Holy Family Catholic School & Sixth Form
Wiseman House Site (Years 9, 10 and 11) Tel. 0208 520 3587 Fax. 0208 520 3594
Issue 2: Dec 2016
Walthamstow House Site (Years 7, 8, 12 and 13) Tel. 0208 520 0482 Fax. 0208 520 4658
A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. Helping others is self enhancing and expresses our love of God.
The Holy Family Way Inside this Issue:
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Fantastic Results Fire of London Glass Making Youth Health Champions Film Award for Tamuka
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Meteorites Land on Wiseman Site Thousands Raised for WaterAid Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Operation Christmas Child
t @HFCSWaltham | Enquiries - office@holyfamily.waltham.sch.uk | www.holyfamily.waltham.sch.uk
Contents
2.
Welcome
6.
Special Events
3.
Academic & Activities
8.
Sport Events
3.
Creative Arts
9.
Chaplaincy Corner
4.
School Trips
10. Charity Events
5.
General & Awards
12.
Sixth Form Results
Headteacher’s Message Welcome to this latest edition of Holy Family Magazine. Lots has been happening since the start of this new academic year, not least with our building project. Over the summer we saw quite a bit of internal and external maintenance take place and this term we have been busy meeting with our architects, the council and our contractor, Willmott Dixon, to plan how best to build our new accommodation. From February 2017 we shall start to break ground and see the new buildings being built. We are all very excited about this. In this edition of our school magazine you’ll see how proud we are of the work of the staff and the students at Holy Family. An amazing number of activities take place in the school and we really believe that this truly contributes to Holy Family students experiencing an excellent, broad and balanced education. In this edition you can read about a great range of activities, trips and experiences. These include the Bushcraft camp for Yr 7 students who get to experience life under canvas in the wild woods of Hertfordshire, the success of
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our students in history and art working with a professional glass sculptor to commemorate the Great Fire of London, the success of our young poets and student film-makers and our annual whole school Mass of Remembrance. You find out about our new Youth Health Champions, meet our new Pupil Leadership Team members and learn about our charity work on behalf of a range of organisations. There is plenty to read and to feel optimistic about, including the fantastic performance of our students in their exams in the summer of 2016. Holy Family is a great place to be a student, particularly a sixth form student, and we will be holding our Sixth Form Open Evening in the spring term – details elsewhere in this edition of Holy Family Magazine. We hope you enjoy reading our magazine and we wish you all a peaceful and blessed Christmas and a happy New Year. Dr Andy Stone December 2016
Academic & Activities
Fantastic Results at GCSE and A level We were all delighted with the excellent results achieved by Holy Family students this academic year at both GCSE and A level. We are pleased to say that Holy Family’s pass rate went up. This is down to the hard work of students and staff and the support of parents and families. When we all work together we achieve great things. 71% of our Year 11 students achieved 5A*-C grades including maths and English which is well above the national average. At A level, we did tremendously well with over 50 per cent of grades being A*-B.
This was our best performance ever and over 80 per cent of our students are taking up university places. Special mention to Daniel Nieuwerf who will be reading maths at Oxford and to Theo Lillington who will be reading English at Cambridge. Also to Chrystal Nelson who is taking up a prestigious economics apprenticeship with the Bank of England.
Creative Arts
Students Star in Macbeth at the Hackney Empire Following a two-week performance at the internationally renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hackney Empire’s new Graduate Theatre Company, TWIST, returned to London to perform their first production: a 21st century take on Macbeth starring current Year 13 student Ethan Edwards and past pupil Shaquille Henry. The show received a great deal of positive praise from critics and audience members. In addition to showcasing their acting talents, the play is a huge testament to the boys’ writing skills as they co-wrote the script with other cast members.
Young Poets at the Barbican In June, seven Year 7 and 8 students performed at the Barbican, London. The students were selected to take part in a programme called, ‘Young Junior Barbican Poets’; a programme which helps young people to create, craft and perform poetry. The students were: Danyal, Debola, Leyla, Abiola, Mina and Marcel. They were exceptional and represented Holy Family brilliantly. Their work has also been published in an anthology.
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Fire of London Glass Making Holy Family was one of ten schools selected to participate in a project run by the Glass Sellers’ Company to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. Ten students from Years 8 and 9 were given the task of designing a piece of glass artwork inspired by the Great Fire in collaboration with contemporary glass artist, Jenny Ayrton. Students enjoyed using a range of materials to produce their artwork and benefitted immensely from the expertise available to them. Nadia commented that, ‘I learnt how to draw properly and how to use my imagination to create something unique. Jenny has very creative intentions, and her work is unique.’ The finished piece was judged and awarded second place: a huge testament to the quality of work produced! The award ceremony took place at the Church of St Stephen Walbrook and the artwork was on display in September at Hatfield House. A huge thank you to all teachers involved with supporting students with the project, in particular Mr Singh, Mr Shannon and Miss Mennear.
School Trips
Going Wild in the Forest In June and September almost 100 students in year 7 enjoyed a residential stay at Bushcraft: a woodland centre specialising in outdoor adventures and team building activities. During the course of their stay, students learnt how to prepare and make their own food—including the fire to cook it on and slept in tents. Community and team work were large parts of the experience, with students having to work collectively to achieve their aims. Feedback from the weekend showed how much students engaged with the spiritual element of the residential, as well as developing a range of skills that will see them make a very positive start to their time at Holy Family.
Vive La France On 18th November 6th form French students went to the French Institute with a focus on WWII in France. They learned about the resources that can be found in support of their studies. They were given a tour and watched a contemporary film “Once in a lifetime” to help them understand the concepts the population had to deal with during the German occupation of France. “I had so much fun and learnt a lot whilst on the trip. I’d love to go back and do it all over again!” “I really enjoyed the trip to the French Institute. I was amazed to know there is a whole region of central London submerged in French culture!! I also was astonished at the fact that France also had concentration camps but in a different form. I had studied GCSE History and never knew that. You learn something new everyday I guess.”
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Higher Education Opportunities A number of our students are very fortunate in being given the opportunity to attend series of master-classes at top universities. Here are a selection of our success stories: “Many Year 9 students attended from a wide range of London secondary schools. The session that I found the most interesting was on Robotics by Jon Rosewell. I thought this session fascinating as it included both maths and IT. We learnt how to program a robotic vehicle to move around and listen to instructions given to it.” Cameroon Joseph 9S
“I attended Computer Science masterclasses that were run by The Royal Institution. I really enjoyed the classes which were held on a series of Saturdays and I made a lot of friends there as I found myself in the midst of students who all shared my passion. I looked forward to each session and have made some lasting friendships with students from other schools.” Joseph Ruddiman 10A
“I was incredibly fortunate enough to win a place at St George’s Medical School for a week in the final week of the last academic year... I was on the train to Tooting and finding out about the several careers in medicine. My favourite session was using fake blood and finding out what happens when a doctor injects a patient with medicine; the route it takes and how it works.” Nadine Siaw-Badu 10A “I also attended the maths masterclasses at Queen Mary’s University. I really enjoyed the programme as we were not only learning something completely new, we were learning things which we will supposedly learn at A Level so already I feel I am at an advantage for my future studies. It was a bit awkward at first, meeting so many new students, but after working with them for 30 minutes we were all classmates.” Karl Medina 9S “I attended the first event with a grin on my face and a calm manner. This was the STEM Potential Programme of Imperial College, a university that had previously only inhabited my hopes and dreams and here I was surrounded by people that I could relate to, people of science and high academic achievement.” Dariusz Duszynski 11P
General & Awards
Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award
Emmy Award for Mr Keers Many of you will know that we have a great track record in the Duke of Edinburgh programme. Mr Wilbraham leads this most ably, supported by a number of other staff who give up their free time to work with the students on the programme. I was delighted this week to receive the annual report which showed that Holy Family has the most Duke of Edinburgh participants of any state school in Waltham Forest. We have 30 students going for Gold Award and almost 50 doing Bronze Award.
“Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall.” These words were part of the narration for the original documentary in 1945. During the October half term Mr Keers was in New York to receive an Emmy Award for winning the ‘Outstanding Historical Programming’ prize for a documentary he helped produce in 2014. The production is called ‘Night Will Fall’ and is a documentary about a documentary made in 1945 about the liberation of the concentration camps but was never shown until now. We had our own premiere of the film in November when it was shown after school to staff and sixth formers. There was a question and answer session after the showing and students were keen to ask questions pertaining to their A level studies. Thank you to Mr Keers for helping ensure we never forget the scale of suffering and cruelty inflicted by one race upon another only 70 years ago.
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Seye Awarded at the House of Commons Congratulations to former student Seye Ibare-Akinson, who received an award from Diane Abbott MP at a special awards ceremony for the London Schools and the Black Child Awards which Ms Abbott has sponsored for many years. This was an award that recognised Seye’s excellent A level results this summer and the determination which he showed to succeed. The awards ceremony took place in the House of Commons and it was great to be part of it. Seye is now studying economics at the University of Bristol and we wish him well for the future.
Film Award for Tamuka Ex-student Tamuka Walker presented his award winning short film ‘The Cyclist’ at The Barbican. Tamuka completed his A Levels this summer and is now undertaking a training scheme with ITV Television Studios. His short film The Cyclist, which was developed for his A Level Media Studies coursework, was the runner up at the E17 International Film Festival this year and chosen to be showcased at the Young Filmmakers Exhibition at The Barbican. We wish Tamuka every success in his future filmmaking career!
Special Events
like face scrubs and peels have plastic in them and when rinsed off they go down the drain and find their way into the seas. She specifically studies how micro plastics affect copepods a group of crustaceans who fill the oceans. As copepods are the bottom of the marine food chain they started to find micro plastics in the stomachs of other marine animals higher up the food chain. Other problems that she described was the carbon cycle and how it slows down the carbon cycle because the poo that the copepods were producing were half plastic and half carbon.
Science Lesson on the Net! On Monday 14th November, my science class were fortunate enough to have a skype call with a lecturer named Dr Ceri Lewis, who works and teaches at the University of Exeter. Her research is on how micro plastics affect the Oceans. We were able to ask her various questions about her research, for example someone asked what the main way micro plastics find their way into the sea and she said that many care products
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It was interesting to hear about real life research into problems that affect our world. It was fascinating because it gave different perspectives on experiments outside the classroom/laboratory. This also showed how real research is done and how important it is for all of us and the health of our planet in the future. Fergus McGrath (Year 9)
Dutch Teachers impressed by Holy Family
Meteorites Land on Wiseman site
For the last year, teachers at Holy Family have been working with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to develop formative assessment in the classroom.
Exciting rare samples of moon rocks and a collection of impressive meteorites landed at Holy Family Catholic School last July.
300 schools applied to be a part of this project and we were one of 70 who were lucky enough to secure a place. The project is led by assessment guru Dylan William, who has over 30 years experience of assessment development. Along with his colleagues he has developed a range of strategies to aid teachers assess pupil progress more accurately and rigorously. Due to the fantastic work that teachers at Holy Family are doing, the SSAT asked if we would host teachers from Holland, who are interested in potentially developing the programme in schools back home. On Wednesday the 2nd of November, we were fortunate enough to host 14 Dutch teachers who were very eager to get into classrooms to see what takes place. They saw a range of lessons and overall were very complimentary of the teaching and learning taking place in classrooms. They were overwhelmed at the skills teachers demonstrated in being able to motivate and engage students. They commented on the high energy and passion of both our students and staff, and on what a lovely community feel there is to the school. It was great to showcase the wonderful work that takes place in our school and hopefully we may be invited to Holland to see what school life is like there and how it compares to the British system!
Students were able to enjoy a unique, interactive experience of astronomy during their lessons. Highlights included getting up close and personal with some hand-sized meteorites, enabling students to touch a real piece of space. Included in the educational pack was a 1.2 billion year old piece of Mars and a 4.3 billion year old nickel meteorite – the oldest object you will ever hold in your hands! Our solar system is only 4.6 billion years old. Bill in year 7 said “Today I touched some of the oldest things in the world and if felt like a privilege.” The lunar samples were collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s during some of NASA’s first manned space missions to the Moon. A massive 382kg of lunar material was brought back to Earth - mostly for use by scientists in their studies of the Moon, but small quantities are used to develop lunar and planetary sciences educational packages like this one. Patryk, a year 7 pupil, said that “It was really interesting, especially the mass of the objects compared to their size. It was surprising that our school would get such objects!” Samples like these can tell us a great deal about where they originate, but we still have so much to learn!
Black History Month Quiz October marked Black History Month in England and the students at Holy Family celebrated this by competing in a quiz. Students were in their house groups with representatives from Year 7 – 13. There were 3 rounds; knowledge about key figures in history,
a ‘guess who’ round of key figures and a music round. The winners, St Anne House, have been awarded with Cineworld vouchers.
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Youth Health Champions Our Youth Health Champions have been going into assemblies to promote and highlight key youth health needs. They were championing mental health and the effect bullying can have on someone. Youth Health Champions are young people who are passionate about youth health. They work together to identify, discuss and take action on health needs affecting young people. Our YHC have been speaking not only in assemblies, which can be a scary prospect to your peers, but also in PSD lessons
to our Year 7s and 8s. We are proud that we have such a team of young people looking out for and appreciating how the health of their peers is of utmost importance to their learning.
Queen Mary’s University Maths Challenge Our sixth form students took part in two challenges set by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust and the Further Maths Support Programme in November.
All A Level Maths students took part in the Senior Individual Challenge. The challenge tests students’ problem solving and logic skills and is certainly a tough test! The paper have been sent to Leeds University for marking and we should know soon if any of our sixth formers have hit the mark to be awarded gold, silver and bronze certificates. Four students, Aarron Westerby, Inès Phillipson, Joel Thevarajah and Shania Rodrigues went to Queen Mary University to take part in the regional final of the Senior Team Challenge. Whilst our team didn’t progress to the national final, they outperformed a number of schools in a field that was full of selective grammar schools, private schools and large colleges. They enjoyed the day and the chance to pit their wits against the capital’s brightest!
Sports Events
Going for Gold at Borough Championships The Athletics Borough championships were a fantastically successful day for Holy Family. Once again held at Lee Valley Athletics Centre, the sun shone down on some great results from Holy Family. Tyrone Ferguson and Angela Davis both won gold in their events, with the added bonus of breaking the borough record. A fantastic achievement. Well done to all pupils who competed on the day, you represented Holy Family with aplomb.
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Chaplaincy Corner
All Under One Roof On Thursday 10th November, we had the rare opportunity to unite our school in a Mass at the Walthamstow Assembly Rooms. This Mass was a celebration of the Holy Family, in which we remembered by name those governors, pupils and staff who have died and gone before us. We continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers throughout the month of November and into our season of Advent. Due to the size of the school, it is only once a year that we can do this and we would like to say thank you to all who were involved in making the celebration a great success. We had our three main parishes represented by their priests: Fr Maurice Gordon and Fr Nixon Gomes (Our Lady and St George), Fr Gus O’Driscoll and Fr Kevin Conway (Our Lady of the Rosary and St Patrick’s) and Fr Jim Kennedy (St Joseph’s) who all concelebrated the Mass. It was wonderful to see the three parishes coming together to show unity in a solemn show of remembrance for those close to our Holy Family community. A special mention to the music department and Glee club for providing the music, it was a perfect accompaniment to the service. Clearly a lot of hard work, talent and practice were involved in planning and executing such a beautiful repertoire.
Interfaith Dialogue It is very important that we teach our students about other faiths in society and, indeed, about having respect and understanding of those who profess no religious faith.
Remembering those who have died We marked the week of remembrance in different ways. Students reflected on the theme of remembrance in tutor time and in assemblies. We held our whole school Mass of Remembrance where we read out the names of all Holy Family staff, governors and students who have died and we held a two-minute silence on the 11th November. Our year 7 and 8 Justice and Peace group created a wonderful large poppy. It uses white and red to show the two different poppies that are available to purchase to show support for the troops. The white poppy signifies that the person is a pacifist and that whilst they support and honour the memory of those who have given their lives in the line of duty, they do not agree with the idea of war and would like future and current conflicts to come to an end.
To this end we have an annual interfaith day for our Yr 12 students supported by local representatives of a number of faith communities including the Anglican Church, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. We are very grateful to our friends and colleagues in these other faith communities for sharing their faith experience with us and welcoming our students and staff on the day.
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From Violence to Wholeness We were pleased to welcome three visitors to our Year 10 retreat. (L-R) Stephen Webb from Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society, John Birbeck from CAFOD, and Matt Jeziorski from Pax Christi. Workshops looked at peace in our homes, our hearts, ourselves and the world. There was also the opportunity for Adoration and the day closed with Mass at Our Lady & St George’s, kindly celebrated by Fr. Maurice.
Aspire and The Holy Family Way Our School Community Last Monday, year 7 students took part in their Retreat. Various sessions took place, among them were team building, quiet reflection, finding out about ASPIRE, what the Holy Family Way means and learning a signed song. The day closed with Mass in Our Lady & St George church with Fr Maurice. The picture shows students performing the signed song.
Charity Events
Thousands raised for WaterAid We welcomed Elizabeth Sparrow, a volunteer with WaterAid, to the year 8 assembly. She came to say thank you for the amazing fundraising that took place in school during the year. The total raised was £2588.32. Special mention goes to year 8 students, Kia and Anna, who raised £95.44 by organising an Easter egg raffle. We heard that taps and toilets are a distant dream for many people around the world. Women and children have to walk for miles every day to collect dirty water, trekking over hills with jerry cans and buckets. WaterAid, alongside local partners, install systems to provide clean water to communities. Everyone then has a chance of a happier, healthier future.
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A Caribbean Calypso
CAFOD Harvest Fast Day
Caribbean Evening Thanks to Mrs Lazarus and her team for organising a splendid Caribbean Evening which took place on Saturday 22nd October.
The Chaplaincy Team held a number of events to mark CAFOD Harvest Fast Day.
If you weren’t there you missed a great evening with music food, singing and dancing. This is now a wellestablished annual event in the school calendar and we received excellent feedback from many guests. Thanks to all who came and supported the event.
There was a soup lunch on both the Wiseman and Walthamstow site, and a cake sale organised by the Peace Group on the Walthamstow site. It was great to see so many students getting involved to raise money for those less fortunate. Over £163 was raised for CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development).
Flapjack Sale for Refugees A group of year 7 students stayed behind after school to bake flapjacks for the refugee camp in Calais. They managed to bake over 100 flapjacks! This is an initiative organised by E17 for RCK (Refugee Community Kitchen). For more information go to www.refugeecommunitykitchen.com A great example of helping others.
Operation Christmas Child 8A bought items and put them together in a shoe box to participate and raise awareness for Operation Christmas Child. The Samaritan’s Purse charity, through Operation Christmas Child distribute shoeboxes to children living in refugee camps after they were forced to leave their homes by civil war. Pupils brought educational items, hygiene items and toys which included a cuddly toy, dolls, a diary, pens, pencils, sponges and bars of soap. They will share this experience with their year group in their class assembly on ‘Giving at Christmas’.
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FantasticA A Level Level results: Fantastic results: A*-B A*-B A*-C A*-C
50% 50% 83% 83%
OutstandingLevel Level33 BTEC BTEC results: Outstanding results: D*-D 85% 85% D*-D D*-M 00% D*-M 1100%
You to attend attend our our Youare arewarmly warmly invited invited to Sixth Openevening Eveningonon SixthForm form open Thursday January2017 2017 Thursday26th 26th January From on our ourWalthamstow Walthamstow From6.30pm, 6.30pm, on House site. House site. 1 Shernall Street, Walthamstow, London, E17 3EA
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