Weekly News - Friday 18th March 2022

Sparks Film Making Workshop

The Year 5 and Year 6 children took part in a film making workshop this week, in which they made films linked to Earth Day.

Sparks run movie-making classes for children aged 5-18 in Uxbridge on Saturdays, and they run some holiday camps too. If your child might be interested in these classes, you can find details here.

UKMT Mathematics Challenge

This week, two Year 6 children (Zach F and Shruthi T) took part in the UKMT Grey Kangaroos mathematical challenge for children up to Year 9. Zakariya M (Year 4) took part in the Cayley Mathematical Olympiad, a two hour paper covering six extremely challenging questions.

For those who are interested, past papers can be seen here: 
https://www.ukmt.org.uk/competitions/solo/cayley-olympiad/archive  https://www.ukmt.org.uk/competitions/solo/grey-kangaroo/archive

Mathematics at Merchant Taylors School

On Friday, twenty four Year 6 children went to Merchant Taylors School for a mathematical afternoon. This involved a Maths Trail around the school, problem solving and an inter-school quiz.

Red Nose Day

The school was a riot of colour and laughter today as the community joined together to celebrate Red Nose Day and support Comic Relief. You can see some of our Red Nose Day photographs on the Galleries page here.

At Ducklings, our youngest children enjoyed a danceathon and had a go at sticking the red nose on the face, as well as taking part in a raffle. 

At Lower School, children also took part in a raffle and danceathon and enjoyed trying an obstacle course to different landmarks. 

At Upper School, the pupils took part in a sporting quiz and sporting event and the raffle. 

Many children also received individual sponsorship for their challenge of walking, running, cycling or scooting to different landmarks and have sent us photographs of them doing so. You can see some of these photographs here and you are welcome to upload your photographs to this link over the weekend too.

Many, many thanks to families who have made donations to our Comic Relief fundraising effort. If you would still like to donate, you can do so at our JustGiving fundraising page here, where you can also see the total raised by our community so far.

6H Talent Assembly

6H really enjoyed performing all of their amazing talents during assemblies this week. They included magic, comedy, drama, music, singing, art, skateboarding, skipping, Lego and even a puppet show. What a talented class they are! 

Well done to our musicians and the Year 2 Irish dancers who also entertained the 6H parents this morning.

Music News

Year 4 Graphic Scores

This term, Year 4 have been looking at a variety of ways to respond creatively to music. This week they worked in groups to produce large scale graphic scores in response to a piece of music named “Night Ferry” by the British composer Anna Clyne. 

When Clyne settled on the idea of creating a piece about crossing a stormy ocean, she picked up a paint brush instead of writing music notes on paper. She stuck seven large sheets of paper on the wall of her studio and created a graphic score, laying out how she wanted her piece to sound by using swirls and sweeps of colours. After this she drew inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which was written during the Romantic era and tells the tale of one sailor's supernatural experiences at sea.

Before she had even written a note, she had created a visual and literary score. Clyne has said it was very liberating to explore composition in this way; she's not an artist, or a poet but she used these tools to help her write the music. See the mural that accompanies Night Ferry, and listen to the Orchestral Performance. 

You can see some images of the Year 4 children with their own graphic scores here.

Easter Service and Barnardo's Recording

On Monday 21st March, we will be recording for the Easter Service and Barnardo's Choral Competition. Please ensure that, if your child is involved in the Chamber Choir, Senior Choir or Orchestra, they come to school on Monday in full school uniform (including blazers), and bring their PE kit into school to change into afterwards if required. Children in the Orchestra will also need to ensure they remember to bring in their instrument and music on this day also. 

Climate Change Recognition

We are delighted to have been awarded a certificate by Leeds DEC recognising the work that St. Helen's College is doing towards our strategic imperative of Climate Change.

Staff from across the school have recently completed a detailed training programme to assist us with how to incorporate Climate Change/Action across the whole curriculum. The award recognises the enthusiasm, passion and commitment of the whole staff in learning about the climate crisis and including it in teaching across the school.

 

Co-Curricular Bookings Open

The co-curricular programme for the summer term will be visible on your SchoolsBuddy account from today at 4 p.m. Please select your child's preferences by Monday 21st March at 11.59 p.m. It will not be possible to accept preferences after this deadline has passed.

FREE Mother/Baby Mindfulness Classes

Our next set of Mother/Baby Mindfulness classes will begin on Wednesday 27th April. These take place at 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday mornings in the Evans Hall and are suitable for mothers and babies aged from birth to crawling. The classes are run by Mrs. McLaughlin, who is a qualified PAUSE Baby Mindfulness practitioner and they include a mix of mindfulness and gentle yoga to give mothers and babies breathing space and an opportunity to bond and enjoy meaningful time together. Each class is followed by optional tea/coffee/chat and at the end of each six week session, there is an opportunity for dads to join for a session too. 

The classes are open to anyone in the community - the family does not need to have children at St. Helen's College. If you, or anyone you know, would like to book in for our next set of classes, or would like some more information, please email Mrs. Smith at susmith@sthelenscollege.com. 

The Head's Blog this week is a guest blog from a mother who has attended these classes so you might like to read this for an insider view too.

Perseverance Scout Group

The Perseverance Scout Group, based at 118 Sweetcroft Lane, Uxbridge, are recruiting new members. They would like to invite friends and families, boys and girls, to join in with a session one evening. Sessions take place on Mondays from 6.30 to 8.00 p.m. and involve lots of fun as well as learning life and adventure skills. The age groups are:

Age 6-8: Beavers
Age 8-10: Cubs

If you have any questions you can contact their Scout Leader, Sarah, on 07595 955 939.