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Prep (Ages 7-13)

Newsletter

10 February 2023

HEADlines

HEADlines

by Justin Chippendale

At the start of the week, my point in assembly was to make sure that the children use their eyes and ears to the full when in lessons - basically concentrate! The active process of focus through our senses leading to absorption of information for future recall. I didn’t position it that way!   I put some close-up pictures of landmarks, food and sports equipment on the screen as well as playing some everyday sounds for identification.  It was good fun, I did relate it to the fact they must have retained that knowledge through eyes and ears and hopefully helped them see the significance in a playful way.

I then headed over to meet the Head of North Town Primary school, he’s a fun chap and was certainly upbeat despite expecting a visit from the Inspectors any week. As I made my way to the main office entrance I walked by a group of Early Years children splashing around and came relatively close to a good spraying myself - they naturally thought it very funny.

Tuesday evening saw more fun, and a good deal of apposite nervousness, as a huge number of talented children gave lovely age and stage performances at the Lent Concert.  Such a wonderful range to behold, all under Mr DJ’s benevolent guidance and founded on good, honest commitment and practice from the children. There’s a reward as a spectator on at least two levels at such events: the musical treat, obviously, but also the joy of seeing the sense of increasing achievement internally realised by each child.

There is more music fun to be had at the end of this term with the energetic House Music competition for all Prep children. I hope you have the morning of the 24th March locked away in your diaries and will join us at 10am for a toe-tapping, bouncy way to head into the Easter break.

Yesterday morning I had fun in Nursery 2, subitising numbers and sounding rhyming words – a good test for them at their age. Fun abounded last night at the Friends of King’s Hall quiz where adults also had a proper test for their age.  Lots of giggles, the usual frustration at near misses, the odd family disagreement, the delight of getting a difficult question correct, some questionable sit-down dancing to the music round and overall a brilliant shared evening of laughs and geniality. Huge thanks to the team for their background work and to the Chief Pelican for collating questions and compèring with his usual amiable aplomb.

Whilst writing about the Friends, the main purpose is to provide some social opportunities to meet under the banner of King’s, such as last night.  Alongside that, some funds might be raised either for an external charity or to support a ‘nice to have’ addition to the school itself.  On this subject, I don’t know if you’ve ever visited the Enhancing King’s page on our website where there are opportunities to support such items if they take your fancy.  Here’s the link – Enhancing King’s. Equally, if there’s something you don’t see there but wish to support then come and see me - don’t be shy!

Final ‘fun’ for Friday is to say have a fabulous week over the half term break. Please make sure the children get some rest as well as relaxing and having plenty of carefree laughs: tiredness is a key contributor to illness, poor mood and inefficiency – definitely NOT fun!

This Week in Pre-Prep...

This Week in Pre-Prep...

by Claire Luckhurst

Despite what felt like a very long January (was it really only 31 days long?) this half-term seems to have whizzed by and we find ourselves at the half-term point for this Lent term.  It has been another busy one with my personal highlight having been watching the children perform in their respective class assemblies; I am very much looking forward to the final one of the ‘assembly season’ just before we break up for Easter from Nursery.  I am predicting highlights for next half-term to be our STEM week, World Book Day and, of course, the Great Pre-Prep Pancake Day Race!

Pelican News

After Half Term....

Please see the School calendar and SOCs for more details and timings

Sunday 19th February

Boarders return

Sunday 19th February

Monday 20th February

Day pupils return

Day pupils return

8K and 8H Parent Pupil Teacher Meetings

8K and 8H Parent Pupil Teacher Meetings

Upcoming Events

DAY PREP BOOKING

DAY PREP BOOKING

Week commencing 20th February

If you require day prep provision for your child after half term please book them in using the link below. The booking form will close at 9.15 am on Monday 20th February; if you need to make a late booking or make any changes after this time please let us know by emailing SchoolOffice@kingshalltaunton.co.uk.   

If your child uses School transport and you need to make any changes next week please email Transport@kingshalltaunton.co.uk to let us know.

Day Prep Booking Form
A Few Words from...Chris Barker

A Few Words from...Chris Barker

This term's Head Boy

Hello,

I hope you all have had a brilliant half term and ready for a small break. This half term I really enjoyed playing hockey with the B team, we are getting better overall as a team. Another highlight was going on the geography field trip to Holford river, my favourite bit was measuring the velocity of the river with a rubber duck.

This half term break, I am going skiing with my family and cousins and I am very excited. We are going to La Tania in France which means I can practise my French and eat croissants and baguettes.

Next half term some Year 8 have their 13+ scholarship exams this is including academic, art, drama, sport, music, performing arts and DT. Good luck to everybody who is taking part in these exams.

Boarding Blog

by Anna Hardy

Minehead and Music 

On Sunday we headed off to Minehead Eye to the indoor skate park. We all had a brilliant time and apart from the staff getting a few bumps and bruises, everyone else stayed injury free!! The children again showed just how brave they are and how they are up for anything. I was seriously impressed with Leon and Noah’s skills on a scooter, Carter was fearless and brilliant on a skateboard, whilst Lucas spent the whole hour working tirelessly on a skateboard to master turning on a ramp. Meanwhile the other half of the group were in the ‘bouldering cave’ where they played some great games and showed some real determination to see who could stay on the wall the longest. When they swapped over it I was wowed by Blanca’s prowess on roller-skates and Tamzin was also very good on skates. Lily was pretty fearless on her scooter and Lucie made some much progress with learning to skate, she was whizzing around by the end. It is always so rewarding to see all the children pushing themselves to try new things and supporting each other in the process.  

After lunch, we headed off to the beach in the sunshine, where they all occupied themselves with something from the ‘beach bag’ either digging holes, playing boules, throwing a frisbee, rallying with bat and ball, playing baseball or just climbing on the rock groynes. We concluded our time at Minehead in the arcades before getting an ice cream, despite the cold weather. 

In school this week, Mr Eyers and Matron were lucky enough attend the Lent Term Concert on Tuesday evening where no less than 11 boarders got to showcase their talents – I was told what an incredible evening it was and the performances from all involved were fantastic. 

Now it’s half term – I wish everyone a lovely week off and look forward to seeing everyone refreshed and raring to go in a weeks' time.  

A View from the Rose Garden

Mrs Gompels' Class

Liberti tells me she is travelling to Denmark to discover the origins of the Little Mermaid while Mrs Gompels highly recommends, and is currently reading ‘The Danish Way of Parenting’ by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl.   

This coincidence got us thinking about how Danes like to create ‘hygge’ (loosely translated as togetherness) through family singsongs.   

The songs they sing are often specially written for an occasion, to be handed out and sung to a popular tune.  These homemade lyrics are frequently hilarious, and everyone joins in discovering the words while singing together to strengthen social ties, reduce stress levels and bring much happiness.  To this end 3G spent several tutor times singing and making up Half term Holiday sung to the tune of London’s Burning.   

Sing along with us on the sound recording attached to discover what 3G will be doing next week and have a very happy half term! 

 Half term Holiday by 3G (sung to London’s Burning) 

Cats and unicorns, cats and unicorns. 

Tennis ballet.  Tennis ballet. 

Moving house,  moving House. 

Harry Potter.. Harry Potter.. 

 Ireland, Denmark,  Ireland, Denmark. 

Movie Ti-me.  Movie Ti-me. 

Gym and pizza. Gym and pizza. 

Happy Holiday!  Happy Holiday! 

Snoops' Diary

by Snoops the Dog

 

Dear Friends,

Chess, wonderful chess. Can you play?

This is not the first term that I have attended the King’s Hall Chess hobby and the game still baffles me. I decided to research whether it is possible for dogs to learn how to play chess and sadly for me, the answer is, no!

There is however some debate as to whether apes could be taught to play.

It thought that perhaps chimps could learn although some scientists think that orangutans would have a number of advantages over chimps. This is because they can focus for longer on a task, and they have better focus when facing a problem. It is possible however, that both could become talented chess players, as both species have a sense of orientation which is probably more developed then in average humans. The problem is that apes simply do not have the motivation to learn chess.

Hmmm, good point, I get that! Chasing squirrels is far more strategic and rewarding! That doesn’t mean to say that I can’t see the value of chess playing. In fact, here are some interesting facts about the game:

  • Around 600 million people all around the world know how to play chess.
  • It is possible to checkmate your opponent in just two moves.
  • Chess is a proven way to improve memory function.
  • In Armenian schools, chess is one of the mandatory subjects.
  • The second book to ever be printed in the English language was about the topic of chess.
  • The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves in a chess game is 318,979,564,000!
  • Since chess was forbidden in the church in the 12th century, priests created a folding chess board so that it could be concealed as two books lying together.

Why not dig out your old chess boards this weekend and challenge the old grey matter? Let me know how you get on.

Have a great weekend.

From

The Fluffy One (Snoops) X

Madamme Murray's Tutor Group

Madamme Murray's Tutor Group

Year 8

We are all looking forward to a half-term break after a busy few weeks.  Last week, an important milestone was celebrated with a large chocolate cake. This was of course, the birthday of Harry Styles, who has a mega fan in this tutor group. This was followed up with a joyful announcement of Harry having won a number of categories at the recent Grammy award ceremony.  Other less important milestones have been the completion of 8CE mock exams, 8S Geography field trips, cross country races, music festivals, concerts and lots of sporting fixtures. Phew, happy half-term everyone!

8M - Spot the difference! 

We thought we would have a bit of fun for your entertainment this week.  Try to find 8 differences between the two photos.   You may even discover a few honorary members of 8M tutor group! 

Academic Life

Science

 

The half term has whizzed by and the children have been busy. Year 3 have been learning about materials and have enjoyed their experimental work with Mr Hands. We have close links with Pre-Prep and Year 3 were very excited to be invited by Year 2 to their special science assembly recently.  

Year 4 have been taking part in some very ‘grown-up’ experimental work recently. We are so lucky to have such wonderful science facilities and equipment and the children were thrilled to have the opportunity to test various foods for sugar, protein and fat. They have also been looking at how we digest our food. As Head of Department, I am very proud of how given the opportunity, these younger children can and do learn how to use new pieces of equipment and confidently carry out some quite tricky experimental techniques. I am very grateful to Mr Hands for his kind and nurturing approach – I know the children really enjoy his lessons. 

Year 5 have been busy with Mr Frost and Mr Hands learning all about solutions and mixtures and more recently are enjoying finding out about Edward Jenner and his important findings regarding microbes. Soon, they will be finding out how clean (or dirty!) their hands are with more fun activities. 

Year 6 started the term by completing their work on space physics and have more recently been learning about food and nutrients. They have been involved in watching a dissection, carrying out food tests and drawing the digestive system on aprons – Laszlo enjoyed the activity so much, he even wore his to play football after the lesson. The pupils have found it interesting to learn about scurvy and how it affected sailors on their voyages. The highlight of the topic was definitely setting fire to crisps to assess their energy value! 

All of the Year 7 classes have been getting stuck into some rather tricky chemistry. They have been learning the symbols for the elements and considering the different properties of metals and non-metals. They love the experimental work and there have certainly been some exciting experiments to enjoy this half term – burning magnesium, observing reversible reactions and learning how to carry out tests on gases to identify them.  

Year 8 lessons have been rather dominated by exam preparation recently. Well done to all for working hard in the run up to these and good luck to 8S for their exam week after the holiday. Once their exams are over, 8S will be taking part in the CREST awards during their science lessons. These are independent investigative projects which allow the pupils to study an area of interest and plan and carry out practical work. 

Lent Term Concert

Lent Term Concert

Even before this year’s Taunton Festival had come to an end, the Lent Concert arrived with hardly a moment to regroup! Providing an opportunity for some performers to repeat their well-prepared Festival offerings and for others to give first airings of pieces, the 100+ minute concert featuring roughly 60 children highlighted the very best of King’s Hall and nearly more than 30 pieces were performed. Among the many excellent solos were terrific ensemble offerings from the Orchestra, String Group and Senior Choir, and the evening was enjoyed enormously by a supportive, packed audience. Everyone involved should be congratulated on their terrific contributions. 

The full programme for the concert can be found below

Full programme
Taunton Music Festival

Taunton Music Festival

Over the last couple of weeks, a number of pupils have taken part in this year’s Taunton Music Festival. The children acquitted themselves wonderfully and received universally positive feedback from the adjudicators. Standout performances came from Thomas McH who came second in two of his piano classes, Amelia L who came second in two of her piano classes, Henry T who won the Beginner Strings class, and Nathan M who won the Beginner Woodwind class. 

Well done to everyone who took part! 

A message from the Pupil Council

Mrs Foster

Thursday 23rd March

Thursday 23rd March

Raising money for the RSPCA - West Hatch Animal Centre

The Pupil Council invite you to get involved on Thursday 23rd March for a suggested donation of £2 or more if you wish the children will be able to wear home clothes to school for the day in support of the amazing work the RSPCA provide. Make a difference to animals housed locally at West Hatch Animal Centre. Here are a few photos of some of the animals currently at the centre.

Sports Update

Please click below to see this week's sporting updates via our King's Hall Sport Twitter feed.

King's Hall Sport Twitter
CONGRATULATIONS – NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!

CONGRATULATIONS – NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!

The pistol shooting team from King's Hall have had a very busy but productive week.

On Tuesday Tabitha and William Thompson along with Jessica Miller represented Kings Hall at the National Schools pistol shooting finals in the junior age group (Years 6-8).The competition was held at Cannock. The team represented the South West region after qualifying in first place at the qualifier. There were 60 competitors from all over the UK, including teams from Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Kings Hall team shot extremely well with Jess finishing 6th (qualifying for the final shoot out) Will 16th and Tabitha 26th, meaning the team won the overall competition beating the next team by an amazing 19 points.

Jess then shot in the final shoot off between the top 8 in the first round. She shot brilliantly showing real composure under extreme pressure. She finished a very commendable 4th overall.

A brilliant time was had by all and let’s hope we can take a bigger team next year to defend the trophy.

Summer Sailing

Summer Sailing

David Hands

It is at this time in the year when I start planning the sailing program for the Summer Term.  If you have a child in Year 5 –8 that you think would like to sail each Wednesday, please could you contact me as soon as possible. The cost of each session is usually £15 to £20 ahead depending on numbers.  There is no previous experience necessary as the children are taught by RYA qualified instructors during the term your children will receive qualifications as they reach the appropriate standards. Places are limited so if you would like to find out more information and sign up please do email me.

Half Term Hockey Camp

Half Term Hockey Camp

Monday 13th February

For ages 10-14

10:00am - 3:00pm

Run at King's College, the Flourish hockey camps are for those hockey players who want to take their hockey to the next level and have a focused attitude towards doing so. 

The course will be led by England Hockey Level 4 and Great Britain Advanced Coach Programme qualified coaches with a wealth of experience in the talent pathway. All staff have an enhanced DBS check and hold first aid qualifications. The camp will focus on each individual player. They will be supported through various sessions focusing on pitch-based technical and tactical scenarios. 

Players will be encouraged to develop their own action plan going forward. You will need to bring your own packed lunch, snacks and plenty to drink. You will also need to bring appropriate clothing for the weather: indoor shoes, your own sticks, shin pads and gum shields (compulsory). Goalkeepers will also need to bring their own kit.

Book now
Half Term Netball Camps

Half Term Netball Camps

Monday 13th February

Year 3-6
9:30am-11:30am
During half term we will be offering a netball camp for girls in Year 3-6. It will be run by our King’s Hall Co-Director of Sport Mrs Foad and King’s College Head of Netball Miss Kemmish. The sessions will include skill work, game sense and match play. This is a great opportunity for the girls to increase their netball knowledge whilst having fun.
 
Year 7 and 8
9:00am to 3:00pm
King’s College Taunton and England Netball have collaborated to offer an excellent opportunity for girls in Years 7-10 who enjoy playing and want to increase their skill set and knowledge of the game at our Netball Youth Camp, headed up by experienced regional level coaches. The day will be packed with content and lots of opportunities to play the game! All abilities are welcome and will be catered for throughout the day.
 
Please click the links below for more information and to secure a place.

Book Now Year 3-6 Book Now Year 7 and 8
Easter Residential Sports Camp

Easter Residential Sports Camp

3 - 5 April 2023

For Children aged 8 - 15. This exciting new residential camp at King's College is designed to help players develop their skills and techniques in a broad range of sporting activities, whilst having fun and making new friends in a safe and supportive environment. Over three days, children will gain access to a team of experienced coaches and have the chance to explore some of our wonderful facilities, including the state-of-the-art Sports Performance & Cricket Centre, netball and tennis dome, as well as sprawling sports pitches. 

To register or find out more visit the website www.kings-taunton.co.uk/events or email or phone Admissions - 01823 328204

A leaflet containing more information is available by clicking the link below

Information

KING'S HALL SCHOOL SHOP

Our school shop is open on Monday's and Wednesday's from 2:30 - 5pm.

The shop stocks all the uniform items your child needs and includes some second-hand clothing. 

For a list of uniform items, shop opening times and payment details, please click the links below:
Nursery and Pre-prep
Prep

If you prefer to order online, please click here to visit the website.

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Has your child achieved something that you'd like to share with us? Email our marketing department: khsnews@kingshalltaunton.co.uk with your news and photos!

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