13th November 2019 — Martha, a student at James Allen's Preparatory School, represented Great Britain last month as she travelled to Florida to compete in the Biathle World Championships. She finished an incredible 5th place in her event, and has worked extremely hard on her training over the past few months.

In speaking about the event, Martha said:

Martha, a student at James Allen's Preparatory School, represented Great Britain last month as she travelled to Florida to compete in the Biathle World Championships. She finished an incredible 5th place in her event, and has worked extremely hard on her training over the past few months.Martha, a student at James Allen's Preparatory School, represented Great Britain last month as she travelled to Florida to compete in the Biathle World Championships. She finished an incredible 5th place in her event, and has worked extremely hard on her training over the past few months.‘During October half-term, I travelled to St Petersburg in Florida to compete in the Biathle World Championships, representing Great Britain. I competed in the U11 girls biathle which consists of running 400m, swimming 50m in open water and running another 400m with transitions between each part. At the beginning of the event I felt excited and nervous and hoped I would finish in the top ten. Many countries took part including Guatemala, South Africa, Japan, Germany, America and Thailand. The hardest part of the race was climbing out of the water, transitioing (which involves putting on trainers very quickly) and doing the final run. The water was a little murky but much warmer than swimming in Manchester Quays for the qualifiers. The other bonus of competing in Florida were the dolphins swimming in the marina during morning training. Overall, I came in 5th position and felt very proud of my achievement. At the end of the competition, athletes swap items of kit to remember and share congratulations. I swapped my GB t-shirt for a Guatemala top and my hat for a South African one. Not all of my time in Florida was spent competing, I also visited lots of theme parks in Orlando. They were amazing!’

A huge congratulations to Martha.

18th June 2019 — Broadcaster, journalist and author Clare Balding visited James Allen’s Preparatory School last week to speak to their pupils, as well as pupils from local primary schools, about animals, sports and hobbies.

Clare Balding currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4 and BT Sport. She has reported from six Olympic Games, and is also a lead presenter on Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage. She is a presenter of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and has also covered major horse racing festivals such as Cheltenham and Royal Ascot. Clare has also written four children’s books.

Clare spoke to almost 300 pupils from across JAGS Prep, Bessemer Grange Primary School and Lyndhurst Primary School in the Vaughan Williams Auditorium on Wednesday 12th June. She spoke in detail about her journey as an author, her career in television and her love of sport and animals from a young age. The pupils loved the interactive style of her talk; many of them telling Clare all about their pets at home, and the activities that make them feel as if there’s ‘electricity’ in their veins.

Clare then read a short extract from her new book, The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance, and she gave the pupils tips on how to write a good story and the importance of brilliant illustrations to bring books to life.

The most important message that Clare wanted the pupils to take away was to always be confident. In speaking about the afternoon, JAGS Prep pupils said:

“It was really interesting how she linked everything together in her talk, and how she was so confident doing so many different jobs.” Lara

“It was the most inspiring talk I’ve ever had!” Scout

“It was nice how she wanted to learn all about our different pets and liked to know the details.” Aaliyah

“How she interacted with us made it enjoyable.” Zeyna

6th June 2019 — Eleven pupils from Years 3 to 6 at James Allen’s Preparatory School have had their entries recognised at the Primary Engineer London Special Leader’s Award.

Supported by Kingston University London and Siemens, the award invites pupils from Primary schools in London to be inspired by an engineer from a local industry and identify problems in the world that need solving. Once pupils had decided on an idea, they were asked to draw it and annotate it, explaining what their unique solution to the problem is.

The pupils at James Allen’s Preparatory school enjoyed visits from several industry experts during the annual DT Design Week held at the school in November. They met engineers from ARUP, London South Bank University, Bloodhound SSC Education and Engineers without Borders who inspired pupils and helped them to work on their individual entries.

Seven pupils from across the school were shortlisted for their entries, and two pupils in Year 4 were awarded Highly Commended by the judges. Dalia in Year 3 was awarded a trophy for her idea ‘Energy Lane’, a design in which all cycle paths have electricity generating pads that collect energy from moving bicycles, before absorbing said energy into the grid for green energy. Maya in Year 4 was also awarded a trophy for her design of a ‘smart sticker plaster’ for diabetic people to wear on their arm. The sticker changes colour and beeps when their blood sugar level drops, as well as alerting parents of the situation via a phone app.

Speaking about the awards, Headteacher Finola Stack commented, ‘We are very pleased for the girls who have been recognised at the Leader Awards. They have worked extremely hard on their engineering designs, all of which have the potential to make a significant impact on the way we live. Congratulations to the pupils and to their Design and Technology teacher, Mrs Fox.’

All eleven winning students have been chosen to put their designs on display at a public exhibition at Kingston University on 21st June.

16th July 2018 — A number of girls from James Allen’s Preparatory School (JAPS) took part in the London section of the Primary Engineer Leaders Awards which asks pupils “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. As part of the process for entering this competition the girls got to speak to different engineers to learn about their careers paths and pitch their ideas to them on how to solve some of the world’s problems.

Anoushka from Year 4 won the overall trophy in this competition after coming up with an idea of a steering wheel with an inbuilt breathalyser that only allows the car to start if the driver passes the test.

31 JAPS girls also submitted designs to the Better Energy For School Awards which is run by Young People's Trust for the Environment (YPTE) and sponsored by Total. Around 21,000 pupils from across the UK submitted design ideas for this competition. Because of the quality of the JAPS girls’ entries, the organisers declared them Special Award winners in the Total Scientific Category.

Peter Littlewood director of YPTE, said: “It was impressive to see the high level of environmental knowledge on which the girls based their inventions. Their entry was the only Special Award winner of 2018, reflecting the judging panel’s feelings that such great work could not go unrewarded.”

Some of their more creative ideas included a BioFuel Toilet, Energy Making Shoes, In-Sole Charger, Self Heating Tea Bag and a Pedal Powered Car. 

Finola Stack, Headmistress of James Allen’s Preparatory School said:

“We are very pleased for the girls who entered Leader Awards and the Better Energy School Awards and very proud of them. Their  environmental engineering designs have the potential to make a huge change in the way we think about our planet. Congratulations to the pupils and their Design and Technology teacher, Mrs Fox.”

14th June 2018 — Swimming in front of a packed house in the most iconic pool in the country, Elizabeth, Tilly, Rachel and Ella knocked six seconds off their qualifying time to finish the race in 1:16:13. As well as setting a new record for the school the team were thrilled with their final place in the overall standings, comfortably inside the top 20. 

Speaking after the race, Elizabeth said:

"As the race started, the whole 2000 seats fell silent and all eyes were on us. The adrenaline was pumping and we all felt excited and a little nervous at the same time. It was a truly incredible day and I will never forget the amazing feeling of having swum in the Olympic swimming pool"

Rachel added:

"This was the moment we all had trained hard for. When it was my turn to swim I could hear a cacophony of noise yet it was all seemingly so distant; I used every sinew in my body to heave myself forward. Fear definitely brought out the best in us, we learnt that we beat the school record set in 2011." Likewise she found the experience of swimming in the London 2012 Olympic pool overwhelming, "This was our mini Olympics, a memory we will all cherish forever." 

Her feelings were echoed by Ella who said "Swimming in the pool was a fabulous experience and a memorable moment; I enjoyed every part of it."

 

8th May 2018 — JAPS hosted the qualifiers for the Independent Association of Prep Schools' qualifying gala earlier this year where nearly 200 schools took part. The JAPS swimmers impressed across the board, securing three top twenty finishes in the relay events, the most successful performance coming in the 4 x 25m medley race which saw Rachel, Ella, Elizabeth and Tilly qualify for the next stage. They will compete in the IAPS National Swimming Finals at the London Aquatics Centre on 9th June. 

Then on 2nd May, two relay teams took part in the English Schools' Swimming Association heats at Whitgift school. They were also competing against the top schools from around the country and competition was always going to be tough with only the top three schools going through to the finals. The medley relay team were unfortunate to just miss out on qualification, finishing fourth in their race but the freestyle team did qualify in third place. The successful team of Ariana, Maddie, Ella and Trinity will head to the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield on 16th June to compete in the finals.