School News and Head's Blog
Posted on: 14/12/2018Weekly News - Friday 14th December 2018
It has been a busy term in the classroom and your children have worked very hard indeed. Particular mention must go to our Year 6 pupils, who have been striving for excellence throughout their 11+ preparation with many of our pupils now preparing for independent school examinations in January. We wish them all well and they should remember the advice given to them to be themselves...and keep reading!
As you are aware, no formal homework is set for students over the holidays; however, we would assume that every child will continue their reading journey throughout the holidays.
The festive holidays are a particularly good time to spend quality family time together, playing good old traditional board games such as chess, Ludo, Monopoly, card games, Pictionary etc. You may like to look at the Happy Puzzle Company (for Years 3-6) and Orchard Toys (for Ducklings - Year 3) for appropriate games and puzzles to enrich the pupils' learning while having fun together.
Enjoy visiting places of interest, talking to your children and remember to have some calm and peace over the festive season.
Christmas Events and Celebrations
It has been a most Christmassy week here at St. Helen's College as we have remembered the true meaning of Christmas and celebrated this special time of year through many events.
The week began with Nursery and Reception children putting on their nativity plays for their peers and parents; these were incredibly accomplished performances. It is astonishing to think, when watching these young performers, that they are only 3, 4 and 5 years old! Their ability to remember lines, move correctly around the stage and perform confidently in front of a large, enthusiastic audience was really very impressive indeed. As I commented at the end of the performances, we are in good hands with our leaders of the future.
The children of Ducklings and Lower School were really amazed on Thursday when they had a very special visitor. Yes, Santa managed to make time to come and see them! Mrs. Crehan also joined with Santa for some Christmas singing with the Ducklings. Sadly, Mr. Crehan was unable to join us as he was busy looking after reindeer for a friend!
Lower School children enjoyed their Christmas party afternoon and pantomime (performed by West End in Schools) on Thursday afternoon. The day before, all Upper School children had had a fantastic trip to the Theatre Royal, Windsor to see Dick Whittington.
Christmas lunch was served on Thursday for all, and it was a joy to see the children enjoy the festive lunchtime so much, with music, crackers and lots of good cheer! Special thanks must go to Andrew, our Chef, Soula, our Catering Manager and all the wonderful Accent staff who look after us so well in the dining hall all year round. Our Head Girl and Head Boy gave a heartfelt vote of thanks on behalf of the school.
Well done to our Christmas tree decoration competition winners. They were:
Ducklings - Aaria M
Wrens - Leo A
Robins - Armaanââ V
Kingfishers - Alexia C
Owls - Veer K
1HC - Riya S
1J - Rian M
2B - Milo M
2H - Saanvi S
3B - Deven D and Eshan N
3M - Anokhi B
4T - Maya S
4KT - Georgia S
5A - Ciaran R
5G - Anaiya B and Keaton P
6M - Mia N
6W - Hebe E
Thank you to all of the parents who attended our end of term Carol Service today. As ever, it was a poignant occasion with lovely performances from the choirs, orchestra and staff choir. We thank you all for your generosity in supporting the charities with the leaving collection.
Music and Sports Personality of the Term
An enormous well done to Xaviella F, who has been named Musician of the Term for her outstanding effort, commitment, dedication and achievement within the music department.
Xaviella has always worked conscientiously and demonstrated enormous enthusiasm over several years, in all aspects of music at St. Helen’s College. She has excellent music skills and applies and shares creative ideas successfully in class work. She began singing in the Lower School choir and has continued in the Upper School. Two years ago, she was selected to join the Chamber Choir and has already performed at two prestigious venues in London.
Xaviella is an asset to the music department and now holds the responsible position of Music Prefect. Instrumentally, she is a fluent recorder player, plays the violin in the school orchestra, has recently taken up the double bass and, as her crowning glory so far, has successfully achieved a distinction in her Grade 8 piano exam!
Well done, Xaviella. You are an inspiration to the young musicians of St. Helen's College and you thoroughly deserve this accolade.
Our Sports Personality of the Term trophy was also awarded today. This term, the trophy went to Zoe K, a young lady who represents the school in many sports and always works hard to contribute to team success.
Zoe was a member of the football, tag rugby, sports hall athletics and cross country teams this term and also regularly plays in the netball team as well as representing a netball team outside of school.
Zoe was a double champion this term, winning both District and Borough cross country titles and she went on to represent Hillingdon at the London Youth Games cross country championship.
A fantastic WELL DONE to Zoe.
Cookery Club
Year 4 and 5 children enjoyed the first ever Cookery Club in Upper School this half term. It was such an exciting and fun club for them, as shown by their Cheshire Cat grins and gleeful little leaps as we announced the recipes for the sessions!
The children started each session by putting on their chef hats and aprons and issuing a warm greeting to Soula, our chef. They were shown good hygiene practices and all the necessary health and safety rules in the kitchen as they were shown around how the school kitchen works. At each session, the children prepared and cooked/baked different recipes which included smoothies, apple crumble, savoury mince pasty, vanilla sponge cupcakes and even a festive Christmas Tree chocolate sponge cake. The children learned food preparation and cooking techniques but, equally importantly, they experienced the joy and love of cooking and food, which is essential as a life skill. Many thanks to Ms Gilham and to Soula for running the club.
Spring Term 2019
The lunch menu for the spring term has been published to the School Documents page of the website and is available here.
Co-curricular clubs will begin the week commencing Monday 14th January. Thank you for submitting your selections; final allocations will be sent to you in due course. Please make your payment via SchoolsBuddy to confirm your child's place at your allocated clubs.
Breakfast Club bookings for next term should be made via your SchoolsBuddy account. Please note that you must book your Breakfast Club places through SchoolsBuddy or your child will not be able to attend; places are limited and are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Subject to availability of places, you may book a place at Breakfast Club up until 7.30 a.m. on the day of attendance. You can do this using a computer or mobile device, including smart phone. If you are unsure of how to do so, please see a member of the office team at your earliest convenience.
Posted on: 7/12/2018Christmas by Mrs. Smith
Whatever your religious beliefs, Christmas is such a huge part of British culture that it’s almost impossible not to take part. It is most special as an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends and to reflect upon how lucky we are to have so much love and warmth in our lives.
Your children have worked very hard at school this term; they have had to adapt to new year groups, routines and academic demands. They have completed a lot of learning, inside and outside of the classroom, and have stretched themselves intellectually. They have made new friends, established relationships with staff members they hadn’t come across previously and embraced new, interesting and challenging concepts at every turn. They have been busy outside of the classroom too, taking part in co-curricular clubs, playing sports and games, learning musical instruments and giving performances. So we hope that Christmas will be a time of rest and relaxation for them and for you, too. In the hope that you will have the chance to spend some quality time together, I would like to share with you some suggestions for things to do together which should help to make the most of your Christmas family time, while keeping your children’s intellectual and creative curiosity alive. You may already have planned to include some or all of these into your Christmas holiday – I hope so!
Visit some Christmas lights
The UK lights up at Christmas and it can be a magical, peaceful experience to visit Christmas lights. You might like to visit ‘Kew at Christmas’, the Enchanted Woodland at Syon Park, London’s South Bank or the Oxford Street/Regent Street lights. Or you might simply walk around your own neighbourhood, appreciating the effort your neighbours have put into lighting up the world! Why not get creative and make Christmas lights pictures back at home afterwards, using paints or colouring materials, glitter, sequins or anything else you can find.
Help your children to buy Christmas presents
It is lovely for young children to experience the joy of thinking of others and giving gifts, and to learn to budget, by choosing Christmas presents for their family. You could give your child a small budget and help them to divide it up into a budget amount per recipient, and then to work out how much they will spend in total and how much change to expect. Help them to wrap their own gifts and write their own gift tags (don’t worry if they don’t look perfect!) – wrapping can be a tricky skill to master and doing it for themselves will help children to develop their fine motor skills, as well as being such a happy and loving experience. They might even like to make their own wrapping paper by stamping plain paper with Christmas shapes, or drawing a pattern.
Write thank you letters
It can be tempting nowadays to send emails, texts or messages on social media to thank family members for presents. But if you encourage your children to sit down and write thank you notes/letters by hand for any gifts they receive, you are helping them to develop their handwriting, their English and communication skills and their presentation skills. I still remember the ‘formula’ my mother taught me for thank you letters:
1. Thank the person for the gift and tell them why you love it/what you will be doing with it.
2. Tell them what a lovely Christmas/birthday/event you had and what made it special.
3. Express your wish that they have also been having a great time and that you will see them again soon.
Being able to plan a letter or simple piece of writing is a great skill and writing thank you letters is a great way to practise! As children grow older, their letters can become longer and more sophisticated.
Bake Christmas goodies together
Gingerbread, Christmas cookies, mince pies, sausage rolls, trifle….there are many, many treats to make at this time of year and cooking them together can be great fun! Weighing and measuring skills, creativity/artistic skills, practising telling the time and working out how much time is left, fine motor skills…all of these are developed during baking. And if you pop on some Christmas music while you bake, you can have a sing song together too (or maybe even encourage your children to practise their recorder or other instrument while the baked goods are in the oven!). Your children might like to write out recipes or create a homemade recipe booklet, practising their handwriting, spelling and creative skills. You could even gift baked goods, with handwritten recipes, to friends or neighbours (see below). If you haven't yet tried making 'stained glass' biscuits, which involve melting a boiled sweet into a cookie, why not try those this year - there's a recipe here and these look brilliant hung on the Christmas tree!
Selfless service
By giving your time selflessly to help others, you can show your children the true meaning of Christmas. You could offer to volunteer with a charity, or perhaps take an hour one morning, with your children, to go through your kitchen cupboards and take out a few items to donate to your local Foodbank. There are collection points now in many major supermarkets, or you can find details of your local Foodbank online. If you have an elderly neighbour, why not knock on their door and ask them if they need any assistance with shopping, cooking, decorating etc. in the run up to Christmas. Small acts of selfless service can be incredibly meaningful and rewarding.
Play board games, Charades etc.
Board games are the perfect way for a family to spend time together. There are many superb family board games available; my favourites are the traditional ones like Snakes and Ladders, Frustration, Monopoly (and there is an excellent card version, Monopoly deal) and Cluedo, all of which develop counting/maths skills, gameplay and critical thinking skills. There is a really wide choice of games on the market for all ages and many are educational as well as fun. If your children enjoy puzzles, Christmas is a perfect time to do a really big one together as a family. Charades is another great family game to play at Christmas. You don’t even really need to buy a game. Just think of songs, films, books, plays and television shows that all of the family will know, and write them on pieces of paper. Stick them in a hat and take it in turns to mime them to each other without speaking.
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas
If you do one thing with your children this Christmas, I urge you to read them ‘'TwasThe Night Before Christmas’, a traditional poem about St. Nicholas visiting a home to fill stockings with gifts. This poem, suitable for children of all ages, is responsible for many of our modern day ideas about Santa Claus and Christmas gift-giving.
If you have older children who already know ‘The Night Before Christmas’, you might like to read them Carol Ann Duffy’s superb modern re-imagining of the poem, ‘Another Night Before Christmas’.
Reading together is the most important thing you can do with your child. We hope you will read to them and with them every day over the Christmas holidays, and that they will see you reading lots of books/newspapers/magazines/journals too. Do pop a few books on those Christmas lists, if you haven’t already.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Mrs. Smith
Posted on: 7/12/2018Weekly News - Friday 7th December 2018
Many thanks to Mrs. Patricia Adams, the Head of St. Mary's School in Gerrards Cross, who visited us this afternoon to run an interview workshop with our Year 6 children, many of whom will have senior school entrance interviews early next term. Mrs. Adams gave our pupils some great advice and we hope that they will have taken her two most important messages to heart: that 'over-preparation is the foe of inspiration' and that 'magic happens when you believe in yourself'.
Masterclasses like this are the cherry on the cake of preparation for interviews and public speaking in general, which begins at St. Helen's College from the very earliest years. Our pupils perform publicly regularly and the many and varied opportunities they get at school to challenge themselves intellectually and to get involved in all sorts of activities, sports and music give them plenty to speak confidently about!
We wish our Year 6 pupils all the very best in the various interviews they will be attending next term.
Assemblies This Week
Wow! Well done to Year 1 for a fabulous Christmas assembly today. The children sang with confidence and real rhythm, and without exception they spoke their lines with excellent clarity and projection. It was super to hear some of the history of Christmas, including how Christmas trees and Christmas cards originated, as well as to consider the true meaning of the Christmas story. Very well done to everyone involved.
3M performed their Christmas-themed assembly today too, which incorporated both an alternative and a traditional Christmas story and ended with an interactive carol involving staff and pupils, with a lyrical twist! The pupils' delivery of their (many) lines was flawless and the acting was first class. The children managed to combine humour with poignancy, showing great maturity in their performances. Well done indeed, 3M.
Christmas Is Coming!
Thank you to all of the many parents who visited school today to hear the Infant Choir perform Christmas songs this morning, with a special guest visit from the Mayor of Hillingdon, and to join us for our annual Carols Around the Tree this afternoon. It was super, as always, to bring our community together in this way to look forward to the joy of Christmas. Please read on below for details of Christmas events next week and the end of term arrangements.
Monday 10th December
8.45 a.m. Nursery Christmas Assembly at Lower School
All Nursery parents are warmly invited to join us to watch the children perform their Christmas assembly. Coffee will be served in the Lower School Hall from 8.15 a.m.
Tuesday 11th December
8.45 a.m. Reception Christmas Assembly at Lower School
All Reception parents are warmly invited to join us to watch the children perform their Christmas Nativity. Coffee will be served in the Lower School Hall from 8.15 a.m.
Children from Nursery, Year 1 and Year 2 will have had the opportunity to watch the Reception dress rehearsal on Monday 10th December.
Wednesday 12th December
Upper School (Years 2-6) Pantomime trip to see Dick Whittington at Theatre Royal, Windsor. Please note that details will be sent to parents separately.
Thursday 13th December
Christmas lunch for Nursery to Year 6, followed by a pantomime performance for Nursery to Year 1 at Lower School by West End In Schools.
Friday 14th December
11.00 a.m. Carol Service at All Saints Church (Years 2-6).
All parents are warmly invited to join us for our annual Carol Service at All Saints Church.
End of Term - Half Day (12.00 N/R, 12.10 Y1/2, 12.20 Y3/4, 12.30 Y5/6). Holiday Club running p.m. only.
Holiday Club will then be running from Monday 17th to Friday 21st December. Please remember that all bookings must be made through SchoolsBuddy.
Chess Fixture
Monday afternoon's chess match against St. Bernadette's was good fun and closely fought. The atmosphere was competitive but friendly and it was great to finish the term's chess on a high in what has become a regular and most enjoyable fixture. St. Bernadette's team won by a margin of the result on just one board. Well done to those who played.
Co-Curricular Clubs
There are a few clubs which will run an extra session next week to make up for a session missed earlier in the term; parents whose children attend these clubs have been emailed directly. All other co-curricular clubs for the Autumn term have now finished.
The co-curricular programme for the Spring term will be published on Monday via SchoolsBuddy. Please note a change to our booking procedures. In order to protect some time for the children to play with their peers and, particularly in Upper School, for staff to be able to catch up with children regarding their school work, we are restricting the number of clubs children may attend at lunchtimes to three per week. I trust that you understand that the well-being of the children is paramount. There will be no restriction on after school clubs.
Posted on: 30/11/2018Reclaiming The Inner You - Head's Blog
A couple of weekends ago, I took time out to spend quality time with a group of female friends with whom I had found myself losing touch over the years. We rented a beautiful house in the Cotswolds and spent two days indulging in each other’s companionship. It had been about six years since we were all together last without husbands and children, so we had much catching up to do...but what I had not bargained for was that I would be leading Mindfulness meditation sessions throughout the weekend and that we would end the weekend writing notes of gratitude to each other which were then shared at breakfast on Sunday as we prepared to return home.
Time, as we all know, flies by and it really saddened us all that we had allowed so much time to pass without making time for each other; yes, we had all seen each other over the years, but always at busy occasions surrounded by so many other people and our conversations had mainly centred on our families.
We all have very different careers, ranging from successful Global Director at a well known IT company to pharmacist, senior recruitment manager, nurse…but what was most surprising to me was that all these female friends, except myself, were currently not working….they had removed themselves from the treadmill of the work place to reflect on their lives, regain some balance and give more time to themselves and family. They are very fortunate that they find themselves in this position and all are grateful that they are able to do so. It is not often that I am told to sit down, relax and dinner will be prepared (never, in fact - although the fact that I also had a raging temperature and horrendous cold coming on did help)!
Over the course of the weekend we discussed our children (ranging from 7 to 20 years old); we all wished that we had been given that ‘parenting handbook’ that someone will make a fortune from when it is published! Parenting is definitely the most rewarding, challenging and important ‘career’ that we all have, and one that you really cannot step away from (except for that well deserved you time!). Schooling was also a key talking point and I am always very mindful when amongst friends that I do not to get on my soap box about education. Each of our nine children had attended independent schools either for their primary or secondary years and our experiences were all very different. None of the schools were offering what we offer at St. Helen’s College in terms of the balance of instilling that love of learning alongside outward and inward development - striving for academic excellence but also valuing personal development to the extent that we do. Mindfulness, Positive Psychology and P4C were new terms to them when talking about the education of young children; work places and universities offered such aspects of life learning, but not a Prep school curriculum! (Yes, I felt very proud of our school community!)
To spend such quality time with close friends, nourishing our souls with laughter, compassion and empathy, was just wonderful. We did nothing over the weekend (a visit to the local village for coffee was the most energetic activity!), but the time relaxing back at the house was the ‘therapy’ we all craved.
I came away not only with rekindled friendships and appreciation of my friends but with both a book and music recommendation that I will share with you.
The book is ‘59 seconds’ by Richard Wiseman: ‘At last, a self-help book that is based on proper research. Perfect for busy, curious, smart people’. Some great chapters on ‘Parenting’, ‘Relationships’, ‘Motivation’. Easy to read...thought provoking.
My music takeaway, some of your children have already shared in assemblies: ‘Einaudi - Waves’ the piano collection...beautiful!
The biggest takeaway though for me personally is something which I am sure many of us need to embrace...remember who we are...not the mother, father, wife, husband, engineer, lawyer, doctor, teacher….it is only by giving yourself time to reclaim the inner ‘you’ that ‘you’ can give the best of yourself to your family and your career.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 30/11/2018Weekly News - Friday 30th November 2018
What a super end to the month we had today, as we heard lots of our pupils give individual performances at November's Month End Music Recital. There were pieces performed on brass, string, woodwind, piano and voice and the children were, without exception, confident and accomplished in their music. They have clearly been putting in the practice required to improve! It is always so wonderful to hear the children perform at these small, informal concerts, which give them the opportunity to develop their confidence and performance skills as they build towards the more formal performances they will give in our larger concerts. Congratulations to the children who took part.
We would like to remind all parents that half a term's notice, or payment in lieu, is required when terminating individual music tuition.
4T Assembly
4T shared their recent learning with us today as they presented their assembly all about how they follow the 'yellow brick road' learning pathway to achieve success with their adventure writing. They explained how they have been using their metalearning skills, including collaboration, critical thinking and reflection, to produce outstanding Greek myth writing and then to improve their writing even further. There were some super performances, with excellent singing, dancing, speaking and acting. Well done indeed, 4T.
Selfless Service In The Nursery
To follow on from our SEWA introduction last week, a parent and two volunteers from the Charity 'Langar Aid' visited Nursery today and the children helped them to pack 'bags of warmth' for the homeless. You can see more about Langar Aid on their Twitter page: https://twitter.com/LangarAid?s=08. We feel very proud that selfless service has been demonstrated by some of our very young pupils today!
Sports News
Indoor Athletics
Our Athletics squad took part in the indoor Sports Hall athletics competition today and finished 4th. Well done to all those who took part.
School Games Platinum Award
At the indoor athletics event, our Sports Captains were presented with the School Games Platinum Award which St. Helen's College has achieved for the second year running. This recognises the excellence and breadth of the sporting opportunities offered to pupils at St. Helen's College.
Netball Win
Well done to the netball team, who were 4-0 victors in their friendly fixture against Ryefield this week.
Switch Off Fortnight
Switch Off Fortnight is now at an end, but we hope that the message promoted by our Eco Representatives over the last two weeks will live long in the hearts and minds of your children and that they will themselves become 'Eco Ambassadors' and spread the word that we should all be doing everything we can to conserve the resources of our planet. Please do continue to Switch Off whenever you can to save energy.
School Bus
We would like to thank those families who have been able to use the new school bus service this academic year and we trust that you have found this service useful.
Unfortunately, due to lack of demand, we will be discontinuing the service at the end of this term. We are very sorry that we will not be able to continue with this service.
Moving forward, we would like to encourage more parents to work together and organise car shares to alleviate traffic congestion and to help families with the daily school run.
Posted on: 23/11/2018Read All About It! - Head's Blog
I was saddened this week to hear from my author friend Jacqueline Harvey that, whilst on her current book tour, when she asked 300 assembled children how many of them enjoyed that special time each day when their teachers read to them, the children were somewhat bemused by this. One little boy went on to tell her that the teacher would often put a story on the interactive whiteboard and they read it to themselves… I am sure that the Head Teacher of this school was on their knees in dismay at this.
I am proud to report that reading is very much alive at St. Helen’s College and reading for pleasure is celebrated right from our Ducklings through to Year 6. But, oddly enough, I am still very much dismayed when I speak to many of our children around the school about their experiences of reading at home.
I know this may be a very generic sweeping statement, and I apologise to those of you who do engage with your children on a daily basis with their reading, but more and more schools are finding that reading is being neglected at home. Parents are either too busy to hear their child read or it is the last aspect of homework to be addressed and thus the book stays in the bag. I urge you all to rethink if you find yourself hearing your child read whilst you are driving them to school, or hear yourself say, ‘I’m too busy at the moment - read to me while I prepare dinner,’ or even worse, ‘get on with something else, I haven’t got time’.
Last year Mr. McLaughlin arranged superb reading sessions for parents throughout the school, encouraging you all to embrace ‘reading for pleasure’ and to ‘get caught reading by your children’. I am now asking all parents to make a pledge within their families that reading with your child takes top priority. Whether it is you hearing them read, sharing a book with them or just generally showing an interest in the book which they are currently reading - we need to ‘Big Up’ reading!
Reading unlocks learning, creativity, imagination and critical thinking and if we do not have inspired, inquisitive, curious children then we are failing in our duty as teachers and parents.
Having spent time analysing our own assessment results over the course of several years, we know that the best indicators for success in 11+ examinations are good reading and comprehension skills.
Children need to ‘hear’ a story being read to them, to hear how language enriches their experiences and sparks that awe and wisdom in whatever genre of story that is being shared with them. It is the one time as an adult that you need to set aside any inhibitions, become a budding actor and engage with the texts to draw your child in.
The majority of our children learn how to read through a balance of our phonic based teaching and comprehension strategies; they learn the phonetic alphabet (https://phonicsinternational.com) - all 44 phonemes - the sounds which can be made with the letters of our alphabet and all the variations. They begin to be able to decode, recognising the graphemes, sounding out and blending for reading. Teaching comprehension sits alongside this e.g. when children infer the meaning from the context, they summarise the main points from a text, develop questioning strategies etc.
However, school cannot do this in isolation and home plays a massive part in this. It is for pupils aged 8+ that I am the most concerned (Years 3 upwards). At this stage, parents tend to wave the flag - ’Yeah! My child can read now!’...well, that is just the beginning! Your child now needs to enrich their reading skills and be exposed to a wide range of texts to develop their reading and comprehension skills.
ALL children should be reading every night either to an adult or sharing a text with an adult, or discussing what they have been reading with an adult.
If you do have a reluctant reader, please let your form teacher know - we need to engage every child with reading. It is the crux of all learning and home and school must work together to create avid learners. Sadly, children will never become avid learners if they are reluctant to use their reading skills. Which is why we ask parents to put reading to the top of the homework list.
Please see below an extract from our ‘Homework Policy’. Please note that much of the homework expectation the whole way through the school is for adults to spend time reading to/with/hearing your child.
Time Allocation
Weekdays during term:
Nursery: informal
Reception: 10 minutes per evening
Year 1: 15 minutes per evening
Year 2: 15 minutes per evening
Year 3: 20 minutes reading + 20 minutes homework task(s)
Year 4: 20 minutes reading + 30 minutes homework task(s)
Year 5: 20 minutes reading + 30 minutes homework task(s)
Year 6: 20 minutes reading + 40 minutes homework task(s)
Please note that 20 minutes is a minimum reading time, not a maximum!
I urge you all as parents to review your family homework habits and to prioritise reading - it is key to all learning.
Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 23/11/2018Weekly News - Friday 23rd November 2018
6M taught us all a superb lesson today on the importance of grammar and punctuation through their entertaining assembly. For anyone who feels a bit discombobulated about their conjunctions, prepositions, apostrophes etc., these young children are such great ambassadors and they clearly know their stuff! Well done 6M!
SEWA Assemblies
We were delighted to welcome Karthik back to St. Helen's College this week for his third visit to assemblies to remind us all to be the best we can be in our acts of selfless service. Pupils in Middle School and Upper School were also congratulated as we read out our value spotters for the acts of kindness which had been acknowledged around the school this week. It is important that our awareness of acts of kindness is raised, no matter how small that act is. Selfless service is all about giving joy to others, looking after our environment and making our world a better place for us all.
You can see the presentation used by Karthik in the assemblies here. For more information about the SEWA organisation, you might like to visit their website at www.sewaday.org
Sports News
Quick Sticks Hockey Tournament
On Friday afternoon last week, eight of our pupils travelled to Eastcote Hockey Club for the annual Quick Sticks borough tournament. We had two teams of four entered into the tournament, each playing matches in a group with four other teams, with the winners definitely going through alongside the top two runners-up out of the six groups. Unfortunately our A team didn't make it through but our B team gained one of the runners-up spots. In the quarter final, our B team went 2-0 down but staged an amazing comeback to win 3-2, with children and parents very excited! In the semi-final, we took the lead but unfortunately lost 2-1 which meant that we finished in third place. There was some great hockey played by both teams with all children and parents really enjoying the afternoon. A team: Jayan C, Luke J, Hebe E, Mya S. B team: Aditya S, Alex C, Tamara A, Ionie M.
London Youth Games Run
Congratulations to Zoe K (Year 6), who was selected to represent Hillingdon at the London Youth Games cross country event held at Parliament Hill last weekend, after winning the borough cross country competition earlier this term. Zoe was one of 165 runners competing from across London's 33 boroughs. The course was very challenging as it included going up the dreaded Hampstead Heath Hill on both laps of the course. It was a great day for racing, with some beautiful weather, and Zoe had a good race, finishing in 1st place for Hillingdon borough and 18th place overall. Zoe is following in the footsteps of another famous London runner who also took part in this event - Sir Mo Farah represented Hounslow in cross country at the London Youth Games, placing 9th in the 1994 under-13s race! We will follow Zoe's running career with interest!
Charity Efforts
We are pleased now to be able to announce the totals raised for the following charities:
Children In Need - £1,625.95
British Legion Poppy Appeal - £234.34
Many thanks indeed to everyone who contributed to either charity via school. Your generosity is much appreciated.
Month End Music Recital
Parents are reminded that the November Month End Music Recital will take place next Friday (30th November) in the Evans Hall from 3.45 p.m. All are welcome, so please do come along to this lovely informal recital to hear the children play a variety of instruments.
Christmas Tree Decoration Competition 2018
Just a reminder that, as usual, we will be running our annual Christmas tree decoration competition for all children. The trees will be put up in school on 25th November and the children should bring in their beautifully hand decorated, creative decorations from Monday 3rd December. There will be a winner in each year group. Please can the children remember to label their decoration with their name and class.
Switch Off Fortnight
Our Eco Team will continue to promote Switch Off Fortnight next week, reminding everyone to save energy by turning off lights and electrical devices whenever possible, both at home and in school. We hope that you and your children will make it a lasting habit to save energy wherever possible.
Posted on: 16/11/2018Headspace - Head's Blog
Many of you may already know what ‘Headspace’ is but for those of you who do not, I would recommend that you take a look at it.
Headspace is a wonderful tool to help with stress; it is a guided mindfulness app, which offers a variety of quick mindfulness sessions to help with anything from sleep to sport.
The app is appropriate for both children and adults. I am aware that some of our children already use a mindfulness app as part of their daily routines and I am convinced of the benefits that it brings them.
I am currently offering a 'Mindful Moments' club at lunchtime for pupils in Years 5 and 6. This is a drop in club; the pupils do not need to attend every week but if they feel they need a little bit of ‘headspace’ they can come along. We revisit some of the mindfulness practices they have already been taught in their mindfulness sessions in Year 4 and explore other ways of helping them to find that inner peace and calm, each time bringing their thoughts back to their breathing.
Throughout the school, from Ducklings to Year 6, children are experiencing moments of silence and calmness and are beginning to allow themselves to embrace this special time. Even as adults, we often forget how nourishing a few moments of silence and calm can be in our VERY busy lives.
Only last week I had a conversation with some parents who had spent half term in India and had stepped back from their busy lives to appreciate calm and the beauty of our environment. Adapting back to the reality of North London living after time away can be quite a shock! It really is important to be aware of how we can support our children and ourselves by making time for quality ‘headspace’.
I look forward to starting my 'Paws b' Mindfulness course with Year 4 this year and to developing Mindfulness practice and understanding with Year 6 in lesson time too. In support of our Mindfulness work at school, and whatever the age of your child, I urge you to extend your own and your children's awareness of, and engagement with, Mindfulness practice by downloading the Headspace app and using it regularly!
Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 16/11/2018Weekly News - Friday 16th November 2018
This week we were delighted that two of our pupils shared their experiences of projects they have been involved with outside of school.
Uma in Year 5 shared with us a video which she made in collaboration with her mother's law firm to educate youngsters on the importance of 'Equal Pay'. The pupils were not only intrigued to find out more about how the video was made but asked some very pertinent questions on equal pay.
Vidhit from Year 4 has also been busy filming for today's 'The One Show' for Children in Need. Although he was unable to give too much away, we can all tune in on BBC1 at 7 p.m. to see Vidhit in action!
It has been inspiring also to see so many of our pupils take the initiative and run clubs for their peers. We currently have groups of children running a maths club and a nature club, organised and promoted by themselves by their interests and passions.
Children in Need
The school has been a lively, colourful place today as we have undertaken our annual fundraising for Children in Need. Everyone came to school dressed in yellow and/or spots and there were raffles at all three sites, through which lucky winners won giant Pudsey bears and smaller Pudsey and Blush bears. Many thanks to Mrs. Crehan for drawing the winners! The whole school took part in an Autumn Watch themed ramble in Court Park this morning; this was a really wonderful way to spend our morning break time in the 'great outdoors' and gave children space and time to reflect on how very lucky they are. You can see a short video of the ramble here:
https://youtu.be/Se0hAApblYw
The pupils of 2H presented a thought-provoking assembly themed around 'Greed or Need'. They re-told the story of King Midas in a very modern way and, through their excellent acting and delivery of words and song, reminded us that it is what is in our hearts that counts, not what is in our pockets. This is such an important message, which we hope we live long in the hearts of all who heard it. Very well done to the staff and pupils of 2H.
St. Helen's College raises over £2100 for OneBillion Charity Through Eurotalk Language Challenge
St. Helen's College has, for several years, taken part in the Eurotalk Junior Language Challenge (now re-named as the UTalk Challenge). In previous years, this has been offered as an optional challenge for Upper School pupils but this year, to enrich the Languages curriculum for children, the school paid the entry fee to enter all children from Years 2-5 into the challenge. Each year, pupils learn a European language in the first round, an Asian language in the second round and an African language in the third round. They build up their knowledge of the language and then compete online against pupils from other schools across the nation. Our record in the competition is very strong - a few years ago, one of our pupils won the whole national competition and his family won a trip to Malawi, where they distributed iPads to children for the charity.
Each child's entry fee is donated to OneBillion. This charity promotes literacy and numeracy in developing countries through OneCourse, their app designed for communities where children have little or no access to formal schooling, for example in very remote villages and refugee camps. OneCourse encourages collaborative learning for out-of-school children and their families. This year the school's entry fees raised a donation of £1095, which was match-funded by a benevolent supporter of the charity so that our total contribution doubled to almost £2200.
Thank you to all parents who have supported St. Helen's College pupils in learning new languages outside of curriculum hours. We are sure you are delighted to know that, in doing so, you have also been part of supporting such a fantastic charity.
Relay for Life Total
We are also absolutely delighted to announce that the grand total raised by the St. Helen's College Relay for Life team, including from on the day fundraising, was £5791.45. Thank you so much to everyone who got involved in any way.
Star Gazing This Weekend
The West of London Astronomical Society is hold a free public observation session at Ruislip Lido this weekend and would like to invite families to come along to experience the wonder of the sky at night. Observation sessions will be running Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 6 - 8 p.m. For further information please click here.
Sports News
Last Saturday our school football team took part in the annual Packham Cup tournament, where over the years we have enjoyed good success, including reaching the final last year. This year's tournament didn't go quite as planned, with us going out in the group stages. An improved performance in our third game gave the Year 5 pupils who took part some valuable experience for next year.
Our Year 5/6 netball team took on St. Bernadette's School in the local league this week. After a slow start, the girls came back in the second half with some good attacking play. In the dying minutes St. Bernadette's pulled away to win the match 9 - 7.
St. Helen's College took part in the District girls' football tournament this week held at Denham United Ladies Football Club. Our team of girls played with great determination and teamwork in all three games they played. Against Laurel Lane they drew 0 - 0, against Cherry Lane they won 2 - 0 and in a very competitive match against Heathrow they lost 1 - 0. Well done to all the girls who played.
Christmas Tree Decoration Competition 2018
As usual, we will be running our annual Christmas tree decoration competition for all children. The trees will be put up in school on 25th November and the children should bring in their beautifully hand decorated, creative decorations from Monday 3rd December. There will be a winner in each year group. Please can the children remember to label with their name and class somewhere on their decoration.
Switch Off Fortnight
Our Eco Team will be promoting Switch Off Fortnight over the next two weeks, reminding everyone to save energy by turning off lights and electrical devices whenever possible, both at home and in school.
Data Collection Form and Photo Consent Form
Many thanks to the parents who have already returned these two forms. If you have not returned them already, please note that these must be returned to the school office by Monday.
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