A huge well done to the 13 boys involved in the U15 County Cup football final at Thatcham Town on Wednesday 1 May. The boys battled, as they have all season, unfortunately their unbeaten run came to an end. They lost out to a strong, well organised St Crispin's team who won, 3-1, on the night. Finishing second in the county was a great achievement and the boys should all be really proud of what has been an excellent season.

On Tuesday May 7 our two Young Enterprise companies took part in the West Berkshire Area Final. Students were required to set up their trade stand and then were interviewed by the judges about their company performance. They also gave a presentation outlining their activities since September. At the end of the evening awards were presented in a variety of categories.

A new award is being introduced at St Bart’s to recognise those who help and support their communities. This award complements the many other ways in which we celebrate achievement and success across our broad curriculum.

At the end of last term, we were delighted to receive a letter of congratulations from the Rt Hon Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Standards, congratulating the school on the outstanding progress our students made at GCSE, putting the school in the top 8% of state schools for student achievement in terms of progress, and for the high percentage of students taking GCSE language last summer.  This is excellent recognition of the hard work that all students and staff put in here at St Bart’s to ensure that high standards are consistently achieved, and this should not be underestimated. We would like to share the letter, as follows...

The Berkshire School Games took place on Wednesday 27 March. St Bart’s was well represented at this event both as competitors and as Sports Leaders.

Our Year 10 Sports Leaders were instrumental in officiating and organising the Primary Schools Tag Rugby festival, which involved Primary Schools across the County.

Following the success of our festival two years ago, St Bart’s will welcome external delegates to its informative Teaching and Learning Festival again in July 2019. Keynote speakers will include Alistair Burnett, Principal Trainer at Pivotal Education, Will Millard Head of Policy Advocacy at the education and youth think and action-tank, LKMco and Suzanne O’Farrell former Curriculum Lead at the Association of School and College Leaders. There will also be an opportunity to attend  discussions with fellow teachers and refreshments and lunch will be served throughout the day.

Yet again we had a fun, busy and active British Science Week at St. Bart’s. There were different demonstrations and rapid quizzes. We started off the week by turning a whole lab into a camera, creating a 2m wide moving image on the wall. Dissecting a pig’s head drew a crowd of over 70, listening to detailed explanations of the different sense organs and the brain.

The annual ONA (Old Newburians Association) fixtures, where ex St. Bart’s girls challenge the current senior students in netball and lacrosse matches, took place on Saturday 30 March. A sunny Saturday saw both sports fixtures well supported by spectators and the ONA were able to field a first and second team in both sports to compete against the current students.

On March 9 both our companies attended the Young Enterprise Trade Fayre at the Kennet Centre in Newbury. An early start was required to get their trade stands set up and ready to sell to the public at 9am. A lot of work was put in prior to the event: designing and preparing the stand, ensuring there were sufficient products to sell and organising a rota for the day.

For the Corrie Ten Boom project we learnt about Corrie's family and how they tried to hide some Jews in their house. They were extremely religious and believed that it was their duty as Christians to help the Jews.

For the project we watched the film of their story and filled in a folder about Corrie Ten Boom.  We learnt lots; one thing we learnt was to always help others, even if they are your enemies.