Walk into any of the Pre-Prep classrooms and you will hear a buzz of busy activity, even during lockdown. Our teachers are engaging the children with interesting and exciting lessons, the children are keen to share their ideas and recorded work is reflecting good quality learning. Having dropped in on each year group’s learning, it has been amazing to see how much the children have achieved remotely. It is to the credit of the teachers that all aspects of the curriculum have been covered in such inventive ways.

Cooking has been a popular activity, with Year 2 consolidating their knowledge of measuring using scales to weigh out ingredients. Year 1 used their Literacy skills to read a recipe and bake rock cakes, and Reception have had weekly cookery lessons linked to their ‘traditional tales Literacy’, such as gingerbread men (The Gingerbread Man) and curly tails (The Three Little Pigs).

Although most of the children are at home, the teachers have been inventive in using the opportunity for children to be outdoors. Year 2 used their numeracy shape topic to go for a shape walk, and used their data handling skills to record how many shapes they saw. Year 1 used their Science topic for an investigative walk outside.

As we would when we are in school, we all try and bring some fun into our lessons and this has still been enjoyed in our Zoom learning. The Year 2s entertained themselves with a ‘funny hats and jokes’ start to Literacy, and they ended the half-term wishing they were going skiing by dressing up in ski clothes. In PSHEE the children were challenged to learn a new skill and film themselves having achieved it: learning a dance, counting to ten in Chinese or learning a poem off by heart. Tricky to do, but fun too.

Year 1 had a scavenger hunt around their houses and have enjoyed sharing their news from home, too.

Reception mix all their lessons with fun activities, sneaking the learning into a fun game, just as they would in the classroom. They were lucky enough to celebrate Chinese New Year with the help of one of their class and his mummy, who told everyone lots of interesting facts about how Chinese New Year is celebrated and helped them learn to count in Chinese.

We finished the half term with a junk modelling story-telling morning with Amanda from Merry Go Round Storytelling. Each year group were told a story based on their topic, then given half an hour to make their own model linked to the story; then very cleverly the story was reworked to include each child’s model. The imaginative models were fantastic, and the reworked story really helped the children to understand how story telling can build and develop.

We are all looking forward to having the children back in the classrooms, but we really do feel that the children have entered the Zoom classrooms with so much positivity and have all achieved so much.