Brentwood Preparatory School Incipe 2017-18

Brentwood School Preparatory 38 Christmas 2017 Another fun filled festive season here at Brentwood Prep! The dining room sparkled with the colourful array of Christmas jumpers as the children and staff tucked in to the annual delicious Christmas feast of turkey with all the trimmings. Our Reception children had fun creating Christmas crafts in preparation for their Christmas party. Which class won the paper chain challenge? Meanwhile, in Science, the Year Four children designed and made illuminated Christmas messages along with their own Christmas stocking in DT. We hope Santa filled them with wonderful surprises on Christmas morning! The Christmas highlight for one of our pupils, Joshua, was winning the honour of switching on the Christmas lights to ‘Light up Brentwood’. Around fifteen thousand people filled the town for the annual ‘Lighting up Brentwood’ event and Joshua joined the Mayor of Brentwood, Councillor Will Russell, on the main stage for the big switch on. Joshua was awarded the starring role as a prize for winning a competition to design the Mayor’s official Christmas card. His winning entry featured a robin sitting on a branch in the snow expectantly waiting for his stocking to be filled. Mayor of Brentwood, Councillor Will Russell, said, “There was an exceptional standard of entries for the Christmas card competitions this year; choosing the winner was no easy task. Joshua’s professional looking card would not be out of place in the shops.” “I walked on to the stage with the mayor. We pressed the button when everyone counted down and said “zero”! Then everyone went “ooh” as the lights went on!” recalled Josh. Congratulations Joshua! We began a new Christmas tradition at the Prep this year - the Jesse Tree. The Jesse tree helps us connect the custom of decorating Christmas trees to the events leading to Jesus’ birth. The Jesse tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” We decorate a Jesse tree with illustrated ornaments that represent the people, prophecies, and events leading up to the birth of Jesus. Each class visited our Jesse Tree in Reception, opened their bag which contained a decoration, and enjoyed learning about part of the Christmas story. In the spirit of giving, we continued to support the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child charity and collected around 250 shoeboxes to send to children in need this Christmas.