We start the Summer Term by announcing the impressive list of Scholarships awarded in the Lent Term. Our Year 8 pupils have so far achieved eleven awards, and there will be more to come with the Academic Scholarship Exams on the horizon. See page three for more information.
On Thursday, our catering company Holroyd Howe gave an assembly and presentations to Years 2 to 8 (Year 1 were at the Sea Life Centre) on the topic of Nutrition. This is something we all agree is a very important part of staying healthy. I am very proud of the way our children show consideration for their own mental health, and that of others, and we need to consider our physical health as well, for our overall well being.
St Christopher’s children are active children; you only have to look at the playground to see that! On top of this, the children have PE lessons and Games sessions, with matches against other schools from Year 3 onward. School was very quiet on Wednesday afternoon, with every single child in Years 5 to 8 off site, training for Cricket season at Glebe Villas and sporting facilities across our city.
A phrase that came up in last term’s Mental Health Week was the Latin mens sana in corpore sano “A healthy mind in a healthy body”, which is clearly what everybody would wish for. The discussions the children had in their sessions yesterday helped relate nutrition to physical activity and mental resilience. If you want to make an effective journey, the vehicle must have the right kind of fuel. If our bodies are like machines, we must make sure we give them the right fuel if we expect them to perform well. This performance is not just our ability to run races or score goals, but our mental health and study skills.
For our older children, there was a reminder about how diet is extra important at times such as Exams Week, when a missed breakfast can cause blood sugar, and thus concentration, to dip at the worst possible moments. I hope the children have discussed these sessions at home, and that requests for some previously neglected fruits, vegetables, and grains are being received!
Any discussion including mental health in young people must inevitably turn to time spent online. Ms Lowe-Laatz has been in touch this week with some very useful material from a wealth of sources, which includes help for parents to navigate the world of children going online. A useful metaphor here is road travel; we wouldn’t try to stop our children using roads as they become young adults, but we want them to be rigorously aware of how to be safe before they travel independently.
The Summer Term is packed with wonderful events, far too many to mention here! You should have received a copy of the Calendar Booklet, which has details of all the exciting things ahead. Please let your child’s Form Tutor know if one hasn’t made it home yet, but the calendar is also available on the Parent Portal. One change for your diary – our Artists’ Open House Event is on Saturday 11th May, not the previous week as listed.
Finally, Eid Mubarak to all those in our community who celebrated the end of Ramadan this week.
Ms Elizabeth Lyle, Head