Sacred Heart School Newsletter 14: 15th Dec 2017

CELEBRATING 100 years of EDUCATION Service Before Self

e-mail– info@sacredheartschool.co.uk www.sacredheartschool.co.uk 01760 721330

@SHS_Swaffham Friends of Sacred Heart School

Sat 16th Dec Change of plan. 6.30pm – 8.30pm PTA Family Christmas Party in the Sports Hall. Admission free to

Sacred Heart Families. Please bring your own drinks and snacks

Tues 2nd Jan 2.00pm – 5.00pm Convent Open Day for Bad Habits, Holy Orders – tea, look around Convent

Thurs 4th Jan 2018 8.30am Return to school.

9.00am Whole school Mass

Mon 8th Jan 2018 Music lessons resume

4.00pm – 5.30pm Art Club resumes for Years 6 and upwards

4.00pm – 4.50pm Lower School Tennis recommences.

5.00pm – 5.50pm Senior School Tennis recommences. Come along and have a try.

Mon 15th Jan 7.00pm PTA Meeting

Mon 15th – Wed 17th Jan Year 6 Scholarship Assessment Days

Friday 19th January Trophies and Awards from Prizegiving presentation to be returned engraved please. Wed 24th Jan 2.15pm – 3.00pm U9 & 3.00pm – 3.45pm U11 Football v Glebe at Home

5.00pm -7.00pm Years 10 & 11 Parents Evening

Fri 26th Jan PTA Chinese New Year Pupil Disco. Details to follow

A Happy and Holy Christmas with many Blessings from

the Sisters and Staff

The Senior School Christmas Concert

Some Members of the Choir Performing

Seven Geese A Laying

Twelve Pipers Piping

The senior Carol Concert was a mixture of

traditional poems and amazing entertainment. So

many pupils took part in spoken or song solos. Many

find this an awesome experience yet they rose to the

occasion. Miss Williams had crafted an evening of

unique Christmas entertainment with the crowning

glory being her own version of the 12 Days of

Christmas. This was cleverly acted by Year 7 who

had contributed their own ideas to this master piece,

along with a fake choir who jumped up and down to

sing the traditional words. The humour was in Eliza

sending Harry the 12 gifts, which exasperated him

more and more as his house was filled with birds of

all descriptions besides, maids, Lords and Ladies.

The hilarity of the piece is seen in the photograph of

the 7 geese a-laying. Three pupils gained their Drama

Awards in Year 7 for their presentations in this

comedy – Cole, Demi, and Harry. These awards are

badges of great honour and many came close to

achieving this standard in Year 7. Miss Williams

must be congratulated for her creativity and inclusion

of all pupils. At the end of the evening she was

planning the summer show! A big thank you to all

the staff who in some way help support such

ambitious plans. We are so blessed to have such a

wonderful music and performing arts team.

The Christmas Grand Draw Raffle was won by Mr

& Mrs Grosvenor. The 2nd prize was won by Mr

Williams, 3rd by Maria at Tower Court, 4th by

Gemma Beal and 5th by Emmanuel Eyide in Year 2.

The total amount donated at the Lower School and

Senior School Christmas performances was £520.

This amount will be sent to this years’ chosen

charities which are St Martin’s Housing Trust for the

Homeless and the Wheely Big Appeal, QEH, Kings

Lynn. In consultation with Year 11 some of the

money has been given to Miss Gooderson’s grand-

niece who has a rare disease. This will help to buy

her equipment, like a specially designed car seat, or

pram. Thank you for your generosity. Miss

Gooderson came in to speak at our final assembly to

talk about Elsie. It did not fail to emotionally move

the pupils who could not believe that despite all the

odds this little girl is such a fighter. Read the account

on our website.

The final Assembly was an interesting agenda with

the usual Form, House, Sports and Music Reports but

with the added spice of Years 5 and 6’s mime to the

poem ‘Wilderness’ by Carl Sandberg and a carol

composition performed by one of the well-being

groups. There was also a rare concert given by the

‘Boys Brigade’ the newly formed male trio. We are

sure to hear more about them in the future. Each

Form reports on the term’s events.

Year 3 (Form Captain Ruby Cockman, Vice-Captain

Matilda Ahrenfelt)

One of the most exciting things that happened this

term was that we had an extra member of our class

arrive in our cupboard at the beginning of term –

Spotty the dinosaur! She has gone home with a

member of our class every weekend and her

adventures have been written about in a diary,

together with photos of what she has been up to!

Sr Michaela has taught us about the life of the church

– the sacrament of baptism and also the Christmas

story.

Year 4 (Form Captain Ottilie Hayter, Vice Form

Captain Madelaine Goldsmith,

Games Captain Lily-Rose Traylor, Vice Games

Captain Adrianna Norman)

This year has been a lot of fun. We have had lots of

lovely people join us. Their names are: Siona, Zane,

Ryan, Leon and Ottilie. In Maths we have been

learning about place value, fractions and shapes and

every Friday we have been doing a times table

challenge.

Year 5 - Our class started in the boarding house, but

then we moved to the old Activity Room. We went to

the Norwich Catholic Cathedral. It was fun and we

had Mass, but we had to leave quickly and go to the

Sainsbury Centre. We did a report about our

favourite art piece in the Sainsbury Centre. This term

we are learning about Egypt in Humanities and for

one of our homeworks we made breastplates. Our

class book was about Egypt. It is a very exciting

story about an Egyptian boy called Haruf. In Science

we did an experiment to see how germs multiply by

passing a piece of bread round without washing our

hands, then another piece after washing our hands

with water and finally another piece of bread with

washing our hands with soap and water. All the bread

was mouldy after a few days.

We said goodbye to Mrs Woodhouse who is

retiring from work to look after an elderly parent. We

wish her well in the future and thank her for all her

support with many pupils in the classroom and

playground. Her quiet gentle approach will be missed

by so many pupils and staff who sought her guidance

and support. We hope that it may be possible for her

to return in the future. Another LSA will be

appointed on Friday mainly to support Year 5 as Mrs

Woodhouse did.

You should be able to find the School Magazine

edited by Aurelia on the school website. She has

already begun the next edition.

Non-Uniform Day Update

On Wednesday 22nd November, we supported ‘Red

Wednesday’ by wearing red. The final amount

donated was £150.80 for Aid to the Church in Need.

Thank you to everyone who brought in their pound

and wore red! This is an amazing amount, it means

that everyone remembered their pound or some were

doubly generous.

Catherine Hazel- Charities Prefect

House Netball – On Tuesday 12th December the

whole school participated in the inter house netball

competition. The teams were led by their house

captains in Year 11 and all four houses made up both

a junior and senior team. This was a chance for

everyone to show the skills they have learnt in

lessons and also the progression throughout the

school in this sport. It was a very enjoyable morning

for all whether a spectator or player. Finally, I would

like to say a big thank you on behalf of the school to

Mrs Calvert for umpiring and organising the

competition; it was greatly appreciated.

Connie Wildbur Sports Prefect

Junior House Netball:

4th- Balmoral- 8pts

3rd- Sandringham- 15pts

2nd- Windsor- 16pts

1st- - Buckingham- 18pts

Senior House Netball:

4th- Sandringham- 5pts

3rd- Balmoral- 10pts

2nd- Windsor- 15pts

1st-- Buckingham- 20pts

House Sport Colours:

Netball:

Balmoral- Harriet Horton Buckingham- Charlotte Skerry, Lucy Skerry,

Bonnie Matthews

Sandringham- Catherine Hazel

Windsor- Cassandra Teixeira, Abigail Flannigan

Hockey:

Balmoral- Harriet Horton, Aurelia Eburne, Lea Buzhala Buckingham- Charlotte Skerry, Lucy Skerry,

Bonnie Matthews

Sandringham- Hannah Turner

Windsor- Cassandra de Teixeira

On the 12th of December 2017 the Under 14 girls’

team played a basketball tournament at KLA.

Thank you to Mrs Calvert and Mr Hodges for taking

and supporting us in such an enjoyable tournament.

Connie Wildbur Sports Prefect

It has been a very eventful week with regional

basketball tournaments at KLA in King's Lynn. First

up were the U14 boys who had the task of taking on

the current County Champions, Marshland in their

pool. The boys were outstanding throughout the

whole of the tournament and with the promise of a

McDonalds if they beat Marshland, this was all the

incentive they needed. They started off really well

and at the interval the score was still even and the

boys clearly had their mind on the prize, but a strong

second period by Marshland meant we lost by five

baskets. With a number of our boys playing up an

age group it was a very good performance. Player of

the tournament goes to Harry Edwards for his two 3

pointers.

Next up was the Girls U14 tournament. This was the

first time in the history of the school that we have

entered a Girls basketball tournament and we were all

keen to find out how we would do against other

schools. Well, they were absolutely outstanding! We

won one, drew 2 and lost 3 all of which were very

close games. The team, whilst lacking in height,

showed great passion and a will to win every ball. All

the players worked really hard and most of them

scored baskets during the tournament. The moment

of the match was when a six foot girl from Smithdon

had the ball and Daisy O'Brien also had her hands on

it and wouldn't let go, she was picked up off the floor

still holding the ball, but won the foul play.

Absolutely brilliant!! Player of the tournament was

Daisy O'Brien for her fiesty play and two great

baskets in the last match to win the game.

It is the turn of the U13 boys next and we expect

great things from them too.

Mr Jeremy Hodges

The Town Carol Concert was attended by some of

our pupils who are photographed below. This

event has been led by Harry and Isaac from

Year7. They encouraged the younger pupils to take

part in this venture and we had no shortfall in

volunteers. With Mrs Pickard’s help they sang some

of the modern carols they know and captivated the

hearts of the audience. We definitely have some

young prima donnas. Thank you to parents for

making the effort. This is the best singing tableau that

Sacred Heart has performed and we have been doing

it for years, probably since Harry and Isaac were 5

years old. Isaac thought he might retire this year but

after it was mentioned that we needed a Herod for

next years he volunteered. Harry read one of the

readings with great expression and paused at the right

moments to allow the kings to make an appropriate

stately entrance and adoration of the child, Jesus.

Harry and Isaac were both awarded the first of the

new Headteacher’s Certificates for outstanding

service to the school – after all they gave up their

football practice to give us all the benefiit of their

undoubted experience.

The Christmas Holiday Challenge

All pupils will be issued with a photo frame. They

are asked to produce a family picture / photograph

and exhibit it as creatively as possible using the

frame. These should be brought in on the first day of

the Spring Term. There are 5 service awards for

completing the challenge and 5 points for bringing in

on time (a point is lost every day that it is late).

Pupils from Year 3 upward have also been asked

to write an article on one activity that they

enjoyed at our Well Being morning. There were so

many pursuits from which to choose and it would be

wonderful to gather the children’s thoughts and ideas

together after Christmas. Thank you to parents who

were volunteered.

Mr McKnight brought some birds and animals for the

children to touch. Harry is used to handling snakes!

Pupils of all ages played board games together. A

useful family skill.

Sr Francis has made the following special ‘Head

Teacher’ Awards (a new concept) to:

Isaac Riedlinger for organising the Town Carol

Nativity Concert

Harry McKnight for organising the Town Carol

Nativity Concert

Aurelia Eburne for organising the projector and mic

technology

Emily Ringwood for producing Christmas CD’s and

raising a considerable amount

Interim Reports will be emailed on Monday 18th

December – if you do not receive a report for your

child, please let the office know as soon as

possible.

Sr Linda has made another appearance on ITV’s

‘This Morning’ this Friday morning between

10.00am and 12 noon. She talked about happiness

and Christmas cheer.

CHRISTMAS PARTY - There has been a lot of

confusion and, dare I say it, ‘ill feeling’ regarding

the Christmas Party. There were not enough guests

who had paid for tickets before the Tuesday deadline

and with a rival party taking place on the same day it

was difficult to make it viable. As we have the Sports

Hall decked out by the Polish community in its full

Christmas splendour it was decided to go ahead with

a disco party without any organisation other than a

CD. This will be free, with the inevitable raffle.

Everyone brings along their own drinks and snacks

with glasses, plates etc. The timing seems to be more

suitable for some people. It is good that it will be free

but rather frustrating for some parents who have

worked so hard to make this a good social, fund

raising effort.

Scholarship Days for Year 6 will take place on

Monday 15th – Wednesday 17th January 2017. Scholarships are available on entry to Senior School

and are awarded on merit. . Everyone in Year 6 will

be assessed alongside external candidates and the

most successful candidate will be given an academic

award up to a maximum of 50%. Scholarships are not

related to parents’ income.

Sr Francis requests that when we return in the

New Year. Parents who want to settle their

children in the Little Pedlars classroom may come

in from 8.45am. You are still welcome to sign your

child onto the playground from 8.30am. The

teachers need this precious time in the morning to

set up and plan for all the children’s individual

activities.

Stamp Appeal – Sr Emilia would like to ask that any

stamps that you receive on Christmas envelopes be

sent in for her charity collection. Thank you.

Sr Francis and staff