Our Pre-Prep girls enjoy the best of both worlds. As well as feeling very much at home in their own bright and welcoming classrooms, they also benefit from their involvement in the wider life of the community.
They enjoy using the main school's excellent facilities such as the swimming pool, the sports hall, the ICT suite and the drama and dance studios.
They also get to interact with older girls, with readings and visits from the Sixth Form Prefects. Pre-Prep students benefit from their own Library and are given the opportunity to stretch their literary interests by visiting the Prep department library on a weekly basis.
Extra-curricular activities and trips
Pre-Prep has a weekly lunchtime Gardening Club, which is run alongside the Prep Gardening Club (awarded 5 stars by the Royal Horticultural Society). The students grow vegetables and flowers from seeds and enter national and local competitions, such as the ‘Potatoes for Schools’ competition. All children are welcome to take part and they work in the whole of the Pre-Prep play area, making bug houses, feeding the birds and looking after the garden beds. Gardening Club and Eco Club go hand-in-hand to develop an understanding of how we can care for our environment. The children ran a campaign to get funding for a water butt to reduce the use of tap water. All the girls enjoy eating the lovely foods they have grown and often have challenges like the ‘great radish tasting’. In the Autumn, we collect apples from the Pipers orchards and have it pressed into apple juice which we sell from our stall.
In addition to clubs, the Sixth Formers visit the department, during lunchtime play, and carry out a range of activities with the children, such as: Drama, outdoor games, PE, Science activities, storytelling, arts and crafts.
As well as inspiring minds, we are keen to afford students the opportunity to explore exciting physical opportunities too, with the introduction of Karate and Tennis, and a wide-range of musical activities broadens the students mindsets, students are always stimulated.
There are regular organised school trips for the Pre-Prep girls. Recent visits have included a trip to London Zoo, Waddesdon Manor, Windsor Castle and The Look Out Discovery Centre in Bracknell. A selection of photos from recent trips can be viewed below.
Events
Pre-Prep children love getting involved in various local and national initiatives and helping look after those in the local community. Every year they take part in the NSPCC Number Day, the RSPB Birdwatch event, Children in Need and Comic Relief, to name just a few. They have made visits to Abbeyfield House and Barnardo’s and made generous donations during the pandemic to the One Can Trust in the High Wycombe area.
Responsibilities, Awards and Celebrations
Each week we have a number of celebrations in Pre-Prep:
- Stars of the Week: This can be for academic achievement, showing/achieving a particular skill, a good work ethic, demonstrating a value such as caring, thoughtfulness or respect.
- Kindness Cup: This is for showing any form of kindness.
- Magical Moments: These can be awarded, by the parents, at any stage throughout the year. There is no cap on the number that can be given. They are awarded to a child for achieving something at home that they have been working on, such as making their own bed independently, helping to look after a pet or swimming the width of a pool with no armbands.
- Outside school achievements: Recognition and praise are given for awards achieved outside of school such as medals achieved for Park Runs, certificates for gymnastics and badges achieved in Rainbows.
- Ollie Owl: Ollie Owl is awarded, every half-term, for an achievement in Forest School.
- Birthdays: These are celebrated on the Friday nearest to a child's birthday. They get to wear the birthday hat and glasses, hold the birthday bear and choose a special sticker.
- Weekly Positions of Responsibility include: Playground Buddies and Eco-Warriors, with Class Leaders and Prefects being announced on a daily basis. The responsibilities of the roles are detailed below:
- Help a child join a group of children playing if they do not have anyone to play with
- Help others if they have an accident and bring them to the teacher
- Check that all their class members are in the line at the end of playtime
- Ensure all paper goes into the recycling boxes
- Ensure all taps are turned off and not left running
- Check that lights are turned off when they should be
- Make sure doors are closed when the heating is on
- Support any points raised by the Eco Committee
- Lead the members of their class to a destination
- Hand books out and gather resources
