Bridgewater School – Prep. Department

Prep V worked hard to separate some of the solutions and mixtures they made using water. They used sieves, filters and evaporation in order to separate a variety of mixtures including salt, sugar, marbles and sand. Can you make some solutions and mixtures at home? Find things to mix with water and see what happens. After that, challenge yourself to separate them again! Can it be done? Let Miss Gill know your findings.

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Prep IV had a slug-tastic time observing slugs as part of their study of ‘Living Things’. They are much more fascinating than you might imagine. Ask Prep IV to tell you something they discovered about slugs

The Prep II football team were champing at the bit to arrive at Man City and show everyone what they could do. This was particularly true of Oscar who asked if ‘we were there yet,’ at the Worsley Road roundabout! The flood at the roundabout made us hope and pray that we would be playing inside rather than in the Typhoon like conditions.

After several visits to the loo we could finally start our first game v Wilmslow. This match would have been billed as a ‘no contest’ in a boxing ring with Wilmslow fielding a team of children who had obviously never played football before. The score was well in to double figures when Mr Rooney had to encourage his team to sit back a little and allow the opposition a kick of the ball. Our second game was against Wilmslow B team so Mr Rooney feared that his team would not have a decent game of football to display their undoubted skills properly. Thankfully the second Wilmslow team were a little better and BWS won 10-0.

Bridgewater’s need for quality opposition was certainly satisfied when Lady Barn School lined up in their yellow strip looking determined and ready for the big match. Lady Barn had an impressive right winger who was able to cajole the Bridgewater defenders over to his wing several times creating space for his Lady Barn team mates. The trap was set and despite constant pressure from the Bridgewater team Lady Barn scored after a break down their right wing. Bridgewater worked even harder and threw everything at the resolute Lady Barn defence. Unfortunately a defensive error allowed Lady Barn to score again leading to a 2 nil defeat.

Bridgewater had lots of energy left and were certainly not subdued by their defeat. St Ambrose School were our next opponents. Our tactics of passing and moving in to space finally paid dividends with Samuel starring on the right wing and Henry weaving his magic on the left. The match was certainly one sided with Bridgewater finally winning 4 – 0.

Rydal Penrhos had travelled from Llandudno to play in the tournament but after some hefty but fair challenges from Jazz and Jacob and whirlwind attacking from Mason Bridgewater won convincingly by several goals to 1. Special mention must go to Christian Hook who was our only Prep 1 player. He starred in this game and certainly looked the part on this difficult stage.

Finally we played Stockport Grammar who were brushed aside by some outstanding play by the whole team and in particular Oliver who performed an outstanding drag back and pass and Oscar who worked feverishly throughout the tournament.

A well-deserved unofficial second place for Bridgewater with some performances that made the on looking City scouts sit up and take note!

It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since Bridgewater Prep made its first sporting venture into Europe. Today 40 boys and girls aged 9-12 years left school to travel to Spain for six days and five nights. Dressed in matching hoodies that would not have been out of place in Hogwarts, the group boarded the coach and headed for Terminal 3 for their flight to Valencia. The first major disaster was averted as Mr Altdorf raced back to the departing coach to collect his phone! The second was a piece of luggage weighing in at nearly 17kg! Fortunately, Freddie had packed like an SAS expert and this helped to balance out the difference and a hefty fine.

There was a mixture of admiration, pity and confusion on the faces of many of our fellow travellers. Many were surprised to hear we were off on a football tour, rather than a Harry Potter convention. As we prepared to go through passport control and onto Platform 9 and three quarters, one admiring onlooker stated, “I don’t know how much they are paying you – but it’s not enough.”

A trip to that shopping metropolis, WH Smith’s, sent the excited pack into a frenzy. However, the groans of disappointment could be heard from afar, as KFC and Burger King were declared out of bounds. The girls went off to shop first… big mistake… thanks Mrs Hewitt and Miss Armstrong and sorry fellas! In fact they took so long that Mr Suter performed a quick version of Sleeping Beauty. Fully loaded with an assortment of crisps, drinks, sweets and chocolate, we boarded the plane, ready to attack the food trolley! Anton tucked into a bag of Doritos twice the size of him, Holly hit the heatwave flavour and Pringles were popping on every aisle.

With iPads playing films and games all around, the surprise question of the tour so far came from Harper, who asked could he read his book! Normal service was resumed two minutes later when the book was discarded in favour of a film. Craig and George were so enthralled by their game of FIFA, that they did not notice the steady stream of visitors to the main attraction on the plane… the toilet. Armed with the last of their allocated loot, the food trolley provided a distraction from electronic devices. One thing is certain, nobody will be going hungry on this trip!

At the end of the flight, Mr Suter was offered a job by the appreciative air attendants. Each aisle was presented with a plastic bag for rubbish, ensuring Mr Suter will always be welcome on a Ryan Air flight in the future. Not long after the plane erupted as Bridgewater showed their appreciation to the pilot for a perfect landing. A short coach journey later, led us to our home for the next six days – Hotel Mas Camerena.

The quietest the group have been all day was during the much anticipated room allocation. Mrs Hewitt who has given up get maternity leave to go on the trip was soon regretting it, as the noise of 40 children reminded her of what she had been missing.  Everyone appears to be happy which means staff are not going to get much sleep tonight! The evening meal was actually well received considering how much they had eaten all day. An hour to phone home, unpack and shower and lights out for 11pm. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, with breakfast at 7.30am, training at 9am and a visit to the Mestalla Stadium in the afternoon. There was just time for one last quote of the day, as Jaydon asked where he could get tap water from?!  It’s going to be a long week!

England crashed out of the Bridgewater Tag Rugby World Cup today, without even taking to the field. The damage had been done in the previous rounds where a lack of wins had left England at the foot of the table. In truth, if they had won the games scheduled for Round 3, they would probably still have faced elimination from the tournament.

With all games washed out today, the four teams that have qualified for the semi-finals on Wednesday 30th October are Argentina, South Africa, Japan and Australia. As group stage winners, Argentina, led by Craig and featuring the competition’s leading try scorer Alfie, will face up to Japan. Captained by Matteo, Japan will be hoping to replicate the host nation’s exploits in the actual World Cup, by causing an upset and advancing into the final on Wednesday 6th November.

In the other semi-final, Australia, led by Thomas, will try to overcome South Africa, who are under the charge of Jaydon. Both teams finished level on points and are separated by just two tries on try difference.

With rugby on the up at Bridgewater and the popularity of the World Cup sweeping across the nation, why not contact a local club, e.g. Eccles Rugby Club and experience the game on another level? In the meantime, try to tune in to watch England take on the French on Saturday morning for a place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup!

This morning we have learnt a lot about what the Vikings were like. We have looked at Viking artefacts and even learnt some Viking words such as husband, window and welcome!  Our favourite part of the day was dressing up for a Viking wedding. The blushing bride was Ada and the lucky groom was Blake.

Thanks to Mrs Bannister for her continued expertise and enthusiasm.

Prep V stepped back in time on Tuesday when Del Bannister visited and taught us about home and school life in Victorian times.

The school bell rang and we started the day with the register (surnames only, of course) and a polite reply of “Yes Ma’am!” as each pupil stood up smartly in response to their name. This was followed by a handkerchief inspection and all our hands were checked; a few of our number failed to pass the hand inspection, probably because they had been up early before school bringing in the coal for the fire… at least, that was Jackson’s story!

Lessons began, and we learned the importance of the three “r”s: reading, writing and arithmetic. Learning was done by repetition and there were harsh punishments for inattentive students; Josh experienced the finger-stocks for fiddling in class, and we all winced when we heard the swish of the cane. We used slates and scratchers to calculate sums in pounds, shillings and pence – some of us found farthings, which were worth a quarter of a penny, a little tricky. Next it was time to use dip pens to practise our Victorian copperplate handwriting, and we found it very difficult not to blot our copybooks! Finally, the bell was rung by Sebastian with great enthusiasm, to signal the end of morning school and we returned to the twenty-first century, reflecting that our modern classroom with its carpet, colourful displays, interactive whiteboard and light, airy windows is very different from the crowded, dark and rather gloomy classrooms in the photographs we studied.

In the afternoon, we found out about home-life for Victorian families, many of whom lived in two up two down terraced houses with a privy in the backyard. (Strangely no-one fancied the job of the night soil-man, who emptied out the privies every few weeks….Perhaps it was the rats that put us off?) Often as many as fourteen people lived in one house, and we learned how to top and tail in bed, and found out which members of the family were allowed to sit round the dinner table. Sorry girls, your place was in the kitchen, cooking and waiting on the men and boys in the family.

We concluded the afternoon by looking at a range of artefacts from everyday Victorian life, and tried to guess their uses. While we all recognised the nutcrackers, the jelly mould, darning mushroom and potato masher proved somewhat more baffling! Finally we embarked on that oh-so-important Victorian activity, making privy paper. Some of us proved especially talented at this and proudly took our efforts home to show our parents; however, Mrs Bannister suggested we stick to our usual softer brand in our own bathrooms!

Many thanks to Mrs Bannister for her expertise and enthusiasm, and thanks also to all our parents for their continued support with the children’s practical learning.