This term has seen the introduction of an Origami club for year 7 and 8, which allows students the opportunity to explore mathematics outside of the taught curriculum.

It has been well attended so far, with a wide variety of fantastic models produced by students, including butterflies, jumping frogs, birds, cubes and crayons. We are looking forward to continuing this term with some Christmas-themed projects. All models will be on display in the maths corridor in the coming weeks. Special thanks go to the following students from the upper school, who have been invaluable in their support for the younger students when making their models: Jessica Stephenson and Malaikah Hashim (Year 12), Laura Nicholson, Lily Gills, Sophia Spoor and Phoebe Sanderson (Year 10).

Mrs Crosbie and Mrs Howarth.

The start of the academic year is always a busy time for the Geography Department in terms of fieldwork around the region. Fieldwork is a vital element of learning for our students, not least because they find out exactly what conducting experiments in a real-life context entails. Visiting a site nearby also means that they find out more about their local environment.

In September, Year 11 GCSE students conducted their fieldwork investigation into the impact of groynes on longshore drift at South Beach, Blyth. Groynes are low walls that are built out into the sea from a beach to provide a barrier against erosion and limit drifting. A warm late-summer day provided the perfect conditions for data collection. The students looked at management of the coast and how sand dune ecosystems evolve from the sea to inland.  Some were lucky enough to hear a talk from Arthur Cranson, a local coastal warden, on the importance of coastal management and the constraints under which he works. The field trip to Blyth was an excellent experience for all students. What is more, we rounded off the day with a visit to the local ‘chippie’ and ice cream parlour.

In October, the same group of Year 11 students went to Gosforth High Street to investigate sustainable transport along a busy urban thoroughfare. Given that Newcastle City Council is in full public consultation over planned changes to how we travel, not least the possible introduction of the controversial congestion charge scheme, this is a very topical issue to investigate.  Recent data, including information collected outside 22 Newcastle schools, shows that the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air is regularly well above what can be considered a safe level. Students also explored the value of more sustainable means of transport, such as cycling, the metro and busses, and compared and contrasted these to less sustainable methods. It came as no great surprise that the modal (or most common) number of people in a car was just one. Students found that, although busses in particular are reasonably well used, more people prefer to travel by car. Added to that, some busses have so few people on them that their sustainability as a means of transport needs to be called into question.  There is certainly more work to be done by Newcastle City Council.

Mr Gamesby

Congratulations to Andrew Hunsley, Sam Foster, Finlay O’Brien, Paul Caragay and Ethan Henderson who represented St Mary’s at the Lawn Tennis Association North Regional Finals on Friday 27^th September in Leeds. In the first round, they beat Egglescliffe School from Stockton, winning three out of four singles games and both doubles games. The boys played brilliantly again in the semi-final against Fallibroome Academy from Macclesfield. Once more, they won three of their four singles games and both doubles matches, progressing to the finals against Stoneyhurst School from Clitheroe in Lancashire. This was going to be their biggest challenge of the day. The number one seed match was very tight, with Andrew Hunsley coming from two games down to win his game on a tie-break. Sam Foster won his game 4-2 and Finlay O’Brien won 4-0. With three more games to play, Stoneyhurst pulled the tie back to 3-2 after winning the next two games with one match to play. Pulling out all the stops,  Andrew and Sam won a brilliant match 4-0 against high-quality opposition, making the final score 4-2 to the St Mary’s team, who were crowned the Division 2 North Regional Champions of 2019. This was a fabulous achievement. All five students played their part in a thrilling day.

Mr Maughan

In the very last week of the previous academic year, four Sixth Form students, James Metcalf, Aidan O’Toole, Mary Delariarte and Rory Bell, successfully completed their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Over a period of four days and three nights, they had to navigate their way over open country in the Pennine Hills around Richmond in North Yorkshire. The group faced several challenges, not least carrying very heavy rucksacks with all their equipment and walking for up to eight hours a day. The four students did exceptionally well. Working together as a team, they passed the expedition part of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award with aplomb. Having completed their residential, physical, volunteering and skill sections of the award, the four successful students will be invited to go to Buckingham Palace where they will be presented with a certificate to celebrate this fantastic achievement.

Miss Winckle

The Year 8 Boys Rugby team travelled to St Cuthbert’s tonight for a School League fixture. St Cuthbert’s started well and scored an early try after their backs cut through the St Mary’s defence and scored under the posts. St Mary’s came back well and dominated possession and territory for the majority of the half, but despite several excellent breaks from Solomon Mak, Woody Wilson and Malachi Duff they were unable to get the ball over the line. The boys rucked really well and recycled the ball consistently, with Sam Jubb, Torin Innes-Menzies and Sam Cleife clearing the ruck well to provide Finlay Old with excellent platforms to attack from. St Mary’s continued to attack well at the beginning of the second half, but St Cuthbert’s started to pass the ball well and they extended their lead by 3 further tries. Solomon Mak was carrying the ball brilliantly and made ground consistently, but he was unable to find a pass on several occasions leading to the attacking chances breaking down. Sam Cleife and Joshua McDonald were outstanding in defence, making several try saving tackles to keep the score 17-0. The boys finally scored the try which their excellent possession deserved with 15 minutes to go. After yet another attacking break by Soloman Mak the ball was quickly spread wide by Woody Wilson, where Daniel Clark powered over in the corner to score. St Cuthbert’s hit back in the final 5 minutes, scoring two further tries to leave the final score 32-5, a score which didn’t fully reflect how close the game was for the first 3 quarters of the game.

St Mary’s have an early chance at revenge as they play St Cuthbert’s and Longbenton in the County Cup, at home at St Mary’s on Thursday evening. Training continues on Monday lunchtime and Thursday after school, with the team showing real potential and developing nicely.

Man of the Match – Sam Cleife – Sam was excellent in defence, tackling well and rucking like a player twice his size. Sam also made several excellent breaks and was unlucky not to score on at least 3 occasions.

The Team: Daniel Clark, Solomon Mak, Woody Wilson (captain), Jack Hetherington, Hayden Huggins, Torin Innes-Menzies, Sam Jubb, Malachi Duff, Ryan Dey, Ben Swinburne, Sam Cleife, Josh McDonald, Ethan Henderson, Joshua Quinn, Finlay Old.

Mr Hook

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48 Year 8 students travelled to Thurston Outdoor Education Centre on the shores of Coniston Water in Cumbria for the annual St Mary’s Outdoor Education trip. The students took part in a variety of different activities over the 5 days including kayaking, climbing, canoeing, abseiling, mountain walking and ghyll scrambling and pushed themselves to and beyond their limits on a daily basis! The students worked incredibly hard in all tasks and came together as groups to support each other and work together to achieve their goals.

Every student involved in the trip was fantastic from start to finish, helping to make our largest ever group one of our most successful!

Mr Hook, Mrs McDonald, Mrs Currey, Mr Hatcher.