US2 Theatre Studies trip to Stratford - 30th January
US2 Theatre Studies students travelled to The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon for a lecture by Dr. Nick Walton on the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Nick painted a vivid picture of a loud and grimy London with bearbaiting, jousting and cockfighting, and the challenges this created for actors performing in an open-air theatre in the middle of the day. This knowledge will be highly useful for US2 as they compare these conditions to a contemporary production of Henry V by Propeller Theatre Company for their upcoming exam in the summer.
Young Enterprise Success at the Cowley Trade Fair – 28th January
The three Young Enterprise teams from SHSK arrived early with anticipation at the Cowley Trade Fair on Saturday 28th January. All their hard work so far was going to be put to the test at the first competitive experience of the YE programme. - competing with 16 other companies from around Oxfordshire for a number of prizes and of course, the opportunity to sell to the public. All teams had an extremely successful trading day and are now counting the profits as well as analysing the challenges of the day. The Buzzin team had a fantastic success, winning the ‘Best Trade Stand’ and ‘Best Product’ awards – well done!
Congratulations to all three teams; Buzzin, Rouge and Retrospect for demonstrating the motivation and commitment to bring a unique product to sale.
Yr 6 Visit Bhaktivedanta Hare Krishna Temple - 26th January
We are very thankful to the year 6 girls for coming in early so that we could go on our Hindu and India related day trip. We went to a Hindu temple, retreat and school. The day was fascinating we learnt a great deal about the Hindu faith, attended a midday prayer worship, had a tour on a cart pulled by bulls, role played being the three main Hindu deities and dressed up in saris. It was all very exciting and extremely informative.
Paralympian Medal Winner Visit - 25th January
On Wednesday 25th January we welcomed Graham Edmunds, a Paralympic swimmer, to school. Whole school assembly was inspiring as Graham showed us his two Gold medals and talked to us about what an amazing experience the two Paralympics he has competed in were for him.
Our GCSE PE class were lucky enough to spend an hour and a half asking questions and listening to Graham. We held his gold medals from the Athens and Beijing Olympics and saw the scars from his motorbike accident together with all the gory details! We were told about drug use in sport as Graham is part of the UK anti-doping Committee, which was very interesting. He explained about his intense training regimes and specialised swimming gear accompanied by some pictures. We finished the session with an interesting experiment to see what it might be like as a Paralympic athlete; we attempted to put on our uniform over our PE kit using only one arm, which proved to be quite a challenge, and then ate cake with our non dominant hand with some amusing results!
The visit was a fantastic experience and it was extremely inspiring to listen to Graham who is very entertaining and an incredible athlete - Alice
Year 5 "Maths Morning" - 17th January 2012
On Tuesday 17th January, normal lessons were suspended so that the yr 5 girls could have a whole morning of Maths Problem Solving and Puzzles. We felt very "grown up" using The Orchard Room and the 3 girls who were visiting for a taster day may have gone away with a slightly distorted view of what a normal Tuesday morning may be like, but joined in with great enthusiasm!
Mr Morris, Head of Maths, joined the group for period 1. He enjoyed meeting the girls and was impressed by how focussed and involved they were in the work they were doing.
Mrs Hall began with a couple of brain teasers which the girls solved later on in the session. The rest of the time was spent with the girls working in pairs on a variety of quite challenging problems and puzzles.
One girl was overheard to say "I'm so glad I persevered and solved that puzzle". To Mrs Hall, that is what Maths is all about - that sense of satisfaction.
When it was time to pack up for lunch we were all surprised at just how quickly the morning had gone. Year 5 really seemed to enjoy doing something a little bit different, and away from their normal classroom which made it more special. They all said they wanted to carry on and asked "when can we do that again?"
British Physics Olympiad Experimental Project Success
Six US1 physicists formed three working pairs to enter the Experimental Project competition. They had to design, carry out, analyse their results and evaluate their methods to investigate the specific heat capacities of two materials and link the relevance of their work to cooling a microprocessor chip in a computer.
The girls worked independently during lunch times over a few months, carrying out research and a series of practicals which culminated in the writing of a report for submission.
We are delighted to announce that Abigail McGill and Madeleine Norbury gain Bronze Medal Awards, while Sophie Stables, Emma Walsh, Imogen Kempton and Rona McKee gain Commendation Medal Awards.
MFL Society Event - 16th January 2012
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Twenty-five members of Y 11 and Upper School at St Helen’s and Abingdon School met for the first event of the Lent Term. St Helen’s hosted a twin-room French and Italian cinema evening on Monday 16th January. Pupils watched Potiche, a 2010 French-Belgian comedy directed by François Ozon starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Dépardieu. Set in 1977, the film tells the story of a submissive wife who takes over her husband's umbrella factory after the employees rebel against their tyrannical manager. The Italian film, Mio fratello è figlio unico, tells the gritty tale of two brothers coming of age in 1960s Rome. Over the course of ten years, the brothers experience love, attraction, politics, and the challenges of adult responsibility.
On Monday 5th March, Upper School pupils will be invited to attend a lunchtime lecture on Italian literature – further details of this and other events to follow. |
Year 5 trip to Oxford Botanic Gardens - 13th January 2012
Friday the 13th is unlucky for some but not for year 5. We went on a morning’s art trip to Oxford Botanical Gardens. The class were taken on a tour of the three glass houses (Lilly, Tropical and Arid). In each of the glass houses our guide told us a lot about the biodiversity of the plants and their importance to the planet. In the tropical house we looked at the four layers of the rainforest and the vast variety of plant life in all the levels. In the arid house we were surprised at how cold the created desert environment was, however some of the plants were flowering. In each area the class was given art tasks; to sketch the plants in detail and to blend pastels to create the right shades and tones of the leaves. It was a very informative trip packed with art activities.
Ski Trip to Saalbach, Austria - 15th-22nd December 2011
We boarded the bus on the first morning of the Christmas holidays, 47 pupils and 5 members of staff, all ready for the snowy scenes of Austria. We were not disappointed as it snowed pretty much non-stop for the whole week. The non skiers improved massively, conquering slalom at the end of the week. The more experienced skiers took to the slopes and enjoyed the fluffy deep snow. It was really nice to witness the prowess of Florence Wiggins and Hanna Brant, who skied with great balance and control and to Davina McLaverty for the outstanding progress she made having never skied before.
The après ski in the evenings were competitive or active and a really special evening came with the sleigh rides, falling snow, bells ringing, the forest road and a traditional sleigh to sit in.
Well done to all girls who participated in a memorable adventure in the Austrian Alps.
Hazel Bannerman 8F (Ski personality of the week) wrote:
The ski trip was quite an eye opener for me. I experienced the strange sensation of skiing for the first time and had to come to terms with the unfamiliar customs of a country I knew little about. We all had a whale of a time and never seemed to stop laughing. Whether it was scaring Mr Moylan with our horror stories or panicking on the chair lifts, we were always having fun. Overall we saw some breathtaking, dramatic scenery, tasted some interesting food and became more familiar with the picturesque shops of Saalbach, especially Spar!
I know everyone’s thanked them already, but a huge thank you to all the staff - I had a fantastic time.
Berlin Trip - 13-16th December
At the very end of the Christmas term, Miss Smith and Dr Gribble from the history department accompanied by Mrs Russell, took 30 girls in Year 11 to Berlin. Our mission was to visit some of the key sites of interest from the Nazi period and Cold War era. Some of the places of interest we visited included the Jüdisches Museum, Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the Wannsee Conference Villa, the Museum for German Resistance and the Stasi Prison. This is a visit that has always proved enormously rewarding and capitalises on the great interest generated by the IGCSE history course.
We also made sure that we had some fun - we took in one of the famous Berlin Christmas markets one evening and also went bowling!
First Lego League Tournament – 9th December
The HelKat’s Lego league club entered the First Lego League tournament at the INTECH science centre in Windsor. The theme for 2011-12 is ‘food factors’ and the girls had designed and built their robot to complete a number of missions based on this theme. The venue was truly inspirational for the competition, as they had the opportunity to look around at the exhibits in their breaks. The HelKat’s team immediately set about editing their program and fine tuning the robot’s attachments. During the day the robot teams competed in pairs in the planetarium and were scored on the robot missions. The HelKat’s team were absolutely delighted to be one of the two teams with the highest scoring rounds, who went on to demonstrate their robot game to all 19 teams in the final event. They worked together superbly as a team with girls participating from year 8-11.
"Cabaret" - 7th December
The opening night of our joint senior production of ‘Cabaret’ was performed by St Helen’s girls and Abingdon boys from years 11 to 13. Set in Berlin in 1929, Cabaret follows the story of Clifford Bradshaw, an American writer, and his relationship with ‘the toast of Mayfair’ Sally Bowles at the Kit Kat club. As the Third Reich emerges, Cliff unwittingly gets entangled in Nazi activity and the tenuous political state threatens to destroy many people’s lives. Overseeing the action is the Emcee, the Master of Ceremonies, who begins by asking you to ‘leave your troubles outside’ but soon makes it clear that there is no escape. With powerful musical numbers such as ‘Tomorrow belongs to me’ and ‘Cabaret’ the cast and crew gave a captivating and professional performance.
More photos in the Gallery
Year 6 visit Reading Museum - 6th December
Year 6 visited Reading Museum to learn more about Victorian education. Dressed in Victorian costume, the girls took part in short lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic set in a reconstructed late nineteenth century schoolroom. Despite experiencing Victorian discipline techniques, the girls had a wonderful afternoon but were pleased to return to St Helen’s and the comfort of their modern classroom.
UK Senior Mathematics Challenge 2011/12 - Results
The Senior Mathematics Challenge is primarily aimed at Years 12 & 13 and is significantly more difficult than the Intermediate Challenge, so congratulations go to all those that took part.
Particular congratulations go to Katya Richards who has been selected to go through to the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad.
Click here to see the results.
Year 6 Gingerbread Houses
Year 6 have been studying German this year as their MFL and have had great fun assembling and decorating gingerbread houses for a competition in the run-up to Christmas.
The Häuschenmeisterschaft winners are to be announced on Friday 9th December, judged by Ms Hiller as Head of Modern Languages, and they will receive a certificate and a medal.
The houses are to be eaten/demolished at the very end of term, when the girls will be reminded once more: nicht vergessen, Zähne putzen! - don’t forget to clean your teeth!
Economics Conference - 5th December
Twenty of the school's economists attended a conference at the City Temple in London on the the economic crisis on Monday. Speakers included ex Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, BBC's Hugh Pym, author and broadcaster Tim Harford (The Undercover Economist),Carl Emmerson from the Institute of Fiscal studies and Douglas Carswell MP.
They presented a challenging and inspiring range of economic topics includding the current Eurozone crisis, controlling monopoly power and preventing future meltdowns.
Well done to Katy Donnelly who asked Mr Darling about the bail out of RBS with what he described as a 'very pertinant question'.
Year 9 Photo Competition
This year's competition attracted 240 entries in two categories and the overall standard was very high. Over 70% of Year 9 entered the competition.
An exhibition of selected entries will be on display in Old School hall until the end of term. Prize winners will be announced on Friday 9th December.
In the meantime the best entries in each category are available to view from the links below:
Remembering the Past ... Autumn ...