Our Journey Together - news from across the St Ralph Sherwin Trust

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1 Our Journey Together - news from across the St Ralph Sherwin Trust MARCH 2019 ISSUE 3 We are now halfway through this first academic year and I am delighted with the progress we seem to be making as a Trust. Our theme this year was building community and as I travel around our schools or meet with colleagues I see concrete examples of this every day. This newsletter will highlight some of the many wonderful events and activities which are taking place across our Trust. In order to develop that community spirit across our schools, we meet regularly with all our Headteachers, Heads of School and Executive Heads once per half-term to provide updates and share the good practice which is taking place across our 25 schools. We had some very special guest speakers at our meeting this term. They were representatives from our two charities which we are supporting over the next two years; Rainbows and Bluebell Wood, both childrens hospices. Due to the geography of our Trust we have selected these two charities as they support the communities which our 25 schools serve. They will each engage with their schools and discuss with our young people how the money raised benefits the charities. A highlight for many of us this half-term was the visit of David Wells. Bishop Patrick had invited David Wells to lead us in some time of reflection and discussion in February in order to assist all of us to prepare for the following two themes of discipleship (Lent) and missionary discipleship (Easter Pentecost); these days were for Headteachers, subject leaders for Religious Education or heads of Religious Education, lay chaplains and representatives from the local governing bodies. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was one of the most inspiring and uplifting reflections I have experienced. As a result, we are hoping that David will be our Keynote speaker at our Trust Feast day on Monday December 2nd. Sean McClafferty CARE HOME WELCOMES ST JOSEPH S PUPILS Children at Saint Joseph s CVA in Matlock went for lunch with care home residents and handed over gifts as part of day spent living out their school motto. Reception pupils helped to put together a hamper full of treats as a Valentine s Day gift for residents at the Presentation Sisters Care Home, which is based on the school site. They handed it over to staff and residents at the care home before enjoying lunch together. The children visit the care home regularly and chat to residents about their lessons, plant seeds and take part in arts and crafts activities. Children put together the hamper as part of a day spent living out their school motto To Live Like Jesus. Each class looked at the Catholic Social Teaching principles, creating artwork and holding discussions, before sharing their work at a whole school assembly.

2 Joe Hopkins Trust Lead Lay Chaplain Time for a spring clean and a spot of gardening I am a big fan of spring. There is something about seeing the flowers starting to appear, the days getting longer and beautiful blue skies that makes me feel so happy. I also find that the brighter skies and stronger sun illuminates areas that need a good spring clean. The same is true about our spiritual lives. In the time of year when we think about clearing the cobwebs and weeding the flower beds we are given the time of Lent. 40 days to have a spring clean of our hearts and souls ready for our rebirth at Easter. Lent is our spiritual spring clean. Lent gives us this opportunity through the sacrament of Reconciliation and the daily practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to get our house in order for Easter. I recently bought my first house and have a garden for the first time in years it is a mess. Weeds are beginning to take over, crisp packets are dotted about and some other plants that were overshadowing the more beautiful flowers, stopping them from growing. Immediately I thought of the sacrament of Reconciliation and how it is very much like gardening. Rubbish that enters our life and becomes stuck, polluting our relationship with God and others; bad habits form like weeds, at first seemingly small and insignificant but they grow and choke the good practices in our life. Finally there are actions in our life that aren t necessarily bad but they overshadow the really beauty we can produce. I love the sacrament of Reconciliation. Many times I ve approached that sacrament in sorrow, guilt, anger, worthlessness, despair or anxiety. Yet every time, I leave full of peace and joy. There is nothing to fear about going to confession, the priest is not there to judge us, he is An ornament gathers dust, an instrument shouldn t; Jesus wants us as his instruments not his ornaments! there to give us the love and mercy of God. He has given his life as a priest to do this. I really do encourage you, if it has been a month, a year, or 30 years since you last went to confession to go this Lent. No words can describe the beautiful freedom that comes from this. In an instant a tangled mess of plants, weeds and rubbish becomes a beautiful flowerbed! The three ancient practises of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the core of Lent. They challenge us to be open to the call of being a disciple. Give more time to prayer this Lent, find a way that is most helpful for you to waste time with God, reading the scriptures instead of scrolling through Facebook; making prayer the first thing you do in the morning rather than checking your phone; and praying for others instead of moaning or gossiping about them. These are just a few ways of how we can set our prayer life on fire this Lent. Fasting is not dieting, we don t go without in Lent to lose weight. Fasting is about reordering our desires, mastering them and not letting them master us, and for some of us it may be that food is not what we need to fast from. Fasting from food or a particular food though has a great effect, it reminds us of suffering. The aim of fasting is not to have an effect on our waistline but on our mindset. Prayer without fasting is like trying to box with one hand tied behind your back, but fasting without prayer is merely dieting! Finally almsgiving means giving money or help to the poor. As disciples of Christ, as Christians we are called to serve others, however with the mayhem of our daily lives this can be lost and sometimes can mean just throwing a few coins in a basket. I like to imagine almsgiving as dusting, it uncovers in us the true image of Jesus, selfless, merciful and loving. In Lent we are called not just to give money to charity but to get into the habit of helping others. An ornament gathers dust, an instrument shouldn t; Jesus wants us as his instruments not his ornaments! In the St Ralph Sherwin CMAT, we are launching a way to celebrate Lent and these practises called Like and Subscribe to Lent. This hopes to be a joyful celebration of the various ways all members of our Trust are living out their call this Lent to be disciples of Christ find us on YouTube and Twitter!

3 Day of reflection Headteachers, lay chaplains and governing body members joined the trust for a reflection day led by David Wells. David gave an excellent talk about discipleship and missionary discipleship. Thankyou to everyone who attended and to David for leading such an inspiring day. Two students at Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby have been selected to take part in a trip of a lifetime to Morocco with World Challenge. Kyi Asumang and Blaine Crawford are among 20 students from across the city who have been chosen. The trip is being organised by World Challenge in partnership with DANCOP and it will take place during the 2019 Easter break. Pupils at St Joseph s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby took part in a maths day linked to children s charity the NSPCC. Every three years representatives from the NSPCC visit the school and talk to children about the services they provide. As a result, staff decided to hold an NSPCC number day and ran a series of maths themed activities while also encouraging children to memorise the NSPCC helpline number. Budding singers from Saint Edwards Catholic Voluntary Academy in Swadlincote performed at one of the largest school choir concerts in the world. Pupils sang at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham at the Young Voices concert. Schools from across the country took part in the event, which involved more than 6,000 students singing a range of songs in front of school staff, parents and family members.

4 Each week we will run a profile on a member of our Trust. This edition we focus on Trust Chair Jacqueline Rodden. Personal I currently live in Chesterfield with my husband and our 17 year old son who is doing A levels in Maths, Chemistry and Physics and is hoping to study engineering at college. I have worked in large, multi-site, global organisations for more than 30 years focussing on learning and change and am passionate about learning being important at every stage of life. Where are you based? As volunteers, the Foundation Directors on the Trust Board do not have on office base, so I go wherever and whenever I need to in order to do my role within the Trust. What is your vision for the St Ralph Sherwin CMAT and the schools within it? Securing excellent Catholic education in our area of the Diocese of Nottingham now and for future generations is our overall aim. As a new organisation we are setting up ways of doing things which support and challenge our executive team centrally as well as our school-based teams to drive improvements in all aspects of the Trust s work. Our aspiration is for this to create a culture of high expectations with a commitment to, and an enjoyment of, lifelong learning for everyone involved in the Trust. Our vision for governance is that it will be effective across the organisation including Local Governing Bodies (LGBs) as well as the Trust Board and that what we create is sustainable long-term. In essence, we want everyone to be their best so they can give their best to the task in hand, be that teaching, cleaning, determining policy and so on, as it is only with everyone playing their part effectively that we can be successful as a Trust. Providing help and support when needed as well as allowing scope for everyone to use their unique talents in the service of Catholic education is core to our way of working as one community. Can you tell us about your role day-to-day? As a Trust Board our role is to set the direction and strategy for the Trust in collaboration with Sean as our CEO, and then hold him and his team to account for delivering it. As Chair, I meet with Sean regularly to review progress and take a lead on behalf of the Trust Board with our Local Governing Bodies, while other directors take a lead in other aspects of the Board s work. Asking questions and exploring the thinking behind ideas being proposed by Sean and his team is a core part of my role, acting as a sounding-board as well as providing a different perspective. Providing support where needed and reminding the team to take care of their own wellbeing too is important to me, especially in this early setting-up phase where so much needs to be done from scratch and as a result takes longer than it will once systems and processes become established. In keeping with our vision of creating one Trust community I am working with our LGBs, in particular the Charis and increasingly the Vice Chairs, to create connections and common approaches across our Trust, drawing on good practice from the LGBs, NRCDES and elsewhere. We currently have three mentoring pairs in our St Ralph Sherwin governance network where experienced Chairs are supporting other folk to develop in their roles. We hold Chairs Symposiums twice a term to share updates and address questions. What do you enjoy most about your new role? Pretty much all of it! I like the fact that Sean is prepared to challenge and encourage others, including me, to do the best for our Trust and leads by example in terms of his own learning, drawing on different ideas, creating internal networks of colleagues as well as making use of various external networks too. As you would expect, we don t agree on everything but that makes for much more interesting conversations to the overall benefit of our schools and ultimately our children. I joined the team at English Martyrs for the feedback at the end of their friendly Ofsted recently to hear first-hand, not only some great things about that school, but also recognition of the impact that the Trust is having there less than half way through our first year which is great. I feel immensely privileged to be working with a great team to get our Trust up and running and am grateful for the opportunity to play a part in that. In the next edition we will profile Trust Finance Director Phil Curtis.

5 TRUST SUPPORTS TWO CHARITIES St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust has pledged to support Bluebell Wood Children s Hospice and Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People. The Trust has pledged to fundraise for the children s hospices for two years, and staff at the are already planning to take part in a sponsored walk alongside the Bishop of Nottingham as part of the schools annual pilgrimage in June. Each school in the Trust will be fundraising for their local hospice throughout the partnership, raising vital funds for children and families going through the toughest of times. Sean McClafferty, Trust Chief Executive, said: It s a real honour to support both children s hospices, and over the course of the next two years we re hoping to raise as much money as possible to make a real difference to the children and families who are supported by the charities. REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE Students at Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy in Kirk Hallam learnt how to reduce, reuse and recycle during a day focused on helping to save the planet. The whole of Year 7 took part in a series of workshops led by form tutors, a theatre company called We Are Gibber and Derbyshire County Council. Students learnt the importance of the 3Rs and considered what actions they could take to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste to help protect the environment for themselves and future generations. One exercise involved students guessing how long it would take for different objects to decompose including a mobile phone and a plastic bottle. We Support BBW - St Ralph Sherwin Academy.pdf 1 10/01/ :18:12 St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust is proud to support Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People and Bluebell Wood Children s Hospice C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Supporting Registered charity number: Company number:

6 Pupils at Holy Rosary Catholic Voluntary Academy in Burton held a Community Concert. Parents, carers and families were invited to watch their children sing and perform various instruments from the keyboard to violin. Just before Safer Internet Week, the Saltmine Theatre visited Christ the King CVA and they performed a play that highlighted the risks of the internet. Here is a review from Year 6 pupil Evie: On Monday 28th January, Saltmine Theatre Company came to our school. They performed an exceptional play about a girl called Sarah. Sarah had just turned eleven and as promised by her mum, she was allowed to go into the forest on her own, under four rules. She couldn t give out her last name, address, or phone number, she had to stay on the path, if need be call for help and have fun! When she went into the forest, she met a boy called Wilf. They played and Wilf asked questions like What is your name? Sarah told him and eventually found out who he really was Wilf and Sarah taught us to be safe online. The forest was a metaphor for social media; there were many dangerous creatures/people in the forest and there is in social media too. People can act like someone they re not and no one can stop them. Afterwards, we were asked questions by the talented actors. They asked us about what we would do if we were in that situation, what we could do to prevent it. They asked if we played games or used apps that had high age limits which made us think, are we safe online? We can teach other people about what we have learnt about this production. We can ask them if they are safe online or play age restricted games. Do they talk or play with strangers online? If so, are they aware of who they really are? The Saltmine Theatre Company really made us think about ours and others- internet safety. I would definitely recommend this play to other school! Rules are made for a reason. Follow them. Evie Spencer Christ the King Voluntary Academy

7 PHOTO GALLERY Pupils from All Saints and St Margaret s in Glossop attended a special session with Olympic gymnast Kristian Thomas. Year 8 student at Blessed Robert Sutton CVA, Dominica, came second in the East Staffs gymnastics competition. Pupils at St Charles celebrated Chinese New Year with an assembly, speakers, actors, singers and a dragon! Year 3 pupils from St John Fisher spent a day at Derby Museum and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Mayor and Mayoress of Derby. Pupils from St Thomas More visited London to follow the story of their patron. A prayer was left by two pupils for the school community at the chapel where is buried.

8 Graham Lobb, Executive Headteacher at St Thomas in Ilkeston and St Mary s in New Mills, was asked to appear on Erewash Sound Radio in February. We asked him a few questions about how he came to get asked onto the show and what he talked about. How did you come to be asked onto the show? I used to work with the DJ David O Connell when he was a teacher in Derby and we ve always kept in touch. He has been DJing on the station for a few years and asked if I d like to go on as a local Headteacher to talk about some school bits but also some things that I do outside of school that he knew about. What did you talk about? The part of the show that I was on, David split into four 15 minute sections. The first, we talked about St Thomas and the fundraising that it had done recently for the Ilkeston Winter Shelter (David s regular co-host Christine French is very involved in the project); the second 15 minutes focused on Safer Internet Day that was the week after and the challenges that young people and parents face in this digital world; the third 15 minutes focused on what David called my double life my hobby is playing drums in a local band called Korma Police!. The final 15 minutes was spent talking about music education in school both St Mary s and St Thomas have whole classes learning instruments together. A lot of the music he played was songs that Korma Police cover and he even played some songs that I d written with a previous band! So, tell us a little bit about the drumming. I ve been playing since I learnt at secondary school as part of the school s steel band and it s been my main hobby ever since. I ve played in all sort of bands playing original songs when I was younger and covers now I m a little older mainly playing rock/pop/indie styles but I ve played in a soul band too. It s a great way to relax and let off steam after a long week. I know there are a lot of really talented musicians with a similar hobby working within the Trust.. Any more planned with the radio? I ve spoken to David about doing some more things with Erewash Sound. I d love him to come in to school and do some work that the children could get involved with. Watch this space! Famous artists were the inspiration behind an art day at St Joseph s CVA which saw pupils work with students from Saint Benedict CVA in Derby. Each year group at St Joseph s was asked to create art based on a well-known artist including Paul Cezanne, Piet Mondrian, Damien Hirst, David Hockney and Joseph Wright. Lorraine Sheath, class teacher, said: We work with the whole school, one year group spent the morning painting pebbles and the students from Saint Benedict helped with that. We would love to share your good news across our trust so please submit items and photos to pr@srscmat.co.uk. We will try to use as many as we can. Thankyou.