News list
Every October ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ at Senior House look forward to taking part in the World’s Biggest Drawing Festival and this year was no exception with another opportunity to celebrate the transformative effect of drawing for Forms 3 and 4. The theme: ‘Climate of Change’ seemed particularly apt when sustainability is very much an on-going focus at St John’s. 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of The Big Draw and the campaign that shines a light on the need for drawing and its role as a tool for expression, creativity, learning and sharing ideas.
Form 1 experienced the world of ancient Rome with a Roman Day workshop. The ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ were transported back to Roman Britain with a recreation of life in the past including role-play, practical activities and hands-on experiences with Roman replica artefacts. The ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ were aptly dressed as Roman citizens, slaves or even barbarians!
Current parent, Mrs Patel, gave an insightful talk to Form 4 about the customs and traditions of Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions and the religion they are currently studying in class. The ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ found out about the Hindu belief that life is a cycle of birth, death and rebirth and that the actions in this life, or ‘karma’, have an effect on the future.
St John’s became a hub of poetic vision on Thursday 1 October when ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ are through their poetry. They approach poetry with an open mind and produce work which is far beyond
On 1 October, our three ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ Science quiz teams competed in the Finals of the Quiz Club National Inter-School Championships, postponed from last term. There were 442 teams (1768 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ) from 308 schools taking part in the Science Championship during the last academic year and there were 51 teams (200 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ â€“ 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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ have seen the benefits for over 10 years at St John’s. They aim to promote the well-being of young ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ in the knowledge that nurturing touch is a basic need and powerful tool to help ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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,
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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ via Zoom. The ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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 ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ's work was
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
Our Form 2 classes benefit from a Wednesday afternoon of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) every week throughout each of the three terms. The ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÎÛÎÛÎÛ 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