This is the perfect example of the family atmosphere and spirit that is St. John’s. The school was open to all families to come in and talk over their years work and look, with their children, through their books. Filming from a “ Drone” you would have seen all the areas of the playground, gardens and footpaths filled by families with some in the classrooms.

Talking to the parents,as I was, it just gives me so much pleasure to know that they really do appreciate exactly what St. John’s stands for, and how important that is in this fast changing world – and also the immense respect they have for Sally and her entire staff for making that possible.

Talking with the children and seeing their smiles, their self confidence and their friendship with each other they also feel the same.

The summer plays have been amazing spectacles with two performances on both Monday and Tuesday.  Every pupil has taken part; Years 1, 2 and Reception in “The Animals of Knole Wood” and Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in “A Twist in the Tale”  with Years 5 and 6 writing their own parts and creating their own props. The overriding strength that comes across from these performances is the teamwork from everybody which is such an important part of the St. John’s DNA.

Sophie Allen’s KS1 play had all the hallmarks of excellence, with the perfect togetherness of all the children as they performed the words and actions of the songs.  A great deal of thought had gone into the KS2 play, not only in the writing, but also the costumes and the cast has certainly learnt the art of comedic acting.  Lizzie Hughes and her music team played a large part in the success of the play and Siaron Moore’s dance routines with Class 3 and Emma-Jane Rushby’s dance group were “simply the best”.

The Ship Theatre was full to overflowing for all four performances with a total of over 700 in the audience who all went away marvelling at what the children had just produced on stage and how fortunate these children are to have the St. John’s staff and their parents to support them in reaching such high standards!

Last week there were two afternoons of Key Stage 2 cricket tournaments.  With Yr 6 being away in Seville it gave some of the younger pupils a chance to have a go.

On Wednesday we took part in the Kwik Cricket tournament against five other primary schools.  In front of tremendous family support the squad immediately realised that they had a lot to learn, the best way being to learn from their mistakes. They took on board that they had to concentrate on all they were told and show real determination to improve with each match – and this they did!  There were smiles, hugs and laughter at the end to celebrate a really enjoyable afternoon with the children realising what great fun there was to be had from the game of cricket.

We were all proud of the team: Sonny, Luke, Sam, Erin, Adele, Sebastian, Benjamin, Finley, Oliver, Caitlyn, Edie, and Hannah-Rose.

Friday’s competition followed normal cricket rules and was held at Sevenoaks School.  Again with no Yr 6, St John’s had a young side and the challenge for the team was to learn.  In the first match against Amherst we showed we had the ability, but bowled too many wides, made a few fielding mistakes and did not hit the bad balls often enough, so we lost.  The second match saw a real improvement in bowling and fielding but not in the batting and this resulted in a win for Sevenoaks County Primary by 10 runs. We managed to bring it all together in the last match but sadly had a disastrous one and a half overs when Ide Hill scored nearly all their runs. As hard as we tried we were unable to reach their total.

It was a learning process for everyone and it was so gratifying to see how enthusiastic all the children were to learn; so well done to the following for a great afternoon in the sun: Jamie, Finlay, Griff, Benjamin, Isaac, Georgia, Laura and Rebecca.

A perfect warm afternoon saw over 120 children take part in the House multi-sports competition. Each pupil played for their House in one sport, so everyone was occupied all afternoon.

The sports on offer were Tennis, Table Tennis, Rugby, Quik Cricket, Multi-Skills and Mini Golf. It’s great to see that sportsmanship is now just an everyday part of life in the school. The huge number of red faces in the Hall at the end when we were announcing the results proved how hard they had been trying.

All the games were competitive, yes, but it was self competition, a genuine appreciation of how the opposition were playing and at the end, a friendly chat about the game and in many cases an ability to laugh at oneself when he/she had been at fault in that “ dropped catch “!!

A relaxed friendly, best team won competition. Everyone watching had a great afternoon supporting.

Results:
Blue House won the Tennis, Quik Cricket and Mini-Golf
Yellow House won the Multi-Skills
Green House won the Rugby
Red House won the Table Tennis
The two winners in each individual sports ( The first one for skills the second for sportsmanship) were:
Table Tennis: Alexander & Lewis.
Tennis: Elliot & Archie
Rugby: Harry & Rebecca
Quik Cricket: Oliver & Ollie
Multi- Skills: Lois & Danny
Mini-Golf: Matthew & Lexi

We are constantly praising the pupils in all their achievements but this time let’s congratulate St John’s Mum Helen Copp who yesterday won the ‘First Local Female Triathlete 2018’ Trophy in the Sevenoaks Triathlon.
On a very cold and windy day she achieved an outstanding time of under 1 hour 50 mins to complete the course: 400m swim (7.28 mins); 28Km cycle (60.01 mins) and an 8Km run (39 mins). The St. John’s spirit and smile was very much on show yesterday!