Weekly News - Friday 24th January 2025

Year 4 Visit Amersham Field Centre

The Year 4 children had a fantastic trip this week to the Amersham Field Centre, where they explored electricity and energy. Every minute of the day was used as an opportunity for learning which educated, inspired and allowed the children to have fun. The day started by meeting ‘Michael Faraday’ and the children learnt about electricity, its uses and dangers and about how the substation in the vicinity works to provide power to our homes. The pupils took a walk around the perimeter of the substation, understanding why we can touch pylons and not get thousands of volts of electricity through us, then continued their work in the classroom by making solar powered circuits.

The afternoon was spent learning about the way animals conserve energy by creating well-insulated homes such as a nest for a dormouse, and how squirrels try to survive winters by hiding their food. The day ended with a short walk looking for evidence of animal activities on the grounds, the wooded areas, identifying excrement from different animals and their footprints. Every child certainly made progress in their knowledge of a curriculum topic as well as having the chance to enjoy the opportunity to learn outside.

Year 2 Bring Great Fire Of London Learning To Life!

To enhance their learning about The Great Fire Of London, our Year 2 children enjoyed a special visit from Trunk Theatre this week, who presented a fun and interactive production all about this important historical event.

The day built upon the children's previous classroom work on The Great Fire and has provided information and inspiration for further tasks to challenge and extend the children in their understanding and written work. Beginning in Tom Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane, and including recollections from the famous diarist Samuel Pepys, it was a dramatised account of the story interspersed with songs, dances and games. The children loved joining in with the interactive experience and have certainly cemented and extended their understanding about this topic. 

6H Coffee Morning/Class Assembly

Many thanks to the children of 6H, who presented an extremely informative and entertaining assembly all about Guinness World Records on Friday morning. The children explained how they had researched the history of the Guinness World Records phenomenon, before sharing some frankly outstanding world records with their captivated audience. They then introduced an exciting live show in which volunteers from the audience and some of the 6H children themselves attempted to break some world records. It made for a fun and memorable assembly and we have certainly all learnt a lot about the world records that exist and how much commitment must go in to becoming a world record holder. Well done, 6H!

House News

The first House assembly of the spring term took place on Thursday and it was a rather exciting affair, as all of the children took part in the first round of the House General Knowledge Quiz! One child from each year group will go through as finalists for each of the four Houses, and the competition will continue with more house points up for grabs.

The current house point totals in the hotly contested House Competition are:

Caledonia - 2068 
Cambria - 2282  
Hibernia - 2312  
Windsor - 2108

Chess Success

Four St. Helen's College children competed in the Uxbridge Junior Chess Club Tournament last Saturday: Andrew B, Ishani A, Akaash B and Leonard S. Three of the children won individual medals, including a gold medal for Ishani A, who was top in her age group and won all of her games. In addition, St. Helen's College was crowned the overall school winner since our four pupils had, cumulatively, the highest score of the top four pupils of any school taking part. All four pupils were awarded a medal as the representatives of the winning school and St. Helen's College is now also the proud holder of a lovely shield which we will have engraved and will hold for at least a year. With our school chess clubs going from strength to strength, hopefully we will also defend our title with pride next time!

St. Helen's College TfL Explorers Prepare For Dragon's Den Pitch

The St. Helen's College TfL Explorers (formerly JTAs) have successfully secured a place on this year's Dragon's Den Event at The Battle of Britain Bunker on Thursday 27th March 2025. At the event, they will have the opportunity to pitch for funding to help contribute to a road safety/active travel campaign or initiative to run in the school.

The TfL Explorers will also be participating in a Dragon's Den Planning Workshop at Hillingdon Council Civic Centre to begin preparing for the pitch at the Dragons’ Den event in March. During this workshop, the pupils will engage in data analysis specific to school travel, will identify and address school-specific travel issues, will learn pitching strategies tailored to appropriate audiences and will focus on budget proposals and management. They will also have the chance to meet the Mayor of Hillingdon in the Mayor’s Parlour, followed by a tour of both the Parlour and Council Chambers.

To help our pupils to prepare for this event, please would parents answer the three very quick questions on the LBH school travel survey here.

Sports News

On Wednesday, the football team took on Heathrow Primary School at home in what turned out to be their best game of the season so far. The team played some super football and, ultimately, came from one nil down to draw the game 1-1. Jack K was the goal scorer and the Man of the Match was Giuseppe D for his fantastic saves in goal. Well done to all of those who played.

Also on Wednesday, the Year 6 netball teams played Orley Farm School in a great display of teamwork and skill. The two teams coped brilliantly well with playing 7-a-side netball using full sized netball posts, executing accurate shooting and giving a solid all round performance. The finishing scores were a 4-0 win and a 1-1 draw. Well done to all involved!

 

TCS Mini Marathon

Entries for the 2025 TCS Mini London Marathon are now open and, as a valued previous participant, St. Helen's College has once again been allocated some places. In order to widen participation across as many schools as possible, however, the organisers have reduced the number of places available per school. This year, St. Helen's College has been allocated a total of forty places across the two distances. 

These places will be offered first to the children in Year 5 and Year 6. Sign up will be on a first come, first served basis and a Google form will be sent out in due course.

Year 3 Pedestrian Training

Today our Year 3 children took part in their biannual pedestrian training, learning how to keep safe when out and about on foot in the local area. They learnt about and practised walking safely on pavements and checking driveways for moving cars; crossing roads safely and sensibly and the importance of being visible to drivers of vehicles.

Year 5 Transfer Meetings

Thank you to the Year 5 parents who have attended individual senior school transfer meetings with Ms Drummond so far. The final meetings will take place tomorrow.

Next Week

Monday to Friday - 2C swimming all week
Wednesday 29th January - UKMT Mathematical Challenge (Year 6)
Wednesday 29th January - Football v. Laurel Lane (A)
Thursday 30th January - 1C coffee morning & class assembly
Thursday 30th January - Ducklings, Nursery & Reception parents' evenings
Friday 31st January - Month End Music Recital in the Evans Hall