This week at St Faith's

19 May 2017

Mid- way through the Foundation class assembly on Wednesday, I realised that everybody in the room was smiling. The parents had the broadest grins, as well as a distinct look of pride as their four and five year-old children presented an enchanting version of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, including two wonderful songs. As one parent said to me afterwards, “these are very special moments”. They certainly are.

Year 8 Reading Competition

Just as enthralling, but more serious, was the final of the Year 8 Reading Competition on Tuesday. Every Year 8 pupil participates in this competition and the best ‘public’ readers from each class qualify for the final. I have to say that it was a great pleasure to hear our top year pupils reading passages from their favourite books. The adjudicator, Mrs Leigh (Head of English at The Leys) commented particularly on the clarity, expression and diction of all the readers and complimented them on their strong public presentational skills. This is certainly the strongest cohort of readers I have heard in the school; several had the audience in stitches with their clever use of accents and humour. Many congratulations to Grace Nicholls and Lucy Koiza who were awarded joint third place, Alexander Humphrey, the runner-up and the overall winner, Ben Lewis, whose reading of a passage from ‘The Kite Runner’ was simply outstanding.

Young Writers Competition

It has also been a week when many of our pupils were rewarded for their excellent creative writing skills. Maureen Hallsworth, a former St Faith’s parent, came to assembly to present certificates and prizes for our pupils’ entries to the Cambridgeshire South Rotary Club Young Writers Competition. In addition to the many certificates for commended stories, Archie N won the district prize in the junior category and Lucy Koiza and Nine Lane came 3rd and 2nd respectively in the intermediate section. Very well done to everyone who took part.

    

National Junior Maths Challenge

The mathematicians have also been in fine form recently. As Mr Kite has written in the ‘index’ of this newsletter, our pupils gained the best ever results in the 16 years we have been participating in the National Junior Maths Challenge. Congratulations to the many pupils who achieved gold, silver or bronze and particularly well done to Robert Gwilt, Alex Dixon, Jack Savage, Anna Wheaton, Dominic O’Loughlin and Juliette Brooking who have all qualified for the ‘Kangaroo’ stage. Aman Bashir, our top performer, will have the honour of competing in the Olympiad in June. We wish them all continued success in the next stages of this challenge.

Cambridgeshire Maths Challenge

Yesterday, the Year 6 Cambridgeshire Maths Challenge, hosted here at St Faith’s, provided another opportunity for our mathematicians to apply their skills and knowledge. Thirty-three schools brought their top mathematicians to enjoy an afternoon of computational conundrums, team challenges and most importantly, a large cream tea afterwards. We didn’t win but our pupils scored very well indeed and the scones were delicious.

Cakes

Speaking of cakes, one of the great privileges of my job is the receiving of cakes on the children’s birthdays. Here is lovely picture of Madeleine, Gemma and Olivia who brought this scrumptious offering to my office on Monday (just in case you are wondering,, I only took one cake). A while ago a
boy brought a cake to my office but I wasn’t in, so he left it with Mrs Greer, my PA. Later that day, the boy found me in the dining hall and said, ‘I brought a cake for you, but you weren’t in your office, so I left it with your guard!  Below is a photo of Alex when I delivered his birthday card on Thursday; I tried on his special birthday spectacles which the class found hilarious.

   

National Quiz Club Competition

The competitions have been coming thick and fast this week. Yesterday our General Knowledge Team travelled to Felsted School to compete in the semi-finals of the National Quiz Club Competition finishing 5th out of the 10 teams which participated.

Congratulations

Last weekend proved to be a memorable on for many current and former pupils. Whilst Grace D (pictured) won her age category in the Royal Windsor Horse Show and our golf team were placed 2nd in the Cambridge Schools Championships, with Harry H (pictured) winning the individual competition, Alex Goode (former pupil) was playing outstandingly well to help Saracens Rugby Club win the European Cup. On his lap of honour around Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Alex stopped to have his photo taken with several Old Fidelian friends, one of whom (Paul Dennis, who sits on our Old Fidelian Committee) wore his old St Faith’s blazer for the occasion!

      

Good Luck

This weekend our girls and boys will be in action in the National Trampoline Finals in Croydon and our budding Year 8 actors will be in final rehearsals for ‘We will Rock You’, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday evening.

Finally, I will leave you with some lovely photos of the Year 3 Greek Day on Tuesday, which the children enjoyed very much.

Have a great weekend.

With all good wishes,

Nigel Helliwell

 

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