DEVELOPMENTS
Third Phase of Broughton Manor Preparatory School
In April the third phase at BMPS opened, providing more classrooms, a science laboratory, an art/D & T room and a sports hall.
From September we will have children up to Year 5 – class 10 – at BMPS.
We are holding an official Phase 3 opening ceremony in September, where Peter
Starmer, of Barclays Bank, will cut the ceremonial ribbon for us and we hope
many of you will join us for this.
MKPS and BMPS are now registered with the DfES and IAPS as one school
operating from 2 locations in Milton Keynes.
I and members of my senior management team divide our time between the 2 schools and our Governors act for both schools.
The children do the same lessons with the same subject Heads of Department, do
the same exams, are placed in year group order, along with children at MKPS.
They are in the same sports teams and the same musical productions. We go to The Farm together, and on trips and visits.
We have really started to gel as a single school on 2 sites.
Our pre-prep school at Walton, which also expanded, takes children up to 7
years of age, from babies, and acts as a feeder school to MKPS and BMPS.
We built 2 magnificent new classrooms for the older children, complete with their
own beautifully landscaped gardens.
The Board of Governors acts for this school also and an official opening
ceremony for the new building took place in June, where the Chairman of
Governors, Peter Squire, officiated.
My thanks go to Pauley Construction and Pauley Landscapes for these 2
beautiful new buildings.
Independent Schools’ Exhibition
Last October we took part in our annual exhibition of local independent day and
boarding schools, in the Middleton Hall in Central Milton Keynes. The participating schools took stands and also exhibited pupils’ art work.
Throughout the day their choirs and orchestras performed on a central stage and
some very fine music was heard.
My thanks to Pauley Design who managed the event and whose expertise resulted
in the day being a great success. Another exhibition is to be held this September.
Milton Keynes’s 40th Anniversary
We decided that we would celebrate the 40th birthday of our city in a variety of ways:
· Classes 10 and 11 selected a wide variety of business people in the city to
interview. They found out why businesses chose to come to Milton Keynes. Their findings have been written up in some most interesting projects which demonstrate the diversity of business in the city.
· Classes 6 to 9 celebrated the anniversary by trying to do 40 “Good Deeds” for family and friends.
· The 5s buried a Time Capsule.
· Our younger children celebrated by helping to make and decorate an enormous 40th birthday cake which we displayed for all to see in the entrance hall.
· This afternoon our families are invited to take place in a Family Fun Day at
Campbell Park where there is to be entertainment for all ages. There is a designated family picnic area, part sponsored by our school, where families can take and enjoy their own picnics
Fathers’ Day
In the autumn term we hosted our first ever “Fathers’ Day”, when fathers were
invited to spend some time with their child during the school day. Many fathers
took the opportunity to see what we do and we hope to repeat this event.
There is now a request from mothers for a “Mothers’ Day”.
Grandparents’ Week
In May we held our second Grandparents’ Week, during which grandparents were
invited both into our schools, and to The Farm, to see their grandchildren taking
part in a range of day-to-day activities.
It was a very happy and successful week, with so many appreciative comments –
mostly about how school life has changed since they were at school, and what fun
Maths is!
Some travelled long distances to be with us - one from Cape Town!
We would be pleased to welcome grandparents into school to help on a regular
basis, if anyone with some time is local enough.
Jumping Jacks
Our weekly PE and fun sessions for little children at The Farm have proved so
popular that we now run them twice a week.
We also have a very successful Parent and Toddler group at BMPS once a week.
At the end of each term the families visit us at one of our schools, or at The Farm,
for an end of term party.
For those mothers who take a little extra time away from work it is a lovely way
of introducing toddlers to the nursery environment gently, before they start on
their own.
Everything Early Years
In the pre-prep department we wrote our own curriculum some years ago, which
is the foundation stone for the superb results of the prep department. It was one of my ambitions to extend that curriculum to children nationally and 2
years ago we published.
Jo Wright, Jo Visser, Margaret Ramsbotham, all ex heads of our pre-prep
department, are the authors. Jo Wright is also our photographer and Margaret Ramsbotham our illustrator. Pauley Design produces the books.
They are being used not only nationally, but in Spain, Norway and Russia, to
name but a few, and Dulwich College Shanghai is rolling them out in China!
Now children everywhere experience the things that our children do. Very gratifying.
Friday Take-Away Games
This term we put together a series of educational games for children in the pre-
prep department to take home to play with their families, to enhance and reinforce
the work they do in the classroom.
They have been very well received by both parents and children. We hope to
extend them to the 3s and the 5s in September.
All children have trips, visits and visitors, as part of their curriculum. This year:
Class 11 went to Hitchin to an authentic Victorian schoolroom. Some adapted to the harsh conditions better than others!
Class 9 visited the Broughton Roman Villa site as it underwent excavation by a team of archaeologists. What is it about archaeologists and beards?
They also went to the Roman Museum in St. Albans. They not only were able to handle many different genuine Roman artefacts, but some lucky children got to model the fashions of the day!
The 8s followed a well trodden path to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford
Class 7 visited Bedford Museum to look at old fashioned toys and also Broughton Church, as part of their Celebrations project.
Then there was The Living Rainforest, near Newbury. The 9s learned about the rich variety of animal and plant life that lives in the rainforest and the need to protect and nurture these wonderfully diverse ecosystems for future generations.
And Hampton Court Palace in March.
The National Space Centre in Leicester.
The Milton Keynes Eco Park.
Residential School Trips
There have been 2 residential trips so far this year, for the prep department:
Mr Urquhart led a party of 42 pupils to the Aosta Valley in Italy for a week’s
skiing. The trip is so popular that we have 73 names on the list for 2008 and are
running 2 concurrent trips to the same resort.
In May, a party of junior prep children, led by Mr Cave and other members of
staff, spent a weekend at Kingswood Activity Centre on the Isle of Wight.
There are physical challenges, and problem-solving activities.
The children were kept entertained from breakfast until the end of Evening
Entertainments. They built sand castles and explored rock pools.
In the summer holidays Mrs Cave is leading a senior prep trip to France for a week.
Visitors
This year we had several very interesting visitors:
The grandmother and great grandmother of Sean and Erin Garvey visited the school. Their great grandmother is now 100 and as bright as a button!
Chicks in the Science Lab
The highlight of this for many of the children was being able to hold a chick.
At the end of their 2 week stay the chicks went off to new homes.
Walton’s chicks are just hatching at the moment.
|
