| Dr McNerney writes.... |
 |
As usual, we have lots of exciting events going on here at school. Today, some of our rugby players are at Twickenham for a training event with the England rugby team prior to the Six Nations. We were extremely lucky to have been offered this opportunity and I hope to include photographs and further details in our next newsletter. Last week, our Key Stage 2 General Knowledge team won their heat in a nail-biting finish and used both their knowledge and strategic skills to surge through to first place at the last question. Congratulations to Thomas Treloar (Y6), Arjun Obhrai (Y5), Jack Groves (Y4) and Sam Williams (Y3), who will now progress to the regional semi-finals. Parents of boys in Senior School have received information about ‘Show My Homework’, a wonderful new initiative introduced by Mr Hibbert. As a result of last term’s homework survey, Mr Hibbert has found a way to allow pupils and parents to access homework instructions online. So far, this is working really well and I hope that it is making life easier at home. I reported to you previously that the feedback about last term’s talk for parents (Talking Pre-Teens) had been extremely positive. I have arranged for a one-off talk for next term (Talking Teens) delivered by the same company (Supporting Links). It will take place on the evening of Tuesday 17 May and I will send out further details next term. I would like to thank the parents who attended the Dedication of the Term service, both those parents who came to support their sons performing in the Y3/4 Choir (see photograph of the boys singing so beautifully) and to those parents who came along to support the school and say farewell to Reverend Bartlett. Staffing news: Mrs. Sheeky’s knee replacement has been successful and she is recovering at home; and I am delighted to announce that Mrs. Nicholas is expecting a baby, due in late July. She will continue to work with us for the rest of this academic year and commence her maternity leave during the summer holidays. Finally, I would like to say very well done to the Y8 boys who have mostly completed their 13+ examinations (two pupils still to sit examinations next term). I am really proud of the fact that they worked very hard and remained calm and positive throughout. Best wishes |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
Saturday, January 30 |
 |
 |
| CONGRATULATIONS | CONGRATULATIONS |
| Arseny Uskov 8W1 | Elliot Craft 7L2 |
Sam Williams 3G Vincent Hudson 7W3 |
Arjun Singh-Ahuja 3G Neil Prabhakar 7L3 |
Had a interesting January
We’ve had an interesting January to say the least, with dark mornings, weather of all sorts, a flurry of exams and quite a few sniffles and lurgies to contend with. Still, it will be a new month by Monday and this should herald brighter days and a few more smiles. Following the Y6 & Y7 exams we are now in the heart of the parents’ evening season, something we hope all involved will find productive. Most Year 8 pupils have returned from 13+ exams and some are preparing for further interviews. We wish them all good luck. Heads of House |
A busy start
There has been a busy start to the New Year with 13+ assessments, school exams for Y6/7 and two Year 6 Parents’ Evenings. We look forward to seeing Year 7 parents next week. Congratulations to the Y3-Y6 General Knowledge Quiz Team who progress to the regional final after victory in the area final and thanks to the Year 3 / 4 Choir who sang at the recent Dedication of the Term. We also thank Reverend Bartlett for his service to Holy Trinity Church and his outreach to the school. To reward boys for particularly good behaviour and outstanding manners, a Friday VIP table has been introduced. Boys are given an invitation to sit at one of the round teachers' tables and enjoy special privileges at lunchtime. They do not have to wait in the queue and are given special treats as part of their meal. This has been very popular and we look forward to seeing many more boys enjoying this opportunity Child Protection Reminders Mr M Hibbert | Assistant Head of School & Mr A Crook | Deputy Head |
Congratulations
 |
Rhys Varma J1 |
 |
Jacob Payne 6L3 |
 |
Ali-Mahdi Merali 3S Jasmer Sawhney 4G Noah Moser 5N2 Aditya Singh 3S Anay Jariwala 4G Rishil Amin 7N1 |
 |
Sid Tiwari 6W2 Fikunmi Olutunbi 5W2 Darshan Patel 4G Saavan Patel 4G Rehan Gupta 4N Abhishek Patel 4N Max Domb 5W3 Ishan Patel 6W1 Kaamil Mirza 6W2 |
Time is flying by!
 |
 |
 |
 |
Mrs S Funnell | Head of Junior School |
|
Nursery Life
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
The boys came back to Nursery refreshed and settled straight back in after the Christmas break . We have begun our new topic “We Love Books!” which we started with two weeks on ‘Whatever Next’. The boys loved learning about space and enjoyed watching videos of Tim Peake on the International Space Station. We then moved onto ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ which has really captured the boys’ imagination. We have been busy acting out the stories and the photographs show us retelling the story in Nursery and in the woods. We have also focused on using descriptive language to describe textures. In the photo Matthew-Levi Amanerimi and Evan Kotecha are concentrating on creating a wonderful textured moon. Tayer Shyam and Kiyan Dayal are busy creating visual story maps of the bear hunt. We are also learning how to use different types of technology and the photos show Theo Williams, Riyen Thakrar and Arnav Patel learning how to programme ‘beebot’ to retell the story. On Thursday 11th 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 5th and 12th February. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all. Mrs G Ladbury|
Head of Nursery |
|||
Dedication of Term
 |
At the start of each term, a service of Dedication is held in keeping with the ethos of our founder, Francis Terry. |
Busy start of term for all teams!
 |
 |
The first few weeks of the spring term have been very busy as usual, with boys representing MTP in Football, Hockey and our annual Cross Country race at York House School. Special mention must go to the boys in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 whot competed in the Cross Country event on a very cold, wet and windy afternoon finishing 4th and 10th respectively in their teams. The Y3 boys have made a great start to their first ever football season winning four out of six games against St Martin's, and are very much looking forward to their next round of fixtures against Berkhamsted. Good luck to the senior hockey squad departing on their annual tour of Bath next weekend, aiming to repeat the successes from the previous two tours. Mr J Denham | Sports Teacher |
|
| Skiers | |
Hello dear Skiers! Ciao, e ben venuti a la pagina di noticie della Signora Mortimer! (Welcome to Mrs Mortimer’s news page!) I have been looking at the live-cam pictures of Val di Fiemme, just so that I know what is coming up! At present, I am delighted to say that there seems to be some snow! Oh Yes! And more is on the way. I am fully confident that in 6 weeks' time, we will be up to our arm pits in the white stuff. Mrs Mortimer |
|
KS2 General Knowledge Quiz
How high is the orbit of the International Space Station? Is it 100km, 175km, 250km or 400km? We were privileged to host the first heat of the national General Knowledge Quiz for Key Stage Two earlier this month. While a wonderful opportunity to show off both the knowledge of the boys and the splendour of the New Barn Theatre, this also created work for a number of colleagues, especially in the catering and maintenance departments, and created a temporary exile for Mr Hinton, and I’m grateful to them all, and to the many parents who came to support their sons. We fielded two teams for the quiz. Our second team, consisting of Ahren Chadha, Arjun Singh-Ahuja, Ben Ward and their leader Adam Muneer, took an immediate lead over our first team (Jack Groves, Arjun Obhrai, Sam Williams and captain Tom Treloar). Standing at the side, I was left to wonder about my selection – I had had to make a series of very close calls. Helped by identifying that the animal which may be masked, hermit or spider is the crab (rather than an ant, a bat, or an owl), our two teams drew alongside one another and remained at parity for much of the quiz, although behind the early leaders from Alpha Prep. It’s always entertaining to see what the adults in the room know. We were all a lot happier than the students at identifying Downing Street as not on the Monopoly board, but in general they were much better at identifying pop music, although I must report that faced with a choice between Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Olly Murs and Ed Sheeran my quizzing partner-in-crime, Mr Rice, correctly picked Bieber after hearing only two bars. Impressive? Something, certainly. Every child in the room got that one right. Our first team drew ahead on a question the answer to which was Charles I – the subject of our current Year 5 History lessons, so the correct answer came to my great relief. In a tightly bunched contest, they went into the final question lying in fifth place, 95 points behind the leaders, with the question, which I posed at the beginning of the article, worth 100 points. Our second team got that question wrong and maintained their sixth place, beating the first teams of several other schools, I might add. Only three teams scored any points at all on that final question about the Space Station… and of the leaders, only our first team correctly went for 400km. When the result was displayed at least one of them had to be told that they had indeed won – by 5 points, and only 10 points ahead of the team in third. It’s not quite the closest possible result, though my shredded nerves could certainly not have coped with a tie break. Congratulations to all eight boys who took part, but especially to Tom, Jack, Arjun and Sam, who will take their quizzing to the regional semi-final early next term. Mr A McConnell |
Head of History |
Y3 Science
 |
 |
|
When I entered the science lab I was amazed. There was a fish tank and a big box to heat up anything to whatever temperature you wanted. We were going to do an experiment on reversible and irreversible changes. First we all got a plastic dish with a crayon inside it. Then we got some foil. Then we had to wrap the crayon in the foil. We put everyone’s wrapped up crayons into the tank that heats up anything to any temperature. We waited for a long time and finally we took the crayons out of the tub with a pair of tongs and we are all very excited to see what was inside the foil. It had changed by becoming a liquid. Then we waited some more to see if it was a reversible change. While we were waiting we did another experiment. We took a bunsen burner and a bit of magnesium and with the tongs held it above the flame and waited to see what would happen. First the magnesium stayed the same but then it shone so bright we had to cover our eyes. Then we uncovered our eyes and saw that the magnesium had turned completely white. It was an irreversible change. By that time the crayons had stopped cooling down and we opened the foil. The crayon was exactly the same as it had started. It was a reversible change. Mr D Goddard | Y3 Form Teacher |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
ISS – Science in Space Year 5 boys have spent the first half of the spring term learning about Earth and Space. As a part of their learning they investigated the life of an astronaut in Space and our very own astronaut,Tim Peake, who will be on-board the International Space Station (ISS) until June 2016. Pupils can use https://principia.org.uk/ to find out more about Tim Peake, his journey on the ISS and associated events and opportunities. Science Pupil of Month Also the following boys have been given Pupil of the Month for January. Year 4 Zachary Jamal - sustained effort in lesson Miss C Burke | Science Teacher |
||
Music Exam Results
Mrs C Hawkes| Director of Music Joint Choral Society Rehearsals Rehearsals are underway for Joint Choral Society, in preparation for the Joint Concert. We shall be singing the Messa di Gloria by Puccini, a beautiful work which is in places almost operatic in its style. Parents are welcome to join, please come along. Please see below for further details of the rehearsals. MTS Joint Choral Society Rehearsals: (Recital Hall at MTS) Mr H Jones | Director of Music at Merchant Taylors' School |
 |
Y5-7 Artwork
|
 |
| Mr D Roach | Head of Art and Design | |
How best to learn words
This week, we would like to share with you a few techniques on how best to learn words or sentences in a foreign language: the traditional repetition technique which is key to learn any foreign word, the ‘Basic Words’ technique to make sure that you can form basic sentences in the language, the ‘Linking Words’ technique to remember longer pieces of writing and finally the ‘Town Mnemonic’ technique if you want to go beyond and why not learn several languages.
Here are a few tips for active learning of vocabulary: Learning vocabulary is often a matter of associating a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in your own language. Associating these words by repetition – by saying the word in your own language and the foreign language time and time again – is efficient, but there are even more advanced techniques that can be used to memorise these words… 2. Learn the most important words 1. Bonjour = hello 3. Link words in your own language to words in a foreign language Romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and others have many words in common with English. English initially “borrowed them” from the Norman conquest of England from 1066, which lasted several hundreds of years. Action, nation, precipitation, solution, frustration, tradition, communication, extinction, and thousands of other -tion words are spelled exactly the same in French, and you can quickly get used to the different pronunciation. Change that -tion to a -ción and you have the same words in Spanish. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -ção. Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root, which can be spelled slightly differently, but that you’d have to try hard not to recognize, such as exemple, hélicoptère (Fr), porto, capitano (Italian) astronomía, and Saturno (Spanish). German goes a step further and has many words from English’s past that it shares. In case the words you have to learn are not cognates, you can use the ‘Linking Words’ technique i.e. using mnemonics to link words in another language with images. For example, when learning English/French vocabulary:
This technique is known as the 'Linking Words' technique. It helps students acquire the basic vocabulary needed to get by in the language, usually about 1000 words. 4. Use the town mnemonic technique Mr R Kopel | Head of Modern Foreign Languages |