13 October 2017 - St Faith's School

Double, double, I can add doubles

It’s no trouble for me to add doubles

The 1HC ‘Double Rap’ made for a lively and entertaining start to Wednesday morning, and it brought a smile to the faces of the parents and staff who were at the first Pre Prep class assembly of the year. The children entertained us with a wonderful presentation of their classwork so far this year, including their ‘Andy Warhol pictures’ of transport (this term’s topic).

Wednesday was a lively day for all Year 1 pupils. As part of the transport topic, the children learnt about bicycles and brought their bikes to school. They certainly enjoyed riding safely around Southfield, with Mr Pallister leading the way!

It is the time of the year when normal lessons are frequently punctuated with special events designed to extend and enrich learning. Here are photos of the ‘play-buddy sessions’, where some of Year 8 Prefects elected to plan and lead a session to teach the younger pupils traditional playground games. In fact, each day, many of our Year 8s act as play buddies, supporting the younger pupils at break times. As you might expect, it is a win-win situation; the younger pupils love to have the Prefects around and the Year 8s leadership skills develop greatly from this additional responsibility.

Sport

It has been a lively week for the Sports Department too, with a myriad of matches and tournaments. Jane and I were at New Hall School on Sunday, to see our U11 boys win the overall competition, which included teams from 14 schools. Their team work and general play were outstanding, and incredibly, they did not concede a try in the nine matches they played during the day. The U11 girls’ hockey team has also been in fine form, finishing 3^rd in the Eastern Region Competition last Friday and winning the County Cup on Wednesday. I witnessed the nerve-jangling final against The Perse, which ended in a draw and then a win on penalty flicks. The U11 A and B rugby and U11 A hockey teams are pictured here.

Of course, it’s great for our teams to be able to compete and succeed in events such as these, but what gives me just as much satisfaction is seeing so many of our pupils enjoy playing matches each week. Our Sports Department go to great lengths to make sport inclusive and fun and, I am pleased to say, this has not gone unnoticed recently. On Sunday, many parents commented to me that we were the only school at New Hall to enter a ‘B’ as well an ‘A’ team

and two weeks ago, when Mr Welch organised an U10 hockey tournament, St Faith’s was the only school to enter three teams. As one parent emailed me, ‘It was heartening to see that that the ‘C’ team players were given the chance to be involved. There was a lovely atmosphere with lots of happy hockey players.’ In both cases the ‘additional’ teams performed very well indeed and were all the better for the experience. This week, no less than 26 different teams have played matches and tomorrow we have 40 young golfers (and their parents!) and 24 chess players in action.

On the subject of sport, St Faith’ can’t claim any credit for Grace D’s (Year 8) outstanding performance in the Horse of the Year Show last week, but nevertheless, deserves a mention. Firstly Grace had to qualify for this national event and then at the show itself, she finished 7^th in the UK; a magnificent achievement.

AcE Day

As you can see from the programme the children will be enjoying a feast of trips and special in-house events on the AcE (Academic Extension) Day for Years 3 to 8 next Thursday. The day itself will culminate in a Science sleepover where almost all of Year 5 have signed up to an evening of Science experiments, pizza supper, a late-night film and overnight stay in the Ashburton Hall! I know the children involved are really looking forward to it.

Half-Term

A reminder that we break up for half-term on the evening of Thursday 19^th October and the Michaelmas Term resumes at 0820 on Tuesday 31^st October. There will be no newsletter, therefore, next Friday.