Bede's Prep Newsletter Easter 2016

Easter 2016

Bede’s Preparatory SchoolDuke’s Drive, EastbourneEast Sussex BN20 7XL

T 01323 [email protected]

NEW HEAD APPOINTED FORBEDE’S SENIOR SCHOOL

Bede’s has secured the appointment of Mr Peter Goodyer to succeed Dr Richard Maloney in September 2016 as Senior Headmaster and CEO of the St Bede’s School Trust. Mr Goodyer grew up in South Africa and has taught in England now for eighteen years, most recently as the Deputy Headmaster and Interim Head at Colston’s School Bristol, where he has been since 2010. Mr Goodyer commented ‘Bede’s is exactly the kind of dynamic, progressive school which I have always aspired to lead, and when I met students and staff I knew we could continue to develop its individual approach and great qualities together. “It is clear to me that the Bede’s community is warm, welcoming and creative, and its academic achievements in recent years have been remarkable. It is an honour to be selected to lead the school to ever more success.” Mr Goodyer is passionate about sport and has considerable educational expertise, having been a Head of Department and Boarding Housemaster at St. John’s School, Leatherhead. He is currently a boarding inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate and recently completed an MBA in Educational Leadership. Mr Goodyer is married to Laura, also a

teacher, and they have a four year old son, Sebastian.Bede’s Chairman of Governors, Major-General Anthony Meier, said “As Dr Maloney prepares to embark on his final term at Bede’s before moving to Uppingham, one of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools, I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his outstanding seven years of service. “He leaves with our warmest wishes. We know that Bede’s will continue to be in excellent hands.”

YEAR 6 PUPILS ENJOY CLASSICS WORKSHOP

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be part of the bustle of an Ancient Roman market? How about being faced with defending Had-rian’s Wall in the cold and the wet when you were used to the sun of Italy? In late February, our Year 6 pupils did just these things all as part of their studies into Latin and Classical Civilisations via roleplay workshops organised by the Rainbow Theatre Company structured to explore the lives of Roman children in Britain. Josh Sudan, Max Harding, Kirstin Orr and Milly Trenaman acted out the part of wealthy Roman children. They then worked with their friends who took on the roles of slaves, market sellers, bath attendants, fellow school children, petitioners at the court, gladiators, theatre goers and soldiers in the army. As part of the session, Naya Lambird and Lizzie Morgan were able to show off their mathematical skills as two of the surveyors who laid down the course for the Roman roads.Declan Shanks was perhaps not so lucky as he took the part of a pig who was sacrificed to the gods at the temple. After the workshop, the children proved how much they had learnt in their written work in a number of imaginative and translation exercises.One major additional takeaway was that many of the children felt that the lack of technology and having to eat snails and sugared dormice made living in Roman times rather unappeal-ing.Always best to keep things in perspective!

Sally CollinsHead of Classics



EDITORIAL: THE FRUITFUL YEARS

With Spring seemingly finally sprung and the holidays now upon us, the Bede’s Prep faculty and I are of course looking forward to the Sum-mer Term – a time of sunshine, celebration and evaluation. For our youngest pupils, these months are a fertile time of warmth, growth and positivity, yet as the years pass June increasingly comes with a yellow and black warning label. A wasp-like sting in the tail. A buzzing alarm bell which signals the onset of Summer exams.Considering we are still in March, it does feel a little early in to be raising the British education system’s cruellest tradition (i.e. staging critical assessments at the most pleasant time of the year for weather) but I am inspired to broach the topic having just read a new paper published by OfSTED entitled, “Key Stage 3: The Wasted Years.”For those less au fait with educational jargon, Key Stage 3 is a child’s time in school between the ages of 11 and 14 – otherwise known as Years 7, 8 and 9 – with this new OfSTED publication raising warn-ings about how many schools are underperforming at this critical educational pressure point. The background of these concerns is that, since the abolition of nationalised Key Stage 3 SAT examina-tions for Year 9 pupils in 2010, there is nothing in particular ‘forcing’ schools to offer a Key Stage 3 curriculum with clear and measurable outcomes. It has become a sort of ‘squidgy middle’ between Primary School and GCSE exams, with many schools spreading the jam particularly thin in what ought to be an educational Victoria Sponge. The tendency, as OfSTED reports, is for senior schools to focus their resources on children in Key Stage 4 (the GCSE years) and Key Stage 5 (the

Sixth Form) to the detriment of pupils in Key Stage 3. The conclusions OfSTED have come to are, of course, based on research conducted in state-maintained schools but the red flags this new document raises should serve as a warning to us all; the risk, says OfSTED, of not preparing children for their GCSEs early means that schools can throw everything and the kitchen sink at their pupils in Year 10 but by then it is already too late. The damage will have been done.Underpinning OfSTED’s concerns are the ways in which the government’s English Baccalaureate reforms, new GCSEs and new A Levels will impact on the children taking their GCSEs in 2020 – i.e. today’s Year 6 pupils – and, honestly, I share some of OfSTED’s anxiety.For the longest time, my colleagues at Bede’s Senior School have had plans in place to ensure that the opportunities available to children in Year 9 – known at Bede’s as ‘The First Year’ – give them the very best chance of exams success in subse-quent years. Designed as a thoroughly personalised experience, the programme – which was reconfig-ured for and relaunched last September – welcomes children from schools far beyond Bede’s Prep and offers them a school timetable specific to them. The foundational principle of The First Year at Bede’s is personalisation – it offers a bespoke edu-cational experience for every child while also acting as a catch-all of sorts; an accelerator pad for all pupils relative to their starting position.I raise all of this because the onset of the Summer Term means that we at Bede’s Prep will soon be saying a fond farewell to our Year 8 children, most

of whom will be heading to Bede’s Senior School but some of whom will not. With a changing educational landscape however, what does the future hold for them? And what about our Year 7 pupils? Or our Year 6s, and so on down the school?For children everywhere, the reformed GCSEs set to arrive this September signal a significant step-up from the exams undertaken by those children about to finish Year 11. For this reason, the Bede’s Prep School faculty has been doing everything it can to lay the strongest possible foundations for our Year 7 and 8 pupils, personalising their education as much as we possibly can to give them the best possible chances of success in life as senior school – what-ever shape that may take.For example, aside from what appears elsewhere in this newsletter, this half-term has seen the children earn forty-five Headmaster’s Commendations, twen-ty-five Maths Superhero certificates and three Asso-ciated Board of Royal Society of Music certificates. Four pupils have been involved in various television or film shoots, we have entered a number of local and national literary competitions with three Year 6 children being finalists (two first place, and one second place) in a local poetry competition. Thirteen children have now entered the final round of the National Young Writers’ Competition, at the time of writing we have our first ever cohort of children – 35 of them – about to take LAMDA examinations, and we have also hosted the Young Engineers Challenge and this year’s IAPS Area 3 Classics Meeting.We certainly have plenty going on, but that is not to say that the OfSTED ‘Wasted Years’ report does not give me pause; in light of the report’s conclusions, my team and I will be reviewing our provision in the identified ‘pressure point’ subjects of History, Geog-raphy and Modern Foreign Languages in particular to make sure we are doing absolutely everything that we can.The broader point, however, is that far from being wasted, the Key Stage 3 years at Bede’s are abso-lutely chock-full. Enriching, exciting and creative, I would encourage everyone to think of them as particularly fruitful rather than a waste. And as for those summer exams? Perhaps we might consider them nothing more than harvest time – an opportunity for us all to reap the hearty benefits of all our hard work?

Giles EntwisleHeadmaster



A BLOOMIN’ MARVELLOUS HALF TERM FOR BEDE’S NEW NURSERY

An early spring has seen Daffodils aplenty in the grounds of the new Nursery at Bede’s. This put a ‘spring’ into the step of all of the children across this half term’s four busy weeks, during which the children have undertaken a number of exciting activities.

One major project has seen the children learning all about spring in creative ways, including through a themed art project for the Enterprise Centre. They have studied what weather changes occur during these magical months, observ-ing plant growth and learning about animal births.

Elsewhere, Mother’s Day saw the children planting seeds and decorating flowers pots with big hearts on the top, with each child writing a lovely, personal message to their

respective mums.The children recently received their swimming badges, which have acknowl-edged how hard they have all worked in the swimming pool (for more on that, including a simulating sinking of a Nursery-built Titanic model, take a look at my blog!).We have also had two really successful Open Mornings which have welcomed families new and old to see our bespoke new facili-ties, and demand for places at Bede’s is now stronger than ever. Similarly, our Easter Fayre went down a treat with a great number of families coming through the doors to enjoy a diverse range of

Easter-themed entertainments. Finally, the children have been excited by the recent arrival of chocolate Easter Eggs and little chicks in their various Nursery rooms and we look forward to celebrating Easter with them very soon indeed.We hope you all have a lovely Easter and look forward to seeing you in the Summer term!

Hayley CummingDeputy Head of Nursery

RECEPTION AND YEAR 1 ENJOY ‘BEDE’S ON THE BEACH’ LESSONS

This term we have moved on from our ‘Ice’-focused activities, to those related to ‘Fire’, with this new topic providing some brilliant areas of study.To kick the scheme off, we welcomed a friendly young dragon into the classrooms, with the children creating their owndragons and exploring the text ‘George and the Dragon’ too.

We also joined the Year 2 children in an historical investigation into the events of The Great Fire of London and Samuel Pepys, but possibly the highlight of the term has been our new Bede’s on the Beach lessons.

Sessions have seen the children participate in a variety of focused activities in pairs and small groups, including by discussing some important aspects of fire safety in one session before putting their knowledge into practice and building a real campfire!

Rachel PotterHead of Reception and Year 1



LANGUAGES WEEK CELEBRATES MULTICULTURAL BEDE’S

Bede’s Prep School’s annual Languages Week saw the whole school energised and working together to solve a series of fun, informative challenges which celebrated the global outlook of Bede’s teachers and student body.Each day saw new activities running at break times, including an ingenious Word Hunt which saw words in different languages stuck around the school and mysterious photos identifying their locations.Other break time activities included colouring in giant posters of famous cities including Paris and Barcelona and acompetition to decorate Eiffel Tower silhouettes as creatively as possible. This challenge saw the children using a range of materials to complete their designs, with the outcomes proving rather beautiful.

A further activity for pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 echoed the work of the Belgian artist Ben Heine whereby a piece of paper is held against a photograph and the artist’s own interpretation of the missing element is recorded.This process produced some excellent images of an alternative Eiffel Tower from our French classes and some highly imaginative additions to paintings by the artist Joan Miró from our Spanish classes, and both sets of images inspired some stunning creative writing sessionsDuring Wednesday afternoon’s Co-Curricular sessions we hosted a special boules competition and another for palets, a cousin of boules, with both contests proving highly competitive and absorbing.Finally, the week climaxed with our Languages Assembly and World Costume Parade.As each year group paraded for the judges, with prizes duly awarded to those who had gone above and beyond, it was impossible to ignore the sense of school spirit and camaraderie.With the whole of Bede’s Prep having worked together to celebrate diversity, multiculturalism and our globalised world, the MFL department and I would like to thank everyone for throwing their energies behind our various endeavours.

Louise GalletlyHead of MFL

BEDE’S PREP PUPILS WIN UKMT MATHS CHALLENGE

Congratulations to the four Year 8 pupils who recently won the regional finals of the UK Mathematics Trust’s ‘Team Challenge’ event, which was hosted at Robertsbridge Community College last week.The competition is designed to challenge pupils in Year 8 and Year 9, putting their mathematical skills to the test across several rounds of challenges involving the kinds of maths problems seen at GCSE Level and - in some cases - above. With 14 local schools taking part, Bede’s Prep School’s Head of Maths Scott Fasciolo-Barnes was delighted to learn, come the end of the competition, that the Bede’s team had come in 1st. The students were duly crowned East Sus-sex Champions and were informed that they will now be entered into the UK Mathematics Trust’s National Competition which will take place in June.

Mr Fasciolo-Barnes said of the team’s accomplishments, “These Year 8 pupils have done incredibly well - not only to have excelled in this competition but to have been so adaptable during the transformation that has taken place in maths lessons at the Prep School this year.“It seems only yesterday that Singapore-style Maths learning was completely alien to them. Now look at the results!”



YEAR 3 AND 4’S ‘HOODWINKED’ HITS THE BULLSEYE

Bede’s Prep School’s Year 3 and 4 pupils delighted audiences with their outstanding performance of ‘Hoodwinked’ in early March, with their swashbuckling adaptation of the traditional Robin Hood story seeing parents, staff and students booing and hissing with gusto.Because of the plethora of talent at Bede’s, bolstered by the children’s enthusiasm, there were two casts for the final production and both performances were truly outstand-ing. The energy and commitment of all the performers was plain to see, as was the high level of acting, singing, dancing and acrobatics.With Robin Hood back in town, played con-fidently by Olivia Driver and Harry Burgum, feuding with a dastardly Sheriff of

Nottingham, embodied with style by Reuben Mace and Toby Burdekin, the performances had a real sense of energy and humour that brought wide smiles to the faces of all in attendance. A particular high point was Eva Sellens and Amelia Williams’ Maid Marians with her ladies, played by Nia Hooton, Lydia Maloney, Lily Reynolds-Shuy, Devanie Travers and Margot Cabaret, delivering both show-stopping group numbers such as ‘We Are Maid Marian’s Ladies’ and beautiful ballads yearning for Robin.With familiar faces such as Friar Tuck and Richard the Lionheart front and centre, special mentions must go to Reuben Sellens for being a super ‘Town Crier’ bolstered by announcers including Finley Cattermole and Dougie Lambeth who gave the grand finale a

real sense of the ‘X Factor.’ The play created laughter and happiness, with some extremely catchy and toe-tapping music from a live band led brilliantly by Mrs Pendry with Mrs Noton on flute and Mr Court on drums. We are all immensely proud of the children for their efforts and success, and it has been really exciting to see the children’s enthu-siasm, joy and growth in confidence whilst working on the play. Well done to every last one of them!

Will BryantYear 3 Form Teacher

As teachers, we spend many hours planning, preparing and delivering lessons that strive to provide challenge and stimulate our students; this is, of course, in line with strategies, frame-works and expected levels and stages of learning. There are however also times when we need to abandon the curriculum ever so slightly, and make room for the crea-tive ownership of our students, enabling them to explore language, unlock its potential and risk getting it really wrong. Recently, Mrs Jones’ Year 6 English class merged with my own and enjoyed just such an opportunity, with the two groups temporarily combined into one for the purposes of some imaginative poetry writing.

The children were set open-ended tasks and provided with a range of poems in varying styles; after reading selectedworks in small groups, the children were then encouraged to explore the differ-ing approaches of the poets they had read and apply their styles in their own writing. Every pupil seemed to relish the opportu-nity and attacked the poetry with energy and enthusiasm. Knowing that they could take the lead and claim ownership of the outcomes, the children delighted in playing with the sounds, rhythms and ambiguous meanings of words.The outcome of the sessions has been wonderful: each and every child has been a successful poet of one type or another, with writing that has been ac-cessible to all. The process of asking their neighbour if a certain line is successful, if they can help them to think of a better rhyme or adjective, or if one friend can simply listen to the creation of another, has also signified a powerful collaborative experience. All in all, Year 6 have enjoyed working together and have proudly shared their work. Could there be any greater purpose for writing?

Gail BrundleHead of English and Drama



ENGLISH CLASSES MERGE FOR YEAR 6 ‘POETRY JAM’

YEAR 6 COMPUTER-MODEL HOMES OF THE FUTURE

Year 6 have been learning about Computer Aided Design, with pupils using the ‘Sketch-Up’ software program to design futuristic buildings. The children were encouraged to ‘build’ their homes using the considerations as professional architects, not only learning how to construct and modify three dimensional shapes but also how to navigate in a 3D virtual environment on a 2D screen – something the ‘Minecraft generation’ seem to be adept at!

These lessons culminated in a 1-hour ‘CAD Challenge’ during which the children had to quickly design imaginative, structurally-sound homes under intense time pressure.We were then delighted to have a senior member of Argent LLP Property Developers in London assess some of the pupils’ final ‘futuristic building’ designs for architectural feasibility and give valuable feedback.Their representative said, “I was really impressed with all the entries, so WELL DONE EVERYONE – designing a new home in one hour with a new software tool is no mean feat!”

Peter BarclayHead of Computing



YEAR 7 MATHEMATICIANS HAVE FUN WITH FIBONACCI

Year 7 have start their new topic of Sequences by investigating the legendary sequence first found by Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, a man about whom very little is known other than what he accomplished in the field of Mathematics.The children began the lesson by under-standing how Fibonacci developed the se-quence by the use of breeding rabbits using certain theoretical constraints. The children quickly spotted the rule of the sequence and went as far as they could to continue it. 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89They quickly noticed that that next number in the sequence was the sum of the previous two. i.e 1 + 1 = 2 2 + 3 = 5 and so on.Children were then able to investigate several aspects of fruits and flowers to see if they could find any ‘Fibonacci’ numbers. They were able to find examples including5 petals on flowers, 8 stamen, 13 leaves, and 5-pointed stars inside all apples and 5 stripes on a banana.The children found the lesson extremely rewarding and were also in awe of that factthat certain numbers could be ever-present in nature and not change within a species or plant type.Finally, the children finished with the task to disprove the statement: Every bee has a ‘Fibonacci’ number of

parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so forth if they follow these simple rules:A male bee only needs one parent, a female.A female bee needs two parents, a female and a male.The children were not able to disprove this statement, but did they go far enough?

Scott Fasciolo-BarnesHead of Maths

YEAR 5 LEARN THROUGH VICTORIAN ROLE-PLAY

Bede’s Prep School’s Year 5 pupils recently took part in an exciting and interesting theatre workshop during which they explored the lives of Victorian children.With the classes currently learning about the Industrial Revolution in their History lessons, the children were able to experience first-hand what it felt like to be a child of the Victorian era. The session began with the children being lined up outside the School Theatre by one of the actors dressed as a Victorian school teacher. Armed with his cane, he soon whipped them into shape!

The costumed staff, made the whole session feel very real and the strict and, on occasion, cruel; their actions made the children realise how awful life must have been for those not born into wealth and privilege. They learned about the working lives of poor children in factories, ‘pure finding’ – i.e. collecting horse manure for selling on as compost – and sweeping chimneys.We went on to capitalise on this great and valuable interactive session when the children wrote about their experiences for their Prep, during which some pupils included some particularly imaginative and gruelling personal accounts!

Sam BrownHead of History



NEW DANCE CURRICULUM BOOSTS PARTICIPATION

The appointment of two new Dance teachers this academic year has prompted a total overhaul of Bede’s Prep School’s Dance provision, and the ensuing surge of pupil involvement across all year groups has seen the newly-reformed Dance department at Bede’s Prep rushed off their feet.“Every child at Bede’s Nursery has an hour of Dance a week, and that lasts up to Year 4,” explains one of Bede’s Prep’s new Dance teachers, Nicci Ward, who joined the school in January 2015. “This is brilliant in and of itself, but we will soon be expanding again, adding in-time-table Dance to the Year 5 curriculum. Plus we are running several new activity groups in the Co-Curricular Programme for Years 6, 7 and 8. It has been wonderful to see the children reacting so enthusiastically!”The new programmes developed by Ms Ward and her fellow Dance teacher Ms Emma Manes, who joined Bede’s Prep School in October and also teaches at the Senior School, have been designed to enable every boy and girl to know their body, establish good posture and develop valuable skills such as lateral thinking, creativity and team work. “Fun is at the heart of it all of course,” Ms Ward explains, “with the idea being that the children don’t really realise how good it is for them. And between what we are doing in Dance, working hand-in-hand with the

Physical Education department and our colleagues in the School Kitchen, Bede’s Prep is being particularly forward-thinking in offering children the heathiest possible start to the children.” In addition to developing fitness, imagination and improved physicality, part of the objective of these new Dance programmes is to provide pupils with the opportunity to acquire real-world qualifica-tions, much as would be the case with Music grades or LAMDA Drama certificates.“We offer examination qualifications for all year groups in RAD Ballet and ISTD Tap as well as ISTD Jazz/Modern Dance, with children being able to train with us during their Games sessions and during the Co-Curricular Programme if they opt to,” Ms Ward explains.“This is in addition to our new Musical Theatre Club, Street Dance Club, Tap Dance Club, Ballet Club and Choreography Club.

There really is a lot going on!”To celebrate all of these burgeoning develop-ments, Ms Ward has organised a Presenta-tion Day on 28 April during which dancers from the various year groups at Bede’s Prep will perform some of their works in progress.“I would love to make it a really special performance in future years, but we’re still in the early days of the new programmes so it might be a little bumpy,” continues Ms Ward. “Nonetheless, it is important to me that we put the work out there even now and start to look towards Eastbourne Music and Dance Festival next February.“I say that because, as the School offers Performing Arts Scholarships in Drama, Mu-sic and Dance, we see it as very important to encourage families throughout Eastbourne and beyond to understand that what we are offering here is really special. “We have a clear link to the Legat School of Dance at Bede’s Senior School, with a number of our Prep School dancers having gone on to great success both there and at performing arts schools including Tring and Elmhurst, and we are actively looking for both dancers and would-be dancers. “All of that aside, Dance is just a brilliant hobby and something I would recommend to anyone. Indeed, I urge any parents who reads this to come by and say hello if they would like more information. After all, who knows where a conversation like that might lead?”

Year 4 enjoyed a trip to Eastbourne’s Towner Gallery to see two superbexhibitions this term, all in preparation for their work towards the annual Towner Schools Show this Easter.The first exhibition they attended, Stages by John Napier, consisted of three-dimensional work featuring strong sculptural forms inspired by Broadway and London theatre. The second, Art from Elsewhere, was a collection of contemporary art where the students focused on the different methods of mark making used by the various artists.

The children brought their researchback to school and began applying what they had learned to a series of their own three-dimensional creations; creating dummy works on paper first, detailing them with complex patterns, they then refined their designs and began applying them to clay. For inspiration, the students looked at lines found in the sky and local landscape, including features seen on our coastline such as erosion, the shapes of fields and textures seen on maps, piers and other famous Eastbourne structures.With some pupils designing tiles and

others pyramids, the classes then experimented with resists and repetitive mark-making using coloured slips, stains and oxides. The final results of all of Year 4’s hard work will now be displayed in the An-nual Schools Exhibition at the Towner Gallery entitl ed ‘Walking The Line’, which will be open from 23 March until 5 June.If you live locally then do make sure to pop down to take a look!

Rachael ArmitageHead of Art and Design



TOWNER EXHIBITIONS INSPIRE YEAR 4

This month, Bede’s Prep School’s Pre-Prep children went right back to the Stone Age, looking at stoneware and exploring the kinds of tools and utensils that would have been used hundreds of thousands of years ago.Fortunately for a children, a parent of one of our Reception pupils, Annemieke Milks, is a real life archaeologist and she very kindly came to Bede’s Prep School on Friday 4 March to talk to the children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 about her experiences as an ancient ‘rubbish finder.’The children were fascinated to learn about the differences between archaeologists and palaeontologists, although they were slightly disappointed to discover that archaeologists did not, in fact, dig up dinosaur bones!Even more exciting was the opportunity to

go through our Annemieke’s own ‘private museum’ and, just like detectives, hypothesize and theorise as to what each object was used for and why. Ms Milks spoke about what a ‘dig’ looks like and how careful you have to be as to not damage the items buried underground. She also said that she is continuing to dig for her main piece of treasure - a fully intact human skull!We were very grateful to Ms Milks for her time and thankful to her and our other guest speakers during this half of term; learning about all the possibilities for jobs in the future has really inspired the children and opened their eyes to whole worlds of possibility!

Rachel BarrattReception Class Teacher



EASTBOURNE FIRE SERVICE HELP IGNITE ‘FIRE’ TOPIC

This term’s Fire topic has provided all manner of brilliant learning experiences for the children from Bede’s Nursery up to Year 2, with a particular high-point being Rocky’s mother visiting us in a real fire engine! The firefighters spoke to all of our classes about fire safety, exploring how to deal with fires and the three key ingredients that make fire burn.There was, of course, much excitement about the fire engine, with all the children becoming very excited about sitting in the cab and hearing the sirens sound! The Year 2 children compared the equipment used now to the tools that they had learnt about in relation to their studies of 1666 and the Great Fire of London.That same week, the School Nurse Mrs Orr further enhanced these lessons by teaching the children how to prepare bandages, dress burns and why.

This fed into the wider Bede’s Nursery topic of ‘People Who Help Us’, which has also seen police officers, lollipop ladies, coast guards, doctors and postal workers visiting lessons.Thank you to all of our many visitors, in particular the firefighters who were extremely generous with their time.

Di WriterHead of Years 2, 3 and 4

PRE-PREP CLASSES STUDY THE STONE AGE



BEDE’S PREP INSTRUMENTALIST NUMBERS RISE BY 350%

The number of individuals learning a musical instrument at Bede’s Prep School has risen sharply across the course of this year, from a respectable base of 31 pupils to a whopping 138 and rising.This increase, which equates to four-and-a-half times the number of children formally learning music this year compared to last, neatly coincides with the introduction of a new Head of Music to the School, Mrs Pendry.“The figure is a little bolstered by the fact that last year saw a significant number of talented players leave the Prep School, which made the numbers look especially low,” Mrs Pendry explains, “but I would like to think that some of the new processes I have put in place within the department have contributed to this veritable onrush.”At the heart of Mrs Pendry’s new programmes is an emphasis on three simple ideas: listening, performing and composing, with Music back on the academic timetable for children in all year groups and the

department offering a diverse range of new Music Clubs during the Co-Curricular Programme.With 59% of Bede’s Prep Schools pupils in Year 3 and above now learning a musical instrument, Mrs Pendry is getting close to her objective of having every child enjoying at least one full term of Music lessons. But what are they learning, and why?“Piano is the most popular choice,” Mrs Pendry explains, “with the School now having 51 budding pianists on-roll. Elsewhere, we have 23 drummers and 20 guitarists, which is brilliant, but really we are working hard on filling out the Orchestra. “I am looking to encourage children to try some more unusual instruments, such as the three pupils presently learning the ten-eroon – a sort of baby bassoon – and I have substantial plans for strings, although they are a little under wraps.”With Bede’s Prep School having to make 5 new appointments to the pool of peripatetic music teachers to keep up with demand, and a total of 14 music teachers now offering tuition in the Music Centre, the department seems to be enjoying a new lease of life.“Our practise rooms are open from 7.30 in the morning to 5pm every day, and there is barely a moment between lessons where they aren’t being used. It does feel a little bit like we have become grand central station, but what can I say? I absolutely asked for it and, quite frankly, I’m overjoyed.”

GEORGE AND TOM ENJOY TRIATHLON SUCCESSES

Congratulations to Bede’s Prep School pupils George Dickinson from Year 8 and Tom McDonald from Year 5 who recently showed brilliant determination to win their respective age groups in the recent Bede’s Triathalon. The two showed significant guts and mental strength as they completed the three respec-tive sections of their endeavour, swimming, running and cycling their way to victory.With the event staged to test the mettle of Bede’s Prep Schools athletes in advance of the summer athletics season, the children competed against pupils from a number of local Prep Schools under the supervision of the Sports department at Bede’s Senior School in Upper Dicker.

International Pentathlete Sophie Miles at-tended the event and was pleased with the boys’ performances. She said, “I am now looking forward to supporting George and Tom in their training in preparation for the Independent Association of Prep Schools’ National Triath-lon competiton, which will be taking place in June.”

Sharon MuxworthyHead of Games

This year’s Netball season has seen all of our teams making huge strides forward, with some brilliant wins in both friendly matches and tournaments. This has been an amazing year for our U13 Netballers for example, not least at the annual IAPS Championships where our strong squad of 8 went up against over 60 teams from across the United Kingdom. The girls enjoyed early victories against The Hawthorns, St Andrew’s, Ardingly Prep and Hurst Prep in the Group Stages, and we saw some great shooting from Elise Sutherland, Lara Elder and Lucy Drewek in windy and cold conditions. Our turnovers were constant – care of Phoebe Dixon, Sadie Collett, Lilianna Jones and Freya Palmer – and Jasmine Cecil kept the centre court controlled brilliantly.Unfortunately, the team then had a narrow 5-3 loss to Seaford College followed by a very tough game against Chichester’s Westbourne Prep School which saw the girls knocked out of the competition in the playoffs.Qualifying to the play-offs was an exceptional accomplishment in its own right, especially considering the scale of the competition, and the U13s have had a

plethora of wins elsewhere too. The team really has grown stronger with every match, with some stunning wins against Brambletye, Hurst, Lancing, Ardingly, Moira House, BHHS, St Andrews and Hawthorns. Lucy Drewek has been a first class Captain, leading her squad of players with great control and commitment, and the whole team have been exceptional role models to the School’s younger, aspiring players.Much like the U13s, the U12s did well in the Sussex Knock-out Cup this year, winning their first round matches. Unfortunately they met Brighton College in the second round and, despite a great battle, the Brighton team managed to convert more goals than our teams, which took them through. The U12s have played a great standard of netball throughout the season, and the girls should be proud with the standards they have helped to raise across the Bede’s Prep Netball programme with their exciting style of play; these high levels of achieve-ment reached a peak when the team won the Bede’s U12 Netball Tournament earlier in the term, and with the U12B team also coming along nicely next year’s U13s team

is shaping up brilliantly.We have also had an excellent season at U11 and U10 level, with the girls’ move-ment and passing both much-improved. The teams have worked on developing the core principles needed to have success in netball and have focussed on versatility with regards to their positions, as well as improving their knowledge and understand-ing of the game. The biggest area we still have to work on is our conversion rate when shooting, and this is what we will be focussing on in our Co-Curricular sessions throughout the summer term. Last but not least, the U9s have really worked hard in their netball sessions this year and it was great to see all of their hard work culminate in a netball tournament at Brighton earlier in March.

The girls played 8 matches and won 3, drew 2 and lost 3, with everyone having a huge amount of fun.The team are an amazing bunch and work hard to make sure everyone on the team has a wonderful time playing. Long may this positivity continue!

Sharon MuxworthyHead of Games



SPORTNETBALLBEDE’S GIRLS MAKE MASSIVE PROGRESS



BEDE’S PREP U11S TO REPRESENT SUSSEX IN SOUTH EAST REGIONALS

Monday 29 February saw a fantastic day of Hockey for Bede’s Prep School with the boys’ teams winning their U11 County Championships and both teams qualifying to represent Sussex in the South East Regional finals.On the boys’ front, the Colts entered the competition having had a solid start to the season with a 2-2 draw against Vinehall and a narrow 2-1 win against Cumnor House on Saturday.There was little to suggest that the team might come away as County Champions but

5 wins and 2 draws later they did just that.At the same time, the U11 girls’ team also had a great day at their respective ‘In2Hockey’ County Championship during which they demonstrated some innovative, fast-passing hockey to win four out of their five matches.With a 3-0 win against Burgess Hill School for Girls, a 6-0 win against Moira House, a 3-0 win against Battle Abbey School and a 6-0 win against Claremont, the only team to get the better of the girls was St Andrew’s who won 2-0 in a match where their keeper saved 8 shots on goal.Ms Muxworthy said in conclusion, “The Sus-sex In2Hockey event was a great tournament and both teams thoroughly deserve to represent Sussex in the Regional Finals. Well done to them all and best of luck in the next round!”

Petch LenhamHead of Hockey

U13 BOYS WIN SOUTH EAST PLATE

Bede’s U13 boys Hockey team recently travelled to Tonbridge School to take part in the South East Regional Heat of the IAPS National Cup, competing against a number of other top Hockey schools from across Surrey, Kent, and Hampshire.The day started well, with the boys winning their first match against Northcote Lodge 3-0, however a close-fought battle against Danes Hill saw the U13s struggle to pull away and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.They then faced New Beacon School and, sadly, came slightly unstuck, losing 2-1.Undeterred by this narrow loss, the team advanced to the Plate Quarter Finals where they were matched against Dulwich College Prep School, winning on Penatly ShufflesDue to goal difference, Danes Hill had also advanced through to the Plate Competi-tion and, thanks to some incredible work by the U13s mid-fielders and the boys won the match 2-1 and advanced through to the South East Plate Final against Feltonfleet School from Cobham.The match ended in a 4-0 victory for Bede’s Prep care of two goals apiece from Archie and Ollie, and the team celebrated their Plate Victory on the side lines.Their coach, Mrs Lenham, said of the result, “The Bede’s boys should be very proud of how their play steadily improved across the course of a very busy day of Hockey.”

SPORTHOCKEY

On Thursday 9 March, Bede’s pupils competed along with many other schools in the Sussex Schools Mini Tennis Championship organised by the Sussex LTA and hosted by Bede’s Senior School on 8 mini tennis courts. There was real strength and depth on dis-play during the afternoon and Bede’s pupils won a number of titles; the Boys A team (represented by Max Konderando, Ethan Robertson, Reha Akinlosotu and Archie Nel-son) won their match and the Boys B team (featuring Luca Asfour, Dougie Lambeth, Lewy Lawrence and Toby Leonard) achieved a worthy runner up place. Elsewhere the girls team, represented by Olivia Driver, Margo Cabaret, Lily Reynolds-Schuy and Amelia Williams, were delighted with winning the Sussex LTA Fair Play Award and a special mention must go to Harry Burgem who won the prize awarded to the child who demonstrates the best character and engagement with the event.

Commenting on the day, Bede’s Tennis Coach, Jane Nash commented “It was wonderful to see so many young Bede’s children competing and enjoying their tennis and I’d like to thank the Sussex LTA for supporting this tournament.” Julie Goldin, who represented the Sussex LTA, said after the event, “Supporting tennis in schools is absolutely crucial in enabling young talent flourish. “It was a great pleasure to watch such tenaciously fought matches and also to see evidence of children enjoying their tennis and of course of respect and good character. “I look forward to watching these players as they continue to compete and improve their tennis.”



SPORTTENNISBEDE’S PREP JUNIORS WIN LTA SUSSEX COUNTY MINI-TENNIS CHAMPIONSHOP



Bede's Prep Newsletter Easter 2016

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