News list
St John’s became a hub of poetic vision on Thursday 1 October when children across all ages celebrated National Poetry Day. National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages all to discover, enjoy and share poetry. The theme for this year was ‘vision’ with the motto to ‘see like a poet’ and #ShareAPoem. Head of English, Mrs Elaine Atkin, explained, ‘It is always incredible to see how imaginative and sensitive the children are through their poetry. They approach poetry with an open mind and produce work which is far beyond their years.’
On 1 October, our three SJCS Science quiz teams competed in the Finals of the Quiz Club National Inter-School Championships, postponed from last term. There were 442 teams (1768 children) from 308 schools taking part in the Science Championship during the last academic year and there were 51 teams (200 children – allowing for the teams with less than 4 players) from 44 schools in the Finals. As always, the questions were beyond the knowledge of the National Curriculum but the children took the challenge in their stride and battled it out for a tied 4th place and 18th place.
Our 'Action Stories' are based on a peer massage programme where the children are led through a set of massage strokes devised by the Massage in Schools Programme. Action Stories are an integral part of the Emotions for Learning (E4L) curriculum at Byron House and teachers and children have seen the benefits for over 10 years at St John’s. They aim to promote the well-being of young children in the knowledge that nurturing touch is a basic need and powerful tool to help children develop into healthy, well-balanced human beings.
This year our Harvest Festival services were held across one week at Byron House. The food and monetary donations came flooding in and were delivered to Newmarket Open Door Foodbank. This charity redistributes donated foods and household products to those needing support through their Foodbank shop, as well as via other charities and voluntary and social welfare organisations. Coinciding with our Harvest charitable giving, the annual Byron House Harvest Competition was as popular as ever with entries in the following categories: vegetables, sunflowers, art, photography, cookery and Lego.
Form 6 had a collaborative art and design technology whole day workshop with world-renowned visual artist, Mr Michael Brennand-Wood who stayed in contact with the children via Zoom. The children were encouraged to think about geometry, woven patterns, negative shapes and rhythms to create their own unique artwork, exploring textiles and taking inspiration from the artist’s own imagery. Mr Brennand-Wood is internationally regarded as one of the most innovative and inspiring artists working in textiles. All the material used for the children's work was recycled.
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support'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 2019 the charity’s coffee mornings raised nearly £27.5 million. The St John’s College School PA’s Macmillan Coffee Morning took place virtually this year due to current circumstances and families were encouraged to donate £3 or more for each entry. Instead of being a coffee 'morning', eager bakers were asked to upload photos of their bakes to a padlet throughout the week as part of a
Our Form 2 classes benefit from a Wednesday afternoon of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) every week throughout each of the three terms. The children are able to use the extensive facilities on offer at Senior House in our two Science labs and computing suite. Already this term they have carried out an orienteering session and as one of their first STEM teamwork missions, they undertook an engineering project which centred on working collaboratively to build the tallest freestanding structure using only 40 straws and 20 pipe cleaners.
The School's aim is to develop all pupils’ sporting ability to the full by providing a diverse, challenging, multi-sport experience at all ages and across all abilities. Sport can help to develop confidence and a positive mental attitude that permeates all aspects of a child's life. We hope to develop a love of sport that will last our children a lifetime. In offering such a wide range of sports we feel confident that the school has something for every ability and interest. We recognise the important mental and physical benefits that come with regular play and competition. Equally, we
Senior House children have benefited from the waterproof outside area for outdoor art activities, adjacent to the existing Art Room, for their first full week back in school. The children have benefited from the warm weather and the expansive purpose-designed outdoor space to work on continuous figurative line drawings with enough space to use large-scale paper and spread out in a circle with all the children facing the posed figure.
St John's welcomed 66 new pupils across the school at the start of the new term. Our youngest children spent a happy first morning in Kindergarten settling in and getting to know their teachers and classmates, as well as the routines of school life. During their first ever independent learning session they were able to 'free-flow' and explore the two expansive Kindergarten classrooms which had been set up with purposefully selected activities for their first day. The children also had fun investigating the Kindergarten outdoor learning space along with its own mud kitchen, raised flower and