PUBLISHED 02 February 2024
You can always count on the Prep School to support charitable activities throughout the year and the NSPCC Number Day is no exception. Today, the school embraced this special event for the 4th consecutive year with a host of different number-related activities, challenges, puzzles, and tasks to illustrate the many ways that numbers and Maths are used in everyday life.
An important part of the day is to ‘Take up the challenge and dress up for digits.’ As a non-uniform day, we ask children and staff to wear an item of clothing with a number on it and make a £1.00 donation to this wonderful charity. It was a joy to see so much creativity this year from those pupils that made their own costumes, designed a T-shirt or just arrived wearing their favourite sports top, cap or onesie!
We are always delighted to have the opportunity to raise money for thousands of children all over the country who are being helped by the NSPCC, a charity that provides support from advice on children’s mental health to staying safe online, support for parents and what to do if you are worried about a child; not to mention Childline too, that the children are very familiar with and the vital work they do.
The Year 6 Round Square leaders quizzed Mr Avis, The Prep School’s Maths Coordinator. He said: “As always, it was a fantastic opportunity for us all to delve into the wider uses and application of number. All the children and staff really got involved exploring Maths and numbers and how they transcend from the classroom into our everyday lives. It was great to see the children challenge themselves, discuss their marvellous mistakes and share their techniques and strategies. It has been such a fun day for everyone!”
Thank you to everyone for supporting today’s event where we all had a fantastic day and managed to beat last year’s donation total! It is clear to see how much fun everyone had by looking at today’s photographs! Now, here’s some more reporting from the Round Square Service team, highlighting how each year group spent their day throughout the Prep School!
Nursery: Had non-stop fun enjoying a range of games from simply adding Lego to playing ‘Maths train tracks’ and building structures with number shapes! It was wonderful to see how many of the children displayed excellent number recognition singing their new number song – ‘Five Little Gingerbread Men’.
Reception Enjoyed a fun and lively day of Maths challenges and games to include making symmetrical Numicon Butterflies and pairing number bond flowers. It was great to hear them recall and understand number bonds alongside addition and subtraction facts.
Year 1: Enjoyed lots of jumping around whilst watching the ‘Supermovers’ video and calculating length and height with Mr Pumpernickel. It was great to hear the children share their understanding of numbers so confidently, especially on factors, multiples doubles and halves. Finally, the children sat down to play a times tables game of addition and subtraction Bingo! Well done everyone!
Year 2: Absolutely loved their games today, there were some good old NSPCC favourites like Buddy’s Key challenge’ and dice games followed by playing place value champions. It was fantastic to hear the children using mathematical language such as more than, less than, count on, and count back! Well done everyone!
Year 3: Enjoyed an abundance of Maths games to include drawing Fibonacci spirals and sinking ships playing Pirate Co-ordinates! Great skills Year 3, you showed excellent knowledge of the X and Y axis combined with some very strategic plotting!
Year 4: Enjoyed a mixed bag of puzzles, problem solving and challenges! There was more plotting to be seen with the children playing Dino Dig Co-ordinates, followed by Complements to 100 Number, addition and subtraction. Lots of systematic working and perseverance to be seen! Great job Year 4!
Year 5: Enjoyed a maths packed day! The children created some very impressive parabolic curves blending Maths with Art, designed curved shapes from the intersection of straight lines. The children made sure to connect points that were at a 90-degree angle and soon realised the greater the points placed, the more compact the curve. I am sure you’ll agree, this is going to make a fantastic display! Finally, the children will be completing mazes and creating their own Sudoku puzzles. This was a great activity to motivate the children to practice their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Year 6: Pupils enjoyed stretching their minds with a range of problem-solving challenges linked to this term’s focus on decimals and percentages. Many of the children managed to complete the complex ‘Mystery of the Missing Plane Ticket’ finding out that Nathan was indeed the thief! This was followed with class favourites on ‘Maths Playground’ and later ‘Ultimate Battleships’. A big thank you also to the Y6 Round Square Service pupils, who provided outstanding coverage by reporting on other year group activities throughout the day. Well done everyone!