Weekly News - Friday 25th February 2022

1R Assembly

Class 1R presented their class assembly on Thursday morning to staff and parents at the Lower School. They focussed on the St. Helen's College values, particularly friendship, patience, perseverance and kindness. They spoke with clarity and projection, sang with great gusto and even treated us to some wonderful dance moves! Their message was clear: if we are kind to one another, if we are good friends, if we work hard and keep going when things are difficult, then we will find joy in being our best selves. Well done, 1R, this was a thoroughly enjoyable performance.

Friday Music Recital

We enjoyed another super Friday Music Recital today in the Evans Hall at Upper School, with several children playing instruments in a friendly and informal setting. Thank you to all of the families who attended to support the children, and well done to all of our performers!

Konnie Huq Author Visit

On Thursday afternoon, children in Years 3 to 5 were treated to a visit from ex-Blue Peter presenter, and popular children's author, Konnie Huq. 

Konnie gave an excellent interactive presentation, bringing to life her funny and informative book series 'Cookie'. The books have been inspired by her childhood, her family and her Bangladeshi heritage. The activities included: illustrating characters, a secret code, a live science experiment, learning about the environment and looking at some big words (troglodyte, defenestration and tautology to name a few!). We finished with a Q&A session, with the children asking a range of excellent questions about Konnie's writing process and other avenues of her career in TV and radio, including her time as a presenter on Blue Peter, and a book signing in the Upper School library.

It was fantastic to have an author visit in person after more than two years of online visits, and the children were certainly left inspired to read more and maybe even write their own stories.

It is not too late to order signed copies (while stocks last) of the following books, as Konnie kindly signed a few extra while she was here. Just click on the link below and follow the instructions under 'How to Order'. The deadline for ordering these is 5 p.m. on Sunday, 27th February.

                                                   £6.99 EACH 

https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/product-category/konnie-huq-schools-event/

HOW TO ORDER:

• Click the link above

• Click the book or bundle required

• Select the name of your child’s school from the drop-down menu

• Add to basket

• View basket

• Click collect free from the Chorleywood Bookshop OR Gerrards Cross Bookshop (this will ensure FREE delivery to the school)

• Proceed to Checkout

• PLEASE SPECIFY YOUR CHILD’S NAME AND CLASS/FORM IN THE BOX MARKED ‘DETAILS REQUIRED FOR SCHOOL EVENTS’ 

Orders will be delivered free to St. Helen's College next week and given out to the children.

Year 2 Trip to Heath Robinson Museum

Also on Thursday, our Year 2 classes went on an outing to the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner, where they took part in  an art activity called  ‘wet felting’. Year 2 have been studying the topic  materials in science. They looked at the colour wheel   and used coloured wool to make felt. They produced some beautiful and imaginative pieces of work.

 

 

Thames Cavaliers v Reading Rockets - Free Entry and Pizza for St. Helen's College children

On Sunday at 3 p.m., the Thames Cavaliers will be taking on the Reading Rockets and, once again, they are offering free tickets and a slice of pizza to children in Years 3-6 at St. Helen's College. Details are here and free entry/pizza vouchers can be downloaded here.

World Book Day Reminder

Next Thursday, 3rd March, is World Book Day. Throughout the school, children should come to school dressed as a favourite book character and they will be taking part in a range of fun activities centred around reading. This year's themes are:

Ducklings - free choice of book character or author.

Nursery and Reception - A Julia Donaldson character.

Years 1 to 6 - A Roald Dahl character.

PA Forum Meeting - Wednesday 2nd March

The next PA Forum meeting will take place on Wednesday 2nd March. If any parents would like to put forward points for discussion, please send these to your PA class rep over the weekend. Class representatives should collate points and send them to Mrs. Smith by Tuesday 1st March at the latest please.

Catering Next Week

We will be celebrating Pancake Day at school on Tuesday 1st March and there will be a slight change to the menu so that the children can have pancakes for dessert that day. The new menu is here.

We also have a special Roald-Dahl themed menu for World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March. The World Book Day menu is here.

Comic Relief

St. Helen's College will be supporting the charity Comic Relief on Friday 18th March.

The children should come to school on that day dressed in red and/or comic relief t-shirts. They are also welcome to wear a red nose on this day if they have purchased one from one of the many retailers.

We will be doing several different events on the day including:

Upper School - a raffle, sporting quiz and a sporting event.
Lower School - a raffle, danceathon and an obstacle course to different landmarks.
Ducklings - a raffle, danceathon and stick the 'red nose' on the face.

To participate in these events and the tog day we would like to suggest a donation of £5 which your child can either bring with them on the day or you can donate via our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/st-helen-s-college3

In addition we will be selling Comic Relief wristbands for £1 from Monday 14th March on all three sites. Please note the wristbands will be sold on a first come first serve basis until we have sold out.

We are sure that you are aware of Tom Daley's 'Hell of Homecoming' Comic Relief challenge that he did recently. With this in mind we would like to set the children a fun sporting challenge which they could get sponsorship for. We would like the children to run, walk, scoot or cycle to a variety of different landmarks and be sponsored to reach them. Please take photos of the different landmarks you visit and upload them for us here before Friday 18th March. Simply click on your child's year group to upload their photographs.

You can download a sponsorship form here for the children to print at home and use for this challenge.

Ukraine

Some of the children may be asking you questions at home about the situation in Ukraine, as many of them may have been hearing snippets of the news. If you are looking for a child-friendly video to share with your children then please do take a look at the BBC Newsround video below which gives a factual account including some history which you may find useful. It is key that the children are able to share any worries that they may have with adults and that we listen to and support them as appropriate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/news/watch_newsround

The British Red Cross, a humanitarian charity, have launched an emergency appeal to support those affected by the action in the Ukraine. If you would like to make a donation to support the Red Cross in providing food, medicines, shelter and water for refugees and casualties of the war, you can do so via the Red Cross website link here.

Our thoughts go out to all families who may know of people who are being affected by what is going on in the Ukraine.