Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy

part of Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust

The Friday Letter

Edition No 58 Friday 31st January 2014
Prayer to Saint Brigid You were a woman of peace. You brought harmony where there was conflict. You brought light to the darkness. You brought hope to the downcast. May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious, and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world. Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made. Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary. Strengthen what is weak within us. Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens. May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit. Amen. Sunday Mass Times in our parishes Our Lady and Saint Thomas of Hereford Ilkeston - Saturday 6.30pm; Sunday 10.45am Our Lady of Good Counsel Eastwood - Saturday 5.30pm; Sunday 10.15am St Francis of Assisi Long Eaton - Saturday 6.00pm; Sunday 10.30am St John the Evangelist Stapleford - Sunday 9.00am Church of the Assumption Beeston - Saturday 5.30pm; Sunday 9.00am Saint Alban's Catholic Church, Chaddesden - Saturday 6.30pm; Sunday 10.00am Forthcoming events in the Parish of Our Lady and St Thomas of Hereford. In the Parish Hall: Friday 14th February - A 60s Disco Night with DJ Les Boulter. 8pm - 11pm Adults 5 and Children 3. Bring your own refreshments. Tickets available from Mr Lovelock, in school. Quiz Night - Friday 28th February, more information to follow. St Patrick's Music Night - Saturday 15th March, more information to follow. Chaplaincy at Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy Oasis Team news We commit ourselves to pray together, to learn together, to celebrate together, to journey together, and to carry each other's burdens. In the service of God's kingdom of justice and peace. Together in faith, hope and charity. Amen. The Oasis Team would like to thank Mrs Kelly for the use of her room on Thursdays lunch time. This will be our weekly meeting point and it is important that all Oasis team members attend. Rachel had a great time last Tuesday with the following members of the team Imogen Wilkinson, Charlotte Spencer, Daniel Goodwin, James Brennan, Luke Elliot, Rebecca Tobin, Robyn Grant, Vienna Burns, Millie Wheeldon, Merrin Shelton, Lucy Buss, Luke Moore, Georgina Wheeldon, Holly Howarth, Edith Knighton, Kathryn Parsons, Grace Teasdale, Megan Arundel, Daniela Loffreda, Hannah Page, Milla Rigby, Josh Axe, Leah Wattam, Amy Morley, Alisha Duro, Liam Hefford, Niamh Rogers, Sabrina Roberts, Imogen Lambert, Amber Fitzgerald, Phoebe Collingridge, Nazarene Gordon, Chloe Manchester and Niamh Monaghan. Rachel would like to thank Imogen Lambert for being the secretary and Merrin Shelton for popping in before J and P group and to Holly Howarth for missing 'Knit and Stitch Club'. The Team are planning lots of entertaining ways to discover God's love during Lent and leading other pupils to God's love through song, actions and sharing their time. Rachel would like to thank Milla Rigby, Niamh Rogers and Robyn Grant for accepting the challenge to lead the staff in Briefing Prayer. The Oasis Team members are asked to remember, to return their 'Parental Consent for a Rolling Programme or series of Local Visits Form for

the planned visit to the residents in Oliver House. Thank you to James Brennan and Luke Moore who were noticed for their manners. Rachel would like to thank Sabrina Roberts for her positive attitude. Jordan Hackett and Jacob Siara have been noticed by Rachel for their manners this week in school. Stars of the week have to be Rosie McNestry and Natasha Lavery who are working hard designing invitations for Canon John's celebrations later in the year. Rachel would like to thank Rosie and Natasha for sharing their gifts and time and to their parents for collecting them after school. Team Chaplaincy are collecting glass jars with lids, please hand any clean, empty jam jars to Rachel. Thank you. We are always collecting old keys and foreign currency for CAFOD. These can be handed into Rachel. Rachel's Hero of the week is Jacob Gregory. Rachel would like to thank Mr Prati for calling into the best school in the world, Saint John Houghton, on behalf of Knights of St Columba. Rachel is selling raffle tickets on behalf of The Knights at 1.00 per ticket, 1st prize 1500 - Good Luck to all. KSC National Youth Seminar at Hinsley Hall, Leeds on 15th 18th July 2014. Please see Rachel if you would like to attend. Lourdes 2014 - Year 11 If you would like to join Rachel and Nottingham Diocese on the Lourdes Pilgrimage please see Rachel ASAP for a letter. Thank you to Luke Ryrie and Shadia Moore who have returned their slips. Rachel is talking to Father Simon next week and will pass on more information to you all. Rachel would like to thank Siobhan Taylor for calling into Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy this week. More thanks to Miss McPhee for sharing her gifts with The Chaplaincy Department. Thanks to Kieran Peabody, Olivia McQueenie, Megan Burroughs and Lyka Lorenzo and Thomas Rotherham for calling in to see Rachel. Thanks to Stephanie Siara, Elizabeth Barley and Molly Keyworth for filming Rachel and John and making them feel special. It was lovely to have afternoon tea with Laura Banks, Lorna Parks and Eleanor this week. Rachel would like to thank Julia Palmer for her support and time. If you know anyone who is interested in learning more about The Catholic Faith of if you have been away from Church for a while and would like to wander back please ask Rachel to put you in touch with Julia Palmer or see Rachel. Rachel would like to thank the Saint John Houghton Office staff for their support and friendship this week. More thanks to Mr Price for sharing his knowledge with Team Chaplaincy. Please keep Year 10 in your prayers as they spend the weekend on retreat at The Briars. Please see Rachel if you would like to find out how to spend more time at The Briars once you have left school. Thank you Year 3 This week I had the pleasure of visiting the Year 3 students at St Thomas Catholic Primary School in Ilkeston and joining their RE lesson on the rosary. Thank you Mrs Law and Mrs Wyles and the excellent boys and girls of the class for making me feel so welcome. I was very grateful for the beautiful prayer book and rosary beads presented to me at the end of the lesson. STUDY AND REVISION SESSIONS TERMS 3 AND 4 Study sessions every Tuesday till 5.30pm for Years 10 and 11 Subject surgeries Tuesdays for Years 10 and 11 Study evening Tuesday 11th February till 8pm for Year 11 Saturday sessions TBA Easter study days TBA The Tuesday sessions provide opportunities for students to either do their own private study or to attend a subject surgery they identify their problem and ask for help from their subject teacher. They could also do a combination of private study and working with a teacher. These are open to Year 10 and 11 students.

The session on Tuesday 11th February is an extended version of this, longer private study, more subject surgeries available and some extra lessons. The evening will end with some games and pizza. The Saturday and Easter dates will be announced in the next couple of weeks. From this week, every student attending a study session will receive a raffle ticket. These will be entered into a prize draw to be drawn in the last week before the Easter holidays. The more you study, the better your chance of a biggish money prize! Instead of a lecture, on Thursday 6th February there will be a showing of the film Persepolis (cert 12A). This is described by imdb as "a poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution". It's a serious film but one which we hope will make the students think. Please encourage your child to attend these sessions. Year 10 More able project Thank you to all the Year 10 students and parents who attended the More Able project meeting last Tuesday night. This is a project being led by Dr Landy, Mrs Brambell and Mr Thomson. The students were presented with a pocket reference to help them identify opportunities to use their dominant learning style for learning. I wish the students every success with this project. Saint John Houghton goes to London On Monday twenty two Year 9 students and twenty two Year 10 students ventured to London for a day of sightseeing and visits to the Tate Gallery. Miss Jenkinson writes We started our tour with a 2 mile walk, seeing sights such as Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Shakespeares Globe Theatre, and the Millennium Bridge. We finally had a whistle-stop visit to the Tate Modern before making our way to the Tate Britain to see the Painting Now exhibition which featured five contemporary artists, one of which is a Turner Prize winner. We then just had enough time to have a look around the rest of the gallery and not forgetting a trip to the shop for souvenirs. Miss Jenkinson would like to thank all the students who attended the trip and for making it such a brilliant day. We showed London how fantastic students of Saint John Houghton are! It was fantastic to see you all getting excited about the work on show, especially you, Olivia Radford! Special thanks to Mrs Slysz, Mrs Bacall, Mrs Taddeo and Mr Hall for attending the visit and giving up your time to stay late. What a fantastic day! Thank you Miss Jenkinson for organising this wonderful learning opportunity for our students. Saint John Houghton visits the Army On Wednesday 29th January, 16 year 10 boys, accompanied by Mr Thomson and Mrs Brambell, went to Chetwynd Barracks in Chilwell to spend a day experiencing some of the many things the Royal Engineers do every day and abroad, particularly in places like Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Kenya. It was an amazing experience! Despite the wind and rain, the boys had a wonderful time. The day started with an intensive PT (physical training) session in the gym. Two instructors had the boys carrying out a range of demanding exercises and tackling a variety of obstacles and trials. They then marched as a squad to the EOD stand to see a demonstration, by men from the Royal Logistic Corps who are responsible for bomb disposal, of the Cutlass - the robot used by soldiers to detonate bombs and to take part in a hook and line challenge with a pretend mortar bomb. The boys got to try on specialist kit including helmets and bullet proof vests. After a hearty lunch, the boys went to another hanger on the base and met up with soldiers from 43 Signals Squadron. They showed the boys the different radio equipment used by soldiers in Afghanistan whilst out on patrol and then set the boys off with the radios and backpacks. Finally, we all moved to another hanger and were met by soldiers from RTMC who train British soldiers deploying to Afghanistan. Here the boys got into a machine called a Rodet which simulates - very effectively - what it is like to be in a landrover or tank in a war zone when it is hit by enemy fire or when it hits an IED. Colonel Brambell, Commander of 170 Engineers (Infra Support) Group, closed the day by saying how delighted they were to host us. Our year 10 boys were a credit to our school and it has been made very clear that we are welcome to re-visit Chetwynd Barracks. We will definitely be organising another visit.

Well done Lucy Congratulations to Lucy Stanton Lynch who has just finished her successful run in the production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Nottingham playhouse. Lucy was one of the dancers in the production and performed in over forty performances. She enjoyed the opportunity of working alongside the professional actors especially Kenneth Alan Taylor and also received an email from Robert Lindsay wishing her success. Well done Lucy.

Badminton Tournament A hard fought close game saw Eleanor Fletton and her new partner Mr Hall make it through to the quarter finals this week, beating Finn Dobney and Isaac Stack 21-18. They will meeting the modern language duo of Mr Riley and Mrs Jinks who majestically swept aside the dangerous challenge of Paul Dantis and Charlie Harrison who were beaten 21-12. Next week the reigning champion Mr Rutter with his new partner Okorite Ephraim play a strong year 11 pairing of Liam Holmes and Kris Cieslak. The second game sees two year 8 boys; Ethan Harnett and Jonathan Lee take on the might of Mr Lovelock and Mr Hope. Whos that with Austin Healy? On Wednesday night Finn Boddice and Regan Till and the rest of their under 12's team at Ilkeston Rugby Club where coached by Austin Healey - ex Leicester Tigers and England player, also famous for competing on Strictly Come Dancing and more recently Splash. The Under 12's won a competition for Austin, assisted by Jordan Crane and Richard Blaze (also both England and Leicester Tigers players) to run a training session. The boys had a great time; they worked really hard, learned lots and did themselves and the club proud. Chezney Till also turned out to support! As the Six Nations start this weekend I hope everyone will be cheering the boys in green this weekend. Year 9-10 CAREERS RELATED COURSES NCN (New College Nottingham) run highly recommended Saturday courses called Junior Academies. Some are one day only some run over 6 Saturday mornings. Costs vary from 10 to 60. They are vocational subject areas and really help students to decide whether their interest in a career is well founded by giving them a taste of the subject with other students their own age. Subject areas include:Acting / Motor vehicle / Public Services / construction / electricity and Plumbing and Computing. If your son/daughter is interested they should email enquiries@ncn.ac.uk. Further details regarding dates and cost are on the Careers Noticeboard in the main corridor at school. Mrs Kelly can answer further questions as necessary.

Is this your childs heffalump?

I have been abandoned in Reception for some time now. I would like to go home now please.

Learning and Teaching at Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy PE Year 7 Inter Tutor Basketball results CR 4 RL 8 LMC 10 ST 2 Core PE Well done to the Year 9 gymnasts this week for the work completed in preparation for their assessment in Flight. Forty two students worked hard in the gym. Well done 9HB and 9EL. Year 8 has continued with their Fitness unit of work and both KN and LJ worked hard this week planning and performing an eight station circuit. Well done to all students in these groups. Well done to 7LMC for the Circuit Training planning and performing this week. All students were achieving their level this week which is fantastic Year 11 have continued with the Ozbox sessions on Fridays, showing real hard work and effort in what is an intensive strenuous activity. Well done to Jordan Hackett, Jacob Shanks, Cormac Allinson and Paul Dantis for their attitude and effort. In other lessons, students have begun a short number of sessions in Pilates with enthusiasm. GCSE PE Year 10 have been completing their first controlled assessments on a Lifestyle analysis. The assessment was over two hours and well done to the efforts of all involved. The results will appear on the next data snapshot. Year 11 are working towards their final exams and practical assessments. There is continued progress in Badminton by the group, particularly Oliver Vial and Liam Holmes. Nicola Morris completed her first Gymnastic assessment this week, completing a planned floor routine. RE Mrs Brambell would like to congratulate the following students in Year 10 who met or exceeded their end of year target in the most recent end of unit assessment and who had praise postcards sent home: Rachel Tooley, Daniela Loffreda, Amber-lea Fitzgerald, Tiffany Smith and Simon Rotherham. Well done! In 7ST Anna Fletton received a praise postcard for her fantastic attitude to learning in RE and for the work and effort shown in class recently. Well done Anna! Mrs Forrest would like to commend the following students from her Year 8 class for their hard work and achievements in their recent assessments. Well done to Evie Beaven, Emelia Dorman, Louise Farmer, Sinead Farrell, Nicola Lewis, Peter Murphy, Connor Wagstaffe, Cerys Williams and Poppy Wood. She is also really pleased with the following students in 7CR who have worked consistently hard this term, well done to Harvey McGuire, Thomas Bowhay, Thomas Buda, William Murphy, Gracie Rex, Mia Topley, Phoebe Wyatt and Jude Cobb.

Design and Technology

Congratulations to the following students who achieved their target in the last Design and Technology Module: Grant Fenton, Ryan Smith, Sam Harrison, Constance Knighton, Tamzin Birkin-Swain, Tamzin Evans, Shona Gibbons, Wiktor Kobus and Harvey McGuire.

Modern Foreign Languages

Miss Brunt would like to mention the following pupils for their tenacity, hard work and positive attitude in French lessons: Reagan Lane, Charlie Sewell, Jake Gaskin, Meghan Murphy, Callum Martin, Connor Wagstaffe, Olivia Halford, Liam Corden, Nicola Lewis and Jordan Snarski. She would also like to mention the following for their outstanding written work: Meghan Burroughs, Jade-Akina Charlton, Sean Keogh, Georgia Renshaw, Ciara Roberts, Charlie Sewell, Olivia Halford, Fionnan Hickton, Lucy Pavlou, Ellis Reeve, Jordan Snarski, Esme Widdowson, Cerys Williams, Poppy Wood, Connor Wagstaffe and Sinead Farrell - well done! On the Languages Achievement Board this week we have. Year 8: Charlie Sewell, Reagan Lane, Meghan Murphy, George Martin, Cameron Gill, Thomas Kavanagh, Molly-May Gregory Year 10: Lucy Buss, Milla Rigby Year 11: Lucy Parsons

Science
Dr Landy's Amazing Science Discoveries this week.... Year 7: Abby Hudson for gracefully accepting the challenge to become more independent in her learning Year 8: Jack Carter for asking good questions Year 9: Iona Reid for amazing homework Year 10: James Brennan, Patrick Hurt and Josh Axe for improved focus on written work Year 11: Katie Gough for acting on feedback so well. The Science/STEM club has been running since late September 2013 every Wednesday lunch-time in the DT room. It has been attended by students across all KS3 year-groups and our first project has been to design and craft insect/bug hotels from recycled materials.
Please see the excellent work of the attendees below:

English
Mrs Folan would like to praise Charlotte Spencer (10JN) for her hard work and effort in English.

LOST PROPERTY
We still have a number of items in lost property. Please remind your children to check with us at Reception if they have lost any items. It would be really helpful if you would also ensure your all items of clothing etc are named so we can return these easily.

It has come to our notice that there are several cases of head lice in school. Since we are no longer able to call on the School Nurse to examine pupils heads, I would be most grateful if you would inspect your childs head for any evidence of infestation. I am sure that you are aware that head lice are most frequently found in clean hair. Nevertheless, as a precaution, an early and regular inspection of your childs hair is advisable. Your local chemist will stock the necessary product to clear up any problem fast. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope it helps to give you an understanding of all that is happening at Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy. Wishing you and your families a happy week ahead. Best wishes Mrs Joan McCarthy