Scholarships, Results and Destinations

Some of the best senior schools in the country, in both the independent and maintained sector, lie within comfortable travelling distance of St. Helen’s College. Our Year 6 leavers go on to attend a wide range of excellent schools and the distribution changes from year to year.

Scholarships and Exhibitions

St. Helen’s College pupils have a strong record of achieving scholarships and exhibitions to some of the best local independent senior schools. Our 2020 leavers were awarded fifteen scholarships, including academic, musical and sports.

11+ Results and Destination Schools

We prepare pupils carefully for their transfer at 11+ to senior schools. The Head meets with parents regularly from Year 4 onwards to discuss senior school choices and to offer advice and guidance, and we provide an excellent programme of examination materials, exam practice and interview master classes and practice. Senior school Heads visit to speak with parents and pupils as part of the preparation process.

Many pupils sit independent school examinations and interviews, and many sit the national 11+ exams. The school has a very strong record of success in national 11+ exams, with pass rates far exceeding the national average.

The destinations of the 2020 leavers, with numbers of pupils attending each school shown in brackets, is given below.

Independent Schools
(*denotes scholarships offered)

Berkhamsted
Haberdashers Aske’s School for Girls
Haberdashers Aske’s School for Boys (2)
John Lyon School (3)
Merchant Taylor’s School
North London Collegiate School * 
Northwood College * * * * *
Notting Hill and Ealing
Royal Masonic School (2) *
St. Helen’s School * * *  
Thorpe House 
Wycombe Abbey *

Scholarships were also awarded at the following schools:

Headington
Long Close
Redham House 
St. Paul’s School for Girls

Grammar Schools

Beaconsfield High School for Girls (2)
Dr. Challoner's for Girls (2)
John Hamdan 
Langley Grammar (3)
Nonsuch 
Royal Grammar School for Boys (3)
St. Bernard’s Grammar School
Watford Grammar School for Boys 

Other Schools

Beaconsfield School 
Bishop Ramsey
Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls
Heathland
St Joan of Arc
Swakeleys School for Girls (2)
Vyners (4)

News

Posted on: 15/01/2021

Weekly News - Friday 15th January 2021

Remote Learning Many thanks to all of the parents who are supporting children at home with their remote learning. It is wonderful to hear about how independent the children are becoming as we embark upon our next phase of school closure. We understand the pressures that many of you are under, trying to juggle working from home, and we are incredibly grateful for all that you are doing to support the children's learning.  In assembly I shared some good tips for the children which you may wish to reiterate them: - make sure you have an organised workstation  - know your timetable: have it printed out next to you - have what you need for the day to hand e.g. pencil case, water bottle and any other resources your teacher has told you that you will require - communicate: ask for help if you are not sure what is being asked from you but remember the 4B's: brain, book, buddy, boss. In other words, read the instructions again, look at your books to help you (or Google classroom), talk to your friends to clarify and remember that you can also ask your teachers for help. We published these top tips for parents and top tips for children during our last lockdown and you may wish to look at these again.  To assist our teachers' wellbeing, we ask parents to follow our school email protocol and avoid sending emails to the teachers between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. We are encouraging all staff to switch off phone notifications and this may be good advice for all parents too. I am sure that many of your companies have similar protocols - it is crucial that we all step away from our devices and give ourselves some time.  Guess the Place Today we launched a new weekly 'Guess the Place' challenge in assembly. Each week, a different photo will be placed on the Learning Portal for the children to try and identify. For pupils in Years 1 and Y2 the challenge will be to identify different places in London and for pupils in Years 3 - 6 the challenge will be to identify different places from around the UK. The children will be able to submit their answers on the Learning Portal. Each week in our Friday assemblies the correct answer will be revealed and the next week's photos will be shared. We hope this will be fun for the whole family as we try to 'Guess the Place'! Writing Challenge January heralds once again the launch of the Chorleywood Bookshop Children’s Writing Competition and our children will be excited to know that Cressida Cowell, the Children’s Laureate and author of the How to Train Your Dragon and Wizards Of Once series, will be judging the entries in each of the competition’s three categories! Last year, this competition attracted over 500 entries from primary and secondary schools. The standard is extraordinary across each age category and previous well-known authors who have judged the event are invariably impressed by the standard as well as the variety.  This year’s theme is Friendship, a theme which should enable all those who take part to focus on positive messages. With challenges targeted to everyone from the youngest children in Reception to the oldest in Key Stage 4, we hope many of our pupils (and perhaps older ex-pupils) will take part. Full details of the competition and the relevant paperwork are now available on the bookshop's website at https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/schools-2/childrens-creative-writing-comp-2021/ Good luck, everyone. Do let us know how you get on. Fun Friday Next Friday, for a bit of fun, we are asking pupils at Upper School to wear a hat or fun headwear creation when they come online for our morning assembly. The children at Lower School might like to wear their hats when they have a Google Meet or perhaps to upload a photograph of themselves in their hats to Tapestry or Google Classroom. We look forward to seeing everyone's fun headwear! Fitness Challenges National survey evidence from the last lockdown found that around 36% of children were doing less physical activity than usual, with only 22% getting their recommended daily activity of 60 active minutes and a worrying 9% getting no physical activity.  Regular weekly PE activities continue to be provided in class Google classrooms and on Tapestry for all of our pupils, and we encourage our parents to ensure children continue to develop their skills and remain physically active. However, we are keen to ensure our pupils are keeping as active as possible, so we are also launching some additional easily accessible fitness activities, as follows. Parents can help our pupils get involved with from Monday.  Activity Calendar The first one is an 'Activity Calendar' with daily links to physical challenges all our pupils can have a go at whilst at home. It also includes a link to the Youth Sport Trusts Tuesday and Thursday after school club activities. Here is the January calendar. London Youth Games Virtual Fitness Challenge The second is an opportunity for our Year 2 - 6 pupils to take part in the London Youth Games Virtual Fitness Challenge. The challenges this term will be based around fitness and personal bests and may be done at home or at school (for those attending) in class or at breaks, to keep all of our young people active with minimal equipment required.  The challenges are all about participation and will be an opportunity for our pupils to represent the school and Hillingdon Borough and earn valuable points for the Hillingdon team in the London Youth Games competition! The first Fitness Challenge will go live on the LYG website on Monday 18th January and will be posted in the Year 2 - Year 6 PE Google classrooms. The children will have until Thursday evening each week to complete the challenge and add their results to the shared spreadsheet in their PE Google Classroom. These results will then be submitted to London Youth Games and the weekly leader board will be announced in our Monday assemblies.  We hope lots of our pupils will have a go at the virtual fitness challenge and try to get St. Helen's College and Hillingdon to the top of the leader board each week! We Like to Move it Finally, our Year 6 Sports Captains and PE staff put together a fun workout video at the end of last term for us all to get up and move to in January. Have lots of fun joining in with them - see if you can get the whole family up moving and share your videos with us!  Click here for the video. Blue Peter On YouTube CBBC have launched Blue Peter on YouTube and we are sure that pupils and parents will be interested in this, for entertainment outside of home-schooling hours now we’re in lockdown. Blue Peter is the longest running children's TV show in the world and the videos are suitable for 5-11 year olds. There are world record breaking challenges, arts and crafts, environmental videos, cooking and baking how tos, inspirational films, gaming, celebrity appearances, dance routines and music performances. The channel also features ways of getting a Blue Peter badge, behind the scenes footage and extra content about the presenters Adam, Lindsey, Mwaksy, Richie and Henry the Blue Peter dog. If you are interested, please subscribe to https://www.youtube.com/bluepeter (it’s completely free to subscribe!) and also don’t forget to watch the live programme on CBBC at 5.00 p.m. every week, or on BBC iPlayer. E-Scooters We have recently received an email from Hillingdon Council's School Travel and Road Safety team, regarding the increased use of E-Scooters across the borough. The council have received numerous reports of E-Scooters being ridden across the borough on public roads, in parks and even through town centres.  Please read the E-Scooter guidance document which has been created to inform parents and residents about the use of E-Scooters. We encourage parents to have a look at this document as there are road safety and legal implications associated with the unlawful use of E-Scooters within the borough. ABRSM Results Many of our children took ABRSM examinations on their instruments last term, although some were inevitably delayed due to Covid. This list of results is therefore not yet complete, but we did not want to delay any further in sharing with you the results that we have received so far, in order to celebrate these achievements. Very, very well done to all of the children who have been practising so hard to work towards exams, and to those who have already sat their exams and achieved such great results! To those who have exams coming up next week, we wish you the best of luck. 3B       Emily S Violin Grade 1 Pass Raiden B Guitar Grade 1 Merit Viren C Piano Grade 1 Pass         3M       Grace O'H Cello Grade 1 Awaiting result Verity S Violin Grade 1 Awaiting result Kal-el M Piano Grade 1 Awaiting result Avantika G Piano Grade 2 Awaiting result Aaran B Piano Grade 1 Awaiting result         4L       Arshia S Piano Grade 1 Merit Arshvir S Piano Grade 1 Awaiting result Minaya W Piano Grade 1 Merit Minaya W Singing Grade 1 Distinction         4T       Advik S Singing Grade 2 Merit Advik S Guitar Grade 1 Pass Xavier B Guitar Grade 1 Pass 5A       Nirvaan D Piano Grade 1 Distinction Amber P Violin Grade 2 Pass Siyana M Piano Grade 1 Distinction Siyana M Singing Grade 3 Merit Sahib N Piano Grade 1 Pass Luka K Guitar Grade 1 Pass Nya P Flute Grade 2 Distinction Anokhi B Piano Grade 1 Distinction Zach F Oboe Grade 2 Distinction Layla O Piano Grade 2 Awaiting result Leo J Piano Grade 1 Merit Aryan  Piano Grade 1 Awaiting result         5G       Kiran A Singing Grade 2 Pass   Piano Grade 1 Pass Adam O Piano Grade 1 Merit Shruthi T Sining Grade 4 Merit Diyan C Cello Grade 1 Awaiting result Devan S Piano Grade 1 Merit         6R       Arjan D  Piano Grade 2 Pass Frederika T Piano Grade 1 Distinction Esha C Singing Grade 4 Awaiting result         6M       Riya C Singing Grade 2 Pass Manisher L Piano Grade 2 Pass Vidhit N Piano Grade 2 Pass
Posted on: 15/01/2021

Supporting Ourselves

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly difficult for us all and this week I would like to share with you a ‘Coronavirus Anxiety Booklet’ which was shared with me by Mrs. Brooker, our school counsellor who works with some of our pupils in our ‘Time to Talk’ sessions. As a school we are so fortunate to have Mrs. Brooker on the staff as not many schools have their own in-house counsellor who is highly trained and experienced in supporting the children during difficult times. Children might not always recognise that they are feeling anxious, so it is important that we all listen to the children and appreciate how they might be feeling during this surreal time. However, as well as supporting the children, we also need to support ourselves and some of us may be feeling the effects of our current situation more than others. Therefore, I encourage to you to take a look at this wonderful resource which has been published by The Wellness Society. I regard myself as being very in touch with my mental and emotional wellbeing and my daily mindfulness practice has been such a support to me during this period. However, the indigestion which I had put down to too much good food and wine over the festive period could actually be my body telling me something different!  Regardless of how we all ‘think’ we are coping in this pandemic, I highly recommend you give yourself time to read through the workbook as the toolkit has something for everyone and does make you reflect on how we can make this time in our lives and that of our families that little bit better. Happy reading and I truly hope that you will find it interesting and useful. Stay safe everyone. Thank you for all that you are doing at home with the children and do look after yourselves.  Mrs. Drummond
Posted on: 8/01/2021

Weekly News - Friday 8th January 2021

Cressida Cowell Art Competition Runner Up! Huge congratulations to Alexander A (2H) who was named a runner up in Cressida Cowell’s #CreateWithCress winter holiday card competition. Alexander created a superbly creative card and received a hand written note from Cressida Cowell commending him on his imagination and skill! Well done, Alexander.             Year 2 Seahorses Year 2 produced some really excellent art work this week. Inspired by Eric Carle's 'Mister Seahorse' book, they got creative with colour and design. Their finished pieces are really beautiful. You can see them on our Galleries page here. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse Competition In Upper School assemblies this week, Mrs. Drummond has been reading The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse to the children. This beautiful book is filled with original illustrations and inspiring quotes and the four characters strike up friendships and begin to make sense of their world together. If you do not already own it, we recommend purchasing a copy as it is wonderful for adults and children alike to return to again and again. We would like the children, and any interested parents, to create an illustration with an accompanying quote, inspired by the illustrations and quotes in The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Quotes should be centred on at least one of the St. Helen's College values: Caring Helpfulness Co-operation Courage Kindness Perseverance Fairness Friendliness Patience Respect Courtesy Forgiveness Determination Self Discipline Gratitude Honesty Love Harmony Growth We hope that you will have lots of fun getting creative over the next two weeks and there will be prizes for winning entries in Year 2/3 and Year 4/5/6. There may even be a prize for a winning parent entry! Words From The Library Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Emanuel, our Upper School Librarians, are very sorry not to be having their usual interaction with the children while the library remains closed in lockdown. They would like us to remind the children that 'reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay put'. And they would also like parents to remind children of these words from the ever positive and very wise Dr. Seuss: The more that you read The more things you will know The more that you learn The more places you'll go!   Do please keep encouraging your children to look at books often and, if old enough, to read to you every day as well as to themselves. Do carve out time to read to them too, no matter how old they are. Reading for pleasure is one of life's great joys! Uniform - Summer Boater Hats The girls' boater hat is currently being temporarily discontinued as the manufacturer has decided to close their business due to the pandemic. Pullen's do have limited numbers of the boater hats in stock for the summer term, but (depending on parental demand) may run short for 2021, particularly as parents may not have bought a boater in 2020 due to the lockdown. Pullen's are working on re-sourcing, but they do not believe that they will be able to obtain stock for 2021 as the source is in Sri Lanka and the raw materials from China. Therefore, girls will not be required to wear a boater hat this summer term if they do not have one. We expect that Pullen's will be able to organise an alternative supplier for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Posted on: 8/01/2021

Kindness and Compassion

As we embrace 2021, it is more important than ever before that we bring our attention to the core values on which St. Helen’s College prides itself, and reflect on how we as a community live our lives. We know that the next few months may bring challenges and worries for many reasons but together we need to put the children at the centre of all of this to give them hope, joy, laughter and some form of routine each day. In doing so, we can enable them to continue flourishing as creative and inquisitive young learners. This week in Upper School assemblies the children have been introduced to one of my new favourite books, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, by Charlie Mackesy. The book charts the journey of four wonderful characters as they share philosophical questions on friendship, hope and love. The book can be enjoyed by anyone from a 3 year old to adults and I know that many of the staff in school and some children are already familiar with it. I regularly dip into the book and find myself pondering over the words.  I am often inspired by them; they can raise emotions I was not aware of but the book has also given me great strength over the period of this pandemic.   I highly recommend that every family has a copy of this book to share, love and discuss together.  There is also a lovely audible version of the book available here which you may enjoy too.  We have launched a challenge for the children (and parents) in today’s newsletter to create their own philosophical quotes and illustrations, in the style of Charlie Mackesy, based on our school values. I hope that many of you will have a go, and I very much look forward to sharing them with you in due course.  If you would like to meet Charlie, as the children have this week, then do watch this short video here and visit his website here. I leave you with some of the words from Charlie in his introduction to the book: “I hope this book encourages you, perhaps, to live courageously with more kindness for yourself and for others”. Over the following weeks we need to be kind to each other and to ourselves as we navigate our way through yet another period of uncertainty but with hope for the future. We need to celebrate all the good things present with us now - your wonderful children - who this week have given so much joy to their teachers and friends, albeit remotely for most.  Mrs. Drummond
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