01 01 May 26 2017

St John’s School Weekly Newsletter Issue 123

Welcome to the 123rd edition of the Lamb and congratulations to our record breaking mathematicians. It is very satisfying to celebrate their successes and note their engagement with the challenge of problem solving.

Year 7 and 8 took on the responsibility of hosting our visitors to Open Morning on Wednesday. I would like to thank them for their effort and thoughtful preparation. Year 7 will be pleased to have completed their interviews at Merchant Taylors'.

With the fine spell of weather it has been great to see the Pre-Prep enjoying the grounds.

Congratulations to Churchill who were the winners of the House Art Competition. I hope you enjoy some of the entries on pages 17 and 18.

Our cricketers and athletes have been busy this week. Years 4 to 8 have been involved in competitive fixtures against St Martin's and Years 3 and 4 competed very well in the York House athletics. I would like to wish the 1st XI all the best for their fixture against a Swiss touring team tomorrow morning.

I know Years 6, 7 and 8 will want to spend some time preparing for their examinations starting on the 8th June.

The whole school joined with the rest of the country in marking a minute’s silence yesterday as we remember Manchester’s recent tragic events.

I wish all the St John's families a peaceful half term break.

From the Headmaster

Junior Maths Challenge success

Every year boys in Years 7 and 8 take part in the UKMT Junior Challenge

which is attempted by more than 250,000 pupils from around the UK. Historically

we tend to score highly but this year was particularly successful with a record

number of Gold certificates as shown in the photograph. Of these, four boys in

Year 8, Michael, James, Aman and Ben were also invited to participate in the

follow-on competition, the ‘Junior Kangaroo’ as they were among the top 2% of

entrants. Maxim in Year 8 achieved an exceptionally high score, putting him in the

top 0.5% of entrants, and was invited to take part in the Junior Maths Olympiad - a

very impressive achievement.

02 02 May 26 2017

News from the hives

Last summer we had some new bees arrive at St John’s. Since then the bees have been very busy and last summer we

managed to split the hive into two hives after finding a new queen to look after the new colony. The two new colonies were small

and we were worried that they wouldn't last through the winter. We fed them extra sugar syrup over the cold months to help

them live and Mr Lawrence is pleased to report that both colonies and their queens have made it through. Now the weather has

warmed up they have collected lots of pollen and nectar and are busy making new bees and lots of honey - so fingers crossed for

a bumper harvest.

03 03 May 26 2017

Weighing in the great outdoors

Year 1 have been weighing this week. We have been weighing different items to find out how many grams they weigh and

using scales to find out how many cubes are needed to balance different items. We took the weighing scales to the forest and

found lots of interesting objects to weigh, including pebbles, twigs, leaves and sand. We even found a large log and made it into a

human balance.

04 04 May 26 2017

Fun in the forest!

Year 1 have been busy designing, sourcing and building boats from the natural resources found in our forest. Some of

the boys were able to sit in their boats and pretend they were on an adventure!

05 05 May 26 2017

Swimming lessons are quackers!

We are in week two of our special duckling project and developments have been happening very rapidly! After a

weekend of eating, drinking and sleeping, the ducklings returned to school on Monday morning looking enormous, considering

they were only born last Thursday and Friday. By the way, all six eggs hatched successfully. Now the ducklings are very interested

in learning to swim. They enjoy dabbling and splashing about in shallow warm water and have even tried diving and paddling in

slightly deeper water for short periods of time. They do not have oil on their feathers at the moment, which they would naturally

be given by the mother duck. However, as long as they are supervised and towel-dried afterwards, they can go ‘in the deep end’!

They have been observed, loved, cuddled and stroked by all the classes in the Pre-Prep, before returning to a free-range farm on

Friday.

06 06 May 26 2017

Swimming lessons are quackers!

07 07 May 26 2017

Election fever in Year 4

Over the next two weeks, Year 4 will be focusing on the forthcoming election. This first week of the two has seen them

learn all about the History of Parliament, including the Magna Carta and Simon de Montfort. They are working independently,

using laptops as research aids, to discover as much as they can about why and how we have parliamentary democracy today.

08 08 May 26 2017

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a big part of our lives now and, here at St John’s, we are trying to include it in a variety of ways. Here you can

see the boys in Year 4 practising their breathing by using the mini spheres as a main focus tool. The boys expand the mini sphere

on their inhale and collapse it on their exhale, allowing them to move all attention to their breathing rather than letting their

minds wander. A lovely start to the morning and the work that followed, as a result, was superb!

09 09 May 26 2017

Colts and U10 cricket v St Martin’s 19th May U10 A v St Martin’s

St John’s 102 for 4 + 2 retired, St Martin’s 73 for 7

Outstanding performance: Salman

Another good opening stand from Sebastian and Salman reaching 50

before retiring set a good base. Helped by a good chunk of extras the

team reached 102. Key on the artificial wicket was pitching up and

staying straight. They bowled on the whole very well to get 7 wickets.

The target now is to cut down on the 26 extras. They are improving as

a team noticeably fielding more in pairs and staying positive with each

other. Salman as captain gave a big contribution with bat and ball.

U10 B v St Martin’s

St John’s 121, St Martin’s 209

Outstanding performance: Ed for excellent wicket keeping

This was a pairs match played with a soft ball, and both teams started

on 100 runs. It started with St John's batting in rainy conditions and all

of our pairs of batsmen found it hard to score any runs at all, with

most of the total coming from extras. Wickets were falling on a regular

basis, and as per the rules for pairs cricket, 5 runs were being

subtracted from the total for each wicket that fell. St John's finished

on a net total of 121 runs, and although our bowlers did their best to

keep the score down, St Martin’s replied with a total of 209 runs. All

in all, some really positive signs both when we were batting and when

we were fielding, and Ed did particularly well behind the stumps.

10 10 May 26 2017

Colts B v St Martin’s Friday 19th May Colts B v St Martin’s

St John’s 91 for 8 off 20 overs, St. Martin’s 80 for 8 off 20 overs

St John’s won by 11 runs

Outstanding performance: Oliver for his bowling

The second match of the summer term saw us taking on St. Martin’s. The first few overs were played in the rain but luckily

the match was on the artificial wicket and play could continue. Thank you to the parents who kept watching through the rain and

who provided the match tea. Luckily the sun came out after the first 5 overs and all of a sudden we were set for another beautiful

afternoon of cricket. St John’s batted first with Oliver and Adam opening on this occasion. In general this team have been

working hard on their batting and they are certainly improving in terms of striking the ball cleanly, hitting it further as well as

selecting certain shots at the right moment. St John’s finished their innings on 91 for 8. St. Martin’s were quite slow off the mark

with their batting and by the break for tea were on 28 for 3. St John’s were in a strong position. After the break though St John’s

were quite expensive and gave away a number of extras. Equally St. Martin’s were finding some form with the bat and managed to

almost double their score in the latter part of their innings scoring 54 runs. St. Martin’s needed 14 runs to win off the last over. In

came Oliver under pressure and kept the situation at bay by taking two wickets. St John’s won the match by 11 runs, congratulations.

Parkfield success

Dominic in Year 7 plays for Parkfield Youth FC and is in the U12A team based in Hatch End. This year at the end of season presentation evening, Dom won Manager's Player of the Season. Excellent news Dominic!

11 11 May 26 2017

Senior cricket v St Martin’s Monday 22nd May 1st XI v St Martin’s

St John’s 98 for 9, St Martin’s 99 for 4

St Martin’s won by 6 wickets

St John’s batted first and with 2 steady innings from Armaan

and Michael and a good number of extras, the team were in

need of a decent run push and this came courtesy of Matthew

who delivered a hard hitting 26 to make a game of it.

St. Martins were kept to a low score with reasonable tight

bowling from Harry. What was needed was wickets, Daniel

obliged with two followed by Aaron also getting two. St John’s

were not able to build on this momentum despite working hard

in the field and bowling accurately, giving only 12 extras away

compared to St. Martins’ 35.

2nd XI v St Martin’s

St Martins 113 for 10, St John’s 88 for 7

Outstanding performances: Daniel 21 runs, Alex 12

runs and Aaron, Aman, Alex, Kabir, Prashant and Louis

for their bowling.

St Martin’s went into bat first and the opening batsmen could

certainly hit the ball when given the opportunity. Aaron and

Aman opened the bowling and managed to take a few wickets.

After 10 overs we had St Martin’s 53 runs for the loss of five

wickets. Alex bowled an excellent spell of spin bowling to keep

the runs down from St Martin’s. This was followed up by Kabir

who took two wickets. St Martin’s then started to hit the ball

and the runs mounted up. In the end they scored 113 runs.

St John’s went into bat and we lost two early wickets against a

very good St Martin’s bowling attack. Daniel batted very well

and hit some excellent boundaries to score 21 runs. He was

supported very well by Alex who went onto to score 12

important runs. In the end we managed to score 88 runs which

was a great effort against a very good bowling attack. This really

was the difference between the two sides.

3rd XI v St Martin’s

Pairs cricket. St John’s 229 for 7, St Martin’s 240 for 6

St Martin’s won by 11 runs.

Outstanding performances: Heshan, Marcos and Rohan

This was the first time that the 3rds had played a pairs match

and we got off to a slow start losing 3 quick wickets to take our

score down to 185. We did rally after that and clawed our way

back into the match with Rohan hitting a valuable 8 runs, and

Heshan with 5. Getting our score up to 229 meant that we had

a score that we could defend as long as we took some

wickets. We did start the innings quite well but the extras

started to add up resulting in St Martin’s nearing our score quite

quickly. However, Marcos and Heshan bowled well and it

meant we were going into the final over still in a position to win

the match. Needing two wickets to win, unfortunately a

dropped catch meant that the game slipped away from us. Lots

of positives though, Rohan took two great catches and Heshan

bowled tidily. Well played boys.

12 12 May 26 2017

U9 cricket v St Martin’s U9 A v St Martin’s

St John’s 237 after 10 overs, St Martin’s 261 after 10

overs

Outstanding performances: Nishil and Arian for their

batting. Vishwadrik and Arian for their bowling. The

whole team for fielding.

St John’s batted first and we faced some quick and

accurate bowling right through the innings. We lost a few

wickets which reduced our score but at the same time we

managed to score some boundaries through Nishil,

Harman and Arian which helped us greatly. Our running

between the wickets also improved. However, by the end

of the innings we had lost 8 wickets which cost us 40 runs.

St Martin’s went into bat and they scored runs consistently

throughout the pairs. We managed to take five wickets and

Yusuf, Freddie and Ethan all took very good catches. The

fielding was excellent but in the end we needed to score

more runs when we batted. However, this was a great

learning experience and the first match for the boys this

term. Well done.

U9 B v St Martin’s

Pairs cricket. St John’s 279, St Martin’s 311

St Martin’s won

Outstanding performance: The whole team

St John’s batted first and struggled to hit the ball off the

square. Fortunately, some wayward bowling, combined

with a few aggressive shots towards the end of the innings,

enabled us to get a respectable total off our fourteen eight

ball overs with Asikoo and Rodrigo our most successful

batsman.

When St Martin’s batted they were more purposeful,

especially in running quick singles, and even though most

of our bowling was reasonably accurate they won

comfortably largely because we did not manage to take a

single wicket. Sam was the pick of our bowlers whilst

special mention should be made of Rodrigo’s fielding .

13 13 May 26 2017

U9 cricket v St Martin’s U9 C v St Martin’s

Pairs cricket. St John’s 230, St Martin’s 279

St Martin’s won by 49 runs.

Outstanding performances: The whole team

St. Johns batted first with 4 pairs. Hilkesh and Noah

scored an aggregate of 9 with 20 scored off their

bowling. Edward and Alex 4 scored 39 off their

bowling. Varun and Sam 11 with 20 off their bowling.

Rayaan and David 11 with 14 off their bowling. All the

boys showed a reasonable bowling action and basic

understanding of their fielding throwing well to the

stumps.

U9 D v St Martin’s

Pairs cricket. St Martin’s 305 for 3, St John’s 292 for 2

St Martin’s won by 13 runs.

Outstanding performances: Xerxes and Panagiotis

This was the first fixture for the U9 D team away against

St. Martin’s and one they really enjoyed. Xerxes opened

the bowling and managed to take two wickets. As a whole

the boys have enjoyed learning about some of the basic

rules when bowling and fielding and how to rotate the

field after each over. St. Martin’s finished their innings on

305 runs. St John’s took a total of three wickets which

meant St. Martin’s lost 15 runs altogether. Panagiotis was

impressive and confident with the bat and managed two

fours off his first two balls. He was the top batter on the

day with a total of 31 runs. This was a close match and the

boys got more and more excited towards the end. St

John’s needed 15 runs off the last over to win. Panagiotis

and Cyrus did a great job with the bat and needed 10 runs

of the last two balls. Unfortunately they lost a wicket here

and lost the match by 13 runs. Well done to the whole

team on your efforts and for how you represented your

school on the day.

Healthy minds and bodies in Running Club The St John's Running Club continues to

show us that if you work hard and play

hard right until the end of the week, then you

go home for the weekend feeling that you

have done your best! Even though some boys

have spent Friday afternoons doing Games,

what better way to conclude the school day

and week than with a run around our beautiful

36 acre site. Laps of the nature reserve,

admiring the 'King of the Oak Trees' at the

top of our golf course and overlooking stun-

ning views of London followed by stamina

runs are all part of the fun! Well done, boys; it

is always a pleasure!

14 14 May 26 2017

Senior cricket v MTS Wednesday 24th May 1st XI v MTS

MTS 108 for 9, St John’s 34 all out

MTS won by 74 runs.

St John’s did well to restrict MTS to 108 off their 20 overs. This

was an opposition capable of 200+. Still a little wayward on

pitch length the team made up for it with lively fielding getting

4 run outs in the innings. Rohan was particularly accurate and

Daniel added another energetic spell. Aaron also impressed with

improved fluidity in his action and was rewarded with a number

of missed deliveries. The batting against exceptional bowling

was in desperate need of a saviour to match the accuracy and

movement of the deliveries they faced. Not to be on this day

but the team move forward with greater focus on their batting

needs.

2nd XI v MTS

MTS 109 for 10, St John’s 67 for 10

MTS won

Outstanding performances: Daniel and Alex

Merchant Taylors’ batted first and the opening batsman proved

to be a very good player scoring over 50. Our bowling on the

whole was not bad but there were moments when we bowled

down the legside and this enabled the opposition to hit us. We

dropped the opening batsmen three times and he was able to

carry on and score many runs. All the bowlers put in a good

stint but the standout bowler was Alex with 3 for 16. St John’s

went into bat and we lost Arin quickly but the opposition

bowling across Merchant Taylor’s was very good. Daniel and

Alex put on a good partnership but once they were out wickets

started to tumble and eventually we were all out for 67. We had

three run outs and the calling between the wickets needs to be

better. However, this was a very good effort against a school

who were very strong on the batting and bowling front.

3rd XI v MTS

MTS 42 all out, St John’s 42 for 5

St John’s won by 5 wickets

Outstanding performances: Marcos and Daniel

Playing against our ‘big brother’ is always a highlight of the

season and the 3rds were fired up for this one. Putting MTS

into bat Charlie got into the top order with some excellent

bowling and by the fifth over we had them on 16 for 5. Another

fine fielding performance by the whole team and Marcos taking

three wickets, meant we went into tea in a strong position of

bowling them out for 42. Rohan got the innings off to a great

start by hitting 9 off the first over so it looked like it could be

over in no time. However, we started to bat loosely and wickets

started to tumble. We did manage to crawl over the finishing

line and did so in 10 overs. A resounding 5 wicket victory saw

the first win of the season for the senior cricket teams. Hooray!!

15 15 May 26 2017

Years 3 & 4 Athletics Meeting at York House

This was an excellent meeting with six boys’ schools attending and four girls’ schools. There were track and field events and each

pupil from St John’s took part in one individual event and everyone took part in the relays at the end of the meeting. We came

third overall which was a tremendous effort.

Individual and Team Results

Amos 2nd, Long Jump

David 3rd, Long Jump

Oscar 4th, High Jump

Freddie 5th, High Jump

Oliver 3rd, Cricket ball

Harman 1st, Cricket ball

Sahib 1st, 75 Metres

Yusuf 5th, 75 Metres

Aaron 6th, 60 Metres Hurdles

Arian 3rd, 60 Metres Hurdles

Thomas 3rd, 200 Metres

Rodrigo 4th, 200 Metres

Daniel 3rd, 600 Metres

Ethan 2nd, 600 Metres

Year 3, 50 Metres relay, 2nd

Year 4, 50 Metres relay, 3rd

16 16 May 26 2017

Recorder playing in the sunshine

Year 2 boys have become quite accomplished at playing the recorder since they started learning back in February and

yesterday were able to share their talents with some open air practice next to the Norman Hall during their music lesson.

17 17 May 26 2017

House Art Competition 2017 Each year as part of our House Competition for the Activities Cup Miss Gillen organises an Art Competition which is open

to all boys in Years 3-8. The year the theme was ‘Spring’ which produced a whole array of art as the pictures show. The judges,

Miss Gillen, Mr Taylor, Mrs Green, Mrs Stewart-Paul and Mr Spellward had an exceedingly different job choosing their favourite

pieces but below are the winners from each class. Once the corresponding House points were added up the results are as follows:

Churchill 54, Oates 49, Lawrence 29, Lincoln 21. Congratulations to everyone who took part this year.

3C

1st= Benyamin Oates

2nd=Nayan Churchill

3rd=Oscar Churchill

3H

1st=Albert Lawrence

2nd=Shay Lincoln

3rd=Vihaan Lincoln

4W

1st=Yusuf Oates

2nd=Samuel Oates

3rd=Varun Lawrence

4M

1st=Aaryan Churchill

2nd=David Lawrence

3rd=Zreh Lincoln

5S

1st=Sami Oates

2nd=Oliver Churchill

3rd=Jadon Churchill

5K

1st=Zachary Churchill

2nd=Samvir Oates

3rd=Aaron Lawrence

Year 6

1st=Joe 6C Churchill

2nd=Matthew 6H Oates

3rd=Joseph 6H Lincoln

Year 7

1st= James 7J Churchill

2nd Noah 7H Lawrence

3rd=Armaan 7H Oates

Year 8

1st=James 8C Lincoln

2nd=Aman 8C Lawrence

3rd=James 8C Oates

18 18 May 26

House Art Competition winners 2017

19 19 May 26 2017

20 20 May 26

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.

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.

Photographs: Do please continue to send

in any photographs which could be

included in The Lamb.

Saturday 27th May: Cricket v Swiss Team: 1st XI (h) (11.00am)

Monday 5th June: School Resumes (8.25am)

7+ Parents Information Evening (7.00pm)

Tuesday 6th June: ISEB 13+ CE Examinations

Years 6, 7 & 8 Examinations

Cricket v Merchant Taylors’ Prep: U9 A & B (a), U9 C & D (h) (2.15pm)

Wednesday 7th June: ISEB 13+ CE Examinations

Years 6, 7 & 8 Examinations

Cricket v Merchant Taylors’ Prep: 1st XI (h), 2nd XI (a), 3rd XI (h) (2.15pm)

Thursday 8th June: ISEB 13+ CE Examinations

Years 6, 7 & 8 Examinations

Friday 9th June: ISEB 13+ CE Examinations

CHARITY DAY

Cricket v Merchant Taylors’ Prep: Colts A (h), Colts B (h), U10 A (a), U10 B (a) (2.15pm)

Saturday 10th June: York House U13 Cricket Tournament (10.00am)

Orley Farm U11 Cricket Tournament (10.00am)

Calendar and important dates Contact details

Revision guides for Years 6-8. These are available to view on

the Parent Portal - just in time for the half term holiday!

Charity Day. Friday 9th June is our annual charity day which

coincides with the end of school exams for boys in Years 6 - 8.

You will have received a letter and your son has hopefully

brought home a sponsor form. Please help him to collect some

sponsors over half term. All Prep boys will be taking part in an

orienteering activity and Pre-Prep boys will do seven activity

challenges. Put the date in your diary to come and support

PHAB and take advantage of the St John’s Association BBQ

and drinks tent from 3.00pm. It promises to be a great day.

Clubs and Activities. These will take place as normal during

Year 6-8 exams the week after half term.

Access to school from Wieland Road. A reminder that there

is NO access to school via the private Gatehill Estate and

Wieland Road other than for those parents who are residents of

the estate. The electronic gate into school from Wieland Road is

now closed during the school day. Please be courteous to our

neighbours and refrain from driving on this privately

maintained land.

Bugsy Malone. Boys are working very hard in preparation for

our summer musical ‘Bugsy Malone’ and would really appreciate

full houses at both performances. Please put the dates in your

diary and come along to what promises to be a great show:

Tuesday 27th and Thursday 29th June at 7.00pm

The second half of term is only five weeks long and is packed

with a wide variety of public events. Put the following dates in

your diary:

9th June: Charity Day and St John’s Association BBQ (3.00pm)

13th and 19th June: Years 3 & 4 Parents’ Meetings (4.30pm)

19th June: Pre-Prep Sports Afternoon (1.15pm)

27th and 29th June: Senior Musical Production (7.00pm)

2nd July: St John’s Association Fun Day (11.00am)

4th July: Junior Prize-Giving & Sports Afternoon (2.30pm)

6th July: Year 8 Leavers Evening (7.00pm)

8th July: Senior Prize-Giving and Sports Afternoon (11.00am)

Have a great half term and enjoy the warm weather.

Notices and Reminders