Latest News

• Friday 1 December 2023 Strand Advent Calendar The windows of the school are being turned into an Advent Calendar to mark the beginning of December. Each class drew a number and created a window to make a beautiful festive display in Brooks Lane. Take a moment to have a look on your way home – it’s really lovely.
• Friday 24 November 2023 Easyfundraising in the Black Friday sales If you’re shopping in the Black Friday sales, please remember to use easyfundraising! Over 7,000 shops and sites will donate to us - whether you’re buying gadgets, games or anything else. For more information visit Strand's page on the website or scan this QR code to join. We have raised £1696.35 with only 47 supporters. Imagine how much we could raise if every family in the school joined up?
• Friday 24 November 2023 Secret Garden Makeover Continues Over the last half term, Miss Slingsby, Miss Maynard and Miss Heale have been in contact with Kate Deighton from the charity TimeGivers who connect young people with opportunities to help them and their local communities. They heard how overgrown the secret garden had become during the pandemic and kindly offered to help us sort it out. A huge thank you to the Olwen McPherson Trust who have very kindly made a financial donation to support us with the project. Today, we have had TimeGivers in school, alongside Cultivate London and some very kind, hands-on parent volunteers to cut back the overgrowth and help begin to clear the area. A huge thank you to the parent and staff volunteers who gave up their time today to assist us with the clearance and to Maggie, Khulan, Grace, Jojo and Nik who all did a fantastic job! We are looking forward to the next stage of the project where we can redesign the space to create a sensory garden and calm reading hub. If anyone is interested in giving thei
• Friday 10 November 2023 Strandites Shine in Cross Country On Thursday the 9th of November, a group 17 Strandites travelled to Osterley Park for a Hounslow Borough cross country event. There were 4 races splitting the competitors into age groups. Starting off, was the Yr 3 and 4 girls’ race in which our youngest contestant, Lily, took an amazing 3rd place with Elisa and Safia coming 8th and 16th place respectively. Next was the Yr 3 and 4 boys’ race. In this race we had only one competitor, Hamza who came in 5th place. Shortly after, was the Yr 5 and 6 girls’ race. Achieving a fabulous 3rd place, with a bronze medal was Hattie and not far behind - all in a row - came Charlotte, Hannah and Grace coming in 9th, 10th and 11th place. Finally it was the boys’ Yr 5 and 6 race with around 130 children competing and lots of Strandites lining up on the starting grid. The boys put in a brilliant performance taking three of the top 5 places: Sebastian stormed home to take 1st place with Oliver in 2nd and Max in 4th. After that, Ch
• Friday 10 November 2023 Anti-bullying Week 2023 Make a noise about bullying Anti-Bullying Week takes place next week. This year's theme is ‘Make a noise about bullying’. Each class will be having discussions about what bullying means to us, how banter can turn into something more hurtful, and what we can do to stop bullying. As upstanders, we can make a difference and take a stand against bullying. Each year group will explore this theme throughout the week and on Friday 17th we will have BLUE (Be Lovely and Understanding to Everybody) Friday where everybody can wear blue mufti to show our commitment to antibullying every day at Strand. Odd socks can also be worn on Friday (they don't have to be blue!) to celebrate that we are all different but all equal.
• Friday 10 November 2023 Green Power Goes Online On Tuesday our air source heat pumps were commissioned, making our green heating system complete. The heat pumps are complemented by back-up gas boilers and photovoltaic solar panels which provided 38% of our electricity in the last year. The system will be further improved in the summer when all radiators and piping will be upgraded to more energy-efficient models. It has been a long road to reach this point with the team spending many hours in meetings with engineers and electrical specialists. Safe to say Mr Wicks and Mr Thorne are now incredibly knowledgeable about the intricacies of sustainable heating! Watch this space for news of further green improvements.
• Friday 29 September 2023 School Council Elected Last week the whole school got involved in hustings to elect their representatives to the School Council. A huge number of children stood for office, bravely making speeches to their year group. Well done to everyone who took part. It’s great to see that the Strand tradition of developing responsible and committed citizens continues. The results of the elections were announced in assembly this week and the whole school was able to congratulate their new representatives as they received their badge of office. This is the School Council for 2023:
• Friday 29 September 2023 Year 6 Debating Team visit Putney High On Tuesday, Year 6 were lucky enough to be invited to an inter-school debating event at Putney High School. After some fun introductory games, it was time to reveal the first motion: this house believes that children under 14 should not be allowed to go to boarding school. For this first debate, Strand were split into two proposition teams (arguing for the motion) and two opposition teams (arguing against the motion). Even though it was Strand against Strand, there was still a lot of courage on show in taking the floor to make a clear, reasoned argument. After lots of constructive feedback from the judges, it was time to go again, now against teams from other schools. The second motion proposed that children should have more say in what they learn in school. This idea sparked some genuine dissent amongst our Year 6s: the opposition disagreed, concerned that children would limit their opportunities by sticking only to the subjects that they liked whereas the proposition insisted that mo
• Friday 29 September 2023 Year 5&6 Girls Football Team Off to a Winning Start On Wednesday, 17 Year 5 and 6 girls represented the school in this year’s first football tournament at Springwell school. Split into two teams, Strand A and Strand B, both teams went into the games pumped and raring to go. Strand A got off to a great start dominating their first games but despite this (and having more shots than they can count), they only found the net twice in their first 3 games but still remained undefeated. Strand B on the other hand couldn’t stop scoring in their first game with Daisy K scoring a hat-trick and Hannah adding to the scoreline. As the morning went on both Strand team found their shooting boots and won the rest of their games with Strand B only losing one game - and that was to Strand A! In the end Strand A topped the group with 14 points closely followed by Strand B on 11 points in second place. Goal scorers for the teams were Imani, Daisy K, Hattie, Grace, Yasmina and Hannah. Well done to Nicole, Daisy May, Evie, Charlotte UP, Grace, Cle
• Friday 22 September 2023 Railway Bridge Update An update on the railway bridge planning application - the prior application made by Network Rail has been refused by the planning team. Over 60 objections were received which have been summarised in the attached decision notice and delegated report. Click this link to see the decision.
• Friday 22 September 2023 School Street Co-Design - Play Street The charity Sustrans are embarking on a project to improve the Brooks Lane environment. This affects local residents and Strand families at pick-up and drop off so the first step is a community wide consultation. Click here to complete the School Street survey. The play street this afternoon is just one of the events the Sustrans team have planned.
• Friday 22 September 2023 Easyfundraising We are registered with the easyfundraising website so over 7,000 brands will donate to us for free every time you use it to shop, book a holiday or take out insurance. They are currently running a competition to win a £500 donation and if you use this QR code to sign up we will get double entries! Alternatively, visit our easyfundraising page.
• Friday 22 September 2023 Strand Food Bank Collection Our local foodbank in Brentford who we work with is desperate for donations. They need anything that’s non-perishable: cereals, baby food, pasta, rice, sugar, milk, pudding (eg rice pudding or custard), tinned fruit and veg, pasta sauces, tinned tomatoes, tinned meat/fish, tea/coffee, biscuits. Any toiletries like shampoo/conditioner, body wash, toothbrush/paste, sanitary products and nappies (of all sizes) would be much appreciated. All donations by 6th October please.
• Friday 15 September 2023 Reading in Unusual Places Competition In our summer reading newsletter, we challenged everyone to be caught reading in an unusual place during the holidays. There were several interesting entries so the choice was difficult but our favourites were Aryan in the dentist’s waiting room and Yasmina who in one of her photos, looked like she was driving a combine harvester. Well done to everyone who entered. Look out for another competition in the next reading newsletter!
• Friday 15 September 2023 Secondary Transfer Meeting for Years 3, 4 and 5 Are you thinking about your secondary school options We are holding a meeting for parents in years 3, 4 and 5 to discuss the process and explain your choices. The meeting will be held on 21st September at 7:30pm in the hall. Please drop by - it’s never too early to start thinking of your options particularly if you are considering the Independent sector.
• Friday 15 September 2023 Secondary Transfer for Year 6 The deadline for Secondary Transfer paperwork is fast approaching. Please be aware there will be no hard copies of the ‘Transfer to Secondary School’ brochure. They are available on the Hounslow website and all applications have to be made on line. Should this be an issue, please contact the office who will be happy to help. The secondary Transfer Meeting for Year 6 is next Thursday 21st September at 6pm. If you have any questions after attending the meeting then call Miss Reid to book an appointment.
• Thursday 20 July 2023 Farewell Year 6 We held the traditional leavers' assembly this morning to say farewell to Year 6 and our colleagues who are moving on. The most hotly anticipated part of the event is revealing the results of the Interhouse competitions which have taken place throughout the year.
• Tuesday 18 July 2023 Strand becomes School of Rock It was the first night on Monday.
• Tuesday 18 July 2023 Summer Reading Newletter The summer term reading newsletter is here. There are lots of suggestions for what to read over the summer as well as the chance to win prizes in our Reading in Unusual Places competition.
• Saturday 15 July 2023 SATs Results - Well Done Year 6 The 2023 SATs results were returned to school last week and after a very disrupted couple of years we are very proud of each and every Strandite. The table below shows the percentage of children at Strand in Year 6 and River class reaching the expected standard compared to all children nationally.
• Friday 7 July 2023 Chiswick Repair Café - Saturday 15th July The Chiswick Repair Café is taking place on Saturday 15th July at Christ Church Turnham Green, and is a fantastic resource. You can bring any broken household item along, and one of their repair volunteers will try to help fix it. It is really amazing what can be fixed! There's no price to pay - it's donation only. Some things that have been fixed include sewing and darning repairs, jewellery, ceramics, watches and clocks, furniture, picture frames, toys, vacuum cleaners, printers, computers, light fittings, luggage, bikes and more. There is also someone who will sharpen knives and garden tools. Do something good for the environment as well as your wallet by fixing something rather than throwing it away. And, there is cake! What more could you ask for Click for more details.
• Friday 7 July 2023 Strand Achieves Gold School Games Mark We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the School Games GOLD Mark Award for the 2022/23 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched to reward and recognise school engagement in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success. Over the last year our aim has been to try and engage those who haven’t previously been active or represented our school. With over 70% of the school representing Strand in Inter-School competition at local and borough level we are well on our way to achieving that goal. A huge thank you to Ms Smith Stevenson, Mr Ash, Mr Bentley and Mr Caton, for raising the profile of physical wellbeing and sports at Strand and being fantastic role-models for our children. Read on for more sporting success.
• Friday 30 June 2023 Staffing for Next Year While the class lists for next year are still being fine-tuned, and will be with families on the 13th July, the staffing has been finalised. Kay Richards will continue in her role as SENDCo. Gill Coulton will be without class responsibility and will be providing additional support in Year 6. Lucy Burton (nee Mackowska) will continue as cover teacher and EAL specialist. Geoff Bonner will continue to teach music two days a week. Remi Murray will put his language talents to good use by teaching French throughout the school, Emily Smith-Stevenson will head up the PE team. We have one new recruit to the teaching team: Hannah Howard who will be joining us as an ECT next year. Hannah has just completed her training at St Mary’s University and specialises in Maths and loves to code video games in her spare time.
• Friday 30 June 2023 Strand Girls Excel in STEM Hackathon On Tuesday, we took 15 girls from Year 3 - 5 to Imperial College London for the Hello World Hack, run by Doctor Jackie Bell. The aim was to inspire and encourage more young women to explore STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) and to introduce them to the types of careers they could have in this field. The activities ranged from designing their own app, coding and programming robots. The girls worked well in their teams to solve a variety of problems. In Year 3, Gaia, Gantisha, Ela, Reema and Elaine won prizes for their app and in machine learning. In Year 4, Evelyn, Marni, Eva, Duru and Khulan won prizes in code breaking and in Year 5, Sofia, Charlotte F, Selin, Grace and Ana won prizes for their app design too! Sofia even won a jar of marbles for using maths to estimate the number of marbles in the jar, while she didn’t get the exact number correct, her excellent reasoning impressed the judges.
• Friday 23 June 2023 Team Captains Elected This week, the school has been caught up in election frenzy as the children in Year 5 have been standing for high office as team captains. A huge number of children stood and made great speeches during the hustings with every child in Year 5 taking part in some way or another. The election was held yesterday in the gym, which served as a polling station, and the results announced today in assembly. It was a close-run election and all the Year 5 candidates showed great confidence and courage in standing for office. In assembly, we took the opportunity to focus on the importance of exercising the democratic right which underpins British society – voting for your leaders and taking the time to evaluate your choices, looking carefully at each candidate’s pledges and comparing them to their actions.
• Monday 19 June 2023 Year 6 Arrive at Beam House Year 6 arrived safely today just after 4 pm. The sun is shining and the children are already busy doing activities.
• Friday 26 May 2023 A Kind Donation from Residents of Wellesley Road We were kindly donated £450 by the residents of Wellesley Road who recently held a street party to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles. The residents were so generous in their donations to the celebration fund that there was money left over after the party and they made the decision to donate the remaining funds to the Swan Centre. We are so grateful for the money and to know that we are included in such a caring and inclusive community. The Swan team are already drawing up a shopping list so watch this space for more news.
• Friday 26 May 2023 Junior Maths Challenge Success Some of Years 5 and 6 took part in the Junior Maths Challenge run by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust earlier this term. The same questions are answered by children up to Year 8 in schools across the country which makes our results even more impressive. In total we received 28 awards: 2 golds (Sofia L and Angus), 12 silvers (Annis, Bella T-G, Leila, Samara, Thomas, Ashneet, Levi, Sam C, Gabriel S, David A, Ameera and Fatima) and 14 bronzes (Yahya, Sulaiman, Ayesha, Francesca, Khushi, Mubarig, Emily, Mila, Ella, Holly R, Nina, Oliver T, Archie and Daniel). Congratulations to everyone who took part for showing such resilience and determination. Special mention to the three pupils from Year 5 who were totally unfazed, especially Sofia L who came top in the school and has qualified for the bonus round! If you fancy a challenge, the questions (and answers) are here.
• Friday 12 May 2023 National Mental Health Awareness week Next week is National Mental Health Awareness week and this year’s theme for the week is anxiety. Place2Be has published some useful resources for parents/ carers and families. Click here for a Primary resource and here for those families with older children.
• Friday 12 May 2023 Walkers Breakfast - Wednesday 17th May Next week is walk to school week and we hope all families will leave the car at home and walk. To encourage you we will be holding our annual Walkers Breakfast on Wednesday 17th May from 8:30am. If you walk to school you will be treated to a healthy breakfast in Brooks Lane – make sure you get here bright and early and fingers crossed the rain holds off!

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