School Blog

Gold, Frankincense and Mirth

Gold, Frankincense and Mirth

Congratulations to Year 5 on a wonderful musical on Tuesday. There were some tremendous performances and beautiful singing, and Years 4 and 6 were in fine voice to support the show. The composer of the show, Sheila Wilson, came to see the show and said afterwards it was the best production she has ever seen of one of her shows. She thought it was magical. Thank you to Mr Morrell, Shannon, Darcie and Mr Scott for getting the show ready. More photos can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BriKOQNDc88jVuYfHJs4UkD0F7crUXOS?usp=drive_link and the video here: https://vimeo.com/894577842/1ba593338a?share=copy

Christmas Service

Christmas Service

Last Friday’s Christmas Service was a magical occasion filled with lovely singing, confident readings and Christmas cheer! As well as the congregational carols, classes sang ‘Mary Had A Baby’, ‘Go Tell It On A Mountain’, “The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came’ and ‘Silent Night’. The children were brilliant throughout. Thank you for your support if you were able to make it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f-e9KeaOMaWVt4Ub2z6FZSNl6c0RJiJd/view

Houses!

Houses!

Last week, the children in KS2 were sorted into four houses: Fedelta (Faithfulness), Kebaikan (Kindness), Armastus (Love), Maluhia (Peace). They will receive House Points for high achievement, great progress, exceptional effort, and exemplary conduct.

As well as gaining House Points throughout the school day, the children will be able to compete in mini-tournaments and competitions throughout the year. There is a House Cup trophy for the school champions at the end of the year.

Fantastic Results

Fantastic Results

This week we received the SAT results for Year 6. We are delighted with them. They are a testament to the talent and dedication of the pupils and staff. A huge thank you goes to everyone who has taught and supported this cohort over the years. Congratulations to Mr Morrell, Darcie and Mr Scott for all of their hard work this year, and to Mr Henshaw, Mr Crowley and Mrs White who also helped them prepare for the tests. 97% of children achieving an ‘expected’ level in mathematics, reading and writing (compared to the national average of 59%) is a wonderful outcome.

No school can achieve these results without parental support and we thank all the parents who have worked in partnership with the school throughout their time here.

Recent OFSTED visit

Recent OFSTED visit

We are extremely proud to share with you the official report from our recent OFSTED inspection that took place on December 7th and 8th 2022.

The school has been graded “Outstanding” in all areas. This fantastic outcome is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff, the support of our parents and governors and our wonderful pupils.

Please take the time to read the report by clicking here. We are delighted with the report and feel it is a true reflection of Cathedral School. The current Ofsted framework is extremely challenging, with only 18% of outstanding schools retaining their outstanding judgement following an inspection.

The inspectors were extremely complimentary when verbally reporting back to senior staff, governors and representatives from the local authority and diocese; saying that it was ‘an honour and a privilege’ to have inspected the school. A representative from Southwark Council said she had never heard such positive feedback from OFSTED in her whole career as a School Improvement Partner.

Please enjoy reading the report and thank you all again for your support during the inspection.

Matilda Jr.

Matilda Jr.

The end of year show was an absolute triumph. Mr Scott, Janet and Brenda worked incredibly hard with Class 6 and they all produced a show which will be remembered for a long time, we are sure. We would like to thank all the staff for their various roles during the busy week, and particularly our premises manager Steve who has been busy for weeks because of this production.

As well as the parents of Year 6 for their support, we thank the Year 4 and Year 5 parents who supported the show during their two respective nights dropping off and collecting in the evenings. The children were amazing and there is no other primary school who could put together a show of this quality in just a half term. If you missed the show, watch this one-minute trailer and buy a DVD!

Tremendous Results

Tremendous Results

Year 6 achieved superb results in their final exams – with 97% attaining ‘expected’ in all the core subjects (compared to a national level of 59%.)  The percentage of ‘greater depth’ was also exceptional – with 67% of our children achieving this high level in reading, compared to the 27% national average. Please note that these national averages are taken from the last available year (2019).

These results are excellent and needless to say we are very proud of all our children. You can read this newsletter to find out more: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g0qIubq2nJhRWglKwbmW5ccO21AD5edJ/view?usp=sharing

Book Week (Dragon Egg Discovery)

Book Week (Dragon Egg Discovery)

This has been an extraordinary week at Cathedral School, with the discovery of only the fourth dragon egg found in the last hundred years in the playground. The video below best explains the goings-on.

As well as this marvellous find, on Thursday, Miss Campbell arranged for Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler to visit the school. Jan and Sara are a writing partnership with over two hundred books to their name. They’ve written about ‘gargoylz’, dinosaurs, ghosts, football, ghosts playing football, Tudor spies, time-travelling pirates and pets from space!

They were hugely complimentary about the school and the excellent engagement of all our
children.

Book Day itself was a hugely fun day, with older classes hearing younger classes read, mystery teacher readers and, of course, costumes. It was very lovely to see many dragons in amongst the usual favourites. We thank Miss Campbell for organising such a successful and memorable week.