Weekly News - Friday 14th March 2025

Year 3 Visit Kew Gardens

On Monday Year 3 visited Kew Gardens to enrich their learning about plant life. The children had a wonderful day exploring the gardens and participating in a range of interactive activities. They had great fun entering a specially constructed 'beehive' to experience the vibrations bees use to communicate. In the Princess of Wales Conservatory pupils explored different types of plants including lily pads, cacti and the Venus flytrap. In the Palm House, alongside cocoa and banana plants, the children were delighted to discover a rather unusual plant specimen; the 'smelly foot tree' whose leaves have a definite whiff of smelly socks! 

Overall it was a terrific educational visit and an illuminating opportunity to see the true breadth of impact plant life has on the world around us. 

Year 5 Trip to Bletchley Park

Meanwhile, our Year 5 pupils spent the day at Bletchley Park, the world famous code breaking headquarters which changed the course of history during World War 2. The children toured the museum and discovered the vital work of the diligent code breakers who took top secret postings at Bletchley Park. They visited the huts to see the Enigma and Bombe code breaking machines and learnt about the development of modern computers, including the revolutionary work of Alan Turing. Later the children participated in an interactive workshop creating their own cipher and exploring radio communications. It was a fascinating day and a valuable educational trip which brought to life a critical episode of modern history. 

Owls Class Assembly

Wow! What an accomplished, mature performance we were treated to from our Owls Reception class at their assembly this week! Watched by families, friends and staff, the children presented their knowledge about space and shared some fascinating facts about the solar system. They spoke beautifully and we were very impressed with their colouful alien figures!  You can hear from some of the children here. 

 

 

 

6L Class Assembly

On Friday it was the turn of our oldest pupils to present their class assembly. The children of 6L did a wonderful job of planning, researching and presenting their work on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. The assembly cleverly drew together work the children have been covering about the rise of the Nazi party and the onset of World War 2 in history, and race relations and discrimination in RE. The children delivered their acting and speaking parts perfectly and shared an important message of overriding hatred with resilience, determination and enduring friendship. Well done 6L!

 

Chamber Choir Visit Sweetcroft Care Home

Wednesday saw the Chamber Choir make a lunchtime visit to Sweetcroft Care Home as part of a calendar of events initiated by the St. Helen's College charity representatives. The children performed a selection of pieces accompanied by the piano and enjoyed speaking to the residents inbetween numbers. There were tears of joy from two of the residents as the performance evoked happy memories of singing in a choir.

It was a lovely visit, well done to all of the children who took part for being such superb representatives of St. Helen's College. 

 

Red Nose Day - Comic Relief

It is Comic Relief Red Nose Day on Friday 21st March and Year 6 are co-ordinating fundraising activities. At Lower School the children may bring in £1 on Friday to have their nose painted red! At Upper School the Year 6 children will be selling the following items in the gazebo every day next week:

Red noses - £2.50
Homemade bracelets - £1
Raffle tickets (to win a special prize) - £1

At Upper School the children can also donate £1 to tell a joke, so we hope they will enter into the spirit of things and come along with a hilarious joke to amuse their friends!  In addition the catering team will be providing special red nose cookies at lunchtime. 

Sports News

It has been a busy week for the Upper School girls this week! 

Last Friday to mark International Women's Day the Upper School girls' football team participated in a football festival at Radlett Prep School. The girls faced stiff competition against seven other independent schools, but worked well together as a team and managed to draw three of their eight games. The girls had a thoroughly enjoyable time and even had the opportunity to meet Watford FC player ambassador Anna Filbey! Well done to Shayla in Year 5 who won best player for the St. Helen's College team and was awarded a special medal.

 

 

On Thursday our Year 4 netballers travelled to Newnham Primary School to take part in a dedicated netball event. The girls took part in lots of netball activities and small sided matches and demonstrated great teamwork, determination and resilience throughout.

 

 

 

 

Last Saturday the Year 6 netball team took part in the league netball tournament at Ryefield School. The weather was perfect and the girls played brilliantly throughout their group matches despite having some tough teams in their group. Unfortunately they were a few points short so didn’t progress to the finals on this occasion. However, it was a great way for them to finish off the season so well done to all involved!

 

 

 

Speech Competition

The semi-finals of the Years 1 - 6 Speech Competitions are underway! Ms Drummond and Mrs. Smith are enjoying hearing the class semi-finalists recite their pieces and are, as ever, finding it extremely difficult to make decisions about which children to put through to the finals. Well done to every child who has learnt and recited their poem, whether or not they have made it through to the next stage of the competition. The experience of memorising and reciting poems and other pieces is such an important one for the development of oracy skills including projection, clarity, expression, audience engagement and stage presence/confidence. In a competition not everyone can win, but certainly every child will have gained so much from taking part.

Although we have been unable to pinpoint its exact start date, we know that the St. Helen's College Speech Competition has been running for decades and that it plays no small part in what inspectors recently declared to be our school's 'significant strength' - the oracy and communication skills of our pupils. Many thanks to all of the parents who have supported the children in learning their poems. Parents of finalists will be contacted as soon as the semi-finals are complete and the finals will take place on Thursday 27th March.

Nursery/Reception Poetry Recital

If you have a child in Nursery and/or Reception, please make sure to keep the morning of Wednesday 26th March free so that you can come and watch them recite their poems. The development of public speaking skills starts from the Early Years here at St. Helen's College and your support at your children's performances means the world to your children and to us here at school!

Online Safety Day

Our Online Safety Day on Tuesday presented a valuable opportunity to teach and/or remind pupils, parents and staff about the potential risks associated with the online world. All children from Year 1 to 6 received a bespoke online safety workshop from specialist provider ECP Safeguarding exploring the online risks relevant to their specific age group. The session also celebrated the positive opportunities available in the online world if used safely. 

The pupil sessions were followed by a teacher session after school and a parent event in the evening, covering a range of important topics for this vital area of safeguarding and readiness for the modern world.

Summer Term Co-Curricular Clubs

The timetable for co-curricular clubs for the summer term is now available. Please make your selections for your child(ren)'s co-curricular activities by logging into your SchoolsBuddy account.

Baby Mindfulness Classes

Mrs. McLaughlin's next set of FREE Baby Mindfulness classes will begin after the Easter break on Wednesday 30th April. These classes are for mothers and babies (aged from six weeks until crawling) and are held at St. Helen's College Upper School. Classes provide a safe space for mums and babies to bond, take part in breathing, gentle yoga and other mindfulness exercises. This is a great opportunity to meet other local mums and babies. To find out about joining these classes, please email Mrs. McLaughlin on pmclaughlin@sthelenscollege.com. The classes are open to everyone, whether they have a child at St. Helen's College or not, so please do spread the word!

 

Holiday Club

Holiday Club bookings for the Easter holiday period are open from 4 p.m. today and will close on Wednesday 26th March at 4 p.m. Please log in to your SchoolsBuddy account to make your bookings.

Next Week

Tuesday 18th March - Year 4 Senior School Transfer Meeting

Wednesday 19th March - Football v's St. Marys (H)

Thursday 20th March - PA Mother's Day Gift Stalls at US/LS

Thursday 20th March - Y6 Netball Tournament Newnham Primary School

Friday 21st March - ISFA U11 Sevens South East Regional Tournament at Aldenham School

Saturday 22nd March - Exhibition Day