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fhgfdgdfgdg 2016 Friday 22nd March, 2019

FROM THE DEPUTY HEAD’S DESK

The GCSE examinations are now underway, with some exceptional performances from the Year 11 drama pupils this week.

Two pupils who deserve a mention are Alexandria in Year 8 who raised money for Kidney Care UK through a cake sale and competition last week; we are eagerly awaiting the total in the final assembly of the term. I would also like to mention Ruby in class 4C who is cutting and donating her hair to raise money for two charities, The Little Princess Trust and Children with Cancer UK. These two girls are running a child centered initiative to benefit others. This is truly remarkable and a sign of their selflessness.

I would like to draw your attention to a variety of charity events taking place across the school next week. The Year 11 prefects are coordinating them and they are raising money for Edie’s Butterfly Appeal. Information on the events is in the newsletter. This will culminate in a non-uniform day on the last day of term, Friday 29th March. On that day, pupils may wear casual clothes that are appropriate for school.

Finally, whilst I understand parking is sometimes a challenge at Saint Nicholas, I would like to remind parents that the staff car park and parking beyond the barrier is out of bounds to parents. If you wish to park your car when dropping off or collecting your child, you should park in the car park or at the front of Hillingdon House. Parents who are dropping off between the senior school entrance and the infant playground must not leave their car as this is not a parking area, it is merely intended as a quick drop off and pick up point. If a member of staff asks you to move your car, please ensure you do so. Your cooperation and support on this matter is essential to ensure the traffic keeps moving. We remind parents that they may drop children off at breakfast club from 7.30am. An earlier drop off, even by a short while, may allow a smoother start to the day.

Once again, we have had another busy week at school as we draw towards the spring break.

Congratulations to our Year 3 and 4 netballers who had their first ever competitive netball match. With an abundance of excitement, they beat Gosfield 6-1, which is a hugely impressive victory. Well done girls, let us hope this is the start of great things to come.

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RECEPTION’S TRIP TO BOYDELLS FARM

The children had a wonderful time at Boydells Farm on Friday. They learnt about all the animals and very much enjoyed milking the cow, feeding the animals and holding lots of the spring-time babies. What a wonderful day of learning!

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MATHLETICS Well done to Mia in Year 5 for working hard to achieve her gold Mathletics certificate. Fantastic work!

YEAR 6 PARENTS EVENING

The Year 6 parents evening has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday 23rd May, from 4.30pm.

MISS NORTH VISIT The Year 2 children loved having Miss North visit them with her new baby, Eddie on Wednesday. They couldn’t wait to show her what they have been learning with Mrs Claridge and had lots of questions to ask. Miss North said she loves being a mummy, even though she misses everyone at Saint Nicholas School. She has promised to visit again very soon!

DINO ART Year 1 pupils have been busy making dinosaur eggs out of air hardening clay. They had to try and soften the clay by carefully manipulating it and made some fantastic eggs which they are looking forward to painting next week.

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FUNDRAISING WEEK Next week the school’s Year 11 prefects will be running a number of fundraising events, including a sponsored bike ride, a sponsored run and a non uniform day, in aid of Edie’s Butterfly Appeal. More details are shown on the posters below.

YEAR 3 SCIENCE In science this week, Year 3 pupils have been investigating whether they could block magnetism. They put different solid objects between a paper clip and magnet and tested to see if the magnet still attracted the paper clip. Their results were interesting. Alex, Nil Su and Freddie discovered their magnet still worked with a pencil case placed in between. Georgia and Ben found that their magnet still worked with a rubber placed in between. What super scientists they are, well done!

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PRE-SCHOOL MUSIC Two pre-school children's parents visited the Little Saints last week and played their musical instruments. The children learned about the violin and its different parts and how you can either use the bow to make a sound or use your finger to play pizzicato. They listened and sang along and then took turns to explore the sounds by having a go themselves.

The children also saw how the clarinet was put together and listened to the different sounds it made. They heard high and low notes and sang along to some nursery rhymes. Thank you to Mrs Anthony and Mr Olejniczak for coming in.

YEAR 6 CASTLES Year 6 pupils have been making castles at home. Below is a small selection of these amazing creations which were shown in their history lessons. Mrs Johnson would like to say how proud she is of the Year 6s and to thank the parents for their help in making some excellent castles this year.

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Please see below the ‘save the dates’ for the last week of term:

23rd March - Duke of Edinburgh initial training day

25th March - Reception’s Mother’s Day assembly (9am, theatre)

26th March - GCSE music solo performances

26th March - GCSE geography pupils’ fieldwork trip

27th March - School closed

27th March - Parents and pupil golf tournament, Manor of Groves

28th March - Year 6 Crucial Crew (noon - 3.30pm)

28th March - Pre-school dancing display (2pm - 3pm, theatre)

28th March - Reception - Year 5 dancing display (6.30pm - 8pm, theatre)

28th March - No after school clubs (except homework clubs and Study Plus)

29th March - Pre-school Mother’s Day pamper session (10am - 11.30am)

29th March - Spring term ends*

30th March - 6th April - Ski trip

*End of term timings - 11.30am for pre-school, 11.45am for Reception - Yr 2, Midday for Yr 3 - 5, 12.15pm for Yr 6 - 11. School buses depart at 12.30pm.

SAVE THE DATES

ROTARY CLUB COOK OFF Here is a selection of photographs from the Year 8 Rotary Club cook offs that were held on Monday 11th March. Some delicious looking meals, I’m sure you’ll agree.

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NETBALL

Report by Amelie, Year 4

On Monday 18th March, the Year 3 and 4 girls played a netball match against Gosfield School. The team consisted of Amelie, Eve, Georgina, Clementine, Darcey, Fleur, India, Holly, Francesca and Grace.

Darcey was quick to score in the first quarter. Going into the second quarter, Gosfield then scored to equalise with us.

After half time, we had to work hard against Gosfield’s defence but Georgina was fabulous and scored three times, putting us in a strong position for the final quarter.

Our team worked hard to intercept and some great passing enabled Amelie to score a further two goals, leaving the final score 6-1 to Saint Nicholas.

Gosfield voted Georgina player of the match which was well deserved.

Report by Fleur, Year 4

On the afternoon of Monday 18th March, we played a netball match against Gosfield School. Our team from Year 4 were: Clementine, Georgina, Darcey, Fleur, India, Eve and Amelie. However, we also had some incredibly capable players from Year 3.

Our overall performance was good. We had strong players at both the attacking end and in defence, and our centres were a solid core for our team. The team worked really well together and even when a few of us changed positions, we still kept solid possession of the ball. Gosfield had a tough GS who challenged us quite a few times, but we still won 6-1 which is an excellent result. Georgina was player of the match.

SPORTS REPORT

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FOOTBALL Report by Zach, Year 5 Monday 18th March saw Saint Nicholas U10s’ football team play against Gosfield School in a seven-a-side match.

After an impressive first half, we found ourselves 6-0 up at the break.

Saint Nicholas displayed great sportsmanship in the second half by allowing the opposition to play with ten players. However, even with this advantage, we went on to win the match 9-1 with every outfield player scoring. A fantastic team performance, well done boys!

TAG RUGBY

Report by Georgina, Year 4

On Friday 15th March, members of Year 3 and 4 participated in a tag rugby festival at Harlow Rugby Club. We sent two mixed teams of boys and girls to the festival. The weather was horrible as it was so windy, but despite the weather everybody had a great time. We won all of our matches and we would like to thank our supporters that came to watch us.

Report by Fresh, Year 4

We came onto the field with pride in our teams. We met our coaches, did a warm up and started our matches.

Team B won a match but then lost against Henry Moore. When they came off the pitch they watched team A who were playing with brilliance, passing well and always trying to go forward with the ball.

We all played at our best and always kept going. We enjoyed our experience at Harlow Rugby Club.

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RUGBY Report by Joe, Year 11

On Friday 8th March, the Year 10 and 11 boys took part in the U16 national 7s at Maidenhead. After last year’s success of getting to the Plate final, we desperately wanted to go one step further and win the final.

Once we arrived in Maidenhead, we set off onto the pitch and started preparing for what we knew would be a fast and hard day of rugby. We started off playing in a group against LVS Ascot and Radnor House School where we unfortunately lost both games which put us bottom of the group and through to the Bowl. We were unlucky in these games as the more we played, the more we began to develop as a team and play some amazing rugby.

We set off to play our first game in the Bowl competition, going head to head with Ballard School. We started the game quickly with a great run from Jacob to put us up 5-0. I then completed the conversion for the score to be 7-0, before Max R scored off the back of a great pass from Easton for the score to become 12-0. I then converted to make it 14-0. Going into the second half, we knew we had control of the game and we really went for it and scored a third try.

We went into the second game of the Bowl against Trinity School. We started off on the back foot with Trinity scoring first, but we quickly got back into the game with Jacob scoring quickly after. Unfortunately, I missed the conversion making the score 7-5 to Trinity. Trinity then scored again just before half time but missed the conversion to make it 12-5 at half time. At half time we knew we could win the game, we just had to make the best out of the chances that came our way. The half-time whistle blew and just seconds in, I went into a tackle and knocked myself out, leading the game to be abandoned. Many described it as a ‘knock out performance’ by Joe.

In the third game, we played St Brendon School, where the boys pulled through to win, with tries from Max B and Jacob. The fourth game was against St David’s College where we tried our best but lost in the end.

At the end of the day, everyone was tired, having displayed some fantastic rugby during the day and we all came away happy with our efforts.

Good luck to next year’s rugby sevens team!