The Sunday Times Top 100 Independent Prep Schools in England: Fifth equal in England and First in the North West.

 Would you like a tour of Highfield Priory School and Nursery? Call our School Office today: 01772 709624

Headmaster's Welcome

Headmaster's News - 18th November 2016

Nov 18, 2016


18 November 2016

Dear Parents

 

Children in Need

The school supported Children in Need today in true Highfield style with a variety of fancy dress from dressing up as their teachers to wacky accessories and a huge variety of night wear! The children chose what they wanted to come dressed in and loved showing their outfits to the other classes. The school raised over £220 for this very worthwhile cause.

Out and About With Year 3

I followed Year 3 on Wednesday morning to their French lesson and then on to IT. In French, Khadija explained, as I entered the room, that they were learning about colours and were about to complete a table in French displaying each class member’s favourite colour. I watched Edie say to Tia, “Quelle est ta couleur préférée?”. Tia responded, “Ma couleur préférée est le bleu.” The children loved the oral activity moving round the room interacting with each other. Arjun was very keen to ask Mrs Morrice who responded, “vert”. Hamza, with very good pronunciation, asked Brooke who also confidently responded, “bleu”.

The class continued to finish their table with the quality of their pronunciation improving all the time with Mrs Morrice’s help. The bell then sounded for the next lesson which was IT. Everyone excitedly moved on to their next lesson and were quite amused that I was going to join them.  Ayesha, in only her second week of school, opened the door for everyone and greeted everyone with a big smile as they said thank you when they passed through.

The lesson started straight away with a recap on programming. The pupils were going to write their own programmes in Logo. They talked confidently about what mistakes they could make when programming and that attention to detail was very important. Mr Turner explained that today they were going to create a subprogram which is a set sequence of actions that can be repeated with a character called Turtle. When Mr Turner had finished talking they were off to work, excited about the first task. I watched Stephen type in the instructions carefully checking for mistakes. The children were also very good at supporting one another. Once the instructions were completed, Mr Turner demonstrated the operation and also showed them that by rotating Turtle the operation could be repeated over and over much to the delight of the children! They really enjoyed the ownership of the activity and that they could get an object to move across a screen using simple instructions. By the end of the lesson they were writing their own programmes; an excellent achievement in just a double lesson! The variety of activities the children covered and different skills they had learned in just a few lessons was very impressive. They were very motivated, alert and absorbed by each activity covered in French and IT. I was also very reluctant to leave this very positive atmosphere in which I was learning as well! Thank you Mrs Morrice, Mr Turner and 3M for a very enjoyable morning. 

Coffee Morning

We plan to have a coffee morning on Thursday 8th December straight after drop off. This will be a whole school event with many of the teaching staff being present. It will give you a chance to meet new parents and to speak to staff. We also hope to have a slideshow celebrating the successes of the year so far as well as highlighting some of the children’s extra-curricular activities. Please can you email the office if you intend to come so we can get some idea of numbers. Thank you!

Anti-Bullying Week

5D have been working on mini-plays this week looking at different types of bullying, why people bully and how they should respond to it. I watched the plays on Thursday morning which touched on bullying in the playground, physical bullying and cyber bullying. The children’s understanding of this sensitive topic really came through in their clearly acted plays and in the discussion afterwards. They were all agreed that any type of bullying is wrong and emphasised the importance that if you are being bullied or see someone being bullied, you should speak to someone straight away so that the situation can be resolved. Thank you Year 5; a very important topic with so many important messages.

Sporting News

Rugby

A group of boys travelled to Sedbergh Prep school on Wednesday afternoon to play a Festival of Rugby. They acquitted themselves very well in all the games against some very experienced rugby playing schools. The A team won two out of three games beating Westfield and Sedbergh. The B team were also very competitive, scoring many tries against tough A team opposition. The attacking rugby was excellent with strong running from Alfie, Thomas, Noah and James. Ziyad, Zain and Matthew also timed a number of passes well which led to tries. We now need to work on our defence and coming up quickly as a line. The afternoon ended with a greatly appreciated match tea alongside all the boys from all the other schools. Thank you Sedbergh for hosting us and we hope to return next term.

Netball v Windermere School

Two fantastic matches! Well done to all the girls who played in the netball teams.  The matches had to be inside due to the rain and we are very fortunate to have such a valuable facility so that these matches can always go ahead. Both teams displayed excellent attacking skills and the girls really focused on the obstruction and distance rule and thought about distance before arms which is what we have been working on in games and practices. The A team won 18-3 and the B team won 12-2. Well played girls!

Independent School Examinations

Good luck to all our Year 6 pupils who will be starting their Independent School examinations this weekend.

Scholastic Book Fair in School Next Week!

I hope you have received the letter, which came home with your child, about our Scholastic Book Fair which will be taking place from Thursday 24th to Tuesday 29th November in our School Dining Room. Scholastic always send us a wonderful variety of books and the children really enjoy visiting the fair and choosing their next great read. The more books you buy, the more rewards the school receives which helps us to keep our library well-stocked and current for our avid readers! Thank you for your support. Mrs Duke

Lost Property

If your child cannot find an item of school uniform and it has been missing for a few days, please send a message in the homework diary/reading folder or email the school office and this will be forwarded to their teacher. Please also search the lost property boxes at the back of the Dining Room. We are finding an increasing number of items of uniform unnamed. It is not possible to return an item of uniform unless every item is named.

HPPTA News

Personalised Cards

Those who ordered this year should now have received their cards. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise again for all the difficulty in ordering this year and assure you we are changing providers next year.

Bags to School

Your child should have brought home a bag for you to fill with unwanted clothes for the collection on Monday 28th November. This is a great opportunity to clear out clothes you no longer want or need and a very easy way for you to help raise money for HPPTA. Please do not bring into school before 28th November. Thank you!

Christmas Film Night, Friday 2nd December

4.30pm Pizza time!  5pm Film starts.

The Christmas film to be shown, chosen by the children in assembly, is Home Alone.

Tickets for the evening are priced at £5 and can be bought from the school office from Wednesday 23rd November.

Christmas Party Day and Fayre - Friday 9th December

This is a great day for all the children. More details will be sent home next week. In the meantime, please put the date in your diary and let us know if you are able to help on the day.

New positions - after Christmas the position of HPPTA Chair will become available as Claire Jones is standing down due to other commitments. Vice Chair will also be available as Fehmina Dasu and Pamela Kay are also stepping down. If you are interested in taking up a post please let the school office know ASAP. There will be a vote held for the new positions in the first meeting back to school in the New Year (date and time to be confirmed).

Second Hand Uniform Shop - the shop will be open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings 8.15-8.45am and manned by members of the PTA. Please note you can also buy water bottles and school hair accessories.

Thank you for your continued support. HPPTA

Merit Awards

RD: Ayesha  1D: Lily  1W: Taylor  2F: Isabelle  2M: Rohan

3M: Brooke  4H: Aamina  4S: Joshua  5D: Zaynab  5M; Ivan  6H Aaliyah  6J: Olivia E

Monitor of the week: Aaliyah

Thought for the Week

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.

Anthony J. D'Angelo

 

Yours sincerely

 

J M Duke

Headmaster

 

Highfield Priory School

Building Strength and Individuality

The latest from Highfield Priory

We enjoyed a wonderful Musical Assembly to close the term last week! 🎻 🎹 🎷

Children from both key stages performed in front of the school and their parents with the progress that the children had made clear to hear. It was also lovely to witness the first performances from some of our pupils. 🙂

Each of the instrumental groups were represented with the music teachers on hand to support their pupils. A big well done to all the pupils involved and we look forward to our final musical assembly later on in the summer term! 🎼 🎼Photos from Highfield Priory School's post
... See moreSee less

4 days ago

A big well done to the six pupils who took part in the Preston Schools' Cross Country this week! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

All our runners put in great performances, resulting in Highfield coming eight in both the girls' and boys' competition out of over 20 other schools!

Well done to all involved! 🙂Photos from Highfield Priory School's post
... See moreSee less

7 days ago

A big well done to the six pupils who took part in the Preston Schools Cross Country this week! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

All our runners put in great performances, resulting in Highfield coming eight in both the girls and boys competition out of over 20 other schools!

Well done to all involved! 🙂Image attachmentImage attachment
Load more