May 2018

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Oldcorne Catholic

May 2018

After 26 years of teaching I shouldn’t be surprised at how quickly the exam season comes round each year, but here we are again at the end of May and our Year 11 students are already two weeks into their GCSE examinations. Months of advice, practice and preparation are now coming to fruition as students take on the challenge of newly reformed GCSEs in the majority of their subjects. Our breakfast revision sessions have proved hugely popular and Ms Pratty’s and Mrs Thomas’new industrial” toasters have been churning out toast at a prodigious rate to fuel our Year 11 students and ensure they are ready for the rigours of a day of exam preparation. I would like to wish the Year 11 students every success as they strive to win their “personal race”.

The variety of life here at Blessed Edward’s never ceases to amaze me. This half term I have been to court, been part of a German exchange, been to a County Cup final and attended a very special Mass at St George’s to name but a few. These four events encapsulate what makes our school so special. My visit to court was to watch our team of Year 9 students participate in the Regional final of the Mock Trial competition. To see them perform in an actual Crown Court with a maturity well beyond their years was awe inspiring. My thanks to Mrs Bailey who has worked with the team all year and coached them with great skill and enthusiasm. Our exchange visit from Stuttgart was a personal highlight of this half term. To see our students embrace their guests and welcome them into our community and their homes was a truly life affirming experience. I had a German student stay in my home and by the end of the week

we were very sad to see her go. I know this was repeated in many homes and special thanks to the parents who hosted our German students. Our sporting success continued this term as we once again excelled on both a national and regional level.

Our Year 10 football team have had quite a journey over the last few years but under the steady and inspiring guidance of Mr Williams they have developed into an excellent outfit and made it to the County Cup Final. Success eluded them on the day but I was proud of the way they conducted themselves both on and off the field. They were a real credit to our college.

Finally that very special Mass. Every Year Mr McCormack organises the Good Shepherd Mass at St George’s church. It is an uplifting celebration when local Catholic schools come together to give thanks and pray together. The music provided by our college choir made it a truly joyous event, which was summed up in one email we received from a parishioner at St George’s who said; “The music was wonderful and it was a great pleasure to be part of such a vibrant celebration. Please pass on my congratulations to the School Choir. I hope that they were encouraged by the response of all of the primary school pupils, who clearly loved it too.”

Over the course of this half term our students have worked hard, enjoyed themselves and brought joy to many people. I know that you are as proud of them as we are. Thank you for all you do in supporting our college community, I can assure you that it is something we will never take for granted.

Greg McClarey - Headteacher

Safeguarding We have created a new online reporting system where students, parents and carers can report any safeguarding concern (abuse, bullying, CSE, sexting etc) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is checked daily by our SLT pastoral team so issues can be addressed. This link can be found on our college website, click on the person on the right hand side of the page.

We have also bought into a new online reporting and management safeguarding system to report concerns in school for staff to use called MyConcern. This will enable all staff to record any concerns swiftly and efficiently. This system has recently been honoured with The Queen's Award for Enterprise, the award recognises the innovation that the whole team has bought to safeguarding and child protection through the MyConcern system.

Safeguarding Team: Designated Safeguard Lead and LAC Lead - Miss Mason Deputy Safeguard Lead- Mr McClarey 2nd Deputy Safeguard Lead- Mrs S Thomas Governor with Safeguard responsibility - Mrs Soloman Prevent Single Point of Contact - Mr McClarey and Mrs Soloman Miss Mason DSL and LAC Lead

Year 9 Students with PCSO Andrea Beech after her talk on CSE

Unlike many schools, the bell does not ring during the day at Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College. This is just one of the small things we do to help the students, taking their GCSE’s, achieve their potential. With revision sessions, after school workshops, and constant encouragement, I know that the students are as well prepared as they can be and look forward to seeing the fruits of all this hard work. I would like to thank all the staff for their help and commitment and thank all the Year 11 students for working to the best of their ability. You are all a credit to the college: GOOD LUCK ALL!!

As you can see from the rest of the newsletter, there are some great sporting achievements and examples of extracurricular activities. Another true indication of our diverse and inclusive college.

On behalf of the Governing body, I thank all the parents and guardians, of the college students, for their support at the many activities and events, and generally helping all our students achieve their potential .

Philip Carney - Chair of Governors

Key Dates 4th June - Students Return 14th June - Eid Al-Fitr (Ramadan Ends) 20th June - Pupil Premium Transition Morning 21st and 22nd June - Year 5 Taster Days 26th June - New Year 7 Intake Evening 7pm 27th June - Year 7 Drayton Manor Trip 27th June - Year 11 Summer Ball 29th June - Saint Peter and Paul Feast Day Mass 2nd July - TED Day 3rd July - New Timetable Starts 4th July - Worcester 6th Form Master Class for Selected Yr 10 6th July - Year 6 Induction Day 11th July - Sport Day 20th July - Students finish for Summer Holidays

Paddle, Plod, Peddle!

10 members off staff “Team Blessed’s” are taking up the challenge ….

St Richard’s Hospice cares for patients and The Paddle, Plod and Pedal follows a circular route through families in Worcestershire who are living with Worcestershire countryside along the River Avon and country lanes. life-limiting illnesses. Each year we give free With a total route of approximately 45 miles, this is no easy feat. care and support to around 3,000 patients, This is an all-day challenge, but not a race. Our team will set off in loved ones and the bereaved – helping them the bell boats from Pershore at 7am to Tewkesbury, then walk to towards the best quality of life possible.

Kempsey and cycle back to Pershore.

St Richard’s is an independent registered Each element of the challenge is between 13 and 15 miles, which will charity. be completed as a team.

We are fundraising for St. Richards Hospice. If you are able to make a donation towards this fantastic local charity and sponsor us please visit our Just Giving page…. Thank you !

Team Blessed’s = Mrs Barrett, Miss Ingram, Miss Mason, Mr Long, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Parker, Mrs White , Mrs Morton and Mrs Hanson

www.justgiving.com/TeamBlesseds Girls into Engineering On 28th March 14 girls from Year 9 and 10 visited Mazak in Worcester. This was part of a 'Girls into Engineering' event to encourage more females into an engineering career and to find out more about the apprenticeship scheme they offer. We had a tour around the factory and talks from several females within the company. The girls represented the College extremely well and we look forward to continuing this apprenticeship link with Mazak.

Mrs Pritchard - Head of Year 9

Part-time Lunchtime Supervisor required to start as soon as possible Mon-Fri 1.15pm-3p.m. term time only To apply please contact Rosie Delord 01905 361875 for an application pack .

Good Shepherd Mass Over 50 of our students attended the annual Good Shepherd Mass at St. George’s Catholic Church in Worcester on Tuesday 1st May. Once again our college was delighted to be given the task of co-ordinating this Mass.

The principal celebrant was Bishop Robert Byrne and during the offertory procession we handed over a cheque to Father Hudson’s Care which reflected all of the amazing charity work that had occurred in our college during the Season of Lent.

A special vote of thanks goes to our fantastic choir who were ably led by Mrs K. Thomas, Mr. Bryant and Mrs S. Thomas. Over 400 students from 13 different schools attended the service and experienced a truly uplifting and joyous occasion.

Mr. McCormack - Deputy Headteacher

Author Visit On Tuesday 17th April, we were delighted to welcome author and playwright, Mark Billen to talk to a class of Year 7 students. Mark writes for young readers through to adults and shared a variety of his work. The students participated in reading a whole range of books, taking parts of characters where appropriate. Mark talked about the process of writing and illustrating his young reader books, which he photographs teddy bears in various scenes. Each book can take a couple of hours to illustrate, by moving the bears around into each position.

The students enjoyed the session which ended with one saying that Mark was the best author he had ever met.

Mrs Bromyard- Librarian 9B1’s visit to Jamia Masjid Ghousia “great experience to learn more about Muslims’ views On 26th March class 9B1 visited the Jamia Masjid on Allah and their faith”.

Ghousia Mosque in Worcester. They walked to the Ellie and Oliver – 9B1 Mosque and, upon entering the building, were Blessing of Hands Mass at St Chad’s Cathedral pleasantly surprised by the beautiful decorations and On Sunday 20th of May the students and teachers inscriptions that had been carefully placed on the walls. who are going on the Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes The students were asked to remove their footwear as went to St Chad’s Cathedral for the Blessing of the they came in and were led into a large prayer room Hands service. It was an amazing experience because where they met the Imam, Sheikh Sharif from Saudi it only happens once a year and all of us were really Arabia and the Chairman of the Mosque, Mr Harriseager to go. We had to have our hands blessed as we Saleem who is one of our parents. They gave us a would be helping with the sick and handicapped welcome both in Arabic and English. We were then when we go on our pilgrimage to Lourdes. All of us given a tour of the Mosque by Mr Saleem and he led us had to meet at Foregate Street and the train journey into the Wudu area, a room of cleansing before prayer, took over an hour. where he explained some of the terms of the washing.

We volunteered to altar serve because we do this Everyone in the class had interesting questions to ask. every week at our parish church of Holy Redeemer.

After that, we walked back up to the prayer hall and Our job was to be acolytes during the Procession, The students were given the chance to look around the Gospel Reading, Offertory and the leaving room and admire the symbols and calligraphy hanging Procession. on the walls.

The Cathedral was packed with people who are going When the tour was completed we all sat on the prayer on pilgrimage next Saturday and we were able to see mats and listened to Sheikh Sharif who explained that just how many students will be going from schools in he was a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed. the Diocese of Birmingham. We are the youngest The Sheikh was very tech savvy because he next put his school pilgrims but we intend to be the most helpful. ipod into a docking station and played an Iman reciting The music led by Jo Boyce was really moving and part of the Qur’an in Arabic. It sounded so beautifully spiritual. Everyone went up for their hands to be melodious. The Sheikh explained the recitation in blessed after the homily and we felt very privileged to English and told us how God had created everyone to be receiving this wonderful gift from the Holy Spirit. know God and worship him. He then went on to speak Father Tim told us about the prayers he has to put in about the human condition and how we must not be the petition box at the Grotto of Lourdes. All our addicted to the material goods of this world; in order to student s and staff in college have been given the be truly human we must develop our spiritual life with opportunity to write prayers to Our Lady and we will Allah. deliver them to the Grotto in Lourdes.

The students were invited to ask the Imam all about the At the end of Mass we were given a short talk by Muslim ideology and faith. They learnt several Sister Gillian who is the Youth Leaser of the interesting facts, for example that ‘Islam’ is not actually Birmingham Diocese and she told us about the many a religion, the word in Arabic means ‘submission’ and duties and services we will undertake in Lourdes. could be used to describe Christians and Jews as well Ruadhri 7P and Claude 7W – Lourdes pilgrims because we all bow down to the same God. On the way back the students commented that it was a

Liturgy in honour of Our Lady in the month of May which dedicated to her name On Friday 11th May a large number of students and staff gathered in our college chapel to celebrate the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

During the celebration we sang three beautiful hymns in Mary’s honour which were led by Mrs Thomas on guitar. Our favourite was ‘Ave Maria’ which is the Lourdes Hymn. This is the hymn that we will be singing during the candle lit processions at the shrine of Lourdes. Nineteen pilgrims from our college are going to join the diocesan pilgrimage on May 26th.

Everyone wrote special prayers to Mary asking her to intercede for us. We put the prayers on ‘Mary’s wall of prayer’ in the chapel. The prayers were all written from our hearts and included petitions to heal friends and family who were suffering or bereaved. Catholics know that Jesus will listen to his mother Mary because when they were at the wedding in Cana and the wine ran out, Mary said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’. We know that Jesus answered Mary’s request with a miracle. He changed the water into wine so that the wedding celebration could continue. Mary’s words are the theme of the

Year 11 Celebration Mass On Friday 4th May our Year 11 students attended their final Mass at this college. The Mass celebrated their five years at this college and Fr. Brian’s sermon reflected the fact that our local parishes will be praying for all these students in the build up to their final GCSE exams.

The service was beautiful and was enriched with a number of solo choir performances.

After the final blessing a group of Year 11 students sang a wonderful prayer of thanks, followed by a performance from the Year 11 soul band.

Mr. McClarey publicly thanked the Head of Year 11, Ms Pratty, for the

Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes this year.

The students and staff shared their personal stories about Mary with each other and Mrs Ball told us that she was taken to Lourdes by her grandfather at the age of seven and they sat at the grotto praying the rosary.

Granddad held her right hand whilst they prayed and then a nun walked up, sat beside them and held her other hand and prayed with them. What a beautiful sight this must have been.

Mary is honoured all over the world and has a habit of appearing to children. Why? Let’s take a look at just one thing Jesus said about children: “At that time Jesus said in reply, ‘I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.'” ~ Gospel of Matthew 11:25 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”

Never discount a person by their age! Young or old!

Charles and Grace – Year 8 students and Lourdes pilgrims

service that she has given this year group during the last five years.

Mr McCormack - Deputy Headteacher

KS3 Mock Trial Regional Heat On Saturday 19th May thirteen students competed in the regional heat of the Citizenship Foundation Magistrates’ Mock Trial competition, held at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Despite an early start having left the college at 7.15am, the students were enthusiastic and raring to go.

Competition was incredibly tough as all teams at this stage were winners from the local heats, and the Year 9 students had been given a second case to learn for the day – with only a few weeks in which to perfect it. The students worked hard to write new questions, speeches and learn witness statements for a case involving handling stolen items. The team took part in two rounds and were judged by magistrates and other legal professionals.

Unfortunately victory was not to be ours this time around, as Sandbach School were awarded the top prize and will progress to the National Final. However, our students were more than a match for the other schools and delivered some genuinely outstanding performances. The future of the legal profession is definitely in safe hands if any of our students consider a career in law!

Mrs Bailey - English Teacher

Jamie and Daisy top the Intermediate Maths Challenge Jamie, of Year 10, was our top performer in this year’s Intermediate Maths Challenge, organised by the UK Mathematics Trust. Jamie won “Best in School”, and a Gold certificate – a brilliant achievement for a Year 10 pupil.

Following close behind were another 11 pupils, who all won Silver certificates. Sarah and Max were joint Best in Year 11, and Best in Year 9 was Daisy, who also qualified for the follow-up “Kangaroo” competition, in which she

scored higher than the mean, putting her in the top 1500 mathematicians in the country. Amazing!

The Silver certificate winners were: Sarah, Max , Adam, Ross , Karolina (Year 11), Eldrin, Caitlin, Jamie, Amelia (Year 10), Daisy , Julia (Year 9) A further 28 pupils won Bronze certificates. Many congratulations to everyone on a great performance.

Mr Ellis - Maths Teacher

Hans leads the Gold Rush in the Junior Maths Challenge Hans of Year 8 achieved “Best in School” in the annual Junior Maths Challenge, run by the UK Mathematics Trust.

Hans also scored highly enough to qualify for the prestigious “Kangaroo” invitation-only follow-up competition.

This year, an amazing seven pupils achieved a Gold certificate – many congratulations to: Hans, Frederic, Jack, Robert, Sian and Niamh, all from Year 8, and a special well done to Mariya, who won the only Gold certificate in Year 7, and so also won Best in Year.

A further 12 pupils won Silver certificates , and 28 won Bronze. The Silver certificate winners were: Jacob, Jacob, Elizabeth, Samantha, Anna, Ciara, Georgia (Year 8) and James, Isabella, Baden, Sian and Jack (Year 7).

Congratulations to everybody.

Mr Ellis – Maths Teacher

This Girl Can! Monday 19th - Friday 23rd March we celebrated the “Worcester Girls Can� campaign. It was pleasing to see 258 girls involved in so many different activities from Badminton, Handball and Spin to Mountain Biking, Clubbercise, Sports Massage and Pilates and many more! The campaign is aimed at removing the stigma around girls being physical and taking part in sport hence some of the slogans "sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox!" Take a look at our social media pages as there was plenty of photos and videos of the girls/female staff in action.

Lots of staff were on board with the campaign and helped with clubs, encouraging the girls in tutor time and driving girls to activities.

It is not too late to get involved either, any female can download a peach pass which enables you to try a different activity for free at local leisure centres in Hereford and Worcestershire. https://www.sportspartnershiphw.co.uk/peach-passes Well done ladies, we sure can! Until next year.....

Miss Ingram - PE Teacher Our Abassadors!

Meet the ambassadors of the campaign. Bethan, Angelique, Alice and Imara who did a fantastic job encouraging and spreading the word to girls in their year groups to try some different activities during the week.

Worcestershire Schools' County Cup final players on reaching the final, that in itself is a fantastic On Tuesday 22nd May, the year 10 football team achievement. qualified for the Worcestershire Schools' County Cup Mr Williams - 2i/c PE final. They were the first college football team to achieve this in over 10 years.

We had a bye in the first round, then beat St. Augustines 1-0 in the quarter final on a very cold day on very boggy pitch!

Then came the semi final where we were drawn at home to Baxter College from Kidderminster who had already qualified for the last 32 of the national cup. After going 2 -0 down, we came back to 2-2 then won 4-3 on a very dramatic penalty shootout!

The final was played at Malvern Town FC in front of a good crowd on a very hot day. Our opposition were Tudor Grange who had won the competition for the last two years. Unfortunately it was not meant to be and even though the boys played very well, we eventually lost 3-0 to a very strong and skilful Tudor Grange who were by far the better team on the day.

Our joint men of the match were goalkeeper Charlie & captain and right back Cian.

Well done to the whole squad which included four year 9

Dance Championships Over Easter the Easter half term holiday Harriet in Year 9 competed in the World Irish Dance Association Championships in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Harriet achieved a second place for her solo dance in the International Feis and fifth place in the World Championship Celi dance and also fifth place in her World Championship show dance!

We are very proud of her effort and achievement! Well done Harriet!

U14 Basketball Regional Round 2 On Tuesday 20th March, our key stage 3 basketball team hosted Ernesford Grange School from Coventry in the second Regional Round (last 32) of the U14 National Basketball Competition.

This was a very close match against a weaker team who had one outstanding player, their number 20 Abdul who scored all of their points except 2.

Despite running out to an early 7-5 lead, our defence struggle to cope with Abdul who was using his skill and strength to drive to the basket to score lay ups and also the occasional long range shot.

With the last play of the first half, Joe netted a much needed 3 pointer to tie the game at 26 all.

In the second half, both teams continued to with Abdul scoring freely with drives to the basket and Joe time after time managing to find Cieran on a backdoor cut to score lay ups.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Ernesford Grange had opened up a 4 point lead but Abdul was starting to tire and had also picked up 4 fouls. A strong drive from Oliver forced Abdul into making his 4th foul and with 2 minutes to go in the game with the score at 52-51 to Ernesford, Abdul made his 5th foul meaning that he had to sit out the remainder of the game.

Ernesford’s offense dried up and they did not score again, allowing Blessed Edwards to score 6 unanswered points and to run the clock down to claim the win.

The final score was 57-52 to Blessed Edwards and we

Primary Touch Rugby On Thursday 26th April we held the first Primary Touch Rugby festival for Year 4. It was a fantastic morning for the students who had some basic knowledge of the game and provided them with the incentive to further their rugby skills. We were assisted by the Worcester Warriors Community Coaching Team who helped our leaders to referee and provided the Year 4's with some key coaching points for their games.

Again we had superstar leadership skills displayed from Year 9's Elijah, Josh, Evie and Izzy. Well done !

Mrs Ingram - School Sports Coordinator

now progress through to the Zone Round (last 16 in the country) for the second year in a row, where we will host either King Edwards VI from Birmingham or Shoeburyness School form Southend-on-Sea. Cieran was MVP with 27 points in an excellent team performance.

Mr Coward - Head of Department PE

Multi-skills Festival On the hottest day of the year 180 Reception students took part in their annual Multi-skills festival.

It was a wonderful morning with lots of teamwork and effort put in. Our Year 7 female leaders were outstanding and really helped the primaries to adjust to their activities, demonstrating well for them to easily understand. Lots of lovely feedback from the primary teachers about the leaders which was very humbling to hear, well done girls!

Mrs Ingram - School Sports Coordinator

Orienteering On Tuesday 1st May 14 students from years 7&8 represented the College and took part in the School Games Orienteering qualifying competition at Top Barn.

They did exceptionally well and we had two teams in the top 3! Also their behaviour, conduct and manners were commented on by several organisers which made me proud to have taken them.

Lucy, Emma, Jake and Rob won the competition beating both Droitwich and Tudor and qualifying for the Summer Games in June.

Good display of map reading skills, teamwork and speed!

Well done!

Miss Ingram - School Sports Coordinator Kata Congratulations to Alex who won a gold medal in individual Kata at the National Competition in Derbyshire and Angela who won a silver medal in individual Kata.

Netball On Friday 4th May we took 21 Netballers from years 9&10 to PGL Liddington on a tournament weekend. The sun was out and the girls played really well, enjoyed activities and making new friends along with receiving some outstanding coaching and umpiring from the professional team.

They also got to meet Eboni Beckford Chambers from the England Squad. Outstanding players of the tournament were China, Rosie and Alice. Well done girls, we thoroughly enjoyed taking you!

Miss Ingram & Mrs Barrett - PE Teachers

School Swimming Gala On Friday 23rd March we took part in the Worcester Schools Swimming Gala. All of our pupils swam brilliantly, coming first in 24 out of 37 races. We finished first in the Boys and Girls categories, winning the overall competition by a clear 56 points. Well Done All !

Mrs Barrett Judo Ace Felicity in Year 8 won silver in Kazo-Kan Judo, during the Special Nees World Games in Beverwijk, Holland.

Well done Felicity!

The GCSE Sport group were lucky enough to be invited to a handball workshop at Worcester University on Wednesday 2nd May. They received a tour of the sports complex, watched the Worcester Wolves training and got to see the strength, conditioning and rehab suites followed by an intensive drills and games session led by ex professional Lidia Radu and Alex Radu. The session was very beneficial for the students who responded to the coaching very well. The students showed great fitness, intelligence and respect throughout. Well done 10C GCSE group.

Miss Ingram & Mr Craig Tom, Ceaton and Cian are part of the 16 members of the Worcestershire County U15 team. This is impressive when you look at all the Worcester schools who put forward 6 nominations each. They have just completed their second season and finished tonight (15/5/18) with the last game of the season at Aggborough, Kidderminster Harriers.

Unfortunately the team didn't win the final but all played brilliantly! Well done boys for making it into the County Team.