Dear Parent, Mr Shawn Gavin – Our Inspirational Teacher Firstly, may I thank so many of you for the messages of condolences, prayers and kind words that have been sent to the College following my email sharing the very sad news of Shawn Gavin’s passing away. As you can imagine, it has been a difficult week in College for so many of our students, particularly but not exclusively, sixth formers and, of course, for our staff. At times like this, the strength of our community shines through. The support for one another, for our stu-dents and for Shawn’s wife and family have been wonderful, and it will continue through the coming weeks, months and times ahead. I said in my email on Monday that I would give you more information in this newsletter and it is important that I do so. The words “Our In-spirational Teacher” are written on the cover of our Book of Condo-lences. Parents whose children have had the privilege of being taught by Mr Gavin will understand. Shawn loved our students, our College, the science team in which he worked and all of our staff; he was an outstanding Physics teacher whose impact on the lives of current and past students is inestimable. We all remember the teach-ers who really made a difference to us; Shawn was without doubt one of those. Tributes have been flowing in from students. The latest email from a past student to me contains the following extracts: “Mr Gavin represented everything a student could want or need from a teacher, role model, and friend…his classroom was full of learning and laughter…his bravery and determination will continue to inspire all those who were fortunate enough to have known him.” The bravery and determination referred to above were seen in the way Shawn continued to teach his lessons until being finally admitted to our Island Hospice where he and his family received the wonderful care for which the Hospice is known. Please be aware that the funeral takes place at the Crematorium at 9.45 on Tuesday morning (22nd November). Many staff and students will be attending and, at the request of Shawn’s wife, are actively involved in the service. We will be remaining open all day, but I know you will understand that there will be cover arrangements in place for the staff attending the funeral. As al-ways, however, we will do our best to ensure that the impact on our students and their lessons is mini-mal. In the future, we will be arranging a Memorial Service in College for the life of Shawn Gavin at which we will dedicate a lasting tribute to all he gave to the College and our students. I will keep you informed as to when that will be taking place. For the present, however, we continue to hold Shawn ’s family in our pray-ers and prepare for Tuesday. So I ask, therefore, for your continued prayers and thanksgiving: for the life and service to our students of this remarkable man; for our current and past students grieving at his death; for our wonderful staff at Christ the King College who have maintained the dignity and professionalism that Shawn would have expected of us all this week; and for Katy, Shawn’s wife, for their three children, Zac, Livi and Tessa, for Shawn’s mother and the rest of Shawn’s family and for all who knew and loved him. Thank you very much indeed.
Issue 10 18th November 2016
Prayer
Lord God, we give you thanks for the life of Shawn Gavin. Like you, he was a teacher and he gave of himself to his students and to our College. Comfort his family and be close to them in their sadness and their loss. Bless the students whom he taught, past and present, and help them to have pride in all that they have learned from him about Science and about how to live, his bravery, his courage and his exam-ple to all who knew him. Amen
Christmas Auction of Promises - Tickets are still on sale for this exciting event. Bring your
friends and book a table to sit together. Unfortunately, at the moment we only have 31 parents
who have booked a place. Therefore unless this event is supported more, it is hugely regrettable
that it may not be able to go ahead.
Support Christ the King College for your chance to win up to £25K in our
weekly lottery.
Cost: £1 per entry per week
Prizes: £2, £20, £250, £25,000!
How to enter: Please go to
http://theweatherlottery.com/
charitiesHomepagePlay.php?
client=CTKCL
We now have 32 active players, potentially raising £5,000 for the College. Last month, Mr F from East Cowes won £20 in one of the weekly draws and one new player joined our Lottery. Why not try your luck this week!
Governors’ Building Fund - All parents are asked to contribute £2 per child
per week to the Governors’ Building Fund. Alternatively, you may wish to pay this
as a lump sum of £110 per year, if this is more convenient for you. This can be
paid via School Gateway, or you may prefer to set up a standing order.
Lloyds TSB, Newport, Isle of Wight Sort Code: 30:95:99
Account Number: 32687660
Theme: Baptism
Ephesians Chapter 4 Verse 2 to 6
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one anoth-er in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one bap-tism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
On three different days over the next few
weeks, your child will take part in a
Christingle making workshop during their
RE lesson. After they have made their
Christingles, the students will move
through to our Lower College Hall where
we will join together in a short service of praise and
thanksgiving.
The RE Dept. at Christ the King College are pleased to
invite your family to take part in this joyful charitable
event and celebrate together as a community.
The Children’s Society have provided our students with
the equipment to be able to make their Christingles and,
in return, we will be making a donation. A collection will
be taken during the service, to support The Children’s
Society.
The dates for the three Year 7 Bands are below:
T Band Friday, 2nd December
K Band Thursday, 8th December
C Band, Tuesday, 13th December
“Christingle is a celebratory event which takes
place every year in the run up to Christmas.
Now in its 48th year, this vibrant event is
hugely popular for churches and schools, rais-
ing millions to help us change the lives of dis-
advantaged children. And all it takes is an or-
ange!” The Children’s Society
Catering News
The menu for college meals is available for you to view on the website.
http://www.christ-the-king.iow.sch.uk/Menus
Christmas Lunch - Wednesday, 14th December
Students will be able to pre-book the Christmas lunch from Monday, 28th November to Friday, 2nd December.
The menu for this is also on the web-site.
Important Safety Announcement
We have several staff and students in College
who suffer hugely with asthma. An attack can be
triggered by aerosol sprays. We are asking that
all students bring roll-on deodorants into College
in the future, rather than aerosol sprays. Stu-
dents are being shown a short film about the ef-
fects of aerosol sprays to highlight this issue.
Please support us in reinforcing this vital mes-
sage to your child. Thank you.
Diary Dates
December
Thursday, 1st Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening - NEV, SHG, LSI, PGA, YRO
Friday, 2nd Christmas Auction of Promises
Tuesday, 6th Christmas Music Concert
Wednesday, 7th Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening - DLG, FGL, DTH, HCA, MWA
Wednesday, 14th Service at The Minster
Friday, 16th Last day of Autumn Term
Parents’ Evening - As a College we would like to thank all of the Parents for their continued sup-port of our Parent Consultation Evenings. We would like to specifically thank all of the Year 10 Parents who made the evening so successful last week, and can say it has only been matched by the two excel-lent Year 7 Parents’ Evenings earlier this month and the Year 11 Parents’ Evening in October. We would like parents to know how much this support is appreciated and recognise the encouragement that staff and students feel following the events.
Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening - Thursday, 1st December
Tutor NEV, SHG, LSI, PGA, YRO
The booking system is now open for Year 8 parents and will close to parents at 11 am on Tuesday, 29th November.
Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening - Wednesday, 7th December
DLG, FGL, DTH, HCA, MWA
The booking system will open on Monday, 21st November at 9.00 am and will close to parents at 11 am on Monday, 5th December at 11 am.
Should you wish to make any changes after this date please contact Student Services either by tele-phone: 01983 537070 ext.2 or by email [email protected]
Please visit https://christtheking.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book your appointments or via the Col-lege website using the link in the Parent Information Section. Please login with your child ’s first name, sur-name and Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy).
Christ the King College Weekly News 2016
Hampshire Schools Swimming Championships at Waterlooville On Sunday, 13th November six of our students took part in the Hampshire Schools Swimming Champi-onships at Waterlooville. The competition was extremely tough, racing against swimmers who compete nationally. There were 79 Schools and Colleges represented at the Championships.
Huge congratulations to all of our swimmers who raced throughout the day, achieving great times and places within their respective age groups.
Medal winners:
Abigail Lacey ~ Silver in the 200 Individual Medley and Bronze 200 Breaststroke
Lelayna Blacklock ~ Silver in the 200 Butterfly
Age Group Swimmer Event Place
Junior Grace Bolland 8HCA 100 Breaststroke 10th
200 Freestyle 16th
Junior Caitlin Townshend 8DTH 100 Butterfly 18th
Intermediate Ben Curliss 10 SHO
400 Freestyle 5th
200 Freestyle 14th
200 Individual Medley 5th
Intermediate Abigail Lacey 9LCL/SOK
200 Individual Medley 2nd
100 Freestyle 4th
100 Breaststroke 4th
200 Breaststroke 3rd
Senior Lelayna Blacklock 11NOS
200 Individual Medley 9th
100 Freestyle 10th
200 Butterfly 2nd
100 Backstroke 6th
Senior Ellie King 6RBR 200 Individual Medley 10th
100 Freestyle 11th
Christ the King College Weekly News Page 2
HOUSE EVENT RESULTS ~ RIDDLES
Christ the King College Weekly News Page 3
Report on Mock European Council Christ the King College was successful once again in its application to take part in the Mock European Council. Two students, Katharine Burton and George Collins, were selected to take part. Once we heard that we were representing Hungary and had details of the topics for debate, students met regularly with Mrs Stirling and last year's student representatives, Amelia Mills and Joseph Sutton. Students had to find out as much as they could about their country and the topics, taking one each: Katharine looked into the European Arrest Warrant and George looked in to Erasmus+. We set up an eTwinning project with a Hungarian school to help get to know the country. This project also involved the Year 10 Citizenship class and Mrs Filep's Year 9 MFL class. Both George and Katharine worked very hard in the days approaching the event. Once the proposals were sent out to schools, both had to write an opening statement. They had to consider what Hungary's stance would be on their issues for the UK once UK leave the EU.
To help with this, we visited the Hungarian Embas-sy on Wednesday to meet with Csaba Aber, second secretary for EU affairs and Brexit issues. This turned out to be very useful as Mr Aber had actual-ly worked at the EU as well as at the Embassy. The mock EU council was held on Thursday at Church House, next to Westminster Abbey. All EU coun-tries were represented and debates went on throughout the day, in different groupings, includ-ing over lunch and during breaks, until compromis-es were reached. Mr Aber from the Hungarian em-bassy also popped in during the afternoon to see how we were getting on! He commented on how much the mock EU is actually like the real thing.
This is an excellent opportunity for our students: learning about the workings of the EU, finding out about another country, learning how to debate and negotiate, as well as meeting students from other schools and making new friends.
Well done to all of those involved.
Mrs Stirling
Christ the King College Weekly News Page 4
Matilda Performance
All images from College events can be seen on the Website Photo Gallery