Starting tomorrow lunchtime, Thursday 4th October 2018.
The whole community of St Edmund’s Catholic Academy is invited to come to the Chapel in their lunchtime to take 5 minutes out of their busy day, light a candle and sit in the Chapel. Taking time to either pray for someone or themselves or just take some time to be quiet and reflect on the day, while music is playing softly in the background. This is a great thing to do not only at school but for yourselves at home, it is great for your wellbeing, helping you to keep calm and relieve the stresses of the day- why not try it.
Everyone leaves with a very small gift and a positive quote like
‘Do Small things with great Love’
‘Happiness is not something ready made, it comes from your own actions’
Or one of my personal favourites ‘A smile Costs Nothing’.

October is Rosary Month
The students and staff at St Edmunds Catholic Academy are invited to the Chapel on a Tuesday evening, after school, to look at how to say the Rosary and learn more about this great ‘tool’ for prayers and meditation. The Rosary beads are provided. Why not come along…
October 7th is the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary and the month of October is traditionally the month of the rosary. Why did the Blessed Mother ask us to pray the rosary at many of her approved apparitions such as at Fatima? Why should we pray at all?
We know that God is perfect and perfectly happy, so he doesn’t need our prayers or affections… but he loves us and wants us to be happy. He wants to have a loving relationship with us both now and for eternity. God is potentially the greatest source of happiness we can possibly have, as God is the greatest, the most beautiful, most loving, all-powerful and all-knowledgeable being in existence
Prayer is a way to help us get in touch with God and to develop a relationship with him. In prayer we not only talk with God, but God communicates with us. As we continue to pray, our relationship with God grows, and we are transformed more into the people we are meant to be.
So why pray the rosary?
One reason the Blessed Mother asked us to pray the rosary might be because it can benefit anyone at any stage of the spiritual life from beginners to advanced. The rosary is a vocal prayer, a meditation and can lead to contemplation as Pope John Paul II mentioned in his encyclical Rosary of the Virgin Mary.
“A path of contemplation … But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have proposed in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millenio Ineuente as a genuine ‘training in holiness’: ‘What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer’. Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become ‘genuine schools of prayer’. The Rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation.”

The Sutton Trust project involved 6 days living in Grey College at Durham University. Each day consisted of academic sessions where a subject leader would do presentations on different aspects of the chosen course in preparation of an assessed project at the end. After an evening meal, social activities ran which included theatre, football, fencing, a silent disco and open mic night. The assessed project for Psychology was a written piece on our own devised psychological experiment, and a presentation to our group on said experiment. Passing this project resulted in a guaranteed conditional offer in which the entry requirements were reduced from AAA to ABB.

The Sutton Trust Summer School at Durham University was insightful. It was my first time travelling and living away from home so now I don’t feel as anxious when thinking about moving away to University. I am also positive that Durham is the university for me, as well as being confident in my choice of course.

Friday 28 September 2018 marked the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning organised by our
Sixth Form.

Staff took part and generously contributed cakes to be sold. We certainly ‘baked it and
faked it’!! Our Sixth Formers – Tiffany, Cerys and Gabriella kindly promoted and co-
ordinated the event. The majority of the cakes were sold during break in the foyer.

Leoni (8AK) said, “ I bought a cake that had a cute strawberry on top of the icing and jam in
the middle. I support Macmillan because my great uncle died from cancer and I think
Macmillan do an amazing job supporting people with cancer”.

We currently have vacancies for two Foundation Representatives and one Parent Representative here at St Edmund’s.

If you feel you would like to become involved, perhaps have your say in reviewing our mission, our curriculum plan, ensuring a healthy environment for our students, maximising the potential of the site, helping us to move forward and much more, then please don’t hesitate to make contact.

You will need to be a practising Catholic and should approach your Parish Priest in the first instance if you are interested in the Foundation Representative role.
If you are interested in the Parent Representative role please contact our Chair, Mrs Gallagher mgallagher@bccmac.co.uk in the first instance.

You’ll be glad you did!!

Chaplaincy Commission Mass
On Thursday 20th September all the Chaplaincy Teams, Lay Chaplain, Chaplains, across the Birmingham Diocese along with 10 students from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy our Lay Chaplain Mrs Ferris and Mr White came together to celebrate Mass at St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
The Mass was presided by Bishop David McGough and music provided by members of the Kenelm Trust, the Alton and Soli Teams. We had been asked beforehand if we would provide two students to take the Offertory and 2 students to Alter Serve.
I was so proud of Abigail Caron and Georgia Luliano who were a credit to themselves and the school, serving for the Bishop is not easy especially in a different church in front of so many schools.
During the Mass the Lay Chaplains and the student Chaplaincy members were Commissoned and made their yearly promise to, ‘With the help of God be ready and willing to serve’. After our promise we were blessed with Holy Water.
Bishop David thanked everyone for everything they were doing in the schools and like Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon and His Companions who’s feast day it was to continue Evangelising and to Love One Another.

Soli House
Next week a group of students from years 9 and 10 will be on Retreat with Mrs Ferris and Mrs Badham. They will be travelling to the new Soli House in Staffordshire for 3 nights and 4 days of time to pray, rest, have fun and take time to reflect on themselves, the world and their faith.
The theme of the week will be Legends. Tommy Rowan, the new director of Soli, and his team have put together a great programme of events and activities such as Bin Bag Superheroes, Dragon’s Den, Emmaus Walk, My Hero, Bubble Football and Escape Room. There will also be more reflective time through group work, prayers and Mass.
The week will be shared with students from Bishop Challoner Catholic College so our students will have the opportunity to make new friends from across the city, ensuring a great time will be had my all.
Please keep those attending in your prayers, just as they will be praying for everyone in the St. Edmund’s and Bishop Cleary family.

On the 22 August 2018 Mr Garrity went to see a production of ‘The Comedy about a Bank Robbery’ at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.  After being performed at the Criterion Theatre in the West End for the last 3 years, This performance was the opening show of its first ever tour of the United Kingdom.

The play, written by Mischief Theatre’s Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, is a hilarious story of betrayal, crime, romance and, of course, a bank robbery.  The three writers, who also perform in their own works, are also the creators of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, another successful comedy piece that has been performed in London’s West End for the last few years and has now just started its run on Broadway in America.

At the performance of ‘The Comedy about a Bank Robbery’, Mr Garrity luckily managed to bump into the three writers who were there on the Press Night to support the opening of the tour.  After a few minutes of conversation Mr Garrity told the 3 writers that a lot of his Drama students are fans of their work as they have seen clips of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ as well as some of their production of ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’.  Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields were very flattered and asked whether GCSE Drama was a popular subject at St Edmund’s. When Mr Garrity described the love and popularity of the subject at St Edmunds, the three of them kindly volunteered to deliver a message to our GCSE students to wish them well and the best of luck for their GCSE Drama Exam Performances.

India Collins-Davies, Outreach Officer from Oriel College, Oxford came to speak to Year 13 about the interview and application process. We have a number of potential Oxbridge applicants this year who are competing for places at Oxford and Cambridge.

Arminda is applying to Cambridge this year to study Computer Science, he is predicted an A* at A level, Armindar said, “The experience was very helpful, and made me feel more confident about my application, India made some valuable comments”.

In year 12 we have a group of aspiring medics who spoke to India about gaining experience in the medical field in preparation for their university applications next year.

India gave a motivational talk to year 11 with a brief overview of entry requirements and career pathways. Paige who is aspiring to go to Oxford asked about her pathway to university and ‘A’ level options in St Edmunds Sixth form.