In early October, the Year 7 boys’ rugby team had their first competitive fixture of the season against St Thomas More Blaydon A and B. With all 3 teams containing a wide range of abilities and experience, the games were a good chance for all those involved to increase their confidence and develop both individually and collectively. In the first game against St Thomas More A, the boys struggled initially, conceding possession too easily in the tackle and conceded two quick tries. St Mary’s players were terrific in the tackle and were strong defensively for large parts of the game. Toby Thorpe, Corben Dodds and Alistair Craggs were all outstanding, making tackle after tackle to push back the St Thomas More attack. The game was very even in many areas, but the inexperience in the ruck area of the St Mary’s team meant that they were constantly on the back foot. St Thomas More ran in two more tries before half time to make the score 4-0. The second half was much more even, with the whole team making a much better effort at the breakdown. Another try for St Thomas More was answered with a strong run from Alistair Craggs, making excellent ground to dive over in the corner to make the final score 5-1.

In the second game, St Mary’s were much more confident and the game was much more even as a result. Tomas Souza and Sam Brooks began to have much more influence over the game and started to distribute the ball very effectively. Noah Mellett, Callum Duncan and Andrew Dagg did a great job in the ruck area, resulting in St Mary’s having many more opportunities to attack. Sam Brooks powered over to give St Mary’s the lead, but St Thomas More quickly replied to make the score 1-1. Both teams had opportunities in the final minutes of the game, but were unable to cross the line, with the game finishing in a draw, a fair result.

All in all, this was a really positive start for the Year 7 boys’ rugby team. Player of the match was Alistair Craggs, who showed excellent commitment in defence and was brilliant with the ball going forwards, fully deserving his score. Congratulations also go to the rest of the team: Tomas Souza Monteiro (captain), Sam Brooks, Toby Thorpe, Callum Duncan, Billy Crawford, Oliver Cass, James Quinn, Leo Gray, Corben Dodds, Alan Acho, Andrew Dagg, Finn Koeppl, Noah Mellett, Alistair Craggs, Hayden McDermott, Zain Hussain

The start of any new academic year is always very busy and this year has been no exception.  I am really pleased to report that Year 8 students have settled back into life at St. Mary’s with great ease. They really are a credit to the school, their parents and themselves.  With the first term of Year 8 over, it is now a good time to reflect on their achievements so far and to focus on what they need to do in order to achieve success over the rest of this academic year. As the Head of Year 8, I am really proud of all their achievements and, most of all, the positive attitude that they display in all aspects of school life on a daily basis.

There has been sustained academic and pastoral progress made by the students during the first part of Year 8, as well as clear evidence of personal satisfaction and enjoyment of school life. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge well done to Abby Kelliher in 8I.  Abby is a very talented young tennis player. She balances her studies with a hectic tennis-training schedule. She plays for the school under 13 girls football team too. Abby’s talent has even been recognized at national level. This year, she has represented Team GB at many prestigious tennis tournaments across Europe. Recently, Abby returned from the ‘Tennis Europe Tournament’ in Turkey, where she reached the semi-finals. This meant that Abby finished in the top 4 out of 64 other elite European players at this event. This is an outstanding achievement and she should be very proud of her amazing success.

Mr Gray

On 15 November, the school was invited to enter two teams of six students from Year 9 in the regional heats of the annual SubSea STEM UK Challenge. This national engineering competition asks teams of students to build, test and present their work on producing a remote-operated model of a subsea vehicle, which is designed to lay cables across ocean floors. The teams were also treated to talks from industry experts and a tour of the facilities at the Port of Blyth training services. All our students performed extremely well and were highly praised by the event organisers for their creativity, teamwork and methodology.  Competition from other schools was intense and were standards very high. One of the St Mary’s team performed exceptionally well and won the overall competition. This was a fantastic achievement and congratulations go to Andrew Hunsley, Fiona Kunjumon, Elliott Sharp, Robin Tyler, Abby Massingham and Hannah McLaughlin. They have booked their place in the national final, which is going to be held in Aberdeen later in the school year. Congratulations also go to Harry Rickeard, Mio Allison, Daniel Clark, Anna Anish, Sophie Moffett and Paul Caragay for their outstanding contribution.

Dr Reid

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