The new term and the new year have both started really well at MTP. The first few weeks of term have seen assessments in many different forms: 4+ assessments for external candidates (50 applicants for 4 places); internal school examinations for Years 6 and 7; and 13+ examinations and interviews for our Year 8's for a variety of schools. This is the last year that the whole year group will complete 13+ and it is great to see how the current cohort of Year 8 pupils has bravely worked and revised in order to be ready for this process.

This week we have been treated to Music Recitals for Years 3 and 4 and for Years 5 to 8. I have included a photograph of the boys who are to be congratulated for their accomplished performances and for their regular practice that enables them to be doing so well. We also congratulate last term’s group of LAMDA pupils in Year 7 who once again have gained impressive results in their LAMDA examinations.
Mr Hinton does a fantastic job with these boys and they gain a huge amount in the process.

This weekend we look forward to the Larkin Football Shield tournament, which is hosted annually by our school. We have decided to make use of the facilities at MTS this year and, in the process, have been able to expand the tournament to include more pupils and schools. It promises to be a great event. We are also rapidly approaching the performances of ‘Daniel – A Hard Act to Swallow’ by Years 3 and 4. Tickets are available on WisePay and it is always a pleasure to see families of other year groups come to watch as well as the families of the boys performing.

I hope that you have had an opportunity to read our excellent Inspection Report and the news about our boys’ Mental Toughness, part of the ISC research. If not, both are available on our school website.

Best wishes

Dr. Karen McNerney | Head of School

Saturday, 28 January
U10 Larkin Shield Football Tournament (Venue: MTS) 1000 – 1300

Monday, 30 January
Y3/Y4 Rehearsal Week

Tuesday, 31 January
Senior Football Squad Ten Pin Bowling Afternoon 1615 – 1900

Wednesday, 1 February
U12AB Hockey v Aldenham (a) 1500 - 1735
U13AB Hockey v Aldenham (a) 1415 – 1735

Thursday, 2 February
Nursery & Reception Open Morning 0930 – 1100

Friday, 3 February
Bath Hockey Tour departs 1200
Nursery & Reception Parent Consultations 1300 - 1500
World Series Speaker Hannah Macleod Hockey Gold Olympic Medalist
Y8 Adventure Lecture St John's

Saturday, 4 February
Bath Hockey Tour

Sunday, 5 February
Bath Hockey Tour returns 1500

Monday, 6 February
1st XI Football v King Alfred's (h) 1430 - 1615
U13 Hockey v King Alfred's (h) 1430 - 1615
Y3/Y4 'Daniel - A Hard Act to Swallow' Technical Rehearsal Theatre
Y7 Tutorial Week

Tuesday, 7 February
Y3/Y4 'Daniel - A Hard Act to Swallow' Dress Rehearsal Theatre

Wednesday, 8 February
1st XI, 2nd IX & 5th VII v Davenies (a) 1430 - 1700
3rd & 4th XI v Davenies (h) 1430 - 1700
Y3/Y4 Production of 'Daniel - A Hard Act to Swallow' 1730 Theatre

Thursday, 9 February
Y1/Y2 Visit to the Museum of London 0815 - 1530
Y3/Y4 Production of 'Daniel - A Hard Act to Swallow' 1730 Theatre

Friday, 10 February
Nursery & Reception Parent Consultations 1300 - 1500
Parents’ Association Mufti Day & Cake Sale

Monday, 13 February - Friday, 17 February
Half Term

Monday, 20 February
Book Fair 1515 - 1715
Old Boys' Football Afternoon 1445 - 1630
Y3-Y8 Piers Torday (Author Visit)

Tuesday, 21 February
Book Fair 1515 - 1715
Theatre of the Widdershins visits Pre-Prep
Whole School Staff Meeting 0800 – 0830 Theatre

Wednesday, 22 February
Theatre of the Widdershins visits Prep

Thursday, 23 February
Book Fair 1515 - 1715
Shweta Aggarwal (Author Visit)
U9AB Football v Radlett Prep (a) 1430 - 1645
U9CDE Football v UCS (h) 1430 - 1615
Y8 Visit to Museum of London 0830 – 1615

Friday, 24 February
Book Fair 1515 - 1715
Dressing-up Day for Book Week
U10AB Football v Gayhurst (h) 1430 - 1615
U10CD Football v Gayhurst (a) 1430 - 1700
U11 and U13 St. Martin's Road Race Relay 1400 - 1615
U13 IAPS Hockey Championships

Saturday, 25 February
Y5-8 Watford FC Matchday Coaching Package

January has come and nearly gone. We have managed to play all our home matches thanks to our Site Team and Sports Department and despite coughs and colds, boys have survived Y6/7 school exams, next school interviews and 13+ preparation. We thank musicians for two recitals this week and Mrs Hibbert for arranging Google Expedition (please ask your son about it!). We trust that Year 6 parents found recent Parents’ Evenings informative and we look forward to seeing Year 3/4/5 parents after half-term as well as Year 7 parents at forthcoming Tutorials.

The theme of this week’s School Council was Charity with school charity coordinators, Mrs Steed, Mrs Gadd and Mr Kopel as our special guests. For your information, Livingstone House are supporting BRACE (dementia research) and Wren House ‘Future Hope’ (street children in Calcutta) in 2017. Thanks and best wishes with fundraising. News of Johnson and Newton charities will follow in the next edition.

Looking ahead, we anticipate great excitement in the coming weeks. On February 3rd we welcome Olympic Hockey gold medallist, Hannah Macleod who will be addressing and coaching boys before the Senior Hockey Tour to Bath. We then look forward to the Year 3 / 4 production and the PA Cake Sale & Mufti day on Feb 10th. 

If that’s not enough to whet the appetite, there’s more to come after half-term with Book Week, Pancake Races, Poetry Recitation, House Football and Comic Relief. Hopefully, the humour will have improved by then!                                        

Heads of House

As I write this our year 8 boys are preparing themselves for the 13+ Examinations at Merchant Taylors’ School. Haberdashers' Aske's School, John Lyon School and Aldenham entrance exams are already behind us. We wish our year 8 boys well as they complete their exams and nervously await the results. We are confident that their hard work over the past few years will be rewarded.

Already this term we have enjoyed two Music Recitals of exceptional quality. We are truly grateful to Mrs Hawkes for all the work she puts into helping our boys reach such a high standard. We would love to see many more of our boys up on stage performing.

Mr Hinton has once again helped our year 7 boys to an outstanding set of LAMDA results. We eagerly anticipate our next Evening of Poetry and Prose and would encourage all parents and boys to come along and celebrate the hard work and dedication that goes into achieving this success.

Football season is in full swing and there have already been encouraging performances. Our Games staff and boys have been truly heroic and have trained in Arctic conditions.

We visited some amazing sites by the power of Google virtual reality and Mr Hibbert is still recovering from his virtual trip to the Moon!

We would like to wish all of our boys and parents a very happy and successful 2017.

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

In the Manor this term we have started a new topic ‘Off We Go!’ and the boys have loved learning about different types of transport. In Reception the boys have been discovering clay and have made their own tiles using cogs, nuts and bolts with Mr Roach. In Nursery we have been learning about shapes and have printed and stuck our own shape vehicles.

The boys have all been so excited to explore our fantastic new outside area. They loved watching the builders creating our new play area and have been busy taking a risk to climb the tall towers. The boys enjoyed moving the sand into our new sand pit and have practised digging deep holes. We have been learning about road safety using our new road and the boys have enjoyed using the petrol pump to fill up their ‘cars’. The photographs show our new area being built and some of the fun the boys have been having in their outside learning.

On Thursday 2nd February from 9.30-11am it is our Open Morning for prospective parents. We will also be meeting with our current parents to discuss their son’s progress during the afternoons of Friday 3rd and 10th February. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all.

Mrs G Ladbury | Head of Nursery

The spring term has got off to an exciting start with Years 1 and 2 being challenged by Paddington Bear to find out all about London.  They are being whisked off each week on a voyage of discovery, taking a magic underground ticket to different destinations.  The boys and parents alike have all appreciated the huge Underground Map in our entrance hall and it has been the subject of many animated conversations. Year 1 are pictured taking full advantage of our new Art Room when making ravens using collage, inspired by learning all about the Tower of London.  Also pictured is Year 2 with their magic tickets and an example, by Mojeore Allo, of one the wonderful poems written by Year 2 inspired by learning all about the London parks. The boys were also treated to virtual tours of Buckingham Palace courtesy of a ‘Google Expedition’ which was received with much excitement.  As part of the topic we will also be visiting the Museum of London to see the current exhibition about the Great Fire and will go on a walk to see parts of the old city wall, narrow streets and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Year 2 was delighted to be invited to attend the Year 3/4 Music Recital in the Theatre this week.  It was wonderful to see how the boys have progressed since their time in Pre-Prep and it provided a great inspiration for our boys.

Thank you to everyone for completing the Christmas Holiday Homework relating to Kitty the Cat and Independence.  Independence is such an important part of learning and it was lovely to see the huge variety of tasks that the boys were able to undertake at home.  

Mrs P Steed | Deputy Head of Pre Prep

On Tuesday 13th December, the latest cohort of eight Year 7 boys undertook their Level 1 Grade 3 LAMDA examinations in The Speaking of Verse and Prose. Once again, the boys rehearsed, recited and discussed two pieces of literature with an external examiner before performing their pieces to family and friends within an entertaining ‘Evening of Poetry and Prose’ in The Lalani New Barn Theatre. I am now delighted to announce that the boys’ hard work and talent has been rewarded with seven Distinctions and a Merit. This is an outstanding achievement for all concerned. A special mention must go to Shay Thakrar (L3) who received our second highest ever LAMDA mark of an incredible 94%! Last term’s results in full are as follows:

Speech and Drama continues to go from strength to strength at Merchant Taylors’ Prep and LAMDA exams are a key ingredient in our quest to produce happy, confident and well-rounded boys with high self-esteem. 169 MTP boys have undertaken LAMDA exams in the past six and a half years, achieving an impressive 92 Distinctions; 73 Merits and 4 Passes. Congratulations, Year 7 and good luck to this term’s candidates who can be supported in their endeavours at our next ‘Evening of Poetry and Prose’ on Wednesday 29th March. 

Mr S Hinton | Head of Speech and Drama

On Friday the 20th January the boys were visited in assembly by Marja Konttinen. Marja, much to the boys’ delight earns a living in the gaming industry. Her first job was to play/trial games non-stop. This thought of earning money to play, as I am sure you can imagine, had everyone gripped. Marja explained that whilst initially great, she yearned for something more challenging. Marja highlighted the numerous opportunities within the industry from trialling to design to marketing. Marja is currently heading up the marketing department for her company Lightneer. They have a new game out soon, combining trending gaming with education called ‘Big Bang’. http://www.lightneer.com/blog/2016/12/02/big-bang-legends-the-particle-physics-game-soft-launched-in-slush/

As you can imagine there was no shortage of questions from the boys. A thrilling presentation for the boys who may be enlightened as to how they may gain a living from a hobby. Some could say that it is child’s play, even Marja’s son jumped up on stage and joined in the presentation. Alas his part was in Finnish and the MFL department have not integrated that language yet! Many thanks to Marja for her time.

Mr M Horne | Lab Technician & Director of Cricket

MTP Senior Cross Country Captain Jonathan Read (8W2) continued his impressive running equalling our best individual result in the U13’s by coming 4th. Tom Groves (8W3) was an impressive 12th in his first ever representation in Cross Country. The bulk of the team was made up from Year 7's, so a good learning curve for next year. Tyler Horsfall (6L2) 18th and Oliver Browne (6W1) 20th, were the best in U11 event. The MTP U9 Cross Country Squad had the best team result of the week. They came a very creditable 2nd from 7 teams. This equalled our best ever team result. Whilst we have had individuals higher, as a team they  placed mostly in the top  third. Oluwatobi Alade (4M) was 8th, Sam Williams (4G) the Captain, who normally beats Oluwatobi Alade, epitomised the squad’s effort and ran his heart out despite recovering from a cold.

Mr M Horne | Lab Technician & Director of Cricket

The first few weeks of the spring term have been very busy as usual, with boys representing MTP in Football across all age groups. This week the 1st XI recorded victories over Chesham 3-0 and Gayhurst 5-1, James Keeney (8N2) with a hat-trick v Gayhurst. The Y3 pupils have made a great start to their first ever football season winning all five games against The Beacon, with a special mention for Amay Mohan (3S) (5 goals) and Adam Gill (3S) (6 goals) in their respective matches. Congratulations to the Y6A side that won 4-2 against Radlett Prep in their first game of the season, Oliver Browne (5W1) completing a hat-trick and receiving MVP in school assembly also.

We would like to wish good luck to all pupils in the senior Hockey squad departing on their annual tour of Bath next weekend, aiming to repeat the successes from the previous three tours. This is the first joint tour with MTS, combining pupils from both schools in what we hope will be an excellent end to their Hockey season.

Follow our Sports Department Twitter account @MTSPrepSport for all scores, updates, photos from fixtures across the term!

Mr J Denham | Sports Coach

Year 3 boys have been having fun studying the topic of magnetism in Science. Their homework, which stretched across the duration of the topic, was to design and construct a game that employs the force of magnetism. In the pictures above some of the boys are seen displaying and enjoying playing with the games.

The brief was to produce a descriptive poster for the game, and then also to build it using knowledge that they had gleaned throughout. All this hard work culminated in a Science Fair for Class 3G and Class 3S each. On the big day each boy brought in his poster and game and these were laid out on the tables. The boys then had an opportunity to talk to each other about their designs. They were encouraged to ask questions relating to the content of the topic, but also about the processes involved and the experience as a whole.

The idea with this type of homework activity is to stimulate intellectual curiosity, which adds valuable context and skills to the boys’ classroom learning. It also provides a wonderful and enriching opportunity for the boys to involve their parents in their learning in a playful and imaginative manner. Learning takes place in many different ways, and at this age, having creative fun is a fantastic way of enthusing young boys about what sometimes can be become a challenging subject. Enjoying doing a subject without any summative outcomes can be a great way of laying foundations of resilience and curiosity for future learning.

The excitement and buzz in the room was palpable throughout each of the Science Fairs, and when Mr Goddard asked the boys if they would take their games home to gather dust or play with them some more, the overwhelming and enthusiastic response was that they would definitely play with them some more. In one class four boys even said that they were getting together with their games after school to play.

Very well done to the all the Year 3 boys for their fantastic efforts, and thank you to Mr Goddard for firing up the boys’ curiosity through the vehicle of Science.

Mr Goddard and Mr De Vynck | Science

There was a great excitement on Thursday, 19th January 2017 and Friday 20th January 2017 as pupils from Merchant Taylors’ Prep and Merchant Taylors’ School took part in virtual field trips, visiting countries far and wide, as part of the Google Expeditions. The pupils from Year 1 to Year 8 visited different places including Buckingham Palace, Roman ruins, The London Eye, other sites around London, an Ocean Safari, different volcanoes around the world and the World War II sites - they even visited the moon!

Google Expeditions is an exciting feature of Google Apps for Education that allows teachers to take their students on virtual field trips.  We were lucky enough to be selected by Google to receive a visit from the Google Expeditions team.

Using Google Cardboard and an app that is loaded onto devices, the teacher can then select expeditions on a tablet and take the students on a virtual tour of exciting, interesting and educational places all over the world. Students enjoy the experience and the information and the excitement that is brought into the classroom is tangible.

To read more about Google Expeditions, please visit – https://www.google.co.uk/edu/expeditions/#how-it-works

Mrs B Hibbert | Head of IT

I would like to start by congratulating our School Choirs on a superb performance over the Christmas Period.  The Christmas Concert and the Carol Service last term we both hugely successful.

Particular mention must be given to Neil Prabhakar, Aarian Malhotra, Max Little, Felix Regnard-Weinrabe, Nikhil Mohan, Munachi Nnatuanya and Kishan Bharti for their solos.  They sang beautifully and with such confidence.  Last term we also took the Senior Choir Carol Singing in our local community and it was very much appreciated by those to whom we sang and the two retirement homes we visited have both asked us to come again next year.

Music Exams took place at the end of last term and as well as congratulations to the boys whose results came through last term can I also congratulate
Seth-Joshua Chanda – Piano Prep Test
Dylan Mehta - Drums Grade 1 Merit
Rayan Joshi - Piano Grade 2 Pass
Felix Regnard-Weinrabe - Piano Grade 2 Distinction

Well done to the boys in Year 7 and 8 who have been learning an instrument as part of Class Band.  A small selection of them performed Jingle Bells at our final assembly last term, which was no small feat for someone who has only been learning a term.

Looking to the term ahead there is a lot going on.  This term the Senior Choir have been invited again to perform to their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and Princess of Serbia on March the 11th.  The concert will take place at Fairfield in Windsor Close, Northwood starting at 7:30pm.  The choir will also be performing at Merchant Taylors' Hall in London on March the 6th and we also look forward to the Joint Concert at Merchant Taylors’ on March 27th.  Any parents who wish to participate in the Joint Concert please let me know as there will be a massed choir as there has been in previous years. 

I would also like to give you advanced notice that the Young Musician of The Year Competition has been moved to the Summer term (date to be confirmed) and will once again feature musicians from both the Prep and the Senior School.

The Lalani New Barn Theatre hosted a joyful and inspiring Dedication Service for pupils, parents and staff on Friday 13 January.
The Y3/4 choir (pictured) sang beautifully.

Rev Dan Bond, MTS Chaplain, chose ‘Epiphany’ as his theme.  With clarity and understanding, Tobi Alade (4M), Aarian Bahanda (4M) and Thomas Baldwin (3G) read the familiar story of the wise men’s journey from the east to see the new king in Bethlehem – via Jerusalem where they had a chilling encounter with King Herod – described in Matthew2: 1 – 12.   Guided by Rev Bond, Aarian Bahanda (4M), Yash Kothecha (3G) and Armaan Patel (3G) held statues of Caspar, Balthasar and Melchior to act out the Magi’s travels; following the intriguing star (with no SatNav to guide them, as Y5 pupils realised in their lesson on this story!), they found the Holy Family and gave their symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Rev Bond explained that epiphany, a Greek word, means ‘revelation’; the baby Jesus was revealed to the wise men who at that moment understood that this child was the long-awaited Messiah that the Jewish nation had been promised by God.  Two thousand years on, this momentous event is celebrated by Christians on 6 January.

He challenged MTP pupils to “Be wise men!” and seek their own moments of epiphany: those points of inspiration when thoughts come together to create a new understanding.  He offered the boys examples of people who experienced an epiphany that led to significant improvements in people’s lives: Thomas Edison, Wilson Greatbatch (pacemaker) and Alexander Fleming. 

The boys responded enthusiastically to his suggestion that they say, “Wooaahh!  Now I understand!” in response to those intellectually fulfilling ‘light-bulb moments’.

Sincere thanks to Rev Bond, the Y3/4 choir, Mrs Scales & Mrs Vohora, and Mrs Hawkes; and to Mrs Crossan & Mrs Egan for the refreshments.

Mrs Pollock | Head of RS