Good afternoon,

Now, I have some very exciting and important news to share with everyone so please check out our Instagram @ststephence_w12

All I will say is that we should all be incredibly proud of our school community!

And finally the sun is shining! Where was that sun when nearly 200 grandparents came to visit? But in the end the weather just didn’t matter because our visitors brought their own sunshine! We had a wonderful day filled with great talks from grandparents, a sing along assembly, a grand tour of the school and of course a rather scrumptious tea. Thank you to FOSS for organising such a lovely day and to the grandparents/ special people who shared their knowledge and expertise with our children but more importantly their love and support to their families.

I had the most amazing time in France with Year 5. Visiting France is part of the WW1 topic and it saw us visiting the Tyne Cot cemetery, the Passchendaele museum, a German cemetery, Ypres, The Menin gate and Boulogne. When we were in the Tyne Cot cemetery we found the grave of Lieutenant Ralph Gale, a former pupil of St Stephen’s. We had a school tie with us, which we placed on the grave and Mr Perry led us in prayer. A fantastic trip, with the wonderful Year 5, packed with learning and a delicious visit to a Belgium Chocolate Shop.

Last Friday, we said a very sad goodbye to Marie, who had worked in our kitchen for over 10 years. The choir sang beautifully and were a fitting tribute to Marie as we remembered her time at St Stephen’s!

Congratulations! We came second in Beat the Street! We have £100 Waterstones voucher to spend. Thank you for pounding those streets!

A quick reminder that trainers should only be worn on PE days – thank you.

Two assemblies filled with Bugs and Flowers!

The Reception classes have delighted us in the last couple of weeks. First off the runway was Mrs Ghoul’s assembly packed with creepy crawlies! They taught us lots of key facts about bugs in such a memorable way – singing and dancing up a storm. And the costumes were superb!

Not to be out done, Miss Billington’s class donned an array of beautiful flower themed costumes this week and taught us all about different types of flowers. They danced to a fantastic selection of musical tunes and their singing raised the roof. Amazing!

Year 3 at the Royal Academy

Yesterday’s Year 3 trip to the Royal Academy of Art was a fantastic one. They attended a workshop on ‘Art and Climate’. The Royal Academy artists showed them to a ‘secret gallery’ where they explored two different painting. The children discussed the paintings with the artists who were very impressed with all of their contributions. The children had to draw the shapes they could see in one of the paintings. Once they returned to the workshop, the children used their shapes as inspiration for a collaborative art piece. The children had a great time drawing, colouring, cutting, sticking, folding and moulding their masterpieces. Once their collaborative art piece was finished, the children gathered with the RA artists to discuss their ‘work of art’.

The RA artists were extremely impressed by the children’s behaviour and creative energy. A big ‘thank you’ to Camilla, Flora and Hannah for joining them on the trip!

Sports Round Up!

This week St Stephen’s participated in two sporting events. The Year 4’s were involved in Quad Kids which involved athletic based sports including throwing, jumping and running and a selection of Year 5 and 6 pupils went to Godolphin and Latymer School to take part in a Hockey tournament. Both teams did really well with one of the St Stephen’s teams narrowly missing out on a place in the final!

Pupils throughout KS2 have taken part in a Tennis competition. It was baseline to baseline excitement and enjoyment for all, with the pupils from Year 3/4 winning their competition. They now will go on to represent H&F at the London Youth Games! So a big well done to them.

Finally, a special shout out to all the St Stephen’s parents/ pupils for taking part and completing the Mini London Marathon. Superb!

A quick reminder of the importance of wearing the correct PE kit as the weather starts to heat up.

Year 3 at Bute House

Year 3 Nichols had their first DT session at Bute House this week. We gave Bute House the theme of ‘Light & Sound’ (our current Science topic) and their teaching team came up with no less than eight activities for our children to do. The activities focussed on using old and new skills – including sawing, drilling, threading & weaving – to make creations which will eventually go into our middle playground. The children were working independently and together in the sessions and can’t wait to decorate our garden area with their art. Thank you to Philip Vessey and his teaching team at Bute House for arranging this – we’re already looking forward to our second session!

Bike ride to Windsor – 20^th July

In September 2023, Marlow Mullaly (Yr. 5 Mr Perry) raised over £1,000 for Cancer Research UK by riding 30 miles from Shepherd’s Bush to Windsor. He is planning to do the ride again this year on Saturday 20^th July and this year has decided to raise money for St Stephen’s School

If anyone else would like to join us (Marlow, his Dad James and their keen cyclist friend Han) that would be great! Any children wanting to join us would need to bring a guardian with them and need to be capable of riding their bike for a few hours (albeit with plenty of breaks and snacks). The route is beautiful, mostly through parks and by the river but does involve some roads. We would aim to leave early around 7.30/8am to arrive at Windsor castle late morning / lunchtime and returning by train.

Please contact James (07785586443 / befree1@live.co.uk) if you are interested in joining for the ride. Otherwise your sponsorship support would be wonderful!

Year 4 at the Royal Festival Hall

On Wednesday 8^th May, Year 4 enjoyed a trip to the Royal Festival Hall to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra for a lively concert of celebration, optimism and fabulous American music! This included a reworded version of perennial St Stephen’s favourite ‘Lord of the Dance’, which had the children quite literally stamping their feet in excitement (at the request of the concert’s host, naturally)!

A word from our Scientist in Residence who worked with Reception

This Wednesday, one of the reception classes was visited by our Scientist in Residence, Linda. The class started with an overview about science. The pupils learned about the different states of matter: gas, liquid and solid. We looked at short experiments and discussed how matter can go between the states, for instance by melting or freezing, and that these processes are reversible. The children learned that processes which are reversible are normally the part of science we call Physics. Next, we looked at irreversible processes, which is the realm of Chemistry, for instance a banana ripening or a match changing after it has burned. Finally, the children went outside to do their own experiments all the while thinking about solid, liquid and gas. They looked at water and oil observing what happens when you shake it. They used food colouring and fizzing tablets to see what would happen to liquid with these additions. They finished with a Chemistry experiment where they changed the colour of pennies by soaking them in vinegar with salt.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Schumm