Weekly News - Friday 3rd March 2023

Year 3 Play - Oh What A Knight!

The children of Year 3 really demonstrated how to put on a show this week with their performance of Oh What A Knight! at The Compass Theatre in Ickenham.

This was an accomplished production, filled with humour and music and some wonderful acting. There were impressive solo and small group songs as well as large ensemble numbers and the children's stagecraft was quite something with choreographed dancing, magic tricks and even some sword fighting.

The Year 1 and Year 2 children enjoyed watching the dress rehearsal on Thursday morning and the play was performed for parents on Thursday evening. Both audiences were thoroughly entertained and very impressed! It was clear to see how very much the Year 3 children enjoyed performing the show and it was obvious how much their acting, singing and public speaking skills have been enhanced by working towards this performance.

Very, very well done Year 3. What a night it was!

World Book Day

Today we celebrated World Book Day throughout the school with a 'bedtime stories' theme. Pupils and staff dressed in bedtime clothing and we enjoyed sharing our favourite stories with each other. There was a special World of Books theme to the lunch service and classes enjoyed a 'bedtime story' at the end of the day.

6R presented a World Book Day assembly all about the joys and benefits associated with reading. They included a song themed for World Book Day and their confidence and musicality was wonderful to behold!

Activities ran in the library to encourage children to visit and discover or re-discover the wonders of this special place. There was a special cosy reading corner and a scavenger hunt themed around reading at bedtime.

Our Key Stage 2 children also visited Ducklings and Lower School to share stories with the younger children, which was a very special and enjoyable experience for all involved.

There are some World Book Day photographs on our Galleries page.

Happy reading!

Kingfishers Class Assembly

What a super assembly the children of our Kingfishers Reception class treated us to on Wednesday morning! They marked St. David's Day by reminding us of St. David's plea that we should all 'do the little things in life.' 

The children presented and explained the St. Helen's College values, building a literal wall of 'the little things' as they did so by placing a brick each. They also helped us all to consider the importance of 'reducing, reusing, recycling' in order to look after our world. Their singing and speaking was confident and well-delivered. 

The Head's Blog this week takes 'Do The Little Things In Life' as its theme. You can read it here.

Language Competition Success!

The UK Primary Language Competition finished on Wednesday and St. Helen's College children have put in a huge effort, competing in Spanish and/or French activities online against pupils from other schools across the United Kingdom.

Pupils are ranked based on the number of points they score. This competition is such an exciting and fun way for pupils to improve their language skills and win prizes.

Overall 143,000 students from 1,684 schools have taken part, with 105 entrants from St. Helen's College. Verity S finished as our top performing pupil, ranking 24th out of 143,000! Avneet D and Joleen Z also finished on the final leader board and all three girls will be rewarded with Amazon vouchers and certificates. A huge well done to everyone who has taken part.

Staff Leaver

We are very sad to say farewell to Mr. Rizzo, who had his final day at St. Helen's College today before he returns to his homeland in Italy to spend time with his family.  Mr. Rizzo has been at the school for the past nine years and has assisted in instilling a passion for horticulture around the school. He has maintained our grounds beautifully over the years. Pupils and staff have all benefited from his passion and expertise and he will be very much missed from the premises team. The photo shows Mr. Rizzo saying farewell to the children of Gardening and Growth Club today.

We wish Mr. Rizzo well. We know that he will always be a member of our community and we look forward to him visiting in the future. 

Co-Curricular Bookings Open Today

The co-curricular programme for the summer term will be published at 5 p.m. today. Please make your selections by midnight on Sunday 12th March. 

It is very important that you discuss the programme with your child and only select clubs in which your child has a genuine interest. 

Please login to your SchoolsBuddy account to choose your preferences.

Parents' Association Vacancy

The St. Helen's College Parents' Association will have a vacancy for a Treasurer from September. Please send expressions of interest to pa@sthelenscollege.com as soon as possible, so that interested candidates may become involved over the next term or so to find out more about the role before the election is held.

PA Quiz Night - Tuesday 14th March, 7 p.m.

The PA has arranged a quiz night on Tuesday 14th March 2023 at The White Bear in Ruislip. Doors will open at 7 p.m. with the quizzing starting at 7.45 p.m. Teams should comprise 4-6 adults and places are limited so get your booking and payment made as soon as you can to avoid disappointment (one team member will need to make the booking and one single payment for their whole team).

There will be a prize for each person in the winning team. Raffle tickets will also be available to buy on the night so even if you don't win the quiz, you might still be able to win a prize.

Parents, school staff, friends and relatives are all welcome to put a team together (as long as they're over 18). Booking details have been sent out via class reps.

Exhibition Day

Our annual Exhibition Day will take place on Saturday 18th March. All parents are warmly invited to join us on this day between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. to view your children's work and to visit every part of the school to reminisce or look forward!

Summer Term Events

The school calendar has now been populated with the events for the summer term. Please do check it and make a note of the various trips, music concerts, plays, Sports Days and so on. It promises to be another very busy term and we hope that parents will be able to join us for the major events as usual.

Turkey/Syria Earthquake Appeal

We are so proud to report that the St. Helen's College community has together raised £2,105 for the Turkey/Syria Earthquake appeal so far. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has donated. 

Sick Child/Life Support Sessions

Thank you to those parents who attended the recent Sick Child and/or Life Support training sessions runs by Dr. Dharsi. We hope that you found these useful and we are delighted to say that St. Helen's College parents made donations totalling £345 to the Brompton Fountain charity.

Sports News

Under 9 Football Festival

Boys from Year 4 and Year 3 very much enjoyed taking part in an U9 football festival at HABS last Saturday morning. On a bright, chilly day, the ten teams in attendance were divided into two groups to play four group games. The first St. Helen's College game was against HABS and our team began the event seemingly a little overexcited by the occasion! They were obviously very happy to be playing together and their beaming smiles were quite something to behold, even though the team went 3-0 down inside one minute! The team rallied well, though, and kept the score in their first game down to 6-0.

The team re-grouped for the second game against Radlett Prep and were unfortunate to lose 1-0. After a rest period, St. Helen's College took on St. John's and achieved a 1-0 win through a goal from Maicen M. In the fourth group game against Highgate Reds, the team seemed a little tired and unfortunately lost 2-0.

After coming fourth in the group, St. Helen's College played against the fourth place team from the other group, Highgate B, and two goals from Mikail O (one a coolly taken penalty followed by The Macarena!) saw the team end up seventh overall. It was a wonderful morning of football and the boys clearly enjoyed it immensely. Mr. Dyson had to award 'player of the tournament' to one of the St. Helen's College boys. It was very close but Jack K's performance in goal was outstanding. Many thanks to the parents for transporting and supporting the team!

Year 4/5/6 Football

Our Year 4/5/6 football team took on Cowley St. Lawrence away on Wednesday on a very difficult and bumpy pitch. With the ball bouncing all over the place, the standard of play was somewhat compromised. Maicen M opened the scoring with a well-taken goal before a penalty decision against St. Helen's College made it 1-1. The SHC team persisted in trying to play their best football and were probably the better team on the day but there were no further goals so the match ended in a draw. 

Netball Tournament

Also in the wind and cold of last Saturday morning the U11 netball team played in the UDPSSA borough netball tournament at Ryefield School. The first game was tough and the girls lost 6-1, but they quickly regrouped and went on to win the next two games. In the final game of the group stages they were winning 1-0 and were very close to going through to the quarter finals. Unfortunately, though, two late goals knocked us out. All of the girls were a testament to the school and deservedly received their runner up league medals. Many thanks to the parents who came to support on such a blustery day. 

Thames Valley Cavaliers - Free Tickets

Thames Valley Cavaliers are once again offering free tickets for St. Helen's College pupils for their matches this weekend at Uxbridge College Sports Hall. There are games on Saturday and Sunday. Full details are here.

Blaze Netball Club

Blaze Netball Club has a new 'minis' section which is growing weekly. If you have a child in Years 1-6 who is interested in developing their netball skills and matchplay further outside of school, you can find details of their Saturday morning sessions here.

Ickenham Library

Given the huge importance of reading for primary aged children, we are very sad to hear the news that the council is proposing to close Ickenham Library on one day each week. If you would like to have a say please complete the consultation at the link below and enter your comments under 27. If you have any comments about the tiered approach, please include these. If every adult in each household fills in the consultation it will have a bigger impact.  
https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/10688/Library-strategy-consultation