April-2k10- CollegeNews - St Augustine`s Catholic College

College
From the Headmaster
April 2010
N ews
Dear Parents,
I recently watched the film called ‘A Beautiful Mind’ in which a schizophrenic man struggles throughout his life with
delusions and breaks from reality. He becomes a Nobel winner for Mathematics. At the celebration dinner the Professor,
John Nash, honours the love of his wife who enabled him to keep on going throughout those difficult times before he
reached his glory of being a Nobel winner. In the same way, some people may think of Jesus as schizophrenic as he
claimed to be both man and God who performed miracles and preached God’s love for each person before dying on a
cross and rising to go to heaven. Was he mad?
Jesus was not schizophrenic nor was he mad. This Easter, we remember that Jesus is true Man and true God [that is,
to be fully human is to be godlike] who died for each of us for our sins by making the sacrifice of giving up his life. He
offers us eternal glory of being with God the Father forever in heaven when we die and rise with him. We pray that we
may let the Risen Lord come to us this Easter as he offers us the Gift of Love. We cannot earn His love but receive it
as a free gift. All we can do is give worship to Jesus for His Sacrifice.
Brendan J. Wall
Headmaster
Congratulations
Skill F
or
ce
For
orce
Congratulations to Michael Flack who has been invited
by the British Canoe Union to take part in the Gent
Marathon. Michael has worked very hard to make the team
we wish him good luck in the marathon.
25 students in year 11 were offered the opportunity to work
with Skill Force on life skills which would be the equivalent
of 1.5 G.C.S.E.s. 18 students completed the course and
well done to them.
Congratulations to Alex Howlett who took her LAMDA
exam in January achieving a Merit in her Grade 5.
Visit by Shadow Minister for
Education
Congratulations to Katie Green (Yr 9) who auditioned
successfully for the Royal School of Ballet. She has won
a place for the Summer school at Elmhurst in Birmingham.
Congratulations to Henry Pearson (7B) on getting through
to the National Trials (100 people from 1600 entries) to
become a ball boy for the 2010 London Masters tennis
tournament.
Prayers are requested for
Natalia Rodgers of year 11 who was involved in a road
accident in the final week of the term. We hope she recovers
from her injuries in time to start term 5.
Nick Gibb M.P. spent the afternoon talking to me about
education policy if the Conservative Government take power
at the next General Election. He toured the College and
spoke to staff and pupils about their work. He was very
complimentary about the College’s achievements.
Specialist Colleges and
Academies Celebration Dinners
The College has been invited to two celebration dinners for
those schools where pupils achieved 70%+ grades A*-C at
G.C.S.E. and for those who achieved 10+ points value added
at G.C.S.E. including English and mathematics. I am getting
larger as we get more successful!
.
New Head Boy and Head Girl
Many congratulations to Helen Long (Yr 12) who came
first in her specialist class at Crufts Dog Show last month;
a tremendous achievement for an A level student who, with
so many academic demands, finds the time to walk, train
and groom her dogs every morning. At this prestigious
national event her dog ‘Lady’ beat twenty-three others in its
class and Helen’s dog ’Bambam’ also did well coming 4th
and 5th in other categories. In the young person’s Handling
final Helen reached the top 20 in the country in her field.
Despite this the students were in very high spirits and were
determined to complete the challenge. They got through
the night huddled together on plastic sheeting under a tree
and experienced for themselves the discomfort of sleeping
out. Unlike the homeless people they are supporting, they
appreciated that they had homes and loving families to return
to. These students brought a great deal of credit to the
college. The Julian House staff who were on duty including
Cecil Weir and Cathy Adcock were so impressed that they
had turned out on a night which was so inclement to support
such a worthy cause. The students who took part are:
Gerry Clifton, Georgie Richardson, Liam Cleary,
William Barker, Cornelius Clarke, Lucy Coyer, Henry
Bristow, Lily England and Laura Butcher.
Thank you to students, staff and parents who sponsored
them. Already this year students have raised £500 for Julian
House. With this event we will be close to our target of
£1000 for this academic year.
West Wilts Netball Achievement
Inter County Netball Finals
On March 17th year 11 netball team won the West Wilts
Netball tournament at JOG. This is an amazing achievement
for the girls.
This is the first time we have three teams representing the
school and West Wilts in a county final.
This year the girls have all pulled together, trained very hard
and played with guts and determination - achieving this
outstanding outcome!
The year 9,10 and 11 netball teams represented St.
Augustine’s at the inter county netball finals on the 26th of
March 2010.
The three teams worked very hard during the tournament
and faced very strong opposition. The year 10 and 11 netball
teams came third in their various age groups, whilst the
year 9 team won in their age group.
This is the second year the year 9 team have won the
competition and have gone throughout the season
undefeated.
I am pleased to announce that the following students have
been appointed:
Head Boy - Leo Springate, Head Girl - Katie Chisnall.
Their Deputy’s are Phil Duhig and Ellie Paines.
Crufts Success
Big Bath Sleep Out
Nine of our Year 12 students completed the Big Bath Sleep
Out on Friday 19th of March without resorting to tents despite
the very adverse weather conditions. Without doubt this was
a hugely challenging fund raising event-last year
temperatures plummeted to below -4 when a group of our
present year 13 students participated and this year the rain
reduced the grass to mud-reminiscent of Glastonbury!
UK Mathematics Trust Challenge
Four students attended the UK Mathematics Trust
Challenge at The Royal School, Bath on 19th March 2010.
Well done to: William Megill (8B), Isabelle Emmitt (8B),
James Roff (9C) and Sarah Clifton (9B).
British National Schools Biathlon
Championship
Five students competed for the College at the British National
Schools Biathlon Championships at Crystal Palace on 21st
March. They swam and ran with determination and came
out with excellent results:
Carl Greenan, Oliver Clark and Jordan Snedden in the
Sixth form Boys Team took 2nd Place. Carl won the Best
Swim of the day with a PB and tool 13th place overall, which
was an amazing feat given that he had been under the
weather this week. Oliver Clark achieved a very
respectable 15th. Colette McCambridge came 13th overall
in the Year 11 Girls competiton and Emily Dixon came
15th overall in the Year 9 girls competition. Well done!
Impressive Wiltshire County
Swimming Championships
Success
Congratulations to Year 7 student Jessie Foster who had
a successful weekend on the 20 th-21st March to finish off
the Wiltshire County Swimming Championships - she swam
12 new PBs and won gold medals in all 14 events she
enterered. Overall, she set 12 new Age Group Best Times
for Wiltshire and was awarded the top 11 year old girl in the
BAGCATS competition. Well done!
AS and A Level Recitals
Congratulations to the AS and A level music students who
performed brilliantly on Tuesday 23rd March in their practical
examinations at Edington Priory. The A level musicians
performed in a public concert in the evening and were
examined by Mrs Hilary Murphy from Wells cathedral
School. Many thanks to Mr O’Mahony for organising such
a memorable event.
Prefect Day
On Monday, 1 March, 35 Year 12 students participated in
the Wiser Words Prefect Day. The day, composing of four
sessions, was designed to develop skills in leadership and
enable the students to prepare for their responsibilities as
subject prefects or members of the 6th Form Senior Team.
Dance Performance Evening
A Dance Performance Evening was held on 22nd March. The
skill, creativity and professionalism of the students and the
energy and drive of Vicky Nelson added up to an evening
of very high quality dance. Thanks to Simon and Matt
Stafford for the lighting and Kevin Ball and Elaine
Lawrence for their efforts in arranging the hall and then
dismantling it in time for the examinations on the 23rd. A
real team effort but well worth it. Well done!
LIBRARY NEWS
Dan Freedman’s visit
Dan Freedman came to St Augustine’s to talk about his life
and the Jamie Johnson series of books. Dan spoke to Year
7, signed books after the talk and then had a snack with
the winners of the Premier League Reading Challenge and
four Year 8 students who are involved in another reading
challenge at present.
He showed some footage of interviews he has done with
England’s top footballers.
Then he spoke about writing the Jamie Johnson books. It
took three years for the first book to be published but his
fourth will be published in July and he was selected to write
a special short book to celebrate World Book Day.
Manga Artist Visit to St
Augustine’s
Sonia Leong, an internationally renowned Manga artist
visited St Augustine’s Catholic College on Friday 19 th
March. Sonia has more than seventy publications to her
credit and was recently invited to Athens at the Children’s
Literature Festival as a guest of the British Council. Sonia
spoke to students about Manga as a genre and about her
work. She enthralled students with a talk on Manga and
followed that with three workshops on various aspects of
her art: on the translation of words into images and the
power of images; on how to draw Manga, layout a storyboard
and how to use typeface to add impact to the story and
lastly, on her award winning translation of Romeo and Juliet
into the genre.
Students enjoyed the day very much and we hope it will
inspire them to read more and to produce their own stories
and artwork.”
Survey of Parents and Carers
The Local Authority is asking parents to do an outline survey
to ensure that there is sufficient childcare to enable parents
to work or take part in training leading work. If any parents
or carers would like to complete the survey it can be found
on www.wiltshire.gov.uk/childcare.
Bags for Sport for CAFOD
Eight students from Years 10 & 11 have raised £228.00 for
CAFOD as a Lenten challenge. Early in March, a year 11
student, Louella Curtis, invited a representative from
bag4sport.co.uk to speak to the group on how it, as a social
enterprise organisation, collects unwanted clothes, bedding
and soft toys and sells such items as affordable clothing
and toys to communities in Eastern Europe including
Romania, Poland and Lithuania. The organisation pays 40p
per kilo for all appropriate unwanted items. 100% of the
money raised by the students is being donated to CAFOD.
The students worked with bag4sport.co.uk to deliver
assemblies, create posters and include news items on the
website. Matthew Hayball wrote a letter to all parents
and members of the St Augustine’s community. In addition
to supporting the values of bag4sport and CAFOD, the
project also demonstrated the students’ aspirations to
recycle whenever possible.
The students, would like to thank all students, staff and
friends of St. Augustine’s for their generosity. They would
like to thank one Year 7 student, Lucy O’Brien, in particular
as she turned the event into her own fund raising
opportunity. Lucy circulated her own posters around her
community collecting many bags which contributed
substantially towards the 108 kg donated by 7B. This tutor
group alone raised £43.20 towards the total. The students
who gave their time and energy to this project are Georgina
Boundy, Louella Curtis, Summer Harrold, Joshua
Jobbins and Olivia Wafer (Yr 11) and Matthew Hayball,
Joshua Ovens and Paige Redmond (Yr 10).
St. Augustine’s Catholic College
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New Site Developments
1. Signage
The buildings in the College received new signs with the
people after whom we have named them.
The Michael Thorp theatre is named after our 6th form lay
chaplain, Michael Thorp, for the developments made by his
leadership of the Governors for 14 years and as Chair of the
P.T.A.;
The John Paul II building houses the newest area
consisting of the 6th form, Special Needs, Careers, in memory
of the Pope who will become a saint.
The Bishop Declan building houses the Maths and
English classrooms in honour of our present Bishop of Clifton
Catholic Diocese.
The Robert Cook building houses the Humanities and Art
classrooms as well as the Chapel in honour of the 2 nd
Headmaster of the College.
The Canon Hudson building in honour of the parish priest
who founded the College houses the main building of Main
hall, Languages and Business Studies classrooms, Science
laboratories, Library, meeting rooms.
The Thomas Johnson building houses the Technology
building and is in honour of the College’s Founder
Headmaster.
The Mike Doonan Sports Hall in honour of the Treasurer
of the Charitable Trust
A new sign at the front of the College will welcome people
to St. Augustine’s.
2. Building developments
y Visitors to the College will have been pleased to see the
new path to the entrance of the College completed at
the end of term 3 in order to replace the flagstones.
y Throughout the site, pot holes which had been formed
as a result of the bad weather conditions this year had
been filled.
·y A new canopy is being installed outside the maths and
English block.
Wingfield Road
Return to the College is Tuesday 20th April 2010
for students.
Please note that any student with diarrhoea and/or vomiting
must NOT return to college until 48 hours from the last
episode of diarrhoea or vomiting
Can I remind Staff and students that no student is allowed
into the buildings or any classroom until the 1st bell has
sounded for registration.
Can I also remind students that they should not come
into school wearing makeup or nail varnish.
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Trowbridge
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Wiltshire
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BA14 9EN