St John’s School Weekly Newsletter Issue 43 Let the festivities begin! From the Headmaster What a great way for our boys to get into the festive spirit by being involved in the Northwood Hills Christmas Lights switch on. Thank you to all of the St. John's community who supported that event. It has been a tough week for Year 8 as they completed a full programme of mock examinations for their senior schools. The boys were very focussed and I have no doubt this experience will prepare them well for their next important step. This week, schools across the country have joined with Anti-bullying week. 7H delivered an interesting and well thought out assembly highlighting the important messages on this theme. Mr Hallett and Mr Brown, both leaders in our PHSCE programme, explained the impact of cyber bullying. I know Year 5 learnt a lot on their visit to the spectacular Regents Park Mosque. In sport the 1sts, 2nds and 3rds had competitive matches against The Beacon. I saw the 1st team battle to beat our spirited visitors. The Under 8s and 9s all represented the School against UCS and Davenies respectively; there were some tough matches but I know they tried hard. I am really looking forward, with great anticipation, to welcoming you to our Arts Evening next Thursday. The boys and staff have been preparing extremely hard. 01 01 The Mayor of Hillingdon switched on the Christmas lights at Northwood Hills late last Saturday afternoon as St John's joined other schools in a musical celebration. Once again, St John's School musicians were pleased to be at the very heart of this annual community event. Each year our fabulous Brass Band entertain the hundreds of waiting people in Northwood Hills, and then our Senior Choir lead the community singing of traditional carols to mark this special moment. We sang the famous Shakin' Steven's song 'Merry Christmas Everyone!' and it was good to hear other schools in the area singing and playing their wonderful songs too. St John's is also pleased to be continuing the tradition of providing the Christmas tree (opposite the entrance to Northwood Hills tube station). Well done to our soloists who performed the all-important opening to the whole event; the first verse of 'Once In Royal David's City' Marcus Burns, Daniel Odejinmi, Ben Brownstone, Michael Ohio-Ezomo and Ben Macdonald. Well done also to each and every one of the sixty boys who came and sang or played. You made a super start to our festive season. November 21 2014 St John’s entertains our local community 02 02 November 21 2014 Year 5 visits The Regents Park Mosque On Wednesday Year 5 travelled to London to visit one of the most famous Mosques in the country. They have been studying Islam in R.E. lessons and this trip really brought to life everything the boys had learnt in the classroom. As well as seeing the dome, minaret, mimbar and huge chandelier, they also learnt about the customs and rules associated with Muslim worship. The behaviour of every boy was exemplary - they were true ambassadors of St John’s. 03 03 November 21 2014 Anti-bullying week For Anti- bullying week this year we were reminded about the unpleasant aspects and effects caused by bullies. Mr Hallett emphasised that bullying was an unfortunate fact of life and existed in every school in the land. However, when he asked the St John’s boys if they thought we had any bullying in our school, there was a distinct murmur in the crowd but nobody wanted to say that there actually were times when bullying might have occurred. The fact is, no school is exempt! The boys in 7H read some emotive poems on the subject and the focus this year was on how bullying affects victims; making them feel anxious and fearful. We reminded the school about some key messages about how to combat bullying and Mr Brown and Mr Robinson reinforced how we should never tolerate any form of bullying or cyberbullying in our school. Supporting families and young people affected by bullying © Copyright Family Lives 2014 In PSHCE this week Mr Hallett encouraged the classes to discuss the issues and to make some anti- bullying posters. 04 04 November 21 2014 Mr Lawrence highly recommends this….. 05 05 November 21 2014 Healthy eating in Reception Reception has been learning about healthy eating this week. Mrs Foley, Head of Catering, came to talk to us about healthy choices and the food we have for our lunches at St. John’s – so many options! We learnt that it is important to have a balanced diet as well as 5-a-day. Thank you, Mrs Foley for coming to talk to us. In free play and topic time, we had the chance to read topic related books, do a food-grouping activity 06 06 and paint a variety of fruits. As part of our home topic learning, we brought in things from home to do with healthy eating and shared them with our class. It has been a very interesting week. We must also say a thank you to our mummies and daddies, for providing us with a healthy snack each day; just what we need for a mid-morning boost! Delicious! November 21 2014 Otters and Owls step out Year 1 has been looking at keeping healthy as part of their topic on ourselves this term. They used pedometers to see how many steps they could manage under timed conditions. The most steps recorded in 2 minutes were 646! The boys took it in turns to use the timer and the pedometer. Some of the boys wore the pedometers at playtime to see how many steps they took. The recordings ranged between 989 and 3069! Some of Year 2 decided to join in and set themselves challenges to see how many steps they could record. 07 07 November 21 2014 Meet our Year 4 weather forecasters Forget the BBC or your latest app - Year 4 boys are at the sharp end of all things meteorological! They have been inventing their own weather forecasts and inputting the information onto weather symbol maps. Then they faced the camera (or class) as all weather presenters have to, as they explained the severity of approaching cold fronts, tightly packed isobars and perhaps even an imminent light covering of the ‘white stuff’. They acted like true professionals! 08 08 November 21 2014 Colts—you win some, you lose some! Colts A v St Columba’s Lost 12-19 Scorers: Daniel Barnett x 1, Michael Ohio-Ezomo x 1, William Robinson 1 conversion MOM: Whole team As the U10 matches were cancelled due to the weather, we recruited the services of Daniel Barnett at full back and Alex Bickerstaff at scrum half to cover injuries. Both boys played very strongly. Alex looked very sharp and Daniel looked dangerous every time he touched the ball. He scored an excellent try, joining the back line and evading three defenders to score a great individual effort. We lost the first half 12 – 5 and St. Columba’s were just a little stronger and quicker at the breakdown. In the second half we competed better at the breakdown and although the match was a little scrappy we competed very well. Michael Ohio-Ezomo scored an excellent try. He created a little space for himself and made a very powerful run. We drew the second half 7 - 7. Daniel Odejinmi led the team very strongly as captain. He was very strong at the breakdown and turned over the ball. Colts B v St Columba’s Won 14-12 Scorers: Rayan Devani x 1, Rohan Dasgupta x 1 and Josh Adonis 2 conversions. MOM: Whole team We played very well against a St. Columba’s C team which made the game very fair. St. Columba’s had some powerful forwards and a number of backs, if given the space, could be very dangerous. However, the St. John’s team passed the ball very well and kept it alive and this enabled us to move the opposition around the pitch. Our first try was an excellent effort when we went blind from a scrum and Rayan Devani scored in the right hand corner. Joshua Adonis converted. A break out by St. Columba’s resulted in one of their players running the length of the pitch. In the second half, Ben Macdonald ran strongly and was supported very well by Ben Brownstone and Thomas Lemon. Rohan Dasgupta managed to beat several defenders and score a super try and Josh Adonis converted. St. Columba’s scored again and converted. However, an excellent win for St. John’s and a real team effort. Colts C v St Columba’s Won 25-10 Scorers: Niyam Shah x 3, James Coop x 1, Rahul Patel x 1 MOM: James Coop A great all round team performance from the Colts C. The team was boosted by James Coop, Niyam Shah and Charlie Hannam from the under 10’s but their presence seemed to improve the spirit of the team and everyone lifted their game. Our tackling was strong and brave and we ran with the ball aggressively. All the tries came from good and positive passing moves. Niyam Shah and James Coop both scored outstanding individual tries. Let’s try and maintain this form for our upcoming matches. Well done to everyone involved. 09 09 November 21 2014 Senior teams in action against the Beacon 1st XV v The Beacon Won 49 - 17 Scorers: Joshua Ogunnaike 3 tries, Adam Hart 5 tries, Sam Bickerstaff 5 conversions Man of the Match: Adam Hart We scored three quick tries and the game seemed very comfortable for us in the first 10 minutes. Adam Hart and Joshua Ogunnaike were very strong with the ball in their hand and always caused the opposition defenders problems in defence. They work very well as a centre pairing and have got better and better as the season has progressed. The Beacon never gave up and battled away and scored a try. Somehow, we seemed to drop a lot of ball and really never got our ‘A’ game going. The forwards played very well and our scrum was very dominant and had the opposition pack going backwards throughout the match. Adam Hart and Joshua Ogunnaike managed to score some tries that resulted them in running the length of the pitch and this really did sap the morale of the opposition. At full back Daniel Zarach was excellent and his counter attacking from deep was fantastic. A good team performance and a comfortable win for the side. 2nd XV v The Beacon Lost 23-19 Scorers: William Blunt 1 try; Fiyin Akin 1 try; Niam Patel 1 try; Jamie Graham 2 cons. MOM: William Blunt & Anthony Stout This was a bit of a disappointing end to the season that had been looking good in recent weeks. We didn’t have the easiest start to the game with second row Sachin Aggarwal unable to continue in the game due to unforeseeable circumstances. Nevertheless we had all the possession and territory for most of the first half but were unable to turn it into points; turning round at half time with the score at 5-5. We struggled at times at the breakdown due to our body positions being too high and this meant we weren’t getting good ball to play with. In the second half we again had chances to score but couldn’t find the killer pass to finish off a scoring move. Tries by Fiyin Akin and William Blunt were followed by a try by Ryhan Patel that we thought would win us the game. Once again our tackling wasn’t up to scratch with too many tackles missed, or not completed, saw the Beacon make the most of it and run in some simple tries; the winning try almost on the stroke of full time. William Blunt and Anthony Stout again excelled in the loose and our scrum dominated for the majority of the game, we simply weren’t able to make the most of all this possession. Overall the 2nd XV have played some excellent rugby at times this season and with a stronger defence I’m sure we could have won another two games at least. However from the first game to the last the progress has been good and the boys can be proud of the effort they have made. 01 10 November 21 2014 3rds enjoy their last match with Mr Wenzel! 3rd XV v The Beacon Lost 48-0 Man of the Match: Adam Chatoo Another difficult game for the 3rd XV. Again we found it difficult to tackle against a fast and strong Beacon team. This was a shame because when we did get hold of the ball we looked dangerous and there were some excellent solo runs from captain Adam Chatoo, Rizwan Hameed and Niam Shah. A challenging season for the 3rd XV. The overwhelming message is that you can only win a game of rugby if you tackle the opposition. However, the team have been determined and committed throughout. 02 11 November 21 2014 Colts A Whitgift Rugby Tournament Place in Tournament: 4th place out of 6. (We finished 3rd in the competition and lost the play-off for 3rd 7 – 5). Man of the Tournament: The whole squad We played some wonderful rugby at times and scored some excellent team and individual tries. We do need to be more switched on and consistent at times but tournaments are a good way to improve and we did throughout the day. A special mention to Alex Bickerstaff and Daniel Barnett playing up from Yr. 5 – they were fantastic! Daniel especially scored some excellent tries and showed real flair. Game 1 v St. John Beaumont Lost 7 - 0 A very close game with chances on either side. We made line breaks but Beaumont’s cover was very good. They scored right at the end of the match to win the game. Game 2 v Elmhurst Won 46 – 0 Scorers: Michael Ohio-Ezomo (2), Daniel Barnett (2), Matthew Crow (2), Daniel Odejinmi (1), Sebastian Wynn (1). Max Davies converted 2 & Jess Assor converted 1. An excellent performance. We moved the ball very well at times but the finishing was really outstanding. Matthew Crow and Michael Ohio-Ezomo both scored length of the field tries with some excellent evasive running. It was a game we were in complete control of throughout. Well done! Game 3 v Bickley Park Won 5 - 0 Scorers: Michael Ohio-Ezomo This was a really close and hard fought match. Michael scored an excellent individual performance and we defended bravely to keep Bickley from scoring, despite them being camped on our try line. Game 4 v Cumnor House Lost 28 - 7 Scorers: Daniel Odejinmi 1 try and William Robinson converted. From the kick off, Daniel dived on a loose ball, we were never really able to cope with one huge forward and some fast outside backs. We couldn’t win the ball from set piece and struggled against the winners. Game 5 v St. Christopher’s Won 20 – 5 An excellent first-half performance! We moved the ball, ran onto it with pace and aggression and rucked very well. A really excellent win. 3rd vs 4th Place play off vs Bickley Park Lost 7 - 5 Scorers: Max Davies 1 try. Another hard fought contest. Max scored an excellent individual try, stepping and weaving through the forwards before running 40 metres to score. Unfortunately we missed the conversion and they scored to win the match. 03 12 November 21 2014 Under 8’s star in fixtures with UCS! Under 8 A Lost 65-40. Man of the Match: Nathan Hedges This was an amazing game of tag rugby that was played at a fast pace with all the boys trying their very best. UCS opened the scoring with some mazy running from their players and we struggled to get a hold of their tags. However we never gave up and scored some excellent tries of our own. Nathan Hedges scored four tries, Zac Addison one, Krish Dixit one, Sebastian Ashman-Rodgers one and Krish Mangat also scored one try. Salman Mukhtar was passing the ball really well from scrum half and both Aaron Patel and Oliver Southon ran really well with the ball, linking up with players in space. The one skill that all the boys have been working on is passing and in this game we didn’t really pass as much as we should have done. The good thing is we know how to do it and we tried really hard to make passes when we ran into trouble; in the next tournament I’m sure with more passing the boys will enjoy it more and win some of the games. Well done to all the boys in the team. Under 8 B Draw 45-45 Scorers: Saam Hashemian, Arjun Shah, Rohan Pankhania, Keeyan Suleman and Ben Cook MOM: Whole team UCS had some very good runners and scored from start. They had a two try advantage at half time, winning 6 tries to 4. A big difference in the first half was the tagging. UCS managed to make 5 tags in a row and stop us from scoring. In the second half, we started strongly and scored from the pass off. UCS struck straight back but we did manage to even the scoring up as they ran into touch and missed opportunities to score. The scoring then swung backwards and forwards with UCS scoring and then we would score. A really close and hard fought match. Well done to all the boys. 04 13 November 21 2014 Under 8’s star in fixtures with UCS! Under 8 C Drew 20 - 20 Scorers: Max Wheeler 1 try, Qayl Hirani 1 try, Louis Rosenbaum 1 try, Adam Thorpe 1 try. Man of the Match: Louis Rosenbaum for his tagging This was a good contest between two evenly matched teams. In the first half, we dominated and scored a good try when Adam Hart went round the defence to score in the corner. However, UCS started to come back into the match and they had some very athletic boys who were excellent runners. We always seemed to stay ahead and Qayl Hirani scored another good try in the corner. Near the end Louis Rosenbaum scored and Max Wheeler ran an excellent line to burst through to score a very good try. Our defence was good and the whole team defended well which made it difficult for UCS to score tries. A draw was a fair result. Under 8 D Lost 2-13 Man of the Match: Kaiwen Fu The D team have worked hard this term with their touch rugby and started well yesterday against UCS with a score by Kaiwen Fu. UCS, however, had some very strong runners so despite a good effort to make their tags UCS scored 6 tries in the first half and 7 in the second. Kamsi Ikuobase came on as a sub and made a good score in the second half. Mention should also be made of Zak Rosenbaum for his tagging and Charlie Joliff for his accurate re-starts. Under 8 E Lost 5-60 Man of the Match: Team performance. This was the Year 3 boys final match of rugby of this term. They came up against a strong well organised UCS team, who consecutively got six tags causing a turnover ball. However, the St John’s boys were not disheartened and tried their best at all times. We used our fast players such as Raif Ansari, Kian Malviya Vishal Thakar and Shiv Thakrar. With as little possession as we had, we made good use of it in one passage of play where we passed the ball confidently and released Kian Malviya down the wing to score a superb team try. Well done boys. 05 14 November 21 2014 Under 9’s against strong Davenies teams. Under 9 A vs Davenies Won 10 -0 Scorers: Mason Harding 1 try, Netanel Lawrence-Ojo 1 try. Man of the Match: Netanel Lawrence-Ojo This was a very scrappy game with both sides battling it out on a very muddy pitch. St. John’s tried to out muscle Davenies by trying to power through the opposition and the Davenies players defended very well. Our strength is our passing game and we tended to hit the contact and be caught in the tackle which enabled the game to become very bogged down. We defended very well and Netanel Lawrence-Ojo and Avi Shah played very well in the forwards. We still must try and get to the breakdown much earlier so we can move the ball to the outside players. Mason Harding scored a good try from a scrum and Netanel Lawrence-Ojo powered his way over to score another try. Alex Leitch was just denied another try when he was pushed into touch at the end of the match. A good away win. Under 9 B v Davenies Draw 5-5 Scorers: Shivam Sangani. Man of the Match: Daniel Shannon This was a very even and hard fought match. The St John’s team tackled very well and stopped the opposition from moving the ball. Taiga Suzuki and Daniel Shannon were especially effective at stealing the ball from the opposition and James Collins with Oliver Atkins worked hard to pass the ball to the St John’s runners. Davenies scored with a break away try in the first half. St John’s scored after a lot of play near the Davenies try line, scoring through Shivam Sangani in the second half, after a nice piece of passing play. 06 15 November 21 2014 Under 9’s against strong Davenies teams Under 9 C V Davenies Lost 8-6 This was a brilliant game of flowing rugby played by two excitable teams who were desperate to win the game. Davenies had a very powerful boy who scored many tries in the first half and this was down to our tackling. We just couldn’t get a hold of him and it looked like they would win by a very large margin. At half time we were losing 6-2 and a good talking too was what was needed. “Tackling is all in the head” said Mr Brown and when the second half kicked off Zain Ahmed made an excellent tackle on their good player and all of a sudden St John’s believed in themselves. Tackles were flying in, as were the tries and St John’s almost won the game in this half. The best part of the game was the passing, all the boys passed the ball and made space for their team mates. This is what helped us score all the tries. In the forwards Joseph Pressinger, Slava Bullen, Aadil Budhia and Neel Goenka were really strong and worked hard all day. The backs ran the ball really well starting with scrum half Aryan Patel. Shivank Chhabra, Shaan Fisher and Joe Dias passed the ball to each other and tackled well. On the wings Zain and Ashok Rodrigo were really quick with the ball. In the next game we must remember to run forwards and not backwards or sideways. Well done boys. Under 9 D vs Davenies St John’s 45 (9) Davenies 40 (8) Scorers: Kayden Wilkinson (5), Daniel Reid (2), Krish Patel and Rahul Pau. Man of the Match: Kayden Wilkinson A closely contested match in which we deservedly snatched victory at the end. We started well with a breakaway try from Kayden Wilkinson and kept ahead until half time with further tries from Kayden and Daniel Reid who twice ran in after some excellent passing from our backs. Davenies came back strongly, playing with the slope, in the second half and even drew level before Kayden rounded off an excellent afternoon with the final try. A much improved performance over last week especially in the tackling department. Over all a fantastic display of running rugby by all the boys involved in the fixtures against Davenies. 07 16 November 21 2014 Years 4, 5 and 6 have been busy this week Year 4 has been investigating pneumatics and hydraulics and making a monster’s mouth open and close using syringes. Year 5 boys have been finishing off their book ends with a nicely cut wood joint. They have been well made and the colouring is neat and tidy. Boys in Year 6 have been using acrylic to make working clocks. They have cut, shaped, filed and glued the plastic into their designs. 10 17 November 21 2014 1. 3. 2. 4. 1. Art club are getting ready to decorate their Christmas trees. They are making gingerbread men out of clay. 2. Jude Collings (6C) is working on his colourful interpretation of The Mona Lisa. 3. Yr. 6 has been using the light box this term. Charlie Mitchell (6C) is tracing The Mona Lisa. 4. These swirly Tree of Life drawings have been drawn in the style of Gustav Klimt. Charlie Hannam (5G) and Daniel Barnett (5S) have finished theirs. 5. Haydon Carr (8W) has been collecting bottle top caps to mosaic onto his table. 5. 11 18 November 21 2014 Ho, Ho, Ho! It’s the Christmas Bazaar Saturday 6th December is the date - put it in your diary at the same time as getting out your shopping list as the Bazaar won’t happen without those tombola bottles, raffle prizes, toys, games and books. The St John’s Association really needs your help in providing bottles of drink (there will a prize for the Year group which brings in the most and Mr Brown is judge), chocolates and lucky dip prizes. Check in cupboards for unwanted books and games which are in good condition. These can be placed in the containers found in the playground by the drop-off zone. Most importantly the Association are looking for raffle prizes such as restaurant or beauty vouchers, red letter days, small electronic devices, jewellery and other quality gifts. If you can help or have a friend or contact who may be willing to make a donation please get in touch with Mrs Whistler on [email protected] Boys, do you want to run a stall? If any boys have a fun idea for a game or activity and would like and allocate you a stall. Please can you contact Lorraine Ebanks to run a stall in the Christmas Bazaar with their friends and at [email protected] by Friday 21st November with parents to raise money for the school we'd love to hear from your ideas. you. As space is always at a premium we'll choose the best ideas 04 04 November 21 2014 Calendar and important dates Contact details 24th November: 5S Parents Evening (Norman Hall) (6.00pm) Updates: please continue to visit www.st-johns.org.uk for all the latest information on sports fixtures and results. The website will have announcements in case of emergency. You can also follow us on twitter @stjsnorthwood. 25th November: Rugby v Haberdashers’: U9 A (a), U9 B (a), U9 C (h), U9 D (h) (2.15pm) 26th November: Year 7 visit to Westminster Abbey (10.00am4.00pm) Lochinver U9 Chess Tournament (1.00-6.00pm) Mailings: if you have received The Lamb from someone else and would like to be sent your own copy direct each week, please email: Lamb Editor. Let us know your contact details and you will be added to the list. 27th November: Arts Evening (6.30pm) 28th November: Rugby v UCS : Colts A (h), Colts B (h), Colts C (h) (2.30pm) 29th November: U8 A Tag Rugby Tournament at Farnham Common Club (10.00-1.00pm) Year 8 boys have been hard at work sitting their mock exams - hopefully their revision has paid off! Photographs: Do please continue to send in any photographs which could be included in The Lamb. Notices and Reminders Arts Evening. The Arts Evening production is on 27th November and you are all warmly invited to what promises to be a great evening. The first half contains musical items including Wind Band, Blown Away and String Group. During the interval in the dining room there will be a display of some of the design technology and art work which has been produced this term. The Norman Hall will then be transformed into a theatre for the second half as we head to the wild west! Actors, don’t forget to set your alarm for the big rehearsal this Sunday 9.30am-1.00pm. Musicians (other than Senior Drama violinists) are NOT needed at this rehearsal. String Group rehearsal. String Group will meet on Monday 24th November at morning break instead of Tuesday. Please, therefore, remember to bring in your instrument on Monday Christmas delights on offer. A variety of food and drink will be available, from cakes and candyfloss to hot dogs, burgers and a glass of mulled wine, and the raffle will give you a chance to win some great prizes. Last, but not least, there might just be a visit from Father Christmas.......... Mr Vince’s videos. To view his videos you can click on the following links: Classical Fireworks Night Year 6 trip to Northumberland St John’s YouTube channel Guitar group video Yr 5 Chinese New Year video Yr 8 Bikeability video St John’s Sevens video Sam Katz interview Year of 2008 at Knapp House Year of 2014 at Knapp House Chicks are for kids! Christmas Jumper Day. Friday 12th December is Christmas The St John’s Christmas Bazaar will be held on December Jumper Day across the country. All St John’s 6th from 10.30-2.00. This hugely popular annual event offers boys are encouraged to take part to raise money something for all the family. Children will be delighted by arts for Children In Need. More details will follow and crafts and entertained by a variety of games including the shortly but be on the look-out for those festive ever popular human fruit machine. Once again the chocolate woollies or some simple ways of decorating any and bottle tombolas will be in action, and there will be a chance jumper. for festive photos in our photo booth. Parents can enjoy browsing our stalls and doing some Christmas shopping. There Hope you have an enjoyable weekend. will be jewellery, toys, books, culinary goodies and all manner of 12 20 November 21 2014
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