Hot Pot for Heroes - St. Thomas More Catholic School

Christmas Newsletter
2015
Hot Pot for Heroes
Veterans of World War II: Tom Brown, Ben Platt and Bob Taylor, entertained at
the sing-a-long and hotpot evening
Some Spring Term Events
Monday 4th January School Re-opens for Pupils
Tuesday 5th Jan—Year 11 controlled assessments begin in
Graphics, Catering, Drama, Product Design and Art
Wed 6th January Iceland Trip Parents’ Meeting
Friday 8th Jan—First Friday Film Fest—”Inside Out”
Week beginning 11th Jan—Year 9 Exam Week
Mon 11th and Tues 12th— Year 11 Geog field trips
Tues 19th Jan—Y11 Geography Controlled Assessments begin
Tues 26th Jan—Year 11 Reports Home
Thurs 28th Jan– Year 11 Parents’ Evening
Mon 1st Feb—Y11 English Controlled Assessments begin
Wed 3rd Feb—Year 9 Parents’ Evening—Core
Thursday 4th February—Year 11 Mock Exams Start
Tues 9th Feb—Y10 Spanish Trip to Manchester
Tues 9th Feb—Y8 interim reports home
Wed 10th Feb—Ash Wednesday
Wed 10th Feb—Y9 Parents’ Evening—Options
Friday 12th Feb—School Closes for Half-term
Sunday 21st Feb—Iceland Trip departs
Mon 22nd Feb—School Re-opens
Wed 24th Feb—Y10 GCSE History talk
Thursday 25th Feb—Iceland Trip returns
Monday 29th Feb Manchester Acting Co with Y9 & 10
Tuesday 1st March— Manchester Spanish Film Festival
2nd & 3rd March—Y11 GCSE Music Performance exams
Week beginning 7th March—Year 10 Exam Week
Tues 15th March—Year 7 full report home
Thurs 17th Mar—Y9 interim report home
Tues 22nd Mar Y10 interim report home
Fri 20th March—Y11 History Trip
Wed 25th March—Y10 Interim Reports Home
Thurs 24th March—School Closes for Easter
An evening to celebrate all that is British, and to
commemorate 70 years since the end of WW2 was
hosted.
Pupils, parents and members of the community
were invited to school to enjoy a medley of nostalgic
songs performed by the school orchestra and choir,
St. Anne’s Choir and Burbage Band. Guests of honour included three veterans; Tom Brown, (RAF pilot), Benjamin Platt (Royal Navy Galley
“Maggot” (Cook) and D-day landings veteran), Robert (Bob) Taylor (Leading Storeman in the Royal
Navy). Ben’s war-time diary can be read in the book
“Battleship Ramillies– The Final Salvo”. In his accounts he tells of the days between June and September 1944.
Continued over the page...
It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas
It has been a mild, if wet autumn and as we reflect on the snow conditions of this time last year,
it is amazing to think that another year has ended.
A challenging year for many families but for so
many of our class of 2015, an extremely positive
one. 2015 saw a record equalling performance in
the GCSE results; in spite of increased demands,
increased ‘rigour’ and unpredictable marking. Well
done to all concerned!
It is great to see so many students involved in so
many community events including the recent sing
-along and our ‘First Friday Film Fests’. (The next
one will be on Friday 8th January and will be the
film ‘Inside Out’.) Charlie Hodgkinson and Sophie
Botham performed beautifully in the National
Youth Ballet production of Nutcracker and Leon
Shaw has done extremely well to be chosen to
play ice-hockey for England. Let’s hope the
weather over the next few weeks won’t require
us needing skates.
From all at St Thomas More Catholic School, have
a wonderfully happy Christmas and a
peacefully productive 2016. God Bless.
High Fives to Kindness!
During this last term, the Year 10 Peer
Mentors have been focusing on kindness
within school. We decided to celebrate World Kindness Day, which was on the 13th November this year.
Turning to the Year 7s, we asked them to draw
around their hands and fill the shape with all the kind
things they have done for other people. We would
like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge
but Mr Oates and 7C won the day for us with their
fantastic contributions. More recently, we decided to
put the younger members of our community to the
test by asking them to nominate the ‘Kindest Member
7C with their helping hands
of the Form’ each week! We have been visiting each Year 7 form regularly over the last few weeks
to check on who they think are the kindest members of their form. Year 11 Peer Mentors have
also been busy promoting kindness with their ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ box. The idea with this is
that pupils should write the name of someone who has shown kindness to them and specify what
they have done to earn a mention. Some of the lovely things you have done for each other will
feature during our Christmas Mass. By the Peer Mentors
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”
(Jean Jacques Rousseau)
Hot Pot for Heroes continued from front page
There were notable performances at the sing-along from
Maddy Gill, Charlotte Green and Charlie Hodgkinson; moving poetry from Anna Martland, Charlotte Howard, Max
Cubitt, Evie Harratt, Rebecca Marrow and Rhianna Keating.
Beautiful cello duets from Alistair Crooks and Jarred Lilley
and an emotional violin solo by Katie Marrow who played
the music from Schindler’s List .
Burbage Band roused the audience with popular marches
and sing-a-long war tunes. St Anne’s parish choir got into
the spirit of the event by leading the way with more lively
singalong songs enjoyed by all ages. (The band are always
on the lookout for new talent including beginners.)
During the interval a delicious Hot Pot and refreshBurbage Band playing favourite marches and war-time
ments were served, provided by the school’s catering staff
tunes at the sing-along.
and the Friends of St Thomas More. Money raised during
the evening will be forwarded to “Help for Heroes”
BOOK REVIEWS
In Black And White by Anton Hodge
As someone with an interest in football not played at the highest level (I am a Wigan fan after
all!) I was taken by the story of Gretna FC. A non-league team in Scotland, they plodded
through season after season until Brookes Mileson turned up with his millions. This is the story
of their rise through three successive promotions, reaching the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Cup final and playing in Europe. It is also the story of their equally rapid fall when the money
evaporated and the terrible struggle facing the small but stalwart group of fans who were there
from the beginning. I see parallels with my own team, albeit not on the same scale and I am
heartened by the triumph of human spirit over adversity from people for whom it was never about the
money in the first place. It’s a metaphor for love, life and loyalty if ever there was one. By Mr Coyle
Lord Loss by Darren Shan
This is my favourite book because it is an action-packed horror. The story features a young
boy whose family is killed by demons; he goes to live with his uncle and he learns to
fight these demons. It is the first of a series and a great book but perhaps not for
the faint-hearted.
By James Elgey Year 10
Welcome to Our New Bishop of Nottingham—and other Chaplaincy News
It’s been a busy term for the chaplaincy team; back in September a few of us were invited to attend the Bishops
welcome Mass at St Barnabus Cathedral in Nottingham. We travelled to Nottingham with 5 other schools in our
cluster group and enjoyed what was a lovely occasion; it’s not every day you get to take a selfie with the Bishop!
Because the chaplaincy team have grown so much we have had to split off into KS3 and KS4 groups. KS3 worked
really hard during harvest and the donations we received were probably our largest yet so thank you so much to
everyone who donated something. We loaded the car up just before half term at the end of October and took all
donations up to Night Stop who were extremely grateful. Hopefully our contributions will help make the cold winter
months a little easier for some local people.
Next came Operation Christmas Child and our KS4 team worked tirelessly to collect donations and put together the
shoe boxes. Thank you so much to everyone who donated gifts for the boxes and thanks to those people who
made boxes themselves. Some forms even wrote letters to put inside the shoe boxes alongside photographs of
their forms. A huge thank you to all the staff who gave up their time to knit something to put in the shoe boxes,
they really showed us how talented they were! In total we sent 56 boxes and £60 to Operation Christmas Child, a
fantastic effort from everyone!
The prayer room is now open to pupils at lunch times so please take the time to visit and have a look. There’s a
prayer board for anyone who wishes to say a prayer or spare a moment of thought for people close to us or within
our wider community.
Finally we are in the final stages of trying to organise our annual Community Sing Along which hopefully will prove
to be as successful as it has been the last two years. We are also busy planning the end of year mass. A very busy
term but still plenty more to do next term and we
are always looking for new members!
Thank you from all of the chaplaincy team for all
your hard work and generosity this term and we
hope you all have a Happy Christmas
Nicole and Charlotte take a selfie with Nottingham’s new Bishop—Patrick
Members of the chaplaincy team organising the food
collected for Night Stop
Bishop Patrick with some members of the chaplaincy team
More Sports
Basketball. The Year 9 Boys team played against a Year 10 team from Belper: last year’s County Cup
Champions. Expectations were realistic and the game was all about getting some court time and was a
reward for those players who have been training regularly this year. The game started in a positive way
for STM and despite being much smaller, the score remained a fairly close 7-16 by half-time. After the
break however, Belper quickly turned up the pressure and a big lead was established. Josh Lomas scored
a big three pointer during the game but Belper came out comfortable winners in the end by 11-53. The
Year 9 team will play Dronfield in the first round of the County Cup — training sessions will be on Tuesday
lunchtimes and evenings 3.15-4.30pm from January onwards.
The Year 7 Boys training takes place on Thursday lunchtimes and after Christmas a Friday evening session
will start from 3.15-4.30pm. They are due to play Heanor Gate School in the County Cup in January. Ms
Berry runs a practice on Friday lunchtime for Girls and Boys in Year 7 & 8. In February there will be two
Tournaments for Under 13 Boys and Under 13 Girls. Mr Gray and Ms Berry are on the lookout for players
for both of these competitions.
Even More Sports
Cross Country Running. St Thomas More took a large number of
hardy runners to the annual High Peak Schools Trials, at Glossopdale
Community School. There were 3 categories, Year 7, Year 8&9 and
Year 10&11. Runners who finish in the top 12 places in their race,
qualify to represent the High Peak at the Derbyshire Schools Championships which take place in Chesterfield in January. There were
some fantastic performances again this year. Well done to everyone
who took part. The results were: Year 7 Girls - Megan Harris Wood*
2nd, Ellie Mycock 19th, Year 7 Boys – Euan Freeman* 9th, Matthew
Cross-country Runners
Frewer* 11th, Dylan Kirk 36th, Atticus Miller 40th, Year 8&9 Girls – Fiona Morrison 18th, Sophie Gaeta
22nd, Kaitlin Fearn 23rd, Year 8&9 Boys – Lucas Parker* 2nd, Dan Hyland* 7th, Luke Mamzcur* 8th,
Robert Wells* 9th, Robert Robinson 38th and Jack Ochalek 40th. The best of luck to all runners
(labelled with *) who have qualified for the County Championships in January.
High Peak Athletics Club at St Thomas More School. It takes place in the Sports Hall on Thursday
Nights from 3.15-4.15pm runs all year round and is aimed at all levels of ability. It is an excellent
opportunity for improving running technique, skill and fitness.
Running Club is once again up and running. if any pupils are interested in developing their stamina,
come along on Friday Lunchtimes for a 2 mile run up to the old Lightwood Reservoir with Mr Gray.
We leave the sports hall at 12.50pm— takes about 16-22 minutes depending on fitness levels. Bring
some warm layers and trainers with a good tread (paths can be slippy).
Netball—Both Year 10 netball teams took part in a High Peak netball tournament
at Hope Valley College recently. Both competed against several different teams
from around the area and the A team achieved second place—only 2 goals from
winning! They showed determination and team work throughout and the B team
were only marginally behind them in the end. Both teams should be extremely
proud of their achievments. The girls are constantly working towards improving.
Well done to all. By Holly King Year 10
Mia, Emily, Amy and Holly— members of the netball team
Football. The Year 7 High Peak Schools 5-A-Side Tournament took place at New
Mills Leisure Centre and 6 schools took part. STM won their group
which meant they went through to a final against Chapel School.
A good performance was given but Chapel proved too strong and
came out eventual winners 3 - 0. Well done to our Year 7 Boys
for coming over all runners up.
The Year 8 Boys also played at New Mills. There were 10 players
Year 9 Team
to choose from, so the teams were rotated and everyone got a
game. Despite playing some nice passing football, the boys managed to draw a game
but without a win they didn’t progress to the final stages.
Year 7 Team
The Year 9 Boys played their tournament at Buxton Community School sports hall.
STM drew 1-1 against Buxton A in spite of a great early goal from Teddy Henderson. Against New
Mills, STM probably had the best of the play but New Mills managed to sneak a goal which eventually
won them the game 0-1. STM then beat Glossopdale 2-1 to finish 2nd in the group to New Mills.
High Peak Schools Football League
St Phillip Howard
Buxton
Community School
Glossopdale
Y7
Y8
Y9
~
Loss
3-4
Draw
5-5
Loss
2-7
~
Loss
0-10
~
~
Loss
1-2
Leon Selected for England!
Congratulations to
Leon Shaw who has
been selected for the
England Under 15 Ice
Hockey Squad
2015/16. A wonderful
achievement. Well
done Leon!
Leon—Y10. England Ice Hockey
Player
For more stories, news and events
please visit our website at www.st-thomasmore.derbyshire.sch.uk. Follow us on Twitter