From the Head

From the Head of Pre-Prep

Dear Parents,

We have started our Christmas in the perfect way this morning with Years 2 and 3 performing their Christingle service. It was a squash getting so many parents into the Hall to see the children, but we managed it and the children performed beautifully. Thank you for all the donations which will go to The Children’s Society.

Next week we embrace Christmas with The Wizard of Oz pantomime coming to entertain the children on Monday afternoon.

With all our nativities, refreshments will be served in the Pre-Prep Dining Room 15 minutes before the performance. Please try not to arrive too early as we will still be setting up.

Dates not to miss:

Tuesday 5^th December - 11am Nursery 1 Nativity

Wednesday 6^th December - 11am Nursery 2 Nativity

Thursday 7^th December - 9am Reception Nativity

Thursday 7^th December - 11am Kindergarten Nativity

Friday 8^th December - 2.15pm Year 1 Nativity

Tuesday 12^th December – 2.15pm Year 2 Nativity

Wednesday 13^th December - Christmas Party Day – children to bring in a small plate of party food (they will have eaten their normal lunch). School uniform can be adorned with sparkles.

Thursday 14^th December - Wear your Christmas jumper to school (over your uniform). This is also Christmas lunch day where Early Years will eat together in the Hall followed by Key Stage 1.

Friday 15^th December - Break up for Christmas at 12.00. Prep school siblings will join Pre-Prep so you can collect brothers and sisters from one place.

Overheard in Pre-Prep:

Teacher: “This is called a triangular prism.”

Child: “Is that where you go if you are naughty?”

As I am writing this, there are so many excited voices as the snow falls right at the end of playtime. It looks like the sun will be out for tomorrow’s Christmas Fayre. Thank you to the P & F committee who have worked so hard to make what promises to be a spectacular event. See you all there!

Zerrin Leech

Design Technology House Competition winners!

This year pupils entered the first St Michael's Design Technology House Competition. The competition set pupils to make cupcake toppers that represented either Bonfire Night, Halloween or Christmas. There were two competitions: one for Years 3 to 5 and one for Years 6 to 8.

We were blown away by the number of entries and the sheer talent on show. 44 pupils entered to showcase their impressive sculpting skills. Both competitions were whittled down to a shortlist of 10 entries and were then voted on by the Prep school staff. We are delighted to announce that the winners are: For Years 3-5: Ella C - Leeds For Years 6-8: Louisa W - Dover

Years 2 and 3 Christingle 

Christmas officially began at St Michael's this week, beginning with our annual Years 2 and 3 Christingle. On Thursday, Year 2 joined with Year 3 to rehearse their service and make their Christingle oranges together

On Friday morning, Pre-Prep welcomed Years 2 and 3 parents to watch the Christingle performance. The children sang Shine Jesus Shine and Love Shone Down beautifully as well as using their acting skills to portray the meaning of Christingle. Thank you to those who generously donated to the collection. In total £519.03 was raised for The Children's Society who work towards transforming the lives of young people.

Live from KMFM studios!

Year 7 pupils Jack and Mikayla were stars of KMFM radio on Wednesday afternoon as they travelled with Mrs Thornton, Mrs Caswall and Miss Usher to the recording studios in Rochester.

The exciting outing saw Jack and Mikayla record an advert about St Michael’s bursaries in a professional studio followed by speaking to and watching daytime presenter Andy Walker live on the radio.

During their visit, Mikayla and Jack were also lucky to receive a tour of the site, seeing members of the team hard at work as well as the mountain of toys that have been donated by listeners as part of their Give a Gift Christmas campaign. To the pupils’ delight, they were also given KMFM Santa hats which they wore throughout their visit and were even given one to bring back for Mr Pears!

At the end of the trip, Tara from KMFM announced that Gary and Chelsea, their morning hosts, would give Jack, Mikayla and special fan, Mrs Beesley, our Prep Receptionist, a shoutout on their Thursday show; this sound clip can be heard here.

Help St Michael's support local hygiene bank

This time of year is particularly challenging for many families and the children have been thinking about ways they could make a difference. In form times, Year 5 and 6 pupils have learnt about the work of hygiene banks and have been bringing in various hygiene products to support a local hygiene bank. The collection is going reasonably – thank you, but I would like to encourage as many Prep pupils as possible (even those not in Year 5 or 6) to contribute to this important cause. The hygiene bank requested the following items: body wash, shower gel, hand cream, soap, shampoo and conditioner, tooth paste and toothbrushes. Any items bought in can be dropped into the tub on the Senior Landing.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Baisch, Head of Year 5 & 6

Year 7 experience A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic!

“Bah Humbug!” is not an expression I would use to describe A Christmas Carol.  The Year 7s were lucky enough to see this show at The Old Vic on Tuesday. It started off with some mince pies and oranges being handed out. Then the show began and the crowd went silent. Lanterns, spirits and amazement sprung to life. It was brilliant! The band helped create a Victorian atmosphere. In some ways it was very true to the book, but in other ways it was different. The setting had everyone feeling very Christmassy by the end. Thank you to Mrs Andrade for organising this special trip to the theatre.

Florence D, Year 7 

Hot off the press

Please find below KMTV's feature, broadcasted on Friday 24th November, celebrating our girls' U11A and U13 Senior 1st teams' recent hockey success, and an article about our recent charity day for Guide Dogs UK.

 

Swimming Gala success

On Monday 27th November, St Michael's pupils went to Somerhill School for a Swimming Gala. The team was made up of four girls and four boys from each year group. Our children did incredibly well and won lots of races. The results were very close, with Somerhill winning by a small margin. The children should be proud of their swimming achievements and also of how maturely they behaved during the unexpected fire drill. The Year 8 girls (Amelia A, Bronwyn T, Matilda M and Tilly L) were a huge help with organising the younger teams and left the gala on a high, as they won the final medley relay against the Year 8 Somerhill boys.

Mrs Fornasier, Swim School Manager

A candlelit Musical Soirée

On Thursday 23^rd November we welcomed parents to enjoy a relaxed and intimate candlelit Musical Soirée in the Chapel. The pupils who performed treated us to a delightful programme reflecting their talents across a variety of musical styles and showing some excellent musical progress in their individual instrumental or vocal disciplines. We are most grateful to the entire team of peripatetic teachers who prepared the children ahead of the concert and particular thanks to Mrs Harris who attended, and to Mrs Mumford and Miss Balcombe for their extra hard work in preparing the accompaniments. We look forward to further recitals in 2024. Find below a video showing a snippet of each performance.

Christmas Breakfast Concert - Friday 8th December

Next Friday 8th December, we are looking forward to hosting a short but festive Christmas Breakfast Concert for pupils in the Prep School instrumental groups and Show Choir. An invitation has already been sent out to parents with further details. If you haven't received an invite and your child is in one of the groups below, please email music@stmichaels.kent.sch.uk

Groups performing: Accordion Group, Guitar Group, Orchestra, Recorder Consort, Samba Band, Scholars Septet, Senior Recorder, Consort with vocalists and Show Choir.

Eva F for a creative display of handmade model fungi and a detailed fact life

Reuben P for an engaging description of his fungus expedition and for identifying the number fungi that he found

Raven S for a beautifully illustrated fungi project

Louisa W for being the most valuable player in Battle of the Bands

Players of the Match - week commencing 27th November

This week our children have been busy making the finishing touches to a variety of crafts that they have been working on this Half Term in preparation for St Michael's Christmas Fayre on Saturday. In Breakfast Club we have enjoyed numerous games of foosball, whilst in The Hive we have made fun paper plate Santas and painted Christmas themed pictures for festive bunting.

Half Term staff sports camps

Mr Thomas’ Christmas Hockey Camp

Mr Thomas will be holding his Christmas Hockey Camp at Hollybush Hockey Pitch on:

Monday 18^th December

Tuesday 19^th December

Please click here to book.

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