The Prep at Denstone College Newsletter 16-12-2022

Dear Parents & Guardians

After a very busy first year of the Prep at Denstone, I have to say I was really looking forward to this year. Things would settle down; the school would settle into a natural rhythm and school life would be a lot less frantic. How wrong I was. The Prep school has surpassed my expectations in so many ways. The number of new pupils has increased the school pupil roll, with more wanting to join our community over the next couple of years or so.

The events of last year were framed by the school renovation, and we spent a lot of time having to live with the builders as they created the wonderful school buildings that we are now enjoying. We have continued with the work, expanding the renovations to include a new roof to replace the leaky one we were used to, skylights to allow streams of natural light into our wonderful new rooms upstairs, which include a creative area for art, an ideas area for IT and robotics, and an exploration area for science. Additionally, a new boarding facility in Hartley House will be opening more opportunities to individual year groups from next term onwards... watch this space. We have also made use of the new dedicated Prep library with timetabled lessons, and a dedicated librarian to enable the pupils to discover a love of reading actual books, with pages, and exciting covers.

Over the festive period, our pupils and staff have barely enough time to draw breath. The past week alone has seen a prep school disco, Christmas chapel service, Christingle, Christmas fair, outdoor Christmas play, Christmas trips, and even a visit from Santa's elves for Pre-Prep!  At the time of writing, we have still got the Christmas hat competition and Christmas lunch to go. It really is non-stop. I think most staff would agree that the Festive period really is the best time of the prep school calendar.

The PTFA would like to thank everyone who volunteered help, donated items or bought raffle tickets for the Christmas fair and disco on Monday. Judging by the number of smiley faces, the children all seemed to have a lovely afternoon. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, a total of £1,065 was raised, and the PTFA will be working with the school next term to decide where this money is spent.

Sadly, we have a few staff members leaving us at the end of this year, and a few familiar faces rejoining our faculty. We bid a fond farewell to Mrs Bircher, our Art specialist, who has relocated to Rugby. Mrs Victoria Cowley will be joining and taking over the Prep Art Department. Victoria is not new, having worked at the College for the last term. We look forward to welcoming her to the team. We also say goodbye to Mrs Fiona McManus, our amazingly talented music teacher. We look forward to welcoming Mrs Heather John, who has also worked with the college in the past, into our Music Department. Finally, we say goodbye to the wonderful Mrs Emma Warrilow from our Admissions and Marketing Team, who I am sure a lot of parents will have spoken to during their time at the Prep.

You will notice some resources relating to water safety attached to this email. In light of recent tragic events, concerning children and frozen water, you may wish to look at these with your child. Our deepest sympathies go out to the families involved in this devastating event.

Looking ahead...

Denstone College and The Prep at Denstone College thrive on brilliant staff who work tirelessly for the betterment of your children. I request that you refrain from contacting teachers over the Christmas holiday, to allow them to enjoy the break they deserve. In an emergency, please email [email protected] and your email will be dealt with as soon as possible. I am sure you will understand the need to ensure our teachers are well rested to return ready for a busy and inspirational Lent Term.

After Christmas, we will also be making an exciting change to the way that spellings are taught and delivered in Main Prep. Commencing in January, across the whole school, we will be using a multi-sensory phonics-based approach to reading and spelling words with the introduction of new schemes of work in some year groups. In Pre-Prep the teaching of phonics will continue as it is currently.  Reception and Prep 1 will be using Floppy Phonics; Prep 2 and Prep 3 will use Phonics International, and this will also be taught in, and replace Topical Resources in Prep 4. Prep 5 and Prep 6 will be using a new reading and spelling scheme called Word Blaze that will replace Topical Resources in these year groups.  Each child will be given a booklet that they will work on throughout the week to complete varied and engaging activities based on specific letter sounds.  This will be completed during English lessons, and we are looking forward to introducing this holistic and multi-sensory approach to reading and teaching spellings.

As hockey is now our main sport for Main Prep boys in the Lent term, parents may want to provide their child with a suitable stick. At this age, pupils are still growing and may need to change sticks in the future. With this in mind, I have asked our Director of Hockey for a recommendation as there are some very expensive options available. He has provided us with a link with the sticks priced at £27.50. We do have some hockey sticks available for Games lessons. Please also remember that shin pads and mouth guards are compulsory for hockey sessions.

End of term grades and comments will be available on the iSAMs Parent Portal site for viewing from Tuesday 20 December. These can be found by logging into your usual Parent Portal account -https://parents.denstonecollege.org- and clicking on your child’s name followed by ‘schoolreports.’ Any queries over access to Parent Portal can be sent to [email protected]

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The Denstone Parent Choir will be starting again on Monday 9 January, from 7.00 – 8.00pm, in the Music School. We will be working on Mozart’s Requiem for the Summer Term Choral Concert. All abilities are very welcome! If you are interested in attending, please contact the Director of Music at [email protected].

There are also several changes which will be made to the operation of school in the new year. I would like to introduce you to the first of these, which is myEvolve,a portal which allows parents to manage all aspects of school trips and certain co-curricular events. myEvolve is used widely by schools and allows us to communicate all required information with you including:

* Communications from the school regarding trips and certain co-curricular events

* Consent forms - you can complete these electronically on myEvolve

* Payments - make secure payments for your trips and events

* Bookings - book onto the trips and events you would like your child to attend

Please see full details and instructions in the letter placed on the Parent Portal.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents that Monday 9th January is an inset day. Pupils return to school on Tues 10th January.

All that remains is to thank you for your support this term and wish you all a very Happy Christmas. I look forward to starting a brand-new year together in January.