Junior and Senior pupils of St John’s College are busy preparing for the School’s first whole-school exhibition in aid of children’s charity Soham for Kids.   Works of art will go on display for one-day only on Thursday 23 February in the New Benildus Hall.

A selection of Year 9 pupils passed a very productive few hours before half term when they spent the day in the textiles room designing and making their own textile product.

On Monday 6 February, A Level students were privileged to go on a ‘behind the scenes tour’ of the Natural History Museum in London

At the beginning of the day, students were divided into two groups. One toured a molecular biology laboratory and saw the procedures and equipment used in DNA analysis, whilst the other group met a botanical scientist, who allowed the students to see some of Charles Darwin’s original plant samples from the 1830s. They were also shown plant pressings taken by The Reverend Adam Buddle in the 16^th century.

Just as members of our Chapel Choir were getting over the excitement of leading the Pontifical High Mass at the Vatican they were informed that they have been accepted to sing the Vigil Mass in the Papal Archbasilica in Rome!

Pupils are now more familiar with the world of work – thanks to parents of fellow pupils. On Friday 27 January 17 parents attended the Year Nine Careers Event to share their work experience with pupils, ahead of when they make their Options choices.

On Friday 3 February one of the most recently created Liberal Democrat life peers, Baron Stoneham of Droxford, addressed members of the St John’s College Politics Society on the subject of ‘Politics, Journalism and the Coalition’.

The Science Department is now the proud owner of a working model of our Solar System, thanks to Mr John Adams.

After reading the article about our new GCSE Astronomy course in the Portsmouth News last week Mr Adams, aged 81 from Cosham, contacted the School about donating the model to the Science department.

Our Boarding pupils respected ancient Chinese tradition on Friday 27 January as they performed the mythical Lion Dance to mark Chinese New Year to other Boarders and staff. The Dance followed a banquet of Chinese food, which was enjoyed by everyone!

Our Science Department has just announced some exciting developments to the schools’ science provision: a brand new Astronomy GCSE for future stargazers, coupled with a newly refurbished Lab fit for any budding scientist.  

Newly appointed Head of Science and Cambridge PGCE student, Mr Andrew Martin, joined St John’s in September, and since then has been working to update facilities for students to widen their horizons in the field of science, and to better prepare them for university.

Our Pre-prep children took part in a variety of craft activities on Monday 23 January to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the dragon.

The Stars children from our Nursery joined our older Pre-Prep (Infant) children on a programme of activities which included making paper lanterns and Chinese dragons, decorating red envelopes and tasting Chinese food.  Each activity lasted 30 minutes and helped the children to understand what Chinese New Year is all about.

They have been performing for less than three years, but already reached such acclaim that the 42 choristers of the St John’s Chapel Choir are to lead the Pontifical High Mass at the Vatican this summer.

The award-winning choir will depart on Monday 20 August. The choir will then head to Rome where they will lead the Pontifical High Mass in the Vatican on Sunday 26 August.

Our Nursery Stars and Reception children visited Waitrose on Thursday 12 January to learn about Supermarkets.

They started with a tour of the warehouse and learned about the freezers and chillers. Afterwards they went on to the shop floor where they looked for healthy food. They visited the Meat and Fish counter where they were shown different types of fish.

Our Pre-preps enjoyed a visit from two Police Support Community Officers (PSCOs) on Tuesday 10 January.  Children from the Nursery up to Year 2 were introduced to our local PSCOs – Katy and Emma, and heard how the PSCOs help and support our local community, and keep us all safe.

At 4pm on 16 December 42 pupils from Years 7 to 9 and 6 staff left St John’s for the Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps.

After a long coach journey, we finally arrived at our Hotel, The Casale, just after midday the following day. Although it had been the mildest start to the winter in living memory, we were very fortunate that 80cm of snow had fallen in our resort of Pila the day before our arrival, which meant we were met with superb snow conditions from the off.

Pupils taking part in the Positively Portsmouth Passport to Success scheme visited the University of Portsmouth’s Mock Court room on Monday 12 December to take part in their third challenge. This time the pressure was on as they competed against The Charter Academy School to go through to the next round.