Weekly News - Friday 24th January 2020

Month End Music Recital

Wow! Our first Month End Music Recital of the term saw several children perform on many different instruments. This was probably the biggest of these recitals so far: there were solo performances on various instruments, including some from Lower School, a flute duet and a string ensemble! We were also treated to some fabulous singing. Very well done to all of the children who performed, and thank you to Mrs. Nash, Mrs. MacLean and, in particular, Mrs. Allery who was put on the spot for some sightreading too!

Children's Trust London Schools Concert - Sunday 2nd February

The St. Helen's College Chamber Choir will once again be performing at the Children's Trust London Schools Concert this year. This event takes place from 2 - 4 p.m. on Sunday 2nd February at the beautiful St. John's, Smith Square in London.

All St. Helen's College families are welcome to book tickets, whether your child is in the Chamber Choir or not. This is a really special event in beautiful surroundings and we would appreciate support from families across the school. You can purchase tickets via the following link.
https://thechildrenstrust.digitickets.co.uk/category/24930#cart-summary

St. John's Church Concert - Saturday 8th February

The Chamber Choir will also be performing publicly more locally in February, taking part in an evening concert at St. John's Church, Royal Lane, Uxbridge on Saturday 8th February. The concert begins at 6 p.m. and tickets are available to all (£5 cash payable on the door). Through ticket sales, the concert will raise funds for renovation of the church and for two animal charities in South Africa which promote animal welfare, one of which is run by an ex-Hillingdon vet. 

We would be delighted to have as many St. Helen's College families as possible supporting the event, so please do come along if you can. The concert will last from approximately 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with tea/coffee/cake available in the interval. Our Chamber Choir will be performing in the first half of the event, and several other local bands and artists will be performing too. We hope to see you there!

Sports News

Gymnastics

Well done to our gymnastics teams from Years 3/4 and Years 5/6 who took part in the Borough Gymnastics Competition held at Botwell Green Leisure Centre this week.

Each of our gymnasts completed a floor routine, a body management routine and two vaults in front of panels of judges. 

 

 

Our pupils performed with precision and flair, showing great skill. Our Year 3/4 team finished in 8th place and our Year 5/6 team finished in 5th place.

Team members were Mark R, Marvin R, Charlotte M, Poppy H, Krish S, Jasmine B, Daniel G-J.

 

 

 

 

Multi Skills Festival

Some of our Year 1 and Year 2 pupils took part in a friendly multi skills festival hosted by St. Mary's School in Gerrards Cross this week. Senior school sports leaders from St. Mary's organised different skills stations to challenge the teams taking part from St. Helen's College, Dair House and St. Mary's. Our children thoroughly enjoyed taking part and representing their school in a sports event. Many thanks to Miss Ward for organising this for our pupils. 

Netball Match

Our Year 6 netball team resumed matches in the local schools' league this week.  In a very close match against St. Andrew's, our team rose to the challenge and maintained a high standard of play throughout the game. Our team remains top of the table with two matches to go! 

Holding Area

Holding area at Upper School will now take place in the school library each night and will be separate from Funtasia. Holding Area is only for younger siblings at Upper School to use until their older siblings are released and come to collect them. This is one of the methods we use to help reduce congestion outside the entrance during home time.

Staff News

Sadly, Miss Dear will be leaving us at the end of this academic year as she moves to work closer to home to enable her to spend more time with her family. Miss Dear has been with us for nine years and has worked at both Lower and Upper School as well as leading Art for several years. She will be much missed.

We must also share the news that Mrs. Allery will be stepping down as Head of Music from September in order to free up more time to spend with her family. Mrs. Allery has been with St. Helen's College for 20 years and, happily, is not leaving us entirely but will be relinquishing some of her many musical duties. 

We will shortly be advertising for teaching staff to join us from September in various roles, including maternity cover and other teaching roles. If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining our team, do direct them to the school website!

Parents' Forum

The next PA Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 25th February. If you have any points of school-wide relevance that you would like discussed at this meeting, please send these to your class representative as soon as possible. Class rep's should send any issues for discussion to Mrs. Smith by Friday 14th February please, just before we break up for half term.

Robins Nursery class do not currently have a class representative - if you have a child in Robins and would like to volunteer, please contact Mrs. Smith as soon as possible. Mrs. Smith can be reached on susmith@sthelenscollege.com or by telephoning the Upper School office.

As usual, we will circulate minutes from the PA Forum meeting to all parents after the meeting has taken place.

Bus Route 278

There is a new TfL bus route running daily in both directions between Heathrow and Ruislip and stopping along Long Lane just outside both Upper and Lower School. We know that some parents are already using the bus for their school run journeys and, as part of our ongoing efforts to ease congestion and pollution, we would encourage others to do the same! As the new route will mean increased bus traffic along Long Lane during drop and go/pick up and go times, we would like to remind parents not to idle in these areas (and, particularly, not to stop cars in the bus stop areas).

You can see more information about the new bus route here: https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/route/278/

Half Term Holiday Club

Bookings are now being taken for Holiday Club during the February half term. Please log into your SchoolsBuddy account to make your bookings.