City of London Swimming Gala
Four children were selected from each class in KS2 to represent the school in the City of London Swimming Gala, held at Golden Lane Leisure Centre. Here they rose to the challenge of racing other children from schools in the city across a range of different swimming strokes, in what was a very competitive Gala. A special mention must go to our medallists: 1st place in Backstroke: Storm in Year 5, 3rd place in Freestyle: Harrison in Year 4, 3rd place in Freestyle: Elliot in Year 3. Finally thankyou to all parents who gave fantastic support.

Sports-hall Athletics
As defending champions in Sports-hall Athletics, we took a Year 5 and Year 6 team (7 boys & 7 girls) in the afternoon of Founders Day to Sir John Cass and Redcoat Secondary School for an afternoon of jumping, throwing and running events. Once again there were some fantastic performances from every member of the team which resulted in an overall result of 2nd out of 7 teams! Well done to all involved!
Team: Boys Team: Justyce, Adam D, Adam G, Mohammed, Orson, Dhanyaal, Arthur
Girls Team: Anastasia, Iris, Erica, Hosna, Sabrina, Monika, Romilly

Boys Cricket
With Year 6 out on a trip, a team from Year 5 and Year 4 took their place to represent the school in an indoor cricket competition at University of East London, Sportsdock. Here children learned how to take wickets and score runs against a number of different schools. A special mention must go to a batting partnership in one particular game by Theo and Harrison in Year 4.

Girls Cricket
A Year 5 and Year 6 team again represented the school at the same venue as the boys’ competition. The girls won one game and lost one game, with some excellent performances all round when bowling and batting. A special mention must go to the sensible batting of Hiba and big hitting of Arabella.

Gymnastics
A team of Year 5 and 6 had the challenge of learning and performing a vault and a body management and floor routine at Marion Richardson School. Here everyone was very impressed with the level of performance from the team. Well done to Harper, Erica and Kai for learning the routines very quickly, and to Sabrina, Romilly, Mila, and Anastasia for fantastic performances as well.

​Netball
Before Christmas we took a KS2 team to Langdon Park Secondary for a netball tournament. With Year 6 away, it was down to children for Year 4 and Year 5 to play against teams older and taller than them. Well done to all involved who improved with every game and competed well against the other schools.
 

​We enjoyed a wonderful sermon from Bishop Pete—the acting Bishop of London during Founders Day at the end of last half term. Bishop Pete used the symbols of Sir John Cass to talk about charity, service and education. Each Founders Day our thoughts turn to the benevolence of our Founder who set up our charity school in the City of London. His fortune has become the asset of one of the largest educational charities in London—Sir John Cass’s Foundation- offering support and financial assistance to a multitude of projects across the inner London, including ourselves.
 
We talk to the children regularly about the meaning of the Cass feather. Some say it’s stained red with the blood of Cass as he died signing his will. I prefer to use the feather as a symbol of his gift. The gift -through his will—of a free education for every child in this area. We spend much time in today’s society focussing on what can be further improved about educational outcomes. We perhaps don’t ponder for long enough how fortunate we are to have excellent free education in London with many world class schools on our doorstep. Spare a thought for those throughout the world who still don’t have access to a quality education or who don’t go to school at all– and let us be thankful!
 
Bishop Pete also reminded us about the fish on our school crest– the crest of arms for Sir John. Now, fish can be slippery little creatures. We discussed in our assembly on Friday about how they are very difficult to hold onto. Some of the children shared stories about when they had been fishing with their families. When we look down at the jumpers we wear to school, we are reminded that we need to grasp every opportunity, to hold on tight to chances we receive and never give up. With these sentiments in mind, can I draw your attention to a competition we are holding in school!?
 
We currently have an excellent school logo– however, we don’t have a motto which we use in school to clearly represent our values. In our assembly before half term I shared with the children some examples of advertising mottos including ones from school or university. My own college’s motto was Respice Finem (consider the end). Did your school or college have a motto that you still remember? Talk to your child about it if you can.
 
The children have been challenged to take part in a contest to come up with a new motto for school. Think about what’s special about our school. You can find out aims and Christian values on our website: http://www.sirjohncassprimary.org/our-values.html. This page might help you to come up with some ideas. You can submit your idea online or via paper copy to the school office by Friday 9th March, 2018.

Our children joined hundreds of others from across the country who gathered in the O2 arena as the Young Voices Choir. We had an excellent night of singing and entertainment from contemporary artists.