Saint Nicholas School
Newsletter
From the Headmaster's desk
'Nurturing yourself is not selfish - it's essential to your survival and wellbeing.' - Renee Trudeau
Dear Parents and Pupils,
A week of glorious weather has come to an end; a perfect prelude to Mental Health Awareness Week, next week. The theme this year is 'Movement: moving more for our mental health', and we are all being encouraged to 'find moments for movement' in our daily routine. As I am certain you are aware, one of the most important things you can do to help protect your mental health is regular movement, as it can increase your energy, reduce stress and anxiety, and boost your self-esteem. To quote Nelson Mandela, 'Exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind.' You can find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week by clicking on THIS LINK.
Friday 10th May, 2024
Dates for your Diary
13th - 17th May
Year 6 residential trip
13th May
National Share a Story Day
Year 8 day trip
Year 9/10 Tender workshops (Acting for healthy relationships)
14th -15th May
Year 10 DofE practice expedition
14th May
Senior ISA Athletics at Cambridge
15th May
Year 8 HPV vaccinations
17th May
Year 5 day trip
Year 6 full reports issued
20th May
Year 7 day trip
Reception Class assembly
21st and 22nd May
Year 9 DofE final expedition
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My senior assembly today focused on the positive benefits kindness has on our mental health, which include: increased feelings of happiness, wellbeing and reduction of stress. Acts of kindness towards others also benefit our mental health by creating, maintaining and strengthening our social connections and in my assembly, I challenged the pupils to be kind to themselves and others by: making time to connect with others, volunteering in the local community, spending 30 minutes doing something we love with someone we love, praising ourselves and others, smiling at and checking in with people we don't normally spend time with, and being patient with ourselves and others. I finished the assembly by showing the following clip from motivational speaker Simon Sinek, which you can view by CLICKING HERE.
As we move into a weekend of predicted sunshine, to quote one parent this week 'It's about time!', you might be interested to learn that May is National Walking Month. Alongside all the mental health benefits, walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. Just 30 minutes every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat and boost muscle power and endurance. It can also reduce the risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and some cancers. With predicted temperature of 23 degrees centigrade this weekend, why not get Mental Health
Awareness Week off to the best possible start with a walking adventure in the great outdoors. To quote American explorer Johh Muir, 'In every walk with nature, one receives far more than they seek.'
Have an enjoyable and moving weekend,
22nd May
Year 3 Stone Age enrichment day in school
24th May
Key Steps Gymnastics Competition
27th - 31st May
Half Term Break
Pupils return Monday 3rd June
3rd June
Year 4-6 ISA Athletics
4th and 5th June
Year 10 DofE final expedition
5th and 6th June
Year 7 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' workshop
6th June
Year 5 Harry Potter enrichment day in school
Year 4 trip
Year 8 trip
7th June
Pre-School Race for Life (Timings TBC)
Year 3 trip
To keep up to date with events on the school calendar CLICK HERE
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Dates for your Diary
Pre-School
This week pre-school pupils have enjoyed being outside in the sunshine, and have made full use of our lovely playground.
The Butterfly children have been busy exploring their new space themed role play area.
Year 2
Year 2 had a fun-filled visit to Hyde Hall RHS garden near Chelmsford as part of their growing things science topic. Activities included a bird spotting walk, investigating vegetables and fruits from around the world, planting herbs and mint, making newspaper plant pots and planting giant sunflower seeds.
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Year 5
Year 5 had a fantastic time during their residential trip to Avon Tyrrell in the New Forest. Children took part in a range of activities such as the Tree Top Trial, Canoeing, Leap of Faith, Challenge Course and Bottle Rockets. The days were jammed packed with fun and excitement (for the adults as well as the children). All adults attending took great pride in seeing our pupils set themselves challenges and achieve their goals both independently and as a team. Well done to everyone involved, it was a great success.
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Eco Club
This week Eco Club pupils have been caring for our adopted animals. The duties have included checking they have a plentiful supply of clean water and adequate quantities of food. Potato, our adorable duckling, joined the club, and the children are enjoying observing him shed his fluffy baby feathers. It’s a joy for our pupils to witness nature’s transformations.
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Year 7 Spanish
Year 7 pupils have been getting creative in Spanish this week, and have been designing their own board games to master verb conjugation in Spanish. Learning through play makes grammar fun!
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Summer Fair
s U-11 ISA regional football finals
Congratulations to the girls who represented Saint Nicholas at the U11 ISA regional football finals last week, held here at Saint Nicholas School. With beautiful weather and wearing their new school football kits, they played seven pool games. With a mix of drawn score lines and one win under their belt they went into their playoff to face Saint Pierre. They were eventually victorious after 11 penalties were taken, to win the game. Well done to Phoebe, Myla, Emily, Martha, Uma, Nixie, Ayla, Amelia and Summer.
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s Year 7 district football tournament
This week, the team took part for the first time in the Bishop’s Stortford district football tournament. With a team of eight girls, this was a new fixture for them and they came up against strong opposition on the pitch from the Stortford schools. Some outstanding goalkeeping from Amelie kept us within reach of a win. We learned a lot and will implement a lot more tactical play for next season. Well done to the team: Alys, Kayla, Casta, Amelie, Dotty, Roselyn, Sophia and Clem.
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