House Drama – judges revealed

An important date for your diary! House Drama is back and will be held on Tuesday 23 April.

This annual competition sees the Houses battle it out to impress a school hall audience with their theatre productions. Each House will perform a piece written by our Year 12 students, who are also responsible for directing our Year 8 and Year 10 actors. Students have been busy rehearsing hard at lunch and after school, and will have a whole day rehearsal on the day of the performances. Last year we had  a mystical adventure and retelling of folk tales, a mystery murder with a sinful cast, ‘Macbeth’ as you’ve never seen it performed before and a dystopian games show! What will St Bart’s students bring to the stage this year? And can Evers retain their 2023 title?

We are delighted to also announce that joining us in the judges’ chairs will be Nathan Lubbock-Smith and Rohan Richards from AVA (Academy of Vocal Arts). Based in Newbury, AVA is a fantastic performing arts school that focuses primarily on the voice and that has supported many new talents into the music industry and musical theatre business. Will they be impressed by our future stars of the stage?

Tickets for the evening will go on sale on ParentPay next week, so please do watch out for these and book your seats!

Head Students 2024/5

After a rigorous interview process, congratulations to the following students on their appointment to the Head Student team 2024-25:

  • Head Students – Charlotte Lethaby and Samuel White
  • Deputy Head Student Milo Garrety (Participation & Integration)
  • Deputy Head Student  Eve MacLeod (Community & Diversity)
  • Deputy Head Student Will Heslop (Academic & Student Voice)

 

Year 9 help out with Primary Cross Country

Well done and thank you to the following Year 9 students who helped to marshall at the Primary Schools Cross Country Championships.

Kitty Hutchinson, James Higgs, Violet Hughes, Charlie Mabey, Luke Kingston, Edward Hancock, Mariella Frood, Jimmy Pennock, Katy Wake, Hazel Cook, Lyra Ward, Ellena Clare and Deacon Cullum

This was an enormous event with approximately 1600 Primary school students involved making it the biggest primary schools’ cross country event in the country. As marshalls you were absolutely superb and your help was very much appreciated by the event organisers.

Gamelan Workshops

Recently, Year 7 students enjoyed visits from InspireWorks for some Gamelan workshops. Gamelan is a traditional orchestra from the Islands of Java, Bali, and Indonesia, consisting of several types of gongs and percussion instruments.

As part of the Year 7 music curriculum, the collection of incredible instruments was in school for the students to experience for two days. Under the esteemed direction of specialist Mike Simpson from InspireWorks, the students had a chance to play the amazing large bronze instruments of Gamelan as well as to learn about the interesting history and traditions of these instruments.

In Java, Gamelan is played for official occasions or court ceremonies such as weddings, concerts, and community events. The Year 7s executed the essence of celebration and replicated the layout of a traditional Gamelan orchestra. This layout of the instruments reflects how the music is constructed; the row of keyed instruments across the middle plays the main melody known as the ‘balungan’. In the back row are the large gongs, which punctuate the important notes, and at the front are the gong-chimes which elaborate and lead the melody.

Overall, the workshops were a success and the students enjoyed getting to play various components of the orchestra.

Patterson Inaugural House Science Winners

Students from all four Houses competed in our Science Week House Science STEM challenge! With no prior warning of the task, and only 40 minutes, they had to use their skills to design, build and trial a device to accurately measure 1 minute. We saw some excellent ideas and fabulous team work, with the winning team only being off by 0.3 seconds – incredible!  The winning house was Patterson, but with points awarded for participation and runners up, all teams added valuable points to the House Championship totals. Well done to all who took part.

Football Highlights

Here are some recent highlights from our Year 7, 10 and 11 teams.

Year 7 Football

Well done to the 24 boys who represented the school at the West Berkshire Area Football Tournament.

St Bart’s fielded three teams, and every boy represented the school superbly, with wins for each team.

Players of the tournament were Euan, Marek and Adam.

 

Year 10 Football

The Year 10 boys’ football team travelled to The Downs School in the league.

The final score was 1-3 to The Downs, with Eddie scoring for St Bart’s just before full time.

A special thank you to Sean and Riccardo who played up a year group.

Players of the match were Connor and Kobi.

Year 11 Football

Well done to the Year 11 football team who won against The Downs School.

St Bart’s won 3-2 with just 10 players. Great team performance and attitude that made up for having one less player. Special mention to Freddie who scored two goals. Player of the match was awarded to Jez for a great defensive display and for also scoring the first goal. Well done all!

 

Netball Highlights

Here are some recent highlights from our Year 8 and Sixth Form netball teams.

Year 8 Netball

The Year 8 netball team had their last games in the league on Tuesday and they won all four games!

They beat Park House School, The Willink School, Trinity School A and B. Players of the matches were awarded to Lottie, Eva and Bella. Well done everyone, another successful season.

Sixth Form Netball

Last Wednesday saw 17 Sixth Form girls take to court to represent the school in the league fixtures. Both teams played The Downs School and Park House School and won their games convincingly.

Players of the matches went to Nya, Eva, Scarlett and Grace.

They are now looking forward to the ONA matches on 27 March at 4.30pm, please do come and show your support.

Bath v London Pulse Trip

On Friday 8 March, 48 students and 5 staff went to Bath University to watch Team Bath v London Pulse in the Women’s Netball Super League. It was a fantastic evening of high quality Netball with London Pulse storming to victory by 30 points. The final score was 72-42 and some excellent shooting was on show.

The students got to see many England players play, such as Jade Clarke, Halimat Adio, Jayda Pechova, Alicia Scholes and Olivia Tchine. At half-time, they asked for two mother and daughter duos to take part in their shooting challenge. Mrs Shopland and her daughter Grace took part against another duo, but unfortunately lost. However, Mrs Shopland was presented with flowers and chocolate from Team Bath for Mother’s Day!

The students were massively inspired by seeing elite level netball and to make the evening even better, the players stayed afterwards to take photos with the crowd and sign autographs. It was a tough gig to get the students sat back down ready to go! Just as we were about to leave, Mrs Shopland saw the England Roses Head Coach, Jess Thirlby, and raced down to get a photo with her, which prompted all the students to get back up and queue for a photo too! A huge thank you to Mrs Shopland, Mrs Williams, Miss Lawson-Sanchez and Mrs Stevens for giving up their time to take the students on the trip – it was a great experience for all the girls and an evening enjoyed by all.

Miss Bilcliff

Comic Relief Non Uniform Day

Students enjoyed our traditional non-uniform day last Friday, 15 March to celebrate Red Nose Day. This national fundraiser is about having some fun and raising money to support people whose lives are incredibly difficult.

Well done to our Year 9s who took part in a 1-mile fun run on Luker Field during their PE lessons to help encourage even more donations.  Many students wore something red in addition to their PE kit.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated. We raised £1149 plus £232 through gift aid, bringing the grand total to £1381.

You can still support all these activities by making your donations here. To increase the impact of your donation, you can Gift Aid it. Thank you in advance for helping us raise as much money as possible.

International Award for Kat!

We are so delighted to learn that Kat (13E4) is to be presented with an international St John’s Award in recognition of her achievements with the organisation, which she joined following a Year 7 assembly at St Bart’s.

In April last year, we reported that Kat had won the National Finals of the St John Ambulance National Youth Public Speaking Competition 2023, speaking about neurodiversity awareness- specifically ADHD paralysis and executive dysfunctioning. Her unit manager recalls that Kat was “quite shy” when she first joined, however she took on leadership roles and gained in confidence.

Kat feels she has gained a lot from St John’s, “I trained to be a sergeant, a demonstrator, and the regional Youth Forum Chair before leaving the cadet programme, along with actual first aid opportunities; and cadets are able to attend events such as the jubilees, Wimbledon, London Marathon, as well as local events.” Some of these opportunities formed the basis of the 6,000 hours of volunteering that Kat has accrued!

The Sovereign is the top award from St John’s and her certificate will be signed by King Charles before it is presented to her, and only 9 others this year, in a ceremony in London in November. Kat plans to go to university next year to study global humanitarian studies or international, social and public policy. We feel sure she will do great things. Well done Kat!

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

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