CTK NEWS Also available online at www.christtheking.notts.sch.uk December 2016

I would like to welcome you all to this year’s

Christmas edition of CTK News. As you are

aware, at the moment CTK News is issued every

half term. In order for you to be kept up to date

more often, CTK News will be written every

month. In terms of other forms of communication,

if you have any queries regarding your child’s

education, please do not hesitate to contact their

form tutor in the first instance.

Finally, after much hard

work, we look forward to the

Christmas holidays and I

would like to wish you all a

very happy Christmas and

peaceful New Year.

Best wishes.

Carlo Cuomo

Catenian Concert This year CTK was proud to host ‘The Catenian

Association Concert In Aid of Sick and Retired

Priests’ in November. The School Hall was

transformed into a starlit, sophisticated, &

welcoming performance space where the full

audience enjoyed wonderful music. It was a

huge success with students from All Saints, The

Becket, Trinity and of course CTK, performing

an eclectic mix of entertaining music including

All Saints’ Senior Choir, Year 9, 12 and 13

Musical Theatre and Rock groups plus Trinity

Swing Band and Senior Wind Ensemble. The

Bishop of Nottingham, Right Reverend Patrick

McKinney, graced us with his presence and

thoroughly enjoyed the evening, commenting on

the magnificent talents of the students

involved.

Walter D’Aguiar had the original idea for this

concert many years ago and he supported CTK

fully in putting on this spectacular musical

extravaganza. Sam Jones, our very own Head

Boy sang a musical theatre solo. We later

discovered that due to his stylish performance,

he now has his own All Saints Fan Club! Ms

Harvey’s Year 9 Music GCSE students

performed a contemporary version of ‘Where is

the Love’ by Black Eyed Peas featuring our

very own CTK rappers. Glee and CTK Band

performed a show stopping ‘Hold Back the

River’ by James Bay; and as one parent said “it

was spine tingling!”

The event raised a staggering £771 for the

Catenian Association and we are so proud and

touched about how our CTK students performed

and how well the concert was received. All in all,

a fantastic evening!

K Harvey - Head of Music

Bethany Warner Year12

She is now training to be a coach and inspires younger

members of the club to work their hardest to be the

best they can be.

Bethany has been chosen as the Icicles Team Captain

this season.

Bethany and her team have had success so far already

this season, winning Gold in Cardiff and Silver in

Belgium at the Winter cup. Their next competition is

the British Championships in January and we wish

them all lots of luck as they defend their title.

Bethany is a dedicated member of Notting-

ham synchronized skating Junior Team, The

Icicles. They are current British Champions

and a

National Ice Skating Association Perfor-

mance Squad (which means they represent

Great

Britain at World level). Beth joined the club

6 years ago after being talent spotted on

skate UK. She quickly rose through all the

teams with her natural ability and drive and

Keeping Children Safe Evening

On Tuesday 6th December we hosted our first ‘Keeping Children Safe’ Evening. The event began with an

introduction in the School Hall based on internet safety and offering advice and guidance to parents on

how to ensure that their child is safe when they are online.

The following video was used as an introduction for the evening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

annotation_id=annotation_2482080929&feature=iv&src_vid=0iKPd6lZYuA&v=K3-wcM9gRrg

The presentation then focussed on social media and it offered parents information on how to check their

child’s privacy settings. The website www.parentzone.org.uk was highlighted as a useful source of

information for parents who wanted more advice and guidance on this topic.

The following link could be used for parents to check the privacy settings of their child whilst they are

online: https://parentzone.org.uk/article/setting-safety-and-privacy-settings-social-media-apps

Parents were informed that young people can only have a social media account when they are aged 13. The

main reason for this age limit is due to laws

in America which state that companies are

not allowed to collect data from children

under the age of 13 without parental consent.

It is interesting to note that social media

sites applications/sites will delete the profiles

of young people if they are informed, with

proof that a person is under the age of 13.

The evening then moved into the Dining

Room where a large number of external

providers had set up stalls highlighting the

work that they do in the local community.

The following providers were present and

available to offer support and guidance to the

parents who attended in the specialist area

stated below:

Lifeline Journey – Drug and alcohol abuse NWG Network – Child sexual exploitation Harmless – Self

Harm Equation – Supporting with domestic abuse Nottinghamshire Police – Online safety, Female Genital

Mutilation, Honour Based Violence, Child neglect Nottinghamshire County Council – Online safety

Women’s Aid – Supporting children who have experienced domestic violence Cath Parfitt – School

counsellor Laurie Potter – School nurse Joe Hopkins – Bereavement Polly Smith – Family support worker

Brake – Road Safety organisation Re-solv.org.uk – Substance abuse Karma Nirvana – Arranged marriage

In the exit questionnaires that were completed by all parents as they left the event, 100% of parents/carers

who attended said that they agreed/strongly agreed that they ‘found the evening useful,’ with 100% of

parents also stating that they now feel better equipped to help their child stay safe when online.

We would like to thank all of our providers for attending the evening and supporting the school with this

event. We view the safety of the children in our care as paramount to everything we do as a school, and we

created this event to offer greater levels of support and guidance for our parents and carers, to help them

to develop their knowledge of the issues surrounding young people in this generation.

Mr A Riding

Head of Department

Nottingham Evening Post - Student of the Year Awards Kwame, his parents and I attended the Nottingham Evening Post Student of the Year Awards last night

where Kwame was nominated for the Creative Award. He didn’t win, unfortunately, but we enjoyed a three

course meal, a red carpet entrance and an abundance of Companies CEO’s to hand out the awards.

Courtesy of the Nottingham Evening Post - Also nominated for the awards is talented rapper Kwame Ansong,

who goes to Christ the King School in Arnold.

The 14-year-old hit the headlines earlier this year when his science

homework - a parody on the subject of forces based on grime MC

Stormzy's urban hit Know Me From - went viral.

Kwame, who is now in year ten, even got the thumbs up for his efforts

from the massively popular star himself on Twitter - with @Stormzy1

tweeting his congratulations accompanied by a big grin and a hand-

clap emoji.

Meanwhile specialist music site Grm Daily also reposted the song on

Instagram - resulting in more than 3,000 likes.

Proud physics teacher Joe Mellor, who nominated Kwame in the

creative category, said he was amazed at the response.

He said: "I keep saying to all my other pupils 'it just goes to show

what can happen when you do your science homework on time'."

Joe Mellor

Physics Teacher

AWARDS: Nottinghamshire Police Annual Awards 2016

We at Christ the King are incredibly proud of our Year 11 student,

Lucy Moore, who went above and beyond the act of bravery by going

to the aid of a woman who was in great need of help.

Following the incident that had been reported to the police, Lucy was

chosen to receive an award in recognition of her courage to help

others. On Thursday 3rd November 2016, Lucy and her family were

invited to attend the Annual Nottinghamshire Police Awards, held at

the Albert Hall in Nottingham. More than 400 Nottinghamshire

Police officers, staff, members of the public and volunteers, along with

their families, attended this event.

That evening, Chief Constable Sue Fish awarded Chief Constable’s Commendations for bravery,

commitment and outstanding work to members of the public, officers, staff and volunteers.

Lucy was presented with a “Chief Constable’s Commendation,” in recognition of her bravery.

On that same evening officers, staff and members of the Special Constabulary also achieved milestones in

their careers, collecting Long Service and Good Conduct medals and awards.

Attendees heard stories of heroic behavior from officers and members of the public. Examples of

outstanding work and diligence were rewarded and numerous teams were recognised for their work.

Chief Constable Sue Fish said: “The awards are a fantastic display of the professionalism, tenacity, bravery

and commitment of our officers, staff and volunteers as well as a wonderful opportunity to recognise the

efforts of members of the public who have gone above and beyond to save lives and help officers.

Well done Lucy!

Polly Smith

Family Support Worker

Arts Award Success for CTK’s Art

Academy On 10th October, students from the CTK’s Art

Academy were assessed for their Bronze Arts

Award. The visiting moderator was extremely

impressed with the quality and the

creativeness of their artwork, their thorough

artistic research and the documentation of their creative

workshop that they lead for the Year 6 students on the induction

day. As part of the moderation, several students were also

interviewed by the moderator and she commented positively

about their politeness, confidence and the clarity of their

answers. Needless to say, all the students passed with the

highest praise. A huge congratulations to all of them!!

N East - Classroom Teacher

Science Department Success The Science Department would like to like to let you know about some of our recent

successes. We are currently one of six finalists in the Rolls-Royce Science Prize,

chosen out of thousands of applicants. We will be working hard between now

and June 2017, putting together our Aspiring STEM Leaders programme. The

aim is to help our students to develop excellent practical, research, science

communication and employability skills. Therefore, fully equipping them for the

next stage in their journey, whether this is further studies or employment. We

have been developing this behind the scenes to put together framework for our

project. The objectives of this programme is to respond to the national skills

gap, with many universities stating that students are arriving at the next stage

of their education without the strong practical science skills, ability to conduct their own research, science

communication skills and other employability.

There is also increasingly a skills shortage in the scientific, technology and

engineering disciplines and much research has been conducted into how this can

be addressed at a national level. However there is a need for individual schools

to respond to this challenge by inspiring and equipping our students to be the

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) leaders of the

future. We will be trying out a number of initiatives to increase students

interest in the sciences and understanding of the range of careers available to

them in these disciplines. This will include a range of talks, workshops, visits to

the university, careers information, science competitions, CREST awards a

science fair, student led STEM club and innovation club and we hope to develop this into some work with

the Pax Christi Trust Primary Schools. You will be hearing from us shortly with more details of this. If

you have a science, computing, electronics, technology or engineering background and would like to be

involved further, please contact me at GJames@christtheking.notts.sch.uk, we would love to work with

you.

G James

TECHNOLOGY NEWS – Fashion Club Year 7 students have been completing numerous

projects during their lunchtimes since September

with Miss Pennant. Some brilliant examples can be

seen in the Textiles and Fashion area of mini bags

with secret pouches and cushions. Textiles and

Fashion are vibrant areas of the Technology

Department with more of a gender balance of males

and females taking the subject at GCSE and now at A-level.

UK Senior Mathematics Challenge In November, 9 of our talented Sixth Form Mathematicians entered into the Senior Mathematics

Challenge, with the following excellent results:

Bronze Award: Caitlin Gaughan (Best in Year Award)

Rajeev Lealh

Arun Mehan

Congratulations to Caitlin Gaughan who was also Best in School winner.

D Leigh

Director of Learning

Duke of Edinburgh News

Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award

The Gold D of E candidates have been working hard in and out of school planning their

practice expedition for Easter 2017. They have been careful in planning the route to

avoid areas of military use with a heightened awareness of escape routes as there is

the potential for snow and adverse weather.

They have been supported in the process by CTK D of E staff who have used their

personal knowledge in guiding the candidates. The walk will see them cover nearly 30

miles over 3 days in wilderness areas from Saddleworth Moor, finishing at Edale on the last day. There are

times when the nearest road point for support will be three hours away so the training they will receive to

top up their skills will be very useful.

After the Christmas break, candidates will return to plan their final expedition in the Brecon Beacons.

They are working hard at the fund raising efforts to raise the £350.00 per candidate for the Gold Award.

Finally congratulations to Alex Hoyle on the staff team, for passing his HML assessment with flying

colours Alex, as do all of the staff team, has a wealth of experience and is now going through the motions to

get certificated.

Mr Bull

Centre Co-ordinator

Miss Pennant

London Design Trip November 2016 The Technology Department took 40 budding Product Designers to the brand new London Design Museum

and the London Science Museum in November for an action packed day of Design Realisation. The 7am

departure time is never a friendly one but only a few hours later we were in London. The Science Museum

gave an opportunity for them to explore and seek out new technologies and in particular the “Our Lives in

Data exhibit”. From Monday morning moans to Saturday night selfies, more information about our lives is

being captured than ever before. In fact, over 90% of all available human data has been recorded in the last

two years and is already being used to transform the world around us – pretty scary really ! From toys that

can understand a child’s personality and smarter public transport planning to new genomic technology

that is helping uncover the causes of rare diseases and cancer, big data's invisible revolution has begun !

New to the Design trip was the urban tour. Thankfully the weather was kind and we set off seeking out

prime locations beginning with the Royal Albert Hall and the impressive surrounding buildings. The tour

continued through various parts of Kensington, past embassies, past houses that cost £12 million to back

water flats that would still set you back £800,000. Semi-detached “villas” with the tiniest gardens were set

against mini centers of commerce and finally a community garden which was just stunning – a bit like the

ending of Notting Hill one person said !

The Design Museum which had only opened 5 days previously was just stunning.

The Beazley Designs of the Year celebrated designs that promotes and delivers change, enables access,

extends design practice or captures the spirit of the year. The top 100 designs were there to be seen,

witnessed, discussed and used. From Adidas trainers made from fishing nets, a book that can be used as

water purification filters to new signage to bridge barriers of language and religion and to new building

projects. See below!

The Designer Maker User exhibit looked at design through time. An absolutely mind blowing experience

which showed how companies had developed through time with enhanced aesthetics, better ergonomics,

and moved to become live challengers. Apple from the early 1980’s, Sony from its first Walkman, Dieter

Rams - a German designer who has influenced in a major way Jonathan Ive. Design movements and

innovative products that showed how, as a society, we drive for change. The day was just awesome and

with the help of Miss Pennant, Mrs East and Mr Mellor the students had a fabulous day and came back

with loads of ideas for the class room. Looking forward to next year !

Mr Bull

Head of Technology

Chaplaincy News July 2016

So, as we come to the end of our first full term and 2016, here is what we have been up to:

All Saints Mass

We started the term with a Whole School Mass at Good Shepherd Church to celebrate the solemnity of All

Saints, a holy day of Obligation. The Chaplaincy organised the Mass, and the music was brilliantly lead by The

School Band and Faith Choir. It was great to see the Church so full. It is a great sign of how much the school

has grown in size just this year; there wasn’t even standing room left!

This was also the last opportunity for us to gather

together as a whole school for the Year of Mercy, so the

Chaplaincy Team challenged everyone to think of a

situation that is in need of mercy and what they can

promise to do to make it better. They wrote this on a

puddle shaped card with the following quote on: ‘Life is

like a rainbow, you need both the sun and the rain to

make its colour appear.’ The puddle of water shape

symbolises rain and all the areas in life that need

mercy; while the pledge is the sunshine that will turn

the rain into the rainbow.

We hope that God will help us keep this promise to use

mercy to turn rain into rainbows.

Holywell Mass

The following week after All Saints’ Day, Holywell came together to celebrate their House Mass. Again, the

students were responsible for leading and organising the various ministries in Mass. I’m especially grateful to

the Sixth Form students of 6H.SMK for helping me turn the School hHll into a Church and back to a hall

again.

Fr Christopher Thomas, the parish priest of the Assumption Church

in Beeston, celebrated the Mass for us. His homily focused firstly on

the name of the house, Holywell. He said it meant they had the

hardest task of all the houses in school as they were supposed to be

well holy. As the Gospel reading for the Mass challenged us, we

must be shining examples to the world of Jesus. Fr Christopher said

that though daunting it may be, we just need to do two things, say

what is true and do what is right.

The second half of his homily looked at the second half of the Gospel,

which calls us to be salt of the earth. Salt gives flavour, it also

preserves, Fr Christopher said we need to go further and be spice… spice boys and spice girls… as spice adds

great excitement, richness, challenges. It was a great reminder that Jesus wants us to stir the world from its

sleep, from just plodding along.

6th Form Briars

This year we were able to join in the Diocesan Sixth Form Retreat at the Briars, joining other Sixth Form

Students from The Becket, Trinity and St Benedict’s in Derby. We brought 10 lads from both Years 12 and

13. They were definitely out numbered in the male to female ratio! The retreat only lasted two days, but it

was amazing what they covered in that time. The first evening was for them to bond in their small groups,

their activities for the evening were themed around I’m a Celebrity… which of course, meant for the whole

group task at the end of the evening I was pulled up on stage

to do a bush tucker trial. We then had night prayer around a

camp fire with a great reflection on the power of fire, to give

life or to destroy and how this is a symbol of the Holy Spirit,

he destroys in us all that is bad and gives life to all that is

good.

The second day was the only full day so was a very packed

programme, with a morning full of activities, a reconciliation

service, Mass, a formal dinner and then a night of talent show

and disco. The reconciliation service was led very well

beginning with a question and answer session with Fr Dave,

the priest at the briars, then the whole building was filled

with different prayer stations for the students to prayer and

reflect. Fr Dave placed himself in the chapel ready for anyone

who wished to receive the sacrament of reconciliation to do so,

and many did!

The evening’s formal dinner, candle lit with everyone dressed up smartly lacked one thing; someone to do an

after dinner speech. That is where Christ the King came to the rescue and up stepped Keaton and Brodie! A

very funny and heart felt speech from the two lads had everyone laughing and arrhing! All the lads opened

the Talent Show with their own ‘talent’, a bottle flip…(apparently that is a talent now), as well as Sam Jones

singing solo and with a couple of students from St Benedict’s.

It was a great retreat, especially seeing how well our students integrated with the other schools. There was

the opportunity for those who had met in Lourdes to have a mini-reunion and those who are coming to

Lourdes to meet those they will be working with. Speaking to one of our Year 13 lads, he said that the

retreat came at just the right time as the stress level was beginning to rise and it was great to step back and

see the bigger picture, to give sometime to God.

Joe Hopkins, Lay Chaplain

Year 7 Ethos Day This is always one of my most stressful days of the year bringing 150 Year 7 students out of school on two

double decker buses to the Cathedral, making sure that the round robin of workshops all stick to the tight

timetable and then be back for the school buses.

This year was the largest number yet but also our smoothest in terms of how well it ran. Our students

were impeccably behaved as we would expect and really engaged with the workshops. The workshops this

year were ‘Exploring the Mass’ led by Fr Joe Wheat, ‘Prayer’ by Liz Hammond and Nina Belshaw, ‘The

Life of Ven. Mary Potter’ at the Ven. Mary Potter Heritage Centre, and ‘A tour of St Barnabas Cathedral’

led by Fr Jonathan Rose.

Each workshop was engaging and interesting. Fr Joe led

four activities which helped the Year 7 students think

more deeply about what happens at Mass and why we do

it. Liz and Nina led us in the different ways we can pray,

showing that prayer doesn’t have to be complicated or

daunting. In the heritage centre guide by the Sisters and

Associates of the Little Company of Mary, the pupils were

able to discover through the interactive displays all about

her life. Finally Fr

Jonathan showed

and explained all of

the key features of

the Cathedral,

teaching me things I

never knew before even though this was the fourth year of running

the trip!

It has been an incredible term, it is hard to sum up so much of the

everday life of the school in this

article. I look forward to a new

year and an opportunity to see afresh what great work lies ahead.

God bless

Joe Hopkins

Lay Chaplain.

Children in Need Fundraising

Children in Need day raised a fantastic £1461!

A massive thanks to Sam, Niamh and the Prefect Team! We

are very close to our target.

Rebecca Nokes

Head of Sixth Form

The Chaplain’s Christmas Message This Advent I’ve had the great opportunity of trying to look at Christmas from a new angle this Advent. I’ve

written two reflections, a poem for our Christmas Fayre and Concert and a piece of choral speech for our end

of term Carol Service. I found it a great exercise to stop and really think hard about what we celebrate each

year, to try and look at it afresh and drew out something new.

For me it involved getting back to the core message, what actually happened at

Christmas? Well, Jesus was born. So what’s so important about that? Well He is

the saviour? Yes that’s what we celebrate at Easter. What is truly amazing that we

stop for about a week to celebrate? It is that Jesus is born, that Jesus who is God

the Son, who existed before time, who helped form the universe, who holds all

things in existence. He became a human, He humbles himself to suffer a human life

- the all-powerful one became a powerless baby. Why? Because He loves us. Love is

a very humbling thing, when a man proposes to a woman he traditionally goes

down on one knee and declares his love. This is an act of humility, he puts himself at a weak position before

her saying not just with his words but with his whole body, that to be raised up to be himself again he needs

her.

God goes further than kneeling before us, He empties himself completely. He hides his glory, his majesty and

might in the simple humanity of a baby. It takes humility to allow someone to care for

you. Jesus allows Mary and Joseph to not only care for Him, but to rule over Him as

his parents. That is why we celebrate because God is humble, God is with us… that is

He is Emmanuel. Emmanuel, the name for Jesus we only hear at Christmas time. God

is with us, what a great comfort that is, in human flesh God is with us. In the troubles

of life, God is with us. In the joys and the successes, God is with us. Our God is humble

because our God is love.

This Christmas time know that God is with you, He shares in our way of existing as

humans. He is with us in the love of our friends and families but even more so in our

churches. When you go to Mass this Christmas, God shows that He is yet even more

humble. He didn’t leave us when He returned to heaven, He kept his promise of being

with us until the end of time in the Eucharist, Holy Communion. If I were to be present

in a way to be eaten I wouldn’t have chosen unleavened bread, I would have gone for a

beautiful fillet steak, with thick cut chips and lots of peppercorn sauce, this is how you

know I am not humble. Jesus entrusts himself to humanity in a way more fragile and

powerless than before, in a way where He could easily be abused, crushed, destroyed. But He gives himself

completely to us, He is with us just as much as He was in the stable in Bethlehem.

So this year come to Church for the tradition, the carols, the family experience, and the nativity scene; but

stay knowing God is with you, he loves you and he wants to share his life with you. The details of our Parish

Mass times are below.

Have a very Happy and Holy Christmas

Joe Hopkins, Lay Chaplain.

Parish Christmas Eve Christmas Day

Good Shepherd, Woodthorpe

6.00pm Midnight, 10.00am, 11:30am

Sacred Heart, Carlton

6.00pm, 9.00pm 10.30am

St Bernadette’s, Sneinton

- 9.00am

Holy Cross, Hucknall 8.00pm (Carols form

7.30pm)

9.30am

Infant of Prague, Bestwood

6.30pm 10.15am

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour,

Bulwell

4.30pm 10.15am

Is Your Child Entitled To a Free School Meal?

Eating well at the right time is proven to have a significant impact on the learning and the ability to

concentrate of young people. It is extremely important that young people are well equipped for school and

ready to learn. One contributing factor to this is eating healthily. At Christ the King, we understand the

financial difficulties that some parents experience on a daily basis and we would like you to consider

applying for a free school meal, if you think you are eligible.

If you are entitled to one of the following benefits, you may be entitled to claim:

income support

income based jobseeker’s allowance

income related employment support allowance

support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

child tax credit, provided you are not entitled to working tax credit and have an

annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190 guarantee

element of state pension credit

Because we are a cashless school, all students in receipt of a free school meal remain anonymous and the

information is treated as private and confidential. There is no longer the need to feel that there is a ‘stigma’

attached to students in receipt of a free meal.

You may or may not be aware that claiming your entitlement to a free school meal also now guarantees

your child access to additional funding which could help with the purchase of uniform, school equipment

and contributions to school trips.

If you live in Nottinghamshire visit the County Council website or call 01623

433009.

If you live in the City of Nottingham visit the Nottingham City Council website

or call 0115 915 4084.

Christmas Dinner comes early to CTK To the delight of both students and staff Maggie

Mason and her team served Christmas Dinner on both

the 14th and 15th Dec. Turkey with all the trimmings

proved to be a popular choice as over 250 meals were

served across the two days. The catering team were

ably supported by members of the senior leadership

team who were keen to give their support as they

donned suitable festive head attire to add to the festive

spirit whilst serving the students.

As always the food was

of the highest standard

that the students have

come to expect from the

team and the students

were very

complimentary and

appreciative about the

food. Happy Christmas

everyone and special

thanks to Maggie and

her team.

Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy

Darlton Drive

Arnold

Notts

NG5 7JZ

Phone: 0115 9556262

E-mail: office@christtheking.notts.sch.uk