Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy part of Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust

The Friday Letter Edition No 176

Friday 3 February 2017

[Follow us on www.st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk and on Twitter@SJHCVA] Feast of St Brigid of Ireland 1 of February ‘Brigid You were a woman of peace. You brought harmony where there was conflict. You brought light to the darkness. You brought hope to the downcast. May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious, and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world. Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made. Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary. Strengthen what is weak within us. Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens. May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit. Amen.’ Dates for your Diary

Academic Year 2016 – 2017

Monday – Tuesday 6 – 7 February Catering Practical

Monday – Friday 13 – 17 February Ski Trip

Monday - Friday 13 – 17 February Half Term

Monday 20 February Students return

Thursday 3 March Year 9 Parent Consultation Session

Year 8 Parents Evening Thank you to everyone who came to the Year 8 Parent's Consultation Afternoon on 2 February 2017. The evening was well attended and it was a fantastic opportunity for parents and carers to discuss their child's progress. I hope you all found the evening beneficial and ask for your support in the future.

Five-star service at Saint John Houghton

Congratulations to Mrs Moore and her team in the Kitchen who were recently awarded 5 stars in their recent hygiene inspection. Mrs Moore and the team work so hard to ensure that we are all well fed and we are grateful for all that they do for us.

Security We have been reviewing our safety procedures in school recently. The school gates will now be closed at 8.45 am. Students arriving late to school after this time will have to press a buzzer at the gate for entry. Students who arrive to school before 8.00am are to go and sit in the reception area.

Striving for progress

Humanities would like to recognise the following Year 10 students who have all made good progress in their last assessment: Thomas Buda, Donagh Devine, Louis Hart, Christopher Hodson, William Holmes, Tom Joshua Colonge, Amelia Dawes, Thomas Elliott, Joseph Fyffe, Alex Hall, Harry Helliwell, Molly Hinton, Angus James, Constance Knighton, Bradley Lathall, Carly Mee and Catherine Oliver. Well done - Keep up the hard work.

RE stars of the week Students in 8Y2 who have made significant progress are:

Kian Beer, Tia Longdon, Danny Batty, Megan Harper, Eleanor Higgins, Kian McEvoy, Mackenzie Wood, Grace Thornhill, Mia Wiltshire, Tom Hampson, Millie Jones, Ellis Haddon and Liam Amos. Mr Long congratulates the following students for their performance in the last assessment, for achievement and/ or progress: 7KB - Paige Annable and Luke Vernon 7MT - Jasmin Bradshaw and Kathryn Dudley 9X2 - Maisie Beardsley, Ella Stacey and Jessica Poxon 9Y1 - Ella Callaghan, Ryan Fee and Anica Taylor 10X3 - Thomas King and Joshua Dunbavand 10Y1 - Erin Nelson, Elin Retallick and Joshua Crownshaw Miss Bailey's stars of the week made on their progress in Religious Education are: 7KJO - Lily Cunningham 8Y1 - Athena Christodoulou 9X3 - Chloe Smith, Joe Wilton, Alfie Manders and Shauna Woodward 9Y1 - Luke Wilson and Paige Fretwell-Crabtree 10X2 - Anna Fletton 10Y3 - Josh Forbes 11X2 - Cameron Derry 11Y2 - Amelia Burton 8Y1 - Pretoria Stacey Well done everybody.

Commitment, hard work and

dedication:

What a week it's been in the ADT Faculty! We've had students in

every lunchtime completing their class work and coursework. Sometimes it's to continue with their work, sometimes it's to start a new project and sometimes it's to get out of the cold. After school has been pretty busy too with students in Monday and Tuesday after school as coursework deadlines near. Sometimes I stand back and just watch in ore as over 20 students most evenings and lunchtimes choose to come in on their time and work hard. Credit should be given to our product design and engineering groups who are working extremely hard.

3D printers and laser cutters are working flat out, computers and machinery are running at every possible moment. Watching these students working independently to create something they have designed themselves gives a teacher a great sense of satisfaction. All of these students wouldn't be doing this without the support of those around them. Thank you to the parents that pick them up after school so they can continue their work. Thank you to the teachers who spend every lunchtime and every after school session going above and beyond. Thanks to our technicians Mr Lovelock and Miss Bywater who gives up a lot of their free time to help our students. Thanks to our fantastic TAs, Mrs Adams and Mrs Bentley who know the faculty inside out and ensure all of our students can access the subjects. When all of these things come together, great brings can be achieved. We have some very talented designers, engineers and technologists which are going to go on and become something very special. I'm pleased that we were a very small part of their journey, well done everyone. Year 10 Product Design: Soap, Soap and more Soap. Year 10 Product designers have been up to their necks in soap! They have been learning about vacuum forming, moulding and marketing over the past 4 weeks when they were challenged to design a new range of soaps for Lush. The first part was analysing the lush company brand and existing products. They then designed a number of soaps and packaging before deciding on their final concept. The final outcome was a fully functioning lush soap that students have taken home. Our students now smell a little better and know a little bit more. I would like to say a huge well done to Oliver Holding, Catherine Oliver, Amelia Dawes, Tyler Marshall, Martyna Popek, Harvey McGuire, Chyna Webster, Neeve Dring, William Holmes and Tamzin Evans who have worked really well over the few weeks. Mr Price - Faculty leader for Art, Design and Technology Art Amazing Progress in Art

Year 7 – Lilly Seddon 7MT & Ewan Chalopin 7JW have both wowed me with their portraiture projects that started in January.

Year 8 – Phoebe Hill 8BP has really stepped up her game this term and has delivered some fantastic observational drawings inspired by Jim Dine.

Year 9 – Mert-Han Harry 9PL has excelled within the Jon Burgerman project and used his love of doodling to achieve some truly outstanding pieces.

Year 10 – Mia Marquis has produced this impressive lino print, using reduction printing to create three separate layers of colour.

Year 11 – Megan Burroughs has been experimenting with the batik dyeing method for her GCSE project focused around detail. Keep up the good work! Miss Ensor

Mr Quenby and Mr Ball would like to congratulate all students in year 7 who are working hard in music on their project about Bhangra. On top of learning and appreciating the music of other cultures, the year 7s

have all composed bass lines and riffs that will be put together to create some exciting performances over the coming weeks. There’s more hard work to come with the assessment around the corner! Mrs Finney would like to congratulate the following students for being Book of the Week this week in year 9 and 10: Ryan Fee for his excellent effort Lewis Fearn for his excellent detailed explanations in his long answer questions.

In the French department, Year 11 have completed their final GCSE speaking assessments, this time on the topic of Le collège, and there were some excellent performances.

Well done to all of those students who improved upon their last result. There were some excellent individual performances and a lot of effort had gone into the preparation for these from all involved. I'm sure they are all devastated that they won't have to do one ever again...unless of course, they continue at A-Level! In Year 9, Kenneth Lee received an excellent result in his Writing Assessment and Constance Keetley also produced an excellent accurate piece of writing with 3 tenses. Again, some great efforts from Year 9 as a whole. The Year 8 Reading assessment was a big success with a lot of students receiving almost top marks. Year 7 took part in their first ever speaking assessments last week. These can be a really nerve-racking experience but it was fantastic to see so many excellent, confident French-speakers. They had prepared very well and their hard work paid off with some excellent grades achieved. It would be impossible to pick out individual performances as there were so many excellent displays. Most Progress!

Computing

Year 7

Erin Lees 7MT, Adam Sherlock 7JG, Molly Burke 7KJO, Leon Herrod-Smith 7KJO

Year 8 - Katie-May Smith 8BP, Mia Wiltshire 8BP, Luke Bagnall 8CP and Daniel Collings 8DQ Year 9 - Selina Drury 9KF, Chloe Large 9KF, Maksymilian Liszka 9PL and Leah Smedley 9PL Year 10 - Josh Forbes 10CR, Thomas Bowhay 10CR, Thomas Buda 10CR, Darren Drury 10ST, Tamzin Evans 10LMc, Robert Smith 10LMc and Phoebe Wyatt 10CR. Year 11 - Harry Scarisbrick-Dixon 11KJ, Kevin John 11KN, Simon Lightfoot 11MJP, Christopher Austin 11KJ, Emelia Dorman 11MJP and Charlie Sewell 11LRe. Business Year 10 - Joseph Peabody 10ST, Sarah Storer 10LMc, Saskia Mosley 10CR, Annie Doherty 10RL, Grant Fenton 10RL and Mia Williams-Greatorex 10LMc. Year 11 - Laura Banks 11KJ, Cameron Gill 11MJP, Harrison Lowe 11KN, Lucy Pavlou 11KN, Jennifer Haywood 11LRe and Harrison Bullock 11MJP. Attitude to Learning

Justice and Peace Team Can we please have a mention for Katie Tolan (8BP), Libby McKentie (8BP), and Kian Beer (8DC) for their attendance and the new positions they have taken up in the Justice and Peace team. Can we also thank Amy Cullingworth and Elizabeth Ward for their commitment in Justice and peace throughout their time at SJH.

Chaplaincy

‘Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy. Psalm 100’

Rachel's hero of the week: Christian Harrison (8CR)

Rachel would like to thank: Mr Long, Miss Cairns, and the J&P Group for all their hard work.

More thanks to Ben Langfield for his support on the oasis Team.

Well done Luke Haywood who has been noticed by Rachel for his good manners.

Rachel would like to thank Admin for their support this week. Tutor Take-over! Well done to students in 7MT. For the last few weeks’ students have been taking it in turns to lead tutor time on a Monday. They plan a small Act of Worship and an activity for the rest of the students to take part in. Well done to Lilly Seddon and Fern Hunter for setting the standard on Monday 16 January and getting the class to think about braving their fears. Joel Hopcroft and Rory McGregor linked their tutor time to

the work we had been doing in Learning for Life and asked us to really get to know each other. Drew Ringland and Paige Bainbridge asked us to think about others that are less fortunate than ourselves. A fantastic example to others well done to all of you.

Pilgrimage to Lourdes

Our pilgrimage to Lourdes this year takes place 10th-15th July. Our students always gain a lot from this trip, it really is a wonderful experience. The trip costs £550 and includes flights from East Midlands, accommodation and board. Letters have been sent asking students for expression of interest. We would like these returned by next week so that we can start to plan and get excited!

Year 7 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle On Thursday 26 January the Year 7s were off timetable for the annual Reduce, Reuse, Recycle day. The first part of the day they watched a Theatre performance led by the Gibber Team on the theme of reducing waste, reusing everything from clothes to electrical items and the importance of recycling. The day was then split up into lessons led by the tutors and a workshop led by the Gibber team. During the classroom lessons the pupils were given a task to encourage people to reduce, reuse, recycle. Some pupils did a PowerPoint and posters, some did songs and others made items out of recycled materials from home. Some good examples were musical instruments, famous buildings and clothes all made out of recycled materials. Mr Ritchie would like to thank all of the Year 7 tutors and pupils for making the day so enjoyable.

Run Club This week Mrs Joslin, Mr Ritchie, Mr Carr and Mr Meenan organised run club. Well done to Megan Hinton, Milly Lambert, Ellie-Grace Johnson, Lily-May Ward, Ben Marshall, Bradley Mee, Mason Priestly, Finn Elliott-Hufton and Ethan McAuley who braved the cold weather.

Saint John Houghton students pick up the Mic Following a very successful year of our students preforming at various venues around Nottingham and Derbyshire, this year’s in session season kicks off on Monday night. On Monday evening some of our students will be preforming at the Open Mic Night at the Royal Oak in Watnall. The session starts at 7.00pm and the junior performers are on stage between 7.00pm and 8.30pm. If you are in the area drop in to see Evie and Orla preform their highly acclaimed set and Grace preform her acoustic set with songs by Lada Ga Ga. It will be also the first outing and live performance of our Chaplain Rachel Rose, a much anticipated event. More details are shown on the flyer attached.

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Thank you for taking the time to read the Friday letter. On Tuesday I and my colleagues from the Leadership team had the pleasure of visiting students in their lessons and having conversations with them about their learning. Your children are credit to you and I was very impressed with how articulate and knowledgeable they are about their learning. They gave me some great insights and I look forward to speaking to them again in six weeks. Thank you for your continued support of the school. Today I will be having conversations with the RSC office and will be in apposition to update you in the Sixth form application on Monday. Wishing you a happy weekend and week ahead Mrs McCarthy Headteacher