Page 1 - Sancton_Wood_Times_Lent DPS

The Sancton Wood Times

Lent Term

A game of two halves

This newsletter is a record of the activities and achievements of our pupils over the first term. It comple-
ments our website and weekly newsletters as a way of chronicling the life of the school and shows pupils
who are happy in their school lives. From the Baby Unicorns upwards, they thrive in the wide number of
tasks and challenges we set them, and grow in confidence and maturity with the passing of each week.

Any keen football fan will be familiar with the phrase ‘a game of two halves’, but for those of you new
to the term, it can be explained quite simply - a match that has a drastically different feel and result in
the first and second halves, due to a change in formation or a key event impacting on the way the game
is remembered. Often with all the good a team does in the first half being obscured by the events of the
second and therefore totally forgotten about. I am acutely aware that ‘a game of two halves’ could easily
be the epithet assigned to the Lent term of 2020.

The first half term was another soaring success; our weekly newsletters were packed full of achievement.
This newspaper is filled with great stories, some written by those involved, and shows a vibrant and
happy school, thriving. We took a trip to Santander; put on a Senior school performance of The Crucible;
and celebrated World Book Week and STEM Week with gusto.
I finished the term with daily short films for the students, breakfast briefings, ending with a reminder of the key values of the school and, the significance of those values as the country began its period of
lockdown:

the Broad and Deep Worth of Each Individual Child; Thank You
Intellectual Curiosity;
Practical Kindness;
Personal Pride and Dignity; A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up to the St George’s Court Care Home Buddy Scheme, gave to the
a Community of Fun and Energy. Cambridge City Foodbank or donated to The East Africa Children’s Project. It’s wonderful that so many of you have sought
to help others at this difficult time.
Richard

Inter-school Competition Success

The Maths Feast is a mathematics competition, between many The Perse Science Quiz
schools, that tests students on their problem-solving ability. It
relies heavily on teamwork and strategy. Sancton Wood was represented at The Perse Science Quiz, which
took place on March 3rd 2019, by Leah, Elvira, Antonio and Sanika
19 teams took part in the competition. The feast consisted of 4 in year 10; it was between 7 schools, one of them - unfortunately -
rounds: not being able to make the date.
1st – True or false questions that each team had to complete. No
communication was allowed. Each member was handed a set of The quiz was split into 3 categories: Chemistry, Physics and Biolo-
questions and had to complete as many of them as they could gy (in that order) and each category consisted of a table quiz, scien-
before swapping it with another team member. tific questions and a practical, all three going on at the same time.
2nd – Six different problems were handed out to each team. Some examples of questions they were asked involved naming
The round took 20 minutes and every team had to hand in four elements of the periodic table or units of measurement that were
answers. This round relied on team communication and time named after scientists, naming the body part that contained cer-
management to solve the problems. tain bones and naming whether a chemical compound was alkene,
3rd – This round focused on students’ ability to learn and un- alkane or alcohol based on its structure. In the end, the team came
derstand a completely new concept of maths. Five minutes was 3rd place with 90 points, 2nd place was 99 points and 1st place had
allocated to each team before the round commenced. This was a total of 107, so it was very close!
used to try understand this concept through a team discussion.
Each team had to answer as many questions as they could. Written by Leah, Y10.
4th – The final round was the ‘relay’ round. Each team was split
into pairs. One pair was given a problem to solve. The other pair
would need this answer to solve their question. This round relied
the most on teamwork amongst each pair as very little time was
allocated for each problem.

Overall, the Maths Feast was a wonderful opportunity for us to
Our Y4 Maths team of four pupils did a sterling job in compete against people of our age group. We all loved solving
their Maths challenge, with one pair gaining second the challenging problems presented to us. We worked efficiently
place out of 63 teams from 31 schools across Cambridge as a team and were rewarded for it. The competition improved
and the surrounding area. They were pipped to the our problem-solving abilities and the chemistry between each of
top spot by one point. Our other team finished a very us. It was a fun afternoon that everyone enjoyed partaking in.
respectable 17th. Much mathematical fun was had by all.

Linton Village College provided all of us with lovely food and
Maths Feast
refreshments in our break. The Maths Feast was a pleasurable
experience that we would all enjoy partaking in again.
Our Y10s took part in the Maths Feast and won the prize for best
teamwork.
Written by Jayden, Y10.