Our community has enjoyed a particularly festive week – from the delicious Christmas lunches crafted by our catering team to the cheerful presence of Christmas Elves helping with traffic duty. As we reach the end of term, we have enjoyed reflecting upon and celebrating the efforts and achievements of all our pupils.

Colours Assembly

On Monday, it was a pleasure to award a number of our Year 7 & 8 pupils their House Colours for demonstrating outstanding commitment and endeavour in one or more of the following areas: Academic, Creative Arts, Service and Sport. Additionally, 5 pupils received a Silver Colour, which is awarded when a pupil has received at least 4 Colours. The Gold Colour, signifying exceptional achievement and service to one’s House with 8 or more Colours, remains an aspirational milestone for Year 8 pupils later this academic year.

Pre Prep Christmas Party and Crib Service

Pre Prep children have been immersing themselves in seasonal celebrations with great enthusiasm. On Tuesday they came to school in special outfits for their Christmas Party.

Games and activities were in full swing in the Foundation classrooms, Sports Hall and Ashburton Hall and throughout the activities, the children were reminded of the importance of friendship and kindness, not just during this season of goodwill, but all year round. There then followed a lovely festive feast in the dining room and the children really enjoyed the opportunity to sing ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas!’ to our outstanding catering team, who look after them so well. Yesterday, it was the turn of the Pre Prep parents to enjoy a festive occasion, as they were treated to a traditional Crib service of songs and readings. The children’s confident readings and heartfelt songs created a truly memorable celebration.

Christmas Carol Services

Yesterday the Michaelmas term started to draw to its seasonal close with two Carol Services, one for Years 3-5 and another for Years 6-8. Leading us in worship was our Foundation chaplain Reverend Coleman, and there were pupil readings and prayers, choir performances and congregational carols. It was wonderful that so many families and friends were able to join us for this seasonal celebration – a real highlight for our whole community.

Pre Prep Festive Film Theme Day

Friday brought a relaxed and joyful conclusion to the term for our Foundation children. They watched ‘The Snowman’ and thoroughly enjoyed making melted snowman biscuits, dancing snowmen, and a snowman pom pom launcher. Years 1 and 2 ‘snuggled down’ to watch ‘The Grinch’, whilst also enjoying hot chocolate and green cookies. As part of their ‘Grinchy Fun’, they enjoyed engaging in a variety of cross-curricular activities all centred around The Grinch. Their day also incorporated a range of engaging cross-curricular activities, and many pupils delighted in attending school for the day wearing comfy pyjamas or their favourite ‘green’ outfit.

Christmas Jumpers and Last House Standing

Today on the last day of term, St Faith’s has been a sea of seasonal knitwear as staff and pupils have donned their favourite Christmas jumpers. The day’s special highlight, the Last House Standing competition brought a range of excellent individual and whole-House performances across Years 3-8. This energetic and exciting event is among the noisiest of the whole school year! Loyalty to one’s House could be seen as well as heard, with enthusiastic cheering from the pupils, all of which ensured that the final term of 2024 ended on a high note.

New Era Academy Speech and Drama Exams

Following the successful Teatime Recitals two weeks ago, this week 40 pupils from Years 3-8 took New Era Academy exams, showcasing their skills in a range of subjects including Public Speaking, Mime, Shakespeare, Verse and Prose. The pupils have worked extremely hard to reach this point of assessment and eagerly await their results next term.

IAPS ‘Time to Write’ Competition

We announced in last week’s newsletter that St Faith’s will be taking part in the ‘Time to Write’ IAPS National Competition this year. Please see full details of how to enter in the sidebar of this newsletter. We encourage all budding writers to take part.

Swimming

Mrs Critchley writes,

“We had an action-packed and thrilling Year 5 and 6 House Swimming Gala on Tuesday at The Leys. It is always wonderful to see the children encouraging and cheering each other on as they compete for their House, and everyone really entered into the spirit of the event. 90 children across the two Year groups signed up to the competition, and after 44 highly competitive and noisy races, Newton emerged victorious. Well done and many thanks to all the children that took part, as well as the 10 staff it took to run the whole show. It really was great fun!

Results: 1st Newton 311 points, 2nd Latham 278 points, 3rd Chaucer 273 points, 4th Bentley 253 points.”

Thank you to Annabel Brunner

As I shared with our community earlier this term, Mrs Annabel Brunner will be stepping down as Chair of the St Faith’s Committee of Governors at the end of 2024. We would like to extend our heart-felt thanks for her many years of dedicated service to The Leys and St Faith’s Schools Foundation. We took the opportunity to say thank you and farewell to Mrs Brunner during our Colours assembly this week. Mrs Brunner will be succeeded as Chair by Mrs Vicki Wienand, who already sits as a Governor on the St Faith’s Committee. Mrs. Wienand is an experienced educator and editor, with a longstanding connection to our school community.

And Finally…

At St Faith’s next week, many pupils will participate in Art and Christmas Craft Workshops, the Multi-Activity Course, STEM Camp and the Art and Drama Workshop – all of which are open to children in Years 3-8. Our school ski trip also departs for Sestriere, Italy very early on Saturday morning and we hope they enjoy some fine ski-ing conditions. I am very grateful to all the staff who are supporting these exciting extra-curricular opportunities for the children.

The Lent term will begin for all pupils on Wednesday, 8th January 2025. We also look forward to welcoming prospective Year 1-8 pupils for their September 2025 entry assessments between 9th and 17th January 2025.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff and volunteers for their hard work throughout 2024, and also to thank all our St Faith’s parents and families for their ongoing support.

Wishing you and your family peace and joy this Christmas, and every best wish for 2025.

With all best wishes,

Crispin Hyde-Dunn