The children and staff of the Pre-Prep department at Sompting Abbotts have all contributed to a new film that shows what a typical day’s learning is like for them.

Staff gave their videographer Sarah permission to be a ‘fly on the wall’ for the day. So she observed many lessons, accompanied the children to lunch and out to play, and followed them into the woods for a forest-school class.

“What a happy place!”

“It was a lovely experience,” she said. “What struck me most is how happy the children were. And how comfortable they seemed with their teachers. Plus that the Pre-Prep department clearly works like well-oiled clockwork.

“I was impressed how well-behaved the children were and how they lined up so naturally when they were escorted out to their break-times in the Walled Garden and to their lunch together in the Main School Dining Hall.”

She said the school was a lovely location to film. “The apple trees in the orchard garden, where the children play, were in blossom, and the Pre-Prep Old Stables building is bright and airy.”

Camera nerves

Two of our Year 2 children – Michael and Jocelyne – were chosen to introduce the film. They didn’t have many ‘lines’ to say. But being presented with a mic and filmed – and having to do several takes – was new to them.

“Both of them did really well and they should be praised for their patience and behaviour,” said Kirsty Miles, Head of Pre-Prep.

A natural surprise!

Perhaps the most exciting part of the filming happened during a forest-school class when nature delivered up a wonderful surprise.

As the children were sitting in the ‘fairy ring’ circle of tree stumps and discussing what they had seen in the woods and filmed with their iPads, a hollow drumming sound interrupted their chatter.

“What was that?” asked Mrs Miles.

The drrrrr drrrrr sound was repeated several times and the children’s delighted reaction was caught on film.

“It’s a woodpecker!” they cried.

Woodpecker is star of the show

It was indeed. More precisely, it was the Great Spotted Woodpecker, of which there are probably several pairs nesting in the Top Woods.

There followed lots of discussion among the children about why the woodpecker was drumming.

Was it to make it a hole for nesting or to dig out a juicy bug?

In fact, as Mrs Miles explained, May is ‘family time’ for the Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Woodpecker pairs will have begun their courtship at the end of winter, a ritual that involves the male drumming his beak against hollow wood 10 to 20 times in just 2 seconds.

This serves to mark his territory and alert a female to his presence. Females will also ‘drum’ briefly to make themselves known when entering a male’s territory.

The children were all able to see a picture of the noisy bird that had (happily!) intruded on their lesson once they got back to their classroom.

You can watch the final film below the photographs from the shoot (and hear the woodpecker’s appearance near the end!).

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