Weekly News - Friday 9th February 2018
Posted on: 09/02/2018We are delighted that the school was today presented with a special award to recognise our outstanding provision for pupils with Asthma. We are the first school in the London Borough of Hillingdon to be named as an 'Asthma Friendly School'. Many congratulations to Miss Lang, Mrs. Beale and all of the staff who ensure that our provision for children with asthma is first class.
London Schools Concert
Our Chamber Choir participated for the first time this year in the Children's Trust annual London Schools Concert . They performed along with six other independent schools in the beautiful baroque church St. John 's, Smith Square in the heart of Westminster. Our pupils sang with such confidence and harmony in both of their songs but in their second song, 'Can you Hear Me?', they mesmerised the audience of 500 with their singing and sign language.
Thank you to all of the parents who attended the concert and to Mrs. Allery and Mrs. Garnes for preparing the pupils so well. Over £5,000 was raised on the day for this very worthwhile charity and we look forward to being part of this very special day again next year - do put Sunday 3rd February 2019 in your diaries now! The next event for the Chamber Choir will be the Barnardos National Choral Competition on Monday 12th March and tickets can be purchased here:
1HC Assembly
In their class assembly this week, 1HC entertained us with dragon dancing, singing and the history of the Chinese New Year with such vibrance and superb presentation skills. Special thank you to Joleen who had been instrumental in sharing so much information about the traditions of this special event in the Chinese culture. Mr. Crehan, who is also learning Mandarin, tested out his language skills with the children back in class with great aplomb!
2H Assembly
2H delighted us today in reminding us of the importance of friendships with words, action and song. In their words, 'To have a good friend, you need to be a good friend'. Congratulations and thank you, 2H.
Speech Competition
Every child in Years 1 to 6 should now have brought home their poem or piece of prose to learn for our Speech Competition, which takes place in the last week of term. Please do help your child to learn their poem or prose by heart and to speak it as expressively as they can. The children will also have a chance to practise in class after half term and there will then be preliminary rounds to select class finalists.
Class finalists will perform at the finals of the Speech Competition, to which parents of finalists will be invited. At the finals, a winner will be chosen from each class and there will also be an overall winner selected for Years 1-3 and for Years 4-6.
Children will be judged on their expression, projection and clarity. They will be expected to show an understanding of, and empathy for, the content of their piece. Use of reasonable facial expression and appropriate hand gestures is encouraged, but please note that no choreography or props are allowed!
Nursery and Reception children will each learn a poem and will recite these to their peers, staff and parents in their own Speech Festival. Again, please help your children to learn their poem by heart and to enjoy performing it.
We hope you will enjoy hearing the children practise at home for this!
Sports News
The Year 6 handball teams took part in the local primary school competition last Saturday at Oak Wood School. This fast moving, action packed Olympic sport is very exciting to watch and our pupils really enjoyed playing competitively. Everyone worked hard to attack and defend and Krish was an outstanding goalie, even managing to save a penalty. Our A team won two matches in their group against Hillingdon and St. Bernadette and the B team also won two matches in their group against Oak Farm and St. Andrew's. However it was the B team who narrowly lost out on progressing to the semi finals by just one goal. Well done to all our players: Ryeesa S, Abigail Y, Jed H, Timi O, Max E, Aeshan N, Zara S-P, Grace R, Natalie F, Amrit R, Arusan U-H, Abhiram R and Krish T.
The West London Eagles handball team runs training for junior boys on Tuesdays and junior girls on Thursdays at Northolt High Sports Centre. If your son or daughter is enjoying handball at school, why not consider joining them? The first session is free and full details are available atwww.westlondoneagles.co.uk.
On Monday, we had a boys' hockey match against St. Benedict's School at Brunel Sports Park. After recent years of success, we found ourselves playing against a much improved team. St. Helen's College put in a lot of determination and tried hard to keep their shape. Unfortunately we lost the match 7-1 but the boys really enjoyed the afternoon. The team members were: Abhiram R, Daniel C, Arusan U-H, Amrit R, Veer B, Nirmit N, Rajdeep B, Jed H and Luke J.
World Book Day
The school will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 1st March. The theme for this year is Roald Dahl, one of the most phizz-whizzing British children's authors of all! Children are asked to dress up on the day; pupils from Years 1 - 6 are encouraged to dress as a Roald Dahl character but all book characters are welcome! Ducklings, Nursery and Reception will of course be joining in with all the fun and they are asked to dress as a book character of their choice. We hope it will be a fun filled day to celebrate all the fantastic reading done throughout the year.
NSPCC Workshops and Fundraiser
The NSPCC’s 'Speak out. Stay safe.' programme will be visiting our school during the second half of term, with their friendly mascot Buddy, to make sure our pupils have the knowledge and understanding they need to stay safe.
To support the NSPCC we will be organising a fundraiser at school in the week beginning 5th March. This year’s fundraiser (the Buddy cycle and scooter workout) will involve children counting how many times they can cycle or scoot around a workout route in 10 minutes. Pupils will be asked to bring their (named) bicycle/scooter and helmet to school on the day of their challenge. The school will have some spare bicycles/scooters available too.
Year 6 will be taking part in the Buddy cycle and scooter workout but have chosen different activities to raise funds. 6M will take part in a Spellathon and 6D will take part in a maths challenge.
Full details and sponsor forms will be sent home in due course. In the meantime, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher.
Instrumental Vacancies
We have an unexpected vacancy for a child (in Year 2 - Year 6) to learn the 'cello at school. Lessons are available from after half term onwards.
We will also have a vacancy for individual trumpet tuition from Easter. Again, this is available to children in Years 2 to 6.
If you are interested in your child learning either of these instruments, please email Mrs. Allery at rallery@sthelenscollege.com as soon as possible. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
