When children have the chance to connect with all members of their community, not only does it build respect for the roles everyone has to play, but it also enhances their learning and engagement.

In Year 1 this week, the amazing Estates Team helped our children delve deeper into their inquiry topic all about transport, by providing a magnificent exposition of some of our school vehicles, which allows the children to fully immerse themselves in the forms and functions of these different types of transport. They climbed, sat, poked, explored, enthused and inquired throughout the session. Thank you, Mr Hale, Ken and Josef!

In the Nursery, Michael, also from Estates, was busily fixing a door. The children were fascinated and deeply appreciative of the work he was doing. A disagreement ensued between him and Fergus about the correct nomenclature for a wrench. Or was it a spanner? They have now become firm friends!

Nursery children also spent time baking this week, for people they love, linking this to the story of Little Red Riding Hood and her basket of food for Grandma.

In our House Spelling competition event on Monday, children worked with members of their House community to share their skills and earn House Points. Congratulations to Willow for their success this time round!

In our beautiful Forest School, we have been bird watching, in advance of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend, and creating our own bows. The wet weather has not discouraged us from time outside and there has been a fair amount of mud throughout the week!

In other news, we have been creating shops in class to apply our knowledge of money, exploring doubles using different resources in Reception, creating beautiful Victorian silhouette portraits, creating moving car designs to build our creative and design skills, making maps and writing and receiving letters.

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep

Pre-Prep have been learning all about the Big Garden Birdwatch this week, run by the RSPB, with Forest School sessions and an eco-meeting focused on spotting and identifying common garden birds. The Big Garden Birdwatch is the UK's biggest citizen science wildlife survey, which happens in January every year. The children have been sent home with activity sheets for those who would like to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend.

It has been wonderful to see how excited many of the children are in their role as 'mini scientists', contributing to this national study after practising their birdwatching techniques in school.

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Our Estates team have also been busy at work in Forest School, as they installed new balancing ropes for the children to use. 3BH tested them and had a fantastic time. These ropes should help our youngest children build confidence and resilience, as well as supporting their balance and core strength in a fun and exciting way.

Thank you so much to all of our parents who brought in their pre-loved trainers for the OSCAR Foundation. Our donation was collected by Lucinda's husband this week, and is already on its way to Mumbai to some very grateful children.

A number of our former pupils are volunteering with OSCAR at the moment, and will be personally giving out the trainers to those who need them.

Torrential downpours and a wet, boggy, incredibly tough course greeted our cross country runners at Pinewood on Thursday, but boy, did they rise to the challenge! This was a serious cross country test and it was great to see the team giving their best. Spirits remained high as they got their heads down and got stuck in. Particularly fine runs came from Vali, Henry L, Isabel T and Pip, who led the way, superbly supported by the rest of the squad. Very well done, all.

Thank you to the parents who joined us for our New Prep Parent Lunch and Tour. This is a new addition to our school calendar that allows Prep School families who joined us in September to tour the School with their children, and enjoy a lunch with children and staff. Parents had a fantastic time seeing their children's favourite parts of school life, and meeting other new families in the process.

The weather may have had other ideas, but the Boarding House has felt full of life all week. Evenings have had that lovely noisy, cosy feel, where someone is always laughing in one corner, a game is happening somewhere else, and nobody is in much of a rush to go to bed. A week where the House really does feel like home.

Monday kicked things off with bracelet making and table tennis, which somehow turned into a mix of quiet concentration at one table and very loud cheering at another.