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Ardeche Trip Arrives Safely

Forty four pupils and six members of staff set off from the College on Sunday July 25th for a week's trip to the south of France. They arrived safely on Monday to find the weather was very hot so they immediately went for a swim.

Led by Messrs Kelly and Leech, they will be  having a go at a variety of activities including abseiling and caving as well as canoeing down the Ardeche gorge itself and bivouacing overnight. All of the pupils are from Years 10 and 11 and have been preparing for the trip for over a year.They return next Monday.

27/07/10

Outstanding News From the Head teacher

I am delighted to tell you great news. You may know that St Mary’s College was inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectors and OFSTED inspectors on 07 and 08 July under Section 5 of the Education Act 2005 and under a new and very demanding inspection framework. A copy of the report can be found after this notice.

The report judges that St Mary’s College provides its students with an outstanding education. In fact 25 out of 31 judgements were classified as outstanding. Under the new framework only 8% of schools in the country have been rated as outstanding. St Mary’s College is the first secondary school in Hull to be rated outstanding and the first in the East Riding under the new and much tougher inspection framework.

This is a huge achievement for the College, for our pupils, staff and governors who have worked so well together, with great determination and skill. The report properly highlights the importance of the team approach and shared vision evident here. The support of parents and carers is critical in making this team approach so effective. I would like therefore to thank them  for all that they do in support of our work here. Whilst we might be outstanding we do know that we are not perfect and still have much work to do in order to be the best school imaginable.

 In the meantime it is also proper to celebrate this achievement.

Highlights of the report include:

‘The school is ‘a team’ working to ensure the best possible outcomes for students’… who …’make outstanding progress.’

‘The Roman Catholic ethos of the school is all pervasive. It enables the students to develop exceptional social, moral, spiritual and cultural awareness.’

‘Behaviour is outstanding both around the school and in lessons.’

‘The contribution the students make is outstanding.’

‘Students are supported to make exceptional progress through good teaching.’

‘Care, guidance and support are outstanding. Of particular note is the exceptional support students receive when they join from their primary schools.’

‘Students feel happy, safe and achieve very well.’

‘Leaders and managers at all levels are highly effective. Governors are exceptionally knowledgeable about the school’s work.’

Sixth Form

‘The support which students receive when they enter the sixth form, whether from St Mary’s College or other educational establishments, is outstanding.’

‘Students are exceptionally well prepared for their futures.’

‘The outstanding curriculum, good teaching and outstanding care mean that students make good progress, and some make outstanding progress, during their time in the sixth form.’

‘The leaders and managers of the sixth form are outstanding.’

I am sure that you will agree that this is a truly fabulous report. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your great support and ask you to work with us to set even higher standards. We now face the challenge to redesign and rebuild the school so that it will be fit for the children of St Mary’s College for the next 30 years. This will be a very exciting project worth millions of pounds. It is important that the whole community of St Mary’s College works collaboratively to ensure the best possible design and building.

Finally, we would  congratulate all of our children. They have worked very hard to achieve the many great things which inspectors could not help but notice.

Enjoy the summer break.

Mr G Fitzpatrick
Headteacher

Click here to see the Ofsted Report.

21/07/10

A Fairtrade Challenge

The Fairtrade challenge included students from Year 8 trying to raise awareness of Fairtrade throughout the school. During the day the students gained knowledge of what Fairtrade is and why it is important and created some amazing videos and PowerPoints on what they had learnt. The students also sold Fairtrade items throughout lunchtime and students and staff in the school came to support us. The students raised over a £130; this money was spent on CAFOD world gifts such as water for a family and a school start up pack. The day was very successful and the students were a credit to Year 8. Thanks to all students and staff who came along to support us.

Miss Clegg and Miss Patten

21/07/10

St Mary's College School Choir

On Saturday 17th July, St Mary's College School Choir did the school proud on the Radio Humberside Stage in Queen Victoria Square.  Over 60 pupils represented the School in the Centre of Hull and attracted a huge crowd to listen to their set.  They sang Mr Hassan's Michael Jackson Medley, Lean on me and Journey's Don't Stop Believing. 

Many people were impressed with the choir and commented on how nice it was to see the familiar colours of the St Mary's School uniform.  Thanks to Mr Hassan for his directing and conducting of them.  The biggest thanks though, goes to the wonderful students of St Mary's College, who were a credit to themselves and the school.

Mr Zobkiw

20/07/10

What a year it’s been!.......but what year to look forward to!!!!

It has been an incredible year for the Performing Arts Faculty but more importantly for the hundreds of students who have participated in the various shows, competitions and concerts that have taken place since September.

Highlights included Mack and Mabel featuring over 100 of our talented students on stage, in the orchestra and back stage; the emotional and powerful summer concert with a 50 strong orchestra and wonderful choir and Rock Challenge with 80 dancers and crew coming 2nd in Hull and 4th in the North of England not to mention being nominated for the national award for Drama skills.

We have seen a whole range of students performing live exam performances including Grease, Teechers, Blood Brothers, Beyond Therapy, Comedians and original musicals written and performed by our Sixth Form Performance studies students.

Even the staff have been busy with performances in Aladdin and the annual Cabaret event.
But as they say in show business, ......”You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
Next year will be even busier and more challenging.

First up will be The Schools Shakespeare Festival. Miss Drake will be taking a cast of 30 to the Hull Truck Theatre to perform a thirty minute version of the hilarious “Comedy of Errors”. They will be performing on 4th November 2010 at Hull Truck with a special school preview performance in the Main Hall on the 2nd November.
The next event for your diaries is Babes in the Wood on 9th December 2010. Two years ago Mrs McManus pleaded with us to start a staff pantomime and the result was a 25 minute lunchtime performance of Cinderella for the lower school. Last year after much arm twisting by students in the upper school, Aladdin was performed as part of the Christmas gala. Believe it or not your parents wanted more!! The result is a new venture for the school. This year we join forces with talented students from the sixth form and Year 7 to present the first ever Staff and Student Pantomime, a full evening of song, dance, slapstick comedy and very little plot; a traditional pantomime with not an Australian soap star or reality TV star in sight.

On March 21st our Year 12 Performance Studies students will be performing musicals that they have written in the Studio at Hull Truck. We hope this is the first of many performances at the venue as we celebrate new links with one of the country’s most respected Theatre Companies.

The West End hits St Mary’s between the 5th and 9th of April as the school production of Evita is performed. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s iconic musical has to be one of our student’s biggest challenges yet. It is a glorious show full of wonderful music and incredible drama. The show charts the dramatic rise of one woman from abject poverty to national adoration.

May 4th sees our Year 11 students perform a musical adaptation of George Orwell’s classic novel “Animal Farm”. This will be a stunning visual piece of drama with the students calling the shots as they create a theatre company to produce and fund the performance.  Physical theatre and mask workshops will be the order of the day as 40 students are transformed into the famous farmyard revolutionaries.

Later in May on the 25th our Year 13 Performance Studies students bid farewell to the school with a Gala Evening of musical theatre and original works created by them. And the musical theatre theme is continued on June 25th with the 6th Annual Cabaret Evening.

To round the year off Year 10 present “Little Shop of Horrors” on July 6th a fun packed evening as the evil plant Audrey II chomps his way through the cast!
As we say good bye to the Music team of Mr Zobkiw, Mr Hassan and Miss Klein we look forward to concerts and services throughout the Year under the stewardship of Mrs Shepherd, Miss Jessop and Mr McIntosh. We will, as always, keep you informed.

Finally next Year’s Rock Challenge in Hull clashes with the School Production of Evita and so we are negotiating for our students to perform in another venue.

Thank you to every student, parent and member of staff for your continued support as we celebrate the exceptional talents of the young people at St Mary’s College.

Neil Wood
Director of Performance.

Transition Week

Transition week has been in full swing with a host of activities going on for our new intake. Click on the transition website link on the home page to see a full account of all that’s been going on. We have also featured on Radio Humberside as David Burns was one of our opening day guests. Click on this link to hear one of the radio interviews.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p008qvxf/Andy_Comforts_Breakfast_Show_14_07_2010/

16/07/10

Larkin with Toads competition

 This was a competition with the year 9 BTEC Art and Design First Diploma and Certificate groups.

The winner was Martha Benfield and her toad is painted and ready to be photographed for the competition entry for Hull Schools. (Please click here  to see competition brief),  In second place was Eleanor MacMillan and in third place Josie Driver.  If ours gets chosen it willl go on the Larkin Website.

     

16/07/10

St Mary's students visit Hull York Medical School

In June Miss Newton and Mr Flanagan took 26 Year 10 students to the Hull York Medical School. The aim of the day was to find out "What's wrong with Gary?" and followed the diagnosis of a 16 year old boy called Gary. In the morning we were given a very informative tour of the Hull campus. In the afternoon students took part in PBL (Problem Based Learning), just like real medical students. The whole day ended with a debrief and demonstration of an ECG machine with St Mary's own glamourous assistant Kieran Lynch.

"The day at HYMS was extremely enjoyable and I gained many things.  The activities were well planned and fun and the food was great! It has helped me to make my mind up on a career (GP most definitely) and I would recommend the day to anyone who gets the chance.  Being the 'victim' of the ECG was daunting but very amusing in the end."

15/07/10

Hull Schools Golf Tournament Victory 2010

Blousy-Marie Haorang, Chris Cleveland, Brendan & Ronan Ward have sucessfully clinched the inaugural Hull Schools Golf Tournament held at Ganstead Park Golf Club on Monday 12th July. The team of four have received a year's honorary membership at Ganstead Park as a result of their success. On a day when the weather was not kind to the competitors, the St Mary's quartet managed to post a total of 75 Stableford points. With the two best scores to count from a team of four, it was Ronan Ward who paved the way with a fantastic score of 41 points. Well done to all of the players who showed great camaraderie throughout the day and fully deserved the victory.
 
14/07/10

Year 7 Netball Tour

My favourite day was Tuesday, we had a massive water fight. We won both of our matches we played. And then we went out for a meal at the restaurant.

Emily Kay-Gibson

We arrived at the Osmotherly Hostel on the Monday evening after playing 2 games and going to the Jorvik Viking Centre and the Ten Pin York Bowling Centre, (we also had a quick look in Topshop!), and we had our packed lunches by the canal in York.

The rooms at the hostel were decent, and so made our trip more pleasurable. It was good to spend time with the team and get to know each other properly.
On the Tuesday, we played 2 games again and then we had a picnic (with the lunch provided by the hostel) at a nice park, after taking a walk near a lake and playing a game of rounders . At the park, we had a game of football together then headed to the second match. Following the match, we went to the Black Bull Pub in York and had a really nice meal of our choice. On the final day, we had one match in Leeds and then we had a break at a big field and then we travelled to Harrogate Leisure Centre for some swimming. On the way back to school we stooped off for a McDonald’s as well. We won 3 out of 5 matches against York High Year 8’s (Monday), Ripon Grammar (Tuesday), and Ripon College (Tuesday). We lost 2 our matches against Queen Margaret’s (Monday) and Gateways School (Wednesday). The food at the hostel was nice and everyone enjoyed themselves.
15 girls… 5 matches…. 3 wins….2 teachers and 1 bundle of fun!!!!
Big thanks to our supervisor and mini-bus driver Mr Vickers, and our netball coach and supervisor Miss Murray.

 Ellie Gibbins

On the netball tour I really enjoyed meeting new people and getting to know other people. When we was there we did a lot of activities we went bowling, swimming and we went to the Jorvik Museum. We played lots of games of netball and had a very good time.

Jess Hall

I really enjoyed the netball tour because it was so much fun and very interesting. I loved going bowling and going swimming. I also liked playing loads of different school and meeting loads of different people. The best thing was getting to know my friends a bit more.

Catherine Kilkenny

14/07/10

Advice to Parents on Asthma Medication during the Summer

Please click here for details.

Ofsted

The College would like to announce that it underwent an Ofsted inspection on Wednesday and Thursday 7th and 8th July. The result of the inspection will be published in due course.

GB Roller Final

Shannon Jones of Year 8 with her silver medal for the first GB roller final in California with the U12 team.  She is also playing down to U10 because in the US that is the rule and playing with the U14 and U18 girls and womens teams!

Well done Shannon!

13/07/10

Annie: Not tomorrow – Today!

Musical dramatisations are not unfamiliar to St Mary’s College - from Les Misérables  to the cheerful Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, we’ve done it all. But this year, as part of Teamwork Challenge Day, came a new Broadway smash hit – Annie.

First performed in 1977, Annie has made many a child and adult alike smile throughout the world.  Its rags-to-riches story leaves you feeling enlightened and empowered.  When asked about how she was feeling, the main star, Christina said ‘I feel very privileged to be Annie. It’s a big responsibility and I’m going to have to step up to the mark. It’s definitely nerve-racking, but I have lots of great support from all my friends.’

‘The kids know more of the script than we do! They all have great talent and it’s going to be better than I expected’ beamed Mr Wood.  But a play wouldn’t be a play without a set. We talked to Georgia –‘We have to make the set for each scene and decide which props to use. Some sixth formers are helping us out-but we make the decisions of where the set goes and when.’

It’s hard to believe the year 8 Annie cast achieved this amazing rendition of the Broadway hit Annie in just one morning!  Hardly any lines were forgotten, all the singing was in tune and tempo and all the cast were superb. The audience were even treated to a fantastically coordinated modern tap dance.  All in all, it was a great hour of entertainment and a joy to watch.

Story by Mary (Year 8)

08/07/10

Year 8 Teamwork Challenge Day

This year’s Year 8 Teamwork Challenge Day was another huge success.  Every student in Year 8 was given the opportunity to choose to participate in one of seventeen different challenges.  There were challenges to suit every interest from orienteering to creative writing, from drama to woodwork. One of the challenges was the “Journalism challenge” and the Year 8s involved with that challenge have produced a newspaper about the day and also written the following stories about all the money that was raised for good causes…

The Fairtrade Challenge: Eat some chocolate, save a life!

The Fairtrade challenge started off by helping the challengers understand the meaning of Fairtrade. This helped them to create a PowerPoint and posters advertising Fairtrade.  This all built up to a Fairtrade sale held at lunchtime in the year seven social area. They had a range of Fairtrade goods, not only chocolate, but even things like key rings and toys.

They also had a Fairtrade taster session which we had the privilege to enjoy. While we tasted Fairtrade chocolate we found out what people thought of it.  Miss Patten said “It tasted even better, knowing I just saved a life.” This sums up the tasting session and Fairtrade perfectly. The whole Fairtrade Challenge was a great success. They raised over £100 which will go to charity.

   

Written by Oliver & Lyle (Year 8)

The Cooking Challenge: Muffin Mania!

As I entered the food technology room, R11, a wave of warm air nearly drowned me.  Baking dozens of buns and muffins at 200 degrees, all at the same time, really does produce a lot of heat!  Two teachers were kindly lending a hand, including the master chef of the school, Mrs Blakie, who has been cooking since she was only three years old.

While I was taking pictures, everyone around me was working hard, measuring ingredients, stirring mixtures and generally being very busy! And all for a good cause, as the £165.30 they have raised is going to two important charities.  Half of the money is going to The National Autistic Society, which helps people all over the UK with support, guidance and information. The other half is going to the Oncology Ward at Castle Hill Hospital. This was the place where Mrs Carr had her cancer treatment, so is very close to the hearts of many people within the school.

Story by Mary (Year 8)

The Design and Woodwork Challenge – You’ve been framed!

Walking down the P corridor all I could hear was banging and clattering. I thought I was going to come across a fight. But, then I found everybody was chipping in and working as hard as they could.

 As I spoke to the students it became clear that they were trying to meet a deadline of making 30 wooden frames in a day. The point of this was to raise money for a charity of their choice. They were making the designs on the computer, then getting a machine to cut them out. Then they sanded them until smooth and then got them varnished. Another team was working on producing the images to go in the frames.  The finished articles were then sold in the staff room and raised a fantastic £83 for the National Autistic Society.

   

Story by Oliver, Lyle, and Leigh

08/07/10

Junior House Drama, Thursday, 1st July

The Main Hall was packed at 7.00pm  on Thursday, 1st July, for the Junior House Drama and the air of excitement and anticipation was palpable.  Ruth began with their play ‘Happy Ever after…. Or is it?’  It was really excellent and very well acted by all the cast.  Danny Morris won the Best Actor award for his wonderful portrayal of ‘Rat’.

Second on stage was Chanel who did a brilliant play called ‘Barry Trotter and the case of the Missing Priest’.  It was a most interesting and original story with all the cast performing to the very highest standard.  Maria Van Maarseveen was outstanding and was awarded the Best Actor shield for her portrayal of ‘Hooded’.
Next on stage was Fisher who brought the house down with their very funny play ‘Life Swap’  It just went from strength to strength and bursts of laughter could be heard as far away as the Humber Bridge throughout the performance.  Naomi Awre won best Actor for her superb role as Hermione.

Finally, it was the turn of Postgate House and what a treat was in store for all those present!  ‘Once upon a Task’ was an outstanding play acted with panache and style by all the cast.  Bethany Creamer won best actor for her brilliant ‘Lady Marmalade’.
All the plays were written and directed by the House Captains themselves.  They organised the auditions and all the rehearsals.  They were marvellous.  Where on earth they get their ideas from and where on earth they get the time to write the plays and organise the whole evening is a mystery.  These drama evening are two of the best events in the whole school year, because they are run entirely by the students themselves.  Over one hundred students were involved in last night’s performances and it was obvious that everyone had a thoroughly good time.

How on earth the three judges, Mrs McManus, Mrs Stephens and Mr Wood decided on the overall winning House I will never know! It must have been extremely difficult.  The winning House, announced by Mrs McManus was Fisher House for their production of ‘Life Swap’.

Congratulations to them and to all who took part.  It was a fantastic evening.

05/07/10

Trip to the Physics Department at The University of York.

On Monday 21st June, 30 year 9 students were given the opportunity to spend a full day at The University of York working with current undergraduates and leading academics in the field of physics. The day opened with a short talk on resonance and its effects in the real world. The rest of the day was jam-packed full of activities including cryogenics, polymer physics, optics and even the philosophy of physics! The day was enjoyed by all and the students returned enthused and talking about the physics they had seen. Most importantly, however, the food was free and delicious, one student said “I would recommend the University of York canteen to anybody!” The physics wasn’t too shabby either...

02/07/10

I-Safely Conference

The College is hosting a major conference in July on internet safety.  The conference, which will be led by two key experts who headed the CID in both Cleveland and Durham, will be held in the Academy.  For further details click here.

26/05/10

Year 8 Challenge Day

During Year 8 challenge Day one group of pupils set out to make muffins and sell them for charity.  They would like to thank all the people who supported them in their challenge to make and sell muffins to raise money for the Oncology Unit at Castle Hill Hospital and The National Autistic Society.  They sold like hot cakes!! They raised £165.30.  Well done!

30/06/10

Year 12 and 13 trip to Paris

In May the French A level groups went to the marvellous city of Paris.  We did loads whilst we were there including going to the top of the Eiffel Tower (well, some of us anyway, Mrs Brown chickened out!),  walking round romantic Montmartre and The Sacre Coeur, an International Mass in Notre Dame, a French film (oh la la!) and eating out in lots of nice restaurants.  Some of us even tried snails.  We can really see now why this is the most visited city in the world, it really is beautiful and exciting and were really inspired to go there again.  J’adore Paris!

29/06/10

Languages and Hull City Project

A class of Y9 students has been taking part in an exciting new project with Hull City this term, looking at how languages are used in sport.  The programme consisted of language in a sports’ context learning about football terminology, player information, healthy eating and well-being.  The students met Hull City coaches who talked to the group about how useful languages are within a sporting context and how important it is to be open to other cultures if you are enthusiastic about sport.  The class had an opportunity to hear an interview with Stephen Mouyokolo in French and had coaching sessions with Hull City coaches.  The programme will finish with a tour around the KC stadium and an opportunity to practise some of the French they have learned.  We have really enjoyed being a part of the project and seeing how languages can be useful in a more practical situation.

29/06/10

Who let the dogs out? Police Dogs Section visit to SMC (17th June)

On Teamwork Challenge day we had PC Chris Wright and PC Steve Duggan in with their three dogs - two of which are GP (general purpose) dogs, both were German Shepherds, and the other was a drug dog, a Springer spaniel.  In the show Chris and Steve showed us how the GP dogs, Vegas and Floyd, would react in different situations including dealing with a hooligan with a bat, a fleeing criminal, a stationary criminal and a mad man with a gun.  But, for the drug dog, Jerry, they hid the gun used in the scenario earlier in a bag from the audience and placed a few more around without any fire arms in it and showed how he would go and find the weapon.  At the end after the demonstration Chris and Steve told us about how the dogs they work with also live with them to build the trust and it only takes 5 weeks to fully train a drug dog and they start training between 12 – 18 months old.  Steve told us he has been in the force for 28 years and for 24 of them he has been working with the dogs.  Chris has been in the force for 15 years, 9 of which he has been working with dogs.  The demonstration was part of this year’s Teamwork Challenge Day and was watched by about 500 students on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Story by Tristan, Matthew and Paddy (Year 8)

        

29/06/10

The week in news (June 21st to June 25th)

The Comenius project trip to Slovenia returned on Wednesday with 10 Year 9 students and Mr Kelly and Miss Bratton all reporting a very successful trip............The Annual Cabaret evening on Thursday was packed and the audience was treated to a feast of musical theatre numbers with eye catching performances from Beth Barry, Laura Prescott and Adam Brown..........In the staff cricket competition there were wins from PE 1  and the SLG with excellent batting from Messrs Fitzpatrick and Davidson........the Aim Higher roadshow rolled in on Wednesday to inspire many of our youngsters.......and the World Cup continues to be a good vehicle for mass participation in Years 7 to 9........and the Year 7 girls' netball tour of North Yorkshire took place with great success from Monday through Thursday...........while ten Year 11s took advantage of the end of their exams to go to Barcelona with Mrs Ogilvie and Mr Kennedy and had a wonderful time.

28/06/10

Trip to Flamingo Land

Friday June 11th was the annual Key Stage 3 trip to Flamingo Land.  In all over 600 pupils and over 100 staff went for the day.  It turned out to be wonderful weather and a really good time was had by all as the following pupils can vouch for.

Flamingo Land was an excellent day. I can’t wait to go again next year. It was fun and exciting.                                                                                                Claire Batty

Flamingo Land is one of the best school trips I have been on it was really great!
I went there before with my family but with all my mates it was better. We went on every ride and me and my friend Keira got soaked on the Lost River ride, it was the best and on the coach we all had a nap.                                                 Millie Adams

I really enjoyed going to Flamingo Land on Friday. It was a great opportunity to spend time with your friends and have a break from work. I had never been before and I was a lot more adventurous on rides than I used to be. Thanks for a great, new experience.                                                                                         Naomi Awre

Flamingo Land was really good. It was my first time going. I went on all the rides that I could. Can’t wait till next year.                                                    Rhianna Ollett

At Flamingo my favourite ride was Velocity, it’s like you sit on a motorbike and it’s going really fast. This day was the best, me and my friends nearly went on every ride.                                                                                                Karolina Banasiewicz

I really like Flamingo Land because I like big rides and I went on everything.  I can’t wait to go again and I hope there are more rides.                             Megan Creamer

I really enjoyed Flamingo Land. I have never been before so I had a great time and can’t wait to go again next year because I’m definitely going.           Chloe Hairsine

 25/06/10          

Humber Bridge Half Marathon

On the 27th June 2010 I will be running the Humber Bridge Half Marathon which will be the first in a series of running challenges which I intend to complete along with my wife Tanya, to raise money for the National Autistic Society and awareness for Autistic Spectrum Disorders in general.

In November 2009 our youngest son Sebastian was diagnosed with Autism as well as a complex range of associated special needs. The impact that Autism has had on us as a family has been huge. Initially we were devastated when faced with the realisation that our child has a disability. As we have learned more and more about this complex condition we are learning to embrace the many challenges we face as a family and count ourselves lucky that we have a happy and healthy child.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people and the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in different ways. Asperger syndrome is another form of autism.

People with autism have said that the world, to them, is a mass of people, places and events which they struggle to make sense of, and which can cause them considerable anxiety. In particular, understanding and relating to other people, and taking part in everyday family and social life may be harder for them. Other people appear to know, intuitively, how to communicate and interact with each other, and some people with autism may wonder why they are 'different'

Since Sebastian was diagnosed we have received valuable support and advice from many specialists not least the National Autistic Society. We are aiming to raise £1000 but more importantly raise awareness of Autism and related conditions and hopefully go someway to helping people understand that having Autism shouldn't stop you from living a full and successful life.

After the Humber Bridge half marathon we will complete the Bishop Wilton half marathon on 17 July 2010 followed by the Walkington and Elloughton 10k's. We hope to complete the Great North Run on October and early next year complete the Wheeldale Tandem which is an off road marathon over the North Yorkshire Moors.

Please visit our fundraising site www.justgiving.com/helping-seb-and-others-with-autism to find out how we are progressing.

 Marc Cooper

18/06/10

Staff Cricket Team show their mettle

Following an earlier defeat to the University staff team, St Mary's staff cricket team produced an emphatic display to even up the honours on Wednesday (16th June). Fielding first they took a couple of early wickets through Cuthill and Wilkinson but then the University middle order took up the fight and after just 8 overs had raised the score to 79 for 2. Then some incisive leg break bowling from Leech senior saw both batsmen dismissed and the run rate  drastically reduced. With 3 for 21 off just 4 overs this did the trick and the eventual score was 130 for 8 with McAllister and Clarke each getting some late wickets. Good fielding by Leech junior, Rotherham, Arridge and Walmsley helped to also contain the runs. Davidson dropped a sitter. Then chasing 131 to win the staff made a slowish start and Davidson was out for 3 with the score on 18. That was the only wicket to fall. A century partnership by Hamer (53 n.o.) and Wilkinson (65 n.o.) brought victory with two overs to spare. Hamer showed some lovely touches while Wilkinson had a real array of powerful shots. An excellent win.

Team: D. Walmsley (skip), M. Davidson, P. Rotherham, P. Hamer, M. McAllister, D. Clark,  J. Leech,  P. Leech,  M. Arridge,  C. Cuthill,  M. Wilkinson.

Trip to Flamingo Land

Friday June 11th was trips day with over 600 pupils and many staff going to Flamingo Land for the day. This is a mammoth organizational effort by the learning mentors and the Heads of Year but it all went off brilliantly and everyone had a really good day. It was lovely therefore to receive a phone call from Jim Bell of Jim Bell Travel who provided all of the coaches for the trip.

Jim wanted to pass on this message from the drivers - St Mary's College pupils are the best school passengers they have ever had, they were so well behaved and the buses were left immaculate. 

Jim also wanted to thank all staff for their excellent supervision and organisation.

It’s really wonderful to get such a message.  Well done everybody!!

16/06/10

Polish Exchange

Ten students and three teachers from the College visited Poland at the start of June for a week’s visit. In March a party from Poland had come to St Mary’s and now it was our turn to return the visit. It was a wonderful trip and a report can be seen by clicking here.

 16/06/10

Higher Science Students visit London

The science department took 43 higher science pupils to London on Monday and Tuesday, June 7th and 8th.  The trip was to look at museums associated with Medicine.  Staff that went on the trip included Mrs Fletcher, Mrs Matthews, Mr Evans, Mrs Coyle and Mr Clement.

Over the course of the 2 days they did the following activities:

The Old Operating Theatre

Alexander Flemming Museum

Florence Nightingale Museum

Natural History Museum

London Eye

Rainforest Cafe

Nelson's Column

The trip was a real success and pupils really enjoyed themselves, and learnt much about bacteria and the early development of surgery and treatments.

15/06/10

Year 12 BTEC National Health and Social Care

As part of the Year 12 BTEC National Health and Social Care students completed a one day first aid course on Tuesday 25th May.

'The first aid course was really useful and gave me lots of knowledge on basic first aid such as treating burns, stings and much more.  The trainer was very good and taught me how to carry out CPR on an adult and child who is unconscious.  We also practiced how to put on a bandage and sling properly.  It was fun and I learnt a lot.'

 Abigail Ramsey

 09/06/10

Year 10 make it three in a row!

The Year 10 rugby team won the Hull Schools Cup Final at a very wet Craven Park on June 8th. This was the third consecutive year that the team has won this competition -a great feat in itself. This was the second match of the night and the pitch began to cut up and there was lots of surface water but the lads roared into a 22-0 lead by half time. They ended up winning 32-0 but had to resist a lot of strong effort by the Malet team but the defensive play of the Saints' team was absolutely outstanding.

              

08/06/10

Congratulations!

Annarose Spencer 9YP won the Under 16 Yorkshire Single Fitch and Section 4 Longbow titles at the weekend. She was entered in the wrong age group, the older one and still won!!

08/06/10

‘SKILL’  visit to St Mary’s College Wednesday 26th May

SKILL is ‘The National Bureau for Students with a Disability’ and is a charity. They came into school to give us some guidance about studying in higher education.  15 of our students from key stage 4 and 5 were involved, along with 5 support staff.

The sessions involved an ambassador talking about her own experiences as a disabled student, a question and answer section that dealt with key issues for prospective disabled students, further case studies and an information section that listed advice agencies, useful publications and websites.
It was a real ’eye-opener’ in terms of learning about the financial support that is available to any student with a disability and how these funds can be accessed.
The students felt re-assured and further motivated to explore the many options available to them – realising that their disability should in no way shape or form prevent them from achieving their personal goal once they have left St Mary’s College.

For further information please feel free to contact Ms E. Woolfall (Assistant Head teacher), or visit their website – http://www.skill.org.uk/ .

08/06/10

2010 A Year of Sporting Success

This year has seen some wonderful achievements by the College's students in the sporting arenas. Both at local, regional and national level there have been many successes.

Football

U13 Girls  Hull Schools Cup Winners

U16 Girls Hull Schools Cup Winners

U12 Boys Hull Schools Cup Winners

Georgia Brown (Year 11) Hull College Centre of Excellence Player of the Year

Rugby League

U12 Boys Hull Schools Cup Winners

U15 Boys Yorkshire Cup finalists

U15 Boys Hull Schools Cup winners

Matthew Marsh (Year 10) selected for England squad to tour France

Matthew Marsh & Josh Guzdek (Year 10) get scholarships with Hull KR

Gabriel Gatu (Year 10) gets scholarship with Hull FC

Volleyball

James Reading (Year 11) represents England Cadets in Austria

Trampolining

7 pupils reach National Finals

Judo

Matthew Neal (Year 9) selected for England training squad

Netball

Year 11 win Hull Schools League and Tournament and reach regional finals

Golf

Daniel Killen (Year 13) breaks course record at Cottingham Parks with a round of 63

Super 4th place for Rock Challengers

12 schools - one from Belfast, two from Scotland,two from Cumbria and the others from the north of England - gathered at the Grimsby Auditorium on Friday May 28th to contest the Northern regional final of Rock Challenge 2010. Dancing last, the pupils from St Mary's performed excellently. The top 5 schools received awards and after four hours of competition, they were given 4th  place. 100 dancers and 20 stage crew turned out for the school and this was a brilliant performance.  Well done to all of the students and to Mr Pearce and Mr Wood for all their hard work.

29/05/10

Staff Suffer Batting Collapse

The Staff cricket team played its first game of the season with a match against the University staff. Fielding first they restricted the University to just 105 with some brilliant bowling from Chris Cuthill who took 4-19. Two very economical spells by Martin McAllister and Phil Leech (both had 1-14 off 4 overs) also helped restrict the opponents score as well as excellent catches from Paul Hamer, Matthew Wilkinson and Damian Walmsley. However in their pursuit of the opposition total wickets fell too quickly. Paul Hamer (20) and Mark Arridge (13) gave the Staff a steady start but after they were gone, wickets fell too quickly and the team collapsed to 64 all out. However the next game on June 16th will hopefully see a better performance.

27/05/10

Georgia wins Excellence Award

Georgia Brown of Year 11 who won this year's Portlaw Cup triumphed again at the Hull College Centre of Excellence awards last Friday night (May 21st). Georgia received the Excellence in Football Award. This prestigious award has only been won twice before and both previous receipients went on to gain full England honours. Our congratulations go to Georgia who always gives her very best in whatever sport she is taking part in.

24/05/10

Logo Winners

This year’s Transition Week in July will have the World Cup as its theme. The winning logo was created by Alastair McKie of Eastfield Primary School.  Well done to him and the joint runners up, Lydia Craft (Endsleigh) and Imogen Barber.

              

 

Starpack Awards 17-05-2010

      

Abbie Laws and Poppy Collier receive their national awards at the Starpack Presentations.  (see article below for further details).

Year 7 Industry Challenge

On Tuesday 11th May  four groups out of year 7 went to compete in the Industry Challenge.  We travelled to the Guildhall to show 'The Dragons' our presentations.  There were '5 dragons' all from different parts of the business community.   We each took it in turns to show our presentation and we were given feedback on our inventions.  Our group was third to present, by the time the second presentation was ending I was so nervous, but another member of my team could not have been more excited!  Then it was our turn, the timer was set, the dragons were ready and off we went.  They were very impressed by our idea and they gave us really good feedback, each group was given a certificate by a dragon.  We all had our photo taken and by the end of this trip we were all so relieved that it was over (well most of us were!).  As we arrived at school the whole of year 7 had been supporting us and they were asking us how we had done.  This was a day we will never forget and this has been a great experience.  This gave me an idea of what I would like to do when I am older.

Our team:  Rebecca Cresswell,  Bethanney Hemingway,  Chloe Greaves.

By Rebecca Cresswell.

    

18/05/10

NHS Careers Day

On the 29th April, 17 BTEC National Health and Social Care students visited an NHS careers day at the KC Stadium.  At first I thought it was just going to be about doctors and nurses but I learned a lot about different careers within the NHS. I really enjoyed taking the role of paramedic and learning how to resuscitate someone.  It was really interesting and fun and made me think about what career I want to do in the future.

     

By Lora Nasser Hilal

Year 11 tread the boards to great effect

An enthusiastic audience packed the school hall on Wednesday night (May 5th) to see the Year 11 Btec Performin Arts students give their final performances in abridged versions of the John Godber classic "Teechers" and Willy Russell's Blood Brothers. There were many great performances. Chelsea Parsons stood out with her portrayal of hardman Oggy Moxon in Teechers while Elen Benfield sang beautifully as Mrs Johnston in Blood Brothers. Lloyd Whittleton and Eddie Bowers were hugely impressive in the starring roles bringing great humour and pathos to the roles. A wonderfully enjoyable night.

The 7th Annual Sports & Achievement Awards

One of the highlights of the College year, the Awards Evening, was held on Thursday April 29th in the Academy. The guest this year was Dr Nick Evans from the Wilberforce Institute of Slavery and Emancipation. Dr Evans gave a very well received talk on how slavery still features very much in the world today and how a city like Hull with its proud history of fighting slavery led by William Wilberforce still continues this work today.

The highlights of the evening came at the end of the presentations. Firstly Callum Llewelyn og Year 11 was awarded the Julie Carr Trophy by Mr Dave Carr. This trophy, in honour of a wonderful former teacher, is given to a recipient who has demonstrated great courage in the face of adversity. Callum was a deserved winner.

Then the Portlaw Cup was awarded to Georgia Brown of Year 11 whose sporting exploits over the last few years are quite exceptional. She has played and won representative honours in athletics, football, cricket and netball as well as being an outstanding student and role model. Georgia received the trophy from Dr Evans and Mr Mike Withers, former Chair of the Governing body, who originally presented the Cup to the school.

In all 70 pupils received awards.

            

04/05/10

St Mary's finish a brilliant second in Rock Challenge

7 Hull schools performed superbly at the Hull Ice Arena in the Hull area Rock Challenge competition. Rock Challenge is a global schools competition which requires schools to perform an 8 minute dance routine. St Mary's performed a piece about a dyslexic child lost in an unforgiving classroom. We finished second but with such a high score that we were automatically put through to the regional B final in Grimsby on May 29th - the first time the College has ever got through to the final. 85 pupils were involved. It was a very moving piece beautifully danced. Well done to all of the pupils  and to Mr Pearce who worked so hard to get the children there. It was also great to see so many parents and staff there supporting the students. Photos to follow.

27/04/10

The Village Hotel……Maths Revision Day.

On Friday 16th April, 42 Year 11 students went to the Village Hotel in Hull for a GCSE maths revision day.  We had lots of fun but worked really hard on all of the activities. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was fantastic. I revised a lot of material for my module 5 exam which is in June. We really enjoyed the day.

By Daria Zaworska  Year 11    

27/04/10 

Contacting Parent Governors

 There are three Parent Governors on the Governing Body. Should parents wish to contact one or all of them for information or to discuss a matter to do with the College they can be contacted via the e mail addresses which follow their names.

Glenn Morris
 Email address: gmorris@staff.st-marys.hull.sch.uk

 Dave King
 Email address: dking@staff.st-marys.hull.sch.uk

 Mark Hulme
 Email address: mhulme@staff.st-marys.hull.sch.uk

20/04/10

Year 8 show their generosity

Year 8's Lenten collections proved to be very succesful with £146 being collected for Cancer Research and a further £146 for CAFOD. Well done to all of them for their generosity.

19/04/10

Staff Get a Good Draw

The men's staff soccer team took on Sirius Academy last Friday (16th April) in a battle of the Sports Colleges. On a very warm evening the game was played at a brisk pace and St Mary's should have taken the lead when Hassan spurned a good chance when putting a header wide. However Hamer was then brought down in the area and Hassan stepped up to slot home the resulting penalty. He could have doubled his goal tally when again put through but his well struck shot struck the post. Eley in the St Mary's goal was kept busy but kept a clean sheet to half time. St Mary's increased their lead when Wilkinson scored from a McAllister corner with a powerful header but St Mary's then began to run out of steam. With Clymo in the midfield this was perhaps not surprising. In the last twenty minutes two goals were conceded to bring the match level but Lenham had a good opportunity to win the game but dragged his shot wide when well placed.

19/04/10

Yorkshire Cup Finalists beaten by St Mary's

In an epic encounter at the KC Stadium (on Wednesday April 14th) St Mary's Year 7 rugby league team won the Hull Schools Cup Final defeating the strongly fancied Winifred Holtby side 16-14 in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd. Defending well early on they took the lead in their first set when Charlie Weaver broke away and ran 80 yards to score a wonderful solo try. He then converted the try. However Holtby rallied well and, despite some great tackling, they scored two unconverted tries to take an 8-6 lead. St Mary's then took the game to the opposition and capitalised on an error for Joe Appleyard to score in the corner and restore St Mary's lead  10 -8 a half time.

Again Holtby came back to score a good try under the posts and take a 14-10 lead. The match flowed both ways with great tackles from both teams. However with just a few minutes remaining constant pressure from the St Mary's forwards paid off and Weaver again touched down to level the scores. Appleyard then showed great composure to convert the try from left of the posts. The last few minutes saw both sides trying to break through and a last ditch tackle by Martin Jones kept out the opposition but defences held on and St Mary's ran out worthy winners against a gallant Holtby team.

All of the boys played really well and in the right spirit. Congratulations to Mr Leech (jnr), Mr Lenham and Mr Donohoe for their management, coaching and inspirational and motivational team talks.

            

  

15/04/10

St Mary's Girls Football Teams

In the week before the Easter break St Mary’s girls football teams enjoyed great success. The Year 7 & 8 team beat Winifred Holtby 3-2 after extra time and the Y9-11 team defeated Archbishop Sentamu school in an epic encounter 6-5 after extra time with the match finishing in virtual darkness. Great credit must go to all of the girls (who are named below) and to Mrs Brown (the Y9 Learning Mentor) who has successfully coached and managed the girls.

UNDER 16

GEORGIA BROWN    (CAPTAIN)
MEL SHEERAN   (VICE CAPTAIN)
AMY TOKER
SHAUNA NETTLETON
SOPHIE MILLINGTON
CHELSEA PARSONS
EMMA COOK
JADE THOMPSON
AIMEE FOSTER
RY COOPER
EMILY MARWAN
EMILY BATTY
CHELSEA LONG
ELLIE MAILEY

UNDER 13

DAVINIA RICHARDSON (CAPTAIN)
NIAMH GRICE      (VICE CAPTAIN)

BETH WAITES
BONITA SHARP
KATIE SHORTHOUSE
ROSIE BOYER
LYKA SAN JUAN
ELLIE GIBBONS
LEAH LISTER
LAYLA SMITH
MEGAN PROSSER
REBECCA MACDOUGAL
BLOUSY HAORANG
ZUZANNA DULIAN

JESS SWEENY FROM YEAR 7 COULD NOT PLAY IN THE FINAL BUT  PLAYED IN THE SEMI FINAL AND WAS A GREAT HELP TO THE TEAM.

       

13/04/10

6th formers AS/A2 Art students trip to London

Miss Bell and Mrs Reading took the year 12 and year 13 art students to London on Tuesday 23rd March. They arrived 9.45am and made their way to the Tate Modern after a photo stop at St Pauls. The students gained valuable primary research for their AS A2 art exam and prep work. After the Tate they took the Tube to the Saatchi Gallery (see photos) down the Kings Road.  A quick stop at Covent Garden and the 5.19 train back to Hull. Exhausting but a fantastic day, enjoyed by the students and Miss Bell and Mrs Reading.

                

             

13/04/10

The Schools Starpack Annual Packaging Awards 2010.

The Starpack Awards scheme has been running since 1960. Starpack is the premier UK annual scheme recognising innovation in packaging design and technology with separate awards schemes for industry, students and schools.

The Brief required students to design and produce a new distinctive and fun chocolate pack to contain between 4 and 6 specialist chocolates - their choice of chocolates.

The pack was to be made from Carton Board and the pack must protect, preserve and promote the products. The pack had to hold the chocolates securely so that they did not get damaged either in transit or on the store shelf. The chocolates needed to get to the customer in good condition. Their designs could incorporate a new way to dispense or access the chocolates in either a functional or fun way. Their design needed to capture the imagination of the customer and make it an essential buy for that special occasion.

Students had to consider also a secondary function and use for their pack once the chocolates have been eaten that could give it additional value and usage.

Economic use of the material was essential for all designers and during their design process they had to look at the sustainability and recycling of the pack.

Students had to consider interesting shapes that could link to a theme or particular celebration and use suitable graphics to make thier final solution attractive as a gift with great shelf appeal.

The students could target their design to a particular age group or market and this had to be indicated in their support design work as well as on the pack.

 St Mary's students won a Bronze award and a Highly Commended Award.

Abigail Laws has won a Bronze award the judges comments were:

Good research and well laid out. Looked at a good variety of shapes/closures and styles which were handmade. Appropriate design development to final solution.

Poppy Collier won a Highly Commended. Judges comments were:

Good detailed research into the market and materials. Some exploration of design alternative for the one cube concept. Diet - 1 choc a day. Interesting idea/could have potential in market.

The Schools Awards ceremony will take place at 10.30am at The Boilerhouse Springfield Business Park, Caunt Road, Grantham On Thursday 13th May. All winners will be presented.   

        

Abigail's design           Poppy's design

13/04/10

Successful Ski Trip Returns

53 pupils and 6 staff returned on April 4th from a very successful ski trip to the Ziller valley in Austria. Organised by Mr Vickers, the trip  was a huge success. The weather was mostly very warm but two days of continuous snow led to brilliant skiing conditions. The hotel in Weising could not have been better with lovely rooms, excellent food and outstanding views all round. The slalom race on the penultimate day saw most of the pupils show off their new found skills. Melike Sahin (Y10) and James Mee (Y13) won the cups for fastest girl and boy. Being able to ski in a number of different resorts was a real bonus. Finkenberg and Kaltenbach both proved hugely popular.

                

06/04/10

Boccia Tournament

The SMC boccia team came runners up to Newland School in the tournament today, beating 5 teams on route. They were all fantastic and all excellent representatives of the school.  The students involved were:

   Josh Agius
   Mark Borrill
   Rebecca Smith
   Sophie Fenby
   TJ Morfitt
   Adam Coward

26/03/10

The Lenten Penitential Services 2010.

Most of the Penitential Services this Lent took place on the 22nd and 23rd March.  Fr Peter Corcoran, the Chaplain to the Sixth Form, led the services for Year 13 on the Monday and Year 12 on the Tuesday during the morning Assembly time. There was an excellent response from the Sixth Formers, who turned up in great numbers.  The service for Year 9 had to be cancelled due to an exam, but the services for Years 8 (on the Monday) and 7 (on the Tuesday) were held in the Main Hall during Period 4 in the afternoon.  The members of staff who were teaching this period brought the children to the Hall and stayed with them, so every member of each year was present. The Year 8 service was led by Fr Paul Dowling and the Year 7 service was led by Fr Gerard Burns.  The focus of the Year 8 service was the Parable of the Lost sheep and that of the Year 7 service was the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  After a moment of reflection, the children were led through an examination of conscience devised by Fr Peter.  Each service concluded with a Blessing, after which the children were given the opportunity to remain behind for individual Confessions.  There was a good response on both days and we are grateful to Fathers Norman Jacobson, Pat Day, Paul Dowling, John O’Gara and Gerard Burns for giving up their time to hear Confessions. 

The Lenten Services for Years 10 and 11 took place earlier in Lent during Assembly time.  Fr Norman led the Year 11 service and Fr Pat the Year 10.  Again, the students were given the opportunity to go to individual Confession.

We are blessed as a school to have so many Priests willing and eager to come in to school.  It is a vital part of our Chaplaincy and the school would be much the poorer without them.  We are also very grateful to all members of staff for their wholehearted support .

C. J. Cuthill
(St Mary’s College Chaplaincy)

26/03/10

Football Fantastic

The Year 7 boys football team powered to a 6-2 victory over Winifred Holtby School in the Hull Schools Cup Final on Wednesday (March 24th) held at the University. Down 1-0 early in the game the team responded magnificently with three goals before their opponents scored from a free kick just before half time to lead 3-2. In the second half it was all St Mary's with three further cracking goals. The goals were scored by Siben Sani, Jack Potter (2), Callum O'Donnell-Everett (2) and Mbongeleni Mpande. Cheered by a good number of parents, fellow pupils and teachers, the team, managed by Messrs McAllister and Clement were very worthy winners playing some very exciting football.

24/03/10

A Suffragette trial

On Tuesday 23rd March, there was  a History and Citizenship trip to the Guildhall for twenty five Year 8 students.  They spent the morning learning more about the Suffragettes and their campaign to win votes for women – a topic that Year 8 have all been studying in class.  The students then prepared roles for a re-enactment of a Suffragette trial in the old Crown court room at the Guildhall.  They got into costume and improvised their lines in response to the judge’s questions.  After the trial the students were given a tour of the Guildhall, including the cells beneath the court rooms and the Council debating chamber.  The students really enjoyed the experience which helped bring history alive and gave them an insight into local democracy and the court system.

         

 Mr Boden

24/03/10

Badminton Honour for St Mary's

Click on the link below to see the article that appeared in the Hull Daily Mail.

http://www.sporthull.co.uk/hotshots/racquetsports/Badminton-honour-St-Mary-s/article-1908692-detail/article.html

 

St Mary’s 6th Form Football

St Mary’s travelled to Wolfreton for a friendly game of football. Wolfreton were fresh from just being knocked out of the National Cup having reached the last sixteen.

St Mary’s started the stronger with the midfield of Rumble, Buttrick, Henderson and Berry all linking well but it was Wolfreton who were first on the score sheet. Wolfreton had ten minutes of pressure which resulted in St Mary’s conceding a corner and as a result of some poor marking allowed a free header which gave Whitley in goal no chance.

This spurred St Mary’s into action and when Fitzgerald put in a corner, it was the imposing figure of Ed Bulliment, who was on the other end to head the ball into the top corner like a bullet, drawing St Mary’s level. This clearly rocked Wolfreton as St Mary’s got more and more back into the game.

The next goal scored came from St Mary’s who showed what ‘route one’ Football was all about. Whitley got down well from a Wolfreton shot then delivered a long ball down the pitch which was flicked on well by Kent to his strike partner Fitzgerald who raced through to lob the approaching keeper.

Wolfreton tried to get back into the game but with a solid back four of Hawksworth, Ward and the Bulliment boys got little short change. On the few times they did break through they were met with the extraordinary figure of Whitley ‘the Cat’ in goal.

Again, resulting from soaking up some Wolfreton pressure, right winger Berry’s pass found the very dangerous Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald raced past two defenders to cross the ball to Kent, who showed great composure to calmly slot the ball into the back of the net. (3-1 H/T).

The second half saw Natividade replace the exhausted Berry on the wing, unfortunately Wolfreton came out all guns blazing and St Mary’s had to soak up plenty of pressure. This half saw the ever dangerous Henderson switch wings which created problems for Wolfreton who struggled with him in the first half. A result of some slack defending, saw Wolfreton gain a free kick just outside the area. Despite Whitley’s organisation of his wall, Wolfreton scored when the ball curled into the top corner as if Beckham himself took it, giving Whitley no chance.
The last fifteen minutes saw Wolfreton throw everything at St Mary’s but with Whitley ‘the Cat’ on fine form, the St Mary’s goal stayed strong. St Mary’s looked dangerous every time they counter attacked with Henderson, Fitzgerald, Kent, Ward and Natividade and it was Natividade who saw two shots go narrowly wide.
3-2 it finished, giving St Mary’s a deserved win.

St Mary’s Football Team:
K Whitley, E Bulliment, T Bulliment, M Ward, T Rumble, S Berry, J Buttrick, C Henderson, Hawksworth, K Fitzgerald, B Kent, M Rimmington, E Natividade, T Reading,  Z Oakshott. 

24/03/10

Visit from the DCSF

The College recently had a visit from the Lead Standards Adviser from the DCSF who was looking at Year 8 and their engagement as part of a national investigation. A copy of his letter can be found beneath. He was hugely impressed with what he saw, the pupils, parents and teachers he met with  and the evidence he was presented with. It is very reassuring to have such a hefty endorsement of the work we are doing.

Click here to see the letter.

24/03/10

BTEC SPORT STUDENTS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE BASKETBALL LEADERS AWARD

All BTEC Sport students in the Sixth Form have now passed the Basketball Leaders Award. This course is designed to provide the leaders with the relevant knowledge required to encourage and enthuse beginners to play the sport. All students are now able to do the following:

• Organise safe and purposeful basketball activities.
• Progress individual skills to enable modified or adapted games to be played.
• Officiate with confidence, imposing simple rules to enable games to function safely and fairly.

Well Done to the 24 students involved.

24/03/10

Under 16 girls Football Team

The under 16 girls football team are in the Hull Schools Cup Final on Thursday night (March 25th) at 4pm at the university, and so are the under 13 girls football team after winning their semi final against Endeavour 5-0 .

24/03/10

Netball 

Year 9 won the Hull School's League and came runner's up in the Hull Tournament by goal difference but they did really well.
 
Year 7 were runners up in the Hull League and in the Hull Tournament losing only to Malet Lambert. Many of our girls were spotted by coaches from outside clubs as being talented and have been invited to trial for Humberside.
 
The Under 16's team won the Hull League and the Hull School's tournament this year. They also got through to the regional round in January, this is the furthest St Mary's have reached in netball. As a reward the girls are travelling to Sheffield Institute of Sport this Thrusday 25th to watch a live Superleague Netball match.
 
24/03/10

Solutions for the planet.

Four teams of four from St.Mary’s collage embarked on a great adventure to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds on the 5th March.

Two teams from year 10, one team from year 9 and the last team from year 8.
Team 1 was made up of four year 8’s. Raphael Floresca; Luke Bainbridge; Oliver Roe and Liam Burnett.

Team 2 was made up of four year 9’s. Hariet Brown, Gregory Megson, Emily Batty and Jacob Kay.

Team 3 was made up of four year 10’s. Connor Bowler, Richard Sargeant, Ashley Miller and Ben Sinclair.

Team 4 was made up of four year 10’s. Richard Gibb Jodie Gardiner, Christopher Myers and Meagan Taylor.

The whole idea of the day was to try and come up with a solution that could help the planet, be it in helping 3rd world countries or helping soak up fat from our frying pans.

The teams got down to business and started to jot down their big ideas.

The teams had to assign roles to each member. They needed to be a managing director, marketing director, a research director and finance director. 
It was the research director’s job to go to the many stalls that were to one side in the room and gain information for a product or to gain a spark to ignite the though processes in the rest of the group.  The managing director had to make sure everything was running efficiently and to full potential in the group.

The marketing director had to make a logo and a catchy slogan for the group’s product and research places they could sell things (if items were to be sold).

The finance director had to deal with all the money involved, this could be start up costs, cost of production of products or any other costs involved.

There was a surprise visit of 2 members of the Kaiser Chiefs.

Kaiser Chiefs

The surprise guests were two members from the Kaiser Chiefs, Nick Hodgson (drummer) and Nick ‘Peanut’ Baines (Keyboardist). The Kaiser Chiefs went around the hall trying to talk to as many groups as possible.

We were lucky enough for Nick Hodgson to stop and talk to one of the year 10 teams (team 3). Also Nick Baines stopped at the other year 10 team (team 4).
We discussed our big ideas with them and they gave their thoughts on our idea. While we were talking to them we were being filmed.                       

The Winners of 2008

The winners of 2008 were four 14 year old girls from St Joseph's Catholic College, Isabella Ricordo, Katie Dearden, Kimi Omolokun and Megan Crowley. Their big idea was to make a birth package for those in third world countries. The money raised form people buying the package would go to raining birth attendants, equipment and medicine.  It gives mothers a higher chance of survival.

CAFOD signed up with the team to sell their virtual mother and baby’s packages in their latest catalogue. They have raised £50,000 in 2009 and are still raising money.  They were invited to 10 Downing Street to be congratulated for their great idea by the Prime Ministers wife, Sara Brown.   They went to Nigeria in September 2009 to see for themselves how they were helping those by their Mums and baby’s pack.

Richard Gibb & Jodie Gardiner
24/03/10

St Mary’s 6th Form Basketball                                          

Title Favourites Hull College were St Mary’s next League opponents. St Mary’s were without the still injured Lister, Broadhead, Igocha and Lorenz but making his long awaited debut was veteran Ellis Todd. 

Hull College raced into an early lead in the first quarter although points from Delos Reyes, Barret and Tapiz meant St Mary’s were still in the game. First quarter ended 20-10.

The second quarter saw Hull College dominate, further extending their lead. The experience of Barrett and Tapiz gave St Mary’s have a glimmer of hope by scoring 8 points between them. The second quarter finished 33-18.

St Mary’s took the fight to Hull College in this quarter by producing some of the best Basket Ball played. Vonn Tapiz and Montvydas scored 15 between them to actually win this individual quarter unfortunately it was Hull College who finished the third quarter on top by 44-33.

The final quarter saw St Mary’s, at one point come to within 8 points of Hull College. It was Hull College who finished the stronger despite St Mary’s throwing everything at them, 55-43 it finished.

That’s two games in a row that St Mary’s have lost but with the return of key missing players as well as the addition of the veteran Todd coming out of retirement and getting back in shape, things are looking up for the game against Bishop Burton.

Next game:         Bishop Burton  v  St Mary’s (14th April)

St Mary’s Basketball Team:
Vonn Jovi  Tapiz, Danny Townsend, Mantas Montvydas, Danny Barrett, Chris Henderson, Ronaldo Delos Reyes, Ellis Todd

18/03/10

Another Huge Success

The Performing Arts faculty's annual musical production Mack and Mabel opened last night. The opening overture was played by an orchestra of 28 musicians whose playing was faultless. While it is certainly one of the lesser known musicals, the opening bars of many of its songs strike familiar chords. The cast numbered over 80 and they performed brilliantly. Reuben Driver played Mack Sennet with real authority while Mabel Normand was played by Katie Turner whose singing was sensational. This was no school show but a real classy production due in no small part to director Neil Wood whose eye for detail is superb. If you do one thing this week get a ticket before it closes on Saturday.

       

18/03/10

Year 7 boys reach the Final

The Year 7 boys reached the Hull Schools U12 Rugby League final to be held at the KC Stadium on April 20th in very convincing style. Playing matches at the Haworth Park rally the boys played four and won four conceding only one try in the process.

Results:

SMC                     10  -  0   South Holderness

SMC                     26  -  0   Archbishop Sentamu

SMC                     16  -  4   Hessle High

SMC                     20  -  0   Wolfreton

17/03/10

Pope Idol Six: Saturday, 13th March, 2010

On Saturday, 13th March the sixth annual Pope Idol took place in the Middlesbrough Theatre.  This is a talent show for young people in the Parishes and the Catholic Secondary Schools  of the Diocese of Middlesbrough.  There were sixteen participants.  The two representing St Mary’s were Lawrance Sibanda in Year 10 and William Winsor in Year 8.  They had been selected after being successful in the College Talent Show held on the 8th December, St Mary’s College Feast Day.

The theatre was packed and the atmosphere electric as the curtain rose.  The presenter was Canon Alan Sheridan from St George’s Parish in York.  The three judges were David Barwick, the Diocesan Youth Worker, Fr Stephen Maughan, the Diocesan Director of School Chaplaincy and Diane Youdale, a television presenter, better known to many as ‘Jet’ of the television show ‘The Gladiators’.

Lawrance was on third and he did a brilliant performance of the rap he had written and arranged himself entitled “Watching Me”.  The reaction of the audience at the end was rapturous and he rapped beautifully and clearly.  He was the only rapper on the show and so it was a refreshing change to see him perform and everyone really warmed to him.

William was on sixth and he sang “Something inside so strong”.  He explained that this song meant so much to him, because it had helped him survive some serious bullying when he was younger.  He sang beautifully, with great power and emotion.  The reaction of the audience was incredible.  His voice was so strong and deep and he put such feeling in to every word and note.  The judge, DianeYoudale, could hardly speak at the end, she was so moved by the way William had sung.
The whole evening was marvellous with some wonderful performances, showing the amazing array and quality of talent that exists in our diocese.  There was a comedian, a magician, street dancing and gymnastics in addition to the singers.  In the end, the winner was Bexy Burton from York who sang “On my Own” from Les Miserables.  William was placed third.

Both Lawrance and William were wonderful ambassadors for the College and performed brilliantly.  The judges encouraged them to keep on developing the talents they have and said that there is no knowing what they will achieve in the future.

16/03/10

Fairtrade ‘Make the Swap’ Day

On the final Friday of Fairtrade Fortnight, the Year 9 Fairtrade Group organised a ‘Make the Swap’ event in the Storey Centre.  The aim was to offer people a chance to see and taste the different varieties of Fairtrade goods and then promise to swap to a fairtrade product instead of their usual choice.  The One World Shop in Hull and the Oxfam Shop in Newland Avenue had been contacted and they provided us with a great range of teas, coffees, chocolate and cereal bars. 

The Group set everything out in the Sixth Form Common Room in the Storey Centre (named in memory of Father Anthony Storey, a local priest and former Chaplain to Hull University and St Mary’s College.  He was one of the earliest supporters of Fairtrade and a great fighter for justice and peace in the world.  He would have been delighted to see so much fairtrade in ‘his’ area!).   Members of the Fairtrade Group took it in turns to look after the stall for an hour each throughout the morning and everyone helped during morning break and lunch time. Members of the Sixth Form  and members of staff were very generous and, at break time, students from the rest of the school came along as well.  In addition to tasting a wide range of produce, many actually bought items and made a promise to buy fairtrade goods in the future.  Many said that they would change to fairtrade coffee and tea.  Many did not realise just how many varieties of tea and coffee Fairtrade did.  The same was true of the chocolate, which simply flew off the counter.  We sent details of the number of swaps made to Fairtrade on their website.

In all, we sold £280 worth of Fairtrade Goods in the morning and got lots of pledges to swap. It was a wonderful event which highlighted the vast range of goods that Fairtrade produces nowadays and gave lots of people the chance to try them out, many for the first time.

The Year 9 Fairtrade Group:
Josie Driver, Beatrice Lee, Laura Adamson, Leanne Berry, Martha Benfield, Olivia Griffiths, Ruby Armitage, Vicky Campbell, Wendy Thompson, Beth Sciberras, Alisha Robinson, Alice Edmundson, Cristina Doherty.

16/03/10

Year 7 Football

The year 7 football team have had an amazing week of football!

Monday 8th March - Endeavour (away) - Won 12-1

Wednesday 10th March - Henry Cooper (away) - Won 12-1

All the boys involved have been a credit to the school, we are now through to the West Hull final.

Y10 also beat Trinity House 7-0 with goals from Richard Gibb (2), Jordan Stephenson (3) and Ashley Millar (2).

12/03/10

Penitential Services

During the last week of term, we are holding  penitential services in the Main Hall for Years 7, 8, and 9 during lesson time as follows:
 
Monday  22nd March,
Period 4 (1. 30 - 2.30): Year 8. Fr Paul Dowling
Tuesday 23rd March,
Period 3 (11.30 - 12.30): Year 9  Fr John O'Gara SM. Period 4 (1.30 - 2.30): Year 7 Fr Gerard Burns SM.
 
The Chaplains for each year are coming in to conduct the services.  I apologise for the disruption this will cause to the subjects involved, but it is important that we mark the approach of Holy Week(which is in the first week of the holidays) and Easter Sunday itself in a special way.  The services will last about 20 minutes and there will be time after the service for anyone who so wishes to go to Confession.  I expect that most will return to lessons after the service, but there will be a fair number who will go to Confession before returning to their lesson.   We are hoping to do something for Years 10 and 11 at another time, so as not to disrupt their lessons and exams. Fr Peter Corcoran SM is arranging services for Years 12 and 13.
 
12/03/10

Maths Inspiration

On the 11th of March 2010, 11 students from Year 11 went to the ‘Playhouse’ in Leeds for a ‘Maths Inspiration’ convention with some of most respected mathematicians in the country.

We started the day at 8.00 where we set off from St Marys under the impression that we about to be lectured about tedious, uninteresting things. However, it turned out to be enthralling and thought-provoking. Instead of the dreary lectures, the professors showed us the fun side of mathematics.

Our first lecture was about infinity and its possibilities. Although it was a difficult concept to grasp, Katie Chicot managed to compress the topic at hand into an insightful 30 minute talk. The second lecture was by Hugh Hunt from the University of Cambridge. This lecture was more interactive and engaging as he conducted interesting experiments on the matter of’ Conservation of Angle affect’.

After a ten minute break, the esteemed mathematician Colin Wright appeared on the stage to talk to us about the theory and practise on the art of juggling. We thought that the lecture was entertaining, and it certainly proved to us that mathematician’s can have a sense of humour! Disguised as an entertaining description of juggling , the presentation is really about science and mathematics, how they work, what they mean, and why they're important.  Although the lecture was entertaining, Colin certainly made an impression on us with his infinite amount of knowledge extending from how you can mathematically make juggling tricks to the maths of a bubble bath!

The trip certainly opened our minds of the possibility of maths as a career, and we would love to go on such a trip again.

By Felicity Green and Rachael Windass  - Year 11

12/03/10

SSAT celebrates high attainment in schools

St Mary’s  has been recognised for its high attainment in the 2009 GCSE exams at an awards ceremony held in London by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust for those schools which reached the criteria..

The College achieved all of the following criteria:

·        60% or more 5+A*-C results including English and mathematics

·        53.7% (national average) or more 2+A*-C results in science subjects

·        31.6% (national average) or more 1+A*-C results in modern foreign  languages.

Elizabeth Reid, Chief Executive of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said:

‘Congratulations to all the specialist schools and academies that have met the criteria for our high attaining awards. These schools are enabling more young people to reach their full potential and succeed in the 21st century.  It is important we celebrate these achievements as they are the product of hard work and dedication by school leaders, teachers and students. By sharing best practice and partnering with other schools through the SSAT’s networks, they are also helping to deliver improvements across the whole school system.’

The ceremony and dinner was held at Kings Place, London on Tuesday 9 March.

11/03/10

Maths Team Challenge Day 10th March 2010

Kieran, Magda, Will and I attended a Maths Challenge Day, held at Newland School for girls. We set off at 9:30, and later arrived at the venue. We got to the school and were provided with lovely refreshments such as squash and biscuits. We had a few minutes to get to know the members of our group, and then we had a go at a few fun practice questions with, our mentor Mr Loftus. Mr Loftus carefully explained the schedule for the day, and filled us in with a few mathematical techniques, to help us throughout the day.

After our 20 minutes spare time, we swapped mentors, to prevent cheating. We were teamed with another teacher, who carefully explained the rules. The games began and we worked hard as a team to gain points. The first round was when we worked through a series of ten questions; each question had potential to help us in later life. It was really fun getting to meet new people, from our own school, and successfully work as a team with them. We all subconsciously assigned roles, then split the question papers, so we could work individually, saving time. The next few rounds were really fun, and we all helped each other by using each other’s mathematical strengths to guide us through the questions.

We then had a lunch break, where we all sat down at the school’s cafeteria ‘ Café-licious’, we ate our packed lunches and chatted to our teachers about the work we had done and what we thought of the day. After lunch we all went back to the hall and continued the competition. This round was to work in pairs, each pair was given 2 questions, but to find the answer, you had to work as a team. After this round, we completed the final round, the relay race. This was great fun. Again, we was split into pairs and this time we had to complete slightly easier questions, run to our new mentor, and get the answer checks, if the answer was correct, we ran to the other group with their new question, if not, we were given one more chance to complete the question correctly.

Overall I think the day was a great success. Not only did it help build our mathematical skills, by allowing us to kinaesthetically answer problematic questions, it helped us with our team work skills, by allowing us to meet new people, and successfully work as a team with them, by assigning different roles dependant on each of our qualities. It also be said that it implicitly helped us with our confidence skills, by helping us getting to know our teachers better, therefore we could feel more comfortable around them, and also the group work helped us gain confidence. It was a wonderful day.

By Georgia Wilson, 9YC

11/03/10

Year 8 Interfaith Trip

On Thursday 4th March and Friday 5th March  Year 8  took part in an Interfaith trip. They experienced a Jewish exhibition at Holy Trinity Church where they were given lectures by members of the Jewish community and allowed to handle various Jewish artefacts.  As well as this the students were permitted to explore Holy Trinity Church. Secondly, the pupils visited St Charles Borromeo Church and again were given a talk by Cannon Michael O’Loughlin and Father Paul Dowling and allowed to explore and experience the features of a Catholic Church.

The students’ behaviour was a credit to themselves and St Mary’s College and the whole experience served to enrich their understanding of the different faiths in Britain.

           

09/03/10

Netball News

Year 7 Netball

Year 7 A team came 2nd in the Hull league by one point after loosing only two games from 16.
 
Year 7 B team won matches against Newland, Kingswood, Kelvin and Sirius.
 
The Year 7 Tournament will be held on the 16th March at Malet Lambert. All support is welcome.

Year 9 Netball

Hull U14 league winners.
 
Team consisted of :-
Alice Edmondson, Martha Hollingsworth, Eliza Hudgill, Aimee Foster, Louise Alburo, Charlotte Terry, Marianne Bonnet, Nicola Burn, Brittney Cavill.
 
The girls played exceptionally well in all games showing determination in their final game against Malet Lambert who were lying a close second. The score ended 3-0 to St Mary's ensuring we gained the league winner's title.

09/03/10

Tesco School Vouchers Wanted

The College is collecting Tesco school vouchers and would gratefully receive any that parents can send in. Last year we were able to get several hundred table tennis balls and 8 digital cameras which are all in constant use. This year we are looking to get cameras for the School Council. Any vouchers can be handed in at Reception.

06/03/10

Scoring freely

The Year 10 football team had an easy victory over Trinity House in the Hull Schools Cup competition on Thursday March 4th when they won 7-0. They are hoping to win through to the final to be held at the KC Stadium.

05/03/10

Chess Challenge First Stage Results

40 Students from SMC took part in a 7 Round Chess Challenge.

The following 16 students have achieved 15 points and therefore have qualified for the second stage against other schools "in the north", which takes part on a Sunday at the beginning of May.

Congratulations to:

Matthew Stubbings	10YP	14	21
Yashodh Karananayake	7YC	11	19
Joseph Thompson	7XF	11	17
Mariusz Gorski	8YC	12	17
Thomas Hedley	9XR	13	17
Matthew Brown	9XP	13	17
Robert Leathley	7YC	11	16
Connor Walford	7XP	11	16
Stevie Carpenter-Robinson	7XR	11	16
Jack Walker	8YR	12	16
Piotrek Kossakowski	9YR	13	16
Szymon Kapica	7XC	11	15
Dylan Showler	7XP	11	15
Harry Spencer	8YC	12	15
Callum Lawson	8YC	12	15
Adam Falk	10XP	14	15

05/03/10

Finding a Solution for the Planet

Sixteen pupils from Years 8, 9 and 10 will be going to the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Friday (March 5th) to take part in a Young People's conference in which they will be seeking to come up with "A Solution for the Planet". This fantastic opportunity has been arranged by Mrs Nuttall from the BITE faculty and, should they be successful, would lead to a presentation of their ideas at Westminster. We wish them well.

03/03/10

England calling !

Matthew Marsh (Year 10), the captain of the Year 10 rugby league team, has been invited to attend England trials at the end of March. Matthew, who has a scolarship with Hull Kingston Rovers, has been a very consistent player over the last two seasons and this is a tremendous opportunity for him which we hope he will do very well in.

02/03/10

Yorkshire Cup Final

The Year 10 rugby team found Castleford High School one bridge too far and came off second best in the final of the Yorkshire Cup played at the Huntington Stadium in York. It was a good tough contest but Castleford just had too many stand out players and quickly went 18 points up. St Mary's struck back and scored an excellent try through Aaron Overfield which Josh Guzdek converted but that was as far as they got. However it should be remembered that the boys had defeated four schools from all over Yorkshire to get there.

02/03/10

National Cup News

The Year 10 rugby team has been drawn at home against St Edmund Arrowsmith's school from Wigan in the first round. This competition is for the top 16 teams in the country. The match is on for Wednesday March 10th kicking off at 1.30 p.m.

28/02/10

St Mary's 6th Form Basketball

St Mary’s first friendly game before the start of the league was against the very impressive Wyke Basketball side. This Wyke team was the same team that had competed in the National Finals playing against a St Mary’s side who had never trained before this game. St Mary’s played admirably and only just got beat 32-25.
The first game of the inaugural Humber Ball League was against Wilberforce College. After going down 4-0 in the first few minutes, St Mary’s started showing real class and fought back to lead at the first break 12-10. The second quarter saw Wilberforce edge back into the game due to some needless fouls being committed by St Mary’s but it was still St Mary’s who lead after the second break 28-18.
It was during the third quarter that saw St Mary’s pull away from their opposition with some excellent all round passing and team work that Wilberforce struggled to cope with, 52-26. Despite trying valiantly to get something out of the game in the fourth and final quarter, Wilberforce could not keep up with St Mary’s team. St Mary’s ran out winners with an impressive 70-34 score line.  This game, unlike their first friendly when all 25 points were scored by Vonn Jovi Tapiz, every one in the team managed to get on the score sheet.

Next game:           Wyke  v  St Mary's (24th February)

St Mary's Basketball Team:
Vonn Jovi  Tapiz, Alex Lister, Danny Townsend, Mantas Montvydas, Danny Barrett, Benn Broadhead, Chris Henderson, Lorenz Ramos, David Igocha,  Ronaldo Delos Reyes.

26/02/10

Hull Schools Football results

The results and league positions for the Hull Schools football matches played so far this season can be found by clicking on the link below.

Click here for the results.

25/02/10

Yorkshire Cup Final  Y10 Boys      Tuesday March 2nd

The final of the U15 boys Yorkshire Cup final will be held in York on Tuesday March 2nd kicking off at 6 p.m. The match will be at the Huntington Stadium with admission being £2 for adults.

Having fallen at the semi final stage last year, the Year 10 boys rugby league team defeated Honley School from Holmfirth 32-26 to reach the Yorkshire Cup final giving a great performance in the process. Despite a nervy start which saw them go 0-8 down , the boys regathered their forces to first level the scores and then surge ahead. A fine hat trick by Aaron Overfield, which included a wonderful interception on his own line and 90 metre run to score under the opposition sticks, laid the foundation and was supported by tries from Sonny Gough, Josh Guzdek and Matty Marsh. Josh Guzdek converted four of the tries. It is hard to single out individuals because it was a great team performance but Tom Sullivan, Joe Watson and Richard Gibbs put in wonderful efforts. The lads will now play Castleford High School in the final within the next month. The win also ensured a home tie in the first round of the National Cup - a competition for the best 16 teams in the country.

Year 9 News

Congratulations to  Kayleigh Fox of 9YC winner of a Hull dance competition.  She gained first place in the disco section.  She is also going to be in a film called Street Dance which is released in May.

Georgia Brown (11YF)  has been chosen for the East Yorkshire Cricket Squad for the third consecutive season and has been selected for Yorkshire Pathways that will hopefully lead to Yorkshire trials later this year.

11/02/10

York University Trip

A group of 10 Higher Science students along with 3 other schools went to the University of York on Wednesday 27th of January for a look into space research. There were a variety of activities from making a spectrometer (St. Mary's were the first to finish), lectures on dark matter, black holes and general astrophysics, controlling martian rovers, a star dome and a tour of campus. Here are some comments by the students

Frazer Flanagan
“It was a fun day off timetable. There were many different activities followed by a lecture from Marek Kukkula, a guy who worked with the Hubble Telescope. It was fun and the pictures were intricate and fascinating. We learnt stories about stars, their constellations and the myths that surrounded them. We also built a spectrometer which, when you looked at a light through it, you could see the spectrum of colours then we looked at different chemical lights and noticed changes & gaps in the spectrum. We watched a brilliant 3D show that took us on a journey through the universe. It was brilliant. Overall the day was good and interesting.”

Kieran Lynch
“The trip was very enjoyable and fun. We learned lots of facts and information that were useful to all areas of our academic careers. The lectures and seminars were not dry (like you would expect!!) but were prepared by University 3rd year students. It was relaxing and informative. It was a pleasure to meet Dr Marek Kukkula. I thoroughly enjoyed the activities – Star Dome, making the spectrometer, 3D shows and seminars! I would recommend it to anyone!”

Esther Buttifant
“It was fantastic! I’ve never found space so incredibly interesting! A once-in-a-lifetime experience. The star dome blew my mind as we whirled through space, venturing through the stars. The best day of my life!”

Claire Horrigan
“The trip was very informative and not patronising at all. It was really interesting to see parts of the universe I had never known about before and to see real photographs of planets in our solar system. There was plenty to do and many different activities to be part of. I think St. Mary's should make it an annual trip for year 10s.”

Abbie Evans
“I enjoyed the visit to York University very much – it is such a beautiful campus and , from what I’ve seen, the physics department is very good. I really enjoyed the final lecture on space – the images of distant stars and galaxies seemed so unreal. The visit encouraged me to apply myself more to physics lessons and encourage me to look into taking it to A-Level or even further.”

Aoife O’Reilly
“I thoroughly enjoyed the astronomy trip in York as it was very insightful. My favourite part of the trip was the 3D space show. The lectures were very interesting. I really enjoyed making the spectroscope and was very happy that it worked. My favourite lecture was by Dr Marek Kukkula. He made space even more interesting. After the trip I looked up more about space so that I could learn more. I would recommend the trip to anyone that finds space interesting.”

Chrissie
“The trip was really interesting. We learnt about dark matter and star constellations.   I now know how to find the plough and the North Star. The most interesting part was the star dome. It was a very interesting day.”

Reece Young
“The trip was great. I really enjoyed it. It gave me an idea of how things happen at a university. The most fun part was learning about and making a spectrometer. The most interesting part was learning about the planets and the lecture at the end by Dr Marek Kukkula was great because it gave me an insight into what things astronomers study and how they study them.”

11/02/10

Gifted and Talented News

Forthcoming event - trip to Helpston, Peterborough to visit John Clare's cottage (Victorian poet) with year 12 Literature students Friday 26th February.

Year 10 Theatre trip to see  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' after half term -  Friday 5th March.  There will be a couple of Oxford University residentials  in April for years 10 and 12.

Learning Performance are coming to work with our gifted year 11s on revision skills and techniques at The Endsleigh Centre on the 11th March.

 11/02/10

Year 12 Health & Social Care Students

The Year 12 Health and Social Care students visited the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds on Friday 22nd January.  The students stepped back in time to see what life was like in Victorian times and found out how scientific discoveries have helped us to understand disease and revolutionise medicine.  It was interesting to learn how people coped before anaesthetics and proper surgical instruments. Ouch!

On Wednesday 3rd February the Year 12 Childcare students completed their 1 Day Emergency First Aid at Work course.  Well done girls!

Katrina Bateman
Beth Clark
Helen Griffin
Samantha Jobling
Kathrynn Pimentel
Mary Liwena

Well done to Sixth Form mentors Teresa and Claire for also passing the course. 

09/02/10

More Sporting Success

Seven pupils took part in the first Regional Boccia championships in January at the Ennerdale Leisure Centre. The team, coached by Mrs Hookem, came 4th out of the 15 teams taking part. For those who don't know, Boccia is a sport which started in the 1980's for those suffering from severe cerebral palsy but has since developed to encompass a wide section of people with some disability. The students who took part were Chelsea Sparke, Matthew D'Arcy, Charlotte Green, Joseph Coward, Joseph Kirk, George Dixon and Andrew Smith. Well done to all of the pupils for doing so well.

 

U16 Girls Netball Squad

The girls came 6th in the Regional round of the National schools Netball Finals at Wickersley Sports College on Saturday 30th January. The top 8 teams from the Yorkshire region played for a top two place in the national schools finals. St Mary's  had victory in two of the seven games and were unlucky to be defeated in a number of others.

Lauren Todd (captain)
Jodie Rudd (vice Captain)
Rachel Dixon
Laura Ombler
Kady Leigh Railton
Georgia Brown
Steph Parker
Amy McLeod
Emma Cook
Courtney Wood
Grace Brewster

          

 03/02/10

England Under 13's National Ice Hockey Team

Shannon Jones of 8YR has secured a place in the England Under 13’s National Ice Hockey Team following successful trials throughout summer.  From the one hundred hockey players who took part in the trials, only two girls made the final forty and Shannon is the only girl to have made the final selection.
Shannon will shortly be travelling to Quebec to take part in The Quebec International Pee-wee Hockey Tournament which is the most important minor hockey tournament in the world for young hockey players.
Shannon trains tirelessly to improve her performance whilst ensuring her attendance, effort  and behaviour remain at a good level.  She has worked exceptionally hard to secure her place in the England squad and this is an extraordinary achievement. 

We wish Shannon every success in Quebec and are looking forward to hearing all about the Tournament upon her return.  Good luck Shannon!

02/02/10

Science LIVE!

On the 21st January thirty of our gifted and talented year 11 students headed to Sheffield for a Science Live event.

There were several fascinating talks held over the course of the day, all from eminent speakers, including Lord Robert Winston. The talks covered a wide range of scientific subjects – from how to build a miniature star, to why Siamese cats have dark noses. We were also treated to top exam hints from a senior examiner, who recounted some of the more strange answers he has seen on test papers and reminded students to always turn over the last page!

02/02/10

South Africa Trip Radio Interviews

Our four sixth formers who went to Cape Town in November were recently interviewed on local radion station WHCR. The interviews can be listened to here as they are a really interesting account from the students themselves of the trip and all that went before and after. Click on the following links to hear the audio:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

More Sporting Honours

Congratulations to Laura Ombler, Lauren Todd and Rachel Dixon who have all been selected to represent Humberside in the Nationals Netball Competition.

We Will Rock You

Wednesday 27th January 2010 saw 39 of our Year 10 students visit the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End.

The trip was part of the BTEC Performing Arts course and demonstrated to the students at close range (front row no less) just what it takes to be a Musical Theatre performer.

The year 10s are now going to emulate these West End stars as they rehearse their Musical “Grease”.

You will be able to see the results of their hard work on July 7th 2010 !

A night not to be missed.

    

29/01/10

Una oportunidad maravillosa

The MFL department are arranging the Spanish Exchange for March 10th to the 16th. Any pupils in Years 9, 11 and 13 who want to go should see Mrs Scott for details.

Coming soon

It’s a wonderfully busy time in the Performing Arts faculty at the moment, so we thought we’d take a few minutes out of rehearsal and let you know what’s coming to the stage soon.

16th-20th March.............Mack and Mabel

75 students Tap dancing and hurling custard Pies in Jerry Herman’s Classic musical set in the era of the Keystone Kops!
It is a show that promises to make every one forget their worries and leave the theatre dancing.

Tickets will be on sale soon so watch this space book early to avoid disappointment.

TBC 14th April Showcase evening for Year 13 Performance Studies.

Main Hall.  Free entry.
Songs, dances and scenes from the American Musical theatre, as well as two original pieces of Musical theatre written by the students.

22nd April Street Life Museum Hull Year 12 Community Theatre presentation.
Free Entry

As part of their Performance Studies course the year 12 students must devise 3 hard hitting musical theatre community based shows.
Come and watch these fantastic performers in a wonderful local venue.

27th April Rock Challenge

Calling all backstage crew come and find Mr Wood for details of how you can take part back stage in this fantastic event.

Neil Wood
27/01/10

Semi-final News

The Year 10 Rugby League team will play their Yorkshire Cup semi-final against Honley School (Kirklees) next Tuesday, February 2nd at the Castleford Panthers ARL ground in Castleford. The time of kick off will be 1.45 p.m. Supporters welcome !

Saturday Sport

The year 7 rugby league team won a good match against East Riding opponents, Wolfreton on Saturday morning. Despite all of the rain the previous day, the pitch was in excellent condition and allowed the good ball players in the St Mary's team to wreak havoc. Marshalled really well by Jack Wray at stand off they scored three early tries and by half time were 22-6 ahead. Well supported by a large crowd they played entertaining rugby. Wolfreton came back strongly in the second half and pulled two tries back but St Mary's came back strongly and wrapped things up with a good try by Connor Cockburn in the last minute of the match.

23/01/10

Saturday Polish School

Click here for details.

Polish School Grandparents Day Celebrations.

'Talking Newspaper'

In addition to helping at the Housebound day, members of the Junior SVP record  send out a ‘Talking Newspaper’ to over eighty visually handicapped people throughout the UK.   It takes a considerable amount of time and teamwork to produce the Newspaper.  First of all, the articles are selected from current editions of the Catholic Newspapers,  then a group of readers record them onto the CD.  The photo shows Marcus, Sophie, Andrew, Laura and Amber (all in Year 9) preparing the articles.  You can also see Kieran (Year 10) doing a recording in the recording studio.  Laura and Gemma, two Year 12 students, do the actual recording, editing and printing with the help of members of staff in the Music Department.

Finally, the CDs have to be put in envelopes and labelled.  This is a job for Year 7 students , this time Connor, Saskia, David and Megan,  then they are taken to the Post Office.  The postage is free as long as the CDs can be clearly seen.  They are sent all over the country and at no cost to the people who receive them.

                

Model Castle Exhibition

On 11th January 2010 the History department held an exhibition of model castles made by the Year 7 students.  The students have been learning about the different defensive features that castles had in the Middle Ages and the various methods that were sometimes used to attack them.  For homework, the students were asked to design their own castle (either a drawing or a model) which they thought would be able to withstand all medieval forms of attack.  Over 70 students in the year chose to make model castles and the overall standard of quality was very high.  The exhibition was open to other students and teachers to look round and see the ingenuity and creativity that had gone into the castle designs.  All entrants received a special certificate and some students were selected for prizes.  The three first prize winners (pictured here) were Emily Turner, Catherine Kilkenny and Edward Hulme.  A powerpoint display of all the castles in the exhibition will be on the plasma screen on parent-tutor day on Feb 5th.

          

Mr Boden
21/01/10

St Mary's achieves Fairtrade Status

In September,  after four years of hard work, we finally achieved Fairtrade status as a school.  This was largely due to the efforts of the Fairtrade Group that was formed in 2006, inspired by what they had learned during their Year 8 Residential Retreat at the Briars.  The  group ensured that all the criteria were met in order to gain Fairtrade status and they raised thousands of pounds through selling Fairtrade goods and promoting Fairtrade throughout the school.  They spent the profit on buying Oxfam Unwrapped gifts.

This  group are now in Year 12 and they have passed the baton to a new group of Year 9 students. They are full of enthusiasm for Fairtrade and the principles behind it.  Every week they order Fairtrade produce from a local Oxfam shop and set up a stall in one of the classrooms each Wednesday  lunchtime.  They take their responsibility seriously to promote Fairtrade and recently went in to one of our feeder primary schools to tell them all about it.  Whatever profit they make is used to support the work of a charity of their choice. 

                   

21/01/10

St Charles’ Drop in Centre for the Homeless.

Every Tuesday, two or three students from Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the school help at the St Charles’ Drop in Centre for the Homeless in the Centre of Hull.  The Centre is open between 10am and 12pm.  The students arrive at about 9.40am and help prepare the Centre.  They prepare mountains of bread and butter and set out the chairs and tables for the homeless clients.  Anywhere between ten and fifty people turn up (sixty-three turned up for the Christmas party).  Those who have slept in the open are easily recognisable, because they are often wet and bitterly cold and longing for a cup of tea, or coffee.  Other homeless people who use the centre are those who live in hostels.  They have to leave the hostel in the morning and stay out all day.  Other people are those who have no home of their own and sleep in friends’ houses.  Some people have their own rooms and are getting their lives back together and come to the Centre for company as well as food.
The Centre provides gallons of soup. tea and coffee for all, as well as lashings of bread and butter, toast and butter, beans on toast, biscuits, fruit and whatever else is donated.  It also provides clothing, but this, too, depends on what is donated. 
The students join in all the work., serving the soup and drinks, making the toast and doing lots of washing up.  When the rush at the counter has diminished, they help sort out the bags of clothing and respond to the requests of the clients for socks, t-shirts, jumpers, jeans and shoes in particular.  The clients are generally very appreciative of what they do and it is a real eye opener for the students as to how cruel and hard life can be. 

                                     

          

21/01/10

Science Revision Classes

Science Revision Classes  for Year 10 commence Tuesday 26 January and run until the exams which are on Wednesday 3 March 2010.  They will be between 3:45 and 4:45.

Tuesday in F6 - Biology

Wednesday in C8 - Physics

Thursday in C9 - Chemistry 

For further details please contact Mr Matthews

In addition Year 9 booster classes start on January 26th and run for 11 weeks until April 27th. These take place on Tuesdays with the Level 5 Booster class in C4 and the Level 7 class in F5.

21/01/10

Year 10 Boys storm through to National Cup

The Year 10 rugby team reached the semi-finals of the Yorkshire Cup for the second year running with a hard fought 22-12  win over Buttershaw School from Bradford. An early try from Andy Eastburn, converted by Josh Guzdek, gave SMC the lead and after twenty minutes a try by Tom Watson doubled the lead. However Buttershaw capitalised on errors from the SMC team to reduce the arrears. In the second half further tries by Gabriel Gatu and James Taylor opened up a convincing lead and though Buttershaw fought hard and scored a further try, the Y10 boys had weathered the storm despite the absence of three key players.

In reaching the semi final the boys have also qualified for the National Cup - a competition for the best 16 teams in the country.

20/01/10

More Sporting Glory

Seven of the boys from the College won throught to the  National Schools Trampolining Championships at the weekend (January 16th-17th). Tom Reading, Simon Sammut and Tom Scullion won the senior boys elite team championship at the Northern Zonal Finals held at the Gemtec Arena in Hull. They now go forward to compete at the National Finals which will be held in Bristol in mid-March. They will be joined by James Buttrick who finished third in the senior boys novice division and Kieran Joyce, Elliot Reading and Matthew Kennedy who won the under 15 boys elite division. Organised by Helen Lawson the boys continued the excellent performances in this sport over the last few years.

19/01/10

Year 11 Achieve Outstanding GCSE English and Maths Results

Year 11 have produced the College's best ever results for English at GCSE. For the first time the year group were entered early and did the exams in November rather than wait for June. 74% of the cohort achieved A* - C grades. In addition to this brilliant effort, the most recent Maths modular results also show that 74% of the cohort are on course to achieve A* - C. Last summer's results were excellent but these have outshone even those. Congratulations to all of the pupils for their determination and  hard work and all of those teachers who put so much effort into making these results possible. A brilliant performance!!

13/01/10

A Level Religious Studies New York Study Trip

The A Level Religious Studies trip to New York will be departing on Saturday 30th January.  39 students will attend a series of lectures on the following;  Islam post 9/11 at the Islamic Cultural centre in Harlem, A House of God – A House for All at the Cathedral of St John the Divine and a tour of the Jewish Heritage Centre.  As well as the lectures students will have the opportunity of going to the United Nations and attend a Broadway show.  No visit to New York would be complete without shopping on 5th Avenue and a walk round Central Park.

14/01/10

The UK Land Chess Challenge 2010

The Uk Land Chess Challenge 2010 is in its 15th year.  This year 44 students from St Mary’s College have entered into the first part of the challenge.

All students will play 7 Rounds over the spring term, winning prizes as they ascend through the ranks - with the winner receiving a special trophy. We are currently entering Round 2 of the challenge and the competition for victory is underway.

Students who achieve 15 points from the rounds will qualify for the regional Megafinal to compete against other schools in the region.  Stakes are high with the top prize being £2000 and, in addition, the Top Girl will receive £1000.

Mr C Finney
(Mathematics / Chess Club)  

13/01/10

England Honours for James

Yet another College pupil has won international honours, this time in volleyball. James Reading from Year 11 has been selected to represent England in the Sparkasse Cup in Feldkirch, Austria on the weekend of January 30th and 31st. He is the latest in quite a long line to have shown real talent in this sport introduced into St Mary's by Gerard Lowe. County, regional, national and now international honours have been won by many pupils owing to his skill and dedication.

On the continent volleyball is a massive competitor and spectator sport so James will find the competition to be really hot. The College is very proud of James' achievements and will be supporting him all the way. Well done James.

James was invited to go to England after being scouted at the National U15 Championships in Birmingham, where the school team came 5th.  He went for a 2-day camp at Bath University Institute of Sport, where he trained with 24 other selected boys in his age group.  During the summer holidays he took part in the national 4-day 'High Peaks' training camp in Dorking.  He returned in October to train with the U16 England squad in Kettering, sponsored by SMC Sports College funding.  In early November he took part in two further national squad weekend sessions and was disappointed not to be selected for the this sporting year's first international in Denmark.  However, after a New Year weekend camp he has been called up to play for the England U16 boys team in a tournament in Austria at the end of the month. 

During the summer he also played in Gloucester Open Tournament.  He played at Bridlington Beach Open in the 4s and 2s divisions and in several youth competitions in Yorkshire.  James played in the Hull mens' 2-a-side league for experience in Summer 2009. 

He is currently playing in the Gloucester mens' Division 1 league as a first 6, middle hitter.  He has been nominated for player of the match on 2 occasions already this season.  He continues to gain valuable court time experience as well as playing against adult competition.  He is still growing and at 6"4, he has a strong block, a more and more powerful hit and his back court defence is probably the best in the team.   

James has still now only been playing for 14 months as part of SMC Warriors Volleyball team.  He has obviously come a long way in a very short space of time and he is still only 15;  his success lies in his commitment to training and his openness to take on new coaching very quickly.  He follows the success of SMC Warriors in producing a good number of regional and national players, whilst at SMC.  His success in education has also followed his success in volleyball;  he is a well-liked student who is learning to work and play hard. SMC has offered him the opportunity to try and excel at a new sport and in turn this has paid divends for his personal development and his focus in the classroom.  He has a very promising future and is motivated by the fact that his little brother Tom in year 8 is hot on his heels and showing an equal amount of ability and potential, especially as a setter.  Together they will be a formidable partnership.  Watch out for the brothers Reading playing 2s on the beach in 2016.

Gerard Lowe

13/01/10

Hull Secondary Schools Cross Country

On Friday December 4th St Mary’s hosted the Hull Secondary Schools cross country championships which saw over 400 pupils from many of Hull’s secondary schools competing. A full report and results can be seen by clicking below.

Click here for the report.
Click here for the results.

    

08/01/10

Year 9 Christmas Charity Appeal

Following Year 9's Christmas Appeal this letter was received from the College Chaplain. Click here for the letter.

07/01/10

Matthew aiming to win top honours !

Year 9 pupil Matthew Neal had a great new year after he was invited to join the England training camp for judo at the Sheffield Institute of Sport in early January. Matthew competes in the Under 15 38 kg weight division. In 2009 he was the bronze medallist in the National Championships. He trains and competes for the Hull Judo club. Along with the country's other top juniors Matthew received special coaching from the National coaching staff over three days. He has been asked if he is available for trips to Russia and Japan this year so it looks to be  a very exciting few months. Well done to Matthew for all of his hard work and the achievements he has had so far.

    

07/01/10

Yorkshire Cup Quarter Final Draw

The Year 10 boys rugby league team has been drawn at home against Buttershaw School from Bradford in the quarter final. The match should be played during the first fortnight back at school. The winners of the tie will not only reach the semi final but also get a place in the National Cup - open to the top 16 teams in the country. The boys will be hoping to emulate their performance of last year when they were knocked out in the semi final by the eventual winners, Castleford High.

29/12/09

Packed Church for Annual Carol Concert

The College's annual christmas carol service was held at the Marist Church on Thursday December 17th. The church was full and those who were there had a real treat. A choir of over 120 pupils ranging from Years 7 to 13 and the school orchestra provided a wonderful hour of music and reflection all organised by Mr Zobkiw, Mr Hassan and  Mr Cuthill. Highlights included the Nutcracker and the Snowman played by the orchestra with a wonderful solo from Kieran Lynch. Mr Hassan arranged a Michael Jackson medley which really lifted up people's spirits.  The concert was held twice on Friday December 18th for all of the College's pupils and it was recorded by West Hull Community Radio who are going to play the concert in its entirety on Christmas morning at 10 a.m. All of those who were there felt really moved by it. The pupils commented that it had been really enjoyable. Well done Mr Hassan and Mr Zobkiw!!

18/12/09

Drop in Centre Christmas Collection

Year 9 today handed over 700 tins and a sum of cash to the College Chaplain, Mr Cuthill, for the St Charles Drop in Centre. It was their christmas charity collection and was organised by the students and their head of year, Mr Arridge. This is the second year that the students have collected for this very worthy charity which seeks to help those who are homeless with hot food and basic clothing. Mr Cuthill was delighted with the efforts of Year 9 which came at a good time for the centre was running low on basic supplies.

17/12/09

Maths Medals

The Maths department has participated in a city wide scheme called Maths Medals sponsored by a company called VOLCOM.  This is aimed at raising numeracy skills across the city.  The company set the school a target for a number of pupils to pass the silver and bronze numeracy test.  We are one of the only two schools to complete this so far.

Students completed an online test during Maths lessons aiming to pass a Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum numeracy test.  Students needed 70% in the test to pass.

All students who passed one of these were put in a prize draw. The school received three £200 bike vouchers, eleven Ipods, eight £10 book vouchers and twenty four £5 book vouchers. In addition, students who passed the silver award all received a £4.90 Ice Arena voucher.  We have given away over two hundred and fifity vouchers so far.

Congratulations from all the Mathematics teachers on how hard all the students worked towards this challenge, especially those students and staff who worked during the their lunchtimes.

Maths Medals Winners

                     

17/12/09 

Prayer Project

Miss Naylor’s year 9 RE class have been working hard on a ‘Prayer’ project, each group created their own special prayer, showing the different ways in which Christians use prayer.

The project came to a close on Thursday 10th December, when each group led their prayer to the rest of the class in the school Chapel.

The hard work and creativity the pupils put into their prayers was amazing. Each group had very different prayers; some were comical and uplifting making everyone smile whilst others were relaxing and thought provoking.

A very spiritual time was had by all, the year 9’s should be very proud of themselves.

    

Miss Naylor

15/12/09

Princess Diana Award

We are pleased to announce that the year 10 mentors have won a national prestigious ‘Princess Diana Award’ for their work on combating bullying in the school.

The mentors have spent the past 6 months working on new projects to provide support for any pupil in the school who feels bullied or alone. They have produced a ‘Chat Room’ where pupils can visit during lunchtimes to talk to a mentor. They have also created assemblies for the whole school to raise the profile of their projects. Their message is ‘if one person is being bullied at St Mary’s, that is one person too many’. They are a credit to the school. Well done year 10 mentors!

Miss J Naylor

15/12/09

Yorkshire Cup Rd 2 Y10 Rugby League

The Year 10 team produced a stirring second half performance to overcome a very physical York High School team 19-8 and advance into the quarter finals. On a lovely sunny but cold afternoon the team produced a first half littered with silly errors that saw them go in at half time 6-8 down. A try by Frazier Flanagan converted by Ryan Sciberras keeping them in touch. However the second half saw a much improved performance as the team kept their opponents out with some stirring defence in the face of some overly physical play. With 15 minutes to go Joe Watson seized on a mistake in the opponents’ ten metre area to pick up and score in the corner. Sciberras again converted. Then captain Matty Marsh showed why he is highly rated at Hull KR with an outstanding individual try when he sidestepped his way past at least ten players in a 60 metre run to score under the posts. The conversion was a formality. With five minutes to go Marsh dropped a goal from 30 metres to seal the win. This was a very good team effort with stand out performances from Marsh, James Mayes, Flanagan and Gatu. In the quarter finals the team will again be at home against either Buttershaw (Bradford) or Ryburn Valley (Calderdale) in the new year.

11/12/09

World War One Presentation

On 19th November history experts, Steve and Hilary Manners, visited the college and brought with them their collection of military and civilian uniforms from the First World War together with a host of other artefacts.  The Year 10 and 11 history students enjoyed dressing up as officers, privates, VAD nurses, munitions workers etc and hearing all about the different roles these people played in the war.  It was also a great chance to handle objects from the period, such as a hand grenade or field telephone, and the whole experience really helped bring the topic alive for the students involved.

Mr Boden

08/12/09

Christmas Spirit alive and well

Well done to Mrs Gibbins who  organised the shoebox appeal with her year 10 class.  It has been done as one of their Key Skills in CoPE as the Working With Others skill.  They did all of the donkey work such as making posters, displaying them around the school, collecting and checking the shoeboxes and finally taking them to reception for pick-up.  They have done an excellent job and hope to do it again next year.

08/12/09

Yorkshire Schools Trampoline results

Competitors who finish in the top 3 individuals and top two teams will compete at the Zonal Schools Championships on the 17th January at the Gemtec arena.
 
U13 Boys Novice
Joe Cooper 2nd place
 
U15 Boys Elite
Kieren Joyce 3rd Place
 
U15 Boys team 1st Place
Kieren Joyce, Elliot Reading and Matthew Kennedy
 
U19 boys Novice
James Buttrick 1st Place
Sam Rutherford 3rd Place
 
U19 Boys Novice team 1st Place
James Butterick, Sam Rutherford and Danny Townend
 
U19 Boys Elite
Tom Reading 2nd place
Tom Scullion 3rd Place
 
U19 Boys Elite team 1st Place
Tom Reading, Tom Scullion and Simon Sammut

08/12/09

Visit to Wilberforce House

On Wednesday 25th November, sixteen Year 12 students studying A-Level History were taken on a visit to Wilberforce House in Hull.  The students are currently studying the module ‘The Slave Trade, Slavery and Anti-Slavery Campaigns, 1760-1833’.  The visit to Wilberforce House was a valuable and relevant experience that developed and added to their understanding of the history of the Slave Trade.  The students spent time exploring the fascinating displays and artefacts in Wilberforce House, which is where William Wilberforce, a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade, was born.  The importance of the anti-slavery movement in Hull’s local history brought this topic to life for the students, which made it a rewarding and worthwhile experience.

Maria Johansson

 03/12/09

Hull Schools Primary Cross Country 2009

The 2009 Hull Schools Primary Cross Country Championships were held once again at St Mary’s College on Friday 20th November. 450 primary school pupils from 28 schools completed their courses which ranged in distance from 800m to 1200m. The course was well marshalled and led by Year 12 and 13 BTEC National in Sport students from the St Mary’s College Sixth Form.

In the Year 3 and 4 Girls race, Mia Duke from Francis Askew was the first home followed by Memphis Thornhill (Neasden) and Bronwyn Walker-Rouse (Hymers). Neasden won the team race with Memphis Thornhill receiving good support from Saffron Thompson (4th), Lauren Stemsbridge (17th) and Megan Abdelaoui (25th). Marfleet were the second placed team and Hymers were third.

In the Year 3 and 4 Boys race, Keane Lewis-Potter from St Richards held off the challenge of Jacob Foster and Luke Moss respectively to clinch the title. However, it was Hymers who pipped St Richards by three points to clinch the team race. Albie Collier (5th), Charlie Rawlins (7th), Joseph Walker (16th) and JJ O’Reilly (20th) were the scorers. Bellfield finished third in the team race.

Hymers dominated the Year  5 and 6 girls race, it was a clean sweep for Hymers. Annabelle Clappison won the race and led home a 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the team title as well with Georgina Nettelton, Abigail Rawlins and Alice Blades completing the count. Eastfield were second with 39 points and Bellfield third on 55 points.
William de Braal from Hymers was victorious in the Year 5 and 6 Boys Race with  Alex Ryan (St Vincents) in second place and Matthew Pinkney (St Mary Queen of Martyrs) third. Victoria Dock broke Hymers dominance clinching the team title by two points. Sam Brown (6th), Soloman Awobem (8th), Ahmed Salam (12th) and Tom Reeves (24th) were the scorers for the team. Bellfield again were third on 125 points holding off a strong challenge from St Vincents by three points.

The top 25 placed individuals in the Year 5 and 6 races will be invited to represent Hull against the East Riding on Saturday 23rd January 2010 at Wolfreton Lower School.

Primary Cross Country Results 2009

30/11/09

30/11/09

Year 10 Rugby

The Year 10 rugby league team showed why they have been the Hull and East Riding Schools Champions for the last two seasons with a great win in the first round of the Yorkshire Cup on Wednesday 25th November. Away to last year’s losing semi finalists Cannon Lee School of York the first half was very even. Cannon Lee scored after 10 minutes but a great team try scored by Josh Guzdek levelled the scores. Cannon Lee went ahead with a try that looked clearly offside but St Mary’s went to the other end and a great kick by Matthew Marsh was caught over the try line by Gabriel Gatu to level the scores again. 12-12 at half time and on a pitch that was a mudbath, a tense second half seemed inevitable and so it proved. However one moment of magic saw a brilliant try scored by Matthew March to open up a gap and despite massive pressure, St Mary’s won the day. They now face York High School at home in the second round likely to be on Wednesday December 2nd.

27/11/09

Chemistry Competition

In November, four students (year 9 - 11) took part in the Royal Society of Chemistry Competition hosted by the University of Hull. Although not placed first, the team made a great effort at problem solving and answering Chemistry questions. Some of the activities were extremely difficult and the team did really well, and we looked the smartest out of the East Riding and Hull teams there!

           

27/11/09

Children in Need

Well done to Miss Newton of the Science department  whose  bake sale raised 70 pounds last week. (a great amount for a one woman stall of cakes and biscuits)

27/11/09

Year 7 Girls Tag Rugby Tournament

Craven Park
Friday 20th November

Year 7 girls represented the school at the first Hull Schools Tag Rugby Tournament at Craven Park, the home of Hull Kingston Rovers.

The students were given an opportunity to watch the Rovers first team in a training session, and then had a training session of their own on the Hull KR pitch. After a good practice, it was time to put our skills into some competitive games. St. Mary's were very unlucky to lose by just one try to Kingswood in the opening game. However, the girls played some fantastic rugby to beat Sir Henry Cooper in the next match, and followed that up with a big win over Sydney Smith. With the top spot in sight, St Marys had a try disallowed in their next game against Sirius B and the match resulted in a draw. The final match of the tournament was against Sirius A, who were unbeaten so far. the girls played extremely well, with Layla Smith and Saskia Wilson working well together in attack, and were in the lead at half time. Unfortunately St Mary's conceded twice in the second half to record their second loss in the competition. Finishing third overall, St Mary's played some superb rugby and displayed a fantastic team spirit throughout the competiton. Well done girls- a great performance.

Mr Kelly

25/11/09

Cape Town

We returned from Cape Town on Sunday (Nov 22nd) after a truly memorable experience.  The students were true ambassadors for the Hull and East Riding Area.  We visited three schools and set up links with them.  We met up with the Hull and Humber clipper and were shown around it.  We spent a whole evening in the Muslim quarter in Cape Town and had a meal in a Muslim household.  We learnt all about their history and the history of Apartheid and the terrible legacy it has left even today.  We went to Robben Island and learnt all about Nelson Mandela and the dreadful suffering people experienced in the fight for justice. We attended the international conference on slavery organised by Nick Evans and W.I.S.E. We saw the devastated area called Disrict Six, where a truly multi ethnic area was bulldozed in the 1970s to make it a whites only area which never happened and the area is still a waste land today. We went to Cape Point at the very southern tip of Africa and were almost blown off it.  We climbed up Table Mountain (in a cable Car) and haggled with the traders in Green Market Square (Anna Mooney was very good at that).  We visited a shanty town and witnessed the awful conditions in which some people live.  I could go on forever.  It was a fantastic experience.

We shall put together a presentation and plan to hold a series of Assemblies after Christmas to tell everyone about the trip. This is the least we can do after all the support we received from everyone here.  We shall be doing the same in some primary schools as well and to other interested groups  We plan to develop the links we established with the Marist College in Cape Town into something long lasting and benficial to both schools.

Chris Cuthill

25/11/09

Premier League 4Sport Launch                                                                      

The following eight students were selected to participate in the Premier League 4Sport launch:

• Alice Edmondson
• Amber Burton
• Matthew Sweeney
• Thomas Sweeney
• Joshua Littlefield
• Matthew Stubbing
• Kanyi Gabiro
• Louise Alburo

While there the pupils were offered a Buffet Lunch and then given the opportunity to take part in Badminton, Judo, Table Tennis and Volleyball with qualified instructors from each sport. The pupils then observed a demonstration of each sport before listening to various presentations about Hull City Premier League 4Sport.

Hull City Premier League 4Sport is offering thousands of young people across Hull and the East Riding the opportunity to take part in Badminton, Judo, Table Tennis and Volleyball.

Hull City is just one of the twenty Premier League Clubs that are linking up with their community sports clubs to attract young people in their local areas to these four Olympic Sports; Badminton, Judo, Table Tennis and Volleyball.

The project is a groundbreaking £3.8 million partnership with the Government to give young people the chance to get involved in these sports. The £3.8 million for Premier League 4Sport is being invested through the Department for Culture and Media and Sports from the Premier League’s Good Causes fund.

The initiative will help aid part of the Government’s 2012 legacy plan; to offer young people five hours of sport a week.

The three year scheme aims to get 25,000 young people, aged between 11 and 16 to join local sports clubs in these four Olympic sports. Hull City Football Club will be working alongside the sport’s governing bodies, the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England and the other Premier League clubs to help reach this target. 

James Beetham

24/11/09

Anti-Bullying Week at St Mary’s College
16th - 20th November 2009

St Mary’s College does not have a major problem with bullying. The Catholic ethos of our school, to ‘Love God with all your heart, and love one another as you love yourself’ can be seen on a daily basis with the support and respect staff and pupils show each other, however, one person being bullied at St Mary’s College is one person too many.
This year the school have set up their own anti-bullying stewards. The group consists of around 20 year 10 pupils who also offer their services as peer mentors.
The group have set up a number of ways to combat bullying. They have set up an anti-bullying drop in room called ‘The Chat Room’, where pupils can go each lunchtime if they experience bullying or just need someone to talk to.
They have produced cards for all year 7 pupils advertising the numerous ways in which they can gain support if needed. They have an email and text number for pupils to contact them if needed.
This week at school the anti-bullying stewards will be hard at work promoting their new anti-bullying projects and raising awareness that at St Mary’s College, bullying is not acceptable.
On Friday 13th November the school kicked off its anti-bullying week with a visit from actor Robert Higgs who ran five different anti-bullying workshops for various pupils. The pupils gave wonderful feedback and Robert said ‘This school have the nicest pupils and staff’.
On Monday 16th – Friday 20th the anti-bullying stewards will be doing main hall assemblies for the whole school, they have produced a wonderful assembly to raise awareness and promote the school’s Catholic message of respect and support.
Throughout the week they will be visiting in their new T-shirts with the logo ‘Be Buddies not Bullies’, the year 7 and 8 social areas at break and lunch giving out stickers, pencils, and handing out leaflets to promote ‘The Chat Room’.
By the end of the week we are hoping that the school’s new projects will be advertised and every pupil will know the seriousness of bullying and what to do if they feel or experience bullying of any kind.

     

Miss J Naylor
RE Teacher
Mentor Coordinator
24/11/09

SPANISH EXCHANGE

On Tuesday 10th November the Spanish exchange arrived at the Academy.  The English people picked them up at 7.30pm.  Everyone was nervous but excited.  As we got to know the Spanish, we relaxed and started to have a really good time together.  In the 5 days they were here there were 2 parties, bowling and we all met up in town on the Saturday.  We practised lots of Spanish and learned about Spanish culture.  We were sad when they left and felt that we had made good friends, who we will keep in touch with on Facebook.

This is what some Y11 students said about the exchange:

‘’Overall it was a good experience and it was fun’’ Henry Green.

‘’I enjoyed learning about a different culture’ Laura Kilby.

‘’I really enjoyed my time and it was a good experience and opportunity’’ Melissa Webb.

‘’The Spanish people really know how to party.  We had a really good time’’  Lloyd Whittleton.

24/11/09

Year 8 Rugby Match report:  Tuesday 17th November

St Mary’s College vs Priesthorpe (by Trevor Oluotch – Year 8 Sports Representative)
There was an exciting start to the match with both teams looking to score the first try.  Priesthorpe landed the first blow with three tries on the bounce, but St Mary’s hadn’t given up yet!  We pulled it back level with a try from Trevor Oluotch and two from Kieran Moran.  As the game developed it was neck and neck with both teams playing quality rugby.  St Mary’s thought they had won it with a try from Muzi Swakamisa and two more tries from Trevor Oluotch.  However, it wasn’t to be as Priesthorpe scored a further three tries to win the match.  It was a very close match and the spirit of the Year 8 team was excellent.  Even though we didn’t win, we worked together well and all enjoyed the experience.

20/11/09

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day saw a key moment of the College’s focus on this important month in the Church’s calendar. Following a week of assemblies on the meaning and importance of the Remembrance month celebrations the College came to a complete standstill at 11 a.m.  when the whole school observed the two minute silence. This was ended in moving fashion with staff and pupils from the Music department playing the Last Post at various points around the College site.

19/11/09

Fund Raising Staff Football Attracts Huge Crowd

 Two teams of staff ably managed by Mr McKinley and Mr Leech fought out a tough match on Friday lunchtime to help raise funds for the Cape Town trip. A large crowd of over 500 staff and pupils watched and cheered throughout. Mr Leech’s team took the lead after 8 minutes when Mr Irving outjumped a static defence to head powerfully home. Amazingly the referee, Mr Nicholson, wiped it out for an alleged foul on his son who was in goal!!

Gradually the Maccas got stronger and went ahead again in controversial fashion when Mr Nicholson awarded a penalty for his son to score. With five minutes left Mr Arridge rifled home to leave the crowd stunned. Despite the best efforts of Messrs Perry, Wilson and Hamer the lead could not be pegged back. Messrs Walmsley, Jackson and McAllister were excellent in defence with Mr Eley having a fine game in goal. Mr Turner was Mr Turner.

Hopefully the funds for the Cape Town trip were further swelled by an excellent effort all round.

 24/11/09

Zoo Lab

On the 6th November some Year 7 students were selected to go to the Zoo Lab.  It was one of the greatest experiences ever. Rachel came in to show us her pets which included animals from different countries and continents like rats, Madagascan cockroaches, African snails, Frogs, Tarantulas, a snake and a millipede.

Even though some of the animals were very scary, we had a wild time and enjoyed it so much. We were the lucky ones to get to go to the Zoo Lab!

 Ann Mary Luke & Chloe Baker - Yr 7

                     

17/11/09

IAG Gold Standard

St Mary’s College has been awarded a Gold Standard for its IAG
[Information Advice and Guidance]

What is the IAG Gold Standard?

This is an extensive and formal assessment undertaken by an independent IAG assessor commissioned by the Local Authority. It is designed to assess how well a school informs, guides, supports and advises its learners in terms of making appropriate career and life choices.
 
How was the College Assessed?

The assessment procedure took a full day. The assessor was provided with a very detailed programme which included interviews with Ged Fitzpatrick, Headteacher; Damian Walmsley, Deputy Headteacher (Pastoral); Mary Keogh, Assistant Headteacher (IAG); Kevin Stork Co-ordinator (Careers Information, Advice, Support and Guidance Co-ordinator) and a cross section of the large number of the school community with an identified IAG role.

Did the assessor meet with and talk to the students?

Yes- this was a key part of the assessment. The assessor held interviews with learners (randomly selected) and he also met with a group of parents.

What did the assessor say about IAG at St Mary’s College?

Here are some quotes.

“St Mary’s is a school founded on the Catholic ethos of care, nurture and spiritual growth.” 

“There is very strong support for all learners with educational, physical or emotional support needs”.

“There is a co-ordinated system of support for all to ensure that all learners receive appropriate information, advice or guidance during their time at school.”

17/11/09

Cape Town

Four sixth form students  and two members of staff set off on Saturday 14th November to attend the Wilberforce Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. They will be there for a week. The students have raised over £5000 to help pay for their flights and other expenses. They will be trying to establish important links with a range of groups both in South Africa and from all over the world. Their report will appear here when they return.

We arrived in Cape Town, and it's amazing. We have a blog http://stmarysandwise.blogspot.com/ and we have Twitter www.twitter.com/stmarysafrica

 17/11/09

Sixth Form Open Evening

The College’s first Sixth Form Open Evening of the year was held on November 12th in the College. Despite atrocious weather the hall and then Academy were packed with people eager to see what the College’s Sixth Form had to offer. What was particularly noteworthy was  how current Sixth Formers took the opportunity to show how much they were enjoying  their time in the Sixth Form and the many opportunities it was giving to them. Many thanks to all of the Sixth Formers and all of the staff for all of their hard work.

            

13/11/09

U16 Girls National Schools County round 11th November 2009

St Mary's college U16 netball team stormed through to the regional round of the National Schools Netball tournament after playing three fantastic games of netball at South Hunsley Sports College on the 11th November.
 
Squad: Lauren Todd, Rachel Dixon, Laura Ombler, Gerogia Brown, Jodie Rudd, Steph Parker, Kady Leigh Railton, Emma Cook, Amy McLeod, Grace Brewster, Courtney Wood.
 
The girls faced adversity, when a set back at the start of the tournament meant they had to go straight onto court after arriving at the venue and play their arch nemesis, Hymers college. Hymers had previously beaten St Mary’s 9-3 in the Hull round of this tournament.

The game started very fast but the girls played a great game of possession which meant they held off Hymers from creeping in front. At half time the score was 2 all. All players worked exceptionally hard to ensure that they didn't make any small errors to give free possession to Hymers. It was 4-3 to St Mary's in the final minute Miss Murray could barely watch, Hymers managed to get a goal back in the last 30 seconds of the game. Unfortunately a shot made by Rachel Dixon in the last seconds was disallowed as the time buzzer had already gone. The final score ended 4-4 a great result for the Girls in their opening game.
 
After having time to recover whilst another two teams from our age group played, the girls went onto play Beverley,  which were coached by a previous teacher from this school Mrs. Calcutt and whom had a Leeds Super league team player at goal defence marking one of our key players Rachel Dixon. Beverley came out in the first half with great determination. At half time the score was 3-2 to Beverley. After a motivational team talk by Miss Murray and Miss Lawson and making one change to the team line up the girls went back out in an assertive manner. Some exceptional team work and defending from Laura Ombler and Lauren Todd held off Beverley from scoring, Rachel Dixon came back in the second half with renewed confidence making some amazing interceptions. In the centre court Georgia Brown and Jodie Rudd played a calm game controlling possession ensuring we kept the ball in our half and that there was quality feeding into the circle. The change at half time meant Steph Parker, who had in the previous game played wing defence, came on to play Goal shooter. Steph showed her versatility as a netballer keeping calm when under pressure. The girls battled hard and won the game in style 6-3, you could barely hear the umpires due to Miss Lawson’s and Miss Murray’s excitement during the second half.

After a quick turnaround St Mary’s were straight back on court for the final game. If St Mary’s won, it meant that they would secure a place in the top two and then onto the regional round of the tournament. The game was against Driffield and the first half seemed to go on forever with Driffield defending well, you could see the pressure and frustration on the girls faces as St Mary’s couldn’t seem to score the goals needed. The half ended 1-0 to Driffield. In the second half the girls knew they only needed to score two goals and keep Driffield from scoring. They came out and played well in order to achieve this result and battled hard to ensure that the game ended 2-1 to St Mary’s. All these results ensured that St Mary’s went through as a top two team into the regional round of the tournament. All players in the squad played their part in ensuring that that this was a team effort. Congratulations Girls!

Miss Murray and Miss Lawson are very proud of all those in the squad even those girls who came and did not get to play in this round but will hopefully get chance to play in the next round held in Rotherham in January.
 
17/11/09

St Mary’s & Hull City Badminton Club

Surprise Hull City Ticket Giveaway!

All students who have registered as part of the badminton club that runs at St Mary’s were the lucky recipients of two tickets for Hull City’s Premier League game against Stoke on Sunday 8th November.  Ed Townend the Premier League 4 Sport Manager presented the tickets to the surprised children along with Paul Pratt, one of the coaches at the badminton club.

FA Level 1 Coaching Course

20 sixth form students will look to successfully complete the FA Level 1 coaching qualification in December. The schedule for the week beginning the 7th December is as follows:

Monday 7th December        9am - 5pm Practical
Tuesday 8th December       9am - 5pm Practical
Wednesday 9th December  9am - 5pm Assessment
Thursday 10th December   9am - 12pm Emergency Aid 1                                     Thursday 10th December   1pm - 4pm Emergency Aid 2

This is an essential element of both A Level PE and BTEC National in Sport Courses.

06/11/09

Fund Raising Staff Football Attracts Huge Crowd

Two teams of staff ably managed by Mr McKinley and Mr Leech fought out a tough match on Friday lunchtime to help raise funds for the Cape Town trip. A large crowd of over 500 staff and pupils watched and cheered throughout. Mr Leech’s team took the lead after 8 minutes when Mr Irving outjumped a static defence to head powerfully home. Amazingly the referee, Mr Nicholson, wiped it out for an alleged foul on his son who was in goal!!

Gradually the Maccas got stronger and went ahead again in controversial fashion when Mr Nicholson awarded a penalty for his son to score. With five minutes left Mr Arridge rifled home to leave the crowd stunned. Despite the best efforts of Messrs Perry, Wilson and Hamer the lead could not be pegged back. Messrs Walmsley, Jackson and McAllister were excellent in defence with Mr Eley having a fine game in goal. Mr Turner was Mr Turner.

Hopefully the funds for the Cape Town trip were further swelled by an excellent effort all round.

06/11/09 

Junior St Vincent de Paul Society

The members of the Junior St Vincent de Paul Society at St Mary’s are involved in a number of activities to help other people.  The Year Nine students help at the monthly housebound day for the elderly and disabled at the St Stephen’s Pastoral Centre in East Hull.  Here, Matthew writes about what happened on the day that he and three friends went to help.

The Housebound Day at St Stephen’s

Mr Cuthill, the School Chaplaincy Coordinator, asked for volunteers to help at the Housebound Day at St Stephen’s Pastoral Centre.  Every month, lots of mainly elderly people spend the day there and are looked after by volunteers from all the Parishes. Myself, Britany, Lizzy and Evie volunteered to go on the last Wednesday of September.
We arrived at school and met in the social area. We were all full of anticipation and excitement. We were, however, a little bit scared as well.  After period one we climbed in Mr Cuthill’s little car and drove to the church hall. We were expecting only a few people, but the turnout was amazing: over seventy people.
We got to work straight away and our first job was to unload some of the people off the minibus and wheel them into the hall. When everyone had got in and were settled, we started handing out cups of tea and biscuits. We soon realised that everyone of the old people had brought their own picnic: there were buns, sandwiches and cakes galore! It was about 12 noon and just about time to start handing out the soup and bread. Once we had given out the soup we had a chance to talk to some of the old people and they were really nice and they loved talking about our school and them good old “back in the day” stories. After serving them all drinks and food and clearing up after the meal, we got down to a popular favourite game of bingo. Me and Britney nearly won and were just one number off. It was great fun.  Mass was celebrated by a disabled priest, Fr Clive Birch SM.  It was quite a change from normal Mass and in some ways more special. At the end of Mass we handed out awards and prizes and birthday cards and were amazed to find that there was a woman, who had just had her 91st birthday.
After all this it was time to go. The day had gone really fast and on the way home we all said how fantastic it was and that we had so much fun. We would definitely do it again if the opportunity arose.

                 

04/11/09

Rugby League

Congratulations to the Year 8 and Year 10 rugby league teams who have got through to the Yorkshire Cup which represents the best 16 school teams in the county. The draw has yet to be made but details will be posted as soon as it is made.

     

04/11/09

Teachers Got Talent!

Fund raising reached new levels on the last day of the half term which had a non uniform day to raise funds to send four of our students to South Africa in November for the Freedom Conference.  We raised over £1178 but further funds were achieved  with a fantastic Teachers Got Talent competition held in the packed main hall at lunchtime.  So popular was the event that several hundred pupils were unable to get in!  The opening act saw Mr Fitzpatrick, the Head, do a hilarious juggling act with his glamorous assistants, Mrs Moore and Mrs English. Then Mr Walmsley had the crowd swaying with his rendition of Hallelujah.  The Ms Drumm showed she had a wonderful voice singing without any accompaniment. The young Mr Leech then had us in fits of laughter with his stand up comedy act followed by Mrs Scott who sang the Dolly Parton classic, Jolene. The drama department and Colin (aka Freddie) the caretaker did a wonderful sketch on the Queen classic “I wanna break free”. Mrs Wilbor and Mrs Wright showed a wonderful light touch with some classy tap dancing before Mr Wood and Mr Hassan brought the house down with their Blues Brothers finale.  A wonderful show which everyone really enjoyed.  Thanks to all the staff for their great support of this worthy cause.

        

23/10/09

Mack and Mabel rehearsals

                   

Here we see photos from some of the first rehearsals for this year’s school production

“Mack and Mabel”

Mr. Wood, Mr. Hassan, Miss Drake and Mr. Zobkiw have been putting the cast through their paces and Miss Lawson has been teaching the hundred strong cast how to Tap Dance.

It promises to be a spectacular show and Reuben Driver, Adam Brown, Beth Barry and Katie Turner in the lead roles are sure to impress.

Make a date in your diaries March 16th -20th 2010 at 7.30…….you’d be mad to miss it!!

Neil Wood
Drama Department
Director of Performance

Ballroom Dancing

Staff and 6th formers have been on a mission to keep fit under the expert eye of Mr. Lowe.  On Tuesday lunchtimes you can find these intrepid participants learning Latin American and ballroom dancing.

This club starts at 12.30 and finishes at 1.15 in the dance studio, so why not come along and get some moves for the Christmas party season!!

Don’t worry kids,  your turn to learn starts after half term when Miss Lawson and Mr. Wood will be teaching you these skills in the Dance studio Friday lunchtimes 12.30 - 1.15.

Neil Wood
Drama Department
Director of Performance

22/10/09

Year 9 Football Team  (October 12th)

Sir Henry Cooper 1 v 3 St Mary’s College

Scorers:          Jordan Cox (1)

                        Ryan Whincup (1)

                        Oche Igoche (1)

The Year 9 football team beat Sir Henry Cooper 3-1 to win their second game of the season. It was an impressive start as we went 1-0 up through Jordan Cox, who poked the ball in past the keeper. Sir Henry Cooper battled back and scored to make it 1-1 through a SMC defensive error. The game then became a very close as both teams cancelled each other out. However, with 10 minutes to go we stole the game with 2 late goals from Ryan Whincup and Oche Igoche. Sir Henry Cooper were denied a very late consolation goal by an outstanding save from close range by our temporary goalkeeper Nathan Shirtliff. The final score finished 3-1, which made it 2 wins from 3 this season.

 19/10/09

Aim Higher

Several of our Y10 students attended the launch of Aim Higher at the Middleton Hall on October 1st.  It is very encouraging to receive unsolicited and such positive feedback as the letter which was given to Mrs Woolfall, the Aim Higher Co-ordinator, by one student in the following week.

 “Thank you for inviting me................ I found the speeches very informing and fun. I found that I learned a lot about higher education and I will probably look into it now, when as before higher education had never crossed my mind. The speech I enjoyed the most was by Mr Miles Hilton Barber. He was talking about all the adventures he had done. Such as flying to Australia in a little two man aircraft. But what makes it even more of a shock is that he is blind.

I found Mr Miles Hilton Barber “the blind adventurer, motivational speaker” to do exactly that – he motivated the full hall and kept a smile on all of our faces.

So thank you for the opportunity of going . I very much appreciate it.”

 Aaron Overfield Y10

14/10/09

Year 10 Rugby League Team

The Year 10 rugby league team have been Hull School’s champions for the last two years.  One of its key players is Matthew Marsh.  Last year Matthew was signed up by Hull Kingston Rovers and his progress has been rapid and was confirmed  when he received the accolade of Hull KR's U14's Scholar of the Year.  Well done Matty and keep up the good work.

14/10/09

Year 9 Football Team

Kelvin 3 – 6 St Mary’s College

Scorers:

 ·         Liam Wray (2)

·         Frankie Sharp (2)

·         Matty Suthers (1)

·         Kieran Harper (1)

We played Kelvin Hall last week (week beginning Oct 5th).  It was a hard fought game but we pulled it off, as we won 6-3.  It was a difficult game as we conceded 2 goals in the first 10 minutes.  But with a lot of effort and determination, we pulled it back to 2-2 with goals from Liam Wray (penalty) and Kieran Harper.  We started the second half really well with a nice finish from Frankie Sharp.  However, Kelvin made it tough for us by equalising from the penalty spot shortly afterwards. Frankie and Liam added  further goals, with Liam’s being the best of them all with a long range shot from outside the box.  Matty Suthers completed the scoring to make it 6-3 in what was a great team effort!

By Jack Cawthorne

14/10/09

Lublin (Poland) Student Exchange

On Thursday 1st October five A-Level students from a Catholic school in Lublin visited St Mary’s; they were hosted by four of our A-Level students. The student exchange was a return visit as the same students had already spent some educational time together in Lublin.

The purpose of the visit was to further the students’ knowledge of the different cultures and historical backgrounds of our countries. They were given a guided tour of the Wilberforce Museum and the Guild Hall to assist them in the creation of projects on the aforementioned areas.

Built around the work were opportunities go to the theatre and visit the historical town of York along with a Mass at Ampleforth College and a tour of the Abbey.
The exchange was an overwhelming triumph for the College and its success has ensured that further trips will run bi-annually. 

                

14/10/09

Parliament and Royal Courts of Justice

On Friday 9th October the Law department took twenty seven students to London for the day.  Firstly, the students were given a guided tour around Parliament and Westminster, followed by a workshop on the step by step process on how legislation is made.

Secondly, after lunch the pupils went to the Royal Courts of Justice where they were given a talk on the different functions of the RCJ.  Towards the end of the session the students were invited into real courtrooms to witness live court cases.
Throughout the day the students’ behaviour was impeccable and they were a great credit to St Mary’s College.  The whole day was a unique experience for them, and the insight they have gained will help their understanding of the world, and aid their future educational and career ambitions.

                   

 13/10/09

'Maths Medals'

The Maths department are starting a  project  called 'Maths Medals’ which will try and  promote Numeracy.

The department  believes that it is a good way to prepare the students for Functional Skills.

Maths Medals is done through a series of online tests with additional support booklets. The levels of achievement are: Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

There are certificates and lots of great prizes, for all abilities!

There will be a prize draw at the end of term.

The Mathematics Department will have at least two mountain bikes to give away, at least seven I Pods and at least five book tokens worth £10!!

In addition, all pupils who have achieved a Silver Award or higher will receive a free Ice Arena voucher worth £4.90.

 12/10/09

Cape Town Fundraising

Friday's bun sale raised £140.13 towards Cape town.  Our Cape Towners (Simon, Paige, Tom and Anna) have done tremendous work this past week.  The total raised from bun sales over the three days is........(wait for it!)......(drum roll)........£354.56!!!!  What a buntastic amount!  thank you all for your support.

The running total to date is.........£649.43! (never!  Yes, it's true!)

Watch out for more mouthwatering events in the days to come

 12/10/09

Year 7 Football

Year 7 won, 4-3 against George Pinder Sports College. Scorers were Siben Sani (2), Callum Everett and Jack Potter. A great effort from the lads in a closely contested game especially in the final part of the game when Pinder nearly equalised if not for a good save from goalkeeper Daniel Rafferty. 

On Thursday 8th October away at Kelvin Hall we suffered a disappointing loss of 6-2.

12/10/09

Under 16 Netball Squad

The Under 16 Netball Squad are doing really well so far this season and are unbeaten in the Hull School's League winning 3/3 matches so far. On Tuesday 6th they beat Kelvin, Newland and Sirius Academy.  The shooting was excellent from Rachel Dixon, Steph Parker and Kadi Leigh Railton.

 The Squad list:

Rachel Dixon
Georgia Brown
Lauren Todd
Laura Ombler
Emma Cook
Courtney Wood
Grace Brewster
Steph Parker
Jodie Rudd
Amy Mcloud
Kadi-Leigh Railton

09/10/09 

Cafod Disaster Appeal

The bucket collection of Friday for the Cafod disaster Appeal (for the Earthquake and Tsunami) came to £164.12, all collected in one hour!!!!!!

We thank everyone for being so generous. We also have a cheque for £200 for Cafod, so our contribution for family fast day amounts to £360.12, a fantastic total.

 05/10/09

The Trip to Cape Town: 14th to 22nd November, 2009

“An exciting venture for our students, for our school and for the whole Hull and East Riding region”

Four Year 12/13 students and two members of staff will be going to Cape Town as members of a delegation from Hull and the East Riding to coincide with the arrival of the Clipper Ships in Cape Town.  The trip is organised by the Wilberforce Institute for Slavery and Emancipation, which is situated in High Street, Hull.  The leader and organiser is Nick Evans, who is Lecturer in Migration Studies at the University of Hull, based at W.I.S.E.  Nick has organised an International Conference on modern Day Slavery in Cape Town on the 19th, 20th and 21st November and the members of the delegation will have the chance to attend a session of the Conference. Other members of the delegation are some post graduate students from Hull University and representatives of the East Riding and Hull Education Authorities.   St Mary’s College is the only school group.
During the trip, they will be visiting an Anglican Secondary School, a 1.000 plus Methodist primary school in a local township (founded in 1838 by Barnabus Shaw from Elloughton), and , if appropriate, a shanty town primary school , as well as various Churches groups and organisations.  They will be expected to give Assemblies and do group work with the local students.  It will be an opportunity to compare and contrast our two ways of life and open a dialogue between the two regions. There will be visits to museums and other places of interested connected with slavery and the apartheid era, as well as visiting various parts of the Cape Town area.  It will be a full and varied programme of activities.
The purpose of the trip is to establish educational links between the Hull and East Riding region and Cape Town.   The members of the delegation, as well as representing our region, will be Ambassadors of the future, doing all they can to ensure that the links will last.  On their return, they will be expected to disseminate what they have experienced, not only to the students of St Mary’s, but also to interested parties in Hull and the East Riding. This will mean giving interviews and talks to groups of people, both adults and children.  Part of their responsibility will be to keep a video diary of the trip.  It will involve a significant amount of time.
The four students who have been chosen to go on the trip are Simon Walsh and Anna Mooney from Year 13 and Tom Agnew and Paige Boxshall from Year 12.  These students will be responsible for raising as much money as they can to fund the trip and this is where we need the help of everyone in the school community.  The four chosen students will be asking for your help by organising fund raising and sponsored events.  Please look out for these and support them.  If you have any ideas for fund raising yourself, please let them know.
It is a unique opportunity to achieve something really special and long lasting for the Hull and East Riding area and we wish the four students all the best wishes in the world in their exciting venture.

02/10/09

Netball News

On Tuesday the 29th October the year 8 netball team played in a tournament at Winifred Holtby school. The team played 5 games in total. Winning 1, drawing 2 and losing 2. All pupils played really well and were unlucky not to win more matches ending in 3rd position overall. A fantastic team performance by the squad of 10 girls which included:
 
Megan Hood, Caitlin Trupin, Eva Kirkwood, Mary Richardson, Chloe Field, Katie Emslie, Katie Shorthouse, Katie Suthers, Niamh Grice and Jodie Gittins. A special mention must go to Mary and Chloe who were Miss Lawson and Miss Murray’s players of the tournament. 

01/10/09 

In the money!

On Wednesday 23rd September at the Guildhall in Hull students from the College received rewards for their outstanding performance in their GCSE examinations. Hull Compact Achievement awards are given to those students who exceed their targets in English and Mathematics. Thirty one students received cheques for sums ranging from £100 and £300 with nine students receiving the maximum awards. A further twenty eight students received cheques for lower amounts. In total the students received £8120 – over £3000 more than in any previous year. However this is not surprising as the results this year at GCSE were the best ever in the College’s history.

In addition three students now in the Sixth Form received bursaries of £2000 each as a result of their work.

Hard work does pay off!! Well done to all of those concerned and enjoy spending it.

                     

25/09/09

Year 7 Rugby

The Y7 rugby team had their first taste of action in a SMC shirt this week in a pre season tournament rally at Haworth Park. Although losing 2 out of their 3 games to Winifred Holtby and Malet Lambert, the boys showed great determination and teamwork throughout - which ultimately paid off in an excellent 16 - 10 victory over David Lister in their final match. Try scorers included Joe Appleyard, Charlie Weaver and Jack Wray, with Jack also demonstrating excellent kicking technique converting 3 of his kicks.

22/09/09

Extra Curricular Timetable

Details of this term’s extra curricular timetable are here. The PE department are hoping for a big response to all of the activites and would encourage all students to look to get involved in at least one of the activities.  For the timetable click here.

14/09/09

St Mary’s Achieves Best Ever GCSE Results!

On 27th August 2009 St Mary's College celebrated achieving our best ever GCSE results. 94% of Y11 students achieved at least 5 A*-C grades with 60% including both English and Mathematics. This exceeded our target by 3%.

There were some outstanding performances within individual subject areas. In English and Maths 70% of students achieved an A*-C grade, whilst Religious Studies achieved an amazing 74%. In particular, we are thrilled with our results in the sciences and hope that some of our students go on to become leaders in this field. Of the students entered for GCSE Biology and Chemistry 98% achieved an A*-C grade while in Physics 100% of entrants achieved the higher pass!

This fantastic achievement was underpinned by our best ever attendance of 93.69% for a Y11 group along with a "can do" attitude from our students.

09/09/09

Sixth Form Exam Results

Pass rate 97.2%, increase from last year.
20.1 % A grades

We are absolutely delighted with this summer's results which indicate that our students have been rewarded for the hard work they have put in throughout their courses.  Initial analysis indicates that the College has continued its year on year improvement, reflecting the hard work of teachers and pastoral support staff, working in partnership with families to support students in achieving their challenging targets.

Amongst many highlights in this excellent set of results are some outstanding performances in Mathematics, widely recognised as one of the most challenging A levels, where 50% of St Mary's College students achieved an A grade.

The overwhelming majority of all of our students have achieved their university offers and we wish them well as they embark upon the next, exciting stage in their life long learning. "

             

27/08/09