The Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust, of which St John’s is a member, together with the John Henry Newman school, Our Lady Catholic Primary school, St Thomas More and others has been earmarked as one of the best performing Trusts in the UK.
Please see the full story here:
http://www.thecomet.net/news/north-herts-and-stevenage-schools-part-of-one-of-the-uk-s-best-academy-trusts-according-to-new-study-1-5311214
For the first time St John’s have entered the Primary Maths Challenge. The children in years 5 and 6 sat a special paper designed to find out the best mathematicians in the country for their age group.
The School recognises the internal winners and we share our results with the national organisers to see if any of our children go forward to the next round.
Here are our winners of the competition in school:
Gold – Miguel Velho Duarte, Daniel Mills and Lily Allworth
Silver – Maxwell Willson-Lee, Poppy Attwood, Kayleigh Eccles, Harry Kook, Jemima Cross, Joshua Lodge and Lexi Lamont
Bronze – Molly Latto, Kate Fearfield, Ines Craze, Eliza Rathband, Jaime Stokes and Erin Peacock
All children who chose to enter received a certificate.
If anyone does get selected to go through to the next round, we will find out early in the spring term.
Many thanks to Mrs Hales and Miss Bailes for organising this and to the pupils for their hard work and perseverance.
Please enjoy our latest newsletter.
As the days shorten we begin our countdown to the Nativity. There is a particular focus on Lectio Divina and Christmas Around the World in Y1-6. Early Years will look at the symbols which help us to prepare: The Jesse Tree, Advent Calendars and Wreaths.
EARLY YEARS RE Newsletter – Autumn 2 2017 – Advent to Christmas
The Prayer Group with Mrs Hales have taken on the challenge of reducing food waste at lunchtime here at St John’s. Last month in one day, 6.5 kg of food was thrown away after lunch.
The children in the prayer group were aghast at how much food is being thrown away.
What did you notice in the Dining Hall?
“My Mummy told me that some people don’t have enough to eat and they have to get their food from the bin” Beatriz
“Lots of people were throwing away their pasta. You need flour to make pasta.”
“Did you see all the food in the bin – there was hundreds!”
“There was water wasted too. The bucket was nearly half full. We shouldn’t waste clean water otherwise there might not be enough one day.”
“Some people threw away their sausages.” “Pig meat is in sausages. We shouldn’t kill animals and then throw away the food.”
“If we kill a pig and then don’t eat the food, the pig died for nothing.”
“There were chickens too because it was chicken roll.”
“This bag (of food waste) is so heavy my arm feels as if it’s going to drop off!” – Mrs Curtis
They plan to investigate why is is happening and how we can reduce it.
How can we cut down on the food waste in school?
“We could talk to everyone in assembly.”
“We could tell them – we could ask teachers to talk to their children.”
“We could make posters.”
“We could put it in a newsletter.”
We will keep you updated with their progress and if you have any ideas to help them, please let us know.
An important aspect of ensuring the world is fed in 2050 is reducing food waste and we are keen to see pumpkins used rather than discarded. Our children will be the thinkers and planners of 2050 so we need to educate them about how food can be used to avoid waste.
Today the School Council tasted the outcome of various pumpkin recipes and gave their verdict on the best way to use pumpkins. They tried pumpkin soup, double chocolate pumpkin brownies and pumpkin pie.
The pumpkin pie was quite popular but someone really disliked it and gave it 1/10 however the average score was 6.75
“The pie was a bit sloppy” Leah Y6
“I like the pumpkin pie but someone in my class would not like the pie.” Alyssa Y1
The soup also received a mixed reception with an average score of 6.8 but did received 9/10 or above from five children.
“I like the look of the soup and the chunky bits” Mickey Y5
“I didn’t like the soup much. It didn’t look like soup” Henry Y2
“I liked the soup but not the chunky bits.” Layah Y4
“I don’t like the chunky bits in soup.” Miguel Y6
But the pumpkin brownies were a huge success with all 12 children from Y1-6. Only one child giving less than 10/10
“They just tasted like chocolate.” Harry Y2
“The whole school might like these.” Alyssa Y1
“The brownies were very delicious and I’ll finish his if he doesn’t want to!” Leah Y6
“I loved the chocolate brownies.” Rosie Y5
So this is our St John’s recommendation – Double Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies. You will find the recipe below.
Double Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
Prep time
1 hour
Cook time
23 mins
Serves: 16
Ingredients
Instructions
Make-ahead instructions
Let the brownies cool completely and then place in a freezer bag and lay flat. Once the brownies are frozen you can put the bag wherever you need in the freezer. Enjoy from the freezer or let thaw for ½ hour or so on the counter before you eat.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 brownie Calories: 145 Fat: 6 Saturated fat: 3 Carbohydrates: 23 Fibre: 2Protein: 3
Please enjoy our latest newsletter.
As autumn tumbles the leaves from the trees, we need to think about preparing our grounds for the winter.
Over half term Mr Baynham will be here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and would love some help with the grounds. If you have some time to spare on one of these days between 9 and 3, please come along and lend a hand with weeding, autumn tidying and all those other important tasks.
A huge thank you to the children and staff of Year 4 from St Thomas More in Letchworth who spent the afternoon with our year 4 yesterday.
We shared with them our aim to use Catholic Social Teaching to help us think about global problems. The predicted population growth from 7 billion currently to 9.1 billion in 2050 means the world’s resources for food won’t feed everyone unless changes in food production, distribution and security occur. To put this in context for a child, they were told there was only 40 biscuits and 60 children and they had to decide how the biscuits should be shared at the end of the session.
From a starting point of Feeding the 5000, they undertook a series of tasks in mixed groups to encourage them to “think like a Catholic” in terms of sharing, equality and resource allocation.
All of the adults commented on the quality of children’s thinking and the maturity with which they considered these themes. They discussed the importance of fairness and that we can survive with less if we know our food source is secure for the future.
The children were asked how resources should be distributed across the world by placing ten pennies on a world map where they thought the money for food should go. Unsurprisingly Great Britain would be well fed under these children but it was an opportunity for them to say why. “Because there are still people hungry in London”.
As for the solutions to the biscuit problem:
They ranged from reducing the number of children to waiting until the next visit for a biscuit. Some even suggested taking half each and saving the rest “for future generations”.
I think we have some great social thinkers in our children and as we read in Gaudium et Spes
The future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations with reasons for living and hoping (31).
It was great to see the children in bright colours to celebrate Family Fast Day and thank you for all the pounds you brought to support Cafod Harvest Family Fast Day.
We had a staff soup lunch to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world. It was also a chance to follow the pathway of our food and consider our Feed the World in 2050 goals.
The pumpkin was grown by the Gardening Club under the guidance of Mrs Jones. It was presented as our school offering at the Harvest Mass on Wednesday.
It was cooked by Mrs Dodds to become a pumpkin and lentil soup and shared by the staff with donations going to Cafod. Recipe available from https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-pumpkin-lentil-soup .
