Dr McNerney writes.... |
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This term we have celebrated the achievements of our Y8 pupils and congratulate them on an outstanding set of results at 13+. The headline news is that all pupils successfully gained a place at a school of their choice and our school has kept this record for a number of years. The boys have also amassed 15 scholarships between them, which is fantastic for a small year group. A full list of results has been included with this newsletter. I sincerely thank all of the pupils, parents and staff for their considerable hard work in ensuring high quality performance for everyone. I would also like to mention the Y6 pupils who have had their places for Y9 in MTS confirmed as part of the new entry procedures; we congratulate them heartily on their achievements. Some of the Y6 are the recipients of the very first continuity scholarships for MTS: Christopher Joseph has been awarded the Terry Scholarship; the Lee scholarship has been given to Charlie Marshall; and Hasan Khan has been awarded the Wolsey scholarship. Scholarships for MTS have also been offered to Oliver Johnson, Adam Muneer, Niels Redman and Sahil P Shah. All these boys are included in the photograph. Also in the photograph is Kahil Jariwala, who has been awarded a sports scholarship to the John Lyon School. To my knowledge, this is our first 11 plus scholarship for our school and this is a great recognition of Kahil’s talents. Best wishes Dr. Karen McNerney | Head of School |
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Y8 EXAM RESULTS 2016
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(T. Michaels was absent)
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Y6 MTS Scholars: Christopher Joseph, Hasan Khan, Oliver Johnson, Niels Redman, Adam Muneer, Sahil P Shah, Charlie Marshall and the JLS Scholar - Kahil Jariwala |
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| CONGRATULATIONS | CONGRATULATIONS |
| Neil Prabhakar 7L3 | Kishan Bharti 4G Sohan Mukherjee 6J3 |
Praneil Singh 8N2 |
Henry Wareing 7W2 |
| Arav Karania-Shah 8N2 & Daanysh Mirza 8L3 | Y6 cast of 'Seussical the Musical' |
See the fruits of all our labour
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As Spring blossoms at Merchant Taylors’ Prep, we are beginning to see the fruits of all our labour. Warmest congratulations to Year 8 boys with everyone placed at their chosen school and no less than 15 scholarships to 5 different schools. They have all secured their own immediate future whilst upholding the school’s fine academic tradition. The annual Beale Poetry Recitation competition was another recent highlight with Kishan Bharti (4G) the worthy winner for Livingstone House in Y3/4, Sohan Mukherjee (J3) for Johnson House in Y5/Y6 and Neil Prabhakar (L3) triumphant for Livingstone in Y7/8. Our Mathematicians competed well at the UKMT Team Maths Challenge achieving 6th place out of 25 schools and all our musicians performed exceptionally well in the ‘Young Musician of The Year’ evening with Willem Redman adjudged our Young Musician 2016 by Mr Lewis Musson of Merchant Taylors’ School. Best wishes to the Year 6 cast of ‘Seussical The Musical’, our music examinees, Year 7 LAMDA candidates and our intrepid skiers as they leave for Italy on 19th March 2016. Heads of House |
What a term
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Looking back over the Spring term, we can’t believe the amount of events and fixtures and the number of highlights there have been. Our boys and staff have truly surpassed themselves. We’ve enjoyed productions in Y3/4 and Y6, music recitals, a visit to Liverpool, we’ve hosted the first ever joint MTS/MTP Young Musician of the Year Competition, Beale Poetry Recitation across the Prep School, Football matches, Ski race training, Mathematics competitions, Cross country races, visits to museums, a Hockey Tour and matches, Book Week, General Knowledge quizzes, St Patrick's Day and somehow we managed to fit in 13+ examinations as well! All of this, and more besides, accomplished in just ten weeks. What a term! Mr M Hibbert | Assistant Head of School & Mr A Crook | Deputy Head |
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Congratulations
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Eden Davidoff 5J3,
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Neil Prabhakar 7L3 |
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Jayden Thakrar 3G |
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Edward Lakey W3
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A really great term
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This is been another really great term and I am so impressed with how hard everyone has worked and how much progress all of the boys have made. What gives me particular pleasure is to see how much the boys are excited about their learning at school. Nursery and Reception’s topic of “We Love Books!” has created some really fun learning including bear hunts in the woods. They also enjoyed a visit to their friends in Nursery to spend some time together. The photograph shows some boys playing together in the sand in the Nursery garden. The Reception boys have also worked hard to prepare our vegetable beds and are looking forward to planting in them next week. Mrs S Funnell | Head of Pre Prep |
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Nursery Life
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Whatever the weather Nursery are never put off from their outdoor learning whether it is in our garden or in the woods at main school. The boys love spending alternate weeks in the woods on Wednesday mornings. They have been able to play games together, use their imagination and explore and investigate their surroundings. This term the boys have enjoyed making stick men using pipe cleaners and resources they have found in the woods. The photo shows Tayer Shyam, Aryan Mehta and Theo Williams busy making their stick men. While one group of boys are busy taking risks and investigating the woods, the remainder of the boys have a music lesson with Mr Edwards and a PE lesson with Mr Todd. The boys have been learning lots of songs linked to our topics and have learnt to play a range of instruments. In the photo Milaan Patel, Umeedh Ahmed, Arnav Patel and Kiaan Kapoor are learning to play the claves. During PE the boys have learnt a range of physical skills including running, hopping, turn taking and ball skills. In the photos Vyom Chandaria and Aarav Kakaya are learning to hula hoop, Sahib Ahluwalia is playing bat and ball and Shaylan Solanki is practising bouncing a ball. In Nursery Daisy the Dog teaches us to have empathy and we have been learning about charity this week. We have enjoyed wearing our daffodils and dressing up in our sports kits for Sports relief. Thank you all for your generosity to these causes. Mrs G Ladbury| Head of Nursery |
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UKMT
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On 3rd March Arseny Uskov, Ishaan Aggarwal, Neil Kapoor and Sreesh Maheshwar competed in the UKMT Team Maths Challenge at Wycombe High School where they faced fierce competition, being up against teams composed of two Year 8s and two Year 9s, with many schools able to choose from 150 pupils in each year. Despite this, the boys performed admirably, and ended up coming 6th out of 25 schools, a very impressive achievement. Mr J Greenish| Maths Teacher |
Anna McNuff
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On 12th February 2016, Year 8 were invited by St John's Prep School to listen to Anna McNuff, an adventurer. She has cycled across America, crossing 50 states, and run across New Zealand unsupported. It was amazing and inspiring to listen to her. She encouraged the boys to focus on academic life but also to enjoy life. She quoted Roald Dahl: “I began to realise how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. That if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms. Hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.” We are grateful to St John's for the invitation. Mrs B Hibbert | Head of ICT |
St John's Hockey Match
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We arrived at St John’s in the pouring rain, a very rusty and inexperienced team as the majority of our team hadn’t played hockey since the tour. When we arrived, we discovered that St John’s had a rugby match and that some of their players weren’t there. So, having thrashed their full team 5-0 the time before as a challenge, we played everyone out of position and started with myself (vice captain), Harry Bayes (captain) and other experienced players off the pitch. But to our surprise, they took a 2-0 lead inside the first 30 seconds with two well taken short corners. We had to turn things around and we quickly scored two quick goals when substitute Josh Michaels scored a great backhanded goal and me with a solo goal. But just before half-time, they managed to get back in front. In the second half, straight from the off, we scored when I managed to get around the defence and finish from close range with Willem Redman deflecting the shot into the goal. But St John’s again went back in front and we were down again. I managed to equalise but they went straight down the other end and scored with a well-worked goal. In the final minute, we were awarded with a short corner and Ayush Chavan finished impressively and coolly with a shot which found the top corner. Our B team managed to win their match 3-2 and overall it was a nice way to end our fantastic year of hockey in which the U12s won THL, and a successful tour to Bath which was a great experience for everyone. Daniel Rowlands | School Captain |
It was a great day to play some hockey against St John’s. Unfortunately, we conceded in the first 2 minutes and then a second, caused by a foul and resulting in a penalty shuffle where Aryan Patel (Y7) put up a fight but was eventually beaten. At half time we were 2-0 down and our spirits dented, which was not helped by the sudden change in weather as we were now soaking wet! The second half was great for our team as everyone was defending and tackling much better, letting no-one get through to our goalkeeper. Our first goal came from Jonathan Read - scoring from the top of the D. The second goal came from James Keeney who had a neat finish as he tapped it into the bottom left corner and the final goal was calmly put in at the back post by Thomas Groves which led us to victory with a 3-2 win. St. John's earned a penalty in the last play of the match, but Aryan managed to save twice before the clock ran down. Rishil Sodha |
On Sunday 24th April OMT (Old Merchant Taylors’) Youth Rugby will enter a U13 10s team into the Amersham & Chiltern RFC 10-a-side festival which takes place from 1000-1300. http://www.chilternrugby.com/ OMT Rugby is based at Merchant Taylors’ School in the OMT War Memorial Clubhouse and provides mini, youth and adult rugby.
This tournament gives a very good opportunity for boys who are entering MTS Year 9 (U14) in Sep 2016 to get to know each other before commencing. This will be the 3rd year we have entered this well organised tournament at U13 level. We will hold a training session during the Easter Holiday so that boys can get to know each other prior to the event There will be a nominal charge of £20 to cover expenses/entry fee on the day and we are limited to 20 places – we had a waiting list last year, so please respond promptly to avoid disappointment. If you would like your son to participate in this tournament please complete your details at: http://tinyurl.com/U13rugbytournament and we will be in contact soon. Gordon Brown.
Chair Junior Rugby OMTFC http://www.omtrugby.co.uk Mr D Todd | Director of Sport |
Blindfolds Please
| In an effort to offer more and exciting experiences as part of our team building programs, we are again collecting blindfolds (the kind you are given on a flight for free). If you have any lying around at home please bring them in and ask your son to give them to any of the boys in N2 who will be responsible for collection. This year we are also building up a supply of rope (climbing/old skipping rope) to include 'knot-work' as part of their Outdoor Adventurous Program. If you can help it would be very much appreciated! Mr D Todd | Director of Sport |
Liverpool Combined Concert
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Over the weekend of March 3-7 four boys from the Prep School joined forces with our Senior School to travel to Liverpool to take part in the the Merchant Taylors' Company Combined Concert. Eleven Schools from the Merchant Taylors' Family came together and put on a wonderful concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Friday and Saturday were spent rehearsing in our different groups before the concert on Saturday evening. We were especially proud of Willem and Niels Redman who performed a duet during the first half of Vivaldi's Double Violin Concerto. They represented our school with confidence and put on an outstanding performance. In the second half of the concert the combined schools performed Puccini's Messa Di Gloria. Our boys participated in the both the Choir and the Orchestra. The performance was moving and uplifting and the boys must be congratulated for performing such a challenging work. Mrs C Hawkes | Director of Music On Thursday 8th March, Dr McNerney, Mrs Hawkes, Kian Lalani, Avi Modi, Niels Redman and I departed MTP to join up with boys from MTS to go to Liverpool for a musical concert. After several hours in the coach we finally arrived in Liverpool. We had dinner at an excellent italian restaurant then we quickly went to bed. The next morning we went to the Crosby Merchant Taylors' School to begin our rehearsals. We left Kian and Avi to rehearse with the choir as we went to the MTS girls school in Crosby to join the orchestra. We rehearsed most of Friday but we were rewarded by a very entertaining evening in which dinner was served as we enjoyed a variety of music from children all across the UK. On Saturday we continued our rehearsals in preparation for our concert that evening. Once we had dinner we prepared ourselves for the concert which started at 7pm. Hundreds of people came to this prestigious event in which many Merchant Taylors' related schools joined together to share their love of music and perform in The Philharmonic hall. The 1st half was mainly solo performances which included Niels and I performing a violin duet by Vivaldi brilliantly accompanied by Mrs Stubbs from MTS. The second half was the joint performance of the Puccini in which instruments and voices united to produce a beautiful piece of music. Overall it was an excellent trip which everyone enjoyed and we were all very proud to have performed in this special concert. |
| Willem Redman Y8 |
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This year for the first time we invited Merchant Taylors' Senior School to join in our Young Musician of the Year competition. The stakes were much higher than in previous years, as was the standard. Mr Couldridge and myself auditioned a wide range of performers and selected 21 finalists across the two schools. There were 6 categories as well as an overall winner from each school. I would like to congratulate all performers. The concert itself was a very inspiring event and it was very encouraging to see how much talent we have at Merchant Taylors'. The winners of each category are as follows; Overall Merchant Taylors' Prep Winner - Willem Redman Once again congratulations to all performers and much thanks to the staff here at the Prep School and at the Senior School for supporting this combined event. |
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Mrs C Hawkes | Director of Music |
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Y5 Visit Holy Trinity
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Year 5 visited Holy Trinity church in Northwood, as part of our Religious Studies. As we got off our minibus, we could see the imposing stone-built exterior of the church. It was built in 1854. As we entered the church, Reverend Godden greeted us with a big smile and asked us to sit on the pews. The pews are wooden seats and the hassocks are cushions used for kneeling on. He gave us important information about the Christian faith and Holy Trinity church. Reverend Godden began the tour by showing us the font. It is located near the entrance to remind believers of their baptism as they enter the church to worship. Then we came to the lectern. It is an eagle-shaped stand where the Bible is read. He mentioned that the eagle symbolises spreading God’s word to everyone. Next, we learnt about the pulpit: this is a higher platform, where the priest gives his sermons. Beyond the chancel, we saw the choir stalls, where the choir are seated during the service. Next to the stalls was the organ, a huge instrument that creates a surreal sound. Then we saw the altar, a table used for communion, a service where bread and wine are passed around. On the altar, there was the cross to remind us of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Above the altar, the beautiful stained glass windows depict the story of the life of Jesus Christ. We had a great time and everyone enjoyed it. A big thank you to Reverend Godden for all his help. |
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Anish Bharadwaj 5W1 & Arjun Obhrai 5L1 |
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Busy Term
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It has been another busy term in the Science Department and the boys have delivered some impressive work. |
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Mr H De Vynck| Head of Science |
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Year 4 Abhishek Patel for effort and contribution in lesson Year 5 Shaan Kalyan for a positive and motivated term Year 6 Ishan Patel for an excellent attitude to his learning |
Miss C Burke | KS2 Science Teacher |
Y5 Artwork
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| Mr D Roach | Head of Art and Design | |
Y5 - exotic aspects of space
This term I adventured out of the maths department in order to return to my roots as an astrophysicist with Year 5. We then spent a very enjoyable couple of lessons discussing some of the more exotic (off syllabus) aspects of their Space topic. This included: black holes, supernovae, the Oort Cloud and Planet Nine, along with the reasons behind Pluto’s demotion to Dwarf Planet status. We also considered some ways to visualise the 100 000 000 000 stars in the Milky Way, their favourite being the number of squares on a stack of graph paper 170m tall! |
| Mr J Greenish| Maths Teacher |
Beware… Viking attack!
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I take pleasure in presenting an extract from Year 4’s MTP News, the most successful new tabloid of its generation, along with my thanks to the many staff who gave generously of their time (and in Mr Todd’s case of his Sports Hall) to assist, and of course to the boys and parents who helped to assemble their magnificent costumes. Mr A McConnell | Head of History On Wednesday 9th March it was Viking Day at Merchant Taylors’ Prep. Gary, from a company called Portals to the Past, came to MTP and taught the pupils how Vikings fought and how to be a Viking. He showed the boys how to play Fox and Geese. Next the boys took part in a Viking Quiz which also allowed them to learn more about the Vikings’ lives. After that he showed the boys accessories the Vikings used in their daily life. Gary then handed out some materials the Vikings used to make clothes. Felix (4N) said, ‘I would like to sleep in sheep wool because it was soft and cosy.’ After that Gary showed the pupils some of the Viking weaponry. All of them were excited! He showed them the Danish axe and said it was the most feared weapon of the time. At the end of the day, Mrs Ciccone said, ‘It was a wonderful day and I enjoyed learning about the Vikings.’ |
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Abhishek Patel, Year 4 |
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Y6 'Seussical the Musical'
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News
We would like to congratulate all the Year 8 students who took their 13+ papers, they achieved outstanding grades in French and it is a real pleasure to see that hard work and determination pay off. Here is a non-exhaustive list of all the activities that they will get involved in before the end of the academic year:
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Mr R Kopel | Head of MFL
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