We report on a House charity ‘fundraising flurry’ at St Bart’s and our Year 12 collect their Key Stage 4 Awards in this week’s BartholoNews
The Year 7 boys’ rugby team represented the school at this year’s County Festival at Reading Bluecoat School.
The boys played brilliantly, winning all their morning matches and going through to the top group out of 7 for the afternoon.
St Bart’s won 5, including beating Abingdon School and the host school Reading Bluecoat’s A team, drew 1 and lost only 1 match. Although there aren’t any official winners in the competition, this placed them in the top 3 teams out of 30. Player of the tournament was Freddie Smith.
Greenham Trust are a grant giving body that support local charities and organisations for the benefit of the people in West Berkshire and North Hampshire. They’ve supported over 5000 local good causes and distributed over £71 Million since the Trust’s inception in 1997. The Trust’s Grant committees meet regularly throughout the year, including the Youth Distribution Committee.
The Youth Distribution Committee consists of young people from local secondary schools, such as St Bart’s, and youth organisations, such as Berkshire Youth and Kennet District Scouts, who review projects and agree how best to award grants. The initiative gives students a fantastic chance to make a difference to their local community, with the maximum available to distribute £15,000 and the maximum grant award per project set at £1500.
Last week, St Bart’s Sixth Form students, Archie and Luisa, had the opportunity to take part in the latest Youth Distribution Committee meeting at the Waterside Centre Newbury. Luisa said of the experience:
“Being asked to go to the Greenham Trust Youth Distribution Meeting is something I will never forget. It gave me skills which I will continue to use in my everyday life, for example the ability to work with and listen to other students interested in the same thing. Each person on the committee was from a different area of West Berkshire, allowing the rest of us to hear what they had experienced and ideas they had in order to effectively allocate funding to the applicants. It was an incredible experience and I would 100% do it again.” Luisa Sutherland
Thank you to Greenham Trust for empowering the younger generation and giving them the space to share their thoughts and ideas.
“We are one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and whilst we may have some amazing wildlife in this country, it’s sadly in crisis: more than 40% of UK species’ populations have declined since the 1970s and a quarter of British mammals are at risk of extinction.” wildlifetrusts.org.
At St Bart’s we are keen to take action to support and celebrate our amazing wildlife and to encourage students to take more notice of their own environment and the actions they can take to improve biodiversity. Spending time in our outside spaces improves mental and physical wellbeing, as well as improving students’ abilities to effect change for good in their community, both inside and outside the school.
This week, Mrs Wall launched a competition with our Year 8 to ‘Make a Home for Wildlife’ and challenged them to create a space in their own gardens to encourage wildlife. The addition can be whacky, weird, cute and entirely original – as long as it is an effective space for nature. Each entry will be added to the BBC Countryfile Wild Britain national map and our local map in school, and entries will have a chance to win a prize. Students can use the information on the Wild Britain website as inspiration – whether that’s making a bog garden to feeding the birds, creating hedgehog homes or mini beast hotels – we can’t wait to see what they come up with and to celebrate the winner in BartholoNews.
The competition deadline is 1 February 2024.
A huge thank you to the Year 10 Sports Leaders who supported the Alternative Olympics Festival that we hosted at St Bart’s.
This inclusive festival saw 11 Primary Schools take part, which included Boccia, Kurling, Seated Volleyball and Archery. The Primary schools had a fantastic time, which was largely due to the excellent support of the Sports Leaders. Mr Mandry who led the event said, “This event is only a success if there are brilliant leaders helping to inspire the younger pupils.” St Bart’s leaders were brilliant, thank you!
Last Wednesday, we took 68 girls to play netball at Kennet School from Year 7 through to Sixth Form. As Year 11 are doing practice exams, we put out two Year 7 teams and everyone else played up a year. This was a great opportunity for the girls to get some tough match play, ready for the league games next term.
Year 7: won 6-3
Year 7&8: lost 14-9 but had an amazing second quarter (winning 6-5). Player of the match was Jessie.
Year 8&9: had a really tough game but great practice for the next lot of games.
Year 9: the girls held their own and showed great promise for the next league matches. Player of the match was Hannah.
Year 10: kept their unbeaten record and won 18-12. Players of the match were Ava and Isla.
Sixth Form: won 17-11, working well together for the first time. Player of the match was Scarlett.
So exciting to see so many girls representing the school and enjoying netball.
For the past few weeks after school on Tuesdays, Year 8 and 9 students have been working hard with Miss Richardson, dedicating their own time to make some of the costumes for the school production of Oliver! Students have developed skills in pattern cutting, garment construction and have been using the sewing machines to make handkerchiefs, aprons and cravats from scratch!Students have also spent a lot of time distressing, dying and altering existing garments. We can’t wait to see the costumes live in action. Well done and thank you to everyone who has been involved.
Performances of Oliver will take place on Monday 11, Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 December. Tickets can be purchased via ParentPay.
Our KS3 boys’ badminton team entered the West Berkshire Tournament at Theale Green, which involved both singles and doubles matches. With a large number of schools and teams there, all the boys really enjoyed playing some competitive matches, but extra congratulations go to our A Team, made up of Luke, Yudeesh, Jimmy and Johan, who won the completion overall! Well done to all the boys involved.
Recently Fayina (10C2) competed in the British Down Syndrome Swimming Championships at Crawley. A daunting prospect potentially, being her first competitive event against girls from all over Britain and watched by hundreds of spectators. She surpassed all expectations, being the second youngest competitor in attendance. In the Junior category (16 and under), she won two silver medals for 50m backstroke and 100m individual medley (her backstroke time was 9th fastest across all age groups!) She also won awards for fastest times for her freestyle and butterfly over 25m.
Congratulations Fayina on an outstanding achievement.
Last Friday, we held a Non Uniform Day, Staff Dodgeball Competition, a cake sale and a House ‘Cover Pudsey in Coins’ Competition – all in aid of Children in Need. Patterson took home the double – claiming both victory in the Staff Dodgeball and ‘Cover Pudsey in Coins’ Competition. Patterson’s Pudsey was covered in £86 by the end of the day! Thank you to everyone who baked, donated, ducked and dodged balls and took part. As a school, we raised an amazing £2,774 for Children in Need and had a lot of fun doing so!
