St. Francis' College Magazine 2022

School Magazine | 2022

Cor Unum Anima Una - One Heart One Soul

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WELCOME FROM OUR HEAD GIRL, HEATHER

This past academic year has been one of reopening and renovation for all in the College, as well as the world around us. As COVID-19 restrictions eased off, the St. Francis’ community has thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to reconnect and rebuild our relationships with each other again after the pandemic. This strengthening of our community has shone through the students’ kindness and hard work all year round, and I couldn’t be more proud. Coretta Scott King, an inspiring American author and civil rights activist (though she is perhaps more commonly known to be the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.) once said, ‘The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members’. The compassion within the St. Francis’ community has grown ever more tangible over the last 10 months. An example of this was evident in the students’ cooperation and mutual support for one another during events such as the Recycled Fashion Show and Future Ready Days, or through the generous response for the Ukraine cake sale and donations in the wake of the conflict.

We started this year with a wondeful Prize Giving ceremony that did not disappoint. The achievements earned by the students were absolutely remarkable and they should all be very proud of themselves. The evening was brought to a close with an incredible speech by special guest Anna McNuff (who has now certainly become an inspiration for me!). Anna gave an awe inspiring account of her endurance running events, as well as surprising us all with some amazing rainbow unicorn leggings! - I think we all deserve a pair after the hard work of this past year.

Not long after, came the excitement and abundance of creativity of the Recycled Fashion Show. This year’s theme of Commedia dell’Arte allowed the students involved from Years 7-9 to present their masterpieces. The sheer effort and commitment put into each and every one of these costumes was inspiring. However, none of this magnificent event could have happened without the support of the whole Art Department and Year 12 students, organising and compering the show. This was a great opportunity and allowed the older students to really get to know the younger ones by working together on a special event in the St. Francis’ calendar.

This year, in particular, held the chance for students to express themselves and their ideas much more openly since COVID-19. We have had a variety of different assemblies, led by students themselves, about matters that are truly important to us. From coping with Dyslexia to LGBTQ Pride. Students have been empowered to talk about their interests and lives in a safe, compassionate environment, helping them grow into confident people that aren’t afraid to put themselves out there and welcome the wider world with maturity and compassion.

Possibly one of the best examples of student initiative in the College this year was our very first ‘Oscars Day’. Organised by a Year 13 student, Robyn Norwood, each tutor group had the unique opportunity to create, edit and market their own film, aided by able Sixth Formers dressed up as our favourite celebrities! Students had the time of their lives mixing fun and laughter with creativity and imaginationskills that are so useful and essential for life after and outside of school.

2021-2022 has certainly been a year of student drive and leadership, particularly with our two Future Ready Days, which gave us all the opportunity to gain more skills in organisation, communication and perseverance. These days helped us to consider life in the 2030s. Run by the House Captains and Head of Houses, students worked in a variety of ways, such as designing websites and creating TED Talks. It was very interesting to see how each House had decided to promote their sustainable foods and communities to the rest of the College, This type of whole school event is so beneficial to us as a community. We really enjoyed creating strong links of communication and friendship with each other in the process. Friendships between year groups continued this year as music events and drama productions made a long-awaited return to the College calendar, with the Spring Concert and the Drama Department’s production of ‘The Little Mermaid’. They truly were worth the wait!

The Spring Concert was a brilliant ‘spring-back’ themed evening that showed off the magnificent musical abilities of all the students at St. Francis’, ably co-ordinated by Mrs Scott and the rest of the Music Department. The explosion of confetti at the end really sealed the evening as a success!

In March we were treated to the long awaited musical production of ‘The Little Mermaid’. It certainly did not disappoint, with students giving an amazing rendition of the classic story. Expertly accompanied by the orchestra, the cast of ‘The Little Mermaid’ sang and acted their hearts out in extravagant costumes and against the background of a fantastic set - what fun for both cast, orchestra and audience! Thank you to Mrs McDermott for all of her hard work on this show.

Although this year has been one of joy and prosperity in the College - in the wider world, conflict in Ukraine has been on the news and in our mind. We know that, in times of humanitarian crisis, it is part of the St. Francis’ spirit to do what we can to help and support those in need. With close ties to many families affected by the conflict, this has definitely been at the front of many of the students’ thoughts over the past few months. I was blown away by the amount of support and love shown by the student and staff bodies at our cake sale and appeal for donations. We also held information sessions and Q&As for students to attend and learn more about the situation across Europe and what we can do to help. Again, the support and compassion from the College has been consistent and remarkable throughout the conflict; something that we should all be proud of.

On a much more positive note, we are around in an extraordinary age! Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this June, being the first British monarch to do so. St. Francis’ joined in with celebrations in style, enjoying tea parties and themed lunches to commemorate the Queen’s long lasting service to this country.

On the note of long lasting service, this year we are saying a hearty goodbye to some very special members of staff as they move onto the next chapter of their lives. We hope that their days at St. Francis’, whether it was a short time or a long time, will be ones that they look back upon with a smile, just as we will remember them fondly.

In particular, we say a massive thank you and good luck to our Headmistress, Mrs Goulding. Thank you for your support and leadership during these past 7 years - you will be dearly missed! We also say goodbye to our Year 13 cohort as they move into the big wide world of universities and employment. My Year 12 cohort has grown very close to the year above, and we, along with the rest of the student and staff bodies, will miss such a bright and loving group of students very dearly - good luck to all those leaving us this year with the next exciting part of your lives!

As this academic year draws to a close, we look forward to the next, which brings vibrancy and change in many different shapes and forms. As we say goodbye to the current Headmistress Mrs Goulding, we say good luck to Mr Nichols who will be our new Head in September! These are certainly times of exciting change, and I for one cannot wait to see what the next year brings.

Thank you and congratulations again to students and staff for a fantastic year!

‘The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members’ - Coretta Scott King

EXAM RESULTS

A Level Results 2022

We are so happy for all the Year 13 St. Francis’ College students this year.

Our pass rate is 100% A*-E grades. Over 56 % of our students received A*-A grades and 86% A*-B grades.

Mrs Goulding, the Headmistress, said: “We are once again delighted with our outstanding A level results this year. Staff and students have worked exceptionally hard and these results are a testimony to the dedication and commitment of this partnership. Academic rigour combined with personalised support has ensured these excellent outcomes for our students. We could not be more proud of them.”

Darcey, Y13, said: “Can’t believe I’ve managed to do it! I am so happy and so grateful to all the teachers and support staff, as it wouldn’t have been possible without them.”

Mr & Mrs Ali, Y13 parents, said: “Straight As. What an achievement! Thank you so much, St. Francis’!”

Celebrating Our Outstanding GCSE Results 2022

We are delighted with the truly outstanding GCSE results achieved by our fantastic Year 11 cohort. All students have worked extremely hard for their examinations and they have been rewarded with excellent grades across the board.

It is especially pleasing that the percentage of Grade 8 and 9s awarded was 56% and the percentage of Grades 7, 8 or 9 was 75%. Not only are these the College’s highest ever GCSE grades, but they are also an increase on 2020 and 2021 when Centre Assessed and Teacher Assessed Grades were used to determine the students’ results. This shows the sheer dedication, intelligence and determination of our students to reach (and hit) the top, supported by expert teachers delivering truly outstanding learning and teaching.

Of course, each set of results is a human story and we are thrilled that so many students secured a straight run of 8s and 9s across the curriculum. We especially congratulate Christa Bonuah, who achieved a Grade 9 in all her ten subjects, as well as Ilinca Popescu who achieved ten Grade 9s and one Grade 8.

Mr James Nichols, our new Head of St. Francis’ College, said: “This is a truly remarkable set of results, beating already high records of achievement. I would like to praise every single student for their hard work, especially as the first part of their GCSE journey was undertaken during lockdown. Moreover, the dedication of all staff at the College is to be commended in helping students to secure these impressive outcomes. We cannot wait for this cohort to enter our Sixth Form to continue their academic journey. The future is incredibly bright for these individuals. We are so immensely proud of them.”

Mrs Bronwen Goulding, who is stepping down as Headmistress this year after seven years in post, said that she was extremely proud of all girls in the year group and that she wished them the best of luck in the future.

Mrs Hayes, parent, said: “I am beyond delighted with the experience, support and dedication shown to my daughter during her time at St. Francis’ College. She has grown into a beautiful, kind, caring and compassionate young woman through the nurturing environment that SFC has provided.”

Ms Chimbulatova, guardian, said: “Thank you very much for your great support. The results are fantastic!”

Mr Dingemans, parent, said: “Amazing results! We are so proud and grateful for everything St. Francis’ has done!”

Mr Mannall, parent, said: “We are delighted with our daughter’s results, which are testament to the hard work of both her and St. Francis’ College!”

INTERVIEWS

An interview with our new Head from September Mr Nichols by Poppy Harvey and Lucy Jefford

3) What are you most looking forward to about being Head?

As I said before, being able to have an impact that’s best for everyone and having the opportunity to scream more about us. Our school feels hidden too much and I’m going to look at ways of marketing the College to make us more known. As Head, I can do that, as I’ll be the representative of the school. I’d like to branch out to other schools and that’s why I think the ILG partnership will be really powerful, because it will allow us to mix more with some of their other schools, such as St. Felix – where we could arrange events like camping exchanges.

After being our Deputy Head for just over a year, Mr Nichols is becoming our new Head in September 2022. We decided to interview him about becoming Head, as well as asking him some questions to get to know him better.

1) What inspired you to become a Head?

The fact that I can make a difference at the highest level in a school. As Head, you can have an impact on everyone and not just one form or class. Also, the Head oversees everything, meaning that I’ll get the chance to work with every student and create a positive impact for more people. Mrs Goulding has been an inspiration because I’ve seen that she really cares about the school.

2) What have you found to be the strongest aspect of the College so far?

Definitely the sense of community. Every school I’ve worked in has said that they are a community, but St. Francis’ is small enough that you can really feel the warmth here. The students and teachers get to know each other and care for everyone; we’re all willing to step up whenever necessary – like Mrs Goulding helping to teach English for some of this year. In a bigger school, the feeling of community is harder to accomplish – as it is impossible to know everybody. However, in St. Francis’, even in lockdown, when I was being interviewed for the Deputy Head job, and we all had to social distance, that feeling of community still shone through.

4) What are you most proud of –professionally, personally and recently?

Professionally, my first tutor group that I had when I started teaching, when I was 22. I stayed with them for five years and was very proud when they finished Year 11 because I’d seen how far they’d come in that time. Personally, starting my own business (Political Education for Students) from scratch, in 2015. I couldn’t find any workshops to talk about politics for younger people, so I decided to set up my own workshops and role-playing situations of the government, working with over 200 schools.

Recently, setting up the Five Star Days, especially the first one last year, as it gave students and teachers an opportunity to have a great week off-timetable after lockdown prevented us from doing many usual activities. I was very proud of our amazing staff pulling together to make the days possible so soon after I joined the school. We went from start to finish in just six weeks!

5) What is your favourite book?

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, which I did it for my English A level. I loved the intrigue of the storyline, as despite being fictional, gave me a terrifying glimpse of a very believable scenario. It was the book that influenced me the most and spurred my interest in political fiction. However, usually I prefer non-fiction to fiction and I’m into modern history.

6) What is your favourite film?

I’m more of a TV series person and my favourite series is called ‘The Good Wife’. It’s about a wife, who has been a stay-at-home mum, until her husband, a politician, is put in prison and she is forced to go back to work and change her lifestyle. My chill-out series would be ‘Frasier’, which was a competitor for ‘Friends’ in the early 90’s and 00’s.

7) What is your favourite song?

It depends what mood I’m in. I love ‘Mr Brightside’ and saw ‘The Killers’ live when I was at university. I also love the musical ‘Hamilton’. ‘You’ll be back’ is the best song!

8) What was your favourite subject at school?

This might surprise you, because I now love Politics and History, but – at school – my favourite subject was English. I loved books and reading. I also found writing very relaxing and it helped me clear my thoughts. I would always enter the poetry and short story competitions when I was younger. For A Levels I did English, History, Politics and Geography.

9) How would you describe yourself in three words?

Committed – I throw myself fully into anything I choose to do.

Personable – I can get on and talk with anyone (I would hope!).

Ambitious – I’m ambitious for everyone to do well, not just me. I like trying my hardest to achieve the goals that I set myself.

Thank you for taking part in this interview, Mr Nichols! We are excited to see everything new you bring to the College and your new ideas in action!

INTERVIEWS

An interview with Mrs Goulding by Poppy Harvey

2) What does St. Francis’ mean to you?

St. Francis’ College really is a wonderful community and I feel a great sense of honour that I have been part of this community for seven years.

3) What is your favourite memory of your time here?

Honestly, my favourite memory is the music event in which students cheered for the student who had stage fright. The event that our school video is based around. I had never seen such a display of support from a student body en masse towards one of its own. I was deeply moved because it represented everything I believed school life should be and what I believed that the community of St. Francis’ was all about.

4) What is your favourite part of your job? –What are you going to miss the most?

8) What are you most proud of?

There are many things that I am proud of but most of these things are invisible. I am very proud of how the community pulled together during Covid. I think we were ready on Day 1 of the first lockdown and I am so glad that students had good quality lessons from the very start. I am proud that when we came back to school, staff and pupils were safe and no large groups of children had to go home unwell.

9) What is your favourite song?

My favourite song is Tangerine by Led Zeppelin but there are quite a few other songs I like such as tracks by George Ezra, Glass Animals, Gabriels and Ed Sheeran.

10) What is your favourite film?

Mrs Goulding has been the Head of our community for seven years. She has been such a kind, caring and strong role model for everyone at the college, and I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are going to miss her a lot.

As she is retiring this year, we decided to interview her on her time here at the college.

1) Why did you decide to become a Headmistress?

It was a gradual decision over a period of time. At the start, I just wanted to share my passion for my subject. Nothing pleased me more than helping a student understand something they found difficult - the light bulb moment. Then I wanted to help students in a wider context so I took on other roles which developed my skills both as pastoral leader and as an academic leader. Eventually, I wanted to make a difference at the highest level which

is how I ended up being a Head. I wanted students to have the highest quality teaching and I wanted them to be looked after by caring staff.

My favourite part of the job is the interactions I have with individual students whether that is a hello over the salad bar, teaching a lesson (definitely the best part of my week) or the chats I have in my office with individuals.

5) What is the hardest part of your job?

The hardest part of my job is the quality of work the modern Head has to do. We really are the CEO of the school business and I never get to the bottom of my to-do list.

6) What do you believe the future will look like for St. Francis’?

I think the future is very bright for St. Francis’. Joining ILG has added a new dimension and I anticipate that the students will have more opportunities going forward and I believe some of the areas I would like to see investment in will have that funding. Onwards and upwards!

7) What do you believe is the key to running a school?

I think that knowing what is going on amongst the staff and students - keeping your finger on the pulse is important. Often, I know a lot more than anyone realises. However, a Head cannot run the school without the support of staff and students. The Head needs a good team around them.

My favourite film is either Dangerous Liaisons or Gosford Park. Although, I did enjoy the recent releases of Top Gun Maverick and Batman and I have spent some happy hours watching Encanto with my grandson.

11) What is your favourite book?

This has to be Thomas Hardy’s Woodlanders... on a more international theme Virgil’s Aeneid and I am also a bit partial to Milton’s Paradise Lost.

12) What piece of advice would you give to a St. Francis’ student at the end of her time at the College?

I would say that after the time they have spent at the college they are equipped to go into the world and fly. Never allow yourself to be shut down or marginalised, be kind and remember that your integrity is the most precious thing you have- do not throw it away.

Thank you, Mrs Goulding, for all that you have done for our school, we wish you every happiness in retirement.

PREP

Prep Drama

It has certainly been a dramatic year in the Prep! Each year group from Kindergarten all the way through to Prep 6 has performed on stage in the theatre to an audience of students and parents. We have had a wide range of theatrical delights from ‘Tattybogle, the Scarecrow Musical’, with our younger students, to Prep 3’s fantastic performance of Roald Dahl’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (made extra special by the fact that Prep 3 also designed and

helped create their own set for this show with the help of our creative in-house artistic wiz, Mrs Wilson). Prep 4 devised their own twisted fairytale play to show to Reception and Year 1. We had bad wolves turning into good wolves, Gingerbread men running off to Cinderella’s ball and Goldilocks and the TWO bears! Prep 5 performed a version of the classic tale of ‘Peter Pan’, with ‘Pantastic’, throwing themselves into the slapstick comedy of this musical with great enthusiasm! Prep 6 saw the academic year out in style with their performance of ‘Scheherazade: Tales of the Arabian Nights’.

This is my last year as Prep Drama teacher with St Francis’. I have loved all of my seventeen years of dramatic time at the College. I am off to do some storytelling training and to see what other Drama adventures I can find! Many thanks to all my Prep students for all the enthusiasm, courage and hard work that you have shown in all these productions. It has been a privilege to see you grow in confidence over this year with the realisation that ‘You can do it’.

Ms Bassnett

Music

After two years in which live music has been hit particularly hard by Covid restrictions, it has been a joy to resume our usual clubs and performances.

The Autumn Term was a very busy one. Musicians from throughout KS1 & 2 provided a Musical Interlude in the Foyer at the Open Morning, Preps VI, V and EYFS/KS1 performed in music assemblies, while the music scholars and practical exam candidates were able to participate in lunchtime and tea-time concerts in the Chapel.

We were all delighted to be able to resume our traditional KS1 Nativity performances, Letchworth Lights Concert and KS2 Carol Concert, following the enforced break during the last two years. This year, performances took place in the Chapel and were videoed. We are all looking forward to Christmas ’22, when we hope to be able to welcome back a full congregation for these events.

Recorder Ensemble, Choir, String Group and Orchestra all took part in the KS2 Carol concert. Choir were excited to perform the world premiere of a work called ‘Rejoice’, which had been written specially for them by former pupil Eleanor Mackey.

The Spring term saw class music assemblies for Preps IV, III and EYFS/KS1; another Musical Interlude in the foyer at the Open Morning involving a range of instrumental pupils from

KS1 & 2 and also lunchtime, tea-time and Music Scholars concerts. As part of our Number Day celebrations, we played and sang number themed songs on the keyboards. The highlight of this term was the KS2 Spring Concert, at which all of the Music clubs performed, with Orchestra playing Cha Cha Cha and Charleston, along with Themes from Harry Potter and String Group playing ‘Girls and Boys Come Out to Play and Poor Jenny’. It was very exciting to be able to have Choir performing live (albeit outdoors!) in front of the whole Prep School for the first time since Christmas 2019! They sang ‘Believe’, an optimistic anthem, which encourages us all to believe in our potential.

In the Summer Term, Orchestra and String Group joined forces at Prize Giving, to perform ‘The Rondeau’ from Purcell’s Abdelazar together and Choir sang ‘Love as our Guide’ … this time in the theatre, with the audience! Life really is getting back to normal at last. As a grand finale to Prize Giving, the whole of KS2 sang a medley of Gospel Songs to great acclaim. At The Leavers’ Service for our departing Prep 6, our Scholars performed Morning from ‘Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite Number 1’. We shall miss them all, as they move on to new adventures next year.

Class Shows

Throughout the year we have regular highlights in the form of Year group musicals. Having risen to the challenge of the Nativity in the Autumn Term, EYFS & Yr1 joined together again in the Spring Term, to perform

‘Tattybogle’, in the theatre. The infectious enthusiasm of the cast as they sang to the scarecrow will stay with the audience and the cast clearly enjoyed this lovely, optimistic tale of new beginnings. This was swiftly followed by Preps V & IV with an ambitious performance of ‘Pantastic’. The cast gave a vigorous rendition of the whole company songs, with some lovely solos as well. Congratulations to all the singers: it was a great show! We wrapped up the Spring Term shows with Prep II performing ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (a stage version of the story by Roald Dhal). The Wolf was suitably dastardly and the choruses were delivered with great gusto!

The 2022 musicals culminated in the Summer Term, with the Prep VI show ‘Scheherazade’. This marked the Prep School’s return to its traditional large-scale performances, with Years III, IV & V acting as choir for the show. It was so exciting for KS2 to be able to experience the sense of community which a big show brings, as the whole cast, actors, singers and dancers, work together for a common aim. I suspect more than a few of the audience had those tunes in their heads after the show. Congratulations to everyone involved!

This has been my final year of music at St. Francis’ Prep and it has been an excellent one. Thank you to all the pupils for making it such a bumper year of performances. I wish them all many happy years of music-making in the future.

Mrs Baldwin

PE and Sport

The PE curriculum is progressive and consistent throughout Prep. Pupils begin in EYFS and KS1 by developing the fundamental movement skills, focusing on balance, co-ordination and agility. In KS2, pupils are given the opportunity to refine and develop these skills through a wide range of sports, encouraging sport diversification.

Pupils have a swimming lesson every week in the College pool, from Kindergarten to Prep VI. The children begin by learning the core aquatic skills and work up to safe self-rescue and water polo!

There are a wide range of sports clubs on offer to the pupils each week. These include: Netball, Football, Hockey, Tag Rugby, Lacrosse, Rounders, Cricket, Street Dance, Swimming, Long distance running, Tennis, Golf, Gymnastics and more! There is something for everyone.

Pupils have the opportunity to represent the College in a variety of matches, from Netball matches to Cricket Tournaments, as well as friendly festivals. Sport is inclusive; every pupil in Key Stage 2 has the opportunity to represent the College in a team. The pupils also take part in interhouse competitions within school, with a particular highlight being the Key Stage 2 Interhouse Swimming Gala!

Notable competitive events and results this academic year:

U11 District Indoor/Winter Athletics – winners

Key Stage 2 Cross Country Championships –U11 winners, U9 3rd place

U11 District Football Tournament – runners up U11 Heritage Golf Competition – winners

U11 Netball Friendly Festival – unbeaten in all matches

U11 District Cricket Tournament – runners up U11 South East Regional Swimming Gala – 4th place

U11 County Tennis Tournament – winners

“My favourite thing about PE is practising races for Sports Day, and going to Gymnastics Club!” Eniola, Reception

“I like playing lots of different sports in PE lessons.” Imogen, Prep II

“Swimming is my favourite lesson of the week! I love it at the end when we all get to jump in!” Isabella, Prep III

“I love the interhouse competitions, especially the Interhouse Swimming Gala! It gives us something to work towards and I love swimming with other year groups in my house!” Alana, Prep IV

“I love playing matches and tournaments against other schools. It’s friendly and competitive, and gives you a chance to socialise and interact with other schools.” Alysia, Prep V

“I like how sport brings people together from different year groups and teaches you about sportsmanship and teamwork.” Miah, Prep VI

“My favourite day of the year is sports day because it brings us together in our houses and I like working with the younger year groups.” Yan, Prep VI

Prep 1 have done a lot of travelling this year…. In the Autumn Term we went back in time to discover what toys were like in the past. We explored what our grandparents and parents liked to play with and looked at how these toys had similarities and differences to our own toys. In Science, we found out what these toys were made of in our topic on Materials and in Art we made our own spoon dolls.

A highlight of this term was our Nativity play where we journeyed as shepherds to see the baby Jesus!

In the Spring term we visited Africa to find out how their landscape and culture are different to ours. We read stories and rhymes set in the Savannah, we made African masks and Masai necklaces and used our colour mixing skills to make sunset safari pictures which we recreated on the computers using Dazzle. In Science, we found out about different African animals. We

also spent time exploring humans and their five senses. We carried out several interesting experiments and discovered that lemons really are sour!

We had a great time on Number Day, dancing to the 2 times table song, counting in 2s and creating a Noah’s Ark display! At the end of term we made some yummy cakes for Easter.

In the Summer Term, we went back in time again to discover what seaside holidays were like in the Victorian times. We found that people travelled by steam train and changed in special ‘changing machines’ on the beach. They still enjoyed fish and chips and ice creams like we do today though! We visited Mr Grinling at his lighthouse and found out who Grace Darling was and why she became a national hero.

A highlight of our term was visiting Woburn Safari Park where we got to see many of the African animals that we have found out about this year.

Prep 2

During the Autumn Term, Prep II learned some important things about how to stay safe online. The class used their IT skills to make a list of rules for going online safely as a 6/7-year-old. In our modern, internet-dominated age, it is vital that young people learn age-appropriate e-safety skills, so that they are equipped to deal with the online world as they grow up. The bright colours help us all to see immediately which things we should and should not do.

The class tackled some challenging problems in their coding course this year. In particular,

they worked very hard to create looped code for staircases. In the process, they helped Scrat reach acorns, out on the ice; they showed Laurel how to collect her lost jewels and they even built ladders to scale the side of pirate ships! In addition to all of this, the class made a lovely set of snowmen, writing all of their own code in JavaScript.

We may not have had any snow outside this year, but Prep II’s snowmen made a very wintry scene in the IT Suite. Particular credit must go to Francesca Howlett, whose exceptional work using JavaScript has resulted in images of a very Funky Frog and an appetising plateful for the challenge ‘What’s for Dinner?’

Prep 3

Prep III is the beginning of Key Stage Two and sets the foundation for the rest of the upper primary years.

The transition from Prep II to Prep III runs smoothly as the girls have already been taught weekly lessons by the Prep III teacher. This means that they already know their teacher and classroom and are ready for the challenges that Key Stage Two brings.

This year the focus is on developing independence, becoming more resilient and persevering. The emphasis is on not being afraid to make mistakes, as we all make mistakes, and learning from them is the real lesson.

The majority of subjects in Prep III are taught by their form tutor although some subjects are taught by specialist teachers. In Prep III, being more form based, enables the pupils to become secure in their new key stage and confident with the expectations of learning and behaviour in KS2.

In Computer Science in the Autumn Term, Prep III learn how to be good digital citizens, by studying the concept of concentric ‘Rings of Responsibility’ – myself; my community (immediate friends & family); my world (everybody online). The class will explore the importance of good and safe behaviour online, with a particular emphasis on how essential it is to have the permission of friends and family before sharing photos on social media. This introduction to one’s own responsibilities online is a big step along the road towards equipping today’s young people to be good digital citizens as adults.

As well as learning about e-safety and using their IT skills in a research project, Prep III spend a big portion of the year coding. They use their knowledge of how to build looped code for staircases to help ‘The Farmer’ pick her sweetcorn; learn how apps can help to overcome accessibility issues in many walks of life and make their own mini games using ‘Events’ as triggers for their sprites’ actions. It will be an exciting journey for these new coders, as they learn new skills and even draw their own snowmen using JavaScript.

There are lots of opportunities in Prep III to develop teamwork and friendships with different learning experiences both in class and out. Lots of work in Prep III is linked to other areas of the curriculum and trips in the past have included visits to Roman Verulamium, The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre and The Educational Centre at Stansted Airport.

The array of extra-curricular clubs widens in Prep III and club choices now include extra language and sports clubs. The pupils also have exciting opportunities in PE to represent St. Francis’ College and play against other schools, take part in house competitions and the Key Stage Two Swimming Gala; one of the highlights of the school calendar. There are also the additional opportunities of taking part in the Carol Concert and being part of the Choir in the Prep VI play.

The pupils in Prep III were asked what words they would use to describe Prep III and their top words are:

Friendly, fair, fun and caring.

We look forward to welcoming you to Prep III.

Prep 4

A year in the life of Prep lV

The transition from Prep lll to Prep lV brings some significant changes as the vast majority of subjects, including English, Maths and Science, are now taught by specialist teachers. So, armed with their planners and house bags, the pupils get used to moving around the Prep School as they go from lesson to lesson. Alana tells me that, “It makes us feel very independent and grown up!”

In Prep lV, Latin makes its first appearance in the school curriculum. The pupils love finding out about the language, the history and the culture of Roman Britain through the adventures of a real family who lived there at the time. The pupils delight in learning short phrases, translating cartoon stories and even getting to grips with some simple grammar. The overarching aim at this stage is to build confidence in language learning which will stand them in good stead throughout Upper Prep and on into the Senior School.

Art continues to be a firm favourite in Prep lV and the pupils enjoy learning about great artists and developing their own skills in a range of techniques and styles. In this photograph, the children adopted Seurat’s pointillism to create a close-up representation of the human eye! They used oil pastels to create glass vases filled with tulips. The water looks so realistic - you could almost dip your finger in.

In Computer Science, Prep lV pupils really

stretch themselves in Course C of code.org’s coding curriculum. Everyone learns to think about shapes in terms of internal and external angles, while breaking up complex shapes into simpler component parts. Suddenly, a complicated challenge becomes nothing more than a series of rectangles and triangles! The pupils become experts at using loops, debugging, spotting patterns and writing code for games. Some even design their own ideal meal using JavaScript.

This year saw the much-anticipated return of residential trips for Prep lV with a threeday visit to PGL at Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire. Given that Covid made sleepovers impossible and visits away from home were cancelled, this trip was, for many pupils, their first time away without parents.

However, there was no time for homesickness, as they were on the go from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. Every waking moment was filled with FUN. Their feet hardly touched the ground - literally! They dangled and clambered, climbed and crawled, balanced, swayed, soared and scrambled. And if that wasn’t enough, they built dens, constructed buggies and completed an assault course blindfolded!

Their teamwork was amazing to see as they each encouraged one another to complete challenges, to overcome fears and to achieve new goals. It was an absolute delight to watch every pupil, without exception, grow in independence, resilience and confidence. A truly worthwhile experience, proving their readiness to move onto Prep V.

Prep 5

A year in the life of Prep V

Prep V is an action-packed year, full of fun and new experiences. Here the pupils are taught solely by specialist teachers and are also introduced to some new subjects.

The pupils have the opportunity to study Food and Nutrition for half a year, making delicious foods such as: vegetable couscous, sweet and savoury muffins and chocolate tiffin to name but a few. For the other half of the year, they study Design Technology and learn new skills to create pop up books and moving toys using CAM.

The pupils further develop their artistic skills by using the senior school art room, gaining inspirational specialist teaching from the senior school staff. They use their cross curricular links with Humanities to create Victorian toy theatres and rainforest landscapes.

This year Prep V performed the play, ‘Pantastic’. Here the children are taught to improvise and work in role, perform plays and stories using language and actions to express and convey situations, characters and other emotions. It was a joy to watch!

In their adventures in programming this year, Prep V have coded complex programs, using nested loops, to help a bee collect nectar and make honey; helped Minecraft characters to avoid falling into molten lava and created computer games in which R2-D2 chases Tauntauns and Mynocks.

All pupils are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities at lunchtime or after-school.

There is a vast array of clubs on offer, from orchestra, choir, strings, chess, poetry, drama and mindfulness to name just a few.

The Prep V pupils have so many opportunities to represent the school in various sporting activities including: Tag rugby, netball, football, cricket, rounders, swimming and athletics.

The Prep V pupils create such special memories on the trips that take place throughout the year. The trips are linked to curriculum areas – for instance, they visit a Victorian Museum, The Sewage Water Centre and The Airbus Discovery Centre.

Finally, the highlight of the year in Prep V is the three-day residential visit to Grafham Water Centre where they take part in water-based activities. Here, the children use their skills to help and support each other using Grafham Water’s core values of ‘BEST’ –

Brave

Encourage Everyone

Stay Safe

Trust and Teamwork

The pupils thoroughly enjoy the experience from start to finish and truly demonstrate that are the very BEST versions of themselves.

A year in the life of Prep lV

We’ve made it! We’re finally in Prep 6, the oldest, perhaps tallest and wisest. Being a role- model for all of the younger children is a massive responsibility but one we take very seriously. There are many special roles to take advantage of too including Head and Deputy Prefect and House Captains. What a super opportunity to develop our leadership skills!

Autumn Term is a busy one especially with the January Entrance Exams for Maths and English to prepare for. However, we know that hard work really does pay off and so long as we can say that we have tried our very best, we know we can be proud of ourselves. With so much learning, focus and dedication to our studies, we deserve a treat at Christmas. This includes going on a Prep 6 Ice Skating trip where we learn yet again about resilience, making mistakes, falling down and getting back up again.

The Spring Term whizzes by with another trip to look forward to - The Jurassic Coast Experience! We pack our suitcases, wave goodbye to our parents and families, have a good, hearty ‘sing song’ on the coach and arrive in the stunning coastal town of Lulworth in Dorset. From hiking to

see Durdle Door, picnics and ice creams on the beach to sea kayaking and mud trail obstacle courses, you are bound to have the most magical time.  You’ll make incredible memories of falling out of bunk beds, losing trainers in mud baths, somersaulting off giant water inflatables and having lots of laughter with your friends.

Lights! Camera! Action! The end of the year is just as eventful with the grand finale - The Prep 6 Show. Our talents are showcased on stage in front of the whole school, friends and family.  The atmosphere is always electrifying, the dance moves are impressive and the powerful singing will have you humming the same catchy tunes for weeks to come. Not long after, we are on stage in the school theatre yet again but this time it’s for the annual Prize Giving Ceremony and in the school chapel for the traditional Leavers’ Service. An opportunity to reflect on an incredibly successful and memorable year and to award individuals with special prizes.  All Prep 6s are presented with a school hoodie and a wonderful Leaver’s Book filled with personalised messages, anecdotes and memories as well as treasured photos from the year.

It might be an emotional farewell but we know excited things are to come with the move to Senior School. St. Francis’ is a truly special place and we will never forget our time in Prep here.

SFC describe their most memorable holidays.

Mrs O’Mahoney

Apple Fairy Liquid. It’s the most unobtrusive scent. Except when it isn’t. I obviously hadn’t smelled it in years but when I got that whiff, I was transported a few hundred miles and several decades back to The Caravan. It wasn’t ours. It was Aunt Blanche and Uncle William’s. There it was, waiting for us, in the wettest county in Ireland.

I remember the squeeze in the car, sandwiched between two brothers with another sat upright and grinning in the boot. I don’t remember any luggage, no bags. Pop drove. Or, was it Granny? Anyway, there were three adults and four children all in shorts and t-shirts with goose bumped arms and knobbly knees. We kicked our trainers off in the car.

The campsite was briny, sandy, scratchy and spikey. I know this as I never did replace the trainers and all journeys thereafter were barefooted. Even the breeze was salty. Or sandy.

A bit sharp anyway.

That raincoat did more than keep off the multidirectional rain. I tripped over a semi-hidden beach stone but I didn’t cry. You shouldn’t cry on holidays. A 99 ice cream was pushed into my plump hand. It dripped a little. I shivered. The cone offered some respite from the chilly mouthfuls.

We all gasped walking up the hill. It wasn’t the gradient. The dunes fought our sinking ankles as the wind beat our eyes and mouths closed. The Caravan. It was there in front of us again though I didn’t recognise it. I would never have found it again on my own. Two big, slightly sweaty, palms grabbed mine and pulled vertically up. I instinctively pulled up my knees and was swinging in an unrehearsed response.

There were chips, all on one plate and sausages and chip-shop vinegar and later, as I fought to keep my eyes open to the sound of keepieuppies outside and the sight of evening sunshine streaming through threadbare curtains, there was the smell of Apple Fairy Liquid.

Mrs Scott

Machu Picchu - journeying by plane and train to the site of ancient Inca ruins.  A ruined town hidden in the middle of the mountain range of the Andes in Peru.  Llamas wander round photo bombing your images of this mystical place and it feels like you are Indiana Jones and have travelled to discover somewhere very special.

Mrs Wray

I know the answer should be France (because it is a fabulous country with a beautiful language) but my best holiday ever was in a log cabin in the mountains in Bregenz, Austria overlooking Lake Constance. The views were incredible, the people very friendly and I could pretend that I was Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

Mrs Tarr

Last year, we decided to go to Cornwall (again!) This time with a difference: no lazing and lying around.  We walked for about 20km a day for 6 days around the southwest tip around Land’s End.  With teenagers and a dog!  By some miracle, we had 6 beautiful, sunny days.  There was a bit of boot swapping and dog limping at times but very little moaning.  Highlights were swimming in the sea pool at Mousehole and arriving at the Minack theatre for the show with seconds to spare.

It was definitely the most memorable family holiday we’ve had in years – I’m just not sure we’ll do it again any time soon.

Mr Brownlee

My favourite ‘holiday’ involved walking hundreds of kilometres across northern Spain to the fabled city of Santiago de Compostela. Walking the Camino de Santiago had been a long-term ambition, which I finally realised in 2019. Trekking on an ancient pilgrimage route in the company of fellow travellers (or peregrinos as they are called in Spain) from all over the world was a journey of rare and varied pleasures. Granted, it’s not everyone’s idea of fun but for me the simplicity of walking through some beautiful landscapes couldn’t be bettered. As Socrates put it: ‘He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.’ Bueno Camino!

What was the best holiday you have ever been on?

Mrs Jarvis

My favourite holiday was after doing Camp America in California in my twenties. My husband and I explored the West Coast, sleeping in our travel car, dodgy motels and at friends’ houses, I had met at camp.  We made incredible friendships, ate delicious food, did a sky dive and made wonderful memories.  We’ve since been back with our little Leo and hope to make more magical memories with our growing family.

Ms Major

Best holiday ever was a trip to Brunei, Borneo and Malaysia. Staying with a friend who was teaching in Brunei at a British school, I was lucky to have someone who knew the places to act as a tour guide. We visited the rainforest, travelled by canoe on rivers, saw the sun rise and set over beautiful beaches and met so many friendly people. The highlight was visiting a family to join in their Eid celebrationswonderful food and generous hospitality.

Ms Bryan

My favourite holidays are at my house in the south of France.  There is so much to do there, that we never get bored.

We love going to all of the places along the coast, as well as going inland for some spectacular mountain views.  Nothing seems very far from our village either, so we can go over to Italy, visit Monaco, Nice, Frejus and Saint Raphael, just depending on where ever we feel like going that day.  It is always bright

and hot there, so the spectral display of colours everywhere looks so much richer.

Our also cat loves going there and basking for hours in the sunshine.  There are also lots of antique fairs to visit, where we love looking at old items and wondering about the stories behind them.

There is also a tennis club and a nice, large pool in our village, so that is always fun, where we can see our friends and family and have nice BBQs and get-togethers after.

It reminds me a lot of my childhood as well, as we spent our summers at our family cottage, so having another place to be able to live, especially in the summer, has always felt important to me and has made my holiday times perfect.

The one downside, to some comical extent, is that my house is almost at the top of the village, so when I want some exercise or to get to the tennis club, I walk down it quite easily, but the walk back up is not an easy one.  Also, where I park my car is even higher up the village than my house, so I get a workout just getting to my car.  In my opinion, my house is on a mountain, but the villagers remind me that it’s just a hill, especially in comparison to the Alps just behind us, but when I’m walking up to my house or up to the car, I have never been able to convince myself that ‘it’s just a hill.’

Overall, I feel very lucky that I can have the best holiday every time we go there, as it just seems to get better each time.

Mr Sample

My favourite holiday is skiing with the family in Courchevel, France - a combination of mountain air, an activity that all the Samples enjoy and some après-ski.

Mrs Rahim

My best holiday ever was a cruise on the Nile. It was like stepping back in  time (and like stepping into an oven- I went in June!)watching the people on the banks of the river work the land as they must have done hundreds of years ago. The tranquillity and serenity of gliding down the Nile was wonderful as were the ancient pyramids and tombs that I visited. Fabulous!

Mrs Wilson

My favourite memory of a family holiday was buying a huge, giant, inflatable dinosaur. We then hid the inflated dinosaur in the shower room, pretending to our children that the Pirates of the Island had to leave rather abruptly and had left them with the responsibility of looking after ‘Deeno’ the Dinosaur.

We even wrote a ‘pretend’ note, stained with coffee to age it, signed by the pirates! Deeno came everywhere with us for the next 10-days. I do hope they don’t read this now they are 13 & 16 years old and find out it was Mum and Dad!

The Recycled Fashion Show 2021, as always, was a triumph. Our artists did not disappoint on impact, style and conceived some wonderful costumes inspired by the theme Commedia dell’arte. In preparation we teamed up with the Drama department and we all took on the challenge of the one-day commedia dell’arte drama workshop, which was fun, exhilarating and thoroughly entertaining.

Congratulations to everyone who took part, you are all winners, and your costumes were incredible, well done. Together we raised a total of £1318.50 for The Kanyike Project.

The audience voted, and here are the results for the audience winners of 2021:

1st Lucy Jefford

2nd Molly Hamilton

3rd Shivani Dave

Distinctions:

Eloise Button

Edie Milan Bianca Lam

Leana Kachiwala

Our Year 7, 8 and 9 have been of a wonderful programme of printmaking, ceramics, textiles, drawing and painting throughout the year, and we have been wowed by the creativity, innovation and enthusiasm.

Our five-star days have offered a trip to Tate Modern, a ‘one minute brief’ session, inspired by the twitter feed @OneMinuteBriefs; the quick-thinking creative community. One rule, one minute – create an advert! We also had some relaxation time with an afternoon of mindful colouring-in.

Our examination years have worked incredibly hard, fearless in the face of lockdown, they have produced outstanding, thought-provoking, intelligent and contemporary work. We were able to celebrate their fabulous achievements at our end-of-year Art exhibition on the 29th June.

Scarlett Sharma and Sofia Grant designed and created personalise artwork for the Deputy Head’s office, and Robyn Norwood hosted an Oscar day championing filmmaking and creativity.

We spent a wonderful day at the V&A with our sixth form students totally immersing ourselves in the wonderful Alice exhibition and marvelled at the wise words of Grayson Perry at the Art in Action Seminars.

Year 7 and 8 students spent an afternoon with Mrs Wilson constructing London landmarks and using experimental photography to record them. The outcomes are incredible, well done.

2nd Molly Hamilton

Eloise Button

Bianca Lam

1st Lucy Jefford

3rd Shivani Dave

Edie Milan

Leana Kachiwala

Senior Drama KS3 Overview 2021-22

It has been another performance packed year in KS3 Drama! Each year group has performed to an audience of students and parents. Year 7 performed their versions of ‘Macbeth’, one version based in modern day and one in a more traditional setting. The Year 7 and 8 Drama club gave our Prep students a pantomime treat with ‘Panto Pandemonium’. While Year 8 used ideas from their visit to see a professional performance of ‘Private Peaceful’ to help them stage their own performance of this play. Several Year 8 students also directed scenes in this play. Year 9 took their devised panto fairy tale performances out to show at a local primary school as part of their Year 9 Drama Festival challenge this year as well as showing devised scenes as part of a ‘Living Museum of Migration’ to our Prep 6.

Several Year 8 students entered the national Poetry by Heart competition this year. Bethan Conway became one of the national finalists of this competition by performing Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening’, through dance and voice. Bethan performed her poem along with the other national finalists and schools at the Globe. Massive congratulations to Bethan for her achievement!

It was fantastic to be able to arrange theatre trips again this year, so Year 7 and 8 were swept off to the world of ‘Wicked’, Year 8 watched ‘Private Peaceful’, in Cambridge, notebooks in hand to get ideas down! Year 9 and 10 went to see ‘Blood Brothers’, performed in Peterborough as this is one of their set plays.

Commedia Workshop

Macbeth

A special tribute to Ms Bassnett

Sadly, Ms Bassnett’s production of ‘Private Peaceful’ was her last show at St. Francis’ College Theatre. Ms Bassnett has been a very important part of our Drama department for teaching fantastic lessons and putting on great shows.

We will miss Ms Bassnett as our Wardrobe Mistress as she is absolutely incredible when it comes to sourcing costumes. We were absolutely thrilled with the fabulously colourful costumes for ‘The Little Mermaid’.

Ms Bassnett has always gone above and beyond in everything that she does. We will miss her very much!

‘The Oresteia’

‘The Oresteia’, is a Greek tragedy, which tells the story of Agamemnon, his wife Clytemnestra and their three children- Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes.

When the war against the Trojans and Greeks started, Agamemnon slaughtered Iphigenia as a sacrifice to the Gods because they wanted their ships taken to Troy safely. He then went to fight as the leader of the Greek Army. He came back after 10 years, during which time, Clytemnestra had taken over as Queen. Agamemnon had also captured a girl, Cassandra, who could tell the future and was enslaving her. Clytemnestra was angry with Agamemnon for slaughtering their daughter and going off for ten years and leaving them, so she murdered both Agamemnon and Cassandra. We also find out Clytemnestra has a lover, Aegisthus. Orestes starts a rumour that he is dead and goes to their house in disguise and kills Aegisthus. Shockingly, but in true Greek Tragedy style, he then murders his own mother with Electra at his side. The Furies narrate the story and offer their opinions. In the end they decide to hunt Orestes down, after he walks away free, from his trial.

I think the performance went well and we used the stage in a good way to create the scenes as someone narrated them. I also think the songs added to the play, because they gave us more of an insight into how the characters were feeling. I think our performance was quite easy to follow and everything was shown very clearly.

We used some interesting theatrical techniques, such as Bunraku puppetry and shadow theatre, which the audience found very effective.

Thank you to Mrs McDermott and Miss Dickinson for all of their hard work on putting the show together.

By Georgia Maddock

‘Private Peaceful’

‘The Little Mermaid’

For this year’s musical, St. Francis’ students performed ‘The Little Mermaid’. First, we had to audition for parts. Once we received those parts, we rehearsed after school and during lunchtimes, learning the staging of scenes and dances as well as our lines and songs. Music is obviously a massive part of a musical; we were extremely lucky to have our own live and dedicated orchestra led by our amazing Mrs Scott. They really brought the musical to life!

I was lucky enough to interview Evie Brown (Eric), Amelie Mitchell (King Triton) and Lucy Jefford (Flounder). This is what they said:

1. How did you feel when you found out you got your role?

Lucy: I felt excited because I’d been in the school play in Year 7, which was great, but I was now looking forward to a bigger role as Flounder!

Amelie: I was very happy that I got the role.

Evie: When I found out that I would be playing Prince Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’, I was incredibly overjoyed. Though, I must admit, I was a little nervous as it was the first major role that I would play in Senior School. But all in all, I was so excited to be given such an amazing opportunity to play a lead role.

2. What scene was your favourite to act in?

Lucy: My favourite scene was the song I got to sing (‘She’s in Love’) with the Mersisters as it was a lot of fun to dance in the amazing costumes we were wearing!

Amelie: Probably when I trashed Ariel’s room when I got mad at her, that was fun!

Evie: I thoroughly enjoyed all the scenes that I was a part of, but I would have to say my favourite scene would have to be the ending scene in which my character, Prince Eric married Ariel. I think the reason that I enjoyed this particular scene so much was because of the incredible people that I got to act alongside. The bows at the end were definitely a key aspect of the play for me as I feel that everyone’s hard work had paid off

3. What was your favourite memory of putting on the production?

Lucy: My favourite memory was waiting to perform ‘Under the Sea’ in the wings on the first performance as we could hear the audience waiting and it felt really special.

Amelie: Making new friends and having fun backstage before performances was the best!

Evie: My favourite memory for taking part in the school play must be our last performing night. I felt that everyone put their heart and soul into that performance, and it really showed. The feeling of knowing that we had completed all our performances wad relieving but also quite sad, as building up to this production, I had made a few new friends in other year groups, many of which were working towards their GCSEs. I knew I wouldn’t see them after this production, as they would be starting new chapters in their lives, heading off to various Sixth Forms and studying for their A Levels.

4. Why would you recommend taking part in a whole school play?

Lucy: It’s a wonderful chance to express yourself in ways that you can’t in the classroom and

meeting people from all different ages, that you wouldn’t normally speak to, is a lovely opportunity.

Amelie: You get to know so many people and it develops the friendships that you already have. You make so many fantastic memories.

Evie: I would really recommend taking part in a whole school play because you gain so much joy from it. You feel yourself become more confident working with others and find yourself having such a great time doing so.

During my experience of taking part in ‘The Little Mermaid’, I made new friends in other year groups, who I wouldn’t have even imagined myself taking to if it wasn’t for the play. I think it’s a great thing to take part in because you get so much thrill from it. I vividly remember the premier of the show, the very moment I stepped onto that stage. I was so nervous, but so excited. I fought a great deal of nerves, but thankfully, I made it through the show. The buzz from everyone on stage after every performance was phenomenal, each performance was carried out with such passion and such care, I feel privileged to have been a part of it.

Thank you, Lucy, Amelie, and Evie, for taking part in this interview!

Overall, this experience was incredible! A special thanks to Mrs McDermott, Mrs Scott, the Art Department, the lighting crew, Ms Bassnett, Ms Newland, the orchestra, the cast, and everyone else who made ‘The Little Mermaid’ really come to life. We hope to see you in next year’s play!

A Review of ‘Wicked’ by Anoop Sandher

The Drama Department organised for us to see the show ‘Wicked’. It was great - from the acting to the singing to the special effects.

The characters and the acting were amazing, they created a story that felt so vivid like they were people in real life. With all the characters you could tell all the emotions, all their feelings and connections. Each character had its own story, and it was just fascinating to watch them perform. I thought that the acting for Glinda was very good as she had to act as if she wanted to be serious but make it look funny without intending it to be. I found her hilarious!

The costumes were outstanding; they were nothing like I’d ever seen before. Near the end of the performance Glinda’s costume had to be elegant and beautiful whereas Elphaba’s had to be powerful and wicked. You could even tell what character they were just by looking at the costumes, for example, I could tell Fiero was important before anyone even said anything or the character spoke. The costumes for actors which were not humans were incredible such as Chistory and the other flying monkeys as they did not look like humans at all.

The music was the best I have ever heard live. It was so magical and the singing was very good. The singers projected their voice so loudly I could hear every single lyric that they sang. Everything was unreal and the orchestra never made one tiny mistake it was absolutely pitch perfect. The orchestra and singing worked well together and I felt like it was out of a fairy tale. You could still sense the acting in the singing. ‘Defying Gravity’, was my favourite song as it was so emotional, powerful and touching. The ability to act, sing and dance all at the same time was outstanding.

The scenery/set design was really fascinating;

Set design ‘Blood Brothers’

Year 9 Students were set the task to design a set model for a production of Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers.’

I felt like I was actually in the story. I felt that the scenery and props were so real, and they really reflected what was happening. The set design really helped describe the story without anything happening. The transition between each scene was really good as they could take the set design and scenery off the stage quickly and replace it with a new one in two seconds.

The special effects were fantastic too and really added to the magic. In particular, the Dragon and the Wizard’s head were absolutely amazing. I was so impressed by how it was so realistic and how it could move. As the head’s voice spoke, the mouth move so realistically that I thought the head was really talking, it was quite scary too.

The lighting was very important in this production; it exaggerated if something bad was happening or good, happy, or sad by showing different colours for example if danger was coming the lighting would turn red. Also the lighting set the scene, for example when Fierro and Elphaba were in the jungle they made the lighting green so it made everything more realistic.

My favourite scene was when Elphaba turned into a witch as it was a really powerful scene and changed everything. I especially liked the scene when Glinda and Elphaba parted, it was really emotional and very moving.

Overall ‘Wicked’ was incredible!

Refugee Week

My Home by Rajneek Sarai

Darkness is all I can see, Light nowhere to be found, War taking over, Leaving hope behind,

In my hometown bombs become more frequent,

In my hometown gunshots fire every second, In my hometown people are fleeing, In my hometown people are dying,

I have to leave.

I have to leave everything behind, Creating a sense of grief, When will it end?

Confusion fills my mind, Along with curiosity and fear, Hearing the wheels of the lorry grind, I close my eyes trying to hold back my tear, knowing we left,

We arrive in a foreign land, I heard it is peaceful and calm, Struggling to walk I hold my mums hand, Hoping we won’t experience any harm.

In order to raise awareness and an understanding of what it means to be a refugee, Yr 9 wrote some poems, stories and playscripts exploring this theme. They created a ‘Migration Museum’, which was visited by Year 7.

Evacuation (Or at least that’s what they call it) by Millie Jaisinghani

War in the eyes of a Child Christine Leung

The noise I had been dreading by Verity Wornham

I heard the sirens; it was time to go. I quickly grabbed all my things and headed to the train station. While I was waiting for the next train, I saw thousands of other people heading to the same place. I was terrified. The next train came. I quickly ran to the train before it was filled up. I jumped on and headed off to a safer place for now. I didn’t really know what I was doing or where I was going, but my parents always told me to do this if I heard the siren, so that’s what I did. On the journey there, I was hoping, the people that I would stay with were going to be nice. We had arrived. I got off the train and headed to the Town Hall. When I got there, I was told to sit down and wait for a family to come for me. While I was waiting, I looked around and saw everyone else come in to sit down. What was going on, I asked myself.

Will I ever go back home? Is it safe here? I saw a family walking up to me and they told me to come with them. I agreed and came with them.

They told me to register my name and gave me clothes to change into. Me and my new family headed to the next bus ride to go to their home.

When we got there, they gave me a room to stay in, and told me to unpack. After I had unpacked, their mum came up stairs to talk to me. “Hi my name is Sally and I will be taking care of you for the next couple of months”. I felt safe now.

Today’s the day. The day of evacuation. Or that’s at least what they call it. ‘They’ meaning the adults; the reason why by tomorrow, I’ll have a brand-new home. In theory, it sounds rather exciting. A while ago, I wanted to go play in the park after dark, my mum didn’t let me; however, she did let my brother go out. She told me it was because he was an adult; that he was more responsible and knowledgeable, more capable of looking after himself than me. So therefore, if an adult is meant to be responsible, knowledgeable, capable; why is there conflict arising? What happened to the peace? Obtaining responsibility means thinking through actions and understanding the consequences; understanding that you may not be the only individual affected by those actions. Obtaining knowledge means being able to solve problems without bringing harm to the welfare of multiple nations. This makes me think, if every adult is meant to have all these amazing qualities, why don’t they use them? Instead, they use them to do the opposite, bringing violence, uneasiness, dejection; all for one person’s satisfaction. And what happens to the rest of us is ultimately regardless. My mum said that I need to be grateful, that everyone isn’t perfect and we can’t expect perfect from an imperfect world, thus reasoning as to why there is so much sorrow in the world. I don’t think I ever wanted perfect; I think I just wanted peace. Or maybe that’s too much to ask for.

My mum shouts for me to bring my bag down. She helps me with my coat, kisses my temple, and whispers in my ear ‘today’s the day’.

People Fighting Under the Moon by Bella Barrett

I walk all day.

I walk all night.

So I can leave this horrific sight. Where I was from, Has become so blue.

With people fighting under the moon.

What was my home, Is now charred and smashed Burnt so badly, torn and slashed

I miss my life, my friends and more

But now is not the time to mourn.

My feet hurt with every step, My eyes are blurred from the lack of rest.

The food is scarce so I rarely eat,

My hands a cold from the snow and sleet.

They are so frozen they can’t write anything small and neat.

But finally the moment I’ve been waiting for, The train is here.

That will take me to my destination.

As much as I wasn’t to celebrate this joy, I have little money.

I must get employed.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, A deafening, unmusical sound pierced through my ear, After, it all went silent, Then the boom.

Silence, again, Even from miles away, The force shook the ground, But I wasn’t scared, much.

I saw people, A lot of people and mostly children, But I couldn’t make out their faces, Their expressions were obscure.

My ears were still ringing as I boarded the bus, Or was it a train?

I don’t remember, I took set next to a boy my age.

He was sleeping, I wonder if he was like me, All alone, Only left with the vague memory of the family that I was once part of.

I looked out the window, And focused on the dulled sound of the engine. For now, I’ll just rest a bit.

Will we make it out Alive? by Beth Hawthorne

As we head from our home, My stomach churns in worry. I have no clue what awaits us, As I climb into the lorry.

The air feels suffocating, And there is no light to be seen.

I don’t understand why we had to leave, I am only thirteen.

The journey was a bumpy ride, My little sister held onto me.

Why her?

She is only three.

All I can think about, Is what I have left behind.

My school, my friends, They are stuck in my mind.

Will we make it out alive?

Or can we not cross safely? Why did they have to ruin our home? Why did they have to take our country?

None of us knew by Natalie Chan

Never was there a day worse than this, A moment I will never forget. As the sun peeks over the horizon, As the gloom of the day creeps in.

The trains were crowded with children, All standing and weeping miserably. While our minds were filled with thoughts, Of the air stammering with gun shots.

I wondered what my family was thinking, While the train’s wheels were clinking. They never knew where I was going, But neither did I.

Every second was a mystery, For no one knew when the journey would end And what we would have to comprehend, As the train slowly turns around another bend.

A memorable day it was, But certainly not with a good cause. And who knows what would happen next? None of us knew for sure what to expect.

Can you Hear Me? by Lara Ajibodu

BANG, BANG POW, POW, FIRE, FIRE, RUN, RUN.

Those were the last words I heard, Hope is gone, Hope is gone, Somebody please help, Mum, MUM, Dad, Dad, Can you hear me?

CAN YOU HEAR ME.?

CHOO CHOO, The roaring of the train, The whiff of smoke entering my lungs, Am I going to pass out?

Finally were here, A new life, A new beginning, But the question is? Will I be happy here?

A new life, A new beginning, But sometimes I wish I could go back to my old one.

Mum, Dad, If you are reading this I may never be able to go back home, But you will always be in my heart.

Hope by Chenara De Silva

The day had finally come. As I step foot out of my home door, I knew that everything would change from this day forth. This may even be the last time I ever see London. I was dreading the saddest bit, which was saying goodbye to my family. Unfortunately, it was worse than I had expected, even more emotional. For some reason, my parents acted as if they would not see me for a while, but I decided to stay hopeful. Luckily, I would still have my younger brother Charlie with me.

Eventually, we reached the train station and said one last goodbye to my parents. My brother and I got onto the first carriage and kept waving until the train had left Kings Cross station for Kent, which is a very unfamiliar place to me. The ride was very loud and long, but my brother and I kept on wandering what our new family would be like.

Suddenly, the train stopped and the ticket keeper told Charlie that this was his stop. I immediately told him that there must have been a mistake, but he was affirmative that this was Charlie’s stop. We both burst into tears and Charlie refused to leave me. I decided to stay strong and reassured Charlie. I promised him that we would see each other soon and I would visit him soon. We eventually stopped crying and he eventually got off the train to meet his new family. The train once again carried on moving and soon it had arrived in Kent. I got off the train with my one suitcase and waited for someone to pick me up.

A few minutes later, a lady came and told me she was my care taker and that her name was Susan. I didn’t say much to her and the walk to her house was very silent. When we arrived at her house, she showed me to her room and said that dinner would be ready in ten minutes. I just sat on my bed, thinking about Charlie and my parents. I just wished that this was a nightmare. Susan soon called me for dinner and I ate my meal without saying a word. I simply just felt lost. She told me to go upstairs very kindly and said that we should talk more tomorrow as I would have felt very tired from my long day.

Morning had soon arrived and I kept on thinking about my family and how Charlie was doing. I got ready for the day and then Susan called my down for breakfast. It was quite lonely while we were sat down eating, because Susan didn’t seem to have anyone else living with her. Somehow, she manages to run a whole farm by herself. During breakfast, she told me that I should help her with cleaning the barn and feeling the animals and I found that I thoroughly enjoyed. We actually spoke a lot about our lives and that made me feel a lot better as I felt as though I could trust her. The day went past very quickly and I was time for bed. Suddenly, I burst into tears as I missed Charlie so much and wanted to be sure that he was ok. Susan came up to comfort me, but I was still so upset.

The next morning, I went to Susan to see if she knew the whereabouts of Charlie. She said she didn’t know, so I had no idea how I would find him. All I wanted to do was talk to him and my family. I have never been so far apart from them before, but I decided to remain hopeful…

The Evacuation by Lydia Roberts

I was sitting in an average English lesson with Mr Davis ranting about metaphors and similes. I knew that this was my last day in London before I would be evacuated to Kent with my brother. I couldn’t really hear what the teacher was saying, as my thoughts were deafening. What if the family were not nice? What if I missed home too much? Would I be separated from my brother? I had so many questions and none of them could be answered by anyone as there was so much going on in the world. I did not have any perspective of how long I would be away for, but I was not looking forward to it. I was only 9, I shouldn’t have had to leave my parents knowing that they are not safe. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t join us, but my father tried to explain to me that they still have to work and both my mother’s and father’s jobs were important to the war. My mother was working on aircrafts that had been too damaged to fly again, but still had salvageable parts that could be used to fix slightly broken planes. My father was sewing uniforms for soldiers who were going into battle. Additionally they needed to keep earning money so that when we did return, we would not be struggling financially. I couldn’t comprehend why they couldn’t just get a new job in Kent, but that was just my young, naïve mind.

When I woke up the next morning I was filled with so many emotions it almost hurt. I knew I would miss my family immensely, but I would be able to make new friends and meet on the sandy beaches of Kent. The weather would be wonderful and I could go for a paddle in the ocean. I went downstairs for breakfast and my mother was holding back tears. I pretended not to see it; I knew she didn’t want me seeing as she was trying to seem okay. We sat in mainly silence for the meal, with a few sniffles here and there. We were going to Kent via the train, so my parents walked us to the station to say one final goodbye. The station was so packed it was difficult to think. I gave my parents the biggest hug I physically could and took one final look at their tear stained faces as I boarded the train with my brother. We would be on the train for about an hour and three-quarters. At this point in our journey, we had been informed that my brother and I would be remain unseparated which was a tremendous relief. All I wanted to know then was what the people would be like. When we departed the train, we knew that we were looking for a lady who was holding a sign with our names on it ‘Olivia & Jason Jones’. We were also told that she owns two dogs, both of whom are very friendly. Through the crowd I could just make out a sign that matched our sign perfectly. I pointed it out to my brother and we made a bee line for her. My heart was beating in my throat. As we walked up to her, she gave us a huge hug that felt so homely it took me by surprise.

Yr

Migration Musuem

This year we decided to do the Year 9 Drama Festival differently. Year 9 were given the task of devising their own Christmas panto for young children at The Garden City Academy Primary School in Letchworth.

This was the brief they were given:

Your project challenge is to create a 10 minute play for a primary age audience that includes the following:

· A traditional fairy story or an original fairy story (that you have devised)

· Pantomime style of acting (exaggerated, clear characters)

· Physical theatre

· Song/Dance

· Direct address

· Audience interaction

· Asides

· A clear moral or lesson

· Costume and props to suit your story

We received some excellent feedback

Just to say thank you once again for coming in with your students last Thursday - they were fabulous and the children here really enjoyed all of the shows!

Towards the end of the Autumn term, Year 9 took part in our annual Drama Festival. We made our own plays in small groups; these were inspired by different fairytales. We were given a lot of freedom to explore our ideas as a group, and all the pantomimes turned out to be very different from each other, even those based on the same story.

My group included: Zoë Bysouth, Macy Emerton, and Isabella Koch. We decided to twist the well-known pantomime, Cinderella. We were allowed to let our imagination run wild, as long as we had a play that was suitable for a younger age group. We had covered all the necessary criteria for a good pantomime (audience interaction, melodramatic acting etc) and we had a moral. Ours was: ‘You can love anyone, regardless of gender, looks or fashion.’

We decided to change the horrible stepsisters into stepbrothers who each loved Cinderella

and would do anything for her. We also had a princess instead of a prince and two mice called ‘Jaq’ and ‘Gus’ to narrate.

We were given a whole term to think up ideas and to put it together. My group, like some other groups, decided to write a script. This was an interesting, but very hard part of the panto process as we only had four actors and a lot of costume changes, so a lot of extra scenes had to be added. Comedy is also a big part of pantomimes, so we tried to add some funny lines and scenes to keep the audience entertained.

The first week of term started off with us talking about the Characters and their twists. After that, we tried to work on a new scene every week as I started to develop the script. After Half Term, we had the final edited script, so we worked on learning our lines and costumes.

The audience were very supportive, and everyone would have their hand up to volunteer for a part in the panto. One aspect of audience participation that we hadn’t envisaged was when a small child ran out of his classroom and into the hall and shouted, ‘I’m a crab!’ which made us all laugh!

Everyone had a lot of fun during this experience; it really developed our friendship, confidence, and teamwork skills as well as our characterisation and script writing. Thank you to Mrs McDermott and Ms Bassnett for this opportunity as well as the Garden City Academy for hosting the event and the LAMDA teachers for judging. I hope the next Year 9s will have as much fun participating in the Drama Festival as we did.

Poppy Harvey

Antibiotics Unearthed

A Level biologist, Isabella Sandberg, presented her scientific poster at the University of Hertfordshire’s Life and Medical Sciences conference on Tuesday.  This was the culmination of her investigation into trying to find new antibiotic-producing bacteria to help solve the global issue of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

She explained her work to delegates, many of whom were experts in their fields.

One commented, “I thought Isabella was great and confident in her answers.  It’s so nice to know that she enjoyed the project and is doing Biology.  It’s also great that she is ambitious: we do need more medics!”

Wildlife Art Club

Some of our talented artists have produced some stunning images at the weekly Wildlife Art Club run by the Biology Department.  The entire collection of images is on display in the corridor outside Biology lab M104.

CAREERS

Getting Work Ready Day (Year 10)

This day, during 5 Star Week, focused on what employers look for, by carrying out assessment day activities and interviews.

There were 25 visitors in the College from a very wide range of organisations. Sessions covered how to prepare for an interview and a group work task concerning running an event.

Students had the chance to use equipment that detects gas and electricity cables! The students were absolutely brilliant throwing themselves into every session.

The Royal Navy Gutter Challenge tested everyone’s communication skills and teamwork, not to say resilience and the ability to learn from previous errors.

Every group improved rapidly and Group 5 was the first team in 3 years of the Royal Navy running this around the country, that successfully completed all 3 levels! Here are a few comments.

“I realised I know a lot more about my passion and achievements than I thought. It was very useful getting the advice I needed to achieve my goals.”

“I was given good constructive criticism.”

“I found out what I would be expected to prepare, how to present myself and what questions would be asked.”

FORMER

Jin’s experience at SFC and beyond

Driven by my own curiosity for a more diverse world and my enthusiasm to communicate across cultures, I decided in the middle of my Chinese high school life, to shift from the national Gaokao system and continue my study in the UK. I certainly was not an early applicant, but luckily, I grasped the last chance to get into St. Francis’ College, where I found myself warmly welcomed and sincerely embraced, where all my dreams and ambitions are nourished.

The teachers at SFC are patient listeners and consistent supporters. They helped me to go through problems brought about by the cultural, linguistic, and educational system differences when I first joined, and encouraged me to explore my interests beyond school curricula, pushing out of my own comfort zone. After a few months of studying in the College, I set my mind firmly on pursuing History of Art at university. I believe that Art is a thread that connects people and cultures, and by studying the history of it, I could delve into the past of different civilizations, which enables me to contribute to solving the issues in our world today from a unique perspective. After several visits and talks organised by the college, I set my heart on Cambridge – not only am I drawn to by the rigorous academic atmosphere there, I am also fascinated by the rich cultural resources available in this historical city, and world-leading experts in the fields of humanities and beyond.

The journey to Cambridge, apparently, was not an easy one, especially when considering my background as an international student who has only been in the A Level system for a few months, compared to my goal, which is a highly competitive subject, long seen as elite and exclusive (which in itself is a prejudice to be subverted!). Nevertheless, I am proud to say that after two attempts, I achieved the ‘impossible’, with immense support from almost everyone in St. Francis’.

When knowing my goal, our Headmistress, Mrs Goulding, Head of Sixth Form, Mr Carr, Director of Studies, Dr Dennis, and my Tutor, Mr Marriott, have provided me with insightful advice in Oxbridge applications, and were of great help and support at the stage of interviews.

When I requested if I could add History as my fourth A Level to support my application, Mr Grant, Head of History, despite being worried about the workload and massive knowledge gap, agreed for me to try this very challenging essay-based subject. Although being super busy, he took special care of my progress, and offered many after-lesson and lunchtime sessions, sacrificing his own breaktime. It is with his generous help and encouragement that I was able to catch up with my peers and achieved an A* in the subject, with a full-mark coursework essay.

The Art Department was of course, also of great importance for my academic and personal

development. The lovely teachers Mrs Wilson, Mrs Cowley, Mr Hobbs and Mrs Burton, dedicatedly created the most special and inspiring Art room, where students brainstorm, create and, appreciate each other’s work, leaving many beautiful memories. I will never forget the moments when I had after school sessions with Mr Hobbs, discussing all of my discoveries in History of Art - his words always make me believe in the power of art, and that I myself will excel in the world of Art. I will always cherish the moments when I share not only my ideas but also my truest feelings with Mrs Cowley, who will always listen quietly, her eyes looking into mine, and settling my anxiety just like a tranquil spring flowing on the burning stone. Mrs Wilson, though she has not taught my lessons, is always there to have a chat from which many of my ideas sparked. She is super supportive in and beyond the Art department, whose talents, passion and dedication have touched and inspired me so much along the way.

My Economics teacher Mr Marriott, my Maths teachers Ms Owen, Mrs Thomson, Mrs Rahim and Mrs Grant, all helped me to develop rational thinking and analytical skills that broaden my academic scope, which will benefit me in my future developments. I hope to give special thanks to Mr Marriott, who prepares such detailed notes for us before every lesson, and pushes us to pursue higher achievements, in and out of his class. It is with all the teachers’ help that I was able to gain the highest results in my final exams.

I must also mention the support and love that I was lucky enough to gain from my EAL teachers. They truly understand us as international students, and will do whatever they can to help us thrive in both life and study in a foreign country. Mrs Moore, Head of EAL, has given me massive help from preparing for my IELTS to picking up grammatical mistakes and improving the language of my essays (I got 8.5 in the IETLS exam, thanks to her superb teaching). She also helped with my mock interviews and visual analysis practice. Apart from that, she is a true mentor for life, who has been my first port of call for the past two years. Though not fortunate enough to have many lessons with them, Mrs Ashbrook and Mrs Brignall also amazed me with their unique and fun teaching methods, getting me to know English language and culture from all aspects.

There are so many staff who helped to shape my two years in other ways: the PE teachers Mrs Baxter, Mrs Greenfield and Miss Compton, have organised many engaging events to free us from the heavy mental work and strengthen our bodies; the LAMDA teacher Miss Neave who led me to explore a new world of theatre and helped with all my speeches and interviews; the music teachers Mrs Scott and Mrs Brennan who made me know and enjoy music more, from choirs to bel canto, which helped me to open up more of myself; the now retired college

librarian Mrs Purchon, who prepares new book feeds for all year groups each term, and will make every effort to get me the books that I need; the smiling receptionists, nurses, cleaners and canteen staff, who have supported us along the way, and have taken care of us in so many aspects – I still miss the meals of the college from time to time, and cherish the staff’s effort to bring Asian food onto the table. Though not knowing all of their names, I am truly grateful for the cleaners’ day-to-day efforts in making the College bright and pleasant, they are also the ones who are the last to leave the college, so have always kept me accompanied whilst working in the library.

The Boarding House has truly been my home away from home, where I met many friends of different ages from around the world and has bestowed me with so much joy out of the school life. Each of the boarding staff are like our guardians and friends, I remember our experienced Mrs Bedborough, witty Miss Arthur and her cute dog Tink, amiable Miss Boutros, Miss Patel and Miss Compton, who are just like our sisters; Mrs Bexfield, Miss Marshall, Mrs Mastalerczyk and Mrs Hall, who are always there to reassure us. And of course, Mrs Chan, who so kindly welcomed me and other three girls into her family and stayed with her during the pandemic lockdowns, who cared and considered for us just like our own mother. These fantastic staff have made the boarding house a comfortable, supportive ‘bubble’, and it really has been my greatest honour to be the Head Boarder, to have worked them as well as the admissions staff Mr Butin and Mrs Cogan, making the boarding community even closer and more diverse.

St. Francis’ is such a close-knit, loving community, which supported me even after I have graduated – many teachers still kept in touch with me and helped with my reapplication to Cambridge, after being pooled by the uni in my first round of application. The atmosphere at St. Francis’ has influenced my decision to apply to Murray Edwards College at Cambridge. I adore Medwards’ iconic dome and a chapel-like library with heightened ceilings. I love its finely curated combination of Brutalist concrete and works by female artists (New Hall has the largest collection of female artworks in Europe!). And I gravitate toward its super friendly, inclusive, and supportive community, surrounded by Darwin’s garden where you can sit on the grass and pick the flowers; so distinct from other Cambridge colleges. I knew at first sight that it is the place for me, and it reminds me so much of St. Francis’. I hope to bring what I have learnt from St. Francis’ to Medwards, and share my dreams which started in St. Francis’, with more like-minded people whom I am yet to meet.

BE THE FUTURE COMPETITION

Protec! – The Solar Powered Car

In May 2022, Pearson Edexcel launched the ‘Be the Future’ competition in association with the Peter Jones Foundation.

The ‘Be the Future’ competition tasked students of any year group to come up with a social enterprise idea that met one or more of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. More information about these goals can be found here: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Two Year 8 students, Louise Pollock and Iliana Kokotis, submitted their idea of the ProTec! - a solar powered car, to the competition. Here is their submission.

To begin, we decided to look at the pros and cons of solar powered cars to see if it was a good idea, and whether to do a presentation on it. As well as using many of the UN’s goals, which we will be tell you about later, you don’t need to worry about fuel, this is especially appropriate as fuel prices are currently increasing. These cars would also be made so that they could be for the average individual and would be affordable. People could also be interested in the new cars as they have not been sold yet by any other car company.

Next, we looked at the cons. The main difficulty is that the car would not be open to sunlight at night or when stored inside. Another difficulty is that the solar panels would increase the price of the car as a single solar panel can cost around

£300-£500. Solar panels can only convert around 20% of the sunlight into energy which isn’t too efficient. As well as this some people will not be willing to purchase a car from a new brand, especially as other car brands haven’t started selling cars yet.

After finding out the pros and cons we decided that we should look into designs and advertising.

We needed a name. We decided on the name ProTec! This is because the name is snappy, easy to spell, the name stands for professional technology and the word ProTec also sounds like protect. This gave us the idea to make a slogan: ProTeching your environment!

Then we needed a logo. The main feature is a solar panel which is easily recognisable. The letter O in ProTec is a sun, as the cars use sunlight energy to power the cars. Next, we drew out a design on paper to see how it would look.

We marked in red where we would like the solar panels to be. We made sure to place them in the best possible places so that it doesn’t disrupt the driver in any way. Next, we got some help on photo shopping solar panels onto cars. As you can see, we made sure to put solar panels in every possible area, including on the side of the car, on the roof, on the back and on the front it some places.

Then, we needed to look at our competitors. When researching for competitors we found multiple car brands. We figured that our biggest competition included companies such as Tesla, Mercedes, Jaguar and more, which we have listed on the presentation.

So, what would make our cars better? These cars would be just as affordable or cheaper. You won’t need to recharge the car as much as they can charge while they are being driven. The distance which you can travel would be longer during the daytime and the energy is ecofriendly compared to electric cars which aren’t always from a sustainable source.

And finally, we looked at the UN sustainable development goals used. We found out that goals 7, 11, 14 and 3 are all achieved! The 7th clean energy goal is used as the energy is from the sun. The 11th sustainability goal is used as solar panels on cars could encourage others to put solar panels on their roofs. The 14th life underwater goal was used as there is no pollution caused, or chemicals being released into the oceans which helps animals who inhabit ice and live in the water. The 3rd good health goal is used as polluted air can affect people with asthma as it causes their airways to become irritated, making them swell up and tighten which could cause breathing problems.

Basketball Commonwealth Music

Pupils from Years 7 to 9 took part in a musical workshop celebrating the Commonwealth in this special year of the Queen’s Jubilee. They created performed and created contemporary music inspired by the musical styles of Commonwealth countries, such as Ghana and India. They also integrated experimental ideas such as the use of hidden codes within their music.

We have come to the end of our FIVE STAR DAYS activities week and what a week it has been! It has been wonderful to see students, both in Prep and Senior School, enjoying a vast range of different trips and activities. From pizza making, to visiting Oxford University, to surfing on the Jurassic Coast, to Woburn Abbey, to storytelling, to accountancy masterclasses; the array of choice has been mindblowing.

Of course, we also saw ‘It’s a Knockout’, return to the College and this time Prep V and Prep VI were also included. It looked like this was a popular decision, especially to host the Staff v Student Games at the end of the day. I was also heartened by the return of so many of our wonderful Year 11 and Year 13 students to this and a range of other activities.

These opportunities are a crucial part of the co-curricular school experience and offer students the opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people and explore different environments.

I would like to thank all of the staff who fully supported the full variety of trips and activities. A lot of work goes in to planning these opportunities for students, as well as delivering them on the day.

Roll on FIVE STAR DAYS 2023.

Bioblitz 2022

A Bioblitz is a race against time to create a snapshot of the variety of life found in a particular location. Our location was the grounds of St. Francis’ College.

The Task was to find & identify as many species of animals as possible in the school grounds.

Over 100 species were found on one day: 26 species of birds, 18 species in the wildlife pond and 58 species of insects, arachnids, myriapods (centipedes & millipedes), crustaceans (woodlice) and molluscs.

European Café

The European café was a very fun experience. We learned how to make pretzels and crepes. We learned how to shape pretzels which was a little complicated, but fun. The crepes were easy to make and very tasty. Also, when we were not cooking, we were making the French classroom into a French/German café, by decorating it with banners, drawings and posters. We then got to eat our creations in our beautifully decorated café.

By Zara Bysouth & Zaina Sindaha

FIVE STAR

Dorset

FIVE STAR DAYS

It’s a Knockout

Puppet Workshop

Space

DIANA HAYCROFT

A tribute to Diana Haycroft who worked for 43 years in the St. Francis’ kitchen

Diana Haycroft is St. Francis’ College. Everyone has a story to describe the moment they first met her, and it usually involves her welcoming warm smile, kindness and ability to make you feel at ease.

Diana is famous for her delicious flapjack, incredible sausage rolls, and sprinkle cakes! She has looked after thousands of people across our whole community over the 43 years she has dedicated herself to St. Francis’ College.

Diana is remarkable, known to many as ‘Nanny Diane’, she has been integral in the lives of many of our boarding students, always making sure they are looked after, well-nourished and made welcome. It is incredible the number of overseas students who have thanked her over the years for her generosity and kindness, helping them through feeling homesick with the odd cake, or two!

Diana is truly unique and it was a privilege for us to present her with a book of comments and memories from all those hearts she has touched to thank her for her many years of selfless kindness.

Mrs Wilson

GSA BY SCARLETT SHARMA

The Gender Sexuality Alliance is a new group that has been set up this year by Mrs McDermott. Its aim is to provide a place for LGBTQ+ people within the College to talk about their experiences, change College policy for the better and to help educate others about the LGBTQ+ community. Though only recently set up, we have petitioned for trousers to be added to the uniform, which was agreed and is now allowed, given an assembly to the College about Pride month and contributed ideas for the new school policy on LGBTQ acceptance. We are also planning lots more for the coming year, including a Pride Week celebration. We are a safe, open space, so if anyone has any questions about anything LGBTQ related, please come along and ask us, or email us at; Sharma34S@st-francis.herts.sch.uk

Homophobia in schools

Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and unfortunately, the education system readily displays it. Though it is a requirement of the Equality Act for the curriculum to be taught inclusively, many schools completely ignore LGBTQ+ people in PSHE, sex education and wider learning. On average, just one in five LGBT pupils have been taught about safe sex between same sex couples. This is not just encouraging ignorance but is also putting these students in potentially dangerous situations. Though some people think that young people should not learn about same sex relationships on an equal footing to heterosexual ones, in reality we should learn about all sexualities so that no one feels invalid and so people can understand their feelings.

Ignorance leads to fear, which leads to hatred and eventually to bullying others. Nearly half of LGBT students have experienced bullying as a result of their sexuality. This can lead to poor mental health and a feeling of discomfort at school. Many schools do not understand how to stop it, or simply ignore it. Due to this, students may not feel confident in those who are supposed to protect them. If you witness homophobic bullying, I urge you to stand up for the victim, or tell someone. Casual homophobic language is also something that needs to be policed, as it creates an intolerant atmosphere and negative connotations with being gay.

Thankfully, the College is progressive and from our experiences, an accepting environment. However, we continue to work on being as fully inclusive as possible. If you have any suggestions, please use the email above. Remember, education is power, education is change.

Queer media watch list of the week!

Derry Girls

It is about a group of friends growing in Londonderry in the 90s. It is light-hearted and funny, as well as that it has queer characters. It also touches on the IRA conflict. New episodes of the last season come out every Tuesday night at 21:15 on Channel 4. It is rated a 15 on Netflix; however, many parents and children on the website ‘common sense media’ agree that it is age appropriate for children over the age of 12.

Umbrella Academy

This show is extremely popular and is based on a comic book. You can watch it on Netflix. It has two main LGBT characters. Klaus, who is pansexual, and Viktor, for which the first 2 seasons has not come out as trans and is portrayed as sapphic in season 2. However, as Elliot Page has come out as a trans man, the character has been changed to Viktor, who is also a trans man, to fit him. It is rated 15. Season 3 is coming out this summer.

LGBT ROLE MODEL

Chosen by the GSA

Freddie Mercury

His impact on the queer community

Freddie is often described as a ‘queer musical icon’. His death from AIDS is often considered a turning point for the epidemic. In 1992 the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness came together. Uniting some of the biggest stars of the time, in honour of his death. This concert spotlighted an issue that the government were choosing to ignore.

This concert raised an incredible amount for AIDS research and spread awareness about the disease.

As well as that he confidently expressed his femininity as well as being masculine and androgynous as times. This helped many young LGBT children at the time to feel more accepting of their sexuality at a time when being queer wasn’t as widely accepted in the UK.

His sexuality

Freddie Mercury never denied or hid his sexuality. He was rumoured to either be bisexual or gay, but he was definitely part of the LGBT community. When asked in an interview if he was gay, he replied ‘As a daffodil, dear.’

Info about his Background

Freddie was born in 1946 and was named Farrokh Bulsara and was Indian Parsi. Indian Parsi people are descended from Iranian Persians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution. He later changed his name to Freddie Mercury after emigrating to the UK because of racial abuse he experienced. ‘He basically had to masquerade as a white man to succeed’- Leo Kalyan.

His music career

Freddie was an extremely popular musician. After studying and writing music for many years, he formed Queen in 1970 with the guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The band is popular for many songs such as ‘Killer Queen’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Are the Champions’ and many more.

He had an extremely impressive vocal range of four octaves and was well-known for his flamboyant persona.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was one of Queen’s most popular songs, and was written by Freddie. Whilst Freddie never confirmed this to the public, it was rumoured that this was his coming out song. Especially about how different his life could have been if he had been able to be himself his whole life.

Archaeological Excavation 2022

Having been a professional archaeologist prior to becoming a teacher, I know how much people underestimate the difficulty of digging a hole. It sounds simple enough, get a spade, push it into the ground and remove the soil. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it sounds, yet I have to say that our motley crew of volunteers this year proved that physical hard work, combined with some lateral thinking can reveal a lot of answers to questions we didn’t realise we had before the day had started. And they made it look annoyingly easy!

The general question to ask before undertaking such a task, is always – was there anything here in the past? Nine times out of ten the answer is, we don’t know because we didn’t find anything. But this year was clearly the ‘tenth time’, because the team dug around a ton of soil in just a few hours and discovered around a stone of finds.

it was out of the way and wouldn’t damage the running track ahead of Sports Day a week later. Otherwise, the location was essentially random, but from looking at historic maps and photos of the town, this part of Letchworth was in use as a field for centuries. We were on the boundary of the school site along the rear gardens of the houses on Spring Road, where many of our students’ parents park their cars in the mornings. The OS map from 1899 shows that this was a farmer’s field before Letchworth Garden City was established in 1903. The 1910 map of Letchworth by the architects Parker and Unwin shows that this is an unoccupied area, soon to be bought to set up the Theosophical School, later St. Christopher’s School, and then finally St. Francis’ College. Whilst a school was in residence here from during the First World War (1914-1918), the aerial photo from 1925 indicates that the land where the pits were dug was not in use for any buildings. Therefore, we presumed that there was nothing to find – no one had used this land, other than for farming…. ever.

including a slave and a priest. The amount of land being farmed by the villagers was around 840 acres, and so although we can’t be sure, it’s highly likely that the location of our dig was within this land that was being ploughed by our Anglo-Saxon villagers. One hundred pigs are also mentioned as living in Letchworth in 1086, but obviously this is just a snapshot of the type of farming that was going on here 940 years ago. What has happened since is another question for another time.

Now given that we were on the edge of the school grounds, and the edge of the gardens of Spring Road, (as seen in the maps) it is possible that a lot of the soil we were digging in was backfilled from the landscaping of the area when it was converted into the beautiful site of St. Francis’, that we all know and love, possibly from the time when the tennis courts were created. This would mean that these old materials could have been mixed up with some more recently disposed of materials below, but we would have to wait and see. However, early indications would suggest that these nails, plus the significant amount of charcoal that we found would imply that we may have come across the remains of a wooden structure of some sort. Sadly, this is impossible to prove at the moment, but it would make sense that at some point in the past, this land had small wooden structures, possibly used for the medieval or early modern farmers of the village of Letchworth.

The rear of the tennis courts was chosen to dig four 1m2 test pits. This was ideal because

As a great optimist I believed that we might find some animal bones and perhaps a few pieces of tile or brick, if we were lucky. Within minutes of arriving on site, with trowels, spades, mattocks and recording equipment, the first finds were unearthed; small shards of glass and seriously chunky metal nails. These were not the sort of nails that you find in Wickes, but rather the sort that were made by blacksmiths in the Middle Ages, so already we may have hit evidence of the pre-Garden City occupation, back in the days of Letchworth the village. We know that this area has been continually occupied since at least the 11th century as it is recorded in Domesday (1086) as the village of LECEWORDE. Back then we know that there were 16 households in the village. It is impossible to know how many people lived in each of these families, but we could estimate that the population was around 100 people,

Of the four test pits, it’s necessary to say that in poor Test Pit 4, the likes of Poppy, Emma, Amelie and co were left to dig through the less exciting materials. They worked hard and found some remains, including animal bones, some of which were definitely scarred by knife marks, indicating that they had been butchered in some way, though sadly we will not know what types of animal it was, nor how long ago it

was eaten, but it definitely included ribs! Who knows, it may have been one of the Domesday pigs belonging to the Norman lord, Robert Gernon (after whom Gernon Road in town by the cinema is named after).

The other three Test Pits were of greater excitement as they revealed more random finds, including some pieces of metal, which have yet to be identified (if you have any thoughts on these, please let us know); small shards of unidentified pottery; a fragment of seashell, which we later hypothesised as a soap dish, as we found the possible wall attachment for it, complete with plaster and a bit of the wall; and some soap dishes of probable Victorian or Edwardian age.

As simple as these pieces are, it was a thrill for our students to be exploring and discovering what was essentially the waste materials of people who lived and worked here in the past. Then we got an insight into the taste of a resident from a century ago. A small, perfectly preserved, glass jar of ‘Shippam’s Fish paste’ was discovered. This was probably thrown out by a farmer or labourer who worked here in Edwardian times, as we googled it and found that it was from the 1910s. Therefore, this predates the College and is an item from the Early Garden City. It had probably been consumed by a member of staff in the late 1910s, they would have just broken one of their vegetarian standards of the school. Given the location of the test pits in relation to the school building, it could have been secretly consumed and disposed of to cover up their ‘crime’! We

The star discovery of the site though was a perfectly well-preserved Girl Guides Cap badge. Giiven the googling powers of our teenage excavators, they were able to prove within seconds that it was dated to the 1920s. So, trying to put the story of the badge into context, the school grounds were initially bought and set up as the ‘Garden City Theosophical School’ with just 5 staff and 14 pupils in 1915. Our Middle School Building (on the south side of our grounds) was built in 1919 and so it is possible that the remainder of the grounds were occasionally used by the recently established (1910) Girl Guides for activities or camps. Sadly, one girl, presumably much to her disappointment, lost her cap badge, only for it to be found 100 years later. The Theosophical School, later renamed as St Christopher’s, before abandoning the site prior to the arrival of the St. Francis’ nuns, also left behind a small unintentional gift. The only item that we can conclusively prove came from the school era, was a broken metallic key fob which is engraved ‘CLASSROOM No 20’.

In just one day we were transported back in time and returned with some souvenirs and some new questions: What are those bits of metal? Did they prefer plain or seashell soap dishes? Was the fish paste eaten by a secret pescatarian? Did a Girl Guide get into trouble for losing her cap badge? What sort of farm structure was on this site, and when was it here? Where was Classroom 20 and what happened to the key? Most importantly....same time next year everyone?

also looked and found that on Ebay it’s worth £5.50. Alternatively, a further hypothesis is that, as you can see on the 1910 map, the site is a good few metres away from the Spring Road residents’ houses, and so this bottle may have belonged to a resident with a good throwing arm to dispose of their waste.

Well done everyone for all your hard work, thank you to the support and skills of Mr Brown-Lee, Mr Mashiri, Mrs Ekanem, and to all of our excavators (and googlers!): Aanya, Amelie, Bronwen, Bella, Chenara, Chloe, Domitile, Eloise, Emma, Grace, Jade, Jessie, Megan, Milie, Olivia, Poppy, Sadie, Sarah, Scarlett, Shifa, Shizuka, Sophia, Sophie, and Tara (my apologies if anyone was missed off this list!).

Mr Grant

HISTORY

Falklands at 40 - interview with Dave Watson

In 1982, the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher declared war on Argentina after they aggressively laid claim to the Falklands, a collection of islands in the South Atlantic that had been a part of British territory for the previous 150 years. Within 10 weeks of the outbreak of war, it had ended in a British victory, however some 255 British and 650 Argentinian lives were lost. 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the war, with the anniversary comes an opportunity for reflection and recollection.

Mr Dave Watson is well known to all of us in school as one of our friendly and helpful site staff. He is here to help fix things when they break and help keep the school running in the background. Without staff like Dave, our lives would be so much more difficult. Behind the man is a story that not many of us know. This article is the interview in July 2022 between Mr Grant and Mr Watson, who kindly agreed to discuss his experiences as a young man who lived through the Falklands War as a sailor in the Royal Navy. Although it was a short war, it has lasting scars on the islands and the people who saw it unfold first hand.

Mr Grant: For our students who haven’t heard of the Falklands War, could you briefly tell us what the conflict was about and roughly what happened?

Mr Watson: I thought it was political because Maggie Thatcher was struggling over here and at that time, with the Miners’ Strike, (which we never heard of because we were down there), she needed a push to get back into power. So, we went to the Falklands for that. I thought there would be oil off it, something to boost our economy, but I don’t think they’ve ever found any. But on the Falklands, there’s just British people on there. They’re small islands, South Georgia is the one I went to, apart from that there’s not much down there, it’s about

200 miles from Argentina, that’s where the Argentinian planes could get to us, but if we were too far out then they couldn’t get back. A lot of our ships were too far out, so they’d run out for fuel, they’d have to turn back and wouldn’t come near us. But the Falklands they could get to and back. If you look at Argentina at the time, they were in recession, and I think they were trying to do the same, invade there to boost what people think. I think they didn’t think the British would go down there. That’s the first war that Britain have won on their own in recent times, I think. Argentina had hundreds of planes, we only had 28 planes, but they didn’t have the right pilots. They tried to keep the carriers away. The worst day was when the ship, the HMS Sheffield got hit, that wasn’t far from us. I was on the flight deck. We were in our Red Cross jackets, our helicopters brought their survivors on board and all their crew came down to where we had meals and all you could smell that day was just burnt. Just burnt. When we went down there, we were in nylon trousers and nylon shirts, later we were given all this flame proof material, because it turned out that all the nylon was sticking to them. I didn’t even realise this properly until I read about it in books later. That was the Sheffield, and to keep us safe the leaders made a decision that the bigger ships should be kept safe. That was all political. They had to keep the carriers afloat, they had no choice, we had things called ‘goal keepers’, the ships HMS Broadsword was closest to them, and HMS Brilliant in the middle, with us on the far side. That was our way of protecting us. If you were on one of those other ships it would have been, well…

Mr Grant: It’s unbelievable, it’s been forty years, do you think it would be different if it were to happen today?

Mr Watson: Definitely, because our forces, the Navy and the Army are so small. I think that’s

why we don’t get involved in a lot now because we have had so many defence cuts. Our Navy is so small now.

Mr Grant: How long did the war go on for?

Mr Watson: We were at sea for a hundred odd days, but remember we had to get there, then the war, and then we had to get home. It was weird, because you had people on there who were from the SAS. Now I wouldn’t have known who the SAS were, but I knew the people. They just turned up with beards and we all had short hair. They would have to use our beds when we were sleeping. Everyone had to sleep in their clothes, anti-flash, life jackets and stuff like that. So, when the Action Station went off, everyone went to their part of the ship, but I’d love to know where this bloke went to. I used to talk to him, because when I used to get out of my bed, he’d come in and say ‘see you later’ but he went onto land on the Falklands. I never knew what happened to him, I never did see him again when he went.

Mr Grant: Did it feel like you were at war?

Mr Watson: When we were going down there, we thought that it would be over quite quickly, no one knew where the Falklands were and I was just coming home on weekend leave. They cancelled all that. We all started loading the ships and were asking ‘What’s going on, what’s going on?’ Eventually we were told that we were going to the Falklands, but it’s 8000 miles away, we had to get there, and the sea was absolutely horrendous. It was the middle of winter. I think that’s what saved us down there because the Argentinians were on the island, and they were struggling because it was too cold.

Mr Grant: I saw in the Navy’s tagline, ‘Born in the UK, but Made in the Royal Navy’, does that ring true for you?

Mr Watson: Yeah, I’ve seen that one, I was born in Islington in London and moved to Letchworth when I was 5 or 6. My older brother, Peter, went into the Navy, and then my younger brother John, there’s a year and 19 days between us, he joined up. All three of us ended up on ships in the Falklands, Peter was on Invisible, I was on Hermes, John was on a relief carrier, the Illustrious, he didn’t actually do the war, but relieved someone to go home.

Mr Grant: Does your family have a military background, aside from your brothers?

Mr Watson: No, none of them. My older brother joined in ’77, he was good at sports as well, then I went in in ’79, and my younger brother joined about ’81. Whether or not our mum wanted to get rid of us or not, she was good with us. We used to play for Letchworth, but we moved on. Peter’s first ship was the Ark Royal. I remember him going around the world first, including Australia, then he joined the Invincible. Then I was behind him on the Hermes; we only had one carrier left, I think that was the Illustrious and my younger brother joined and thought ‘Well I might as well do that’, because you’ll have a good life if you can get through it.

Mr Grant: Before you joined the Navy, did you have a particular vision of what it would be like?

Mr Watson: My ambition was to play sport, but I also loved cooking. So, I wanted to join the Navy as a chef, or in catering, or something

like that. So eventually I joined the Navy in cooking. I used to look after quite important people, like the Captain. So, I used to cook one-on-one. I met some really good people in there, but that was my ambition. But I got sent to some places, such as the officer’s mess in Kensington for a couple of years, where I worked for Prince Andrew for a few weeks. He had a flat in Portsmouth in the base because he was a helicopter pilot. They said, ‘Just look after him’. I have photos of my mum and dad in my flat but the first time I walked into his flat, I saw he had photos of the Queen, even though she’s his mum, it was weird. Fergie was on the wall, but they had only just split up at that time. Then, he was alright….

I took all my exams at school, so I didn’t need them. I actually left with not a lot of CSEs. I left with a few but not very good grades. I just wasn’t interested, I joined at 16 and a half. Gone!

Mr Grant: It looks like you’ve travelled pretty much everywhere.

Mr Watson: All over the place, I have gone around the world twice, I feel like I have been everywhere. But we didn’t have iPhones so you used to take pictures on a camera and have to send the photos off to be developed. I have a good set of photos, but now we would have lots more photos.

Mr Grant: Is there one you’d like to go back to again?

Mr Watson: There was a lot I did like, I loved Phuket in Thailan;, I remember I played a lot of sport. Also, we played sport in Maldives, I remember being taken out on a hovercraft out there. I played football in the Maldives stadium. Australia was good, I think I was in Melbourne in ‘86.

Mr Grant: You said you also accidentally sat on Shackleton’s grave?

Mr Grant: So there are lots of careers within the Navy?

Mr Watson: Oh yeah, it was what I always tried to get my eldest daughter Lauren into, she’s a school teacher now, but I wanted her to join as a WREN Officer; you’d get really well treated, well-paid, see the world, and I just think most people don’t look at it like that. Especially now, there’s not many conflicts going on right now so our ships are still going around, we have the HMS Queen Elizabeth now.

Mr Grant: Do you have any friends who are still in the Navy?

Mr Watson: Yeah, I talk to a lot of them on Facebook or whatever, I’m going down to meet them on the 23rd of this month, staying overnight. The last time I saw them was probably five years ago. But the last time we were all together was 2007, which was the 25th anniversary. I marched down the Mall that day. I still have my invitation from the Queen.

Mr Grant: What made you choose the Navy? And your brothers? Was there a particular reason?

Mr Watson: It’s weird, because Peter went in and then I decided that I was going to go in. At that time, I played a lot of football, and I had trials for Coventry, QPR, Orient and that, but I never went to any. I still have the letters, but my mum pushed me the other way, to join the forces. If you’re good at sport, they really look after you. So, I joined the Navy, lucky I did at that time, in ’79, because football players weren’t paid the best, not millions like now! Just a few quid a week. The other thing, and I know that it’s bad, but you take a test, I went to Luton, and I passed to go in the Navy, before

Mr Watson: Yeah, you’ve seen the photo! I never knew who he was, but it was only on the news a few months ago when they found his ship, the Endurance. I thought to myself that I’d heard that name. Not many people have seen his grave or sat on it! That was in South Georgia. I met some lovely people, and some not so lovely ones; me and my mate said ‘It’s goodnight from me’ when Ronnie Corbett walked past us and he said nothing, which was a shame. Most people who I’ve met really want to know what you’ve been doing. The Queen Mother was nice, she always remembered your name, she was very advanced. I used to do events at Horse Guard’s parade, we used to do dinners for her.

Mr Grant: How did you keep in touch with family and friends?

Mr Watson: Oh yeah, we used to call them ‘blueies’, paid postage, on those blue envelopes. Mail went and the helicopters would pick it up from an island nearby. You’d get post maybe once every ten days. I remember when we were down in the Suez Canal in the Gulf, it’s only about the width of two tennis courts. You can then see people walking along with guns, we

were escorting these tanker ships down, at the start of the Gulf War. They used to have these holding bays in the middle of the canal, about the size of Letchworth. I was working for this Captain, Scott Bigdale, and he said to me, ‘They’re not going to wait for us to escort them’, I took a photo of it. I didn’t think any more of it until the next morning when we went through and I took the photo again and it was on fire, there was no protection for it. That’s just how it was out there. Everyone was always at Action Station. Everyone tried to stay out of it, we were involved but it wasn’t our war. The more it progressed, the worse it got.

Mr Grant: What was the teamwork like?

Mr Watson: The Royal Navy always trained you well to do everything you needed to. I was in the First Aid Parties. You need to be a team player, and you’d never get left out; everyone worked together and helped each other.

Mr Grant: Would you do anything differently?

Mr Watson: I’ve had a great life. My time in the Navy was some of the best years of my life. I’d do it all again, wouldn’t change a thing. My only regret is that I should have stayed for another six years and then I would have been retired at 40, the pension would have been given to me then. But I thought, no, I want to see my kids grow up. So I came out, but my friends stayed in and now they don’t work. Because they’re on good money. But what matters most is to be happy.

Mr Grant: Do you have any advice to our SFC students?

Mr Watson: I would really recommend joining the Navy to anyone and in particular our students here. They’re very bright here and could start very high up in the forces. They could make an excellent career and life for themselves. We bought a campervan a few years ago and we do what we can to get away at least twice a month. Don’t do things for the money, just be happy. If you wake in the morning and you’re looking forward to the day, then that’s a good life. I like working here, lovely people and it’s a great place. I just want to be happy, and I am.

Mr Grant: Thank you so much for you time, your thoughts and your service and all of your hard work at SFC. Have a lovely summer in the campervan.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

Zigi’s story as a Holocaust survivor

On the 21st of June, Year 9 were lucky enough to listen to the story of Zigi Shipper, told by his daughter, Michelle. Hearing the story of someone who had lived through the Holocaust was very moving but also terrifying that someone around about our age, had to go through something so terrible.

Zigi was born on the 18th January 1930. When he was three, he was told that his mother had died, as in reality she had divorced his father and it was seen as shameful in orthodox Jewish families.

When war broke out, Zigi’s father, like many other men, decided to flee, as he believed that the Nazis would only take him and not the elderly or young. Between November 1939 and April 1940, when Zigi was 9-10, he and his grandparents were transported to the local Ghetto. Here, Zigi and his grandparents lived in a small room with no running water or a toilet. Due to this, around 20% of the Ghetto’s population died, including Zigi’s grandfather. During his time in the Ghetto, Zigi worked in the metal factory.

In 1941, Zigi was taken on a transport filled with elderly, young, and disabled people. He jumped off the lorry and ran back to the Ghetto. The people on that transport were never heard from again.

Zigi and his grandmother were later transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on cattle trucks. These trucks were crowded and the smell inside was horrendous. It got so bad that Zigi wished that someone in his compartment would die, so he could have more space. It was at this moment, that he knew the Nazis had de-humanised him.

When they arrived, the Nazis put them through a selection process. It was here that Zigi was separated from his grandmother. Zigi was then given the number 84303.

Soon, Zigi was transported again, to Stuthoff. Later, he was transported again to Stolp in Pomerania to work on the railway lines; he was 14 years old. He was then sent back to Stuthoff.

As Russian planes were bombing, he was sent on a ‘Death March’. He was seriously ill with typhus. If he fell, the Nazi officers would shoot him, so his friends took turns in holding him up and feeding him snow to stay hydrated. They arrived at the naval town of Neustadt, where he was saved by British soldiers.

While he was recovering in hospital, he was sent a letter by a woman claiming to be his mother. She said that she remembered that her son had a burn on his left wrist, and Zigi had that same burn.

It was a hard decision for Zigi. On one hand, he didn’t remember his mother, as she was a stranger, and his true family were the people who saved him from dying during the march. In the end, he decided to go and live with his mother in England as his friends told him that he was lucky to even have a mother, and he should be with her. When he arrived in England he was scared, but he soon found a group of Holocaust survivors with whom he is still great friends. Zigi then found out that his grandmother died on the day the war ended. He never heard from his father again.

We were lucky enough to interview Zigi’s daughter, Michelle. This is what she said:

1) Does Zigi still talk to other survivors of the Holocaust?

Yes, he still keeps in touch with other survivors; he says that they are like the family that he lost as a result of the Holocaust and the other survivors say the same.

2) What was the worst part of being in the Ghetto?

Definitely the hunger. The residents of the Ghettos were practically starved for five years.

3) What was it like seeing your dad return to Auschwitz?

It was quite traumatic really, for him and my sister and I. He said that, despite him having been there for such a long and horrible time, he still couldn’t believe that what had taken place at the camp had actually happened. In some parts of Auschwitz, even Zigi hadn’t known what was going on there and those came as a shock.

4) What was the worst part of the Holocaust for Zigi?

Not knowing where, or even when, his dad died.

5) Has he ever forgiven the perpetrators of what was his living nightmare?

Zigi says that he doesn’t have the right to forgive them – that right is reserved for the lives that they took – but he doesn’t hold a grudge against Germany or the Germans (because he knows it wasn’t their fault).

6) What gave Zigi hope throughout the Holocaust?

Nothing. He didn’t have hope. He knew he survived because he was lucky. Zigi said: ‘Every day when you woke, you were surprised you’d woken.’

7) What was the best thing that Zigi has learnt about mankind?

That you can have a positive life whatever you live through. My father’s always been such a positive person, however much he’s experienced.

8) Does he have any regrets from that time – such as not escaping at certain points and things like that?

No – it was impossible to escape because everyone was so weak. Some people killed themselves on the electric fences surrounding the camp because it was, at the time, the only way to escape.

9) Did Zigi see any humanity in any of the Nazis?

Occasionally. Sometimes, a few of the guards threw the inmates potato peelings and other food.

10) How did Zigi restart his life after he was liberated?

After he went to London to live with his mum and stepfather, he found the Holocaust survivor club and was reunited with some friends that he recognised from his time in the camps. He said that was when his life started again.

11) Has Zigi suffered/does he suffer from PTSD?

Yes, although he doesn’t like to admit it. My mother, Zigi’s wife, has said that, if there was a thunderstorm at night, he would have nightmares because the loud noises reminded him of the sound of bombs. I think it would

have been impossible for someone to have lived through that not to suffer. The first thing he thinks about when he wakes up each morning and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to bed at night is the Holocaust.

12) Do you think something similar to the Holocaust could ever happen again?

Unfortunately, yes. Hopefully not as large or dreadful as before, but events like the war in Ukraine at the moment have shown that it could happen again.

13) Why do you think it’s important that stories like Zigi’s are told?

Because we need to remember what happened, and that it did happen. The deaths caused by the Holocaust shouldn’t be forgotten. The world needs to be reminded of what horrors hatred and racism can do.

For the past 25 years, Zigi has devoted his time to telling young people his story. He has toured the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge around Stutthof concentration camp, spoken to the England football team, and he even has his portrait in Buckingham Palace along with six other survivors. Despite everything that has happened to him, Zigi says that he has had a wonderful life. The Holocaust has still left a mark on him that he has never been able to forget, he never knew when his father died, his grandmother was never set free, he has seen terrible things too. This is what hate can do.

On behalf of year 9, thank you so much to Michelle Shipper, for telling us her father’s story. To Zigi Shipper for sharing his story with the world, and to Mr Grant who gave us the opportunity that generations to come will never get.

Poppy Harvey and Lucy Jefford.

MATHS

Maths Masterclasses 2022

This spring, Bethan and I were given the opportunity to take part in the Mathematics Masterclasses at the University of Hertfordshire. These classes have been running for over 30 years and allow school-age students to learn more about the wider world of Mathematics.

The first Maths masterclass we went to was amazing and such a great opportunity! We learnt about fractals - mathematical patterns that are self-repeating (like the Sierpinski Triangle) - and even used what seemed like the random throw of a dice to create our own fractal. As well as the content we learnt, the environment of the class felt safe within Covid restrictions, as we had a lot of space between the other schools, and exciting - because we were

sitting in a university lecture theatre!

Two weeks later, we had another masterclass, where we learnt about puzzles, like the Rubik’s Cube, and the many ways those types of puzzles can be arranged - with a tiny maximum number of moves to solve it! In the second half of the morning, we found out more about a field of maths called Graph Theory - created by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th century - and its interesting set of rules. Amazingly, Graph Theory has developed into an immensely important theory that applies to many areas of science (including Physics and Biology). Again, the session was eye-opening and covered such an interesting topic!

Finally, we had our last session on the mathematics behind the popular card game ‘Dobble’. This masterclass was great fun as we got the chance to learn how the game was made. In each Dobble set there are 55 cards with a combination of eight different symbols on each card with 57 different symbols in total. We learnt that this then allows any two cards to have exactly one symbol in common. After we were taught this, we were able to make our own mini Dobble set that consisted of 13 cards, 4 symbols on each card. This was an amazing masterclass as we had the opportunity to learn about how one of our favourite games works!

Lucy Jefford and Bethan Conway

SCIENCE

Queen’s Green Canopy

The Queen’s Green Canopy is a unique, UKwide tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. Everyone from individuals to schools, villages, cities and other community groups are encouraged to plant trees from October 2021 through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022.

At St. Francis’ College we are very proud to support The Queen’s Green Canopy and to mark The Queen’s 70-year-long reign.

In May, the College planted two cherry trees –one for the Prep school and one for the Senior school.

Every tree planted, highlights the significant value of trees and woodlands as nature’s simple but highly effective way to clean the air we breathe, slow the impact of climate change, create important wildlife habitats and improve our general health and wellbeing.

Model United Nations

For three days, eleven students (ranging from Year 8 to Year 13) took part in the Model United Nations conference at Haileybury. When we first arrived late Friday afternoon, I felt completely out of my depth. The opening ceremonies gave us an insight as to what we would be doing at the conference. At our first Special Political committee meeting, after talking to others, I knew I wasn’t the only person who had never participated in a Model UN conference before, and this was a huge comfort. On Saturday morning we began with our policy statements. This is a long section where every delegate must give a one-minute speech outlining their country’s view on the set questions, which had been released before the conference started. When you consider that there could be 60 people in a committee, this doesn’t sound too exciting. However, the chance to speak in public in a formal setting was, admittedly, valuable. Once the policy statements

were complete, the debating began. Members of the committee had submitted resolutions (solutions to the issues that are posed in the set questions e.g.- Slavery) which we were to debate and, eventually vote for or against. Everyone has the opportunity go to the podium and make a short speech about their country’s view on the proposed resolution. Then they can allow questions from the rest of the delegates. This continued for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, we began the day with a Chapel service at the College. After this, each committee proceeded to their designated room and more resolutions were debated. However, my committee only debated one in the three or so hours we had, as we had around 7 amendments made to it. Each amendment needs to be separately debated and voted for or against. After lunch, every delegate in the conference met in the sports hall. We were sat

MUN KS3

on a table for each country (mine being the UAE) like we were for the opening ceremonies. Then the whole conference began debating certain resolutions, handpicked from the various committees. After this was over, the closing ceremonies began. This included prizes for exemplary delegations, thank-you’s for those who organised the event and a slideshow of pictures from the weekend. This concluded the 2022 Haileybury Model United Nations Conference.

Overall, it was an incredible experience that has given me the confidence to speak in public, gaining political knowledge and gaining many new friends. Thank you to the school and in particular Mr Carr for arranging this opportunity.

Jess Kempster

Chariot Racing Wordsearch

D Y A D D N Z M M R Y V K M D L K Q S T K Q T I L X D B D R V T D E Z T K L D M T Y G U Q L T V P M L K X A M U R O L T D K G L R L I T N V X P H Y D P N P V U I R D R L A I L P M T G S N Y N I Q V T D B T N N Q S U R R U C M S A G U G A B P S L T R B D G D Q R E S I I L N U C B N D Z M P U M E K D T L L B Y M I V A Y M C I R G N Z N O I O C N D N E P H I P P I U M R R S R I D Y O D R E U I A Y M B A B O G N N S S I I O P Z I R R E T L Q L G L Q Y N D I Y Y E T C P T U P Q N O T N E L N U V U A K I Q S I R M A C A A D S A M N Q U Q D M D E M P R P G N T L A B P A I T M E A I S M R N T U Z S Q C S R O V Y T U B D R E I C A E L O S V M V L D D B U V P I P R L Z I N C R U D Y B V Z R Y Y N U V L D R S M R E U S T L D E V M A G I R U A T R T S Z V D S M I C M A U D S I R S U U Q E B D I N L Y D T Y Y U G L E P F N L E K E N K A P D N N Y V N V D Q N Q S Q I R D D A A L X S R V N D T A V M M P M M L Y U E E A G P D B G E X M Y Z E G R Q Y M Y T I Y I M N Q A R A Z I A I C R G G I B B M X P M U G U I U R G U Q I L V R T R N Y T N D A T I V Q Q K V M V I X V O L U U L I V D A T R B L H Z L B D V Y V B N T L N R T S U V L T A L X T X M Z M

Q K B B G V Y K M D L U D I Q O D Z U L T Z B V V M N V M G P N B X D I D M B R E L P V Q I B D Y M

equa iugum biga currus auriga circus spina meta lorum

frenum habena rota sponsio pignus agitator celes mulus eques

equula ala ornamenta equi hippodrome certamen cursus equorum ephippium

stabulum eculeus carceres miliarius solea tabanus pugio sica admissarius

equus mannus canterius quadriga spatium

Spring Concert Review

The Spring Concert 2022 was really great to see and be a part of, it brought back live music in the school which we haven’t seen or heard for 2 years due to COVID, so it was lovely to be there. There was so much talent displayed and I loved seeing what the different musical groups had been practicing and working on, and they performed their work so brilliantly. I really enjoyed the chance to go up on stage and perform in front of everyone, it really helped boost my confidence and I am very grateful for that. There was a large range of music, from singing to playing an instrument, classical music and rock music, so it was never the same from one act to the next, it was always exciting to see what was going to be played next! There was also a good mix of different ages playing which was nice to see and, I think, it really helped to boost everyone’s confidence, especially those who haven’t played in front of a live audience much before. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the Spring Concert and can’t wait for the next one!

artists

Libby Stringer music quiz

1. What are the top three biggest selling albums in the UK?

2. The Beatles have sold the most records in the UK. Roughly how many is that?

3. Who is the biggest selling British solo artist of all time?

Hits by Queen Gold The Greatest hits by ABBA Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles

million

Robbie Williams

SIXTH FORM

Students from the Sixth Form gave their excellent presentations on a wonderful eclectic range of topics. The EPQ is an excellent preparation for University as it demands project management, time management, a high standard of researching and referencing skills and is a fully independent piece of work. The questions posed by the EPQ students this year were :

• Do works of literature oppress women?

• What was the most important feature of Roman religion?

• To what extent was hosting the London Olympics in 2012 beneficial to Great Britain?

• What makes a serial killer : nature or nurture?

• To what extent of similarity can we compare the Stasi to modern-day nations’, ‘Secret Policies’ and censorship?

• Is the treatment of racehorses justifiable due to its ethical and health concerns?

• Film about ‘The Makings of Evil’.

Year 12 Induction

At the start of the school year, as we welcomed our new Year 12 students for their induction day, we played some teambuilding games to help relax everyone as they returned to College after the long summer break, and to allow our existing students to get to know our new arrivals into the Sixth Form.

In the afternoon, Year 13, who had missed out on a proper Sixth Form induction day the previous September, due to Covid restrictions, joined us for a visit to Box End Aqua Park. The weather was glorious, and students all had a wonderful time in the Aqua Park on the inflatables course, before finishing the afternoon with a well-deserved ice cream.

The Sixth Form induction day is such an important start to the year, and having Year 12 and Year 13 spend valuable time together helped establish new friendships which have flourished as the year progressed.

Mr Carr

IN DEPT

Individual Needs

The values that underpin all we do in the IN Department:

• The needs of our pupils come first

• Everyone in our College community is special and important

• Each of us works to improve on our previous best

• Learning is active, meaningful and creative

• We have high expectations of ourselves and each other

• We work well in a stimulating learning environment

We work with our students to help every pupil:

• be successful and confident

• be self-aware and co-operative

• have a continuing love of learning

• be independent and work well together

• be a solution finder and

• be creative

We collaborate with teachers, parents and pupils to agree targets to support their needs.

Some examples of how we do this include-

• Learning and practising essay writing skills

• Revision and exam techniques

• Over learning and pre-learning

• READING, READING, READING!

• Social, communication and emotional skills

• Mindfulness

Which blob are you today? What can you do to help yourself with your learning today?

Reading a variety of high quality texts is the best thing you can do!

WOMEN AND FORMULA 1

I have always had a passion for cars and bikes, which has led to my love of different kinds of motorsports, MotoGP, Rally, Indy Car, Le Mans and especially Formula 1.

I was lucky enough to obtain F1 experience tickets to the 2021 British Grand Prix. This allowed me to be there on the Thursday, which is the media day. I was able to attend the live interviews with drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, George Russell, Charles Leclerc and many more.

Over the weekend not only did we see Formula 1 racing, but we also saw W Series, which is an all-female single seater racing Championship. As a female who has a massive passion for motorsports, to be able to experience an allfemale racing championship was an amazing opportunity. I personally think Formula 1 is a male dominated sport, and I would love to see more females in the sport, racing and presenting.

I love karting and I go regularly to Rye House (where Lewis Hamilton started). One day, I’d love to have the opportunity to be a presenter in motorsports, not just Formula 1, but others, like MotoGP and Rallying.

By Feifei Wright

September - Years 7 and 8 Book Clubs

Our Year 7s and 8s got on marvellously with their first book club meetings and the weather was gorgeous for them. The Year 7s started with Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’, as well as books of their own choice. The Year 8s started with ‘The Woman in Black’.  Both groups showed incredible enthusiasm.

As the American author, Betty Smith, once said, ‘The world was hers for the reading’ and every little bit of the world that has been shared through books with our students, is a little bit more of the world that they’ll understand and explore.

This was just the beginning!

Year 9 Book Club

Our Year 9 Book Club also had an excellent start!  The day was bright; the books were right, and the students were a delight!

Our first book in this club was about the extraordinary life of Mary Seacole.  She defied expectations to save people’s lives.  Born in Jamaica, where she grew up, she learned how to nurse from her mother.  She travelled the world as a single woman, used her medical skills to save the lives of countless soldiers in the Crimean War, and became a beacon of hope for those in need.

This was the start of many good discussions for our club!

Lit in Colour

In the summer of 2021, our College was the happy recipient of over 300 books by minority and ethnic writers.

These books were donated to the school by Pearson, as a result of our Head of English, Ms Vicky Bryan working together with them to develop the inclusiveness of the English curriculum.  She is our College’s ‘Lit in Colour Pioneer’.

Over the school year, our students have enjoyed these books immensely, as well as the extracurricular aspects of this initiative.  Year 10s and Year 12s especially benefitted, as they also received a free text for their studies, which they would otherwise have had to purchase on their own.  The Year 10s recieved ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, by Malorie Blackman and the Year 12s read ‘Beloved’, by Toni Morrison.

The Lit in Colour scheme was launched by Penguin and the Runnymede Trust in 2020 to explore how to increase UK students’ access to books by writers of colour and those from minority ethnic backgrounds, to ensure the teaching and learning of English Literature better reflects contemporary culture and society.

St. Francis’ College is very pleased to be a part of it all.

9VBR English Class in September

Thanks to the gorgeous sunshine at the beginning of the school year, 9VBR enjoyed some of their English classes in the beautiful sunshine. It was a sharp contrast to the text they were studying, ‘Touching the Void’, in which Joe Simpson and Simon Yates endure intense pain and horrendous luck, whilst achieving their goal of being the only climbers to ever have climbed the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. As Joe Simpson wrote, ‘If you succeed with one dream...it’s not long before you’re conjuring up another, slightly harder, a bit more ambitious, a bit more dangerous.’ Everyone wondered what and where they would be reading next!

Poems

Poem of choice by Zaina Sindaha

Lovely lady dressed in red (ladybug poem)

Choices Poem by Hannah Cornforth

Choices are choices as hard as they are to make.

Choices are choices they decide which path we’ll take.

Choices are scary and sometimes daunting choices aren’t supposed to be easy as long as they are meaningful and also helpful.

Choices decide what I’m going to wear.

Choices decide on how I’ll have my hair

Choices are choices as hard as they are to make Choices are choices they decide which path we’ll take

A lovely lady dressed in red, dots

Of black jewelled eyes pots

Surround her, flowers bloom like a daisy

Blowing in the wind she is lazy

And calm not a thought in the world

She senses her prey with her curled Antennae long and luscious,

As it flies by it get caught squeezed and nutritious

Yummy food, and now the prey is dead!

A savage lady dressed in red

Careful when she comes by because she is not What she seems, a lot

Of things happen in her life but she Has found her mate handsome as he Is but in the end you can’t trust

Anyone, not even the one you love you must Be careful Otherwise you will end up dead

Like the lovely lady dressed in red!

Choices poem by Zara Bysouth

There is a fork in my road, Which way will I choose?

Shall I look down each path?

Or should I trust the unknown?

I will look down each path?

Or shall I trust the unknown?

Both go down, Both are unknown.

But I will choose the right path, Because right is never wrong Down I go, And down I go.

I have chosen wrong. I have no second chance, I have no second hope.

Poem of choice by Leanna Kachiwala

I was asked to write a poem

I’m not even done yet

But the theme was choices, what should the last line be?

The one thing I hate I can’t even decide on that

The one thing I can’t decide on, I guess I’ll end it here then. Which word should I use?

Umm maybe coincidence

That sounds good, right No, no it should be incidence

What should I write next?

Chicken noodle soup yummy

Poem of choice by Keira Wan

Left or right, Which way do I go?

Up or down?

I don’t know.

What shall I eat?

Today as a treat. What will I wear?

So people don’t stare.

So many choices, So little time.

What shall I write?

To make this all rhyme.

It’s always so hard, Making a decision.

But in the end, It’s all about precision.

So don’t think of all these things, Just do what you might.

And by the end of the day, You’ll know what’s right

Wait I’m so off topic

That’s so irreverent

When is this due Ok Wednesday

Hang on it’s Tuesday

I’ll never finish this I am so hungry but what do I eat Cake or cookies

But there scrips so let’s go with that But there are too many flavours

Oh bananas I need to change for the party Leggings or jeans

Jumper or hoodie

Oh I’m going to be so late

Poems inspired by the poem, ‘If’, by Rudyard Kipling

If by Natasha Chanda

If you can focus and study hard in school, When everyone around you acts a fool.

If you can chop life and not let life chop you,  And let the haters walk away too.

If you can work, stand high and proud, For heavy is the head that wears the crown,

If you can keep on pushing through,  cast all your worries and cares away.

If You can speak with both authority and wisdom,  And treat these two advocates the same.

If you let those loudmouth people, come, and go, So, life outside of the frame,

If you can let your drip stand out, And let your uniform be smart and neat,

If you don’t raise your voice even when others shout, And when you speak let others take a seat.

And which is more, Neriah and Seth you’ll be just like me.

If by Seyi Dosunmu

If you can dream big and not let flying comments drag you down

If you can just live life when others are simply racing through it

If you can hold your head high and wear that crown

Then you’ll be more than a Queen, my sister.

If you can hear lies twisted around like a bucket of ropes

Created to distract you from your hopeful goals

Look the other way, no need to listen in.

If you can let harsh words brush past you like a cool breeze Then you have more class than they’ll ever have.

That’s not to say don’t fight back

But turning the other cheek is what holds the greatest power.

If you meet with Success and Disappointment

Handle those two creatures just the same. Make life your own, don’t let life employ you.

FOOD AND NUTRITION

Throughout the year, in normal curriculum lessons, pupils from all years work so hard, in limited time, to produce fantastic results. They build on the skills and techniques learnt in previous years and show real progression. For those completing the GCSE course, this culminates in a 3 hour practical exam in Year 11. Some of the highlights can be seen below.

Year 7 started the year making scrambled egg on toast as a quick snack and later planned their own recipes for a homemade seasonal soup. Year 8 focussed on a variety of practical skills and the science behind baked products. In their last lesson, they were challenged to make a decorative Swiss Roll. In Year 9, pupils learn how to make homemade pasta, completing a practical assessment and making their own dishes. They also developed their own recipes for cheesecakes using a basic recipe as a guide. At GCSE, pupils develop their skills further learning how to make different pastries and baking techniques. They jointed chickens, filleted fish and focused on high level presentation skills.

Well done to all those who have worked hard this year. Cooking is not easy and perseverance is required when things might not go as planned!

A huge ‘Well done’ to Holly Manning who represented the College at the Springboard FutureChef Local Final at North Hertfordshire college.

Holly cooked a main course dish for two people in I hour with great results. She worked in a catering kitchen and there was stiff competition from other competitors. Although she did not win, she received praise and valuable feedback from the chef judges.

She made Garlic and Herb Chicken with Sweet Potato Mash and Green Beans.

FRIENDSHIP

Being In a Healthy Friendship Means Being In a Unhealthy Friendship Means

The person feels good about themselves when they are with their friend  The person doesn’t feel good: their feelings are hurt or they feel sad or upset around their friend

There’s an equal amount of “give and take” between the person and their friend  The person and their friend only talk about the friend

The person feels safe around their friend

The person trusts and respects their friend

The person wants to spend time with their friend

The person can be themselves around their friend

The person is uncomfortable with what their friend says and does

The person’s privacy is not respected

The person feels like they have to spend time with their friend

The person acts differently around their friend

The person goes to places and does things both people like with their friend  The person only goes to places the friend wants to go

Year 9’s friendship-building workshop

On the 5th of March, Year 9 had a workshop to develop friendships, which was run by Mrs McDermott and Mrs Wilson. Friendships in school are just as important as the grades that are obtained. We watched an inspirational TedTalk which we all really enjoyed and found useful.

In the TedTalk we found out about how even though we have the technology to develop friendships around the globe and to connect with so many people, we are still very lonely. The reason for this was the lack of the three requirements for a healthy friendship (frientimacy). These three requirements are: Positivity, consistency, and vulnerability (as shown in the image). Without all three of these, we will never have a healthy friendship.

We also did a lot of creative activities too. We made posters using cuttings of magazines and we wrote down everything that we wanted our friends to be, some examples are to be trustworthy, kind and understanding. We also looked at different scenarios and worked in groups to discuss how best we would deal with that situation.

Overall, this afternoon of activities gave us some good ideas on how to build and strengthen our friendships and the school’s overall community. The table which outlines what being in a healthy friendship means gave us a lot to think about.

Poppy Harvey

Interfaith Forum

On Monday 14th March, Genevieve and I were fortunate enough to chair the Interfaith Forum for years 9-11 with representatives from a range of global faiths. Students had the opportunity to ask a Christian (Wendy), a Jew (Reynold) and a Hindu (Raj) deep and thoughtful questions - ones that helped many of them in upcoming exams to gain a wider knowledge of religious beliefs.

I was very impressed by the intelligent and sophisticated questions asked by students in the forum. Wendy, Reynold and Raj were asked about, for example, their religions’ attitudes to same-sex marriage, the purpose of prayer, the meaning of life, the relevance of religion to a young person and whether or not being religious makes you a ‘good’ person or not. The questions put forward challenged each religious representative, who came back with informed and astute answers that helped students gauge the views of the three different religions.

Overall, the Interfaith Forum was a great success! We all gained valuable knowledge about each other and our beliefs that will stay with us all to help with exams, as well as general awareness of religious beliefs and practices. Thank you to Wendy, Reynold and Raj for coming and talking to us about your religions and beliefs, and thank you to the students attending for all your brilliant questions!

By Heather Pollock

Reynold Rosenburg

On 10th January this year, Year 7 was visited by a Jewish minister called Reynold Rosenburg. He delivered a short, but in-depth PowerPoint about his religion and why it is so special. He shared his thoughts in a way that was sincere, heartfelt and educational, the perfect way to grab our attention. The first thing he talked about were Jewish festivals, which I myself found very interesting because, as we got deeper into the conversation, I realised how many similarities and differences there are between Jewish and Christian festivals and how they are celebrated. Reynold then went on to talk about Kosher and the different rules that apply to its practice. He mentioned some very interesting points about his personal practice of Kosher and shared a few very funny stories about when he accidentally broke Kosher himself!! Reynold was very good at using his own experiences to teach us about more parts of Judaism which I think brought more to the presentation. He talked about his synagogue and how things are run there but also about his home and how he and his family practice their religion. Overall, I think I can speak for everyone when I say, Reynold delivered a superb presentation and I can safely say we have all taken something away from that session that we didn’t know before.

By Lexa Keen

Year 7 visit to the Jewish Museum

On Friday 1st July, Year 7 visited the Jewish Museum in Camden. When we arrived, we were greeted by our tour guide Ellie. We all sat down and learnt about Kosher food rules in Judaism. It was very enjoyable to see how what was written in the Jewish Holy Book, the Torah, was translated into rules Jews still follow today.

Next we visited the galleries and saw different Jewish artefacts. We learnt about different festivals, such as Passover, Channukah and Yom Kippur. We even tasted some foods found on the Seder plate during Passover, like matzos and parsley dipped in salt water.

We then had our lunch (which all followed

Kosher rules to be respectful) and learnt about the Jewish holy day, Shabbat. We found out what was forbidden on this day and did some activities to illustrate this.

One interesting thing I learnt is that the number 18 is important in Judaism because in Hebrew (the language the Torah is written in) different numbers represent different words and 18 is the number for life.

At the end of the visit Ellie answered some of our questions. It was a very informative day and everyone really enjoyed it!

By Emily Page-Gutierrez

Jewish Museum Trip

On Friday 1st July, Year 7 went to the Jewish Museum in London.

I did not really know about the Jewish culture and festivals, as I don’t study R.S, however the tutor, Ellie talked a lot about the culture and explained that Orthodox Jewish people will avoid eating any meat with dairy products. This is because of a verse in the Torah which says, ‘You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk’. I was also surprised that there is gelatine which is made from fish instead of pork and that this is used in Kosher Haribo! I also learnt that the number ‘18’ is very important to Jews because it means a new life in Hebrew.

There were lots of interesting displays in the museum and there were display boards to help us understand each festival more easily. Ellie also let us have a closeup look at different objects they usually use in Shabbat (the Sabbath), such as the cups and the candles. We also found out that there are some devices or objects used to help Jewish people to make life more convenient while still following the rules of Shabbat, such as the light cover to cover the lights in the fridge. This is because Orthodox Jews are not supposed to switch on any lights on Shabbat as this is regarded as work.

I really enjoyed the trip and I have learnt a lot.

By Patricia Tsang

Miracle Haikus by Year 10 Religious Studies

Our GCSE RS students were asked to provide their interpretations of the miracles attributed to Jesus in haiku form. These three line poems are an effective way of condensing arguments in a fun, creative and memorable way.

Walking on water

Or feeding the 5000! Can these be trusted?

What are miracles?

A stressed justification

Or proof that God exists?

God’s favouritism

Can turn the world upside down

For better or for worse?

(Erica Peter)

Parting the Red Sea

A miracle caused by God

Bringing us freedom

Are miracles real?

Or a placebo effect?

It’s all in my head

(Sophie Smith)

Walking on water

A miracle by Jesus

David Hume says ‘no’ (Janel Fung)

Miracle proven He is truly among us He is placebo

Mind over matter

Your faith has truly cured you For the love of God

Miracle maker

An absolute conviction

No strong evidence (Sadie Armitage)

Miracles? They’re false!

A claim made by David Hume

Untrusted stories

Psychological, Power; mind over matter

Cured by conviction (Morgan Andrews)

Year 10 RS Haikus Poems composed around the problem of evil

Pain helps us to grow

A necessary balance

It can lead to joy

(Morgan Andrews)

Between atheist, Possibly an agnostic

A childhood confused (Erica Peter)

Nature took its time

As evolution arrived

To create our world

(Sophie Smith)

Other than God, what?

Science, the reality

Based on evidence

(Janel Fung)

Suffering’s silence

Unreal God out of reach

Pain’s hour: where were You? (Sadie Armitage)

Year 9 trip to Bhaktivedanta Manor

On Thursday 30th June, Year 9 went on a trip to Bhaktivedanta Manor. When we arrived, we went on an oxen-pulled cart ride to see the ‘Cow House’. We met the oxen and fed them with carrots. Some of them were a bit stubborn and refused the snack by using their tongues to knock it out of our hands! Then we took another cart ride back to the main part of the Temple. From there, we took a scenic walk around the ‘George Harrison Garden’. George Harrison bought Bhaktivedanta Manor in 1973 for the Hare Krishna community after a trip to India.

Next, we went to the sacred greenhouses and saw the Tulsi plants and we were taught about prayer beads. Each set of prayer beads had 108 beads. To pray the beads are held one at a time and the prayer is chanted. Hindus here try to do this sixteen times every day!

We then went into the Temple. Here we had a workshop on the different Hindu artefacts used in worship. We were also taught about beliefs related to karma and the concept of God.

We were lucky enough to attend the celebration of the Arti ceremony, which was held in the Temple. We dressed up in saris and there was music and incense burned all around us. A flower was passed around during the celebration; it was very sweet-smelling.

At 1.30pm, we stopped for a delicious lunch of curry with paneer, peas, rice and crackers. We got our faces and hands painted with flowers, fire and lightning designs.

To finish we went to the gift shop and people bought a selection of bracelets, henna and elephant statues.

Overall, we had a fantastic day learning about Hinduism in such a beautiful environment.

By Poppy Harvey

To start my review, I’d like to say that everyone I met on this exciting trip was very welcoming and kind to me, the Temple staff especially made us feel very thankful for the opportunity.

After a quick ride on the coach, we arrived at the beautiful Bhaktivedanta Manor. We rushed to take pictures as we started our peaceful walk around the gardens. We read the inspiring quotes from the Bhagavad Gita. Many people took photos as the view was lovely.

We then had a workshop about Hindu beliefs and learnt more about the main Hindu beliefs, including Karma, Reincarnation and God’s existence. The speaker was very informative and I learnt a lot about her religion. We looked at some religious artefacts and worked in groups to discuss our ideas about how these might be used in worship.

My personal favourite moment of the day was when we tried on the amazing saris, they all had unique patterns and everyone enjoyed trying them on. After this we watched a worship ceremony dedicated to Krishna, although it was loud, I really liked listening to this different type of music.

The next part of the day was the most looked forward to – lunch! The way we ate was different to how we usually eat; we had the food in a clean empty room which had no chairs for students. The food had immense flavours and tasted delicious. I especially loved the coloured Indian crackers, as I had never tried them before.

Finally, we had our hands or faces painted with some intricate designs from nature. Thank you to all the staff at the Manor, the day was educational, fun and a great experience overall.

By Megan McGloin

SCHOOL IN FRANCE AND SPAIN

One day in a French school

In France, a school day generally begins at 8 o’clock on the morning and finishes at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Each lesson lasts fifty-five minutes and the five minutes remaining are for the movement of the teacher between the classrooms. Every class begins by something which is called in French: “Appel”. During this process the teacher calls every student to check if everybody is here. If not, he or she has to mention it to the supervisors who call the parents in order to inform them of the absence of their child. Every fifty-five minutes a bell announces the end of the lessons. Then the teacher gives the homework, packs their things, and goes to other classrooms to teach. Students always stay in the same classrooms except for some subjects like PE, Biology, and Physics – Chemistry (that in France is taught by just one teacher; they are not separated). There is one break in the morning which is fifteen minutes long around 10 o’clock, and another break in the afternoon that is fifteen minutes too, around 3 o’clock. For lunch we have a big break of one hour or two (it depends on the timetable0 at 12 o’clock where a few students go back to their house and at the end of the lunch break return to school. However, the majority stay in the school and eat there. At the school dining room, you have the choice to take a sandwich or something easy to eat or you can have a complete meal (with starter, hot food, and a dessert). If you choose to have a snack, you can eat wherever you want: in the school park, in the dining room, out of the school. If you choose to have a complete meal, then you must stay in the school dining room. At the end of the day, all the students return home.

In France, there are a few boarding schools, but they are a small minority, and the vast majority of the schools are mixed (with boys and girls in the same classrooms). Another big difference between French schools and English schools is the number of students in the classrooms. In France, one classroom contains between thirty and thirty-five students. And they all have the same lesson, with the same teacher in the same classroom at the same time.

By Domitille Duval

OSCARS DAY

On the 19th of October the whole school engaged in an ‘Oscars Day’, supported by the 6th Form. Each form was required to make a short film (no more than 5 minutes) of any genre or style. They were given the whole morning to complete this task and 3 props to include in their films to help stimulate ideas. With the help of their 6th Form leader, each form from Prep 6 to Year 11 created some beautifully creative, imaginative, and unique films.

The idea for this day came from a previous Arts Day we had in which each form was required to design and advertise a shoe. My memory of this day was incredibly strong and positive, so I wanted to share this feeling through a similar day. I have a strong interest in film and wanted to share this passion as well. I brought up my idea in an Art lesson and with the support of my friends in the art room (Katie, Eloise, Emma, Amelie, Jess, and Catherine) as well as from Mrs Wilson and Mrs Cowley I was able to arrange and organise the day with Mrs Goulding and Mr Carr.

The day wasn’t just a fun day to inspire ideas, creativity and build team working and collaborative skills, but it also hosted many ways to donate to charity and support The Kanyike Project. From money for own clother, food from the snack stall and pictures from the photobooth, we managed to raise a lot of money for a charity that has been really struggling for donations in the past few years.

Unfortunately, like a dramatic twist or turn of events in a dramatic film, we faced a critical issue halfway through the day. Just before lunch there was an air conditioning leak that flooded the servers in school. Not only did this mean that students could not access email and internet, but it meant that

they couldn’t even log onto the computers. All hope for the films being sent over and the end of the day Oscars Ceremony was ruined. A hard decision had to be made and the second half of the day was postponed until after October half-term.

When the day came to show the films and announce the awards, the 6th Form came together to dress up and take on the persona of various celebrities and read out the different prizes in character. The whole school gathered in the theatre to watch the amazing achievements of each group and were not only proud of their own creations but supportive of every other form also. Every film was different and engaging and some even featured cameos from our favourite teachers, like Mr Mashiri being eaten by a llama or Mr Grant taking on the role of a DJ in a nightclub.

Many awards were announced by ‘celebrities’ such as pop superstars Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, film stars Ana De Armas and Zendaya, and legends Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles. The climax of the awards ceremony was when Mrs Wilson came on stage to announce ‘The Mrs Wilson Award for Creativity’ which went to the film she personally chose as most creative. This ultimately went to 10JGR. On their film, she said “The winner is 10JGR for the sheer eclectic mix of props, lighting, sound, and originality. It’s definitely created a new genre of the film all of its own!”

Despite all the challenges this day brought, everyone managed to have an amazing time and had a product of which they could be proud at the end.

By Robyn Norwood

La Personne Que J’admire Le Plus – Year 9

Greta Thunberg – Lucy Jefford

Pour moi, Greta Thunberg est une personne que j’admire beaucoup parce qu’elle défend ses convictions et elle est sérieuse quand elle parle au monde au sujet des thèmes qui lui intéressent.

Greta ne parlait pas quand j’étais petite mais, maintenant, sa voix est entendue par tous et elle travaille très dur pour aider à arrêter le changement climatique – ce qui est vraiment important.

Nellie Bly – Emilia Turner

Pour moi, Nellie Bly est une personne que j’admire. Elle est très courageuse et intelligente. Elle était journaliste et elle a écrit pour le New York World. Elle a écrit sur un asile ou elle est allée. Elle a aussi fait le tour du monde en 72 jours.

Anne Frank – Natalie Chan

La personne que j’admire plus est Anne Frank.

Elle a les cheveux bruns et les yeux bruns. Ses cheveux sont courts et bouclés. Elle est jolie et de taille moyenne.

Anne est mon modèle parce qu’elle est intelligente et courageuse.

Anne Frank était une adolescente juive qui a écrit un journal alors que sa famille se cachait des nazis pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Elle a été envoyée dans des camps concentration mais elle est morte au camp de Bergen-Belsen en 1945.

Moi, j’admire Anne Frank parce qu’elle avait du courage et l’indépendance face aux dangers.

Anne Frank – Poppy Harvey

Mon modèle s’appelle Anne Frank. Elle a les cheveux bruns et les yeux bruns. Elle a les cheveux mi-longs et elle est petite et mince.

J’admire Anne parce qu’elle avait du courage et était courageuse face à des dangers terribles.

Anne a écrit à journal au sujet de sa vie au cours de la deuxième guerre mondiale. Elle était juive et elle été persécutée par les Nazis. Elle a été envoyée dans un camp de concentration. Malheureusement elle est morte là-bas. Son père a publié son journal, comme mémorial à sa vie.

Shonda Rimes – Petra Popescu

La personne qui j’admire s’appelle Shonda Rhimes. Elle est déterminée et très patiente avec les autres personnes. Elle a écrit dix-huit saisons de ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ et elle veut écrire plus. Elle a aussi écrit deux livres et elle a trois autres être écrits pour l’année prochain.

Amanda Derbyshire – Zöe Bysouth

Pour moi, j’admire Amanda Derbyshire. Elle est cavalière.

Elle saute avec son cheval appelé Luibanta. Luibanta a 13 ans et Amanda a 30 ans.

Amanda est gentille, déterminée et très travailleuse.

J’admire Amanda parce que elle est très bonne en saute et très gentille avec son cheval.

Ella a gagné le North Face Farm Grand Prix FEI2

Beth Mead – Beth Hawthorne

Moi, j’admire  Beth Mead. Elle m’impressionne énormément. Elle est très travailleuse et vraiment sportive. Beth Mead joue au football pour l’Angleterre depuis l’âge de 23. Je l’admire elle parce qu’elle est déterminée et très dynamique.

Jennifer Lawrence – Christine Leung

La personne que j’admire est Jennifer Lawrence. Elle est une actrice Americaine. Elle est grande. Elle a les cheveux longs et les yeux bleus.  Elle a de la modestie, de la patience et le sens de l’humour. Elle a commencé à jouer quand elle avait 14 ans. Je l’admire parce qu’elle n’a pas peur de parler de son esprit.

Jésus – Jolly Chan

Une personne que j’admire, c’est Jésus. Il a la peau sombre et les yeux spirituels. Il a un sourire toujours sur son visage.

Il a beaucoup de qualités personnelles positives, par exemple, la patience, la modestie, et la générosité. Il est très compréhensif, et il dit tout de temps la vérité. Il n’est jamais arrogant ou égoïste.

Jésus – Hayley Chan

La personne que j’admire c’est Jésus. Il a les cheveux marron et frisés et les yeux bleus. Il est généreux, honnête et humble. Il pardonne toujours et dit la vérité. Il aime tout le monde et nous valorise tous. Il est toujours heureux et voit tout de manière positive.

French Level 1 competition task 2022

The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators

French Level 1: Competition Task

This is a poem by Robert Desnos (1900-1945), a poet who was part of the surrealist movement. Surrealists aimed to unite the everyday rational world with the world of dream and fantasy in their art and writing.

During the Second World War, Desnos was a member of the Resistance, the group who fought against the Nazi Occupation of France. He wrote this poem in 1943, as part of a collection of 30 ‘Chantefables’ [Storysongs].

Le Crapaud

Sur les bords de la Marne Un crapaud il y a Qui pleure à chaudes larmes Sous un acacia.

— Dis-moi pourquoi tu pleures Mon joli crapaud ?

— C’est que j’ai le malheur De n’être pas beau.

Sur les bords de la Seine Un crapaud il y a Qui chante à perdre haleine Dans son charabia.

— Dis-moi pourquoi tu chantes Mon vilain crapaud ?

— Je chante à voix plaisante, Car je suis très beau,

Des bords de la Marne aux bords de la Seine Avec les sirènes.

The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators

This year the College submitted entries from Years 7-9 to ‘The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators’, run by The Queen’s College Oxford – there were 3,200 submissions from more than 260 schools and we were delighted that Iliana Kokotis and Robin Thurgood in Year 8 were selected for an area commendation – félicitations!!

Selection of Poems

Sofia Gray

Lundi, c’est gris comme la roche Mardi, c’est jaune comme le citron Mercredi, c’est noir comme un démon Jeudi, c’est violet comme une fleur Vendredi, c’est rouge comme un diable Samedi, c’est orange comme une orange Dimanche, c’est verte comme une feuille

Hannah Cornforth

Lundi c’est gris comme la route Mardi c’est noir comme l’ombre Mercredi c’est violet comme la prune Jeudi c’est vert comme le serpent Vendredi c’est rouge comme une cerise Samedi c’est rose comme la fleur Dimanche c’est orange comme le feu

Freya Zhao

Lundi, c’est bleu comme le ciel mardi, c’est vert comme le gazon mercredi, c’est rouge comme la pomme jeudi, c’est rose comme la guimauve vendredi, c’est blanc comme la lama samedi, c’est jaune comme le soleil dimanche, c’est marron comme le chocolat

Poppy Milan

Lundi, c’est bleu comme Ravenclaw. Mardi, c’est rouge comme Gryffindor. Mercredi, c’est vert comme Slytherin.

Jeudi, c’est marron comme le manche à balai.

Vendredi, c’est jaune comme Hufflepuff.

Samedi, c’est noir comme un chapeau de sorcière.

Dimanche, c’est gris comme Hogwarts.

Keira Wan

Lundi c’est gris comme l’éléphant Mardi c’est violet comme la lavande Mercredi c’est bleu comme les larmes Jeudi c’est noir comme la tempête Vendredi c’est vert comme un sapin Samedi c’est orange comme une tigre Dimanche c’est rouge comme une rose.

Leana Kachiwala

Lundi, c’est bleu comme des glaçons Mardi, c’est violet comme une prune Mercredi, c’est vert comme un concombre Jeudi, c’est orange comme une carotte Vendredi, c’est rose comme des fleurs

Samedi, c’est jaune comme la limonadeDimanche, c’est rouge comme un coquelicot

On Monday the 20th June we arrived in France and went to the BIGGEST AQUARIUM IN EUROPE – WOW! We made our way into the building and went down some stairs. First of all, we saw some Jellyfish, there were so many gracefully floating around the water. I also saw some fish that looked like Nemo and Dory from the Disney movie. There were multiple coloured fish with the colour’s orange, yellow, blue, and many more. They were beautiful. We moved on to the shark tank and they looked scary! Their teeth were so sharp and they were just staring into your eyes trying to scare you! As we walked on there were some tortoises and their shells were very big. We also saw Sea Lions swimming and playing in the water; they were very cute! As we got further into the aquarium there were very creepy crocodiles laying there as still as a statue. Next, everyone went into a room and watched a video on climate change. It showed wildfires, tsunamis and how animals are

losing their habitats. It was virtual reality, and it was like we were there. It was very downhearted and I felt extremely sad. So as a nation, what are you going to do about climate change?

We then went to see the penguins, there was one in particular and it wanted to grab the spotlight and get all the attention because it was standing right in the centre and looked like it was posing. What a show off! It was a truly amazing day.

On Thursday the 23rd of June we went to a chocolate factory. As we got closer to the factory it smelt very sweet. We had a guide and first he showed us the machine where the cocoa beans get crushed. After we went through the chocolate shop and into another room where they made the chocolate – this was going to be an exciting experience!

There were wheels spinning round and round

with dark, milk and white chocolate. The man gave us a taste of the cocoa beans and they were disgusting as they were so bitter. He then gave us a taste of the milk chocolate sauce with no sugar added to it and that was so bitter as well. Coming out of a machine, there were lots of chocolate bars. Soon after, the man put some white chocolate in a plastic shaped bunny and waited a few minutes for it to solidify. He did the same with the milk chocolate but put them in square shapes. I tried the milk and white chocolate and they were so tasty and luscious. Towards the end of the tour, we made our way to the shop; it was like a dream. There was so much chocolate, big and little as well as in all different shapes. It was a great experience.

Overall, the whole trip was incredible and I had so many amazing and lovable experiences, that I will treasure the memorie.

By Serena Dave

St. Francis’ Year 7 and 8 went on an epic trip to The Opal Coast, France. Read more to find out the adventures we went on…

Students recall their highlights of the trip

Hannah Cornforth

Year 7 and 8 went to the Opal Coast Monday 20th June – Friday 24th June 2022. The trip was a great experience and helped us develop our French as we were constantly surrounded by it. We went to many different places and saw wonderful things. The activities were lots of fun and gave us a chance to practice the new vocabulary we had learnt, and were accompanied by our amazing animatrice, Justine.

Sofia Gray

I really enjoyed the trip it was very fun and interesting. I learnt about many different things and how to say many different things in French too. The trip gave me experience on how to pack light! How to be without my phone! (which was surprisingly easy) and how to properly pronounce some French words.

Iliana Kokotis

I really loved the French trip because we learned many different things and learnt a lot of language.

Carina Lo

We had a fabulous time in Northern France. The first day, 20th June, we set off to France by coach from school. We went through the Eurotunnel and arrived at the largest aquarium in Europe, Nausicaa. The displays were impressive, particularly the vast shark tank. Seeing sea creatures from an underwater perspective and watching the sea lions swim was fun. I particularly liked the Touch and Feel tank, where I experienced running my hand across a stingray and stroking the other fish. The futuristic feel of the main areas also reminded us how we are responsible to the future. Endangered species were highlighted and there were information boards on how we need to take care of them, and of the planet. There were valuable insights into survival of the fishing industry, and the efficient use of water energy. I now know more about sea life and I really enjoyed the aquarium.

Carina Lo

On the second day of the trip, we went to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. It is a war memorial site in France dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. We walked through the preserved First World War trenches and we visited a museum.

Bethany Sinden

Vimy Ridge is a place where the Canadian soldiers were stationed during the First World War. This tied in well with our upcoming performance of ‘Private Peaceful’ and the place was fascinating.

Boulogne had a bustling market place and I managed to buy an apricot, a banana and some really soft and creamy cheese for my sandwich!

Aoife Fallon-Cotton

On the second day of the trip, my favourite day, we went to the Flanders Field Museum. We got wristbands that we scanned at the beginning and entered our names, then we chose a story of someone from World War 1 who could have done anything to contribute to their side of the war. As we went through the museum, we scanned our wristbands and learned more about the person we chose to follow. There was also different artefacts from the war. Afterwards we had an ice cream and went on a ferris wheel, which was probably my favourite part of the whole day!

Charlotte Howard

On Wednesday the 22nd of June, we visited a market in Boulogne where we had to order in French. We filled our sandwiches with ham and avocado and of course we had left over money for lots of sweets! We ate by the beach and later Ellie, and I tried snails!

Robin Thurgood

We walked down to the beach and made sandwiches. The weather was really nice and hot so we had 45 minutes to play on the beach. Lots of us took photos and we played a game of netball with a tennis ball which everyone enjoyed – we were soon all out of breath!

Jolie Chong

What an interesting experience to buy food in French. After having our lunch, we played beach games. I took photos with my friends. In the afternoon, we went to the snail farm. We looked at some baby snails and big snails. My friends put a snail on their hands. I didn’t because I think it is so scary! We also had a chance to try some snails. I tried three. My favourite flavour is snail with garlic. The snails taste like squid. In the evening, we had an evening activity in the hotel. It was fun.

Elizabeth Olurebi

We went to a snail farm and learned a lot of facts about snails and held some on our hands – they were very slimy! If we wanted to we could try a snail. At first, I decided I wouldn’t eat one but I was convinced by my friends to at least try, so I did. It was garlic flavoured and it wasn’t as bad as I thought – although personally I found it quite chewy.

La Chocolaterie: Zara Bysouth

On Thursday, we went to a chocolate factory. When we got there, there was someone from the factory waiting. He explained to us what a few of the machines did to prepare the cacao beans to make the chocolate.

We then went into the place where the melted chocolate was put into moulds and formed. We were shown how to make truffles and a white chocolate bear. The technique was quite similar, you filled the moulds with chocolate and then put them on a vibrating machine that set the chocolate that was on the outside of the moulds and then you had to pour the melted chocolate back out (for the bear you had to do this twice). Then they had to be left to set a little bit more (at this point the bear was done). Once the chocolate inside the truffle moulds was hard the praline filling was put in. Then another layer of chocolate was put on the bottoms of them to seal it.

Finally, we went into the shop and bought some chocolate for ourselves (it was very nice).

La boulangerie: Hannah Cornforth

I found the boulangerie very interesting and you saw how they made the bread. It was also interactive, and we helped with the process of making the bread.

Natur’Pom

The apple juice farm was very interesting and interactive, where we all got a role in juicing some apples to make pure apple juice and got to try some. The farm also had animals including an alpaca, a pig, some ponies, ducks and bunnies.

The extra-curricular Dance Department at St. Francis’ has had another busy and successful year!

The examination results from the students have been outstanding with examinations taken from Primary up to Advanced 1 in Cecchetti Classical Ballet, Tap and Modern with the I.S.T.D examinations board. The students have received a fantastic 70% Distinctions, 20% High Merits and 10% Merits. Congratulations to all of the St. Francis’ dancers.

In Pre-Prep, we have our first Open Day classes since COVID and the children are all very excited to be able to perform once again for their parents and relatives. The students have all been working hard to perfect their set sequences.

Kindergarten and Reception have begun their dancing journey by learning the basics to classical technique, using enjoyable exercises, mime and imagination. Ballet is an important

basis to all forms of dance and helps to create a strong sense of self-discipline, as well as confidence and strong postural awareness, which will assist many aspects of life aside from dance.

Prep I have progressed to learning their first examination syllabus in Ballet and Tap, requiring greater focus, self-discipline and understanding of technique.

The Prep and Senior students also delivered their charity performance, which took place in December at the St. Francis’ College Theatre in aid of Cancer research UK. This was alongside their usual syllabus lessons.

Some of the Year 7s and 8s took part in ‘The Little Mermaid’ with a classical contemporary piece called ‘Part of Your World’ opening the second half of the performance. They represented the extra-curricular dance department wonderfully and performed to a very high standard.

I would like to make a special mention for Eloise (Year 13) our Dance Scholar who has been dancing at St. Francis’ since Kindergarten and has held the Dance Scholarship since Year 7. She has gained all of her lower grade examinations with Distinction and recently gained vocational examinations in both Tap and Modern with Distinctions. She has been a great advocate for the school and Dance Department and we wish her all the best in the future.

Bethan (Year 8) has completed her first year as a Cecchetti Classical Ballet Scholar after successfully auditioning for a fully funded place to study each Saturday at the Arts Ed London. Out of 48 candidates, only 10 students were successful. These classes help to complement her school classes and has been a fantastic opportunity for her development as a dancer.

Year 8 Trip to Colchester

As part of 5 Star Days, Year 8 had been given the opportunity to go to Colchester to learn about the Roman Circus! In preparation, we had been learning about the Roman Circus and we were all excited to learn some more about it.

When we arrived at Colchester, we were taken to Colchester’s Roman Circus Visitor Centre which is a volunteer-run museum. We were spoken to by a Tour Guide who was trained to know all about Colchester’s Roman Circus and she provided some very interesting information. Did you know that chariots aren’t actually big like the ones in movies? They are actually quite small and not very impressive to the eye. As well as this – the Romans loved graffiti! On the model of what the Circus looked like, there was lots of graffiti. After a picnic lunch was eaten

on the site where the Circus had been (there are still some remains!) we set off for Colchester Castle.

At Colchester Castle, we were split into two groups. The first group got to go under Colchester Castle (which was very cool – perfect for the hot day) where a different Tour Guide told us lots of interesting things about the Castle. The second group had to complete some work in our booklets which included finding specific artefacts and drawing sketches of our favourite one. After a period of time the groups switched activities and, after climbing lots of stairs, we explored the top floor of Colchester Castle and the roof. Did you know that you can get married on the top floor of the Castle?

To conclude our trip, we had time to have a wander around the shops in groups. Lots of people enjoyed a Costa or a Starbucks while others looked at the clothes shops and other different shops.

I think that we all enjoyed our time at Colchester and learnt lots of interesting information. I’ll definitely be going again!

By Inaya Lad

ANTI – BULLYING WEEK

Pupils in Year 9 celebrated Anti-Bullying week by designing and creating an anti-bullying and kindness baton in their PSHE lessons.

BOARDING

Life in Boarding

After a restrictive two years, it has been a breath of fresh air for the Boarding House this last year. We’ve been able to do a wide range of activities like First Aid training, bag designing, charity sales, and cake baking. We spent Christmas ice skating at Somerset House and watching Frozen in the theatre. We’ve seen the flowers bloom at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. One of our favourite trips was the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit where all of Gogh’s most known works were projected around the venue, the sunflower room being the highlight of the night. Recently the Boarding House went on a trip to Box End for some Paddleboarding, while new to the sport, the Boarders did amazingly well and some even managed to stand up! We’re very excited for all the new experiences awaiting us in the new term.

JOSIE LUGGERI

We wished a happy retirement to Josie Luggeri, who was in charge of the Reprographics office for over 20 years. We will miss her a lot. St. Francis’ College was part of Josie’s family life for over 75 years. Here is her story.

‘My family’s long association with St. Francis’ College began with my mother, Maria Valsecchi, in the 1940s after World War II. An announcement from the nuns at the College appeared in the parish Catholic Church in Venice, Italy, requesting domestic helpers. She and her friend arrived as teenagers in response to this.

As she had trained as a seamstress/dressmaker, she was immediately appointed to maintain the nuns’ garments. The impressive sewing room was located on the top floor of the Broadway Building. They each had their own bedroom in the main school building along the corridor

leading to the present day Reprographics office. Now these rooms are Dr Dennis’ office and two EAL classrooms. My mum and her friend were also allowed to use the kitchen facility around the corner from their bedrooms, and this became known as the Italian Kitchen thereafter. If walls were able to speak, they would have a tale or two to tell about the youthful antics that went on in all of these rooms, all innocent fun, my mother assures.

My mother first met my father, an Italian ex-prisoner of war, in the Rose gardens in Letchworth (now called the Kennedy gardens). Romance blossomed and when they got married the nuns provided a wedding dress and reception for them at the College. My mum continued to work here only stopping when my sister and I were born. On her return she was offered the position of Chemistry Lab Assistant,

and was trained by the nuns to such a high standard that she became an essential part of the Chemistry, Physics and Biology departments until she retired in the early 2000s. Her school career spanned over 57 years.

My sister and I, both attended the Kindergarten, Prep and Senior schools during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. This was replicated by my two daughters who attended during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

I joined as the Reprographics Assistant a year before my mother and youngest daughter left the College, thus continuing our uninterrupted relationship with St. Francis’ College until now. This long family attachment means that the College has been an important part of our lives for over 75 years and will always be dear to us all.’

Filming the school’s promotional video was an incredible and rewarding experience. From the very beginning of the process, I was eager to start filming. We began on the 10th of November and continuously filmed throughout the entire school day. The day started with Emily and I getting into costume and getting our makeup professionally done, by the lovely makeup artist, Lisa. This was my first time wearing stage makeup and having my makeup professionally done, so it was a huge thrill!

The theatre was packed with various pieces of professional equipment, which I had never really seen before and the crew was busy setting up and preparing for filming. The entire shoot was extremely professional, with having mics fitted and the director, James, yelling ‘action!’ before each take. There was even a clear-cut storyboard of all the different takes that we had to do. I have to say one of my favourite parts of the experience was having Lisa touch up my makeup in between takes! There was quite a

lot of waiting around involved, which slightly added to the nerves, but nevertheless, there was nothing to be worried about. The entire Affixxius team was extremely encouraging and supportive, which really helped a lot, when it came to filming. We filmed endlessly for the whole day, with a range of different takes and repeats, of the same scene again and again. Despite this being extremely tiring, filming with such a professional company was a dream come true for me, so I didn’t mind having to film so many takes; it’s all part of the business after all! After a whole day of continuous filming, we all went home to rest up for the next day.

On the second day, I returned back to school quite tired, yet still excited for another day. However, this day, I was surprised by the team, with the news that Emily and I would be performing in front of the entire school! I was extremely nervous, as anyone would be, when I received this news; however, the whole school was so supportive and made the process a lot

less nerve-wracking. After filming a myriad of shots, using different cameras and various angles, we wrapped up filming. I was quite sad when we finished, because the experience was truly rewarding and extremely beneficial for my confidence and it was a dream come true, as I am so passionate about acting.

I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved and the Affixxius team especially, who put so much work into shooting the video and the end product is truly astonishing! The quality is outstanding, as was the overall experience. The whole crew was so encouraging; they even gave me advice for the future and I am truly grateful to them. Despite the long days and endless retakes, I would definitely do it all over again, as it really was a dream turned into a reality!

By Jaskeerat Basra

REVIEWS

A review of ‘Blood Brothers’ by Anya Harrison

The Drama department organised for us to go and see the play we had been studying at the Key Theatre, Peterborough.

One thing I found quite effective and well thought through in ‘Blood Brothers’, was the set design. The set design was effective in the way that the audience could understand that the scene or place had changed, with not much of the actual set changing. There were houses either side of the stage, with a space in between. Generally, one of the houses stage right was the Johnstone’s house and one of the houses stage left was the Lyons’s house. Although multiple times the scene was not based between the houses, other props were used and the houses ignored, to show that. It was also shown that the Johnstone’s and Lyons’s had moved house when a gate was added at the back, between the two houses to give the impression that they now lived in the countryside. Overall, the set design was effective, since there was never much confusion about where the scene was taking place, and yet there wasn’t much time needed to move the set around (the majority of it usually stayed where it was).

Music was something I also thought was used very well in the play, as there were multiple songs sung by characters throughout the play, and some lines or parts from certain songs repeated. The songs were effective as they gave an insight to the character’s emotions and how they were feeling about certain events. The songs were also useful because they helped set the mood of certain scenes and made you aware if something good or bad was happening. The sound effects were also effective most of the time, but the gunshots at the end of the play in particular, were a bit too loud and sudden and made many people in the audience jump.

The lighting was something I thought was used quite well throughout the play, especially when there was a spotlight on a certain character

when they were saying something important, as it highlighted the character and made the audience pay attention to what they were saying. The lighting was also especially effective when it changed to different colours when the scenes were different moods, as much like the music, it helped set the mood of the scene.

The costumes helped bring across the story and helped the audience understand who different characters were and how old they were. This was conveyed with the main characters especially, and the costumes really helped differentiate between the young Micky, Edward and Linda and the older versions of them. Without the changing of the costume, it wouldn’t have been very clear that they were older, which may have made the plot unclear and confusing. The costumes also helped convince the audience that although the actors were adults playing as children, the characters were still children and not adults. They also helped differentiate between the working and middle classes, as without the Johnstone’s and Lyons’s having different kinds of outfits, it wouldn’t have been so obvious that they were from different classes.

Something else that the play also brought across very effectively was the difference between the working class and the middle class. The Johnstone’s and the Lyons’s showed that they were of different classes by changing the way they dressed, their tone of voice, the things they said, the way they acted, what things bothered them and the things they did. For example, the Johnstone’s dressed cheaper, acted more like they didn’t care how people viewed them and worried about money, the Lyon’s acted calmer and more sensibly, and worried about who influenced Edward and how he was brought up. This made the contrast of the two families very powerful.

As for parts of the play which I think could be improved, I think that although the set being

pretty much the same in every scene was useful and made the play run smoother, it would have made the play more interesting if there had been a set change every once in a while, rather than looking at the same set throughout the play. I also think that some of the songs were a bit useless and wasted time on something that didn’t have anything much to do with the plot or the story. I don’t think that there should have been fewer songs, but I think that they could have been placed in more useful places, where they would actually help the story progress.

The last thing that I think could have been improved is how much time the play spent on certain events. For example, the play spent a lot of time on the beginning of the story, and Micky and Edward when they were children, but the ending of the play seemed very sudden. I think there should have been more time spent on the period of time from after Micky got out of prison, to when both Micky and Edward died, since that part of the play seemed particularly rushed. There were also some scenes, which were, for the most part, irrelevant to the story, but had a lot of time spent on them. I think that the story would have been stronger and the plot clearer if more time had been spent on the important and relevant scenes, and less on the ones that didn’t matter as much.

Overall, I enjoyed the play and found it very interesting and entertaining. I think that the story was brought across well, the narration was enough that it wasn’t over-explaining, but you could generally understand what was going on. It was also kept interesting by the constant plot twists, songs and dances. I think that although the play could be improved in various ways, it was still largely effective in telling the story and keeping the audience entertained.

‘In the Heights’ is a remarkable film. It was my second time watching it, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it. This is because I could sing along to the songs, see each character’s development, and watch it from a new perspective. For example, the first time I watched the musical, I was completely focused on the protagonist (Usnavi) and his life. However, there are many characters in this, each with their own lives and attitudes intertwined. A countdown shows the days until there is a widespread power outage,

called the Blackout, where the characters feel powerless, especially in the summer heat. The temperatures that summer reach record highs, and the Blackout causes a complete lack of air conditioning. Usnavi tells his story to the younger generation to symbolise how it is passed down and retold. As I already knew the basic storyline, I found myself engaged and focused on another character, Nina and her story. Nina is an exceptional hard-working student, and has returned to her home,

Washington Heights. After a difficult year at university, she wants to drop out but not disappoint the neighbourhood, as she brings them pride and joy.

Additionally, I heard a snippet of ‘You’ll Be Back’ from Hamilton playing on the phone to Stanford university. Lin Manuel Miranda was one of the directors for ‘In the Heights’ and also directed and starred in both musicals.

One of my favourite aspects about ‘In the

A review of ‘In the Heights’ by Alisha Bains

Heights’ is the community. I loved how everyone is friendly towards each other, and united together. They are a Latin community, and the musical also covers challenges they face like cruel immigration laws and housing discrimination. My favourite scene was in the nail salon, where the ladies deliver speeches in a song about the resilience of their people, who have lived through slavery, disease and colonisation. There is also a famous line from later on in the movie, where Sonny (Usnavi’s cousin) says to Nina, “They’re talking about kicking out the dreamers!”

As ‘In the Heights’ is a musical, the songs portray the characters’ inner feelings. All the actors sang impressively well and clear in a Spanish accent. The acting and facial expressions, even from the extras in the background, was incredible, and it made Washington Heights seem like a nice community to be in. I liked the choreography of the group dances, especially the swimming pool one, where dancers created shapes using their flexible bodies. They all looked so cheerful and lively, and I wished I could be a part of it.

Altogether, I rate ‘In the Heights’ 10/10, because of its different elements. The warm, vibrant city with its large, welcoming community. The different emotions the characters feel, as well as the emotions you feel as you watch it. Laughter, sorrow, courage, jealousy, struggle, passion. The storylines, backgrounds, and personalities of the characters contrasted well. I certainly recommend watching it because it’s definitely worth it!

Athletics

PE St. Francis’ were delighted to return to compete in the Indoor Junior Athletics Competition during the Spring Term, entering a team into both Year 7 and 8 competitions. Well done to the girls who completed and helped the Year 7 finish in 3rd place and the Year 8 finish in 2nd place.

The Summer term North Hertfordshire District League is always a wonderful opportunity for students to compete at Ridlins, Stevenage, an all-weather synthetic 8 lane track with synthetic throwing and jumping event areas within Track & Field. Congratulations to all the students who represented The College this season and achieved an impressive set of results showing great sportspersonship throughout the meets.

Well done to the following Year 7 students who achieved Gold Medal Performances in the A league competition: Freya Zhao- Discus and

Keira Wan- Javelin. Anoop Sandher gained a Bronze Medal in Long Jump. In the B league competition, Gold Medals were awarded to Jess Zhang- Discus and Aleysha- Faith- Shot Put.

Year 8’s continue to build upon the experience of last year with the following results: Silver Medals awarded to Hannah Jefford- 100m and Elodie Peters- 800m. Bronze Medals were awarded to Bernadine Tetzner- Hurdles and High Jump; Sarah Henwood- High Jump and Eloise Button- 1500m. The athletes also managed a 3rd place in the 4x100m relay.

The Year 9 athletes absolutely smashed the District Athletics Competition with a great medal haul. Gold Medals were awarded to Emma Greatorex- High Jump, Megan McGloin- Javelin, and Amelie Mitchell- Discus (B Competition). Silver Medals were awarded to Lucy Jefford- Long Jump and 200m, Zöe Bysouth- Long Jump (B Competition), Petra

Popescu- Discus and Jolly Chan- Shot Put.

The Year 10 team showed outstanding talent in the Athletics Competitions this year. Gold Medals were achieved by Holly Manning100m, Alice Green -800m and Shot Putt, Scarlett Sharma- Shot Put (B Competition) and the Year 9 Relay team! Silver Medals went to Nyah Temple- Long Jump and Chloe Moss- 1500m, with Bronze Medals going to Grace Winspear- High Jump and Sophie SmithJavelin.

Well done to all students who competed and to all the students who came to Athletics Club! A special mention goes to Year 9s Lucy Jefford and Emma Greatorex who came to Athletics Jumping Club on a regular basis, showing great commitment, with the aim of challenging themselves to improve their personal best.

Our U13 and U15 pupils have thoroughly enjoyed playing Cricket this year, gaining valuable match experience in friendly matches, culminating in the District Calypso Tournament at Stevenage Cricket Club. The Year 9 and 10 players won all their games bar one in the U15 competition and were therefore tournament runners up. The Year 7 and 8 players also performed brilliantly, winning all their matches in the U13 competition and were therefore crowned Champions. Miss Compton was very proud of your achievements this season. Well done to all the Year 7 and 8 players who have trained so hard at the club this year.

Cross Country

Well done to everyone who represented the College at the District Cross Country event at Fairland’s Valley Park, Stevenage, in October 2021. The runners competed against over 300 runners from across all schools in the District, in distances of 1km, 1.5km and 2km from Year 7 through to Year 10. There were many top 10 finishes from all year groups but a special mention to Alice Green in Y10 who finished 4th in her age group, a fantastic achievement. Superb running from all!

Football

The St. Francis’ College footballers enjoyed another season playing in the District League at Marriotts School, Stevenage. Despite often playing against more experienced teams and through a cold and wet winter season, including a match for the Under 16 team, who braved and played during the winds and rain of Storm Barra! The teams played some competitive football and improved their ball control and match play, gaining invaluable experience. Well done to all the Year 7 students who played in the U12 League, the Year 8 and 9 players who played in the U14 League and the U16 team of Year 10 and 11s. Miss Compton was very proud of your dedication and positive spirit throughout a challenging season.

As term draws to a close, the PE Department would like to congratulate Mrs Murphy on the arrival of Baby Archie back in May. Staff and students were delighted to meet Archie on Sports Day and our Sports Awards Dinner. We can’t wait to welcome Mrs Murphy back to the College in the New Year. Sadly, before we get to do this, we will be saying a temporary farewell and good luck to Mrs Greenfield who is due to go on maternity leave in the Autumn Term. We wish you all the best as you embark on this next adventure and can’t wait to welcome you back to school next year.

The PE Department also bid farewell and good luck to Miss Compton, who sadly leaves the College after two years to take up a teaching post in Surrey. Both the PE Department and the St. Francis’ College students thank you for all the dedication and commitment you have shown over your 2 years of service. You have not only helped run teams across the full range of sports offered at the College, but also ran the school Football, Rounders, Cricket and Athletic Teams this year. This, as well as many trips and events which have all taken place thanks to you, along with working in the Boarding House. Thank you so much! Good luck in your new post and we look forward to hearing all about your next adventure.

A warm welcome to Archie and a sad goodbye to Miss Compton

Hockey

This season, the St. Francis’ College Hockey Teams have committed whole heartedly to both training and matches, demonstrated by winning or drawing two thirds of their games. Year 7 A and B squads, competed as a combined team in the District League with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. In the District Tournament, the B team struggled to score but definitely improved throughout the tournament. The A Team managed to score 7 goals, only conceding 3 and finished overall in 2nd Place. Well done!

The Year 8 squad also played in both District League and Tournament with a score tally of 8 and conceding 4 goals this season. They played some great positional hockey and have managed to increase their ball pace this season, finishing in 2nd place in the District Tournament. We welcomed new goalkeeper Sarah Henwood into the squad and thank her for padding up this season!

The Year 9s had a difficult season, playing

against a very experienced Hitchin Girls’ School (HGS). Despite this, the team rallied in the District Tournament and managed to beat John Henry Newman to finish 2nd overall. Well done!

The Year 10/11 squad enjoyed an outstanding season of hockey, winning all their games. They managed to score 12 goals this season and didn’t concede any. Well done to the team and in particular, GK Anna Turner and new GK Maddie Hayes who padded up for the District Tournament, helping the squad secure 1st place and finish as Champions. Well done!

We also enjoyed some excellent hockey in the Senior squad, with the most experienced players from Year 10, 11 and 13 representing the College at the Senior District Tournament. They beat Knights Templar School and despite drawing with HGS, managed to finish in 1st place by goal difference and penalty corners. They also finished as Champions. Well done!

Congratulations and thank you to all the Hockey players who have represented the College this season and we look forward to continued success next year. I would particularly like to thank our Year 11 and 13 leavers. We are losing some really strong Year 11 hockey players this year, and I truly wish them continued success in their hockey playing career in further education. We are also saying farewell to Hannah and Lucy Jefford this year, from year 8 and 9. Both have played in every hockey game, with Lucy as Captain, and will be missed greatly by their team-mates. Finally, we say thank you and goodbye to our Year 13 players, Alice Seymour, Olivia Laithwaite and Mary Moss, otherwise known as Ally, Marry and Larry! Thank you for your support in training younger players and umpiring games. You have been outstanding ambassadors of the sport and also, will be very much missed by me. I hope all our leavers continue to gain enjoyment and success in hockey and thank you for representing the College in your years at St. Francis’.

Interhouse competitions this year

This academic year has again seen numerous sporting inter-house competitions take place throughout all 3 terms. Well done to all the students who competed so well for their house, especially those students with sparse representation of their house in their year group. Thanks also to any girls who stepped in to help those houses who lacked enough competitors. You are to be commended for your sportspersonship. Here is a summary of results across from the 2021/22 competitions:

Year 7:

Hockey

1st - Artemis

2nd – Selene

3rd - Hera

4tt - Athene

Netball

1st Artemis 2nd Selene 3rd Hera

4th Athene

Cross County

Individual Results:

1st Poppy Milan - Athene

2nd Molly Little - Hera

3rd Olivia Walton - Selene

Overall House Results:

1st Hera

2nd Athene 3rd Artemis

4th Selene

Rounders

1st Hera

2nd Artemis

3rd Athene

4th Selene Tennis

1st Artemis

2nd Athene

3rd Hera & Selene

Swimming

1st Hera

2nd Athene

3rd Selene

4th Artemis

Year 8:

Hockey

1st- Athene 2nd– Selene

3rd- Artemis 4th- Hera Netball

1st- Athene 2nd– Selene

3rd- Artemis 4th- Hera

Cross County

Individual Results:

1st Bethan Conway - Artemis

2nd Elodie Peters - Artemis

3rd Eloise Button - Selene

Overall House Results:

1st Artemis 2nd Athene 3rd Selene

4th Hera

Rounders

1st Hera 2nd Athene

3rd Selene

4th Artemis Cricket

1st Hera 2nd Selene

3rd Artemis 4th Athene

Swimming

1st Hera 2nd Athene

3rd Selene

4th Artemis

Year 9:

Hockey

1st Athene

2nd Hera

3rd Artemis

4th Selene Netball

1st Athene 2nd Hera

3rd Artemis

4th Selene Football

1st Athene

2nd Selene & Hera

4th Artemis

Cross County

Individual Results:

1st Macy Emerton Selene

2nd Lucy Jefford Athene

3rd Beth Hawthorne Athene

Overall House Results:

1st Artemis 2nd Hera

3rd Selene

4th Athene

Rounders

1st Artemis

2nd Athene

3rd Hera

4th Selene Cricket

1st Hera Tennis

1st Hera

2nd Artemis 3rd Selene

4th Athene

Year 10:

Netball

1st Athene

2nd Selene & Hera

4th Artemis

Cross County

Individual Results:

1st Alice Green - Athene

2nd Chloe Moss Hera

3rd Janel Fung - Artemis

Overall House Results:

1st Athene 2nd Hera

3rd Selene

4th Artemis

Rounders

1st Hera

2ndAthene

3rd Artemis

4th Selene Cricket

1st Hera

Y13 Trip to Teamworks Letchworth – Laser Tag and Karting

In December, the PE Department took Y13 students to ‘Teamworks Laser Tag’, Letchworth Garden City for Laser Tag and Karting session to celebrate the end of the Autumn Term. Students (and staff) had a fantastic time, as you can see by the pictures. Teamworks were very professional and suitably kitted up all the students, which made for much hilarity. Groups were split into 2 with students participating in either Laser Tag or karting, before swapping over. After a fantastic 2 sessions of Laser Tag, Hillary Bexfield was crowned the undeniable champion with a massive score of 15,004, which was 7,500 points clear of her nearest competitor – proof indeed that she is a seasoned pro at Laser Tag!

Over the two karting sessions there were numerous collisions, crunches and spins, many of which were caused by the highly competitive Georgie Harris! Evidence of driving ability from our +17-year-olds was not necessarily obvious, and after both sessions, joint winners were Darcey Perricone and Mrs Baxter, with Georgie devastated to be relegated to 3rd place!

All had a fantastic time with thanks to the PE team for organising a great trip and Teamworks. We will return…

Leadership & Volunteering

40 Students in Year 9 and 10 were given the opportunity to volunteer to facilitate a primary schools’ Mini Olympic Event, put together by Jay Livermore and the North Herts School Sport Partnership. After an initial training and information session from Jay in their St. Francis’ PE lesson, leaders travelled to Letchworth Tennis Centre in June 2022 to help deliver the event.

All students did themselves proud, with the blue group leading groups of students around the carousel of activities and the pink group running each activity. The Mini Olympic event opened with a torch relay before students were taken by their blue leaders to a variety of events including, curling, tennis, obstacle course jumping, football and throwing. St Francis’ leaders then joined the younger students with a choreographed closing ceremony dance.

We couldn’t be prouder of the caring, patient and professional way in which the volunteer leaders conducted themselves and we thank Jay and the North Herts School Sport Partnership for the opportunity.

Netball continues to be the most played sport in the District with a strong, competitive District League culminating in District Tournaments for all year groups. St. Francis’ College is represented in all of these competitions, including ‘B Team’ tournaments, to ensure all girls who turn out to train get the opportunity to compete.

The Year 7 squads competed in the District League and a festival at Heathmount School. The girls trained hard and continue to develop their understanding of the game, gaining a mixed set of results but did manage to score lots of goals this season. There is definitely lots of potential for development with continued dedication to club training. Well done!

The Year 8 A and B Teams also enjoyed competing in the District League, as well as the District Tournament and Kingshott Festival as well as some valuable training matches against Heathmount. The B Squad enjoyed an outstanding season, winning all of their games in the District B Tournament finishing 1st overall. In the Kingshott tournament, the B Team only lost one game, finishing in 2nd place, with the A Team winning all of their matches in the Kingshott A Tournament, finishing in 1st Place! Strong performances in the District League left them in 3rd place overall, and they only lost one game in the District Tournament resulting in another 3rd place podium finish. Well done!

The Year 9 players also competed in District competitions as well as a Herts Emerging Schools County Tournament where 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses saw them finish in 3rd place in their group. However, in the District League they won all but 1 of their games finishing 2nd and placed 3rd Overall at the end of the District Tournament. Well done!

The Year 10 players also won all but one game in the District League competition, finishing in 2nd place. They also started the District Tournament with a commanding lead over their competitors, but unfortunately went on to lose the last two group matches and therefore didn’t qualify for the playoffs. There is definitely a lot of potential for senior competition next season.

The Senior Team of Year 11 & 13 came together to play in both District League and Tournament. Despite a tough draw in the tournament pool, the girls played some of their best netball, narrowly missing out on a place in the finals. Having lost to Hitchin Girls’ School in the League competition, they only lost by one goal in the Tournament and came so close to a victory. Well done.

Finally, we say goodbye to Year 8 and 9 Netballers Hannah & Lucy Jefford. They have made a great contribution to St. Francis’ College Netball and will be truly missed next season. We wish them all the best in their new school. We also say goodbye to some Year 11 players who we also thank for their dedication to school netball and wish the best of luck to in Further Education. Finally, we say goodbye to Mary Moss and Alice Seymour in Year 13. We thank them for their support as Sports Captains and ambassadors of their sports and hope they enjoy continued success in the sports in Higher Education.

PE Rounders

Rounders continues to be the most popular of summer sports at St. Francis’ College, with high numbers of girls attending weekly training throughout the summer months.

The year 7 team came together for the first time and demonstrated some great natural batting and fielding talent. They managed to win 3 of their 5 League games, with all girls who came to club given the opportunity to play. Well done!

The Year 8 team also played brilliantly in their League games, without loss. It was as shame they couldn’t play in their District Tournament, but we are excited for their potential next season!

In Year 9, players won two of three League games and went on to play fantastically well in the Tournament. They won all their group games and qualified for the final which they also went on to win, finishing the tournament as Year 9 champions! Well done!

The Year 10 team managed a very strong win over Fearnhill but lost to Hitchin Girls’ School. Again, they went on to bat and field brilliantly in the District Tournament and qualifying for the final. Unfortunately, they couldn’t mirror the success of the Year 9s, but a 2nd place overall was a great result against very tough competition. Well done!

Mrs Baxter and Miss Compton are so proud of the commitment and effort from all the players this year and we look forward to more success next season.

Individual Sporting Achievements Report 2022

We are so proud of the individual achievements of our athletes who compete at Club, County, Regional and National level. Here are some of the achievements of these athletes this year that we are aware of:

Eunice Lau Badminton

Eunice competed in the Herts School Country Championship, finishing as U18 B Hertfordshire Schools County Champion. Well Done!

Chenara De Silva Badminton

Chenara competed in the under 15 National Badminton Tournament, and won a Singles Silver medal and Bronze Doubles medal in the Autumn Term. In the Spring Term, she was Doubles winner and Singles runner up. Well Done!

Alice Green Swimming

Alice swam at Eastern Regionals and was selected for the Swim England National Development Programme. She competed in the ‘Golden Bear Swimming Competition’ for Hatfield, in Croatia and came 2nd overall in her age group and achieved a 1st place in 50m freestyle. Alice has also been selected to race at the Swimming Nationals in Sheffield this summer, qualifying for the 50m Breaststroke. Good luck!

Evie Brown Swimming

Evie has been selected this year to race at the South East Regionals in Norwich. Good Luck!

Chloe Moss Netball

Chloe was been selected for the U16 Bedfordshire County Netball team this year. Well done!

Tilda Haywood Hockey

Tilda plays for Hertfordshire County Hockey under 15 team, who were the County Regional Hockey runners up at the Regional Competition.

Jess Hutchinson Hockey Representing St Albans U12, the team won the Herts County tournament, qualifying for the Regional Competition in Norfolk. Jess and Herts won their group and got through to the final, finishing as Regional ‘Runners Up’. Well done!

Laila Davies Rugby

Laila was selected for Herts County Rugby Squad this year. Her team reached the final of the Midlands Cup, finishing as ‘Runners Up’. Well done!

Angelina Yeung Fencing

Angelina was Champion in the 2022 London Region Youth Championships and BYC qualifier and qualified for the British Youth Championship. She also competed in the Birmingham International Fencing Tournament. Well done!

PE

Sports Awards Dinner

After

for the Annual PE Sports

Dinner, held at the Letchworth Golf Club. It is always a lovely

College to recognise and reward students for their school sporting endeavours that year. Students enjoyed the warm summer evening with photos outside overlooking the golf course before sitting down to a lovely meal. This year, we were fortunate enough to have welcome guest speaker to the event, Kate McCall from Paralympics GB, who was able to speak with all the attending students.

AWARDS Y8 Y9 Y10 SENIOR

BEST ALL ROUNDER Chloe Kempster Hannah Jefford

MOST DEDICATED Shivani Dave Sarah Henwood

HIGHEST ACHIEVER ‘Excellence’

SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

Megan McGloin Rajneek Sarai

Dina Inglis Beth Hawthorne

Carina Lo Lucy Jefford

Inaya Lad Georgia Maddock

TEAM OF THE YEAR Winners:

Intermediate Swimming Squad – Evie Brown, Macy Emerton, Janel Fung, Ash Magon & Alice Green

Amelie Mitchell Poppy Harvey

Runners up: U13 Cricket Team

Chloe Moss

Laila Davies

Holly Manning Grace Winspear

Alice Green

Jiya Uppall Elina Sanganee

Maddie Hayes Maddie McGloin

Alexa Montgomerie

Daniella Njawaya Alice Seymour

Jasmine Bagenal Jess Kempster

Speeches - Sport Specific

PE Sports Day

Another amazing day of competition and house spirit took place on Thursday 11th June 2022. Thankfully, the heat wasn’t as intense, and competitors were protected by the clouds. During the morning competition, students competed in all Field Events of throwing and jumping competitions. With several competitors having to pull out due to Covid, the Houses pulled together under the enthusiastic leadership of their House Captains to ensure all events were covered. Thank you so much to the Year 12 House Captains for all their hard work, face painting and organisation of their houses on Thursday:

Artemis – Isabella Sandberg and Sana Mohammed

Athene – Katie Pritchard and Bernice Choi

Hera - Millie Barso and Olivia Fenn

Selene - Heather Pollock and Yoyo Kung

Thank must also go to the PE Department, Miss Compton in particular, for organising such an inclusive Sports Day. Events like this don’t just happen and it can’t run without the support of staff such as Mrs Newland, Mrs Hammond, Mr Grant on the PA, the Maths Dept on the score table, the Nurse on 1st Aid, the Site team for their set up and all the fantastic teaching staff who helped on the finish line, supervise students and those who were brave enough to participate in the ‘fun relay’. Thank you so much!

We also need to mention our outgoing Sports Captains, Year 13s’ Mary Moss and Alice Seymour. Despite having left, they were once again there to support the PE Department and students throughout sports day. They are, as always, to be commended for their enthusiasm, good humour, expertise and professionalism. The PE department are forever indebted to you and hope to hear from you regularly regarding your next adventures!

Here is a complete list of all the Gold Medal winners for each event. Congratulations to them and to all Silver and Bronze Medallists, as well as every student who competed on the day, gaining invaluable points for their houses:

GOLD MEDALISTS: TRACK EVENTS

100m Competition

Year 7 Winner- Freya Zhao Year 8 Winner- Hannah Jefford Year 9 Winner- Lucy Jefford Senior Winner- Holly Manning

200m Competition

Year 7 Winner- Freya Zhao Year 8 Winner- Elodie Peters Year 9 Winner- Zöe Bysouth Senior Winner- Holly Manning 300m Competition (Seniors only)

Senior Winner- Alice Green 800m Competition

Year 7 Winner- Hannah Cornforth

Year 8 Winner- Chloe Kempster Year 9 Winner- Lucy Jefford

Senior Winner- Alice Green

1500m Competition

Year 7 Winner- Olivia Walton

Year 8 Winner- Eloise Button

Year 9 Winner- Macy Emerton

Senior Winner- Chloe Moss

4 x 100m Relay Competition

Year 7 Winner- Selene Year 8 Winner- Hera Year 9 Winner- Hera Senior Winner- Hera

GOLD MEDALISTS: FIELD EVENTS Shot Putt Competition

Year 7 Winner- Freya Zhao Year 8 Winner- Elodie Peters Year 9 Winner- Jolly Chan Senior Winner- Chloe Moss Discus Competition

Year 7 Winner- Freya Zhao Year 8 Winner- Chloe Kempster Year 9 Winner- Petra Popescu Senior Winner- Chloe Moss Javelin Competition

Year 7 Winner- Keira Wan Year 8 Winner- Kali Evans

Year 9 Winner- Megan McGloin Senior Winner- Katie Pritchard Long Jump Competition

Year 7 Winner Olivia Walton

Year 8 Winner- Hannah Jefford Year 9 Winner- Lucy Jefford Senior Winner- Nyah Temple High Jump Competition

Year 7 Winner - Leanna Kachiwala

Year 8 Winner- Hannah Jefford Year 9 Winner- Emma Greatorex Senior Winner- Valerie Poon

VICTRIX LUDORUM – ‘Winner of the Games’

Amazing work from the students who competed for the Victrix Ludorum Award in their year!

Superb results in a range of events across the board. The ‘Victrix Ludorum’ medals were awarded to:

Year 7 Winner: Olivia Walton

Year 8 Winner: Hannah Jefford Year 9 Winner: Lucy Jefford

Senior Winner: Chloe Moss, who also achieved the highest number of points across the entirety of Sports Day, an extra well done!

OVERALL HOUSE RESULTS:

1st Place: Hera

2nd Place: Athene

3rd Place: Artemis

4th Place: Selene

Swimming

The St. Francis’ College Swimming squad have enjoyed a very successful year, with swim meets now firmly back in the calendar. In March, Mrs Hammond took the Year 7 & 8 Junior Team to Heathmount Swimming Gala where they competed against Heathmount and Kingshott. The swimmers had some great results, some competing for the first time, managing an overall 1st Place finish. Well done!

In the North Herts District Gala, the PE Department took a full complement of swimmers to Hitchin Swimming Centre, representing the College across the Junior, Intermediate and Senior competitions. We were over the moon for the Junior Year 7 and 8 Swimming Team to manage a 4th place overall with Bronze Medals for Corina L, Zaina S, Hannah J & Sarah H - 4x25m Freestyle Relay and Silver Medals for Carina L - 25m Butterfly. Well done!

The Senior Year 11/12/13 Swimming Team secured 2nd place overall with Bronze Medals for Angelina Y - 50m Backstroke, Silver Medals for Abbie C - 50m Butterfly; Daniella N - 50m Freestyle, Abbie C, Angelina Y, Eunice L, Daniella N – 4x25m Freestyle Relay and 4x25m Medley Relay and Gold medals for Eunice L - 50m Breaststroke. Well done!

The Intermediate Year 9 and 10 Swimming Team went one further achieving 1st place overall! A fantastic result. Well done to all and particularly Silver Medallists Macy E - 50m Backstroke and Gold Medallists Alice G - 50m Breaststroke; Janel F - 25m Butterfly; Ash M - 50m Freestyle; Macy E, Alice G, Janel F, Evie C – 4x25m Medley Relay and Evie B, Alice G, Macy E and Ash M - 4x25m Freestyle Relay. Well done! These results meant that St. Francis’ were overall North Herts District Gala Champions over all age groups! Congratulations to all the swimmers who competed.

Following these performances, Gold Medal winning students were then selected to represent the North Herts Team at the Hertfordshire Inter-District Secondary Schools Gala. The selected swimmers of Daniella N, Janel F, Alice G and Evie B then managed to win medals for the team! Congratulations on this fantastic achievement.

Well done to all the swimmers who have represented the College, or just attended Swim Club this year. Thanks to Mrs Hammond for her regular twice weekly swimming club sessions and organising the swimming squad teams.

Wimbledon Trip July 2022

The College were fortunate to be allocated Court 2 tickets for Monday 4th July for this year’s Wimbledon Tennis Championships in the annual ballot, thanks to Mrs Greenfield’s tenacity. A St. Francis’ College internal Tennis Team Ballot was held, and 8 lucky students from Y7 to 10 got the amazing opportunity to go to Wimbledon.

We were lucky to see a 5 set tussle between Australia’s Alex de Minaur who eventually succumbed to Chilean Cristian Garin despite losing the first 2 sets. The students then enjoyed the 2nd game of the day, managing to see Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic defeat France’s Alizé Cornet in another long 3 set thriller.

Students, Mrs Baxter and Miss Compton enjoyed all Wimbledon had to offer, wondering around the outside courts for amazing courtside views of the junior competition, the numerous shops on site and ice creams in the sunshine on Henman Hill. Chloe Moss and Laila Davies even managed to get onto Court 3 to see a mixed doubles game!

Tennis

It was fantastic to have the District and Aegon Tennis Leagues running again this year, providing our students with the opportunity to play some competitive Tennis.

District Tennis League

This is a local, friendly league for students to gain more experience of playing doubles Tennis. There were lots of close matches and it was great to see the students improving in technique and confidence throughout the season. Results:

Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 2nd 2nd 3rd

Aegon Tennis League

The Aegon League is for students with more competitive experience and took us all over the County. Keira, Luka, Chloe and Kali played some fantastic singles and doubles Tennis, meaning that they won the league! Unfortunately, they were unable to attend the finals at Queenswood but fingers crossed for next year… District Tennis Tournament

The Year 9s welcomed the opportunity to compete in the District Doubles Tennis Tournament at Letchworth Sports and Tennis Club. It was a chance for the students to play matches against lots of different schools from North Herts and try out some new doubles tactics. The students came 3rd and 4th overall - well done!

Play Your Way to Wimbledon

We were pleased once again to host the first round of the Road to Wimbledon Competition. It was a great evening of tennis and congratulations to the winners:

U14 singles U18 Doubles

Keira Wan Keira Wan & Luka Chik

Having won the competition, Keira and Luka qualified for the Regional Finals at the end of June. They faced some tough opposition and sadly didn’t make it through to the National Finals at Wimbledon – there is always next year!

YEAR 13 LEAVERS’ EVENTS

After an association with the College that has ranged anything from 1 to 14 years, our class of 2022 formally left us in mid-May to go on study leave and prepare for their A Levels (the first since 2019!).

On their last day, as is customary, students wore their old school uniform, and as ever, some prep uniforms still fitted! This year, there were even some PHC uniforms on display for our more recent joiners. This was the culmination of a dress-up (spirit) week, which had included superheroes, Athletes v Mathletes, and the not-to-be-forgotten ‘Dress as Mr Carr’ day. The pink shirts were everywhere!

In keeping with tradition, Staff v Year 13 rounders took place at lunchtime, with pupils from all year groups watching on. In a shock result, that nobody saw coming, least of all me,

the Year 13 students triumphed 9-8 in a closely fought contest. Raucous celebration ensued, with the staff suitably magnanimous in defeat.

As the clock struck 6pm, students returned, looking resplendent in their formal outfits, ready for the St. Francis’ Association admission ceremony, followed by the Leavers’ Supper. The sun shone as drinks were first enjoyed in the Sixth Form Garden. During the admissions service, as parents, staff, and invited guests watched on, we were charmed by students’ readings, watched on in awe as Jess and Eloise played the guitar and sang to us so beautifully, before Avneet’s piano rendition of ABBA’s ‘slipping through my fingers’ sent us all over the edge emotionally.

A fine 3-course meal was then enjoyed by staff and students. The kitchen staff never fail to

amaze and were ably supported by Year 12 students giving up their evening. Our guest of honour was old girl Katherine Ritchie, who alongside a successful career, travels around the world as international panel women’s rugby referee. Her message to the audience was truly inspirational.

At time of writing, our 2022 Leavers have just achieved a most wonderful set of A Level results, and they now head off to their university or degree apprenticeship of choice, with Oxford and Cambridge amongst their very impressive destinations. We are proud of each and every one of them, and I look forward to welcoming them back to the College in the near future.

Mr D Carr Head of Sixth Form

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