A Half – Term Round Up from Mr Schumm
Good afternoon,
What an incredibly busy two weeks packed with so many events! A rather long round up (grab a coffee and Hob Nob!) with a great sports roundup from Clare and Alastair. It has been a brilliant half term, which has seen us firing on all cylinders! Thank you for all your support.
Today in assembly we talked about the legendary Ella Fitzgerald and how my dad’s love of Ella and his never ending vinyl collection had inspired that love in me. I told them about the time she played a jazz concert in Middlesbrough in the 70s! After the concert, my dad stood for ages trying to get her autograph and when she finally came out she stood on his foot – he never washed his foot for months! I explained that when he died, earlier this year, his request was to play an Ella Fitzgerald track at his funeral. One of the children put their hand up and asked was it ’A-Tisket, A-Tasket, I Lost My Yellow Basket?’ It made me smile; an absolute Ella classic, but maybe not for a funeral!
Last week, Year 6 took to the boards with an amazing assembly based around the word ‘hope.’ We learnt about hope in the assembly, focussing on their small hopes as a Year 6 student (getting good marks, having a great year, getting into a good secondary school) as well as the hope of other people – Benjamin Zephaniah and Barack Obama. Clear voices and perfect confidence were the order of the day in this superb assembly.
This week, it was the turn of Year 5 to dazzle us with a heady mixture of poetry, Black history and a madcap tour of the Victorians. With a perfect rendition of ‘Food Glorious Food’ and them flying around the hall, they held us enthralled by their talent. Wonderful singing, exuberant confidence and laser-fast facts made for an excellent assembly!
Black Voices Week
This month, our annual celebration of Black Voices Week shone a light on the achievements of scientists, engineers and inventors from around the world, both past and present to inspire and engage our students in the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.) Thank you Mrs Wordsworth and Miss Kelly for organising such an amazing week. I loved going into the classrooms and seeing the children so excited to be on Zooms with their various scientists, engineers or inventors they had been learning about. Please check out the fantastic Black Voices Week.
www.ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BVW-newsletter-2021.pdfwsletter.
Show Racism The Red Card
At current count, we have raised just under £500 for the charity ‘Show Racism The Red Card.’ For the fourth year in a row, we have supported the excellent work this charity carries out. Our pupils continued already well-established conversations in class about celebrating our differences throughout the school the day and our whole school felt truly bonded in our commitment to being anti-racist.
Bikeability – Year 5
Year 5 have been out and about on their bikes this week honing their cycling proficiency skills. They started the week in the playground and then progressed to the streets of Shepherd’s Bush. They have been perfectly behaved and excellent cycling students!
Mallory Towers In Year 6
On Tuesday afternoon Year 6 welcomed Abigail’s Mum Jo as well as Sasha and Rachel, producers and head writer respectively of the latest CBBC sensation, Enid Blyton’s ‘Malory Towers’ series. They gave us a crash course in script writing for TV, while also opening the children’s eyes to the vast amount of work that goes into making every episode.
DT Day – Puppets
Our Design and Technology Day saw the whole school making puppets! We had a super creative time, but don’t just take my word, check out Miss Hall’s fantastic newsletter.
SPORTS ROUNDUP FOR FIRST HALF OF TERM FROM CLARE AND ALASTAIR
It has been so wonderful to have had so many St Stephen’s children representing the school again since the start of the academic year. So far this term, we have had two teams in a Borough Athletics event, we have had five Mayor’s Cup football matches, two friendly football matches, two football tournaments, and a netball tournament. So far, these various competitions or matches have involved over 100 different children from various year groups (including 65% of the Year 6 pupils and 57% of Year 5 children).
Mayor’s Cup Football
We are delighted to have two girls’ teams and two boys’ teams entered into this Borough Competition this year, which means even more children getting the opportunity to play in this very competitive tournament that runs throughout this term and next term in a league format, so that each team plays all the other teams in its table. So far, our B team has played against Flora Gardens (boys won 2-0, girls lost 1-2) and St Mary’s (boys won 1-0, girls won 1-0). Our A team played against Ark Swift (boys lost 1-2, girls drew 1-1) and Wormholt (boys won 2-1, girls won 1-0). The boys A team also played a friendly against St Peter’s (boys drew 1-1, girls won 1-0). There’s plenty for all four of our teams to work on, especially having missed out on playing competitively for such a long time.
Quad Kids Athletics
We took an A and B team to this Borough competition at the Linford Christie Stadium, where each child had to sprint (70m), throw a howler, do a standing long jump and run 600m. Both teams did exceptionally well, with our A team winning the competition and our B team coming 4th overall. Our stand-out individual performances came from Arthur (Yr 6) and Alexa (Yr 5), although many of the children’s individual scores came within the top 10.
Football Matches v Wetherby
Year 4 and 5 have so far had football friendlies against Wetherby, where we have gone up to enjoy their facilities at Club des Sports. Each time we have taken four teams from each year group, and all the children seem to have a wonderful time.
Year 3 Football Tournament
We took a team of Year 3 children to play in a tournament organised by Wetherby, again up at Club des Sports. This was the first St Stephen’s fixture for this age group, so the first time any of the children have represented their school. With a team of only 7 children, they played six matches with barely a break, winning some, losing some and drawing some, coming away exhausted but with big smiles and deservedly proud of themselves.
Year 6 Netball Tournament
Ravenscourt Prep School asked us to bring some Year 6 teams to a netball tournament in Ravenscourt Park. We brought two teams, each entered into different competitions (our A team competed in a Shield tournament and our B team in a Plate tournament). They all showed us how much they have been working on and enjoying their netball, each team being unbeaten and winning their tournament.
Year 5 Football Tournament
Ravenscourt Prep School also organised a football tournament for Year 5, held at Popesfield in Ealing. We took three teams to this, again each competing in separate tournaments, the Championship, Shield and Plate. Our A team won bronze medals coming third in the Championship, our B team won silver medals coming second in the Shield and our C team came away the winners in the Plate competition. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of football.
Year 6 Football v St Peter’s
All of Year 6 played in a friendly against St Peter’s at our local 4G pitches, and had a very enjoyable afternoon of football.
Have an amazing half term – we got there all singing and dancing and back to normal, though as I always say, there is nothing normal about St Stephen’s!
Mr Schumm
