St. Andrew’s Junior School News
De ce m be r 2 0 1 5
V o lu me 1 , Iss ue 2
Mrs. F. Lakanu
Assistant Principal
Tis the season to be Jolly!!!
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to the season of great joy and
good tidings as we busily prepare for
that wonderful feast of Christmas.
Contents
Dear Parents / Carers
1
Christmas Lunch
1
Upcoming Events
1
Year 6 News
2
Year 6 Christmas Plays
2
Year 3 & 4 Christmas Plays
3
Sports
4
Music at St. Andrew’s
5
UK Bebras
5
Autumn Acoustic Poem
5
Year 5 Events
5
These last few weeks have been full of
opportunities for the children to share
in the joy of Christmas and for adults to
exhaust themselves with all of the
seasonal preparations!
As we come to the end of our Autumn
Term, I would like to acknowledge the
fact that the children have worked
tremendously hard this term, as well as
excelled themselves in so many
different ways learning lots of new
things in the classroom; taking part in
music, sports events and other
activities.
The children are now ready for a break
and the opportunity to recharge their
batteries (whilst wearing yours out no
doubt!).
Christmas Lunch
Upcoming Events




Junior School
End of Term
Service @
2:15pm
School resumes
5th January 2015
All Clubs start
5th January
Bikeability
Group 3
The Tag Day has been without fail, full
of thrilling and cheerful memories our
pupils will not forget in a hurry.
Pupils were served by the Kitchen staff
who did not fail to bring some
excitement to the Christmas Lunch for
the pupils.
The atmosphere was filled will the smell
of the delicious roast dinner, the sounds
of crackers being popped as well as the
giggles and laughter of the pupils.
It was a very eventful and colourful day
at St. Andrew’s.
“Never worry about the
size of your Christmas tree.
In the eyes of children, they
are all 30 feet tall”. - Larry
Wilde
Page 2 of 4
On Wednesday 4th November, Year
6 pupils had the amazing
opportunity to go to Pineapple
Dance Studios, in London, to take
part in a Lion King dance and
drama workshop.
This involved being led by expert
Disney Teaching Artists to perform
a scene from the West End
musical. The artists transported
the children from a studio to the
African savannah, exploring oneof-a-kind choreography and world
music. They also learnt the
meaning of different African
sayings.
After this fantastic experience,
the pupils headed to the Lyceum
Theatre to see the incredible Lion
King show. The actors and
actresses wowed the audience
with their amazing acting skills
and beautiful singing voices!
Year Six
Junior School News
During the months of November,
December and January, Year 6 pupils
have the amazing opportunity to
participate in Bikeability training. The
children are taught observation,
signals and all the manoeuvres to help
keep them safe on the road when
cycling.
At Level 1, new riders learn to
control and master their bikes in a
space away from traffic in the
playground.
Level 2 takes place on the local
roads, giving trainees a real
cycling experience. Trainees learn
how to deal with traffic on short
journeys such as cycling to school
or the local shops.
The children who have taken part in
Bikeability have thoroughly enjoyed
their experience!
A brilliant
was
had by all
This humorous
playday
is set
on Christmas
pupils,
staff
and
parents
who
Eve and tells the story of Santa's
secretattended!
visit to a children's hospital
ward to fill the children's stockings.
But things don't go to plan as the
children catch him and won't let him
go until he grants their wishes! Santa
then asks his elves and reindeer to put
on a brilliant 'A-Z of Christmas'
performance for the patients.
6N had a ball starring in ‘Robin Hood
Saves the Day’. They all acted, danced
and sang wonderfully, and the audience
had a great time. Well done to everyone
involved,
including
the
villagers,
soldiers, servants, Guy of Gisborne, Maid
Marion, the Merry Men, the Beggar and
King Richard, Sheriff of Nottingham and,
of course, Robin Hood. Well done 6N!
Page 3 of 4
Christmas Plays
Junior School News
3P performed ‘Creepy Crawly Christmas’ which
tells the story of the nativity, through the eyes
of a caterpillar! Wilfred is the slowest, silliest
caterpillar in the school.
The cast were true professionals throughout as
they sang, danced and performed their socks
off! And in the words of 3P, we wish you a
creepy crawly Christmas and a bug filled New
Year!
3F performed the play 'Christmas with the
Aliens'. In this enchanting modern nativity the
traditional Christmas story is retold to some
alien visitors who become stranded on earth
and meet a group of school children rehearsing
their Christmas play.
4T enjoyed their Christmas Play ‘Star of Wonder’.
They danced, sang and performed brilliantly. There
were dancing reindeers, singing and dancing children
and their mum, dancing angels, policemen, an
astronomer, Mary and Joseph and not forgetting
Santa Claus and his elves. The soloists were fantastic
and very brave. The children kept the story going
throughout the play as they met various characters
on their way.
When three children and their mother go shopping
for Christmas presents, they discover that Father
Christmas has been kidnapped!
Furthermore, someone has stolen all the toys from
the Toymaker’s shop.
While mum decides to report the matter to the
police, her children follow the Toymaker on an
adventure where they meet Mother Nature, the Sun
King and The Ice Queen.
Page 4 of 5
On Saturday 21st November, pupils from
the Junior School took part in the first
ever LCS Cross Country Run at Fort Pitt
Grammar School along with pupils from
Bryony and Tunbury Schools. There
were separate races for boys and girls,
with each school having 4 pupils in each
race. The Year 3’s ran 800m, Year 4’s
1000m, Year 5’s 1200m and the Year 6’s
1600m. Each pupil gained points in
relation to the position they finished in
their race, and the school with the
lowest number of points would win the
competition.
Sports
Despite heavy wind and rain, St.
Andrew’s had a very successful morning
across all four Year groups. Overall, St
Andrew’s scored 144 points, Bryony
scored 178 points and Tunbury scored
307. This meant St. Andrew’s won the
competition by a huge score of 34
points! Well done to all of the runners
who put in a huge team effort, showing
great support for all St. Andrew’s from
the side-line.
On Saturday 7th November, pupils from Years
4, 5 and 6 took part in the LCS Ultimate
Frisbee competition along with Bryony
School. Each school had a Year 5 team and a
Year 6 team, with each team playing three
matches.
The Year 6 team had a successful morning,
winning all three of their group games to
progress to the main Cup Final against the
Bryony Year 6 team. Both teams should be
proud of themselves for such an excellent
morning of Ultimate Frisbee.
On Thursday 26th November, eight Year
6 students travelled to Medway Park to
compete against 39 other Primary
Schools in the Mini Youth Games
badminton competition. This was the
first time these students had played in a
competitive badminton game. The
children had only had two training
sessions in the lead up to the event so
there was great nervousness and
excitement within the team.
Overall, they placed third in the whole
tournament which is a fantastic result
and we are all very proud of the team,
who showed great determination,
sportsmanship and skill throughout the
day.
Junior School News
Well done to all the Years 3 & 4
swimmers that represented
St. Andrew’s in the King’s Swimming
Gala. For many, it was their first
time and they can look forward to
many more fixtures.
On Thursday 5th November, St.
Andrew’s entered the Mini Youth
Games Hockey Competition. The
team of 9 was made up of Years 4,
5 and 6 pupils.
We started well, beating Burnt
Oak 2-0 in our first game. We had
an unlucky loss in our second
game, conceding a goal from a
short corner in the last seconds to
lose 1-0, but we were back to
winning ways in our third game
and beat Byron 2-0.
Our
next
opponents
were
Walderslade and they had some
really good players who train at
Holcombe Hockey Club. Despite
some excellent defending by St
Andrew’s, they managed to beat
us 5-0 and we weren’t surprised
that they came 2nd out of 42
schools at the end of the
competition! Our losing streak
continued and we were defeated
by Tunbury 2-1 and Hempstead 40 (who also finished in the top 5).
The team really worked hard to
get some better results in our last
two games and we drew 0-0 with
Fairview and beat All Faith’s 4-0.
We were proud to finish 20th
overall. We had a fantastic time
and played some really excellent
hockey!
Page 5 of 5
Junior School News
It has been a very exciting term for music with many new initiatives being
successfully launched with many children taking part.
The Junior Choir has built upon the foundations of last term and I am
pleased to say that membership is up and children have shown commitment
across all year groups. The highlight of the term for this Choir was the
Maidstone Festival where the children’s hard work and dedication paid off
with them delivering a polished and impressive performance which was
appreciated by the adjudicator and audience alike.
The Boys Aloud group has been an entirely new venture this term and has
certainly worked in encouraging boys to sing and they have bonded well as a
team. They are very excited about their first public performance at the
carol service where they shall sing a song from the film Nativity!
Children from both choirs were given the opportunity to attend a Carol
Festival at Rochester Cathedral on the 2 nd December along with several
other local schools. Forty one children took part, learning a variety of
Christmas carols both traditional and contemporary. The children had a
wonderful time and sang brilliantly.
Pupils from Years 2 - 6 took part in the
computational thinking challenge called
UK Bebras, along with 56,625 other
pupils from Schools across the UK.
Pupils had to complete a number of
computational
thinking
challenges,
gaining points for getting the answer
correct and answering it in a quick
time.
Roshan Binning from 5P proved that his
computational thinking is outstanding.
Out of the 2,654 pupils in his age range,
he was one of only 32 children that
scored full marks, placing him in their
hall of fame! Well done Roshan!!
A fantastic Autumn Acrostic Poem was
written by Nikita Mangal of 6N. There
was a beautiful image captured from the
airplane as she flew over Washington DC
on the 31st of October. Well done!
This term we held two informal concerts during morning break times. These
concerts are an opportunity for children to perform to their friends and staff
and gain valuable performance experience. We have had a wide variety of
performances including singing, piano and even a drum kit! There will be
further informal concerts next term and the children will be advised in
assembly how they can take part.
The children have worked hard in preparing their songs for the Carol Service
and I hope that you enjoy listening to them as much as they enjoy singing
them.
Last month, Year 5 were fortunate to participate in a
pantomime workshop. The children found out about the
history of the pantomime and how its traditions have
continued to the present day. They had a great time
learning about characters in pantomimes and their
renditions of ‘Ugly Stepsisters’ were very entertaining!
The children also visited The Orchard Theatre in Dartford
to watch an excellent performance of ‘Gangsta Granny’; a
brilliant experience for all!