Last night’s Carol Service in St Mary’s Lewisham was a wonderful occasion, featuring music from six school choirs. The volume of the senior choir was enhanced by the presence of a growing number of enthusiastic parents whilst, further down the age range, the Pre-prep and Nursery performance was spontaneously (and unusually in an English church!) applauded by the congregation. Thanks to Miss Collinson, Mrs Watts and Mrs Hall. We were also grateful to Father Steve Hall, Vicar of St Mary’s and, as such, successor to Abraham Colfe. Steve has agreed to preach the Colfe’s Sermon in St Mary’s next June.
The spirit of Christmas was also reflected last week in two delightful Pre-prep and Nursery productions which played to capacity audiences in the school theatre. Once again, Mrs Hall and her colleagues brought the best out of their pupils, all of whom will have gained greatly in confidence from the experience. It was good to see so many proud grandparents at these productions as well.
It has been another busy term for PAFA, culminating in a highly successful Christmas Fayre last Friday which was attended by pupils from the Prep, Pre-prep and Nursery. The event was a huge success, raising almost £3,500 for the NSPCC, thanks not least to the generosity of local businesses which donated valuable raffle prizes. It was also great to see so many of you at the PAFA fireworks event at the Old Colfeians’ ground the previous week. We are hugely indebted to PAFA Chair, Dawn Bennett, for the fantastic success of both these events, in which she played a central part.
Other charitable work carried out in school recently has included our response to the Philippines Disaster relief fund which culminated in two Colfe’s minibuses transporting clothes to the departure point in Essex two weeks ago. Meanwhile the senior school has raised £5,000 this year already for a variety of charities like Meningitis Now and Jeans For Genes. Each of the senior houses makes its own decisions about what charity they want to support and the pupil organize the events themselves.
In the senior school the study of Science, Art and Classics has been enriched by off-site visits, firstly to the leading London Research Institute, funded by Cancer UK and, secondly, to the British Museum where Year 7 pupils studied Greek and Roman antiquities from Classics and Art perspectives. Meanwhile Year 7 linguists spent last Sunday at the Lille Christmas market. Other activities organised by the Modern Languages department have included an early morning breakfast club with visiting speakers for whom language use is a central aspect of their working lives.
Thinking Skills, a spin-off from the senior school Tougher Minds programme, has been introduced in the Prep school with great success. Initially part of the enrichment programme, this is now being embedded in mainstream lessons to great effect. On a related note, Year 11 pupils and parents attended a meeting last week with presentations from Jon Finn (Tougher Minds), Mr Foster (Head of GCSE Performance) and Mr Seddon (Head of Spanish). The main focus of the evening was effective revision techniques, with the January mock exams in mind, but it was also an opportunity for pupils and parents to reflect on the impact that our very distinctive approach is having in subject learning.
Mainstream school sport this term has been complemented by the introduction of lessons in fencing and karate. Having demonstrated their strength in netball and hockey, our U12 girls turned their attention to football two weeks ago and came second out of eight Kent schools in the tournament. Victories over other independent schools including Alleyn’s and Blackheath High have been at the heart of a more than usually successful hockey season and the senior rugby teams finished a good season with a block fixture against Cranbrook.
Recent individual achievements have included the following:
- Talented saxophonist, Sam Barnett who passed grade 8 with distinction despite being just 12 years old. Sam recently appeared as a solo artist at Birmingham LG Arena.
- Leonardo Bertocchi, who has consolidated his cadet ranking as 3rd in the UK after winning a bronze medal at the British Championships. Congratulations also to Year 8 student Georga Halloumas who was competing in the U57kg category for the first time.
- Prep school student, Ella Richardson, who passed a tough audition to get into the National Children’s Orchestra for the second year running an impressive feat, and Year 6 pupil, Arunabh Bagchi who was invited into the National Youth Choir after being encouraged to audition by Prep music teacher Mrs Watts.
- Fiontan Logan and Finn McQueen (both Year 6) who have been selected for the U11 Kent cricket squad.
Photographs of many of the school activities are published on the school’s “Flickr” feedhere.
In conclusion, I wish to express our thanks to Mrs Turrent and Mr Stewart who will both be leaving the senior school at the end of this year. Mr Stewart will be taking on a challenging new role as Head of Drama at the Walworth Academy and Mrs Turrent will be retiring after 14 years of tireless commitment to learning support in the senior school. We wish them both well.
I look forward to seeing all our pupils back in school on the 7th January.
With best wishes for Christmas and New Year
Richard Russell