Catriona Fathers

Catriona Fathers was a pupil at St. John’s School for a short time and sadly, when she was in Reception Class she was diagnosed with a Wilmus tumour. Despite various different treatments that she underwent, she died when she was only six years old. Both the school and Catriona’s parents have been very keen to work together in ensuring Catriona has a very special place at St. John’s School.

 

Together with all the pupils at our school, we have included Catriona in our school prayer which is learnt off by heart by all pupils and said regularly during both class and school prayer time. We have also designated a special garden at the back of the hall in memory of Catriona and each year a group of pupils plant flowers in the garden area. Every year in November around Catriona’s birthday, the school runs a writing competition across the school in memory of Catriona and to celebrate the love of writing which she confidently showed both at home and in school. Mr. and Mrs. Fathers set the titles, spend many hours judging all the writing and donate extremely generous book tokens to the winners in every year group. It is an event in which all pupils really enjoy participating in and the special assembly is very well attended by many parents and friends of St. John’s School. We are extremely grateful to both Mr. and Mrs. Fathers for their continued support in running this writing competition.

 

In the summer of 2019 a group of parents and pupils from Emerald Class worked together to redesign Catriona’s Garden using a variety of reusable materials. The end result was fantastic with a magnificent hotel bug created for the pupils to explore, plant beds made out of old tyres, a variety of different interactive displays again made out of reusable materials that the pupils really enjoy playing with.

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Writing Competition Winners 2023

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Overall Winner - Amelia Year 6 

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Ruby Class - Ava

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Sapphire Class - Ariah and  Zara

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Diamond Class - Amelie and Adrian

 

 Emerald Class - Alicia and Amelia

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To celebrate they had an afternoon treat with the Fathers which they all really enjoyed.

 

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