St Cuthbert's RC High School

Students who volunteered to represent St Cuthbert's, together with Councillor Kathleen Nickson, Vice-Chair of Governors

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Battle of Somme Parade Sunday 10 July

The Mayor of Rochdale invited all schools in the borough to take part in a parade to commemorate 100 years since the Battle of the Somme.

The invitation was for pupils and school governors to attend together and to bring a banner or placard to represent the occasion.

Some of our pupils were already taking part in the parade through their involvement with cadets but we were particularly proud of 3 Year 10 pupils, Peter, Matthew & David who volunteered to represent St Cuthbert's, together with Councillor Kathleen Nickson, Vice-Chair of Governors.

The pupils met with Mrs Nickson in school to discuss the arrangements and the reasons why they wanted to take part to honour the young men who lost their lives in the most devastating battle of WW1.

It was agreed that they would carry the large poppy created by St Cuthbert’s pupils two years ago to mark the start of WW1.

Despite the rain, the parade was watched by a large crowd and finished with a Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph opposite the Town Hall.

St Cuthbert’s poppy has been put on display at the Town Hall and our pupils have been invited to tea with the Mayor in September to thank them for taking part.

Thank you to Mrs Hamilton for customising the poppy for the occasion and to Mr Jones for assembling it and then joining Mrs Nickson and our pupils in the parade.

The pupils who took part in the parade commented afterwards: “It was very moving to be involved because it is our age group who were called up and lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme.”

No Mercy Basketball Challenge! St Cuthbert's All Stars v Fr Gaspar and The Saints

To mark the special Jubilee Year of Mercy, Fr Gaspar asked St Cuthbert’s to host a basketball challenge and invite the whole school community. The date was set appropriately for Monday 4 July, American Independence Day.

As we know, Father Gaspar is a keen sportsman and very competitive, especially when it comes to basketball!

Father’s team of visiting priests called themselves the All Saints.

Miss Hatton and the PE Department invited staff and pupils to form teams who together were called St Cuthbert’s All Stars. Tickets for spectators were free and in demand. The School Council and Pupil Chaplains welcomed 120 people into the Sports Hall – pupils; staff and visitors from Holy family Parish.

We were also delighted to welcome Fr Chris McGrane back to St Cuthbert’s to announce the start of the challenge and the winner of the free prize draw. Congratulations to Sarah in Year 7 who won a £30 family cinema voucher.

Mini matches took place first of all between teams of pupils including Year 8 Girls v Year 8 Boys; Year 10 Boys v The All Saints and Year 10 Boys v St Cuthbert’s staff. The winning team was Wisdom; Jordao; Dale; Reagan and Joao – well done to them!

And so to the main event: St Cuthbert’s All Stars v Fr Gaspar’s All Saints. If we expected a basketball team of priests to show mercy, how wrong we were!

St Cuthbert’s All Stars (Mr Santana, Mr Sunderland, Mr Lockett, Mr Hall, Mrs Angove and Kevin Rembisz from Year 11) were very worthy opposition but in the end could not match the determination and tactics of the All Saints who won the match 22 – 18.

Not to be deterred, Mr Sunderland is already in training for next year!

Many thanks to everyone who supported the event and enabled it to happen.

Media News:

Mrs Maloney's Yr 9 Media group have made three short films to celebrate last week's fantastic Yr 9 Deep Learning Day. The theme was 'Challenge Yourself' and the year group responded with real enthusiasm. This is clearly evident in the films which are now featured on the school's Facebook page on the website.

Drama News:

Yrs 9 and 10 have been performing their controlled assessment scripted pieces this week. They have been working on extracts from 'Our day Out' and 'A Taste of Honey'. The pupils have to perform in full costume with lighting, props and sound. Well done to all those who really committed to this work. Your efforts will pay off in your final grades.

Music News:

Mr Turner has been very busy organising the instrumental lesson timetable for next year. More pupils than ever before are taking Music as a specialism with arrange of instruments: flute, vocal, piano, ukulele, guitar, brass, drums to name but a few! St Cuthbert's pupils remain dedicated the development of their creativity.

First Look Evening:

Over 70 pupils represented the Expressive Arts Faculty at our recent evening for Yr 4/5 parents. The ukulele orchestra entertained the audience with two songs: 'I Wanna Be Like You' from 'The Jungle Book' and 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz. Students from our upcoming production of 'We Will Rock You' also performed the title track from the musical. The Expressive Arts staff would like to thank all the pupils who performed; as always you are a credit to the school and we are very proud of you.

GCSE Resistance Materials

The Resistant Materials class went to Rochdale Training Association this week. They all had a great day, learning new engineering skills. The group developed further knowledge of industrial practices and how the apprenticeship programme works.

Accelerated Readers Awards

The Accelerated Reader Awards took place on Thursday in the Library Dome. Pupils who had improved their reading age by over two years received a certificate and badge. Special awards were also presented to our Word Count Millionaires; Princia Marie-Rose (1,825,336), Megan Clark (1,395,409), Kuba Rosinski (1,092,688) and Viviana Ripa (1,060,764). The Award for Outstanding Progress was received by Jordan Breakwell Year 8 and The Award for Outstanding Achievement went to Courtney Alexander-Walker in Year 7. The total word count for Year 7 reached Twenty-One Million, Six hundred and Seventy-Four Thousand and Fifty-Seven words, an amazing achievement.

Trip and Event Day

On Tuesday 19 July, St. Cuthbert’s are holding a trip and event day. Students will be going to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Flamingo Land, Sandbrook Park, or will be staying in school for activity day.

We are very much looking forward to celebrating the end of another busy but successful year with all of our students. It promises to be an enjoyable day.

Expressive Arts news Stars of the Week:

Georgia Scholes for her stunning cultural design work in Art. Emma Waldie for her clever use of an irregular time signature in Music. Ciyona Ribichan for her increased confidence in Drama. Daryl Allen Rosales for his excellent talk show performance.