This was my primary school and what a school it is. A great performer, both pre and post my…read moreattendance there, in its Ofstead reports. This is a great school where education comes top. My 2 sisters and brother also went here. It has a selection policy where family memebers are considered first among applicants. Not only that, but parents who send their children here do not have to worry about Secondary school, as there is a natural progression for St. helens students to go to St. Bonaventures (All boys school) or its sister school St. Angelas (All Girls school). Students form St. Helens are almost guaranteed a spot at these two excellent Secondary schools, which combine for Sixth form. A brief history of the school St Helen's is a Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School situated in the London Borough of Newham. The first school in the Parish of St. Margaret's was founded in 1870. This was destroyed by the heavy bombing of London during World War II. A statue marks the spot where the bomb landed. The present school was rebuilt by Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, in 1951 and is now part of the Diocese of Brentwood. The bungalow style building is set in beautiful grounds which includes a pond. The building is horseshoe shaped and includes a large assembly and sports hall, separate dining hall, library and a new computer room to which all children have access. There is a separate nursery with its own fully equipped playground. The school uniform hasn't changed since i went there. It is still: School polo shirt Grey trousers/shorts (boys) Grey trousers/skirt (girls) School sweatshirt Black shoes A school, which i highly recommend.

I went to St Helen's school from 1953 until I left to go to St Angela's at the age of 11. St…read moreHelen's was a lovely school. I remember the school dinners being served by the nuns. My favourite was stew, and I always asked for extra gravy! At that time Mr Walsh was the headmaster. Infant's teacher was Mother Evereldus (not sure how it is spelt) but we called her Mother 'even-elp-us', behind her back. We didn't have a uniform in those days, but we infants wore smocks over our clothes, pink for the girls and blue for the boys - and we were given rusks at break time with our bottle of milk. I also remember Miss Hastier who wore a beautiful heavy bracelet with blue stones - if you misbehaved, she made a great drama out of removing it before smacking the back of your hand. Everyone's favourtite teacher was Mr Scanlon or 'scallywags'. If you misbehaved he gave you a 'wiggins' - pulling at the short hair at the side of your head. But he was full of fun, he played Mozart when we had quiet reading time, trying to instil a bit of culture no doubt, and I remember one winter, he threw a bucket of water into the playground so that when it froze we children could slide on it - no worries about health and safety then He worked hard to give us all a good education and 30 of us in his class passed the 11+, not bad for an area where the pass rate was 12% - so a lot of us owe him a lot.