Good afternoon,

What a scorcher of a week! So much has been happening in and outside of school. You will need a large, cold drink and a biscuit for this one! The staffing for next year is at the end of the letter so will you read carefully or skim to the end? The choice is yours!

Thank you for all the Dads and Lads who joined us for a massive fry up last week. Sunny side up, sir? Our cracking kitchen staff must have been up since dawn preparing for it! Lots of dads enjoyed some quality time with their children and enjoyed a catch up over a healthy fry-up & a cuppa before burning it off with some games in the playground. Great to see you all!

Thank you to all those parents who joined us for our amazing Arts Café last week. Wow! Such a celebration of our amazing children’s talents! Some truly remarkable work had been produced using Surprised by Henri Rousseau as inspiration.

Year 3 develop our Eco Code!

Y3 have been working on an art project in conjunction with Bute House Prep. The children used stencils and printing materials to produce two wonderful banners reflecting our school’s eco-code of the 7Rs. Look out for their displays around the school.

World Refugee Day

We took part in the Great Big Live Assembly as part of World Refugee Day. Organised by the Sanctuary Foundation we linked ‘live’ with Syrian children in a refugee camp in Jordan, who talked about their situation, their hopes and dreams. We prayed together for greater understanding.

Year 1 Trip to the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace

​This week, the Year 1 classes loved going to the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace! The children loved seeing the spectacular carriages used by the Royal family, including the magnificent Gold State Coach used in the King’s Coronation earlier this year! They were amazed to learn about the history of coronations and link it all back to their learning on famous queens of the past. The children loved learning about the special things that happen in coronations including holding the orb and sceptre – some of them even got to be King and Queen for the day! Of course, the real highlight was meeting two of the King’s horses, Meg and Belfast, who both took part in the coronation!

Secret Artist Winners’ Trip to Saatchi Gallery

​Last week, the winners of the Secret Artist Competition got to enjoy the prize of going to the Saatchi Gallery. The children enjoyed their guided tour of the exhibition: Civilization: The Way We Live Now. It was fascinating to discuss how the photographers and artists reflected our changing world in their artwork and what meaning they have in mind. The children gave really thoughtful answers to the discussions and were absolutely brilliant!

Year 6 Junior Citizens

Our Y6 children learned more on how to be Junior Citizens today, following an excellent series of mini workshops organised by London Transport Museum. Hosted by Fulham FC, the children played through scenarios they might come across in the big wide world. BIG thanks to Met police UK and all involved.

Year 2 get to meet Florence Nightingale!

Yr 2 met Florence Nightingale at Gunnersbury Museum. The children travelled back in time to meet the inspirational Lady with the Lamp. They thoroughly enjoyed dressing up to become part of her incredible tale and learning about Victorian times.

Pelican Concerts for the Raworth Cup

If your child is taking part in the competition, please join us in the Upper Hall at 9am on the day they are playing. Miss Rachel has all the details r.clark@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Year 3 at Gunnersbury Park

Yr 3 have been exploring life in Roman Britain at Gunnersbury Park. They enjoyed role-playing characters from the period including Julius Cesar, Boudicca, a Roman legionary & a slave while also learning about their daily lives.

Year 6 at the Crown Court

A local Magistrate popped by to talk to Y6 today. She explained about the law, where Magistrate Courts sit in our legal system and how they work. The children enjoyed ranking a few crimes in order of gravity, then watched some Crown Court sentencing!

Windrush 75

The children learned lots this week as we celebrated Windrush Day beginning with a brilliant, interactive assembly. They joined a mum and son on the Empire Windrush’s journey to Tilbury Docks 75 years ago, learning about the journey and the reception they received on arrival in the UK.

The children engaged in workshops in their classrooms based around the call to travel from the Caribbean, the contribution made to British life by the Windrush generation and their descendants and the Windrush Scandal.

Last week, Miss Annora, myself and a group of House Captains headed down to the Nubian Life Resource Centre to interview a group of people who were part of the Windrush generation. Enjoy – https://youtu.be/fV1eRo26Jrs

Having learned a special dance for the occasion, Yr 3 headed down to the celebration of Windrush 75 on Shepherds Bush Green, and performed alongside other schools to the delight of all those passing by. The children were amazing, their dancing supreme and their enthusiasm infectious!

We finished the day much wiser and with a greater understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced by the Windrush Generation then, and more recently too, with the Windrush Scandal. To sign off the day the school community had a wonderful celebration complete with delicious Caribbean food, a spot of punch and a steel pan band – all in the Year 1 playground!

Thanks to all who helped make the day so special.

FOSS AGM

The school’s Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday, 29 June from 7:30pm in the Music Room.

Friends of St Stephen’s – FOSS – is the name for the school parent community, the equivalent of a PTA, as some schools might call it. All St Stephen’s parents, carers and teachers are automatically members and we would love you to get involved in whatever way you can!

Have your say in the future of FOSS. Join us for a drink and some nibbles to find out what FOSS pays for, how much we raised for the school, where it was spent, what changes the current FOSS team put in place and how you can get involved. This is your chance to share your ideas and provide feedback on how we can continue to make our school an amazing place for our children. https://www.ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk/parent-information/foss/

Please mark your calendars and book your space on ParentMail!

Please, please lend a hand with the summer fair it will be much appreciated and all funds raised go to your amazing children. Please offer 30 mins on a stall, a spot of tidying or frying a burger- it all helps so much!
The FOSS team xx

A Sports Round Up

It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks for competitive sport since half-term. First up, we took an A and B team​ to the H&F Girls cricket tournament where both teams reached the semi-finals. The B team lost the semis in a close match, but the A team went on to win the final very convincingly, bringing home the trophy for the fourth consecutive year.

Next day it was the boys’ competition, where one team had dropped out last minute, so we were allowed to bring our girls’ team to fill the space to ensure all school teams got plenty of matches. Again, the teams performed brilliantly, both reaching the semi-finals – where they had to play against each other! The boys came out victorious to reach the final, where they were beaten by the narrowest of margins by a very able Good Shepherd team. They came home with silver medals, but were lucky enough to be playing the following day at the London Youth Games finals along with the girls, both teams having been pre-selected to represent the Borough. Both teams played with growing confidence and determination throughout the tournament, with the girls coming 7th and the boys coming an extremely impressive 3rd out of all the London Boroughs with a nail biting play-off match to win their bronze medals, which they were rightly very proud to have won.

The next day was the H&F Quad Kids event, where 5 girls and 5 boys each compete in a sprint race, a standing long jump, a throw and a 600m race, and therefore requires a range of athletic skills. They competed brilliantly to win the event by a huge margin. Three of our boys and one of our girls had the top 5 individual scores in the Borough. This team went on to compete this week at the West London Games (representing the Borough) and came a very respectable 4th place, with some incredible individual performances.

Our winning basketball team from the Spring term went to the London Youth Games last week to represent the Borough, where they faced very tough competition, coming 17th. However, a great achievement to have reached this level of competition at all, a first for St Stephen’s.

Last week also saw the H&F gymnastics competition, brilliantly organised by Benchmark Gymnastics. Aisha had organised a podium, which saw many St Stephen’s pupils going up to win medals for their individual performances.

And then the Mayor’s Cup finals of the North Division for the girls’ team, the winner of which goes on to compete for the huge Mayor’s Cup trophy . CHAMPIONS! After a fiercely contested match, our Girls’ LBHF Mayor’s Cup team were level 1-1 at full time. With no goals, they faced the dreaded pens… Viva slotted home the first, then Lolly saved theirs. Annie knocked in the second and POTM Lolly made the dream come true.

Next Year

Below are the new staffing arrangements for September 2023. At St. Stephen’s CE Primary School, we are in an extremely fortunate position to have truly dedicated and committed staff, who work tirelessly to ensure your children enjoy the best possible education we can offer.

A few changes this year as we sadly say goodbye to Miss Kaz, who is moving to Montana and Miss Hall, who is going to teach at Latymer Lower School. We also say goodbye to Alastair, who has been such an amazing force of good for our school for 8 years! Together, Clare and Alastair have expanded and developed the sport in our school to be both competitive and inclusive. Clare will work alongside our new sports coach in September to provide a smooth transition and to take the baton on (more on the new coach later this term)! A 3hr commute everyday means Alastair is losing precious time with his new son, which we can all appreciate and as we can’t move the school closer to him so it’s a very sad good bye – more later in the term.

I am delighted to announce that Mrs Foster and Mrs Wordsworth will be working together teaching Year 2 from September. Both are experienced teachers who have been at St Stephen’s for a number of years.

The class teachers for 2023-24 are as follows:

Nursery – Miss Quartermaine and Mrs Kazim

Reception Ahlberg– Miss Billington and Mrs Johnson

Reception Milne – Mrs Ghoul and Miss Newton

Year 1 Donaldson – Mrs Hayes and Miss Hana (Miss Billington’s Class)

Year 1 McNaughton – Mrs Allen and to be confirmed (Mrs Ghoul’s Class)

Year 2 Madan – Mrs Foster, Mrs Wordsworth and Miss Lulu (Miss Hayes’ Class)

Year 2 Hoberman – Miss Whiting and Miss Karen (Mrs Allen’s Class)

Year 3 Lear – Miss Kelly and Miss Anya (Miss Whiting’s Class)

Year 3 Nichols – Mrs Jeffrey and Miss Natalie (Mrs Walsh’s Class)

Year 4 Rosen – Mr Faith and Miss Amy (Mrs Jeffrey’s Class)

Year 4 Bloom – Mrs Walsh and Mrs Cummins (Miss Kelly’s Class)

Year 5 Blackman– Mr Perry and Mrs Connor (Mr Faith’s Class)

Year 5 Silverstein – Miss Bill and Miss Kayleigh (Mr Perry’s Class)

Year 6 Zephaniah- Miss Marchant and Miss Charrington (Miss Hall’s Class)

Year 6 Ayres – Mr Gane and Miss Brine-Williams (Miss Bill’s Class)

Mrs Lowry will be our specialist ‘catch up’ teacher working throughout the school supporting individual pupils and year groups.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continuing support.

Have an amazing weekend.

Mr Schumm