Newsletter 29th September 2023

Saint Nicholas School

From the Headmaster's desk

'Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.' - F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

Friday 29th September, 2023

Dates for your Diary

2nd October

Year 4 Parents’ Coffee Morning

5th October

Year 4-6 ISA Regional Swimming Competition, Ipswich

5th October

Year 5 Parents’ Coffee Morning

6th October

Year 4 trip to Paradise Park

9th October

Harvest Festival

Lower School 10.15am

Middle and Upper School

2.30pm (pupil events)

Dear all,

As we reach the end of September and another week, I feel certain that many of us are looking forward to the richness of colour that the month of October brings. At this time of year, the full beauty of our school grounds moves sharply into focus, as we watch the transition from green to burning red, cold silver and rich brown and yellow.

As you may have seen from our social media channels this week, on Tuesday evening I attended 'The Gems of Harlow' event at the Civic Centre which celebrated the education sector in Harlow. I was delighted to be awarded by Councillor Andrew Johnson, who is also a school governor at Saint Nicholas, a recognition award on behalf of the school, that provided a timely reminder, if one was needed, of how incredibly blessed we are to have such an inspiring environment to work and learn in.

10th October

Hello Yellow, World Mental Health Day

14th October

Open Morning

16th October

Year 9-11 Blood Brothers Workshop

17th October Pre School Dough Disco

17th October Friends Halloween Disco

18th October

Year 11 Parents’ Evening

18th October

Reception Class trip to Hatters Farm

Dates for your Diary

r o m t h e H e a d m a s t e r ’ s d e s k

A comparatively quiet week this week, but I was delighted to be able to join Year 10 today as they travelled to The Globe Theatre to watch Macbeth. Macbeth has long been my favourite of all Shakespeare's tragedies and it was wonderful to watch our pupils so engaged and inspired by the performance. My thanks to Ms Jeppeson for organising and leading the trip.

As we move into the weekend, it may interest you to learn that tomorrow marks National Love People Day. On National Love People Day, we are encouraged to lift others up through the profound power of unconditional love, and offer small acts of kindness and care to people in our community. To quote iconic actor Morgan Freeman, 'We change the world by one random act of kindness at a time'.

My very best wishes for a relaxing and philanthropic weekend

To keep up to date with events on the school calendar CLICK HERE

Parents’ Coffee Mornings

2nd October Year 4 Parents’ Coffee Morning

5th October Year 5 Parents’ Coffee Morning

7th November

Lower School Parents’ Evening

8th November

Further Education Evening

9th November

Year 7-11 ISA Regional Swimming Competition, Ipswich

10th November

Bonfire Night

13th November

Odd Socks Day

14th November

Individual school photos

15th November

2 Johns E-Safety Workshop

20th November

Year 3 & 4 trip to the Barbican Centre, London Symphony Orchestra Concert

21st November

Year 5 trip to Harry Potter Studios

22nd November

Year 6 Parents’ Evening

23rd November Year 5 trip to Duxford

23rd November

Pre-School trip to Audley End

28rd November Friends Christmas gift sale

29th November

Year 10 Parents’ Evening

Reception Class

Reception Class had a brilliant time at Forest School this week. They completed different activities including pond dipping, hammering, leaf printing and threading.

As we enter into the autumn season, the class discussed the changes that happen outside. We talked about the weather as well as what happens to the trees. The pupils went outside and collected items that reminded them of autumn, brought them back to class and made some fabulous collages.

Eco Club

Eco-club pupils have continued to plant winter flowers this week. They now have the responsibility of watering and caring for the plants during the winter months.

Drawing Club

This week in drawing club, pupils were tasked with creating their inner and outer selves. They had to draw what they looked like on the outer self side and included their hobbies, emotions, thoughts and feelings on the inner side.

Well done drawing club, fantastic work!

French

Un, deux, trois, c’est parti!

In French this week KS1 pupils have had a lot of fun practising numbers through games, songs and a variety of hands-on activities. Some great learning, enjoyed by all. Bravo, les enfants. On compte sur vous !

Story Explorers Club

This week, the story explorers read "The First Hippo on the Moon" by David Walliams. The children laughed throughout the story and were excited to make their own space rockets for the main character, Sheila the Hippo.

Year 4

This week in Year 4, pupils went exploring the eco garden. In their science lesson this week, they had to identify and classify different invertebrates they had found. Pupils found so many different types of species, and used magnifying glasses to study the different parts of the living creatures.

Year 5

Thirty Year 5 children have kindly volunteered to take on the responsibility of playground buddies for the younger (Key Stage 1) children. The buddys’ role is to encourage kindness, support children to talk about conflict, initiate games and be positive role models for the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children in the playground at lunchtimes. Thank you and congratulations to the Year 5 children who have been appointed. Keep up the great work!

Ambassadors and Committee Members

Congratulations to our Art Ambassadors, Computing Experts and Green Flag Eco Committee Members, who have all worked exceptionally hard to achieve their positions. Pupils will help their class teachers in lessons and support their peers

Green Flag Eco Committee

Lego Club

Attention Lego builders!!!

Lego Club takes place every Monday afternoon. We choose a variety of themes and our creativity has no limit. There are a billion pieces to choose from, and a good selection of Lego. We just let our imagination guide us!

We trade, improve and develop. We all have amazing ideas and our goal is to build the best Lego model in the school. This is your chance to show off how good you are. Just be aware we are pretty fierce builders! The club takes place in the Spanish room, in case you dare to join!

Barbara, Year 6

Year 6

Legoland

On Wednesday 20th September, Year 6 went on a trip to Legoland, which was an extraordinary experience. We split into two groups and our group started with the Ferrari experience. We got to build a mini Ferrari out of Lego and race our cars against each other. Afterwards, we visited the Discovery Centre where we learnt about gravity and friction, and we created our own Lego rollercoasters. It was interesting to discover that the cars on rollercoasters slow down as they go around a bend. This was my favourite part of the trip. We were lucky enough to have time to go around Miniland, which contains famous landmarks that are made from a total of over forty million bricks! We had great fun going on the rides, including the Driving School, and ended the day in the Lego shop.

Dylan, Year 6

Senior Library

This week, we were delighted to introduce our senior pupils to our new Library, located in our beautiful Study Centre, at the top of Hillingdon House. Year 8 spent half an hour perusing our tempting selection of books, choosing one to bring home with them to read. This will become a regular, weekly feature of our Key Stage 3 and 4 English lessons so do expect your child to always have something to read! Research suggests that just twenty minutes of independent reading, each day, can significantly boost grades across all subjects.

We have also introduced 'Drop Everything and Read' ('DEAR') during registration, each Wednesday morningpupils are expected to read for half an hour and to submit book reviews to log their progress. All pupils have been given the link on Teams, with house points being awarded for each completed book review!

Year 11

On the 27th September the Year 11 Geography pupils visited Epping Forest to study Debden Brook for our GCSE fieldwork. We measured river depth, width and velocity in order to see how the river changed downstream. We looked at the pros and cons of different sampling strategies. The day was very educational and exciting. Lots of the pupils enjoyed getting in the river as a break from their hard work in class.

Rhian and Lottie, Year 11

Football and Netball

Our U9 football and netball teams travelled to ISA school Gosfield near Braintree on Monday, to play some competitive fixtures. The football team secured a lovely win over the opposition with some beautiful linking play. Special mentions to Franco and Jesse for some superb finishes.

The girls’ netball team also had a wonderful afternoon, competing against Saint Mary's and Gosfield in a triangular tournament. The girls’ movement around the court and knowledge of the rules were fantastic. Special mentions to Madison and Esther who were both awarded players of the match.

Mr Tucker and Mrs Oakley

ISA National indoor Ski Championships

I took part in the ISA National indoor ski championships on Monday, at Hemel Hempstead Ski Centre. I came 6th in the under 10 girls competition. I was really pleased with my pacing as there were over 100 girls in the age group. My slalom time was 14.15 seconds. It was super fun!

Nola Year 4

Futsal

Last week, four boys from Year 6 and Year 5 attended the Harlow School Futsal competition at Mark Hall. We played six games and were unbeaten, winning five and drawing one. As a team we combined well in attack and had plenty of shots at goal. Elliott made some crucial saves throughout the competition, Lennie was a constant threat up front scoring several great goals, Harrison made some important tackles to prevent the opposition from scoring and on the other side of the pitch he scored a late winner to get us a draw.

Entering the final game against Nazeing we needed to win to come first. We dominated the game winning 3-0 with Harrison and Lennie scoring the goals. It was a great team effort and I enjoyed being part of this team!

Lucas, Year 6

On Friday 22nd September, 19 teams took part in the Futsal Festival at Mark Hall Academy

Our first venture back to Mark Hall Academy this year proved a great success as the current champions! The newly renovated floor made everything look brighter and cleaner and assisted our fast play. Using our adapted format of 4 v 4, with fewer players on the pitch than in other football competitions, the additional space allowed better play. Once again, the goalkeeping was very impressive, as well as playing their part on the pitch and the goals became well-worked from our own half. The event saw 10 teams battle it out in 2 groups before a final ranked game against an opponent from the opposite group. The results were as follows: 1st place – Saint Nicholas; 2nd place – Nazeing; 3rd place –Tanys Dell. Saint Nicholas retained the title!

Mr Brown

Netball

On Tuesday 19th September the Year 7 girls were pleased to welcome in the new netball year, with our first tournament of the season at Passmores Academy in Harlow. The games were all played indoors at their sports hall. We played against local Harlow schools including Burnt Mill School, and were all in sync with each other, and moved the ball quickly, defended excellently, and our shooting was of a high standard. We achieved the highest number of goals in the whole tournament, I am really proud of the effort from from all of the girls who participated and we can’t wait for the ISA tournament coming soon.

Tia, Year 7

Healthy Choices Week

Last week pupils enjoyed a range of activities as part of our heathy choices week. On National Fitness Day pupils took part in various sports activities and were encouraged to try a variety of fabulous healthy lunch options. Chef Marco’s smoothie recipe was a favourite amongst pupils and staff. Why not give it a try at home!

500 ml fresh orange juice

1 banana

1 big handful baby spinach (more the better)

2 to 3 leaves of prepared curly kale

Add some diced fresh fruit (pineapple, melon, strawberry)

Adjust the thickness by adding more orange juice or adjusting the quantity of the ingredients.

Add natural yoghurt if you like!

Open Mornings

We are holding a whole school Open Morning on Saturday 14th October, 10am-midday, which is an opportunity for parents to view the school all the way through to seniors.

Our pupils are tremendous ambassadors for the school, conducting the guided tours and being involved in class and we always receive high praise from prospective parents impressed with their conduct, enthusiasm and pride in their school! We hope your child will wish to be involved and we encourage them to sign up with their form teacher.

Road Works

Please be aware from 16th to 18th October 20:00hrs - 05:00hrs Churchgate Street will be closed for carriageway patching. This is happening overnight so shouldn’t cause issues for parents.

NSAINT ICHOLAS SCHOOL

Hobbs Cross Road

Old Harlow

Essex CM17 0NJ 01279 429910

Headmaster: Mr T Ayres BA(Hons) PGCE

TERM DATES 2023 - 2024

Autumn Term 2023

Start of term – Wednesday 6th September

Half Term – Saturday 21st October to Sunday 5th November inclusive

Term ends – Wednesday 13th December*

Spring Term 2024

Start of term – Thursday 4th January

Half Term – Saturday 17th to Sunday 25th February inclusive

Term ends – Wednesday 27th March*

Summer Term 2024

Start of term – Tuesday 16th April

Bank Holiday – Monday 6th May

Half Term – Saturday 25th May to Sunday 2nd June inclusive

Term ends – Thursday 11th July*

TERM DATES 2024 - 2025

Autumn Term 2024

Start of term – Wednesday 4th September

Half Term – Saturday 19th October to Sunday 3rd November inclusive

Term ends – Friday 13th December*

Spring Term 2025

Start of term – Monday 6th January

Half Term – Saturday 15th to Sunday 23rd February inclusive

Term ends – Friday 28th March*

Summer Term 2025

Start of term – Wednesday 23rd April

Bank Holiday – Monday 5th May

Half Term – Saturday 24th May to Sunday 1st June inclusive

Term ends – Thursday 10th July*

*On the final day of term: Pre-school ends at 11 30am; Reception-Year 2 at 11 45am; Year 3-5 at midday; Year 6-11 at 12.15pm. Buses depart at 12.30pm

O t h e r N e w s