It has been a busy half term packed with lots of learning for the boys and many school events. As well as numerous and successful matches in hockey, rugby and table tennis, Years 1 and 2 have been to Mill Green Museum as part of their topic of ‘Food’. We have had three very well attended Open Mornings with huge interest from prospective parents again this year and parent consultations and tutorials for our current parents. There have been charitable events, including the Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and Harvest Festival (see photos) and many thanks to everyone who organised, attended and generously supported us at these times. We also recently had the Moor Park Fun Run and it was a pleasure to see so many MTP pupils and parents raising money by taking part in the different races. Special mention must go to: Noah Browne who won the race for his age group: the large group of Year 1 boys who competed as the Little Dragons team: and the many Year 1 parents who gamely took part in the 10K. A great sign of community spirit! We congratulate Christopher Joseph for winning the MTS Maths Challenge (a hotly contested maths competition for Year 7 pupils in local prep schools). It is a fiercely difficult event in terms of maths problem-solving and it was brilliant that Christopher won it for MTP. We thank the rest of the maths team for their participation and Miss Levy for preparing the boys so well. Finally, as you know, we have had a team of inspectors here in school this week and they have been extremely thorough in leaving no stone unturned in their quest to provide quality assurance for everyone involved in MTP: parents, pupils, staff and governors. I am not allowed to reveal the official result yet but suffice to say that we were really proud to show the school in its best light and that all went very well. 

Best wishes

Dr. Karen McNerney | Head of School

Monday, 17 October - Friday, 28 October
Half Term

Monday, 31 October
3+ Assessment Day (Nursery Closed)
Y5 Tutorial Week
Y7/Y8 House Cross Country 1515
Y8 Mock Examinations Theatre

Tuesday, 1 November
3+ Assessment Day (Nursery Closed)
Whole School Staff Meeting 0800 Theatre

Wednesday, 2 November
Pre-Prep Music Recital 09:00

Thursday, 3 November
MTP Parents' Association Fireworks Night 1800

Friday, 4 November
U11AB Hockey v Haberdashers' Aske's (h) 1445

Monday, 7 November
U12 THL Hockey v St. Martin’s (at MTS) 1615

Tuesday, 8 November
U13 THL Hockey v St. John’s (at MTS) 1615

Wednesday, 9 November
Y5-Y8 Music Recital Theatre 08:45

Thursday, 10 November
U9CD Rugby v Berkhamsted (h) 1500
Y8JL Subject Parents' Evening 1730-1930 Dining Hall

Friday, 11 November
Remembrance Assembly
U10ABC Rugby v Chesham Prep (a) 1430

Sunday, 13 November
Remembrance Sunday

Monday, 14 November
U13A Rugby v York House (at MTS 1st XV Pitch – Rugby Week) 1700

Tuesday, 15 November
U13 THL Hockey v MTS (at MTS) 1615

Wednesday, 16 November
U12A & U13A Hockey v Haileybury (a) 1500
Y3-Y4 Music Recital 8.45 Theatre 08:45

Thursday, 17 November
U8ABC Rugby v Haberdashers' Aske's (h)
Y8NW Subject Parents' Evening 1730-1930 Dining Hall

Friday, 18 November
Northwood Prep Alumni Governors' Dinner 1900 Dining Hall

Saturday, 19 November
MTP Parents' Association Christmas Fair with MTS Ladies' Association at MTS

Monday, 21 November
1st & 2nd XIII Rugby v The Beacon (a) 1540
House Spelling Bee Week

Tuesday, 22 November
U12 & U13 THL Hockey Semi-Finals (at MTS) 1600
Adult Choir Practice  19:00

Wednesday, 23 November
U13 St. John’s Rugby Tournament (MTP/MTS Representative Squad) 1330

Thursday, 24 November
Y7JL Subject Parents’ Evening 1730-1930 Dining Hall

Friday, 25 November
U11A Rugby v Haberdashers' Aske's at Allianz Park (Evening k.o)

Saturday, 26 November
U8 Gayhurst Tag Rugby Tournament

The boys are approaching the end of a busy, but productive half term.  Our focus during Tutor Time has been School Council, the News, Learning Dispositions and Accelerated Reader.  The pupils recently enjoyed a presentation by a Young Enterprise business group from Merchant Taylors’ School (neatly coinciding with ‘The Apprentice’) as part of their economic education (PSHCEE) as well as a MUFTI & Cake Sale today.  We are now bracing ourselves for the US Elections on November 8th (hot dogs & fudge sundae for lunch). Tutor Groups will be actively supporting a Christmas Shoebox charity to share gifts and humanity with less fortunate children around the world. Poppies will be on sale in school in November before Remembrance Day on November 11th. 

Year 8 Tutorials are currently underway, with Year 5 Tutorials taking place immediately after the half term break. House competitions pick up pace at that point.  In particular, we draw your attention to the School’s Spelling Bee. From Friday 4th November Houses will run their own Spelling Bees in order to choose one representative from each year group (Y3-8).  All pupils are encouraged to participate.  We will be looking to find the spelling champs of Year 3 & 4 (Monday 21st November), Year 5 & 6 (Thursday 24th November) and Year 7 & 8 (Friday 25th November).  

Those boys wishing to prepare for the Bee should look at word lists on Showmyhomework.  Finally, best wishes to Year 8 as they prepare for mock exams.

Heads of House

As the first half of the Autumn Term draws to an end, we reflect on a fruitful and enjoyable six weeks. We are so proud of all our pupils who this week showed the ISI inspectors what fine young gentleman Merchant Taylors’ Prep boys are. The resounding feedback from all of the inspectors who met with our boys was just how much they were impressed with the conduct, empathy, manners and obvious passion for learning that our boys display. 

Last Friday we also welcomed visitors and prospective parents to our annual Open Morning. The school site looked immaculate thanks to the hard work of our site staff and Year 8 Ambassadors who went out of their way to keep everything neat and tidy. We are very fortunate to have an environment as beautiful and spacious as ours.

Once again our ‘Mathletes’ have done us proud winning the Year 7 Merchant Taylors’ Maths Challenge for the first time since 2010. A big thank you to Ms Levy for team preparation and congratulations to Christopher Joseph 7J1 on his triumph. 

Fantasy Football is alive and kicking again at MTP thanks to the initiative and organisational skills of Niam Bhattacharia 8W2. Niam has set up a league of 50 teams and a separate Tutor Group competition, raising over £120 for charity in the process. We were delighted to host a MacMillan Cancer coffee morning again this year and really enjoyed meeting some of our parents. There was also a bumper Harvest this year and Reverend Bond delivered a very thought provoking and entertaining message at our Harvest Assembly.

This week we hosted Danyah Miller’s production of ‘Why the Whales came’. The show was sold out and it was lovely to see boys of all ages enjoying a high quality theatrical presentation and enrichment opportunity in the comfort of our own theatre and school. We are most grateful to Mrs Smith for organising this event.

We now look forward to our first ever two week half term and wish all of our boys and their families a restful and happy time together. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Year 8 as they prepare for important mock examinations.

School Colours Autumn 1st Half
Nayan Chatrath 8N1 for LAMDA Excellence                                                                                              
Elliot Craft 8L2 for Musical Excellence                                                                                                                                     
Jay Ghelani 6N3 for Accelerated Reader Excellence                                                                                                  
James Gray 8L1 for Musical Excellence
Jack Groves 5W2 for Sporting Excellence (County Cricket)                                                                   
Christopher Joseph 7J1 for Mathematical Excellence                                                                                              
Ariyen Patel 8J3 for Sporting Excellence (County Cricket)                                                                                                      

Mr M Hibbert | Assistant Head of School & Mr A Crook | Deputy Head

This month in the Manor we have continued our topic, ‘Once upon a time’. We have been reading the books ‘Billy Goats Gruff’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears.’

As part of The Billy Goats Gruff topic work, the Robins and Wrens Reception Classes used their imagination to design and make a life-sized Troll. In the photograph Riyan Patel-Davis and Arnav Patel are measuring themselves against him asking the question "Are you taller than a Troll?"  In the photograph Orion Tzimopoulos, Aaryan Brahmbhatt-Patel, Aarav Ghadialy and Deiyen Hettiaratchi are collaborating to build a bridge across the river using a range of materials. They tested the strength by walking over their bridges.

In Nursery the boys have started doing some simple woodwork in our garden. They have been learning how to use the tools correctly and safely and have been independently using the hammers and nails to gain the early skills they need to start creating their own models. In the photograph Charles Thomas is busy hammering a nail into his wood.

The boys have been really curious to investigate the woods on Wednesday mornings. In the photograph Rishay Halai, Adam Kausar and Haziq Ahmed are collaborating to build their bears a house and showed empathy by making them some porridge to eat.

Mrs S Funnell | Head of Pre Prep

A very big thank you to everyone who donated so generously to our Harvest Festival this term.
As the photograph shows, the boys enjoyed a wonderful harvest assembly with Reverend Bond and the Watford Refugee Trust then came to collect all of our donations and one of the photographs shows Kayan Chandaria and Arun Sharma helping to load the car. For harvest, we also celebrated our bumper crop of apples from the school’s orchard by drinking school-made apple juice. One photograph shows Maddox Siler persevering to reach the highest apples with the apple picker and another photograph shows some Year 2 boys enjoying the juice at lunchtime.

Years 1 and 2 have been to visit Mill Green Museum and Mill as part of their current topic. They saw first-hand how wheat is milled into flour and then all made their own loaf of bread to take home. The photograph shows P Lakhani having a go at baking.

We have had very successful Open Mornings at the Prep School last week and the Manor this week. Pre-Prep parents will be pleased to know that their sons worked hard and behaved beautifully whilst so many visitors came and admired our school. Our parent consultation meetings also began last week at the Manor and teachers will be seeing the remaining parents today. Yesterday teachers in Year 1 and 2 met with parents to talk about how their sons have settled this term. As always, we are pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you all.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to Mr De Vynck’s Science article in which he refers to TigTag Jr. This is a science resource suitable for Nursery to Year 2 pupils to use at home that is both educative and fun. Please do read his article to find out more about it.
All the boys in Pre-Prep have worked very hard this half term and I hope you all have a wonderful break in the coming fortnight.

Mrs S Funnell | Head of Pre Prep

Thank you for supporting the Macmillan coffee morning. I am pleased to announce we raised £390.11 for this worthy cause.

Mrs T Douch | Office Assistant

On Tuesday evening the New Barn Theatre hosted a beautiful new production of Michael Morpurgo's 'Why the Whales Came' by award winning storyteller, actress and theatre producer Danyah Miller.

The show was sold out almost as soon as the tickets were announced and the audience of 170 were not disappointed. Everyone enjoyed poignant storytelling with a spectacular set that left many in awe. The seemingly simple wooden platforms were transformed into a ruined cabin, a boat, a bedroom, an island and a roaring sea, which were accompanied by music, sound effects and projections that left us all spellbound.

With grateful thanks to Danyah and her amazing technician/stage manager, Matt Smith, for sharing a piece of theatre magic with us.

For those of you who could not see  the show, or want to see it again, it will be at London's Royal Festival Hall during February 2017 and should be in the West End next summer. Details to follow soon.

Boys' comments : 'Very moving', 'The best show ever', 'Great use of props', 'It is the best production I have seen in a long time. I want to watch it again and again', 'I loved the set', 'It was scary at times but I loved all the engineering that went into the stage and props', 'Thank you so much'.

Hot off the press!  A trailer for Why the Whales Came   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvF82COto_A

Mrs S Smith | Learning Resources Manager

Well done to all boys who have taken part in school fixtures this term, we’ve had a great start to term across all age groups in both Hockey and Rugby so far!

Last week saw all of Y3 travel to The Beacon to take part in a mini touch Rugby festival. Fantastic to see every boy in the year involved, in what was the first experience of competitive Rugby for many. Add to that fixtures for boys in Y4-8 in Hockey, Rugby and Table Tennis against UCS, Chesham & Gayhurst, St John’s and MT’s Seniors and it’s been a great first half of the term. 

We look forward to our U12’s joining the U13’s for their THL fixtures after half term, which will take us through to Christmas. Well done to the U13’s for starting their season with two victories as they look to defend last year’s trophy.

Mr J Denham | Sports Coach

The school has just renewed our subscription with some fantastic online resources. These are twig-world.com which is aimed at KS3, tigtagworld.co.uk for KS2, and tigtagjunior.com for Nursery to Year 2. These resources employ short video clips and resources to get across basic scientific concepts in a fun and effective manner. Tigtagjr is a new resource and the Science Department thanks the school for adding this to our family of online resources. It is very user friendly and promises to give your son some extra scientific facts in an engaging manner. Year 3 to 8 boys have been given access details and these will be e-mailed to the parents of Nursery to Year 2 boys with the adding of TigTagJr to the stable.

We thank the parents for their support during the first half-term and once again commend the tick sheet and parental support letters towards supporting their sons’ Science learning. The boys have rich and stimulating lessons at school and we suggest that parents speak to their sons often about the work they do here, with the aim of adding extra real-world context. If there are any weak areas in their learning or understanding, please refer them to their relevant teacher. We are aiming to develop the boys’ independent learning skills and ask for your support in this. The boys have to stand on their own academic feet at some point, and we ask that you steer them in this direction, as the sooner they learn, the better. We will also nurture and support this from our side.

We wish our Year 8 pupils well as they prepare for their mock exams and another step closer to the entrance exams. Please follow the guidance that has been given to maximise their preparation.

The Science Team

On Friday 7th October Merchant Taylors' Prep School competed in a maths competition at Merchant Taylors' School. The team of year 7 boys selected to compete were Anay Patel 7J1, Sahil P. Shah 7L1, James Ward 7J3, Sahil Patel 7N2, Rohan Choudhary 7W3, Rahul Patel 7J3 and Christopher Joseph 7J1. The pupils had to use their maths skills as they walked around the campus, estimating the height of flag poles and the area of rugby pitches. The pupil chosen to compete in the individual round against other schools was Christopher Joseph. He performed extremely well, managing to come joint first and then win the competition by beating his opponent in the tie breaker question. Well done to all of the boys, and particularly Christopher who brought the trophy back to Merchant Taylors' Prep.

Congratulations to best friends Charlie Marshall, Y7N3 and Christopher Joseph Y7J1 on tying to become the first Reading Millionaires of the year.

They both received their prizes in assembly, which included a certificate, badge, bookmark and star highlighter pen, along with an additional certificate and a book for being first in their year and school. Well done boys!

It's good to see so many more boys taking quizzes so early in the year. It is even more exciting with Years 3 and 4 quizzing regularly now that they have a laptop for the purpose in their classrooms. We look forward to awarding prizes soon to the younger boys who are hot on the heels of our first millionaires. 

For the record, the boys have clocked up almost 24 million words in less than six weeks.
Meanwhile, Samuel Sundram Y4G, is our star of the month for effort and accurate answering in 14 quizzes.
Newton are currently the House leaders on 7,372,556. Just 1 million words ahead of their nearest rivals, Johnson.

Could we please make a request that all the boys check their link to AR from home is working over the half-term break.

Just log into:
 https://Ukhosted65.renlearn.co.uk/2260118/HomeConnectusing their school username and password

Here your sons and the rest of the family can check on quizzes sat, latest results, wordcount, book points, book levels, and which books are in Accelerated Reader. They will also soon be able to view Certification levels and targets for reading progress.

Hope you get to enjoy some great books over the half-term.