Issue 3 - 16th October 2006

Dear Readers

The Wizard of Oz production has been the highlight of the week; an excellent show and enjoyed so much by both performers and audience. I would like to thank the staff and students who made it possible. Congratulations to the cast and orchestra.

In addition this week we have been building up to Children in Need day. There will be a report in the next newsletter. Thank you to the Sixth Form team.

PTA AGM is being held next Tuesday (20 November) at 7.30pm in the Library. The second part of the evening will be a Review and Development session on Modern Foreign Languages. I urge you to come and support the Parent’s Association. We will be discussing the purchase of a new mini bus, which we have been fund raising for.

Emily Begg’s Memorial mass is being held on Monday 19 November at 7.30pm in the Chapel.

English Department

Writing Day in Colchester

We were selected to go on a writing course at Stanway School in Colchester on the 2 nd November. We were three out of eleven girls, six from year eight and five from year ten.

The day included various activities, from poetry to script writing. There were well known authors, including Linda Newbury, Julia Golding and a local journalist called Neil Jones.

During the day we had a choice of two different courses to participate in. Our first activity was with Linda Newbury. We learnt how to base our story on a simple idea (running). We then went on to writing a newspaper report on a boring subject: ours was homework set in lessons.

In the afternoon we had Julia Golding (author of Diamond of Drury Lane). She showed us how we should get to know our characters.

To summarise our day, we found it very fun and would love to go again.

Claire Gregory, Hannah Cook,

Amelia Hayes of 8T

Public Speaking Competition

This was a very successful competition once again. The winning teams are:

Year 8 Hannah Milne, Rachel Lynch, Hannah Taylor – Ground Zero.

Year 9 Lauren Shields, Phillipa Searle, Elizabeth Opoku – Anorexia.

Year 10 Rebecca Istead, Alice Bolton, Aoife Battle – Essex Girls

Year 11 Fiona Kirkland, Jordan Parr, Marielle Jarvis – The Real Meaning of Christmas.

These students will be representing the school at the Rotary Youths Speaks Competition in January. – Well done to you all.

We also awarded prizes to other outstanding speakers who were not in the winning teams:

Year 8 Erin Robinson – The Holocaust

Year 9 Tony Bryson – Racism

Year 10 Verity Stone – Parkinson’s Disease

Year 11 Polly Peaches Robinson – Crime

Miss A Woollard

News from AS and A2 Photography

Pupils and parents may wish to know that Ursuline AS and A2 photography students have recently submitted work to the following on-line galleries. The quality of the work is outstanding and we are very pleased that we have had the opportunity to show this work to a wider audience.

Examples of photography work can be found on the school website ‘gallery’ pages:

http://etb.digitalbrain.com/e2bn/leas/e99/ schools/etb/web/Gallery.htm

Work by Ursuline Photography students on the Essex Arts in schools website:

http://digart4schools.org/digital.html

Ursuline Photography work featuring at the Saatchi Gallery:

http://www.saatchi-

gallery.co.uk/portfolio/SchoolInfo/ Brentwood+Ursuline+Convent+High+

School/509822.html

In addition to this some of our students have started to publish their photos on on-line collective galleries and are now keen to develop their web presence.

Chaplaincy News

In the month of November we pray for the Holy Souls. We pray for our family and friends who have died. ‘Eternal rest grant to them hard and may perpetual light shine upon them, may they rest in peace”

We welcome Fr Paul Keane into our school community. We wish him God’s blessing on his work with us.

We thank our new team of Liturgy Leaders and Liturgy Assistants and also our Ministers of Holy Communion for their service to our community.

Home is a Holy place and gives us the encouragement we need to make a difference in the world. Thank God for our homes.

Mrs Tolan

Senior Youth Club

Most Holy Redeemer, Billericay, Senior Youth Club (Year 9 and above) will be held on Sunday 25 th November from 6.30-9pm. Entrance fee is £1.00. Bring along your instruments to the small hall to impress your friends with your musical talents! Practice your Table Tennis skills or just catch up with friends in the main hall. Any parents who are free to help, or for any queries please contact Gail Childs on 01277 650503.

PE Sports News

Cross Country

The first round of the English schools cross country cup was held in October at Hylands Park. The intermediate team finished in third place, qualifying for the East of England Final on Saturday 10 th November. Well done to Isabel Mckiernan, Patsy McWeeney, Holly Thomas, Emma Jo Pereira, Kate Karwacinski and Caroline Dowsett. Good Luck to the team who will be joined by Rebecca Barlex.

The junior team finished 13 th, partly as a result of the first 3 runners being unable to complete the race. Better luck next race!

On Friday 16 th November, the school will be competing in the Mid Essex Championships at Hylands Park. Any girls who finishes in the top 8 will be selected to represent Mid Essex at the County Championships.

Netball

Congratulations to the Yr 11 netball team who have qualified for the Essex Schools Finals at New Hall on Sunday 18 th November. They played really well in the pre county rally to qualify.

The school teams have being competing in the Mid Essex Leagues, with various levels of success. There has been a good attendance at practices and the year 7,8and 9’s have spent a lot of time training. The year 7 and 8 girls have been walking down to Sawyers Hall College to use the Sports Hall during the dark season.

Essex Cup Competitions

The u16 team won their first two knockout matches and now are due to play Brentwood in December. The U14 team lost to St Martins and the year 7 team is playing a series of matches from team across Essex that we would not normally play against. Well done to the Yr 7 team who beat Passmores in Harlow last week.

Football

Football is now a sport that is played in all years and is part of the Yr 8 PE curriculum. We have just bought some new kit which should arrive soon.

The U16 team have played in the Essex Cup competition. The first round match was against Although it was a home fixture, they had to play at St Georges Park in Brentwood as we had not had our new goal posts put up. They played against Hylands and lost 3-2. Many thanks to Mr Jeater who returned from retirement to referee the match for us. Congratulations to Holly Piper who scored a hat trick against William De Ferrers to beat them 3-2.

PE Department

Congratulations! U/13 11-a-side Football Team.

TheU/13 football team took part in an 11-a-side knock out match against St Angela’s Ursuline last month. The girls from year 7 & 8 played their hearts out with a convincing 6-0 win. Annie Adams and Kelsey scored 3 goals each.

The girls now come up against Little Warley in the next round of the schools Essex FA.

Good luck Brentwood Ursuline Swimming Team!

30 Brentwood Ursuline students will be representing the school at the Brentwood & District Schools Swimming Gala which will be held on Wednesday 14 th November 2007 at the Brentwood School.

Basketball

Mrs Stafford has started a basketball club for girls in year 7,8,9. Any girls who would like to learn anew game need to attend practices regularly as matches will be starting soon.

Fitness Club

Mrs Liljeblad is running a general fitness club on Friday lunchtime. It is an opportunity for all girls to spend their lunchtime working on their own fitness. Its in the gym with music and Heather Basten to help. Join Up this week!!!

Girls Getting Active .

Mrs Smith has organised a series of sport coaches to come into school every Wednesday to teach a range of activities. All girls in year 10 were invited, but it has been targeted towards girls in year 10 who do not normally attend practices. Each activity lasts for 5 weeks The girls have taken part in Kick boxing to start with and have just started Street Jazz. If you are interested in joining see Mrs Smith

Trampolining

Mrs Smith is running a trampoline club on Monday, which is open to all girls from year 10 upwards, with year 9’s welcome if there is space. There is a district competition coming up for any students who do not train at an outside club.

Notes from the Music Department

On Wednesday 17 th October a group of 35 pupils form Year 9 were lucky enough to see the Opera ‘Albert Herring’ performed at Glyndebourne Opera House – it was an excellent performance much enjoyed by all who attended and was the perfect conclusion to a recent classroom project on Opera. The students were complimented on their exemplary behavior by staff at Glyndebourne.

On the evening of Saturday 27 th October, Clare Quartet played at the annual dinner at Warley Barracks for the 4 th Battalion Essex Regiment. The girls played beautifully as usual and were thanked for giving up their time during the half term break.

On Wednesday 31 st October was our annual Chamber Concert when a number of students ranging from Year 7 to 13 performed solos, duets and small ensembles to a delighted audience.

After the Wizard of Oz production rehearsals will be in full swing for our Christmas concerts. Letters will be sent home shortly with details of tickets etc. When these letters are sent out can I ask all parents/guardians of Year 7 students to return their reply slip confirming their daughter’s attendance at the Year 7 choral concert on the evening of Thursday 6 th December? ALL Year 7 students are anticipated to attend and reply slips are required from everyone.