On Saturday 18th May, 3 teams from St John's took part in the Tunbridge Wells School’s Football Tournament. The teams were: the boys’ A team in the large school’s cup; the B team (as they did so well in the league they were entered into the medium school’s cup); and the girls’ team playing in the girls’ cup.

 

Here is Mr Bradbeer's tournament report...

 

Going into the last group game, the girls had already qualified for the final and both boys’ teams had a chance of advancing. The A’ team had played very well as a team, but lost their last game against the eventual winners: Paddock Wood. The B team qualified comfortably after a few nervy opening minutes. Yet again the girls faced St James’, who we beat in the last tournament and just pipped to win the league. Unfortunately on this occasion they proved to be too strong for us.

The B team, who were playing their final at the same time as the girls’, went one nil down but the boys didn’t lose heart and, after all-out attack, the player of the tournament and captain, James Croker, equalised. Unbeknown to us until a minute before the game, there would be no penalties, but instead there was a new format to decide the winner: 3v3, sudden-death and no Goal Keeper allowed. After nearly conceding inside 10 seconds, the 3 chosen boys kept the ball well to give Miles a chance to finish into an empty net; cue pitch invasion! The video can be viewed here... https://st-johns-cofe-primary-school-kent.primarysite.media/playlist/football-tournament-2019

 

I was very proud of how the 3 teams played and supported each other. 2 cup finals and 3 trophies for our teams this year. Well done everyone!

Mr Bradbeer

The Year 6 Bike-ability pupils really enjoyed learning how to ride safely on the road. As part of this, you were taught how to keep your bike in good condition. Doing Bike-ability helped to encourage more students to ride their bike more often. Bike-ability included three lessons; the first one was on the top-playground in the school to learn road signs and to indicate round corners. The last 2 lessons were on the road so the instructors could test us to see if we were reliable and safe when riding a bike. Bike-ability involved lots of risk taking but the instructors were there to help us. Every time new things were learnt, going back to the basics was key. Lots of people overcame their fears of riding a bike; we are very thankful for the time and effort the instructors have put in to help us to feel more confident when riding on the road.

Written by two delightful Y6 students.

Last Thursday, Reception had the most amazing day making large puppets out of recycled materials. We would like to thank Mrs Harris, a parent in Rowan Class, for arranging such a brilliant opportunity for the children. They were all truly inspired by Lucy, an artist, and Russell, a puppeteer. They spent all day working together to create their masterpieces. Reception innovated the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and thought of new ‘baddies’ to create. Rowan class chose to make Night Ninja from PJ Masks, Holly class made a green goblin and Sycamore made a lion. The children’s creativity flowed all day. A huge thank you to everyone involved.

Year R have been so excited to welcome more visitors to school this term. Last week, Ms Xin Yi (Cheri’s mum) helped the children celebrate Chinese New Year. The children heard all about this year being the Year of the Pig. They enjoyed making Chinese dragons and writing Chinese numbers. The highlight of the afternoon was eating a Chinese feast of dumplings, prawn crackers, rice, noodles and spring rolls. The children were fortunate enough to be given a red envelope which contained a chocolate coin to give them good luck in the coming year. We would like to say a huge thank you to Ms Xin Yi, who kindly cooked the food for the children and treated them to such a wonderful afternoon. The children loved learning about Chinese New Year. Gong xi fa cai!

 

This week, the children were treated to a visit from Miss Saunders (Oliver’s mum) and Alex who are cabin crew and a pilot for TUI airlines. The children were fascinated as they heard about how passengers are looked after and kept safe with the help of cabin crew. Alex then told us how his boyhood dream of flying aeroplanes became reality when he trained to become a pilot. Again, the children were treated with very generous gifts from our visitors – the children were given model aeroplanes to construct and paint, some pilot hats for our role-play area and a sticker! Thank you so much Miss Saunders and Alex for coming to see us.

On Thursday 7^th February, Bloco Fogo came in to lead Year 5 in a samba drumming workshop. This fitted in perfectly with Year 5’s current theme of “Carnival”. The children were able to use lots of different types of drums and different rhythms to build up a great samba sound! There were some rhymes to help remember the different types of rhythms to use for each drum; they kept us chanting all day!

The school is open today, 1st February 2019

We recommend that children bring a spare pair of socks, a change of shoes (preferably wellies or similar) and a change of trousers (eg: tracksuit bottoms or waterproof trousers).

On Monday 28^th January, Year 2 spent a day immersed in Indian culture. Dressed in traditional colourful costumes, they sampled a range of Indian cuisine, created their own Indian crafts and goodies and were decorated in beautiful mendhi. The most amazing part of the day for so many of the children was the Bollywood dance workshops where the children learned three dances which were later performed to their families. Well done to all parents and grandparents who also took part in the show. The school hall was buzzing with an Indian festival atmosphere!

On Thursday 17^th January, all the children in the school took part in a workshop focussed on health and wellbeing. Reception, Year One and Two took part in a lively conversation about healthy foods and practised an exercise routine before trying a delicious fruit smoothie. Years Three through to Six had an afternoon of fun, competitive cooking demonstrations with teacher and children volunteers competing against each other to create delicious meals. You can find the recipes here. 

Please visit www.rootstofood.com for more details.

Well done to all the children who appeared in the Reception and Year 1 production of 'It's a Baby'. Photographs are now available to view in the gallery section of the website and one was featured in this week's Times Local newspaper. You can view the edition by visiting their website. https://www.timeslocalnews.co.uk/tunbridge-wells-digital/read-the-times-of-tunbridge-wells-19th-december-2018

 

On Thursday 27th November our Lower School Choir took part in a wonderful Christmas Carol Concert at Southwark Cathedral. The concert was organised by, and in aid of Barnardo's. The children sang their own song as well as a selection of songs as part of a mixed school choir. They were absolutely superb and the event was enjoyed by all who attended. Photographs can be viewed in the Gallery section of the website and a video of them singing 'That's what Christmas means to me' can be viewed here... https://st-johns-cofe-primary-school-kent.primarysite.media/playlist/lower-school-choir-performance-at-southwark-cathed