Issue 19

The dynamic duo of bestselling author Adam Kay and comedian and artist Henry Paker joined forces to create an unforgettable book event for their latest book, "Kay's Incredible Inventions." 

The event, held at Chandlings Prep, combined humour, wit and incredible inventive drawings celebrating everything ever invented! Children from Cothill House, Abingdon Prep, The Unicorn School, Bladon CofE School and Chandlings were all mesmerised from start to finish learning how Queen Elizabeth I was the first person ever to use a toilet in her own house and what the Romans and Greeks used for loo roll… (you don’t want to know!) as well as some ‘deathventions’ that weren’t quite so good such as the inventor of the printing press who got caught up in his own press!

During the event, Henry Paker was busy creating and drawing new inventions for all the children to see including a ‘dog poover’  powered by mice for those unexpected messes your dog might leave inside or a laser yielding robot crab to defend the school!  However, the most popular invention that Henry drew was definitely the ‘virtual teacher confuser helmet’ which made teachers think that their class was still there… meanwhile they were all having fun elsewhere! Henry gave the children two important facts when drawing characters: “Always start with the eyes and if you need to make him or her look a bit silly you can add some big teeth!” which he promptly did to a worm eating an apple!

The book talk not only entertained the audience but also inspired the children to get creative and think about what they could invent just like the 16 year old who invented the trampoline. The talk also provided a sneak peek into the creative process and the teamwork behind "Kay's Incredible Inventions" as well as the inspiration behind some of the zaniest inventions featured in the book.

Outdoor learning during the Autumn term is a lot of fun. All the year groups have been learning about the trees and their leaves. Year 1 below have been comparing and measuring the leaves and Year 3 learnt to identify trees by their leaves before creating a twig/leaf skeleton. However, their favourite part was of course the leaf throwing competition!

As always the house matches are hugely competitive and it was great to see so many parents enjoying the matches and getting behind their affiliated houses.

Nursery blasted off on their space day with lots of exciting 'out of this world' activities. They stomped through paint making moon footprints, created aliens out of spaghetti, counted down their own rocket launch and made numbers in space dust. It was an 'astronautical' experience! 

At the start of Anti-Bullying week we all wore odd socks to celebrate what makes us all unique.  During the week we talked about how important it is to make some noise about bullying and how it is not acceptable ever.  Ms Cook gave an assembly explaining the difference between banter and bullying.  She used the analogy of Frank and Fred our pygmy goats stating how Fred had continually been called Tubster and Porky because he was a bit overweight and that he found this upsetting. This was was bullying and not banter.  So the children need to think how Fred might feel before they say something that might be construed as hurtful.  Anti-Bullying Week reminds everyone whether it’s in school, at home, in the community or online, that we can bring an end to bullying.