St Cuthbert's RC High School

PGL 2017

Last weekend, Miss Monks, Miss Howarth, Mr Rogerson and Mr Peredruk took 30 excited year 7 students to Caythorpe Court in Lincoln for our annual PGL weekend.

Students took part in a range of activities such as High ropes, abseiling, sensory trail (blindfolded task), trapeze and ‘Aeroball’.

The students had an amazing time and agreed it helped to build relationships with each other as well as build their self-confidence.

Special mention must go to Bailey McCallion and Tara Abraham who were known as the ‘King and Queen of PGL’. Both students attempted every task with utmost grit and determination.

On the whole, our staff and PGL staff said they were one of the best groups they had ever taken away. Well done to all!

Gifted and Talented Programme

St Cuthbert's gifted and talented Year 10 students have been visiting Rochdale Sixth Form College over the past few weeks to gain experience of life at college and take part in A level lectures in a range of different subject areas.

All of the students have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and has started them thinking carefully about their future careers and higher education.

Students had the opportunity to experience PE and Modern Foreign Languages last week and this week, students will have the opportunity to sample lessons in Art, Drama,Music and Dance.

Cambridge University

On Monday, we welcome a group from Cambridge University who are coming into school to talk with our Year 10 pupils about University life and opportunities to study at the University for higher education.

Flame Congress 2017 - 10,000 REASONS

That was the theme of the Flame Catholic Youth Congress, the largest gathering in the country of young people from Catholic schools and parishes, which took place at Wembley Arena on Saturday 11 March.

This was the first-time St Cuthbert's had attended this event and we weren't disappointed!
Our group of 18 met at school at 5.15 am on Saturday morning to board the coach together with a group from Cardinal Langley High School and St Peter's Parish, Middleton. The journey itself was an opportunity to confirm old friendships and make new ones. Our pupils really enjoyed chatting with Gavin Landers on the coach about why he decided to become a priest. Gavin visited our school 2 years ago to talk to students about vocation and he will be ordained as a Catholic Priest in June. We will keep him in our prayers.

Once we arrived at Wembley Arena, we met up with our friends from across Salford Diocese, including Bishop John Arnold. Our seats in Wembley Arena were amazing and we were immediately on our feet "on God's dance floor", blown away by fabulous music from Matt Redman, including his song 10,000 Reasons. This was a hard act to follow but Cardinal Bo who had travelled especially from Myanmar to speak to us at Flame, was entertaining and inspirational. He told us that "Hope has no expiry date but it depends whose hands it is in."

Certainly, food for thought.

Mike Pilavachi then invited us to think about our self-esteem including how many cows we think we are worth!

After a break for lunch and time to explore the various stalls around the arena, we learnt about some of the key projects which CAFOD are currently leading in the developing world.

Fr Augusto Zampini from Argentina did a live interview on stage about the difference CAFOD makes in the poorest areas.

Sarah Teather was a MP for 12 years before she became the Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Sarah shared a film with us made by refugees and the help they need and are grateful for. It was very humbling and made us realise that we are all in a position to help others who have had to flee their homes with absolutely nothing.

RISE theatre group performed a very powerful and creative drama with a twist in the tale, the message being that even if we are not aware of it, Jesus is walking by our side throughout every stage of our lives.

The congress ended with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament led by the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The silence of 10,000 people at prayer was very moving and was a fitting way for us to reflect on and give thanks for all the wonderful things we had seen and heard throughout the day.

After a couple of stops on the motorway, we finally arrived back safe and sound at St Cuthbert's just before midnight, very tired but very happy about the unique event we had just experienced together. There were certainly 10,000 reasons for us being there! Pupils commented "Thank you, it is a day I will never forget"; " I've had an amazing time and have met amazing people." You could say that St Cuthbert's Flame is burning very brightly

St Mary’s C.E. Primary School Make TV Adverts to promote their School

St. Mary’s joined us for our final session in the Learning and Innovation Centre. The students were very excited to be back at St. Cuthbert’s and the five media teams worked very hard creating text graphics, moving images and sound bites.

We used the green screen in our Media Suite to photograph the groups and they enjoyed importing the images graphics sound and music into their very own adverts. At break time the class were also very eager to visit our Cuisine area in school to taste the famous St. Cuthbert’s homemade biscuits. At the end of the session the adverts were played on our C Touch interactive board.

After Easter we are looking forward to seeing Year 4 when we will be making radio broadcasts using our very own radio station.

PE News

This week our girls have been taking part in rugby sessions with coach Chris from Littleborough Rugby Club. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their session and are looking forward to taking part in more rugby in the near future – perhaps we will even enter some competitions!

Good luck to our Year 11 boys’ football team who have their Catholic Cup semi-final against Blessed Thomas Holford on Monday.

The Under 16's girls football team played their last ever game for school in the Greater Manchester Catholic Cup. The girls managed to finish in 3rd place with some outstanding goals along the way.

Miss Holt would like to say a massive thank you to this group of girls who have stuck together from Year 7 and always represented the school in an exemplary manner.