Latest News

Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Book Week 2020

  Mon 16 Mar 2020
  Our Annual Book Week took place at school 2nd - 6th March and children and staff enjoyed a variety of book related activities.  Using the book 'Greta and the Giants' as a core text for the whole school, each Year Group explored themes of climate change and what they can do to help spread the message that we should save the planet.  Some Year Groups designed t-shirts and some made banners and posters.  All the work was celebrated in a group assembly last week.  On World Book Day itself, our school kitchen prepared a Roald Dahl themed lunch including Matilda Wormwood Spaghetti and James and the Giant Peach pudding.  There were also a number of 'Golden Tickets' hidden under plates which winners could exchange for a book.  On Friday 6th March, staff and children dressed up as their favourite book character.  We had some wonderful costumes on display and amongst the staff we had Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel from Philip Pullman's 'Northern Lights', Grannie Island and Grandma Mainland from the 'Katie Morag' books, Red Riding Hood and Charlotte from 'Charlotte's Web'.  Miss Lambe dressed as the Headteacher Miss Cackle from 'The Worst Witch' series! We have a current quiz at school where children are working out which books staff nominated as their favourite children's books. It was a fun week to celebrate the wonderful array of books available for children to read. 

  

• LDBS Schools Service at St Paul's Cathedral

  Tue 04 Feb 2020

  Last Friday afternoon Mrs Patterson took a group of eight Archdeacon children to St Paul’s Cathedral for the annual schools service. The theme of the service this year was: ‘Let your light shine’, linked to the Christian festival of Candlemas, which is celebrated 40 days after Christmas. They were accompanied by Cara Kears, Holy Trinity Church’s curate and David La Boucharderie, one of the School Governors. We travelled up to St Paul’s by tube to Mansion House and enjoyed a tasty picnic on the train. Once there, it was a short walk to St Paul’s, where they were met by one of the helpful guides to the Cathedral, who gave everyone an unlit candle and guided them to their  seats. The service soon began and they were all astonished by the sound of hundreds of voices singing together and the amazing echo that occurred as the noise reverberated around the enormous dome of the cathedral. Everyone enjoyed holding a lit candle and singing ‘Shine, Jesus shine’ with the congregation! Different schools from the London Diocese led the prayers and readings and they heard all about The Urswick School in Hackney who are celebrating the 500^th Birthday of their school! The group returned to school, tired, but with many wonderful memories to treasure.

   

• Christmas Performing

  Tue 17 Dec 2019

  The school has been bursting with Christmas music, costumes and props and busy rehearsing during the past few weeks in preparation for our annual Christmas productions. All children in the school have entertained parents and spread the Christmas message through the Nursery Sing-a-Longs, the Nativity plays for Reception/Year 1 and Years 2/3 and our Years 4, 5 & 6 production of 'The Snow Queen'.  Congratulations to all our children who have made amazing props, worked backstage, acted, sung and played instruments so well this Christmas!

   

  Thirty three members of our Junior Choir also sang with the Music Makers of London at their Christmas Carol Concert at St Michael's and All Angels Church in Barnes last Saturday.  This year the concert was themed around the Christmas Rose and our choir sang a number of pieces including 'Love Shone Down', 'A Flower in Winter' and 'Mary's Baby' and combined with the Music Makers to sing 'Here we go a wassailing' and an arrangement of 'The Rose'.  It was a wonderful opportunity to work together with a professional choir conducted by Hilary Campbell in a beautiful setting.  Members of the Junior Choir have also entertained the local community including Gifford Lodge and at various Christmas Lunches. 

  

• Environment Trust Advent Calendar

  Wed 27 Nov 2019

  We'd like to let you know about the online Advent Calendar offered by Environment Trust. There are 24 practical guides and fun facts to help us all make a bit more space for our nature and heritage this Christmas (think tips to create a bug hotel, bird box or to explore your local area). Please follow this link to access the calendar https://www.environmenttrust.org/pages/category/advent-calender and inspire festive creativity and fun. 

  

• Junior and Festival Choirs welcome Father Christmas to Squires Garden Centre

  Mon 18 Nov 2019
  Nearly eighty children in our Junior and Festival Choirs gathered early at Squires Garden Centre in Twickenham on Sunday 17th November for their annual carol singing to welcome Father Christmas.  The combined choirs sang a variety of carols and Christmas songs as Father Christmas arrived on a double decker bus.  Squires rewarded the children with a drink and snack. Thank you to parents and children for coming along on a cold Sunday morning in school uniform! 

• Great Start to the New Academic Year

  Mon 23 Sep 2019
  Archdeacon Cambridge's has had a great start to the academic year 2019/20 with our children settling back into the school routines after the Summer break.  We welcome our new families to the school and especially those in Reception and Nursery who are starting school for the first time.  We have already celebrated the Start of Term and our Founders Day with services held at Holy Trinity Church and parents have been able to hear about the work Year Groups will be following during the informative curriculum evenings.  This week we are celebrating languages that are spoken around the world in our annual Global Languages week.  Our theme this year is 'Island Nations' and each year group will be learning about the language and geography of their assigned island and will experience their island's culture through music, dance and art.

• Fanplastic Art Exhbition

  Wed 26 Jun 2019
  Sir Vince Cable MP was the guest of honour at our 'Ocean of Plastic' Art Exhibition held on the school grounds on Thursday 20th June.  Each year group produced an installation made of plastic, highlighting the damage our plastic waste is causing the planet and particularly the oceans.  The exhibition was primarily organised by Miss Cliffe and a team of staff and followed weeks of plastic donations from children and parents.  During the evening, families were able to walk through the school grounds to view the turtle tunnel, our plastic bag polar bear and igloo made of milk bottles, skeleton of a whale made from various plastic containers, the coral reef and bottle fish and the bubble wrap jelly fish. Our Tuesday Art Club exhibited their ocean paintings and fish drawings. Year 4's Turner House Project pictures were also on display.  Children had also written about their feelings towards the plastic pollution to accompany their installation.   Comments from our visitor's book include: 'What an absolutely incredible exhibition.  Thank you so much to everyone involved in bringing such an important message to our children in such a creative and moving way.  So proud to be part of an incredible school'  'Lovely evening, fantastic art, brilliantly organised.  Thank you.' 'I thought the art installation was amazing.  The children have worked so hard and created beautiful pieces that are really thought provoking.  Well done!' 

  

• Borough Sports

  Mon 24 Jun 2019

  On Wednesday 5th June, the Archdeacon Athletics team participated at St Mary's University campus in the annual Borough Sports competition. The team performed with power, skill and tenacity, finishing in an impressive overall 4th place out of all of the 35 competing schools. The competition is broken down into Year 6 and Year 4/5 categories; the Year 6 team finished in 5th and the Year 4/5 team a fantastic 2nd place. There were several notable performances throughout the day in the 4 individual events of Sprinting, Long Distance Running, Vortex Throw and Standing Long Jump in an overall field of around 600 competitors.

   At the end of the day the whole Year 4, 5 and 6 team combined for a joint 16 member relay, competing in a single heat against 5 other schools. After 15 flawless baton changes, the team romped home in 1st place, winning by almost a whole lap- a fantastic way to end a day of great achievement and sportsmanship. Well done everyone!

   

• Dig Day Success

  Mon 01 Apr 2019

  Saturday brought us glorious sunshine and an army of parents and children ready to tackle some extremely challenging projects. Thanks to everyone's collaboration and determination, we were able to:

  • allow the pond to breathe again by making 'blanket weed lollipops'
  • demarcate most flower beds using branches from the fallen tree
  • create an observation wall for the minibeast area in the Nursery and Reception outdoor area
  • build raised beds for the children's allotment
  • repair the water feature in the Nursery and Reception outdoor area
  • complete the next stage on the log trail
  • dismantle and reconstruct one of the compost bins
  • replant some of the flower beds
  • tackle the dreaded bindweed
  • tidy the Wildlife Area and Nursery and Reception outdoor area

   

  We'd like to say an enormous 'Thank you' to all who volunteered their time and energy, especially Mr Franco, Mr Hamerton, Mr Panter and Mr Vonk, who supported their spouses who work at the school by volunteering.

  

• Junior Choir at PP4S at the Royal Albert Hall and Festival Choir at The Rose Theatre

  Tue 26 Mar 2019

  Congratulations to our Junior Choir and Festival Choir who have sung at the Royal Albert Hall and The Rose Theatre, Kingston during the past week.

  The Junior Choir have been practising for months for the Prom Praise 4 Schools festival held at the Royal Albert Hall last week.  Back in October they also successfully auditioned to be one of the soloist choirs singling alongside the All Souls Orchestra. After intensive preparation and two fascinating but exhausting rehearsals at Sir John Cass Primary School in the City of London and All Souls’ Church near Oxford Circus, the big day finally arrived last Tuesday 19th March. At 6pm, after another long day, the Junior Choir took part in this fantastic event at the Royal Albert Hall, telling the story of Exodus through song, acting and dance with a massed choir of thousands of schoolchildren alongside our choir, Sir John Cass Choir, Twyford Secondary School Gospel Choir, Springs Dance Company and musical theatre actors from West End Has Faith.

   

  Our children acted the part of Hebrew slaves in Egypt throughout the evening alongside the Sir John Cass children, streaming in dramatically through the Stalls entrances as oppressed workers, acting out the Plagues as if we were Egyptian hieroglyphics, and following Moses joyfully through the centre of the auditorium as he finally parted the waters of the Red Sea to liberate the slaves. The absolute highlight for all of us was when the Archdeacon choir stepped out from the wings onto the stage to sing “The Lord is my Shepherd” as a solo, accompanied by the All Souls’ Orchestra and conducted by Dr Noël Tredinnick, in front of an audience of thousands. Tickets to the event sold out within 45 minutes of going on sale so you can imagine how packed the auditorium was.

   

  We had a full day of rehearsing interspersed with breaks in our own plush dressing room, free pizza and a very special storytime from Miss Lambe! Throughout the day everyone was immensely impressed by the effort, resilience, kindness and excellent behaviour shown by the choir children. This was a very special event and to be selected from thousands of other children to sing our solo was an enormous achievement – but then to behave and perform in the way they did in that huge, daunting space is something to be even more proud of.

  We would like to say a huge thank you to all parents who supported their children tirelessly throughout the rehearsal process and at the event. We’ve had some wonderful feedback from many people who attended, and would like to quote a little of it here.

  From Dr Noel Tredinnick: “It was a brilliant concert last night, and your little chaps and chapesses from Archdeacon Cambridge’s sang wonderfully – and your “Lord is my Shepherd” was one of the highlights for me – very moving and wistful indeed. A very big thank you for all your efforts you made. We recognise that and salute you with one big, heartfelt salute! Please give my warmest congratulations to the choir members, and huge thanks to the two soloists. God bless you!”

  From another participating school: “It was so lovely to see your wonderful choir at PP4S last night. I was there with my Senior Choir, sitting behind the orchestra, and we were all so happy to see Archdeacon featured so prominently this year. The whole choir sang and acted beautifully. I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking it must have been for the choir and the soloists and they did it so well. Please pass on my biggest congratulations for doing the most amazing job. I think the children in my choir were really inspired. And the way the children were supporting each other really showed what a caring culture you have at the school.”

  On Wednesday 28th March, we then took 51 very excited members of the Festival Choir to the Rose Theatre.  After a very early start the children brilliantly performed our own school songs which were a mash up of Count on Me by Bruno Mars and Reach by S Club 7.  As well as having their own moment in the spotlight, the children worked hard to learn all five songs in a relatively short space of time and have dedicated lots of their play and lunch times to learn everything. The children did so well and we are extremely proud of them.  They are all looking forward to a final performance in Church at the End of Term service.