Two informal nights of light hearted sketches were staged by some of the Year 5 to 8 pupils in the Birley Centre auditorium through a new venture for St Andrew’s called Stuff ‘n’ Nonsense.

Held together with the piano playing and compering of Deputy Head Gordon Ferguson, the children performed almost 20 sketches, some of their own and others ‘borrowed’ from the comedy greats of Monty Python, the Two Ronnies, Rowan Atkinson et al.

From stand up to slap stick, double entendre to Shakespeare, it was wonderful to hear the sound of laughter from the audience who had the chance to see children in a whole new light.

Term for the prep children finished with a bonus performance in front of all the children and staff on the last day of term sending everyone home with a smile on their faces.

Get thinking for next year now! 

 Following on from studying their works on World Book Day, St Andrew’s welcomed author and illustrator duo, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell to talk to the Year 4 to 8 children this week.

Paul Stewart is a highly regarded author of books for young readers – everything from picture books to football stories, fantasy and horror. His first book was published in 1988 and he has since worked for a number of publishers and had over 50 titles published. Together with Chris Riddell he is the co-creator of the Far-Flung Adventures series, which includes Fergus Crane (Gold Smarties Prize Winner), Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper (both Silver Nestle Prize Winners).

Chris Riddell has illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including Pirate Diary by Richard Platt, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, which both won the Kate Greenaway Medal. He is a recent Costa Book Award winner in the Children’s category for his novel Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse. In addition to his children’s book work, Chris is a renowned political cartoonist, whose work appears regularly in UK newspapers the Observer and the Guardian, as well as The Literary Review and The New Statesman.

And of course, they are also the co-creators of the bestselling Edge Chronicles series, which has sold over two million books and is now available in over thirty languages.

Following their fascinating talk in the school chapel, Paul and Chris signed copies of the books for the children and for the school library.

The Saturday Morning Rocketry Activity finished, quite literally, with a bang on launch day, the final Saturday of term.

Parents and grandparents joined the children in the middle of the school fields to launch each rocket after a suitable countdown. The strong gusts of wind caught one or two rockets by surprise and led to some interesting flight paths! All the rockets returned back to earth, usually with a streamer slowing their descent, and one cleared the school campus and was found in a local road.

 Sport Relief was the theme although with the sporting action consisting of jostling for the front of the cake sale queue! Ably served by the Year 8 prefects, Pre-Prep and Prep children attended a break time cake sale with cakes kindly made and donated by the parents.
Earlier in the day, the Friends of St Andrew’s hosted a Sport Relief coffee morning for all parents and the two events raised over £380 for the charity. Many thanks to all for their donations of cakes and funds.

Science Week brought great activity and excitement to the school this week. 

Years 5 and 6 enjoyed a session on astronomy in a mobile Astrodome. This planetarium projects over 18,000 stars together with models, music and moving picture views of the planets – a unique way to teach this subject in a stimulating environment.
Later in the week, all parts of the school joined Safari Pete and his family of lizards, owls, snakes, spiders and a crocodile. Some of the children were brave enough to handle the exhibits! His passion for animals and conservation was a super example for the children.

Encouraged by a lovely poem from Eleanor Davies-Gilbert (below), Mrs Stokes, Head of Nursery and Pre-Prep, agreed to allow the children to bring their pets in for an afternoon. In trying to photograph the canine gathering, I was reminded that one should never attempt to work with children and animals! 

All in all a fun, exciting and educational week for all. 

I think it would be cool
If I brought my pet into school
My class could bring theirs too
It would be a really lovely way
To learn, have fun and play
Please Mrs Stokes can we have a Pet Day?
Eleanor Davies-Gilbert  

It had been the worst winter for 60 years. The wind and rain hadn’t stopped for weeks and we were wondering if this year’s annual Football Festival would be another, albeit courageous, but drenching washout. However, on the morning of Saturday 15 March the skies were blue and the sun was shining.

This year, 28 U7 to U9 teams gathered together on the St Andrew’s fields for a football friendly and for the first time there was a section for the girls U8 teams.

The Festival is designed for fun and development with every participant receiving a medal and certificate. There were no winners or losers but Golden Boots were awarded by the Headmaster, Simon Severino, to the player or teams who had, from their coach’s point of view, performed particularly well. 

Refreshments were on hand for the adults throughout the afternoon with donations raising over £200 for Sport Relief. The Festival was a great success enjoyed by players and spectators alike. 

Children and staff once again delved into their dressing up boxes for World Book Day. There were a few Tintins, some Harry Potters and two Queens of Hearts battling it out for regal supremacy. Spiderman was such a hurry to get to his latest bit of crime fighting that he forgot to remove his coat!

The older children enjoyed a morning off timetable with sessions on book cover design, short story writing and interviewing techniques while the younger children enjoyed a visit from storyteller and educator, Kevin Graal. Kevin has an extensive repertoire of traditional stories, riddles, songs and games from around the world and promotes story-making as much as story-telling, helping children and young people to find their voices, and to experience first-hand the pleasure and power of words, while nurturing the core skills which will help them to learn.

 
Our very own author, Head of English, Simon Farrar, read one of his own creations, Fat Freddy the Fairy, to the Juniors and moved on to one of his tales on a slightly darker theme for the Middles and Seniors. He managed to fit this around his interviews to join the kitchen staff!

 
With the Strings Concert taking place in the evening, there was still time for an in-costume rehearsal although it seems that one boy was auditioning for a part in the quartet in Titanic. 

Last week, within the busy schedule of a St Andrew’s Prep day, there was an opportunity for some quiet reflection and enquiry for Years 6 to 8 during a new initiative – Prayer Spaces Day.

Put together by the RE and PSHEE departments, the day provided the children with an opportunity to explore faith and spirituality from a broadly Christian perspective in a safe, creative and interactive way. The drama studio and chapel areas were transformed with lights, cushions, maps, post it notes, music, bubble tubes, plasma balls, cardboard boxes and mirrors to create a range of ‘stations’ each offering a different experience, activity or expression opportunity.

Children were encouraged, through these activities, to think about world problems and to write prayers for specific parts of the world, to think about the existence of God and ask questions ‘Why did you create this fantastic land?’, ‘Why is the world so unfair?’, to reflect on things we have done or said which were later regretted and to think about the importance of saying sorry and also the power of forgiveness.

The day focused upon bringing an experiential dimension to a variety of subject areas. It offered channels of expression for the children’s thoughts and feelings about important issues and experiences in their own lives and the lives of people around them and the children were encouraged to offer prayers or messages to people who they knew needed help or support.

The children approached what was a new venture for them in a mature and positive way, engaging with the activities and using them as a way of expressing thoughts and feelings about the things in life that matter to them:

‘It was good to have some time of quiet. We could concentrate and it felt still and calm.’
‘It was better than I thought because it was unpredictable and you got time to think.’

We cannot always give the right answers but by providing space and time for the children to think about prayer and allowing them to engage with it in various different ways the prayer space provided for them in a way that was educational in a holistic and pastoral way.

St Andrew’s Prep continued its programme of Friday Lectures this month with a superb delivery from Mathemagician, Andrew Jeffrey. Andrew, a father at the school, is the director of Magic Message Ltd, a training organisation that specialises in producing exciting resources and professional development for teachers and teaching assistants. He has taught for 20 years and is an inspector, lecturer and author. His passion for helping children learn, love and understand the patterns and structures of maths has led him to become an international conference speaker.

Andrew’s talk entitled Mathematics: Art, Language, Science or Magic? unlocked some of the mysteries of maths and enthused adults and children alike; he even allowed the audience to use their mobile phones – for a few calculations! Andrew’s desire is to develop confident and competent mathematicians and his talk was certainly accessible, fun and inspiring.