The children in Year 4 enjoyed attending a concert given by the Southern Pro Music Orchestra at the Petersfield Festival Hall on Wednesday morning. This was a good introduction to the instruments of the orchestra which the children had been learning about in their music lessons this term.

The concert began with a performance of the "Thieving Magpie Overture" by Rossini followed by a clever composition by our conductor Jonathan Willcocks called "Meet the Orchestra". These favourites were thoroughly enjoyed by the children who were then given a lively performance of "The Parade of the Tin Soldiers", "Winter" from Vivaldi`s Seasons and a musical story of "The Theatre Ghost" narrated by our compere William Godfree .

History came alive for the children in Year 4 when they visited Hampton Court Palace. The building looked beautiful in the spring sunlight, but thinks took on a more serious air as we were guided through the cellars and corridors by a palace servant. We were told tales about the King, his queens and the many secrets of the palace.

As well as visiting the royal apartments, Great Hall and Chapel Royal, we had a tour of the palace kitchens. Here we learnt how to roast meat over a huge fire and saw an amazing demonstration of how the Tudors would create fire.

The last few weeks of the Spring term were marked by tremendous enthusiasm for independent research and learning as Upper Prep children worked hard on the presentations, prose and poetry for their ESB exams. Our pupils once more excelled themselves, with a record number of children (38!) achieving the top, Distinction grade. Nearly everyone achieved a Merit or better and 83% scored at Merit Plus or above. One of the highlights of Open Day was the opportunity to hear again some of this very polished work, which does so much to enhance our English curriculum and the children’s broader educational experience here.

Excitement was high as the children of Year 4 arrived at PGL Marchant's Hill for their activity weekend.  For many it was the first time they had been away from home for so long but they soon settled into the cosy dormitories of Bethany House and the routine of activities, meals and more activities!

Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning were spent taking part in a range of challenging, exciting, activities including climbing, abseiling and zooming down a zip wire from high up a tree.  For many of the children the trapeze was the highlight.  This involved climbing up a tall wooden pole and then throwing yourself off a tiny platform while trying to catch a trapeze!  Many of the children also worked really hard as a team to make it high up the Jacobs Ladder - a huge ladder with swinging rungs a metre and a half apart!

On Wednesday 11th March Years 4-6 and the boys from More House watched the senior school play, Daisy Pulls it Off. It was all about a girl who goes to a new school where pupils are playing tricks on her because she was clever and went to an elementary school.

Daisy and her new best friend, Trixie try to look for the treasure of the school and in the end Daisy finds it! Because Daisy gets tricks played on her, the teachers tell her off and she nearly gets expelled, but in the end the girl who plays most of the tricks is the one who nearly gets expelled instead.

At 9:45 today, Mrs Charles came to our class and read us a story. The story was about a king who loved gold. He got a wish from a god. He wished that everything he touched turned to gold. He got warned by the god, but he did not listen. He went around testing his new power. He touched chairs and tables, anything he saw, but when he tried to eat, a lump of gold got stuck in his throat, and the same happened when he drank. One day his little girl, who he loved so much, came running at him. She put her arms around him, but it was too late, she had turned into gold. The king was so upset he was in tears but his tears did not turn to gold. He was warned but did not listen. He was on his knees begging to the god. He had to go into a stream and when he did, everything turned to normal. He never forgot how greedy he was.

On Tuesday afternoon we did cookery. We made salsa and it was really cool (well, a little bit spicy maybe). We used tomato, green pepper, red onion, coriander and lemon juice. It looked like a piece of art work because it was very colourful. We served it with corn chips. It was delicious and my whole family loved it.

Kiera, 4A

The Under 9 Cross Country Team travelled to nearby Liphook to experience the local landscape at Highfield School. The school has run this meet for the past 10 years and this year there were more than 20 schools from Greater London, Surrey, West Sussex and Hants competing. Each age race had 60 to 75 runners charging off towards the mud hills and each other to sprint towards the finishing gate, definitely a course to remember.
Millie, Serena, Jess, Kiera, Gabzy and Lucy did themselves proud with the majority of places in the first 30 finishers out of 67. The same can be said about the boys - James, Jim, John, James, Thomas and Christian.

On 27th January, Year 4 went to an orchestral concert in Southampton. For many of us this was the first time we had heard a full orchestra. We went on a 45 minute coach journey and I sat next to Kathryn. It was a fun journey as we played lots of games to pass the time. As soon as we arrived, we ate our snacks and then entered the auditorium. The first piece of music we heard was called "Overture: Light Cavalry" by Suppé; it was a beautiful piece of music. Although they played lots of pieces of music, my favourite was "Meet the Orchestra" by Jonathan Willcocks, who was the conductor! It was amazing because they introduced all of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the concert, we sang a song called "It's an ark". It was so cool because the orchestra was playing as we sang. It was a lovely concert.

On the 21st January 2009 the Year 4 girls played their first ever netball match against another school. The match was away at Ditcham Park. The netball match was divided into 4 quarters. Ditcham Park scored and then Emily scored so it was 1 - 1 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter Emily scored 2 more goals, and Ditcham scored 2 more. By the end of the 3rd quarter it was 4-4. But the final score was 6 - 4 to Ditcham Park. We all enjoyed the match. I was given player of the match, and we are all looking forward to playing again.