Year 5 Greek Morning - 31st March

As a culmination to the year 5 History topic on Ancient Greece the class organised a morning of presentations. In four groups, the girls created their own scripts, props and Powerpoint presentations to show the facts of The Olympic games, Spartans, Daily life and Greek Gods.
This was followed by a little Greek myth inspired music and Greek alphabet bingo. The morning was extremely enjoyable and a great end to the term’s learning.
 

 

Year 8 Challenge Day - 31st March

Year 8 girls spent a day full of fun as well as challenge at Waterland, an outdoor pursuits centre in the Cotswold Water Park. Half the day was spent building rafts in small groups then sailing them to an island in search of chocolate treasure; the rest of the time girls worked on different team challenges, including filling with water a tube with lots of holes! There were a few raft collapses, and lots of girls got wet at some point in the day, but everyone approached the activities with huge enthusiasm and supported one another. The centre staff were impressed by this, as well as the girls' ability to work together and solve difficult puzzles. It was a fantastic day and the girls should all feel proud of the way they represented the school and participated so well.

 

YE Team Aspire Victorious at Area Presentations – 30th March

Year 10 Young Enterprise company, Aspire, led by MD Emily McPherson, won the award for best stand at the South and Vale Area presentations on Wednesday 30th March. They were also winners in the overall area competition to go forward to a place in the County Final in May.
 

GCSE Concert - 28th March

On Monday evening, the Year 11 girls who study GCSE Music, gave a concert of their compositions and coursework performances in the Studio Theatre. It was a lovely evening and the culmination of two years of hard work.
Many congratulations to all involved for such an impressive event.

 

Senior Music Festival 27th-29th March

The Senior Music Festival has taken place over the last few days in YPH.
Involving approximately a hundred girls from Year 10 upwards, the festival divided into competitive and non-competitive elements; all performances given to one or more visiting adjudicators. The standards were, yet again, exceedingly high and many congratulations go to everyone who took part
 

Careers Convention - 25th March

The three independent schools in Abingdon combined forces to stage the annual Careers Convention. This popular annual event is open to Year 11 and above and allows students and parents to attend a range of presentations, or talk on an individual basis to career representatives.
This year the event took place at Abingdon School. The evening began with an excellent keynote address to packed audience by Head of Sky News and St Helen’s parent, John Ryley. Other presentations throughout the evening included Careers in Art & Design, the Biosciences, Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management and Working in your Gap Year. There were also representatives from over 50 other career areas on hand throughout the evening for individual consultation.

The schools are indebted to the many parents and alumni, many from St Helen’s, who are prepared to forsake their Friday evening to help advise current students. Without them the evening would not have been the success that it was.

Next year the Convention will be held at St Helen’s.
 

 

Year 11 Debating Competition - 25th March

On Friday 25th March, Year 11 assembled in the Lecture Theatre for the very first Year 11 Debating Competition.  The girls had been working on two topical motions as part of their preparation for IGCSE and had chosen one team of two girls to represent each of the four classes.
11LW and 11GR kicked off with their response to "This House believes that prisoners should have the right to vote", which was followed by 11D and 11L who tackled the motion: "This House believes that torture is justified in the interests of national security".
All the teams produced well researched and persuasive arguments, and the winning team were judged to be Dana Patel and Katy Donnelly from 11D. 
Individual prizes were awarded to Alex Wilkinson for the best speaker and Lorel Scriven for the best summing up.
 

 

Latin and Greek Reading Competition – 24th March

Once again the Classics Department were delighted to have twenty-one pupils entering the Oxford Classical Association’s Latin and Greek Reading Competition. This prestigious annual event took place at Magdalen College, Oxford. Our cohort of competitors trained hard and this certainly paid off. Congratulations to all those that took part.

See the list of prize winners.

 

Year 5 & 6 Maths Roadshow - 23rd March

On Wednesday 23rd March, the girls in Years 5 and 6 took part in a Maths ‘Hands-on’ Roadshow. The girls worked together to solve a wide variety of challenging mathematical puzzles including Auntie’s Teacups, Domino Tedrads and Egg Tangrams. Both pupils and teachers alike found the puzzles very interesting and enjoyed working out strategies to solve them. We would invite everyone to try some of these puzzles for themselves on the nrich website

 

Oxfordshire U15 Girls Hockey Team

St Helen and St Katharine has three girls in the Oxfordshire U15 Girls Hockey Team this season: Briony Hearn, Hannah Kinnier-Wilson and Emily Wyatt.  Briony is also the Oxfordshire U15 Captain.
The girls will be representing Oxfordshire in the South County Championship League.  The first matches took place on the 23rd March against Hampshire and Middlesex; Oxfordshire narrowly lost to Hampshire, but beat Middlesex 2-0.  The girls have matches against Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Sussex still to look forward to.

Congratulations girls!
 

Y10 Team Mathematics Challenge - 22nd March

Our teams did very well at the newly established Year 10 Team Mathematics Competition that took place at Lord Williams’ School, Thame on Tuesday. One team (Katya Richards, Molly Tang, Francesca Ramsey and Alice Atkins) came 2nd with a score of 148 points  to Magdalen College School who scored 160 points. The other team (Meera Manek, Hannah Brown, Alice Lindsay and Kate Simmons) came 6th. Congratulations to the teams and thanks go to Miss Kennedy and Mrs Russell for accompanying the teams and to Miss Kennedy for organizing and training our team.

Everyone clearly had a great time.

 

Year 7 trip to Kilve Court - 16th-19th March

Year 7 enjoyed a fantastic activity and team-building stay at Kilve Court in Somerset, packed with fun, friends and lots of delicious food! There was plenty of challenge too, with girls facing a high ropes course, cycling, grass boarding and abseiling, to mention just a few activities. We all enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, the opportunity to try new things and make new friends!
A great time was had by all.

 

Upper School visit Tate Britain - 17th March

Members of Upper School History of Art course spent last Thursday at Tate Britain, working from eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings. For part of the time they worked with Dr Giovanni Aoli, an art historian from Queen Mary College, University of London, who led a gallery lecture on Romanticism. With their prior reading in the subject, our students were able to engage in an interesting and stimulating debate with him, with reference to the work of Constable, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. Problems of conservation and nineteenth century paint technology, outlined by Dr Aoli, extended subject knowledge, at first hand.

 

 

Aida at The Royal Opera House - 17th March

A group of girls from years 10-US2 attended the Schools' Matinee performance of Aida at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  The production was very exciting, and everyone was particularly impressed with the soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, who was standing in for the title role at short notice, and making her ROH debut.  The production also involved some of the dancers from The Royal Ballet, who provided atmospheric movement to support the singing in some scenes.  It was very special to be able to see such high quality performances, in one of the most famous opera houses in the world. The girls also enjoyed the stunning setting of the 'Flower Garden' and views over London from the balconies during the interval!

 

Year 7 Cheddar Gorge Trip - 16th March

Year 7 geographers enjoyed a fun but very informative trip to Cheddar Gorge.  They visited Gough's Cave where they marvelled at the stalactites and stalagmites and learned about the formation of the cave and it's features.  They also visited Cox's Cave which contains more stalactites and stalagmites, as well as a Dragon and a number of spooky features which made many of the girls jump!  The girls also climbed Jacobs Ladder and the lookout tower from where they mapped the land uses of the area.  Finally they visited the museum and learned about the earliest settlers, including Cheddar Man, the oldest complete skeleton in the UK which was found in Gough's Cave. The girls and teachers had a most enjoyable day.
 

 

Singers' Concert - 8th March

On Tuesday 8th March the Lent term Singers' Concert was held in Chapel.  Girls from years 6 to US2 performed a wide variety of songs, from Italian Arias to songs from the shows. Highlights included some of the winners from the Oxford Music Festival, and two highly contrasted performances of songs from the musical Oliver!  The concert was a fantastic celebration of the girls' achievements this term, and demonstrated the consistently high standard of the singing in school.

Congratulations to all involved.

 

Year 10 GCSE Art visit to the Saatchi Gallery, London - 7th March

On Monday, 7th March we visited “Newspeak: British Art Now” a very contemporary exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. This gallery, is privately owned and open to the public and admission is free. There was a huge range of work on view, paintings, sculpture and installations and the exhibition was very enjoyable. The girls drew from the exhibits in their sketchbooks and will use this visual research to develop their ideas for their Response to Environment for their coursework unit.

 

Readathon in the Library

Years 5 and 6 have taken part in Readathon, a sponsored reading event, they raised an amazing £831.73 which goes to help children who are very ill with cancer, leukaemia and other blood disorders, epilepsy and acquired brain injury.

Well done to everyone who took part.
 

Your Daughter - a guide for raising girls

St Helen and St Katharine welcomes the publication this month of Your Daughter, a new guide book to bringing up girls. Written by the heads and teachers of over 200 leading girls’ schools in the UK, Your Daughter is based on the highly successful websitelaunched by the Girls’ Schools Association. Sections include advice on family relationships, friendships, adolescence, drugs and alcohol, bullying, self-esteem, eating disorders and body image, social networking and the internet, homework, exams – and moods. Each chapter features a useful Q&A section containing real questions posed by users of www.mydaughter.co.uk. We encourage parents to look at the site and hope that you will find it of some interest.

 

Applying for Competitive Subjects - 4th March

Over 300 students and parents from 14 Oxfordshire schools attended an evening event focusing on applying for competitive subjects at leading universities. As part of our Higher Education programme, the principle aim was to give those in Years 11 and 12 a broad base of information on applying for competitive courses An excellent overview was provided by Mr Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Oxford University followed by more specific information at a range of seminars focussing on Business, Economics & Management, English, History, Law and Psychology. These sessions were taken by subject specialists from leading universities and were supported by current undergraduates who were able to talk about the application process, their expectations and the reality of studying their chosen subject at university.
 

Year 8 visit the Design Museum - 3rd March

Year 8 visited the Design Museum in London to take part in a product analysis workshop. The theme of the workshop was "Eco Products" and the girls studied a range of ingenious products which highlighted and explored the importance of sustainable design.

They also enjoyed visiting the current exhibitions; drawing fashion and Brit Insurance Designs of the Year. The latter exhibition was interactive and the girls were able to try out new seatingdesigns and new technology by playing computerised guitars and drums.

 

World Book Day - 3rd March

In celebration of World Book Day 2011 the Library ran a turn-a-vegetable-into-a-book-character competition. Any vegetable could be used, and could be decorated with any other materials- card fabric, ribbon etc. We had a diverse range of entries and were amazed by the creativity involved. Vegetables used included potatoes, cabbage, pepper, butternut squash, parsnip, courgette, onion, leek.... Well done to everyone who entered.

Year 8 Hindu Temple Visit - 1st March

On Tuesday Year 8 visited the Swaminarayan temple in Neasden.
The girls attended the Arti ceremony, visited the exhibition and learnt about daily Hindu life from a member of the congregation. A lovely, and informative, day was had by all.
 

RNLI Talk - 1st March

On the afternoon of Tuesday 1st March, girls in the Lower and Middle School had a very interesting talk from Tatti McNally about the work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. We saw film clips of a number of rescue missions as well as learning important lessons about keeping safe near and on the water. To finish off, two girls from Year 10 raced against the clock to put on the full crew kit in less than 90 seconds, the time they would have if they were setting off on a rescue

 

UK Intermediate Mathematical Challenge 2010/11 Results

Congratulations to Years 9, 10 and 11 for an excellent set of Intermediate Mathematics Challenge results which have arrived in school. This is a particularly hard competition for Year 9. (More details)

Particular congratulations are due to the following pupils who have got through to follow on rounds which take place on Thursday 17th March.

• Year 11: Lauren Kedar and Jenny Cui who have qualified for the one hour Pink Kangaroo follow on round. Lauren was also best in Year 11.
• Year 10: Katya Richards and Evie Ward who have qualified for the two hour Hamilton Olympiad follow on round. Katya also gained the best result in the school with full marks!
• Year 9: Sophie Caffyn who has qualified for the two hour Cayley Olympiad follow on round; Helen Gildersleeves, Sophie Sadler, Chantal Olavesen, Isabel Ashman, Hannah Kinnier Wilson and Joanna Savage who have qualified for the one hour Grey Kangaroo follow on round.

We wish them all the best!

 

German Exchange - 13th-21st February

On 21st February, five Year 11 girls, together with boys from Abingdon School returned from nine days spent at our exchange school, the Ratsgymnasium in Bielefeld, Germany.  Apart from attending lessons, trips were organized to Münster,  where we had a guided tour of the city followed by a  visit to the Hall of Peace, and to Cologne, where we visited the chocolate museum and the cathedral. Further highlights were attending the Teutolab  of the university where exchange partners worked together on science experiments on eco-fuels and a trip to sample currywurst followed by ice-skating.  The girls have come back much more fluent in German and with firm friendships established.

 

 

Year 11 Art Trip to The Ashmoleum Museum - 15th February

On Tuesday all Year 11 artists spent most of the day at the Museum doing visual research for Unit 2, the externally set assignment. The topic this year is Similarities and/or Differences. In the weeks before the museum visit the girls have explored a range of ideas and decided on the focus of their research. The Art Education Officer for the museum met us and took us on a quick tour to help us find our way around and to point out particular areas. He also showed the girls a sketchbook made in the museum which demonstrated many different ways of recording information. In the education room extra art materials were made available. The girls worked very hard on their individual research and found the day stimulating. They gathered many images and information to assist them in the preparation of the examination topic.  

 

Oxford Mail Journalist visits Year 5 - 15th February

Jeremy Smith, journalist and section editor of the Oxford Mail visited Year 5 and the girls were able to get an insight into the life of a reporter. When asked what his favourite writing memory was, he told about his dice with death from swimming with a killer whale and, in response to a request to tell his silliest story, Jeremy relived an experience of being a wrestler for a day.
Mr Smith told that, as a reporter, there is always something new and exciting happening and commented on the amazing feeling of writing something that you then see in a newspaper or magazine.
The girls then had the opportunity to consider “news” and how to compose a report.
It was a really interesting session and lots was learnt.
 

Spanish Workshop on Pedro Almodovar - 11th February

Dr Carmen Herrero, Principal lecturer at Manchester University, came to visit us and provided our Upper School Spanish students a whole afternoon workshop on Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. The workshop was held in the Lecture Theatre and our girls, who study two of his extraordinary and original films as part of their A2 curriculum, found the event very interesting and enriching.

Upper Sixth Devised Drama Pieces - 10th and 11th February

The Upper Sixth performed their devised drama pieces in the Studio Theatre:

"Meat" was an acerbic and biting satire on celebrity culture and it's manipulators which charted the rise of a young woman, Wayne Slate, towards the murky world of tabloid journalism.

"A Civilized Society" focussed on the plight of four homeless people and their attempts to dream themselves out of their desperate situation and towards a final, all-healing solution to poverty.

"The Untimely Death of Arnold Strauss" was a daring and controversial look at the methodology of cultish and organised religion and its effect on the perpetrators and their unwitting yet faithful masses.

Year 7 and 8 Disco – 11th February

Twenty girls from Year 10 will be travelling to Swaziland in 2012 to help in a community building project and this disco was organised to raise funds towards the trip.
Years 7 and 8 let their hair down and had a great time at the event, raising over £200 towards the project.

Badminton challenge: Moylan v Miller - 11th February

There was a tense atmosphere in the Sports Hall on Friday lunchtime as Mr Moylan entered the arena (badminton court) to face his arch rival - Year 9 Brodie Miller.
Brodie plays badminton at National level and has been selected to represent England in the U15 individual and team events, Mr Moylan is slightly less well qualified but has been known to grace the court in a recreational capacity.
 A large group of spectators made up of staff and pupils provided an exciting atmosphere, Brodie went on to win the match, but congratulations must also go to Mr Moylan for putting up a good fight!
The entry fee of 50p went to School Charities. See more photos in the gallery.

 

Plucked Strings Concert - Wednesday 9th February

Many of our harpists and guitarists took part in our annual plucked strings concert last night. The concert took place in the Chapel and the music was a charming mixture of styles, with performers ranging from Year7 to sixth form and even including a member of the modern languages staff! Congratulations to all the performers for a very enjoyable concert.
 

Abingdon Joint Schools’ Author Visit  - 9th February

The 6th Annual Abingdon Joint Schools' Author Visit took place at Our Lady’s Abingdon. This event, jointly organised by the Librarians from Our Lady’s Abingdon, Abingdon and St Helen & St Katharine schools also includes children from other local primary and secondary schools. 
This year successful children's author Julia Golding was the guest and during the day around 600 children heard her talk about her books and where she finds her ideas.
In the morning Year 8 heard Julia talk as Joss Stirling – her pen name for a teen title that she has recently published called Finding Sky, a paranormal romance and thrilling adventure story, and also as Julia Golding, talking about her book Wolf Cry. 
In the afternoon session Julia spoke to younger guests – including Years 5 and 6- about writing fantasy, focussing on Glass Swallow , The Ship Between the Worlds and Dragonfly.

 

Year 9 Trip to Cadbury World - 8th February

Year 9 Geography and Design and Technology students visited Cadbury World. The girls had a tour of the factory where they saw the processes involved in making the chocolate and the packaging of many of their favourite chocolate bars. They then attended a very interesting lecture about Cadbury and learnt lots about the location of Cadbury in the UK and globally, the inputs and processes involved in making the chocolate, Cadbury's commitment to fairtrade and information about the markets and marketing of Cadbury products.  Finally, some girls mixed their own chocolate and everyone enjoyed the free chocolate bars and samples given in the factory.  It was a fun and informative day!

 

Rotary Club 'Youth Speaks' Public Speaking Competition - 7th February

Congratulations to our Year 9 and Year 10 teams who took part in the first round of this competition at Abingdon School on Monday 7th February.  Brodie Miller, Lizzie Hancock and Heather Conder were winners of the Intermediate Section and Poppy McAlister, Natalie Fatemi and Ottolie Uden were judged the winners in the Senior Section, where they competed against several sixth form teams.  The Zone Final then took place the following day in Witney, with King Alfred's Wantage going through in the intermediate section and the Warriner School, Banbury winning in the Seniors.  It was a great experience for our girls who are all keen to compete again in this activity.
 

 

Pro Corda Chamber Music Competition - Monday 7th February

The regional round of the national chamber music competition took place here on Monday. Chamber groups from St Helens and other local schools competed in this, the first round of the competition, and all our girls performed extremely well. Many congratulations to the three groups who have been selected to progress to the semi-finals. They are the Wind Quintet (Chantal Olavesen, Annie Deadman, Heather Conder, Natalie Fatemi and Holly Crocker), the Poulenc Trio (Kathryn Telford, Rosie Bartholomew and Olivia Law) and the Violin Quintet (Lucy Anderson, Bethan Rose, India Lunn, Katy Wang and Maddy Clarke).

 

Oxford Music Festival 29th January - 6th February

Over the past two weekends, many St Helens girls have been competing at the Oxford Music Festival, held at Headington School. The festival attracts competitors from all over the country and our girls performed extremely well, with great successes in many classes.

There are too many achievements to list on this page!! -  so please click here to see the results.

Very many congratulations to all those that took part!

 

Upper School trip to Paris - 3 February

Thirteen members of US1 accompanied by Mrs Taylor and Mrs Astbury have just spent a delightful weekend in Paris, visiting the sights and attending a conference entitled "Your Future in Europe". We learnt about the European Union, human rights, the ERASMUS programme and the marketing tactics of "Innocent Smoothies" as well as environmentally frienly travel in Paris, Eurostar and journalism in France. We went up the Eiffel Tower "by night", took a boat trip along the Seine and wandered through Montmartre then up the Champs Elysees. We went to the cinema and were warmly welcomed at the school play of our partner school, Sainte Marie de Neuilly. The sun shone on us and we had a fantastic if exhausting stay.

 

U12 Netball Success

Congratulations to the following girls who were all selected for the Under 12 development programme. There were 70 trialists involved so it was a superb effort by our girls.

 

Architectural Walk in Oxford - 20th January

The History of Art lesson for US1, moved to Oxford for an architectural walk. The focus of the tour was the contrast between Neo-Classical and Gothic Revival styles in University buildings. We began with a visit to Butterfield’s polychromed Keble College Chapel, and marvelled at the sustained invention of brick and tiled patterns. We also studied the famous Holman Hunt painting of ‘The Light of the World’.
At the Bodleian Library we were fortunate to have a guided tour of the Radcliffe Camera by the Manager of Admissions. Her knowledge of the library and its history gave us a special insight into the original form of the camera, before the ground floor was enclosed. It was especially useful to be able to relate the interior to the more familiar exterior of the building. We are especially grateful to her for finding time to talk to us.
At the Pitt Rivers Museum, we concentrated on the Gothic Revival style and its adaptation to Venetian inspired stone and brick work, with the addition of new materials, such as cast and wrought iron and glass roof spans. From the gallery we were able to inspect the detail of foliate decoration on capitals and the trefoil-pierced beams.
We finished our tour at the Ashmolean Museum and observed the juxtaposition of present day architecture with a classical building, This had much to tell us about conservation and contemporary museum design.
 

 

Geography trip to London - 13th January

On Thursday the US2 geographers went on a fascinating field trip to London.  Led by Mrs Douglas they observed changes in land use and urban redevelopment from the outer suburbs to the Docklands.  Stopping off at Hackney and Beckton the girls saw first hand the efforts of urban regeneration in deprived areas of city before going to Canary Wharf where the successful redevelopment and reimaging of the Docklands was obvious. They finished at Chad Thames, near Tower Bridge, a gentrified area in keeping with the original style of the buildings and city.  This trip offered the girls a fantastic opportunity to see and fully understand many of the case studies covered in the World Cities module for A2.

 

New School Uniform

Details of the new school uniform which will be worn in school from September 2011 can be found here.

 

Year 7 Visit a Synagogue - 11 January

Year 7 had  the opportunity to visit the Reading Hebrew Congregation.
Rabbi Svi Solomons showed them around the synagogue and explained the key Jewish beliefs to them. The girls also enjoyed the workshops on the main Jewish festivals, kosher food and Jewish traditions, run by members of the congregations.
 

Art Competition Winners

Last term Year 10 GCSE art students entered a competition for Secondary School pupils to devise imaginative new shop-fronts and signage to improve the legibility and identity of the Abingdon’s retail environment.  The competition was run by West Waddy Architects and Town Planners. The brief was in three parts: research and investigation, design and presentation.
The whole class responded with great creative ideas and used a wide range of materials in presenting their solutions.
All the designs entered in the competition were shown in an exhibition in the Abingdon Precinct the week before Christmas.
Grace Edge was the overall winner and Georgina Lucas was commended for the best presentation. They were awarded their prizes of cash and a book token at a ceremony after a Carol Service which was part of Westwaddy’s 125 years celebrations.
It is hoped that funding will allow some of the designs to be implemented.

Congratulations to you both!