St. Ambrose Barlow Weekly Newsletter Vol.5 Issue 9 November 8th, 2019

FAITH IN YOU

LOVE IN LEARNING

HOPE IN BETTER

this week in our school . . .

Volume 5 Issue 9 November 8th, 2019

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ST AMBROSE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL & SIXTH FORM

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Head’s start .

Mr. Davis, Headteacher, reflects on the week.

Mr. Davis, Headteacher, reflects on the week.

I am sure that many of you watched the Rugby

World Cup final last Saturday and that, like me, is about this of year thatthat I meet with you wereIt cheering the time England victory each Head of Department to review the proved elusive. Of course in the end there was summer’s exam results.

This involves a greater narrative to that match: the tale of the plenty of useful and transformation and hopes of thought-provoking a damaged nation discussion, but it is usually coming to be focused on one man. talking about numbers and letters. Behind this data are stories: how pupils they felt, Siya Kolisi did not just raisedid, the how World Cup aswhat they liked and what they achieved.

South Africa’s captain, but as their first blackWe always focuswhere on how things be captain in a country over 90%can of the improved as well as celebrating what population is black. The significance of this iswent Catholic school, exam results are huge, sowell. muchAssoa that I shared his inspirational just one way of expressing the unique, Godstory as part of my assemblies this week. given talents and skills of each pupil. It is important look beyond so I am Miss Daniels and Itohad the honourthe of data leading delighted that much more of my job assemblies on the Ambrose Way theme of involves in classes, around ‘Curiousbeing and Active.’

Bothwalking of us spoke of the our school and talking to pupils, students and staff. separate experiences of living overseas and

working for charities in impoverished If everMiss you Daniels are feeling at all me despondent communities: in Peru, in South or fatigued I reckon a quick tour of the school Africa. would quickly raise your spirits. Let me show you what I mean.stories Todayas(Thursday, We positioned these personal September 29th) for instance, I dropped examples of how our curiosity about places and into Year 10 GCSE Music.

There, I was other lives led us to become actively engaged in to listentotoaperformances of work thatdelighted offered service community. Last Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Hold Back week we talked about the importance of having the River and When the Saints Go Marching knowledge and using for the common good and got to sit stone with Daniel how thisIn. wasI also a foundation of our and Chester as they demonstrated their prodigious DJing curriculum. talents. Next, during lunch, I supervised the canteen and made point of watching the Access to learning relies onayoung people’s interactions that take place daily.

Pupils curiosity being stimulated so that in turn they are and staff holding doors open for one another, brought to realise the relevance of their studies offering little of personal to improving the thanks, world for themoments better. You can appreciation and gratitude.

Of course, see in this very newsletter how pupils are always go well in a school, working things to this don’t in form time and in other aspectsbut it is lovely to witness a voluntary apology from of school life. It is about more than simply a Year 9 to one of the lunch time staff, or donating to charity, important though this is, it is see our oneindividual pupil helpskills another is unsure about using andwho talents to where to go for class. serve others near and far.

In Sixth I enjoyedyou a lengthy chat with In this edition of Form, the newsletter can read Aidan who explained both the theory reports from individual forms, many of which of and itsofpotential focus ondifferentiation the broader sense purposecommercial behind application.

In English wereof studying learning. You can also see the they evidence the the play Blood Brothers and talking excellent education that some of pupils havewith humour excitement about superstitions; had through the and Design, Engineer, Construct! in Year 7 RE they were dissecting our new course. This week ten of them came together to mission statement and exploring the celebrate with key figures from across the meanings it. School is a industry.personal Then there was thewithin extraordinary busy, bustling, humming place. achievement of former pupil Josh Hart who won

I get to Maths to find all of Year 9 embroiled in aMusician task that at is Xaverian so challenging and Iexciting Young College. was that I want to stay and have a go myself. privileged to be there to see him perform and life it’s: his “Sir,extremely have youproud seen family. my tie? the Outside trophy with Can you my bottle? you of Alongside allopen this has been theWhat usualdid round think of last night’s game?

What time choir rehearsals, football matches (beatingis it, Sir?”Fold and,21-0), at least day,more.

“Oh my Harrop artonce clubsaand days!” It can be noisy at times and in a community size can’t expect All of this adds this up to an we education that is driven everyone to get on with each other theand by curiosity, a desire for knowledge andallskill time.

But it is our community, and a lively, where young people use what they know and positive one at that. canlovely, do to improve the world around them whether through the bricks and mortar of Perhaps the single highlight of my week, if I construction or the beauty of music. had to pick, would be the conversation I had with Mrs. Fay who is leading the development of our new library. I am a library enthusiast and have been ever since I was little. The furthest reach of my memory is back to moments spent in our local library entranced by its colour and bright possibilities. On Twitter reveals theone holdof For#RememberingMyLibrary Year 11 this week has been another that such an institution has: ‘A library card mock exams and they have continued to was a free pass to wonderment, wordsvery and participate in this demanding experience the ability to roam the world’ observes one well. There has been no shortage of good user,from whilstthe another thewhom wrought ironbe humour pupils,quotes many of would gates of Stalybridge library, ‘Read, Mark, forgiven for not seeing the funny side of the Learn and they Inwardly many papers haveDigest.’ to sit. Others talk of the escape that a library represented or of the as refuge it offered fromcame an unkind Today, the exam season to anworld. end, I heard some of them reflect on simultaneous Mrs. Fay spent Saturday peacefully equations (and howlast they don’t seem as hard as stacking the shelves and we are inching I they first look once you know the answer!). closer to relate opening.

What thrilled me was her could easily to this feeling having toiled comment that several boys, some of whom my way through my fair share of such maths affect awhen dislike of reading, were by problems I was at school, butelectrified what I presence of a library in their school: ‘You admired was the tenacity and determination of can shared borrow their this and, like, readwith it, the mean pupilsIwho observations Miss?’ was the breathless utterance of oneto me. They were driven by more than a desire pupil.

Our library is at the heart of the get a sum right, to do well, and instead were school:by a space being open to and motivated higherfor ideals. sharing ideas and experiences. It is openand its shelves serve as a reminder Godplan Bless,

that there should be no barrier to anyone Benusing Davisits volumes or seeking knowledge, solace, entertainment or information. I can’t Headteacher wait to see it come to life in the weeks Twitter: @BenDavis1972 ahead thanks to Mrs. Fay and her band of helpers.

Front cover image: Year 11 GCSE Art work, image of Rihanna.

Education in our school must be driven by curiosity and a desire to improve the world around us

Ben Davis, Headteacher Twitter: @BenDavis1972 2

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The Ambrose Way This Week

Each week, through form and assemblies, and using prayer and reflection, we focus on a pair of virtues from The Ambrose Way as well as a skill.

The details can be found in your child’s booklet.

Over the last few weeks we have focused first on being Grateful and Generous, Compassionate and Loving, Attentive and Discerning & Learned and Wise.

the ambrose Name:

Aspiration/ Personal Goal or Ambition:

The focus this week was on the virtues of being curious and active. Please take some time to read though the Ambrose Way booklet with your child and discuss these virtues.

A St. Ambrose Barlow pupil is curious about everything; and active in my engagement with the world, changing what I can for the better.

I am Ambrose when appreciating the wonder of God I am always curious and questioning, fully involved in my learning, showing courageous curiosity instead of avoiding participation or engagement.

This covers the following habits for learning and life: Inquiring, showing courage, questioning, researching, debating.

I can expect... to be given opportunities to learn and grow through inquiry and independence.

All things are worthy of our attention, curiosity and study because in each one of them there is the possibility of finding God; and not only God but God doing something for me. Curiosity is needed to sustain learning. It is what keeps us going through the difficult stuff; it is what opens up new horizons and allows the possibility of ‘finding God in all things.’ Curiosity is key to our method of education.

Learning is something to be actively engaged in by probing, seeking, asking, challenging, and questioning until the truth is plain – it is to think for oneself and to become an independent and lifelong learner. It is not often that schoolchildren get the opportunity to change the world but our school challenges them to ‘think globally and act locally’, to get involved, changing what they can for the time being, using what they have learned to make small differences, so that they are ready for the day when they can make a big difference.

As St Ignatius said, “Go, set the world ablaze!” This is what we hope for our pupils as they step out into adult life, active and curious.

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HOUSe News St. Bernadette of Lourdes

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st. oscar romero

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St. Bernadette of Lourdes

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st. oscar romero st. michael the archangel st. francis of assisi St. teresa of calcutta House points and house news pages

st. assisi St francis Francisofof Assisi House Mr Stephenson St.Bernadette Bernadette of Lourdes St. of Lourdes Mr. Harrison, form tutor, writes: For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the downpour and the rain, 'Be strong.' He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know his work.”

Job 37:6-10 As the nights draw long and the weather turns for the worst, the bible speaks of opportunity to turn our winter solitude into a time for pause, to reflect upon God and ourselves; away from the harsh realities of nature.

St Bernadette has being employing this ethos through this week’s Ambrose Way focus, Curious and Active. Form times have been abuzz with reflections on the curious wonder of God’s earth and how we see ourselves as part of it. Inspired by the assembly, chronicling the adventures of Miss Daniels’ time spent in remote regions of Peru and experiencing the cultures and communities beyond our own, our house has taken time to reflect on how we remain curious and active in our school community, and envisaging where this curiosity may take each of our unique students.

Emily Hesketh (7BL) truly represents this, with a leading total of 61 achievement points and 0 Behaviour Points, well done Emily! Gloria Ogidan (7BL) and Luca Warrington (6BL) share the title of St Bernadette’s Champion of the week, with 7 achievement points.

Mrs Sidebottom

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St. teresa St Teresaofofcalcutta Calcutta Mrs Rogerson, form tutor writes: We have lots to celebrate in 6T this week. We have consistently been earning achievement points and this week has been no exception, bringing our total for the year to 359. Our new year 7’s have been leading the way this week with Liam Featherstone, Ellie Dunne and Katie Donohue being the stand out performers, earning the most achievement points.

Well done and keep up the good work year 7! Liam must also be congratulated for earning the most achievement points in 6T so far this year with 25.

Leah Mullineaux in year 8 is hot on his heels with 23 achievement points since September however.

Well done Liam and Leah! In addition to achievement points 7 of 6T still have 100% attendance so far this year and deserve celebration: well done Ailis, Sophia, Darragh, Leah M, Leah E, Lincoln and Chrystal.

This week has been a busy week for our year 11’s with them sitting their mock exams. Joe, Ailis, Sophia, Darragh and Leah have done themselves proud with their attitude and effort towards these mocks. They are feeling confident because of the extra revision and time they have invested into their mocks and deserve every success.

Well done year 11! I think Darragh’s reflection on his mocks “The teachers this year have been helpful and determined so that we wouldn’t struggle through these mocks and they would have been difficult without them. Also I have grown to learn that if you “Be who God meant you to be you will set the world on fire” sums this attitude up perfectly and really reflects our mission statement “Faith in You. Love in Learning. Hope in better.”

Last week’s Ambrose way theme was to be learned and wise. Eve Marron’s reflection on this “We can 4

all achieve this by being open to taking in new information about the world and surroundings” sums up perfectly 6T’s response to the work they have been doing in form on this theme and their desire to progress into better versions of themselves.

Throughout 6T pupils are enjoying the learning that they are doing in school – Henrique is enjoying the practical work he is carrying out in Science, as is Ryan who is also enjoying his ICT lessons. Kelisha enjoys reading and so is currently enjoying her English lessons, as well as her History lessons where she is learning about World War I and trench-foot. Charlie has been enjoying learning about the Tropical Rainforest in Geography, Jack is enjoying learning about the diets of footballers in PE, Evan is enjoying his product design lessons while Alex is enjoying his Imedia and Daniel and Mia their Art lessons. Ayomide sums up her French lessons as follows “J’aime la Francais, c’est tres bien”.

Besides being shining lights within school 6T are also leading the way outside of school. Leah Mullineaux represents Firestorm Cheerleading Team in their 12-14yrs team but has also recently been subbing for the over 18’s team. Katie and Ellie are also sporting superstars and have been selected for the Y7 netball team.

Well done and keep it up for the rest of the term 6T! Mrs. Robb St. Benedict of Nursia st. benedict of nursia Mr. Morrison, form tutor writes: General Celebration 7BN have made a fantastic start to the year. No pupils have been on report all year and we have maintained our high standards of behaviour, with the least amount of behaviour points in Benedict house. Well done 7BN. Mr. Morrison is very proud of you all!

Rose Casey, Denton Deady, Kadience Edwards, Reece James, Ryan Law, Gino Meocci, Sol Momoh, Chris Nguyen.

Individual Achievements/Celebrations Blaise Heywood Year 11 is Head girl. She is an exemplary student and is a pleasure to have in form. She is supportive and mature, along with being a role model for all other children in the form and in the school.

Liam Mitchell - successful in getting on to the Year 7 football team.

Sol Momoh - one of the star sports performers in the school. He represents the school at football, rugby and athletics. He is also a well-mannered and polite young man. Another role model for younger pupils.

7BN- The greatest form in the whole school- Keep up the great work guys!

Mr. Merriman St st. Oscar oscar romero Romero A new Y7 pupil in 5R writes about settling in: When I first started at St. Ambrose Barlow I was looking forward to being in the same class as my friends. My form tutor, Miss Santasuosso, welcomed me and my friends as if we were family.

My form, Oscar Romero 5, are very friendly, kind and welcoming.

When we do Newsround it is great fun to learn about a new subject and what is going on around the world. Our favourite class is PE because we laugh about falling in the mud in rugby. On my table in Art I think we work together a lot and we always compliment each other’s work.

Making friends has made it more easy to be confident in front of others and I’ve made a lot of new friends in and out of school. My favourite subject is English because Miss Owens, my teacher, is extremely nice to me.

Each morning, pupils take turns to say a prayer.

They choose their own prayer and every pupils has developed confidence and demonstrated excellent Oracy skills by speaking out loud in front of pupils from all year groups. This will continue all year.

Miss Jackson

Achievement points Scarlett Doyle has earned the most achievement points in the form group- 34 achievement points already. Well done Scarlett.

7M Newsletter contribution

Lola Durham, Kadience Edwards Reece James and Anastazja Richardson-Browne are all closely behind on 29 achievement points.

Attendance Celebration The form attendance is 95.45% at present.

The following pupils have achieved 100% attendance so far this academic year:

St news st. Michaels michael theHouse archangel Form tutor Miss Ball writes:

“A St. Ambrose Barlow pupil is curious about everything; and active in my engagement with the world, changing what I can for the better” This week in form we have been discussing the Ambrose way theme of “Curious and Active”. This led us onto discussions of how we can be active within school to better ourselves, but also how we can be active outside of school to help others in need. Some ideas from form were, 5

“More work for charity, taking part in fasting for CAFOD” “Spend more time reading” “Contribute more to school council meetings to help make decisions in school” “A raffle to raise money for charity” “Helping the homeless by donating spare change or food” “Buy something to contribute to the homeless box in form” Mrs. McGowan

St Ambrose DEC students - you’re in a Class Of Your Own Alison Watson MBE, founder and Chief Executive of Class of Your Own writes: Ten former DEC students and their teacher, Dan McDonagh, turned up to a John Sisk site office in the centre of Manchester to support an event led by COYO friends Women in BIM and G4C. The event was entitled “Tackling Construction Skills Shortage through BIM in Education”.

These fine young people ARE the Northern Powerhouse, the Future of Construction, the Pride of Manchester - all rolled into one in the National Week Of Engineering. I reflected on the past ten years, working with young people and teachers, the curriculum designed specifically to be part of the solution (“you can be part of the problem or...”), the challenges that we have encountered - from politicians and policies to parents and perception. And we’ve never given up. We’ve found a way with a clear sense of purpose - it’s always been about our students and teachers and developing some of the most exciting digital talent this industry has ever seen.

1 Quantity Surveyor, 3 Construction Managers, 1 BIM Technician, 4 Civil Engineers, 1 Architectural Technologist, working for Renaker Build, BIMTech Engineering, WSP, D. Morgan, AEW and Mott MacDonald. All of them are under 20 years old. Our company name ‘Class Of Your Own’ was created not only because children and young people start the DEC programme by designing, engineering and constructing their own inclusive ‘eco classroom’ project, but fundamentally to give young people a headline aspiration to aim for. And my goodness, do they aim high.

These young people from the North West represent just a handful of the amazing #DEC students Class Of Your Own works with, and we spend every waking hour working for.

They are true ambassadors for a great industry. I am proud beyond words.

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Around the school This week

A week of very busy, but productive, lunch times in the art department this week both with art club and GCSE catch up!

What fab pupils we have!

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Around the school This week

Former pupil Josh Hart victorious after winning Young Musician at Xaverian College this week.

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calendar what’s on

Advance Notice Year 8 Parents’ & Carers’ Evening, November 14th, 5-7pm Christmas Fair, Saturday December 7th, 11am

Year 8 Parents’ & Carers’ Evening, 5 7pm

Parent Council Christmas Fair Planning meeting, 6:15pm

Remembrance Day

WED 13

TUE 12

THU 14

FRI 15 SAT 16

MON 11

COMING UP THIS WEEK week beginning 11.11.19 week B

attendance We aim for 100% attendance for all of our students and have set 96% as satisfactory attendance for this year.

Attendance is monitored period-by-period and statistics are published each week. Excellent attendance guarantees excellent learning.

Attendance by year (w/b October 14th).

Year 7 Year 8 year 9 year 10 year 11 School

97.2% 95.2% 93.6% 93.9% 94.5% 94.9%

Attendance and its impact on learning 10 days absence means 95% attendance 19 days absence means 90% attendance 29 days absence means 85% attendance 38 days absence means 80% attendance 47 days absence means 75% attendance Please note: If your child is off school you need to contact student services the same day on 0161 921 1589/1551. If the school has not been contacted within five days, the absences will automatically be unauthorised. Ten unauthorised marks may lead to a fixed penalty notice being served.

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TWEET OF THE WEek More

Hayley Jackson @misshcjackson Nov 7th

Great choir rehearsal today! Must have been about 45 people in Music today, if not more! #lovesinging #myambrose #christmasiscoming

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Parishes in our Catchment Area Holy Trinity, Worsley (formerly Christ the King; St. Edmund’s) Sunday Mass Times • 9:00am at Christ the King • 11:00am at St. Edmund’s Our Lady of Hope, Salford (formerly St. Luke’s; SS. Peter & Paul, Pendleton) Sunday Mass Times • 6:30pm (Sat vigil) at St. Luke’s • 9:30am at St. Luke’s • 8:00am at SS. Peter & Paul • 11:00am at SS. Peter & Paul St. Ambrose Barlow, Swinton & Pendlebury (formerly St. Mark’s, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, St. Charles Borromeo) Sunday Mass Times • 9:30am at St. Mark’s • 11:15am at St. Charles • 4:00pm at St. Mark’s

FAITH IN YOU

LOVE IN LEARNING

HOPE IN BETTER

ST AMBROSE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL & SIXTH FORM www.stambrosebarlowswinton.org 37 Ash Drive Swinton Salford M27 9QP 0161 921 1570 @SABSalford Headteacher: Ben Davis 11

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