NP News

Headmaster Writes

All modern-day organisations are regularly audited as a way of quality assurance and schools are no exception to this process.  Every six years we are visited by the Independent School Inspectorate: next week six inspectors from the ISI will be in school.
Their brief  is to visit classrooms, scrutinize work samples, talk with pupils, staff, governors and parents. The intention of inspection is to verify that a school is delivering on its stated objectives [rather than an absolute assessment of performance]. Our aims, clearly reflected in our ethos statement, are:

• to be a caring Christian environment.
• to value each pupil for himself.
• to provide each pupil with opportunities for his full development.
• to ensure the full participation of staff, pupils and governors in the educational process.
• to strive for excellence.

The Inspectors will make judgements, in the light of our aims, in terms of the educational experiences provided, the quality of teaching,learning and assessment, pastoral care, links with the community and leadership and governance. Often as a result of the inspection some helpful suggestions are made to assist with school improvement over the next six year period.  As a trained ISI inspector myself, I know how valuable this exercise can be and we look forward to welcoming our visitors and sharing our experience with them.  As a learning organisation we feel this will be a great opportunity to share best practice in our desire to move the school forward on all fronts. We will, of course, have the opportunity to share with you the findings of the Inspectorate and we would hope to have a written report available in approximately six to eight weeks. 

Best wishes, as always                             

KS3 News

Rugby victories by both the 1st and 2nd XV against Gayhurst, a scrumptious Cake Sale and fabulous fireworks kindly arranged by the Parents’ Association have been recent school highlights. The Pupil Forum and Senior School Target Setting were also most informative. Livingstone House have the narrowest of leads in the House competition at this stage and Huzaifa Khairullah (Y8W), Peter Ladd (Y8W) and Michael Silva (Y8S) are the first boys in Senior School to achieve their gold awards for 75 house points.

Next Tuesday is the second N.P. Sudoku Championships for Key Stages 2 & 3 (easy level against the clock!).

Congratulations to Romi Gupta (Y6F) who triumphed in the recent Pentomino Challenge.

Thanks to parents for their support of Target Setting. Revision Packs were issued with subject guidance for the forthcoming exams. Please find herewith an exam timetable. for Years 5-8.

The School is once again supporting the Poppy Appeal with poppies on sale at break times and Northwood Prep. will be represented at the Remembrance Service in Northwood on  Sunday 12th November. Best wishes to our child and adult choristers in their preparation for the Carol Service this half-term. Auditions for Carol Service readers will take place after the November school exams.

KS2 News

Welcome back after half term and I hope that you all had an enjoyable break. The Friday before half term was target setting and it was good to see so many parents at target setting. This is a very valuable session for pupils, Form Tutors and parents alike.

The mufti day and cake sale went very well and raised money for CURE and the Parents’ Association. Thank you to the parents for all their hard work in organising and running the stalls, and to all of those who  supplied the wonderful cakes. Yesterday the Parents’ Association organised bonfire night with firework display and your support for this explosive event was very much appreciated.

Thank you if you were able to make up a shoebox for ‘Operation Christmas Child’ and to Miss Hunter for her organisation. The boxes will give cheer to children who otherwise would not receive a gift at Christmas. Poppies are now on sale for Remembrance Day. This money helps support the British Legion who help and care for the soldiers that have been injured in wars.

Congratulations go to Patrick Rondel for being part of a team that won an U8 rugby competition at Fullerians, to Karan Soni for winning an Indian folk dance trophy and to all the boys who have managed to achieve 50 house points for their silver certificate and to those who have received their bronze certificates.

On more routine matters, please remember that if you need to come into school at any time it is important, for security reasons that you first go to the school office. If you need to leave a message for a teacher, the office will pass it on. Please try to ensure that your son is at school in plenty of time to organise his books and be at 8.30am line up where messages are given out. It is very important as this helps each boy have a smooth start to the day. Finally, occasionally it can be difficult to park in the main car park. In theses instances please use the overflow car park as queuing causes congestion. Thank you

Junior School News

We have had so many exciting visitors to Junior School in the past couple of weeks. The visit of John Harris, storyteller and author, was once again a tremendous occasion and I hope that the boys shared one of his stories with you and are enjoying reading his books at home.

We have had several parents coming to Junior School to talk to the boys recently and I would like to thank Mrs. McKee for informing us all about looking after our backs as part of Backcare Awareness Week for Children. I would also like to thank Mrs. Kapoor (mother of Rohan and Eashan) for telling Reception and Y1 so much about Divali, Mrs Merali (mother of Abbasali and Qasim) for answering all of Reception’s and Y1’s questions about Eid-ul-Fitr. Mrs. Manji has kindly volunteered to talk to Y2 about Eid-ul-Fitr and I know that the Y2 boys are looking forward to her visit. We are also looking forward to visits from parents regarding Hanukah and Christmas later on this term.

The boys have been very keen to tell me all about the poppies that they have been making at home. Please remember that all boys should bring their poppy to school on Monday ready for our assembly about Remembrance Day.

Fireworks last night

The fireworks display last night was fantastic. Thank you so much P.A. committee and parents for organising such a wonderful evening. The weather has certainly changed so the delicious hot food was very  welcome including the warming mulled wine. Pictured here are  four senior boys who asked if I would take their photo and put it in the newsletter instead of the traditional fireworks shot!  

MIP & MVP

Most Valuable Pupil

This time we congratulate Jerome Shah (Y8), Kavan Kothari (Y4), Romi Gupta (Y6)

Most Improved Pupil

This time we congratulate Ashil Shah (Y7) Tej Thakrar (Y3) Lawrence Ho (Y8)

To encourage further effort and achievement, two cups are awarded to boys in the Senior School each week: Most Valuable Pupil of the week and Most Improved Pupil of the week.

eggs used

Tuesday 17th October was an “eggciting” day for boys in Y6. Mrs Mullins (Conor’s mum) brought her ice cream maker to their Science lesson. We had a look at the works and discovered how it made the ice cream. We even did an experiment to work out why mixing ice with salt made the ice cold enough to freeze the ice cream mixture (for those of you who are interested, our salty ice reached -8oC). Things got really exciting when Mrs Mullins produced the ingredients to make ice cream and loaded it all into the machine! To add to the thrill, she had made the mixture with eggs kindly donated by Charlie Borralho from his NP chicken flock. After a noisy half hour of stirring from the machine, we were all able to enjoy the very first NP ice cream and very tasty it was too, not a drop was left!  Thank you to Mrs Mullins for such an educational and tasty hour, and to the Borralhos for the eggs.

Y4 ancient greek day

The pupils in Year 4 had an exciting day on Tuesday 31st of October when they were visited by two Greek warriors called Lysander and Arion.

They told us all about life in ancient Athens and Sparta and showed us their helmets and armour and swords and shields.  Some of us even tried on a  helmet or tried holding their swords – they were very heavy.

The most exciting part of the whole day was when they led us out onto the field and gave us a fantastic weapons display. Lysander was really good with the sling, although he used golf balls and not lead shot so that we could see how far they travelled. He also demonstrated the ancient greek bow and  arrow.  Arion was really good at throwing javelins at a target.

fantasy football

The Fantasy Football season 2006/2007 has got off to yet another exciting start with over 60 pupils and staff registering. Elliot Frost, Kiertan Saujani, Tejas Patel and Sajan Khullar are the current leaders in their respective year groups whilst Mr Evans has shown the rather goal-shy staff representatives a clean pair of heels. The overall leader of Northwood Prep is the “mega reds” currently managed by the flamboyant Tejas Patel. He is closely followed by the Kool Khullar KK’s and Real Barcelona managed by Sajan Khullar and Kiertan Saujani respectively. Last year’s champion, Rishi Patel, has slipped into 11th place after a bright start. Good luck for the rest of the season managers. More updates will follow soon.

P.A. Events

The P.A. Cake sale just before half term raised amazing £526.

15th November—
Cheese and Wine, A.G.M. in the school hall at 8.00  pm.

On 24th November
is the every popular Secrets Room for the boys to purchase their Christmas presents for their  family.

2nd December—
Christmas Party. Don’t miss it, book early. Whether you have a table with your friends or come on your own, or as a couple, you will  have a good time. Tickets will be on sale shortly.

operation christmas child

Thank you to all those boys and parents who put a shoe box together this year for Operation Christmas Child. These boxes brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world.

sudoku

(Only on the paper copy given to your son). Here is a practice Sudoku before the competition next week for Y5-Y8. Last year our champion completed an easy  sudoku in twelve minutes. We’re using ‘gentle’ level but it will be against the clock. Can Durshan Mistry (Y8) repeat his 2005 victory?