From the Head

Dear Parents,

Thank you to those who joined us for our annual Fireworks event on Friday evening; it was a spectacular display which well and truly lit up St Michael's skies.

We began our week with a Remembrance Service, honouring the soldiers including Old Michaelians who fought for our country. This was a poignant occasion made particularly special by exceptional singing from our Chamber Choir. 

On Tuesday an array of vibrant socks could be seen across St Michael's as children and staff across the school proudly wore odd socks in support of Anti-Bullying Week and this year's theme of Respect. 

We have ended the week with our day for Children In Need as yellow, polka dots and onesies have helped us to support this very important cause.

Following their incredible success in becoming 9th in the country for football last Friday and Kent Hockey Champions on Monday, our U11 girls have competed in the National IAPS U11 Girls' Hockey Finals at Repton School today. We are so proud of the girls' ongoing sporting success and look forward to hearing how they have got on today.

Please see today's newsletter for a message from a group of St Michael's parents who are joining the Smartphone Free Childhood movement. An external webinar, for those interested, is taking place next Monday. St Michael's will also be running a webinar in January about screen time with Dr Aric Sigman which you can find details of below. 

I'd like to end with an exciting appeal for your children's help. A mischievous elf is on the loose at St Michael's and I need their help to find him before he makes an appearance at the P & F Christmas Fair - please see my video below for more information.

Have a brilliant weekend.

Best wishes,

Nik Pears

From the Head of Pre-Prep

Dear Parents,

Firstly, thank you for all the donations to Children in Need this morning. The total raised is £523.56. It was lovely to see so many furry ears in assembly this morning.

The system of counters for walking down the bridge without your parent is working well so we will continue with these until the February half term. Counters lead to class treats and each class may do something different as a reward for their class total.

Next week you will be pleased to hear, there will be lots of learning going on mixed with a sprinkling of Nativity rehearsals.

Thank you for booking appointments for Parents' Evening on Tuesday 19^th and Thursday 21^st November. Your teachers will be in the Pre-Prep Hall and Pre-Prep Dining Room with their names clearly displayed. Please try and arrive on time and move on when your time is up so that we can keep the evening running smoothly. You are always welcome to book a further appointment with your child’s teacher should you need extra time.

On Thursday 21^st November your children will be having their flu immunisations in the morning if you have signed your child up for this service. As a school we are not able to book your child in if you haven’t already agreed to this, so you need to go back to your own GP if your child has missed out. Please be aware that although we make this process as “normal” as possible, there are always a few children who refuse to have the nasal spray. We will of course, make you aware at the end of the day if your child hasn’t received the expected dose. 

Overheard in Pre-Prep: "I don't like bananas but I drink banana juice!"

Have a lovely weekend,

Zerrin Leech

We are delighted to welcome the following individual to St Michael's:

Honor Wines - Early Years Practitioner (Kindergarten)

Honor has lived around Sevenoaks for 23 years where she started her education at St Michael’s at the age of 4. She went on to study at Tonbridge Grammar School and Invicta Grammar School where her passion for Music and Drama grew. Honor furthered her music studies at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she trained to be an opera singer. During her studies she was given the opportunity to teach singing to children which she enjoyed so much that she wished to work with children more.

Honor was a Nanny throughout her studies and a private singing teacher for children. When she competed her studies she worked at Purple Dragon Family Club working to encourage young children to engage in the arts. 

Honor furthered her work with children by becoming a full time Nursery Key Practitioner in Tunbridge Wells, particularly working with the Pre-Schoolers. Honor thoroughly enjoyed this but wished to work in a school environment and having had such a great experience at St Michael’s herself, wanted to return to develop her skill set further in the ideal location.

Device use in school and potential Christmas presents   

As we begin to approach the Christmas holidays and many of you will be starting to consider presents for your children, can I please take this opportunity to remind you that at St Michael’s for strict safeguarding reasons, we do not allow mobile phone/ smart phones or smart watches in school. 

Unfortunately, many of the smart watches look the same from the outside and short of each one being closely inspected by a member of staff, we cannot easily discern those that can access the internet and have cameras built-in to those that can’t and don’t. Therefore, we do not allow any smart watches in school. Please bear in mind that if you do purchase one for your child, they will not be able to wear it to school.  

Mr Wiseman, Deputy Head (Pastoral)

Children who are off school unwell

A reminder please that should your child be unwell, it is important that they rest and recover until they are well enough to return to school. Your child’s welfare continues to be our top priority and we will not provide work whilst they are recuperating at home. Once your child is well enough to return to school, we will support them with any catch-up required.

Mrs S Clarke, Deputy Head (Academic)

IAPS National Football Finals: St Michael's are 9th in the country!

On Friday 8th November, St Michael’s U11 Aces girls embarked on their journey to the IAPS National Football Finals at Amesbury School on the borders of Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex.

Having put in extra hours of training to hone their skills, teamwork and game understanding, the girls were eager to showcase their progress. The tournament format was a two-league system, with each team playing five games and the top two teams from each league advancing to the Semi-Finals.

The St Michael’s girls began strong, dominating their first two games against Fairfield School and Berkhamsted School. They played some beautiful football, passing the ball with finesse and working tirelessly to regain possession. However, despite their best efforts, the goals remained elusive and both games ended in 0-0 draws.

In their third game, our girls faced the uphill battle—literally—against a formidable St Piran’s School team. Despite valiant defending by Iris L, Ella C, Isabel E, Amelia Rose B and Grace P, two well-taken goals saw our girls fall to a 0-2 defeat.

Undeterred, the girls regrouped and gave their all in the final two league games against Hoe Bridge School and St Alban's School. They moved the ball well and created several good opportunities but the goal drought continued, resulting in more goal-less draws. Unfortunately, these results weren’t enough to secure a Semi-Final spot.

In the final positional game against St George’s School, the girls played some of their best football yet. With Sophia E making some excellent saves to keep them in the game, Mollie H and Elodie B controlled the midfield, creating openings for Anna W to score two well-taken goals. This 2-1 victory meant the St Michael’s girls finished a well-deserved 9th in the country.

We are incredibly proud of the girls. They have been on a wonderful journey, developing incredible team camaraderie, showing great resilience and energy, and most importantly, always playing with big smiles on their faces.

Congratulations girls on a fantastic adventure.

Mr Brightman, Director of Sport

St Michael's Fireworks Display

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our annual Fireworks event on Friday evening; it was a spectacular display which well and truly lit up St Michael's skies.

St Michael's remembers the fallen

Members of the St Michael's community gathered to honour the fallen during our Remembrance Service on Monday.

During the service we showed our gratitude for the sacrifice made by soldiers including Old Michaelians who fought in the Second World War. Mr Pears, Mrs Leech and Mrs Shield delivered prayers and readings, in addition to beautiful performances of Nearer, My God, to Thee and In Flanders Fields by our Chamber Choir.

The service ended with a 2-minute silence and wreath laying by St Michael’s Heads of School.

U11 girls are crowned Kent Hockey Champions!

On Monday 11th November St Michael's U11 girls travelled to Canterbury to compete in the Kent Under 11 Hockey Tournament. In the first game we won 2-0 against Ashford School with goals from Mollie H and Amelia Rose B. Next up was a strong Sevenoaks Prep team who we beat 2-0 during a tense game in which Iris L and Isobel E scored goals. The final group game was against Radnor House and the girls produced a dominant performance to win 8-0 and win the group (Amelia Rose B x3, Isobel E x2, Elizabeth W, Anna W and Mollie H). 

In the Semi-Final we won 2-0 against Junior King's, Canterbury (Isobel E and Amelia Rose B), followed by the Final when we produced an impressive display to win 3-0 against Sevenoaks Prep with goals from Anna W, Isobel E and Amelia Rose B to become Kent Champions for the third year in a row.

The whole team should be congratulated on scoring 17 goals and conceding none which was great preparation for the National IAPs Finals in Repton on Friday where the girls are aiming to retain the title that St Michael’s have won for the last two years!

Mrs Bingham, Games Coach

Odd Socks Day for Anti-bullying Week 

Odd socks could be seen across St Michael's on Tuesday as pupils and staff paraded a plethora of colours and patterns in support of Anti-Bullying Week and this year's theme: Respect.

Supporting Children In Need

Splashes of yellow, spots and Pudsey ears were on show across St Michael's today in support of Children In Need.

Thank you to the families who contributed to our Pre-Prep collection, raising an amazing £523.56!

Recent ABRSM results

We would like to congratulate Oliver S and Hugo M for being awarded high Merit grades for their Grade 4 Piano Performance exams.

Involve timetabling app

For those of you whose children have individual music lessons or are part of one of the instrumental groups, you will be familiar with Involve which is a music timetabling product that we use. It is available as an app or via their website and gives information regarding the times of upcoming music lessons and groups, as well as access to the teacher’s notes from individual lessons.  

This week Miss Balcombe added all the children in her Cantoria and Show Choirs to the app which will mean that times of those sessions will also show in Involve. Unfortunately, in the process of doing this, parents received many Cantoria and Show Choir notifications which at first glance may look like singing lesson notifications. The emails do have the title “club session scheduled for [child’s name]” which is subtly different to the individual lesson notifications which have the title “lesson scheduled for [child’s name]”. Involve currently doesn’t allow us to customise the wording or control what emails are sent, although we have requested such functionality.

We apologise for the email onslaught and ask for your patience whilst Miss Balcombe works on her timetabling. Usually, Cantoria is Monday 1pm and Show Choir 10.45am Thursdays (the children know to look on the Music Room board to check this). We hope that after the confusion caused by the initial set-up of these two groups on Involve, many of you will find it useful to see the times of upcoming music activity sessions. If you have any questions, please email: music@stmichaels.kent.sch.uk

Cantoria

Cantoria, our girls’ choir, meets every Monday at 1pm in the Chapel. Cantoria is a space where girls can come together and work towards creating beautiful harmonies in an inclusive and empowering environment.

We are currently working on some exciting and varied repertoire which we can’t wait to share with you at the upcoming Carol Service.

World Book Display - Germany and India

Our World Displays have been updated across the school in both Pre-Prep and Prep. Visit the Prep display near the White Doors during November to explore some of the books showcased and learn more about the featured countries with your children. 

Introducing our new Eco Committees

We are delighted to introduce our new Pre-Prep and Prep Eco Committees. The members were selected by how passionate they came across in their applications. Across the year they will need to attend monthly meetings to share ideas of future projects we can do at school. One of the ideas that came across in lots of the applications is having a regular litter pick on the school grounds which we hope to start after half term.

In the Hive this week the children have been getting into the festive spirit by transforming old tyres into Christmas crafts; some great recycling!

Some competitive games of table football have also caused much excitement!

St Michael's Umbrellas

Please view the below poster for details of how to purchase St Michael's umbrellas.

Request for Christmas Fair donations

Have you seen this Elf?

Please ask your children to keep a look out for him - we need to catch him before he causes mischief at the P & F Christmas Fair! There's been some recent sightings across the school...

Players of the Match - week commencing 11th November

Luke remembers with the Sea Cadets

Luke S took on a special role as part of Remembrance last weekend, joining the parade and volunteering to sell poppies for the Royal British Legion as a member of the Sea Cadets. 

Thank you for making a difference, Luke!

Follow us on social media!

Make sure you are following St Michael’s social media channels for important updates and content throughout the year.