issue 20 - St. Cuthbert's Catholic High School [PDF]

Two of our Year 7 students, Kai Leighton and Oskar Zegarski, joined three of our sixth form students, Connor Howd, Liam

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ISSUE 20

Faith Youth Friday Celebration Two of our Year 7 students, Kai Leighton and Oskar Zegarski, joined three of our sixth form students, Connor Howd, Liam Moscrop and Julian Djopo at the Youth Friday Celebration at St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle. Our students enjoyed readings and songs reflecting on, and celebrating, the themes of God’s mercy and sharing God’s gifts. Oskar took part in an interpretation of the Gospel reading of the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Aidan House Liturgies Aidan House students were led by their tutor in 15 minutes of prayerful reflection in our school chapel. Students enjoyed the peacefulness, candles and music which all added to the tranquil atmosphere. Our students wrote their own prayers on cards to be to used every morning alongside their house prayer.

Blessed Oscar Romero Students from Years 7-10 took part in liturgies in our chapel on the anniversary of Blessed Oscar Romero’s assassination. Students prayed for justice and peace in El Salvador and around the world, and examined the background to the school’s Romero Cross which was handmade by a craftsman named Hector Hernandez from El Salvador.

World Food Day and Catering Award Newcastle City Council Catering Team, in association with Unilever Food Solutions, created a special menu to raise awareness of hunger and malnutrition amongst Kenyan school children. Thanks to the support of our students, an amazing 300 meals were donated to the World Food Programme. Other schools in the City participated but none surpassed the 300 meals donated through the hard work of the Catering Team and the outstanding support of our students and staff. In other catering news, we were recently awarded Secondary School Catering Team of the Year at an event at Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield. The Lead Association for Catering in Education (LACA) Awards for Excellence acknowledges teams and individuals who make a real difference in education catering.

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Faith Ash Wednesday Our students marked the beginning of Lent by receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday. The entire student body was given the opportunity in House assemblies to receive the ashes from a number of Sixth Form students who are currently working towards their John Paul II Award. The assemblies, four in all, were very touching and provided thoughtful experiences for all involved; another outstanding example of St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School’s students’ Faith in Action.

Flame 2017 - ‘10,000 Reasons to Hope’ Ten of our students along with Miss Byrne and Mr Swindells attended Flame 2017, 10,000 Reasons to Hope, the National Catholic Youth Congress at Wembley Arena. Flame 2017 is the largest gathering of Catholic youth and it is held every two years. Our students joined the 10,000 people there, including over 800 from our Diocese. Students met Cardinal Bo from Myanmar (close friend of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi) and discussed the rise of democracy in Myanmar, and the challenges he faces as leader of the Church there. They were entertained by live music from Matt Redman and Guvna B and watched a variety of performances from Rise Theatre. '10,000 Reasons' was a theme of the day, referring to God's blessings and reasons to be hopeful for the future. The quote from St Paul, 'Fan your flames into a gift' stood out on the screen.

St. Joseph’s Primary School Our school Chaplain, Miss Byrne, recently visited St Joseph’s Primary School to work with their Year 6 class. Working with the example of The Good Samaritan, Miss Byrne emphasised how important unity is in our society. The students of St Joseph’s discussed reasons to work hard to ensure those around us feel included and accepted, giving examples of refugees and homeless as those in society who need our help most at this time. The students made a prayer jar and unity bracelets as a reminder of the importance of unity.

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Faith Chrism Mass The annual Chrism Mass was celebrated on Maundy Thursday at St Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle. Seven of our Year 7 students attended the mass alongside our School Chaplain, Miss Byrne. Taylor Miskelly, one of the students in attendance, read the prayer of the Chrism Oil. The students were in awe of the amount of Priests gathered and the grandeur of this special event. They left promising to heed Bishop Seamus’s words, by serving others in the name of God and to spread his good news back at school and in their communities. .

Lenten Penitential Service Three classes of Year 7 students were invited to a Penitential Service with Fr David Smith. The students were taught the importance of being penitent and seeking forgiveness for the things for which we are sorry. The understanding of this is evident in the rounded young leaders we have in abundance in the school. Fr David sermonised about how we all, even adults and priests, do things we know we are not proud of and that we seek forgiveness for. The students showed great understanding of this and approximately 50 students spoke with Fr David about their relationships with God.

St. Cuthbert’s Feast Day Year 8 students attended the school’s annual Feast of St Cuthbert Mass celebrated by Fr Shaun O’Neill. Students were reminded by Fr Shaun of Cuthbert’s dedication to his faith and how they can reflect this dedication in their everyday lives. The school’s choir and band led the congregation in hymns chosen for the occasion. The celebration was a marvellous example of Faith in Action and enjoyed by all in attendance.

Stations of the Cross at St. Catherine’s Care Home Students from Year 7 were invited to lead Stations of the Cross at St Catherine’s Care Home in Newcastle. The students led the service and sang with the residents of the home. The short service was followed by tea, biscuits and conversation in the community room. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and cannot wait to return to chat with their new friends again. More of our students were invited back again to lead an afternoon of Bingo. The Year 7 students, who had never played Bingo before, were soon taught the basics by the residents and were off to a flying start as soon as the first number was called! Lewis Forster, one of the students in attendance, said “It was great to learn from the residents, but also help them when we could. It’s a way of paying them back for all the things they have done for our community in the past”.

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Leadership Pope John Paul II Award Presentation Evening The Presentation Evening was held at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House and was presented by Bishop Seamus. Our school had the largest number of boys per school group who had completed the award. Eight of our students have achieved Gold; Connor Howd, Julian Djopo, Jeff Joji, Aidan Donnelly, Daniel Lockey, Liam Moscrop, Alain Vendiola and Matthew Timbang. This was an incredible achievement which involved 20 hours of parish involvement and 20 hours of social action. Also in attendance were also Lemuel Ferrerras and Victor Yugire who, alongside Gold winners Alain and Matthew, performed superb worship music with their group YFC (Youth For Christ).

Fortis Dux Award – Strong Leader Our bespoke Award in Catholic Leadership, the ‘Fortis Dux Award’ was opened to all of Years 7 and 8 in October. It is a precursor to the Duke of Edinburgh Award which is available to students in Year 9 and above. Twelve of our students have fully completed the Gold Award - Yamin Ahmed, Luca Baldesera, Damien Baron, Matthew Fullerton, Marvis George, Matthew Jackson, Joey McDonald, Henry McAree, Michael Ndiweni, Max O’Hara, Bruce Peterlauson and George Thompson.

SVP Youth Clothes Collection This enthusiastic group have moved on from selling personalised mugs to staff to their latest venture: Collecting clothes for the local refugee centre. Wesley Ellison (Year 7) gave an impassioned speech to all members of staff in an attempt to gather support for the project. There has been a excellent response from staff and students, with many bags collected to take to our local refugee centre.

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Leadership

Coca Cola Real Business Challenge Six of our students, Danial Ali, Mahir Mazhar, Abdul Ahmed, James Conn, Shabbir Boksh and James Lamb, recently attended the Coca Cola Real Business Challenge. They performed excellently delivering a marketing campaign to promote the upcoming Special Olympics to a set of 4 judges. Unfortunately they didn’t win however they produced an outstanding campaign considering they were the youngest attendees. Year 8 students have been completing the Virgin Money £5 Challenge, which involves making as much profit as possible from £5. Three Year 8 students (Reed Barham, Ciaran Moscrop and Dalton Short) are leading a Scalextric tournament for their venture.

Debate Society The Debate Society has worked diligently this year, continuing to build strong links with other schools and organisations in order to develop their already stellar skills. Ayuda Imriadh , Berhan Uddin, Ben Avis, Martin Shiel-Diego took part in the prestigious Oxford Schools’ Debate regional round at the Royal Grammar School. They debated very well in a challenging competition but unfortunately did not go through the next round. Furthermore, a group of debaters went to watch the GDST National Public Speaking competition at Newcastle School for Girls. The boys really enjoyed the competition and were able to take part by asking questions directed at the speakers. Earlier in the term, the debate team hosted a group of students from Academy 360 for a debating workshop. Our students worked with them to help them learn the basics of debating. The pinnacle of the Debate Society’s calendar, however, was our second annual Staff vs Student Debate. Our very supportive and attentive audience, which consisted of staff and Year 7 students, listened attentively to the verbal wizardry which is always a highlight of the year. This was hosted and judged by members of our regular debate team. The debate was of a very high quality – unfortunately the student teams were beaten by one of the staff teams once again, but there is always next year!

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Learning University and College Visits A number of our students have engaged in outreach activities with local Universities. Firstly, Year 7 visited Newcastle University for ‘Univenture’, an opportunity to discover what University is all about. Year 10 were invited to Newcastle University for an ACE (Aiming for a College Education) day, working in teams to develop their knowledge and understanding of academic studies at University. Newcastle University visited us to deliver a session on student finance for Year 13. Year 9 spent the day at Northumbria University for their HE Focus day, investigating what a typical University timetable would look like. Northumbria University visited our Year 8 students for the STAR Student game. Year 10 visited Newcastle University Medical school to take part in a workshop entitled ‘Movement as part of Medicine.’ Year 11 visited Newcastle College to find out more about the courses on offer, and Gateshead College have been into school to teach Y11 boys about the opportunities they have both for full time courses and apprenticeships.

Information, Advice and Guidance Activities Newcastle City Council visited school to recruit for their apprenticeships with Years 11 and 13. Year 10 Business studies students have part of the Key fund project which has awarded money to them to visit local businesses to find out how they operate and function. So far visits have included the Extreme Trampoline and the Lloyd Car Showroom. Year 9 were part of a ‘speed dating’ event where over 20 employers visited school and our students were given the chance to interview them to find out how they ended up in their career and what a typical day at work entails. Years 10, 11,12 and 13 were invited to attend a mini careers fair in our school hall. A range of training providers from different sectors were here to promote their courses and apprenticeships they had on offer. It was a great networking event, especially for those who are now in the process for applying for apprenticeships. Tynemet and NA College came in to promote their Engineering programmes to Year 11 and some students are now in the process of accepting places. The ESH Build my skills programme draws to an end for Y10. We have had 5 guest speakers each focus on a different aspect of employability. At the end of this each student will have a completed CV and exemplar covering letter. Year 10 were subject to mock interviews with a variety of local businesses and they had a chance to improve as they actually completed (and received feedback for) at least 4 interviews each. .

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Learning Pope John Paul II Award Blood Brothers 27 of our students attended a matinee of Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers’ at the Theatre Royal in March. Students were invited to attend if they had studied the play in English or as part of the Excellence in English programme. The show dazzled the students with its modern take on old themes such as love, jealousy and fate. For many, it was their first trip to the Theatre to see a play; they were not disappointed and cannot wait to return.

Frankenstein Our Excellence in English Society, alongside GCSE English students, ventured out to the Northern Stage to see a modern adaptation of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’ The students were incredibly confident and knowledgeable in the Cast/Director post-show discussion, asking very pertinent questions and challenging the thought processes behind the production. The Director of the play spoke to staff and students afterwards to compliment the school on the calibre of the students’ questions and engagement.

Reading for Pleasure The English Department have led a schoolwide push on Reading for Pleasure. Each student is encouraged to bring in something to read during Friday tutor time. The students have been encouraged to use the 20 minutes each week to improve their reading skills. The students have further been encouraged to make themselves comfortable, just as they would at home, in order to really enjoy the experience. It’s been a huge hit!

Tempest Students from the Excellence in English Society were lucky enough to attend a very intimate and special performance of William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. The play was an outstanding visual take on the classic, using brightly coloured props and costumes to bring the story to life. The RSC cast were close enough to touch and interacted with the students throughout the play, the students even contributed to some of the sound effects.

World Book Day Book-boffins, literature-lovers and prose-pros from across Key Stage 3 descended upon the English department during lunchtime to celebrate the twentieth annual World Book Day. Students pitted their literary-wits against their peers in teams from across the year groups to be crowned Champions of the ‘St Cuthbert’s Bumper Book Quiz’. In a furiously-paced barrage of rounds, teams drew upon their collective knowledge of fiction to identify the titles of books from quotations and identify books’ authors from their opening lines. The level of comprehension on display – of both modern and classic texts – was a testament to the enthusiasm for reading of our students.

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Jack Kennedy Year 9 student Jack Kennedy was inspired to enter the British Association of American Studies' School Essay Prize. The BAAS were looking for essays that explored any aspect of the American experience and Jack decided to focus on the film 'West Side Story' asking whether it exists as an accurate representation of 1950s New York. Jack's essay did not prove to be the winning entry, however, Jack received a letter of commendation praising his 'insightful critical engagement with the racist political ideologies of the era'.

Learning Pope John Paul II Award Creative Writing Our keen group of budding writers meet every fortnight with Lewis Brown, a recent graduate of Edinburgh University, to hone their skills and grapple with the plethora of ideas they’re bursting with. Lewis, who is currently studying for his Masters in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, is thrilled with the students’ progress: “They are absolutely fantastic and a pleasure to work with!” We can’t wait to read the next instalments of their wonderful portfolios.

French Exchange Our Year 12 students recently welcomed our exchange students from Nancy. They had a fantastic time visiting York, Durham and Beamish Museum and enjoyed great weather (they even took a dip in the North Sea at Tynemouth). While in school they attended lessons and experienced life at our school. As Joe Adkin comments; ‘It was a culturally enriching experience where my competence in both French speaking and listening were greatly improved’ and Ross Turnbull; ‘As well as having the opportunity to practise my language, being able to share our city was a rewarding experience.’.

Geography Trip Excellence in English Year 12 Literature students led a seminar as part of the Excellence in English programme. Choosing the stimulating topic of Studying Poetry at A-Level, Year 12 extended a challenge to their younger counterparts to engage in some high-level analysis and advanced concepts. The seminar was extremely well attended and the Excellence in English group were thrilled to be working with the older students. Year 12 were given outstanding feedback from their peers.

Our Year 12 Geography A Level students recently completed their Fieldwork for their Controlled Assessment in Keswick, exploring how Keswick has been influenced over time by internal and external factors such as tourism. Students were exceptional in their approach to their studies, and even survived the experience with no phone signal!

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Learning House of Lords Visit Five sixth from students were thrilled to receive an invite from our local MP, Chi Onwurah, to attend a luncheon debate at the House of Lords. The students enjoyed a debate focusing on “Modern Advancements in Medical Imaging” facilitated by the all party parliamentary group for engineering. The students were then treated to a short tour of the Palace of Westminster.

National Award Ten of our Year 8 Reece Scholars (Rehan Raju, Daanyaal Sajed, Ehsaan Alam, Raymond Johnson, Alfie Hubbuck, Jack Adams, Alexander Baxter, James Stewart, Thomas Probyn and Scott McGregor) earned themselves a fantastic opportunity to represent our school and the North East at the UK final of the Tomorrow’s Engineers competition. The competition was held at the NEC arena in Birmingham, where 250 schools from across the country competed for the title. The winning team of 10 students built, programmed and controlled LEGO robots for a series of ‘space missions’. They also had to research, design, plan and present their own solution to a contemporary scientific problem developed by LEGO Education with NASA. The Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge introduces student teams to real-world engineering, technology, robotics and computing challenges. The challenge aims to help students put their school learning into context and discover exciting new careers.

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Mandarin We are excited to announce that our school has teamed up with Newcastle High School for Girls and the Swire Chinese Language Foundation, and will be in a privileged position of being able to deliver Mandarin lessons to gifted and talented students from September. This will be allied with the current Reece scholarships, to ensure that our STEM leaders in the future have the ability to talk the talk and walk the walk in the worldwide job marketplace.

STEM Workshops A number of our gifted and talented students in Year 9 linked up with girls at Newcastle High School for Girls, and Newcastle University to enjoy a STEM afternoon; during which they discussed game theory, designed and built shelters, and explored the potential of a university course and career in STEM subjects. As well as this, a select number of students were invited to Newcastle High School for Girls I love STEM evening, which featured an inspiring lecture from renowned physicist Dr Jess Wade

Learning

Pi Day and Maths Challenge Our Maths department recently celebrated World Pi Day through a series of fun activities. Year 7 and Year 8 had the opportunity to recreate the approximation for Pi – where students create a circle and then form a diameter to see how close they can get to the approximation of 22/7. Year 9 students invited a contingent of Year 9 students from Newcastle School Girls to join in with our celebrations. In other Maths news, well done to all schools who took part in our Year 5 Maths Challenge, the winning school was St Charles with 194 points (2nd place went to St Bede on 189 & 3rd Place to St Joseph’s on 188).

Computer Science News Years 7, 8 and 9 students participated in a ‘Computer Science Unplugged’ workshop run by STEM graduate ambassadors for Newcastle University. This session involved Computer Science without a computer! Students worked through a range of activities, primarily in pairs, that highlighted the underlying principles of Computer Science such as algorithms and programming.

Science Workshops Our science department has been taking part in a workshop called 'Leading Edge' run by Newcastle University. It is an aspirational scheme designed to inspire school students into science and motivate students in to carry out research in the future at university providing them with hands on experience. Five of our Year 9 students (Joseph Todd, Ethan Wakenshaw, Abdul Ahmed, Patrick Shimmin and Bryant Muthuna Acharige) have taken part in workshops on scientific skills, debates and communication. The five students have participated exceptionally well. In other Science news, a group of our Year 11 students took part in a workshop at the Hancock museum where they observed lectures on antibiotic resistance, looked at real life fossils of mammals and looked at the natural spectrum and evolution.

In other computer science news, we are delighted to confirm we are now officially a CAS (Computing at School) Lead school. This is a great accolade for the school and will see us supporting other schools in the community.

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Learning Sky Sports Living for Sport We recently had the pleasure of welcoming Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist, Chris Cook into our school to work with a group of Year 7 and 8 students. Chris delivered sport and team building activities and discussed his experience at school and his desire to succeed as a professional athlete. Chris visited our school as a part of the Sky Sports Living for Sport initiative.

Swimming Champions Congratulations to our KS3 and KS4 Swimming teams who won four gold medals at the School Games Relays. Our KS3 team consisted of James Calendar, Elliott Best, Matthew Shirbon, Ethan Blackett, Aleksy Brodzik and our KS4 team; Sam Howell, Patrick Shimmin, Jack Mackenzie, Joe Pyle. In a recent interview with Mr. Mather, Elliott talked about the amount of time our swimmers invested into training; ‘I swim 11 ½ hours a week in the pool. I get up at 04:30am in the morning and training starts at 05:30 for an hour and a half. Then I go home get changed and come into school. I then do 1 ½ - 2 hours on a night after my tea. ‘

Basketball Success Our basketball players have enjoyed another successful year. The highlight of the season came from our Under 14 team who won the TSS Cup beating Durham Johnston 67-34. Our Under 13 side have also had a very promising year and will hope to win some silverware next season.

Football Success

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Our school football teams have had another very successful year. Our Year 7 team won their league and reached the final of the City Cup, unfortunately being defeated against St. Mary’s 4-3. Our Year 8 team have performed exceptionally well, winning the City Cup Final with a 3-1 win over Gosforth Middle School and also reaching the final of the County Cup, losing 1-0 against Ashington. Our Year 11 team were undefeated in their league and reached the City Cup Final, narrowly losing 1-0 against Gosforth High School. Our Sixth Form team have also reached the County Cup final, losing 2-1 against Monkseaton in the final.

Learning Amsterdam 2017 Our annual PE Sports Tour took our students to Amsterdam this year to work with Ajax Football Club. 39 students attended the five day trip and had a packed schedule, consisting of training sessions with Ajax coaches, two games against local clubs, and visits to a trampoline park, bowling alley and theme park. Students also had a tour of the newly named Johan Cruyff Arena and watched the Ajax vs Go Ahead Eagles game. Students were a great credit to the school throughout the whole tour. Ethan Turnbull (Year 10) comments on the trip, ‘I enjoyed the development of my skills through the academy coaches and it was great to experience the atmosphere at the Ajax game.’

RFU YA and Festival Our Rugby teams have had a very successful year with stand out performances from our Year 8 team who won the County Cup Atlas group and the Year 7 team who won the County Sevens Atlas group. Our school held the RFU Festival where we had 250 Year 7 and 8 students participating and also hosted the RFU Young Ambassadors courses in the morning.

Newcastle Schools FA – Under 13 National Champions Well done to our students who have represented Newcastle Schools FA and have received a number of accolades this season. The most notable achievement coming from the Under 13 squad who were crowned national champions! Under 12: League Winners - Alfie Holland, Paul Dudgeon Under 13 : National Cup Winners, Northumberland SFA Cup Winners - Luke Majmudar, Michael Ndweni, Mauro Askigogu, Afonso Lindo Under 14: League Winners, Hartlepool Cup Winners, South Tyneside Centenary Cup Winners - Jefferey German, Daveloen Mungwande, Evann Jardine Under 15 :Northumberland SFA Cup Winners - Luke Preen Elliot Jackson, Josh Walton, Lucas Hutchinson

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Learning Music Night Our Music Department recently held their third annual St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School, ‘A’ Level and GCSE Music students’ presentation of performances and compositions. The talent of the ‘A’ Level and GCSE musicians shone through not only in the live sector but also in their creative compositional work which was presented and discussed in the Theatre Suit of the newly named Ruane building. The evening exploded in to life with the St Cuthbert’s Big Band performing numbers by James Brown’s ‘I Got You (I feel Good)’ followed by the classic Latin number ‘Mas Qui Nada’. Stand out performances from Y10 Anthony Simmons and Reuben Selman performing Grade 5 Saxophone ABRSM exam pieces, Marvelous Akpojotor singing a number by James Arthur, Y10 GCSE rock band including William Kerr, Josh Stokoe, Alexander Omobude, Kirk Bocosa, Gabriel Onia Luyinduladio and Scott Burgess, performing ‘Danny California.’ Then at the top end of the Sixth Form, Y13 George Molina Stubbs performed a number of pieces on a range of instruments; piano (Chopin), Tenor Saxophone with the Big Band, Baritone Saxophone with the Sax Quartet and Guitar in a sixth from band with Joe Phillips, Will Thackray and Alfie Edge. The night drew to a close with Mr Anderson’s Big Band in a moving performance of Glen Miller’s Moonlight Serenade, featuring an outstanding lead line played by Aidan Walker on Soprano Saxophone.

Author Visits We recently had the pleasure of two authors visiting our school library. Firstly. Rob Lloyd Jones visited the school library to talk about his new book ‘Jake Atlas and the Tomb of the Emerald Snake’, as well as his love for Egyptology which inspired the plot. Secondly, Victoria Watson visited the Library to talk about writing and being published during an excellent question and answer session, before getting down to a book signing. Thanks to both authors for spending their time with our students.

Gretna Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE15 7PX www.st-cuthbertshigh.newcaslte.sch.uk [email protected] 0191 2744510

@SCCHS1881

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