Headmaster's Bulletin
Four weeks in and the term is hurtling by at an alarming pace; what a busy place the Pre continues to be!
Scholarships
It has been a very successful week in academic terms for the Pre. With the announcement of the 13+ Academic Scholarships to the Upper School, I am delighted to announce that Pre pupils were very successful with a total of seven awards being won, including the prestigious Martin Hardcastle award. In addition, two of our pupils also gained scholarships to other esteemed HMC schools: Winchester College and Rugby School):
Academic Scholarships
Martin Hardcastle Award:
Matt Coleclough (Clifton College)
Constance Everett-Pite (Clifton College)
Jack Chesser (Clifton College)
Jack Burke (Clifton College)
Rory Downer (Clifton College)
Hope Browne (Clifton College)
Phoebe Huntington (Clifton College)
Henry Adams (Winchester College)
Alicia Middleton (Rugby School)
Our congratulations go to the successful candidates. Their achievements reflect not only their impressive abilities but also the enormous commitment they have made to academic endeavour throughout their time at the Pre. I'm also very grateful to the teachers at the Pre for their nurturing and support of these pupils.
Chess
Congratulations to Katya Saint who qualified for the next major tournament, known as the Gigafinal (or National Semi-Finals). Although she was 'zapped' in the first round, she recovered her equilibrium and forged ahead for a great day. While Mia Nissim did not do quite well enough to proceed onward, nevertheless, she had an honourable showing and deserves praise for her performance.
Tennis
Congratulations to Hannah Parry (Year 6) who played in the Avon Schools singles tennis competition last weekend and won the Year 6/7 competition! There were entries from many Bristol and Bath Schools so, although she only had to play a couple of matches, she did very well to win!
Swimming
Congratulations to the following Swimmers who competed last weekend at the IAPS National Swimming Competition:
Rory Downer
Josh Linton
Josh Griffiths
Tom Millett
Grace Caple
Dangerous Driving
There have been some recent reports of extremely dangerous driving in the Zoo car park, with one parent in particular overtaking at high speed before executing a wheel-spin exit from the car-park. Clearly, this is extremely reckless behavior and it has been reported to the local police. It goes without saying that this type of behaviour endangers the lives of our young children - including those from other schools who are being collected each morning by mini-bus. Please can you let me know of any further incidents as the Redland Police and Bristol Zoo are extremely anxious that those using the car park remain safe.
I look forward to seeing you all on Commemoration Day next Friday and, of course, Helen and I wish you all a happy and enjoyable half-term break when it arrives.
With kind regards,
John Milne
Headmaster
Announcements and messages
Dear Parents,
The Boarders are always very pleased to be invited out by day boys and day girls and they certainly very much enjoy their visits. Unfortunately, there are a few restrictions that are placed on us as a school, specifically based on Child Protection. The best way around this restriction is for the parents themselves to make the arrangements between each other and then to inform the school. This does add an extra 'hurdle' I appreciate but it is aimed at keeping the children safe and I hope that it will not put you off issuing invitations for the boarding children.
Steve Webb
Head of Boarding
Half-Term Fun!
Canoeing Activity Courses are on offer at the Baltic Wharf, Bristol Harbour, 10am-4pm, during the last week in May. Cost is £35 per day through All-Aboard Watersports. Contact: gill.hannan@hotmail.com or visit the WESSA website. (Sailing is available on the Thursday.)
Informal Concert
A big thank you to all of the performers who entertained us on Saturday morning for an hour. It was a concert with great variety and as always a terrific standard of performance.
Project Zulu
Clifton College Prep School is hosting the children and teachers of Sithobelumthetho Primary School on 21st May.
Our pupils will be part of a day of Zulu song and dance to celebrate the start of the school's UK tour to raise funds for a more affordable and sustainable energy resource for the school. We look forward to welcoming them to the Pre and to give a heads up for a Gala Concert in the Colston Hall on Thursday 6th June at 7.30pm. Taking part will be the Zulu Choir, Clifton Cantate plus some Year 7's, BCCS Gospel Choir and the Big Band of UWE. It promises to be a great event.
Mr Crabtree
Open Morning
On Saturday 18th May The Pre will be holding its summer Open Morning, if you know of any friends or colleagues who may be interested in attending and learning more about The Pre please do pass on this information to them and ask them to contact Mrs Pafford on 0117 315 7503 or lpafford@clifton-college.avon.sch.uk for more information. We would be delighted to show them our School.
Thank you for your help.
James Breeze
Marketing
Holiday Club and Activity Courses
We are delighted to offer another exciting Half Term holiday programme for all children 3 to 13 years of age. With our early drop and late stay service included at no extra charge, we are operating 8am-6pm Tuesday 28th to Friday 31st May and as always, offer age specific activities:
Minis is for 3-4 year olds and is based at the Butcombe nursery. Juniors is designed specifically with 5-7 year olds in mind. Kids' Club provides activities for the 8-13 year olds. Swimming is part of each daily programme of activities for Juniors and Kids' Club, all of which are designed to promote individual development and of course, fun. We also have a number of activity courses available for the 8-13s including Football, Tennis, Hockey and Cricket Academy Days.
For further information and bookings please visit our new site or contact the Sports Centre on 0117 315 7666 or via email on ccsl@clifton-college.avon.sch.uk. For first time bookers, come and sample a free day with us. Bring a friend and they can also have a free day - vouchers available from the Sports Centre.
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Other Stories
Bumblebees
You will be pleased to know that the bumblebees and hives have arrived and been installed around the BB site. We have two hives in the meadow area of Forest School installed within the fenced off areas of planting below Whitehead and one within the planting between the Bubble and the 3G Pitch.
Clifton College Boys Rugby Course, for 9 - 14 year olds
Tuesday 13th to Sunday 18th August 2013
Clifton College rugby has gone from strength to strength over recent years and it is now recognised as one of the strongest rugby playing schools in the South West. This residential / non-residential course will give you the opportunity to live like a professional player for a week and give yourself the ideal preparation for the 2013-14 season.
The aim of the course is to improve the player in four aspects technical, physical, mental, tactical.
Technically the course will aim to improve the player's generic skills such as tackling and passing but also the course will provide specialist positional technical coaching provided through course-based coaches and guest coaches with specific skill sets focused on the player's needs.
Physically the players, depending on age, will be tested and measured against Premiership Academy fitness criteria. They will be educated on the use of strength and conditioning to improve their rugby ability going forward. They will all leave with an individually tailored program for the season ahead.
Tactically the players will be taken through game understanding sessions on the field and in the classroom. They will be set tasks of preparing their own groups to tactically outwit the opposition. They will be shown how video analysis has become part of the modern game and set homework and analysing matches using the skills they have learnt.
Mentally they will be put in situations where their concentration is tested and asked to perform their core skills under external pressures. This area is probably the least coached in the game but is where players can make the most gains. The players will undertake goal setting long and short term and leave the course with specific key performance indicators and goals for the forthcoming season.
The course will take on a unique structure, based around a pre-season camp of a professional club culminating at the end of the week in a conditioned game that parents are invited to attend and view the improvement the players have made.
www.ccsl-cliftoncollege.com
☆ ★ ☆ ★ Mr Clear's Cunning Conundrums ★ ☆ ★ ☆
How old???
Last week it was my birthday. My age is now a prime number, whose two digits are both also prime. Can you work out what my age is and as a bonus, what other two digit numbers share this property?
A prize will be awarded to a pupil whose answer is drawn from the correct entries from Years 7 and 8; a prize will also be awarded to a pupil whose answer is drawn from the correct entries from Years 4, 5 and 6. Please put you answer and name on a piece of paper and give it to Mr Clear. Parents are very welcome to email too, pclear@clifton-college.avon.sch.uk (no prizes I'm afraid!)
Closing date for entries is Friday 7th June.
Solution to Consecutive Letters
Can you find any words that contain 3 consecutive letters of the alphabet; for example is there a word that contains abc, in that order somewhere in the word? As a bonus can you find a word that in which the three consecutive letters contain no vowels? To make things easier, I will allow proper nouns (you can ask you English teachers about these!)
Well done to Ross Canning (Year 8) who was fiRST; Joseph Taylor (4JW) gave me a very impressive list including: DEFy, HIJack, STUdy, uNOPen and aFGHanistan. There were a couple of others that I found: dABChick and TUValu.
Parents
Are you interested in a morning of Scratching?
No - not that type of scratching...
Does your child play 'mindless' or violent games on the computer?
Are you worried about games like 'Clash of Clans' that encourage 'gang' mentality and open access chat?
Let's direct children to be more creative and safe with their time on the computer and initiate some innovative thinking.
The Pre is hosting an opportunity for mums and dads to come and learn some programming with something called Scratch.
It's free to download, you can make animations, storyboards and children can design their own games.
It's also extremely easy!
Come to the Blue ICT Suite
Saturday 18th May for 9am for coffee and pastries
Workshop 9.30am - 11.30am
Free of charge and most definitely lots of fun!
UK Chess Challenge
The annual County Chess Megafinal Tournment was celebrated in Cheltenham on Saturday, 11th May with 18 children from the Pre and Butcombe competing. A few brains really had to kick into high gear considering the assembled talent from schools and clubs all over Bristol and Gloucestershire. Eager participants ranged in age from 6 to 18 but they generally played those of the same vintage.
The day was a long haul with matches played from 10 am until nearly 5 pm. Fortunately, every Clifton contender made it onto the scoreboard and our overall wins exceeded our losses. Accolades were earned by those progressing to the July National Semi-Finals in Manchester: Joseph Spencer, Katya Saint, Daniel Spencer and Nina Nissim, but special prizes were also awarded to Archie Brown and Jacky Sham for their achievement, both boys nearly qualifying for the next tournament but for a mere ½ point.
Special praise goes to all who gave their day to chess. The determination, stamina and genial sportsmanship were much to their credit and they all gained from the experience.
Mr Hatton
Girls' Tennis success
The girls have recently been successful with their tennis. The U12A and U12B teams both beat Monmouth Girls' School and the 1st and 3rd VI's beat Millfield with the 2nd VI only losing by one set.
Hannah Parry entered the Avon Schools Singles and won the Year 6 and 7 competition by beating a player from Clifton High in the final by 2 sets to love.
On Monday 13th we played in the Severnside Tournaments at Dean Close in horrendous conditions. The girls were very tough and carried on regardless, despite howling gales and pouring rain!. The Under 10 pair, Tilly Kramer and Katya Saint won all their matches, beating Beaudesert, The Downs and Dean Close 2nd pair in group games and Pinewood by 4 games to love in the final.
The Under 11 pair, Sammy Welsh and Corabella Hill, also won their tournament by beating St Hugh's, Pinewood and Dean Close (pair 2) in the group games and Dean Close by 6 games to love in the final.
Congratulations to everyone!
Mrs Cook
Junior Maths Challenge Success
We have just received the results for the Junior Maths Challenge that was taken by 120 pupils in the Pre at the beginning of term. This year there were 14 Gold certificates, an improvement from last year. Jack Burke and Holly Portno scored the highest in Years 8 and 7 respectively.
The most remarkable performance was from Mihnki Kim who is in Year 5. His score was the best in the School! He has also qualified for the Junior Maths Olympiad, the only pupil in the school to do this. Occasionally we have had pupils in Year 8 qualify for the Olympiad, but to qualify at such an early age shows what an outstanding mathematician he is - well done.
Mr P Clear
Head of Maths
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