Can you balance a rock from the edge of a table using paper, card, straws, paper clips, sellotape and glue?  That is exactly what James Allan, Katie McIntyre, Olivia O’Dwyer and Matthew Zhukov did when they attended a DT competition at Ratton School this week. 

Along with 12 other schools, they were given the task of building a structure to balance a rock horizontally off the edge of a table. 

The St Andrew’s team managed to balance their rock 54cm away from the table putting them in the winning position for the second year on the trot.

For the first time, St Andrew’s entered a team in the National Fives U13 Championship.  This took place at St Paul’s in London on Sunday 17 March and the team comprised of James Allan, Jack Casebourne and Katie McIntyre.  Katie broke all tradition and created history at this event by becoming the first and only girl to ever take part at this level and won two matches against the boys.
The whole team performed exceptionally well  considering  they have only been playing the game since November while other schools taking part have been playing for over two years.
In their singles pools, Katie improved with each game and won two matches. James played superbly winning four and losing two (one of them by only one point).  He came joint third in the pool and narrowly missed the play-offs.  Jack played well in a tough pool of players and improved with each game.
In the doubles, Jack and James played exceeding well and won through to the quarter finals where they lost to a strong and experienced team from St Olaves.  Well done to all three.

‘Science Matters’ was the double-entendre theme of the day at St Andrew’s Prep today. The company Science Boffins visited the school to deliver their wacky take on science to the Pre-Prep Department who were joined by Year 2 children from Willingdon Primary. The children were shown in the simplest terms how everything around them is made of atoms. They leaned about the Penguins in the Antarctic were introduced to Dry Ice and made instant ice cream for on the spot consumption – delicious.

Children from Years 5 and 6 at Ocklynge and Willingdon Primary Schools joined St Andrew’s children for a day of Art and English last week. In the style of a ‘Whodunnit’, the children were asked to draw the ‘missing’ painting – The Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Breugel – from several descriptions given to them. They then wrote a story about the painting and lastly all modelled a ceramic dog. The children all worked extremely hard and produced some superb results at the end of the day.

It was a hardy parent who braved the elements last Friday to watch the semi-final of the U12 Sussex Cup.  Like the team kit afterwards, the match between St Andrew’s Prep and Dorothy Stringer School was certainly no whitewash.  The Stringer boys looked hungry for the win and seemed to have clinched it at half time with the score at 14-0.  The half time pep talk from the St Andrew’s Director of Sport, Chris Pinch, must have been a good one as the home team suddenly found their form and with three tries and no further score from Stringers, the final score was 19-14 to St Andrew’s.  The final against Brighton College was due to take place this week but with the sudden return to winter it has been postponed – enough time for the kit to be washed several times!

Week 6 saw two closely fought competitions against Bede’s.  On Monday the U8, U9 and U10 squads took to the water away at Bede’s and won by eight points: St Andrew’s 124 – Bede’s 116. 

On Thursday, the action was at home with the U11, U12 and U13 squads.  Another very competitive event saw a second slight advantage for the home squads: St Andrew’s 187 – Bede’s 174. Both events were competitive but had a good atmosphere of fun and camaraderie.  Our thanks to Bede’s for two super galas.  

The emphasis has been on volunteering and fundraising at St Andrew’s Prep this week.
First, as part of our ‘Friday Lectures’ programme, the school welcomed Peter Moore of ‘People Matter’ an Eastbourne charity that aims to help local job seekers to obtain or retain employment and training. The subject of Peter’s talk was ‘The Value of Volunteering’ giving the children an insight into the opportunities for volunteering locally and how the experience of volunteering can affect you personally.

Then three of our younger children were given a spot in the limelight when St Wilfrid’s visited the school for some film making. The hospice is putting together a short film on fundraising and asked our children to talk about the fundraising that they have taken part in at school for the charity. St Andrew’s has made a number of donations over the years to the hospice with such things as collections after school events and services, cake sales and mufti days. One of the children had taken part in the St Wilfrid’s 10k Jim Jam walk raising over £1,200 for the hospice – a superb effort in walking and fundraising.

On 7 February 2013 some 60 prep school children from six local schools, once again teamed up with the musicians of Eastbourne College’s Swing Band for the annual Jazz Day. David Force took the children through their paces during the day, ably helped by members of the College music department.
The children worked in full and sectional rehearsals to put together a programme of four pieces specially arranged for the day: True Love’s Ways; The Lady is a Tramp; All is Well and Playin’ in the Yard. After a day of rehearsing and some non-musical activities, the combined sections put on a show for parents in the Birley Centre.

Reception enjoyed a beautiful morning of spring sunshine when they took their weekly visit to the Forest School. This superb initiative at St Andrew’s enables every child from Reception to Year 4 to take the curriculum outside in an enchanting and safe environment.They made clay gingerbread man which they fired on the log fire, made a shelter to tell the story of Hansel and Gretel complete with masks, whittled sticks to make a teepee and followed clues in a treasure hunt about the ‘Enormous Turnip’. On this occasion, parents were invited to join in with the fun including a welcome cup of hot chocolate at the end.