Issue 1 - 7th September 2007

Dear Readers

Welcome to our new readers and the new term; I hope that everyone had a good summer holiday and a smooth start to the new school year.

Term started well with a full school assembly in the Cathedral. The new students in Year 7 and other years were inducted into the school community and we set the theme for the year - “A world on the move”.

I hope that you can find a few minutes to read the whole newsletter as I have included information about many changes beginning this September.

Welcome to our new staff who joined this September:

• Mr Chapman Director of Music
• Miss Mattock teaching PE
• Mrs Stafford teaching PE
• Miss Kempton Head of Year 8 and teaching English
• Miss Porter teaching Drama
• Mr Snell teaching Science
• Mr Brown teaching Technology , Maths and Performance Technology
• Mr Warren teaching Dance
• Mrs Tuck Examinations Officer
• Mr Callender ICT technician

We hope that they felt welcomed and will enjoy being part of the school. Some staff have changed roles and I thought that it may be helpful to list the Heads of Year:

• Mrs Coughlan has become an Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for KS4 & 5
• Year 7 Miss Orritt
• Year 8 Miss Kempton

• Year 9 Mr. McGrath
• Year 10 Mrs Walker
• Year 11 Mrs Williams
• Head of Sixth Form - Mrs Havis

Theme for the Year

You may have noticed the new theme for this year “A World on the Move” at the top of the newsletter. The theme is that of the Catholic Racial Justice Commission and we are using it to focus our lives as a school on

• Celebrating our differences
• Considering how we treat others showing respect and learning about other groups
• Gaining a fuller understanding of justice and peace issues around the world
• Finding ways in which we can make a difference.

Fair Processing Notice

Enclosed with the Newsletter is a copy of a document which outlines what data may be shared by the school and with other agencies. It gives the web site information of where further detail can be accessed. We do have more detailed information if you wish to let us know. The policy of the school has, and continues to be, that unless we are required to pass data on we will not do so without parental or in the case of post 16 students their consent.

Building Work

When you are next in school you must visit the new teaching rooms (RE and History) on the top floor of St. John Building. In the St. Ursula Building there is a new Geography room and several offices have been refurbished. The heating system in the Trinity Building has been replaced and Jones Square and the Sixth Form Common Room have new floors.

Examination Results

Congratulations to our students in all examination years. The KS3, GCSE, AS and ‘A’ Level results were again very good. Students of all abilities achieved very well. A full breakdown will be available later but a few highlights are:

Key Stage 3

Listed below are the levels reported nationally but many of the students gaining levels 3 and 4 had made excellent progress since Year 6. There are some queries on some results and these results may change.

GCSE

99% of students in the year group gained five or more qualifications and 98% gained one or more at a C grade or above. A real achievement.

• 81% of students gained more than five subjects at A*-C grade
• 46% of students gained 10 subjects at A* - C grade
• 10% gained 10 subjects at A/A*s
• 71% including English and Maths
• many subjects had higher pass rates (above C grade) above 85%

Year 10 students took the first part of their GCSE RE examination and again these results were excellent at all levels and 84% gained a C grade or above. Many of the same students have done equally well in their Science modules. We hope that they will be encouraged by this to set themselves challenging targets for next summer.

AS and A2

AS and A2 were a credit to the students with a 97% pass rate at A2 (52% of passes were at A and B). Many subjects had 100% pass rates.

We are still looking at the value added for the results in all years and we will be able to report in more detail at a later stage.

Currently staff are beginning to work with students to set targets for this year.

Independent Learning

This term we have introduced a programme of study on Independent Learning. It started with a half day introduction and it will form the regular activity to Thursday morning tutor time. The aim of the programme is to support learning across the curriculum and enable the students to become determined and confident learners establishing skills for life.

The programme will cover;

• Learning to learn activities
• Study and revision skills
• Emotional Intelligence competencies
• Team learning
• Decision making skills.

We will include an outline of the programme in the next newsletter.

Tuesday Peer Mentoring

We have asked and trained students from Y10 upwards to mentor a student in Key Stage 3. They will help the students set weekly targets, support independent learning and encourage them to be actively involved in school. As the students are in the same House so we hope that this will add to House activities too.

There will be further training provided during the year. I hope that it will be very successful and I shall be interested in the first reviews.

National Initiative on Excluded Students.

As a result of concern about excluded young people being around the streets when excluded from school, new statutory arrangements came into force this September.

KEY POINTS:

The school MUST:

• Inform Parents of their responsibility to ensure that their child is not present in a public space in school hours during the first five days of any fixed term exclusion;
• Provide full time education (off site) from the sixth day of any period of fixed term exclusion of six days or longer;
• Inform the student’s home LA immediately of any permanent exclusion.

Fixed term exclusions are rare at the school but usually result as a consequence of students who:

• Bully others
• Disobey staff or are rude to them
• Disrupt the learning of others.

There have been no permanent exclusions in the last three years.

Summary Sheet 2007/2 010

The full School Development Plan is supported by separate plans for Learning Support (Special Needs) and Gifted and Talented.

Departmental plans contain details on implementation in each area.

Sponsored Walk

The school held a Sponsored Walk at Thorndon Country Park on Friday 21 st September. All pupils and staff took part over a course which covered about 6 miles stretching from King George’s playing fields down to Childerditch Lane. The majority of students completed the course in less than 2 hours as they followed marked pathways set out by the P.E. department on the morning of the walk. A small group of staff led by Mrs Fearn and Mr. Jefferson ran the whole way as did a number of students.

The day was bright and warm so the pupils were able to walk comfortably and most of them reported having an enjoyable day. Their task now is to collect in their sponsorship money; we would hope that they would be able to raise a fairly substantial sum. This money will be put towards improving the outdoor facilities for the pupils themselves as well as devoting a certain amount for the School Council to fund some of the projects they are interested in completing.

The most enjoyable aspect of the day was witnessing all age groups mixing in a warm, friendly atmosphere with 6 th formers helping out the younger students and walking with them. Those who looked after checkpoints or acted as marshals also did a sterling job.

We look forward to repeating the exercise in future years.

Mr. Adamson (Deputy Head teacher)

Modern Foreign Languages

European Day of Languages

26 th September 2007

The Modern Foreign Languages department celebrated European Day of Languages with a host of lunchtime activities. Students were involved in quizzes, competitions and blindfold food tasting. The staff didn’t escape lightly either when groups of year 7 students challenged them to learn how to speak Irish! This day is an opportunity to think about the importance of language learning and the reasons why we learn a language. Many of the students in our school have had the experience of living or traveling abroad. All students were invited to go on record by being recorded speaking whatever language they knew. The video will soon be playing in reception. Much fun was had by all and the MFL department was extremely pleased to see how many staff and students got involved!

All students are being encouraged to improve their literacy skills in French, German or Spanish by being offered the opportunity to subscribe to magazines in the language they are learning. So far there’s been a great response so let’s get reading!

The German department is looking forward to a trip to the Christmas markets in Aachen, Germany just before the Christmas holidays. Year 12 and 10 students studying German are invited. Letters will be going home soon!

Miss J Miller

Dear Staff and Pupils of BUCHS

Thank you so much for everything you sent to us here at Matiri with Emma, Camilla and Siobhan. Some of the screwdrivers, mathematical sets, dressmaking equipment etc were given as prizes at the end of term and were very much appreciated. The girls usually use thorns as pins so to be given a whole box of pins and packet of needles was like receiving a gift from heaven. The boys keep coming to my office just to look at the screwdrivers, sand paper etc. They had never seen a 6 in 1 screwdriver and when I showed them how it worked they were absolutely amazed.

The pens, pencils, rubbers and rulers were all given as prizes and with the coloured sheets we made bunting to decorate the polytechnic for the 10 th anniversary celebrations. Everything was really useful for the polytechnic, the children’s home or the hospital so once again thank you very much.

The girls have taken a video and numerous photographs so I am sure they will come and show you and tell you all of their experiences; I hope it has been a good one for them though I’m sure they are looking forward to a hot clean shower, a washing machine and an electric iron not to mention a tarmac road.

Once again thank you so much for everything.

All my love

Sr Margaret Mary

ICT Department

Sixth Form Laptop Initiative

By half term each of our Year 12 students will have access to a laptop computer. They will be able to use this during lessons and take home to work in the evenings. The Internet, all the required software and their work on the school’s network will be accessible; thus ensuring an enhanced learning environment for our students.

It is envisaged that this will be the first step to a general roll out of the scheme to all the students in our school.

The Ursuline is only one of a few schools in this part of England and the only one in this area, to embrace this initiative.

School Web site

This has recently been redesigned. Details of the above Laptop Initiative, the forthcoming Open Evening and our excellent Exam Results can be found on the site. We would welcome any comments/views you have regarding our new layout – emails to us please at the email address stated on our web site.

Chaplaincy News

We say goodbye to Father Dan Mason this week. We will miss his positive spiritual presence in the school. He is respected and loved by the whole community. We wish him the best in his new post in Forest Gate. We welcome Father Paul Keane and look forward to working with him. Our senior citizens from the parish and the local residences will be joining us for the Harvest Festival.

“Lord bless and protect our school community. Bless all our families and friends. Help us to keep in mind that our school and our homes are ‘Holy Places”

ARTS NEWS

Notes from the music department:

Tuesday saw all of Year 7 attending a concert/workshop given by Havering Music Services. The students were treated to the story of Mozart’s life with appropriate musical illustrations. The instruments, flute, violin, viola and cello were also demonstrated and we hope that all our Year 7 students were inspired to practice their instrument further or indeed to consider taking up a new instrument. It is never too late to start….details from the Music Office, Mr. Chapman, Director of Music or Mrs Freeman, Administrator.

Next Chamber Concert: 31 st October

Forthcoming Productions

Rehearsals have started really well for our next production…

Dates for the Diary:

13 th - 15 th of November, starting at 7.30 p.m.

Put it in the Diary now!!…….details from the Arts Office:

Mrs Underhill, Director of Specialism or Mrs Kreamer, Administrator

Duty Students

We would like to thank the following for their help and hard work:

Annie Adams Nicola Alfred

Denise Appiah Paige Aukett

Florence Bowerfield Shannon Bowles

Hope Broughton Priya Chowdhury

Jade Davies Catherine O’Neill

Catherine Finney D’Yandra Forrester

Emily Gardner Isabelle Hatton

Katie Lynch Sian McManus

Olivia Metson

Run for a Child

Childcare are organizing a 5 mile sponsored mile road course situated in the countryside of North Essex. The date is 22 nd September 2007, Hastingwood, Harlow. Registration closes on 14 th September and is open to all ages and abilities. Telephone 01268 784544 for an application form or download the form from www.bccs.org.uk.

Congratulations :

C Kenny received BA in Ancient History and Egyptology

Natasha Singh received Third Class Honours in Combined Studies BA

Term Dates for 2007 / 2008

Autumn Term: 04/09/07 to 21/12/07

Half term: 22-26/10/07

Spring Term 07/01/08 to 28/03/08

Half term: 11-15/02/08

Easter closure: 20-24/03/08

(School reopens 25-28/03/08)

Spring holiday: 31/03/08 to 11/04/08

Summer Term: 14/04/08 to 18/07/08

Half term: 26-30/05/08

May Day: 05/05/08

Training day 03/09/07

Forthcoming Events

10/10/07 Open Evening

11 & 12/10/07 Open Morning