EASTER 2015

DEVELOPINGPRIMARY LINKS

CELEBRATING THEYEAR OF THE GOAT

DofE SUCCESS!

Headteachers’Message

Sports News

Primary Chinese Day!

Duke of Edinburgh Success

Educational Visits

Singing Success!

ASPIRE News

In this issue...

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Pages 11 Easter Service Times

CONTENTS

A MESSAGE FROMOUR HEAD OF SCHOOL...Happy Easter! Once again students and staff have had a very busy half-term and have been working hard in lessons to review progress in assessments and use feedback to inform their next steps in order to improve. Years 10 and 12 completed their mock examinations in February and parents will be receiving their reports before the Easter break. All students will be involved in the second assessment week which begins on 23rd March. Year 9 students have had their options evening and are currently being interviewed and guided to make the right choices for their future. Year 10 and 11 students will have the opportunity to meet with staff to talk about post 16 courses on Wednesday 1st April at the sixth form information evening.

The school is continuing to work with governors and parents in partnership as the school moves forward. The governors’ Interim Executive Committee meets fortnightly to review progress against the objectives of the action plan and the governors’ leadership team meet weekly. Regular reports are given at the monthly full governors’ meeting. A leadership surgery was held on Tuesday 17th March and a number of parents came into school to discuss progress with members of the senior team. There will be two sessions for parents outlining the use of flight paths for parents on Tuesday 24th March.

Students and staff have been involved in a range of extra-curricular activities. Chinese New Year was celebrated in style as we welcomed the year of the goat. Students took part in workshops on Chinese dance with ribbons and fans, Kung Fu and calligraphy and were treated to a traditional lion dance.

Year 4 pupils from our feeder primary schools took part in a Chinese day at St Chad’s and were also involved in a range of workshop activities and had the opportunity to see a performance by a Chinese circus company from mainland China. All students at St Chad’s were involved in a curriculum day on Friday 13th March. We welcomed a number of outside speakers to the school who all commented on the exemplary behaviour of our pupils. Year 7 focused on the centenary of the First World War, year 8 had a literacy day, year 9 were involved in activities relating to the Round the World yacht race and year 11 had a study skills day in preparation for the external examinations. Year 10 sampled life as a sixth former while the year 12 students were out of school at the UCAS convention. Year 13 students spent day completing a first aid qualification.

Mrs Fitzpatrick is retiring at Easter after working at St Chad’s for 22 years in the English department. Staff and students are very grateful for her hard work and the contribution that she has made to the school in a variety of roles during her time here. I am sure that you will join with me in wishing her a long and very happy retirement.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a happy and holy Easter. Thank you for your continued support.

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YEAR 10 SPORTS LEADERS

SPORTS NEWS

NETBALL SUCCESS

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The Year 10 Level 1 Sports Leaders have been involved with the Primary Speed Stacking Tournament which was hosted at St Chad’s.

All of the leaders acted as fantastic role models for the Halton Primary School Children and the event was enjoyed by all.

Thank you for all of your hard work and well done!

On Wednesday 11th February the St Chad’s PE Department took a team of 7 girls from Years 9, 10 and 11 to Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy to play in the Year 11 Halton Netball Tournament.

The team consisted of Michaela Swindley, Eve Meredith, Abbie Wilson, Holly Dorgan, Nell Domingo, Jodie Quinn and Ellie Musa. The girls played really well winning two out of the three matches and came 2nd overall.

This is a fantastic achievement and we are all proud of you, well done!

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SPORTS NEWSPRIMARY CHINESE DAY!

On Friday 6th March St Chad’s invited pupils from our fellow primary schools to take part in our Chinese Language Workshop.

234 pupils attended the day, and took part in a wide variety of activities based on Chinese Language and Culture, including Kung Fu (a workshop delivered by Master Chen and his team), Blow printing (a traditional Chinese watercolour art form), Lantern making, Singing, ICT quiz about Chinese traditions and facts. Chinese costume and New Year celebrations

The day culminated in an amazing show put on by the Chinese National Level Circus Group from Sichuan Province; their performance included body sculpture, acrobatics, lion dance, drama, traditional Chinese Opera face-changing, Kung Fu and swordplay, and a cute panda who delighted all of the audience with his antics!All pupils really enjoyed the day, and had fun whilst having their eyes opened to the wonders of Chinese culture.

The day was a very successful demonstration of St Chad’s commitment to Modern Foreign Languages and is another example of close cooperation with our partner primary schools.

Our next stop in our primary science partnership is St Edward’s and their enthusiasm has been amazing.

They were fascinated to find out how fossils provide evidence for scientists’ theories and managed to create some convincing ones of their own. It was great to see how they have used their work from science lessons to link to other literacy and numeracy activities they have conducted throughout the rest of the week.

The pupils have been fantastic, taking on the roles of dinosaurs and finches and have produced work that they should be extremely proud of.

It’s been lovely working with many Galapagos enthusiasts and they will be an asset to any science class in the future.

Well done!

PRIMARY SCIENCE

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DUKE OF EDINBURGH SUCCESSCongratulations to all of the pupils who received their Duke of Edinburgh Award certificates at the annual awards ceremony at the Brindley theatre.

25 pupils achieved their Bronze Award (pictured) and 17 pupils achieved their Silver Award last year.

It is always a fantastic occasion, and a highlight in the annual DofE calendar, to see so many young people achieve such a worthwhile and hard earned qualification. Well done! This year the DofE is growing in strength at St.Chad’s with 34 pupils registered for Bronze, 19 for Silver and 11 pupils will hopefully complete their Gold Award, which has recently

been introduced here at St.Chad’s.

Good Luck to them all!

Educational Visits

On the 27th February 2015 year 9 pupils visited the Gita Bhavan Hindu Temple in Manchester. Pupils enjoyed half a day of learning about Hinduism.

During the day pupils were given a tour of the temple. They learned about the Hindu religion and how Hindus worship.

Pupils enjoyed walking around the temple and had lots of questions for our tour guide.

The students have just begun to study Hinduism. This experience will help them during this part of their year 9 course.

RE TRIP: HINDU TEMPLE

GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIPThis half term nearly 100 year 9 students have completed their fieldtrip to Liverpool to study the shopping patterns in the city centre and Liverpool One.They collected data on the quality of the shopping experience in the city centre and looked for evidence of geographical patterns. To do this they had to judge the height of the buildings, collect data on what each shop sells and count the number of shoppers in various areas at different times.The purpose of the fieldtrip was to prepare our year 9 students for the realities of GCSE geography fieldwork. They will now spend assessment week producing a report into their findings and this will make them feel more confident when completing GCSE controlled assessment work in year 10 and 11.Thank you to the students and staff for two successful days.

This Easter 47 Year 10/11s will be jetting off to the USA for a twin-centred stay in LA & New York.Pupils will be visiting iconic locations in Los Angeles such as Universal Studios, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Beach whilst in New York the cityscape will offer The Empire State Building, Ground Zero (9/11 Museum), Liberty Island and shopping on 5th Avenue.Pupils will experience the cultural tapestry that is the USA and have ample time to explore two contrasting cities. During the trip many important issues will be touched upon such as media, urban development, cultural diversity and global issues which will give the pupils a direct insight into why these two great cities have grown into what they are today.

Pictures to follow in the next edition......

YEAR 7 On Friday 13th March Year 7 pupils took part in a series of workshops designed to continue our commemoration of World War One.

This time last year staff and students brought into school an incredible amount of memorabilia from ancestors who had taken part in the conflict of 1914 – 1918. Copies of all materials can be seen on a large display on the lower corridor of the main building.

This year students had an opportunity to experience workshops looking at the construction of monuments, the vehicles of World War One, drama and poetry from the war, the science of the war, the story of Thomas Jones, the role of women in the conflict and the peace that followed.

To support this fantastic day we had Neil Thornton from the Thomas Jones Society, Vicki Caren from the Merseyside at War project and Liverpool historian Chris Hulme. The items they brought in included actual diaries, letters and postcards belonging to soldiers from World War One, a uniform belonging to an Argyle Highlander and an array of shell art. The day was a huge success and our visitors were all very impressed with the enthusiasm and interest shown by our young students.

We are now planning a similar experience for our feeder schools in the summer term.

CURRICULUM DAY!

Once again Silver Blades Ice Rink have pro-vided reward vouchers for students with 100% Attendance.

The voucher entitles each person plus a guest to skate for free.

The vouchers will be awarded after the East-er Break, to all students who have 100% Attendance from September 2014 until 2nd April 2015.

CONGRATULATIONS!

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SINGING FOR SUCCESS!Last year Miss Smith set up St Chad’s as an exam centre for The London College of Music. This meant that voice pupils could take singing examinations within our premises. This proved highly successful last year and two weeks ago, an external examiner from The London College of Music conducted a two day vocal examination session at St Chad’s.

Miss Smith trained and entered a record number of twenty six vocal candidates for the examinations - including talented pupils from year 7 through to year 11.

Candidates worked extremely hard for months to prepare for the exams which involve performing a number of songs to a high technical standard, completing aural awareness tests, musicianship tests, theory tests and holding discussions with the examiner about the pieces.

The results have been released and we are delighted to announce that all candidates

entered not only passed the examinations but were awarded the top two classifications of distinction and merit! An incredible achievement.

Miss Smith Said: ‘I am extremely proud of all our fantastic singers, their hard work and focus and of course the wonderful results!’

Mrs Burke stated: Miss Smith has worked extremely hard to raise the profile of singing in the school and we are delighted that so many students opted to take the examinations. Students have worked hard in their own time to achieve these fantastic results. The school is fortunate to have such talented youngsters who provide enjoyment and entertainment at so many of our school events. Well done to you all!

We look forward to building upon this and entering even more candidates for the examinations next year!

Once again, Year 11 ASPIRE students used the opportunity when completing their COPE GCSE Citizenship Module, to turn it into a fundraising event.

As a group, they planned and took part in a sponsored walk, mapping their route, training for the challenge and ensuring they were well-equipped beforehand.

Their route included the summits of Moel Arthur and Moel Famau which is a physically

demanding challenge and the group worked really hard to raise the sum of £295.75 for their chosen charity HAFS (Halton Autistic Family Support). Particular praise must go to Connor Shaw who raised the bulk of this sum on his own.

We shall be presenting the cheque to the staff at HAFS in the coming weeks at their local office.

Well done to all involved!

EASTER SERVICE TIMESSaint Martin’s: Holy Thursday 7.00pm Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper Easter Sunday 9.00am MassOur Lady’s: Good Friday 3.00pm Celebration of the Lord’s Passion Easter Sunday 11.00am Mass

Holy Spirit: Holy Thursday 8.00pm Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper Easter Sunday 9.00am Mass

Saint Edward’s: Good Friday 3.00pm Celebrating the Lord’s Passion Holy Saturday 8.00pm The Paschal Vigil Easter Sunday 10.30am Mass

Saint Mary’s: Good Friday 2.00pm “Last Hour” Service Easter Sunday 9.30am Easter Day Service

Saint Michael’s: Maundy Thursday 5.00pm AGAPE MEAL recalling the last supper Good Friday 3.00pm Stations of the Cross Service Saturday 4th April 8.00pm Easter Vigil Easter Sunday 8.00am Holy Communion

Christ Church: Easter Sunday 11.15am Easter Day Service

I AM THE RESURRECTION

AND THE LIFE“ “