Newsletter - Victoria College Preparatory School

Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Welcome to the April edition of our Prep newsletter! I hope you have enjoyed the unusual Easter
sunshine and are ready for the term ahead. Thank you to everyone who joined us during the last
week of term for our production of Annie. The pupils were buzzing with excitement and were so
pleased with the rapturous applause and cheers they received.
Mrs Hrabovsky
Parent Forum
Direct Prep Telephone Line
The next Parent Forum meeting will take place
on
Wednesday 20th May 2015 at 6pm.
The top three priority issues per class should
be selected and submitted (in writing) to Miss
Wright by
Wednesday 13th May 2015.
The Prep Direct Line telephone number is:
028 90 386 490
This line will get you directly through to Miss
Thompson in Prep.
Summer Uniform Reminder
Uniform Sale
The school summer dress should be worn
From Tuesday 5th May 2015
Friends of Prep are planning to hold a
used uniform sale on Friday 8th May. This
is always a good opportunity to buy items
for the year ahead.
Grey blazer (Prep only - optional for Pre-School)
and regulation navy jacket
Regulation grey and blue striped dress
Regulation grey pullover (please note:- not a white
cardigan)
Plain white knee or ankle socks
Plain black, flat, laced/velcro shoes or leather navy
Clarks style sandals
(not open-toed)
Regulation maroon baseball cap with school name
should be purchased from the Preparatory
Department (£4) or from Warnocks.
This is compulsory for outdoor play during the
summer months.
We would gladly welcome any donations
of uniform items, hockey sticks, book
bags, shin guards, etc. that your child has
outgrown of for this sale.
A collection box will be placed in the Prep
entrance from Tuesday 5th – Thursday
7th May for items to be left into. We would
appreciate it if name tags could be
removed beforehand.
Thank you.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Swimming Gala Results
Prep 3 Prizes
Prep 4 Prizes Continued
20m Backstroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Aimee Jackson
nd
2 Ribbon – Sophia Young
25m Breaststroke:
st
1 Shield/Gold medal – Anna McCaldin
nd
2 Silver medal – Erin Glenn
10m Backstroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Raine Martin
nd
2 Ribbon – Annabelle O’Flaherty
20m Breaststroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Annabel Hunter
nd
2 Ribbon – Aliza Tareen & Sybil Corscaden
20m Breaststroke ‘A’ final:
st
1 Ribbon – Connie Morrow
nd
2 Ribbon – Erin McGuire
10m Breaststroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Jessica Byrne
nd
2 Ribbon – Isabella Doran
20m Breaststroke ‘B’ final:
st
1 Ribbon – Claudia Green
nd
2 Ribbon – Eppie Hughes-Jennett
25m Freestyle ‘A’ Final:
Osbourne Cup/Gold medal – Aimee Hilman
Silver medal – Molly Young
10m Breaststroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Pippa O’Sullivan
nd
2 Ribbon – Stephanie McMichael
25m Freestyle ‘B’ Final:
Gold medal – Annabel Hunter
Silver medal – Alice Looney & Lola Armstrong
25m Freestyle ‘A’ Final:
st
1 Gold medal – Sophia Young
nd
2 Silver medal – Aimee Jackson
20m Freestyle:
st
1 Ribbon – Charlene Harris
nd
2 Ribbon – Aliza Tareen
25m Freestyle ‘B’ Final:
st
1 Gold medal – Eppie Hughes-Jennett
nd
2 Silver medal – Erin McGuire
10m Freestyle:
st
1 Ribbon – Megan Carville
nd
2 Ribbon – Isabella Doran
20m Freestyle:
st
1 Ribbon – Florence O’Brien
nd
2 Ribbon – Pippa O’Sullivan & Annabelle O’Flaherty
Most points in Prep 4 Cup – Aimee Hilman
10m Freestyle:
st
1 Ribbon – Sophia Mills
nd
2 Ribbon – Clara O’Kane
25m Backstroke:
Cup/Gold medal – Maddie Crawford-McCann
Silver medal – Beatrice Toogood
Most points in Prep 3 Cup – Sophia Young & Aimee
Jackson
20m Backstroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Caroline McMichael
nd
2 Ribbon – Charlotte Roberts & Lucia Anderson
Prep 4 Prizes
25m Breaststroke:
Cup/Gold medal – Rachel Cheevers
Silver medal – Luca Moore
25m Backstroke ‘A’ Final:
Cup/Gold medal – Aimee Hilman
Silver medal – Ellie Fogarty
25m Backstroke ‘B’ Final:
Gold medal – Annie Irvine
Silver medal – Alice Looney
Prep 5 Prizes
20m Breaststroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Charlotte Roberts
nd
2 Ribbon – Emma Brow & Sophia Colgan
10m Breaststroke:
st
1 Ribbon – Olivia Shaw
nd
2 Ribbon – Libby Nesbitt
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Swimming Gala Results Continued
Prep 5 Prizes Continued
25m Freestyle Final ‘A’:
Cup/Gold medal – Maddie Crawford-McCann
Silver medal – Beatrice Toogood
25m Freestyle Final ‘B’:
Gold medal – Sophia Colgan
Silver medal – Luca Moore
20m Freestyle:
st
1 Ribbon – Libby Nesbitt
nd
2 Ribbon – Olivia Shaw
25m Butterfly:
Gold medal – Clara Wilson
Silver medal – Emma McCloy
Most points in Prep 5 Cup – Maddie Crawford-McCann
Prep 6 Prizes
25m Backstroke:
Clare Kirkpatrick Cup/Gold medal – Lily McGuire
Silver medal – Amelia McGuigan
20m Backstroke:
Gold medal – Evie O’Sullivan
25m Breaststroke:
Gold medal – Isabella O’Brien
Silver medal – Amy Fogarty
25m Freestyle ‘A’ Final:
Gold medal – Lily McGuire
Silver medal – Evie McGale
25m Freestyle ‘B’ Final:
Gold medal – Aoife Mallon
Silver medal – Alex Boal
25m Freestyle ‘C’ Final:
Gold medal – Amber Fisher
Silver medal – Olivia Byrne
25m Butterfly:
Louise McGuigan Cup/Gold medal – Lily McGuire
Silver medal – Alex Boal
Prep 7 Prize
25m Backstroke:
Clare Kirkpatrick Cup/Gold Medal – Ella Ross
Silver Medal – Molly McGuire
20m Backstroke:
Gold medal – Natalie Medhurst
Silver medal – Emma Kirk
25m Breaststroke:
Laura Wilson Cup/Gold medal – Amilia Azuara-Lois
Silver medal – Clara Hamilton
25m Freestyle ‘A’ Final:
Lindsay Spence Cup/Gold medal – Molly McGuire
Silver medal – Ella Ross
25m Freestyle ‘B’ Final:
Gold medal – Fiona Ferguson
Silver medal – Lucy McQuoid
25m Freestyle ‘C’ Final:
Gold medal – Anna McCoy
Silver medal – Elise Donnelly, India Meyer & Beth
Roberts
25m Freestyle ‘D’ Final:
Gold medal – Billi Henry
Silver medal – Natalie Medhurst
25m Butterfly:
Louise Gilmer Cup/Gold medal – Ella Ross
Silver medal – Molly McGuire
P6/7 Form relay:
Medal – P7 ‘A’ Team – Clara Hamilton, Molly
McGuire, Lauren Patterson & Ella Ross
P7 Interhouse Relay:
Gold medal – Howard
Silver medal - Wellington
Most points in Prep 7:
Rachel Smyth Cup – Ella Ross
Most Improved Swimmers – Eliza Neville-Forrest &
India Meyer
Most points in Prep 6:
Clare Kirkpatrick Cup – Lily McGuire
Parent/Daugher Race – Ella & Mr Ross
Thank you for supporting our Galas last month! Thanks also to Mrs Henderson, Jonny & Jeanette for all of
their help and organisation.
Congratulations to everyone who took part, you were wonderful!
Well done to all of our winners!
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Hockey
Congratulations to the VCB Prep Hockey Squad who won Silver at the Ulster Hockey
Regional Qualifying tournament on Friday 6th March. As winners of our section, we were allowed
to progress to the knockout stages. We won 1-0 against Penryhn in the Quarter Finals and 2-0
against Stranmillis in the Semi Finals. The Final was against Methody and proved to be a closely
contested match. Despite losing 2-0, we fought right to the final whistle and defended with
confidence and strength.
Well done to all the girls involved who showed such great sportsmanship and determination. We
are very proud of you indeed!
The Team’s final match of the season was a fun game against BRA in which Prep won 3 – 2.
The girls enjoyed home-made refreshments in the pavilion after the match.
Well done girls for a great season!
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Gaelic Football
The VCB Prep Gaelic Football team
participated in the Belfast Schools’ Gaelic
Football Championship on Tuesday 24th March
with matches against Christ The Redeemer,
St. Joseph’s Slate Street and St. Joseph’s
Lisburn.
The girls played very well in freezing and
blustery conditions. In particular, Clara
Hamilton, Amber Young, Emilia Azuara-Lois
and Katherine Ward put in outstanding
displays.
Well done to all the girls.
Victoria’s Kitchen Cookery School
Victoria’s Kitchen ran again during the Easter holidays with some new and previous visiting girls.
The girls had a really productive day being little chefs and learning about food safety and food
poisoning, as well as cooking 3 delicious recipes.
The budding chefs cooked home-made pancakes with fruit for their breakfast; healthy burgers
and salad for lunch and chocolate chip cookies to take home and share with their family (although
we can't guarantee that any family members actually had the chance to sample these cookies!).
Mr Gorman was very impressed with the girls’ skills on the day as they used hotplates and frying
pans and worked together to make sure everyone was kept safe when using such equipment.
We hope to see the girls at Victoria’s Kitchen again soon.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Friends of Prep Mother’s Day Coffee & Craft Morning
Thank you to the wonderful Friends of Prep for organising a lovely morning of coffee, treats and
crafts for Prep pupils and their parents.
Pupils decorated cards and cup-cakes and crafted key-rings for their loved ones. There was also
the chance to purchase cards, felt crafts, hand-made goodies and jams.
This was a very popular event with a great turn out. Thank you to all who attended and
congratulations to the Easter egg prize winners - remember, staff are always here to help with
eating any unwanted chocolate from your hampers!
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Belfast Giants Game
Following a visit from the Giants Education Team earlier in the term, Prep 7 enjoyed a fantastic
experience at the Odyssey on Saturday 14 March watching the Belfast Giants in a nail
biting action packed game against the Nottingham Panthers. The game went to extra time
followed by penalties which sadly saw the Giants defeated by 3-2.
Red Nose Day 2015
Thank you to the girls who wore their crazy socks or tights for the
day! It was very funny and we are so glad the girls and staff
enjoyed taking part!
Prep raised over £340 for Comic Relief with this event and from
selling Red Noses, and would like to say thank you so much to
everyone who contributed!
Music Recital Prep 5 – Prep 7
We warmly invite you to our Music Recital
Evening will be held on Thursday 23rd April
at 7pm in the Prep Hall.
Pupils should arrive at 6.30pm prompt
wearing their Summer uniform.
Friends of Prep
Invite you to a Jazz Brunch on
Friday 15th May at Cutters
Wharf
10am - 12 noon
Come and enjoy brunch style
refreshments, a raffle and live jazz
Tickets £12
All funds raised for VCB Prep
Booking info to follow
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
VICTORIA COLLEGE
ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Parents, teachers and guests are cordially invited to join us
on
Friday 8 May 2015
Reception 7.30 - 8.00 pm
Tickets £35.00 (per head)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Please return this booking form, enclosing a cheque made out to ‘APT Victoria College’,
to APT, c/o The School Office, Victoria College, Cranmore Park, Belfast BT9 6JA.
Returns please asap – tickets issued on a first come, first served basis
I require ________ tickets for the Dine@Deanes event
Daughter’s Name: _______________________________
Form class: _____________
Name: ____________________________________________________________________
Address:
______________________________________________________________
Telephone:
________________
Number of vegetarian meals required: __________
* I wish to book a table for ________ people and enclose a cheque for £ _____________
(NB: Maximum table size = 10 persons)
* I will be joining the table of _________________________________
(*Delete one)
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Pre-Pre-School
Pre-Pre-School took part in the Friends of
Prep Mother’s Day Event. One of the
children even won a delicious chocolate
surprise!
We have been having lots of fun in PrePre-School and have enjoyed getting
ourselves messy with arts and crafts!
Pre-School
In Pre-School this April we have been thinking about Spring and new life. We enjoyed a walk in
our beautiful school grounds where we had fun spotting the signs of Spring.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Prep 1
P1 have been very excited about playing in their Hairdressers’ Salon in our role play area. We
were also delighted to have had some expert advice from the Cut and Blow Dry Bar staff who
showed the girls how to brush their hair correctly ‘soft and slow’, to tie it up to help prevent spread
of nits (very useful information as springtime is nit time!) and how to massage in their shampoo.
The girls went home proud owners of super detangling hairbrushes. P1 will have the best brushed
hair in the Prep now!!
Prep 2
Prep 2 girls have been enjoying learning
about ‘Our Local Area’. We wrote a letter to
a member of our extended families and
took a walk along the Lisburn Road to post
them in the post box. We have received
lots of replies already and have enjoyed
reading them out to everyone in class!
We also had a great time at a pizza making
workshop at Little Wing Pizzeria. We enjoyed
tasting all of the different toppings and were
really delighted with the results of our morning
as pizza chefs!
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Prep 3
Last term Prep 3 participated in a range of activities based on the story Farmer Duck by Martin
Waddell. As part of this unit of work the girls worked in pairs to create a PowerPoint presentation
retelling the story.
This put all their ICT skills to the test as they went about changing fonts, colours, sizes and even
backgrounds. The work they produced was fantastic, what great team work!!
Prep 4
Prep 4 have begun their new topic of "Mighty Me". In this topic we have looked at our school crest
and designed our own personal crests to show our interests and hobbies, both inside and outside
of school.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
Prep 5
On Thursday the 12th March, Mrs Boyd organised a variety of workshops for our Celebrating
Difference Project. We welcomed Primary 5 pupils from Our Lady’s Girls Primary School to enjoy
some drumming and Irish dancing.
Pat Henderson, all-Ireland and Ulster champion Irish Dancer, taught the girls a few dancing steps
while Paul Costello from Talking Drums lead the drumming. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the
workshops which have been generously funded by BT Northern Ireland and the Pear Foundations
and supported by the Integrated Education Fund.
Prep 6
Prep 6 have been enjoying science lessons with Mr Harry Wright, a Queen's University medical
student who comes into our classroom each week to help us learn more about science. We have
been investigating the importance of having a healthy heart and lungs. We now know the purpose
of the respiratory and circulatory systems and we can label some parts of the heart and lungs on
medical models. We look forward to learning about the skeletal and digestive systems this term.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
School Council Upcoming Events
Earlier in the year, the School Council organised a whole school survey inviting all pupils to make
suggestions about making improvements to our school. Results from all classes indicated the
desire to update playground resources, with, amongst other suggestions, a specific interest shown
in purchasing individual skipping ropes and playground markings i.e. hopscotch etc
To this end, the School Council has organised two special fundraising events:


“Pounds for the Playground Week” ( Mon 20th- Fri 24th April)
From Monday to Friday of this week, pupils are encouraged to earn a pound for each job
carried out at home. Job week sheets will be provided for all pupils on Friday 17 th April.
“Mad Hair Day!” (Friday 24th April)
Pupils can donate £1 for the privilege of wearing their hair in a unique style for the day! As
well as imaginative hair styling, options can include adding accessories such as ribbons,
hairbands, hats and wigs etc but for health and safety reasons, we would request that pupils
do not add hair colouring.
The School Council thanks you in anticipation of your continued support.
Eco Action Team
Eco Club
***Date for your diaries***
The Eco after school club were kept busy
each week weeding and planting throughout
our school grounds. We have planted some
vegetables including shallot onions, rhubarb,
red and green chillis and we planted poppies
and sunflower seeds.
Week beginning Monday 18th – Friday 22nd May
we will be participating in Travelwise Northern
Ireland Walk to School week event with some
extra special additions this year!
More details on how you can join in on the event
will follow in the form of a letter very soon.
Watch carefully to see them grow and
hopefully we will attract some birds, bees
and butterflies into our garden area.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
‘Annie’
The last week of Spring term saw another spectacular show from our pupils in Prep. Every girl
from Prep 1 to Prep 6 took a starring role in our performance of ‘Annie’ as either orphans or maids
whilst our pupils in Prep 7 lead the all-star Run-a-muck
cast to great success!
Run-a-muck is Ireland’s original off-road fun and run challenge for joggers and runners of all abilities. On Saturday
The
audience
lively
particularly
characters
of
1 March
a gallantwere
band of
eightand
staff engaged
and fourteenthroughout,
Year 12, 13 and
14 girls leftenjoying
Belfast at our
6.45 comic
am to travel
to
‘Rooster’
‘Lily!’
Clonkeeranand
House
near Johnstown Bridge in County Kildare. The race is a 5km cross country event over a course
best described as “wet and mucky” with many man-made and natural obstacles like bale jumps, net scrambles,
superdone
slides,to
Tarzan
swings,
bridges,
streams,
tyres
tunnels.
of thenext
participants
Well
everyone
who
wasditches,
involved…it
will
be and
a hard
act Some
to follow
year! were seasoned
cross-country runners and some had never attempted such a thing, but everyone finished the course, with several
crossing the line side by side with the buddy who had spurred them on over the gruelling course. The day was an
outstanding opportunity for fun, friendship and personal challenge. Very importantly, it also raised sponsorship for
our school charities the Simon Community, the Alzheimer’s Society and UNICEF. Congratulations to Mr Kavanagh
whose vision this was. You can find out much more – including the athletes’ finishing times! –
at http://www.runamuckchallenge.com.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
April 2015
VICTORIA COLLEGE PREP
Annie DVD 2015
CASH / CHEQUES ONLY PLEASE.
PLEASE MAKE ALL CHEQUES PAYABLE TO
CORISH PRODUCTIONS.
I would like to purchase the Victoria College Prep 2015 ANNIE DVD
Name: _____________________________________________________
Name of pupil: __________________________________
Address:
Class: _______
____________________________________________________
Contact Telephone Number: ______________________________________
Standard Definition DVD:
Number of copies (£12.00 per copy inclusive of VAT):
_______________
High Definition DVD (Blu-Ray):
Number of copies (£20.00 per copy inclusive of VAT):
_______________
I enclose cash / cheque for the sum of £_________ only
Signed: ________________________________
PLEASE POST ALL ORDERS TO:
Michael Corish
Corish Productions
Unit A3 Castlereagh Enterprises Ltd
Dundonald Enterprise Park
BT16 1QT