Thank you for all those who supported our PA dinner at the House of Commons on Tuesday. This was a superb event and those of us who had the privilege to dine in such unique surroundings are very grateful to Rt. Hon John Randall MP and his wife Kate for their hospitality.

We congratulate our victorious cricket squad on their successful tour to Antigua over the Easter period. The season has started with great

promise. The first eleven have enjoyed two magnificent wins already this week over St.Martin’s and Thorpe House respectively, with skipper Ashil Shah leading the way with scores of 65 no on Monday and a magnificent 108 in the Thorpe House victory on Wednesday.

I would wish to thank all of our parents, staff, governors and friends of the School who have supported our theatre appeal. What has been achieved by everyone is breath taking. As we begin our last lap towards our target, may I ask you to book early for our for Eastern Delights, in our tented palace on the school grounds, on Friday 6th June. This will be a wonderful way to cap off all the work we have been doing this academic year. It promises to be a fantastic night [10 tables already sold] so please support us by organising a table for your year group or among friends and celebrate in style what has been a most remarkable year for the School. This newsletter is a fantastic tribute to some remarkable events that have happened recently. Let’s enjoy the Summer term to the full and another brilliant year in the life of our School. Kind regards, as always

Parents are warmly invited to support school matches as well as Sports Day on Wednesday, 11th June. For the record, Ashil Shah is Captain of Cricket, Ammar Malik is Captain of Tennis and Kyle Meadows is Captain of Athletics.

The term began with target review and setting. Revision guidance was also made available. Year 7 had their Geography Field Studies meeting and the New Barn Theatre was commissioned by none other than Mr Kevin Spacey. As usual, all pupils will sit their internal school exams before half-term. Parents will be sent a

‘Record of Results’ after the break. Finally, congratulations to the following boys who have been elected as Form Captains: Rohan Maini (7B), Joseph Silva (7W), Manoj Kelshiker (8MS), Riyan Shah(8RW).

At the start of the term, there were successful target   settings followed by the visit meetings for Year 5 & 6 and I would like to thank all parents for attending their respective visit meetings. The Year 6 boys are off to Calvados in France and Year 5 to Skern Lodge.
Congratulations go to Alexander Mellis (4B) for achieving the Red Star award in his skiing over the Easter holiday.

Congratulations to Rohan Pau (3B), Jacob Sieradzki (3B), Sahil Shah (3E), Rikhil Shah (3E), Robert Willems (4B), Jacob Forest (4B), Matthew Beveridge (4J), Cameron Pegler (4J), Kushil Patel (5K), Andrew Wells (5K), Dilan Karia (5T), Vishay Patel (5T), Teshan Wijesuriya (6F), Jake Gelernter (6F), Zohaib Arain (6J) and Bhavik Mehta (6J) for being voted Form Captain and Vice Form Captains this term.

This is such a great term and I look forward to sharing more news with you as the time goes on. Please remember that we are collecting both Tesco and Sainsbury’s vouchers in school – we have already amassed quite a collection and many thanks for this. The focus of our ‘Fundamental Movement Skills’ programme is throwing and catching at present and the boys are spending a few minutes everyday rehearsing and polishing these skills. We are very pleased that work on the school grounds will be commencing next week. You may be interested to know that we are creating a nature reserve on site with a view to making the best use of our wonderful outdoor facilities.

The Nursery children were excited at the beginning of the term to move to our new larger premises within the grounds of Merchant Taylors’ School. We have had a wonderful couple of weeks discovering our  new home. This term we are also  delighted to welcome Raafi Jaffer, Niels Redman and Henry Wareing to our Nursery ‘family’.

Under ‘light-touch’ supervision from Dr Flinn, Mr Griffiths and Mr Watts (for historical accuracy), Dominic Stern and Oliver Redman are shown here shovelling the first of many spadefulls of sand and gravel to seal the capsule under the paving flags. The capsule itself had been filled with many items of current Northwood  Prep materials together with messages from Y6F to the future before being expertly and hermetically sealed by Mr Ballinger. When in 2100 the ‘Old   Theatre’ is finally pulled down and the capsule reopened, the children of the time will have much to wonder at as they contemplate such antiquity.

Out of the four matches played NP won two (Evergreen & Clare Hall), lost one (Technical Academy) and had one abandoned due to rain (Liberta). All the matches were   competitive with the boys experiencing the type of  bowling associated with the great West Indies teams: fast! A highlight in the last match against Clare Hall School was Yaajan Govindia hitting a six and Ashil Shah scoring a half century.

For all of us the most memorable occasion was when we played Technical Academy at the world famous Recreation Ground. This ground is steeped with history. It is where Sir Vivian Richards struck the fastest hundred against England in 1986. Then in 1994 Brian Lara scored 400 not out against England. It was here that we met the West Indian legend Curtly Ambrose who happily signed autographs for the boys and gave a short team talk.  Besides playing matches we toured the beautiful island by 4 wheel-drive and by catamaran, saw wonderful sights, played a little beach cricket on the long white sandy beach and even met Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of Antigua. This was an experience of a lifetime with many memories that will stay with all those who toured. A full report of the tour will be in the Northwood Prep yearbook and on the website.

U8A Football Tournament
At the end of last term our U8A team won the St. Piran’s 6-a-side tournament. The tournament was a thrilling day for all and will live long in the memory of the boys, parents and coaches! We got through the group stages of the tournament with a 2-0 win (Anish Rajani, Sahil Patel) over Eagle House and a 1-0 win against Grange Hill (Sahil Patel). The team did suffer a heavy defeat to Gayhurst but having defeated Dolphin 1-0 in the semi-final (Rohan Pau) we were drawn against them in the final. Our boys put on a tremendous performance to emerge victorious by 1-0 through a Sahil Patel goal. This was a fabulous achievement by a really good squad of players, consisting of  Anish Rajani (capt.), Sahil Patel, Sahil Shah, Rohan Pau, Ashane Wijesuriya, Benjamin  Stewart and Anuj Patel.

Cricket
Congratulations to our 1st XI who set the ball rolling this term. They emerged comfortable winners against St. Martin’s, with captain Ashil Shah scoring an unbeaten half century. The 2nd XI narrowly lost by 7 runs, despite a strong bowling performance that restricted St. Martin’s to 64 runs.

Good luck to all boys this term and I’m sure they will enjoy the summer sports on offer. Fixtures this term include Athletics, Tennis and Golf in addition to the numerous Cricket ones.  

Congratulations to;
Sachin Kucheria (5T) and
Kishan Radia (6J) for passing module 3,
Dilen Sheth (6F) for passing module 2,
Arjun Rajani (8W) for passing module 4,

We are trying to make Northwood Prep a plastic bag free zone because scientists estimate that it takes between 400 and 1000 years for plastic bags to decompose!  If our children and parents can bring in re-usable bags instead of plastic bags we are doing our little bit to make the world a better place.
The children have drawn designs that will be transferred on to the eco-friendly cotton bags.  These can then be taken with you whenever you go shopping and be used instead of accepting the plastic bag that will be offered at the check out.  The bags will be on sale for £5 at Fun Day on Sunday 11th May.

Please remember to help your child collect sponsors for the School’s    Skipathon and Hopathon on the 21st April.  All money raised is going  towards the NSPCC, a charity that aims to end cruelty to children.  Sponsorship forms need to be collected in by Friday 9th April.  There are collection points in Junior School, at the Nursery and in the KS2 foyer.

As well as being lots of fun, skipping is really good for you.  Did you know that 10 mins of skipping can provide greater health benefits than 30 minutes of running!  Have a look at the link below to get ideas of different skills and techniques you can practise individually, in pairs and in groups www.skip-hop.co.uk  As well as break time skipping workshops the fitness club this term is going to be skipping based.  So get those ropes out and have lots of fun at the same time as keeping fit!

Teams of seven (squads of 8) are  invited to play in the school's third adult Astro Challenge.  This is our own FA (for adults) Cup. Players have to be  parents, staff or old boys of the school. The staff intend to enter a team and ideally, we need at least 3 other adult teams. Cost of entry is £50 per team. The proceeds will go towards the school's sports tours. Please   register your interest at the School Office once you have your team. Deadline for entries is Friday 9th May.

Finals day of the Emirate Airlines London Sevens Tournament, which is part of the IRB World Rugby Sevens Tournament takes place on Sunday 25th May  at Twickenham between 11am to 7pm. If you are interested and want to purchase tickets, which cost £25 or £15 for adults and £5 for children, please fill in the proforma which was emailed to you. Thank you.