St John's School Porthcawl

Prospective Pupils

Office — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:07:41 +0000

St. John’s is a truly independent co-educational school for pupils aged 3-16 years. We currently have limited availability across the school.

We have three minibuses which bring pupils from Cowbridge, Neath & Port Talbot and Bridgend. We also offer after school care and activities each day until 5.30pm.

All enquiries are very welcome. Please contact the school office on 01656 783404 or email to make an appointment to view our school in session.

Open Day

Office — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:52:00 +0000

We will be holding our next Open Day on Tuesday 21st February. Please come and see what St. John’s has to offer. There will be the opportunity to have a tour of the school in session and to speak with pupils and staff.

There will be a Parent & Toddler session on the morning of Thursday 9th February. This is a chance to spend some time with your child in the Early Years Unit.

For more information or to book a place for the Parent & Toddler Session please email or call the school office on 01656 783404.

Spring Music and Drama News

Office — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:41:27 +0000

Welcome back!

Many many thanks to all pupils who showed so much enthusiasm, energy and commitment last term. I loved our pupils magnificent energy in the Pavilion and all our carol services – well done!
At the end of last term, Year 7 performed ‘The Gruffalo’, Year 8 ‘Roald Dahl’s Cinderella and Year 9 ‘ Rupert Scrooge’. Years 4, 5 and 6 performed some Christmas poems. It was a super morning of fun, talent and camaraderie. Well done to everyone concerned. M.A.P (music, drama, art and PE) are very excited as we now have a new ‘happy board’. We would love pupils to bring photos of any music, drama, art or sporting achievement they would like us to know about, so we can all feel ‘happy’!

Dates to remember:
1st March       School Eisteddfod
2nd March    Pre-Prep concert for family and friends 2.45p.m.
5th March     Eisteddfod Highlights Concert for family and friends at 6.00p.m.
26th March  Informal music concert for instrumentalists, vocalists and the Prep choir – 2.45p.m.

Clubs:
We now have a variety of music and drama clubs
Music theory           Tuesday 1.30p.m. preparing for grade 5
Recorder group      Tuesday break time
Music ensemble    Monday break time
GCSE drama             Monday after school
Year 7 – 9 drama   Tuesday after school

Many of our pupils attend music, drama and dance clubs outside school including:
The Performance House
Bridgend Youth Theatre (BYT)
Bridgend Youth Dance (BYD)
Big Talent
Stagecoach
Many of our pupils continue to show true commitment and determination towards outside music, drama and dance activities.
Congratulations to:
Alicia Cooke, Year 10 who won many gold medals last term in dance competitions. She will be preparing for the Sarah Burnell dance show in March.
Katie-Anne Brown, Year 10 who achieved Merit in Grade 5 Saxophone
Megan Greenwood, Year 7 who passed Grade 2 saxophone
Cian Sparrow, Year 8 who successfully auditioned for a part in the ‘King and I’ which is being produced by the Millennium centre at the New Theatre in May – details to follow
Bibiana Viazzani, Year 5 who gained a place in the newly formed ‘Kids Aloud’ – they are touring Russia this year. She also won the prestigious Vale Competition. She will now perform in the Senedd and on the Glanfa Stage in the Millennium Centre. Bibi has also successfully auditioned for ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ – details to follow.
Stefan Farmer, Year 10 the ultimate professional, who was a joy to watch in the Porthcawl Pantomime ‘Cinderella’. He will also be performing in ‘Billy Liar’ with BYT and in ‘The Producers’ with Performance House.
Dominic Hoven, Year 9 who will be performing with his Band on 27th January at the Grand Pavilion.
Ellen Jeal, Year 4 who has joined a rock club.

Instrumental and vocal lessons
This term we have pupils starting on violin, piano and cornet. Good luck to everyone.
We are fortunate to have excellent teaching staff:
Mrs. Shawe                Vocals and piano
Mat Ashment            Clarinet, saxophone and flute
Lizzie Prendergast  Violin and ‘Cello
Noel Watson              Drums
Stuart Power             Guitar
Terry Lax                   Trombone, trumpet and cornet

If your child is interested in learning an instrument, please feel free to speak to me or contact the school office.
Mrs. D. Mead

Music News September 2011

Office — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:53:50 +0000

Welcome to the first Music and Drama news of the new academic year!

This term we have many musical moments for you to enjoy – here is a brief peep!……

9 November A visit to see Joseph in the New Theatre for Yrs3-6

21 November Pre Prep and Prep concert at 2.45p.m. All welcome – it will be great fun!

28 November Mayor’s Charity Concert at the Grand Pavilion. It starts at 7.00p.m. and has become quite a tradition in the St. John’s calendar. Details to follow including how to buy tickets.

5 December Senior concert at 2.30p.m. Please join us and enjoy the music of our older pupils.

6 December Pre Prep and Prep Nativity at 2.15p.m. in the Crampton Hall. Unmissable!

7 December Second performance of the Nativity.

12 December The Pre Prep and Prep Carol Service at St. John’s Church – another unmissable event.

13 December Prep and Senior Carol Service at the Church starting at 3.00p.m.

Please make a note in your diary of all these events to be sure you don’t miss any of them! We have already enjoyed a CAVMS strings and guitar demo, 2 harvest festivals, a visit to The Sandville and an all day vocal workshop run by the conductor of the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain – so well do everyone.

Many congratulations to all musicians who sat Associated Board exams at the end of last term.
Martha passed Grade 4 singing with merit
Alicia passed Grade 4 singing with merit
Katie passed Grade 4 piano with merit.
Alicia passed Grade 5 Ballet with distinction

Congratulations also go to:
Martha and Alicia who attended the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain summer course at Shrewsbury school.

Bibi who gained a place in the regional finals of ‘Open Mic’ UK’. We’ll keep you posted with details of what happens next.

In Drama, many congratulations go to:
Stefan for performing one of the lead roles in the Senior BYT production of ‘The King and I’ and on attending the BYT
summer school and playing the lead role in a performance of excerpts from ‘Harry Potter the Musical’.

We have many pupils performing weekly with various theatre groups:

Year 1 Lucia and Tallulah with Big Talent

Years 2/3 Olivia and Isabella who attend Stagecoach

Year 4 Sam, Skye and Louie who all attend Big Talent. Ellen who goes to BYT

Year 5 Joshua who is part of Maesteg Operatic Society

Year 6 Chloe and Emilly who attend Bridgend Youth Theatre and Bridgend Youth Dance

Year 8 Lee and Cian who attend Big Talent and Kelan who goes to Port Talbot and district Amateur Operatic Society Youth Theatre.

Year 9 Dominic Hoven who attends BYT

Year 10 Stefan who attends BYT and BYD

Joshua in Year 5 is performing as one of Fagin’s boys in Maesteg from 25th – 29th October.

Kelan in Year 8 is performing one of the lead roles in ‘The Vackees’ which is on at the Princess Royal Theatre from 24th – 26th October.

We have an ever increasing amount of musicians taking instrumental and vocal lessons in school. If you would like your child to learn an instrument, please let the office know. A quick reminder as to when lessons are taught in school:

Monday Piano, singing, woodwind and drums
Tuesday Piano and singing
Wednesday Piano
Thursday Guitar and strings
Friday Brass

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our school music and drama news – there is lots to talk about at the beginning of the year. More to follow soon……………………………….
Mrs. D. Mead

Harvest Festival Celebrations

Office — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:55:07 +0000

Last week we celebrated the Harvest Festival at St. John’s with a Pre Prep and Prep service at St. John’s Church and a Harvest Assembly in School for Seniors. Thank you to everyone who gave so generously. The food will now be distributed to local charities via the Porthcawl Food Bank and St. John’s Church, Newton.

Great results for St John’s GCSE pupils!

Office — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:04:04 +0000

Once again St John’s pupils have achieved great GCSE results with 65% of all examinations taken being awarded the top A* to B grades. 47% of all the exams were given A* and A grades (against a national average of 23.2%) with 21% at the highest A* level. Over 80% of pupils achieved at least one A or A* grade and nearly 65% achieved at least 4 A or A* grades. The highest achiever at the school this year was Elan Edry who gained 11 GCSEs, 10 of which were A* with the other being an A. Elan was also this year’s winner of the Compact Cup and was chosen as the school’s “Good Citizen of the Year”. This highlights how both Elan and the other highest achievers this year not only work hard to gain their excellent academic results but also are busy members of the school community. Other high achievers, Tom Brown (9A/A*), Laura Clint and Daniel Shearer, who between them gained 9A*s, 16As and 5Bs, have all made valuable contributions to school life through the lead they have taken as Head Boy, House Captain and Chair of School Council, also through sport, music, the Interact club and by acting as good role models for younger pupils. Also to be congratulated is Year 10 pupil, Hugh Perkins who achieved A* in his maths GCSE a year early. Mrs Clint, headmistress said, “We are all proud of our young students and their achievements- we wish them well as they continue with their studies in the future. Once again St John’s has proved how much value-added its pupils gain from being part of the small family style community.”

Compact Presentation

Office — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:15:11 +0000

Recently Phil Morgan from EBP (Education Business Partnership) attended Year 11’s final school assembly and presented Compact Certificates to Year 11 pupils. These are pupils who have achieved at least 95% attendance and are punctual, have completed their Record of Achievement files, have completed assisgnments by given deadlines, have completed at least one week of work experience and those who conform to the school’s standards of appearance and conduct. A special award, The Compact Cup, is also presented each year to the pupil who stands out as having a higher level of achievement for the Compact Goals. This year the cup was presented to Elan Edry. Congratulations to Elan and the other members of Year 11 who received certificates.

Music News May 2011

Office — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:11:23 +0000

Congratulations to all pupils who sat Associated Board exams last term.

Megan Greenwood Grade 1 Saxophone with merit
Charlotte Baker  Grade 2 Violin
Bradley Thorne  Grade 3 Trombone with merit
Dominic Hoven  Grade 3 piano
Bradley Thorne  Grade 4 piano with merit
Daniel Shearer  Grade 5 piano

Stefan Farmer, Dominic Hoven and Chloe Atkinson who performed brilliantly recently in Bridgend Youth Theatre’s production of ‘Bugsy Malone’. It was an excellent show and we’re really proud of you! This term senior BYT are performing ‘The King and I’ – unmissable

Martha Sanders and Alicia Cooke who attended the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain course in Shrewsbury before Easter, culminating in an exciting concert.
William Mead who attended the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain course and then performed at the Colston Hall in Bristol. Martha sang with the NCCGB in the same concert when the orchestra and choir performed together.

Megan Greenwood and Lee Davies who took part in the making of a promotional film for Gwnet Police. Both girls are members of the Big Talent drama group

Dates to remember this term:
3 instrumental concerts- everyone very welcome!
Pre Prep Tuesday 28th June 3pm
Prep Monday 4th July 3pm
Senior Monday 11th July 3pm

On Monday 11th July we are also holding our final Comenius Concert in school time. Our topic is respecting the environment and the children will be performing their own compositions, songs, plays and much more. Next term we will have a chance to see items from our 2 year project, on the European Day of Languages evening concert in late September.

On May 23rd Yrs 4 & 6 will be attending a Gamelan session in St. David’s Hall.

A BIG THANK YOU to all our pupils and parents who raised over £200 for RDA (Riding for the Disabled). Our cake day was a huge success with so many delicious things to eat. The raffle and name the pony were equally successful. Becky Mead came to give us a talk on RDA and we enjoyed the occasion.

Change of teachers:
Sadly Lindsay Hammer, our woodwind and strings teacher, is no longer teaching with us. She has been so enthusiastic and loyal, we will miss her.
We now welcome Lizze Prendergast who will teach strings on a Thursday and Matt Ashment who will teach woodwind on a Monday.

If any pupils are keen to learn an instrument please feel free to contact me.

90th Anniversary Ball

Office — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:42:38 +0000

As part of our 90th Anniversary Celebrations plans are well under way for our Ball on Saturday 14th May. There are still some tickets available from the school bursar priced at £25 per head, to include food (including a hogroast), entertainment and a glass of Bucks Fizz on arrival. Current staff and governors will be attending along with past pupils and members of staff.

Please contact the school bursar on 01656 783404 for more information or to book tickets.

World Record Attempt

Office — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:49:41 +0000

We are delighted to announce that the Guiness Book of World Records has accepted our suggested record attempt. As part of our 90th Anniversary celebrations we will be attempting to create the LONGEST CHAIN OF SCARVES!!
The present record stands at 6,552m (21,498ft) and was achieved by 194 Campaign in Beirut on 15/05/10….
We want to collect 7,000 scarves to secure this record and we will be collecting scarves all year or until we reach our target. The Guiness Book of World Records team will then visit us to adjudicate the attempt.
There are scarf bins in school and we will be placing bins in shops and offices around the community. After the attempt, the scarves will be donated to charity to be sewn together to provide blankets.
Please search your drawers and cupboards and let us have your scarves!!