Weekly News - Friday 10th December 2021
Posted on: 10/12/2021
Nursery Nativity Assemblies
Very well done indeed to the children of our Robins and Wrens Nursery classes, who presented wonderful musical Christmas assemblies to their parents in the Methodist Church Hall this week. Their confidence in getting up to perform, on 'stage', at the age of just 3 or 4 was astonishing, especially considering how much their social development could have been affected by the Covid pandemic. It is a real testament to the St. Helen's College community of staff, parents and fellow pupils that they each felt comfortable and confident enough to sing so beautifully for their audience. Thank you, Nursery, for presenting the Christmas story with such charm. We are very proud of you all.
Carol Service
Children at Upper School attended a virtual carol service this morning which was pre-recorded and included readings, choir performances and the Christmas story told by Reverend Sarah Smith. Parents may watch the recording here.
Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Lunch
We would like to extend a big thank you to the wonderful Accent catering team who provided such a super Christmas lunch yesterday. The dining halls were filled with music and laughter as everyone tucked in to traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings or a delicious vegetable wellington.
Crackers were pulled, hats were worn and jokes were told! Throughout the school, children and staff wore Christmas jumpers and the festive spirit was very much with us all!
Ducklings and Lower School Christmas Celebrations
The children at Ducklings and Lower School were thrilled to receive a surprise visit from Father Christmas on Thursday! They also really enjoyed their Christmas party celebrations.
Parents might like to see our Lower School choir singing Christmas songs here.
Christmas Tree Decoration Competition
Thank you to all of the children who worked so hard to contribute imaginative and colourful home-made decorations for our school Christmas trees. It was difficult to judge the competition this year!
Well done to our Upper School winners: Shayna C, Avleen P, Inaaya S, Karter P, Verity S, Tiya T, Annabelle S, Joleen Z and Layla O.
Congratulations too to the Lower School winners: Sara B, Aidan S, Kyan K, Kiran S, Tansy M and Leonard S.
Awards
Congratulations to Eshan N, who was today named the Music Personality of the Autumn Term. Eshan has shown outstanding commitment, effort and achievement in music over many years. He is a valued member of both the Senior Choir and Chamber Choir and he plays the violin, drums and ukulele. Eshan is currently working towards his Grade 4 violin and learning his first concerto too.
Well done also to Jessica B, who has been named Sports Personality of the Autumn Term. Jessica consistently displays the school sporting values of respect, inspiration, determination and leadership. Her netball and football contributions are super and she has worked extremely hard this term to improve her cross country running times too.
Riyan T has been awarded a special 'green' Blue Peter badge to recognise his commitment to the environment. Riyan produced a wonderful poster all about polar bears and how we can improve their environment to help their chances of survival as they are an endangered species.
The House Cup was this term won by Cambria. Our House Captains announced the results and gave speeches to congratulate the winners and to encourage the members of Windsor to keep pushing on next term in the hope of winning the cup back!
Science Fun at Upper School
Our Year 4 children really enjoyed making circuits to light up Rudolf's nose and other Christmas pictures on cards on Wednesday.
5G had great fun exploring butterfly chromatography in their science lessons this week too.
Cookery Club
Last week, Cookery Club children made quesadillas and they were particularly engaged when making their Christmas cookies this week!
Staff Farewell
Today we said goodbye to Mrs. O'Mahoney, who is leaving us to go and work for the NHS. She will greatly missed by our Nursery children and her colleagues. We wish her all the very best for the future.
Alumni News
In Summer 2023, more than
40,000 Scouts from all over the world will gather in South Korea for the 25th World Scout Jamboree. The World Scout Jamboree happens every four years, each time hosted by a different country. Thousands of UK young people aged 14 to 17 and their leaders will travel to South Korea as the UK Contingent.
Having successfully gone through the selection process, former St. Helen's College pupil (and Head Girl) Ruby Cargill has been selected to attend as part of the team from Greater London. Ruby is absolutely thrilled to have been chosen for this once in a lifetime experience.
NextGen Enterprise Christmas Courses
For those interested in taking part in Christmas courses with NextGen, here are the details, dates and booking links:
Christmas course – 12.30 - 2.30 p.m. over 5 days – 20th, 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th December. This is the first part where children are taken through entrepeuneral fundamentals including personal finance and business finance.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19BPSE-Bg8dRAkfST1RgOSQq37kxRcNdOLU3cSmX3eVY/viewform?edit_requested=true
Entrepreneurial pathway – 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. 13-16th and 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.17th Dec (This would be the Bronze course)
10 a.m. - 11 a.m. 20-24th Dec & 29th-30th Dec (This would be the Bronze course).
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1sZSt9PgkmqXyYJElnL9x6PC4ZeIDpPyMZYOtPCUt1qg/viewform?edit_requested=true
Perform Drama - Free Session and £40 Discount
Perform is a popular children's drama and dance school. They are offering a free trial session and a special introductory discount of £40 for members of St. Helen's College who sign up by Wednesday 26th January. Parents should quote SHLE260122 when booking their free session by going to perform.org.uk/try or calling 020 7255 9120.
You can find out more about the classes at perform.org.uk/try. Alternatively, pdf flyers can be downloaded from here.
The nearest classes to St. Helen's College are these (please click for a map and further details):
| Perform Ickenham (Drama for 4-7s) (1.3 miles) Fridays at 4pm |
Ickenham Village Hall 33 Swakeleys Road, UB10 8DG |
| Perform Ickenham (Drama for 7-12s) (1.3 miles) Fridays at 5.05pm |
Ickenham Village Hall 33 Swakeleys Road, UB10 8DG |
| Perform Iver (Drama for 4-7s) (2.9 miles) Tuesdays at 4pm |
St Peter's Centre 1 Thorney Lane North, SL0 9JU |
| Perform Iver (Drama for 7-12s) (2.9 miles) Tuesdays at 5.05pm |
St Peter's Centre 1 Thorney Lane North, SL0 9JU |
| Perform Eastcote (Drama for 4-7s) (3.5 miles) Thursdays at 4pm |
Eastcote Methodist Church Pamela Gardens, HA5 2QU |
There are others too. Click to find all the nearest here or view a list of all areas.
Perform's family musical Jungle Rumble is being performed at the Fortune Theatre over the February half term. You can see full details and purchase tickets here.
RocketLearn Christmas Camp
We have arranged for all children in Years 3-6 to have FREE access to the RocketLearn Online Christmas Camp – usual cost £20/child. The camp runs over the holidays and includes a variety of online broadcast lessons and activities covering Maths, English, Skills, PE and Well-being all aimed at children aged 7-13. If you would like to sign up please visit https://bit.ly/RLchristmascamp and enter the code STHELENS on checkout to reserve a free place. You can find additional information also on the pdf which has been sent out by email to Year 3-6 parents today. We hope your children will enjoy the activities and it would be wonderful to see our pupils enter the Creative Writing Competition that is also taking place at the camp.
Spring Term 2022
Planned events for the spring term have been added to the school calendar so do take a look here and make a note of dates relevant to your child's year group/class.
The spring term lunch menu is now available on the School Documents page of the website here.
Co-curricular clubs will begin in the first full week of term, the week beginning Monday 10th January. If you have any queries about the co-curriculum programme or specific clubs, please contact Mr. Harrington, our Director of Co-Curriculum, at lharrington@sthelenscollege.com.
Wraparound care bookings for the spring term (Breakfast Club and Funtasia After School Club) can now be made via your SchoolsBuddy account. From next term, Breakfast Club will run in the Evans Hall for both Lower School and Upper School pupils. Please make your bookings by 12 p.m. on the preceding day. We do appreciate parents booking in advance wherever possible as this really helps with staffing, catering and other logistics.
Over the Christmas holidays, please take the opportunity to check the condition of required uniform and equipment to ensure that it is smart and in good working order, replenishing as necessary. The uniform/equipment list can be found here. Please also make sure that haircuts adhere to school guidelines (girls' hair should be neatly tied back if long, using black or green bands/clips and boys' hair should be cut neatly above the collar with no shaving, gelling etc). The felt winter caps and girls' hats should be worn as part of school uniform. The school woolly hats are ONLY for use at playtimes and outdoor lessons in bitter weather conditions, not for wearing to and from school.
Upon our return to school, please ensure that you follow the school parking regulations (available here) and that any snacks you send into school with your children follow our policy: no nuts, no chocolate/high sugar items etc. Suitable snacks are fruit or vegetables or plain biscuits and your child should have a named, refillable water bottle with them every day.
Please also ensure that your child arrives at school in good time before the bell goes at 8.30 a.m. so that they are ready to line up with their class for registration. We encourage parents to drop children by 8.25 a.m. at the latest.
We would also like to remind parents that the cost of peripatetic music lessons is increasing next term to £22.50 per half hour.
