October News – Sutton High Prep

Year 1 –

Year 1 had a fabulous day visiting Windsor Castle.  The Royal Standard was not flying so unfortunately, we did not see her peering out of the windows!  We have been exploring castles and so we looked for all the different features like arrow slits, battlements, thick stone walls and the portcullis.  We had an exciting workshop all about how to become a knight and then we saw amazing suits of armour and all the heraldic shields on the ceiling of St George’s Hall.  When we got back to school, we made our own heraldic shields using different colours and charges to reflect our personalities and Superpowers.  We had a such a fabulous day!

Year 4 –

On Wednesday Year 4 took part in their annual Greek Day.  Everyone dressed up in their best Greek outfits, with a variety of Medusas, Hoplites (Greek soldiers) and citizens. As we are learning about the story of Odesseus’s travels home in ‘The Odessey’, we acted out key moments from the chronicles, including fight scenes and tornado traumas (in slow motion), plus lounging Lotus fruit eaters and visiting the land of the dead.

In the afternoon we created our own Greek islands that we imagine Odysseus could have visited on his way home to Ithaca. A great day with lovely memories made.

Year 6 –

Year 6 attend GDST Maths Conference at Oxford University

On the 8th of October, Leia, Lydia, Shanaiya, Olivia, Emma, and Yutong were chosen to go to a Maths Conference for all GDST schools, held at Oxford University. Here is what they had to say about their trip:

As we arrived, we were buzzing with excitement and couldn’t help but break into wide grins. We went into the cafeteria and were surprised to see that the first activity was all about the Rubik’s Cube. We were each given a small cube and then walked into the hall, where we met a Rubik’s Cube expert. He said, “Shall I tell you how I solved my first Rubik’s Cube? In my day, we didn’t have the internet or YouTube… I took all the stickers off!” We gasped in shock but also laughed. Then he showed us a 9×9 Rubik’s Cube – and even a Rubik’s dodecagon! It was passed around so we could explore all the different ways it could move.

The next activity was all about Tangram puzzles – cool shapes that can be arranged to make other shapes and objects, such as trapeziums or even compound shapes! They were really fun, and we worked in pairs to try and solve them.

After that, we were given a 15-question quiz. It was fun and challenging; some of the questions seemed impossible at first, but with teamwork and a second attempt, we managed to solve them all. We were over the moon to find out that we were the first group out of our group of GDST schools to finish and get every question correct! We couldn’t believe it – and we did it all without any help from the teachers.

The final activity was about Magic Squares. A magic square is a 3×3 grid where the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal all add up to the same total. We were split into mixed groups with girls from different schools, which was a great way to collaborate and make new friends. Some parts were tricky, but we learned that with a bit of collaboration, you can do anything!

– Leia, Lydia, Shanaiya, Olivia, Emma and Yutong (Y6)