In this week's Roundup:
Head Student's Welcome | The Week Ahead | Key Term Dates | Noticeboard | Photo of the Week
Nursery & Junior | Senior & Sixth Form | Submit a Story
A message from
Rich Jones, Head.
Schools can sometimes feel like little microcosms of our wider lives.
I write this on a rainy, grey, and fairly miserable morning, our first full morning back together as a community.
Summer already seems a strangely distant idea, with its heat, holidays, eclipse, the anticipation of the release of those collective pressure valves and the thought of queues at airports and service station slipways. Even our school fields, stark, dry and almost arid a few days ago, have drunk in September and carefully guided by Jack and David, are beginning the journey back towards being fully workable by half term.
Change can happen quickly.
Schools are funny places when the children aren't here as they are eerily quiet. The buildings somehow feel bigger, the corridors wider and the whole place slightly listless in its purpose. Everything is where it should be, probably rather tidier than usual, but something fundamental is missing.
So it was with enthusiasm that we welcomed back the noise, yelps, laughter, mess, terrible jokes and energy to our corridors and classrooms yesterday and today. Strangely, the school feels more settled with them in it.
And, of course, with all that energy comes something else.
Nerves.
From the Head to the newest and youngest member of the Nursery, I suspect there is a little bit of it in all of us at the beginning of a new school year. What will this year hold? Will I be accepted? What will I get wrong? What will I need help with? Will my friends still be my friends? Will I like my new teacher, tutor, class, or room?
Even for those who know St Chris inside out, things have altered. People have moved, spaces have changed, roles have shifted. We return to somewhere deeply familiar which is, at the same time, not quite the place we left in July.
At this time of year, I am often drawn back to the writing of Brené Brown. She once wrote that "vulnerability is the best measure of courage." I think there is something particularly true about that in schools in September.
We tend to think of vulnerability as weakness, as something to protect or hide. Brown's point, I think, is almost the reverse. You cannot really be courageous without first being vulnerable. Courage only exists when there is something at stake: when there is the possibility that you might fail, be rejected, get something wrong, look foolish or discover that you aren't quite as good at something as you hoped you might be.
I guess, if the outcome is guaranteed, it doesn't require much courage!
And that makes schools extraordinarily vulnerable places. Every day we ask young people to put themselves out there. To walk into rooms where they don't know everyone. To attempt things, they cannot yet do. To offer an answer that might be wrong. To make friends without knowing whether friendship will be returned. To perform, compete, create, write, speak, and occasionally fail in front of other people. Growing up itself requires an extraordinary amount of vulnerability.
Perhaps we don't acknowledge that enough.
It takes courage to walk through a gate, car park and noise on your first day. It takes courage to sit next to someone you don't know. It takes courage to admit that you are nervous, that you don't understand something, that you haven't yet found your people or that you need some help. And it takes courage to return somewhere familiar knowing that you might want this year to be different from the last one.
I sometimes imagine courage as something loud and heroic. More often, I think, it looks remarkably ordinary. It is turning up. Trying again. Saying hello. Putting your hand up. Joining in. Admitting you don't know. Allowing people to see a little bit of who you really are.
One of the things we work hard to do here at St Chris, throughout the school year, is champion our young people as they are. Not to cookie-cutter them into something more convenient. Not to ask them to shape-shift or continually realign themselves to fit somebody else's idea of what a successful young person should look like. Our job is to help them become increasingly proud, secure and comfortable in themselves, while giving them the confidence to grow, change, get things wrong and try again.
That doesn't mean telling children that everything they do is wonderful or protecting them from difficulty. Quite the opposite. If we want young people to have the courage to be vulnerable, then they need a community in which getting something wrong is survivable, asking for help is normal and being themselves doesn't come at the price of belonging.
It's a mighty task. But it is the ground we sit on and work from.
So perhaps Brené Brown is right. Vulnerability really is one of our best measures of courage.
And in that case, looking around St Chris this week, I have seen an awful lot of courage already.
Have a great weekend and it is lovely to have you as part of our community, new and old.
Our New St Chris Film
Just before the summer holidays, we created a new film for our social media channels, capturing a glimpse of life and learning at St Chris.
We are delighted to share it with parents and carers here. We hope you enjoy watching - and please feel free to share it with friends and family. Thank you to everyone who took part.
St Chris Menus 2026–27
At St Chris, students enjoy fresh vegetarian food during the school day (with meat options available for boarders at breakfast and dinner), with a range of choices available each day. These include a hot main meal, pasta, baked potatoes and soup, alongside the salad bar, pudding and fruit.
Our new menus for the 2026–27 school year are now available:
Junior and Senior School Main Lunch Menu
School lunch charges are automatically added to families’ invoices. If you do not wish your child to have school lunches, please contact the Finance Team at billings@stchris.co.uk. Students may instead bring a vegetarian, nut-free packed lunch to eat alongside their friends.
Poetry By Heart 2027
Senior School and Sixth Form students are encouraged to take part in Poetry By Heart, a national poetry-speaking competition that challenges young people to learn poems by heart and bring them to life through performance.
Students can explore a wide range of poetry, develop their confidence and public-speaking skills, and work with LAMDA and drama teacher Sue Scott-Davison to shape their performance. It is also an opportunity to represent St Chris nationally, with the possibility of performing in the final at Shakespeare’s Globe.
For the Classic category, students select two poems to perform individually: one published before 1914 and one published in or after 1914.
Students can scan the QR code on the poster to explore the competition and its different entry categories. Those interested in taking part should email Sue using the details on the poster by Friday 18 September.
We would love to hear from students who are keen to get involved!
Notices
Whole School
St Chris Information and Welcome Booklets
A reminder that our Information and Welcome Booklets are available on the school website for all parents and carers.
Whether your family is new to St Chris or you simply need to check something, the booklets contain a wealth of practical information, including key contacts, PE kit, food, school buses and an introduction to our communication systems.
Please use the linsk below to find the booklet for your child’s part of the School:
New Governor
We are delighted to let you know we have a new Governor, Cliff Canning. Cliff is Head of Embley, an independent co-ed day/boarding school in Hampshire. Cliff is very familiar with St Chris as he was Deputy Head here from 2014-2017.
His details, alongside those of all our Governors, can be found on our website here.
Welcoming New Staff
For families joining St Chris this term, and as a reminder for St Chris families who we updated last term, we would like to introduce some of the new staff members you may meet around the School. A very warm welcome to:
- Fiona Clark, Visiting Music Teacher (Singing)
- John McDarby, Teacher of Maths
- Stephanie Boswell, part-time Head of Drama, covering Hollie Sparrow's maternity leave
- Claire McDonnell, part-time Teacher of Music
- Fiona Clark, Singing Teacher
- Emma Skinner, Kitchen Assistant; and
-
Cheryl Pateman, Catering Assistant
-
Anne Bodiyabaduge, Kitchen Assistant; and
- Ophelia Orcan, who worked with us as an LSA on a supply basis last year, has returned to cover the role of LSA Autism Specialist while we recruit for the position.
We are also looking forward to welcoming Cristina Martinez from Ecuador, who will join us as a Gap Student at the end of September. Cristina will replace Daniela Silva, who is no longer able to take up the role. We are delighted, too, to welcome back School Nurse Ana Grady following her maternity leave.
Several familiar faces are taking on new responsibilities this year:
- Marcia Bonanni becomes Second in Junior School, supporting Katie Wright, Assistant Head (Junior School).
- Ann-Marie Knight becomes Director of Music across the School. Martin Goodchild will continue as a part-time Teacher of Music, having stepped down from his role as Director of Music in the Junior School.
- Holly Jackson becomes Teacher of English and LSA (English Specialist).
We hope you will join us in giving all our new and returning colleagues a very warm St Chris welcome.
Music and LAMDA Lessons
Individual instrumental, vocal and LAMDA lessons begin on Monday 7 September. We are delighted to welcome some excellent new visiting music and LAMDA teachers to St Chris this term, bringing even more opportunities for students to develop their interests - from first-time performers to those looking to develop their skills further.
We have a new singing teacher joining the Music Department, offering lessons across a wide range of styles, including musical theatre, pop, rock, jazz and classical. Singers may also have opportunities to take part in concerts, productions and events such as A Night at the Musicals. Find out more and apply for instrumental or vocal lessons through our Junior School Music and Senior School Music pages.
We are also introducing solo LAMDA Verse and Prose lessons, giving students a new way to explore spoken-word performance, develop their communication skills and build confidence. Further information about LAMDA is available on our Junior School Drama and Senior School Drama pages.
Parents and carers - and Senior School students - should look out for an email and notification from the Involve app confirming lesson times. Families new to St Chris will receive an invitation to join Involve once their child has been added to the system. Please use Involve to check the date and time of each lesson.
Temporary Closure of the Sports Field
Our Grounds Team has worked incredibly hard throughout the summer, putting in many hours to prepare and improve the sports field. However, following the prolonged hot and dry weather, the grass now needs additional time to recover. The field will therefore remain out of use for several weeks during this half-term.
This further work should leave the field in better condition for the rest of the school year and help it remain more usable throughout the winter months. In the meantime, students will use the Astro and other suitable spaces for sport and recreation, with appropriate staff supervision.
Thank you for your understanding - and a huge thank you to our Grounds Team for all their work and care.
Young Voices 2027
E Group (Year 5) to Upper Sixth (Year 13)
We're delighted to invite students to take part in Young Voices 2027 – the world's largest children's choir!
If your child is interested in joining the choir, please take a look at the information attached. We'd be grateful if families could register their interest as soon as posisble, as we'll need to confirm participant numbers by the end of September.
Early Years & Junior School
Meet the Teacher Evening
Our Early Years and Junior School Meet the Teacher Evening takes place on Monday 7 September, from 6.00 to 7.00 pm.
Please arrive through the main Junior School gate and go directly to your child’s classroom. Teachers will share timetables and information about the term and year ahead.
A drop-in crèche will be available, and there will also be a preloved clothing stall offering PE and Forest School kit alongside other useful items.
After School Clubs
Junior School clubs begin on Monday 7 September. Unless you have been told otherwise, collection will be from the front of the Junior School at 4.30pm.
Students attending a club should bring a water bottle and a healthy vegetarian snack. Please remember that St Chris is nut and sesame free.
Places can still be booked for clubs with availability through My School Portal (see link to Clubs/EVOLVE).
The School Day and Wraparound Care
Morning Care is available from 8.00 am, with the school day beginning at 8.30 am.
Breakfast Club is available from 7.30 am, and After School Care runs until 6.30 pm. Bookings and enquiries can be made:
- By email: jswraparound@stchris.co.uk
- By telephone: 01462 650962
- In person at the School Office
A Few Everyday Reminders
Please remember to send your child to school with a named water bottle each day. Any snacks should be healthy, vegetarian and free from nuts and sesame.
Our junk-modelling collection bin is outside the Junior School entrance. Families are welcome to leave suitable, clean materials whenever there is space in the bin.
Senior School & Sixth Form
Senior School Individual Photographs
The school photographer will be visiting St Chris on Tuesday 8 September to take individual photographs of all students in I–V Group (Years 7–11) and the Sixth Form.
Each student will bring home a postcard containing a QR code, which parents and carers can use to view and order copies of their child’s photograph.
Save the Date - Pastoral Adviser Evening
Monday 21 September, 4.30 to 7.30pm
Our Pastoral Adviser Evening for Senior School and Sixth Form families provides an early opportunity to meet your child’s adviser, either in person or online. You will be able to discuss how your child is settling into the new school year and ask any questions you may have.
Families attending in person will also have the chance to meet other parents and carers from their child’s year group. The evening will include a short talk from Rich, alongside an introduction to developments in our PSHE curriculum from Lizzie Hedderson, Assistant Head (Pupil Development and Wellbeing).
We will share further information, including booking details, next week. For now, please save the date - we look forward to seeing you.
Senior School Calendar
The Senior School calendar will be available on My School Portal from Monday 7 September.
We will also send families a printable PDF containing key dates and events for the Autumn Term - ideal for keeping somewhere visible at home.
Senior School Co-Curricular Clubs
Senior School Clubs begin on Monday 14 September, with the exception of rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors, which start next week (see below). Homework Club is also available from next week so students can remain on site from Monday to Friday in this club until 5.00pm. Homework Club takes place in the Mulberry Building - and students should register here at the end of the school day.
The clubs brochure will be sent to parents and carers on Tuesday 8 September, giving you an opportunity to explore the choices with your child. Students will also discuss the activities available with their Pastoral Adviser during Company Time.
Bookings open on at 4.00 pm on Wednesday 9 September and can be accessed via My School Portal. Follow the green button to "Clubs, Trips and Activities - Evolve".
It is also possible to visit the Evolve site directly. Families new to St Chris - or anyone needing to reset their account - can set up their Evolve access here. Please use the email address registered with the School.
Most Senior School clubs do not have a limit on places, so there is no need to book immediately.
Senior School Trips and Visits
Information about Senior School trips and visits will be shared with families through Evolve. Parents and carers must complete the relevant consent form before their child can attend.
There is no additional charge for trips that form a compulsory part of the curriculum. Optional trips can be booked and paid for individually through Evolve.
Questions about Senior School clubs, trips or our wider co-curricular programme can be sent to Emma Roskilly, Assistant Head (Co-curricular), at emma.roskilly@stchris.co.uk.
Little Shop of Horrors Rehearsals
We are excited to begin rehearsals for this term’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.
Although the official Opps sessions begin next week, the cast will get an early start with a full read-through and initial work on the group musical numbers. With fewer than 12 weeks until the performances, it is important that all cast members attend the following rehearsals:
- Tuesday 8 September, 3.45–5.00 pm: Full-cast read-through and work on Downtown
- Thursday 10 September, Period 6–5.00 pm: Full-cast blocking of the opening
If you would like to be part of the production but haven't yet signed up we would love to have you - please come along to the first rehearsal on Tuesday.
If there are any difficulties attending - or if you have any questions - please contact Susanne at susanne.okulitch@stchris.co.uk.
Apply to Become a Student Librarian
Do you love books? Are you organised, friendly and keen to make a difference? We are looking for enthusiastic students from the Senior School and Sixth Form to join our team of Student Librarians.
What will you do?
- Help to keep the Library tidy and welcoming
- Organise and shelve books
- Add new books to the library system
- Help students borrow and return books
- Support library competitions throughout the year
- Promote a love of reading across the School
What will you gain?
- Teamwork and leadership experience
- Organisation and time-management skills
- Communication and customer-service skills
- Greater confidence and responsibility
- The opportunity to help shape the reading culture at St Chris
For students completing their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, this role can count towards the Volunteering section and can be signed off by Amy.
How to Apply
Please write a short paragraph of around 100–150 words explaining why you would make a good Student Librarian. You might include:
- Why you would like to take on the role
- The qualities and skills you could bring, such as reliability, organisation, teamwork or communication
- Any relevant experience, including volunteering, helping with clubs or supporting younger students
- Your ideas for encouraging others to enjoy reading
Email your application to Amy.Anderson@stchris.co.uk by Friday 18 September.
This is a great opportunity to develop your skills, contribute to the St Chris community and share the joy of reading.
Next Week
Nursery & Junior School
- Monday 7 September: Meet the Teacher 6.00-7.00 pm (drop in creche provided, no booking required)
Senior School & Sixth Form
WEEK A Timetable
- Tuesday 8 September: School Photographer in School to take Individual Photos
- Thursday 10 September: Silver DofE Qualifying Expedition
- Friday 11 September: Silver DofE Qualifying Expedition
- Saturday 12 September: Silver DofE Qualifying Expedition
Autumn Term Diary
Diary to be fully populated in the next Roundup
| Monday 21 September | Senior School Pastoral Consultations |
| Tuesday 22 September | Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition |
| Wednesday 23 September | Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition |
| Thursday 24 September | Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition |
| Friday 25 September | Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition |
| Saturday 26 September | Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition |
| Thursday 8 October | Sixth Form Information Evening |
| Monday 12 October | I Group (Year 7) Parents' Consultation |
| Monday 19 - Friday 30 October | Half term holiday |
| Monday 9 November | IV Group (Year 10) Parents' Consultation |
| Tuesday 10 November | Sixth Form Psychology 'Brain Day' |
| Monday 23 November | V Group (Year 11) Practical Mock Exams |
| Tuesday 24 November | V Group (Year 11) Practical Mock Exams |
| Wednesday 25 November | V Group (Year 11) Practical Mock Exams |
| Thursday 26 November |
V Group (Year 11) Practical Mock Exams GCSE Options Information Evening |
| Friday 27 November | V Group (Year 11) Practical Mock Exams |
| Monday 30 November | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Tuesday 1 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Wednesday 2 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Thursday 3 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Friday 4 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Monday 7 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Tuesday 8 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Wednesday 9 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Thursday 10 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams |
| Friday 11 December | V Group (Year 11) GCSE Mock Exams 1200 noon Last day of Autumn term |
