News list
Form 4 took part in a STEM Faculty workshop as part of our Thursday afternoon enrichment programme and had the chance to create a walking ‘Robot Duck’ from a Mindsets Kit. They had a set time to assemble a pack of parts, or basic components, for the basic two-legged (bipedal) walker. Despite having all the basic components, including pre-cut plates, they did not have all the final answers and their creative involvement ranged from investigation of mechanical variables to a re-think of geometry.
The Choristers embarked on two festive tours with the St John’s College Choir prior to Christmas, the first to Aix-en-Provence in France and the second to the Netherlands. During their trip to the Netherlands, the Choristers also enjoyed some time sightseeing in Rotterdam at the Maritime Museum, as well as a stadium tour of Feyenoord FC.
Form 1 gave heartfelt performances of songs, dances and poetry all based on the enchanting book, The Lost Words by Dr Robert Macfarlane. The children became ‘shapeshifters’ and ‘fluttering goldfinches’ as they breathed life back into many forgotten words. Head of Drama, Mr Tim Clarke, explained, “The children spoke, acted and moved powerfully with one voice and were poised and elegant. It was about children excelling at being children…”
The children in Form 4 visited Stibbington Village near Peterborough and travelled back in time to the year 1896. Dressed in Victorian skirts and mop caps, or breeches and cloth caps, the young Victorians were given identities of children who actually went to Stibbington School during Queen Victoria’s era.
Following the success of last year’s Scheherazade, the Fourth Form put on a stellar performance with their Three Folk Tales which contained moments of terror and gore, paired with hilarity, as well as spectacular dances in between the individual plays. One of the performers described the experience, “It was really fun pretending to be a grumpy cowboy because I could make silly cowboy accents and exciting being in such a great production.”
The U13 1st VII boys’ hockey team were crowned County champions on 29 January 2020 after taking part in the Cambridgeshire County Hockey Tournament at Wilberforce road. The team have now qualified for the Regional round, due to take place on 12 March.
T1s visited Europe’s first ‘Eco-Mosque’, based in Mill Road in Cambridge, as part of their exploration about special places and the idea of a sacred space as part of their Religious Studies curriculum. The mosque can hold 1,000 worshippers and has a wealth of sustainable features including air-source heat pumps, rainwater harvesting and solar panels.
Music that echoed, imitated and celebrated birdsong was the inspiration for the Sinfonia of Cambridge’s winter concert on 26 January 2020 at West Road Concert Hall. The young violinist Emma Lisney played the solo part in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Song of the Birds, a Catalan folk song arranged by the orchestra’s musical director, Howard Williams, for which the St John’s Senior House Chamber Choir and the Form 3 and 4 Choir joined the soloist and orchestra.
The Sixth Form were eager to get their hands dirty and wade into the river, despite the chilly weather, when they visited Epping Forest Field Centre, a Special Area of Conservation for their Geography Field trip. Head of Geography, Miss Grant explained, “We practised working together in groups, learned about delegation of tasks, our role of responsibility to the group as a whole and how to sustain interest and high quality work in inhospitable surroundings, whilst also learning about the changing course of rivers”.
The Fourth Form had a wonderful opportunity to enhance their understanding of Buddhism with a trip to the Cambridge Buddhist Centre on the first day of the Lent Term.