A Friday Night Round Up from Mr Schumm

Good afternoon,

I think we can definitely say ‘spring has sprung’, the blossoms are in the air and the gas bill will be going down! Thank you to all those parents who joined us for Parent’s Evenings and we look forward to seeing you all in the summer term for our Open Evening – to tour the classrooms and look at your children’s marvellous work but if you can’t wait that long please contact the class teacher for a meeting. – we love an open door policy!

Easter Bonnets

The Easter Bonnet Parade on Thursday, 30th March at 9am is in the main school hall. Recycle, recycle, recycle and make those amazing hats. Think of a theme and create, create create and make the Uxbridge Rd come alive with a cacophony of creativity – think big! All parents are welcome to join in the fun!

Auction Night

Thursday 30 March 7.30pm

Just under a week until the Auction! We’ve had some recent donation of some VIP Football tickets to see Tottenham v Brighton, plus some more tickets to see West End Theatre shows!

We have an AMAZING night in store for you. Tickets and tables are selling fast so don’t delay and get your tickets today through ParentMail. Tickets are £20 per person or £160 for a table of 8. You will get canapes on arrival and Phoebe will be playing her cello whole you mingle with friends, get drinks from the bar and browse the silent auction lots. You will then sit down to a meal and will also be offered a little digestif during/after pudding.

Mr Schumm will be our auctioneer for the live auction bids and he’s dusting off his gavel in preparation – https://youtu.be/I72zchRlGbQ

The bar will be fully stocked with a range of drinks and the amazing team on hand to serve you throughout the evening.

Please look out for the ParentMail message when we share the Auction Brochure – we have so many amazing auction lots!

Get your tickets now and support this event to raise money for our children and school.

Easter Eggs

The House Captains are organising their Easter Egg Raffle for Great Ormond Street and Ahoy – the two charities they are collecting for this year. Please donate an Easter Egg or two or three and I promise I won’t eat them! The raffle tickets are available on Parentmail.

Down Syndrome Day

This week, we celebrated World Down Syndrome Day by wearing different socks to show that we are all unique! Thank you for all your kind donations – we raised £320 for Fair Shot – A social enterprise cafe and registered UK charity that aims to transform the lives of young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism through specialty coffee. Every year, they offer 12 young adults (aged 18-25) with a learning disability and/or autism the chance to gain real-life work experience through their hospitality traineeship programme. They provide best-in-class training so that when their graduates begin their working career, they are confident and highly skilled baristas and expert cafe assistants!

Chris, Mum to Lara and Vito – a former pupil with Down Syndrome, spoke with Year 5 and 6 sharing the positive knock on effects of employment of people with DS. How these work places are often happier; can educate society about Down Syndrome and the capabilities of often overlooked, members of society.

Take a look at this –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKku4RAWa4M&list=RDSKku4RAWa4M&start_radio=1

Debating

A group of Year 6’s were in the finals of the Cicero Debating Cup last week. They had an exciting visit to Linklaters law firm in the City of London, where they debated on a number of topics with teams from schools across London – including ‘This house believes the police should be armed’, and ‘This house believes it’s good to be famous.’ The students did brilliantly, with one child (Scarlett Kruger) awarded Best Speaker by the judges. Then we were off to Queen’s Gate School to debate against 22 other teams, mostly from private schools. We won all three of our debates and came second overall!

Netball Galore!

Yesterday our St Stephen’s netball team represented Hammersmith and Fulham at the London Youth Games all the way in Redbridge. During the group stages, the team came second in their group and made it to the next round. This was three more matches and only the top two would go through. After some tough games, we placed second and qualified for the knockout phase. Sadly, this was our last match of the day as the other team beat us. However 5th overall is a great result and what an honour to represent the borough at a London-wide competition! The team should be so proud of themselves.

Gymnastics

Just in case you missed BBC Sportsday, here’s a report that you might find interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xabgUnDsIU

On Monday, we were delighted to welcome Sarah Powell the CEO of British Gymnastics who was launching the new Leap Without Limits vision for the sport (more information on this vision can be found here . She brought along with her Olympic gymnast Danusia Francis who represented Jamaica and Kelly Simms who medalled at the Commonwealth games. They featured on Sky Sports News and BBC News. Well done to Aisha Walters at Benchmark, British Gymnastics and of course to your wonderful, flexible children for making it happen.

Ramadan Mubarak

We wish all our Muslim pupils, family and friends in the local community, a blessed and peaceful Ramadan. May this month of fasting and prayer bring you closer to your loved ones, strengthen your faith and bring you abundant blessings.

The Secret Artist

Today, during Collective Worship, we were lucky to welcome Nicole Dearden to help launch our Secret Artist Children’s Competition. All the children will be producing a piece of artwork inspired by our theme of Myths and Legends to enter in to the competition. Two winners will be chosen from each class by our celebrity judge, Jonathan Yeo, to have their artwork displayed during the FOSS Event on the 18th of May. The winners will also win a trip to a major London art gallery! All the artwork will be completed during school time, and the children are not allowed to work on it at home. However, they can start thinking of ideas about what they would like to create!

Easter Service

Please join us for our Easter Service on Friday, 31st March at 9am in St Stephen’s Church.

Check out the New FOSS website is https://www.ststephensfoss.co.uk/

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – @StStephensLBHF

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Schumm​