Those of you who have been in school recently and have eagle eyes may have noticed some curious happenings between the Keynes and Ashburton buildings. In place of the usual paving, there is a temporary cemented surface. Not very exciting you may be thinking. Well, this is just the beginning of the work that will transform this outdoor area in to a large indoor additional academic teaching and learning facility.
STEAM HUB
Over the Easter break, a team of builders prepared the foundations, services and drainage for a new ‘STEAM Hub’, which will be constructed over the next two summer holidays (to avoid any disruption to the children’s education). STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Design and Maths. A glass roof will enclose the current outdoor area between the buildings, the Science laboratories will be expanded and refitted, and additional teaching and learning space will be created. Crucially, the Hub will link the Science, Engineering, Computing, Art and Design and Maths Departments and will create a large indoor space for inter-disciplinary project work. By September 2017, the glass roof should have been fitted and the indoor space created. In the summer of 2018, the Science laboratories will be extended and refurbished and the STEAM Hub completed. To give you a taste of things to come, a ‘walk through’ film of this facility can be viewed here.
As you will see 
from the film, the ‘STEAM Hub’ will have a roof top greenhouse for the children to grow and study plants and vegetables, something which the current children in the Foundation classes will be able to make good use in the future. In their assembly on Wednesday, Class F52 showed their parents and teachers that they have already learnt much about plants, as you can see from the photograph below. Thank you to the children, Mrs Harmsworth and Mrs O’Hanlon for such an uplifting start to the day.
Trips
It has been a busy week for trips with Year 3 exploring the Greek Galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Year 4 studying the geographical features of St Ives and Year 7 enjoying leadership training and outdoor pursuits at Brancaster, on the Norfolk Coast.
SFPA Summer Party
Tickets are selling well for the SFPA Summer Party at the Double Tree By Hilton on Saturday 10th June. Drinks and a barbecue on the lawns (weather permitting), a chauffeured punt down the river and music and dancing in the hotel should make for a great evening so do come along if you can – all parents are welcome. Tickets can be purchased via this link.
Swimming Nationals
Many congratulations to our three swimmers – Herbie Linney, Christopher Howe and Amelia Sangster – who swam in the national finals in Crawley last weekend. Only the top 16 fastest swimmers in each age group in the UK qualify for this event, so just getting there is a great achievement. Amelia, Chris and Herbie all finished 9th in the country, setting personal best times and new school records! Herbie also became the first boy at St Faith’s to swim a sub 30 second time for 50m Freestyle.
Gymnastic Finals
Well done too to the gymnasts who competed in the BSGA National Sports Acrobatics Finals in Stoke. Viraj Shah, Harry Bennett-Coles, Guy Nichols and Max Burnell all gained Bronze medals – a fantastic achievement.
Sporting Events
This weekend it is the turn of athletes and golfers, who will be performing in the Cambridgeshire AA Track and Field Championships and Cambridge Schools Golf Tournament respectively. I am sure they will do themselves and the school proud.
Jubilee Pond
Finally, despite Elizabeth and Philip, our two visiting Mallards, deciding not to set up home on the Jubilee Pond (a great disappointment to many of us, but we will get over it), life in many forms continues to emerge in the surrounding area, including these dragonflies, photographed earlier this week.
With all good wishes,
Nigel Helliwell
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