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One of our Growth Mindset words is flexibility and we all had to embrace this yesterday as the torrential rain and localised flooding meant a postponement to our autumn concert. The decision was actually confirmed after a morning of rehearsals and with the choirs in great voice! The conditions and forecast made this quite an easy decision but what a shame! Our choirs and musical groups had ‘peaked’ for this concert and we were all very excited about performing to a packed theatre. No matter, we can only ‘control the controllables’ and the music staff have now had to move focus to the Carol Service. I am happy to say that we have managed to find a replacement date for the concert; it will now take place at 6.30pm on Monday 9th December in the theatre. More details, including how it will work for Year 6 dramatists, to follow next week. Save the date!

I often talk about aspiration and its importance to all our children at KSA. I have been so impressed with my U11 rugby team this year and the progress they have made, and their desire to learn (‘coachability’) was showcased in a superb performance on Wednesday. Rugby is a very popular sport here; many of our boys and girls enjoyed the Modus Cup at Sixways and there has been much talk about the World Cup and the plight of England. It was therefore a great pleasure to welcome Will Butler from Worcester Warriors to the school yesterday. He is currently injured but has played a number of times for the Warriors, memorably making his debut against Leicester Tigers and opposite Manu Tuilagi. Over 50 Junior children spent yesterday lunchtime hearing him speak about his career and ambitions. Years 1 and 3 then held a similar Q and A session and Will was very impressed with the interest of the children and the quality of their questions. These ranged from ‘who is your toughest opponent?’ to ‘how much do you earn?’ via the thorny ‘should men and women be allowed to play rugby together?’ Will is an impressive young man and proved himself as a super role-model to many of our children yesterday. Alison Jones from Warriors accompanied Will yesterday and tweeted: ‘…and massive thank you to King’s St Alban’s. You made us feel so welcome and the children are just amazing. What a beautiful school.’ I was very proud!

Of course, Will was here to formally open our nursery and, despite the rain, this was a memorable and exciting occasion. You can read more here The nursery has been up and running for a while now and looks fantastic. Sarah Pugh, nursery manager, and her staff have worked hard to set the facility up and we are all very excited about its opening. A new chapter has begun for King’s St Alban’s!

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NEWSLETTER: Friday 15th November

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FROM THE HEAD

Pre-Prep News From The Head Quick Links

Monday 18th

U11 Hockey v King’s Hawford at Bishop Perowne

U11 Rugby v King’s Hawford (A)

Tuesday 19th

Book Fair Open: morning break, lunch break and 3.45-4.15pm

U8 Rugby Festival at Abberley Hall

Year 5 & 6 Mayflower Concert - Cathedral 7pm

Wednesday 20th

Book Fair Open: morning break, lunch break and 3.45-4.15pm

Staff Meeting after school—some clubs will not run; see notices.

Thursday 21st

Book Fair Open: morning break, lunch break and 3.45-4.15pm

U10 & U11 Swimming Gala v Holy Trinity School

Friday 22nd

Book Fair Open: morning break, lunch break and 3.45-4.15pm

Jonny Hunt — SRE talk for Year 5

Jonny Hunt — SRE talk for Year 3 to 6 parents; 5-6pm

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THIS WEEK IN NURSERY AND PRE-PREP This week in the nursery, the children have been trying new tastes including banana milkshake and some kiwi as part of their fruit snack. The ‘sound of the week’ is the letter ‘S’ and the children looked at lots of different objects beginning with this sound. They will focus on a new sound each week and learn about sounds that we hear around us.

Thursday was party day, with the official opening of the nursery and our new outdoor area. It was a wonderful afternoon, despite the torrential rain! We were delighted to have William Butler from Worcester Warriors in to officially open the nursery along with some of the governors, parents and other supporters of our new nursery. It was a fantastic opportunity to show off all of our new facilities and some of the lovely activities the children have been enjoying so far. The nursery children enjoyed welcoming the guests into the nursery for the afternoon. They had so much fun dressing up for the afternoon and a enjoying a special biscuit for snack!

We had lots of Super Hero awards for Pre-Prep children this week. Well done to Ben for being kind and thoughtful, to Cerys for embracing school life, to Will B for persevering with his handwriting and to Skye for setting a super example in class. Lilly G was congratulated for pushing herself in maths, Sienna has shown independence, Lily E has worked really hard on her focus and Karla had the confidence to try some tricky maths problems.

Other highlights from Pre-Prep included Reuben’s excellent recital of his poem and Sienna’s progress and independence in maths. Martha did extremely well labelling UK cities and seas, and Archie, Madison, Mia and Zara took great pride in their work when retelling a story.

Mrs Cain was delighted with Eleanor's fantastic art work which was inspired by a sculpture of the Kelpies. Ava and Freddie B achieved full marks in a number of tricky spelling tests and Max, Arthur, Tom, Sam P and Ava (again!) were congratulated on the action stories they wrote. Jack B, Peter, Ace, Rory and Erin did very well when Mrs Atkinson set her class a challenge involving similes and metaphors and Florence B showed us the beautifully presented journal she kept of her half term holiday.

Year 6 have clearly been enjoying their geography of late, producing some super project work on rivers. There were excellent posters, full of information and diagrams; Max looked at the Mississippi, Peter looked at the Nile and Lily focussed on the Amazon. Freddie stayed closer to home with his excellent piece about the River Severn and Arthur’s diagram of the Gambia River was spectacular!

Year 5 have had a great time and produced some super writing about their encounters with the Demon Headmaster. Evie P, Benedict and Heidi were congratulated on their excellent work.

In sporting news, Piers and Oscar have been selected to train with Worcestershire County Cricket and we congratulated Emily, Ava, Peggy, Erin and Sienna from Year 3, for their excellent performance in the hockey festival at RGS The Grange this week. They won 5 matches, drew 4 and lost 1. Well done, girls!

Finally, well done to Henry S who brought in the certificate he was awarded by Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Aston University. Following his stroke, Henry is taking part in an investigation into the after effects of neurological incidents in order to help other affected children as they grow up.

CELEBRATION ASSEMBLY

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Recent letters: Please visit www.ksw.org.uk/letters-to-parents for details of all letters issued this week.

Team Sheets: Please visit www.ksw.org.uk/team-sheets to view team sheets for the week ahead.

Latest News: Weekly Sports Roundup Official Opening of Nursery

Club cancellations/changes: Tuesday: Year 5 & 6 Hockey is cancelled due to the Mayflower concert Year 5 & 6 Rugby is cancelled due to the Mayflower concert Wednesday: Keep Calm and relax (Junior School) is cancelled due to the staff meeting Mindfulness (Pre-Prep) is cancelled due to the staff meeting Thursday: Swim Squad is cancelled due to the gala Football will take place on the school playground Friday: Year 3 & 4 Rugby is cancelled due to the IAPS Rugby Tournament IAPS swim training is cancelled as staff are at IAPS Rugby Running club is cancelled as staff are at IAPS Rugby

Rescheduled School Concert: Yesterday’s Junior School Concert has been re-scheduled for 6.30pm on Monday 9th December. More details will follow shortly.

Senior School Art Invitation: The King’s School Art Department warmly invites you to the Lower Fourth Exhibition 2019, A Walk with Nature. In September the department welcomed the renowned artist Ian Murphy, and inspired by his drawings and paintings the Lower Fourth embarked on their own artistic journey, producing five responses to nature in a range of mediums. Their first hand observations have been recorded in a variety of exciting ways in both Art and English. These observations have been documented in individual concertina books and will be on display from 21st November – 13th December 2019.

Christmas Puddings needed! The Vigornian Rotary Club are once again collecting Christmas Puddings for their annual Parcel Project. The Rotary Club liaise with social services and the Worcester Housing Agency, to distribute Christmas food parcels to local needy people. If you would like to donate a pudding (one or two portion-size please) to this very worthy cause please bring them in to school over the next two weeks. They will be collected on Monday 9th December.

Book Fair: The book fair will be open from Tuesday until Friday next week at morning break, lunch break and also after school between 3.45 and 4.15pm. Do come along if you want to get ahead with that Christmas shopping!

AFP next week: It is a PHSE week for all Years 5 and 6. Children will not require kit.

Birthdays: Many happy returns for next week to Zara A, Oliver A, Pia, Taylor-Mae, Florence V and Henrietta.

Dinner Table Discussions: What music did we hear on arrival at Celebration Assembly today? (hint – seasons) (Autumn by Vivaldi) How can you find out what the latest news is? (Juniors – we discussed this in assembly yesterday) And why is important that we keep abreast of latest news? What did you think of the talk from Will Butler (Worcester Warriors) yesterday?

NOTICES