The Mead School

Newsletter

Spring Term 2016

‘...individual success for every child...’

Taken from The Mead School

Mission Statement

Dear Parents and friends,

Easter has no respect for the Spring Term! Easter is very early this year but we still squeeze as much in to the Spring Term as if it is very much later! BUT that is Mead life, busy, enthusiastic, exciting, knowing no boundaries, an environment where staff and pupils seize the day and embrace every opportunity and experience.

Secondary School Destinations

We are very proud of our Year 6 who are achieving so much in their final year at The Mead. The diversity of the schools they will be moving onto next September is testament to their individuality.

All six Grammar Schools will have Meadites together with Academic Schol-arships to Sevenoaks School and Claremont School and Drama Scholar-ships to Worth Abbey and Mayfield School.

Bennett Memorial, St Gregory’s, Beacon and Skinners Kent Academy are all represented.

We are very proud of all these pupils have achieved and continue to achieve – true Meadites they are well rounded, hard working, independent life-long learners who give 100% to all aspects of school life. Lucky second-ary schools to have them!

Scholarships

Huge congratulations go to

Tabitha Bolter Academic Scholarship to Sevenoaks School

All Round Scholarship to Mayfield School

Igor Talbot Academic Scholarship to Claremont School

Ciara Bradley Drama Scholarship to Mayfield School

Sam Tavares Drama Scholarship to Worth Abbey

Staff Changes

We are delighted to welcome Ruth Campbell to The Mead as our Marketing Manager. It is hard to believe she has only been with us for a month for the impact of her marketing expertise is wonderful – I hope you are all following us on Twitter and Facebook.

Building Work

We really are almost there!! You will be aware that internally the building is ready but the rain has not helped the external works. Frustrating but the end product far exceeds our expectations. The external design and finish is superb, greatly enhancing the original house and internally the rooms flow seamlessly. The new Kindergarten and Pre-Reception en-trance and access is going to revolutionise their provision and the staff are very excited. The ‘big move’ will take place over the Easter holidays.

Enormous thanks must go to Rebecca who has managed and overseen this enormous and very lengthy project absolutely magnificently.

Parent E-Safety Seminar

We cannot over emphasise the importance of instilling a deeply rooted un-derstanding of e-safety from the first day a child has access to the internet. They are growing up in the ‘internet’ age in a way none of us have. I am delighted that Karl Hopwood – a highly respected e-safety specialist is coming to The Mead on Monday 18 April at 7pm to present a seminar on e-safety to all parents, grandparents and carers. I urge you all to put this date in your diary and look forward to welcoming a large crowd to this event.

Art

This term we have been looking at a wide variety of topics throughout the school.

Kindergarten have looked at ‘Spring’ and made some

lovely daffodils as well as painting some fantastic portraits of their Grandparents. Early Years have concentrated on the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Monkey.

KS1 have been making beautiful 3D flowers for their production of ‘The Wild Bunch’ along with looking at Mondrian, Indian art and puppetry.

KS2 have covered a huge range of topics this term including Y3 ‘Tudors House’ sketches, Y4’s 3D ‘Icarus’, Y5’s paintings of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ and Y6 have finished their lino cut work based on William Morris wallpaper and fabric prints.

There are some truly wonderful pieces of work from all year groups and it is a joy to see the children so proud of their achievements. Well done everyone.

Debbie Latty

Mandarin

猴年快乐 ！ 恭喜发财！

Chinese New Year of Monkey 2016

In the Mandarin lessons we learnt traditional New Year greetings to say 新

年 快 乐 (xīn nián kuàilè) meaning “Happy New Year” and 恭 喜 发 财

(gōng xǐ fā cái) meaning “May you have a prosperous New Year!”

Many of the children dressed up in Chinese costumes and also brought in some special Chinese objects to show everyone in the class. They all had a go at using chopsticks and had beautiful Chinese lanterns, stickers and Chinese zodiac signs sheet to take home. As with many holidays, children

receive gifts and we also gave the children special red packets 红包 (hóng

bāo) to take home. Typically a gift of red envelopes filled with money is given by parents and relatives. All the children had fun and enjoyed the day.

As this term closes we are nearing the end of Book 2 for Y4-Y6.

Special congratulations go to Oluwatoyin Adenekan with 4370 points and Owen Watts on 4340 points, both of whom are now at Light Brown Fu lev-el. Also to Laurence Callow with 3745 points and Amelia James on 3575 points, who are now Dark Orange Fu.

For Year 3 children, who are all incredibly hard working and talented in Mandarin, special congratulations go to Alastair McCrae with 7245 points (Dark Pink), Samuel Coombs on 5215 points (Light Blue), Adriano Beltra-mini on 4980 points (Light Pink), Francesca Anderson on 4755 points (Light Pink) and Amber Jones on 4055 points (Light Brown).

Well done to all of them.

Performing Arts

What a term! I don’t think I have ever had to squeeze so much into such a short amount of time! The Wild Bunch, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ISA Drama Competition, Lamda exams, ballet exams and Modern exams were all the highlights of this term in the Performing Arts department.

Friday 4th March saw the Year 6’s, myself, Mrs Culley, Mrs Latty, Mrs

Biggs, Chris and a donkey head all heading off to Ascot! What an exciting day. The children had only had this term (7 weeks) to prepare their version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We were on second (out of four schools) and I was so incredibly proud of all the children. They performed with confi-dence, understanding and sheer professionalism. Although we are still wait-ing for results, the feedback from the judge was fantastic.

Special mentions were given to Sissy for her performance of Puck and Sam for his performance of Bottom. The judge also complemented us on our staging and levels (thank you Mrs Latty), costumes (thank you Mrs Biggs) and script arrangement (thank you Mrs Waight)! He said it was an all round very impressive piece. He also complemented our ‘unsung heroes’ who were in charge of the musical instruments – well done Ella and Eliza D. A big thank you to Mr Zerpa Falcon for all his help in rehearsals as well as Mrs Latty, Mrs Biggs and Mrs Waight for being such a fantastic team to work with. Fingers crossed for some results soon!

On Thursday 10th March the school took over our second home of Trinity

Theatre to show our first ever KS1 production of the Wild Bunch and for the Year 6’s to be able to show A Midsummer Night’s Dream to parents. The rest of the school all got the chance to watch both these shows in the after-noon before showing our families. A very busy but exciting day! Thank you again to all the staff involved.

Ballet Exams took place on Tuesday 15th March for Year 1, 2 and 3. A big

well done to Miss Hannah for running it so smoothly. The girls and boys looked fantastic going in.

Grade 2 Modern exams are on Monday 21st March (after we break up)

Good luck Year 6 girls!

We have a very busy term next term pre-paring for our Summer Show. This year we will be putting on the production of ‘Dazzle’! Please don’t forget that compul-sory rehearsals for KS2 (Years 3 – 6) will be every Tuesday after school, 3.40 – 5.25. All children will be expected to stay for this.

Have a lovely Easter and see you next term.

Miss V

Key Dates

LAMDA Concert (Year 3 and 4) – Wednesday 18

th May

LAMDA Concert (Year 5 and 6) – Thursday 19

th May

Provisional Modern and Tap Exams – Thursday 23rd June

Music

Another busy and exciting term in the music department. As I write, a large group of children are returning having taken their ABRSM music exams, many for the first time, and all having a wonderfully positive experience, with lovely comments from the exam-iner.

Choir and Glee club received a great reception for our concert at the Baptist church in early February. Solos by George Mitchell, Owen Watts, Amber Jones (pianists), Sissy Ellse (singing), Emma Sabbatini, Claudia and Nicole Kirk (violinists) were interspersed with performances full of energy and commitment from Glee Club and choir. Everyone in attendance remarked on how profes-sional the children were in perfor-mance, something we are all very proud of.

This week we are really looking for-ward to "The Wild Bunch" our first presentation of a show for our year Ones and Twos at Trinity. The chil-dren have been rehearsing extremely hard, and I've been bowled over by their commitment to the show, and the incredible support from their class teachers. We are all very excited about it, and cannot wait for perfor-mance day.

We are all very much looking forward to our next chance to perform at the Easter service, and of course looking further ahead to the Summer Show and the summer in-fant and junior music concerts which will give our instrumentalist another chance to perform in pub-lic.

Anthony Zerpa-Falcon

If there are any budding harpists out there we have a harp in school available for lessons and practice. Please contact the school office if you are interested.

Maths Whizz

What a Whizzy Term!

The children in general have had a very busy term working hard on their Maths Whizz. It has been great to see the popularity of our lunch M & M Club (Mandarin and Maths Whizz Club) grow and grow as the term has pro-gressed! Competition at the top of our Maths Whizz school leader board is very close indeed!

This term saw Maths Whizz gain success at the BETT awards 2016; in-deed, we have always recognised Maths Whizz as a first class online Math-ematics Resource that is used so successfully by all our pupils and so were thrilled by this news!

Maths-Whizz, created by Whizz Education, scooped the award for best In-ternational Digital Education Resource at the 2016 BETT Awards.

The BETT Awards are a celebration of creative and innovative solutions to education’s most pressing challenges. In the words of BETT, the awards “endeavour to recognise, reward and promote excellence.”

Next term will see us launch new competitions and initiatives for Maths Whizz. One of these will involve Junior and Infant classes com-peting for a weekly cup for the highest Junior and Infant class weekly usage as well as new competitions and challenges from the Maths Whizz professor himself!

In the meantime, I wish everyone a well-earned rest over Easter and hope that Mead pupils will keep their Maths skills fresh by continuing to work on their personalised Maths Whizz accounts when possible during the holi-days!

Isobel Feaver

Director of Studies

World Book Day

On Thursday 3rd March, we celebrated World Book Day! Our theme this year was ‘Adventure Stories!’ This year, we enjoyed a fantastic fortnight that pro-filed and encouraged all our Mead children to further develop their love of reading.

From Monday 30th February to Friday 11

th March the

children enjoyed assemblies taken by different staff who shared some of their favourite children’s stories. Our fifth Book Swap on Wednesday afternoon proved a real success, with many children leaving school that day tightly clutching new books and stories ready to get stuck into at home!

This year, the Juniors and Infants enjoyed separate dressing up days; giving our school two exceptionally colourful and literacy packed days, that saw pupils embarking on a wide range of text based art, craft, cookery and writ-ten activities.

On Friday we enjoyed a sharing assembly during which the pupils showed off and discussed much of the work that they had completed during the week.

The second week of our World Book Day fortnight saw the arrival in school of the Scholastic Book Fair. The Fair lasted for three and a half days and gave the children the opportunity to browse and buy a wide range of super quality books.

Thank you to all the members of staff who so fully embraced the events of this fortnight and a huge thank you to parents, who supported us by helping their children participate so wonderfully in all these events.

Isobel Feaver

Director of Studies, Literacy Coordinator

Safer Internet Day, 2016

On Tuesday 9th February, the school took part in Safer Inter-net Day, 2016. Our aim this year, was to further raise the profile of the importance of online safety for all our children with particular emphasis on keeping personal information safe.

We know that increasingly, our children access the internet through a range of media and devices. Just as we protect children in the real world, we also want to make sure that they are safe online. In the same vein that learning to cross the road safely is a skill for life, so is learning how to act safely and responsibly when using the Internet.

By helping children understand the risks and consequently guide them into making sensible and informed choices online, then they will be able to make the most out of online technology whilst staying safe.

Tuesday, began with an assembly that allowed the children the oppor-tunity to discuss the nature of personal information; how and why this should be kept safe as well as exploring how and why the children them-selves use the Internet. Our pupils also took part in a number of quizzes and activities. During the course of the day within their classes, pupils explored the issues mentioned during assembly, took part in an ICT hunt around school and many of them embarked on a competition to design an eye catching and creative poster that served to promote our school’s e safety rules!

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: E Safety Parent Seminar - Monday 18 April

Kindergarten and Pre-Reception

Time between Christmas and Easter has just flown by in Kindergarten and Pre-Reception, but we have managed to pack in a whole host of experiences and activi-ties.

Our new friends Tristan, Zander, Lulu, Alie, George, Lily, Jake & Jessica have all settled in beautifully and are very much part of our happy groups.

Topics this term have included exploring

animals from cold lands and thinking of wild creatures closer to home who rely on our support and help during the cold win-ter.

Role play opportunities have centred in Kindergarten around their new shoe shop. Many imaginative games have

been observed and lovely conversations heard as the children relive their own personal experiences.

We have enjoyed two forest school visits up to Hargate Woods this term where the children have explored and investigated the changes as we pro-gress through the seasons. A particularly muddy visit in January promoted Pre-Reception to re-visit one of our favourite story books – ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ – and inspired one of our favourite wall displays of the year.

Chinese New Year was one of our highlights this term, as we explored this wonderful festival and all that it entails. The children have looked at where China is on our globe, looked at customs and the Chinese way of life, includ-ing foods and clothing.

World Book Day was celebrated in style, as we embraced the Tinga Tinga tale ‘How the Lion Found his Roar’. All the children came in dressed as their favourite book character, and have en-joyed sharing their favourite stories to-gether. The children showed enthusi-asm and enjoyment in the activities in-cluding Dave Arthur the Storyteller, and

creating our own unique lion biscuit.

As we close, we are hugely looking forward to welcoming the children’s Grandparents into school for our annual Grandparents morning. We are looking forward to sharing some of our favourite songs and showing these important people in our children’s lives around the classroom and school.

Have a wonderful Easter, everybody. We look forward to seeing you all in the Summer term, when visiting Blackberry Farm on a coach with our mummies, daddies and/or grandparents on Monday 23 May will be one of our highlights.

Mrs O & Mrs Archer

Reception

Reception welcomed in the new year by learning all about building! We constructed and designed unique buildings out of blocks and cement (grey play-dough).

We have so enjoyed the best view in the school of the new extension going up. Inspired by the 'building' we read all about The Three Little Pigs and their endeavours to build a house. The children used their memories to sequence the story in picture form. We wrote our own sentences about The Three Little pigs using our phonetic knowledge to date. Houses of Straw, Sticks and Bricks can still be seen in Miss Peace's Classroom. The children predicted and made the houses allowing them to decide the best ma-terial for the job.

Looking at the Great Wall of China led nicely onto our new Reception theme, Chinese New Year. The chil-dren became engrossed in the Chi-nese Stories of The Nian and how the Chinese zodiac story came to be. The Spring Chinese festival allowed us to experience different beliefs, stories, music and food.

We would like to thank Mr Kent, Ellie's Daddy, for bringing back from his travels to China two Chinese New Year Decorating sets for RIC and RIH. Our classrooms were decorated beautifully adding atmosphere to our Chinese New Year Feast. We even discovered 'The Magic Paintbrush' by Julia Donaldson. This is a rhyming version of the traditional Chinese sto-ry in which a little child is given a magic paintbrush which will bring to life everything that she paints – pro-vided she only paints things for the poor and needy.

We never know the direction our themes or topics will take as we follow the interests of the children but we now find ourselves learning about the land of dino-saurs and volcanoes. We have learnt some dinosaurs were carnivores (meat-eaters) but most were herbi-vores (plant-eaters). We have found some fun themed songs to help us learn about dinosaurs and their fea-tures. We have also learnt the word Dinosaur comes from an ancient greek word meaning ‘Deinos’ – fear-fully great ‘Sauros’ – a lizard.

From all in the Reception Department we would like to wish you a very Happy Easter!

Year 1

Well a short but extremely produc-tive term in year 1!

We started off with our school trip

to the Geffrye museum to tie in with our history topic of 'Homes in the past'. It was a super trip, full of interesting information and the children were very well behaved.

The Valentine disco was enjoyed by all who went and there were some wonderful outfits.

Since half term we have had World Book Day and the costumes were lovely and the children enjoyed their day moving around the classes doing various activities. The Key stage 1 show was wonderful and they all looked great in their wild flower costumes!

Year 2

It has been a short but very productive spring term.

In Literacy the children have really enjoyed their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory topic. They have created

new sweets and chocolate bars, a new horrid child and an inventing room. They brought all this creativity to-gether to write another chapter for the book.

In Numeracy the children have been partitioning num-bers in to tens and units, finding fractions of numbers, learning the names of 3D shapes and learning to weigh in grams and kilograms and rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and

even thousand! All children continue to work really hard on learning their times tables.

In science we have been planting seeds! The children have been learning that plants can be grown from bulbs and why and how seeds are dispersed, planned, carried out and evaluated an investigation into the con-ditions that affect germination and observed and de-

scribed how a plant changes as it matures.

Our Geography topic this term was ‘India’. The children have been making comparisons between the UK and India and located both on a world map. They are able to explain what the different colours of the Indian flag represent and have looked at the physical and human differences between the two countries. To finish our topic, we went to a local Indian restaurant

where we all enjoyed a delicious Indian lunch!

In History we have been learning about the life of Florence Nightingale. The children are able to ex-plain how Florence improved hospital conditions in Scutari and how she contributed to nursing in her later life.

In DT this term the children designed and made their own hand puppets. The children worked real-ly hard on this project and produced some wonder-ful Ninjas, animal and superhero puppets.

Have a lovely Easter Break and we look forward to seeing you in the summer term.

Mrs Moral, Ms Rodriguez and Miss Woodhams

Year 3

This term has really flown by, and has been packed with activities and new experiences. Your children have settled into the swing of being in the Jun-iors and are now old hands at our daily routines. Highlights of our term have been the visit from Ollie from Steps in Time, who transported us back to Tudor times and made this period come alive for the children. World Book Day was terrific fun and the children all looked absolutely bril-liant. They were transfixed by our story teller, Dave Arthur, who really fired their imaginations. The day was full of fun activities and we hope that they have told you all about it.

We wish you all a very happy Easter break.

Steps In Time

Thursday 11th

February 2016

On Thursday morning we welcomed Steps In Time to The Mead to talk about Tudor times. The first thing he did was introduce himself. He is called

Peasecod and he’s a jester. Peasecod looked for someone to be King Hen-ry VIII and he chose Charlie and we all had to bow or curtsey to him.

Then he talked about Henry’s six wives. He asked five girls and then he asked Freddie which was very funny. He talked about the children that King Henry had, they were called Edward, Mary and Elizabeth.

Then Sir Francis Drake came and talked about the rules that you needed to follow. The first one was that if you said a swear word about the Lord they would throw you over the boat. The second one was that if you got in a fight they would chop your hand off. The third one is that if you tried to be Captain they would tie you up in ropes and throw you over board then rush to the side of the boat and pull you and all the sharp spikes hurt you and if you come up and you’re not dead they would stab you.

The last thing he did was an impression of Queen Elizabeth I and it was very funny. We had to bow or curtsey.

History - By Alyssa Marklew Year 3

The Good Man

Once there was a man who was very unkind to every person he met. Peo-ple who lived on his street tried to avoid him but it was no good. One day the unkind man met an old man and he was just about to beat him up when the man said “do you want friends?” and the unkind man said “yes”. “Well you then have to stop being unkind to people.”

So the unkind man went home and thought all day long, the thought until he went to bed. In his dream he dreamt about helping people and feeling really good. So when he woke up he started writing invitations for a party! Every-body came and the unkind man got more and more happy. After everyone had left he burst into tears of joy. He was so happy! He liked having friends and loved the feeling of kindness. He was the kind man now. Soon every-body loved him. The moral of the story is treat others how you would like to be treated.

RE- By Lottie Kilner Year 3

Year 4

We have had a lovely and busy term! In our English lessons we have been looking at narrative poems and recounts using an array of different texts. We used our Science lessons to learn more about Electricity and the children put a huge amount of work into their collaborative projects. We also learned more about Sound and Light, including making a string tele-phone and learning how to correctly write the results of a science experi-ment.

Pupils have worked very well in maths. Several pupils have reached the Gold Medal award on our Olympic times table board. They have also enjoyed working as a team in investigative maths.

We had a trip to the Unicorn theatre in London to see 'The Minotaur'. It was an excellent production and tied in so well with all the work we had been doing in Histo-ry. We've enjoyed World Book Day activities and a Music Competition.

In Geography we have been studying Eu-rope. This was a good opportunity to con-sider European topics in the news. The children have really enjoyed learning about the EU. They have been very mature when discussing complicated issues linked to the EU referendum.

We look forward to a sunny Summer term!

Miss Seymour and Dr Parr

Year 5

Year 6

This has been another extremely busy term for Year 6. At the beginning of February we had a wonderful visit to the Duke of York’s Theatre to watch a production of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ starring David Troughton. This has been the starting point for some lovely Eng-lish project work and we are also reading the book in class. It has given the children a deeper insight into the experiences of some evacuees during the Second World War and has undoubtedly enhanced their History topic work.

After enormous amounts of hard work, Year 6 finally completed their Isle of Wight projects. The quality of some of the children’s topic books has been exception-al and they have learned a great deal about putting a project of this nature together – something they will find very useful in secondary school.

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ has dominated Year 6 thoughts this term, with lines to learn and numerous rehearsals to perfect technique. This was supported in the classroom during English lessons to ensure that the children had a sound understanding of Shakespeare’s language, char-acters and plot and culminated in taking part in the ISA Drama Competition at Ascot on Friday 4

th

March.

Tuesday 1st March saw everyone allocated their

secondary schools for September, Tuesday 8th

and Wednesday 9th March saw many of the children

acting as ‘Granny Greeters’ and Mead Guides for Grandparents’ Day and Open Day respectively and the term has been rounded off by the Year 6 children taking the lead in the Easter Service.

This has been a full term, packed with exciting activi-ties and experiences and we hope all the children have a super Easter holiday.

Heather Waight & Debbie Latty Year 6 Tutors

Year 6 Maths Certificates

This is the time of year when we concentrate on producing some really ex-cellent maths work. Mead children are confident, adventurous mathemati-cians and, whatever their level, are willing to have a go at something new, knowing that they are always well-supported by their teachers. The following children have been awarded certificates in assembly in recognition of their efforts.

Stanley Fryer, Akiro Takano-Pasbola, Tallulah Walter, Maya Talbot

Daniel Thomson, Montgomery Bird, Sienna Hardie, William McClure

Temi Adenekan, Alfie McNeill, Akshat Pundir, Tabitha Bolter, Claudia Kirk

Alistair McCrae, Isabella Doyle, Amber Jones, Chloe Choudhury

House News

Thackeray

As always, this has been a busy term for Thackeray, with all children

trying hard to earn points for our house. We were thrilled with our results in the inter house tag rugby, where we came second. On going to press, the entire house is rehearsing for the inter house music festival, and individual children have been going to Mr Zerpa-Falcon to sing or play an instrument to earn extra points for their house.

We would like to thank our outgoing house captains, Tabitha Bolter and Brandon Harvey, and our outgoing sports captains, Igor Talbot and Isobel Ames for their hard work this term.

We wish you all a very happy Easter.

Thackeray House Staff

House News—continued:

Chalybeate

Chalybeate have had an excellent term. As we write this, victory in the house point challenge seems unlikely, although scores are close! All our

house members have been making an effort to gain house points by being well mannered and polite as well as working hard. We have done well in the pool as well as in football and netball. Well done everyone.

We are looking forward, not without a little fear and trepidation, to the inter house music festival next term. Well done to everyone for the great effort made and a special well done to our soloist Lily Grace.

Next term we are hoping to have a fund raising activity for ‘Help Tibet’ to raise money for a school in the Himalayas.

We wish you all a very happy and restful Easter.

Chalybeate Staff

Wellington

We have had a very busy and happy term. Our children are working really hard to gain good work points for our house by completing their work, show-ing good manners and being kind to others. Again this term the red flag has been flying for a couple of weeks. Keep up the good work!

Our house has been organising the Sport Relief charity run to raise money. The whole school took part in a sponsored run in their PE lesson and wore something red. As yet we do not know how much we raised but will let you know as soon as we can.

Have a wonderful Easter break and we look forward to see you all again in the Summer term!

Wellington Staff

Friends of the Mead

We’ve had some fantastic FOM events this term.

Our Valentine’s Disco last month was

great fun. Dressed in their party clothes, the children enjoyed bopping away to the tunes of Crazy Mick wearing their ‘Glow Bracelets’. It was wonderful to see children right across the school enjoying themselves so much.

Hot on the heels of the disco we had our Film

Night and Parents’ Soiree (also known as Up-stairs/Downstairs). The children thoroughly enjoyed The Incredibles, snuggled down in their PJs and onesies in the Gym. The pop-corn and pizza went down very well too! Meanwhile, upstairs parents enjoyed a catch up over a glass of wine and canapés. This was a great opportunity for me to introduce myself, and it was lovely to meet those of you who came along.

Our Concert in aid of FOM was an enormous success. Professional pia-nists Anthony Zerpa-Falcon and Jong-Gyung Park kindly shared their amaz-ing talent with us in a piano duet, in-cluding pieces by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. A huge thank you to them both, it really was an incredible evening.

We are looking forward to our Easter Bonnet parade and cake sale next week, which promises to be a colourful and fun occasion.

Looking ahead to next term, we are now starting to think about our Sum-mer Fayre on Sat 18

th June, please do let us know if you are able to help

on the day.

We will be running a weekly ice cream stall on Friday afternoons at 3.30pm, A huge thank you to Mrs Sach who has very kindly offered to run this with the help of our Year 5 students.

Thank you all for your continued support of the FOM events. We couldn’t do it without you!

Ruth Campbell

The Bursar’s Bit

Nearly there, with the building, that is. I did, in fact, write this last term, but this time it is going to happen by hook or by crook! There is, now, only the outside groundworks to complete and I am assured that this will happen quickly. Internally the build is complete and the rooms are looking extremely good and I really hope you all like them as much as we do.

This will mean that when we return to school in April we will revert to entering via the lower gates (lollipop duties will be adjusted accordingly) and into the car park area opposite the new main front door. Kindergarten and Pre- Re-ception will enter via the new side entrance to the right of the building as you are looking at it. All other children are to enter via the main entrance i.e. the new building and on to their cloakrooms / classrooms as appropriate.

Elizabeth and Ruth will be sited in the new office and reception area as you enter the building. Mrs Culley has so enjoyed her stay in the heart of the school she has decided to stay put and her original office wil be converted into a library for all to enjoy.

We have all missed David this term and I will continue to update you on the lollipop crossing as and when I have news. We are currently enjoying our

rota of Nigel, Mr Attigobe, Mr Cobbold, Chris and myself. This will continue until David’s return. Thank you all for bearing with us novice crossers, it is appreciated.

Margaret has also had a break from us this term and we welcome her back to The Mead fully recovered.

On a more usual and day to day issue, I continue with my battle to keep uni-form and kit united with rightful owner. Margaret continues to match children with kit on a daily basis and this does seem to be working. May I please con-tinue to urge you all to take all kit home every week to be washed, sorted and if needs be, renamed so that we can try to keep lost property to a mini-mum. Also please can you name sports kit on the outside of the garment so that it is very clear for us to monitor when kit is walking.

The support staff underpin the school and Anita and her team continue to enjoy their much deserved grade 5 rating from the Food Standards Agency. Thank you to Anita and her team from all who benefit from their labours – delicious!

Nigel Wheeler has this term battled with keeping the school as normal as possible given the build was coming through the walls! He has done a tre-mendous job and it is much appreciated.

Please accept the termly reminder, that invoices are due on or before the first day of next term i.e. 14

th April 2016. Do use electronic transfer where

possible and remember that the transfer may take three working days and to reference your payment with your child’s name.

Looking forward to next year The Directors have carefully considered the school’s expected costs for the forthcoming year. Whilst every effort is be-ing made to maintain or reduce costs where possible, we cannot reduce them all and have again seen price rises in a number of areas. The Direc-tors have therefore decided to make a modest increase in the tuition fees for the coming year. Kindergarten fees will increase by £50 per term to £1,715.00, Reception Infants, Year 1 & 2 fees by £90 per term to £3,155.00 and Years 3 to 6 fees by £100 per term to £3,495.00.

Other activities are being charged at the following rates:

We continue to offer many after school clubs and supervised prep sessions available to all children in Year 3 and above free of charge. These are:

Ballet, Batik, Card Games, Choir, Computer, Construction, Craft, Forest Schools, French Cookery, Glee Club, Judo, Modern & Tap, Meditation, Mo-saics, Poetry, Public speaking, Puzzles, Rollerblading, Sewing, Spanish Culture, Sport and Textiles and Design.

We have our extended wrap around care provision to 6pm within the Munch Bunch and Number One Club session, this is charged pro rata, we also have Early Years staff at every breakfast session to allow for an early drop off for even our youngest children.

Childcare Vouchers

The Mead School does accept childcare vouchers, but would like to draw parents’ attention to the rules surrounding their use. The vouchers can be used for the care fees for a child below the age of 5 and for the after school care fees for children up to the age of 15.

Parking

Please remain vigilant in regards to the parking around the school as we have constant reminders from the council and local residents in this regard sometimes resulting in photographic evidence of poor parking. Please also respect the rule of not entering the car parking area in your vehicle at any time. This is for the safety of our staff and children.

Pupil Insurance

Just to remind you that we do have Pupil Insurance cover for your children should an accident occur. For further details please do contact me.

Policies and Procedures

Please may I take this opportunity to remind you that any policies and pro-cedures you may require to view are shown on our website. If for any rea-son you do not find what you are looking for there, do not hesitate to ask either Elizabeth or myself and we will guide you.

www.meadschool.info/policies/

I wish you all a very relaxing Easter break.

Rebecca Hall

Bursar

CLUBS:

Cookery

This term in Year 3 and 4 Cookery Club we’ve had fun making pancakes, crumble, pasta salad and cookies. We’re looking forward to doing Easter

treats next week. All the children have all enjoyed cookery especially licking out the bowls and tasting their wares!! - Anita

French Cookery - Year 6

French cookery is a club where children learn about cooking and preparing easy dishes as well as working safely in an environment with risks. They work in teams of 2 or 3, having fun.

I am preparing Year 6 children for their entry in Key stage 3: they will have different studying timetables and will be ready to organise, for themselves or even for their family, simple meals to help at home. They learn to cook taking in consideration all the hazards we can find in a kitchen (gas, electricity, knives etc).

Up to now, we have been making starters (soup), main courses (trio of omelettes), desserts and sweet & savoury snacks (cookies, Italian hot chocolate with homemade fresh cream & marshmallows, fruit salads and sweet cream & Nutella sandwiches).

I have been running this club since September 2014 and I am very confident to keep it on going as the children do really enjoy it.—Stéphane CARNOY

Netball

The girls have had an excellent term on the netball court. They have all worked very hard and selecting my team is be-coming a harder decision every year.

In February we went to the annual ISA South Netball Tournament in Lingfield. The standard is always very high and we have suffered heavy defeats there in the past. This year though, the girls played extremely well and every game we played was close. We drew two matches and narrowly lost two. Three schools moved on to the national tournament and two of those were schools who we narrowly lost to – which just goes to show how well the girls did!

Sports Department

Swimming

191 swimming badges were won this term (136 last Easter) across the school and heartfelt congratulations to all pupils who earned their badge.

Our best term by far.

Netball:

This year we had an Under 9 and Under 8 team playing at Skippers Hill. So pleased to see some under 8 playing against strong opposition. Fantastic learning curve.

Sports Fields

For the first time our boys went out of

the school every Wednesday afternoon for Double Games. No contact rugby has been played this term due to the huge amount of rain. We went to Crow-borough Sports Centre instead for an introduction to badminton, discovering some great talent. We managed to play tag rugby at Bayham Field after half term.

Unfortunately our last match against Sacred Heart, Wadhurst had to be can-celled due to bad weather.

New Assistant

With the number of boys increasing, I am very happy to have a second as-sistant coach: Mr William Davis. He has also started a year 2 football club every Wednesday lunch time for boys and girls. Next term, he will also help with Year 3 and 4 double games and tennis.

ISA Tag rugby festival.

For the third time, The Mead School hosted the London and south of Eng-land competition. The competition was again played at the Mead.

Four teams played their best but we did not win our festival this year, giv-

ing the cup to Sacred Heart, Wa-dhurst. The Team played very well and we are still very proud of them.

Inter House Results this term:

Thanks to all parents for the huge improvement in the naming of sports kit this year. This has resulted in lots of ‘good works’ being allocated across the 3 houses.

A big thank you to all parents for supporting their teams and helping us with the driving.

Finally, our family ski trip.

After a great ski trip last year, we are going back to Les 2 Alpes on the 19th

March for a week. Very Good snow conditions are showing for the moment. Booking for next year’s ski trip in September.

We wish you a Good Easter Holiday

Pierre Leroy and the PE department.

Thackeray Wellington Chalybeate

U8 + U9 Tag Rugby

10 20 5

U10 + U11 Tag Rugby

10 5 20

U8 + U9 Netball 10 10 20

U10 + U11 Net-ball

/ / /

Junior Swimming fun races

20 10 20

Infants Swimming fun races

47 39 33

Total 97 Points 84 Points 98 Points

Matches Summer Term 2016

DATE BOYS (CRICKET) GIRLS (ROUNDERS)

WED13 APR No match No match

WED 20 APR No match No match

THUR 21 APR 14.30 U9 cricket

WED 27 APR 14.30 U11 Cricket

WED 4 MAY TW tag rugby festival TW tag rugby festival

WED 11 MAY U11 quick cricket home against sacred heart wadhurst?

THUR 12 MAY U8/u9 Rounders Home

WED 18 MAY U11 rounders

FRI 20 MAY 14h00-15h00 at Goldsmith.

Mead Junior swimming gala

14h00-15h00 at Goldsmith.

Mead Junior swimming gala WED 25 MAY Sports day practice

At school

Sports day practice

At school WED 3 JUNE Half Term Half Term

WED 8 JUNE Sports day practice

At school

Sports day practice

At school MON 13 JUNE 2.15-3.25 Sports day J1-J2

Field events at school WED 15 JUNE 2.15-3.25 Sports day J3-J4

Field events at school THUR 6 JUNE All day Sports day practice at Bayham field

FRI 17 JUNE Year 5 + year 6 Diving Cup.

SAT 18 JUNE 10.00-12.30 Sports day at Bayham field

Summer Fayre

MON 20 JUNE + Inter house Quick Cricket J1 + J2 Afternoon.

WED 22 JUNE 9H00-13H00 J4 windsurfing taster Group 1

13H30-17H00 J4 windsurfing taster Group 2 THUR 23 JUNE 9H00-13H00 J4 windsurfing taster Group 3

13H30-17H00 J4 windsurfing taster Group 4 FRI 24 JUNE Reserve Sports Day: morning at school.

WED 29 JUNE NO MATCHES NO MATCHES

KEY DATES FOR SUMMER TERM 2016

Continued overleaf.

Thursday 14 April Summer Term commences Friday 15 April Reception Transition Meeting for parents of current Pre-Reception at 8.45 am.

No Mini Meadites.

KS2 swimming speed badges. First judo session of term. Monday 18 April Bikeability training this week for Year 6. 3F v 5F football match. 1.30-2.00pm.

First tennis session of term 4.00 – 5.00 pm

E-safety seminar for parents at 7.00 pm Tuesday 19 April Kent Safety in Action for Year 6

Thursday 21 April Friends of the Mead meeting at 8.40 am in the dining room Friday 22 April KS2 swimming speed badges Monday 25 April Forest School for Kindergarten, Pre-Reception & Reception at Hargate For-

est. Yr 4 v 5F football match 1.30 – 2.00 pm

Bikeability training this week for Year 6.. Yr 4 v 5F football match.

Tuesday 26 April Year 6 trip to the Houses of Parliament & National Gallery Thursday 28 April Rescheduled LAMDA Exams - To be confirmed Friday 29 April Rescheduled LAMDA Exams - To be confirmed Monday 2 May Bank Holiday Monday – school closed Wednesday 4 May Tunbridge Wells Tag Rugby Festival 12.00 noon – 5.00 pm

Thursday 5 May Inter House Music Competition at 2.00 pm Monday 9 May KS2 SATS Monday – Thursday

5A v 6L football match Tuesday 10 May Sensational Science for whole school Friday 13 May Year 6 long distance swimming badges

Monday 16 May 3F v 6w football match 1.30 – 2.00 pm

Tuesday 17 May Early Years’ Spring Concert at 9.00 am

Wednesday 18 May

Years 3 & 4 LAMDA Concert for parents at 4.00 pm

Thursday 19 May Panoramic photograph of the whole school

Years 5 & 6 LAMDA Concert for parents at 4.00 pm Friday 20 May Junior Swimming Gala 2.00 – 3.00 pm at Freedom Leisure

Film Night & Parents’ Soiree Monday 23 May Kindergarten & Pre-Reception visit to Blackberry Farm

Yr 4 v 6W football match 1.30 – 2.00 pm Thursday 26 May Open Day from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon & 2.15 to 3.15 pm

Friday 27 May Break up for half-term from school at 12.00 noon Monday 6 June Return to school. Football match – semi-final no.1 1.30-2.00 pm

Wednesday 8 June

Year 3 trip to Michelham Priory – will return to school by 3.30 pm

Friday 10 June Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations

Years 3, 4 & 5 distance swimming badges Monday 13 June Years 3 & 4 field events 2.15-3.30 pm – parents welcome Tuesday 14 June Infants to finish swimming badges Wednesday 15 June

Last swimming session for Kindergarten & Pre-Reception

Years 5 & 6 field events 2.15-3.30 pm – parents welcome Thursday 16 June

Sports Day practice

Friday 17 June Years 5 & 6 diving cup

Saturday 18 June Sports Day 10.00 am to 12.00 noon at the Bayham Playing Fields followed by the Summer Fayre from 12.00 noon to 2.30 pm

Sunday 19 June Judo grading Monday 20 June Forest School for Kindergarten, Pre-Reception & Reception.

Year 4 transition meeting for parents of current Year 3 at 8.30 am

Years 1 & 2 trip to Godstone Farm. Football match semi-final 2 1.30-2.00

Tuesday 21 June ‘The Life of Christ’ at Wintershall Estate – trip for Years 3, 4, 5 & 6.

Parents can view Infants’ swimming (no photos or videos)

Wednesday 22 June

Year 2 transition meeting for parents of current Year 1 at 8.30 am

Windsurfing for Year 6 Thursday 23 June Year 1 transition meeting for parents of current Reception at

8.30 am. Modern & tap exams – to be confirmed. Windsurfing for Year 6.

Friday 24 June Alternative Sports Day at school if wet on Saturday 18 June

Monday 27 June Early Years Fathers’ Day – for fathers of Kindergarten, Pre-Reception & Reception children. Football final 1.30-2.00 pm.

Last tennis session. Tuesday 28 June Year 3 transition meeting for parents of current Year 2 at 8.30 am

New Children’s Morning

Infants’ Fun Swim. Wednesday 29 Year 5 transition meeting for parents of current Year 4 at 8.30 am

Thursday 30 June Bushcraft for Years 3 & 4 at Penshurst from 30 June – Sat 2 July

Year 6 transition meeting for parents of current Year 5 at 8.30 am

Friday 1 July Juniors’ Fun Swim Monday 4 July Trinity Week – children rehearsing for Summer Show each day

Friday 8 July Summer Shows Saturday 9 July Prizegiving & Summer Show

Tuesday 12 July Leavers’ Service at 11.15 am at King Charles the Martyr Church – parents are invited to attend.

School breaks up for Summer Holidays from the church at 12.00 noon

15 – 18 July Summer Activity Holiday at the PGL Centre at Liddington

13 July – 5 August Holiday Club

I hope you all enjoy a lovely Easter break and return to school in summer uniform ready to enjoy all a summer term offers.

With kind regards,