St Gregory the GreatCatholicSchool
Newsletter
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Volume 6 Issue Twenty Two 19th April 2013
MISSION STATEMENT: “We walk in God’s ways where together we live, love, learn and celebrate”
PRAYER
Lord God, bless our school and direct us as
we set a path for the future
May we build on all the love and giving of
families and staff from the past,
May we face the challenge of the future
guided by your Holy Spirit,
May we continue striving to build your Kingdom
as true disciples of Jesus your Son,
in whose name we make this prayer.
Saint Gregory the Great – Pray for us.
ST GREGORY THE GREAT 4-19 CATHOLIC SCHOOL – A NEW ERA
Our school is unique. The first all through 4-19 school in the County. We have also become an Academy as part of the Dominic Barberi Multi-Academy Company with our Primary Partners St Joseph’s, Thame, Our Lady’s, St John Fisher, St Joseph’s, Carterton, Our Lady of Lourdes and St Thomas More. This is the first organisation of this type in the County. Our aim is very simple – to continue to provide the best Catholic education in South Oxfordshire. We are never complacent and always know that we can do some things better, more effectively. Working together as a more cohesive unit we believe we can make this happen.
Students and parents should not find any great change from the way school works. I know some students and parents are concerned about the term ‘Academy’. We will not be changing our name in the same way that The Cherwell School and CheneySchooldidn’t change theirs when they became Academies.
We are now recruiting staff for our Early Years Provision – please see our new website. We are also open for children aged 4 who might need a Foundation place in September to register. There are sixty places available. Admission is through application to the school.
An exciting new era that must be built on all the success of the past and dreams for the future.
The Multi Academy (DBMAC) website is dbmac.org.uk. The Directors will be holding their first meeting here on Monday.
Although not members of the DBMAC at this time we will also continue to work closely with St Joseph’s, Headington and St Aloysius.
MEETING THE QUEEN
On Maundy Thursday six of the sixth form, including myself were able to participate in the humbling experience of the traditional Maundy service in Christ Church Cathedral. We helped the recipients from their arrival at around eight in the morning until and after lunch in ChristChurch’s Great Hall at one o’clock. It was an incredible opportunity to be present in the acknowledgement of all the good work done in our community by Her Majesty, the Queen as she gifted the recipients with their Maundy money. It was an experience that we, Michael McGuinness, Tanaka Matope, Chelsie Smith, Liam Powell and I will never forget and we were incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Emmalees Furze; Head Girl.
It was a tremendous honour to have been selected to attend the Royal Maundy Service as Wandmen's Helpers. Our role involved helping the elderly recipients and their companions over to Christ Church Cathedral and settling them ready for the service and the Queen's arrival. During the service we had amazing seats enabling us to watch the Queen as she handed out the Maundy Money to the gracious recipients. After the service we helped the recipients and their companions to the Great Hall, where we were fortunate enough to join them for lunch. Overall, we were extremely grateful to have been a part of this wonderful occasion and to have represented our school at such a prestigious event, as well as supporting the recipients and sharing, what they described as, an 'unforgettable experience'. Chelsie Smith.
The Justice and Peace Group of Our Lady's Church would like to invite you to "Called to Be Peacemakers: the challenge of Christian peacemaking", a talk by Chris Cole 7.30pm Tuesday 30th April in the Parish Centre Holloway.
Chris Cole is former Director of Fellowship of Reconciliation and Coordinator of Campaign against Arms Trade.For the past three years Chris has been researching and campaigning on the issue of armed drones.He speaks regularly to local groups and the media on war,peace and nonviolence.Chris has been imprisoned a number of times for nonviolent direct action against war and war preparations, most recently in January 2011. He is a Roman Catholic andlives with his wife, Virginia, and their three children in Oxford.
ISIS HOUSE
Isis House Visiting has now resumed with some Year 10 students. Both Frayer Townsend Lewis and Diana Lima-Quintal bothenjoyed serving teas and helping sort the Easter raffle with the Activities Co-ordinator before the Easter holidays . This weeks visit with chaplaincy, they helped with snakes and ladders and with much fun and laughter for all!
PAX CHRISTI
A big thank you to our visitors from Pax Christi – Mr John Prangley and Mr Peter Clifton. Our Year 12 Ethics group received an insightful and powerful talk about thetheory of a “Just War” and the many controversial examples of modern warfare.
ICT COURSEWORK
Year 11s are reminded that the moderator will be visiting school in May to look at a sample of the OCR Nationals in ICT work. The deadline for handing work in for this visit is May 6th. Please make sure that you attend catch-up sessions to complete the work to your target grade.
Year 12s and 13 ICT coursework final hand-in deadline is Friday May 3rd. No A level ICT coursework will be accepted after that date.
HEADTEACHER AWARD - A GLOWING RECOMMENDATION FROM MRS WILLIAMS
Please could you give a Headteacher's award to Ali Mohammed in year 12 for going the extra mile in his ICT coursework. He has worked independently, researching and improving his skills in using Spreadsheets. Ali hasproduced a top notch spreadsheet with graphs to analyse and compare datain order tohelp decide on which university course he would like to take when he leaves school. The students who get the highest grades are the ones who indentify their problem areas and use theirinitiative to sort them out. Superb.
LANGUAGE OF THE WEEK
(assalāmu ‘alaikum)! Well done if you guessed that last week’s Language of the Week was Urdu! Spoken by 37 students at St Gregory’s and by around 2% of the population of OX4. After English and Welsh, it is the third most commonly spoken language in England and Wales, with 269,000 speakers. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, although it is understandable by speakers of Standard Hindi spoken in India. Urdu has also contributed a few words to the English language, like cushy, pukka, jungle and verandah. Thank you to Henna Mardan in Year 8 for her excellent and interesting description of St Gregory’s and Oxford in Urdu.
Can you guess what this week’s Language of the Week is?
Der Osterferien sind vorbei und wir freuen uns auf das neue Semester. Hoffentlich können wir richtiges Frülingswetter erwarten – Schnee in April?? Das wäre was!
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.
FRENCH GCSE REVISION CLASSES:
The GCSE French Reading and Listening exam papers are on Monday 13th May.
Saturday revision classes will run on the following dates from 10am - 12pm in LA1:
- Saturday 27th April
- Saturday 4th May
- Saturday 11th May
Additionally, lunchtime revision classes are nowrunning every Monday and Wednesday lunchtimein LA1 (see Ms Rappak for a 'Jump the Lunch Q in Gregory's' card if you need one to make the most of these sessions).
FRENCH AS REVISION CLASSES:
Saturday revision classes will run on the following dates from 12pm - 2pm in LA1:
- Saturday 27th April
- Saturday 4th May
- Saturday 11th May
- Saturday 18th May
GERMAN GCSE REVISION CLASSES:
The GCSE German Reading and Listening exam papers are on Wednesday 22nd May.
Lunchtime revision classes are nowrunning every Monday and Tuesday lunchtime in LA2 (seeMrs Cadlefor a 'Jump the Lunch Q in Gregory's' card if you need one to make the most of these sessions).
DT WOOD DONATION – BIG THANK YOU
Many thanks for the contribution of wood from Willmott and Dixon;this will be used forstudent projects and various stage sets for school productions.
PARENT/GUARDIAN DAY SATURDAY 27TH APRIL – AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE FROM MR FOURIE
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to a parent/child day at St Gregory the GreatSchool on Saturday 27th April 2013. This could be any combination of parent/child eg. father/son, mother/daughter, nan/grandson etc. The day can be as competitive as you like but we hope to have a strong social element.
The day will start at 10am and finish at around 15:00pm. Activities will include Netball, Table Tennis, Tag Rugby, Badminton, Tug of War and Football. To encourage/help all the family to attend we will offer a crèche facility. We will also have a BBQ and drink sale from midday to encourage the social atmosphere. After the Easter holidays we will send out a more detailed program outlining the timing of the day. Come and be part of an amazing experience.
We look forward to seeing you on the day.
SPOT AWARDS FOR SCHOOL UNIFORM
Eli Afanu, Carina Andrade, Dion Asante, Dara Austin, Jamie Austin, Jabran Azhar, Cherie Ball, Ania Beauclerk, Ben Carter, Dylan Chambers, Brandon Charlett, Anishka Colaco, Shanice Crowther, Lara Curtin, Flori Dani, Sildi Dani, Winnie De Souza, Lati Dedia, Francis Denton, Naeem Dogar, Louicie Dos Santos, Cleo Dunnett, Rhebecca Espino, John Evio, Dorothy Geteloma, Catherine Godfrey, Chloe Goodes, James Green, Tatum Harding, Owen Harris, Sommer Heels, Shona Hembury, Emma Hield, Sabrina Hussain, Jarell Ireson, Azharul Islam, Farhan Islam, Rochelle Jack, Charley Joines, Judy Jose, Darius Jules, James Kavanagh, Hasaan Khan, Sufiyaan Khan, Altea Koshaj, Piotr Krzysztoforski, Kiren Lal, Michelle Liu, Robbie MacKinnon, Euller Marques, Blanche Mayo, Mattie McDonagh, Gabriel Michael, Segen Michael, Luke Milburn, Graham Mogridge, Tori Morris, Kamil Nicholson, Victoria Njururi, Kate O'Donoghue, Matthew O'Donoghue, Max Oliver, Anthonia Oluwatuyi, Conor O'Mahony,
Adam Pagano, Ervis Palamani, Harry Peach, Caroline Pedrosa, Tinashe Pelekamoyo, Victor Perozo Dos Ramos, Lisa Perry, Isabel Pineiro, Amber Proffitt, Sheena Quiatchon, Ashley Reddy, Acacia Ricketts, Linards Rimsa, Callum Ruddock, Hollie Saunders, Milly Scott, Abubakr Shan, Karen Sidhu, Rosie Sinnott, Katy Stone, Jacob Stuart, Shannon Townsend, Oliver Traynor, Joshua Troyano, Amy Walter,Julian White, Sophie White, Caitlin Winterbourne, Chloe Woollard, Shanicka Ximines, Dan Yates,Ellie Young, Paulina Zieba.
ST GREG’S GOT TALENT
Seven acts took part in the Final of St Greg’s got Talent. A capacity crowd came into support their house, cheering with their home made banners.
The standard was again very high and with dancers, singers, musicians, and rappers the crowd were thoroughly entertained.
The judges had a difficult decision but the final decisions were:
Joint 2nd PlaceJoely Rendle Benedict House
Adeel Rehman and Matheus De Melo Dominic House
And winnerIssac Boyland dancing for Carmel House
Well done to everyone who took part and for everyone’s support. Looking forward to next year’s competition with more entries please.
PHYSICS PRESENTATION
On Wednesday a group of Governors and staff were the audience for a presentation byLuke Simmonds, Olivia Lawler, Hassan Khushi and James O’Callaghan on their project with OxfordUniversity on MRI scanners. It was amazing. The level at which some of our students work is quite breathtaking. The team are making their major presentation to experts next week. We wish them every success.
ANTI-BULLYING AMBASSADOR
Our ambassadors Tenisha Richens and James McDonald have been praised for their work and leadership in recent conferences. Terrific
THE GREGORY
Our very own currency – the Gregory - has been developed and in future weeks we will explain more about how the scheme will work.
SAD POEM
I read a very sad poem by Pawel Kapuscinski this week who clearly misses his Great Grandma who died recently. We keep them both in our prayers.
AND FINALLY
I don’t do ill. I hate being ill. I am the worst patient in the world so I’m really fed up at the moment with cold/flu/temperature/headache that just will not shift.
Mind you, I came across the music of Ludovico Einaudi at the Birmingham Symphony Hall last Sunday. If you need to relax, what a perfect accompaniment.
Best wishes
Mr J J Hussey
Executive Headteacher