Welcome back! I do hope you enjoyed a lovely half-term and you and your family are now settled back into the routine of life at St Faith’s. Given the weather this week it is hard to believe that this time last year we were basking in the warmest February temperatures on record. We are certainly living in unpredictable times.
Integrated Arts Project
This week it was St Faith’s turn to host the annual Integrated Arts Project, an inspirational two-day drama workshop in which a group of our Year 7 pupils worked with children from two local special needs schools – Castle and Granta. Drama is an ideal forum for the children of the three schools to connect, each learning from the other the skills and confidence to create a group performance. For our pupils, this is, of course, about much more than Drama. Their time with the children who have learning difficulties requires considerable empathy, patience and understanding. Ms Allen was hugely impressed by the way all our pupils conducted themselves. It was also great to see how much the Castle and Granta children enjoyed the two days.
Drama has been a focus for several year groups over the past few days. In just under two weeks our Year 1 pupils will be putting on what I am sure will be a delightful performance of The Princess and the Pea. I understand from Mrs Smith (Head of Pre Prep) that rehearsals are going well. On Tuesday, Year 6 completed their first full rehearsal of The Lion King which we are all looking forward to seeing in the last week of term. Meanwhile Year 8 were busy working towards their exciting production of High School Musical, scheduled for May. We wish all our performers lots of luck and plenty of fun as they prepare for their shows.
Pancakes!
Foundation pupils had a fl
ipping good time during lunch on Tuesday when Head Chef Kevin entertained the children with some creative pancake tossing. As you might expect, there was great excitement amongst the children, many of whom were clearly hoping for the odd mishap, but experienced Kevin ensured that all pancakes landed safely back in their pans!
Year 7 English
This week, one of the Year 7 English 
classes focused on poetry and specifically on how poetry is inspired by the impact the landscape has on our lives. After looking at the poetic works of Seamus Heaney with Mrs Greaves, pupils created mind maps to help them better understand the nuances of the pieces. A selection are included below and capture well their understanding of the poet’s transition from farm boy to academic.
Sport
It has been another busy week of sporting endeavours this week, including the first cricket event of the year (indoors thankfully) and a number of IAPS regional qualifiers in hockey and netball.
Many congratulations to the U11 netball team on finishing as runners up in the IAPS Regional Competition yesterday and thereby qualifying for the National Finals at Bryanston School, Dorset, on 20th March. Mrs Melville and Miss Wacey were absolutely delighted with how the girls played during the day. Details of their results and indeed all the scores of this week’s fixtures are, as usual, in the side bar of this newsletter.
On a slightly less energetic but equally competitive note, tomorrow, Mr Mitchell will once again be hosting the Cambridge Chess League in Ashburton Hall; good luck to all four of the St Faith’s chess teams.
And finally…
I am delighted to report that before half-term, my brief time spent with our musicians in Liverpool, the home city of the Premiership Football League leaders, was a good omen for the staff football team. Despite the distractions of Valentine’s evening, a healthy cohort of parents, Old Fidelians and staff graced the Sports Hall with their football skills. Unbelievably, and against all the odds, the staff ran out winners again. Captain Clayton-Smith hasn’t let this unexpected run of success go to our heads and as with Liverpool, we will continue to take one game at a time!
I wish you all a wonderful weekend,
Nigel Helliwell
