Everyone at SVPS has been determined to ensure that we have a thoroughly Christmassy end to the term, despite the current restrictions, and I am pleased to report that we are well and truly immersed in Christmas throughout the whole School! It has definitely been a team effort with the SVPSPA kindly helping us to plan a number of festive activities over the course of the next week. 

Last Friday’s Christmas Curiosity Day definitely got us into the mood, particularly when we realised that we had snow – of course, that was all part of the plan! The children had a wonderful day filled with creativity as they learned new skills and found out more about some of our traditional Christmas traditions. 

I am sure that all of us particularly look forward to the various Nativities, Performances and the Year 3 to 6 Carol Service at this time of year. It has been important to us to ensure that the children still had the opportunity to contribute to these events and so a lot of filming has taken place over the last couple of weeks and we are really looking forward to sharing these videos with you. We are so proud of all the children who have now had a taste of film star life, patiently following direction and learning to perform to a camera, as opposed to a packed audience. I am incredibly grateful to the Pre-Prep staff, as well as to Mrs Lordon and Mr Moulton for all their hard work preparing the children, and to Miss Goodridge for organising the filming and to all parents who helped with costumes. What a team! 

The Michaelmas Term is a particularly busy one for our oldest pupils who face various tests and assessments as they seek to secure places for the next stage in their education. This year our Kent Test results included some of the highest scores achieved by SVPS pupils in recent years and, as I write this, a number of our Year 6 children are being interviewed for academic scholarships to SVS following their outstanding results in the entrance test. A further 21 Scholarships or Exhibitions for Sport, Art, DT, Drama or Music have been awarded to Year 6 pupils. This is a most impressive achievement and I am very proud of all our Year 6 children for they have worked with tremendous commitment in the run-up to the exams. I would also like to thank the staff wholeheartedly for all they have done to ensure the children have been ready for the various tests, exams and assessments that have taken place so far or are yet to take place early next term. 

This is the last newsletter of the term so I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Prefects for carrying out their roles so effectively and, in particular, our Heads of School, Lydia and Seb, for performing their duties so well during a very challenging term.  

Many of you have sent very supportive messages to the SVPS team over the course of this term. It has been an extraordinary challenge and I know you will join me in thanking both the support and academic staff for going above and beyond, every single day, to ensure our Covid systems could work, the children could make excellent progress with their learning and, also, so that SVPS could remain the happy, nurturing School you chose for your family. I do hope that all our SVPS families can enjoy some downtime over the Christmas break; it is well-deserved.