December 2015

Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….and the girls are certainly counting the sleeps until the
‘big day’! I can hardly believe it is almost a full calendar year since I joined the staff in VCB Prep.
Thank you for making me feel so welcome and at home here. I hope you plan to join with us as we
celebrate the message of Christmas at our Carol Service and Nativity performances this month.
Wishing you a happy Christmas and every blessing for the New Year – Mrs Hrabovsky
Dates for your Diary
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Wednesday 9th December 10am
Wednesday 9th December
Wednesday 9th December
Friday 11th December
Tuesday 15th December 10.30am
Wednesday 16th December 10.30am
Wednesday 16th December 7pm
Thursday 17th December 10.30am
Friday 18th December 11.45am
Monday 4th January
Pre-Pre-School & Pre-School Nativity
Prep 5-7 visit to Stranmillis Pantomine
P1-7 Flu injections
Prep Christmas Dinner
Prep Concessionary Performance
Christmas Performance
Carol Service Malone Presbyterian Church
Christmas Performance
Term ends at 11:45am – Christmas jumper / non uniform day
School re-opens
End of Term
Carol Service
Term ends on
Friday 18th December
2015 at 11.45am.
This is Christmas
jumper / non-uniform
day and party day for
Pre-Pre-School to P7
pupils.
Malone Presbyterian Church
Wednesday 16th December 2015
at 7pm
We look forward to singing with you
all!
Christmas Jumper Day 2015
After Hours will be
available until 6pm on
Thursday 17th
December, but will be
closed on Friday 18th
December.
Have a wonderful
break!
Come to school in
your Christmas
jumper or normal
clothes on
***Friday 18th
December***
Suggested donation
£1 to raise money for
the Text Santa
appeal.
Thank you
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Children in Need Day 2015
Thanks to our Prep superheroes, a total of
£500 was raised for Children in Need on
Friday 13th November.
Thank you for your support.
A special thank you to Katherine Jack &
Aoife Mallon in Prep 7 who raised £91
from their Bake Sale.
Well done girls!
Samaritan’s Purse – Shoe Box Appeal
Thank you to everyone who packed up their
shoe boxes with goodies and donated them to
the Samaritan's Purse shoe box appeal.
A fabulous total of 119 boxes were donated to
help make Christmas a special time for many
underpriviledged children around the world.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Extra-Curricular Activities
***Please note the current cycle of extra-curricular activities finishes on 11th December***
All applications for the next cycle of extra-curricular activities must be received in school by
11th December 2015.
No late applications can be accepted once final registers have been compiled. This is to ensure
that club leaders have sufficient time to plan the necessary resources for their clubs.
Please note that in line with College charging policy, payment for after-school activities must be
prepaid in full, for each 5/6 week block, by the payment due date.
No refunds will be given.
***Extra-Curricular activities will start back on Monday 4th January 2016***
The Belfast Blitz
Two special visitors came to assembly on 10th November – Mr & Mrs Barton, grandparents of
Prep pupils Maggie and Kate Donnelly. Mr Barton presented Prep with a copy of his book about
the Belfast Blitz.
He also showed the girls original war-time objects, including a gas mask and an exploded
German bomb which had landed during the Blitz. Both pupils and staff were intrigued at Mr
Barton’s account of this historic event and we thank him for his presentation and the copy of his
wonderful book which he kindly donated to our library.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Prep 4 Cultra Visit
Prep 5 Music Makers
Prep 4 visited the Ulster Folk and Transport
Museum to find out more about homes in the
past. They also took part in a cookery
workshop.
Prep 5 took part in a Music Makers Morning
at the City of Belfast School of Music on
Monday 16th November.
The pupils
participated enthusiastically and thoroughly
enjoyed singing, chanting, performing their
composition and telling jokes. The pupils
worked extremely hard in preparation for this
event. They created artwork and a Treasure
Island
themed
composition,
using
percussion, to represent their island
expedition.
Prep 7 Celebrations
Prep 7 celebrated the end of their tests by
having a ‘PJ Party and DVD Day’ with Domino’s
pizza and other goodies! The girls looked very
cosy and enjoyed their well-deserved fun and
relaxing day after all their hard work.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Prep 6 Shannagh-More Residential
Prep 6 enjoyed three days of outdoor education in Newcastle from the 11 th-13th November. We
completed activities including canoeing and orienteering at Castlewellan Lake, adventure
walking in Tollymore Forest Park and high ropes climbing courses.
In the evenings, we enjoyed birthday parties, walks along Murlough beach and performing in our
very own talent show. We learnt a lot about map skills, personal safety, how to work as part of a
team and the importance of trust and positive communication. We would like to thank all the
instructors including John, Brian, Stephen and Val who led the activities and ensured we had
plenty of fun. Thanks also to Miss Kerr and Mrs Simpson for coming along and to all the P6
ladies who should be very proud of what they achieved and how well they behaved.
Miss McLaughlin
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Prep Website – ‘Pupil Zone’
Please visit the new ‘Pupil Zone’ section of our website where you find a wide range of fun and
interactive learning games for all ages which are suitable for PC use.
Friends of Prep Christmas Cards
Thank you to Friends of Prep for organising the Christmas card design fundraiser. The children
from Pre-Pre-School to Prep 7 created their own designs in school and parents were able to order
Christmas keepsakes featuring their child’s design. This proved very popular.
A total profit of £325 was raised for Prep. Thank you to all who took part.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Action Group Update
Welcome Team
The Welcome Team are busy each year helping new girls to settle into their classes, make new
friends and show them where everything is around school.
This year’s Team came up with the lovely idea of hosting a party for Prep 1 and the other girls throughout
the school who have joined us in September.
The Team will continue to meet throughout the year to discuss their ideas.
School Council
Our newly elected School Council members from P1-7 met together on Friday 20th November to sign our
membership certificates and to make plans for the year.
Upcoming events:
 Christmas competition
It was decided that we would like to organise a whole school Christmas competition which would be coordinated and judged by the councillors themselves. After much discussion and sharing of ideas, it was
decided that the competition would involve creating a hanging Christmas decoration.
Look out for the posters made by the councillors encouraging all pupils to take part!
 School Council Fundraising
As usual, we look forward in the Spring to our fundraising week, when we raise funds to replenish
playground resources.
 Meeting with our MLA
We have also received a letter from our local MLA who is keen to meet with us to discuss any issues
relating to our school or community.
The School Council hopes to set up a meeting in the near future when members can ask our MLA
questions and raise any issues or concerns.
 End of year visit to Stormont
Councillors from P4-7 will visit Stormont for a tour of the buildings and to participate in the Education
programme.
IAG
IAG aims for 2015/2016:
 To continue to celebrate the Cultural Diversity represented within our school community.
 To organise events and celebrate Cultural Diversity.
 To establish an International Link with another school community in another country.
 To develop the International Dimension of VCB Preparatory School.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Action Group Update (cont’d)
CAG
What a busy start to the new we have had! CAG girls have already
 had a very successful harvest collection for the Simon Community, supporting needy families in
our local area.
 raised money for Children in Need through the selling of Pudsey key rings, bracelets and
hairbands.
 organised the collection of over 100 Christmas shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
We have planned a Christmas Jumper Day for the last day of term, supporting the Text Santa appeal
which this year is an amalgamation of three charities: Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK
and Save the Children.
Many thanks to all the girls, parents and friends who have supported and helped with all these worthy
causes, it is very much appreciated.
ECO
This year the aims of Eco group will include:
 Continuing to develop our school sensory garden
 Re-planting new plants in our school grounds
 trying to improve the amount of paper recycled in school
 Promoting recycling of paper, textiles and re-introducing compost bins in each class for food
waste
 continuing to send home letters of information to eldest child in each family
 organising a walk to school week during Summer term
 monitoring the switching on / off of lights in classes
 ensuring that all computers and iPads are switched off when not in use
The Prep Eco team have enjoyed re-planting plants in the school grounds and have been looking after
these plants each week by ensuring they have enough water. We will also be issuing all classes with
food and paper bins before Christmas to encourage all classes to recycle.
SNAG
In September, we invited Mr Bousfield, our new Catering Manager, to our first SNAG meeting. He had
lots of ideas for healthy food choices in canteen that he wanted to discuss with us. The girls in the
SNAG team had lots of their own ideas too and Mr Bousfield took note of all our favourite food choices
in Canteen and our ideas for things which we would like to see introduced. We shared our thoughts on
the changes to Canteen menus and were all very excited about making our own food choices at the
serving hatch.
At our meeting in October SNAG representatives shared that pupils in every class (except Prep 1)
were enjoying serving themselves at lunchtimes and were really enjoying trying lots of the new options
as part of the daily salad bar. Everyone seemed very content that there was something on offer for all
tastes and suggested that we could maybe include some themed foods at certain times of the year,
International Day of Languages, Christmas and St Patrick’s Day being some examples.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
The iTeam
Having undergone an intense application and interview process, we are delighted to announce the
members of the new Prep iTeam:
P5
Jessica Byrne
Isabella Doran
Erin Glenn
Annabel Hunter
Molly Young
P6
Rachel Cheevers
Maddie Crawford-McCann
Kate Donnelly
P7
Aoife Mallon
Lily McGuire
Amy McMurrough
Anna McPherson
They will meet on two Tuesday lunchtimes in the month to download new Apps,
organise existing Apps on the iPads and share new ideas. Congratulations to the new team!
The first exciting venture of the iTeam was to visit the Nerve Centre Belfast 'Into Film' festival on
Friday 20th November. The girls enjoyed watching a private screening of the 'Shaun the Sheep'
stop motion animation. They then worked in groups with the 'Lego Movie' App to recreate their own
animation. We now hope to take our new skills back to school and share with our teachers and
peers. Watch out Hollywood!
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Anti-Bullying Week
From 16th-20th November Prep held a variety of
events to raise the profile of Anti-Bullying Week
2015.
Prep 7 Anti-Bullying Ambassadors sold wrist bands
to remind our pupils what to do if they observed any
bullying behaviours in our school. We had two
special assemblies and P7 were also involved in an
Anti-Bullying workshop which addressed the issue of
Cyber-Bullying.
In addition our parents were invited into school for
an Internet Safety workshop. Notes of this meeting
can be found in the Useful Links section on our
website.
‘Grease’ is the word
On Wednesday 25th November, Prep 5 and 6 enjoyed a showing of RBAI and Victoria College’s
joint performance of ‘Grease’ at RBAI.
Victoria College Preparatory School
Newsletter
December 2015
Christmas Performance 2015 – ‘A Midwife Crisis’
This year, Victoria College Prep School is proud to present ‘A Midwife Crisis’ for our Christmas
Performance. We look forward to seeing family and friends in the audience for the highlight of the holiday
season.
Reminder of performance dates as follows:
 Tuesday 15th December at 10.30am
(filmed performance)
 Wednesday 16th December at 10.30am
 Thursday 17th December at 10.30am
DE Photos will be selling photos on Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th December
DVD ORDER FORM – ‘A MIDWIFE CRISIS’
CASH / CHEQUES ONLY PLEASE.
PLEASE MAKE ALL CHEQUES PAYABLE TO CORISH PRODUCTIONS
I would like to purchase the Victoria College Prep 2015 CHRISTMAS
PERFORMANCE DVD
Name: _____________________________________________________
Name of pupil: __________________________________
Address:
Class: _______
____________________________________________________
Contact Telephone Number:
______________________________________
Standard Definition DVD:
Number of copies (£12.00 per copy inclusive of VAT):
_______________
High Definition DVD (Blu-Ray):
Number of copies (£20.00 per copy inclusive of VAT):
_______________
I enclose cash / cheque for the sum of £_________ only
Signed: _______________________________
PLEASE POST ALL ORDERS TO:
Michael Corish
Corish Productions
Unit A3 Castlereagh Enterprises Ltd
Dundonald Enterprise Park
BT16 1QT
Alternatively orders may be given to Miss
Thompson.