The trips were organised for pupils to enjoy seeing examples of art at close quarters and to provide inspiration for their forthcoming projects. Year 5 will be screen printing and Year 6 will be working with clay.

The team had done better than any Prep side had done before to qualify through the East regional round last term, and joined the other 18 best teams in the country.

The team arrived at the new training facility, where England players right  up to the likes of Steven Gerrard, Michael Dawson and Wayne Rooney meet up for international duty, and headed to their first game on the Gary Lineker pitch.

This was against QEH Junior School and a nervy encounter ended nil nil, with The Perse team on top for large spells but unable to find the net. For their second game the team moved over to the Alan Shearer pitch to take on Bolton School. The Perse took the lead early in the second half through Alex Badenhorst. The ball fell kindly to the striker, but he still had to show great composure to score. Bolton came back strongly though and scored near the end of the game to level the match.

Two draws represented a solid start from The Perse, as they showed they were clearly good enough to play amongst this esteemed company. In their next game against Forest School the strong wind played a key role, and the Perse conceded a goal in the first half and were behind at the break. With the wind behind them in the second half the Perse were completely on top, and were only a few near misses and one stunning save away from getting something from the match.

Following this defeat The Perse needed to record a couple of wins in their final two games to progress from the group. They got off to a bad start against Hallfield, conceding two early goals. The team fought back well and scored an excellent goal through James Coleman, who finished off a flowing move. The team could not add to this however and succumbed to another defeat.

In the final game against Portsmouth Grammar School another solid performance was not matched by the quality of the Perse finishing, and several chances slipped by before Portsmouth took the lead through their only meaningful attack (this was despite a heroic goalline clearance from Ben Cross in the build up).

The team therefore didn’t progress through their group, and all that was left was to use the same changing rooms as their footballing heroes, and head back to Cambridge. The team should be very proud of their achievement in reaching this stage, and can be very pleased with the effort they exhibited on the day.

Ian Smythe from ARM started the week off with fascinating talks on tablet and mobile phone technology.

On Tuesday Dr Miller, an interventional radiologist, spoke about the heart, lungs and arteries. She performed mock angioplasty, biopsy, and chest drains on pupils, as well as getting them to turn nurse to assist her.

Mr Davis from Innovia technology visited on Wednesday to demonstrate how Science and Maths are used to solve a huge variety of problems. He set the pupils the challenge of designing automated windscreen wipers and a device to stop car doors opening onto objects.

The manufacturing process was in the spotlight too, with Dr Tim Minsall from the Institute for Manufacturing explaining how everything we see and use has to be made.

On Thursday Mr Morris from CSR wireless communications explained how a gyroscope works and is used in tablets, phones and controllers. He then wowed the children with a demonstration of Nike hyperdunk trainers connecting to an iphone to calculate height of jump and steps per second.

Year 3 were treated to a display of owls and a kestrel from the English School of Falconry, even getting the chance to hold one.

Micro-oranisms were the subject of Dr Cooke’s Friday and Tuesday sessions.  Pupils used models to explain the different types, and a UV light was used to illustrate just why good handwashing is so important.

Dr Brierley finished off Science Week with a talk on the brain, asking ‘Do men really have bigger brains then women?’  While the answer is yes, the fairer sex can take comfort in the fact that size does not necessarily correlate with intelligence! She also explained all the regions in the brain, setting tasks for the pupils to ascertain their dominant hemisphere.

The week was a huge success and we are extremely grateful to all the parents from scientific world who gave their time to come and inspire our pupils.

They were inspired by Mr Musson, who is training to run the London Marathon in April. He is fundraising for Khandel Light, and was keen to introduce Prep pupils to the brilliant things the charity does. Dr Peter Gough from Khandel Light came to speak to the children in assembly on Friday morning. He gave a fascinating and inspirational talk about what Khandel Light does, and was able to set up a live link-up with a village's weekly meeting. The villagers were thrilled to be greeted by Prep boys and girls saying "hello" in their native language!

Later on in the day pupils took part in the Big Red Run. They ran laps of the quarter mile course – hoping to run a whole marathon between them. Everyone taking part achieved or exceeded their target however, and over 2000 laps were recorded! This means that the Prep ran 500 miles - over 19 marathons!

Mr Musson is only running the one marathon (but that will definitely be enough!), you can sponsor him here – http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GuyMusson - he would be very grateful for any support.

You can see a gallery of photos of the run below (musical accompaniment is available here if you wish!)

The Perse faced Wellingborough in the final, already safe in the knowledge that we had secured our place in the National finals to be played at the FA’s new centre of excellence, St George’s Park. The game was very tight with few chances for either side, and even with four minutes extra time, the game remained scoreless leaving the destination of the trophy to be settled by that most dreaded of deciders – penalties. After a series of extremely well executed shots from both teams, Perse missed and Wellingborough scored to take the title.

The Perse team conducted themselves superbly all morning, attempting to play passing football on a difficult surface, and were fine ambassadors for their school throughout. The boys thoroughly deserve their place in the National finals where we go with high confidence and excitement at the prospect of pitting our wits against higher calibre opposition in state of the art surroundings – roll on April 29^th!

Click here for full report and photos.

We will continue to grit all three sites. 

If the situation changes then further updates will be posted if necessary.

Last updated: Sun. 20th January 2013 at 18:00

The rocket launching session was one of a series of fun and interactive science activities organised for the seven and eight year old pupils. Starting in the classroom, pupils were tasked with the design and creation of rockets using paper and card. They were then led outside, as the snow began to fall, to blast them up to 40 feet in the air.

The pupils also designed and constructed bridges out of paper that were then load-tested using toy trucks, while another group created ‘virtual bridges’ using IT.

Matthew Jelley, Acting Head at The Perse Prep School, said: “These activity days are not only great fun for the children and teachers alike, but provide fantastic learning experiences for our pupils. Interactive learning forms an important part of our curriculum in every year and across all subjects. Science naturally lends itself to some really fun sessions – with the weather providing extra entertainment for the children!”

Prep Rocket Launch from The Perse School on Vimeo.

The school raised more than £3000 through its Christmas Fair, theatrical productions and musical events, putting the goal of raising the £5000 needed within reach by the end of the academic year.

Commenting on the festive fun Acting Head Matthew Jelley said:

“I would like to thank the Perse Prep Parents’ Committee and all who supported them, as well as those who donated prizes, for the brilliant Christmas Fair which raised more than £2000.

The shows in the run-up to Christmas have really put us in the festive spirit. I am always struck by the poise of our children on stage, and their competence in remembering and following quite complex direction. I would also like to pay tribute to our pupil stage crew who worked tirelessly on the Year 5 and 6 concert performances and our gifted staff who really get the best out of the diverse range of talents in our student body.”

Writing in the school’s newsletter, pupil William Crawford Stainsby reported thoroughly enjoying the experience:

“It took me a long time to go to sleep and I was dreaming about my play and singing lovely songs. It was amazing!"

Story-telling, pantomime, poetry, choral singing, dancing, and a huge variety of musical items featured in the festive programme. 

The Perse Prep school offers a range of performance opportunities throughout the academic year.  

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People is the Perse Prep school’s Charity of the Year.