SMWCA Easter 2022 Newsletter

APRIL 2022

VOL 5

April 2022

SMWCA NEWS St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy Newsletter

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL MR D MCKENNA

Welcome to our Easter newsletter. Twelve months ago, I introduced this newsletter by referring to the rather sudden and unexpected second ‘lockdown’ that required us to close to most students and move our lessons online whilst also restricting so many of the things we had come to take for granted in schools. A year later, whilst Covid-19 is sadly still very much a presence in school, I am delighted that we are able to celebrate and enjoy so many of the essential opportunities that make St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy such a vibrant and enjoyable place to be. As you will see trips are most definitely back and large numbers of our students have had the opportunity to take part in them this term, even as I type we have Year 10 students enjoying a residential trip to Oxford University. Other venues visited since Christmas include the Lowry Exhibition, Salford, the Michelangelo exhibition at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Savio House in Bollington, Cheshire, St Cassian’s in Kintbury, Berkshire, the Victoria Hall in Hanley, the BMX National Cycle Centre in Manchester and Staffordshire and Keele Universities.

St Margaret Ward students have made a significant contribution this term to highlighting the need for equality for girls’ football, have led the way at the recorder festival and Jubilee concert, been involved in Science week and Engineering projects, and enjoyed major individual successes at County Cross Country, national girls’ football and a number of winners at the Stoke-On-Trent young musician of the Year awards. We’ve had visits from the army, a professor from Loughborough University, a former student now training as a doctor and all our Collegiate feeder schools along with the Easter Bunny!

As always at the heart of all of this is the Catholic life of our school which has been enriched during Lent by our focus on Prayer and charity, with our Ash Wednesday services, Lenten prayer challenge, Year 7 masses, Stations of the Cross services and fundraising for the Ukraine appeal, Fr Hudson’s and CAFOD. I hope you enjoy reading about all the exciting opportunities we have managed to pack into one term and I wish you a very happy, holy and peaceful Easter.

D McKenna Principal

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

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KNIFE ANGEL MISS TERRY

In April the Knife Angel sculpture will be visiting Stoke on Trent as part of a national tour.

Situated in the Smithfield area next to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, this attraction will be free to visit, and is perfectly situated to combine with a visit to our Cultural Quarter, wonderful museum, and art gallery including the new Spitfire Gallery for a free family day out.

All Year seven and eight students, and Year ten GCSE artists, will be participating in an art and photography competition based around this visit, and details of the winners will be on the summer term newsletter.

ART MANCHESTER MISS TERRY

On Wednesday 23rd March, the Art department took GCSE and A-level students on a creative trip to Manchester. The trip began in the Trafford Centre, where students were able to view the elusive exhibition of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Inside the exhibition, the walls and ceilings were decorated with life-sized prints from the Sistine Chapel, and students sat within the exhibition with Art students from other schools, to sketch the artwork that inspired them most, some also brought their cameras to take some photographs.

The next stop was the famous Lowry exhibition in Media City, where students were able to view Lowry’s work throughout his career, as well as gain insight into his own personal art collection. We also got the rare opportunity to view Lowry’s striking selfportrait, which is currently on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. Students studied his figurative work in particular, looking at how Lowry drew people in various environments, both realistic and abstracted. They also had the opportunity to sit down in the Lowry gallery to add more studies to their sketchbooks, and to even make use of an illustration workspace within the Julian Gray section of the exhibition. After this, students were free to explore Media City to do some of their own observational/life drawing, it was a brilliant day for doing so, the sun was shining, and the city centre was bustling with people.

Students could also use their photos from the Lowry and Michelangelo exhibitions as inspiration for their drawing.

Overall, a lovely day was had by all, and the students produced some exciting, high-quality drawings and photographs to add to their GCSE and A-Level coursework.

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

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YEAR 10 ART TRIP TO THE POTTERIES MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY MISS TERRY AND MISS LEESE

At the beginning of the term Year 10 art students enjoyed a trip to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery to see the work of renowned ceramicist, Neil Brownsword.

His exhibition entitled, 'Alchemy and Metamorphosis,' examines the innovations and ingenuity of North Staffordshire’s early ceramic industrialisation through a range of contemporary practices and perspectives. Curating a timeline of objects and archaeology from the Potteries Museum and other world-class regional collections, internationally acclaimed artist Neil Brownsword reveals the technologies, cultural influences and empiricism that led to the growth of a world-renowned centre of ceramic production.

Neil spoke to the students about his passion for all things ceramic before conducting a clay workshop with them. Students were able to experiment with slabs of clay and reclaimed industrial pot moulds. He encouraged them to combine different forms together to make new ones and really pushed their imaginations.

The results were really creative and innovative and opened up our young artists' eyes to the possibilities of what ceramics could offer them. It was a big success and the students all left with inspiration, knowledge about the ceramics industry and pots!

ART CLUB IS GOING WILD...

MISS TERRY AND MISS LEESE

This term, our fabulous art club members have been busily making some 3D animal heads inspired by the work of David Farrer. They are using recycled newspaper to build up the heads of endangered animals, including, the Giant Panda, Tiger, Rhino, Gorilla, Saola, Amur Leopard, Elephant and Orangutan. We look forward to adding the details using paper mache and collaging them with recycled magazines. Watch this space for the end results!

BUSINESS MR QUIGLEY AND MRS HANCOCK

Year 13 BTEC Business students have received some excellent university offers from top-ranking universities such as Durham, York, Manchester, Exeter, and Liverpool to name a few. Their offers are in a huge range of subjects from International Relations to Dance, together with business-related subjects such as Marketing, Maths and Business Finance, and Management.

Year 12 Business students successfully held an enterprise event which raised over £50 for charity before half term; this work contributes towards one of their coursework units which amplify the practical nature of the qualification.

Former Level 2 BTEC students are also celebrating fantastic offers including medicine

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SIXTH FORM UPDATE MRS RHODES

This term has seen both Year 12 and Year 13 working hard; Year 13 as they have prepared for mocks and their final A level / BTEC assessments and exams, and Year 12 cementing and consolidating their knowledge and understanding as they start to think about their post 18 options, careers and university.

Most university offers are now in for Year 13 and they have been exceptionally successful in obtaining offers from many of the country’s top universities, including, Cambridge, Durham, Birmingham, Sheffield, York, Leeds, Exeter, Loughborough, Nottingham and Newcastle amongst many others in subject areas as diverse as, Medicine, Law, Maths, Nursing, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Education, Business, Policing, Sports, Performing Arts, Japanese Studies, International Relations, Finance and many others.

We wish all our Year 13 luck and determination as they approach the challenge of the final months of their courses, of revision and exams.

Many Year 12 have been focussing not only on their academic work, but also on developing a broader set of skills and experiences to develop themselves personally and to help make them stand out in the very competitive career and university markets.

A record group of students are now enrolled on Cambridge University’s HE+ scheme in which students attend online lectures hosted by leading academics in their fields and then work in small groups on a research topic of their choice.

In addition, we are also very proud of the success of our collaboration with the Co-Op Academy who group of their top achieving Year 9 students to St Margaret Ward once a fortnight where Year 12 students help them to develop their understanding of chosen subject areas and challenge them to think in greater depth about relevant issues. The Year 12s are doing an exceptional job and the experience is proving to be richly rewarding for both our 6th form students and for the visiting Co-Op students.

Many of our 6th Form continue to have instrumental lessons during Year 12 and 13 and attend academy and city ensembles on a weekly basis. Earlier this year lots of our students performed in the Stoke on Trent Youth Musician of the Year competition. Congratulations to Daisy-Mae Goodwin in Year 12 who won the senior string class this year.

Several weeks ago, the Year 12 A Level Maths group completed a mathematical problem solving morning with Keele University in which they considered a variety of challenging questions using their knowledge of the A Level course. They found creative solutions to the problems set and learnt a lot about the benefits of having a variety of logical approaches available to them for A Level questions.

With the easing of Covid restrictions it has been lovely to start thinking about welcoming back former students who are willing to come into school to talk to the students about their experiences once they have left St Margaret Ward. Our first visitor was Mohammed Malik who spoke to students in both Year 12 and Year 10 who were considering a career in medicine.

His talk, based on his experiences as a medical student, was informative, thought-provoking and entertaining and very well received by his audience. We hope that Mohammed will be the first of many former students willing to come and talk to and share their experiences and advice with current students.

We have also been busy this term holding discussions with our Year 11 students about their applications to the 6th Form for September 2022. It has been lovely to meet so many fantastic students and we very much look forward to welcoming them into our Sixth Form after they successfully complete their GCSEs.

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SCIENCE WEEK MISS RYAN

The theme for Science Week this year was Growth. Each child in our school was provided with some soil, plant seeds, 2 plant pots and a set of instruction for the investigation. They were asked to grow one plant in normal conditions and make a change to the growth conditions of the second plant. When reporting back with their findings, they will have the opportunity to complete a Bronze CREST Award which will be absolutely free to the school this year!

The Rabbit Hole Tearoom in Stoke also got on board with Science Week with their own competition. We asked budding chefs to enter their homegrown food recipes for the tearoom. The Rabbit Hole offered to choose the winning recipe and put it on the menu for the day. What an opportunity for budding chefs!

Pupils across the school have also been given the chance to take part in the Official British Science week Poster Challenge.

The poster could explore a tadpole’s journey into a fully- grown adult frog, or look at the ways population growth is affecting the planet. As long as it is related to growth, it can be entered.

We also had a space related theme during the week, kicking off with Mars Day on Monday 14th March. Each pupil was given some facts about Mars and had to go on a hunt for the answers across the school. The first 50 pupils to enter the correct items won a Mars Bar or Milky Way (keeping with the theme!)

Year 7 had a morning off timetable with a Space Event. They had great fun learning about Mars, making parachutes and designing spaceports. There were some absolutely amazing designs!

We are thoroughly looking forward to seeing the work produced by our pupils this week!

STEM CLUB MISS RYAN

Our STEM club have been busy completing work towards their CREST awards which involves them researching, designing and making both the packaging for a lipstick and the lipstick itself.

Their lipstick container is almost finished and, after a question and answer session with a professional make up artist on Teams, they are now ready to begin making their lipsticks. Once this has been completed, we will be opening up STEM club to new members so watch this space!

OTHER STEM RELATED NEWS...

MISS RYAN

There have been a number of online chats with professionals over the past month or so. We have had the opportunity to talk to Pandemic scientists about the current COVID situation. We asked some really interesting questions and the pupils that attended really enjoyed it.

Some of the older pupils enjoyed talking with healthcare employees with I’m a Medic and other scientists about the 101 most interesting science jobs. During the online chat, they were able to talk with real professionals about their future aspirations and get answers about their careers.

The Year 13 pupils achieved their Bronze CREST award with their work on making aspirin. They made some lovely samples of aspirin and then tested the purity by looking at the boiling point. Some of the research they did was very thorough and they surprised me with some interesting facts about the origin of aspirin.

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LENT MISS WILSON

In RE this half term we have been learning about the origins and importance of Lent. This is particularly relevant as we are currently in the season of Lent according to the Church calendar. Lent is the time leading up to Jesus’ death but is also a time to remember the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert. He spent forty days and nights in the desert with no food or water.

Jesus also spent time praying to God the Father. These actions in the desert are why Christians focus on prayer, fasting and giving alms during Lent. Jesus was also tempted many times by the devil. But the devil did not succeed.

We have focused on the idea of temptation in RE but we have also considered its importance in our assembly with Miss Eardley. There are many things that tempt us but with hard work and focus we too can resist - Keren (7-2) During Lent, we are asked to pray more often, gives alms and fast. We have decided to focus on prayer this Lent and so we have been giving ourselves a weekly prayer focus. We started off this Lenten challenge by praying for a member of our Fidei group, his family and friends. We then decided to focus on refugees from Ukraine – (7-2).

We have also been using a purple cloth on the prayer box during Fidei time, to symbolise that it is Lent. My favourite part is that Miss Wilson allows us to pick a specific group or person to be our focus for prayer that week. Last week, we were praying for Alfie's late Grandad and his family. This week we are focusing on the Ukrainian refugees which I believe is very important due to the current situation – Rahmatoullahi, (7-2).

STOKE-ON-TRENT YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR MISS HAYES AND MRS SMITH

At the start of the year lots of our musicians competed in the preliminary rounds of the Stoke-on-Trent Young Musician of the Year competition. It was simply wonderful for them to perform to a live audience after nearly two years of virtual performances and I’m extremely proud to say that we had at least one winner each night.

The winners were: Senior Vocal Class – Isaac, Y11 Junior String Class – Fiker, Y8 Senior String Class - Daisy-Mae, Y12 Senior Open Class – Faith, Y10 The winners then competed against each other in a fabulous final on Friday 18th March. As a member of the audience, I knew that the judges had some difficult decisions to make, and I certainly didn’t want to be in their shoes! This year the two winners were from other schools in the City, but our musicians will definitely be back to compete again next year.

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

APRIL 2022

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RECORDER FESTIVAL LEAH, YEAR 12

On Wednesday 30th March 2022, our fabulous Recorder Ensemble performed at the 2022 Recorder Ensemble with schools from our Collegiate, schools from both Stokeon-Trent and Staffordshire and the Soloist, Anna Bradburn. There were over 100 pupils from the Newman Catholic Collegiate who performed solo items and massed items with 200 other young people. It was great to be back at the Recorder Festival for the first time since 2019 and to see and hear children singing, playing, and having fun.

Anna Bradburn wowed us with her four solo items, and we even performed the Sailor’s Hornpipe with her whilst the audience clapped along. She spent time explaining and describing the different recorders and she performed on the Sopranino, Descant, Treble and Elody Recorder, which is an Electric Recorder.

Mrs Smith challenged our Recorder Ensemble this year as our solo item was “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”. The piece is fiendishly difficult to play, and other members of staff commented on how well we performed and how difficult it is. Our performance is a testament to our hard work and proves what we can achieve if we practise and work together as a team. A former pupil, Mrs Wallace, who leads a Recorder Ensemble at St Peter’s Catholic Academy and Mrs Amison also performed with us.

Our very own Miss Hayes conducted our Collegiate Solo item, “Trotting Along” which was performed by over 100 children and had three separate parts but after a short rehearsal we knew that our performance would be a success.

For many children, this was their first-ever performance and you could see that they were so happy to be performing on a stage to a live audience. Anna also reminded everyone that the Recorder is a real instrument and not just a starting point for other instruments.

As a student in Y12, I have been to lots of Recorder Festivals but as this was the first one for three years, it will always remain special.

YEAR 10 CAREERS ENCOUNTER DAY MISBAH, YEAR 10

On the 26th January, we were privileged to welcome visitors to SMWCA for our Y10 Careers Encounter Day. The visitors included members of the armed forces, World Champion inline skater Jenna Dowling and colleagues from Higher Horizons. Y10 spent the day off timetable working with our visitors on identifying and developing transferable skills for the workplace. The day was great fun and included a number of activities for us to get involved in including paintballing, forklift truck driving, bomb disposal and exploring growth mindsets and careers of the future.

“I never enjoyed a school event as much as the one we had today. I got to talk to many people and received great advice, already feel motivated and interested! The best part was the teamwork and how I was able to have fun with my friends alongside learning! I can really tell there was a lot of effort put into this and I really appreciate that.”

Misbah, Y10

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#LETGIRLSPLAY MISS SCHULTZ

St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy participated in the #letgirlsplay campaign - a programme designed to encourage as many girls across the country to take part in football sessions at the same time. We are very proud to say 200 girls participated in an afternoon of football sessions on Wednesday 9th March. At the end of the day, we held a Year 7 girls’ football tournament that was organised and run by our Year 8 and Year 10 Game on Football Activators. Sixty girls participated and it was a great celebration of fun and togetherness. Many certificates and prizes were awarded and all girls went away happy. It’s amazing to think the girls were part of 90,000+ girls up and down the country who participated in the session - something to be very proud of.

Thank you to all the amazing Football Activators who organised the event: Hera, Phoebe, Alice, Matilda, Emily, Maddie, Josie, Sophie, Elody, Cerin, Ellie, Evie, Mia, Olivia, Lailie Grace and Cassie.

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GAME ON TOURNAMENT PHOEBE, YEAR 10

The programme A way to empower the future of women’s and girls' football. Game On is a program that was set up by England’s Football, Barclays Bank and the Youth Sport Trust (YST) to shine a light on all opportunities available to girls to get involved with football. There has always been a sense of inequality between men’s and women’s football. For example, female teams do not get to play on the same pitches and ground as male teams do. Therefore, this program was developed with a pledge that every girl will have equal access to football by 2024, using the #LETGIRLSPLAY.

St Margaret Ward decided to join this program to allow girls in the school to have access to football whether they have played the sport before or not and to create a safe space for girls to develop skills. The program within the school was set up by Miss Schultz who led the leaders through their training and their plans for the future of the club. Girls in Year 8 were encouraged to help keep the program going by the Year 10’s who set up the club in 2021 with the program Game of Our Own – a program also set up by England’s Football, Barclay's Bank and the YST with the same attitudes and pledge to allow every girl to have equal access to football by 2024.

On the 31st of January 2022, eight Year 8’s joined the experienced Year 10’s to carry on their legacy, to learn, lead and let girls play equally. They discussed their game plan - a tournament. On the 9th of February, they joined hundreds of schools around the country for a virtual live launch of the Game On program. During this launch, a range of tasks had to be completed to empower the girls to want equality and to let girls play. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=popraxMzIU&t=0s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV5WYyHHeU ). On the 9th of March, they planned and worked hard to set up a football tournament for the Year 7’s to encourage and equalize football for everyone. The tournament would also be happening all over the UK with other schools taking part to hopefully break a world record of the biggest girl's football session.

The tournament AN EVENT FULL OF POSSIBILITIES On the 9th of March, girls gathered in the PE changing rooms eager to begin. The room was filled with excitement as girls applied make-up and face paint whilst gathering their game plans. The leaders and Miss Schultz set the girls into the teams and led them up to the top pitch where the tournament was to be held. The leaders went to their stations of scoring, team managers, referees and photographers. The teams were sorted and sent to their pitches to start the games.

With the sound of a whistle the games began as well as encouragement, positivity, joy and celebration.

The girls brought their best skills and ideas to the matches and were incredible at teamworking and bringing positivity to those who were disappointed with a pass or a tackle. The leaders were a strong force who ran back and forth to help each other, pass on scores and encourage the teams. It was an incredible atmosphere of hope, that girls will eventually win their fight for equality in football across the country. Goals were scored, laughs were heard, hugs were seen along with high fives and positive comments. However, a winner had to take home the trophy.

The semi-finals were set, one team from each pool would go on to play each other in the grand finale. The games began and the tension grew. 7-1 won their semi-final taking them to the final. However, in the other semi-final, 7-2 and 7-7 had to come to a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner that would go on to the final. After 6 penalties, 7-2 came out victorious and went on to play 7-1 in the final. All that was left was one game, one game to decide who went on to win the trophy.

After 5 tense minutes it was 7-2, Wilson’s Wonders, who were victorious and won the match.

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MANCHESTER UNITED V EVERTON MISS SCHULTZ

Following the success of the #letgirlsplay day, St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy was given some tickets to go and watch Manchester Utd Women take on Everton Women on Sunday 27th March at Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium. This was the first time the women’s team had played in the stadium and was a very special event. In front of a crowd of 23,000 people, despite going behind to an early goal, United came out worthy 3-1 winners. The girls who went really enjoyed it and there were great scenes when there were goals scored. What a great game and great day. The girls were a credit to the school.

Thanks to Mr Anslow, Mr Pearson and Ms Henniger who also came on the trip.

GAME ON PROGRAMME LIVE LAUNCH MISS SCHULTZ

Year 10 and 8 Football Activators proudly attended the live launch of the Game On Football Activator programme. They met presenter inline skating champion, Sienna Downing, along with famous footballers Kelly Smith, Faye White and Leah Burridge.

The aim of the programme is to promote girls’ football with a view of having equal access for all girls in football by 2024. The girls will be trained as deliverers and marketers of the programme and will promote girls’ football, as well as running their own Game On club which will encourage girls of all abilities to have fun playing football together. The Year 10s have done a fantastic job of setting up the programme this year and will now mentor the year 8s who will continue their legacy.

The Year 10 Game of Our Own activators were interviewed by the FA about the life skills they had experienced on the programme and in PE lessons. They have been part of a research project run by Sophie Bisset who said, “The girls were absolutely fantastic! It was great to hear more about their thoughts and experiences of girls’ football and life skills in their PE lessons – it’s all going to be really helpful for our evaluation”

FOOTBALL AMBASSADOR AND GAME CHANGERS MISS SCHULTZ

Following the success of the Game of Our Own and Game On programme, Hera in Y10 was invited to present what St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy has been doing to promote girls’ football to the City FA Girls’ Football Partnership Strategic Lead, Nigel Edwards. He was so impressed that he has nominated Hera to not only be a football ambassador for the school and city, but also to train on the Barclays Game Changer programme in April to become one of 300 Game Changers in the whole of the UK!

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PE MR PEARSON

At the beginning of March, some of our more adventurous Y9 students took part in a BMX coaching session at The National Cycle Centre in Manchester. The facilities were truly world-class and our students listened intently to all coaching advice from the experts. Plans are already afoot to take more students over to the centre in the Summer term, to experience this action-packed Olympic sport.

Well done boys for embracing the opportunity...!

The P.E Department was visited by Dr Ash Casey from Loughborough University.

The visit is part of a joint project which examines teaching methods in Y7 lessons. It was a hugely positive visit and there will be a follow-up visit in June.

We are enjoying working alongside one of the best sports universities in the world and feel it can only benefit our department and amazing students.

A huge well done to Angel Burton Year 10 for being selected for the England lionesses soccer ID talent event.

Angel will attend the ID event in March at Platt Fields in Manchester.

We are extremely proud of Angel for being rewarded with this opportunity and regardless of the outcome of the day, are extremely proud of her for going this far!

COUNTY CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP MR PEARSON

It was the County Cross Country Championships on Saturday 5th February and Lino won the Y7 race, beating students from all over the county in what was described as a 'tough field'. He ran brilliantly and was a great ambassador for the St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy. He now gets a county vest and will represent us in the inter-counties in Kent during March. I was so proud that Lino attends SMWCA and have to say that we have a talent on our hands here!

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KINTBURY RETREAT MR CORRIGAN

From the 24th to the 27th of January some of the Y10 and 11 students from our Academy attended a retreat at the St Cassian’s Centre in Kintbury, our Lasallian Pastoral Centre. Students took part in a range of activities including walking, archery, art and craft activities as well as opportunities for prayer, reflection and discussion.

The students had an amazing time and were overwhelmingly positive about their experience of the retreat. Here are some of the things they said: “This trip was very spiritually uplifting and has given me amazing memories I'll remember for the rest of my life” “Really good, the people were so nice and I felt so welcomed.”

“I became more confident and the staff there really made you feel welcome” “My small group of leaders were the nicest people and so funny! I am so glad I met them and they made me feel so comfortable. Thank you, Kintbury Team!”

As you can see our students had a wonderful time, and so we echo their words and thank the Kintbury team for their hard work.

SAVIO HOUSE Year 8 and 9 students went on retreat to Savio House, near Macclesfield from the 21st-23rd March. They took part in activities such as hiking, a treasure hunt, and a disco, as well as music and time for reflection and prayer. The students were eager to share their experiences and the fun they had with many highlights (including Mr Haynes’ dance moves!). During their free time, they were able to relax and reflect on the day.

This time also caused some competitiveness, including a series of chess games where a certain student was the victor of them all. However, her dreams of chess stardom were dashed by Mr Haynes which was a good thing as if he had lost he would have never lived it down!

Here are some of the things the students said about the experience: ‘It’s fun and feels like home with friends’ ‘The staff welcomed us with open arms and gave us the best we could ask for’ ‘…this retreat was AMAZING and I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get to know themselves or get to know God/your beliefs’ ‘When I heard that we were going to be doing Mass, I did not expect it to be as uplifting and super as it was, as I got to comfort myself with words of reverence.’

We now look forward to our final retreat of the academic year in June, where Y7 will be going to Castlerigg Manor in the Lake District!

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DLSZ MISS BLAKEMORE AND MR PEARSON

St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy are continuing to taking part in an International Cross Cultures Ambassadors Program with the Catholic School, in the Philippines. The aim of the project this term was to help the students to develop their physical capital and to continue to develop positive friendships with students from the other side of the world. All students in Year 8 took part in a series of physical challenges that were measured based on the number of repetitions completed in one minute.

The top six boys and top six girls were then put forward to represent St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy. The results for this are in the process of being validated. Also, the students were tasked with creating an informative presentation about the game of Cricket. This presentation has since been shared with De La Salle Zobel School, to support the implementation of Cricket in their school. The De La Salle Zobel School also created an informative presentation about Floorball. We are hoping to provide our students with an opportunity to experience this new sport in the near future.

BRONZE AND SILVER DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARDS MRS WHINCUP

Pupils have been working hard on their physical, skills and volunteering sections. We have participants who have learnt sign language, improved their photography skills, learnt how to climb, joined a judo club, helped at Park Run and lots, lots more.

So now it’s time to start our expedition training for those who have completed at least one other section. There will be lots of sessions held in school including what expedition kit to bring, cooking and eating when camping, pitching tents and very importantly map reading and navigation.

The expeditions are challenging and rewarding experiences that require lots of preparation but never fail to provide memories that last a lifetime.

Any questions about D of E expeditions then please contact jwhincup@smwca.org.uk

ICT MR QUIGLEY

During careers week, the Year 7's started a project looking at the people who have influenced technology, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee who invented the coding behind the World Wide Web. As this coincided with International Women's Day, they had a particular focus on female figures in Technology such as Nancy Roman who was nicked named the "Mother of Hubble" due to her role in planning the Hubble space telescope, Mae Jemison an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut and Mary Coombs who was the first woman in the world trained to program a computer for business applications in the early 1950's working for J Lyons & Co, a UK catering company.

YEAR 7 FIDEI GROUP MASSES MISS EARDLEY

During this half term each of the Year 7 Fidei groups have had the opportunity to visit Sacred Heart Church, Tunstall, to celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Each group walked down to the church, with their Fidei tutor, where they met the Priest. Before Mass they were introduced to some of the main features found within a church and given the opportunity to volunteer to read in Mass.

This is the first opportunity Year 7 have had to celebrate Mass since joining St Margaret Ward and will be the first of many to celebrate our faith together.

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

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CHAPLAINCY UPDATE MR CORRIGAN

It has been a busy term of faith-based activities. We began the term with our Ash Wednesday Liturgies, marking the beginning of our Lenten fasting as a school community. All year groups marked the day fantastically well with their prayerful engagement in the services and many receiving the ashes. It was wonderful to gather together as a faith community in the presence of God, something we have not been able to do for some time.

We have also been doing our best to serve others, with our fundraising efforts this term focussing on raising money through clothes donations via the Bags2School scheme. Lots of bags of clothes being donated and the money raised will go to Father Hudson’s care, who care for the elderly, vulnerable adults as well as children and families. We also raised over £300 for our emergency appeal for Ukraine, where students were encouraged to add something blue or yellow to their uniform for the day. Many have also donated items to be donated as well, showing that our faith leads to concrete actions for those in most need.

As well as this, at the start of Lent we launched our Lent Prayer Challenge. Students in their Fidei groups were encouraged to choose an issue or situation that is important to them to pray for every day. This is connected with the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, who are aiming building a Christian monument dedicated to answered prayers. People are able to share stories of how their prayers have been answered and so we hope to be able to contribute to this towards the end of Lent. If you would like to know more about this, or to share an answered prayer of your own, please visit https://www.eternalwall.org.uk/

POETRY LIVE Over forty of our Year 11 students travelled to Manchester on Monday 28th February to attend a Poetry Live! event at Bridgewater Hall. The day included discussions and readings by some of the nation’s best-loved poets including Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Daljit Nagra, all of whom feature on the GCSE English syllabus. There were opportunities for the students to ask questions, and the chief examiner talked them through how to go about answering the exam questions featuring the unseen poem.

The students were a credit to the school and thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Many thanks to Mrs Mills and the English Department for organising the trip and giving our students the opportunity to see some of the poets they are studying in the flesh.

YEAR 4 During the Spring Term all Year 4 pupils in the Newman Catholic Collegiate have been invited into St Margaret Ward to experience our Easter Extravaganza.

Pupils have been learning about the Romero Cross and have had the opportunity to decorate their own wooden Romero Cross, which have been handcrafted in school by our very talented Design Technology Technician, Mr Foster. Year 4 pupils have also been busy in our Food Room where they have been baking their very own delicious Easter cookies to take home and share. It has been great to invite staff and students into the Academy and we look forward to welcoming more pupils throughout the year.

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VIKING INVASION AT ST WILFRID’S CATHOLIC ACADEMY MR BLAND

Students at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Academy had their Viking day this term. They learnt about how Vikings lived and, thanks to the efforts of Mr Birkin and his fantastic handmade Viking box, were able to experience first-hand, through artefacts, the everyday experiences of the Viking people.

This was run by Mr Bland from St Margaret Ward and Miss Porter from St Wilfrid’s who brought history alive for the Year 5 students by using artefacts such as chainmail as well as Viking games to help students understand how the Viking people lived.

Students were put into groups and had to explore a particular area of Viking life, from games and entertainment to Viking warfare. This is the start of a wider project between St Margaret Ward and the other Collegiate schools which will see primary students having launch days to help them develop their understanding of key historical time periods, from the Iron and Bronze Age to the Second World War.

Y10 YOUNG ENGINEER TEAM VISIT STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY EXPERTS On the 2nd March our Y10 Young Engineer team (Star Wards) visited Staffordshire University to discuss the science experiment they will be carrying out when they launch their balloon into space. They spoke to various experts about their ideas, including Dr Willian Abraham da Silveira PhD who specialises in space biology and has qualifications from NASA. They discussed various ideas for their science experiment and the team consistently impressed the experts with their enthusiasm and knowledge.

Their final design is still top secret at the moment with it being a competition but the day was a great help for them and they learnt a lot about video editing, recording data, how to use sensors, and how to present their findings. The team were also some of the first students to set foot in the new 42 million pound ‘Catalyst’ building at the University which was very impressive.

Well done team and good luck with the launch event in May!

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GCSE CATERING MRS SHARP

It's been a busy term in Design and Technology as we take our brilliant Year 11 students through the final phase of their school journey. Students still complete internally assessed units in the form of coursework (controlled assessment) and have to evidence both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Hospitality and Catering students have recently completed practical assessments as part of their course and we have been absolutely blown away by their commitment, effort and achievements.

Students had to produce a two-course dish suitable for the clients on their brief and needed to incorporate high-quality preparation, cooking and presentation skills. They have absolutely smashed it and we are really proud of them. Move over Gordon Ramsey!!

We wish all our Year 11 students the very best of everything as they move forward to the next phase of their learning. You're all amazing!

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YEAR 9 OPTIONS MISS LANDER

This term was extremely important for Year 9, as it was time for them to choose what subjects they will be studying and taking GCSE’s in. Choosing which subjects to take can be tricky, but the students were provided with plenty of information and swiftly made their decisions. As a school we base our curriculum on the English baccalaureate, or EBacc, a group of five core academic subjects studied at GCSE level. One reason for this is that it’s considered a strong combination of subjects that is looked upon favourably by universities and employers.

JUBILEE 22 HERA, YEAR 10

On Tuesday 29th March 2022, 33 members of Voicebox, our Academy Choir, took part in Jubilee 22, with the City Youth Choir, Lichfield Cathedral School’s Senior Chamber Choir, Cantorum and other schools from Stoke-on-Trent at the Victoria Hall.

This concert was to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as she is now the longest reigning monarch in history. For the concert we learned and performed a specially commissioned piece called “Jubilee” which was written for the City Music Service by Alan Simmons for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, “Sing” by Gary Barlow and other pieces which you would traditionally hear at a Last Night of the Proms concert. The concert also featured previous finalists and winners of the Stokeon-Trent Young Musician of the Year, this included Isaac Bentley who was the Baritone soloist in “Jubilee”, and Olivia and Ellie Bailey who performed “Rule Britannia”. Miss Hayes also performed in the City Music Service Staff Brass Ensemble who started the concert with “Olympic Fanfare” by John Williams before we all stood to sing the National Anthem.

After lockdown it was really refreshing to be performing live in front of an audience and it was amazing to be part of a large group, singing together. During Covid-19 everyone recorded themselves at home, so it was nice experience for us all to be together again, and a special mention to those who have never performed in front of others before as it was exciting to see them perform in front of a large audience and conquer their nerves and fears.

In the audience there was the Lord Mayor, Dr. Chandra Kannegnati, and the Lady Mayoress, Mrs Sai Kanneganti, along with friends and family of the performers and the public who wanted to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee and be in a concert hall for the first time since 2020.

Throughout the evening the concert was accompanied by the Jubilee Band, Organ and the Brass Ensemble and it was truly delightful to listen to and perform live music again.

Please follow the link below or scan the QR code to listen to and watch recordings of the rehearsal. https://youtube.com/playlist? list=PLIlzF7cZNVm9wJIZV1LGD925yABAdDgmt

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An Easter Prayer Dear God, Thank you that you make all things new.

Thank you for the victory and power in your Name.

Thank you that you hold the keys over death, that by your might, Jesus was raised from the grave, paving the way for us to have new life with you.

Keep your words of truth planted firm within us, help us to keep focused on what is pure and right, give us the power to be obedient to your word.

Lord, lead us on your level ground.

Amen

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN