Recent Projects

For a number of years, the Candlelight Trust were successful in attracting funding from the ‘Alfred and Peggy Harvey Charitable Trust’ to enhance the school’s ‘Irresistible Curriculum.’ An annual programme of trips, activities and visitors was drawn up and became a central part of the children’s learning experience.

   Following the deaths of the benefactors (Alfred and Peggy), the Harvey charity was wound up and the trustees invited the Candlelight Trust to submit a bid to fund a project. St John’s put together a bid to transform the dated computer room to a state-of-the-art Media Suite, consisting of a green screen video, radio station, recording studio and iMacs, as well as interactive whiteboards in all classrooms in the school and both a class set of iPads and laptops. The bid was successful and the remarkable ‘Harvey Media Suite’ was designed and built, launching in February 2017.

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The trustees attended the successful launch of the ‘Harvey Media Suite’, and following this launch, the Harvey charity approached St John’s for an additional project bid. Another bid was submitted, this time for a designated library within the school; there had never been a space such as this for the children to utilise. The bid was successful once again and the money was ring-fenced for the capital building works. The school led their own successful crowd-fundraising efforts to buy the books for the beautiful library and its wonderful launch was held in September 2018.   

The Harvey Media Suite enables the Computing and ICT curriculum to flourish at St John’s and provides children with the highest-quality learning experiences. The children are now able to create their own media content using green screen technology; record their own music; write and produce their own radio shows and develop their use of day-to-day technology, both through the use of iPads and laptops. In addition to this, the Harvey Media Suite is utilised weekly for after school clubs (‘Radio Club’ and ‘Recording Club’) and the school choir have also recorded performances in the suite using the recording studio. It is a well-loved and special place within the heart of the school and the children are able to learn using state-of-the-art equipment; the school staff are also gaining the needed expertise to teach using the facilities, which develops their subject knowledge and provides continuing professional development.

St John’s magical library has provided the school with a sanctuary for reading, which is nestled right in the centre of the school. The children view the space as extremely special – a place of mystery and a place of calm.

   All of the children in the school have the opportunity to read brand new, hand-picked, quality texts. The main part of the library consists of fantastic murals that transport the children to different places and times. There is an additional area where non-fiction books are displayed near our scanning terminal.

   Each and every child in the school treasures their time in the library and the most common question in the school has become: ‘Can I change my book please?’ The changing of books is enabled by a book-scanner system, replicated in all of the local libraries, thus allowing the children to borrow books on their library card, which can be used in multiple libraries in the borough.

   The school library has enabled the children to have daily access to quality texts, and therefore, has improved the love of reading and writing instantly. St John’s looks forward to being able to measure the impact of this fully over time.  

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