The Year 9 girls’ rounders teams each played 3 games.
The A team
Beat Kennet School B 11-6
Beat Trinity School 13-2
Lost to Kennet School A 7.5-4
Players of the matches were Bella, Eva, Anna Neve and Holly.
The B Team
Lost to Kennet School A 11-14
Lost to The Willink School 5.5-11.5
Lost to John O’Gaunt School 4-7.5
Players of the matches were Hanika and Abi
The Year 8 boys’ cricket team played against Park House School in their second West Berkshire league fixture. St Bart’s were going into the game feeling confident after a good performance against Trinity School in the opening match last week.
St Bart’s won the toss and opted to field first. Park House then scored 84 runs from their 75 balls with St Bart’s taking 4 wickets. This was a good run total against a strong St Bart’s bowling outfit, so St Bart’s had a lot of work to do. Going into the final over, St Bart’s needed three runs to win. With a brilliant over bowled by the Park House captain, St Bart’s only managed to score one run, meaning that Park House had won the match by one run. Well done to all students who were involved in a highly competitive match. Players of the match were awarded to Joe L for his brilliant bowling and Jude for his confident batting against some strong bowlers.
Well done the 23 Year 7 girls who took part in the first round of the West Berkshire league girls’ cricket fixtures.
A team v The Willink School, we lost 48-66.
A team v Kennet School B team, we won 80-50.
B team v Kennet School A team, we won 69-56.
B team v The Willink School, we lost 84-52.
Players of the day:
A team
Batter – Katie
Bowler – Yuet
B team
Batter – Katie
Bowler – Izzy
The Year 7 Boys’ cricket team played their first match for school and hosted Forest School in the County Cup.
Forest scored 76 runs for one wicket, and St Bart’s replied with 40 runs for 5 wickets.
Player of the match was James Hale for his Bowling.
The boys now look forward to the league fixtures.
After participating with the school in the Area Athletics on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 May, Oscar (9C2) also competed in discus, shot put and hammer at the Berkshire County Championships in Bracknell that weekend.
He won the U15 Hammer Throw category, making him best in Berkshire with an incredible distance of 33.8m!
He also came 3rd in Berkshire in the U15 Shotput with 10.17m and 5th in the discus which was a very competitive category. Congratulations Oscar!
We are incredibly proud to announce that St Bart’s has been awarded Beacon School status in Holocaust Education from UCL. This recognises the work that the school and Lead Teachers, Miss May and Mr Owen have put into improving student knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
As part of our commitment to improve Holocaust Education, we have appointed four new Sixth Form Beacon Captains for 2025-2026. They take on the incredible work, which our 2024-2025 Beacon Captains have contributed towards our aim. We thank Sophie Holmes, Mikey Cloete and Vanya Milovanovic for their efforts and commitment.
Niamh Breslin is the Student Lead and will work with Sam Dickens, Grace Proudfoot and Esme Frampton. They will work together with Year 9 Beacon Captains next year to raise awareness of the Holocaust through creating display boards and delivering assemblies.
Our Year 12 Beacon Captains will be attending St Cassian’s school next month to make plans for next year and to build upon the work last year’s captains had already started.
Year 8 will be completing a short unit on the Holocaust at the end of the Summer Term after studying WW2. These lessons will focus on children’s experience of the Holocaust and life for them after the war. This will help prepare students for their Holocaust lessons in Year 9 which focus on misconceptions of the Holocaust and will allow students to be able to explain how and why it happened.
We are delighted to announce our plans to re-run our overly subscribed Year 12 and Year 13 trip to Krakow, Poland next year. The trip takes a history first approach to the Holocaust, where students will learn about pre-war Jewish life in Krakow, be toured around the old Jewish district and former ghetto, and visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. For further information, please contact Mr Owen (mowen@stbarts.co.uk)
We are celebrating an historic win for our U13 footballers and congratulating our Ten Tors teams in this week’s BartholoNews.
Ten Tors is an annual challenge to the teenagers of the South West of England, hosted on Dartmoor. 400 Teams of six take on hikes of up to 55 miles over a single weekend. This year St Bart’s had two teams taking on the 25 and 45-mile challenges. Here they tell us more about the experience…
The Ten Tors Challenge was an amazing experience. We spent 9-10 May participating in the two-day expedition, which involved navigating independently through North Dartmoor. However, this all started six months ago, when we started training for the expedition by undertaking practice walks every month in and around West Berkshire, before completing two days training on Dartmoor in April, after which the final teams were selected.
Fast-forward to Friday 9 May, the day before the challenge. We arrived at the campsite, excited and ready. After looking through the final plans and routes, we wandered up to the main square where we found ourselves participating in the army’s different strength and reaction stalls and experiencing a range of military equipment. In the background, the Army band played instrumental songs like Espresso and Descpacito, making sure everyone was excited and relaxed before the big weekend.
On Saturday morning, music echoed through the campsite to try and make the 5.00am wake up a bit easier. At the start line, the Army Red Devils put on an impressive parachute display, with eight paratroopers descending through the sky amid coloured smoke. One even carried a massive Great Britain flag trailing from the ankle, adding to the spectacle and anticipation. The start of the event was marked by the sound of a cannon and just like that the 35 and 45-mile teams headed off across the moor.
Thoughts from the 35 mile team:
It was an amazing two days, but it was tough and tiring. We set a great pace all day on Saturday (driven on by Chris!) to pass our 7th Tor before we camped. By the time we reached the last checkpoint (DingerTor) on Sunday, we were full of adrenaline and ready to get on with it. It then started to pour down with rain, but that wasn’t stopping us. We put our sunglasses on and finished Ten Tors 2025 at 11:50am on Sunday 11 May, five hours ahead of the cut off time.
To all of us personally, our timing was a brilliant achievement as it showed that our resilience and determination had paid off. We were exhausted yet proud of our achievement!
We then waited at the finish to cheer the 45-mile team in. We all can’t wait to do 45 miles ourselves.
The drive back was just as fun—we stopped at the service station, enjoying Burger King and KFC, and arrived back at school just before 10:00
From the 45s:
Despite it being a really challenging couple of days of walking we had an amazing time; we made some memories that we will never forget and built really good friendships that we never would have made in school. It was both mentally and physically really challenging for all of us but we completed the challenge smiling and laughing all the way.
Having had a great Saturday, meeting all our target times, a minor detour of three miles through bog and awful footing on Sunday eventually became something we could laugh at. Everyone gave it their all, shown by being hours behind schedule half way through the second day but catching up and finishing with time to spare at the end. The overwhelming relief for being done and the incredible happiness that we felt walking over the finish line is a feeling we’ll never forget. In the words of one team member “that is the hardest thing I have ever done”, but that is how memories of our best moments are made.
Final thoughts:
Overall, we all agree this was an amazing experience and it couldn’t have happened without all the wonderful teachers’ and family support.
Alex, Pippa, Millie, Lucas, Chris, Orlaith (Year 10)
Isaac, Kathryn, Jack, Dylan, Alex, Adam (Year 12)
Year 10 Business Studies students recently swapped the classroom for the thrills of Paultons Park in an engaging and insightful educational trip. Combining the excitement of theme park rides with a focused business conference, the visit provided students with a unique opportunity to see key business concepts in action.
The day began with a specially designed conference tailored to align with the GCSE Business Studies curriculum. Delivered by the Paultons Park education team, the session covered a wide range of topics directly relevant to the theme park’s operations. Students explored areas such as the business’s strategic location, effective marketing strategies, clearly defined target market, and the importance of a strong mission statement.
The session also offered insight into how Paultons Park identifies and manages relationships with key stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers and local communities. What made the experience especially valuable was the use of practical, real-life examples from Paultons Park itself. This helped students to connect theory with practice, deepening their understanding of how a successful business operates in a competitive leisure industry.
Following the educational session, students were able to enjoy the full Paultons Park experience, including its popular Peppa Pig World and a range of thrilling rollercoasters and rides.
Students reflected…
“It was interesting to see how the business concepts we study in class are used in real business. Enjoying the rides gave us a fun way to experience the park from a customer’s point of view. It was a day well spent!”
Aanya Dwivedi (10C3) and Divyanshi Malik (10C2)
“It was fascinating learning how a business operates from the personal view of somebody actually working in the business. We learnt many things such as how their location decides their profits and even their planning/layout of the theme park itself! After that, we were rewarded with time on the rides and just exploring the park itself and its features (there was a mini zoo!). Overall, this was a great experience for us, both educationally and practically.”
Miraya Srivastava (10P1)
“Paultons Park was one of the best school trips in the year! My friends and I had a splendid time and a lot of fun on the rides. It was really an adrenaline rush for all of us. The workshop was really interesting where we found out about how a business as successful as Paultons Park actually works and what tactics they follow; we also got the chance and opportunity to use the knowledge we learned in class in real life. Overall a 10/10 experience!!”
Shreeya Dey (10C3)
Last week our U13 Girls’ Football team set off to Cantley Park in Wokingham to play The Piggott School, with the aim to make St Bart’s history with a win at the Berkshire School Football Association Elite Cup.
The talented team included Freya Barr (Year 8), Lucia Biais Zambelli (Year 7), Tilly Clare (Year 7), Rose Cooper (Year 8), Isla East (Year 8), Freya Ilsley (Year 8), Alice Kirby (Year 8), Olivia Lewis (Year 8), Hattie Mason (Year 8), Jessie McCurtin – Captain (Year 8), Amy Price (Year 7), Izzy Rands (Year 7), Freya Smith (Year 7) and Poppy Smith (Year 8).
In order to make the final, the St Bart’s U13 team had already executed a fantastic run in the Cup, claiming victories over Charters School, Brackenhale School and The Marist School. This was to be a close and exciting final, last time the St Bart’s U13 played The Piggott School they came away with a victory on penalties.
The match kicked off at 1.30pm and St Bart’s faced a well-drilled, organised and fluent Piggott School side, who took the initiative in the first 20 minutes. However, St Bart’s weathered the storm, soaked up the pressure and then started to get a foot-hold in the game. By the end of the first half, the team had created more chances and looked more dangerous.
After half-time St Bart’s made two substitutions, bringing on Olivia and Tilly, and when 10 minutes into the second half Tilly drove the ball into the box the resulting Piggott School handball gave St Bart’s a penalty. Up stepped Alice who calmly slotted the ball into the bottom left corner. 1-0 to St Bart’s!
Piggott School pushed on with some great attacking play that lead to a stunning save from Freya S in goal, and some fantastic defending from Rose, Lucia and Hattie. With a few minutes to go and everybody’s blood pressure rising, St Bart’s delivered a beautiful goal, resulting from Olivia’s great touch and pass to Amy who found herself in acres of space and with all the time in the world to slot in the goal! The final whistle saw a jubilant St Bart’s side celebrate a 2-0 win and claim the honour of becoming County Cup Champions.
The team have been supported and motivated all the way by the dedicated St Bart’s PE department. Miss Bilcliff (PE Teacher) and Miss Ostinelli (Head of PE), who accompanied the team, said: “Football is the fastest growing girls’ sport in the country and at St Bart`s football is now one of our main elite girls’ sports. We have a great number of girls, in all year groups, training and taking part in league and cup fixtures across the school year, with a number also playing club football outside of school. This is a fantastic achievement and it demonstrates the impact of hard work and opportunities. From turning up to all the after school practices, to attending home and away fixtures, and to playing some brilliant football along the way, we couldn’t be prouder of the girls’ efforts.”
