www.stfaithsprep.com headmaster@stfaithsprep.com info@stfaithsprep.com

St Faithian Autumn Term w/e 8 December 2017

Friends of St Faith’s

As we end a week full of festive cheer and fabulous productions, we would like to once again express our thanks for all the support we received in making the Christmas Fair such a success. Those of you that assisted in helping set up, baking, wrapping, unpacking, manning stalls, tidying, elfing and attending and spending helped us raise well over £1000 for our school. Judging by the smiles, laughter and general atmosphere of fun, I would say it was a great success, so well done everyone! The Friends will have a little break over the festive

period but will be back in action at our first meeting of 2018 on Friday 19 January at 8:00am in the house. We would love to see you all there. Have a wonderful weekend

Emmabatch05@gmail.com Victoria.Crocker@stfaithsprep.com

A very festive Assembly from Year 3 What do you want for Christmas? 3B had an idea as to what they would like and took great pleasure in telling us all in their assembly this week…although we’re not sure which shop is selling real unicorns this year. The message that followed was that Christmas is not just about getting presents, the joy is in giving presents too. Their thoughts turned to their hardworking teachers at St Faith’s and with iPads in hand they went off to interview them to find out what they wanted for Christmas. The results were varied and surprising! Who knew that all Miss Franklin wants for Christmas is three French hens and Mrs Latham would like a partridge in a pear tree? Despite all these strange requests, 3B set to working out the modern day cost of the 12 days of Christmas. Each child researched their own fact and as a team worked out that they would need to save up £9860.50 to buy them all. ‘A bargain’, declared Mr Groves!

They finished off their informative assembly with a rousing version of the Christmas favourite, giving everyone a proper workout with actions to go with it. Well done 3B – a fantastic assembly.

Head’s Corner

This is a lovely time of the year where I can celebrate Christmas early and sit back to relax and watch the children perform in the choir and various Nativity plays. It’s lovely to see the children so happy and enjoying the festivities which will ramp up next week with Christmas lunch, and the pantomime. Unfortunately it is that time of the year when coughs, colds and tummy bugs are lurking, and some of the children and staff are bravely limping through to the end of the term and giving their all.

SPORT Kent College Cross Country competition

Last Saturday 11 children (and their parents) gave up their Saturday morning to compete in the Kent College Cross Country competition. They all competed really well against 8 different schools and clubs on a great morning for running. Harper managed to finish 3rd in the Year 2 race with Jamie and Edward finishing 4th and 5th. The Year 5/6 team also managed to finish 6th in a very competitive relay competition. Well done everyone involved.

Reception All I want for Christmas is...

After reading the story of ‘Dear Father Christmas’ last week, Reception children were inspired to write their own letters. We used our knowledge of phonics and handwriting skills to tell Father Christmas our name, age, where we lived, what we would like for Christmas and most importantly that we had all been very good this year! Amber said “I would like a Barbie house” whilst Safiya is hoping for “a new bike.” Once we had put stamps onto our letters it was time for them to be posted to The North Pole. We all know that this is a very busy time of year for Father Christmas, however we are hopeful

that he will have enough time to send us a reply...ho, ho,

DT in Year 6 It’s Boxing Day already in Year 6! The children arrived on Thursday morning clutching all manner of cardboard items together with the odd bit of cling film or kitchen foil for good measure. While the wind and rain lashed the building, they spent most of a happy day transforming these into model houses as the culmination of their DT project this term. Each pupil has chosen a historical house-style, researched its features and made a detailed plan for their model. We now have Georgian mansions, straw covered Saxon houses and some cutting edge modern designs too.

There was a real buzz in the classrooms and there were some great examples of collaboration between friends not only to solve design problems but, of course, to tidy up at the end!

MUSIC

Speak, perform, bow, repeat! Last Thursday 66 of our musical children performed in two Twilight concerts. There were many memorable solo performances, including four world premieres, and children from 7 year groups all making music together. The older soloists were asked to speak to introduce their pieces and all children were expected to bow at the end. They are learning that a performance doesn’t just require playing or singing the notes! All three school orchestras

had their time in the spotlight, along with the Lower School Recorder Club and Singing Club. Earlier this week the Chamber Choir performed a selection of festive Christmas carols to the residents and staff at the High View Oast Care Home in Ash. Carols and songs such as We Three Kings, The First Nowell and White Christmas entertained both residents and staff, many of whom joined in as well. If you are free tonight, you may wish to pop into Canterbury to hear them sing once again at the Whitefriars Christmas Markets in Canterbury. You won’t be disappointed.

NURSERY

The nursery children have loved our theme of favourite stories and joined in enthusiastically with familiar phrases. We’ve been on a bear hunt...it was a beautiful day and we weren’t scared! During Gruffalo week we explored scrambled snake, creating puppets and even eating Gruffalo crumble!

Clubs & Hobbies

Head Boy & Girl’s Teaser!

How many months of the year have 28 days? Last week’s answer: A COLD

Deputy Head Boy & Girl’s Teaser!

Unscramble the letters to make a word

RTACMHISS

Clue: we have trees on this occasion Last week’s answer: NATIVITIES

LOST & FOUND Harry Ford has lost his coat and purple sports top

Harry Evans—lost named school blazer Luke Giffin—winter coat

Please remember to clearly label all your clothes.

Week Commencing 11 December

Monday 9.00 ABRSM Exams Tuesday 8.30am Pilates 10.00am Rec—Yr 3 Christingle at St Nicholas Church Ash 12.00am School Christmas Lunch Wednesday 2.00pm Yr 1 Christmas Show Thursday 7.00pm School Carol Service at St Nicholas Church Ash Friday Christmas Jumper Day 9.30am Nursery Christmas party morning for scheduled Nursery children 2.00pm School Panto—Sleeping Beauty 3.50pm Reception Yr 1 & 2 children to be collected 4.00pm Yr 3,4, 5 & 6 children to be collected Mr Groves has asked parents not to arrive before the above times on the last day of term as this will cause a congestion

READING SHELF

The following children have completed Reading shelves this week

Jessica Hurst, Willa Bradley, Henry O’Connor, Oscar Farquhar, Charlie Farquhar,

Jonny Irwin, Ayshia Amin, Anna Mills, Toby Strickland, Honor Urquhart

Week Commencing 11.12.2017

Monday

Debating Club Yr 4-6 YES

Gym NO

Improving Sport Through Technology Yr 4-6 YES

Music (During School hours) YES

Tennis Rec, Yr 1, 5 & 6 YES

Tuesday

Chess Yr 2-6 YES

Dance (Pixies & Fairies Ballet) NO

Drama Upper School Yr 2-6 YES

LAMDA (During school hours) YES

Music (During School hours) YES

Wednesday

Computers Yr 4-6 YES

Dance (Ballet & Jazz) YES

Fencing Yr 2-6 (8.00am - 8.45am) YES

LAMDA (During School hours) YES

Music (During School hours) YES

Thursday

Art Club Yr 2-6 YES Badminton Club Yr 3-6 (second half term only) YES

Music (During School hours) YES

Tennis Yrs 2, 3 & 4 YES

Friday

Dodge Ball Yr 2-6 (second half term only) NO

Music (During School hours) NO

Book Review Mrs Bonner, a long serving member of staff, enjoyed visiting the Nursery to join in with some festive fun. She read the story of The Magic Christmas Star written by Ruth Turner and Tracey

Corderoy. The story was about Santa making his rounds on Christmas Eve and he arrived at Little Bear’s cottage and realised he had lost his present, so Santa and his little friend Robin searched through the moonlit woods and suddenly a shooting star shot through sky and landed in the snow. Santa said, “It’s a magic Christmas star that makes all wishes come true”. So Robin made a wish for a present for little bear. A lovely magical story about friendship and the joy of sharing at Christmas time.

HEADTEACHER’S AWARD Max Rooke for his paper plate animal Gurveena Dhaliwal, Penny Ford, George Steed for their house pictures Jessica Hurst & Willa Bradley for their independent writing Mali Nicholls & Oliver Simms for Haiku poems George Overy, Charley Woodhead, Rosie Hudsmith, Martha Rang, James Coombes for their writing ‘How to turn your teacher into a dragon’ Genevieve Jeer, Mabel McGuirk & Aryan Bhide for their metaphor poems

CHILDREN’S ACHIEVEMENTS OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL Ella Dibb-Fuller for completing stage 2 of the Swim England Learn to Swim award

Mali competed at the Annual Karate Championships held at Baypoint on Saturday afternoon. She competed in the Kata and finished 2nd place, getting through 3 rounds to face the eventual winner in the final. She also fought in the Kumite against 11-12 year old boys and although she lost her fight with a score of 5-4, Mali showed courage, determination and a real strength of character to fight the older boys at the age of 8. She was the eventual winner of the 8-

10 girls category. We are all very proud of her and the dedication she showed to win a medal and a trophy for her club. The man in the picture is Stephen Chan, professor of world politics at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He established his own Jindokai organisation and has dojos in several countries .

MUSIC STAR OF THE WEEK Joshua Tucker

for the effort he put into both violin playing and singing during last Friday’s lesson

Bronze (+) Sienna Hirst, Gideon Wade, Matthew Gurr,

Ross Sutherland, Oliver Dingemans, Zahra Horne, Aania Rehman

Faustino Bernardini-Cash, Chloe Solley, Darcey Powell, Oliver McMullan, Esther Kuruvilla,

Anna Mills, Lottie Rush, Toby Strickland, Isabella Reppin, Molly Allen, Freddie Gillespie,

Chloe Russell

GOLDEN BALL Kitty McCullin

Faustino Bernardinin Cash

Times Tables Challenge EARTH Angus Solley, Honor Urquhart, Lilly-Rae Gammon, Oliver Barker, Madison Harris, Alice Blease, Arabella Porter, Ethan Vince MARS Caspian Finlay JUPITER Rosie Hudsmith, Nicholas Fox

Birthdays Lucinda Hulme, Oliver Barker,

Cassy Faithfull, Romy Todd, Charlotte Lee

These children are Stars of the week for all their effort in class

RB Eva Wyon For fantastic progress with her phonics

RR Arnav Siddappa For trying hard with his letter formation and handwriting

1CP Lottie Southorn For her enthusiasm during our rehearsals

1R Max Rooke For excellent rehearsals for our concert

2BL Madison Harris For reading so well to Mr Groves

2CL Sofia Cresswell For her positive and determined attitude

3B Maisie-Grace Burrell For her generosity and being a great team player

3F James Cutting For being a lovely friend 4A Oliver Simms For outstanding effort in Maths

4M Rafael Brennan Ray For a good knowledge of insulators and conductors

4M Genevieve Jeer For amazing debating

5A Bertie Taylor For a conscientious approach to school life

5G Oscar Finlay For making a huge effort to concentrate and stay on task

5M Elliot Finlay For an excellent attitude in his learning

6J Stanley Hampshire For excellent effort in a Lego competition

6W Maisie Bradley For considering both sides of an argument and suggesting compromise

FRIEND OF THE WEEK Bea Hatton for giving up her time to look after her unwell

friend

House House Points

Ash 180

Beech 152

Oak 124

Sycamore 154