Year 5 Author Visit

The Year 5 pupils were delighted to welcome the author and NHP parent, Georgia Byng to NHP. She shared her insights on the art of writing and unveiled the creative process behind her captivating new book, ‘Albi and the Glowing Cow Boy.’ We gathered in the JCB hall, where Georgia captured the children’s imagination by showing them newspaper cuttings about a 97-year-old man who jumped out of a plane and a paper plane she had found on the street with a mysterious message inside it. Her warm and engaging presence, coupled with her enchanting explanations of her storytelling process, left the Year 5s brimming with ideas and enthusiastic to come up with their own stories.

Sodexo Talk

This Friday we welcomed a specialist nutritionist from our school catering company, Sodexo. A lot of thought goes into each meal at NHP to provide a well-balanced, healthy and nutritional menu for staff and pupils across all age groups. It was great to hear more about the focus on sustainability, British-focused produce and eating within the seasons. As part of our sustainability drive at the school, there is a big focus on reducing food waste and educating children around variation within their food choices. It was great to welcome parents to have the opportunity to hear all about these initiatives and to ask any questions. The school and Sodexo are always happy to work collaboratively with our parents and we look forward to introducing new initiatives.

A message from King Charles!

The Lower School children received some exciting news during their assembly on Wednesday morning. Last year’s Reception children have received a letter from the King recognising the lovely pictures and letter that they had written him to congratulate him on his coronation last year. The children were thrilled to see their work recognised by His Majesty and pleased to hear that the King has sent his warmest wishes to all the staff and children at Notting Hill Preparatory school. What a wonderful start to the school year!

NHP Leavers’ Celebration 2023

On Monday, parents, staff and pupils gathered at St Peter’s Church in Notting Hill to celebrate our Upper School pupils who are moving on from NHP to their senior schools. Thank you to Mr James Dahl, Head of Wellington College, for coming in to award our many cups and prizes to their winners, and to the soloists and choirs for their brilliant performances during the ceremony. We would like to wish our leavers the very best of luck in their new schools, and beyond.

Year 6 Play Performance

We have collectively run out of superlatives to describe Year 6’s performance of ‘Oliver!’ this week. Praise cannot be heaped upon them enough for their accomplished execution of this beloved musical. There is no denying that they are a talented bunch: expressive actors, versatile singers, comedic entertainers and skilled dancers abound. We were so spoiled for choice that we triple-cast the show with talent to spare. What I have been even more impressed by is their collaboration, optimism, commitment, and support of one another throughout the rehearsal process. The pupils’ professionalism and enthusiasm shone through in their performances, and they enjoyed rapturous standing ovations from their audiences. We are so proud of them; they feel, rightly, proud of themselves!

My Oliver Play experience has been one of the best shows I have ever been in. It was also my favorite part of the school year. Rehearsals were amazing for expressing our feelings while we were acting. I was so excited to be a workhouse governor in the show, and it was as fun as I thought it would be. It felt so good to perform and find my full potential on stage. I am so ecstatic for my next awesome show. I learned so much about life on stage. It was sometimes easy, sometimes hard, but we always got through it. Thank you so much to my lovely teachers for helping our show become the best it could be. Especially Paige, Mrs. Skeoch, Mrs. Chambers and Mr. Harlan. This show was certainly the best show, good enough to be in the West End!

Zephyrus Cunningham

It was a really fun experience to be involved in the ‘Oliver!’ production and to work on it as a year group. The rehearsals took a lot of effort, but it was definitely worth it to put on a show for everyone. I feel that lots of people suited their roles very well. All of the teachers who were involved with the production were really amazing and I am really thankful that they put in the work to make sure that we had an enjoyable time and that our parents could see us in the play as a finale of Year 6. I loved all of the songs that were performed and think that it was an amazing production with great choreography, costumes, singing and acting, which was made even better by the fact that everyone helped to put it together.

Ivy Byng

Year 8 Author Visit

Year 8 had a very special visit from Beatrice Forshall on Wednesday morning, talking about her significant and beautiful book, ‘The Vanishing Species’. From a young age, Beatrice has been on a mission to give a voice to the precious animals we share this planet with who are sadly disappearing. Through her beautiful artwork and incredible research, she took the Year 8s on tour through some of the species we share our planet with, sharing fascinating information about these unique species we know, such as the Orca, and those that we may not have come across such as the dragon-like olm who does not need eyes. We all came away inspired to understand more about our impact on the world around us and help Beatrice amplify the voices of the voiceless.

Year 7 Author Visit

On Monday morning, the Year 7s met an author who ‘thinks flexibly’ when writing a book. His book ‘Archimedes and the adventure in the Backyard’, is an interactive multimedia S.T.E.A.M book, combining fiction and non-fiction.  Carmel Cohen is a self-published scientist, author and illustrator who believes in combining one’s passions to do what you love. He hooked the children’s attention with magic tricks and talked about creating a story and following the ark of Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’. Carmel then opened up the imaginative world of creating story characters. The children tried their hand at creating a new character by combining two ideas, such as a skateboarder and an elephant; or a ladybird with a pirate! The children let their imaginations run wild.

Year 8 Residential Trip

Year 8 have been having a glorious time in Newquay this week. On Wednesday, they got plenty of surfing practice once all of the morning fog had cleared from the water! On Thursday, they headed to Aquapark for more water-related fun, followed by a 17km bike ride along the Camel River trail and pizzas near the beach.

Bee News!

Last week Miss Marani welcomed two new colonies of honey bees delivered at crack of dawn from the New Forest.  A special thank you to Kirsty Wright (mother of Wilf Yr8 and Bhodi Yr3) for the generous gift and to Simon of https://www.thenoblebee.com for showing us how to transfer them from their travelling ‘Nuc’ box to our hives.

The beekeeping club, and friends, has since been up to the JCB Roof terrace to check on the bees and we were very excited to spot the queen in the hive. She appears to be laying a lot of eggs and we hope that soon our colonies will grow and they will start to make enough honey for us to taste too!

Helpful hint when handling bees: Always remain calm and move slowly and gently when opening and closing a hive.

Year 4 Residential Trip

The Year 4s visited Culmington Mannor this week, where they enjoyed a trip jam-packed full of activities in the sunshine.