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Newsletter No 558 – 17 October 2014
It was quite a shock to welcome our year 7 parents to their Little Canada information
evening last night and realise that the trip itself is only a couple of weeks away! It's hard to
believe that the last few weeks can have passed so quickly and that we can be nearly at half
term already!
Learning has been under the spotlight at the school in the last few days with our annual
Learning to Learn week. Each year group has been reflecting on a specific area and staff and
students have made time in lessons to consider how they can use certain skills to improve
their learning. The students are filling in logs to help them organise their thoughts, so do ask
to see them. There have been lots of interesting ideas coming through - although when a
year 11 student, who should have been focussing on memory skills this week, told us he had
forgotten his log we did have an anxious moment! Hopefully, after a week’s practice, he is
now far more able to remember his studies, and his belongings!
We have also been taking part this week in the first ever three-way student exchange
between the Harpenden secondary schools. Keen readers of this newsletter may remember
that a couple of years ago we carried out a similar exchange but with Roundwood Park only;
now St George's have also joined the trust we are able to expand the experience and so we
were delighted to have visitors from St George's with us this week, whilst students from SJL
visited Roundwood. Initial feedback is that students really enjoyed their experiences and we
are sure that all the schools will benefit from sharing each other’s good ideas!
As always, if you have any comments or suggestions I would be pleased to hear from you,
please contact me at [email protected].
Claire Robins
TRAFFIC CONGESTION AROUND THE SCHOOL
Please help us to keep the children safe!
As many of you will be aware, at the beginning and end of the school day, Manland Way and
Sauncey Avenue become very congested, with parents dropping off and picking up their
children. In the morning Manland Way is particularly busy and we are asking parents/carers
to please drop your children off a short distance away from school so that you do not have to
drive down Manland Way or Sauncey Avenue.
There have been concerns raised recently by some of our neighbours, parents and staff, who
have witness near-misses and aggressive and inconsiderate driving and parking. Because of
this we have now notified the authorities.
Please note: Parents are strictly forbidden to drive onto the school site unless they
have express permission to do so.
Thank you for your support in this matter.
CALENDAR REMINDER FOR YEAR 7:
Year 7 Parents’ Evening Tuesday 25 November 2014
The evening runs from 5-8pm
Schedules will be coming home via students the week before Parents Evening.
If you require specific disability access arrangements to be made please contact the school at
[email protected] or 01582 760 043 and we will do our best to meet your needs.
FESTIVAL ON THE FIELD
Festival on the Field has been nominated for the UK Festival Awards in the Small Festival
and Family Festival categories. The winner is decided by a public vote. If you wish to take
part and support this great event, please click on this link to submit your votes:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z85F2BB
Voting is open until 27 October.
Thank you for your support!
HARPENDEN RUGBY CLUB FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA
9 November 2014. See below for further details and a ticket application form.
KNITTING AND STITCHING SHOW
Thank you to all 85 textiles students and 8 staff for
a fantastic and inspiring day out at the Knitting and
Stitching show. I have already been very
impressed with the 'show reports' that have been
written by students already. It has been lovely to
see how our students were really inspired by the
work of other Textile Artists and really enjoyed
speaking to them, finding out more that they can
use in their work. Well done!
Date for your diary...... 'Wear a sweater to make the
world better'.. 'Save the Children' fundraising day
Friday 12th December, start knitting those
Christmas Jumpers!
Thank you.
Ms Richardson
On Friday 10 October
2014, 85 students
attended the knitting and stitching show in Alexandra
Palace. As sixth formers we found the trip very beneficial
and inspirational as there were various textile artists that
linked to our coursework. We had the opportunity to
interview the artists and learnt new techniques that would
be encouraged within our work. The work of the textile
artists helped us decide what our final outcome would be
within our coursework. Our theme for our coursework is
Natural or Manmade and due to the time of the year there
were several artists that had linked their own work to the
topic that was chosen for us, which made the trip even
more valuable. Overall, the trip was very educational as
well as enjoyable for all.
Faheema` and Lauren Eckley – Year 12
We had been looking forward to this trip since the
beginning of year 9; we arrived at Alexandra Palace and
was buzzing with excitement. When we got into the hall it was full of textile enthusiasts. Every
stall was very beneficial because the exhibiters had resources that we needed for our project
of customizing a waistcoat in style of hippy/punk. We got to see what different techniques the
textile artist used to achieve their end target. We learnt a lot more techniques that widened
our knowledge that we can use on our waistcoats. All the sellers were so lovely and so
helpful, can’t wait to go next year.
Hannah Wood and Lena Moustaghfir - Year 9
th
CHARITY EVENT FOR PARKINSONS UK- 6 NOVEMBER
On Thursday 6 November we will be hosting a Parkinson’s UK charity event in the form of a
quiz night from 6:00 – 8:30 in the school hall. Refreshments will be available and we are
hoping to see as many families as possible supporting us in raising money for this very worthy
cause.
Entry will cost £6 for adults and £5 for concessions. The questions in the quiz will cover
various topics, including Music, Geography, and General Knowledge etc. There will also be a
raffle with prizes, at 50p per ticket. Entry tickets are available from the school’s reception
where there is also an official Parkinsons UK collection box, for those who would prefer to just
make a donation. Raffle tickets will only be available on the night.
For further information about this event, please contact reception and leave your name and
number and we will contact you. Thank you for your support.
Sam Little (Year 11 Lawes) or Bradley Christie (Year 11 Britten)
WORLD CHALLENGE FUNDRAISING QUIZ- 14TH NOVEMBER
Hello my name is Chris Rouse and I am a student in year 10. I will be going on a "World
Challenge" expedition to Java, Indonesia in 2016, this expedition will involve charity work. To
raise money for the expedition I am holding a quiz and am looking for more teams to take
part. The quiz is being held on Friday 14th of November at St Helen's Primary school,
Wheathampstead and starts at 7:30, the price per person is £10 and this includes a
ploughman's supper. We aim to finish at around 10:30. If you would like to organise a team or
be allocated one then please contact me using the email below, any support is greatly
appreciated!
Chris Rouse - Email:[email protected]
SPORTS NEWS
Twitter
The PE department would like to remind you we have a Twitter account for keeping students
and parents up to date with fixture details, results and general sport and physical education
news. Please follow us @SJLPhysEd.
Fixtures for next week:
Week 1
from
18/10/14
Saturday
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Rugby
vs
Beaumont
(Away)
Rugby
vs
Beaumont
(Home)
Rugby
vs
Beaumont
(Home)
Rugby
vs
Beaumont
(Away)
Monday
Tuesday
Basketball
Vs
Roundwood
(Home)
District
Basketball
Tournament
Senior
(SRA)
Football
Vs
Woolaston
(Home)
Wednesday
Netball
Vs
Loreto
(Home)
Basketball
Tournament
(Roundwood)
Netball
Vs
Beaumont
(Away)
Netball
Vs
Sandringham
(Away)
Netball
Vs
Beaumont
(Away)
Netball
Vs
Sandringham
(Away)
Rugby
Vs
Mount Grace
Rugby
Vs
Mount Grace
Rugby
Vs
Mount Grace
Rugby
Vs
Mount Grace
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Rugby
Vs
Mount Grace
Cross-country Results from Nicholas Breakspear fixture
This week our runners experienced weather more usual for cross country and coped well with
the wet conditions. Several runners improved upon their placing from last week which is
excellent. We hope to see further improvement next week as we compete in the District
Championships at Westminster Lodge.
We have continued to field at least 3 teams in both the junior boys and junior girl’s events as
additional transport has been provided by Mrs. Edge, who we thank for her support of our
students!
Junior Girls
Sophie Gorman 7
Rosie Hall 16
Fiona McArdle 19
Meg Brookes 26
Emily Sutton 27
Maizy Bruce 24
Elizabeth Bratton 38
Amelia Spiteri 33
Charlotte Wilde 37
Charlotte Sweeny 47
Grace Thorpe 44
Isla Brewster 46
Isabelle Edge 48
Junior Boys
Jake Watt 9
Jacob Jones 18
Toby Sutton 20
Eddie Chisholm 14
Julian Smith 33
Simeon James 27
Inter Girls
Caitlin Eckley 7
Ella Hutson 9
Becky Nottingham-Taylor
15
Sarah McCullough 20
Ellen Brookes 19
Amy Hartnup 22
Inter Boys
Eddie Riddell 4
Alfie Reed 15
Ben Totty 13
Keegan Brown 18
Tom Luyk 17
Senior Boys
Sam Jones 1
Rory Glass 2
Jamie Jones 5
Sam Hartnup 6
Senior Girls
Lauren Eckley 5
Year 10 FOOTBALL vs PARK VIEW (National Cup)
Result: 7 – 1
Unfortunately SJL’s National Cup run has come to an early end but the score line doesn’t truly
reflect the team’s performance. This was a very difficult fixture away from home including a
long minibus trip to Haringey. They entered an intimidating atmosphere with much of the Park
View School spectating from the side of the pitch and for the first 20 minutes of the match SJL
held their own. Unfortunately they had a wobble before half time conceding 3 goals in as
many minutes, before Sam Picton, making his debut this season, scored. This goal didn’t
quite push the team on to a comeback and with many key players missing through injury,
Park View took advantage of tired legs and small mistakes.
The boys should still be very proud of themselves as their performances this season have far
st
surpassed those of the previous three! Now for a rest until January 31 when we meet local
rivals Roundwood.
Please visit this link for the fireworks event booking form.
HOST UK
Christmas can be a lonely time for international students at UK Universities – would you be
able to make someone feel welcome and invite them into your home to share Christmas with
your family? A great opportunity for a child to really understand the true meaning of this
special festival, meet new people and engender goodwill.
To learn more about volunteer hosting at Christmas or any weekend of the year, see
www.hostuk.org or contact the HOST office on 020 7739 6292.