The Junior School
The Head of the Junior School, Mrs Jane Tuckett welcomes you. After a happy home, the most important thing you can give your child is the best possible education. Our Junior School, situated on its own dedicated site, provides bright and eager girls with an outstanding educational foundation. Staff-to-pupil ratios are very favourable and the atmosphere is friendly, lively and stimulating. The high-quality teaching is carefully geared to the girls' ability and they are encouraged to progress with confidence and enthusiasm, with their particular strengths and talents fostered both in and out of the classroom.
Head of Junior School: Mrs Jane Tuckett, MA, PGCE
A healthy balance of form and specialist teaching maximises learning and allows girls to develop close bonds with many members of staff. Experienced specialist teachers deliver THE CURRICULUM in various subjects, including ICT, Music, PE and Science.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR activities are a very important part of life at the Junior School, with pupils encouraged to develop existing skills and also to explore new interests through a variety of clubs such as Chess, Mandarin and Latin.
Each girl has a PE lesson every day, including a weekly swimming lesson, and there are many sporting opportunities outside the curriculum. Music is very strong, with girls able to play in the orchestra, brass group, recorder groups and various other ensembles and to sing in the choirs. Drama, in the form of regular productions, is always of a very high standard.
Assemblies and other opportunities for quiet reflection enable girls to develop their spiritual dimension and girls are encouraged to think how they can give back to the community through CHARITY WORK . A strong emphasis on pastoral care ensures a holistic approach to every girl's care and development. Immersed in this secure and POSITIVE ETHOS , we find that pupils blossom and can achieve their fullest potential.
Click here for Junior School contact details.
News & Events - Summer Term 2008
Living & Learning Award
We are thrilled to have received The Reading Post's Living and Learning Achievement Award for the month of May in recognition of the magnificent total of over £8,000 in charitable donations. Our picture shows the award being presented to the Gold Prefects and some of the girls who raised particularly large amounts of money for the NSPCC in our recent spellathon.
LIII Production - Ocean World
LIII have worked incredibly hard to bring you their performances, on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 June, having only just completed their KS2 SATs. The production has been a complete team effort with girls working on dances, songs, narration and scenery with everyone in total support of each other.
Ocean World is an ecological muscial commissioned by the Education Department of the World Wide Fund for Nature UK and donations for programmes raised £160.00 for the World Wide Fund for Nature UK.
A letter from Buckingham Palace!
During Spring and early Summer 2008, Fat-Chilli held a competition that was open to all schools and nurseries in the UK to ‘design a birthday card for The Queen’s official birthday’. The designs submitted were of a very high standard. The winning card was by Elizabeth Myers. A very worthy winner! Elizabeth’s prizes included a 12 pack of birthday cards, a t-shirt, an eco-friendly shoulder bag, and a poster of her design.
At the beginning of June the cards were sent to Buckingham Palace in good time for The Queen’s official birthday, with Elizabeth’s winning design presented in a golden envelope! A lady-in-waiting at Buckingham Palace has subsequently sent a letter of thanks to Fat-Chilli Cards & Gifts, and also to the competition winner Elizabeth Myers.
* On Tuesday 17 June 210FM featured Elizabeth in their hourly news bulletins between 9am and 2pm.
The Abbey Junior School’s Year 3 & 4 Choir invited to perform in the World’s Largest Youth Music Festival
Music for Youth has invited The Abbey Junior School, to perform alongside 10,000 other inspiring young musicians in the 38th National Festival of Music for Youth 2008. This is the largest event of its kind in the world and takes place in Birmingham from 7-12 July. The Abbey School’s Lower I & Upper I choir, made up of 47 girls, will be demonstrating their musical ability by singing “I don’t want to live on the moon” in two-part harmony, ‘Market Song’, a 4-part partner song and “The Body Song” in unison.
Fair Trade Assembly
LIII pupil Hannah Tointon recently led an assembly on Fair Trade. This linked in with the school's value for the month, 'Responsibility', and covered the need to make responsible choices when shopping. Hannah came up with the idea herself and researched the topic thoroughly. She approached various local retailers who supported her whole-heartedly in her efforts to give Fair Trade products a higher profile.
Fourth Annual Fun Run
The Early Years girls started the day by running 2-3 laps of the quadrangle, cheered on by the older girls, parents and friends. The run took place in Cintra Park for KS1 and KS2 girls in three separate races. Year 1 and 2 girls sucessfully ran a 600m course, Years 3 and 4 completed the 1km race and Years 5 and 6 ran the 1.5km track. All girls completed their courses and proudly wore their medals for the rest of the day.
Guest of honour was Mr Alan Murchison, Michelin chef of L'Ortolan restaurant in Shinfield, who gave the girls their certificates. Mr Murchison himself took a career break to run for Scotland for 18 months as a full time cross country runner and was impressed by the sheer number of Abbey girls completing the courses with such admirable and competitive spirit.
The Great Balloon Race
The end of the run was marked with a Great Balloon Race in aid of WaterAid, raising £700.00 for this worthy cause. The launch of the balloons was carried out by Mr Alan Murchison.
Marks and Spencer plc. donated bottles of champagne for the winning balloons (to be announced shortly) and sponsored the event by donating bottles of water for each girl taking part in the running races helping to raise additional funds for WaterAid.
* All balloons and tickets are 100% biodegradable.
Charity Afternoon
In the afternoon girls ran different stalls to raise money for their chosen house charities. The charities are democratically chosen by the houses after presentations from the older girls. As always the girls showed amazing ingenuity and creativity in choosing their different fund-raising activities, from henna art to hook a duck!
Preparatory and Reception Production - Toby's Ark
On Thursday 22 May Preparatory and Reception girls proudly presented their production 'Toby's Ark'. This told the story of Victorian explorers Harriet Bloom and Mr Jungletrotter who set sail in Captain Toby's clipper to return an unusual animal to its country of origin. Their round-the-world journey took them to Africa, India, China, Antarctica and Peru where they met wildlife and children from every different region.
It proved to be a delightful journey which introduced the children of Reception and Preparatory to themes from history, geography, different cultures and conservation, along with raising £103.00 for the girls' chosen charity - The British Community Trust in aid of Peruvian Street Children.
Junior School Photograph
On Friday 16 May the school celebrated the end of exam week by taking part in another first for the Junior School. All 351 pupils and staff from every part of the school, both teaching and support, gathered in the quadrangle for a whole school photograph of The Abbey Junior School. This proved to be a feat of organisation in itself, but the resulting photograph is well worth the effort and provides a wonderful momento for staff, parents and girls of life at the Junior School.
The Pupils Concert
On 19 May over ninety girls took part in the annual Pupils concert. Around thirty soloists played and they were joined by the orchestra, guitar group, LI and UI choir, belleplate club, percussion club and recorder group. The audience were treated to a wonderful hour and a quarter of various styles of music, performed with great confidence by the girls.
Early Years Centre Africa Week - week commencing Tuesday 6 May
The children and staff in the Early Years Centre enjoyed a wonderful Africa Week. Parents were fully informed in a humanities presentation about Africa Week and they generously contributed artefacts and experiences. The girls participated in an African reptile workshop and also an African drumming workshop. Lots of fun was had by all and the week was a great educational success.
African Reptile Workshop
On Wednesday 7 May, the African Reptile Workshop gave Reception girls an idea about the types of animals that live in the different countries of Africa linking with Reception's World Wide Animals Topic in their Foundation Stage Curriculum.
African Drumming Workshop
The African Drumming Workshop allowed the girls to handle typical African instruments, make and compose their own music and move creatively to African music. The girls responded really well to the opportunity to explore the complex rhythms of African music.
Early Years' PARIS mornings 'Parents All Reading In School' (1 May and 9 May)
We were very fortunate to have several mummies, daddies and grandmas visit the Early Years' classrooms to read a variety of story books to the girls.
After reading to us, parents and relatives were able to catch up and have a coffee in Knell House, as all that reading is thirsty work!
News & Events - Spring Term 2008
UII Production - Scheherazade
The UII production at the end of the Spring term was an entertaining and lively spectacle of music, drama and dance cleverly interwoven to tell the story of how Scheherazade freed the Sultan of the spell that had been cast upon him. Beautiful costumes, clever dramatic effects and scenery, which the girls made themselves, and the age-old technique of the cliff-hanger all contributed to an engrossing evening of colour, life and suspense.
Visit to The Imperial War Museum
A group of Upper Junior girls and some of their families visited the Imperial War Museum, London on Saturday 15 March. There were many highlights, from the full size Spitfire suspended from the roof to a tiny pen used by spies during the war. The main exhibition of interest was The Children’s War which detailed the life of children from all walks of life during wartime. There was even a full size house from the 1940’s. The group also experienced the Blitz through the use of actor’s voices and shaking air raid shelters.
Gym and Dance Display
This year was the first time a group of girls from the Junior School aged 8 - 11 took part in the annual Gym and Dance Display at the Senior School. They took to the floor under the lights and in front of a big audience with their rhythmic gymnastic ribbons. All fourteen of them performed superbly and worked together as a group without fault, surpassing all expectation.
New DT Kitchen Opening
Professor Bob Rastall of Reading University’s Department of Food Biosciences was the guest of honour at the opening of the Junior School’s new Food Technology Kitchen on Wednesday 19 March. Rebecca Norman and Olivia Corbridge, who represented The Abbey in the finals of the Young Chef 2008 U17 competition, assisted in cutting the cake, appropriately shaped as a chef’s hat.
Police Community Assembly
On Thursday 13th March we welcomed two of our community police officers to The Junior School. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the assembly and learning about 'bobbies on the beat'. Parents may even come across them as they patrol the streets around the school.
Lower I Residential Visit to Juniper Hall
On the 11th and 12th March 2008 Lower One visited Juniper Hall Field Study Centre, Dorking, Surrey. The girls carried out traffic counts, environmental quality assessments, caught mammals in traps set in the grounds of Juniper Hall (which of course we released back in to the wild!) played Village Bingo and learnt how to use a compass to navigate a route around the woods. Thankfully all girls managed this successfully and didn’t get lost!
A great time was had by all.
Woodley Festival 2008
As in previous years, our girls returned from the first weekend of the Festival, laden with trophies, medals and certificates.
World Book Day
On Thursday 6th March, as part of our World Book Day celebrations, we welcomed Australian author and illustrator, Jan Ormerod who has written and illustrated over seventy books, won the Mother Goose Award, “Exciting Newcomer to British children's book illustration” for her first book, ‘Sunshine’ and was highly commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
The day started with a special World Book Day Assembly, where the girls talked about their favourite books and paraded soft toys they had dressed as book characters.
The school Library organised activities every day during this week. To emphasise the ‘worldwide’ celebration of books, each lunch time, volunteer parents read from stories in foreign languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese and Punjabi, and there were books on display in many different languages. Girls made bookmarks illustrating their favourite books and completed a ‘word-search’ featuring countries of the world. Many girls (and staff) took part in a competition called ‘Extreme Reading’, where they were photographed reading in strange places; these included underwater, in a tree-house and in a dentist’s chair!
Transition Visit The Living Rainforest
On 5th March girls in Transition visited The Living Rainforest, near Newbury, in connection with their Topic work on ‘different locations’. The girls thoroughly enjoyed finding out about the plants and animals and how they adapt to their environment. They were able to experience the hot and humid atmosphere and understand what it must be like to live in tropical areas of the world.
UI Mothers' Day Lunch
UI girls enjoyed playing host to their mothers at a Mothers’ Day Lunch on Monday 3rd March. Guests were presented with flowers and commemorative table mats before they enjoyed a delicious three course lunch.
A Day for Change
The leap year day became a special time at The Abbey Junior School with a number of charity events.
Girls were invited to come to school wearing their own clothes as part of UNICEF’s Day for Change campaign. £333.00 was raised to support the charity’s programme to provide clean water in Gambia. Girls were shocked to see a presentation showing the very different conditions for children who live there during the morning assembly.
At the same assembly, Mrs Annabel Hill from the NSPCC said an enormous thank you to the girls who had raised a staggering £6,827.36 through their sponsored spellathon.
In the afternoon, Lower I and Upper I organised a ‘Bring and Buy’ sale in aid of the Dingley Children’s Ward at the local Royal Berkshire Hospital. Added to money raised earlier in the year, the Lower Junior girls sent a cheque for £402.00 to support the work of the ward.
Chinese Assembly
The Abbey Junior School enjoyed a first on Wednesday 27 February when the members of two Chinese Clubs led a Chinese Assembly. Dressed in Chinese costume the girls sang and spoke in Mandarin Chinese, fortunately simultaneously translated in English to aid understanding! Mrs Barbara Stanley said of the assembly ‘What better way to mark The Abbey’s new status as an international school, than to celebrate a truly authentic Chinese New Year!’
UI Visit to the Museum of Rural Life
Upper I visited The Museum of Rural Life as part of their Geography and History Studies. This Museum is one of the Reading University collections that The Junior School visits. The girls studied the Farming Year in past times and learned about the materials that were mostly used to ensure a safe and abundant harvest. They also had the chance to make their own piece of felt from pure merino wool. This required a great deal of rubbing, scrubbing and elbow grease!
UI visit to the Reading Synagogue - On Tuesday 5th February UI were warmly welcomed by Reading Hebrew Congregation at their synagogue. The girls had been learning about Judaism as part of their RE syllabus and enjoyed finding about Jewish festivals and ritual. After a tour of the synagogue by Rabbi Jesner, the girls were split into small groups to find out more about the Jewish faith. At the end of the visit, they were treated to a sample of traditional Jewish foods.
National Storytelling Week, (28/01/08–01/02/08), was celebrated in School with storytelling sessions in the Library every lunchtime. Several members of staff, including Mrs Tuckett, read stories ranging from modern versions of fairy tales, such as ‘The Pea and the Princess’ to the ‘Just So Stories' by Rudyard Kipling. Other activities included colouring book marks for the younger girls and book quizzes for the older ones.
Burns' Night Supper - On Friday 25th January LIII organised a Burns' Night Supper. What a fantastic, lively and colourful evening!
The haggis was piped and the girls were asked to wear a 'touch of tartan' and to bring their dancing pumps for a Ceilidh after the supper. In preparation for the evening the girls have been practising Scottish Dancing at a club held before school on Tuesday mornings. In addition, they learnt Burns poems and songs which they recited and sang during the proceedings.
Barbara Stanley, Headmistress of The Abbey School, gave the Toast to the Lasses and Linda Glithro recited verses from Robert Burns such as Tam O’Shanter. The House Captains replied to the Toast.
Early Years' PARIS mornings (18-31 January) 'Parents All Reading In School'. We were very fortunate to have several mummies, daddies and grandmas visit the Early Years' classrooms to read a variety of story books to the girls.
After reading to us, parents and relatives were able to catch up and have a coffee in Knell House, as all that reading is thirsty work!
UII Victorian Workshop - On the 15th and 16th January girls in UII experienced a fun packed Victorian workshop, led by Jane Walton. The whole day became a Victorian day where children dressed in Victorian clothing and even ate a Victorian style lunch. The hands on activities enabled the girls to experience what life was really like for Victorians and added an invaluable experience to the girls’ history knowledge and understanding.
Nursery Numeracy Workshop - In January the Early Years teachers led a 'Problem solving Reasoning and Numeracy' workshop for parents. Through a combination of photographs, video clips and practical activities the teachers explained the progress of mathematical development from Nursery to Reception. Practical guidance was given to enable parents to support their daughters in their learning at home and many parents commented that it was an extremely useful session.
