Newsletter 12th January 2024

Saint Nicholas School

Newsletter Friday 12th January, 2024 For daily news updates follow us:

From the Headmaster's desk The new year stands before us like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.' -Melody Beattie

Dates for your Diary 15th January Year 11 Art 3D pupils to Disney 100 exhibition at the ExCeL Centre 16th January 11 Art pupils to the Tate Modern Year 5 to Young Voices at the O2 17th January Year 7 (2024) scholarship assessment day 18th January Year 1 Dino Workshop Year 7/8 boys Spurs coaching session at Spurs Academy

Dear Parents and Pupils, A belated Happy New Year and a warm welcome back, although the weather has provided us all with a decidedly chilly start!

It will come as no surprise, that my first assemblies of the new year were themed on making resolutions and positive change. My lower school assembly focused on healthy eating, the most popular resolution made by primary school children in 2024, and I was delighted to welcome Head Chef Marco to the assembly. After talking to the pupils about the benefits of a balanced and healthy diet, he surprised us all with some delicious smoothies to try!

19th January Year 10 DofE training day in school Year 11 full reports issued 22nd January Year 3 class assembly 22nd - 26th January Year 8 examinations week 23rd January Year 7 Valencia trip information meeting 26th January Year 9 interim reports issued

From the Headmaster’s desk

My senior school assembly focused on the longevity of New Year's resolutions, which, on average, last around 3 ½ months. After showing the pupils a TEDx talk, please see the link below, I shared with them the 7 Top Tips for keeping their New Year's resolutions, which included: setting specific goals, choosing a support partner and, most importantly, giving your resolution time to become habit. To quote transformational speaker and author, Jack Canfield, 'Your habits will determine your future.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es5QhGNqhzc Despite the cold, the term has got off to a positive start and I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting classes and seeing the pupils motivated and hard at work across the course of this week. On Wednesday, I was delighted to welcome Cristin Casey, manager of the Harlow Campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, to Saint Nicholas to explore opportunities to work together in the future. As part of Cristin's visit, we toured the entire school, and she was incredibly impressed by our pupils, staff and facilities. I am very much looking forward to visiting Cristin at the Harlow Campus in the near future, and you can learn more about the Memorial University of Newfoundland by clicking on the link here: This week, we launched the Big Schools Birdwatch, which runs from the 8th January to the 19th February, and is an educational activity that encourages children to get closer to nature. This week the pupils have taken part in a range of activities, which included counting the number of birds in the school grounds. With numerous species of birds to be found locally, including Kingfishers on the River Stort and the Pied Wagtail on Epping High Street, this weekend might be the perfect opportunity to pull on your thermals and start twitching!

My very best wishes for a relaxing weekend To keep up to date with events on the school calendar CLICK HERE

30th January Dates for your Diary U13 ISA regional netball qualifiers at Ipswich High School Reception trip to The Gruffalo Trail, Brentwood 31st January Year 9 Parents' Evening 1st February Whole School Time to Talk Day Year 7-10 girls Spurs coaching session at Spurs Academy 2nd February Year 6 interim reports issued 5th February Year 11 trip to Poetry Live!

Conference at Norwich Theatre 5th - 8th February Year 7 Trip to Valencia 7th February Safer Internet Day 7th & 8th February Year 3-5 production of Oliver 8th February Pre-School Valentine's workshop 9th February Year 9 Diphtheria, Tetanus & Polio and Meningitis ACWY Harlow Schools Multicultural Dance Festival at Saint Nicholas

Lower School News

Christmas Lower School Pantomime Lower school pupils and staff all enjoyed a preChristmas outing to Chelmsford Theatre, to see the pantomime Jack and The Beanstalk, on Friday 8th December. The show was very lively and full of dancing, singing and special effects, as well as the usual cheesy Christmas cracker jokes and puns!

Favourite characters were the Queen, Silly Billy and Daisy the Cow. Our very own Mr Graves was also singled out as Dame Trot's favourite audience member! Great fun and lots of laughs were enjoyed by all.

Elderly Christmas Party Another huge thank you to the School Council for helping deliver gift bags to the elderly at the Christmas party.

Pupils worked hard to create peppermint creams, and filled gift bags with sweet treats.

Lower School News

French During the last week of the autumn term, lower school pupils looked at Christmas in France. They read about traditions and celebrations, learnt vocabulary with Puppet Gaston, played games, sang songs and designed a fantastic outfit for Père Noël.

Great fun and excellent learning for everyone. Bravo, les enfants et Bonne Année à tous et à toutes !

Lower School News

Year 3 STEM Visit Last Friday, Year 3 went on an exciting trip to the Stem Centre in Stevenage. The pupils took part in all kinds of exciting activities. One of their favorite activities included creating a Mars Rover duplicate using a balloon to create movement, which then finished with a race. We also explored the link between sound and movement with a rather messy investigation.

Middle and Upper School News

Year 6

Spanish Celebration - Los Reyes Last weekend Year 6 pupils were busy baking Roscon de Reyes, a sweetened brioche style dough, decorated with glazed fruits, typically served on the 6th January, when Spain celebrates El Día de Los Reyes (King’s Day).

Some fabulous results were produced.

Saint Nicholas School News

Bebras Challenge Congratulations to pupils from Years 2-10, who took part in the International Bebras Challenge, an annual computational thinking competition for primary and secondary school pupils around the world. With 54 member countries, the competition is the largest Computer Science competition in the world. Pupils achieved excellent scores with some ranking amongst the best in Essex and the UK, with many gold certificates for scores in the top 10% nationally.

Student of the Half-Term awards Congratulations to Leo, Year 2, Adam, Year 7 and Neriah, Year 9 who have all received a Student of the Half-Term award from My Ayres. A fabulous achievement, keep up the great work.

Saint Nicholas School News

Big Schools Birdwatch This Monday marked the start of the RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch.

Across the school this half term the pupils will be taking part in a range of activities linked to this initiative.

The aim is to support the conservation of our British wildlife and help to contribute towards data collected on the frequency and type of birds in Britain.

You can support this at home by taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch between 26th and 28th January.

This is being set as an optional homework, please see the homework or go to www.rspb.org.uk for more information.

Glasses recycling To support our Community Week next week, we would like to collect old and unused spectacles. These will be donated to a charity to be reused and recycled. If you have any spectacles to donate there will be a collection box in the Coffee Shop.

The Big Ambition Dame Rachel De Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, has launched The Big Ambition.

Every child in England has an opportunity to share their views with policy makers ahead of the General Election.

So far there has been an overwhelming response to the survey. More than 300,000 children, young people, parents and carers have participated, making it one of the largest surveys of its kind.

By completing the survey you can make sure that the children and young people of Essex are fairly represented in the results. The closing date is Friday 19th January.

Children and parents or carers can complete the survey here: www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition

Saint Nicholas School News

Reverse Advent A very big 'thank you' to everyone that donated to our whole school reverse Advent for Harlow Foodbank in December. In the last week of term our Head Boy and Head Girl assisted by Mr Ayres and me, loaded up the minibus on a very rainy day, with the generous donations from our school community.

We were met at the warehouse by Marc, who explained to us how all the donations were sorted and organised in the warehouse ready for distribution. He showed Lottie and Jack around the sorting areas and they were able to have a look in prepared boxes that were ready to be handed out.

Our donations were weighed with a total of 276kg of food, this equates to 657 meals! A wonderful outcome in our first year, thank you.

I look forward to running this event again in December and will be setting a higher target for Saint Nicholas to make a bigger difference in our local community. The donation baskets will remain at school throughout the year and any donations are gratefully received.

The Foodbank is always looking for volunteers in the warehouse, and have previously had pupils giving their time to also help with DofE hours.

Mrs Oakley

Sports News

West Essex Schools Cross Country

On Friday 8th December Mrs Mizon and I travelled with 17 of our Year 7-11 pupils to Ashton Playing Fields, to compete in the WESSA Cross Country Championships.

Walking the course it was quite a flat straightforward route. With this being their first secondary school cross-country meet, the Year 7 girls, Kayla, Dotty, Casta and Isabelle, performed really well to all finish in the top 20, with Kayla finishing in 9th position out of approximately 70 runners. Onto the combined Year 8 and 9 girls race and with the Year 8 feeling the nerves of competing with the Year 9s, Annabelle placed 9th with Alana in 10th, Hollie in 12th and the remainder placing in the top 50 in a field of 90. The boys followed on with Zac and Max finishing mid pack. The hotly contested senior boys race saw Conor finish in 10th with Ali in 15th and Ethan in 26th place out of 50 runners. Selection for ISA cross-country will take place this month.

Mrs Sanders

Year 7 Essex Cup Netball Congratulations to the Year 7 squad who have qualified for the last 16 of the Essex Cup, after beating tough opposition from City Academy before Christmas 7-3. The next round will be towards the end of January and opposition to be decided.

Training continues on Wednesday after school. Well done girls, we are very proud of you.

Mrs Sanders

FUTSAL

Teams from Pemberley, Holy Cross, Newhall, Cooks Spinney, Church Langley and Saint Nicholas made it across to Church Langley Primary School, at very short notice, to take part in an emerging Futsal Festival. Providing opportunities to those who hadn’t played in the September finals, the emerging event allowed players to develop their understanding of the game and take greater risks.

The teams thrived in this slightly less pressurised environment, with Henry, Manasseh and Moyosore scoring some great goals.

Samuel contributed with some well-timed tackles and played further up the pitch as the goalkeeper in the four-aside games.

Mr Brown

Sports News

BASKETBALL This week, the Year 7 and 8 basketball teams travelled to Joshua Franklin School in Newport, for one of many league games for both year groups.

The Year 7 squad, who played on Monday in their very first taste of competitive 5-aside basketball, were met with foul counts, a shot clock and strict refereeing during a fast and exhausting match. The Saint Nicholas team missed winning by a couple of baskets and are looking forward to the next fixture.

The Year 8 team won their game convincingly, demonstrating a real knowledge of positional movement and dribbling skills, taking the ball consistently to the opposition’s basket, and also winning the ball in the open court to turn into a score.

Mr Brown

DEVELOPMENT DAY On Friday 9th December, 62 pupils from 13 schools participated in a range of sporting activities at Mark Hall Sports Centre.

Designed to challenge more physically able pupils and extend physical development, the pupils took part in a morning of Cheerleading, Laser-Tag, Benchball and Scootering; before playing UV Dodgeball during the afternoon. It was great to see the pupils interact with new faces and create new friendships across different schools.

Time was also given to personal feedback on their achievements throughout the day and to reflect upon the PE provision provided within their own schools, offering insights and a pupil voice on how school staff could improve PE lessons.

Mr Brown

Sports News

London Pulse coaching conference Mrs Oakley and I attended the London Pulse coaching conference recently. We had superb training from U21 Academy Head Coach, Taylor Glassie, to optimise our warm-ups to ensure top level performance and reduce injury to our players.

We also had an attacking masterclass from Sharron Lewis-Burke, England men’s Head Coach and U19 Academy Coach, learning how to develop our players to place at pace with control and creativity. We then went on to participate in a defensive session with Lindsay Kemble, former Superleague and London Pulse player, who gave us a great insight into how to get the best from our defensive players. We finished up by meeting with Izzi Phillips, playing at the age of 17 in the Superleague and with the England Roses Academy. We can’t wait to implement what we have learnt with our squads.

Mrs Sanders