Fridayfhgfdgdfgdg 16th March, 20182016 FROM THE HEADMASTER S DESK Many thanks to all the pupils and parents who supported Open Morning last Saturday. We were very pleased with the response from prospective parents and delighted with the feedback received. As always, all visitors spoke very highly about our pupils, their confidence and the pride they show in the school. Thank you to all the staff, Friends and Governors who supported the event and particularly to Mrs Hopkins who organises the occasion and does so much behind the scenes to ensure its success. As you will be aware we have been trialling a new system for pick-up at the end of the school day with the hope of improving traffic flow around the school. It would appear that this change has eased congestion somewhat and I would now like to add Year 6 to the list of pupils being picked up on the other side of the barrier. To summarise therefore, parents of Year 4, 5, 6 and 8 should now collect their children from beyond the barrier opposite Hillingdon House and the Infant playground. Parents with children in other years as well, and those picking up pupils within all other year groups should continue to filter right through the Lower School playground. Finally I must congratulate all the Year 11 GCSE Drama pupils and Miss Agrotis for what was a super set of performances in the final examination this week. I was very impressed, not only with the incredible talent on display, but also for the hard work which has very clearly gone into each and every one of the pieces. To all pupils involved, well done indeed! LITTLE SAINTS MOTHER S DAY TEA Little Saints children invited their mummies in on Monday and Tuesday afternoon to enjoy a Mother s Day afternoon tea in the coffee shop. There were plenty of cakes to choose from and everyone very much enjoyed sitting together and talking with friends. 1
MAD SCIENCE The lower school children had a fantastic Mad Science day on Tuesday. Here are some photos showing what they got up to. 2
YEAR 5 DT Over the course of this half term, Year 5 children have been learning about healthy balanced diets and food that the Aztecs may have eaten. They have designed their own Aztec inspired healthy balanced meals and on Tuesday, the children set about creating their delicious meals. The classroom was full of amazing smells and the children all enjoyed tasting their creations. Thank you to all of the parents for helping the children prepare the ingredients for this lesson. BIKEABILITY Year 5 pupils were out on the local roads for their Bikeability course this week and we hope they are feeling more confident on their bikes as a result. 3
NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK Following on from the fantastic day with the Mad Scientists, the children continued National Science Week by investigating their sense of taste. The children learnt that we use our tongue to taste and that we can taste sweet, salty, bitter and sour before carrying out a taste test of different foods to work out what they were. The children were surprised to find out that dark chocolate is bitter and that limes are sour! MATHLETICS This week a Mathletics gold award was achieved by Ifeoluwa Alamu. Well done Ifeoluwa. YEAR 1 MATHS On Monday Year 1 pupils learnt how to describe position. They had to describe the position of objects to their friends so that they could make the same pattern. The children really enjoyed working through the patterns to get to the more challenging ones. Great work Year 1. 4
GREAT FIRE OF LONDON Year 2 pupils who attended the Open Morning had a very productive morning sketching and painting very detailed pictures of The Great Fire of London. DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Please see below some save the dates for the next couple of weeks: 19th March - Year 6 Crucial Crew (the Latton Bush Centre, 12.30pm - 3.15pm) 19th March - Lower school Easter service (St Mary s church, 2pm - 3.15pm) 19th March - Borneo expedition information evening (4.15pm - 5.15pm) 20th March - Year 6 parents evening (4.15pm - 7pm) 21st March - Little Saints Easter workshop (2pm - 3pm) 22nd/23rd March - Boys rugby tour to Dorset 22nd March - Ballet performance (1.30pm and 6.30pm) 23rd March - Year 10 full reports issues 23rd March - Year 11 interim reports issued 23rd March - End of term (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). 25th March - 13th April - Easter holidays 16th April - Summer Term commences 5
SPORTS REPORT TAG RUGBY Report by Lucy, Year 5 On Friday we went to a tag rugby tournament at the new rugby ground in Harlow. There were eighteen teams from schools across Harlow. We won two games and lost two. Saint Luke s won all their matches and were declared the overall winners. We finished in third place. The team all tried really hard and we worked well together. It was a great afternoon. SPURS FOOTBALL TRAINING Well done to Lucy in Year 5 who was recently invited to train with Spurs U10 girls football team on Thursday evenings. Here s what she has to say about the opportunity: By Lucy, Year 5 I love all sports. I started karate in Year 1 with Mr Thackray, I m a member of Harlow Penguins Swimming Academy and in the summer I love to go for long cycle rides with my Dad. I have wanted to be a football player since I was 4 and often spend break times playing football with the boys. In Year 3 I started football lessons at Mr Pavlou s after school club. Last year, I couldn t wait for September because I knew that once I was in Year 5 I could join in Spurs Ladies training at school. During half term, I went to Spurs Ladies one day soccer school. It was great fun and, as a reward for our hard work, we were given tickets to watch Spurs play at Wembley. A few weeks ago one of the Spurs coaches asked if I would like to try out for the Spurs Ladies Under 10 team. I went to a training session and took part in a friendly match. My next training session was at Spurs main training centre in Enfield. It is one of the best football training centres in Europe. There are indoor and outdoor football pitches and children of all ages (even the first teams) train there. It was an amazing experience. 6
NETBALL Report by Nicole, Year 7 On Saturday 10th March Mrs Hill and Mrs Sturrock-Jackson took a group of us to see the Mavericks netball team play against the Sirens at the Hertfordshire Sports Village. It was an amazing experience to witness how well these teams play netball. We have even been inspired to try out some of their moves ourselves. The Mavericks were absolutely stunning - they were quick, full of energy and ready to win. At one point in the game it became quite heated as one of the Siren players refused to leave the court, despite being told to do so by the referee! I am so happy to have had the opportunity to go to this match and it really helped us to see what we have to improve on. The Mavericks won 46-44 and it was a great evening. I feel lucky to have seen this performance and I am sure my friends and classmates felt the same way too. Thank you to Mrs Hill and Mrs Sturrock-Jackson for taking us to this amazing game. I can't wait for the next match! SPURS LADIES FOOTBALL CAMPS After the success of the February half term football camps, Spurs Ladies will be running further football camps at Frederick Knight Sports Ground in Tottenham over the Easter holidays and May half term. The camps are designed specifically for girls of all abilities aged 5-15 years and the dates are as follows: Easter holidays - 11th and 12th April (9.30am - 3pm) May half term - 30th May (9.30am - 3pm) Any interested parents can book their child a place online at: https://spursladies.formstack.com/forms/football_camps_2018 7
RUGBY 7S Report by Matthew, Year 11 On Friday 9th of March the Year 10 and 11 boys headed up to Maidenhead Rugby Club to participate in a rugby 7s tournament. The matches we played were the last of the season and, for some of the Year 11 boys, it was the last rugby match we may ever play, as well as being the last game for Saint Nicholas School for everyone. We were put into a group of four teams and, depending on where we finished in the group, the team would progress into a knockout tournament. We entered our first game keen and raring to go, taking the lead through a try from Connor after some great load off play from the whole team. Soon after, we took an even bigger lead as Matthew scored between the posts. As the game progressed and we got into the second half, we were ready to score more tries and we did exactly that as Charlie scored to finish the game. We did fantastically well to win the match and fully deserved it. Our second game was very tight and unfortunately we lost by one try. We knew that the game could easily have been won if we had listened to each other more and spread the ball out to the wings. Our third and final game didn't exactly go to plan as we conceded an early try and our heads started to go down. We still put in maximum effort but we were overturned by a very good team causing us to unfortunately lose the game. We finished the group in third place which meant we were entered into the plate tournament knockouts. After a lengthy wait we were looking forward to getting back onto the pitch, and it showed as we completely smashed the quarter final, winning by three tries with the opposition failing to score a try. Our tries were scored by Harry, Charlie, and Joseph. We entered the semi final knowing that we had to put in 100%, which we did and we were able to win the semi final through tries from Henry and Matthew as well as some great tackles that prevented tries from the opposition. We were into the final! The team was as eager as ever and we were ready to step into the final. We started the game very strongly as Joe broke through the opposition s defence and was very close to scoring a try before he was caught up and tackled by the opposition. However, Harry followed Joe and was ready to take the ball out of the ruck quickly and pass it to Charlie who went through to score our first try. Charlie also scored our second try followed by the conversion as well. Unfortunately, a minute before half time our opposition was able to pick the ball up from the scrum and make the score 12-5. The second half was very challenging as the opposition s defence was very solid and we were unable to score a third try. Our opposition then managed to score their second try, sending the game into overtime which would mean the team that scored the next point would win. Overtime lasted quite some time as neither team were allowing the other team through. Suddenly our opponents broke through and scored a try resulting in a final loss for us which was very disappointing. We didn't feel like we deserved the loss as we battled the whole day and consistently put in 100% effort. The team - Harry, Henry, Charlie, William, Max, Andrew, Connor, Matthew, Joseph and Harry - all played fantastically well and we all felt like we deserved to win the plate. All the boys in Year 11 would like to thank Mr Brown for having been our rugby coach since we started. Without him, we don't think we would have got as far as we did in the plate competition. Without rugby I wouldn't be the person I am today and a lot of that is down to Mr Brown. Rugby has given all of us respect, confidence, and resilience in all aspects of life. It changed us from boys to men. As it was our last game 8 of rugby for the school, we were frustrated we couldn't win the plate but we were proud of every single person for putting in an amazing amount of effort.
TOTTENHAM TRIP Report by Lewis, Year 9 Earlier in the week George, Jared, Noah, Annice, Claudia, Ella, Ellie, Saffron and I were lucky enough to have the experience of being a ball boy/girl at the Tottenham training ground for the U19 game against FC Porto. The facilities were absolutely astonishing with everything cut to perfection, from the grass on the pitch to the hedges at the entrance. Our day at Tottenham began with us receiving our Tottenham coats and bibs. This was to ensure that we looked professional around the facility. We then proceeded to make our way to the pitch where we would be allocated a position to stand throughout the game and collect the balls for the players. We then watched the U19s warm up in preparation for their game against FC Porto. The game was exciting and we were lucky enough to see two goals, even if they were scored by Porto. The first of the two goals was an unlucky own goal and the second was also unlucky as the keeper couldn't get a strong enough hand behind the ball to keep it from going in the goal. Although Tottenham lost 2-0, the day was very enjoyable and we all agree that we would love to go back. 9