St Gregory the GreatCatholicSchool
Newsletter
Tel: 01865 749933Fax: 01865 717314
Email:
Volume 6 Issue Twenty Six 7th June 2013
MISSION STATEMENT: “We walk in God’s ways where together we live, love, learn and celebrate”
PRAYER
On 8th June CAFOD supporters will join with supporters of other aid agencies for the BigIF rally in Hyde Park to call on leaders of the G8 nations to take immediate action on global hunger. As part of this campaign CAFOD ask us to say this grace before meals:
A GRACE
We thank you God for the food we are about to receive,
we admire and cherish your beautiful creation
and thank you for providing for us each and every day.
We empathise with those who are still not fortunate to receive food
even in our world of plenty.
We hope to embody your benevolent nature and work with you
to provide a better future for all.
We give you thanks and praise,
Amen
Written by Year 13 Theology A level group, De Lisle College, Loughborough
You can add your own prayer to the CAFOD grace wall at:
COMPUTING
Y11 Computing Students have benefited from an extra revision session given by Mr A Milosevic - author of "OCR Computing for GCSE" - a revision guide now available in our library, and which the computing students at St Gregory had helped with reading and commenting on drafts of the book. Thank you, Mr Milosevic.
DANCIN’ OXFORD
Three of our wonderful students, Catherine Godfrey, Ellen Ruddock and Callum Ruddock, took part in an amazing dance project during half term at OxfordCastle as part of the annual Dancin’ Oxford season. The project involved over 150 dancers from Japan and Oxford on the castle mound and around the other grounds of the castle, over four evenings of increasing sunshine. Congratulations to all three, and especially Callum who organised and entertained several teenage Japanese boys despite the language barrier. Showing how dance is a language all of its own!
From Mrs English
LANGUAGE OF THE WEEK:
Well done to Mr Cotmore who guessed that last week’s language was Jamaican Patois, or di Jamiekan Langwij. Jamiekan, we muos piipl kaal Jamiekan Kriyuol ar Patwa, a wan langwij we bilang tu Jamieka. Jamiekan a wan Kriyuol langwij we tek aafa Ingglish iina som wie. A uova chrii onjrid ier nou it kom bout kaa Afrikan piipl fram aal uova Afrika, we taak aal kaina difrant difrant langwij. Wen wi tingk bout Jamiekan wi kyaahn figet se Jamiekan kom bout jos siek-a sliev wok. Piipl kaal it bad Ingglish ar mishi mashi Ingglish, wen dnotn no go so.
Were you able to work out the meaning of last week’s entry? Wen fish kohn frahn riba batam se haligeta dong de, biliib im. “When fish comes from the river's bottom saying alligator is down there, believe him”.
Can you guess what this week’s language of the week is?
Inuit tamarmik inunngorput nammineersinnaassuseqarlutik assigiimmillu ataqqinassuseqarlutillu pisinnaatitaaffeqarlutik. Silaqassusermik tarnillu nalunngissusianik pilersugaapput, imminnullu iliorfigeqatigiittariaqaraluarput qatanngutigiittut peqatigiinnerup anersaavani.
Answer in next week's newsletter. If you would like a language you speak to be a future Language of the Week, then please contact Ms Rappak in MFL.
YEAR 10 GCSE SCIENCE EXAMS
All students in Year 10 who are studying Core Science have a GCSE exam on Thursday 13th June 2013 at 9.00am.
This exam is worth 40% of the GCSE Core Science qualification.
You must come prepared to this exam with a black pen and a calculator.
There will be revision classes running again next week after school and all students are welcome to attend.
Monday 10th June - Chemistry in SC8
Tuesday 11th June - Biology in SC10
Wednesday 12th June - Physics in SC3
All students have been issued with 2 practice papers and it would great preparation to attempt these. To allow all students to check their answers, the mark schemes have been uploaded to the Learning platform.
STORYTELLING IN SCIENCE
A huge thank you to 7b3 for their brilliant participation in Tuesday's filmed CSI Story session. The murder story was told by Julie Pottlefrom the StoryMuseum. We were able to learn the story in just an hour by first mapping it, stepping through it and finally telling it to one another. It's amazing what can be achieved through team work! Our forensic scientists must now collect scientific evidence each lesson, remembering of course not to jump to conclusions!
HEADTEACHER AWARD
The A2 Product Design moderator was in school this week looking it our students’ coursework. We can’t tell you the results yet, but we can say that he was bowled over by the outstanding design work in their major projects. Well done to Oliwia Bober, Shannon Griffin, Max Hodgkins, Michael McGuinNess and Gareth Spackman.
NEW ARRIVALS
Science lab 5 has been alive with twitching of tiny tails. Keen eyes in Mr Johnson’s year 8 class noticed just before the holiday that one of our axolotls had laid eggs. They have now hatched and the 100 or so young need constant feeding They have already been used in lessons on vertebrate reproduction, gas exchange and genetics – the latter helping us work out who the father was!
GRAVITY GAMES
Mr Humphreys, Mr Johnson and their team are making final preparations for the gravity racing event this weekend. Ali Mohammed, Jake Connolly, Max Hodgkins, Evan Hodgkins and Luke Simmonds have entered this competition which involves designing, building, testing and competing in a aerodynamically shaped gravity-powered car. It only down a slope – the steeper the better. I am assured that a full risk assessment has been carried out and that any resemblance to shoving pupils down a hill in a metal box on wheels is purely coincidental!
NEW CHILDREN’S LAUREATE
The author and screenwriter Malorie Blackman has been named as the new Children’s Laureate. She was of the Black British leaders we celebrated earlier this year in Black History Month and her book ‘Noughts and Crosses’ is in the St Gregory’s list of top-ten reads – available from our library now.
ATTENDANCE LEAGUE
In the final week of term 5, C6 once again take first place in the top ten. Despite a sterling effort by Francis House, Carmel Take the attendance trophy for the term. The term 6 competition will culminate in the award of the annual attendance trophy. As things stand, each house has a chance of winning, so there is everything to play for!
Results from last week20/5/13 – 24/5/13
Place / Group / % / Pts
1st / C6 / 99.0 / 10
2nd = / D4 / 98.8 / 9
2nd = / F6 / 98.8 / 9
4th / B9 / 98.6 / 7
5th / F5 / 98.0 / 6
6th / C9 / 97.8 / 5
7th = / F8 / 97.2 / 4
7th = / F9 / 97.2 / 4
9th / B15 / 96.9 / 2
10th = / B13 / 96.8 / 1
10th = / D8 / 96.9 / 1
BELGIUM TOUR 2013
Forty-five members of the Show Choir and five staff visited various cities in Belgium from 27th – 31st May, the choir very successfully performing for a variety of audiences at different venues.
Our students were truly excellent ambassadors for the school in both their friendly but respectful dealings with everyone they met, and in the very professional way they performed.
Venues included Belgian schools and a very large café/restaurant where they were much appreciated by an adult audience, some of whom came up afterwards to say how much they had enjoyed the performance.
The choir also had plenty of free time to visit the historical city of Bruges, where they could sample the world-renowned Belgian chocolate.
Well done to all the students, and thanks to Mrs Henderson, Miss Brudlo, Mr Nicholls and Mrs Hall.
YEAR 9 PARENT EVENING
Our Year 9 Parent Evening is on Thursday 20th June. Your child’s tutor will be contacting you to make an appointment.
MATHS DEPARTMENT
Year 10 Linear Exam Tuesday 11th June and Friday 14th June at 9am
Year 10 Modular Exam Unit 3 Monday 17th June at 9am
Year 7, 8 and 9, end of year exam on Tuesday 18th June.
Year 7 and 8 Period 1 and 2
Year 9 Period 3, 4 and 5
YEAR 10 PARENT EVENING
Thanks to all those who completed a questionnaire at the Year 10 Parent Evening. This really helps us to help make St Gregory the Great an outstanding school. We will report in detail at a later date but it is heartening to know that not one parent said they wouldn’t recommend us to others. We did get a couple of ‘don’t knows’, so still some work to do!
B8 FATHER HUDSON FUND RAISING
Thank you to Daniella Geteloma and Carmen Powell in Benedict House for organising a "Guess How Many Sweets in the Jar" fund raiser for the Father Hudson Society. The winner was Sol Bryant in F9. There were 149 sweets in the jar.
AND FINALLY
You may have seen speculation in the press this week about a new ‘i-level’ to replace GCSEs. We’ll wait and see if that actually happens, but Mr Hussey tells me this is nothing new – sixth formers in Birmingham have been taking “Aye-Livils” for years!
BEST WISHES
Dr R Caseby
Vice Principal