St Gregory the Great Catholic School
Newsletter
Volume 8 Issue 23 20th March 2015
Tel: 01865 749933 Fax: 01865 717314
Email:
Executive Principal:
www.stgregory.oxon.sch.uk
@StGregsOxford
MISSION STATEMENT: “We walk in God’s ways where together we live, love, learn and celebrate”
Prayer
Our prayer this week is one of those posted on the prayer wall at the Flame 2 Youth Event:
Dear God,
Please may the world be healed by your mercy and joy.
May we learn to forgive each other,
even when it isn’t the easiest thing to do.
Amen.
Headteacher’s Award
Dr McCarthy has given this award to Eva Zhang (Yr 8), Amnah Shah (Yr 8), William Godfrey (Yr 9) and Arthur Conmy (Yr 9) for their amazing efforts in preparing and taking part in the prestigious national UKMT Team Maths Challenge. The whole school is really proud of what they have achieved.
School Awards 1
Mr Wilcock would like to nominate Michelle Liu, Jovana Sarac, Abigail Walton, William Godfrey, Sabrina Hussain, Dorothy Geteloma, Natasha Gurdass, Alex McLennon, Ella Imbriano, Kirsten Dunnett, Yasin Hussain and Karima Morsli for well-considered and well-researched Antarctica projects.
School Awards 2
Mrs Rose has nominated Thomas Martin in Y9 for an award for his 100% attendance. Thomas has not missed a day of school due to illness since he arrived in Y7.
School Awards 3
Mrs Price would like to thank Malu Nunes Dos Santos who hand made almost 300 brigadeiros (Brazilian Chocolate Truffles) for C7's Assembly this week.
School Awards 4
Miss Anderson has nominated Amy Walters and Sam Marler for an award for their efforts towards the production of the B11 assembly.
School Awards 5
Miss Philips would like to nominate Kyle Bourton, Nasriya El-Hosny, Ihsan Ifzaal, Aisha Kitwana, David Malov, Joseph Oates, Jade Parris, Andrea Reyes, Lily Simmons, Abbie Walters and Eva Zhang Garcia-Valcarcel from 8 Red for their fantastic volcano models. The standard was very high and it was clear how much effort had been put into the construction of the volcanoes.
School Awards 6
Ms Tatar’s Y8 Physics students have made models of the Solar system and she would like to give a special mention to the following students; Shanice Masih (1st prize) in 8a2, Diego Montoya (1st) and Bryanee Moss (2nd prize) in 8b3, Daniel Webb (1st prize) and Ellie Mazey (2nd) in 8a3.
School Awards 7
Well done to the following year 11 students who are making fantastic progress in Business Studies; Noel Har, Dehanney James, Carla Rico, Nayana Pillai, Mohammed Coyle, Amreen Akhtar, Osama Idnan, Joe Gonzalez, Nirushan Parameswaran, Fahim Mohammed, Leola Wade, Ava Dale, Karla Bergado, Leon Kuka, Brenda Ngabire, Jennifer Poudy, Nyah Aktinson, Alexia Barry, Conner Betnay, Israr Hashimi, Adeel Rehman and Alex Thompson. Miss Harper
School Awards 8
Mr Strongitharm nominated Fahim Mohammed in Year 11 for an award for honesty and effort to find the owner of an expensive ipod dropped in a corridor. It has been returned to its owner.
School Award 9
Goes to Mr Sweeney for playing us into assembly for St Patrick’s Day!
Pupil Voice Assembly
Last week the assembly was led by the school council and Oxford City Council. Feedback was given from students’ answers from the Pupil Voice Activity Day. Videos, a Q & A session and statistics showed what students said about homework, feeling safe in school, feeling happy in school, bullying and behaviour. The follow up will be a meeting with school council to discuss how to respond to the students’ responses. Well done to the students who led on the assemblies; they were: Freya Clare, Arthur Conmy, Elise Thomas-Collaire, Kameca Gayle, Abby Spink, Enya Dale, Chloe Labutte and Usman Khan. Thank you to Caroline Robbins from Oxford City Council.
Year 9 Science Exam
All students in Year 9 will be having a KS3 Science Assessment test in the last week of this term. Marks will be used in conjunction with other assessments to generate an end of Key Stage 3 level for every student.
· A-side: period 2 on Wednesday 25th March
· B-side: period 2 on Friday 27th March
Homework for Science will be revision based activities to prepare for this exam. All students have been set a selection of revision activities on SAM learning.
There will be revision sessions starting next week after school. Details can be found on the exam information board outside Mr Easton’s lab SC3.
Year 10 Kintbury Retreat 20th-23rd April 2015
It’s the turn of our Year 10 students to be invited on their residential retreat to Kinbury. The retreat is held in a beautiful house in the Berkshire countryside and run by a team of young people to help our student take some time to reflect upon their lives and the important journey they are on. Many students have benefited from this experience over the year and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Students can pick up a letter from the Chaplaincy office or talk to their RE teacher. Deposit and permission slip needs to be handed in before Friday 27th March
CAFOD Hunger Lunch
Mrs Hodgkins, Mrs Hutt, Ms Baileyand some wonderful year 8 students -Latoya Stephens, Rachana KC, Alisha Dublin, Alisha Khushi, Sharifa Ali, Zarag Zulfiqar- made two beautiful soups for ourCAFOD Staff Hunger Lunch. Staff all enjoyed the beautiful Roasted Vegetable and Butternut Squash soups andgavegenerously and remembered those in the world who do not have as much as we do. We raised £170 and still rising! Thank you to all.
Taizé Year 11 and 6th Form – Friday 3rd –Saturday 11th July (Activities week)
Taizé is a beautiful village in rural France that has, at any one time, 3000 young people (15-30 years) staying in tents to form a community for the week. We have been running a summer trip here for 3 years now and know students have benefited hugely from the space and time away to wind down after the busy exam season. It is a fantastic place to meet other young people from across the world and to share life together. Taizé gave 5 teenagers from the UK a video camera to make a promo video. It is well worth watching: http://www.taize.fr/en_article17649.html
Taizé letters can be collected from the RE and Chaplaincy offices.
Year 9 Options Evening – Change of Date to 30th April
A reminder that we have moved our Options evening date back to the third week after Easter, to Thursday 30th April. The Year 9 mentoring session on Wed 29th will be an assembly to launch the process and hand out KS4 options booklets.
Maths Assessments for Year 10 and Year 11
Yr 10: Wednesday 25 March P4 in lesson + 10 minutes of lunch
Friday P2 in lesson + 10 minutes of break (Bring Calculator for Friday)
Yr 11: Tuesday 24 March P2 + 10 minutes of Break,
Thursday P4 + 10 minutes of lunch (Bring Calculator for Thursday
Paying for School Meals
We have seen a large increase in the number of students using Gregory’s restaurant but there still appears to be some confusion about how to topping up accounts and the amounts required.
A main meal costs £2, a sandwich £1.50. Hot snacks cost between £1.10 & £2.00 and drinks between 40p & 75p. Each account is limited to a spend of £3.50 per day (which can be adjusted for individuals if required).
There are two options for topping up:
1) The easiest, fastest and preferred way to top up is online at www.parentmail2.co.uk. You will need a code to access the account for the first time, please contact the main office at if you do not have one. You can add funds to your child’s account at any time throughout the week and it will be available for them to spend within 1 hour.
NB: If you ever experience trouble accessing your ParentMail account, please email or call 0844 356 0003.
2) If you don’t have internet access at home, your child can bring cash for the whole week to the student office in the Newman Building on a Monday morning from 8am. Please put the money in an envelope with the amount and your child’s name written on the front, this will then be added to their account on that same day. All students are issued with a receipt to take home.
School Breakfasts
Following the success in the primary school, we are trialling school breakfasts for secondary students: 8.00am - 8.30am in Gregory’s Cafeteria £1.50, free if you have free school meals. If there is enough demand we will continue next term. Use it or lose it!
Attendance League
The Tutor groups with the best attendance this week are:
· Francis 14 at 100% attendance
· Carmel 11 at 98.5% attendance
· Dominic 1 at 97.2% attendance
· Benedict 12 at 97.1% attendance
Benedict House are in the lead for attendance at the moment! Carmel are close on their heels in second place. Thank you for all of your support this term in getting your child into school on time. It is really important that your child is in school and working towards achieving their best.
Year 11 – Catch-Up &Revision Sessions
Business coursework sessions are in BS1 after school every Mon, Wed & Thu. Miss Harper
History controlled assessment sessions every Tuesday after school for one hour. Students will be required to attend if they have missed a class lesson. Revision will run alongside this every Tuesday. Students have also been given a letter detailing the Easter Sociology Revision Day 10-3 on Thursday 9th April. Please confirm attendance by returning the slip to Miss Kane or Mr Scott.
Sociology revision will also be held on Wednesdays in Week A in addition to Thursdays in Week B. Students have also been given a letter detailing the Easter Sociology Revision Day 10-3 on Wednesday 8th April. Please confirm attendance by returning the slip to Miss Kane.
Classics revision is running on Tuesdays from 3:10-4:10pm in HU4. We are currently revising The Odyssey so bring your copy of the text with you. See Miss Philips for further details.
Sixth Form Year 12 attendance following exams
Please note that after the Year 12 exams there will be a compulsory Careers Week and then Year 13 lessons will begin after that in the final summer term, so parents cannot take students on holiday during school term. Please do not ask us to authorise holidays as we cannot do this.
Spot Award Winners
Congratulations to our winners: Gerald Awanyo, Wojciech Chmielewski, Aoife Conway-Maher, Syden De Oliveira Colimao, Max Dybalski, Robyn Garside, Hamzah Hameed, Israr Hashimi, Athina Herrera, Eve Hodgkins, Chiara Iorio, Kelsey Keane, Stacy Ouma, Rikita Phembo, Sheena Quiatchon, Sabeen Rana, Alexander Skeates, Jose Soares, Joao Soares Da Costa, Ryan Thorbourne, Ryan Townsend, Keira Underwood, Celine Weller, Shanicka Ximines and EllieYoung.
And Finally…
We thought it would be too cloudy, but there was a break in the clouds and we were all able to get a good view of the solar eclipse! Thanks to our GCSE Astronomers for helping supervise viewing with eclipse glasses and pinhole cameras. Many of our Year 11 students reminded us that were born in the year of the last UK eclipse. Thank you for making us feel so very old!
The Oxford Literary festival starts this weekend – some events sold out but you can search www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org to find tickets still available. Have a great weekend.
Dr R. Caseby
Vice Principal
Florence Park Children’s Centre Stay & Play
Why not Stay & Play at Florence Park Children’s Centre? Fun for under-5s, all welcome.
· Tuesdays 9.00am – 11.30am
· Wednesdays 12.30pm – 2.30pm
· Thursdays 12.30pm – 2.30pm
Advice on parenting, childcare and budgeting; Returning to work; Volunteering opportunities; 2 year entitlement application; Baby Café & Antenatal support; PEEP Sessions and More!