This month we were privileged to welcome the founder of the international charity “Meninadança”, Matt Roper, and their Brazilian director, Nilce Campos. It is our English and drama teacher, Charlotte, who has introduced us to this wonderful work with vulnerable young girls on the streets of Brazil and the Pedreira favela in Bello Horizonte. Charlotte is the U.K. coordinator of this charity and our older pupils were both inspired and saddened by what we learnt.

We celebrate being a community each Friday through our family assembly and a whole school lunch. Parents stay behind after the assembly to enjoy a coffee and each other’s company. Earlier this month, we made the lunch time special with a huge pasta meal prepared by Mandy and her Y7 class. Y10 served.

Collecting old clothes has proved, once more, to yield valuable rags. We were able to see our cast offs raise £235. Amanda organised the collection and it has proved a surprisingly successful fund raiser.

Our Children in Need week was once again organised by Helen. Her enthusiasm is inspirational and we enjoyed entering quizzes and competitions, wearing spots on non-uniform day, participating in a hugely motivating assembly, learning about local charities which benefit from the appeal, and eating yummy spotty cakes cooked by Aileen and her cookery classes.

The international flavour of this month continues as we received copies of the English language Dutch magazine that we have been helping to produce with Driestar College near Gouda. This is a new and developing project for us and involves contributing articles and recording voice-overs for the online edition.

We recently renewed a Swedish connection with a teacher, Carina, in the small Christian “Fokusskolen” in Nyköping. The school is a little bigger than our own but with one big difference: they are funded by the state. Carina’s school is close to the airport and it is a short hop over to Stansted from there. They plan to visit each year with their Y8 class. We hope this will provide an opportunity for contact and exchanges.