winterx3.1 2014

Mary Immaculate Catholic High School
Winter Newsletter 2014
The link between School and Community
Message From the Headteacher
It is with pleasure that I write my first and formal introduction
to the school newsletter for the autumn term 2014.
I spoke in a piece in the summer newsletter about how my
impressions of the school were enthusiastically positive. I made
a point of meeting as many young people as I could, spending
time with them at lunch and in their lessons.
My experiences since September confirm my thoughts from
then – the students at Mary Immaculate are friendly, engaging,
ready to help each other and their teachers in being successful.
It is of no surprise then, that the results from the summer were
so incredible. 60% of our students gained 5 A*-C grades
including English and Maths, whereas 98% of pupils left with at
least five good GCSE grades (A*-C). All of our students left with
at least one GCSE. These were the best results the school has
ever achieved in its history and among the best results in the
whole of Cardiff. In fact, students made so much progress as to
be in the top 5% of all schools in all of England and Wales.
Obviously, this is down to the hard work and dedication of the
young people, but it is also a sign of the quality of learning and
teaching that goes on at Mary Immaculate; teachers have given
hour after hour to support and encourage students to do their
best. This is something that continues to go on at all levels in
the school, as positive GCSE results are borne of good working
attitudes by students working with staff throughout their time
in our community.
These results have recently been assessed by the Welsh
Government as being in category 1 for standards, the highest
possible grade, making Mary Immaculate one of the best
schools in Wales. This no doubt explains why we are very
popular with parents all over Cardiff and continue to be oversubscribed as a school.
But of course, success comes in lots of different ways. In sports,
pupils are involved at all levels – we have a large number of
students in football academies, including a player twice capped
for Wales U17. We also continue to be in first place for the
Cardiff multi-sport games. This is of course on top of our
ongoing successes in Music, Drama and many other creative
subjects.
Over the course of the summer, we have had a number of
changes to our staffing. Mrs Davies returns to the Science
department following the birth of her daughter, Mrs Sanger
returns following her secondment to Corpus Christi, although her
maternity will begin shortly! In the Maths Department, Miss
Machin and Mr Holman joined us in September and Miss Brown
(who is relocating to London with her family) will be replaced by
Mr Fant in January. Miss Biggs and Miss Kalter joined the English
Department; Miss Timothy has joined the Science department,
along with Dr Harry who is covering for Mrs Seedat’s maternity
leave.
Mrs Pocknell from our RE department is to take up a full time
post at St Illtyd’s; Mr Lambert, who joined us in September will
continue to take on Mrs Pocknell’s teaching. Mrs Thomas our
Head of the faculty of Communications also left us at the end of
the summer term due to ill health. I can also report that Mrs
Cleave has given birth to a beautiful daughter.
May I thank all our parents for their support so far; students
come to school looking smart and ready to learn. I encourage
you to continue your support for uniform, discipline and,
especially, attendance so that your son or daughter can thrive in
what is one of the best schools in Cardiff.
I look forward to meeting all our parents over the next few
months – if you have any issues you would like to discuss, please
contact me on the school number – it is always a pleasure to
meet our parents to make Mary Immaculate the great
partnership it is!
Huw Powell
Headteacher
Investors
In People
The report highlighted many unique strengths of the school
including strategic leadership, distributed leadership,
culture and collective ambition, engaged staff and excellent
levels of communication.
Gold
The following statement, taken directly from the report
highlights the vision, engagement and commitment of staff
to their roles.
‘Mary Immaculate High School operates with an extremely
clear and fully understood vision which the school aspires to
achieve- “To achieve the best for all”. The assessment
revealed staff who were fully engaged in their roles and
who cared deeply about the outcomes of their work’.
On 6th August 2014, Mary Immaculate Catholic High School was
awarded accreditation as an Investors in People Gold
organisation.
Achieving Gold accreditation represents achievement of world
class best practice and shows the school is a ‘truly cutting edge
organisation operating at the highest level of people
management practice’ The assessment took place over four days
in July 2014 and interviews with staff and the senior leadership
team provided the assessor with the information she needed to
benchmark the school against the Gold Investors in People
Standard.
“The culture ....is one of total commitment. Highly engaged,
collaborative teams told a compelling story throughout the
assessment, about the school and all that it seeks to
achieve’.
We are very proud of our achievements and will continue to
work tirelessly to maintain this prestigious award.
Neil Huxtable is The Investors in People Advisor who
worked with Mrs Lonergan to prepare the school to achieve
their aim in attaining the Gold Standard. Neil’s work is fully
endorsed by the Welsh Assembly Government and his
support, advice and guidance was paramount in the
preparation process. As a result of his thorough approach in
his role as advisor to the school, we achieved this amazing
accolade of Gold Award in People Management.
Student Achievements
Sherraya Harding has been
working with the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama and
had the opportunity to play
‘Olivia’ in their performance of
Dogville on the 25th of October.
The performance took place in
the college’s Bute theatre. We
would like to congratulate
Sherraya Harding on her
performance.
In August 2014, there was much to celebrate in the maths department. As well as
achieving the best ever maths results in the school history, with the year 11’s achieving a
66% pass rate, the year 10 students also did very well.
31 students have already achieved their GCSE in maths, with Ivan Tosev, Bartosz Borne
and Christie Nganjimi obtaining an A*. This is
an incredible Achievement to obtain the best
grade possible a year early.
The Maths Team would like to congratulate
all of the students and to thank the parents
for the support and ‘nagging’ to encourage
their children to come to revision sessions
we couldn’t have done it without you!
British Council International School Award
Success for
Mary Immaculate Catholic High School
In September 2014 Mary Immaculate High School was awarded the British Council International Schools Award.
This prestigious award is valid for three years from 2014 to 2017 and is the result of the hard work of the International schools
Co-coordinator, Miss Bethan Evans, and her efforts to ensure that schemes of work across the school include an international
element. An international committee has been set up to allow us to celebrate the cultures of all our students and to embrace
our multicultural school. All students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of fun activities throughout the year,
both in lessons and in other designated events in order to enhance our understanding of the world in which we live and the
cultures of our school family.
The award recognises the International learning activities that are embedded into the curriculum at the school:
‘Your school is a shining example of how to guide your international work through clearly planned and delivered activities
across an extensive cross-curricular platform’……….Your relationships with your international partner schools in France and
Poland are sound and your collaboration with them over so many interesting projects is impressive’.
We hope that our excellent international activities will continue to develop and benefit the school community and we
congratulate our staff and students who have taken part in the scheme.
He then went on to show the students how to use
Trader-EX software to experience what it would be like
in a real-life trading room.
Students were able to come up with their own
investment strategies and during a short competition
many of our students impressed the staff at the
university with their strategies.
It was commented that “The students have fully
understood the concept of the investment strategy
better than some of the undergraduates at the
university”.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and were
impressed with the university and some are now
contemplating attending the university in the future.
These are some of the comments made by the students:
“The day gave us great insight into a future that some
students may strive to achieve.” Leon Camilleri 10LAB
“This day allowed us to understand what we need to do
to achieve our best as the new upcoming generation”
Liam Counsell 10LAB.
Year 9 Students Visit
University of South Wales
Recently, sixteen Year 9 students were invited to spend some time
at the University of South Wales by the First Campus team.
The students were taken on a tour of the campus by student
ambassadors of the University. Students were then introduced to
the School of Law,
Accounting and Finance by the USW Careers advisor, advising the
students of what careers were available in the sector. Students
then learned about what makes a good strategy with Mike Daniels
lecturer from the school of LAF.
Eleven members of the Yr 10 Art group
accompanied by Mrs Lonergan and Mr
Lambert, visited Coney Beach and Funfair
at Porthcawl on Friday 26th October.
The students were there to gather primary
evidence in the form of photographs of the
fairground rides and imagery.
The trip helped the students develop their
own creative work and ideas on the theme
of ‘Fairground’
On return to the classroom each student
has begun to use their experience to create
their own unique outcomes.
“The day made me think of what I
need to achieve and gave me a
great insight into my future for the
rest of school life and what it will
be like in university and college life”
Matthew Ovenstone 10CK
Book Review
by 8 JSH
Author: Morris Gleitzman
Star Rating:
“Bumface” is not a typical children’s book. This is a story about friendship, life and
sex. Yes, that’s right, sex!!
This book will definitely leave you wanting more as soon as you finish reading. You’ll
want more comedy, more drama and more adventures. You will also want more
stories about the reliable, hardworking, eleven-year-old, Angus and his dysfunctional family. You’ll definitely want to know
more about Rindi, a girl who loves pirates as much as Angus, who suddenly drops into his life. You’ll want to know what
happens with their friendship and what secret she is hiding. You’ll definitely want to know if Angus or Rindi can be saved from
their lives which seem set on self-destruct.
Angus, a young boy growing up in Australia, is worried that his life is about to get worse when his mother starts dating
‘Number Four.’ What if she has another baby? Angus already has to look after his siblings, Leo and Imogen, as their fathers
can’t be bothered, so another child would mean the end to his life. Surely, things are hard enough?! Angus is tired of being his
mother’s ‘Mr Reliable’ and ‘Mr Dependable’; all he wants is to be a child and enjoy himself. But will his parents ever listen to
what he wants rather than what they want?
Then he meets Rindi. Rindi literally drops into his life from a swing-rope and that’s when Angus’ real life begins. She is the best
thing that has happened to him in a lifetime and he’s only eleven. He can be a child when she is around. He can play pirates
and act his own age. He can have a friend who he doesn’t have to hide the truth from and can help take care of his siblings.
She becomes his best friend. And as his best friend, Angus is willing to do anything for her too. She has given him hope, but
can Angus save her from the terrible fate that her parents are trying to force upon her? Will Rindi escape the awful future
planned that will see her leave Australia, Angus and destroy her childhood? Do you really want to miss out on reading about
such a strong friendship?
Angus might be desperate to escape all the sex education around him, but his desperation to avoid it actually causes a lot of
the humour in the book. When Angus should be drawing private parts in sex education class, he is actually drawing a
submarine! Who thought a teacher would shout at a child for not drawing something rude?! Seriously, you need to read this
book as it is full of laughs. Don’t want to read about sex? Well, Bumface contains a lot more than that so don’t be put off. This
text will teach you about growing up and the importance of true friendship too.
“Bumface” is the best book for children aged 9-12. It is a must read. Read it now or miss out!
Autumn Word Ladder
Make your way from TREE to FALL by
Changing just one letter on each step to
Make a new word! There are 6 steps in this word ladder.
TREE
Forest plant
Costs nothing
To worry
Something to walk on
Craft material made of matted fibres
Knocked down
Another word for autumn
FALL
SkyDive for Charity
On Sunday 9th November Carys Sheppard a Year 11
pupil at Mary Immaculate High School completed a
Sky Dive at The National Skydiving Club of Wales,
Swansea Airport and plummeted at 120mph to raise
money for the “Lauren Powell” appeal.
The jump was at 12,000 feet, once jumped she could
relax and enjoy the spectacular views. Carys has
raised over £600 for Lauren’s Cancer appeal.
Carys was filmed throughout the whole experience
and there will be a showing of the DVD at the school
once it has been produced.
BAE Roadshow Visit
On Thursday 6th November, there was great excitement in the Faculty of maths and science.
Both year 7 and year 8 were treated to a Roadshow from BAE systems in conjunction with the RAF,
to present a fun and very informative look at how engineers use their maths and science knowledge
to design and create better inventions.
The students were actively involved and everyone wanted to ‘help’ with the experiments. There was
plenty of ‘food for thought’ for the future, and who knows – a future famous Welsh engineer will come from
this group!
As part of the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification
students in year 10 have been busy collecting items
and packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
They have also been raising money towards the
charity. They decided on some fundraising activities
that included guess how many sweets or chocolates
were in the tub and name the teddy.
Thank you to Gabriel Green, Brandon Cossins,
Matthew Ovenstone, Ieuan Tudor, Emily Thomas
and Chelsy Jose for running the activities during
break and lunch.
The lucky winners were Kyle Campbell, Kai Lock and
Corrie-Jade Williams who named the teddy Bella.
Congratulations to you all and thank you for your
support.
PE News
It has been a very busy start to the new school year with new PE kit for
most students and plenty of football, netball, basketball, rugby and
badminton fixtures being played.
The new PE kit has gone down very well with the students and although
only compulsory for Years 7 and 10, it has proved to be popular across all
year groups with the supplier struggling to keep up with demand. The Year
8 boys and Year 11 girls show how well-liked it is!
Thanks to local company Classic Sportswear, all students
have the opportunity of designing the new football
and netball kits that will be used by the school
teams. The best design will be mass produced and worn
regularly in fixtures by all year groups. The templates are available from Mr
Crimmins, or download them off the website.
Football
Football has been the most popular sport so far this year and it was great to have almost 40 Year 7 boys
trial for the school team. The boys who made the team have performed well so far and take on Stanwell in
the second round of the Cardiff and Vale cup in the next few weeks.
Fixtures have come thick and fast and
this has been helped by the mild
weather we had throughout September
and the beginning of October.
The Year 8 boys have played a number
of fixtures beating Glantaf 10-4 and
Barry 4-1 in the Welsh Cup. They now
play Fitzalan in the next round. The Year
9 boys have had wins against St Richard
Gwyn (2-1) in the Cardiff and Vale Cup
and Glyn Derw (11-1) in the Welsh Cup.
The Y10 boys have had tough draws in
both cups and have to play Plasmawr
who were British champions last year.
The Year 11 boys have started their league campaign well and have beaten Cantonian 2-0 and Bro Morgannwg 6-2. They play
Barry in the next round of the Cardiff and Vale Cup.
This is the first year we have entered girls’ football teams into the Welsh Cup. Training has been excellent with almost 30 girls
attending every session. The Year 7/8 team beat St Cyres 9-3 in the first round of the cup and play Glantaf next. The Year 9/10
girls lost out to a very good Cardiff High team but have plenty of fixtures still to come.
Rugby
Rugby continues to grow at Mary Immaculate and in Year 7 alone over 40 boys have represented the school in
fixtures since September. Years 7, 8, 10 and 11 have all had byes in the first round of the county plate but Year 9
played Willows and won 32-14. The second round of plate fixtures begin in December with all year groups in-
volved.
The Year 9 and 10 teams have also played in the Cardiff Schools 7-a-side tournaments with some success. The Year 10 team had a
tough group and eventually finished up winning two and losing two and missing out on the final. The Year 9 team played some
fantastic rugby winning five games and losing just one to finish third overall. 7s competitions for Year 7 and 8 are to be held in
March.
New member of staff
Extra- curriculum activities
We have also welcomed a new member of staff to the
department. Mrs Dyer has joined us from Drama and is teaching
dance as part of the PE curriculum to Year 7 and 8 girls. As part of
their lessons, the girls have been planning and performing dance
routines to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and have shown great
enthusiasm for the new area.
A number of lunchtime and after school clubs are also up and
running and include football, rugby, netball, basketball,
cheerleading and fitness. Before Christmas breakfast clubs
beginning at 8am are also going to be introduced and new
activities including badminton and cross-fit will be starting-up.
Netball
Netball has been very busy once again this term with lots of fixtures
across all year groups. The only loss for any team this year in a full
match has been against Glantaf.
The Year 8 and 9 teams have also competed in the Cardiff Games netball tournaments
which have both consisted of over 15 teams.
The girls played some fantastic netball and eventually placed fifth in both tournaments
and were unlucky not to finish even higher.
The Year 10 and 11 girls recently played a double-header away at Fitzalan and came
away with convincing victories in both games.
Sport Cardiff recently held its annual Key Stage 3
and Key Stage 4 basketball tournaments at the
Sport Wales Centre in Sophia Gardens. The boys in
the Key Stage 3 teams had to be in Year 9 and
below and it was great to have four Year 7 and four
Year 8 students involved in these teams.
Eighteen teams entered the Key Stage 3
tournament and split into four groups.
The ‘A’ team won two and lost two and
missed out on qualifying from their group
on points scored. The ‘B’ team won all
their group games and beat Cardiff High
and Plasmawr in the quarters and semi-final
respectively. However despite playing some
great basketball in a tough final they lost out
by two points to a very physical Radyr team.
The squad included Sirak Kifle, James Feehan,
Rokas Jodkevicius, Ethan Caveney, Jack Brant,
Joseph Jenkins and Anthony Djangi.
Basketball
The Key Stage 4 tournament played out in
a very similar way, with the ‘A’ team
unlucky not to qualify from their group
and the ‘B’ going through unbeaten. The
‘B’ beat St Illtyd’s comfortably in the
semi-final before losing by two points in
the final to Cardiff High. The Year 11 squad included
Justas Jodkevicius, Aeron Fitzgerald, George Green, Rupak
Rai, Gracjan Zagorski, Jhon Barbosa, Kyle Campbell and Rokas
Jodkevicius.
Despite finishing runners-up in both tournaments, the Key Stage 3 and 4 teams now qualify for the South Wales finals in February.
Sporting Achievements Outside School
British Gold & Silver in Taekwondo
An enormous congratulations to Corey
on winning Gold and Silver medals in
the British Taekwondo National
Championships.
The tournament was held at the
National Cycling Center in Sportcity,
Manchester.
Corey beat excellent competition from
around the country.
An amazing achievement, well done
Corey.
A huge well done to Ibraim So Sani
who was recently named South Wales
FA player of the year. He has also
played for the Wales U16 football
team in two victories against France
and Victory Shield matches against
England and Northern Ireland.
Well done to Year 9 student
Ethan Knight who was
recently presented with his
Welsh Boxing vest.
Good luck in the future to all our sporting stars.
Future Blues…?
Good luck to Year 10 student
Jake Watts who will
represent Cardiff Schools
rugby in the upcoming
Dewar Shield competition.
Mary Immaculate Presents
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your phone or type in the
URL..
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Get all the latest news on twitter or our website
April 22nd and 23rd, 2015
www.maryimmaculate.org.uk Email
Tickets on sale at the school in the New Year
Visit the school website for latest information
[email protected]
Dates for your Diary
Spring Term 2015
Everyone at
Mary Immaculate
would like to
wish you all
a very happy,
peaceful and
Holy Christmas
January
5
School returns
26 - 6
Year 11 Leadership Team Interviews
February
4
6
9 - 13
11
13
16 - 20
25
March
Year 10 Parents’ Evening
Year 10 Work Related Learning Day
Year 10 Work Experience
Year 9 Parents’ Evening
INSET DAY
Half Term
Year 7 Parents’ Evening
3
Year 11 Photographs
9 - 20
Year 9 Leadership Team Interviews
11 - 13
Year 7 Examinations
16 - 18
Year 8 Examinations
19 - 23
Year 9 Examinations
20
Year 11 PSE Day
24 - 27
Year 10 Examinations
April
1
Easter Liturgy
2
End of Term
Caerau Lane, Wenvoe, Cardiff. CF5 5QZ
Tel 029 20593465
This Newsletter has been produces using re-cycled paper