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)
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)
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.”
The date is fast approaching for our staff runners who have signed up to take part in the Newbury 10K, which will take place on Monday 26 May. We wish them the best of success and the best of the weather!
The team are running to raise money for the St Bart’s house charities: Newbury Cancer Care (Curnock), Swings & Smiles (Davis), Mencap (Evers) and Guide Dogs (Patterson) – and they need the school community’s help to raise as much as possible! Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to support their effort, you can donate on staff and student ParentPay accounts and you can also share with someone who doesn’t have a ParentPay account, as they can donate here.
Huge congratulations to Clean-Cut, the school’s 2025 Young Enterprise business, who won Best Company Report and Best Presentation at the Young Enterprise Berkshire Area Final. Their performance has earned them a place in the Regional Final, which takes place tomorrow (Thursday) in High Wycombe.
The Area Final involved submitting a company report, which detailed information about the company’s finances, team journey, impact and legacy. On the day, the whole team took part in a 10-minute interview with three judges, where they were questioned about the production process, health and safety and sales and marketing. This was followed by a four-minute presentation to all companies and the judges.
Their success follows their win at Westgate Oxford Trade Fair in March, winning Sustainability Award and Best Overall Company, as well as winning “Most Sustainable and Engaging Outlook Award” at GreenFest 2025 in April.
Alfie Lamb, Managing Director, said, “We’ve worked really hard to create a sustainable and successful business, so winning at the Area Final was such a proud moment for us, and we’re really excited to take it to the next level at the Regional Final on Thursday”.
Mrs Seward, Head of Business & Economics, said, “Congratulations to Clean-Cut for an excellent performance at the area final. They delivered a very professional presentation and their awards were well deserved. Good luck for Thursday!”
The team will represent Berkshire along with one other company at the South Central Regional Final this Thursday. Well done – and good luck at the regionals!
Keep up to date with Clean-Cut on their Instagram.
Last week St Bart’s hosted a series of celebrations for our wonderful Year 13. As is tradition, the festivities included our Leavers’ Assembly on the Wednesday, and a Sixth Form Karaoke Special, BBQ and games on the Wormestall Field on the Thursday. The Year 13 week was then concluded with the noisy and colourful Class of 2025 Parade around the school hub, at which our leavers treated younger years and staff to a display of fantastic fancy dress and dance moves! As they near the conclusion of their school career with St Bart’s, we wish Year 13 all the very best for exam season and adventures beyond. We are with you all the way! We hope you all enjoy the Leavers’ Prom on Friday 20 June, and please do remember to sign up to our alumni, so that we can stay in touch and welcome you back as former students in future years.
BOOK RETURNS REQUEST – Y11 & Y13
Now that we are approaching exams and nearing the end of this academic year for Y11 and Y13, we would like to remind parents that your child’s textbooks, library books and laptops (if they have one) should be returned to the Library by Friday 20 June 2025, at the latest. Of course, at the moment students will still be using these resources to complete their studies, but please can you ensure that any resources belonging to school are returned once students have completed their exams. Please can students hand them to a member of the Library staff so we can check that their account is clear. Many thanks for your help. Students can come and speak to us in the Library if there are any questions or concerns.
On 29 April, RoBarts robotics team made their debut at the FIRST Tech Challenge regional tournament in Oxford. After arriving at school at 7:00a.m. for final robot adjustments, the team travelled to Oxford and immediately began refining their design, prior to their judging interview session and inspection. Matches at the tournament involved alliances of two teams competing in both autonomous and student-controlled phases, requiring both precision programming and real-time strategy.
Despite being new to the competition, the team of 12 students demonstrated exceptional skill, teamwork, and resilience – earning the Control Award for their innovative programming, and finishing as runners-up for the Inspire Award, which recognises teams that exemplify the values of the FIRST Tech Challenge and serve as role models for others.
The students dedicated months to designing, building, and refining their robot – often staying after school and even organising Saturday sessions. When asked what the most important thing they learnt from taking part in the First Tech Challenge was, Ryan (12C3) responded “Managing time effectively for weekly robotics sessions and working under pressure trying to debug and test code in case something didn’t work, especially right before a match so learning to adapt in these stressful situations was important.” Ryan led much of the coding effort and after receiving the Control Award, he reflected, “I felt incredibly proud. It was great to see our hard work on the programming being recognised especially after continuously testing and refining the code making sure it was both efficient and maintainable.”
The team’s success extended beyond the technical. Tejas (9C2) led on sponsorship, securing support from Collaboration Betters the World (CBTW) and nowFundamentals. “The biggest challenge I faced was not getting responses from a lot of companies and overcoming it by keeping on trying,” he said. We are incredibly grateful to both companies for their generous support.
For many students, the experience was transformative. “I learnt the importance of tech in this society and what it can be used for, but also the importance of teamwork,” shared Asmi (8P2). Meanwhile, Lawri (9C2) helped the team get their 3D printer back online – an essential tool for producing parts for the robot. “My experience at the FIRST Tech Challenge was an interesting opportunity to build teamwork skills and allow us access to kits and parts that we couldn’t use at home.”
With plenty of creative ideas already emerging for next season – including improving the robot’s autonomous mode, led by Arpit (12E1), who has been teaching himself Java – the future looks bright for the RoBarts robotics team.
RoBarts may not have made the Championship finals this year, but their Control Award win and Inspire Award recognition are remarkable accomplishments for a first-time team. They’ve laid a strong foundation for the future – and we can’t wait to see what they do next.
Before they left a group of Year 11 students attended their Pizza Party and were supplied with an inordinate amount of pizza and juice. Their invitations were based on their contributions to Maths and English revision workshops and they thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of their labour!
Congratulations to Year 9 students, Reem and Roba, our latest students to complete the St Bart’s Reading Challenge.
In order to achieve the final Rhodium Award in the challenge, Reem and Roba had to read at least 57 books across the five levels. This is a great achievement and they now join our Reading Challenge Champions honour roll!
In recognition of this impressive dedication to reading, both girls were congratulated by Dr Fitter (Headteacher), Mr Matthias (English Teacher) and Mrs Hewetson (St Bart’s Librarian). Mrs Hewetson was delighted to have the opportunity to compile two more hampers of goodies, including books, stationary, treats and the rare Rhodium Badge to be worn with pride. We hope Reem and Roba enjoy their hampers and continue with their love of reading – we understand the Ultimate Carnegie Challenge is next on their list!
