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.

Viktorija, one of our Year 12 students recently spent an interesting 3 days at Staffordshire University on their Unilife programme. This programme is free to students and gives them an opportunity to experience University life. Students took part in a variety of activities including lectures on their chosen course, student finance and degree apprenticeships as well as how to prepare their personal statements. They were then treated to fun activities such as a flight simulator experience and a talk by staff from an exotic zoo in Telford where she faced her phobia by holding a tarantula spider!

During July, 2018 we both participated in the Young Lawyer Programme at University College London. This was a great experience for the both of us as we are both interested in the subject and are currently considering going into it as a future profession. The day allowed us to walk in the shoes of real life lawyers with case studies being presented to us which meant we were really able to engage and share our ideas in group discussions with our fellow peers. The day included talks from various different lawyers who are excellent within their fields. These talks included the Solicitor, Family Lawyer, Barrister and the City Lawyer. We also had a mock murder trial after lunch which gave us the chance to engage and cross examine witnesses which was probably the highlight of our day as it was set up like a real life case and therefore felt as if we were in an actual court. Not only did we have talks from various different professionals but also talks about applying for university and the recruitment process. Then finally the day was rounded off by having a panel discussion where all the lawyers came together to answer any final questions we may have had. So overall, we are very happy that we took this opportunity as it has really helped us decide on what we want to carry on doing after sixth form and has also given us valuable experience.