Bridgewater School – Prep. Department

The Bridgewater Prep U7 hockey team travelled to The Deans Primary School on Tuesday.  Despite some chilly weather the children played some scintillating hockey against 6 other teams.

A late change of rules preventing teams scoring in the area led to Bridgewater scoring several phantom goals during the tournament. Unfortunately scoring actual goals was much more difficult through a forest of opposition legs and bodies. This resulted in a lot of exciting but fruitless 0-0 draws until Ellie smashed our only goal of the tournament in to the net in our penultimate game.

Bridgewater lost games to the two eventual finalists and managed to draw the other four games.

Thank you to the children for playing hard but fair and behaving impeccably, and to the parents for their wonderful support once again!

Prep VI have been studying twentieth century Britain between the Wars and the effect of the Great Depression, especially in the industrial North. L.S. Lowry’s industrial landscapes are the perfect metaphor for the heavy grey blanket under which people felt they were living their lives with the spectres of poverty and unemployment hovering over them as they scurry, ant-like, in the shadows of the towering mills and grey-smogged skies.

We took our inspiration from Lowry’s painting “Coming from the Mill”, using the palette of colours that he would have used and studying his “flat”, naïve style and simple figures, whose postures and gait tell us so much about their moods.

The entire background was covered with a layer of white paint, as Lowry himself did, before painting the mills and terraced houses. Colours fade into the fog as the buildings move further into the background. The people were the final addition, drawn on in soft pencil.

Who catches your attention? Where are they going? What are they like?

It is amazing that, with just a few clues, one can start to build a whole life around these little figures…

Prep III have been carefully observing their seeds over the last week (you can see the experiment we undertook here: https://wp.me/p6JsAw-2zL  Most of them were shocked to discover that the seeds would germinate in all four conditions. They were able to draw some interesting scientific conclusions. Well done little seeds!

Four members of our Junior Gardening Club travelled to the Whitworth Art Gallery today to present our ideas for our forthcoming show garden at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in the summer.  Our creature was the lacewing.  Did you know that adult lacewings court each other by vibrating their abdomens to produce an ultra low frequency ‘song’ – hence our musical backdrop to our garden, themed around Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say I love you.”  Our door is going to be the shape of the wing, but done in stained glass, as this is what it reminded one of our children of.  Our colour themes are purples and white, common colours of plants for pollinators, of which we hope to grow many.

As well as presenting our ideas (extremely well, let it be said – the children were super!), our children participated in a number of workshops and activities.  We made plant pots from recycled newspaper and planted them with calendula and peas; we made origami butterflies; we went on a bug safari, hunting insect species (did you know there could be up to 2200 different varieties in your garden?); we classified different butterflies and moths, bees and wasps, flies and beetles.

The hard work starts now with our planting, which will culminate with the show in July.  Watch this space to see our progress…

Like all good gardeners, Prep III know, especially since they have started studying plants as part of their Science topic, that seeds need soil to help them germinate and grow.  But what if they don’t have soil?  Will they still germinate if seeds are placed in other materials?

Prep III have devised a fair test – where we only change one thing, in this case what we put the seed into – to see if seeds will germinate in other things, such as sand, a paper towel and cotton wool.  Interestingly, all the class think that the seeds will germinate in soil.  Three quarters of them think they will germinate in sand, while only one or two think they will germinate in the paper towel and cotton wool.  Watch this space for further developments!

The U11 Netball team took on top of the league St Mark’s on Tuesday 12th March. They were a very tall team and played a fast style of play which shocked our defenders. We fought until the last minute but were defeated 2-11. St Mark’s complemented our team, stating that we had been their strongest opposition all year! Player of the match was awarded to Allegra for some great shooting. However, credit must also be given to Dina who defended solidly and turned over ball throughout the whole game.

Both of the U11 A and B team played in a competitive fixture against local rivals St Marks last week. The B team were up first against a mixed opposition. Two early goals from Yasmeen helped us to take the lead but St. Marks had a good combination in the third quarter which allowed them to creep back in the game – with two goals each it was very tense. The game finished 3-3 and Yasmeen was awarded player of the match for her outstanding play.

The A team were up next and again both teams looked equally matched. Our first combination of Ellen at C, Allegra at GS and Jess at GA was working very well. Our passing was fast and effective, allowing us to score 6 goals! Our mighty defence were also stopping their very tall shooter and at half time the score was 6-3. The opposition came back at us in the second half but they could not do enough to stop us from scoring. It was a successful evening as we finished on top, winning the game 9-8. Ellen was awarded the player of the match for her tenacity throughout the whole court, particularly in defence.