Newsletter 26th April 2024

Saint Nicholas School

Friday 26th April, 2024

From the Headmaster's desk

'I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.' - Maya

Angelou

Dear Parents and Pupils,

The first, full week of term has flashed by and it has been a week where our excellent, adventurous activity programme has quite literally 'swung into action'. As I feel certain you are aware, at Saint Nicholas we are passionate about outdoor learning and in particular children, young people and adults participating in adventurous activities that challenge and build character. As well as being great fun, and a little frightening at times, adventurous activities develop resilience, self-confidence, self-esteem, teamwork and have, research suggests, a very positive impact on mental health and overall wellbeing. This week our Year 9 pupils have gone out on their first DofE expedition and today our Year 7-10 netball players departed on their PGL Netball Tour, where they will participate in a range of activities alongside competing at netball against other schools. There is much more for pupils to look forward to this term with the following adventurous residentials taking place, alongside Forest School and our normal outdoor, curriculum provision:

Year 5 trip to Avon Tyrrell

Year 6 trip to Bude

Year 9 DofE final expedition

Year 10 DofE final expedition

Dates for your Diary

29th April to 3rd May

Year 9 examination week Lower School assessment week

Year 5 residential trip

29th April

Year 6 parent meeting re Bude trip

1st May

U11 girls national football qualifiers

GCSE PE moderation day

2nd May

Year 2 day trip

3rd May

KS2 Cycling Festival

Prefect appointments announced

7th May

Year 11 study leave begins at the end of the day Year 10 geography trip

8th May

GCSE French and GCSE Spanish speaking exams

Year 5 and Reception road safety sessions

Brazilian lyricist and novelist Paulo Coelho is quoted as saying, 'The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort', and you can explore more adventurous and outdoor activities for you and yours by clicking on one of the links below:

https://www.visitessex.com/things-todo/activities/adventure-and-outdoor

https://www.essexoutdoors.com/our-centres/

https://beyonk.com/uk/outdoor-activities/in-essex? page=1&categories=air,boat,camp,bike,dive,canoe,cli mb,ski,sup,surf,bushcraft,hike,wildlife&location=51.5 742,0.4857

As aforementioned, our senior netball players departed on their senior netball tour today and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Year 8 girls who were crowned West Essex and Harlow Champions this week. Saint Nicholas' growing reputation as one of the best netball schools locally and in West Essex, has grown exponentially in recent years, and I am sure you would join me in congratulating the Year 8 team on this excellent achievement.

As we move into the weekend, you might be interested to learn that on Sunday we mark National Superhero Day. Each year on April 28th, National Superhero Day honours real and fictional heroes and my lower and senior school assemblies today focused on being an 'Everyday Hero'. I shared with the pupils some of my heroes and encouraged them to harness their inner hero every day, by being courageous, kind and serving others. I concluded my senior assembly by showing them a poem by alumna Imogen Wade who recently won first prize in the prestigious National Poetry Society Competition for her poem, 'The Time I Was Mugged in New York City.' You can watch Imogen perform her poem by clicking on the link below:

https://vimeo.com/927069551/db552ec7c3

My best wishes for an adventurous and heroic weekend.

Dates for your Diary

9th May

Spanish GCSE speaking exams

Years 9/10 Harlow Schools

Athletics League

10th May

Year 3/4 Netball Festival

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

To keep up to date with events on the school calendar

Pre-School

The Pre-school children have had another busy week! They had a tractor visit, where they got to climb up and sit at the driver’s wheel. We also had a visit from a hen and her six baby chicks.

Reception

To enhance the learning of their topic marvellous machines, pupils in Reception were thrilled to have a visit from a tractor and a police car this week.

Pupils revisited a previous topic of the life cycle of a chick, by welcoming one of our newest additions. Pupils were delighted to learn about the life cycle of the chicks from the egg all the way to hatching.

d d l e a n d U p p e r S c h o o l N e w s

International Space Challenge

In a stellar display of creativity and teamwork, our talented pupils Mia, Eden, Hannah, Polly, and James from Year 10, along with the courageous Ruby from Year 9, proudly represented our school at the International Space Challenge, held at RAF Henlow. Tasked with the innovative challenge of designing a space hotel, our pupils dived into every aspect of the project with enthusiasm and expertise. They showcased their skills by marketing their concept in French, adeptly handling material orders in the same language, and delivering a compelling engineering presentation. It was a fantastic day filled with great ideas and exceptional teamwork. Special congratulations to Mia, who was awarded a prize for her amazing leadership throughout the project. Well done to our budding space engineers for their outstanding performance!

Polly, Year 10 tells us about her day; On Thursday 25th April, six pupils attended the RAF Henlow international Space Challenge. There were five Year 10s: Polly, Mia, James, Eden and Hannah, and Ruby from Year 9 also attended. First of all, we listened to multiple people give speeches about space and the RAF, which were very interesting. Next, we were told to design a hotel that would be suitable to work in space, we also had to make a model of this out of various materials. We used tin foil, straws, pipe cleaners and cereal boxes. Once we had finished, James and Hannah presented the speech about the engineering of our hotel as well as showing our model, and Mia, Hannah and Ruby presented a speech to four judges in French, about what our hotel would look like. Shortly after lunch, we had a Russian lesson, which was fun!

Overall, this was a really fun experience and I’m sure I can speak on behalf of the group when I say we would love to do this again.

L o w e r S c h o o l N e w s

Lower School Assembly

This week in lower school assembly, pupils looked at our 'golden rules' and how we can all positively influence others by our behaviour. Saint Nicholas school celebrated pupils across lower school who have outstanding behaviour and who act as positive role models within their class.

d d l e a n d U p p e r S c h o o l N e w s Year

M

10

Our Year 10 Librarians visited Old Harlow Library last week as part of our ongoing community projects. They delivered bookmarks designed and made by pupils across the school during our community week. The staff at the Old Harlow Library were so pleased to receive the bookmarks and will be offering them to visitors of the library.

a

St George’s Day

To celebrate St George’s Day this week, the catering team delighted pupils with a Best of British menu, comprising premium Lancashire sausages, spring vegetable and apple casserole with fine vegetable sausages, roasted cauliflower, garden peas and onion gravy topped off with our strawberry cheesecake cup.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

Pupils in Year 9 have been out of school this week for two days’ training, in preparation for their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award assessment on the 21st and 22nd May. Activities included map reading and camp cooking. Pupils had to carry a full rucksack equipped with tents, cookers and personal belongings for the duration of the two day training. Over the next three to six months pupils in Year 9 will be completing their volunteering and physical skills, to complete their Bronze Awards. Pupils will have the opportunity to complete their Silver Award in Year 10.

S a i n t N i c h o l a s S c h o o l N e w

Go On Girl Engineering Event

This is a fantastic free event giving girls a taster of the world of engineering. The event is open to girls in Year 9 and takes place on Wednesday 22 May, 46pm. The afternoon will be filled with engineering activities and a tour of the campus, led by Ryanair and staff from Stansted Airport College. For further information please see the poster below. To book your childs place please click THIS LINK

Harlow Schools Junior Swimming Gala

Pupils had an exciting day at the Harlow Leisure Zone for this year's Junior Swimming Gala. A late change of date did not diminish pupils’ enthusiasm or expectation. The results for this year are as follows; (please note the lower the points the better the result).

Bronze Medals

Year 3 Boys - Freestyle: Franco

Year 3 Boys - Backstroke: Hughie

Silver Medals

Year 3 Girls - Backstroke: Ivy

Year 3 Girls - Freestyle: Lila

Year 3 Boys - Breaststroke: Ralph

Year 3 Girls - Freestyle Relay: Ivy, Tabitha, Robyn & Lila

Year 3 Boys - Freestyle Relay: Franco, Ralph , Alex & Hughie

Year 4 Girls - Backstroke: Nola

Year 4 Girls - Medley Relay: Ivy, Nola, Tabitha & Lila

Year 4 Girls - Freestyle Relay: Nola, Amelia, Robyn & Daisy

Year 5 Boys - Freestyle: Lenny

Year 5 Boys - Freestyle Relay: Lenny, Ralph, Dylan & Jay

Year 6 Girls - Breaststroke: Pumpkin

Year 6 Girls Freestyle: Barbara

Year 6 Boys Butterfly: Harrison

Year 6 Girls - Medley Relay: Barbara, Nola, Pumpkin & Willow

Year 6 Boys - Medley Relay: Lucas, Angus, Harrison & Teddy

Year 6 Girls - Freestyle Relay: Willow, Barbara, Evie & Pumpkin

Gold Medals

Year 4 Girls - Freestyle: Nola

Year 5 Girls - Backstroke: Pumpkin

Year 5 Girls - Breaststroke: Matilda

Year 5 Boys - Backstroke: Ralph

Year 5 Girls - Freestyle Relay: Pumpkin, Safia, Amelie & Matilda

Year 6 Girls - Butterfly: Evie

Year 6 Girls - Backstroke: Evie

Year 6 Boys - Freestyle: Harrison

Year 6 Boys - Freestyle Relay: Angus, Lucas, Teddy & Harrison

The results were as follows (lowest best):

Years 3 and 4

1. Henry Moore – 34 points

2. Saint Nicholas – 71 points

3. Jerounds – 93 points

4. Holy Cross – 95 points

5. Church Langley – 99 points

Years 5 and 6

1. Henry Moore – 60 points

2. Saint Nicholas – 68 points

3. Church Langley – 80 points

4. Fawbert and Barnard – 81 points

5. Hatfield Heath – 106 points

Netball - U13 Finals

Our U13 team played the finals of the West Essex and Harlow league against Debden Park. The team started strong with lots of turnovers of possession, however, found the game to be quite physical at times and pulled on their experience to help maintain the lead. By half time they had a comfortable lead and our shooters were scoring from a range of distances with great success. Our defence put on the pressure and got the majority of rebounds, allowing possession to change over. The third quarter saw us extend the lead with our high levels of fitness proving to be the key. We were fast on free passes and turnovers resulting in a final score of 19-8 to win the trophy.

This has set the team up with great confidence as we head to our PGL weekend.