Weekly News - Friday 13th September 2024

Eco Team Litter Picking

Two eco conscious St. Helen's College pupils have been putting their green passion into action cleaning up their local area over the summer holidays. Siara and Shayla, Upper School members of the Eco Team, spent many days over the holidays picking up litter in Ickenham Village. Their hard work has not gone unnoticed as many local residents have taken the time to chat to the girls and thank them for their community spirit. Well done to the girls for being wonderful ambassadors for the school. 

 

 

Celebrating British Farming Day 

Pupils and staff celebrated the best of British produce yesterday for 'Back British Farming Day' on Wednesday, an initiative from the National Farmers Union. The national event aims to highlight the importance of agriculture to communities and the economy. It is also a wonderful opportunity to educate children about the 'farm to fork' process and how important it is to support sustainable farming for the future. 

The Accent Catering team put together a terrific display of home grown goods and the children had fun colouring in posters to celebrate our farming heroes. Well done to Simar in 2C who won the colouring competition and to everyone who took part!

Co-Curriculum Clubs

The co-curricular clubs programme begins on Monday, so please double check your allocations and ensure you send children with any equipment required on the correct days! As a reminder, any query regarding the co-curricular programme should be addressed to Mr. Harrington at lharrington@sthelenscollege.com.

Parent Survey Feedback

Many thanks to all of you who completed the end of year Parent Survey earlier in the summer. We were grateful for the very many positive comments and thanks from parents for all that school staff do to keep the children safe, happy and making good progress in all areas of school life. Many of you commented on the supportive environment, strong sense of community, excellent leadership and expertise of staff.

We always want to make improvements and in response to points raised, we will be trialling some tweaks to routines and events this term, as follows.

Funtasia After School Care for Nursery children will be based in the Nursery classrooms from Monday 16th September. Breakfast Club will also be based at Lower School. We hope that these two changes will provide a more enjoyable and appropriate environment for our youngest children.

To ease with the transition to Upper School, Year 2 children are now having a 'soft start' to their day, as they did in Year 1. 

We are exploring options for a regular second hand uniform sale to be run at school by the PA. This will be a huge benefit for parents so if you are interested in helping with this, please contact the PA at pa@sthelenscollege.com to offer your support.

We would also like to remind parents that if you have any questions or concerns regarding any aspect of your child’s schooling, it is important that you contact your child’s class teacher immediately so that we may take prompt action to ensure the best outcome for your child.

Once again, thank you for all of the feedback and kind words. We were particularly proud to hear the following from a parent with an older child at senior school, and wanted to share this anonymous comment with the whole community:

'With an older child in secondary school I can appreciate even more what SHC offers. SHC should be extremely proud of the range of performances, assemblies, concerts and competitions. This is a real selling point for the school as all children take part in some way and learn from this in terms of managing anxiety, teamwork and presentation/performance skills. SHC produces shows which other schools with older children are not capable of staging. Staff turnover is also low with everyone making a huge effort as part of the community which suggests a happy working environment. Diversity and sustainability is discussed with the children regularly and children seem very aware of different cultures and respecting each other. Subjects like science, geography, RE and history are also very well taught with techniques directly useful for secondary education which place the children far ahead on starting.'

Cycle To School Week

We hope that many families will bring fun to the school run by taking part in Bikeability's 'Cycle to School' campaign from Monday 23rd - Friday 27th September. Championed by our Junior Travel Ambassadors, a pedal powered commute is good for health, the school and the planet. And, of course, we have a lovely new bike shed to keep all of the bikes safe and dry! Please take this opportunity to check the safety of bikes and ensure pupils' helmets are well fitting. We look forward to seeing as many children as possible take part. 

 

 

Money Day - 4th October

Financial literacy forms one of the threads in our Life Skills programme here at St. Helen's College. To support this we will be holding a 'Money Day' on Friday 4th October for pupils across the school. The day will include a range of interactive workshops, exciting events and fun activities to educate pupils on spending and saving, bills and budgeting, online and electronic payments, career choices and much more. Supporting our ethos of sustainability, the overarching theme for the day will be: Saving Money and Protecting our Planet. We would welcome parent input so if you work in finance and would like to get involved in running a session or contributing to an assembly please look out for an email from SchoolsBuddy with more information. 

The Parent Practice Webinar - 25th September

Parents are warmly invited to join a special free webinar 'Bringing out the best in your child', by Elaine Halligan from The Parent Practice on Wednesday 25th September. Elaine is a trusted parenting coach, author and speaker well known to St. Helen's College. Her coaching sessions have proved to be invaluable, providing supportive, insightful and practical advice and guidance for parents and staff alike. Many, many parents have found her ‘Harmony at Home’ training course transformative. At St. Helen's College we truly value our parents and want to offer support in negotiating the joyful, yet often tricky, pathway that is parenting. Please do save the date and join the online webinar. Full details about how to join will be sent nearer the time. 

Dining Room Etiquette

Lunchtime is always a highlight of the school day and we place a firm emphasis on encouraging the children to take pride in their table manners and dining room etiquette. Please support your child at home by teaching them how to use cutlery correctly and by modelling family meals eaten at a table without any distractions. This is a valuable time to converse and connect with your child and is a life skill that will stand them in good stead for years to come. We will be looking out for and rewarding children who make a big effort to demonstrate these skills. 

St. Helen's College Open Morning

Our next 'School At Work' Open Morning for prospective new families is on Wednesday 9th October. If you know of anyone with a child aged three or below who might be interested in visiting the school, please do let them know. They can book their appointments via the school website here. 

PA Welcome Event

The Parents' Association very much hope that all new families will come along to their Welcome Event on Saturday 14th September from 2 - 4 p.m. The event will take place in the Evans Hall at Upper School and is a lovely opportunity to meet the PA and other new families. The PA relies on parental support to run a busy programme of fundraising events for the children so please do get involved, everyone is welcome. 

Legacy Football School

Places are available for boys and girls aged 5 -14 at Legacy Football School a local club that trains at Court Park on Saturdays. Sessions are run by FA qualified coaches and include fun games and drills based on developing skills in passing, dribbling, defending and shooting. There is also the opportunity for children to join a team squad to play league and cup matches. More information and booking details can be found here. 

Home-Start Hillingdon Coffee Morning

Home-Start Hillingdon, 306 Lane Lane (next door to Ducklings) are hosting coffee mornings to meet their volunteers on Tueday 24th September and Wednesday 2nd October. Find out more about the vital work the charity do and how you could help change the lives of local families by joining their volunteer training programme. Coffee and drop in runs from 10.00 a.m. - 12 noon and the volunteer talks begin at 11.00 a.m. The next volunteer training course starts on 8th October and runs every Tuesday for eight weeks, during school hours in Hillingdon.

Next Week

Monday 16th September - Co-curriculum clubs begin
Wednesday 18th September - Year 1 Phonics Evening 6 - 7 p.m.