Weekly News - Friday 8th June 2018

We are delighted to announce that, in September, we will be launching a school bus service which will run daily during term time.

The bus will be available to children in Years 2 to 6 and will run, initially, on a route from Ruislip through Ickenham and Hillingdon to school. You can see the exact route and timings, along with the booking form, here and these have also been published to the School Documents page of the website.

There will be limited places on the bus and these will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. We would therefore encourage parents to complete and return the booking form as soon as possible if you know that you will require a regular place on a certain day, or certain days, of the week. Subject to availability, it will also be possible to book places on an ad hoc basis from September, by telephoning the school office by 4 p.m. on the preceding day.

We have had several enquiries from parents about a school bus service, and we hope that the service will prove popular. If it does, then we may consider expanding the service to other areas/routes...so watch this space!

Singing Competitions

We were treated to two quite fantastic competitions at school this afternoon. The standard of singing at both the Middle School and Upper School Singing Competitions was really wonderful and our visiting judge was most impressed! We would like to extend congratulations to every child who entered the competitions and especially to those who delighted us with their singing today.

4A Assembly - Flatford Mill

Well done to 4A, who confidently presented a fun and interesting assembly today about their recent residential trip to Flatford Mill. We were all interested to see the beautiful surroundings and buildings in which they stayed, and to hear about the many exciting and educational activities they undertook. The children spoke with passion and great expression and no doubt the Year 3s cannot wait to follow in their footsteps next year!

Mrs. Drummond - A Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching

We are delighted and proud to inform you that Mrs. Drummond has been appointed a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

The Chartered College of Teaching has been established to improve the quality of education for children and young people by supporting teachers, championing great teaching and raising the status of the profession, with a professional role comparable to the Law Society, General Medical Council and Royal Institute of British Architects. To be appointed a Founding Fellow is a great honour for Mrs. Drummond (and for the school!) and we know that she will be a leading light in the development of the CCT into the pre-eminent professional body for the promotion of excellence in British education.

In Mrs. Drummond’s appointment letter, the appointments committee wrote, ‘Fellowship is an honour and a mark of your achievements and commitment to the teaching profession. We were impressed by the strength of all applications and in particular your experiences and what you would bring to the Fellowship as a Founder.’

Many congratulations to Mrs. Drummond, for whom this honour is so well-deserved.

World Environmental Day

The children have been very environmentally aware this week as we have undertaken several activities linked to World Environmental Day. There was an assembly to introduce the day and all children have been busy decorating their handprints and writing their pledges to beat plastic pollution. In addition, our Eco Reps have been out litter picking in Court Park.

Tennis Borough Champions

Many congratulations to our Y5 and Y6 tennis teams, who took part in the Borough Tennis Tournament this week and were crowned Champions! They were able to match the achievement of Year 3 and 4 who were also crowned Borough Champions last month. 

The event, held at Tripletts Community Tennis Centre, was attended by 12 teams from schools across the borough. Each team was made up of two boys and two girls and St. Helen's were able to field three teams as tennis is such a popular sport at school, with many pupils playing to a good standard. Each player in the team played a singles rubber in each match. In a fantastic display of tennis, all three of our teams came through the group stages to reach the quarter finals. Our A team progressed to the semi finals after beating Hayes Park school and in their quarter final, our C team beat our B team to reach the semi final to play our A team! Everyone played very well but the A team prevailed to reach the final to play Dr. Tripletts school.  Our A team played consistently and confidently in the final to win 3 - 1. The team will now go forward to the London School Games Regional finals to represent Hilingdon against other London boroughs. 

Thank you to all the parents who supported the team from the side lines and well done to all our players: Timi, Rishi, Ryeesa, Zara, Max, Aditya, Amishi, Hebe, William, Amrit, Grace, Zoe. You can see some photos from the event in the gallery. 

Rounders

This week our rounders team played St. Andrew's School in a friendly match. Our team took some great catches and struck the ball well when batting to win the first innings 4.5 to 3.5 and the second innings 5 to 4.  Team members were: Abigail, Ionie, Amishi, Zara, Ryeesa, Amrit, Rishi, Timi, Jed and Lincoln.

Sports Days

Our Sports Days are fast approaching and letters with full details are available on the links below. Please ensure that you read these carefully.

Ducklings parents will receive information separately about the Ducklings Sports Day.

There are two letters for Pre-Prep Sports Day (N/R/Y1/Y2) - click here and here.

There are two letters for Prep Sports Day (Y3/Y4/Y5/Y6) - click here and here.

We need parent helpers for both Sports Days. Please email Miss Walker at swalker@sthelenscollege.com if you are available to help, letting her know on which day(s) you are available.

The Wizard of Oz

'The Wizard of Oz' will be performed by our Year 6 children at The Compass Theatre, Ickenham on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th July. Parents are permitted to take children out of school on Friday for the matinee performance and we would encourage you to do so if you can, so that the younger children can enjoy the performance and see the standard to which they will aspire by the time they reach Year 6! Please let us know if you plan to take your child(ren) out of school for the matinee performance.

Tickets are sold on a first come, first served basis so please do not delay - the Year 6 play is always of exceptionally high quality and it is lovely for pupils in the younger years to go and see it with their parents.

There are three performances:
Thursday 5th July 7.30 p.m.
Friday 6th July 2.00 p.m. matinee
Friday 6th July 7.30 p.m.

You may order tickets by following the link below.
http://www.hillingdontheatres.uk/index.php/events/wizard-of-oz/

Please note that, for copyright reasons, parents will not be allowed to take photographs or use video recording devices during the performances. â€‹

Year 1/2 Summer Plays - Key Information For All Year Groups

The children in the Year 1 and Year 2 classes will be performing their Summer Concert plays at the Winston Churchill Hall in Pinn Way, Ruislip, on Thursday 28th June, at 1.30 p.m. (Y1) and 2.30 p.m. (Y2). Year 1 will be performing 'Hansel and Gretel' and Year 2 will be performing 'The Emerald Crown'.

The key arrangements are as follows.

The Dress Rehearsal will be on Wednesday 27th June. All children from Nursery to Year 4 will attend so that they can watch the Concerts. Please deliver your child(ren) to the Winston Churchill Hall on this date by 8.40 a.m. The children will return to school by coach. 

On the day of the concert, Thursday 28th June, Year 1 and 2 children will have lunch at school as usual and will be taken by coach to the Winston Churchill Hall in time for their performances.

Tickets are now available and are priced at £8 each. Parents should book tickets by following this link:
​https://sthelens.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/ 
If parents have children in both Year 1 and Year 2, you should buy tickets just for one of the shows and you will be able to watch both.

Summer Holiday Club Bookings Now Open

The booking form for Holiday Club is now available on the School Documents page of the website. Forms should be completed and returned to school by Friday 22nd June please.

Class Arrangements for 2018-19

We are pleased to announce the classes and staffing arrangements for the academic year 2018-19, as follows:

Robins class will become Kingfishers with Ms Matthews
Wrens class will become Owls with Miss Malik
Kingfishers class will become 1HC with Mrs. Hunt and Miss Cooper
Owls will become 1J with Miss Joiner
1HC will become 2B with Mr. Bustard
1S will become 2H with Mrs. Hussein
2B will become 3M with Mrs. McLaughlin
2H will become 3B with Mrs. Belvoir
3V will become 4KT with Mrs. Thompson
3T will become 4T with Mr. Tovell
4T will become 5A with Mrs. Allery
4A will become 5G with Mrs. Gilham
5W will become 6D with Miss Dear
5G will become 6M with Mr. McLaughlin

Later this term, pupils from Nursery to Year 4 will have an opportunity to visit their new classrooms and meet their new teachers. Year 5 children will visit the Nursery on that day since the Year 6 teachers will be at the Compass Theatre with the current Year 6; however, the Year 5 children do already know Mr. McLaughlin and Miss Dear and will have an opportunity to speak to them during the second half of term.

We also run a programme of 'Meet the Teacher' evenings for parents, at which we introduce the routines and expectations for the new year and at which you can meet your child's new teacher. These evenings will take place as follows.

New Ducklings, Nursery and Reception evenings are on Tuesday 3rd July. 
New Year 1 and Year 2 evenings are on Thursday 28th June.
New Year 3 and Year 6 evenings will be on Thursday 13th September.
New Year 4 and Year 5 evenings will be on Thursday 20th September.

Please do make a note of these dates. Timings for meetings are available on the calendar.

We have already published the uniform and equipment list for next year to the School Documents page of the website. Second hand uniform is usually available to buy at the PA Summer Fete so you might wish to make a note of anything you will need before then.