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A group of year 11 students spent 3 hours at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena this week for the annual Maths Strive For 5 Conference.
Students gained valuable insight into how to interpret, attempt and correctly answer up to grade 5 level questions typical of what will be seen in the summer mathematics examinations.
The useful session was closed by a motivational presentation about overcoming your fears and seeing what is possible from Rachel of the fix-up organisation.
Desire > Fear of failure
On April 15th, 1945 British troops of the 11th Armoured Division liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Schools across the country were invited to join the unique commemorative initiative to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation and be a part of this important national moment.
On 12th February myself, Miss Fradgley and Monique Dhillon went on a one day trip to visit the concentration camp of Bergen Belsen in Germany. The trip was part of a four-part course which enables to provide young children like ourselves the opportunity to reflect upon the significance of Bergen-Belsen, its liberation, and its continuing legacy, and to explore the individual stories of those who experienced the site first hand. The seminars were run by educators from UCL and the Holocaust Educational Trust who supervised us whilst the day trip we had our own tour guide from the memorial site.
Bergen-Belson was first established in 1940 by German military authorities to be used as a Prisoner of War camp which over the course of 10 years it was home to many different people. Even though it was liberated in 1945, the camp was still in use up until 1950. Nevertheless, the biggest killer in the camp was the disease that the British troops had sought out when they came to liberate it. The camp had been struck by typhus which killed huge amounts of people including Anne Frank and her sister Margot.
During the course of the day, we were able to walk around the museum which went into huge amounts of detail about the camp and the role that it played. As a group, we walked around where the old buildings used to be, visited the mass graves where the people were buried and saw the marked graves which were built by survivors for their families. At the end of the day, we took part in a memorial service to heighten the importance of the place we were standing in and was asked to place a white pebble on any tombstone of our choice whilst saying a prayer. This was a Jewish tradition to honour the deceased and to let them know that they will always be a part of our life.
The trip itself was an emotional yet educational journey and has widened our eyes to privileged lives we live today in this world as we realised that we should be more grateful for the little things we hardly think about.
“Earth conceal not the blood, shed on thee”
Jewish Memorial inscription
By Leah James
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As part of the school-wide Loyola programme 10 select year 12 students recently travelled to Butterworth Hall, at the University of Warwick, for five wide-ranging and interactive university style maths lectures.
These introduced students to mathematical concepts including mathematics in music, living is a risky business, fighting disease with maths, the quest to find prime numbers and patterns and predictions. The day was highly interactive and engaging, illustrating the wonder and applications of maths to the next generation of budding mathematicians. The students had a great day and got to see what university life is like.
36students from year 7 and 8 have recently spent 3days on retreat at Alton Castle Catholic Retreat Centre in Staffordshire, where we looked at the theme of ‘Called’.
What are we called to be?
How are we called to live?
The students tried different activities to enable them to push themselves and see the beautiful countryside they were staying in. They tried a range of activities, cycling, trekking, climbing wall, archery and survival skills-looking at the 3 things we need to survive, water, shelter and food.
During their time they took part in prayer, adoration and a beautiful Mass celebrated by Fr Paul Wheldon at the St John Catholic Church which is on site.
We shared our Retreat with St John Wall Catholic School in Handsworth and many new friends were made.
We are all called to do be ‘Saints’ .
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.
Our Chaplaincy Team this year decided to put together lots of feathers to make 2 ‘Angel Wings’. Mrs Ferris asked the form tutors to ask the students if they would like to either design a feather, write their new year’s resolution on, their aspiration or inspiring quote.
‘God has created me to do some definite service…I have my mission. I shall be an angel of peace.’ Saint John Henry Newman
We hope you like the final display inspiring students to aim high and be the best they can be.
From the moment that you are born you have all the potential in the world inside you. God gives you this potential but it is up to you to make the most of what you are given. That means pushing yourself to accomplish great things, and taking some risks that are worthwhile in order to grow as an individual. Don’t let a fear of heights keep you from reaching the top and seeing the most incredible view. Your wings are already there, you just have to recognize that you have them so you can successfully take off. Don’t be one of the people who do not accomplish what they could have just because they mistakenly thought they were missing the tools needed to achieve their goals.
‘Your wings already exist…all you have to do is fly’.
The workshop Adeel and I attended recently was a great insight into university life at Warwick and specifically what a politics course would entail. We had a Q&A with current politics students and one girl who had finished her course and was now doing her masters at Warwick. They all told us how flexible the course was and how you can tailor it to support your specific interests.
My personal favorite part of the day was our mini lecture on “How should we deal with the legacy of the empire” looking at how our famous institutes like Oxford and Bristol university were built on the back of the slave trade and how we as a country, and students that attend those universities, should address that by acknowledging the victims without whitewashing the fact that many university founders themselves were slave owners.
We also looked at what makes a good MP and how to write a good political blog, a skill we are encouraged to use to enter the Political studies association blog competition on “does the public expect too much of UK politicians?”.
Coronavirus – Advice for all early years providers, schools and further education providers
The government is closely monitoring the spread of the Coronavirus and is taking action at home and abroad.
The overall risk of Coronavirus to the UK remains moderate. However, we understand that people may be concerned where there are children, students or staff returning from or visiting China.
Public Health England and the Foreign Office have issued advice for anyone travelling to the area. This can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-china
Latest information and advice can also be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Please share this advice with your staff and cascade as appropriate.
Advice for parents/guardians
You should not be unduly worried about the possibility of your children catching the Coronavirus.
There is no reason why your children should not continue to attend their early years, school or further education setting as normal.
We recognise that some families or children may be planning to travel to China during the forthcoming half term period. If so, please refer to the FCO’s latest travel advice via the link above.
What action you can take
A UK wide campaign has been launched to provide clear advice on how to slow the spread of Coronavirus.
Please help to support the campaign which promotes basic hygiene practices, such as regularly washing hands and always sneezing into a tissue, to stem the spread of viruses.
You can do this by:
Displaying this poster in relevant public spaces:
Sharing DHSC content from the following social media links:
Congratulations to Stacey Roderick, Additional Educational Needs Coordinator and teacher of psychology, for completing the Autism Leaders Award.
The award, a new postgraduate qualification designed to help raise awareness of the developmental disorder within mainstream schools, was delivered by the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Outreach Service in conjunction with the University of Wolverhampton.
We are delighted to announce we have our own qualified Autism Leader at St Edmund’s.
Mrs Gibbons, Assistant Principal, collected the award Stacey’s behalf.
The Eco-Club took another step towards achieving their Eco-School Green Flag Award. St Edmund’s were kindly donated 30 trees to plant on the premises to help offset the carbon footprint of one our pupils companies.
The day came when the trees arrived and the Eco-Club got into action! With the help of Mr Katumba, our green fingered hero, who showed us how to plant the trees successfully, with digging a suitably sized hole and how to use compost effectively so the roots have help growing when they wake up.
In very cold conditions our Eco-Club planted all 30 trees successfully and had a great deal of fun. We all agreed that it was amazing to be part of something that will hopefully be here in years to come. It has gone towards our Eco-Schools award objective of biodiversity, which brings us very close to completing the whole award!
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