HPS Headlines

As we come to the end of another half-term, I am delighted to reflect on the huge range of fantastic learning opportunities our boys have enjoyed - from action-packed residential trips, to our phenomenal Peri-Proms - our boys have been buzzing with enthusiasm and creativity.

Most parents will be aware of this by now, but we are excited to announce the re-opening of our nursery provision from September 2024 for boys aged 3 and up. Any parents wishing to book a tour should contact Dipal in the office.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to our dedicated teachers for their relentless effort, expertise, and dedication towards delivering a first-class education. I also want to express my gratitude to our parents and carers for their continued positive engagement with the school - your support and collaboration are invaluable. Additionally, my thanks go to our governors and partners for their unwavering support and guidance, which help us to strive for excellence in all we do.

This half-term, we had the privilege of celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week. Our boys participated in a range of activities designed to raise awareness of mental health, providing them with the tools and understanding to support their well-being. A reminder to everyone that support is always available, and we encourage our boys to reach out whenever they need to.

Finally, I wish everyone an enjoyable bank holiday weekend and a restful half-term break. We look forward to welcoming the boys back, refreshed and ready for more exciting learning adventures.

Best wishes,

Sam Naismith

Head

Art & DT: The boys are approaching the finishing stages of their projects. Year 3 are currently experimenting with food colouring and photography, Year 4 are applying some lovely teak oil to their picture frames, Year 5 are laser cutting some decorative elements for their bento boxes, Year 6 are assembling their maze games while Year 7 and 8 dabble with refining oil paints.

Computing: In computing the boys have been exploring a variety of topics concerned with online safety. These topics have included: what to do if something unexpected happens when they're online; why certain apps have minimum age limits on sign-ups; how to spot and avoid phishing emails; use of emoji and how they can be misconstrued; how data analytics works on "big data" and content and licensing laws. The boys have provided some very insightful comments as we discuss how they can stay safe as they navigate our online world.

English: Year 3 have been exploring the process of writing, staging, and performing their own scripts in the style of a news report: they are using ‘Hansel and Gretel’ as inspiration. Year 4 have been exploring what love is through similes and metaphors - and writing their own love poems as the Prince to Cinderella. Year 5 have explored the different themes in 'The Girl of Ink and Stars' and presented their findings to the class. Year 6 have been recapping the key skills required for tackling comprehension and creative writing tasks with aplomb. Year 7 have become increasingly familiar with Arthur Conan Doyle’s specific and engaging style of writing. Year 8 have been preparing for Common Entrance: best of luck boys!

French: Reception have been using the well-known story 'The Lady who Swallowed a Fly" to learn new vocabulary and phrases, practicing their accent and pronunciation of words with Madame Delhalle. In the meantime, the rest of Lower School have been tackling fruit, vegetables, and the weather, singing songs and playing games to help make the language more familiar. Upper School have been working on their tenses including the present tense in Year 4, the past tense in Year 6 and the future tense in Year 5!

Geography: In our geography lessons the boys are continuing to have lots of discussions focused upon environment and sustainability. Year 3 have been looking at biodiversity around our school. Year 4 have been focusing on tectonics and looking at earthquakes! Year 5 have been learning about the features of rivers. Year 6 have been focusing on the coast and exploring coastal living. Year 7 are developing their existing knowledge of rivers. Year 8 are revisiting tectonics and are working hard to prepare for their exams. Some of the boys in year 5 have been selected to take part in a Geography Masterclass at Epsom College. A huge well done to all the boys who are not only working hard but are asking lots of thought-provoking questions about the topics they are exploring.

History: The Iron Age has arrived in Year 3! The boys completed their own timelines showing where the Celts fit into Britain's history and discussed how Celtic lands changed over time across Europe. In Year 4, we are nearing the end of the Anglo-Saxon unit by exploring how kingdoms at the time were converted to Christianity. Year 5 enjoyed a virtual Q&A with the only Maya archaeologist, Doctor Diane Davies, in the UK!

Maths: Upper School boys have been busy revising and consolidating key units in preparation for the summer term assessments. Years 7 and 8 have completed numerous past papers for Common Entrance; they have worked exceptionally hard on their individual targets and should be incredibly proud of their resilience and dedication to their studies. Year 6 have been busy studying direct proportion and scale factors. Year 5 have been exploring different time zones and reading timetables - it's always important to catch that flight! Year 4 have delved deeper into angles, drawing on their existing knowledge to find missing angles within quadrilaterals and composite and compound shapes. Well done boys for all your hard work.

P.E: Over the last fortnight, boys in Year 3, 4, and 5 have all had fantastic outdoor and adventurous activities including climbing, abseiling, archery, orienteering, obstacle courses, and marshmallows by the campfire! Back at school, the Reception, Year 1, and 2 have been practicing for sports day, and as I write these notes, the foam javelin is being launched by the Year 1 boys with great gusto. In cricket, the Year 3 Red team remains unbeaten having won against The Hawthorns! An accomplishment that hasn't been seen in six years.

The U13 boys first team beat the visiting Cumnor House team, and the school hosted a cricket festival for local state primary schools. This afternoon the fiirst of five tennis fixtures will begin as the U13s are playing against Kingswood House. The weather is warming up and we urge all boys to have a fantastic sporting half-term holiday.

Science: The labs have been a hive of activity over the past couple of weeks with a huge array of practical work from Year 4 carrying out an investigation to determine which citrus drink contains the most vitamin C to Year 8 looking at thermal decomposition by heating copper sulphate crystals as part of their physical and chemical reactions unit. Year 3 are continuing to investigate soil permeability, Year 5 have enjoyed carrying out solubility investigations and learning about the solar system, and Year 6 are getting to grips with series and parallel electrical circuits. In Year 7, one class has started their ecology unit and are looking at the interactions between living things, whilst the other class is learning about separating techniques such as chromatography. Our science technician is being kept very busy indeed!

STEAM: The boys have been continuing their projects over the past two weeks. Year 1 has assembled the base and frame of their polytunnels, Year 2 is looking forward to receiving their Crest Awards. Year 3 has made good progress with their fairground builds while Year 4 is reinforcing the idea of adjusting the frames per second in animation by making flicker books. Year 5 has continued their carousel of magnification, Lego, and microbits work while Year 6 has explored how animals are adapted to their environment as part of their evolution topic.

TPR: Year 1 have been continuing to learn about various celebrations and festivals in different faiths. In Year 2 the boys have been developing their knowledge of different places of worship in different faiths. Year 3 Have been studying the theme of 'Chosen by God in relation to Moses and Samuel. Year 4 Have been examining the advantages of free trade as argued by David Hume. Year 5 Have been exploring Mill's ideas on free choice. Year 6 have been continuing to learn about biblical stories. Year 7 have been discussing the ethics of war.

Literacy: Our focus book has been Sharing a Shell, and we have been discussing the different ways we can be kind to one another. The boys wrote sentences explaining how they could be a good friend to someone and also completed a random act of kindness for their homework. To help the boys with their teamwork, we have been playing board games and completing really tricky puzzles in small groups. It has been wonderful to see the boys come together and work as one big team over the last couple of weeks.

Maths: In Maths, we have been learning all about ordinal numbers. We have learnt that "Ordinal numbers tell us the position of something" - Shrey. The boys have been having races on the field and telling each other their positions, as well as racing the remote control cars. We have had so much fun with ordinal numbers, and it has been fantastic to turn Maths into a really physical subject this week!

Mrs Godly was so impressed with the entries to her Lower School English competition, which just shows how passionate our boys are about reading and writing. Congratulations to John in Year 2, who came in 1st place, earning his house 10 points; Ariz M in Year 1, who came in 2nd place, earning his house 5 points; and Tarin in Reception, who came in 3rd place, earning his house 2 points. Well done to our winners.

Year 1 have continued learning about fractions and have focused on ½, 1/3, and ¼. See if you can use these during your half-term holiday. If you are celebrating a birthday, can you divide your cake or share some treats so you get a quarter of the total? In English, we have been looking at a new text called Sulwe. The boys enjoyed writing positively about themselves and found the story different from others we have focused on previously. It gave us the opportunity to celebrate us all as individuals, as we are all different and all special.

In Year 2, the boys have continued to develop their understanding of formal and informal writing features in English. The boys have been preparing to write a formal letter to Mr Smith regarding the possible purchase of more playground equipment! In Maths, the boys have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. They have been recognising and describing their properties and developing their problem-solving and reasoning skills. In eography, the boys have continued to deepen their understanding of natural disasters. They designed and made their own volcanoes out of recycled materials! In Science, we have been making hypotheses based on chemical reactions. We conducted a practical experiment with Coke and Mentos to imitate a volcanic eruption! In History, the boys have been deepening their understanding of historic change-makers. Most recently, the boys learned about Ignatius Sancho, who grew up in slavery but was able to turn his life around and become successful in the arts.

Reception: In RH, Robbie for being creative and speaking about rockpool creatures. Also in RH, Adam, for being so resilient this week and adapting his activities.

Year 1: In 1H, Oliver for excellent persistence and resilience when learning about fractions in maths and Ariz for brilliant explanations and lots of enthusiasm in all lessons. In 1S, Clement for his resilience when working even if he finds the task challenging and Rishaan for a beautiful piece of positive writing.

Year 2: In 2S, Subir for his fantastic contributions to our volcanoes topic and Connor for contributing excellently to our shared writes! In 2H, William for being a fantastic positive role model and Kylesh for fantastic effort, always listening and being helpful!

Year 3: In 3S, Zayn for his respectful and polite behaviour, Yohaan for putting lots of effort into his learning and being kind to others, and Rahul for his excellent leadership skills during group work.

In 3H, Alex for his fantastic focus and hard work in History lessons, Zien for his positive attitude and treating others respectfully, and Advik for his positive attitude and always trying his best in lessons.

Year 4: In Year 4, for impressing their activity leaders for their teamwork, resilience, and positivity on the residential trip to Hindleap Warren: Hussain, Gianluca, Charlie, Abhir, Ayaan, and Arjun!

Year 5: The following received crests and Homefield Hero awards for their efforts and enthusiasm on the residential trip! In 5H, Antoine, Nathan, Dakarayi, Yusuf, and Zayn. In 5S, Leo, Easan, and Kaylan. In 5P, Shivansh and Daniel.

Year 6: In 6H, Aled for his perseverance and resilience in mathematics. In 6S, Rudy for his efforts and enthusiasm in School council meetings and Aarush, who has been working incredibly hard in science recently. He is currently studying electricity and he was able to award himself the 'gold star' learning objective at the end of a recent lesson.

Year 7: In Year 7, Arthur - This was a recommendation from Mr Edwards, who has been especially impressed with Arthur's effort in hardball cricket, as it's new to him.

Year 8: The whole year group have all been working hard in preparation for their Common Entrance summer exams. Mrs Auty noted how mature and focused they were in a lesson she was taking.

Well done to Faiz in year 5 for completing his Japanese bento box!

Homefield invited Cheam Fields School and Cuddington Croft School for a cricket festival. A fantastic morning of fun pairs cricket with parents and neighbouring schools attending. Homefield Blue Team were the winners of the event!

Year 3: The Red team won against Aberdour, scoring 228. Homefield responded with a score of 280. The Blue team scored 240, but Aberdour won that match by scoring 260.

Pair of the Match: Aarya for the Reds and Yohaan for the Blues.

In the dynamic realm of physical education, we often celebrate the physical benefits of exercise, teamwork, and skill development. However, it is crucial to recognise the profound impact that physical education can have on the mental well-being of students. In the United Kingdom, schools are increasingly embracing a holistic approach to education, placing a renewed emphasis on the mental health and well-being of students within the context of physical education. This shift not only nurtures healthier bodies but also empowers young minds, creating a foundation for lifelong well-being.

One of the first steps in fostering mental health in physical education is creating a supportive and inclusive environment. Physical education teachers play a pivotal role in cultivating a positive atmosphere where students feel safe to express themselves and take risks. By fostering a sense of belonging, physical education can become a space where students not only enhance their physical skills but also develop resilience and confidence.

At Homefield Preparatory school this approach is at the heart of our planning, our lessons and in extra-curricular sports clubs. Homefield SEN department have dedicated ‘My Space’ sessions which allow boys to express feelings and talk through issues. ‘My Space’ is a scheme that is on offer to support students, either individually or in groups, with regard to their emotional health and sense of wellbeing. Pupils who attend have the opportunity for additional contact time with a supportive adult to talk through any anxieties or concerns they may have, before considering how to regulate their emotions and move forward positively whilst applying strategies they have learnt.

Recognising the interconnectedness of physical and mental health, Homefield has introduced mindfulness practices into our physical education curriculum. Mindfulness, with its focus on being present in the moment, helps students develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, and stress reduction. Simple breathing exercises and taking time in a lesson to recognise a feeling can seamlessly integrate into physical education classes. This approach allows students valuable tools to navigate the challenges of both school and life. Pupils who need extra support are encouraged to attend small group sessions that focus on how sport can change a person’s mood and the ways in which someone can deal with success and failure.

Promoting Inclusivity and Individual Progress:

Inclusive physical education programs contribute significantly to mental well-being by fostering a sense of acceptance and belonging among students. Homefield PE Teachers are encouraged to embrace diverse learning styles and abilities, adapting their lessons to cater to the unique needs of each student. This approach not only ensures that every student can actively participate but also emphasizes the importance of individual progress over competition, reducing performance-related stress and anxiety.

It is important that pupils get the opportunity to build resilience through physical challenges, and physical education at Homefield offers a unique platform to instil resilience and a growth mind set in students. By introducing age-appropriate physical challenges and encouraging students to embrace failure as a part of the learning process, PE teachers can help them develop resilience and perseverance. The skills learned on the playing field can be translated into real-life situations, equipping students to face challenges with confidence and adaptability.

The role of physical education teachers extends beyond the realm of sports and fitness. They are also valuable mentors and advocates for their students’; mental well-being. Creating an open and non-judgmental space for students to share their thoughts and feelings is essential. By fostering honest and supportive dialogue, physical education teachers can identify signs of stress or mental health struggles early on, providing the necessary support and resources. The main challenge at Homefield as with any wellbeing project is how to gather reliable data on the progress of each pupil.

It is clear that the way each each pupil feels, minute by minute and day by day, is individualistic, and although we have implemented pupil surveys, quantative data is hard to collect. However the anecdotal benefits from academic colleagues suggests that we are on the right path and the benefits are not just altruistic from the schools view point people gain real life strategies to deal with their own personal mental wellbeing. In the evolving landscape of education, the importance of nurturing both the body and mind is more evident than ever. Physical education in school is now embracing this holistic approach, recognizing that the benefits extend far beyond the playing field. By fostering a supportive environment, incorporating mindfulness practices, promoting inclusivity, building resilience, and encouraging open dialogue, physical education teachers are becoming instrumental in shaping not only healthier bodies but also resilient, confident, and mentally well-balanced individuals ready to face the challenges of the future.

Written by,

Mr Matthews

Director of Sport.

A note to parents that the deadline for registering for entry to Eton in 2027 is the 30th June 2024. Please click on the link below for the application form:

https://application.etoncollege.com/.

As we dive into a new week at Orchard, we’re excited to announce our theme of exploration: Space! Our little astronauts will be embarking on an intergalactic journey, discovering the wonders of the cosmos through engaging activities and creative adventures.

We hope they enjoy every moment of this cosmic exploration! With hopes for sunny skies ahead, we encourage our little explorers to embrace the sunshine and engage with nature, play, and outdoor learning. If you would like to enrol your son into Orchard Childcare, please visit:

https://www.homefield.sutton.sch.uk/school-life/wraparoundcare

🎫 Tickets available from the 3rd June!

Volunteers Needed for Homefield Association Summer Fair

The Homefield Association is excited to host the Summer Fair on Saturday, June 29th, from midday to 2.00pm. This event is a fantastic opportunity for our community to come together, have fun, and raise funds. To make this event successful, we urgently need volunteers.

Whether you can help on the day or assist with preparations in the weeks leading up to it, your time and effort will be highly valued.

To volunteer please contact the Homefield Association: homefieldassociation@hotmail.co.uk

We're delighted to announce that we managed to raise a grand total £1522.07 for The Diamond Centre (https://www.diamondcentre.org.uk/) during International Week. Thank you so much to every single boy, parent and staff member who contributed to such an enjoyable and successful event! ~ Mrs Auty and Miss Read.

Western Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 2TE

+44 020 8642 0965

administration@homefieldprep.school