Summer 2023

Dear parents, carers and friends,

As I sit down to write this most of the Year 11 cohort are sitting down to do their last exam, Physics. The exam boards always save the easy ones until last. This year group have made a phenomenal contribution to the Our Lady’s community and, I believe, have played a significant part in shaping the culture we have in school today. It is always a difficult moment to say goodbye to such wonderful young people, but the time has arrived for them to move on to the next stage in their lives.

The summer term is always a busy one but we still find the time to celebrate the year that has passed. There is an event on most weeks including; the Year 11 Leavers Mass and Prom, Culture Day, sports days, summer concert, student rewards experiences and enrichment activities to places such as GCHQ, Ghyll Head in the Lake District and Cleveleys. Whilst all these events are special, I particularly enjoyed the Culture Day where we celebrated the diversity that exists in our community by wearing the traditional clothing from our home countries.

The sports success we have enjoyed across football and athletics has been exceptional. The sports pages inside will give you more details, but our year 10 boys won the County

Plate final beating 2-1 in a tight game of football and the year 9 girls came 2nd in the Manchester Athletics League with some excellent performances. Arguably our biggest success came from the Year 11 boys football team who won both the Catholic Cup and County Plate – a fantastic achievement.

It’s at this time of year that we welcome the Year 6 children for their transition days. It is lovely to see all the excited children looking forward to starting their five-year journey with us. Our biggest challenge now is accommodating all the families that want to entrust their children to us; in the last three years there have been over one hundred children on the waiting list.

Editor’s Welcome Message

Whatever your plans are for the summer break, I hope you get chance to enjoy some rest and time together as a family.

God bless

L. Ormsby Headteacher

Welcome to the Summer edition of the Vision magazine. This term we said goodbye to year 11, enjoyed some amazing sporting success and had a fantastic day celebrating the rich culture of our school community. We hope you enjoy reading all about it and have a lovely summer!

Once again, I am delighted to introduce our latest version of the Vision magazine, which contains some of the activities, opportunities and achievements that our students have been involved with this term.

Pi πDay Challenge!

March, 14th 2023 - Today, mathematics enthusiasts and number aficionados worldwide are celebrating Pi Day. Pi Day is observed every year on March 14th (3/14 -- 3.14159…, get it?). Pi, often represented by the Greek letter π, is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational number, meaning its decimal representation goes on infinitely without repeating.

On this special occasion of Pi Day, we take a closer look at the extraordinary skill and dedication required to recite the digits of Pi. As an irrational number with an infinite decimal expansion, Pi has captivated mathematicians and enthusiasts alike for centuries, leading some individuals to push the limits of their memory and attempt to recite its digits to astonishing precision.

The quest to memorize the digits of Pi has become a remarkable challenge for many math enthusiasts. With each digit holding no apparent pattern or repetition, it demands exceptional mental prowess and relentless practice. Reciters dedicate countless hours to commit this mathematical marvel to memory, striving to impress and inspire others with their remarkable feat.

The current Guinness World Record for reciting Pi stands at an astounding 70,000 digits, a truly remarkable achievement by Rajveer Meena from India. This extraordinary record underscores the sheer dedication and perseverance required to master the art of Pi recitation.

Here at Our Lady’s the record holder has long been Tracey Rock who could recite Pi to 402 decimal places. This year however, we have a new champion! Reciting Pi to an unbelievable 609 decimal places, Kaymond Wang (Year 10) has blown the competition out of the water. When asked about his preparation for the challenge, Kaymond was

modest about his feat; “I already knew about 200 or 300 decimal places from doing the challenge in the past so I just had to practice for three days beforehand. I spent about 6 hours each day memorising 5 or 10 digits at a time”

Kaymond is joined in his success by our other year group champions; Peniel Haile (Y7 - 346 places), Rebecca Caffrey (Y8 - 206 places), Erminas Pelenis (Y9 - 121 places) and Chantelle Bandele (Y11 - 137 places).

Culture Day at Our Lady’s

On Friday 26th May we celebrated culture day in school, it was the last day of term and all of the students and staff were invited to wear clothing that represents their heritage and sense of culture. At lunch time we served a selection of international cuisine followed by a catwalk show to celebrate all of the fabulous looks. The event was a great success and we asked for small donations which all went to Afrocats our chosen charity for the year.

Afrocats is a small female run charity in Manchester that supports refugees, asylum seekers and people living below the poverty line who face exclusion we raised a fantastic £387 to support their vital work. Thank you to everyone who took part, gave donations and supported the event we really appreciate you. It was a delight to celebrate the diversity within our school and to learn more about each other.

Mrs Morrison and Nuria EmenanjoMosibe have both written about how they experienced culture day and the photos give you an insight into the amazing spectrum of diversity and culture that we embrace and celebrate daily at Our Lady’s.

Culture day at Our Lady’s was to celebrate the diversity that we have within our school body. It was amazing to see all the students take pride in representing themselves and others through the clothing they wore, songs that were played and national dances that were performed during the day and also in our amazing catwalk. We were able to see a visual symbol of the multitude of cultures and backgrounds that make up the school as a whole. I am so excited for this tradition to continue so we can learn and celebrate each and every one who attends Our Lady’s.

Mrs K. Morrison (Pastoral and Welfare Manager)

Culture day was such a critical moment within the school calendar- that was gloriously celebrated. Allowing students to amplify their identities by them productively sharing their heritage and background. It was incredibly surprising to see the diversity of backgrounds; all arriving to one location for a day. The laughter, joy and upliftment all experienced on one day aligned perfectly with the ethos of Our Lady’s behold. The recognition of pupils attending Our Lady’s was astronomical; supporting our mission statement “To Know, Love & Serve God”

Nuria Emenanjo-Mosibe Y8 (Member of the student council’s diversity team)

National Cheer Champions 2023!

This term, our year 9 and year 10 cheerleading teams have been working so hard with Miss Thompson and on Sunday 18th June, our fantastic Our Lady’s squads – ‘Radiate’ and ‘Illuminate’ took part in the UKCA National Schools Championships held at Belle Vue Sports Centre.

The whole event was fantastic and the cheerleading teams certainly enjoyed a day to remember! Miss Thompson said both teams showed an incredible spirit throughout the entire day. She said, “The year 9 and 10 teams did Our Lady’s proud and have been putting the hard work, dedication and commitment over the past several weeks.”

Their efforts certainly didn’t go unnoticed by the judges! After two fantastic performances, the year 9 team were crowned 2nd place overall National Champions in the

KS3 Poms Division, and the day finished in style, with the year 10 team dominating their category and taking home the win; 1st place National Champions!

Wow, what a fantastic achievement and both trophies are proudly on display in school for everyone to see!

Kath Fry Challenge at Ghyll Head

The Kath Fry challenge is a fantastic outdoor pursuits inter-schools competition. It is hosted at Ghyll Head every spring and Our Lady’s has a long history of participation. Year 9 and year 10 students from schools across the city go on residential weekends and compete against each other to win the coveted prize and title.

This year, Mr Bell and Miss Massey led the group to the Lake District for a weekend of adventure. There was hill walking, night time expeditions, problem solving and lots of time spent having fun together. Although we didn’t bring back the coveted winners trophy we did bring back lots of happy memories and some rather good photographs.

Afrocats in Action

In March 2023, some of our students got the opportunity to work with two outside agencies MADE and Afrocats.

Some of the comments that the students made at the end of the 6-week project were:

It gave me a chance to relax. I enjoyed being with friends and doing art.

Being creative gave me confidence.

MADE, Manchester’s cultural education partnership is a collaboration between arts, education and youth organisations across the city. They create meaningful cultural learning experiences and work together to ensure all young people have the creative ability to flourish.

Their vision is for the city to become a beacon for creative education, where the arts add magic to life experiences and learning, for everyone. As a result, all children and young people will thrive and enjoy more choices in their lives, thanks to the creativity at their fingertips.

In Manchester, we believe arts and culture can...

• Skill children and young people in creativity for life, preparing them for future jobs and opportunities.

• Build confidence and well-being supporting children and young people in all areas of life. Go beyond education to stimulate creativity and inspire children and young people who need different ways to engage.

It helped me to communicate with other students and teachers confidently.

When I first came I was uncomfortable to speak to others, now is the opposite.

We Will, We Will, Rook You!

Welcome to Our Lady’s Chess Club - This year has seen a fantastic uptake of chess, with students from all year groups coming down to battle it out in a game of kings!

Mr Ray said, “We have some really impressive young players coming through, including some who began the year as complete beginners, it has been great to see the more experienced players mentoring our beginners to create a really strong community.

Currently, we are preparing for the first ever chess open, a competition to find the greatest player in the school (for this year at least!). There are some great prizes as well as glory to be won!”

Knit and Natter

Knitting is a very relaxing hobby that many people find a soothing practice, it also produces some wonderful textiles that can then be stitched into clothing furnishing or decoration.

Miss Ryan has established a knit and natter group which meets in the reading room of our newly built library. The group are encouraged to talk and share with each other as they knit offering wellbeing as well as crafting. School provides all of the materials and all staff and students are welcome to participate.

We Will Miss You, Year 11!

Earlier this term, with exams fast approaching we wanted to make sure that the health and wellbeing of our year 11 students was given priority treatment. With this intention in mind, Miss Jacques arranged a very special event to remind the children of the importance of taking some time away from their studies and spending it with friends having fun. The ‘Big Night In’ was held after school and included a cinema experience, craft and pamper stalls as well as fun inflatables to provide physical challenges.

was a mechanical rodeo bull, jump and dodge beams and a gladiator duelling arena with pugil sticks. Mr Bell was on hand to photograph the proceedings and I think you’ll agree from these photos he has captured the event perfectly!

On their last day in school before year 11 left for their study leave, the year group came together to enjoy a very special leavers assembly where staff awards were presented as voted for by the students, everyone got a chance to look back on old photos going back to year 7 trips to Langdale and good luck messages were shared along with a special staff video! There were lots of laughs and tears and it was a lovely morning for everyone.

The event started after lunch and continued well past the end of the school day with lots of staff staying to support the students and join in with the fun. There was face-painting and manicures on offer for those who wanted a quiet and relaxing experience. But for those in search of something livelier there

On the 20th June, we welcomed our year 11 and their families into school for the Leavers Mass led by Father Nicholas and Father Joel. The students and their families were invited to join us in a celebration of their time at Our Lady’s, focusing on how the strength of

God will continue to guide and inspire them throughout their lives. Thank you to everyone who attended for sharing in prayerful reflection with us. It was a lovely celebration. We wish our year 11 students every success in the future - may you prosper in everything you endeavour to do and we will welcome you back in school in August for GCSE Results Day!

Yayoi Kusama Fashion Challenge

Fifteen students have been specially selected to take part in a very exciting project in collaboration with two other schools from Manchester. The children will have the chance to work with a team of fashion experts across three full days, where they will create wearable art and fashion pieces, using sustainable and junk materials. Their creations will be inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama and her immersive exhibition, “You, Me and the Balloons”, which is coming to the brand-new Factory International building this summer.

They will then have the chance to share their work in a fashion show. The fashion show is in an event space called Festival Square as part of Manchester International Festival 2023, and is going to be an incredible moment. There are lots of professional performance acts on the line -up this year and our students will be closing the show! They will also have their make-up done by a professional team of make-up artists if they wish. There will also be an opportunity to visit the You, Me and the Balloons exhibition ahead of the performance and experience Kusama’s world in real life.

Work Experience 2023

The year 10 students were all offered the opportunity to enjoy a fortnight of work experience, shadowing professionals to gain insight into the world of work. Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Cooke worked hard to support the children in accessing some vital experience of employment across a really diverse spectrum of careers including Telecoms, Retail, Primary Health, Building and Demolition!

The students were asked to source their placements themselves and this added the opportunity for the students to use their communication skills and confidence to approach prospective employers and discuss the possibility of a placement.

We were even able to facilitate a number of students to work at Our Lady’s for their fortnight, there were students who supported colleagues in the catering team,

reprographics and expressive and performing arts.

In addition, those students who did not manage to secure a place were joined in school by a team from Gamma Telecom, headed up by their Group Operations Director, Mr. Haleem Gul. The team explored their sector and looked at soft employability skills which are required across all sectors.

Thank you to everyone in our community who supported our students with a placement and to all of the staff who visited them on their placements.

Religious Life Round Up!

From the start to the finish of this academic year our GIFT Chaplains have continued to support the religious life of our school. Continuing on with weekly Masses, Chaplains have served alongside Fr Nicholas showing great dedication to their faith by reading and altar serving during the Masses held in the Chapel at lunchtime.

Writer Award, which invites them to produce a piece of creative writing, addressing the features and functions of a Catholic Church. As well as this, our Chaplains are kindly offering to help a neighbouring school train up their new GIFT Chaplaincy Team, teaching them the ways in which they too can spread the word of God through their school and community.

Active work has involved Chaplains learning and deepening their knowledge in different parts of Popular Piety. Earlier on in the year Chaplains engaged with Eucharistic Adoration, reflecting on the significance of the Eucharist, showing devotion and reverence to the divine. More recently, during the month of May, Chaplains have been taught the significance of the Rosary and what each Mystery represents. This enables our

Chaplains to really focus on the different events during Jesus and Marys life and how those events have impacted our Catholic Christian beliefs today.

To finish off the month of May, some of our younger GIFT Chaplains had the opportunity to go on a Pentecost Retreat, held by Just Youth accompanied by Fr Joel and Fr Nicholas at the Spiritan Centre in Salford. During the day, our Chaplains had the chance to meet other GIFT Chaplains from many other schools within the diocese. Chaplains joined together expressing their faith through singing hymns, receiving Mass and reflecting on the gifts of the Pentecost.

Throughout the Summer term, all pupils and staff were invited to have ‘Breakfast with Jesus’ on a Tuesday morning. This is a lovely event held by Fr Nicholas to encourage pupils and staff to have open discussions about faith in our modern world!

In June we said our final goodbyes to our wonderful Year 11 pupils. We came together with staff, pupils and families to celebrate their time and Our Lady’s through prayer and worship.

Coming up to finish off this year, our GIFT Chaplains are entering the Young Catholic

Some of our KS4 GIFT Chaplains have been invited to attend a taster day based around Chaplaincy in further education at Loreto Sixth Form which will take place in the month of July and lastly we look forward to helping out with the end of year Masses as well as saying good luck and farewell to the Year 11 cohort, who we will wish many blessings on during their Leavers Mass.

GCHQ TRIP

Visit to GCHQ

On Friday 10th March, some of our year 9 superstars attended a trip to the GCHQ in Albert Square, Manchester. GCHQ is an intelligence collection agency who work alongside MI5 and MI6 to identify early threats to national security. The students in attendance learnt all about how their language skills can help to protect the country as well the need for native speakers of heritage languages within the organisation.

On the day, students learned various languages and used their cultural knowledge which led to them cracking numerous cyphers and encrypted messages to eventually foil a planned cyber-attack. The students did Our Lady’s and Miss Watkins incredibly proud and a fantastic day was had by all.

Staff Profile: Mrs Haniak

Mrs Haniak is an Assistant Headteacher and a member of the Maths department in school. Let’s find out a bit more about her!

What is your role at Our Lady’s

I’m one of the Assistant Headteachers

How long have you worked here - Can you remember your first impressions, how do they compare to your feelings now?

I first started in September 2010. I had only just turned 22 and I remember thinking the year 10 and 11s all looked and acted older than me! I definitely don’t look young anymore (though still act it from time to time ��)

What is your favourite thing about working in secondary education?

Seeing our students arrive as children and leave as mature young adults ready to face the real world

What does a typical day for Mrs Haniak look like?

I’m up at 5am everyday to see my kids and get them ready before I head in to work for 7am. I tend to have meetings before school, I usually teach 2 or 3 periods a day and have meetings in between. Plus duty at lunch time. And more meetings after school.

Where is your favourite place you have visited? Do you have any other destinations you would like to visit?

Oslo in Norway. The city is beautiful and the fjords took my breath away! I love the Norwegian saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing’.

I’d love to go to New Zealand. I’ve not spent much time travelling that side of the world!

What do you consider your greatest achievement to date?

Running my first half marathon. I’m not a natural runner and I had to work really hard at my stamina and fitness to complete it

Favourite film or TV show?

The Matrix – I was 12 when it came out and it blew my mind

Favourite song or piece of music?

The Sound of Silence - Disturbed

Favourite cuisine or meal?

Italian

What are your hobbies outside of school?

I’m into running, climbing, yoga and Pilates but my main hobby is roller derby.

Who would you most like to meet and why?

Michelle Obama – I’ve just finished reading her autobiography and she is truly inspiring.

Best bit of advice for students at Our Lady’s

Be yourself. Only when you accept and love yourself can you truly flourish and that’s when you’ll succeed in life.

Where Are They Now?

This week we shine a spotlight on former Our Lady’s student Brad Walker. Whilst at school, Brad was a star on the sports field enjoying cross country, athletics, football and just about everything in between. He continues to work in fitness and personal training but he has also taken on youth mentoring to support young people and help them make wiser more considered life choices. Brad has worked with students at Our Lady’s and we recently caught up with him to find out more.

1. What has been you career journey since leaving school? Please talk about any college courses you studied as well as any work.

Once I left school I went to Hopwood Hall College to study for a BTEC in Sport, I was also enrolled in a football academy, I took me a while to knuckle down to my studies but by my second year, I was on track and achieved my qualification goals. As a young person I was tempted by activities that didn’t serve my greater good and I lost my way for a short while but it was my love of sports that saved me again. I have since trained as a fitness instructor, personal trainer, FA Coach and as a youth mentor.

3. What are your personal or professional hopes, aspirations or goals for the future?

Personally, my focus is to grow and develop and to remain consistent in my approach to being the best version of myself.

Professionally, I want to give back to other people, especially young people from a similar background to me I want them to achieve their potential and not make the same mistakes I was tempted by. Sport and mentoring both have transformative powers and can really broaden people’s horizons so I want to reach as many people as I can and help them to grow too.

4. What is your favourite memory from your time at school?

Being on all of the sports teams, I was on the basketball, football, athletics team, I ran cross country you name it I was involved! Actively participating in leading the school to sporting victories is always a great memory whether it is a personal win or shared with a team, the feeling of sporting triumph gives you a massive boost of self-esteem and sense of achievement.

2. What do you do now and who do you do it for?

I am self employed and work as personal trainer and conditioning coach, I really enjoy helping people to train and work towards their bespoke fitness goals. This also supports my work in mentoring the youth and helping them to see all of the possibilities available to them so they can make choices that will benefit them now and their future selves.

5. Is there anything you would like to change from your time at school?

In retrospect, I wish I had given more focus to my learning and my exams but I was distracted by other things. The time we spend at school is so important because once you leave you can’t return and do it again. I wish that I had trusted the process and listened to my teacher’s advice.

6. Are there any values or messages that have served you well from your time at Our Lady’s?

I think the phrase ‘short steps, long vision’ sums it up you need to pay attention to the details in the here and now to effect real growth for the future. Trust the process and be patient.

If you would like to know more please follow Instagram: Brad mentoring coach Brad Performance Coach

Twitter: @results_base

Sports News

It’s been another action packed sports term at Our Lady’s!

Our year 8 football team won the Manchester cup 3-1 in a hard-fought game against Wright Robinson. The year 9 team were also in the Manchester cup final but unfortunately, they were beaten 5-2 in the final against Wright Robinson. Our year 8 boys team came out 2nd best in the Catholic Cup semi-finals after a 4-3 loss to St James. Having been 4-0 down at half time they showed great spirit to get back into the game but, alas, it just wasn’t enough.

Our year 10 boys won the County Plate final winning 2-1 in a tight game in May. Our year 11 boys had more success as they won the Catholic Cup in dramatic style beating a resilient St Damian’s 3-1 on penalties after it finished 1-1 after extra time. This triumph is coupled with the Greater Manchester County Plate which the team won beating Oasis Academy 4-1. The team all pulled together with some excellent individual performances as well and in the end, they were deserved winners!

In indoor athletics, our year 7 boys competed in the indoor championships and finished a gallant fourth overall. However, there were some notable performances: Josh Mavambu jumped 1.35 metres on the high jump to win Gold, Caleb Somorin jumped 4.35 metres on the long jump to win Gold and Daniel ran 30.31 seconds in the 200 metres to claim Bronze! A huge achievement for our year 7 students!

Taking the athletics outdoors, the year 10 boys team won the Manchester Championships in fine style at the end of April and our year 9 girls came 2nd in the Manchester League with some excellent performances in their events most notably from Melissa Ndiogulu who won the high jump with a score of a fantastic 1 metre 30 centimetres!

Our Year 8/9 Athletics teams recently competed in the Manchester Championships. The girls finished 6th and the boys finished 2nd overall. However, there were plenty of medals won.

Radiyat Adeosun

Girls 100 metres Gold

Melissa Ndiogulu

Girls High Jump Bronze

Miracle Ujachuku

Boys 100 metres Gold

Solomon Babalola

Boys 100 metres Gold

Marcel John Jules

Boys 80 metres Hurdles Gold

Daniel Momodu Eshiemomoh

Boys Long Jump Gold

David Olszynski

Boys Discus Gold

Philemon Bonsu

Boys Triple Jump Bronze

Our boy’s year 8 Athletics team competed in the Manchester League last week and were winners with 4 Golds, 3 silvers, 1 bronze, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth place!

The Manchester Handball Championships were held earlier this year and there were some good performances and outcomes in all categories! Our year 10 girls finished fourth on a freezing cold night at Parrs Wood and our year 8 girls did brilliantly to get silver. The year 8 boys also managed to gain silver medals and the year 10 boys defended the trophy we had won last year by winning all 6 games in arctic conditions!

On International Women’s Day, 50 of our year 9 girls went to FC United for a football event. The event was geared towards emphasising the importance of keeping a healthy and active lifestyle, encouraging girls to stay active in sport and providing them with information about future careers and pathways to help them remain in sport as well

as highlighting the amazing facilities available to them around their local community. The event was well received by the girls and FC United commented on how brilliant our students were in conducting themselves throughout the day.