Weekly News - Friday 29th June 2018

Wow! What a wonderful week of performances it has been, with the superb Year 1 and 2 summer productions and a lovely 3V assembly today.

Year 1 Production - Hansel and Gretel

With stellar solo performances and energetic ensemble numbers, the Year 1 performance would not have been out of place in the West End of London! Watching the children, it really was hard to believe that they are just 5 and 6 years old. The skills they showed in remembering all of their words (no prompts required!), in singing with enthusiasm and tunefulness, in moving about the stage and in engaging the audience really were verging on the professional. There were moments of comedy and of joy and the performance was enjoyed immensely by all who attended. Well done Year 1!

Year 2 Production - The Emerald Crown

Our Year 2 children entertained and educated us with a beautiful performance of The Emerald Crown, a play all about the rainforest canopy and the importance of protecting it. The stage was a riot of colour with, among others, brightly feathered birds, green creepers, bats, toucans, monkeys, an anaconda and even a jaguar! The message of the play - for us all to think about and mitigate the effects humans are having on our world's environment and eco-systems - was conveyed with grace, empathy and enthusiasm. There were some stunning solo and group singing performances and every child recited their lines and moved about the stage with confidence and clear enjoyment. Bravo, Year 2!

3V Assembly - St. Helen's Got Talent!

This morning's assembly was great fun at Upper School as 3V presented their own talent show, complete with judges Miss Wallis and Mr. Lewis! The children showed some mature and well-practised performance skills, whether acting as presenters or judges, playing instruments, doing gymnastics, singing or performing magic tricks. Who knew that the children of 3V had so many talents! Well done to all involved.

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. Children at Upper School have had a preview performance in assembly this week to give them a taste of the show, and we know that many are eager to see the full production. Parents are permitted to take children out of school on Friday 6th July 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.

You can see some 'sneak preview' photographs of the cast in their costumes on our Galleries page.

2018 Leavers

We are very proud of all of our Year 6 leavers this year, who have all achieved so much during their time at St. Helen's College. We are delighted that, between the 38 children, they were offered 10 scholarships or exhibitions to leading Independent Schools.

As usual, the leavers are heading to a wide variety of schools, with 22 different destination schools this year from our 38 pupils.

14 children will be going to grammar schools
17 children will go to independent schools
7 children will be joining other schools

It is with a great sense of pride that we will bid them farewell at the end of this term, confident in the knowledge that they are exceptionally well prepared for their next steps at senior school.

Messages from the PA

PA Summer Fete

The summer fete has arrived and will be taking place in the Upper School playground from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday 30th  June).  Although there is no entrance fee, there will be donation buckets at the Parkway gate entrance, with any money raised being donated to Cancer Research UK.  In addition, a group of Year 4 entrepreneurial children will be selling origami products from their stall with all proceeds being donated to Cancer Research UK. Please do visit their stall (Dream Team) and give them some support.

If you have any old uniform to donate, please do bring it along to the Fete and hand it to the PA uniform stall. Any uniform not sold after the fete is shipped to India, where less privileged school children are able to wear it. You can see photographs of pupils wearing SHC uniform on the Galleries page.

The fete is a wonderful event so feel free to bring along your friends and family.  There will be a range of world food stalls where you can buy anything from Indian to mouth-watering hotdogs and burgers from our BBQ. We will also have lots of games for you to have a go at so, if you can, make sure you bring lots of change with you. 

Any money raised on the stalls is reinvested into the school and this year the PA will be working with the school to bring improvements to the Lower School playground, which will complement the new setting.  

Finally, one last plea for helpers. If anyone is available to help with set up on the day (from 8 a.m. or as soon as possible thereafter) or to help on any of the stalls, please do contact us at pa@sthelenscollege.com or fill your name in on the Google Sheet here. Thank you to everyone who has offered their support - this event would not be possible without your help and we really do appreciate it!

Sports Days 

The PA would like to thank all of those parents who donated items for the Sports Day refreshments stall - the donations were truly amazing and we are very grateful! Thank you also to those parents who came and bought items from the stall. We hope that you all enjoyed the events as much as the children did!

Staff Farewells and Welcomes

Miss Wallis (5W) has now started her maternity leave and awaits the arrival of her bundle of joy. 5W will be under the care of Miss Beckett until the end of term. We wish Miss Wallis all the best and hope that she enjoys some rest before the big event.

Miss Toombs and Miss Martinez will also be leaving us at the end of this term.  

Miss Toombs has a very exciting opportunity. Having been with us in the role of TALA for the past 3 years, she will be starting her teacher training in September. It is such a testament to the school that our staff go on to further their careers and although we are very sad to lose Miss Toombs, it is wonderful that she will be taking her career to the next level.

Miss Martinez has been with us for one year and in this short time she has inspired the children with her Spanish throughout the school and run our Funtasia After School care. Alas, Miss Martinez has made a decision from the heart and will moving to California to join her partner and return to further study in the USA.  

We wish Miss Toombs and Miss Martinez all the best in their exciting new ventures.

Mrs. Lawrence (Wrens) will be taking over the running of Funtasia After School Club, ably assisted as ever by Mrs. Beagley at Upper School and Miss Williams at Lower School. 

Following rigorous selection and interview processes, we are absolutely delighted to be welcoming some new members of staff to the school in September and we know that you will wish to join with us in welcoming them into the St. Helen's College community.

Miss Samantha Joiner will be a wonderful addition to the Lower School team as a Year 1 teacher. Miss Joiner has most recently been teaching a Reception class at Belmore Primary Academy, and is looking forward very much to joining St. Helen's College and to returning to teach Key Stage 1, having worked as a Key Stage 1 teacher for seven years previously.

Mr. Celso Aguiar will be joining us to teach Spanish throughout the school. A native Spanish speaker, Mr. Aguiar has lived in London for sixteen years and has a wealth of experience teaching children from Nursery age through to A Level. Mr. Aguiar will also be running our Spanish clubs next year.

Miss Sarah Ward will be joining us to teach PE/Games at Lower School. Miss Ward is a highly qualified and experienced PE/Games specialist who has most recently worked at Bushey Meads School, teaching PE across the school and acting as a Head of House and Form Tutor. 

Miss Claire Heath will be joining the team as an Upper School Teaching and Learning Assistant. Miss Heath has lots of experience in the world of business and is no stranger to working with children - some of the girls may know her already from local Brownies groups, where she has been a leader for some years! She is currently spending some time at the school to get to know the children and routines ahead of a full time start in September.

We are currently recruiting for an Early Years Teaching Assistant. Full details can be found on the Join The Team page of the website.

Staff v Pupil Rounders

You may have thought the big match this week was England vs Belgium at the World Cup! You would be wrong - the big match was in fact the annual staff v pupils rounders match held at St. Helen's College on Thursday afternoon. Our Sports Captains organised the Year 5 and 6 pupils into two teams the take on a team of staff in two matches. The event was good fun and the pupils were skilled players scoring many rounders; they also fielded well to get many of the staff out. Match scores were:

A team vs staff - staff won 10.5 to 5.5
B team vs staff - staff won 12 to 9.5

Special thanks to Max, Ryeesa, Timi and Amrit for umpiring the matches so well and to Mrs. Kaura and Mrs. Field for supplying refreshments for everyone at the end of the match. 

Sports Days Results

We were entertained last week with four amazing Sports Days in the space of four days, which showcased the children's talent for sport and competition. 

Ducklings started the sporting festivities off on Tuesday with their Sports Day. Our youngest Helenians took part in a range of fun activities and races and were cheered on by their enthusiastic parents, who also took the opportunity to throw an 'after party' in the Ducklings garden!

Prep Sports Day on Wednesday opened with a fantastic opening ceremony in which our Head Boy and Girl teams welcomed everyone and we were then treated to a brilliant dance display by our Year 4 girls, who demonstrated some outstanding hula hooping skills. If anyone has a video of the dance we would love to have a copy for the school gallery - please get in contact if you do.

New Prep Sports Day records set this year include:

Year 5 girls' long jump - a 20 year old school record was broken by Hebe with a jump of 3.40m. Hebe also broke two more school records, in the Year 5 girls' 400m with a time of 1 minute 14 seconds and in the 70m sprint with a time of 10.31 seconds. 

Year 6 Shot Put - new records in both boys' and girls' events. Abigail Y set a new record of 12.50m and Jed H set a new record of 14.90m.

Fredericka T in Year 3 set a new 50m sprint record with a time of 8.44 seconds and new records were also established in the new format hurdles events this year. In Year 3 Riya and Adi, in Year 4 Raunaq and Taha, in Year 5 Jada and Feranmi and in Year 6 Ryeesa and Kai established the records for this new event format.

Our Year 3 parents shone in the parents' races, with Mr. Sawant (Aditiya's dad) and Ms Haq (Zayd's mum) crossing the line first in two exciting parents' races over 50m. 

On Friday morning in our Pre-Prep Sports Day our Year 1 and 2 pupils showed what a talented bunch they are with some super skills on the skills stations and excellent running on the track. This year our Year 2s demonstrated their hurdling skills too. In the afternoon it was Nursery and Reception classes who took to the field where, supported by staff and our Year 5 sports leaders, they were encouraged to try all the events with great enthusiasm.  Both Sports Days ended with the traditional 'tug o' war' parents' event where parents pull for their child's house. This fun event is always well supported with over thirty parents on each side pulling for the house team. This year honours were even with Windsor parents winning in the morning and Cambria parents winning in the afternoon. 

Sports Day overall results

Foundation Stage Sports Day - Windsor Champions

Pre-Prep  Sports Day - Cambria Champions

Prep Sports Day - Windsor Champions

Year 3 - 6 Inter-house sports cup (awarded to the winning team for inter-house matches played throughout the year) - Windsor Champions

A real sense of community was evident at all our Sports Days, with Year 5 pupils and Old Helenians participating as sports leaders to run events, parents helping as judges, our staff supporting the pupils and the PA keeping everyone refreshed!  Thank you to everyone involved.

Summer School

Due to the overwhelming demand for summer school places this year, additional places are now available as follows:

Lower School Summer school (Nursery - Y1) - 2 places available

Upper School Summer School (Y2) - 2 places available

Upper School Summer School (Y3 - 6) - 7 places available

Booking forms must be completed and returned as soon as possible. The booking form is available here.

Lower School Development

As you are all aware we have our very exciting Lower School project commencing on Saturday 7th July, with our current Nursery and Reception buildings being replaced. Please note that the Lower School will be completely closed after Friday 6th July thus if you have any queries please do contact Upper School. Holiday Club and Summer School for Lower School pupils will be located in the Upper School throughout the summer. Please note that on Friday 6th July, Funtasia After School Club will be held at Upper School for ALL pupils, including Nursery, Reception and Year 1.