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

• County Table Tennis Finals

  Fri 09 Dec 2022

  On Tuesday 6th December, the girls' and boys' table tennis teams travelled to Aldworth to compete in the Hampshire U11 table tennis county finals. Both teams were put into a group with other school from across the county with the top two from each group progressing to semi-finals and then a final.

   

  In the Girls tournament St John's were placed in a group with four other schools. We first played Orchard school and won 4-0, This was followed by another 4-0 win over Fair Oak A. Next up was St Francis and the girls recorded another convincing win, 3-1. Finally they played Velmead and again won 4-0 to put them top of their group and through to the semi-finals. Here they played South Farnborough and another great performance saw them again win 4-0 and go through to the final. Here they met a very strong Springhill side. The match was incredibly close and in fact finished in a 2-2 draw. This meant the winner had to be determined by totalling all points scored across the four matches. Unfortunately, the girls were just four points short of Springhill. This meant they finished as runners-up and collected silver medals - we are very proud of their amazing performance. 

   

  In the boys' tournament St John's were in a group with three other schools and put in three excellent performances, winning all their matches 4-0 and without even dropping a set. In the semi-final the boys played an incredibly close match against South Farnborough. After initially losing the first two matches to go 2-0 down they managed to level the game up in the final two matches and finish 2-2. Similar to the girls it came down to most points scored in the match, with St John's winning by 6 points. In the final it was another St John's vs Springhill encounter. This time the boys played some amazing table tennis to win 4-0 and be crowned Hampshire champions. This is the 5th consecutive year the boys have been Hampshire table tennis champions and we are really proud of the effort all the children have put into their practise. The boys will now go on to complete in London in the zone finals in January. We wish them the best of luck!

  

• Year R Nativity

  Tue 06 Dec 2022

  This week the Year R children performed their Christmas nativity to both the school and their parents. Entitled the 'Wiggly Nativity' the children told the story of the birth of Jesus. It was an incredible performance, full of catchy songs and amazing costumes. 

   

  We are so proud of how well all the children did learning thier lines and the song lyrics! 

• Presents Room

  Fri 02 Dec 2022

  This morning the PTA hosted their annual presents room for the children. All children had the opportunity to visit the hall and choose presents to give to someone this Christmas. The children also wrapped the presents and made gift tags. I am sure people will be delighted to receive this little gift on Christmas morning. 

   

  Thank you to the PTA for organising and helping the children at the event. 

  

• Google Internet Legends

  Fri 02 Dec 2022

  On Friday 25th November, KS2 were lucky enough to have a visit from Google to help us learn more about staying safe online. 

   

  We helped the Google team solve some clues that led us to five things we can remember to help us stay safe online. 

   

  1) Be Internet Sharp - this involves us thinking before we share.

  2) Be Internet Alert - which reminds us to check if something is real

  3) Be Internet Secure - this taught us about protecting our stuff online

  4) Be Interent Kind - which is all about looking out for each other online

  5) Be Internet Brave - when in doubt, talk to someone and discuss

   

  When we had solved all the clues we were awarded the title of Internet Legends!

   

  We really enjoyed the assembly and will continue to look at the five internet safety areas in our e-safety lessons in school. 

  

• Harvest Festival

  Fri 07 Oct 2022

  Today the whole school walked to All Saints' Church to participate in our annual Harvest Festival service. 

   

  This year Djibouti led the service and they explained how each of the letters of harvest linked back to its meaning. The whole story was wrapped up in the adventures of some mice who were learning about the importance of harvest. 

   

  We also collected food donations for the local food bank and were so grateful with the huge amount of donations we received. These will make an enormous difference to local residents of Basingstoke. 

   

  Well done to all those involved. 

  

• New to KS1 and KS2 meetings

  Thu 07 Jul 2022

  This week we held our transition meetings for those parents with children making the move from Year R to KS1 and from Year 2 to Year 3. 

   

  Copies of the presentations can be found here.

• Tag Rugby and the Hampshire Games

  Wed 22 Jun 2022

  On Tuesday, eight Year 6 girls travelled to Hurstbourne Tarrant Primary School to play in the girl’s tag rugby tournament. The girl’s were placed in group B alongside four other schools. They started really positively with a 4-0 win over Burghclere and followed this with another 4-0 win over The Bees. The next match was much more closely contested and, in a really exciting match, St John’s just edged past Oakley with a 3-2 win. The final group game was against a side made up of children from all the other schools attending, as one school had pulled out, and our girl’s picked up another win, this time 3-0, which secured them the title of group winners.

   

  This meant the girls went on to play the winners of group A, Park View, in the overall final. Unlike the group matches, which were one half only, the final was two halves. The first half was really close, with the scoring edging back and forth and by half time St John’s were 3-2 ahead. In the second half the girls worked really hard and were relentless in their tagging and passing and eventually won the match 8-3. This means the girls won the tournament and claimed gold medals and for the first time ever St John’s claimed the Dromedary Cup!

   

  Well done to all those involved and thank you to Jason Bonnett for offering extra coaching sessions to the girls.

   

  On Thursday, twenty children from years 4-6 travelled to the new Winchester Sports and Leisure Park to take part in the re-vamped Hampshire School Games. The games are no longer a competition but a celebration of the sports that take place at the commonwealth games, with children given the opportunity to try some sports they may never have played before.

   

  The day started with an opening ceremony and as a school we were representing the commonwealth country of Tuvalu. After donning our school games t-shirt and taking part in a parade the children were divided into two groups for a day of activities.

   

  The first group started with dodgeball, followed by some target games and rounded off their day trying the new sport of roundnet. The second group began with a football session, followed by golf and completed their day with the interesting experience of sailing, in the middle of a field!

   

  Along with this, all the children got a chance to visit the commonwealth village where there were various activities to try, including tightrope walking, rugby target throwing and a chance to ride a wave machine.

   

  The children had a fantastic day and returned to school very tired. Well done to all that took part and an enormous thank you to all the adults that helped with the event.

   

   

  

• Basingstoke Cricket Competition

  Fri 10 Jun 2022

  On Thursday, 16 children from across KS2 travelled to May’s Bounty to take part in the Basingstoke Cricket competition.

   

  Our two teams were split into two different groups, where they had to play against three other schools. Our A team managed to win two and lose one of their matches, which meant they progressed to the semi-finals. Here they played Cliddesden, and in a really good match eventually managed to win by 26 runs. This meant they progressed to the final, where they had a re-run of their group stage match against St Mary’s. The final was a much closer affair, with St Mary’s eventually winning by 28 runs, this meant we finished as runners-up and the children all earned silver medals.

   

  Our B team played some really good cricket, against teams that mainly contained much older children. After the group stage they went on to play in the plate competition where they managed one win and a defeat. All the children played some excellent cricket and we are really proud of their performances. Well done to all those involved

  

• Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

  Thu 26 May 2022

  On Wednesday, St John's entered into the platinum jubille celebrations. After decorating the hall with union jack bunting, all the children ate a special jubilee picnic together. After finishing eating everyone joined in with Mrs Gonzato in a rendition of the national anthem. 

   

  In the afternoon, all the children completed some artwork in the style Andy Warhol, using the queens image. 

   

  Although the weather didn't quite play its part, everyone had a fantastic afternoon. 

• Cross Country

  Tue 15 Feb 2022

  On Monday 14th February, we took 40 children to Down Grange to compete in the Basingstoke Cross Country competition alongside many other Basingstoke schools. 

   

  First up were the Year 3 and 4 children. Both the boys and girls had to run 1km around a very muddy and slippy course. All of the children worked really hard to complete the course and an incredible run by George Stepney saw him win the boys race by a considerable margin. 

   

  This was followed by the Year 5/6 boys and girls races, where the distance increased to 1.5km. All the children managed to complete the distance and we were incredibly impressed by their determination and stamina! Sofia and Zoe managed to finish inside the top 12 overall in a very tough field and so will progress to compete in the county finals next half-term. We wish them the best of luck. 

   

  As part of the event the top 5 runners from each school in each age group are scored and then all of the schools ranked. We were really pleased to find out after the competition that our Year 3/4 boys' team came 3rd out of 15 schools and the Year 5/6 girls' finished 2nd out of 16 schools. 

   

  Well done to everyone who took part!