October 2018

Oct 2018
The Piazza was transformed into a multi-coloured rainbow of different playground designs on 18 October as all the children in Senior House embraced The Big Draw challenge. “The Big Draw Festival 2018 is all about letting loose, embracing happy accidents, discovery, and most importantly having fun with your weird and wonderful materials of choice!” (The Big Draw – www.thebigdraw.org) The Big Draw takes place annually from 1-31 October and is the world’s biggest drawing festival. This year The Big Draw celebrated the power of play and its role in creativity. 1000 events were organised
Oct 2018
Form 2 took part in a ‘Dancing with Dementia Patients’ project as part of their Responsibilities Development and as an extension of the school’s Outreach Development. Miss Worthington, Deputy Head of Junior Department, explained, “The aim was twofold: to provide Outreach Opportunities to Form 2 children to increase their understanding, compassion and self-awareness whilst also developing their sense of responsibility towards others in the local community. We believe that by doing this, children will be given opportunities to embody and develop the values of trust, compassion, love and
Oct 2018
Two current St John’s pupils (Elizabeth Simpson and Jaylen Cheng) and two past pupils (Johnnie Rudd and Johnny Umdasch) had their poems shortlisted for the 2018 John Betjeman Poetry Prize. Their poems will be published in the annual anthology, together with the other 50 shortlisted poems. The annual John Betjeman Poetry Prize is a National Competition open to 10-13 year olds. The theme is always 'Place' as Sir John Betjeman’s poems speak so clearly and beautifully of the places he loved. Throughout the year, the children are inspired to write poetry using a wide variety of stimulus. This
Oct 2018
A delegation of four pupils were invited to The Palace of Westminster by UNESCO and ‘Voices of Future Generations’ to discuss key worldwide issues such as Sustainability and the Rights of the Child with children from schools around the country, focusing particularly on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The aim is to empower children to have a voice about the future they wish to see. “Children, and their children, will inherit the earth. We aim to give a voice to all children worldwide to express their insightful and creative visions about how they would like this future to be.” (‘
Oct 2018
Two of our talented pianists had the opportunity to take part in a Steinway & Sons piano masterclass at Steinway Hall, located in Marylebone, London. The day included a masterclass with Charles Owen, Steinway artist, a tour of Steinway Hall and the restoration centre, and an opportunity for the pupils to play on the Steinway’s world famous, concert grand pianos. Director of Music, Mr Simon Kirk, explained, “We were made to feel very welcome at Steinway Hall and had a thoroughly inspiring day. On the tour of the salesrooms and the technicians' area, the quality of workmanship and
Oct 2018
Form 2 experienced life in Ancient Egypt as Byron House Big Room was transformed into an Ancient Egyptian market, where the children had the opportunity to make many Egyptian artefacts and experience skills used in the era. The young Egyptians got to practise mummification, bread making, making scented cones, hieroglyphic writing on papyrus, making canopic jars and dream beads, carving scarab beetles and making their own oil lamps using olives as fuel. One Form 2 explained, “I loved the feast and the stall where you could make your own ink and write your name in hieroglyphs.” Another
Oct 2018
Form 4 visited Wandlebury Country Park, a 110 acre estate in the Gog Magog hills, just south of Cambridge for an orienteering activity and to learn about the history of the park and park management. The children spent the morning discovering that orienteering is an adventurous sport, as well as being incredibly competitive! The children learnt new map reading skills in an exciting and energetic way. They used accurate yet speedy observations to relate features on the ground to symbols on the map. Head of Geography, Miss Grant, explained, “I very pleased with all of Form 4 but
Oct 2018
In the run-up to national Poetry Day at the start of October the whole of Byron House was treated to a fabulous Assembly led by acclaimed children’s poet, Paul Cookson. None of the children could resist joining in with the catchy rhythms and repeating lines in his amusing poems. Although he does not describe himself as a musician, he brought his poems to life by putting them to music played on his electric ukulele while encouraging plenty of audience participation. The children were given an insight into the works of the poet as he spent time sharing his top creativity tips. With over
Oct 2018
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event, where the charity asks people across the UK to hold a coffee morning and raise money for people living with cancer. In 2017 the charity’s coffee mornings raised over £27 million. Since the first Coffee Morning in 1990, the Coffee Mornings have raised over £200 million for Macmillan. The St John’s College School PA’s Macmillan Coffee Morning took place in the wonderful location of the St John’s College Master’s Lodge on 28 September and £938 was raised for the charity through generous donations and the raffle