Prep

Last Thursday, we were delighted to be visited by the multi-award-winning author Phil Earle; he has won the British Book Award for ‘When the Sky Falls’ and has been writer in residence for the leading reading charity, Book Trust.

He spoke to Prep 4, 5 and 6 about his extraordinary journey from being a non-reader to becoming an author. In his words, he had no idea how it happened! At secondary school, there were two things he did not want to be – a reader and a writer! He loved the idea of it, but used to think he could not do it. He remembers when the 'Roy of the Rovers' comic was delivered, and he realised this was a book he could get on with. It was short, and a marriage of words and pictures. This was when reading excited him! For a long time, he did not think he was a proper reader because he only read comics, graphic novels, and newspapers. But, when in London, aged 26, working in a bookshop, he started to read children’s books. He read, and loved, the book 'Holes' and this is when his view of books changed!

He taught us important messages: you can still be a reader even if you don’t read novels, you can read with your ears as well as your eyes, and watching films teaches us how stories work, how characters interact, and about how plots are formed.

There is a story out there for everyone - it is just about being brave enough to explore which options bring you the most joy!

Phil had such a fantastic sense of humour and had both teachers and children laughing. We thank him very much for his visit! 

We were delighted to hold the second edition of our Primary Schools' High 5 Netball Tournament, after the success of the event last year. It was great to welcome back some familiar faces to the courts, as well as new ones who were visiting Westholme for the first time.

Miss Lloyd and Miss Smith had organised the event, and it was great to see teams turning up to play competitive levels of netball. All teams took to the courts and played out their games to the best of their ability. There were high levels of skills on show and there were some great games throughout. After some really tight matches, St Leonard's ended up as the eventual winners! Congratulations on a fantastic team effort!

After the tournament had finished, tea and refreshments were served in the Dining Hall. The winner's presentation then commenced, with the prize presenter being our very own Pippa, INSPIRED Sixth Form student and Sports Captain. Pippa currently represents Manchester Thunder and is an extremely talented netball player with experience at local, regional, and national level.

Well done to all those who took part, congratulations to St Leonard's as the eventual winners and thank you to the catering staff for putting on a meal at the end for everyone in the Dining Hall.

On Thursday 29 February, a very excited Prep 5 embarked on an amazing day at Jodrell Bank to complement their science topic about space.

 

On arrival, we headed straight to the Space Dome, for a fascinating interactive talk and video tour of the stars, planets, Milky Way and universe! Professor Brian Cox narrated a film which told us about the history of Jodrell Bank, which was highly insightful.

 

We next visited the Space Pavilion, where we were able to enjoy a variety of hands-on activities, before enjoying a walk along the Telescope Pathway to see the enormity of the famous Lovell Telescope!

 

Following this, we headed to the Planet Pavilion to learn more amazing facts about our solar system. The ceiling contained a clockwork model of the Milky Way, an orrery, which required the children to turn a handle for the model to move.

 

What an excellent day igniting our interest in this topic. Thank you, Jodrell Bank, from Prep 5 for a very memorable day.

 

Westholme Prep celebrated World Book Day 2024, with all children making it a special occasion by dressing up as a character from their favourite book. A fantastic effort was made by all and everyone really looked the part!

To celebrate World Book Day, our Year 5 librarians encouraged all children across the school to take part in a ‘Get Caught Reading’ competition. A huge congratulations to our five winners who received a book voucher to spend!

It was delightful seeing children across the school share the activities they completed from our Reading Bingo. We had children building and reading in blanket forts, designing front covers for books and even reading to friends and relatives on the phone. Everyone was very creative!

Our book hunt in Upper Prep was also a great hit! The children had to find the books that were hidden in William’s Wood. Not only did they have to find the book, but they also had to work out what the book was because the title was covered up. The children showed fantastic teamwork and resilience!

As part of our World Book Day celebrations, Lower Prep were delighted to have a visit from children’s author, Jake Hope. He visited the Lower Prep children and asked them about their favourite stories. He then shared his own favourite stories from when he was a child.

Jake discussed how the books he writes all have funny stories about animals.  The children thought of popular animal characters from the books that they have read such as Mog, Elmer, Hairy McClary, Paddington Bear and Mr Big.  Jake shared the first book that he wrote with the children which is called, ‘Cheesed Off!’ and is all about mice. Lower Prep enjoyed joining in with a reading of the book, complete with actions.

Next, Jake shared his brand new book, which is not yet available to buy and is called, ‘Lola loves walkies’.  It is all about the adventures of a  rabbit called Lola as she goes on her daily walks.  Her favourite place to walk is in the park where she meets lots of her doggy friends! Everyone was very surprised to read about a rabbit going for a walk with her owner on a lead!

Jake finished off his visit by answering questions from the children and signing copies of his book, ‘Cheesed Off!’.

 

Prep R arrived at school last week and found a basket of potatoes! The children investigated the potatoes and used their senses to describe how they looked, felt and smelt. Following this a very special potato was introduced to the class and the children described the differences between the basket potatoes and the very special potato.

The children noticed that the special potato was in fact Supertato! A discussion followed about superheroes and superpowers and the children worked collaboratively to think of words that could describe superheroes. A superhero control centre was set up in the classroom and the children, in various superhero guises, set off on a variety of special missions. The children listened to the story ‘Supertato’ and learnt about the villainous Evil Pea who created mayhem in the supermarkets.

On Monday morning this week Mrs Dixon found a letter in the classroom addressed to the children of Prep R.  The letter was from Supertato warning the children in Prep R that the Evil Pea herself was on her way to Westholme with her army of evil peas. She was planning to switch all the freezers off in the Westholme kitchen, stopping the Thomas Franks catering team from making the Chinese New Year celebratory lunch! Supertato asked Prep R to help him capture Evil Pea and her army of peas. It was a resounding ‘Yes! Let’s do this!’.

Straight away the children got to work designing superhero bubble wands. Mr Walker and Mr Lyle helped the children design their bubblewands, using Tinkercad, in the Tech rooms at Seniors.  Their designs were then brought to life on the 3D printers and delivered to the classroom ready for their mission on Thursday. The children designed their own superhero capes and together with their superhero masks made last week, were ready for their special mission.

Thursday morning arrived and so did the Evil Pea and her army of peas who stationed themselves around the Westholme School buildings. Following a map and a set of clues, Prep R, dressed as superheroes, set off to capture each of the peas and the Evil Pea, herself! The mission was going well until the children realised that one of the peas was keeping Mrs Davenport hostage! The children tried their best to free Mrs Davenport and on their third attempt were successful in their quest!

The Evil Pea stood guard over the entrance into the kitchens, waiting to make her move to turn off the freezers but Prep R superheroes arrived just in time to capture her, much to the relief and delight of Mr Llewelyn, our catering manager. The whole of the Westholme family can now enjoy a Chinese New Year lunch thanks to Prep R and their superpowers.

This week, children in Upper Prep have taken part in the annual House Music Festival. Throughout this week, the corridors and classrooms have been filled with wonderful sounds and melodic tunes.

 It has been a fabulous opportunity for pupils to showcase their musical abilities, often performing pieces that they have been working hard on during their instrumental lessons. For some children who have only recently begun learning an instrument, the festival was their first experience of a solo performance in front of an audience.

It has been a pleasure for all involved to see the children confidently standing in front of their peers and expressing themselves through their performances.