Newsletter - December 2016

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Dear Parents and Carers HIGHLIGHTS p.3 Goodbye, Mr Jenkinson p.4 European Adventure p.6 Archbishop of York Awards p.7 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas p.9 Pensioners’ Party p.10 Teacher turned Author p.12 Clothes Show Live p.13 Wigan Warriors p.14 Joyeux Noël

Also this term, Year 10 pupils who are involved in the programme held a lunch for some of the residents of local nursing homes and members of local churches.

The morning was a tremendous success and enjoyed We were honoured to welby both the visitors and the come St Michael’s former Year 10 pupils who really Headteacher, Mrs Julie Hea- appreciated being able to ton as our principal guest at make a difference to the Awards Evening. The even- lives of others. ing recognised the contribution made by the whole of Please may I take this op‘Team St Michael’s’ to the portunity to remind you education of our former about our procedures for pupils in body, mind and ‘Unavoidable School Clospirit. It was a celebration sure’? Should we need to of the wonderful young close school during the people they are, of all that school day, please ensure they contributed to the life that you have made continof our school and of their gency plans for your child. outstanding examination The school website will be success. the source of information should we be forced to On the sporting front we close: http://www.saintare delighted that two of michaels.com. I can assure our netball teams (Year 11 you that school will only be and Year 9 girls) have been closed after due considerachosen to represent Lanca- tion of the health and safeshire in the North West ty of everyone who learns round of the National and works here.

Schools Tournament. We are very proud of them and I would like to draw attenwish them every success in tion to the information in January. the newsletter about the use of mobile phones and Our Year 11 pupils who dropping off/collecting puhave successfully completed pils from school. We are the Archbishop of York pro- most grateful for your supgramme received their port and cooperation in awards at a special ceremo- these matters. ny attended by pupils, staff, Mr Ian Jenkinson retires governors and parents/ from St Michael’s at the end carers. Former Christian of this term after thirty Youth worker, Susie Maple- years of dedicated service doram, now Diocesan Youth to the school. He has our Worker for Manchester pre- very best wishes for a hapsented the awards to pupy and healthy retirement. pils.

Mr Nicholas Hilton has been I am sure that our newsletter will give you an insight into our very busy and productive half term. I would like to share one or two highlights with you.

appointed as ‘Student Engagement Coordinator- Behaviour’ and will commence his role in February. We also welcome Mrs Claire Kiernan who has joined the administrative team on a temporary basis. Finally, congratulations to Mrs Haworth and Mr Palfrey who got married last week. We wish them every happiness in their future together.

I am sure that many of you will have heard the sad news of the death of Fr Tim Wilby earlier this week. Fr Tim was vicar of St George’s Church, Area Dean and a regular visitor to St Michael’s. We remember Fr Tim and his family in our prayers and send our sincere sympathy to his wife Hilary and their family at this time.

Finally, as the season of Advent draws to a close, we think about the message of peace and hope that Christmas brings as we look forward to our Christmas Services at the end of term.

Term ends on Thursday 22 December. Buses have been ordered for 13.00, following the morning services.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year.

Mrs J Jenks Headteacher

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Once again thank you to all our parents and carers for your continued support in ensuring your child’s attendance and punctuality is the best it can be.

Top Tutorials: 707, 803, 902, 1003 & 1105

EARLIER THIS MONTH the Chorley and District U14 boys and girls and U16 boys and girls badminton competitions took place.

There was some outstanding play from all of the St Michael’s teams, beating all the other schools in the competition and all the teams involved came out as winners.

Our wonderful teams will be now be going forward to represent Chorley at Nationals in January. Curriculum Leader for PE, Mrs Dempster congratulated the teams, saying: ‘Well done to all those involved and our new coach Daneka Lewis, who has taken over the running of the teams from the recently retired Sue Lago. A brilliant start to her reign!’

EARLIER THIS TERM we had a visit from Mr Thomas, the Chair of Trustees from the charity, ‘Life NoW’.

Life NoW supports young adults in the North West aged 18-40 with life-limiting, life-threatening and endof-life conditions. Currently, in their catchment area when young adults (aged 18-40) get too old for children's hospices, their only option is to go into an adult hospice, which really caters for the elderly and not young adults.

To address this, the charity are aiming to build a Life NoW Hospice serving south Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales; a hospice, designed specifically for young adults, filled with life and hope.

Mr Thomas came to meet with our Year 8 Charities Committee to talk about how our Year 8 pupils can support Life NoW. We look forward to working with him and the young adults the charity supports over the next year.

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WE WERE HONOURED to welcome back last year’s Year 11 to school on the 30th November to celebrate their amazing achievements at the annual Awards Evening.

Former pupils, parents, carers, staff, governors and our honoured guests gathered to celebrate the pupils’ successes in what were Saint Michael’s best ever GCSE results.

Mrs Julie Heaton, who retired as Headteacher in the summer, also returned to school to present the awards to what she called a ‘very special year group’ and she said she felt ‘nervous’ though very ‘privileged’ when she received the invitation.

Current Headteacher Mrs Jenks spoke to the former pupils about how ‘proud’ she was of each and every one of them and thanked the parents, carers, governors and staff for all their hard work and commitment to the education of these fantastic young people, in ‘mind, body and spirit’.

As well as the GCSE certificates, special prizes were also distributed for achievement and progress, including specific subject, sport and performing arts awards.

And, of course, the highlight of the evening...Mr Gow’s fantastic prom video—a final chance for the staff to say goodbye to these very special young people.

AFTER 30 YEARS of dedicated service Mr Ian Jenkinson will bid farewell to Saint Michael’s at the end of this term to begin his retirement.

Mr Jenkinson came to Saint Michael’s in 1986 after studying at Liverpool University and starting his career in the Post Office. He actually began his teaching career at Southlands but moved over to Saint Michael’s on a voluntary deployment.

Whilst being employed at Saint Michael’s in the Geography department initially, Mr Jenkinson has actually taken on many different roles in school during his time here—RE teacher, leader of the ASDAN course and teacher of basic skills. Most recently, after retiring from teaching a few years ago, Mr Jenkinson has been running the PGU in school and he says this role has been his most ‘rewarding’, feeling that he has ‘saved the best til last’.

Highlights of his time at Saint Michael’s includes numerous holidays to Penzance and a particularly memorable trip to Malham with Mr Watson where they and a group of 60 pupils were snowed in at the Youth Hostel in Stainforth for three days. They finally had to dig out the minibuses and complete a four hour walk to Settle (only a mile or so away) to get home.

Mr Jenkinson said he will miss all the people at Saint Michael’s when he leaves—both staff and pupils—but he is looking forward to a busy and enjoyable retirement, during which time he plans to travel, spend more time with his family and do more work for the Blackburn Diocese.

Good luck Mr Jenkinson, we will miss you!

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THE MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND HISTORY departments led a group of 46 pupils to Germany and Poland in the half-term break on a 10-day excursion that took them through Hamelin, Berlin, Krakow, Auschwitz and Dresden.

The pupils were able to use familiar and less familiar language skills on the trip as Miss Nicholson and Mrs Schiel coaxed pupils to use their German and pupils also had a go at some key Polish phrases. New foods and a different culture made pupils think about the importance of learning a modern foreign language and experiencing different traditions and cultures.

They paid a short visit to Hamelin, the home of the pied piper and there was the obligatory photograph of pupils following the statue of the piper. Fortunately, no children were lost though!

There was plenty of History to keep Mr Kirkpatrick and Mr Cree busy too. The Cold War and the Nazi Era were key focal points which supported the pupils engaging with GCSE History. Berlin is an exciting modern city with plenty of echoes of the Cold War. The group enjoyed a spectacular view of the East Berlin TV tower from a fine vantage point at the top of the Park Hotel, 40 floors above Alexanderplatz, built as an attempt to project the “success” of the communist DDR. They also learned a little bit about the post-war history of the city, visiting Checkpoint Charlie and surviving sections of the wall at Bernauer Strasser.

Pupils were then well-prepared for their experience of Auschwitz by visiting the very moving Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Topography of Terror Museum.

There were light-hearted moments too, including plenty of opportunities to pick up souvenirs for loved ones back at home. The KDW is the biggest department store in Europe and pupils made the most of the shopping opportunities.

The group then undertook a very long journey to Krakow. It was a beautiful city and everyone was charmed by the night-time experience of the floodlit town square and market hall. It was a city many of the group wanted to stay longer in and would definitely visit again.

There was a darker side to the city though as the pupils heard the testimony of a Holocaust survivor on their visit to the ghetto area and then the visit to Auschwitz. This was always going to be a chilling experience and pupils and staff were overwhelmed by the scale of this camp and the things they saw there.

The party were exhausted on their return, but had an unmissable experience.

New friendships were forged and pupils had moments for deeper reflection as well as fun and relaxation.

The staff who accompanied the pupils would like to thank them for their excellent conduct on the visit and their active appreciation of the language and historical aspects of the trip.

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Dropping off and picking up Please may we respectfully request that parents/carers avoid parking at the front of school wherever possible during the busy times before and after school. It is a serious health and safety risk with so many pupils entering and exiting school. This, combined with over twelve buses, can cause substantial disruption to the local residents.

Some of the residents of Elmwood have expressed concern about the increasing number of cars using this small cul-de-sac to drop off and pick up pupils and asked if the car park in the village might be used wherever possible. We strive to establish and maintain positive relationships with our neighbours and would therefore really appreciate the support of our parents/carers in this matter.

TWENTY TRIPLE SCIENCE students from Year 10 visited Bishop Rawstorne for the annual Chorley and South Ribble Ogden Partnership Christmas lecture.

The lecture was led by Dr Matt Pritchard who spoke about ‘Something about Nothing’, attempting to fill in the empty gaps and explain almost everything there is to know about nothing—from Annihilation through to Zero. Pupils enjoyed a comedy show uniquely fusing magic, multimedia and mathematics that explored the history, maths, science and philosophy behind nothing.

THIS DECEMBER three former pupils came back to speak to current members of Year 11 and Year 10.

The panel of Madeleine Davies-Brown, now at St Hilda’s College in Oxford, Katie Winstanley, studying at Keble College in Oxford, and Cameron Staveley, currently at Jesus College in Cambridge, were interviewed by Mr Neville and Mr Heywood about their experiences of GCSEs, college life, A-Levels and getting into university.

This was then followed by an opportunity for current pupils to ask questions to the alumni. The overriding and unmissable message from all three former pupils was to encourage our current cohort to aim high and believe in their own ability because you are good enough academically not only to go to university but even to ones such as Oxford or Cambridge.

Parents are welcome to browse the school's Moodle at http://moodle.saintmichaels.lanc.sch.uk Click on Parent Zone > Log in as Guest User > Agree Site Policy > and there you are! Parents do not need a username for the public areas of Moodle.

The areas accessible to parents include weekly prayers, worship, weekly listings of clubs, revision advice, technical support and occasional questionnaires to give feedback on events.

Pupils can visit Moodle Club in H7 on any day of the week at lunchtime throughout the year for advice, support in accessing home learning, and the resolution of password concerns.

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EARLIER THIS TERM, 39 pupils in Year 11 were presented with their Archbishop of York Award in a very special ceremony attended by parents and teachers.

We were particularly delighted to welcome Susie Mapledoram to present the awards. Susie was our first youth worker in school and is now Diocesan Youth Officer for the Diocese of Manchester.

Whilst working towards these awards, pupils thought about what it means to put faith into action, finding out about inspiring Christians who have made a difference in the world.

They also took action to improve their community, by leading events in local primary schools and collecting gloves, hats and socks for homeless people in Manchester, for example.

Speaking about the impact of the award during the ceremony, pupils said, 'Doing this award has made us more selfless and more willing to give. We have become more aware of the community around us. We hope that we will be willing to get involved in more community action in the future.'

With Christmas on the horizon, I am sure the young people of Saint Michael’s are going to be receiving a range of digital gifts, so take a quick look at the top tips for this half term…

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Consider putting the computers and game consoles in a communal area of the house, not their bedrooms.

Update or produce a home agreement together making sure all pieces of technology are covered.

Check the age rating of games they are playing. Games are getting more graphic and the use of bad language is common in games 12+. PEGI (Pan European Game Information) has written descriptors for the age ratings and explains that 16 can contain violence, sexual activity, more extreme bad language and criminal activity. Games rated 18+ is applied when “the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence”.

Check the history of the computer and if it is being deleted ask our young people if they are hiding anything.

“Safer Internet Day” is celebrated in over a hundred countries and it offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community. It calls upon parents, carers and teachers to join together in helping to create a safer internet for our young people. This year it will be held on 7th February.

offering advice to all year groups.

Happy Christmas!

Mrs Rackstraw

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During this week I will be going into all assemblies to discuss a number of online safety topics, highlighting a range of dangers and

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Christmas is well and truly on its way at Saint Michael’s. The tree is up; the Christmas dinners have been served and Secret Santa gifts have been given out. It may be nearing the end of term but life at Saint Michael’s certainly isn’t slowing down as it is full steam ahead with preparations for end of term celebrations and services.

Members of the ‘Discovery Club’ from Years 7, 8 and 9 helped decorate the Christmas tree at Saint Michael’s during the first week in December.

The tree is in the entrance foyer, ready to welcome visitors to the school, along with festive music echoing down the hallways.

Preparations are currently underway for the end of term service.

Readings, carols and a tutorial rendition of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ are being busily rehearsed as we take an opportunity to reflect on this very special time of year.

Pupils and staff are looking forward to this very poignant service to celebrate the end of an extremely busy term and have time and peace to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Staff, pupils and members of the local community came together on 14th December to celebrate the annual Saint Michael’s Carol Service, which this year was held at St John the Evangelist in Whittlele-Woods.

The thought-provoking service was made up of traditional carols and bible readings, as well as some beautiful pieces sung by Hughes tutorial and the Armstrong choir, fully supported by the brass band, all giving the congregation moments of peaceful contemplation on the true meaning of Christmas.

The sermon was led by the Vicar of St John’s, Revd Philip Venables, who reminded us that Christmas is a time to put God at the centre of our thoughts, making God clearer in our minds.

After the very special service, members of the congregation came together in fellowship for light refreshments and a pre-Christmas celebration.

To celebrate the end of mock exams and a very hectic term for our Year 11 pupils, they were invited to wear Christmas jumpers in the last week of term and were given a lesson off timetable for a special Christmas lunch with their tutors, to the backdrop of some festive tunes.

Year 11 Pupil Manager, Mrs McCaffrey said ‘Year 11 have worked exceptionally hard for these mock exams and this day was intended to give them a bit of a break, a chance to unwind, spend some quality time with their friends and celebrate the festive season’.

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The quad was filled with festive cheer in the penultimate week of term as each year group gathered to sing Christmas carols during tutorial time.

Led by Mr White and Mrs Cunningham, with members of the brass band and Hughes choir, each year group belted out the classics, with a little bit of persuasion from their tutors.

Dan completed the carol service with a prayer and pupils were sent off to lessons full of Christmas spirit!

Pupils have been thinking about the meaning of Advent in worship and in RE this term and we have all enjoyed the wonderful Advent Wreath which Mrs Armstrong, our Chairman of Governors, makes for us each year.

Pupils in Year 7 have also made Christingles in RE lessons and thought about what the Christingle says about the message of Christmas and Advent.

Some pupils even used their Christingles during an act of worship led by Miss Tremlett when she challenged us all to 'Be a Christingle' - sharing the light of Christ, being aware of his love and recognising the gifts he has given.

Booth Tutorial in Year 10 decided to make Christmas decorations this year to raise money for Oxfam Unwrapped.

They were split into teams and given the task of marketing the decorations to pupils in other tutorials and making as much money as possible for charity. They used 2D Design software and the laser cutter to cut them into shape.

Tutor Mrs Gornall said that last year they made £100 so they are ‘hoping to beat that this year’.

Pupils across the school have been spending the last few weeks raising money for our annual Oxfam Unwrapped appeal.

Pupils have been bringing donations in to school and some tutorials have come up with some inventive ways of raising money (see the Booth elves above).

Now, tutorials are busy deciding whether to buy a goat or a toilet!

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FESTIVE fun was shared with members of the community when St Michael’s threw open its doors for a Christmas coffee morning this half term.

More than 40 pupils from Year 10 hosted the event and invited the guests to the Training Suite, including some from local care homes and from churches in the region.

They were treated to biscuits made earlier in the day by the pupils, cakes, scones and sandwiches and also enjoyed a game of bingo, a Christmas quiz and a picture quiz, all prepared by the pupils.

Musicians provided a Christmas themed accompaniment and also led a carol sing-along which was enjoyed by all – pupils, staff and guests alike!

The youngsters are all taking part in the prestigious Archbishop of York Award and are exploring the link between faith and community action.

This was the first event of its kind but was hailed a complete success with many guests already looking forward to receiving their invitations for next year!

IN PREPARATION for the special Christmas party, Year 10 Food and Nutrition students were tasked with baking abbey biscuits for the event.

Our visitors enjoyed the biscuits with a lovely cup of tea at the end of the party.

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AFTER TEN YEARS of hard work, research and writing, History teacher Mr Adam Cree has finally finished and published his book, ’From the Humblest to the Greatest’.

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‘From the Humblest to the Greatest’ tells the story of one woman’s inspirational and very personal mission to chronicle the ultimate sacrifice made by the men from her town during the Great War. It was a journey that would take Susannah Knight all the way from the streets of a small working class market town in Lancashire across the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of North America.

Though it was always her firm intention to create a lasting legacy to the fallen in her home town of Chorley, her quest grew into something much more than that. This became an epic, single-handed mission for world peace on which she would meet prime ministers, presidents and popes – knights, kings and captains of industry and compel them all to sign the pages of her Memorial Album and thus add their weight to her personal campaign.

Mr Cree’s book follows each stage of Susannah Knight’s journey, from her early life as a school teacher to the time she spent giving French lessons to local men bound for foreign shores and unaware of what lay ahead. Only after the Great War ended however, would her own quest truly begin. It was then that she started to compile the first volume of a Memorial Album which would, over the course of many years, travel with her across Europe and North America, where she would entreat figures of influence across the political, religious and social spectra and finally return home with a meaningful and lasting legacy for her town’s fallen.

Not content with having a break and putting his feet up, Mr Cree has recently also been working on a pop-up museum project to bring the casualties of each locality to the communities of the present and to get people to think about how the Great War would be remembered in the years after the war and beyond.

Everyone at Saint Michael’s is incredibly proud of Mr Cree’s fantastic achievement.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, it is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle.

IN OCTOBER all Year 8 pupils were issued with a BBC Microbit, designed to encourage more young people to try coding.

Coding has become very popular with pupils in recent years and it is a key skill in ICT as it is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites. Learning coding also helps young people understand the technology that is shaping our world.

Pupils really enjoyed programming their names to scroll across the Microbit, creating images and some were even able to program Tamagotchi style games!

At home pupils can further their skills by visiting the Microbit website (www.microbit.org); no other equipment is needed other than their Microbits.

Happy coding!

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THE BRIGHT LIGHTS of the West End greeted 50 pupils on the Drama department’s annual trip to London during the October half-term holiday.

Whilst in London, the pupils ate enough pizza to feed most of Naples before going on a magic carpet ride to Baghdad care of a very magical genie in Disney's ‘Aladdin’.

After what the pupils assured us was a good night’s sleep, the group spent the second morning in Covent Garden to explore the shops and watch some of the amazing street performers.

Following this, the group went on to visit the Warner Brothers studios at Leavesden to ride broomsticks, and the Hogwarts express at the ‘Harry Potter Studio Tour’.

The pupils arrived home later that night, happy and full of fudge flies and chocolate frogs.

KEEN travellers and language enthusiasts have once again snapped up places on the extra-curricular foreign visits on offer next year.

48 pupils are all set to take part in a trip to Bruges and Paris during the first week of the Easter holidays in 2017. They will enjoy the chocolate shops of the famous Belgian city, before spending a day exploring the Paris sights, then a fun day at Disneyland.

And another 48 pupils are taking part in the second France holiday over the May Bank Holiday weekend; this trip taking in the beautiful Keukenhof tulip gardens near Amsterdam, Holland, rather than Bruges.

The holiday to Germany over May half term, is also proving popular. Pupils will enjoy a visit to Cologne’s beautiful cathedral, to the Cologne Zoo and to the famous Phantasialand theme park.

They will also visit the Dreiländerpunkt; the three countries meeting point where you can stand in three countries, Germany, Belgium and Holland, all at once!

All pupils will have the opportunities to practise their language skills as well as sampling the local cuisine on all these holidays.

Three Saint Michael’s book borrowers have won a £10 Scholastic Book voucher. The lucky library users had their names entered into the half-termly draw simply by taking a book out from the Armstrong Centre.

The lotto was introduced at the start of this half-term in an effort to encourage reluctant readers to visit the Armstrong Centre and take out a book. Since implementing the programme, library usage has significantly increased as more and more St. Michael’s pupils have taken advantage of their school’s excellent reading and research facilities.

St. Michael’s school librarian, Mrs. Hull, remarked, ‘The uptake has been incredible! Pupils who wouldn’t normally read for pleasure now pay us a visit to find out what we have on offer in the Armstrong Centre. We’ve seen many more pupils from across the year groups become frequent book borrowers and avid readers’.

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The Library Lotto will begin another round in the New Year. St Michael’s pupils are once again encouraged to pay a visit to the Armstrong Centre and sample from the thousands of excellent young adult fiction titles that are on offer.

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ON SATURDAY the 3rd December, 52 Year 10 GCSE Textiles and Art students visited ‘The Clothes Show Live’ at the NEC in Birmingham.

The students said they had an amazing time gaining inspiration for their own Textiles and Art work. There was fashion everywhere, including vintage, designer and high street brands. Many university and fashion colleges were also exhibiting at the show and this gave students an insight into careers and future opportunities in the fashion and textiles industries.

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Year 7 and 8 have been enjoying being creative at the new Art club (taking place at lunchtimes and after school).

With the help of Year 11 Art Mentors, pupils have had the opportunity to create different forms of art work. For example, Christmas decorations, pop up cards, clay sculptures or simply drawing and painting for their own pleasure.

The club will continue next term with our new Year 10 mentors – watch this space for further information!

A highlight of the day was watching the spectacular fashion show in main hall. On the catwalk the latest fashion trends were on display in a stunning show with dance and live music.

Everyone had a great day and gained lots of ideas for their GCSE Textiles and Art work. Mrs Burrow said it was ‘a most exciting and inspiring day’.

The art work of the month is by Star Doughty in Year 7.

The two photographs are pages taken from Star’s sketchbook.

They show a title page and planning for the topic ‘Inside My Head’.

We have chosen this work for our art work of the month because of the creativity shown and the depth of planning. She has recorded her ideas really carefully and we are very impressed with the presentation of her work.

Well done Star!

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OUR NETBALLING SUPERSTARS travelled to St Cecilia's High School in Longridge on Saturday 5th November to take part in the Lancashire qualifying round of the English Schools' Netball Championship.

The weather was exceptionally cold but the netball played by our wonderful Year 9 and Year 11 teams was enough to warm them all up.

The Year 11 team remained unbeaten throughout the competition winning all their matches in the round robin, beating some exceptional teams and players on route to victory.

Year 9 also remained unbeaten throughout the event, with a couple of draws and the rest wins in their group despite picking up some injuries.

These final results mean that our U14 team and U16 team will be representing Lancashire in the North West. We are unbelievably proud of both teams for making St Michael's history as we have never achieved this before, and Mrs Dempster said the teachers are ‘particularly grateful for the unwavering support of all the parents present for both teams on the day’, adding, ‘We look forward now to pitting our netballing wits against the best the North West has to offer’.

Further to this fantastic success, only a week later the Year 11s wowed us again by winning the Chorley and District tournament too— another trophy to add to the cabinet!

THE PE DEPARTMENT were very privileged on Monday, 5th December, to have a visit from Wigan Warriors RFL. Joel Smith, development coach for Wigan, was joined by 17 year old Ben Kilner from the U19 reserve team. Our guests lead boys’ classes in rugby league drills and games, that left all pupils involved in great spirits as well as giving them a really enjoyable session.

Joel introduced the ‘Wigan Way’ of approaching each session with positivity, integrity and respect, making for a really memorable experience.

This was actually the second time Wigan Warriors have been in to school as St Michael’s have now become part of Wigan’s ‘Embed the Pathway’ scheme to get more of our young people involved in not just Rugby League but sport in general.

The coaches will return again in the new year to run an after school practice session, with the aim of getting some of our pupils to compete in a small competition in the spring.

PE teacher, Mr Kennedy said: ‘I would like to thank both Joel and Ben for a great day that was not only enjoyed by the pupils but also by the staff too’.

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AFTER A SHORT BREAK, the German Kinoklub (film club) has started up again as a weekly group available to all pupils.

Taking place every Wednesday lunchtime in L1, the group is regularly attended by a loyal group of Year 9 pupils but is open to everyone.

So far this year they have watched: ‘Das Wunder Von Bern’ (a football film that documents Germany's World Cup win during the depression that followed the second world war) and they are presently watching ‘der Tunnel’ (another true story about a group of East Germans who dig a tunnel under the Berlin wall to escape the communist regime).

Kinoklub brings language learning to life and enables students to experience German culture, practise their listening skills and widens their vocabulary.

A MERRY BAND of Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils set off on a very Christmassy excursion last weekend as the annual French Christmas markets trip took place.

After a long journey, the group’s first stop was Ypres in Belgium where they spent the morning browsing the traditional festive markets before visiting a local family run chocolate shop. In addition to the shopping, there was also some time to soak in the history and culture of the town as they visited the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot War Memorial.

Following on from this, en route to Paris, the group stopped at Arras to visit one of the largest Christmas markets in northern France, before finally reaching Paris and a guided tour of the sights by night.

On Sunday they spent the day visiting the Eiffel Tower—although it was too foggy to go up to the top! Then onto Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame. After an exhausting day of sightseeing and a chance to recharge the batteries over dinner, the evening ended with a trip along the Seine on the Bateaux Mouches.

The group completed the trip with a short trip to the Hypermarket followed by an exciting though tiring day at Disneyland.

Group organiser, Mrs Lucas said the trip was ‘a great success’ and the group returned ‘tired but full of festive cheer’.

Please may we take this opportunity to remind parents/carers about our policy regarding the use of mobile devices in school. Whilst we know it is reassuring to know this form of contact exists, such devices can be a huge distraction and a potential safeguarding concern when used inappropriately.

With this in mind, we do ask that they remain switched off and out of sight whilst on the school premises. This includes times when pupils are attending after school activities and clubs. Pupils deemed to be using their device for whatever reason will have it confiscated, it will be locked in the safe overnight and only returned on receipt of a signed letter from a parent/carer. Your support with this matter is very much appreciated.

Saint Michael’s News

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Saint Michael's CE High School, Astley Road, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 1RS