This year’s Prep School Presentation Afternoon was a more informal occasion, in which the achievements of all those in the Upper Prep were celebrated by their families, friends and teachers. In place of the traditional review of the year by the Headmistress, the pupils themselves presented their own report on the highlights and lasting memories of the year, accompanied by a selection of wonderful photos recalling many of the years’ special events. Our guest of honour was Mrs Laura Tong, a former pupil of the school who went on to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records for her and her husband’s tandem journey from London to Sydney.

At 12:45, as the Upper Prep assembled on the field for this year’s Sports Day, the heavens opened, just like last year. A hasty conference of PE staff and management took the decision to wait things out, and after a quarter of an hour, the rain stopped and patches of blue became visible overhead! With this slightly delayed start, sports day got under way with the grand class relays. Field events proceeded throughout the afternoon, with some particularly impressive long jumps being recorded. Track events kept house supporters and parents on the edge of their seats, with some outstanding performances across a range of distances, up to and including 600m.

Shakespeare Day also saw the Upper Prep's celebration of our recent outstanding performance in the ESB exams. Whilst time didn't permit the audience of pupils and parents to hear performances from all children, two dozen pupils from Years 4-6 performed their exam pieces. The programme gave particular prominence to poetry recitation, following on from Helen Mort's visit that morning, with lovely performances of "The Mystery of my Sister's School Photo" from Flora, "Excuses, Excuses" from Zoe and "L Plates on my Football Shirt" from Josh, amongst many others. A few brave children performed their presentations, including a splendid illustrated talk on Polar Bears by Grace. ESB work does much to boost the children's self confidence, and their willingness to perform to a large audience is some testament to this. The Year 3s are already thinking ahead to their chance to take part next year!

The weeks of hard work, learning poetry, rehearsing prose and planning and practising presentations have certainly paid off this year, with record numbers of pupils (33!) achieving distinctions in their English Speaking Board exams. Almost all of our candidates achieved a merit, with no less than 84% getting Merit Plus or higher; our best results so far. The results apart, the opportunity for independent, personalised study and research, the chance to learn from and critique one another’s work, and the development of analysis and presentation skills make this a hugely important part of our curriculum.

After setting up the Marian Hall with balloons, face paints and many nibbles for the year 4,5,and 6's of the prep school, the fun and games began!. Musical chairs, musical statues, sleeping lions (a break appreciated by all) and a "Best Dancer" competition occupied the lowert sixth and prep school for two hours!

The music was of a disco variety which called for some interesting choreography, although there were some over enthusiastic dance moves by the lower sixth form they were outdone by the prep school who seemed pro's! The favourite game by general consensus was Splat , where the sixth form were asked to demonstrate, and where the only boy, Hugo from Salesian College was champion. The energetic children had their stocks replensished with cakes and juices kindly provided by the school.

Equipped with little more than dowel, elastic bands, teamwork and wonderful imagination, Upper Prep classes took part in a brace of architecture workshops on Thursday. Year 5 and 6 revised recent work on 3D shape as they were taken on a journey from single struts through tripods, tetrahedrons and Wallis trusses to their own designs of cantilevered and beam bridges. Later in the day, Year 3 and 4 designed and built their own shelters, making the best possible use of the human and physical resources to hand.

Amongst the many events at the end of term was this year’s upper prep talent show. Participants seemed to find time to squeeze in rehearsals and the quality of this year’s contributions was very high indeed. A few of the highlights were Year 5’s reworking of the Spice Girls Wannabe along an educational theme, Maddy accompanying Y5 on the harp, elegant ballet from Grace, and Hannah’s solo of “I am 16 going on 17”.There was a lovely atmosphere to this occasion, which provided a chance for the children to entertain one another with their many musical and dramatic talents.

(More photos...)

The Upper Prep play was a heart warming tale of the transformative power of Christmas, and the centrality of charity to its message, set in Victorian England. In a scene reminiscent of Oliver Twist, the play began with some wonderful cameos of street traders, before focussing on the plight of three orphans (Alicia, Wendy and Zoe). Invited into the home of a brace of majors (Aislinn and Sophie) returning from the Crimea, our orphans met the large domestic staff of the house, including Swara’s housekeeper and Alex and Chris’s odd job men, who would not have been out of place on daytime TV, as well as a smart team of butlers (Jack, Matthew, Harry and the Joshes). After the children of the household wished for toys as they stirred the brandy soaked Christmas pudding under the expert guidance of Saskia’s cook, our orphans tugged at heartstrings as they wished for clothes, a home and an education. Their wishes were granted soon after through the generosity of our majors. The play concluded in traditional style with a nativity tableaux presented by Year 3 as the cast of over 120 took their bows to great applause.

All the girls were very excited and full of nervous expectation. The ISA gala this year was the biggest ever as fourteen schools were competing.

The Year 4 girls team did very well as Eshana and Sophie led the way, coming 3rd and 6th in their heats. However it was Tiana who received the loudest roar from the Alton crowd as she stormed through the field to take the lead in the 50m backstroke, only to be pipped at the post into second place.

The Year 5 girls all demonstrated how much improvement has been made over the year, especially by Hannah, coming a close 5th in her heat in the 50m breaststroke.
The Year 6 girls were up against an extremely strong team from Hawley Place and only Ellie gained a commendable 3rd in the breaststroke.

It was in the relays that Alton showed great courage, as the Year 4 girls came first in the 4x50m freestyle, and Ellie proved herself a great all-rounder in the Year 6 relay, swimming the last leg from laying 5th to a wonderful 3rd.

All the girls competed with great heart and it was an eye opener for all to see how strong some schools are in swimming. Well done to all we shall wait to see who are off to the national finals.