Newsletter

26 April 2024

Welcome to the Summer Term! It was lovely to see the children bounding through the school gates last week full of energy and enthusiasm for the term ahead. Everyone returned from the holiday break excited to see each other and keen to begin activities and lessons. In assemblies we welcomed new pupils to the Pre-Prep and Prep School and know they will settle in very quickly. They all looked full of smiles at the end of week one.

In the Prep School assembly we talked about the importance of setting of trying our very best to live out our core values so that we can collectively ensure that the Summer Term is a happy, enjoyable and successful term for every pupil and member of our community.

This final term really is extra special with longer days and warmer weather, perfect for outdoor activities on our beautiful campus. The highlight of my week was spending time with our Nursery children in Forest School. It was such a pleasure to hear them explain their outdoor learning with such clarity and confidence.

There is so much to look forward to in the next few months, from lessons to sports, music concerts to exams, day and residential trips for all ages, Boarders events and BBQs, and Prize Day & Graduation. Feltonfleet is buzzing in the summer with plenty happening both in and out of the classroom. Please do mark your calendars for an exciting term ahead and I look forward to seeing you soon.

We're thrilled to announce the exceptional achievements of our pupils in securing senior school scholarships this year! While more results are on the horizon, we want to take a moment to congratulate all those who have already received this prestigious recognition. Already, this has been a record breaking year!

We are truly impressed by the dedication and exceptional diligence exhibited by all scholarship candidates, those who achieved success and those who narrowly missed out this time. The unwavering effort and maturity of every pupil throughout the process has been highly commendable.

Our Year 8 Languages Ambassadors, Ralph S, Mia B, Fred L and Maria LS gave a brilliant assembly this week to Middle & Upper School pupils.

They spoke passionately about the importance and benefits of learning other languages, with a focus on appreciation, understanding and inclusion.

Their presentation is below, click on the right side of the slides to scroll through.

#FeltonfleetWhereIndividualsReallyMatter

During the first two weeks of Summer Term in Pre-Prep the children have demonstrated progress and development in a wide range of curriculum areas. The Nursery and Reception children enjoyed collaborative mark making with early writing and representational drawings linked to stories. Year 1 children worked in pairs to list their favourite family games.

In the Forest School, Year 2 children have been learning to use the bow saw to cut down a dead tree and snapping twigs for fire wood. These skills develop children’s hand and arm strength as well as personal risk taking. The children have planted seeds for summer flowers and marvelled at the beautiful bluebells that have opened since the holiday.

Congratulations to all of the children in the Pre Prep who have worked collectively, with determination and enthusiasm, to reach the top of the Busy Things LeaderBoard this week! Busy Things is an exciting digital resource of activities and games which covers all aspects of the Pre-Prep curriculum, as well as enhancing the children's digital literacy skills. The children enjoy accessing this resource at home, as well as school, and have worked very hard to earn stars and reach the LeaderBoard this week, especially considering they are up against schools from across the globe!

#FeltonfleetPrePrep

Focus on IPC

Year 3 pupils have made an exceptional start at completing the '100 Time Challenge' this week. They have keenly shared their pictures with one another and delighted in seeing photos of their friends as babies! The pupils have been enthused with our new IPC unit, entitled 'Time and Place, Earth and Space'. They have been experimenting with light, observing how it travels in straight lines and have had fun creating shadows. Using models to aid their understanding, they have also been exploring how the planets rotate around the sun and how earth experiences day and night.

The new IPC unit of work in Year 4 this term is ‘Active Planet.’ Throughout this engaging topic, the pupils will learn about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis and how they impact our planet. Teachers have already witnessed high levels of curiosity and, so far, pupils have explored what the Earth is made of and tectonic plates, with great intrigue. They have all created a paper model which clearly shows and explains the properties of each layer.

#FeltonfleetYear3

#FeltonfleetYear4

Year 6 has just completed their study on 'Industry,' and if you were to inquire about the most memorable aspect of the topic for each pupil, it would undoubtedly be the case study they conducted on clothing manufacturing, specifically focusing on Nike's operations in countries like Indonesia and India. This exploration served as a profound revelation for the Year 6 pupils, providing insights into the reasons and mechanisms behind the widespread shift of clothing production to distant, often lower-income nations.

They were deeply unsettled by the stark realities of the low wages—equivalent to about £2 per day—and the harsh living conditions endured by workers as a consequence of their meager incomes. Throughout this study, pupils familiarised themselves with terms such as exploitation, sweatshops, globalization, and trade. The CEO of Nike, has become the least favored figure among Year 6 pupils.

#FeltonfleetYear6

Year 8 have just finished their fantastic colourful lino prints. Amazing results were achieved printing in layers with different colours, creating texture and depth. But we are getting to the end of our time together and therefore they are going to be challenging themselves by choosing from a selection of topics to show artistic independence and taking creative responsibility for their final artwork. This is called Artistic Behaviour, where each will be engaged in diverse initiatives and self-direction focusing on personal development and choice. Flexible critical thinking and problem solving is central to producing creative and authentic art. Well done Year 8 on a fantastic year so far. I am sure your final term will be full of creative surprises.

At the beginning of the project I found a design on the internet that inspired me. When I was drawing I changed and adapted it to something I wanted to do. I reduced all the lines and chose all different colours to print. When I did the first reduction I chose my colours carefully to match them. Overall I really enjoyed this and learnt a lot about lino.

Libby

Arie Coetzee

#FeltonfleetCreativeArts

#FeltonfleetYear8

A few snapshots of some of our fabulous ensembles and choirs are below. They have been rehearsing in earnest, ready for this term’s performances!

Huge congratulations to students who passed their music exams last term!

#FeltonfleetPerformingArts

Year 4 PARENT PUPIL BOOK CLUB

We love hosting our parent pupil book clubs! The hot chocolate was flowing, the pastries were plentiful and the discussion was excellent.

On Wednesday, 12 Y4 pupils and their parents came to talk about ‘Murder on the Safari Star’ , a superb mystery by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgwick. Set on a luxurious steam train in South Africa, Harrison Beck and his Uncle Nat are on the journey of a lifetime aboard the Safari Star. Close encounters with the amazing animals and landscape of Southern Africa are adventure enough, but things get mysterious when a passenger is found dead inside a locked compartment, leaving train detective Hal and his new friend Winston to find out what happened.

It was lots of fun and so lovely to hear the pupils opinions on the different characters; who they thought was guilty and who would be brave enough to try out an underwater train from Japan to India! We are really looking forward to chatting with Y5 and Y6 next week in their sessions.

Francesca Kinghorn & Emma Burnside

#FeltonfleetLiteracy

Congratulations to Joe H (5HMr) and Tommy H (7CCo)

Earth’s Incredible Oceans

By Jess French

Earth Day was celebrated around the world on Monday and this is the perfect book to look at the important role the oceans play on Earth. The Earth is covered in so much water that from space it looks blue. We still have large areas that are unexplored, I like to think Nessie is down there somewhere and new creatures are being discovered as you read, including an eel that can heal itself. Oceans are critical to life on Earth and this book dives into the layers of life that swim within it, looking at how the oceans help us and how we can help the ocean. Beautifully laid out with stunning artwork, this is a book you will love sharing together.

Recommended for Year 2+

As we return from the Easter holidays the boarding community has been making the most of the lighter evenings (although we are still waiting for those warmer temperatures!!). We have been able to get outside every evening so far this term. With lots of cricket nets, playing family it in the woods and kicking footballs around on the field, it has been a wonderful start to term! We have welcomed some new faces to the boarding house who have made a great start to their boarding journey. Here is what some of boarders have enjoyed so far this term...

#FeltonfleetBoarding

Cricket & Football Tour to BarbaDOS

Over the Easter Holiday 24 boys from our Upper School travelled to Barabos for a Cricket & Football tour. Across the 9 days on the Island the boys played 2 football matches and 4 (although 1 rained off) cricket matches. Playing a mix of local clubs and schools, 2 excursion days (beach trampolining and a boat trip where we snorkelled with turtles!) and a trip to Ositins. All our boys were fantastic ambassadors of Feltonfleet, displaying a high level of politeness and matureness across the whole tour.

On the sporting front, the boys all played with passion and enthusiasm, with everyone seeing levels of success throughout the tour. It was a fantastic experience playing at new grounds, meeting local supporters and making new friends from the teams we played. All 4 staff that travelled out enjoyed the boys' company, and were blown away by their levels of kindness and sense of fun.

#FeltonfleetDestination13

#FeltonfleetSport

Year 5 Hockey Success

Despite having started our Summer term for the lucky girls and boys that play at clubs - the hockey season is still going! Last weekend a number of our U10 boys and girls played at Lee Valley in the London Finals.

Lulu S, Ophelia J, Lily D represented Surbiton Girls Plate team, Elizabeth B represented Surbiton Girls Cup team and Ben M and Will L represented Surbiton Boys Plate and Surbiton Boys Cup teams respectively. It was a clean sweep for the Feltonfleet pupils with each pupil earning themselves a medal.

The boys Cup team had an excellent day with Will L in goal where they finished in 3rd place. Both the Plate teams and the girls Cup team played well throughout the tournament and finished winners for the “London regionals GU10’s In2Hockey Finals Competition”. Well done to all that participated!

ESSA Primary Team Relay Championships

County Round

ESSA Primary Team Relay Championships was held on Saturday 16 March at Guildford Spectrum and our amazing swimmers were super excited to compete in this National competition.

Over the holidays we have received the fantastic news that both boy’s and girl’s team have qualified for the ESSA Primary Team South East Regional Round. The girls will compete in the Medley and Freestyle Relay, boys will swim in the Freestyle Relay on Saturday 11 May at Guildford Spectrum.

Huge congratulations to Feltonfleet swimmers, this an amazing achievement!

Well done everyone, we are so proud of the team.

R Szalma

girls’ sport round up

It has been a cold but bright start to the term, where Feltonfleet is buzzing with excitement for a season filled with sport. From athletics and swimming to tennis, golf and cricket, there's certainly no shortage of opportunities in the Summer Term.

The girls have been stepping up to the crease for the start of their cricket season. With a successful winter program we are aiming to field two hardball teams (U11A and 1st) this season, with the potential for a 2nd team as well. The girls have been putting in the hard work so far, focusing on essential fielding and bowling skills during training sessions.

This week cricket fixtures began for our senior girls. Our U12 and U13s enjoyed matches against King Edward’s Witley, there was a cup match against St George’s for the 1st XI girls side and this weekend will also see our oldest girls take on Danes Hill. Our Middle School fixture program gets underway next week with the U10s taking on Downsend and the U11s paying Rowan.

We're looking forward to a rewarding cricket season and are striving for solid results and lengthy cup runs enjoyed during sunny afternoons. But above all, our priority is to ensure that everyone enjoys themselves throughout the season, has the chance to represent their school in some way and makes personal progress.

BOYS’ SPORT update

All our pupils have jumped right into the cricket season, giving all their effort and energy despite the less than ideal weather conditions! Our U10s managed to kick start their season with a fantastic fixture against Rokeby, hosted by Horsley and Send CC. The B & C teams had 2 close fixtures that were just beaten in. The A team also has a brilliantly close fixtures, this time managing to win in the final over of the match! A hugely positive start to the season.

Our seniors kick-off their season with Kings Edwards Whitley and Cranmore with a cup match for our 1st team squeezed in as well. Our U11s have the Geoff Richards 8-aside cup starting early next week as well, as we set out to defend the 3 titles we won last year!

Earlier this month two of our Year 7 pupils, Jay K and Will S, were invited to take part in an exciting opportunity to attend the 12th Sainte Dévote Rugby Tournament in Monaco, with Cobham Rugby Club. This prestigious event has representatives from across the world, and Cobham Rugby Club was the only English club invited, selecting its strongest 12 players to take part. The rugby 7 celebration is an unforgettable sporting event and multicultural exchange. We asked Jay and Will to tell us about the event in their own words...

Monaco? To play rugby? And represent England? “YES, please!” It was back in January that this incredible invite came Cobham Rugby Club’s way, and it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ever since. Team selection, extra training sessions, ordering kit (especially with the St George’s flag on!), booking flights and endless jokes about it being our first (and most likely last!) caps for England…Then all of a sudden THE weekend arrived, and there we were in Monaco’s ‘Stade Louis II’ Stadium (also home to AS Monaco FC). The matches started on Friday when we took on Holland, France and Andorra. Let’s just say we were suddenly aware of the competition - and being the youngest team in the tournament, it was fierce!! But we did manage a 3-2 win against Andorra, which was the confidence boost that we all needed. Following a better night’s sleep than our first(!), Saturday started with the Opening Ceremony to honour the prince and princess’ tournament. As Captain, I carried the St George’s flag - I’ve never felt so proud. I met and shook hands with Prince Albert and Princess Charlene. Then we faced Holland AGAIN. Yep, same outcome (loss 4-0), but as a team we played so much better than the day before and we fought so hard every minute. Jamaica was our next opposition. That was a draw unfortunately, we were all a bit disappointed with our performance as we all knew that we were the better team that day. And then it was our final game against Lucianna (Corsica). We gave it more than 150%, the final score was 6 - 0 to us! There were 24 countries present, and we came 15th. A weekend of blue skies and sunshine, camaraderie, my favourite sport and a real sense of pride, it was the perfect recipe for an off the scale brilliant weekend, one we will all remember forever and one I am so incredibly grateful to have experienced.

Will

I never thought that an opportunity like this would come my way, so I was incredibly excited to be chosen as one of the U11 boys from Cobham RFC picked to represent England. We started training immediately and it was really intense, but I have to say I loved every second of it, especially the bond I have made with the eleven other boys…and the fitness test at the end of every session, which I secretly loved! From the moment we set foot in Monaco’s stadium, it dawned on us how big the occasion and set-up was. Being the youngest team in the tournament we knew it was going to be a challenge and it was just that! The size of some of the boys was something else. I’m not sure what they get fed in South Africa, but I definitely need some (a lot) of it! Day one was tough as we thought it would be, especially against France, who were the eventual runners-up, but a win in our final game against Andorra filled us with confidence and belief and helped settle any nerves. Day two we stepped it up massively in terms of our performances and despite losing to Holland, we fought back from two down against Jamaica to get a draw and then beat Lucianna 6-0 in our final match. I will never forget or underestimate how lucky I have been. The pride and privilege I felt in seeing one of my best-mates and school friends captain the team and fly the flag, meeting people from so many different countries and backgrounds, fighting for my team and spending four days with them, seeing my family in the crowd and playing rugby in an international stadium, is an experience I will never forget. Seeing some of the best U12 children in the world play rugby to such a high level and with such focus was inspiring and has made me even more determined to push myself and improve as an athlete

Jay

Pre-Prep

Ollie N (2JEf) - For researching and presenting his factfile.

Lower School

Justin K (4DPe) - For showing a superb attitude and diligent work ethic during his first weeks at Feltonfleet.

Middle School

Tea P (6JBu) - For always being positive and demonstrating a fantastic attitude to school life.

Upper School

Sophie R (8NSh) - Sophie is someone who has returned from the Easter Holiday ready to take on the term! She contiunes to challenge herself in both her school work and in her sport. Sophie is also a keen club swimmer and has recently set times that make her a consideration for regionals.

#FeltonfleetIdentityAndCulture

More swimming success for sophie & Issac

In January Sophia gained automatic qualification to compete in the Swim England South East Championships which runs over two weekends in April.

Sophia has been training very hard to prepare for this event and did amazingly well in the first week of this competition. She finished 3rd in the 200m Butterfly and swam a PB in 200m Individual Medley and 400m Freestyle. To perform at the regional level is extremely tough and to win a bronze medal in one of the toughest races is a fantastic achievement.

Well done Sophia, we are so proud of you and keeping our fingers crossed for next weekend!

In other swimming news, Issac had a brilliant weekend gala winning 9 gold medals and achieved some fabulous personal bests! Keep it up Issac, we’re so proud!

football’s finest Award for Faris

Congratulations to our Girls’ Football Captain, Faris H (Year 8) for her recent award at her local football club. Faris has been dedicated to her football for a number of years and has been awarded U12 girls - Player of the Year (last season) and the U13 girls Club Person of the Year. Well done Faris!

We’re delighted to share with parents that our very own Helen Marland, Deputy Head (Pastoral), is featured in the latest edition of ‘John Catt’s Preparatory Schools 2024', with her thoughts on the evolving landscape of pastoral care in schools. The 27th edition of this guide to Prep Schools in the UK, is a one-stop resource for all families considering independent preparatory education, and is available to buy from bookshops, or view online here.

#FeltonfleetWellbeingAndCommunity

To mark World Earth Day 2024, the pupils have been exploring the fascinating world of trees and their significance in our environment. From calculating carbon in trees to understanding the benefits of embracing nature with a hug, our pupils are embracing sustainability in action! We’ve also focused on the ‘Planet v Plastics’ global theme, and reaffirmed our commitment to environmental stewardship with a pledge to improve our local environment at school.

Julia Crowe

#FeltonfleetResponsibility

Huge congratulations to Helen Marland and Naomi James, who completed the London marathon last weekend! Their remarkable endurance, dedication, and commitment to such a challenging feat serve as shining examples for our pupils and our entire school community. Not only have they showcased their physical strength and determination, but they've also demonstrated the importance of setting ambitious goals and persevering to achieve them.

Thank you to everyone in our community who has supported Helen and Naomi’s fundraising efforts, and helped keep their spirits high from the roadside on race day. Helen is raising money for Young Lives Vs Cancer who help children and young people with cancer get the right support at the right time. Naomi is raising money for Helen Arkell whose vision is of a day when people with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties have the same opportunities as everyone else to achieve their goals.

A heartfelt thank you to all our parents for their generous donations to the David Lloyd, Visa and Kitround.com 'Declutter and Do Good' campaign in support of grassroots sports! Your contributions of sports kit and equipment not only help to declutter your homes but will also made a meaningful impact on the lives of aspiring young athletes, raising vital funds and providing essential resources to local sports initiatives. Thank you for helping us empower the next generation of athletes!

#FeltonfleetPeopleAndCommunity

Please send your news, or any feedback, to marketing@feltonfleet.co.uk.