School News and Head's Blog

8 Blog Posts found

Posted on: 27/09/2019

STEAM Day by Mr Tovell

It has been a week since our 4th Annual St. Helen’s College STEAM day last Friday and the last week has afforded me time to reflect upon a day to be truly proud of. In her first assembly of the year, Mrs. Drummond challenged the children to ‘be their very best selves’ and this could not have been more evident during the activities that staff, many parent helpers and  Susan O’Connor - author of the wonderful book Creative Genius Journal, which I highly recommend to parents of children of all ages - put on. Indeed, it is only due to the hard work, creativity and highly supportive and collaborative nature of the St Helen’s community that the children are given opportunities to excel and be their very best selves in days such as these. Activities in both the Lower and Upper school were engaging as well as challenging and included a Year 2 and 3 Nile crossing challenge and a Systems Thinking Workshop in Upper School; Kaleidoscopes and the spectacular Rocket Mice in Lower School.  Furthermore, it is the creative nature of our day to day curriculum that provides your children with the tools to excel when such challenges are posed to them.  The children’s behaviour was exemplary, demonstrating wonderful collaboration skills, creativity, resilience and resourcefulness to overcome learning challenges. They were able to reflect upon their successes and targets to help them to tackle similar learning challenges in the future - and most importantly, they had FUN. I cannot stress enough how brilliant they were; they really are a credit to you all. As Josh Valman, author of last week’s blog, stated ‘it is people working together who solve problems’ and based on what the staff witnessed, we may have some future changers of the world amongst us. With outstanding learning taking place all over the school and the sun shining, it was wonderful to welcome our Prime Minister to our school as he got to see the very best of St. Helen’s College. He is a man of great importance and the children were thrilled that he took a genuine interest in their learning that day. In the morning, I began my speech to the Upper School children with ‘I love this school’, and after a day of such spectacular success in both Lower and Upper School where the children really were their very best selves, those words ring all the more true today.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Genius-Journal-resilient-differently/dp/1916497918  
Posted on: 27/09/2019

Weekly News - Friday 27th September 2019

On Tuesday we welcomed Elaine Halligan from the Parent Practice to school to talk to staff in our staff meeting time and then in the evening for parents from Nursery to Y2 about raising children's self esteem. The evening event for parents was a sell out and we have had wonderful feedback from all participants.  For parents of older children who may have more access to screens/devices at home the Parent Practice is holding a London premiere of a very thought-provoking film, 'Screenagers: The Next Chapter' on October 8th, followed by a panel discussion.  You can watch the trailer of the film here: https://www.screenagersmovie.com/nc-trailer You can find out more information and book tickets here: https://www.theparentpractice.com/courses-and-workshops?course_type=workshop#screenagers---the-next-chapter.-movie-premier-and-discussion   Sports Captains and House Captains Congratulations to the following Year 6 pupils who have been elected this week. Windsor Sports Captains Daniel G-J and Rhea A-V. Windsor House Captains Jack H and Esha T Cambria Sports Captains Harrison J and Krisha S Cambria House Captains Patrick E, Grace B and Laura B Sports News The netball and football teams had a positive start to the season this week with both our teams giving determined performances in their inaugural matches of the year. Our Year 5 netballers demonstrated great game sense to work effectively as a team in both attack and defence against St Mary's School, Gerrards Cross winning the match 2 - 1. Our Years 5and 6 footballers showed great resilience against a competitive team from St Mary's RC School, Uxbridge drawing their match 2 - 2.  Well done!    Coffee Mornings It has been lovely to see so many parents attending our coffee mornings over the past couple of weeks and to have your feedback on how the children are settling in their new classes. I am sorry to have missed the Kingfishers morning this week but I am attending the annual Head's Conference. Harvest Festival The Upper School Harvest Festival is on Tuesday 1st October at 9 a.m. in All Saints Church. All parents are welcome to attend. Please send in non-perishable hamper/ baskets/contributions with your child on Tuesday morning - they will then bring them to church and they will be donated to the local Salvation Army.   Parking Please can we all work together as a community to adhere to the school parking regulations which can be found here.
Posted on: 20/09/2019

The Future By Josh Valman

Last week I had the pleasure of returning to St. Helen’s College, to speak at the annual Prizegiving, 13 years after I left my class of Year 6. I’ve returned to the school several times during the new Year 7s’ time at St. Helen’s, introducing conversation around robotics, engineering and entrepreneurship. I felt it was timely to talk about the potential they all have to shape lives and careers that have true impact on the world. When I left St. Helen’s College, not that long ago, technology was still new. Touch typing was an exclusive skill, and a mobile phone was yet to become the constant interface for life. In the last 10-15 years we have seen technology dominate our lives, as it makes everything easier and quicker. However, this incredible development has had vast impact to both us and our planet. Our decisions are driven by ease, and the impact of those decisions are largely overlooked. We have created a society and a way of life that has enormous consequence on the world’s resources, our environment and even our own health. We are at a point where change is necessary, but we are limited by the fact that humans are creatures of habit. We are unlikely to see massive change in developed generations – purely from new awareness of our impact. Previously our behaviours were influenced by those around us, our parents, schools, peers and government. But in this new world of technology, it’s the machines that define us. Our phones (even as a Year 7!) are the things we wake up to, and go to sleep next to. Our behaviours are shaped by the products that enable our lives. It’s for this reason that the future of the world is very much in the hands of the engineer: the problem solver, the creative thinker. It is our responsibility, as the younger generation, to create the future of our world, and how we all behave around it. It will be the engineers who create the products and experiences that change human behaviour to become more sustainable. I began my engineering career aged 10, whilst at St. Helen’s College. Fascinated by the BBC TV show, Robot Wars, I set out to design and build something competitive, beginning with Lego and Sellotape, until I learnt the Maths and the CAD design skills to create something more advanced. It’s essential that parents and schools support young people with the ability to match education with reality. The intensity of exam schedules and the sheer volume of curriculum that needs to be consumed can make additional work feel oppressive and unnecessary. However, bringing practical application of subjects into the classroom has a huge impact on engagement and the ability to understand and visualise theory. We can provide examples of how the current curriculum applies to the real world through embracing extra-curricular clubs and competitions. In the time I have spent working in industry, it’s perhaps surprising to note that a technical problem is incredibly rare. The majority of work problems and restrictions in the real world have been focussed on people, process and communication. Promoting stronger presentation, negotiation and communication skills through practical teaching at schools has a massive impact on students’ ability to succeed in the real world – with or without that A* in maths or extensive knowledge of the Battle of Hastings! It’s been important also to note the importance of enjoying the work you do. Nobody really knows what they’re doing, but those who are most successful are those who are passionate about their life and have made it a career. The pressure to select a career and pursue it is intense, but helping children to explore interesting subjects with a link to potential careers is possible and exciting! The standout trends of our most successful young team members and graduates is always their exposure to varied work experience, cultures, challenges – and not the nth percentile academic results. In 2012 we founded RPD International, with the purpose of making the development and manufacturing of new products accessible. We now power R&D departments around the world for many new, big brand products in the market. We craft everything from sustainability developments in shampoo and deodorant packaging, to medical devices that improve the accessibility and power of modern medicine, and every strange new invention between these. It’s our role in the world to empower people to create the next generation of products which will change the way we work, behave and live our lives. I need the help of you as parents and influencers to encourage play and practical learning as part of schooling, creating exposure to the real world and making it known that we’re all still working it out! It was my mission, in the conversation with the graduating pupils of 2019, to urge them to consider this the first step on an engineering career. To see through the maths lessons, and see that we all need their help to invent, develop and produce a positive future for our world. Josh Valman is CEO of RPD International. He attended St. Helen’s College from 1999 to 2006.
Posted on: 20/09/2019

Weekly News - Friday 20th September 2019

Prime Minister Boris Johnson Reads To Year 1 We were thrilled today to receive a visit from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is working with the BookTrust children's charity to promote children's reading - a cause dear to St. Helen's College! This month the BookTrust charity have launched their 'Time To Read' campaign, which encourages families to share books and stories each day and to use books as a way to explore issues that impact on wellbeing, such as anxiety or friendship issues.  St. Helen's College parents know already that, as a school, we promote reading daily with your child and believe that this underpins all learning. We were therefore delighted to be approached by the Prime Minister's office to arrange a visit for Mr. Johnson to read to our Year 1 children. The children were enthralled today as he read them The Cave by Rob Hodgson, which showed that things aren't always what they seem, and that life can be full of surprises! Mr. Johnson also visited Upper School and was hugely impressed by the STEAM Day activities going on all around (see below for more details!). It is a testament to the ethos and success of St. Helen's College and its pupils that, having visited last year, Mr. Johnson chose to come back and see our children again!       STEAM Day It has been a busy, purposeful and exciting day of learning across the entire school from Ducklings to Year 6 today as children have taken part in a wide range of STEAM Day activities. At Upper School, pupils took part in practical and academic indoor and outdoor activities run by staff and parents, including building cardboard kayaks, cracking a code using maths, making marble mazes and investigating endothermic and exothermic reactions. One of the sessions was run by Susan O'Connor, the author of 'Creative Genius Journal'. The children worked in groups to design, create and make playground equipment, challenging their collaboration and communication skills. We would highly recommend that parents take a look at her journal for 7-12 year olds: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Genius-Journal-resilient-differently/dp/1916497918/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=creative+genius+journal&qid=1568964942&sr=8-2 At Lower School, the children became engrossed in Lego mazes, making kaleidoscopes and investigating how colours mix. They used their technological skills to take part in some digital animation and became apprentice engineers when building spaghetti towers. They used our outside space to make bookmarks from the natural resources around us and blasted rocket mice into the beautiful blue sky!  Our youngest Helenians, the Ducklings, also took part in some age-appropriate STEAM activities. The children helped to measure water into three different water pits and then got into small groups. Using lots of colourful bath bombs, the children got to explore how putting them into water can make them change and how our senses reacted! The children spoke about the sounds that the bath bombs made in water such as "POP! "Fuzzzzzzz" and "Whoosh", adding that they smelt "fruity", "sweet" and some even thought they smelt "yummy". The children also explored how, when the differently coloured waters were mixed together, the colour of the water changed and some even got brighter! Ducklings finished off celebrating their STEAM Day with dropping some mints into a bottle of pop and watch it go up, just like a volcano! This really was, across the school, an inspirational day that children and staff will never forget! You can see photographs on our Galleries page. Loving their Learning The dining room and playground have been a cacophony of educational chatter this week - it has been super to hear the children discussing the number of syllables within the lines of their nature Haiku poems (Y3), how the Romans came to seize England and why (Y3),  Verbal Reasoning was the best lesson for one child this week because he loves playing with words (Y4), Year 5 pupils enjoyed their water challenge as they worked collaboratively to design and make their water pipe systems discussing the many elements which had to work together for the most efficient delivery of water;  Year 6 discussing how to spot 'Fake News'.  How rewarding for the teachers to know that our pupils' learning does not just stop in the classroom - the love of learning which is being embedded exudes from them  through their day and I am sure is then shared with you all at home too! Community and London Ambassadors We are delighted that St. Helen's College is being recognised in the local community as one of the leading schools in addressing the environmental issue of traffic and pollution surrounding schools. You can read a little about this here. We were also delighted to hear this week that we have been nominated for a London wide award as one of the top London Schools for our hard work around school travel and road safety. We have been nominated for two categories: School of excellence in walking - for our brilliant walking loyalty scheme School of excellence in road safety/pupil led project - for our hard work with the Junior Roadwatch project We have also been nominated for the category of 'Long Serving Travel Champion' for all our hard work over the 9 years that St. Helen's College has been championing this. Student Council The Student Council in Upper School have had a great start to the term. In their first meeting they discussed general council etiquette and electing the secretary and spokesperson. The first item for discussion for all the classes was whether they would like to see the introduction of flavoured water available at break times.  There was a resounding majority vote for this and this will be rolled out to the children at Upper School early October.  The pupils will now need to vote on the flavours they would favour: strawberry, cucumber, lemon, orange...? We look forward to hearing their suggestions and I am sure that Soula will be able to source a variety of healthy options. For pupils who prefer milk there will still be some available. The Zen Garden was also an area which was discussed and the pupils are very strong in their passion for only using this area for quiet and peaceful moments which they will ensure will continue to happen. The pupils were then reminded of some of the suggestions they have made over the past couple of years which have been acted upon: new cutlery and cups for the dining room, no onion in the macaroni, the addition of the The Retreat and the Castle (partly funded by the school and the PA) and table top games for the playground...to name but a few. We look forward to a superb year of pupil voice. Meet the Teacher Evenings Thank you to all of the parents who have recently attended our Meet the Teacher evenings.  It has been encouraging to have such a great attendance at these evenings, demonstrating the parental support which will no doubt help your children to achieve their very best this year. Please contact your form teachers if you have any further queries or questions. New Parents' Lunch The PA committee and new families to St. Helen's College had a wonderful afternoon socialising in the Windsor Garden last Saturday, getting to know each other and finding out more about the work of the PA.  Thank you to all who attended and the PA for providing the lovely food and refreshments. If you are interested in supporting the work of the PA or becoming the class form representative please contact Mrs. Clements at info@sthelenscollege.com.     Individual Pupil Photographs Monday 23rd - Ducklings will have their individual photos from 8.30 a.m.  Wednesday 25th Lower School - siblings can be photographed together from 8 a.m. Friday 27th Upper School - siblings can be photographed together from 7.40 a.m. Personal Belongings Pupils should not be bringing in football/Disney or similar collector cards to school. Unfortunately they have caused upset in the playground and in classes! Fitbits should also not be worn to school; however, a watch is acceptable.
Posted on: 13/09/2019

An Education of Value - Head's Blog

I have been observing our children over the last 8 days since the beginning of term - I am overwhelmed with how they have embraced the new changes and experiences. The virtues  which children develop over time are underpinned by the values which are held by the families, the community  and school. This week in assembly the Upper School pupils discussed Aristotle, one of the great teachers and philosophers of Ancient Greece,  who was interested in thinking about how humans can live a good life. It is by thinking about this question, discussing the question and by the adults surrounding the children modelling virtuous behaviours that our pupils will grow into confident, articulate, creative, caring and resilient young adults. Last night we welcomed one of our alumni, Josh Valman, to our annual Prizegiving as our Guest of Honour.  Josh attended St. Helen’s from 1999 to 2006 and continued his education at Vyners School. Josh is now a world leader in rapid innovation and manufacturing. He is the founder and CEO of RPD International, a business powering corporate Research and Development  departments around the world.  Josh’s passion for engineering has driven his success  but he is very aware that it is often very difficult to find the right staff to develop his products - saying that often the most technically brilliant engineers are not the ideal employee for his creative business. Instead Josh looks for attributes such as resilience, good interpersonal skills, empathy, collaboration, co-operation - people who really care about what they are doing, want to make a difference, enjoy their work and feel fulfilled by what they are doing. As Josh spoke to the children last night I could see the Year 7 pupils who have just started at their new secondary school  sit up and take notice, nodding in agreement with him, who knows...perhaps in a few years time another one of our Old Helenians may be a member of RPD international!  (I hope to have Josh blog as a guest next week!) Our old Year 6 pupils have certainly made a good impact at their new senior schools - it was heartwarming to speak with several parents last night who were so grateful for the amazing foundations that have been put in place for their children’s future through the ethos, the staff, the curriculum and the community of St. Helen’s College. We will continue to promote our school values hand in hand with you as parents to enable your children to lead a good life.  CARING HELPFULNESS COOPERATION KINDNESS PERSEVERANCE COURAGE FAIRNESS FRIENDLINESS PATIENCE RESPECT COURTESY FORGIVENESS DETERMINATION SELF-DISCIPLINE GRATITUDE HONESTY Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 13/09/2019

Weekly News - Friday 13th September 2019

PA Welcome Event For New Families The PA and staff look forward to welcoming all of our new families (including children!) to their Welcome Event which will take place in the Evans Hall and Windsor Garden from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow.  Meet The Teacher Evening - Year 4 and Year 5 We are looking forward to seeing our Year 4 and Year 5 parents on Tuesday evening for the Meet The Teacher evening. Drinks will be served from 6.45 p.m. in the Windsor Garden and then the classes will split into the Evans Hall and the Upper School Hall. Year 4 Pupils Discover Ancient Greece! The Year 4 children have begun their history topic on the Ancient Greeks in style on Tuesday. They were treated to a full day of fun, immersing themselves in the Ancient Greek way of life through an interactive show in the morning and two follow up workshops in the afternoon. The show saw the children become assistants to a trainee time traveller who went back in time for her 53rd attempt at passing her final trainee mission. The trainee found herself at the house of Jocasta, an Athenian housewife. As part of the mission the children learnt about many aspects of Ancient Greece from Jocasta, including the gods, the Olympics, Greek architecture, democracy and the role of women.  The workshops further developed the children's historical knowledge. In the first, the children had to think about the legacy of the Greeks in order to help the time travellers set up a new history TV programme. In the second workshop, Jocasta set up a scene in her courtyard depicting life in the household, with the children taking on the various roles. Then the children re-enacted her wedding.  It was a busy day, and thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part. You can see photographs on our Galleries page. uTalk Language Challenge This year, Upper School children will be participating in the uTalk Language Challenge as usual. In a change to past year's routines, the competition final will be within this academic year, which means that Year 6 children may enter, so the competition is open to all children in Years 2-6. Registration costs only £5 per child and gives each participant access to 12 topics on the uTalk app for the rest of the school year (2019/20). Every child will be provided with a unique username and password which they can use to login to the uTalk app as well as view their scores, progress and achievements in their very own online dashboard. Teachers will also get access to the same 12 topics as the children. This year there will not be a national final. Instead, children will take part in regional finals. Round One, Spanish, will start in September and run until 10 a.m. on Friday December 20th 2019. Children can start scoring points as soon as they have downloaded the app and logged in using the username and password with which they will be supplied. Pupils who score 500 points (out of a possible 3,960) will go through to Round Two, which will run from 10 a.m. on Monday 6th January 2020 until 10 a.m. on Friday 27th March 2020. Children will be learning the same 12 topics in French with the 30 highest scorers in each region going through to their regional final where they will compete against the clock and each other to be named uTalk JLC Champion for that region. In the event of more than 30 children in each region achieving full marks, extra French topics will be unlocked for them to learn to help select the top 30. If you are interested in registering your child, please email Mrs. Stark at tstark@sthelenscollege.com as soon as possible. Engineering The Future Many of our pupils and parents were inspired by the speech given by our Guest of Honour, Josh Valman, at last night's Prizegiving. Josh is an Old Helenian, now in his early twenties, who has built a multi-million dollar engineering business. His company, RPD International, helps major multi-national companies as well as smaller entrepreneurs bring products to market more quickly. We were extremely lucky to hear from him last night about why engineers are crucial to our planet's future. For any budding young engineers or families interested in following this up with further exploration and education, we would recommend looking at the forthcoming events, talks and family workshops at the Royal Institute: http://view.email.rigb.org.uk/?qs=b5897f9c648de160f4fe37200bb85a7d9ebf5a6b2391c30a70657ed2f8485bd0d99d862c930366524733171f50a74314a98b104cf72e3663eef9a47d1ba6b4df7d3bfa3adc716c815f66db5a7597a57e  STEAM Day We are very much looking forward to our exciting STEAM Day which will take place on Friday 20th September. Thank you in advance to all those parents and staff who have already volunteered to run workshops or assist on the day. It will be a wonderful day of community collaboration and creativity. Co-Curricular Clubs Thank you to parents for selecting your child's co-curricular preferences via SchoolsBuddy. Allocations have now been made and you will need to follow the instructions in your allocation email and make payment promptly to secure your club places. Clubs begin from Monday (16th September). We still have a few places on the following clubs, which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis now. Please email Miss Walker at swalker@sthelenscollege.com if your child would like to join one of these clubs: Art Y1 Yoga Y1 Taekwondo Y2/3  Taekwondo Y4/5/6 â€‹ Hockey Y4/5/6 Printing Y4/5/6 Football Y5 Coding Y5/6 We look forward to another enriching and exciting term of co-curricular activities.  
Posted on: 6/09/2019

Welcome Back! - Head's Blog

    Welcome back to all of our returning families and to our new families who have joined our wonderful community: welcome! I am sure that you have all had a super summer. I have had an incredible summer, relaxing, resting and socialising with family and friends but there is only so much of this ‘non-routine’ that I can take! I admit, I was so ready to come back to school to be energised by the buzz of enquiring minds and the energy of our pupils, staff and parents. I am sure that you will agree that the children have embraced the new school year across the school. From our fledgling Ducklings to our new Year 6 pupils, there is an almost tangible sense of joie de vivre.   As the children settle into their new routines, I have observed and overheard them discussing the ‘Golden Rules’ of working together as a community, writing and signing classroom pledges and agreeing how they can be their best selves.  Our informal school motto: ‘Strive for excellence Help others achieve Care for each other’ resonates around the school, along with our ‘Ready, Respectful, Safe’ behaviour mantra. Your children are amazing and I feel truly blessed to witness their awe and wonder each and every day. As your children embark upon their new academic year, I would like to share with you all extracts from an article I recently read in Attain magazine to help you all settle into the school year. I have slightly altered the order but strongly recommend that you read the full article to give greater context! 10 Golden Rules for Parents Do read a bedtime story to your child every night (or hear them read every night as they move up through the school). Do teach your child to be independent. Do play games with your child (as often as possible) and teach them how to lose gracefully; this will also spark their creativity and help their concentration. Do read everything the school sends to you. Do be proud of everything your child brings home and wow at it no matter how huge, hideous, or unrecognisable it may be.  Do not compete with other parents about who has the most accomplished child. Do not take your child out of school early at the end of term or return late at the beginning of term. Do respect and believe what the teachers say about your child, and communicate with your form teacher if you have any concerns (it is teamwork that will bring out the best in your children). Do set a good example in phone etiquette. Don't feel the need to invite everyone to your child's birthday party (this may be difficult in Lower School but gets increasingly easier as the children get older!) The full article may be read here https://digital.attain.education/.   We look forward to yet another successful and joyful academic year with your children at the centre of our focus!   Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 6/09/2019

Weekly News - Friday 6th September 2019

St. Helen's College Gains Gold Travel Award We are thrilled that, having reviewed our School Travel and Road Safety (STARS) Accreditation, Transport for London (TfL) have awarded St. Helen's College a Gold STARS award this year! To achieve Gold, St. Helen's College had to be judged to be among the top 10% of London schools, setting high standards to inspire others to transform travel habits, fully engaging the wider community to promote best practices and proving a measurable reduction in the number of journeys made by car every day. The school had to provide evidence that, within three academic years, we had completed 25 different travel activities, 15 supporting activities and 8 consultation activities. We also had to demonstrate at least a 6% modal shift away from the car or at least 90% of pupils travelling actively to/from school. This accolade recognises all of the hard work being done at school and in the community, led by our pupil Mini and Junior Road Safety Officers and our staff School Travel Champions, to improve sustainable travel and road safety in and around our school. The school's 'drop and go' schemes, bike/scooter parks, pedestrian and Bikeability courses, Walk on Wednesday initiative and walking loyalty scheme, as well as the Parent Parking Pledge and our 'Speed Aware' scheme run in partnership with local police, are all initiatives driven by the school community which are helping to reduce traffic and promote road safety in our local area. This really is a partnership between staff, parents, pupils and the wider community and we are grateful to everyone involved. As a community, we should feel very proud of this award recognising all that we are doing to improve our local environment for all. School Games Platinum Award   We are absolutely delighted to announce that St. Helen's College has achieved the School Games PLATINUM Mark Award for the 2018/19 and 2019/2020 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme, launched in 2012 and facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust, which rewards schools for their commitment to the development of participation in physical activity and competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success in providing opportunities for competitive and non-competitive sport and young leadership. We are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible. As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded with this award. We look forward to applying once again in 2020! Relay for Life 2019 Thank you so much to all parents, pupils and staff who supported the Cancer Research Relay for Life this year, donating, participating in fundraising activities and joining the St. Helen's College team for the Relay itself. Our team raised an amazing £4,025.81 in total, which was the second highest total raised by a team. We are very proud of our ongoing commitment to this event and to raising money for Cancer Research.  Charity Walk On Sunday 1st September, Mrs. Cheema (mother of Amar and Suraj, Old Helenians who left us in 2019 and 2016) organised a 12 hour long charity walk at Hillingdon Stadium to raise awareness of bile duct cancer and to raise much needed funds for the charity AMMF, which is the UK's only charity for Cholangiocarcinoma.  Over 150 people participated throughout the day, many of whom were St. Helen's College families and friends. Thank you to everyone who attended or donated to the charity.  You can read Mrs. Cheema's inspiring blog at https://mybeautifullife.org/2019/09/03/walkathon-best-day-ever/   Celebrating Success So many of our pupils achieve great things both inside and outside of school. We have numerous pupils who are selected for high calibre sports teams, including cricket, football, chess and athletics, and our musicians share their talents in many areas too. Aarna (Year 6) recently played at the prestigious Cadogan Hall with the Hillingdon Music Hub and Catherine (Year 6) plays flute with the National Children’s Orchestra (NCO) and has now been awarded a place to study music every Saturday at the Royal College of Music. Please do continue to share your children's successes with us as it is important that we are aware of their all round achievements. Prizegiving 2019 We look forward to seeing our Year 6 leavers next week and many current families at our annual Prizegiving at the Winston Churchill Hall in Ruislip on Thursday evening. Summer Schools 2019 Once again this year we ran two extremely successful Summer School weeks in August (in addition to our Holiday Club which ran throughout the summer holidays and was very well attended).  At Lower School Summer School, the theme was Around The World. The activities focussed on different parts of the world, with a different country being 'visited' each day. Children took part in a variety of arts & crafts activities and indoor and outdoor play, all linking to this geographical theme. At Upper School Summer School, held at Hillingdon Outdoor Activities Centre, the children took part in a 'Pirates and Bucanneers' themed week, enjoying sailing, kayaking, dragon boating and other water activities, which often culminated in the children jumping joyfully into the lake! They also took part in land activities, including climbing and abseiling, the commando challenge, pedal karting and pond dipping, all using the wonderful facilities available at HOAC. You can see photographs of the children enjoying themselves on the Galleries page. PA Welcome Event For New Parents The PA Welcome Event for parents who are new to the school will take place next Saturday, 14th September, from 12 to 2 p.m. in The Evans Hall. We hope to see all our new families there! STEAM Day - Friday 20th September Preparations are well underway for our exciting STEAM Day on Friday 20th September. Thank you to all staff and parents who have offered to run or assist with the workshops. If there are any Upper School parents who would still like to assist, please email Mr. Tovell at dtovell@sthelenscollege.com. School at Work Open Morning - Wednesday 16th October  Our next School at Work Open Morning will take place on Wednesday 16th October, when we will be welcoming groups of prospective parents to look around the school. In the past, existing parents have been very helpful in displaying posters to promote Open Morning in places of business, homes or cars, and in passing on flyers to any interested friends, relatives or neighbours. We are sending home a couple of flyers/posters for each family today in the hope that you will help to promote this event for us once again. We thank you in advance for your help and please do let us know if you can make use of any more posters or leaflets. School Magazine - 2018-2019 We hope that you all enjoyed reading the new annual school magazine which was sent home to each family on the last day of the summer term. If your child was absent on the last day of term and you have not yet received your copy, it should have been sent home with them this week. If any parent would like to purchase extra copies of the magazine, it is possible to do this at a cost of £12 per copy. Please pop in to see Mrs. Rooney at Lower School or Mrs. Smith at Upper School as soon as possible if you would like to buy a copy. Payment for these should be made in cash.

8 Blog Posts found