St Cuthbert’s

Catholic High School

Educating boys since 1881

Issue27

NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER

FAITH : LEADERSHIP : LEARNING WORLD CLASS SCHOOL

St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School has been awarded the coveted World Class Schools Quality Mark

The school is incredibly proud of achieving this award; the nature of the World Class Schools organisation means the students are world class, not the staff, which makes it such a wonderful achievement. The fact that our students are World Class is the most pleasing accolade for every member of the school community as a whole as they are formed through their years with us. World Class is an award open to Ofsted Outstanding Schools, who initially have to meet a set of rigorous criteria with regards to their student outcomes. Following this the students complete a 20 page self-audit of the school and submit a video of “A week in the life” from the student perspective. The final challenge was to complete, with two other schools from across the country, a group project designing a learning environment of the future, including research, promotion, budgeting, modelling and finally presenting to a hall full of peers and industry experts.

A wide range of students were involved in the project throughout the student body and three Year 12 students represented the school in Reading, London; James Conn, Jack Kennedy and Matthew Lockey. WORLD CLASS SCHOOL FAITH Remembrance at St Cuthbert’s

Students from 7ASH worked with the Art Department to create a giant poppy to be used as the focal point of their form class liturgy; the students then wrote the names of their deceased loved ones onto card and placed them on the poppy.

O u r a n n u a l Remembrance Day Mass was celebrated by Fr Bill Agley who praised the reverence of the students and the talents of the choir and musicians who l e d a m o v i n g rendition of ‘Abide with me’. The Mass was led by our students who are servicemen/cadets; they looked impeccable in their uniforms and represented themselves superbly. FAITH FAITH

St Cuthbert’s Tree Planting St Cuthbert’s student After receiving over 150 small completes his Fortis Dux trees from the Woodland Trust, students from St Cuthbert’s Award in style Green Team set about Inigo Keeper-Redshaw, a Year planting them. The students braved the wet and windy 7 student, completed his conditions to create an Catholic Leadership Award by outdoor liturgy space for future saving up his own pocket generations of the school. money to buy items of food he could donate to those in need. This follows on from St Cuthbert's celebrate Inigo’s private cake sale the Nativity of the which raised over £10. Mr Blessed Virgin Mary Cullen will take Inigo’s St Cuthbert’s continued donation to ‘The People’s their Year of Mary in style Kitchen’ a homeless charity with birthday celebrations based in Newcastle. held to mark the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. Staff were treated to birthday cake during their briefing whilst being given some background to the feast. Students also tucked into cake at the end of their RE lessons, the Rosary was said in the chapel at lunchtime and the Hail Mary replaced our set daily prayers. FAITH FAITH

Green Team donate produce

Students from St Cuthbert’s Green Team, who were inspired by the teaching of Laudato Si, have harvested their Students from 7C2 completed v a s t c r o p o f their unit of work studying Our vegetables in order to Lady by creating their own rosary donate them to ‘The People’s Kitchen’ beads and taking them up to the homeless charity in Chapel to say the rosary Newcastle. together.

Fortis Dux goes international

St Cuthbert’s students Jay Rajput, Inigo Keeper- Redshaw and Harry Thomson, featured in an article in the international Catholic magazine ‘The Tablet’ about their completion of the school’s Fortis Dux Award.

Form Class Liturgies

All students from Oswald House Y7-10 have planned and delivered their own form class liturgy in the Chapel. The students ended each liturgy with a ‘Mission’, which included a collection for The People’s Kitchen.

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John Muir Award

The John Muir Award is an Environmental Conservation Award which required students to discover, explore, conserve and share an area. Year 11 students conducted a biodiversity survey of the area via transects and quadrats – recording results to discover the range and variety of species in the area. Students then completed a beach comb of the bay – removing plastic, marine and land based waste which helped develop an awareness of stewardship for the bay.

Arkwright Scholarships

James Vincent and Ethan W a k e n s h a w were accepted o n t o t h e prestigious A r k w r i g h t Scholarship for Design and Technology.

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Business Leaders The £5 Grow students and Business Ambassadors have worked enthusiastically and diligently to produce another set of outstanding Christmas themed products, from reindeer hot chocolate, snowmen soup, sweet cones, cards and handmade soap. Products have been sold at school and at Alnwick Castle.

Year 9 Reece STEM outreach with Newcastle University

Renewable energy

Extraordinary evolution

Geogberts goes from strength to strength The extra-curricular club ‘Geogberts’ has had to relocate due to high numbers. Around 50-60 students have been attending Geogberts every Friday lunchtime and despite the big numbers and bigger space, students have not been deterred from presenting their seminars. LEADERSHIP LEARNING

Michael Ndiweni wins the Chronicle Champions Award for Young Role Model 2019

The nomination was completed by Michael’s Head of House, Form Tutor and Sports Leader Coach.

Chronicle Champions Awards recognise the people who make the region great. Readers nominate the selfless people in their community who make a difference.

Michael was nominated due to his exceptional attitude both in and outside of school. Always leading by example, consistently helping others, Michael embodies the ethos of St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School. Faith. Leadership. Learning.

St Cuthbert’s Leadership Week Biggest in the City

St Cuthbert’s has again provided the biggest and best summer school experience in Newcastle.

The leadership week encompasses St Cuthbert’s mission statement of ‘Faith. Leadership. Learning.’ In the course of the week students cooked pasta on camping stoves, designed a charity and produced hessian bags, performed CPR, programmed robots, studied mandarin and Tai Chi, competed in a traditional sports day, played a range of sports and developed leadership skills. A special mention must go to the six students from Sixth Form who, as sports leaders, planned and delivered their own sessions throughout the week- they truly were role models to the younger students. LEADERSHIP LEARNING

Fine Art Pottery

Year 11 Fine art students took part in a one day workshop at local ceramics studio – ‘Thomas Ross pottery’.

Students created a range of highly imaginative teapots which link to their own portfolio work and will be used as part of their GCSE submission.

Excellence in English

Once again we have had a fantastic start to the year regarding our Excellence in English seminar schedule. Seminars have been varied in their focus including one on A level Linguistics delivered by Year 13 students Rhys Ramsay and Corie Dixon. This term some Year 8 students were given the opportunity to see Merchant of Venice performed by the RSC at Sacred Heart High School for Girls. The students particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the character Shylock, played by a female actor, who many said was their favourite in the production.

Enrichment

It’s been a busy half term, with lots on offer across the school during lunchtimes and after school. The following students attend the most enrichment activities this half term Louis Svirskis (7ACR), Rayan Hassim (8VB), Tom Weinstein (7DAD) and Josh Gabra (8AV). A fantastic effort from these students throughout the half term. Information of what is on can be found on the school website LEARNING LEARNING

Music News

On Wednesday the 4th of December St Cuthbert’s held it’s fifth Advent service at St Michael’s RC Church in Elswick. The stand out performance came from Year 7 soloist Alfie Jones who stunned the congregation with a beautiful performance of O’ Holy Night.

Over 70 students presented an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Students from of all ages ranges took part in a multitude of roles from; performers/ actors, musicians, to sound and lighting engineers to stage technicians, singers and audio visual production and more.

History trip to Russia

A Level students travelled to Russia during half term to contextualise their studies. They had the opportunity to see significant historical sights in both St Petersburg and Moscow. A favourite was visiting Lenin's Mausoleum where they were able to meet Lenin face to face! The students were able to gain a real insight to life under Soviet control and experience Russian culture, including the infamous Ushanka hats. LEARNING LEARNING

Advanced Maths Enrichment Day A group of Year 8 students were lucky enough to have experienced an Enrichment Morning through the A d v a n c e d M a t h s S u p p o r t Programme. Students looked at various Mathematical concepts such as Goldbach’s Conjecture and the Fibonacci sequence. The students developed leadership skills, as well as News d e e p e n i n g M a t h e m a t i c a l Over the festive season, Science Club students, understanding and had a great time. under the guidance of Matthew Fullerton and Joshua Hartness, have been building “Chemistrees” in Chemistry, DNA structures in Biology, and fairy lights to decorate their clamp stand trees in . 7S2 have also completed a cell project in Biology.

Awards

Evening

Students' achievements f o r t h e p r e v i o u s academic year were celebrated. The guest of honour was Professor Chris Day - Vice- Chancellor and President of Newcastle University– who inspired the students with a speech.

U16 Table Tennis

The team have performed excellently this year winning the Newcastle City Games Table Tennis Competition overcoming a strong St Mary’s team in the final. This meant the team qualified for the next round at the County Finals at the Beacon of Light. The team dominated in their group, comprehensively beating St Thomas More North Shields, , Whickham and Harton. Unfortunately, the team could not carry this form into the final losing to St Mary’s, finishing as second best team in the County.

St Cuthbert’s U14 Rugby season so far… 2nd best team in the County

The Year 9 Rugby team had their County Cup finals on Monday 2nd December and came out as second overall. They were in a strong group alongside Dame Allan's, and High School. Games were played under the floodlights at Kingston Park using the full pitch which was unforgettable experience for the boys. The team have only lost once this year, against the County champions, Dame Allan’s, and can boast an impressive record of Won – 8, Drawn – 1, Lost – 1.

Year 8 Football

The Year 8 footballers have made a fantastic start to the new season as they won all six of their first league fixtures and sailed through the first two rounds of each cup competition comfortably. Going into January the team are in the semi-final of the City Cup, have progressed into the quarter finals of the County Cup and are in a good position to win the league in their last three central venue fixtures scheduled in February.

FAITH : LEADERSHIP : LEARNING