Year 3 and 4, Wednesday afternoons are a whole new experience in Year 5. The boys now play football with Year 6 boys and both the boys and the girls travel to prep schools all over Hertfordshire to compete. All of the Year 5 pupils can be extremely proud of how they have adapted and taken on the challenges in fixtures this term. The pupils have represented the school in football, netball, hockey, rugby, swimming, skiing, horse-riding and fencing. Apologies if I have missed anything else!

Now, having made the change to rugby, the weather seems to have decided to do the same, as was particularly evident during our wet, windy and very cold pre-season session with the visiting Saracens coaches. It was fantastic to experience coaching from one of England’s best clubs, refreshing the boys’ knowledge of contact rugby. Despite the weather, the session was full of fun and engaging activities that focused on developing the correct technique for tackling and also, something that is often overlooked, being tackled. Knowing what to do with your body when you’re are being tackled to the ground is a very important skill and hopefully the ‘knees, hips, shoulders’ mantra will ring strong in the boys’ minds throughout the rugby season. Some boys were then given another fantastic opportunity by being selected to go to the St Albans Boys School’s U10 Rugby Festival.  This involved a friendly festival of rugby in the afternoon but began with some coaching from STABS staff including England and Saracens world cup winning legendary scrum half, Kyran Bracken. Hopefully, with these fantastic opportunities, the boys will be ready to hit the ground running (or, safely at least!) when we return after Christmas.

The girls have also been out and about representing Beechwood. A few of the Year 5 girls were selected to play for the Year 6 netball teams at the Berkhamsted School U11 Netball Festival. Not only did they play against girls in the year above, but Ffion and Georgie were awarded the team’s players of the tournament. The U10A hockey team had the opportunity to play indoor hockey at the fantastic facilities at Haileybury in their festival earlier this term too.

PE lessons this term have involved swimming and ball skills. The ball skills topic has given the children the chance to learn a wide variety of keys skills for a number of different sports. Benchball, dodgeball, netball and basketball are just a few of the sports that were used to develop the skills and it was fantastic to see the children working as a team to adapt tactics and skills to be successful.

So much has in happened in PE and Games lessons this term and also in the many fixtures, galas, tournaments and festivals that have taken place and we all know there is much more to come and to look forward to over the next two terms. More sporting excitement and enjoyment is imminent!

Year 5 Sport

Additional Date for Open Swim Session

Due to a number of children being unable to attend the open swim session this Friday we will be holding another session next Friday 9th December between 1645 to 1735 for all pupils in Year 5 to Top Form. Anyone wishing to get timed in order to get into our Year 5 IAPS swim team is welcome to attend.

From the Year 5 Team

New Head of Boarding at Beechwood

In January, Rachel Harris will be joining Beechwood at Head of Boarding and Head of Geography.  Parents will have a chance to meet her before the end of term, but in the meantime, here is a short video introduction:

 

From the Middle Department Library

Tiggy Thistle and the Lost Guardians by Chris Riddell

Award winning Chris Riddell, creator of Ottoline series, returns with the second instalment of The Cloud Horse Chronicles. Zam, Phoebe and Bathsheba, the three guardians of magic, disappeared with no warning nearly ten years ago, leaving the Kingdom of Thrynne in the icy grip of a powerful sorceress. Most people have fled in desperate search of warmer lands, escaping the snow monsters that roam the streets. Meanwhile, nine-year-old Tiggy Thistle lives hidden and safe with a kindly Badger – until the day she meets the elf Crumple Stiltskin, one of the crafty Stiltskin brothers, she suddenly has to run from her happy home. So begins Tiggy’s quest to find Zam, Phoebe and Bathsheba – the lost guardians and their beautiful cloud horses – the only people, she believes, who can save Thrynne from the curse of endless winter.

As you would expect from Riddell, this book is beautifully illustrated throughout with two-colour pictures.

 

Head’s Commendations

Congratulations to this week’s recipients of Mr Balfour’s Commendations:

Engage Nurture Inspire
Year 3 George G, Tommy J Marcus FH -
Year 4 Aiden E, Marie D, Magnus G, Matilida PJ Sienna C, Oliver W, Alex L, Aiden E, Luke M, Pippa K Olivia C, Lizzie K, Miles H, Henry H
Year 5 - -
Middle Department News – Friday 2 December 2022
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