Charity Concert at St Peter's College, Oxford - 14th July

On Wednesday 14th July, 17 singers from St Helen's gave a concert in aid of the Joshua Orphan Care Trust, one of this year's School Charities. The girls from year 7 to US2 performed solos, duets, trios, and ensemble pieces to a very receptive and welcoming audience.  The event was extremely enjoyable for all involved, and a lovely way to end the term!

SHSK  Playwriting Competition

The results of the first playwriting competition were announced this week. The joint winners were Eloise Carey in 8E and Helen Dallas in 9W. It is hoped that Eloise’s play, ‘The Deciding Room’ will have a lunch time performance in December and that Helen’s, ‘The Houndfort Music Box’ will follow in February.
There were also two highly commended plays that will be read and explored further in next year’s junior drama groups. These were: ‘Red Magnolia’ by Rebecca Chadder in 7K  and ‘The lift’ by Amy Buckle in 8E.  ‘Anne of Alcatraz’ by Jenna Chick in 8E was also commended.

Junior Music Festival - 7-8th July

For two days, YPH has been filled with the sound of music making as girls from years 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 have been taking part in the Junior Music Festival. Nearly two hundred girls took part in a vast array of musical styles and instruments, both solos and ensembles. Our visiting adjudiactor was Olivier Bonnici, and he spoke very highly of the standards achieved by the performers. Many congratulations to all those who participated.
 

Charity Concert in Headington - 7th July

On Wednesday evening, approximately forty girls travelled to All Saints' Church in Headington, to give a concert. The concert was part of the church's summer music festival which takes place every year to provide entertainment for local people who are unable to get away during the summer holidays. The girls performed beautifully to a very appreciative audience, and the programme ranged from Mozart to Gershwin, saxophone ensembles to a piano duet and even included some numbers from the Wizard of Oz! All the performers combined at the end of the evening to sing 'Someone to Watch Over Me' by Gershwin and 'My Favourite Things' by Rodgers.

Congratulations and thanks to all those who took part.
 

Lower School Picnic - 6th July

On Tuesday 6th July the whole of Year 8 enjoyed the sunshine and had a picnic lunch  with their tutors to celebrate their time in Lower School.
The girls brought in a wonderful assortment of food to share and they were each given an iced cake personalised with the name of their tutor group!

Year 8 Drama Club on Tour – 5th July

Members of the Year 8 Drama Club performed their devised play ‘Fame, friendship and leather jackets’ to residents of St. Katharine’s, Wantage. The elderly ladies, including several old girls of our school, were an appreciative audience and both cast and audience enjoyed the social occasion. We were also shown the lovely chapel, built in the shape of a Catherine wheel. This is the second time we have done this and we are hoping to make it an annual visit.
 

US1 - Mexican Cooking - 1st July

On Thursday 1st July, US1 Spanish took to the kitchen and cooked Mexican enchiladas to evoke the atmosphere of the novel Como Agua para Chocolate set in revulutionary 1910 Mexico and revolving around the traditions and rituals of cooking.

Year 10 Business Activity Afternoon - Tuesday 29th June

Having spent previous Careers sessions considering personal qualities and personal skills, particularly employability skills - Year 10 were given the chance to test their teamwork, communication, organisation, creative and presentation skills at a Business Activity afternoon. run by the school careers team but chaired by Celia Golding from The Independent Schools Careers Organisation.
The theme of the afternoon was the 2012 Olympics. Divided into teams of seven, Year 10 were first faced with a 15 minute challenge – to create a ‘happy meal’ potato creature to represent an Olympic sport. This they achieved with amazing ingenuity and humour.  Once the teams had used this activity to work out their individual strengths, they were tasked with creating a ‘company’ to manufacture and sell giant foam hands for the 2010 Olympics. Within the space of 1 hour the teams worked with great focus to devise a consumer market research questionnaire, a product specification and mock up, advertising and a Profit & Loss statement.
The teams then had to give a 3 minute presentation of their work for adjudication.

County Hockey Success

Briony Hearn, year 9, has been put forward by Oxfordshire County Hockey to the U15 Junior Regional Performance Centre (JRPC) - 6 hours of hockey per day on 6 days over the summer.  The first session was on Sunday in 30 degrees of heat!  There are 12 JRPCs in the country, but we're lucky that the one covering this region (which includes Oxon, Berks, Bucks, Middlesex etc) is based in Oxford.  At the end of the last JRPC session, a squad will be chosen to play in the England Hockey Tier 1 Competition against the JRPCs from the Birmingham and Nottingham regions in September.

For the lucky few, a single squad will then selected from these three Tier 1 teams to form the regional cluster Mercia Lynx team for the Tier 2 competition against the 3 other England regional clusters in October.  But, one step at a time!
 

Year 7 Photo Competition Results

The competition was timed to coincide with the Year 7 residential trip to Somerset.

Entries were invited in two categories

• ‘Kilve’      for the best photograph taken on the trip to Kilve Court
• ’Spring’   for the best photograph that depicts Spring

A record 230+ entries were received. Click here to see the results.