HPS Headlines

Dear Parents,

Following my communication about the school’s most recent ISI report and the substantial work we have been doing in this regard, I am pleased to announce that our first mock inspection went very well. We believe we are very much ready for the ISI return and hope they will visit us again early in 2025.

I also write to update you on a few staffing matters, which I hope you find useful. Some of these refer to historical staff moves, but I understand that some parents were not aware of these at the time.

• Ms Muller left the school at the end of the last academic year, to take up a role in another school.
• Ms Alcobia is currently on maternity leave and welcomed a healthy baby girl earlier this term. She will return towards the end of the academic year, July 2025.
• Mrs Field, Assistant Head (Head of Lower School), will be returning from her maternity leave in January 2025.
• I am sorry to say that Mrs Harris, one of our wonderful Teaching Assistants, is leaving Homefield in January after seven years to pursue a new career in the NHS. Many children have benefitted from Mrs Harris’s care over the years – she will be missed, and we wish her all the best in the future.
• Miss Adamson and Mrs Griffith are both currently away from school unwell and should return to school by the end of the Autumn Term. In their absence, please contact:
  • Mrs Crook for any academic matters.
  • Ms Fitzgerald for any musical matters.
  • Ms Read for any language queries.
• Finally, I am sorry to announce that Mrs Colgate is retiring from teaching after a career spanning 25 years in education. Mrs Colgate has worn a number of hats during her eight years at Homefield, including Head of English, and most recently Assistant Head Academic, and she will be missed. Mrs Colgate plans to concentrate on her family and pursue her wider interests beyond the realm of education and we wish her all the best in her new ventures.

All the best for the weekend,

Mr Hammond

English & Drama: .

In drama, Year 3 have been exploring a range of playscripts, experimenting with varying characterisation whilst developing their performance techniques. In English, Year 4 have been developing their creative writing skills whilst Year 5 are recapping and extending their knowledge and understanding of critical analysis techniques. Mrs Auty ran a special lesson with Miss Finch's Year 6 class, hosting the Macbeth's banquet depicted in Act III complete with music, food and a visit from a ghostly spectre! Year 7 have been writing high-quality analytical essays by examining key moments in Lord of the Flies. In their drama lessons, Year 8 have extended their understanding of gothic literature by acting out Sherlock Holmes' most famed (and terrifying!) case: The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Geography:

In Geography, there has been lots of exciting learning happening! Year 2 have been learning about maps and why we use them. Year 3 have been exploring the wider world and focusing on Europe. Year 4 have been learning about land height and completing their fieldwork investigation to help them develop a sense of place. Year 5 have been learning about development across the world and analysing why this varies. Year 6 have been learning about employment structures and its history.

Year 7 have been looking at the impacts of tectonic events and are about to present their research. Congratulations to Year 8 for all their hard work and determination during the Common Entrance mock exams.

History:

Year 1 have been greatly enjoying their travel and transport topic, whizzing through time. Further up the school, Year 3 have been showing great endeavour in their Stone Age Britain learning. Their designs for Mesolithic camps have been very creative! Year 5 are considering what life was like under William the Conqueror for the Anglo Saxons and Year 8 have been working extremely hard on their Common Entrance mock exams. Well done boys!

Maths:

Year 3 have been looking at the formal written method for both addition and subtractions and applying this to reasoning and problem solving and to check misconceptions. Year 4 have been consolidating their understanding of multiplication and division and challenging themselves to use squared, cube and prime numbers while making links to factors and multiples. Year 5 have been learning about squared and cube numbers and exploring standard index form expressions. Year 6 have been investigating negative number including double negatives in written calculations with all 4 operations as well as positive and negative coordinates in the 4 quadrants.

Science:

Year 3 have had great fun carrying out scientific investigations in the labs; they especially enjoyed the bubbles investigation where they experimented with different bubble mixtures to find out which produces the best bubbles! Year 4 have been learning how to light a Bunsen burner in order to gain the coveted 'Bunsen burner license'. Year 5 are investigating parachutes and the different factors that can affect how quickly a parachute falls. Year 6 are continuing the circulatory system topic and have investigated how different exercises affect their pulse rates, and which exercises would be best to boost fitness. Year 7 have investigated the factors that affect the diffusion of tea, and have learnt about Brownian motion. Year 8 have completed their biology, chemistry, and physics mock exams, and are picking up where they left off with their lessons on either photosynthesis or electronics.

STEAM:

In the Upper School boys have been enjoying a range of projects. Year 6 are well underway making model circuits, while Year 5 are embarking on a new competition related to climate change. Following our engineer visit, Year 3 and 4 are currently researching ideas for the Leaders Award Competition, where they have to identify problem and propose an engineering based solution. Well done for all the hard work this week!

TPR:

In the Lower School, boys in Year 1 have continued to learn about the Nativity story and the significance of gifts. In Year 2, the boys have been learning about what parables are and have been exploring the emotions felt be onlookers in Biblical stories.

Nursery:

Our youngest boys have been learning about their 5 senses over the last few weeks. They have explored their senses in a range of activities such as making playdough (mixing with their hands), cutting and tasting fruit kebabs, practising their listening skills as they walked around the school and playing a game of 'I Spy' to sharpen their sight.

Reception:

In the past 2 weeks, the boys in Reception have thoroughly thrown themselves into learning about the world around them. We have learnt about past and present events that are celebrated throughout the world including Diwali, Bonfire Night and Remembrance Day. I have to say that I am extremely impressed with the respect that the boys have shown whilst learning about these events.

The boys also had the opportunity to jump back into history and meet some dinosaurs on Dinosaur Day! A paleontologist came into our classroom to teach us all about dinosaurs, fossils and extinction. It was a fantastic workshop and the boys loved exploring the Dino age and even got to find some of their own fossils!

Literacy:

We have been focusing on another aspect of Literacy, learning about what a 'fact' is. The boys have spent some time learning about Remembrance Day and poppies reflecting on why we remember the soldiers from the war. They were tasked with remembering a fact that they had learnt and writing one down in their Literacy books. This was a tricky task as they were encouraged to try and write a short sentence instead of individual words. It took a little longer than normal, but they thought of some incredible facts and concentrated so hard to put their sentences together, some examples were: 'Poppies were the first flower to grow after the war.' 'We remember the men who fight.'

Maths:

The boys were introduced to a ten frame, a new method to help them with addition and number bonds. We spent lots of time learning to visually represent number bonds using compare bears, sorting toys, chains etc. The boys understood that each colour represented a certain number and that we needed 2 colours to create their number bond. After some practice, they started to become much more confident to create number bonds independently, some even writing out the sums!

Year 1:

The weeks are flying by and we are all getting excited for the Christmas countdown. The boys have been busy preparing for their Christmas nativity performance of ‘The Innkeepers Breakfast’ and cannot wait to show you how talented they all are. We are all so impressed with their professionalism and ability to remember lines, sing multiple songs with actions and know exactly where they need to be at a given time. Well done, Years 1 and 2!

In English, we have been looking at a new story called ‘King of the Classroom’. The boys have looked carefully at the details of the story, sequencing it and identifying the characters in the story. In maths, we have worked hard understanding the concept of adding 2, 2 digit numbers using the partitioning method then we moved onto subtraction using the first, then and now method. In science, we have learnt about animals that migrate and those that hibernate throughout the colder months. This week’s focus has been on the life cycle of a human and a frog. Thank you to all parents who attended our virtual parent’s consultations, we hope you found all the information useful and are as proud of the boys as we are!

Year 2:

It was great to meet all of our Year 2 parents at our recent parent consultations. It was a pleasure to share how the boys have been getting on so far, their strengths and targets moving forward.

The boys have continued to show positivity and engagement in their learning across all curriculum areas.

In maths, the boys have been developing their confidence using the written column method when adding and subtracting. In English, the boys have been planning to write their diary entry based on our text 'The Magic Finger'. In history, the boys have been learning about the Gunpowder Plot and the problems faced by the plotters and in geography, they have been exploring different types of maps and the main features and their importance when map reading. In TPR, the boys have been learning about parables in the Bible and their significance for Christians today.

The boys have also shown outstanding engagement in our Nativity performance rehearsals and we are looking forward to having you watch them in their final performance very soon!

Nursery: Dev - for resilience when faced with new challenges or situations, and Eesa - for demonstrating kindness towards his friends and teachers.

Reception: Laurence - for being one of our most reliable boys, always demonstrating our Homefield values and being a great role model to his peers, and Aari - for always trying his best in all of his lessons and making excellent contributions during our class discussions.

Year 1: Azai - for always showing our Homefield value of integrity and being a good role model to his peers, Robbie - for trying extremely hard with his reading and writing, Shrey - for always showing integrity and setting a great example, and Luke - for always demonstrating our Homefield value of endeavour.

Year 2: Clement - for always doing his best to show integrity at all times and Rishaan for always endeavouring to do his best and demonstrating our Homefield values in all that he does, and Theo - for showing integrity and setting good examples and Ishaan for showing endeavour by working very hard in all of his lessons.

Year 3: Ali - for increased effort in STEAM demonstrating our Homefield value of endeavour.

Year 4: Rahul - for his endeavour in lessons to try his best and challenge his understanding of concepts when working through in-depth tasks.

Year 5: Ted - for hard work in science and supporting his peers with their learning.

Year 6: Samuel - for showing endeavour in history by listening and engaging in all learning attentively.

Year 7: Brendan - for being part of a discussion panel and representing the school. Brendan has shown lots of integrity and determination, and Rudy - for showing kindness and initiative when he helped an injured child on the playground. Rudy has also been extremely supportive towards his peers.

Year 8: Zaidan - for consistently showing integrity towards his peers and demonstrating a respectful attitude, and Keller for endeavour and his resilience in his learning; especially during recent exams.

Thursday 5th December: Christmas Carol Concert Years 4 – 8 @ Trinity Church.

Friday 6th December: Year 3 Christmas Concert at 3.15pm.

Tuesday 10th December: Nursery and Reception Christmas Concert 8.30am.

Tuesday 10th December: Years 1 and 2 Christmas Concert 2.30pm.

Thursday 12th December: Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Lunch.

Dear Parents,

We would like to take a moment to thank you for all your continued support this term. It has been wonderful to watch the children engage in so many exciting activities, including learning about energy saving, anti-bullying, and road safety, to name just a few.

It has been especially lovely to see the older children welcoming the Reception and Nursery children into club with such kindness and enthusiasm. Their warmth and care for one another is a true reflection of the community we are building here at Orchard Childcare.

We were also thrilled to see so many Homefield children join us for our October Half Term Holiday Club. Thank you for trusting us with your children during this time. Our next holiday club will be in February, and we hope to see even more of you there!

As always, if you have any questions or would like to get in touch, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Carla

Orchard Childcare

We kindly remind all parents using the morning *Stop and Drop* facility to remain in their cars during drop-off. Our Estates staff will be on hand to escort your son safely into school. This ensures a smooth and safe process for all boys.

If you prefer to walk your son to the school entrance, we ask that you park safely a short distance away from the school and walk him in. This helps maintain a safe environment for everyone on the school site.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in keeping our school community safe!

Western Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 2TE

+44 020 8642 0965

administration@homefieldprep.school