Can you believe that it’s time for the Year 6 Leavers 2022 and the end of their primary school journey in Hoyland? But here we are, at the end of the school year and getting ready for the summer holidays. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

For some of our students, this is more than leaving for the summer break, they are growing up and moving on to their next adventure at secondary school. They are our fabulous Year 6s!

St Helen’s wouldn’t see the Year 6 pupils leave without a fuss, so every year it is school tradition to arrange a special Leavers’ Assembly and Leavers’ Mass in the last week of school, to commemorate their time with us and to give them the send-off that they deserve.

The Mass for 2022 was a celebration of the children’s time spent at St Helen’s, and it provided them with a chance to reflect on their time at school, their memories, their friends, and what they’d learnt over their time with us. But this wasn’t just a reflection on the past, but also a look to the future, with a chance to think about how their journey ahead will look.

Meanwhile, the Assembly was a less formal affair where the children shared their memories of school and spoke about their aspirations. It also gave them an opportunity to offer some advice for the next group of Year 6 pupils, to ensure that they have the best experience possible. The children then stretched their vocal cords and sang a few songs for the crowd of their peers, school staff and parents. It ended with the students sharing some photo memories of their St Helen’s journey, which really showed how much they’ve grown. Every year, this assembly never fails to get tears from our proud parents!

How Does St Helen’s Support Your Child's Primary School Journey in Hoyland?

The most important part of St Helen's is the school experience for our children. We strive to ensure that each and every child is cared for, nurtured, and leaves us as a confident and well-rounded individual, ready for the next stage in life.

Children are given the confidence and skills to develop academically, socially, and emotionally while being exposed to an exciting and stimulating curriculum. It's our goal to make our pupils lifelong learners with caring attitudes and high self-esteem. All our children are encouraged to be the best they can be and grow into balanced young people.

At our small, family-oriented school, our children behave well and do well. That is in part due to the close-knit size of approximately 140 children in school. We have a limit of 20 pupils per year group, meaning that we can connect and get to know the children in a more personal way, offering them a family-feel to their learning environment. This smaller size ensures that your children receive a much closer connection and support throughout their learning process. All of our students are treated with love and respect enabling them to grow.

As mentioned in a previous article, school life at St Helen’s isn’t just 6 hours in a classroom every day, but instead, broadening horizons and giving the children new ways to learn and have fun. It’s about allowing our children to understand who they are, what lessons they enjoy, and what passions they have - or didn’t know they had! Whether this is through Residential Trips, Pantomime, Street Dance and Young Voices, or surprise days and access to the English Institute of Sport to get their bodies moving.

As a result, our students develop strong social, problem-solving, and life skills, which helps them grow into confident individuals!

A great example of this childhood growth and passion is the story of the world-famous artist and illustrator Brian Wildsmith who attended St Helen’s and went on to create incredibly beautiful work!

Support For Parents At St Helen's

Leaving your child for 6 hours a day can be hard, especially at first. You want to know that they are in safe and capable hands - hands that will care for them as you would. A great way to stay up to date with your child's education and activities is with our weekly class updates on our website.

This enables you to use the updates to remind your children what they learned that week and find out what their favourite subjects are. Who knows, maybe you have a future mathematician or a budding scientist in your house!

Another reason why you can have faith in St Helen’s is that since we are part of a federation, teachers and school leaders can distribute staff across schools for cover or to share specialist skills, which means we are constantly improving teaching and learning across the board. We develop our best practices for your child’s growth.

Lastly, the only thing we love more than helping our students, is seeing them come back with their own children! Getting to know your family and supporting their learning progress is an honour that we hope to enjoy time and time again.

What Do Our Children Think Of St Helen’s?

With that being said, regardless of how many pupils we’ve seen through our doors, we still get a lump in our throats when we hear comments like these;

“I am going to miss all of my friends and also the helpful, kind teachers. I have really enjoyed my time here at St Helen’s. I loved coming to school every day and I would always learn new things.”

“I liked all of the teachers and all of the 5 years I have been in this school and I will miss everything. I liked that everyone was kind to me, especially when I first joined the school. I loved learning new things every day.”

“Everyone is very friendly. I love playtime and playing with my friends in my class and the younger children. If someone is down, they are not down for long… I love everything about St Helen’s.”

Create Your Child’s New Beginning At St Helen’s!

At St Helen’s, we are a Catholic school that welcomes all children. Our aim is to share our messages of respect, love, kindness and forgiveness to future generations.

Our Reception class has spots for September, and we've got some openings in other classes too. If you are interested in applying for a place, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We welcome applications from all families who can support our Catholic ethos of love, care and respect.

So if you think that your child would love an inclusive environment, that they’d benefit from igniting their imagination, and that they’d thrive in a close-knit, supportive atmosphere - Then St Helen's is the school for them! 

Check out our admissions process and come join the St Helen's family today!