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Five L6 students brought to life First World War letters written between a young Hampshire army officer in the trenches and his wife in Winchester, who had attended St Swithun's School. We are grateful to the Nabarro family for so generously sharing these letters with us.

L6 biologists had a great field trip in Dorset, including visiting Kimmeridge Bay where they carried out a survey of the effect of abiotic factors on periwinkle and limpet distribution, looking at Lonworth mammal trapping and surveys of psammosere succession at Studland Bay.

L5 textiles students have been researching beach images before designing a key fob using the skills of applique and embroidery

M5 geographers went on a residential fieldtrip to the Margan Field Studies centre in South Wales. This was to collect data and to practise fieldwork techniques for their final GCSE paper.

Sixth-formers heard from a range of recent St Swithun’s alumnae about university life with an informal Q&A session. The visitors’ degrees ranged from Natural Sciences at Oxford to Physics at Exeter, Medicine at Nottingham and Fashion Design at Bournemouth Arts.

St Swithun’s had the honour of hosting a lecture by Dr Simon Singh, the renowned physicist and bestselling author of popular science and maths books. He was also hosted for dinner by a group of L6 mathematicians, who took the opportunity to enquire about mathematics topics.

In academic enrichment this week, Dr Ellie Woodacre from Winchester University gave a fascinating talk on her funded research into the economic resources available to queens around the world and throughout history.

Students enjoyed a performance, Q&A and autographs from The Entitled Sons at our Wellbeing and Grit Festival.

Wellbeing and Grit Festival - The relaxation zone featured calming activities including kinesiology, breathwork, charcoal yoga, perfume making and hypnotherapy.

Wellbeing and Grit Festival: in our enquiring and grit zone, students made pottery on our new mini potting wheels, tried African drumming and circus tricks, as well as listening to our inspiring guest speaker - Invictus games athlete Rob Shenton.

In the active zone, girls enjoyed a twist on the traditional hyrox with Swithrox – a combination of running and functional workouts to push and challenge the students, as well as a sensory walk and a dancing session

Will Young, bestselling author, pop star and wellbeing advocate gave a talk. A passionate and eloquent speaker on mental health, he shared practical techniques to manage anxiety as well as developing a balanced mindset, navigating difficult emotions and develop mindful habits

Our last zone was positive purpose and giving back. Here girls prepared beautiful flower arrangements and delivered them to a local care home.

L4 finished off the year by showing off their knife skills and making a delicious pasta salad.

L6 students dressed up as famous people in psychology history and enjoyed pizza as an end of term treat.

Last week students made cookies to take to the night shelter as part of our Wellbeing and Grit festival.

Over the course of the 2024/25 academic year, more than 600 pupils from eight local primary schools have taken part in enrichment activities led by 130 St Swithun’s students and staff. This week U5 students worked with local primary schools for A Play in a Day and A Day of Sport.

We were delighted to welcome Lottie Stevenson for a wide-ranging, insightful talk about her career in journalism and filmmaking. Our students, alongside those from The Westgate School who joined us virtually, were fascinated to hear about Lottie’s experiences.

We had a really successful year for House Competitions, which featured twisted Roald Dahl story-telling and flipping pancakes on the back fields, as well as all the school sports. A big thank you, to every single one of you who represented or cheered on your house.

All the best to three of our M5 students who will fly to Sydney at the end of term to take part in our Australian exchange programme: Jessica C, Yuna I and Elizabeth B. We look forward to hearing more about their adventures at Tara Anglican High School next term.