St Andrew’s enjoyed a double whammy with the The Mayor, Cllr Mike Thompson, last week when he visited the school for two events.

The first event was very kindly hosted by Dave Williams, a parent at the school and an aficionado of radio amateur and electronic enthusiasts from the Southdown Amateur Radio Society, Eastbourne, along with Dr John Craig who was the driving force behind the original St Andrew’s amateur radio club. The children were shown the history of amateur radio and its practical application as a fascinating and interesting hobby today. They took part in an ‘informal foxhunt’ which is a game of hide and seek where the seeker uses radios and aerials to track down a transmitter, tried their hand at Morse code and were assigned, by Ofcom, a unique ‘special event call sign’ of GB2SAM (St Andrews Meads), which was used by the children to speak to people from all over the world.

The Mayor moved from this event to officially open our new climbing equipment. The equipment was funded by the Friends of St Andrew’s (the parent body of the school) and the OA Society Charitable Trust fund. After cutting the ribbon, Cllr Thompson decided to join the children on the new equipment.

St Andrew’s is delighted with the outcome of its most recent inspection gaining the highest possible judgement of ‘outstanding’ in all four areas assessed by the ISI (Independent Schools Inspectorate).

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) inspection, carried out in May, judges the provision for children in the foundation stage (ages 2 to 5) in the following four areas: how well the school meets the needs of the children, the effectiveness of the leadership and management, the quality of provision, and the outcomes for children.

St Andrew’s was judged to be outstanding in all four of these areas. Some of the highlights in the report included: ‘…happy children make rapid progress within a safe and secure learning environment’; ‘…provision is enhanced significantly by good specialist teaching and a breadth of after school activities’.

Headmaster, Simon Severino, said ‘to receive such positive endorsement from an external agency is enormously gratifying and we are hugely appreciative of the hard work of the staff and children at St Andrew’s who have earned the school this accolade.’

The ISI arranges and carries out the inspection of any school whose head is a member of and wishes to be accredited by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and the ISC’s affiliated associations of schools.

The full report can be seen on the St Andrew’s website at www.androvian.co.uk

Olympic fever struck at St Andrew’s as the whole school turned out for World Sports Day. The day started with Opening Ceremonies from both the Pre-Prep and Prep departments, complete with torches, banners, flags and Olympic rings. All the children then took part in our very own version of the Olympics with a round robin of different activities from basketball and table tennis, climbing and trampolining, to lacrosse and handball. The children even tried their hand at blindfolded football to get a taste of the Paralympics.

We were very luck to have 22 year old, James Swabey with us for the day; James will be one of the official torchbearers taking part in the route through Eastbourne on 17 July. To finish the day off, some of the children, along with James, showed us how many days are left until the Olympics start.

St Andrew’s hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords last week to encourage students to engage more with the political and parliamentary process.  Lord Dholakia, who is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and one of the most senior Asian politicians in Britain, met with our Year 8 pupils for an hour to talk about the work and role of the House of Lords. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally. Lord Dholakia said ‘the greatest ambition of people abroad is the British education system’.
 
The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s “Peers in Schools” programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 50,000 young people.  This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum.  For further information, see the Lord Speaker’s web page at www.parliament.uk/lordspeaker

A stuntman who has appeared in four Harry Potter films as well as Batman Begins and Robin Hood, handed out tips to our Year 7 and 8 classes. Nicholas Daines took a break from his Hollywood career to teach the children how to fall safely, jump through the air and take part in mock fights. Mr Daines said he enjoyed visiting schools as he could show pupils that joining the stunt profession was something anyone could aspire to. ‘I would have given my eye teeth for someone to come into my school and show me that stunt work is a valid career path.’ Head of Drama, Jamie Trott said the visit had given the children an example of how to be an athlete outside traditional sport.

14 children from St Andrew’s attended the Sussex Area Prep Schools Athletics Finals which took place at the K2 stadium in Crawley.  There were great preformances from all of the children involved with notable results from:  

Jessica Lamb – 1st in discus and 2nd in shot
Hugh Turnbull – 1st in high jump
Jack Casebourne – 1st in javelin
Sophie Jain – 1st in shot
Katie Meikle – 1st in long jump
Edward Rosson Jones – 1st in 800m
Under 12 Boys relay team – 1st place

and many of them have qualified for the National Athletics Finals to be held in Birmingham later this month.
 
As the Olympics approaches it was encouraging to see so many keen athletes performing all the disciplines at the K2.  Well done to all who competed.

The 9th Rainbow Group which is situated at St Andrew’s put on a Danceathon to raise money for a new church hall for St John’s Church in Meads.
 
The group have been practising hard and put on a really good show.  The event was attended by parents of the Rainbows along with members of the congregation from St John’s.  
 
Following the Danceathon, the audience were treated to tea and cakes made by the girls.  The Rainbows hope to raise £500 towards the ‘Time to Build’ project for the church hall.

St Andrew’s swimmers gained an impressive set of awards and medals at the IAPS swimming finals at the K2 in Crawley last month.  

In the U13 category, Oliver Rosson-Jones won a bronze medal in the 50m front crawl and Chloe Baker won a silver medal in the U13 50m front crawl.

The U12 boys, Jack Casebourne, Louis Wood, James Grimmand and Euan McGreevy won silver in the freestyle relay and bronze in the medley relay.  Louis also won bronze in the 50m backstroke and the group finished as runners up in the overall cup for their age group.

An excellent achievement for all who took part.

St Andrew’s pulled out all the stops (and bunting) to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last week.  The whole school joined together for a very special tea party with cake, jelly, ice cream and of course tea and scones for the parents.  Despite the rather dull weather, all were entertained by the jazz band from the Grand Hotel and everyone joined together to sing not just one but two verses of the National Anthem.
 
Earlier in the day, to mark this momentous occasion, the Pre-Prep department buried a ‘time capsule’ in the gardens of the school.  They filled the capsule with poems, stories and pictures and will dig it up in five years time when the oldest Pre-Prep children leave the school.  A  Jubilee rose was planted next to the capsule to mark the spot.