The Friday Letter

Edition No 100 Friday 6 March 2015

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Prayer for International Women’s Day Oh Lord, we pray that you may strengthen us with power and revelation, So that Christ may live in our hearts through faith. Make us firm in love. Help us understand your will, audaciousness and wisdom in order to fight for your justice. We pray that you may make our hands strong and our voices heard. Grant us humility firmly, and discernment passionately, So that we may fight, not to conquer, but to liberate. To liberate the women silenced by the violence, From inequality and abuse, From unjust and discriminatory cultural or religious practices. This we ask, in the name of Jesus Christ who, With You and with the Holy Spirit, Lives and reigns, one only God, now and forever. Amen. Reminder PLEASE NOTE IN YOUR DIARY Wednesday 11 March is an INSET day SCHOOL CLOSED TO ALL STUDENTS

Thursday 12 March is year 8 Parent Consultation Session STUDENTS FINISH SCHOOL AT 2.15PM Justice and Peace – Collection The Justice and Peace group are collecting toiletries for the homeless - we would be very grateful if you could bring in what you can. We are having a competition to see which Tutor group can collect and donate the most. There will be a special prize! Please bring in anything: from shower gel to toothpaste. We hope you are able help us, the homeless and your tutor group by donating. Thank You. Lorley Shelton Year 8

Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy part of Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust

Saint John Houghton 50th Celebrations Plans are well under way for our Golden Jubilee Celebrations in the summer. I wish to bring to your attention two items associated with the special year.

Saint John Houghton Remembrance and Hope Garden Saint John Houghton is celebrating its 50th anniversary and as part of the yearlong celebrations, we are building a Remembrance and Hope Garden in the school grounds. Work has already started and it will be beautiful. It will be formerly opened during the School Mission which will take place on 9 and 10 July 2015. Here is an artist’s impression of the garden:

Art, Design and Technology 50th Anniversary competition: To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy, we have launched a competition to design a commemorative badge that will be given out to the School community. The competition is open to anyone at SJHCVA and all they need to do is hand in their design on A3 paper by March 18th to the Design office in room 10. The winner will then be selected and their idea turned into an enamelled badge that will be reproduced hundreds of times and given out to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Good luck!

It was very busy in the Food Room last Friday break time. After leading the Act of Worship in the morning, the Fairtrade group served free cups of Fairtrade tea to all who came. The Fairtrade group had focussed the Act of Worship on tea production and the ways in which buying Fairtrade tea benefits the producers and their communities. Well done to Kathryn, Charlotte, Niamh, Thomas, Ciara, Olivia, Reegan and Merrin for working so hard through break time. Thanks to Mrs Mowat for letting us use her room. Thanks also to Paula Moore and the kitchen team who ran a Fairtrade tuck-shop during morning break today.

Guide to ensure GCSE success - Year 10 and Year 11 We are providing an opportunity for you to purchase a very useful and informative “Guide for parents to ensure GCSE Success”. The booklet is aimed at parents so that you can support your child through the challenges of managing and coping with exam demands, including stress. It provides lists of useful websites plus comprehensive, practical tips about setting up routines, dealing with excuses, handling lack of motivation. It has been written by an Educational Psychologist who has four children and contains very realistic ‘do-able’ ideas. Booklets are priced at just £3 each and are available on a first come first served basis from the Finance Office. You can send cash or cheque to secure a copy of the booklet. Thank you for your support in ensuring GCSE success for our students. Mrs C Bowley Progress Leader

Mission Possible! [It’s no secret that state schools get fewer students into Oxford and Cambridge Universities than the private sector One in 20 students from private school went on to study at Oxford or Cambridge University in 2011, as against one in 100 from state school, statistics show. And the numbers haven’t improved much since then. You might be interested in the following article:

https://martinrobborobinson.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/what-do-posh-schools-teach-their-kids We at St John Houghton CVA recognise that it’s not that our students are less intelligent, less gifted or that teachers work less hard. It’s to do with encouraging habits for learning and thinking - this is where we think we can make a difference. Our high achieving students in Key Stage 3 are being offered a new challenge. They have been selected to undertake some independent study which we have called Mission Possible! This will involve the students following their own personal extension work for a variety of subjects and cross-curricular areas. They will document their achievements in a journal. We are also asking our most able students to run a ‘Pupil Takeover Day’ sometime in Term 6. The students will deliver a 30 minute lesson to members of their year group. Again this will allow them to follow their own area of interest - guided by members of staff. They will be attending a weekly workshop after school to prepare their ‘lesson’. The 3rd part of this programme will be a trip to London to explore some aspects of our cultural heritage. St John Houghton CVA is working hard to prepare our most able students by encouraging independent study, providing challenging tasks and extending their work outside the classroom. Our intention is that these students are fully prepared for their GCSEs –and for A levels and university too. Further news on how the students are getting on with their challenge will be appearing in future newsletters – written by the students themselves!

World Book Day

Yesterday was World Book day and our Year 7 came dressed as various book characters. We will have more details in next week’s Friday letter.

Art, Design and Technology Faculty: Food Technology and Catering: Ready to learn in Food this week were Alex Price, Conor Dack, Adam Roach, Sofia Burns, Theo Shelton and Oliver Culley who all created amazing layered pasta salads and could all comment on how they changed the designs of their salads to reflect nutritional considerations! Well Done, epic effort! Year 8 have this week started their new project "The

Bake Off" where they are creating some classic products from recipes all based from the famous and popular TV program. We are looking forward to the challenges the students face following some recipes they will have not tried before.

GCSE Revision help! It’s that time of year again when students start increasing their revision. We have three different ways we can help with out of hour’s revision. Please see the poster below and remember that your DT teachers are always around to lend a hand.

Mrs Adams would like to say well done to Christian Harrison 8CR for the Exploded drawing he did in his Design lesson. Also well done to Tyler Marshall 8RL for making an excellent bug out of Metal in his design lesson. Well done to both of you. Mrs Adams

YR 8 EREWASH SCHOOLS NETBALL TOURNAMENT TEAM – Deborah Banks, Erin Nelson, Mary Martin, Sarah Wolverson, Carly Mee, Sophia Murphy, Kia Winfield, Molly Hinton, Charlotte Ball, Taya Joslin A very big well done to the Year 8 netball team for finishing 2nd at the Erewash Schools tournament. Results were:-

SJH v Kirk Hallam – won 12-0 SJH v Friesland – won 7-0 SJH v Wilsthorpe – won 10-0 SJH v Long Eaton – won 12-0 SJH v Ockbrook – lost 6-1 The girls played amazing throughout, well done and thank you to all the parents for the support. Mrs Joslin

Music Year 7's have completed their exams and the results were amazing! All year 7's should be really proud of how much they have achieved in music so far and I hope they all keep up the good work! Year 8's have also been in fine voice this week - singing 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley. They have just started a Reggae project which, already they know about syncopation, instrumentation and Bob Marley's performance at Smile Jamaica.

Musicians of the month are:

Olivia Henry 7PL Russell Hebden 8CR Lucy Pavlou 9KN Jade-Akina Charlton 9LJ

Could I personally thank all of those in the choir that gave up so much of their free time to rehearse for the Grandparents afternoon? It was a great success! Also, there is still room in the choir for any new singers. We are now rehearsing for the Lent service. Mr Quenby

Excellence in test results in year 7 set 3 Loys Sharp Olivia Shaw Alexander McGeough Brilliant test results in year 8 set 1 Jude Cobb Ben Langfield

10 set 4 Excellent algebraic skills shown by Amelia Brain Ryan Whitehead Anna Bowley Sam Duckett Ellie Corden 11 set 1 Effort and excellence Demonstrated by the whole class on their revision for their GCSE exams. Mrs Nash

Dr Landy's Amazing Year 11s this week....Luke Elliot, Holly Howorth, Megan Jones, Tia Martinazzoli and Jade Quilty for meeting or exceeding their Target grade in Core Science A coursework. Ready to Learn in the Modern Foreign Languages

department this week are: Year 11 - Alicia Clarke and Imogen Wilkinson Year 10 - Stephanie Siara, Emi Ephraim and Milly Bagnall Year 9 - Sinead Farrell

Year 8 - Mia Topley

Year 7 - Lucy Brassington

Mrs Boddice would like to thank 8RL who are always ready to learn and are excellent at working independently. Well done also to the year 11 Business students who are showing great commitment to their controlled assessments. Congratulations to year 11 optional ICT students on their Unit 1 exam results, especially those reaching or exceeding their target grade. They are; James Brennan, Francis Hemingray, Leah Wattam, Lewis Barrett, Samuel Bowles, Fane Checkley, Aaron

Dunkley, Felix Rabusin, Sabrina Roberts, Patrick Hurt, Oliver Leadbitter, Liam McGovern, Amber Smith, Sophie Webster, Jordan McMullan and Tia Martinazzoli.

Mr Haley writes: “It must be spring soon, surely!” As well as the steady increase in birdsong, have you noticed any other signs of spring yet? Check out any hedges, woods and gardens on the way to school and you may see the lovely little Hazel ‘lamb’s tails’. These shivering yellow catkins are male flowers – brush them with your fingers and you’ll get a dusting of bright yellow pollen. Look closely along the twigs and you may see the minute female flowers this pollen is intended for – they are few and far between and really hard to spot, but are the richest ruby-red in colour. A trip to Shipley Hill in the middle of Shipley Country Park will reveal a real treat that will soon be over – drifts of wild Snowdrops in full bloom, nodding their snowy little heads in the icy breeze. You may know other Snowdrop woods. Look inside the flowers to see their beautiful yellow patterns. These little gems are smaller than the garden varieties and so much more beautiful – even their scientific name – Galantha nivalis – sounds like a magic spell! You’ll also see that the Daffodils are coming into bud now. Garden varieties come in all shapes and sizes – from ‘mini-daffs’ to enormous yellow and orange Narcissi, but the loveliest of all are the true Wild Daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). Take another trip up to Shipley Hill in a couple of weeks’ time and treat yourself to the sight of hundreds of them in full bloom. Warm sunny days now may see hibernating butterflies – Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks or Red Admirals – emerging from their winter sleep. Check your spare bedroom, garage or shed windows as they may be fluttering to get out after slipping inside through an open window last autumn. It’s best to let them out – if they’re trapped inside they’ll starve to death. Outside, they’ll be able to feed on the early flowers and tuck themselves away again if we have another cold snap.

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Thank you for taking the time to read edition number 100 of the Friday Letter. I hope you enjoy reading it and hearing of all the wonderful things that go on in our School community. It is important to me that you are fully informed of what is going on at your child’s school. Thank you to the staff for their continuing support of the initiative.

Best wishes

Mrs Joan McCarthy Headteacher