St Thomas Aquinas Friday Letter 22 June 2018

Transcription

1 May the prayers of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More grant us the courage to proclaim our faith by the witness of our lives. Amen Saint of the week St John Fisher John Fisher (c. 19 October June 1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint John Fisher, was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic, and eventually served as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Fisher was executed by order of Henry VIII during the English Reformation for refusing to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the Catholic Church's doctrine of papal supremacy. He was named a cardinal shortly before his death. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church. He shares his feast day with St Thomas More on 22 June. Fisher students live, love and learn together following the mantra of "Happy, safe and successful!" If you ask Mr Gay anything about his house he will always reply with "Fisher first!" This comes from Saint John Fisher himself who died for his beliefs when he was executed by King Henry VIII for not supporting his new Church of England. Every student in Fisher House strives to follow Saint John Fisher's example by serving others in our community and sticking to our values and virtues. Mr Gay Head of Fisher House Important Dates Friday 22 June 7.00pm Year 11 Prom Thursday 28 June 5.30pm KS3 and KS4 Awards Evening (Note earlier time) Tuesday 10 July 7.00pm Family Mass All Welcome Friday 20 July Last Day of Term for Students Thursday 16 August A Level Results Day Thursday 23 August GCSE Results Day Messages from our School Community Hay Fever Season The pollen count is extremely high at the moment. Please ensure students take their antihistamine medication, and students with asthma always carry their inhalers. Mrs Hickey School Nurse Year 8s meet their Prayer Companions at our Lumen Christi MAC schools I was really involved with the year 4 visits, and helped Mrs O Driscoll set up the chapel ready for the arrival of the Year 8 s. I enjoyed meeting the children from all the primary schools. It was fun connecting with my partner and meeting him. I found out more about his family life, school life and what hobbies he liked. He said he was very religious! I also learnt more about the Holy Trinity.

2 It was really good to be able to communicate with my prayer companion and learn more about the school. At the end she called me a good role model so I was pleased. We chatted about what prayer is and looked at artefacts to help explain the Holy Trinity. I had a prayer companion from St Columba s. We made Trinity cards using a Shamrock. We compared the Holy Trinity to working in partnership with the two schools and our prayer partner. We sat and had squash and biscuits outside and continued chatting to our new prayer companions. It was really good connecting with our prayer companions and getting to know them. Learning about new things e.g. The Holy Trinity and comparing it to the Eucharist helped me to understand both! It was good meeting with other children from a Catholic school because it made me realise how much we have in common! I met with St Paul s primary school last week and met my prayer companion for the first time. I was a bit nervous to begin with and so was my companion. By the end, when we were having refreshments, we had bonded a bit more. I met my new prayer companion from St James. We didn t know what to expect. We chatted about when we met last year at St James and how we ran round the playground. The chapel looked nice with all the candles and we learnt about the Holy Trinity. I got involved a lot leading up to the primary visits and was heavily involved with setting up and serving the biscuits and juice. We took time to light all the candles and display the cloths beautifully. I got to know my prayer companion well and learnt a lot about her family and hobbies. I can t wait to meet them again next year. I was lucky enough to have a companion from my old primary school, St Brigid s. I enjoyed sharing what secondary school is like here. I hope I return to my old school soon! Ruby, Megan, Lucy, Sandryne, Enya, Sharon, Alpha, Jessica, and Lauren Year 8 Prayer Partners Word Millionaires In the Accelerated Reading classes which years 7, 8 and 9 have each week or fortnight, the students read books which they have chosen themselves to read at school and home then take quizzes on them when they have finished reading them. When a student has read a million words they receive a certificate for becoming word millionaires. Since September, the following students have achieved this, they are: Beata (year 7), Remi (year 7), Lucy (year 8), Nafkot (year 7), Keeley (year 7), Katoka (year7), Iyioluwa (year 8) and Gabriel (year 7). Well done to all of these students and we hope to have a few more before the end of this term! Mrs Keeves Aquinas Resource Centre Paris Trip April 2019 The second payment ( 70) is now due and thank you to the many families who have already paid it. There are still some places available for the trip to Paris for any students who are currently in Year 9 or 10. Students will have the opportunity to see many of the sights of Paris, including climbing the Eiffel Tower and taking a boat trip on the River Seine. We will also spend a day at Disneyland. The cost of the trip is 385 and letters are available from teachers in the Modern Languages Faculty. Please contact me if you are interested in finding out more. Mrs Bell Head of Modern and Foreign Languages

3 A Celebration of Art, Design, and Textiles On Tuesday 19 June, parents and colleagues were warmly welcomed to come along and see the Technology Exhibition held in the Technology Department of the school. The Year 13 A-Level Fine Art, Textiles, and Product Design students exhibited their work in a fabulous display in Technology. The display was a celebration of the talents of our young artists and designers. There was also a small selection of GCSE work on display from Photography, Art, Textiles and Product Design. Miss Geoghegan Head of Technology Science Masterclasses 29 intrepid young scientists from St. Joseph s Catholic Primary School started off our Year 5 Science Masterclasses this week. An opportunity for all of our MAC partners to experience the emerging centre of excellence that is the science department at St. Thomas Aquinas. Sparks flew, hydrogen popped, and Wotsits revealed their fat content during the masterclass and pupils left with follow-up experiments to complete and the necessary resources to do them with. Year 7 science ambassadors Samuel 7-TE, Ellie-Mae 7-FI, Bethany7-BO and Billy 7-FI did a fantastic job sharing their knowledge and developing expertise. Over the next two weeks we look forward to welcoming Year 4 and Year 5 pupils, their teachers and teaching assistants from St. Paul s, St. Brigid s, St. James and St. Columba s into our department. I had an awesome day. I would love to come back and do much more - Indiana I liked every bit of it and I would definitely come here again. I am really looking forward to doing science now. Thank you for having me - Anastasia I enjoyed myself so much! Best thing was the explosion! How good? 10/10 - Rayon I thought it was great. I would like to come back. What I liked the best was the fire popping. I was scared I would die! - Abbie I really enjoyed this surprise. My favourite experiment was the reacting magnesium and oxygen. I had so much fun and it would be a delight to come back here - Olivia I enjoyed it so much I would love to come back again 100%. I don t have a favourite experiment, I loved them all - Molly My favourite part was the mini-explosion because if you successfully did it, it made a satisfying pop - Daniel Mrs Robertson-Rogers Science Faculty

4 Well done to our Art & Tech Modern Languages Vocational Studies English Humanities Maths Performing Arts Physical Education RE Science Chaplaincy Mr O'Sullivan's Prefect Faculty Stars Year 13 Art, Product Design, and Textiles Donia 10-FI Matthew 10-FI Faiza 10-RO Cameron 8-MA Tyanne 9-RO Harvey 7-FI Natasha 8-TE Kate 10-JP Elena 10-JP Laurencia 6th BO Katie 6th MA Emily 10-BO Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Mrs Hughes Miss Madden Mr Martin Mr Smith Mr Perry Mrs Linehan Miss O'Reilly Mrs Bell Year Stars Gracie 7-JP Iyioluwa 8-JP Reece 8-JP Paigan 9-JP Awa 10-FI Attendance Jasmine 9-MA Senior Teachers Stars Jason 7-TE Luke 9-JP Hannah 10-MA Lucy 8-FI Christian 8-BO Reneka 7-MA Logan 10-NE

5 Messages from Mr Martin And finally We had our Year 6 Induction Evening on Monday. It was a real joy to welcome the next group of students to Aquinas. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff who have played a part in the transition process. After seeing the excitement on the faces of our new students, I am now really looking forward to the Induction Days next month. One thing that was very noticeable this year was just how many parents bought our new equipment pack ready for next September. I even considered buying one for myself Mr Perry and Mrs Taylor did a superb job selling them and 2 represents fantastic value for what you get! This is a good opportunity to remind parents of our expectation for all our students next September; STACS EQUIPMENT LIST 2018/2019 x1 Clear pencil case (30cm in length) x2 Black or blue biro pens x1 Green pen x1 Pencil x1 Pencil sharpener x1 Eraser x1 30cm ruler x1 Glue Stick x1 Highlighter I was delighted that attendance on Monday was not affected by a certain football match. I haven t been watching as much of the World Cup as I would have liked but I am aware that VAR (that is, the Video Assistant Referee system being used in Russia) is causing some controversy. Video technology may not be helping referees to reach correct decisions but it is certainly helping to evangelise! Along with hundreds of school leaders from Archdiocese of Birmingham, Miss Madden and I have spent today at the Annual DES Leadership Conference. We all were shown a video of staff and students from all our Lumen Christi MAC schools talking about their faith. It was a lovely and inspiring end to the week! Time now to celebrate with Year 11 and their Prom. Be sure to enjoy a lovely weekend! May the Lord continue to bless our special school. St Thomas Aquinas and all our House Patrons, pray for us. Chris Martin, Head of School