Mrs Hewetson on Panel For Awards!

Last week, we received the exciting news that our very own Mrs Hewetson, St Bart’s Librarian, has been asked to join the panel of the Spark! Book Awards.

Spark! Book Awards was founded in 2020 with the mission to build excitement and enjoyment in reading in all schools. Spark! believe that children should engage in a wide range of quality literature that represents all readers from across our diverse communities. In 2022, the charity formed a partnership with The Open University to provide a gateway to some great book choices for children and ensure access to books for all.

This is an award where the students decide the winners. Publishers are invited to submit books that fit the criteria and a panel of teachers and librarians narrow these submissions down to the shortlists. This year, for the first time the Awards will include an 11+ category for secondary schools and the panel will include Mrs Hewetson!

Mrs Hewetson said: “I am delighted to be part of this initiative. I just love discovering exciting new authors that we can introduce to St Bart’s students. I am passionate about the importance of giving students access to new books, alongside the classics we all know and love. We want to expand horizons and ensure that there is always something for everyone on offer in our library”

BartholoNews will update our community when the shortlists are announced in early January and then it’s over to our students to read, react and vote on the winners. Watch out for lots of exciting activities that the library have planned!

Queen’s Visit Video Discovered

We are delighted that a wonderful moment in time and important piece of school history has recently been shared with us. Contractor, Patrick Bowen, recently discovered a video taken at St Bartholomew’s Boys’ Grammar School in 1972 during a visit from Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Education, Margaret Thatcher. The visit was part of events to mark the quincentenary of St Bart’s foundation. This was kept safe by Patrick’s grandmother, Joan Kingston, who was herself a ‘dinner lady’ at the school during this time and recorded the video.

In the video you can clearly see Her Majesty being shown around, whilst students put on an impressive gymnastics display in front of the Wormestall building! Just three years after the visit, the decision was made to join the boys’ school with the Newbury County Girls’ Grammar School to form St Bartholomew’s School as we know it today.

Watch the video here.

Our sincere thanks to Patrick for sharing both this very special video and fond memories of his grandmother.

BartholoNews 11 October 2023

An important piece of St Bart’s history is rediscovered and we celebrate our Year 10 students completing Key Stage 3 in this week’s BartholoNews

Olympic Visitors

At our recent Open Evening, our Year 10 Living for Sport group had a great opportunity to work alongside athlete Mentors Toby Garbett and Susie Dear.

Toby has longstanding links to our school and as a previous Olympic rower and Tri athlete, he is always an inspirational figure for our students. This year, Toby introduced us to Susie Dear who is a current GB rower and is presently working towards a place in the Paris 2024 Olympics. Fingers crossed she is successful in gaining a place.

Both Toby and Susie worked on team building activities, including rowing machines, with our Living for Sport group and gave them an insight into working towards challenges. They also encouraged many of the visiting Year 6 students to try out the rowing machines.

A huge thank you to Toby and Susie for giving up their time and providing an excellent opportunity for both our students and our visitors.

Metamorphosis Trip

On the 27 September, I went to watch a Frantic Assembly production of ‘Metamorphosis’ in Southampton along with Year 13, 12 and 10 students who are studying Drama. This play is about a young man called Gregor who turns into a bug, and how his family cope with this Metamorphosis.This play explores themes of family pressures, isolation and change. Frantic’s classic use of movement retold the story expertly. They also explored the cost of living, which made the piece more relevant to a contemporary.

This was a captivating performance, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Go and see it if you get the chance.

Laura Swanson (Y12)

Dispelling the Myths Of Oxbridge Workshop

Last Friday, the Year 10 students in the Stretch and Challenge community attended a fantastic workshop lead by Mrs Lane in the hall. They looked at what it takes to get a place at Oxbridge, and about dispelling the myths surrounding the universities and their entrance exams. There was also a panel of current and aspiring Oxbridge students for a Q and A in the last part of the workshop.

The students started by learning about the different universities and watching a guided tour of the campuses. They looked at the myths surrounding Oxbridge and then how students actually live and work on the campuses. We then moved on to talk about the interview practise and have a go at some of the tasks that these universities have used in the past. Students particularly enjoyed the task where you had to communicate to your partner how to tie a shoe without using their hands! Another popular task that Year 10 tried was a role-play, where someone had broken the other’s new phone and they had to tell their friend about it. After a short break, the students had a Q and A with a panel of students that either already had a place at Oxbridge, or were applying to go this year. Year 10 asked some good questions about work life balance, revision, and what they were doing when they were in Year 10.

The students had a great time, and especially enjoyed participating in all the different tasks. We look forward to running this again next year!

PE Update!

Highlights from our recent PE activity including: U14 and U16 Netball, Cross Country Festival, U13 Girls’ Football and Year 9 Rugby…

U14 and U16 Netball

St Bart’s entered two teams in the Pre-Counties Netball Tournament at Queen Anne’s Caversham. It’s a tough competition and St Bart’s were looking forward to the challenge.The U14s had a tough first game to start with but they composed themselves and lost narrowly to St Mary’s School and by only one goal to the The Marist School, before being beaten by The Abbey School. The girls showed great resilience and lots of potential. Player of the tournament was awarded to Violet Hughes.

The U16s got off to a flying start, winning against St Mary’s, 10-2, but were then beaten by Wellington College and The Abbey School. The girls regrouped and went on to win three more games against tough opposition, showing some great team work and versatility, stepping up every time they took to court. They finished a very respectable 4th, and should be very proud of themselves. Player of the tournament was awarded to Anna Delavere.  The highlight for all the girls were the croissants and cookies provided by Queen Annes!

Cross Country Festival

Well done to the 30 students who took part in the Cross Country Festival at St Gabriel’s. Great fun was had by all. (See pic above)

U13 Girls’ Football

Our U13 Girls’ Football team played together for the first time last week in their English Schools Cup fixture against King Alfred’s School, Wantage. We unfortunately lost, 3-1, and Miss Bilcliff still isn’t sure how! The girls played really well together, considering it was their first match, creating lots and lots of chances which we couldn’t take. Alice scored our only goal with a great finish. Despite the result, the future looks bright!

Year 9 Rugby

Well done to the Year 9 Rugby team who drew 29-29 in a well contested friendly against Perrins School. Players of the match were Josh and James!

Phoenix Lacrosse Success

With the school’s support, a team of girls from St Bart’s competed as Phoenix Lacrosse Club in the Berkshire Schools Rally at Downe House on Wednesday. The team played brilliantly and came second.

The club also had a very successful time at the U19 South West Schools Lacrosse Rally at St Swithun’s School in Winchester, when the team (all but one of whom go to St Bart’s) played 8 matches and made it all the way to the finals in their group. Well done to all involved.

2023 Harvest Appeal

For this year’s harvest appeal, St Bart’s will be donating to two immensely impactful local charities- Loose Ends and Fair Close Centre.

Loose Ends is a fantastic drop-in Centre in Newbury, run by volunteers, which has served over 5,000 meals and distributed more than 2,500 food parcels in the past year.

Fair Close Centre is an independent Centre providing a friendly place for elderly citizens to eat home-cooked meals, supplied by volunteers, as well as activities for them to enjoy. They have also started a drop-in centre for families who are struggling and have arranged with West Berkshire Action for Refugees to allow them to share our facilities once a week so they can organize cooking sessions for asylum seekers currently living in hotels so that they can cook and eat together as there are no cooking facilities or communal dining areas in the hotels.

We spoke in the whole school assembly to encourage the school community to donate to help people in need.  The suggested donations are:

  • Tins of meat or fish: minced beef, stewed steak, pie in a tin, tuna.
  • Tins of beans, vegetables and potatoes.
  • Tins of evaporated milk, custard, rice pudding, fruit, soup.
  • Dry foods: biscuits, pasta and rice.
  • Jars of jam, pasta sauce.
  • Cartons of long-life juice, and long-life milk.

We, along with some Y8 students, will be delivering the food donations to Loose Ends and Fair Close Centre.  Please bring in donations to the House Offices by Monday 16 of October. Sixth Formers should take their donations to the Sixth Form Office. Thank you for your contribution.  We can really make a difference as a community to help others in our local area and the House that collects the most food will get a special non-uniform day!

Languages Week 2023

Tuesday 26 September commemorates the European Day of Languages and, as is the custom at St Bartholomew’s, we celebrated this day with full aplomb! Students in Y7 and Y8 decorated a flag in a style either of one of the languages that they currently study or for a country that they are interested in. It coincided with the Open Evening and so we asked visitors who came to view the school to vote for their favourite flag as they took a tour down the corridor. The bunting was absolutely beautiful this year with many fabulous entries- all the students should be very proud of the collective effort to make the Languages corridor a truly inviting space.

We also did not want to limit the celebrations to one day, and so dedicated the week to celebrating different languages from across the world. As well as the bunting flags, there were different meals in the canteen with culinary delights from a range of countries, a treasure hunt to find staff who speak different languages from different faculties, and translation activities for our older year groups and also a general knowledge quiz to celebrate famous inventors, mathematicians and historical figures. There has been a real buzz about the cultural richness learning a language can bring and as they say in Spanish: ‘un idioma nuevo es una vida nueva’ = a new language brings a new life!

 

St Bartholomew’s School, Andover Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 6JP

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