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This Week at St Faith’s

World Mental Health Day

On Thursday we recognised World Mental Health Day by wearing something yellow at school – with socks, gloves, hats, ribbons, wellies and many other cheerful accessories on display. In support of World Mental Health Day, the children also took part in wellbeing activities in Registration/Tutor Time. The school will make a donation to support the charity Young Minds in recognition of its important work in making sure that children and young people do not feel alone in managing their mental health.

Mental health was also the theme of Monday’s whole school assembly, when we reminded ourselves that looking after our mental health is just as important as taking care of our physical health. We considered that feelings can sometimes be overwhelming, but talking to someone we trust can be very helpful. We also thought about the ways in which sharing our worries and bringing them out into the open can help us address concerns. Pupils were reminded that as well as talking to their parents, older siblings and friends, there are also many adults at school who can help. These could include their teachers, their tutor or Head of House, or the school nurses. If pupils would rather not talk, but want to share a worry, they can access ‘MyVoice’ on Teams or Seesaw.

Kind Words from Year 2

In support of World Mental Health Day, Year 2 pupils decorated each other’s desks with positive adjectives to describe one another. The children were reminded of the power of words and loved reading the kind words their friends had written about them.

Parent-Teacher Meetings

On Thursday night, parents of Year 6 pupils joined us in Ashburton Hall for their parent-teacher meetings. Next week, it will be the turn of Year 3 and 4 parents on Monday and Wednesday, and Year 8 parents on Tuesday. These face-to-face meetings are an important part of our partnership between home and school and give parents the opportunity to meet and discuss their children’s progress with their teachers.

Foundation Books & Biscuits

When asked about their favourite place in the school, many pupils, and indeed teachers, will tell you that it is the Library. This week has seen the return of our very popular ‘Books and Biscuits’ drop-ins for parents. A great pleasure in life is to spend time with your children and to enjoy reading a favourite book together – accompanied of course by your favourite biscuit treat. Our librarian, Miss Johnson, was also on hand and I do hope that our families enjoyed their time relaxing in the comfortable and welcoming surroundings of the Library.

2JJ Class Assembly

2 JJ’s class assembly today was about The Great Fire of London. They have been enjoying learning about this famous historical event. The children acted out the story of The Great Fire, reciting a poem and singing ‘Fire, Fire Everywhere’ with the aid of handbells and fire-coloured scarves. As part of their studies, they also wrote a diary ‘dressed’ as Samuel Pepys, which was displayed on screen.

In the Classrooms

This week, I joined Year 4 in a Science lesson where pupils were learning about anatomy and the bones in the human skeleton. Meanwhile Year 5 were practising their spellings of words ending “ies” in English, and in Engineering Year 4 were building bug hotels. Our Year 6 pupils are studying the local watercourse of Hobson’s Conduit and Year 7 have been developing their computing skills by undertaking calculations in binary.

Pre Prep Eco Committee

This term the newly formed 2024 – 2025 Pre Prep Eco Committee has been thinking about trees. They have been walking around our beautiful grounds and looking at all the amazing trees at St Faith’s, learning lots of tree facts as they walk.

This week, they once again went on an eco-inspired walk around St Faith’s and this time gathered seeds that had fallen from the trees. The children really enjoyed studying the seeds and talking about the types of seeds they found and how the seeds were dispersed to create, in time, new saplings. We have a very enthusiastic group of budding ‘Eco Champions’ in Pre Prep and it is a pleasure to listen to them share their knowledge with one another, and to see them taking such an active interest in the environment.

School Council Talk About AcE Days

Our School Council were busy this week taking votes and opinions from the pupil body on the activities and events they would like to participate in on our AcE (Academic Enrichment) Days. They carefully considered the best way to gather a range of opinions and crafted their own voting boxes using recycled cardboard. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of pupils casting their vote and having their voice heard!

Senior Singers – Don’t Stop Believin’!

Numbers in the Senior Singers are tremendously buoyant. Despite the 07:45 start, the pupils were energetically guided through Journey’s iconic “Don’t Stop Believin’” song this morning, and they have been encouraging everyone to listen to it every day this week!

Mr Symons says “Parental help (and participation, if the mood takes you) on the way to school is highly desired! Let’s keep spirits high and the music flowing!”

Junior Voices

Despite the chilly weather, Junior Voices brought warmth and excitement to Friday morning as they energetically prepared a Remembrance song under Mrs Elcome’s guidance, with Miss Butler on the piano—and yes, the word ‘Christmas’ was mentioned!

Chess News

The chess season started last Sunday with 34 teams taking part in the schools’ league. For the first time, St Faith’s has enough teams to split into two divisions, with our A and B teams entering the Carlsen division and our C and D teams competing in the Kasparov division. After the first four matches in the Carlsen league, our A-team are once again near the summit. In the Kasparov league, our C-team are in a good position to be one of the three teams to be promoted to the Carlsen league for the 2025-26 season, and our Ds picked up a lot of points despite having only four players and having to forfeit a third of their points!

Please see results in the side bar of this newsletter and for the full results, visit the CCC website: www.cambridgechess.co.uk

Pop-in & Play on 17th October

Next Thursday 17th October, we will welcome prospective families to our first ‘pop-in and play’ session in the morning. Parents and their children will have the opportunity to experience fun and play, both inside a Foundation classroom and outside in the dedicated playground. Please contact our Admissions team for further details, admissions@stfaiths.co.uk or book online.

And Finally….

There is plenty to look forward to this autumn, including our SFPA Fireworks Event on 8th November – which as ever, has proved to be very popular and tickets sold out very quickly. Looking further ahead, our Autumn concert takes place on 21st November, and please do note Friday 6th December in your diary for the SPFA Christmas Fair. Ahead of these events, and inspired by the activities of our Pre Prep Eco committee, I hope you are able to find some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful autumn colours this weekend,

With all best wishes,

Crispin Hyde-Dunn