Junior School newsletter - 1 March 2018
Celebrating collaboration and teamwork
Dear parents and guardians,
We have been impressed by the number of compliments which members of the Junior School community have recently received for excellent teamwork. From special assemblies and collaborative projects to sports fixtures and expeditions, our pupils have demonstrated their willingness to work inclusively and to value the contribution of others. Junior School pupils have also shown themselves quick to celebrate individual endeavour and success.
Young Voices
We are always keen to offer different enrichment opportunities for our pupils and this year it was very exciting that over 40 members of Years 5 & 6 chose to join our Young Voices Choir. They attended weekly rehearsals in preparation for the 2018 Young Voices Concert at the O2 on 31st January and, by all accounts, they worked very hard indeed to make the most of this memorable experience.
Collaborative Projects
Projects with Dame Bradbury’s are always eagerly anticipated; this term it was the turn of Year 4 to host a day’s activities in Cambridge and of Year 6 to visit Saffron Walden. Both year groups enjoyed renewing connections with their counterparts and we were struck by their ability to bond swiftly and effectively in working groups, whether taking on the role of World War II evacuees or astronauts preparing for a mission to the moon!
Bletchley Park and Hazard Alley
Year 6 pupils from across the Foundation also met up at Bletchley Park recently. This enrichment day enabled the children to take part in a simulated intelligence operation, as well as having a tour of the site, visiting the iconic World War II Code Breaking Huts and Blocks, and marvelling at the astonishing achievements of the Code Breakers whose work is said to have helped shorten the war by two years.
Meanwhile, Year 3 pupils gained an enormous amount from their visit to Hazard Alley in Milton Keynes last Thursday.
This visit, which complimented their thematic learning unit ‘Better safe than sorry’, has generated much thoughtful discussion amongst pupils and increased their understanding about keeping safe at home and whilst out and about.
Assemblies
Teamwork has been very much to the fore in recent assemblies. These have included presentations from each of the three Year 6 classes and from a group of pupils, drawn from all four years, who volunteered to talk about Chinese New Year.
6Alpha, 6Aleph and 6A took Fundamental British Values, Cultural Diversity and Year of Engineering as their respective themes. After researching an aspect of their chosen theme in a small group, the pupils then chose a means of communicating their findings to the audience. The variety of styles made these assemblies accessible and entertaining, as well as highly informative. It was great to see our Year 6 pupils directing their group presentations with confidence and this certainly bodes well for form assemblies in which they are involved as Senior School students.
Those who took part in the Chinese New Year assembly also did very well; sharing their knowledge and how they had celebrated this festival at home with enthusiasm. Special thanks to Year 5 pupils, Ray and Harry, for helping everyone to work out their Chinese animal in such a fun way.
We are now greatly looking forward to the Year 4 class assemblies and, judging from a few rehearsals which I have come across this week, we are in for treats on Fridays 2 & 9 March.
Valentine Cake Sale
PFA members also showed great teamwork when they organised a hugely enjoyable Valentine Cake Sale for Junior School and Pre-Prep pupils on 9 February. Many thanks to all involved, especially Dr Judy Roberts PFA Chair, for their time and enthusiasm. We were delighted that this raised over £470. Congratulations to Diya and Tiana who won the ‘Pair of Puppies’ competition.
Individual endeavours
We were very pleased that several members of Year 6 applied for Senior School scholarships earlier in term. Well done to them all for submitting applications and for attending auditions/interviews. Warm congratulations to Pi and Sophie R on achieving Stephen Perse Foundation awards and to Abbey, Haruka and Smera for achieving Music Scholarships.
World Book Day
We are very much looking forward to welcoming a host of book characters to school on World Book Day! The theme this year is ‘Share A Story’, which is a great activity at any time. It was wonderful to see members of Year 4 doing just that by sharing their dragon stories with members of Year 1 the other day.
Thank you to them and also to pupils in Years 4 & 6 who entered a World Book Day competition organised by Marvin the Moose, mascot of Cambridge United. Marvin received some fantastic entries from Junior School pupils which we will be sharing with everyone in assembly.
Sports roundup
Despite the cold weather, Junior School sport has been in full flow over the past few weeks. The students have been training hard, playing fixtures and competing in a variety of tournaments across the region.
Recently it has been great to play some schools that we don’t usually play. In particular, New Hall School kindly hosted six U11 teams just before the half term break. It was fantastic to come away with five wins in total. All four girls’ netball teams (A-D) won, some by a comprehensive margin, and the boys’ A team hockey also won with the score line finishing 2-0.
With boys in Year 6 for the first time ever in the Foundation’s history we have been warmly welcomed at both the County and IAPS regional hockey tournaments. The results didn’t necessarily swing our way, but the learning was central to the experience and the boys are looking forward to attacking the fixtures in the second half of term.
The girls’ U10 and U11 netball A teams are currently undefeated and they are both relishing the opportunity to test themselves further at tournaments this week.
Finally, running club restarts next week (weather depending) as Spring is fast approaching and we begin to look towards athletics and the Summer sports.
Stay up to date with all the latest results and team sheets by following us on twitter @SPFSport and on our sports website www.stephenpersesport.com.
Wishing you an enjoyable weekend, whatever the weather.
Katie Milne
Head of Junior School
Follow us on Twitter @SPFJuniors