NHP’s Maths Mocktail Bar!
Anyone for a Skeoch Slammer or a Pineapple Pizzi Punch?
Year 5 consolidated their knowledge of ratio when they attended the annual NHP Mocktail Bar on Wednesday. The children designed their own unique, delicious mocktails, and thought carefully about the ratios of their chosen ingredients. Expert mixologists Mr Lee, Ms Kirkland, Miss Ingram and Miss Pizzi were on hand to whip up a plethora of fabulous creations, which were all ‘juicetastic’!
Mr Lee
Read MoreYear 2’s Trip to the Science Museum!
Year 2 enjoyed a trip to London’s Science Museum, where they continued their topic on Space and solar systems through interactive workshops and activities. They can apply their new knowledge on the history of space and it’s intricacies to their learning in the classroom.
Read MoreNHP Ski Trip 2023
Over the Easter break, we returned to Saas-Fee, Switzerland for our annual ski trip; a jam-packed week full of fun, excitement and adventure. After settling into our hotel and picking up our ski gear, we were up early the next morning to eagerly hit the slopes. Our fantastic group consisted of 30 children from Y5-8, ranging from complete beginners to skillful experts. The children were accompanied at all times by their dedicated and exceptional instructors who worked tirelessly to make the week an amazing experience for us. It was wonderful to watch the children grow and develop their ski ability over the course of the week by listening to their expert advice and feedback.
We experienced a rollercoaster of conditions, starting the week with blazing sun and blue skies that showed Saas-Fee off in all its glory. However, on the third day the weather conditions took a dramatic turn with snow storms and high winds hitting the top of the mountain. The slopes were closed due to avalanche risk so instead of skiing, we filled the day with a whole assortment of snow fun including a snow ball fight verses Reigate Grammar School, tobogganing, snow discos and a whole assortment of other competitive games.
The storm left us with some fantastic conditions for the next 3 days, with thick powder that all the children got to enjoy, including the beginners who by the end of the week were successfully skiing red slopes at the top of the mountain – incredibly impressive!
The evenings were packed with a variety of activities, including bouldering, torch-walking and enjoying the leisure centre complete with slide and jacuzzi! My personal highlight was witnessing the children embrace their artistic side with our team ‘auction’ night. This firstly saw the children working in their groups to bid on increasingly bizarre and random objects using their ‘Viamonde tokens’ without knowing what they would be needed for. The children were then set the task of creating fashion outfits and then performing a selection of ski-trip related comedy skits using these objects where much hilarity ensued. The children’s impressions of the teachers and instructors were particularly hilarious to witness!
The final night was given over to a dance party and karaoke session – a chance for the children to celebrate the amazing week and memories they have made with some enthusiastic, and somewhat interesting dance moves and singing. The less said about the teacher’s performances the better!
With so much activity packed into our evenings, and so much exceptional skiing crammed into the days, the children arrived back to London exhausted but brimming with stories of their adventures to tell their parents. Many thanks to all the children for being such a pleasure to look after and a very special thank you must go to the staff, Ms Kirkland, Miss Pizzi and Emma Kalis, for all their hard work throughout the entire week, making the trip so much fun for all!
We will be advertising for next year’s ski trip in the Autumn term.
Miss Kirby
NHP Easter Music Concert 2023
Our Easter Music Concert which took place on Wednesday evening this week was a very special event, highlighting, as it did, the depth and breadth of musical talent that we have here at NHP. The standard of music just seems to be getting better and better each year. Well done to our many choirs, ensembles and orchestras who performed with enthusiasm, passion, commitment and enjoyment which was evident for all to see and was much appreciated by everyone who attended.
Thanks must also go to our amazing in-house music team of Mrs Chambers, Mr Harlan and Mr Grappy as well as to our peripatetic teachers: Abby, Alvaro, Carlos, Javier, Jennifer, Karen, Liz, Meinir, Melissa, Michael, Saranne and Thomas – for all they do to support music throughout the year at NHP.
Read MoreUpper School Debate Evening
A hearty congratulations to all those involved in the Upper School Debate Evening this week. Pupils demonstrated great courage and confidence in their debates, with many masking waves of nerves with aplomb as they took their seats. Our NHP Habits were in full force: collaboration between teammates was supportive and spurred on competition; ideas were communicated with clarity and precision; our summary speakers in particular had to exercise great flexibility of thought, especially when faced with our audience’s witty and probing questions. We were entertained, challenged, and enlightened by all; well done! Thank you to parents for joining us and casting those all-important votes. A special thank you to the English department for their time, support, and good humour throughout, and to all members of staff who contributed time and expertise to the event.
Read MoreWorld Maths Day 2023
This week, NHP celebrated International World Maths Day in style! Each year group was allocated a specific task or topic to focus on:
Reception used tangrams to experiment with 2D shapes in different orientations and make pictures.
Year 1 took on The Caterpillar Challenge using knowledge of odd and even numbers, halving and subtraction. They investigated which starting numbers would create longer caterpillars.
Year 2 investigated the properties of odd and even numbers through exploration of ‘always, sometimes or never?’ questions. They applied their past knowledge of addition and multiplication to prove or disprove a range of mathematical statements.
Year 3 were given blank ‘100 squares’ and had to represent different numbers by colouring the exact number of squares. They explored the largest and smallest legible representations.
Year 4 learnt about tessellation with a focus on the work of Maurits Escher. The children created their own tessellating patterns, and investigated whether all quadrilaterals can be tessellated.
Year 5 learnt about the Fibonacci sequence, created Fibonacci spirals and discovered how these numbers can be seen in nature.
Year 6 explored the golden ratio and created their own maps showing the direction, bearings and distance between various points.
Year 7 consolidated on their knowledge of Speed, Distance and Time. They calculated the average speed of their paper aeroplanes.
Year 8 investigated permutations and combinations using factorials. They also looked at some advanced Fibonacci questions.
The winners of this year’s Upper School World Maths Day Quiz were: Ingrid, Arlo and Milo W from Year 7. Congratulations to our champions!
I would like to thank all of the children for their enthusiasm and the fantastic work they produced, and to the teachers for delivering the sessions so passionately!
Mr Lee
Read MoreLansdowne Charity Day
Today, Lansdowne House held their fundraiser in support of the charity Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). GOSH work with multi-disciplinary teams of healthcare professionals and scientists to improve the lives of children with rare or complex diseases. House Captain Hadrian and his team planned the challenge to guess the number of sweets in the jar and ran a collection on the gates to raise funds for this incredible charity.
A big thank you to everyone for giving so generously and helping to raise over £970! Final donations are still coming in – we look forward to sharing with you the grand total next week.
Year 6 Charity Walk
Last Friday, our Year 6 pupils made the big trek along the River Thames, starting at Richmond Bridge and finishing at Putney Bridge (a distance of nearly 15km!) to raise money for the NHP Foundation. The children set up their own JustGiving fundraising pages in the run up to the charity walk. A heartfelt thank you to the family and friends of Year 6 for supporting the children to raise £4034.53 through sponsorship and keeping them going. Well done to Year 6 for their phenomenal fundraising efforts and for rising to the challenge.
All of the money raised will be going towards helping the work of the Notting Hill Prep Foundation, the school’s charitable arm, in support of Radius and NHP bursaries. Radius is our community partnership programme which works with local charities and primary schools to provide financial support and share resources to enhance the lives of local primary school aged children. Recently, this has seen us support projects such as: the Harrow Club junior programme, a basic lunch to raise funds for the Kensington and Chelsea Foodbank, a book drive with Oxford Gardens Primary School and the K&C Foundation’s Winter Crisis Appeal for local families. Our ambition for bursaries is to grow our programme to increase access to the life-changing opportunities provided by an NHP education. We currently support 7 pupils on means-tested bursaries and hope to increase this to 15 by 2030. Our bursaries cover not only fees, but also educational trips, enrichment, activities and incidentals that ensure all our pupils are completely integrated members in the life of the school.
Year 3 Author Visit
The Year 3s were entranced by their Monday author visit. Andy Jones came bouncing into the JCB to talk about his latest book ‘ Bob vs The Selfie Zombie’. Andy spoke about his fascinating path into the writing world and how his two children inspired him to move from writing books for adults to writing for children. Andy’s two obsessions as a Year 3 child were Time Travel and Zombies, and he used this passion for creating this book. He mentioned some beautiful ideas to encourage Year 3 to write their books. Andy then transported all the children and teachers to the future!
If any of the children would like a copy of the book, you can buy them here.
Read MoreHoli Festival 2023
To celebrate Holi, our pupils were visited by ISKCON London. They had the opportunity to learn about the origins of Holi through presentations, music, face paint and dancing! Our catering team also laid on an incredible Holi feast.