Prep Blog:Transition Time

Bushcraft

Due to end of year exams and academic assessments, the weeks just before and after half term can sometimes seem hard going in the Summer Term. So it’s refreshing that now that most of the tough stuff that keeps them indoors is behind them, Prep pupils have been able to make the most of the lovely weather we have been enjoying by getting out into the open air.  

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Every Prep year group has enjoyed a sunny trip out of school in the past week or two.  8s and 9s have both enjoyed visits to the fantastic nature study resource we have on our doorstep in the shape of the Wetlands Centre, while the 11s were able to enrich their Geography studies by embarking on a Field trip to investigate the River Tillingbourne in the Surrey Hills (below) with the help of Geographers from the Juniper Hall Field Studies Centre.

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For the 10s and the 12s the excursions have been longer. The 10s travelled to Oxfordshire on the annual Bushcraft trip  –  three days in which the learning programme ranges across everything from First Aid and survival skills to pizza making and salmon smoking (see images at top).  Meanwhile, the 12s have been marking the conclusion of their years with us in the Prep and preparing for their transition into Senior school life by embarking on a residential trip to Dorset.

Transition is a key focus for the Prep team in the summer, especially for pupils making the move up from Pre-Prep into the 8s next term. On Friday 8th June, we held a special transition morning at which PP3 pupils joined this year’s 8s for a series of special challenges in different contexts – drama, computer coding and design – all focusing on the theme of constructive change. The one shown here involved 'morphing' monsters out of plasticine.

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The transition process is also built into the Prep summer term timetable. Since half term, pupils in PP3 have been with our 8s for afternoon and morning sessions of ‘taster’ lessons in their twos and threes, with each visitor partnered during his or her visit by an 8s buddy. By the end of term, all our Pre-Prep pupils will have visited us to experience the day to day realities of learning and life so all of them are primed and ready to go when they step over the Prep threshold in September.