On Thursday Year 8 spent a cold, rainy but very enjoyable day at The River Chess in Amersham conducting geo-graphical fieldwork. The boys investigated how the features of the river changed as it flowed from its source in Chesham, to its confluence with the River Colne some 18km away. Much of the day was spent in the river calculating the channel depth and width, investigating the velocity of the water and the bedload size and sphericity. Alongside more familiar equipment, the boys also got the opportunity to use more sophisticated fieldwork equip-ment such hydroprops. The primary data collected at the River Chess will be written up as a project that forms part of the require-ments of the Common Entrance Exam in geography.

On Friday 30th September Y3 had a group from Portals to the Past come and do an Egyptian Day.
We all dressed up and learnt about the geography of Egypt, the Nile and weather, maths- measuring in Royal Cubits, palms and hands, we handled some artefacts and did some drama and dancing.
In our drama we made a boy a Pharaoh, pretended to kill and mummify him. We then had a burial ceremony which we all had roles in and paraded around the playground.
We learnt a lot of information and these were some of our favourite parts.

“My favourite part was when I carried the mummy. It was quite big and heavy and took six people to carry.” Kane

“I enjoyed the funeral procession as I enjoyed being a slave.” Sulaiman.

“Steve showed us some artefacts. I liked the sword because he let us hold it and it was quite heavy.” [...]

Welcome back to a new academic year. It was really lovely to see all the boys again all smiling and excited. They have come back to find the last three classrooms in the senior building corridor all finished and shiny. We also have a new astro turfed court which the boys are desperate to try out. My personal favourite however,  we now have a 3D printer installed in the IT room which as you can imagine I am excited about and looking forward to use in projects this year.

We are very excited in Years 7 & 8 as we have introduced a new aspect to our Computing curriculum. We are studying the Internet of Things which is widely believed to be were the next revolution in technological advances will occur. Many of you might already have Hive and are able to sort out your heating from your phone.

We have invested in wireless bluetooth blocks from Sams Labs and the boys have been using these to build Rovers. The task was to create a Rover which will run wirelessly and with a light sensor and proximity sensor.

The next stage for the boys will be to use the sensors to invent new gadgets and ways of doing things. The blocks can also be attached to Internet through twitter to issue commands. The emphasis is very much on problem solving , independent thinking and invention.

“SAM is the first electronics development kit that seamlessly [...]

Junior School Poetry Competition – Friday 22nd April

Congratulations to all the boys in our Junior School; all of  you learnt a poem to say in front of your class! It was, therefore, no easy task for the class teacher to select just one entrant per house for their year group. The final 15 boys said their poems magnificently in front of the whole Junior School on Friday afternoon. Our judge, Mrs Bramwell, who had travelled all the way from the Senior School to be with us, had a tricky job ahead of her! The standard of the boys oration was fantastic; from Reception to Year 4, the boys spoke clearly and expressively. At the end of the competition we heard some of our class teachers say poems too and then it was time for the results. The results can be seen on the school newsletter. After totalling up all the points the winner of [...]

After the Easter holiday, the school came back to a wonderful production of the Pirates of Penzance. The boys had remembered to learn their lines over the holiday and after a week of rehearsals put on a performance for the pupils on the Tuesday afternoon and the parents on the Wednesday evening.

It was an amazing  production and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The boys performed fantastically and were real credit to the their parents and staff. It was also sadly Mrs Thomas’ last production as she retires this Summer. As always, she had worked tirelessly and produced a master piece. She will be sorely missed by us all but especially by the boys. When past pupils visit they always remind us of the Senior plays they experienced while at Keble. They are special memories the boys love to share.

Mrs Thomas was also ably helped by Mrs D’Amato who worked on the music and Miss [...]

On Wednesday night this week Y3 performed their play Snow White. It was a fantastic performance, so professional ! Over the past few weeks Y3 had been battling a virus and many of the boys had to take some time off to recover. In fact, the lead Snow White wasn’t able to make the evening performance having heroically made it through the dress rehearsal. He was replaced on the night by a young man who did an excellent job as the understudy. Even with all of this, the evening performance was amazing. You can watch it on the Keble Video library and I think you will agree. You need to login as it is password protected. You can email me direct on kfleming@kebleprep.co.uk if you need help with either password.

Mrs Hart and Mrs Lauder and the all the team did a fantastic job rehearsing the boys organising the set, props and costumes and Mrs D’amato [...]

We were fortunate enough to learn about CPR in assembly on Thursday. Mrs Archbold a Matron at St Bartholomew’s hospital gave a clear and concise demonstration on various techniques which could be used to save someone’s life. This session was extended further for Year 8, who learned specific CPR techniques and practiced these on dummies. We would like to thank Mrs Archbold for her time.

This weekend Miss Constantine took the ducklings home and they had their first bath. She filmed the experience. You can also see them at play in the second video.