News list
We are thrilled to share the news that Ed Walker, an alumnus of SJCS, was awarded an MBE in the late Queen's Birthday Honours for his exceptional contributions in the field of homelessness. Ed's journey began in 2010 when he founded Hope into Action (HiA), a charity dedicated to addressing the plight of homelessness.
The 2023 Girls' Under 11A hockey season got off to a flying start on 8 September with a masterclass at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, led by Haileybury School’s Director of Hockey and former USA International, Mr Rob Schilling. The girls practised techniques and drills and soaked up the atmosphere of the prestigious surroundings of the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park, which was host to the 2018 Women’s Hoc
The annual House Cross Country Run for Forms 4 to 6 is a sporting event the children train for in their Games and PE lessons and combines the excitement of competing for their House, as well as the chance to run around the beautiful St John’s Playing Fields. This year, Deputy Director of Sport, Mr David Millward, changed the format with a moving finishing line, meaning the fastest runners ran the furthest and were the last ones to finish. This enabled others who had already been ‘caught’ by the moving red flag to support those still running from the sidelines.
English and Irish solo marathon swimmer and public speaker, Mr Ed Williams, gave an inspirational talk to Forms 3 and 6 as part of our Thursday afternoon Enrichment Programme. His main message for the children was about having a dream and doing everything you can to achieve it with a heavy focus on the importance of trying hard and having the determination to succeed.
The children in Form 4 visited Stibbington Village and Education Centre 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.
2K visited the Cambridge Zoology Museum as part of their child-led learning topic this term. The session focused on exploring animal skeletons: what they are, how they work and why they are important. This reiterates part of the topic they are studying in school about adaptation, evolution and the work of evolutionary British biologist and naturalist, Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection.
Coinciding with World Book Day on 3rd March, every child at Â鶹ÊÓƵֱ²¥ took part in our Book Week activities, celebrating the joy of language and reading. Five authors gave talks and workshops across the week, including: Simon Mole, Ross Welford, Elle McNicoll, Mini Grey and Kevin Crossley-Holland. Younger children at Byron House donned their pyjamas and returned to school for hot chocolate and snacks beside the 'fire' with teachers reading and sharing some of the children's favourite stories. Another highlight was the ever popular Extreme Reading Competition which saw children reading
Form 4 took part in a Thursday Afternoon Enrichment session that combined a talk about Buddhism, as part of their Religious Studies work, as well as an insight into Buddhist art with sand mandala creations. Director of Studies, Mr Tristan Igglesden, gave an insightful presentation about his recent trip to Sri Lanka and his visit to the World Heritage site at the Dambulla Buddhist caves. The cave monastery is a well-preserved cave temple complex of five caves, each with beautiful and extensive Buddhist mural paintings on the walls and ceilings. Besides the ancient
Three SJCS Science Quiz teams competed in the Semi-Finals of the Quiz Club National Inter-School Science Championships. 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 5th place (Team 1), 8th place (Team 2) and 9th place (Team 3).
At the beginning of February Form 1 performed The Bumblesnouts Save the World by Debbie Campbell, a musical comedy that has now become a firm favourite amongst St John’s children and parents. As well as being infiltrated with humour, this play also had a strong moral and environmental message that our Earth is an amazing place and every living thing on it has a right to survive and thrive.