It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at Sydenham High, with seasonal music and annual community events leading the festive feel.

Members of School Council and the Flourish & Fundraise Charity committee were honoured to represent the Junior School at a special Christingle service hosted by The Children’s Society at Westminster Abbey on Friday 1 December. Accompanied by the Head of Junior School Ms Boyd and Headmistress Mrs Woodcock, the girls enjoyed taking a good look around the Abbey and learning about the symbolism of the Christingle at Christmas time. The service was very rousing and the girls sang the Christmas carols with enthusiasm and gusto.

A few days later, the Senior School Chamber Choir performed the Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten in the historic and beautiful surroundings of St James Church Garlickhythe to a spell bound audience.  Sitting just a few hundred yards from St Paul’s Cathedral, St James Garlickhythe is another of Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpieces of architectural and acoustic design.

Marvelling at the fine melodies sung by the choir and an inventive accompaniment by harpist Isobel Frayling-Corkon, the audience were treated to exceptional concert performance. Sydenham High’s Choral Director Caroline Lenton-Ward conducted the Chamber Choir as they moved from the warm welcome of Wolcum Yole to the frosty tones of In freezing Winter Night.  Beautiful solos were sung by Jessica Whight, Maddy Telford, Flora Lippa, Tyla-Rae Fatinyobo, Antonia De Avellar Forth and Kara Hardie.

One parent declared afterwards: “They truly all sang this superb music so incredibly beautifully, and indeed brought a tear to the eye.”

The term will be rounded off next week with the Junior School nativity play, carol services at St Stephen’s Church, South Dulwich, and the annual Crisis Review, organised by the Sixth Form.