A Touch of Silver and Red – Rings, Medals and Arrows!
Last week, we celebrated Saint Felix Day with a gorgeous annual dinner for Years 11-13 and a fantastic Chapel Service for the whole school community where we were joined by some Old Felicians who were here for their AGM. The choir sung beautifully as did Violette D in her solo, and Bruno A played a superb piano piece. Chapel provides a wonderful place for the community to gather and come together to reflect, worship and listen in a safe space and this is certainly the case at Saint Felix. The Old Felicians when they return to the school always want to visit the Chapel as it is a place that evokes so many memories as the heartbeat of the school and a place where the community has shared yet individual experiences. On the same day, Saint Felix welcomed a number of prospective students and parents to the school as we look to grow the numbers across Nursery, Prep and Senior and during the course of the morning, the most consistent feedback that came through was how fantastic the Year 12 students were who guided them around. They displayed all of the values of the school and were thoroughly engaged with the process showing real leadership skills.
At the Saint Felix Dinner, our visiting guest and Old Felician, Henry Ball, gave the students some excellent advice and guidance with his words. Earlier in the day, he had kindly given his time to lead a number of workshops with the students where they had the opportunity to work with silver metal to create their own rings. Every student was able to make a textured ring from a single length of silver where they filed, textured and shaped the material, and finished it off by polishing their creations. What a fantastic opportunity to witness the artistry of a skilled craftsman at work and for the students to see the fruits of their own labours by the end of the session. Henry can be seen on Bill Bailey’s Master Crafters Series 2 Episode 3 available on Sky Arts (Alumni to appear in craft programme on Sky Arts).
There was a fantastic Silver Medal for Cody H last week at the ISA National Schools Cross-Country Final where he showed resilience and determination after a start that did not work in Cody’s favour when someone fell right in front of him. During the commotion, Cody ended up right at the back of pack almost 200 metres behind with about 80 runners in front of him. He managed to work his way up the pack during the event getting to 5th around halfway and then dug deep and pushed in the final third of the race and managed to pull into second and gain some ground on the leader. Having pulled his groin when tripping at the start, Cody did incredibly well to finish an amazing second and take the Silver Medal.
In other student news, following on from Holly R-W’s talk for the Rotary Club on Inspiring Women, it was lovely to see the article in the local BBC news about her work experience with the Red Arrows. Saint Felix students really do look beyond the horizon (Beccles aspiring pilot given work experience with Red Arrows – BBC News).
One of the many talks that I attended last week at the Annual Conference for the Society of Heads focused on student wellbeing. Sleep was a real focus with students aged 6-13 requiring nine to eleven hours on a school night and those aged 14-17 needing eight to ten hours. Sleep is a significant predictor of anxiety and depression later in life and is directly related to screen time which is the largest single reason why many young people do not get enough sleep. A reduction in screen time leads to the single largest positive impact on mental health, it leads to increased engagement in physical activity and when trying to work, the mere presence of a smartphone in the same room decreases working memory. It is important that we continue to work together to educate and help our young students to navigate these areas and that is why our mentoring sessions and PSHE lessons continue to focus on such areas to help their wellbeing.
Yours sincerely,
Matthew Oakman
Head
