NP News

Headmaster Writes

Welcome back to the new school year, the 96th in the school’s illustrious history. We extend a special welcome to all our new staff and families, trusting that your time with us will be enriched with great enjoyment as well as personal fulfilment. As we return to established routines and activities, we have chosen “joyfulness” as our word of the week. We have been encouraging the children to enjoy whatever they have been doing, to appreciate the gifts in their lives as well as inothers, to have a good sense of humour and to experience an inner peace even when life presents us with challenges.

We have so much to be thankful for as we enter an exciting time of preparation following our successful planning appeal in July to convert the old barn into a theatre for the performing arts. Thank you for all those who wrote to the planners in support of our appeal. As part of the scheme, we also intend to convert the pavilion into a new music school and extend the sports hall to accommodate new changing rooms, showers and office space.   I will keep you fully informed as our plans take shape this term. The start date could possibly be as early as January 2007 and the works will take approx. eleven months.

Kind regards, as always

Key Stage 3 News

Clubs, life skills, instrumental lessons and learning support have all resumed together with a full academic timetable. Rugby trials, Year 7 CATs tests, Year 8 interview practice and fieldwork projects have been the priority. Pupils have received badges to go with their positions of responsibility. Congratulations to pupils selected as Librarians, Ambassadors or House Officers. David Randall and Shrenik Sanghrajka are the School Captains, Michael Hibbert is Head Librarian, Greshan Rasiah is Head Chorister and Peter Sinderberry is Captain of Rugby. Savan Shah (Y8) and Lawrence Ho (Y8) have been awarded their School Colours for musical excellence, both having achieved their Grade 5 in external music examinations. For the record, the following boys have been elected as Form Captains for the Autumn Term: Sam Jones(7B), Bashir Langhi (7W), Michael Hibbert (8MS) and Shivarth Patel (8RW).
The final accolades go to our Year 7 Golfers (2nd in U12 team event) and, in particular, Bradley Henwood for winning the prestigious ‘Stowe Putter’ tournament in August. We enjoyed seeing Year 7 Parents at the information meeting this week and look forward to your support of school matches, the Communion Service (Fri 23rd Sept.) or the Coffee Morning (Fri 30th Sept.).

Key Stage 2 News

The new school year has started well. We welcome 38 new boys into Year 3 and Lukas Sakamoto (3B). Angus Amour (3E) and Tsukasa Yamano (6F) & James Ozden (6G) as new boys into Northwood Prep. We also welcome Miss Stuart who will be teaching Mathematics to years 5 & 6 and will be Form Auntie to Y5K, and Mr Wood who will be involved in teaching Rugby this term.
I would like to thank all Year 5 parents who attended the parents’ information meeting on Monday led by Mr Kenny and remind all Year 3 & Y4 parents about their introduction meetings on Monday 18th September & Tuesday 19th September respectively, starting at 4.15pm.
All boys have ‘Personal Organisers’ to help them record their prep and plan their learning. We ask for parents support in checking homework and signing their organiser every day. Supervised Prep for Year 3 & 4 at school takes place in room 1 and finishes at 4.15pm when the boys will be brought up to the car park. For Year 5 to Year 8 Supervised Prep is in the Learning Resources Centre and any pupil, who is not collected by 4.30pm, will be taken to Supervised Prep. Parents should report to the School Office if they wish to collect their son before the end of prep at 5.15pm.
Congratulations to Finley Kilmartin (3E), Jacob Forrest (3E), Anthony Nwokenna (3B), Thomas Goulde (3B), Tara Armstrong (4B), Kavan Kothari (4B), Gus Machado (4H), Daniel Green (4H), Alexander McCormick (5K), Sevir Mandair (5K), Karan Soni (5T), Henry Douch (5T), Aaron Ayha (6F), Aurèle Armstrong (6F), Eden Slack (6G) and James Ozden (6G) for being voted Form Captain and Vice Form Captains this term.
On a couple of more routine matters please can pupils arrive at school at, or after 8am in the morning, even when going to CAMI club. No pupil should be on the premises before 8am unless they are going to Breakfast Club with Mrs Lee. If there is an occasion when you need to bring your son to school before 8am, he can go in the Senior School Hall to Breakfast Club. The cost, £5, can be paid directly to Mrs Lee on the morning.
As some boys are allergic to nuts or products containing nuts it is essential that break time snacks do not contain any nuts. Please read the Parents’ Handbook to check which types of snacks are acceptable in school. Thank you for your cooperation in these matters.

Junior School News

Welcome back everyone to a new year in Junior School. We have been extremely pleased that our new reception children have settled so well into the Robins and Wrens classes.
It has also been great to see the older boys move up to Years 1 and 2 with such confidence. Junior School is looking even more beautiful than ever at the moment. We are thrilled that Mrs. Turnbull has finished redecorating our library and the Junior School birds that she has painted are fantastic. We are very fortunate to now have new library furniture and we are grateful to Mrs. Smith for helping us to reorganise and update our library books. Shortly we shall we receiving literally hundreds of new books for our library and we are really looking forward to getting our hands on them once Mrs. Smith and her capable librarians have finished cataloguing them. We are also delighted with the new toilets in Junior School and we would be very happy to welcome visitors to view them (as they look wonderful!). All classes have had a drama workshop this week , on the theme of ‘Explorers’, and the children loved exploring Egypt and Australia amongst other countries. Next week we are all eagerly awaiting our drumming workshop and the boys are going to love it. Thank you to all the parents for attending our information meetings – these meetings always help to get the year off to a smooth start.

let us know

We would like to celebrate the achievements of all our pupils in as many ways as possible. If you prefer your son not to be featured in our publications—e.g. if you do not wish your son’s name or picture to be included in any of the newsletters, (including yearly magazine) or on the website—please let Dr Lee know in writing by 28th September at the latest.

communication

We are always working to improve our communication and this year we wish to send more correspondence to you via the internet. Most families (93%) already receive newsletters in this way. In order to do this we need to make sure we have an up-to-date email address for you.
Also on the school new website under “School Information” you will see a Recent Letters, where we hope to publish letters for you, or we may email you the link to this area.  Some of the correspondence may be confidential to parents only and will therefore need a password and username. These are obtained from the School Office or you will find it on your year planner given to you last week.
The Parents’ Handbooks are updated each year and placed on the website in a secure area under “School Sections”. Finally at the top of this newsletter you will see an email address we currently have for you, plus a mobile  number which we will use if we need to text everyone (one per  family). If either of these are incorrect please contact office@northwoodprep.co.uk to update. Thank you.

golf champions

On 23rd August Bradley Henwood, Ben Pinsent, Max Kellar and Adam Green took part in the 40th annual IAPS Stowe Putter Tournament. Northwood Prep came joint 2nd out of all the schools missing out by a small margin.  Bradley was the U12 winner. Adam played very well in his first competition. Ben had a great back 9 that almost won it. We all enjoyed it and had a great day.