Good afternoon,

Well, it’s been a few weeks of dressing up, auctions, church services, French evenings and so much more!

Bible Verse of the Week – John 16:33

‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’

My weary gavel is back on the shelf and dusted off for another year. What a superb Auction Evening spent raising money for all your fantastic children’s educational experience. Under the superbly organised eye of Linda, mother of Freya in Year 6, the evening was planned to perfection. Delicious food, chilled wine and bidding galore was the order of the evening. Thank you to everyone who placed a bid, donated, cooked (great chilli Jessie!), tidied up and just had a wonderful time.

On Wednesday we celebrated Ash Wednesday with a super church service with a touch of missionary history thrown in for good measure. Mr Perry and Miss Ruth organised great hymns, prayers and readings! I provided an insight into the life of Eric Liddell and the decision he made at the Paris 1924 Olympics where he stood strong in his beliefs and honoured God (who then rather nicely honoured him!) Intrigued… check out YouTube for some amazing clips of Eric Liddell’s race and of course the amazing Chariots of Fire, to see Eric in action with his head thrown back and running like the wind! In his own words ‘I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast!’

Year 2 Hoberman dance up a storm!

This morning Year 2 Hoberman literally had us dancing in the aisles with their amazing assembly! The confidence of the children was literally oozing all over the stage! Their beautiful voices boomed around the hall, the dancing was exuberant and the singing superb. They taught us all about emotions and how to handle them. The only emotion the audience was truly feeling by the end, was joy!

Year 5 French Evening

Last week we had a great French evening to raise money towards the Year 5 trip to France. We enjoyed a delicious Coq au Vin meal, scrumptious puddings, a French quiz and some good old fashioned run around games. Thank you to all those parents who joined for a splash of French culture and to Miss Bill and Mr Perry for organising the evening.

It’s a fair Cop

Last Friday afternoon we had a very friendly and informative visit from the police. The local community officers parked in the playground with their rather impressive van. The children explored every aspect of the police vehicle and tried on the police hats. The officers visited the classrooms and enjoyed Q&A sessions with the older children – though it has to be said the van was the highlight. They are coming again with the police horses and dogs next – Mr Brown will have to get his shovel out!

The Prayer Group at St Paul’s

Today Mr Perry, myself and the Prayer Group paid a visit to St Paul’s Cathedral. We learnt all about sacred spaces and how important this is to Christians to develop their faith. We visited the dome and the galleries. We had a wonderful time and the children were perfect St Stephen’s role models!

World Book Day News from Mrs Pereira:

It has been quite a fortnight from the Library’s perspective! We kicked off last week with a visit from author, Dr Cathy Rogers and illustrator Madeleine Rogers introducing their book ‘Future Visions’. They delivered an informative collective worship where the children were encouraged to imagine the future world of 2070 if we all did the right thing for our planet. Dr Rogers introduced the concept of futuristic robots to deliver groceries, health monitoring toilets and plastic eating robot fish. To the children’s surprise all of these technologies already exist and perhaps it is only a matter of time before they become the norm. The school council then enjoyed a workshop where they brainstormed and decided on a climate goal for our school.

On Monday Y2, Y3 and Y4 met author Hannah Peck. At collective worship the author introduced her fiction book Katie on the Case and described how she finds ideas for her books using ‘What if’ statements. The children came up with statements like ‘what if there was train, and on the train there was a tiny mouse and ……’ Hannah then visited each classroom for a creative writing workshop where the children developed story characters using vegetables as a starting point.

Y5 and Y6 met Chris Wick. He spoke about his books Girl, Boy, Sea and Shadow Creatures. Using Shadow Creatures the author then went on to explain what was entailed in the writing process of this World War Two story set in Norway. Chris depended heavily on his family’s Norwegian heritage to plot out this war adventure. The children then created their own fictional characters deciding who they are, what is stopping them, how would they solve the problem and how does it all end. The children were enthralled throughout.

The World Book Day parade once again surpassed all possibilities. There were Dog Men, Superheroes, Cruellas, Harry Potters, Supertatos, as well as firefighters and nurses ….the list goes on. It is always so hard to choose winners at St Stephen’s but winners there were and off they went to celebrate with a hot chocolate at Shepherds Bush Market! Thank you to St Stephen’s FOSSil Nazareth (ex-parent) for providing such a wonderful treat at her East African restaurant Delina. Thank you to all the parents for cheering your children on at the parade. We so enjoy a dressing up opportunity.

All of the children started the Usborne Reading Challenge in class and there will be NO HOMEWORK this weekend apart from completing the challenge and donating via JustGiving here by 9 March.

Y1 and Early Years completed the week with a storytelling performance by Bigfoot Arts Education.

Overall, the past fortnight has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience! There was something for everyone and hopefully as a school community we are one step closer to encouraging a lifelong love of reading in the children.

Finally, a massive thank you to local store Nisa for their very generous donation of £1000 to the school. Mr Schumm and the House Captains went over today for the official opening and to deliver a personal thank you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mr Schumm