FEBRUARY 2014

CONTENTSHeadteacher’s Message

Christmas Concert

Substantial Success!

Educational Visits

Inspired Responses

Holocaust

Competitions & Workshops

In this issue...

Page 4

Page 3

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Pages 10-11 Chinese New Year

Department receiving a glowing report in the national survey undertaken by the Church of England, St.Chad’s students winning three of the nine awards in the Holocaust Memorial poetry competition (with a member of our staff, Liam Hughes, actually laying the poems with a wreath in Auschwitz), the many touching thank you cards from people who received hampers from St.Chad’s pupils at Christmas, the Music Evening and so on!

We are planning new courses and facilities for next year and with the school being full yet again in next year’s Year 7 we can look forward to another successful calendar and academic year.

Thank you for your support!

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A MESSAGE FROMOUR HEADTEACHER...

Happy New Year! Not only because this is the first Bridge of 2014, but also that it is the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Horse.

Although it does not seem long since we started in September we are already making plans not only for the Summer GCSEs and A Levels but for next year as well. In terms of exams, we have been delighted by the way our Year 11 students are focused on their work and their attitude during the recent mock exams was 100% positive. Our team of invigilators who also work at other secondary schools commented yet again that St.Chad’s students are the best!

This year’s exam period is going to be particularly challenging as students will be sitting all of their exams in one go without having taken any early entries in November or January. This is now government policy and has positives and negatives but the key aspect is that all students, parents/carers and staff need to work together this year and in future years to ensure that students are fully prepared for and can cope with the pressure of such an intense exam period – taking all subjects in one period like this will be more challenging than any exam period that students will probably take in their lives. Our Period 6 revision programme will start immediately after half-term to ensure students are fully prepared – please encourage full attendance!

There is lots to celebrate at St. Chad’s even in a short half-term like this; the RE

Although Christmas seems to be a distant memory, an event leading up to Christmas will stay in everyone’s memory for many years to come - the Christmas choir concert. This year we did something different in that we held a joint-choir concert at St.Chad’s with our choir and the Runcorn Highfield Choir. The combination of the two choirs brought a richness and variety to the evening that sent a tingle down everyone’s spine who was lucky enough to be there! Both choirs sang separately and in unison a selection of famous and less well known songs with particular credit going to St.Chad’s students

who were confident enough to sing full or part-songs solo. Well done to Joe McEvoy, Libby Tringham, Nicola Hand and Eve Meredith amongst others for doing this.

The Highfield Choir was particularly complimentary about our students and the magnificent facilities we have at St.Chad’s. Particular credit must go to Kate Smith our singing teacher who they said they would like to ‘poach’ from us and Mr Whitby and the musicians who accompanied the choir as well as performing their own numbers. Well done to the technician team of Ian Wilde and Liam Hughes for provided such good sound and lighting. The evening ended with the Highfield Choir presenting St.Chad’s with a cheque for £500 which we have added to the money being raised by Mr Whitby’s chosen charity of The Paper Chase Trust which supports young people in Kenya. Such was the success of the evening that the Highfield Choir has asked Ms Smith and our choir to be the guest choir at their concert at the Brindley Theatre later this year!

Christmas ConCert

Supporting

20th March 2014 at 7.30pm

Tickets on sale soon in school at £4 each!

St.Chad’s as a school has grown significantly in the last eight years to its current size of approximately 1,100 students which is slightly bigger than the national average for school size. I think current numbers are ideal with space for a few more 6th Formers which we are expecting next year! The popularity of what the school offers has been confirmed yet again by the over-subscription in next year’s Year 7 and the regular applications we get from parents for their children to come here from other schools.

With rising pupil numbers comes the rise of the school budget and staff numbers. St.Chad’s now employs 185 staff, many of them local, and has a multi-million

pound budget. We are probably one

of the biggest organisations in Runcorn! With this responsibility for people and public funds

comes great accountability

and the

local authority audits the school to enable a full review of our school systems and processes and to strengthen controls if appropriate. We are fortunate at St.Chad’s to have an outstanding Business and Finance Team superbly led by Christine Smith, ably supported by Michelle Craven and Joanne McMannion, all of whom have or have had their own children as pupils in the school. Twenty two Halton schools were audited this financial year with only two schools being awarded the highest possible assurance grading, Substantial, meaning there is a sound system of control in operation to manage risks effectively. St. Chad’s was one of the two! This also involves the Clerk of Governors having an increasingly responsible role in ensuring the employers of the school, in our case the Governing Body, follow all governance procedures. We are delighted that our Clerk to Governors, Andrea Fallon, ensures that the new government requirements for governance are met and that she monitors and advises the governors as they govern your school.

Well done to Christine, Michelle, Joanne and Andrea for making sure we are such a sound and substantial school!

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Substantial Success!

Forty Year 9 students on a pre-Christmas visit to Silver Blades Ice Rink in Widnes had a surprise meeting with Olympic gymnast and Dancing on Ice star Beth Tweddle.

Beth was practising for the January show and posed for photographs with many of the students. The evening was a great success as the students enjoyed showing their own skills on the ice and we managed to come away without any injuries this time.

All the students were a credit to the school, a fact noted by the staff at Silver Blades. A further visit will be planned later in year.

History students who are studying Medieval Britain, embarked on an historic adventure to assault Beeston castle in Tarporley. The lure of searching for the lost treasure of Richard II proved extremely popular. The infamous ‘Castle of the Rock’, renowned for its spectacular views, would have allowed King Richard II and his men to view no less than eight counties on a clear day. From its lookout point at the top of a mighty crag, you can see from the Pennines all the way to the Welsh mountains.

Upon arrival, the students were faced with the monumental task of walking from the mini-bus to the inner walls of the castle. An extreme test of physical strength and stamina was needed to scale the incline. Naturally, the pupils had little difficulty, armed with plenty of energy from the earlier visit to the ice-cream farm (an essential stop). The team then split into two groups: attackers and defenders. The defensive unit retreated to the inner ward, the heart of the castle, with its curtain-wall summit as additional protection, while the attackers regrouped and planned their siege.

The attack was well co-ordinated and even

stealth-like at times; however it proved very costly, with each brave attacker losing their life by the defensive stronghold. The pupils were able to experience firsthand the difficulties an enemy army would face whilst attacking a castle.

The pupils used the castle walls as protection from the gusty winds to enjoy a much needed lunch break in the heart of the castle. The pupils were then able to explore the castle ruins further and view the famous castle well, which stands over 100 metres deep and is thus one of the deepest in any English castle. Although the trip was a huge success, the pupils were unable to retrieve King Richard’s treasure, whose whereabouts still, to this day, remains a mystery.

YEAR 7: BEESTON CASTLE

Due to the success of previous exhibits of Key Stage 3 classes in the Inspired Response initiative, we felt it important it to return to a Key Stage 4 activity.

Therefore, our current Year 10 students (Mr Waller’s Art class) were chosen to work with Jenni McConnell who came into school to show her work, this involved documenting images whilst on a journey especially presenting an historical point of view. Jenni also demonstrated paper and card folding techniques that might give the students some ideas to display their work.

On the next occasion, a trip to Halton Castle was arranged where students could visually document aspects of their journey around and within the castle walls, using photographs, collecting objects, logging accounts/comments and writing descriptions. Over the following 6 weeks in the classroom, students set out to record their journey in a personal manner to explore and experiment with the use of maps and photography to make an informed response to the journey. They collected photos of signs, people, plants, and out of place litter. Students who could not make the arranged trip to the castle documented their own journey to and from school. The students created an individual/personal, visual, 3D, conceptual statement, which involved some of the following materials/finished pieces being put on display;

1. A single strip of acetate along the wall of the gallery showing all roads, streets and lanes around the Castle. Personal important observations are indicated within the journey.2. Large scale maps of the castle are printed

and objects are placed within the map noting specific reasons why the chosen objects were significant.3. Acetate cubes and boxes are used to record mapped areas around the castle and within contained objects and written prose to denote aspects of importance.4. Folded paper and card are arranged to record the journey.5. Coiled presentations representing circular journeys.

Students produced a wide selection of work using a variety of media. Jenni was really surprised and delighted with the standard of the students’ work, and she really thought the students responded to the task extremely well and appreciated the project was out of their comfort zone.

The Year 10 students really appreciated the opportunity to work in order to exhibit their work along side other artists and other schools. However, the artwork is not for sale, but can be seen again next year in their GCSE exhibitions!

The students’ work can be seen in the Brindley art gallery until 15th February.

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INSPIREDRESPONSES

At St.Chad’s we try to support all members of our community, in the words of our Mission Statement, to realise their potential and it was very appropriate therefore that Holocaust Memorial Day, which we have reflected upon all week in school before the actual day itself on Monday 27th of January, allowed us the opportunity not only to support a member of our staff in his development but also to encouraged the creative ability of our students, with the two coming together in Auschwitz Concentration camp. Liam Hughes (pictured), a former pupil of St.Chad’s, is one of our superb team of technicians at school and is also a representative of the UNISON union. He accompanied members of his union on a Holocaust Study Tour timed to coincide with the memorial day. The aim of the tour was to become a living witness to the tragic and harrowing state of affairs created by the Holocaust and the war. With there now only being very few survivors from the Holocaust it is even more important that its history is passed on to the next generation for it not to be forgotten! Liam visited Krakow in Poland and Auschwitz concentration camp which has the infamous and evilly ironic saying over the entrance ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Sets you Free). Liam was able to lay the three poems of St.Chad’s students Daniel Crombie, John Roberts and Gemma Graham that recently won three of the nine prizes in the Holocaust Memorial poetry competition along with a wreath on the site of Death Wall, an area of the camp where thousands of innocent people were machine gunned – the wall had a cork covering during the war so that bullets would not ricochet and hit the SS troops holding the machine guns!

Pastor Niemoller, a brave Christian Minister who opposed the Nazis, was imprisoned and

then murdered by them. It was he who said the very famous words about how we must all stand up against racism and discrimination;

First they came for the trade unions, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist, then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist, then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Liam brought a crucifix back from Krakow for the school and for each of the three poets.

Well done to Liam, Daniel, John and Gemma! The three students also read their poems at the Holocaust service at Chester Cathedral on Thursday 23rd of January.

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The RE department ran a poetry competition in school as part of the Holocaust commemorations at Chester Cathedral. The Cathedral invited each school in the Diocese to submit no more than three poems on the theme of ‘Journeys’. During the Holocaust, many people were forced to undertake a journey, in fear of what would be found at the end. Our act of remembering those journeys aims to strengthen the bonds of respect, and enable us to pledge to take a step towards creating a safer, better future. From the many entries, three poems were chosen to be submitted and I am pleased to announce that they were awarded places in the competition as follows:

Year 9: Gemma Graham – Highly CommendedYear 10: Daniel Crombie – Year 10 WinnerYear 13: John Roberts – Year 13 Winner Well done to all those who entered the competition, but particularly to Gemma, Daniel and John. Our winning poets went on to collect a published collection of all the winning poems together with a commemorative candle at a service held at Chester Cathedral on 23rd January 2014. They are pictured with RE teacher Mrs Crone who organised the competition.

Congratulations to Mia-Nell Wilson 7AG winner of the Learning Resource Centre Christmas Story Board Competition with The Magic Snow Globe. Mia was thrilled to receive Vivo Miles credits as her prize.

St Chad’s will be represented this year by Lily Mayers in KS3 and Sam Jones in KS4 at Halton’s Public Speaking Competition on the 4th February. The competition features competitors from six secondary schools in the local area.

Sam will be delivering a speech entitled: ‘Opinionated’ and Lily’s speech will be entitled: ‘The Work Life Balance of a 12 year Old’. Mrs Gardner and Miss Walton will be going along on the night to support them both.

Over the autumn term, Year 8 pupils have been working with the Liverpool story teller and writer John Hughes. Hughes runs regular workshops at both Tate Liverpool and Alder Hey hospital, and is due to publish a book documenting the experiences of sickle cell patients. Pupils had the opportunity to work on a range of creative writing styles and themes. From humorous limericks to engaging storytelling, pupils were given guidance on writing and performing their pieces to entertain an audience.

To celebrate all their hard work a small group are preparing to perform some of their pieces in a Year 7 assembly and an anthology of the work produced is being collated by the English team.

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St Chad’s High School, as a Confucius Classroom, holds its annual China Week during the Chinese New Year period. From 27th January, our school celebrated this most important and traditional Chinese festival. This time we welcome the Chinese Year of the Horse.

During China Week, our Year Group Assemblies were conducted by the Chinese teachers who introduced the history and traditions of the Chinese New Year festival. The assemblies helped raise all students’ awareness of Chinese New Year.

We started the festivities with Master Chen, a prize winning Kung Fu master who joined in the action and delivered some workshops and performances for students. He led his team to deliver wonderful lion dancing and spectacular kung fu workshops. Participating students were thrilled to be able to get involved with this and incredibly excited to be able to learn some kung fu and lion dancing in school.

Mr La, a celebrated Chinese artist, conducted traditional Chinese calligraphy and amazing water-colour painting workshops and very warmly helped the students to experience these traditional Chinese art skills.

We also welcomed special guest, Ms Fan, a professional dance teacher, who has toured worldwide and has more than 10 years of performance experience on the stage. Ms Fan conducted traditional Chinese Ribbon Dance and Fan Dance workshops for our

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On the last day of term Year 7 took part in our annual Carol Competition. Each of our 9 tutor groups practised a different Christmas Carol and performed it in a foreign language – German, Spanish, French or Italian – in front of the whole year group in the assembly hall. The panel of judges were looking for enthusiastic and original interpretations of the Carols. Congratulations to the winners of this year’s trophy - Miss Brown’s tutor group, 7HB, who wowed the judges with their amazing performance of Campana Sobre Campana, a lively Spanish Carol.

students. She shared her skills with us and students thoroughly enjoyed their intricate and beautiful Chinese dance experience.

We wrapped up China Week with some workshops conducted by our Chinese teacher, Mrs Kirkham, our visiting Chinese teacher, Miss Wang and the Mandarin Chinese PGCE teacher, Miss Highmore. In the workshops, students participated in Chinese calligraphy and traditional paper cutting. The workshops were open to the entire school and everyone who participated really enjoyed themselves, getting stuck in with typical relish and enthusiasm.

Our China Week was very successful. Through these Chinese New Year celebration activities, our students at St Chad’s not only increased their own cultural awareness of China itself but it has also helped them to understand the global dimension of our world. These excellent Chinese New Year celebration activities were very popular and were very warmly received by all.

Thank you to Aspens, our caterers, for providing fabulous Chinese food and for wearing Chinese hats.

CAROL COMPETITIONINTERNATIONAL

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Dates for your diary...• 13th Feb - Years 7 and 8

Valentine’s disco.• 26th Feb - Year 12/13 Parents’

Evening.• 5th March - Year 9 Options

Evening.• 13th March - 6th Form presentation

for Year 11 parents.• 21st March - ‘Our Day Out’

drama production.• 26th March - Year 8 Parents’

Evening. 3.30pm-7.00pm