In a Year 8 project, students have been using their gifts and talents to the full and Maja Iwan (8M) has produced this beautiful piece of work. A huge well done to Maja- such artistic talent!
Over the last few months in Year 9 English lessons, students have been working with Slam Fresh, an acclaimed poetry performance group in the North-east of England. The project culminated in a Poetry Slam event on Monday evening at the Northern Stage. Some of the group performed their work and competed for the coveted golden microphone award in front of friends and family. The students were exemplary and their poems and performances were wonderful.
Huge congratulations go to Nick Gates, Max Sokolov, Heidi Peddie-Jones, Dylan Chacon-Clavijo and especially Pablo Velasquez Gomez who was the winner on the night.
The Headteacher’s Awards went to the following students this week, for a wide range of accomplishments including excellent work and effort in lessons and superb contributions towards the wider life of the school. We are very proud of all of their contributions and achievements.
Ciara Middleton (7N)
Isaac Olafsen (7M)
Hailey Benjamin (8A)
Grace Chapman (8A)
Liam Atwell (9R)
Alfred (Alfie) Beale (9M)
Adam Simpson (10I)
Kelsie Cockburn (10A)
In further great news, St Mary’s has won a British Chess Educational Trust Award for outstanding achievement in chess and for encouraging the development of school chess across the region. This is a tremendous accolade for the school and big thanks to Mr Richardson for all of his efforts with this.
Last Thursday and Friday, St Mary’s competed in the ECF National Schools Chess Championships Finals. A total of twenty-six teams – each one having qualified through local tournaments that were held since last autumn – took part. The St Mary’s players – Ciaran Macdonald, Alexander Johnston, Joel Dyter, Feitong Wu, Daniel Francis, Daniel Gazerani-Lopez and Jonathan Jativa-Calle – were ranked in twenty-second place.
On the first day, St Mary’s lost in Round 1 to Westminster Under School (1.5–4.5) and in Round 2 to Tiffin School (1–5). However, they rallied in Round 3 to beat Altrincham Grammar School (3.5–2.5). The second day began with a Round 4 encounter against Eton College and, despite losing the match 2–4 (Ciaran and Daniel Gazerani-Lopez won the points for St Mary’s), it could very easily have been a draw.
Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School were the only other team that had qualified to represent the North East and it seemed inevitable that St Mary’s would meet their nearest rivals in Round 5. Fortunately, St Mary’s enjoyed a comfortable victory (4.5–1.5) to ensure an excellent end to a terrific competition.
After five rounds, each running for over two hours, St Mary’s finished the tournament on four match points – joint-fifteenth – with only four other schools (Bolton School, Eton College, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys and Westminster Under School). Taking into consideration several tie-breaks, St Mary’s ended the two days in nineteenth place, only two places behind Eton and six places ahead of the RGS.
All seven players in the St Mary’s squad were brilliant and the four Year 13 members who are leaving the school this
summer have set a very high standard for younger students to match.
We are very proud to share with you that the students on the Barcelona trip were exceptionally well-behaved and a real credit to the school. Every adult they came into contact with on the trip said how fantastic our students were (i.e. bus drivers, tour guides, lifeguards etc) and they proved to be superb ambassadors for the school. A huge well done to all students involved.
The School Games Mark is a government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community.
We are very proud to announce that we have been awarded the School Games Gold Award. Many congratulations to the PE team and all of our wonderful students for achieving this award.
In further great news, the attached certificate came into school yesterday. It shows the tremendous contribution that our Duke of Edinburgh Award students are making in terms of volunteering- absolutely fantastic! A huge thank you to all our colleagues and families who have supported DofE this year. It is a wonderful scheme, involving so many of our students.
The Headteacher’s Awards went to the following students this week, for a wide range of accomplishments including excellent work and effort in lessons and superb contributions towards the wider life of the school. We are very proud of all of their contributions and achievements.
- Emily Thompson (7A)
- Will Tumelty (7N)
- Chibundu Mbilitem (8N)
- Anna Maria Paez (8R)
- Nell McEnaney (9I)
- Matthew Scott (9S)
- Zoe Mitchell (10S)
- Haider Akhtar (10I)
- Ethan Henderson (12M)
- Luca Barbieri (12A)
The Headteacher’s Awards went to the following students this week, for a wide range of accomplishments including excellent work and effort in lessons and superb contributions towards the wider life of the school. We are very proud of all of their contributions and achievements.
- Edwin Olafsen (7I)
- Zoe Valentine (7S)
- Julia Parzniewska (8N)
- Thomas Standley (8A)
- Kasey McCartney (9M)
- Elle Hatt (9Y)
- Lewis Brannigan (10Y)
- Elise Bates (10N)
- Solomon Mak (12Y)
- Lexi Douds (12Y)
