From the Head

From the Head of Pre-Prep

Dear Parents,

What a lovely start to our assembly this morning. Mr Bennett and Mrs Ross played Méditation together before our children took over and played their pieces for us on the piano and violin. Well done to everyone. It has been good to have parents back in for Parents' Evenings this week. We realised it was the first time we had held a Parents' Evening since the pandemic. We soon got into the stride of how to run the event.

We will be sorry to see Mrs Kate Mulley leave us at Christmas. She has been covering Jo Salmon's maternity leave in Year 2 and we had hoped she would be able to stay with us part-time once Ms Salmon returned, but she will be moving to Radnor House as a full-time teacher. We wish her well in her new post.

Next week on Friday we will be starting Christmas on Friday 1st December with our Year 2 and 3 Christingle Service. The children will be working together to make their Christingles. Guests of Years 2 and 3 children are welcome to join us in the Pre-Prep Hall for a 9am start. Tea and coffee will be served in the the Dining Room from 8.40am.  

Dates not to miss in December:

Tuesday 5th at 11am: Nursery Nativity 1

Wednesday 6th at 11am: Nursery Nativity 2

Thursday 7th at 9am: Reception Nativity

Thursday 7th at 11am: Kindergarten Nativity

Friday 8th at 2.15pm: Year 1 Nativity

Tuesday 12th at 2pm: Year 2 Nativity

Wednesday 13th: Party Day - bring a plate of party food

Thursday 14th: Christmas Jumper Day - wear your jumper over your uniform

Friday 15th at 12pm (for Pre-Prep): End of Term  

Overheard in Prep-Prep 

Teacher: "Who gave birth to baby Jesus?"

Child: "Mary Poppins"  

Have a lovely weekend,  

Zerrin Leech

This week we are saying goodbye to the following individual:

Sathya Pushpanathan

Sathya has been the Payroll and HR Assistant at St Michael’s since July 2022. Since joining, she has been involved in the recruitment of our staff, supporting the HR Manager in a variety of HR activities and most importantly, making sure the staff are all paid correctly! Whilst doing this role, Sathya has been working towards her AAT qualification and now wishes to pursue her ACCA accountancy studies and a career in finance.

Sathya will be leaving us today to move into a finance role and continue the progression of her finance career and we wish her every success and happiness as she takes on this new challenge.

Sathya's warm and friendly approach will be missed by her colleagues at St Michael’s and we would like to thank her for her contribution during her time here.

With best wishes for the future from the whole team.

England Rocks Times Tables Competition

From Tuesday 14th November to Thursday 16th November, St Michael's pupils took part in the Times Tables Rock Stars England Rocks competition. They competed against schools across the country by playing and practising their times tables. We had a total of 42,690 questions correctly answered!

Congratulations to the following pupils who earned the most points throughout the competition: 1st Adam O 2nd Adam J 3rd Eva S

Leann de Belder, Maths Teacher

Year 3's adventure to the Maritime Museum

Year 3 went on their own exploration to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on Monday. The children had a fantastic day learning about life at sea, modern polar exploration and enjoying their packed lunches – a real treat!

Mrs Perkins, Head of Year 3 

Year 2 explore the Horniman Museum

Year 2 had an excellent visit to the Horniman Museum on Wednesday, where they explored a variety of animals and learned about different habitats and adaptations

. 

A particular highlight was The Butterfly House, where the children tried to stand as still as possible to encourage the butterflies to land on them.

Mrs Powell, Year 2 Teacher 

Hot off the press

The Sevenoaks Chronicle recently featured an article about our RBLI remembrance service:

Carol Service - Tuesday 12th December

We are looking forward to hosting our annual Carol Service at the end of Michaelmas Term, which will once again be held in Shoreham Parish Church on Tuesday 12^th December at 6.30pm. Please note that this will revert to the smaller format of previous years and will not be on the same scale as our 150^th anniversary celebration in Tonbridge last year.

Please can all parents with children in Junior Choir, Treble Trouble or Cantoria check that you received the email sent on Friday 17^th November from stmichaelspreparatoryschool@myclarioncall.co.uk for details of the forthcoming compulsory rehearsal this Sunday 26^th November. If you did not receive that email and think your child is a member of one of these choirs, please let Tracey Scott know.

We will communicate further details before Friday 1^st December to all parents whose children sing in the Prep choirs or who have been invited to read at the service, this will include logistics and expectations for rehearsals.

No tickets are required to attend this church service, however we respectfully request that only two adults from each family attend as seating capacity is limited. Children involved in the Carol Service will need to be dropped at the church at 6pm and doors will open to parents at 6.20pm. The Darenth have kindly agreed to make their carpark available for the evening until 9pm. No photos/videos may be taken in the church and we ask everyone to respect this; some official images from the evening may be shared via our social media channels.

Thank you for your kind cooperation and support.

Felix B for always joining in with our learning activities with enthusiasm and trying hard

Peter C for designing, drawing and colouring a wonderful monster friend

Charlie E for making such a great effort with his writing

Ethan G for wonderful counting in his head for addition and subtraction questions

Olivia W for learning to write her name in beautiful cursive letters

Michael S for sharing his stickers with his friends on Children in Need day

Rupert A for excellent effort writing sentences independently about his monstersaurus

Arthur L for his brilliantly designed picture of his very own montsersaurus

Gabriella A for incredible kindness and always being supportive to others

Tancred B for great perseverance and determination when sewing his puppet independently

Charlie B for fantastic focus when sewing his puppet independently

Angelica H for sharing her excellent sewing skills by helping her friends

Poppy F for trying so hard to write independently

Sebby B for trying so hard to focus in our play rehearsals

Jessica C for having a great attitude to learning and always trying her best

Ella M for creating a super dance in PE using interesting dynamics and great timing

Aliénor D for creating a super dance in PE using interesting dynamics and great timing

All of 2B, 2P and 2MS for their excellent behaviour and being good ambassadors for the school at the Horniman Museum

Amelia N for a superbly presented and engaging poster packed full of fungi facts and photos

Eva S for her creative 'fungi museum' packed full of Playmobil visitors, exhibits and facts

Olivia G for her creative, handmade model toadstool complete with underground hyphae

Jake L for a superbly presented and engaging poster packed full of fungi facts and photos

Finlay S for his creative display of the fungi he discovered on his woodland walk

The children have enjoyed painting and decorating lots of wooden planks this week, in both the Breakfast Club and The Hive to create beautiful reindeer and snowmen ornaments.

Christmas pictures have been cut out and glued onto stones to make lovely paperweights and clam shells have been painted to make cute, mini Santas.

Opportunities have also been had to create gorgeous countdown to Christmas advent pictures.

Archie aces his first Jujitsu competition!

Well done to Year 6 pupil Archie for competing in his first Jujitsu competition last Saturday. Despite being nervous, Archie rose to the challenge and aced it. He achieved an impressive win against a much more experienced and older fighter. Madame Poracchia and Archie's form group were very impressed by his medal when he brought it in to show them this week.

Keep it up, Archie!

Tara's gymnastics success!

Recently Year 5 pupil Tara competed in the London GFA Floor & Vault Competition and reached 4th place. She performed a strong floor routine in the colours of Europa Gymnastics Club. Well done Tara, keep up the amazing gymnastics!

Double 1st place for Silas at the Kent Festival of Music

Congratulations to Year 5 pupil Silas for being awarded first place in the following categories at the Kent Festival of Music, Speech and Drama:

Piano recital 10 years and under

Piano Mozart 12 years and under

Another brilliant achievement to be proud of!

Half Term staff sports camps

Mr Thomas’ Christmas Hockey Camp

Mr Thomas will be holding his Christmas Hockey Camp at Hollybush Hockey Pitch on:

Monday 18^th December

Tuesday 19^th December

Please click here to book.

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