Senior Summer Concert

On Monday, the University West Road Concert Hall was a hive of activity, as pupils in Years 5 to 8 were conveyed across Cambridge with their instruments, to rehearse for the evening’s Summer Concert. Fifteen of the senior ensembles performed on the night in front of a most appreciative audience, with particular highlights including the combined vocal performances of Chamber Choir & Senior Voices (over sixty pupils) and the Baroque Ensemble performing Henry Purcell’s Trumpet Sonata in D and which featured the harpsichord.

The high standard of performance and the assured confidence with which pupils presented themselves on stage, is testament to the pupils’ impressive abilities, the gifted team of professional musicians who are our Visiting Music Teachers, and the dedicated and talented staff within the St Faith’s Music Department. It was a very uplifting occasion which demonstrated how Music at St Faith’s is really thriving. It is our hope that performances and experiences like this will inspire our pupils to even greater musical success.

The whole concert was filmed and will be made available on My School Portal via this link

‘Stop Cyberbullying’ Assemblies

Assemblies on Monday focused on the topic of cyberbullying: what constitutes cyberbullying and what a child should do if they are being bullied online, or think that a friend is experiencing unkind behaviours. Four in 10 children aged 8-17 report that they have experienced bullying and it is also reported that it is more likely to have happened on a device, rather than face to face. These are sobering statistics, which is why it is so important to address this topic with our pupils. Information about where to get help and further information has also been shared with the pupils via their tutors. The most important message that was shared is to know that the children can always talk to an adult who they trust, with a particular emphasis on parents and teachers. We greatly appreciate your support in reinforcing the message about sharing concerns with an adult. If parents are worried about any aspects of online safety, in the first instance please do talk to your child’s form teacher.

FVH Assembly

Foundation class FVH have been reading the story of ‘Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister. The rainbow fish is the most beautiful fish in the whole ocean. But since he is also vain and proud, he becomes more and more lonely over time. Then he realises that you can’t win friends through beauty. He overcomes his pride and begins to distribute his glitter scales to the other fish, and everyone is much happier as a result.
The story reminds us of the importance of friendship and kindness being shared every single day. The friendships that children have made at school this year will carry into next year and more new friendships will be forged as children move to their Year 1 classes.

Speech and Drama Recital

Last Tuesday evening we were treated to an hour’s varied entertainment form Speech and Drama pupils, who shared with parents and supporters a variety of their work with pride and confidence. We had delightful poetry recitals performed with enthusiasm and confidence, as well as a very amusing acting scene about 2 squabbling goldfish and a rat and a cat. There was also an informative talk on the benefits of healthy eating, an entertaining Shakespeare soliloquy and a memorable performance from ‘Adrian Mole’. We are very grateful to our Speech and Drama teachers for preparing the pupils and we wish them the best of luck in their forthcoming exams.

Newton House Charity Sale

At break times this week members of Newton House have been selling cakes and biscuits to raise money for their chosen charity, Alzheimer’s Society. The sale has proved to be very popular and we look forward to a generous sum being raised for this important charity.

Talks from Lower Sixth pupils at The Leys

On Tuesday afternoon, eight students of the Lower Sixth at The Leys came to St Faith’s to speak to our Year 8 pupils about the transition to senior schools in September. The Leys pupils talked through a range of topics, gave excellent advice about how our pupils should approach Year 9 and then answered lots of questions. We thoroughly enjoyed hosting The Leys students, most of whom were Old Fidelians. They clearly relished the opportunity of returning to St Faith’s too, meeting with our Year 8 pupils and chatting with former teachers.

Umbrella Project from the ADHD Foundation

Recently we have chosen to support the Umbrella Project from the ADHD Foundation. This project aims to highlight and celebrate neurodiversity, with schools and businesses all over the country taking part. Each ‘umbrella’ display is designed to represent the one in five of people who have a neurodevelopmental condition, such as ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia or Tourette’s syndrome. These conditions all fall under the umbrella term of neurodiversity. The ADHD Foundation aims to change the perception of neurodiverse/neurodivergent people and celebrate the many strengths that come from thinking differently.

Our umbrella display at St Faith’s is in the Keynes building. We will be adding to it over the coming weeks and months to allow us all to learn about conditions like ADHD and Autism and to find out more about the many successful and famous people who are neurodiverse.

Year 8 English – Visiting Speaker

Following on from last year’s visit, retired secondary English teacher, Mr Richard Wallace, delivered a fascinating presentation to Miss Smith’s Year 8 English class on Thursday morning. Pupils were introduced to famous newspaper journalists, sportsmen and women, actors, and a truly heroic surgeon who Mr Wallace taught during his forty-year career in the classroom. Further topics discussed ranged from apostrophes to the literature of Thomas Hardy, and pupils were very grateful to Mr Wallace for sharing his expertise and time.

Year 4 Virtual Reality

Over the last few weeks pupils in Year 4 have been building 3D worlds in a new application called CoSpaces Edu. They have been using computers and iPads to create their own different worlds, including the use of block coding to create different paths and record sounds for the objects in their world. This week they were excited to able to use the Virtual Reality headsets to experience the world they have created. They worked collaboratively in groups of three at a time, one team member creating on the iPad, one team member creating on the PC and one team member exploring the world in Virtual Reality using the VR Headsets.

Year 5 Ekphrastic Poetry

In Year 5 English, Mrs Hudson’s class have been studying Ekphrastic Poetry. They collaborated to produce a class poem based on The Starry Night by Van Gogh. Each pupil submitted a line of poetry, and then worked in small groups to edit and re-structure their collated work. As a finale, they performed the poem, having transformed their classroom into an atmospheric starry night. The pupils were wonderfully creative and reflective!

Year 5 Poetry Performance

Mrs Switsur’s Year 5 English class were delighted to show off their poetry performance group work skills. The children had to team up in groups of 3 or 4, choose a poem, memorise and then act it out. They had to work collaboratively and efficiently as they had just one class period to pull it all together! There are some examples of the performances below.

Year 8 Maths

Pupils in Year 8 have been working on a stocks and shares project. In this exercise the pupils have invested a fictional £10,000 in shares of their choice and each week, and they have used Excel to track their progress, recording profit and losses and creating graphs and charts. As part of a personal finance topic, pupils have been learning about a range of topics including interest rates, mortgages and savings. Another topic of focus this half term has been Circle Theorems, which pupils have been proving using scaled drawings and written algebraic proofs. The collaborative work on this topic has been channeled into some excellent posters and iMovies which can be seen below.

Move Up Morning

On Thursday morning pupils across the school were involved in ‘Move-Up’, which is when the children meet their Form teacher for the forthcoming academic year, as well as having the opportunity to visit their new classroom. We began our Move Up morning with an assembly in which we explored the benefits of ‘goal-setting’ and also thought about the strategies we can use to help achieve our goals. We were very pleased to welcome to school many of the new pupils in Years 1-7 who will join us in September, along with their parents.

Goblins Celebration

On Thursday evening, members of the Goblins club (Years 5 & 6), together with their families, celebrated the pupils’ work over the year as they took the cars they had built ‘out for a spin’ on the hard court behind school. and afterwards. Afterwards everyone enjoyed some refreshments together.

Year 3 & 4 House Cricket Matches

Last Thursday the Year 3 and 4 pupils played in their House Cricket finals. Play was of a high standard and the children really enjoyed the competition. You can enjoy reading Mr Clayton-Smith’s reports in the sidebar.

U13 Girls’ IAPS Cricket Festival

Today was a first for St Faith’s, as we hosted this year’s IAPS U13 Girls’ Cricket Tournament, taking place at Latham Road. It was a pleasure to host this event and to promote girls’ cricket. A total of 9 IAPS schools took part, one even travelling all the way from York. I would like to thank all the staff at St Faith’s who have worked extremely hard to plan and organise this event. Thank you too to the school cricket coaches who teach their children and have such dedication and commitment to bring their girls’ cricket teams to this exciting competition.

Sports Day

As reported in last week’s newsletter, on Friday we held our Sports Day for pupils in Years 3-8 at the University of Cambridge athletics track on Wilberforce Road. Despite the changeable weather, the event remains one of the highlights of the school calendar, bringing together our school community. I do hope that you will enjoy browsing through the collection of photos taken on the day at this link.

OF v Staff v Parents’ Football Match

Given the fact that a certain European football tournament is taking place over the next few weeks, it seems fitting that our own annual social football event should be happening this Friday evening. We look forward to some excellent performances on all fronts.

Continuing with the international sporting theme, we are delighted to announce the news that OF Tess Howard (Bentley 2003-10) has been selected for the GB Hockey team for the Paris Olympics. As a Foundation, we also congratulate James Albery, former Head Boy at The Leys, who has also been selected to represent Team GB in Men’s Hockey in Paris later this year.

And Finally ….

Next week is Enrichment Week – with a very exciting and broad assay of extracurricular activities taking place across many year groups – a real highlight of the school calendar.

Many of our Year 8 and Year 7 pupils will be departing this weekend on trips to Rome and the Bay of Naples, and to Salamanca respectively. You can follow updates of the trips on the school X (Twitter) accounts, using the handles @StFaithsItaly and @StFaithsSpain.

I wish you all a very relaxing weekend as those of us staying closer to home hope to enjoy some sunshine too.

With all best wishes,