ISSUE 18 - SUMMER 2016

www.st-cuthbertshigh.newcastle.sch.org @SCCHS1881

St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School is an outstanding

school (Ofsted, 2016). Our recent inspection testifies

the outstanding school your son attends and we are

very proud of our students’ achievements. This is what

Ofsted said about our students;

‘They make rapid and sustained progress across

different subjects and year groups.’

‘The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is

outstanding.’

‘They are aspirational and ambitious.’

Ofsted ‘Outstanding’

Congratulations to Jack Minto, Andrew

Davison and George Gray who were

recognised for their achievements at the

Newcastle Schools Achievement Award.

Well done for going above and beyond

last year.

Newcastle Schools

Achievement Awards

We have recently been awarded an Educational

Outcome Award for 2015. This award has been given for

being in the top 10% of non-selective schools nationally

for student attainments and for being in the top 20% of

non-selective schools nationally for student progress. This

award reflects the ‘hard work and dedication of our staff

to ensure that students reach their potential’.

We are proud to accept this award as it

shows that teaching staff of St. Cuthbert’s

Catholic High School guarantee that all of

our students attain the highest possible

outcomes to a standard above that gained

nationally and make rapid, sustained and

outstanding progress.

Beacon of Success

Educational Outcome Award

The summer production of Henry V will take place on Thursday, 21st July on the school field.

Refreshments will be served, to an invited audience, from approximately 4.30pm with the

performance starting at 5.30pm. In Sixth Form News, AS English Literature and Language students’

recently attended a revision event held at Sunderland University and have attended two

seminars with Newcastle High School for Girls.

Play in the Park and Sixth Form English News

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Two Year 11 students Hasan Imtiaz and Gianluca

Carozzo took part in the North East Regional final for

the English Speaking Union debating competition at

Hill House School in Doncaster. The motion was ‘This

House would legalise the buying and selling of human

organs.’ There were six teams (all of the other teams

were sixth formers!) The boys debated extremely well

and worked excellently together..

Debating Success

Reece Scholars recently attended the Maker Fair

and manned their own stall showing off what they do

as part of the Reece Scholars scheme. They were

fantastic ambassadors for both the school and the

Reece Foundation and were awarded a ‘Maker of

Merit’ award. Well done to all students.

Reece Scholars

Matthew Lockey (Aidan – 8DSW) received £300 in

funding from the North East Enterprise Partnership and

Heddon Holistic Therapy to go towards the ‘Silver

Arrows’ team as part of the Recce Scholarship. Great

leadership shown from Matthew. Good luck to you

and the rest of your team, Danial Ali and Martin Shiel

Deigo.

Silver Arrows

In a recent ‘waste week’ our Eco Team focuses on water waste. They planned a water waste

survey which was completed by year 7 before Waste Week began. The Eco Team gave a

presentation in house assemblies where they focussed on water as a precious resource

and gave practical advice on how to save water.

Eco Team – Water Waste

Two Hild students (Eriq French-Wilson and Bryant

Muthuna Achariage) explain their five pound

challenge.‘Our form class decided to show a movie

and charge 50p to get to watch the movie. We also

had a deal, if you paid £1 you could get access for

the whole month. It started off with ten people, but

after we had made the posters more people started

to come. To raise even more funds we sold

refreshments. Our little club started to soar and we

ended up raising over £100!’

£5 Challenge - Movie Club

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St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School has

established itself as the Award hub of the

Diocese with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award,

Pope John Paul II Award and the Fortis Dux

Award all proving to be immensely popular

throughout the school community with over 500

students participating in at least one award.

As well as this, over the Easter break staff took

part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Diamond

Challenge. Congratulations to Harry Mackenzie

who is the first of our 23 students to gain their

Gold Award. We also have 20 students on

course to complete their silver award.

Fr David Smith recently received a cheque

for £1,800 for the Kenya Water Appeal. Fr

David addressed our students in a special

assembly thanking them for their

wonderful generosity and good will

towards his project. All of the money was

collected during Lenten alms with both

the sixth form and Aidan house collecting

the most. Well done to all involved!

Kenya Water Appeal

Duke of Edinburgh

Six Year 10 students (Osama Iqbal, Shibbir

Ahmed, Muhammad Momin, Zain Hussain,

Qasam Ahmad and Fahmid Ahmed) visited the

Stadium of Light for the Coca Cola Real

Business Challenge Regional Finals. The boys

worked extremely hard on producing an

environmental campaign creating a campaign

with the catchy slogan “Make the Tyne Shine”.

The boys finished runners up, a fantastic

achievement!

Business Challenge

Geography Raffle

Congratulations to Desmond Weich

(Aidan House - 10MSP), who was the

winner of the Geography raffle for two

tickets to see the Newcastle Falcons vs

Sale Sharks Rugby match. Sale Sharks took

the victory and Desmond commented on

how much he enjoyed the game!

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Matthew Seccombe (Year 13) is an

extraordinarily talented artist and draughtsman.

His architectural drawings and paintings have

wowed staff and students consistently

throughout his time in St Cuthberts sixth form. Our

Art department decided to enter Matthew’s

work in the Saatchi Art Prize 2016, which is an

international Fine Art competition for under 18’s,

ran by the prestigious Saatchi gallery and with a

top prize of £10,000. Although Matthew’s work

did not win a prize, it is fantastic to see the

school’s profile along with Matthew’s stunning

work on the Saatchi gallery website.

Matthew Seccombe

Musical Performance

Students once again performed to a capacity audience and were incredibly well received. The

talent of the ‘A’ Level and GCSE musicians shone through creating a vibrant excitement

amongst the crowd. Our Music Department would like to thank all those involved in making such

events possible and all parents, students and staff for their continued dedication.

Students and staff celebrated HRH

Queen Elizabeth II 90th birthday in school.

Newcastle City Council School's Meal

Service chef Julie decorated the dining

hall with full regalia honouring Her Royal

Highness with cupcakes and drinks; all

homemade from locally sourced

produce. The occasion was also used to

promote British Values and Healthy

Eating in our Healthy School.

Happy Birthday!

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A selection of Year 7 and 8 students

attended St Cuthbert’s Care’s Good

Shepherd Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral.

They took part in the celebration of the

work St Cuthbert’s Care in the local

area. The students were

complimented on how beautifully they

sang by other members of the

congregation and have been invited

back for next year’s mass.

Year 10 students visited St. Michael’s Church to

support their GCSE Religious Studies course, where

they have to examine the features of a Catholic

Church and explain how they enhance the

experience of worship. A particular point of interest

was the story of how the church was hit by an

incendiary bomb during World War Two. Most of

the roof was destroyed and the church was badly

damaged. Students were fascinated to examine

photographs from the aftermath of the attack.

Church Visit

The Good

Shepherd Mass

Staff and students celebrated Ash Wednesday with the distribution of ashes. Students received

the ashes from sixth formers who are doing the John Paul II award. The students were reminded

that it is an age old tradition celebrated by Christians and they should wear the mark as a sign

of repentance and turning back to God as they embarked on their journey through Lent. The

call to prayer, fasting and almsgiving is the call of the Christian.

Ash Wednesday

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Mrs Brown’s Year 5 Maths Challenge was a great success and

was enjoyed by everyone. The top three places were:

1st Place – St Oswald’s

2nd Place – St Vincent’s

3rd Place – St Charles’

Well done to all of the teams who took part.

Thirty French students arrived in Newcastle from St. Sigisbert, Nancy. Fifteen boys stayed with our

year 10 and 11 students and fifteen girls stayed with students from Newcastle High School for

Girls. This was the first French Exchange to celebrate a partnership between our three schools.

All students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to the return visit in the

winter term. Well done to all students involved.

Pi Day

Maths Challenge

French Exchange Visit

After a morning of activities

celebrating World Pi Day, our Year 8

students, led by Mr Skeoch,

managed to recreate the

approximation for Pi that was used

by the Ancient Egyptians over 3000

years ago. The approximation, 22/7,

was deduced by creating a circle of

students and stretching a line across

its diameter.

The number 22/7 was also proven by

Archimedes to be the ‘upper

bound’ of Pi and formed part of the

first known mathematical proof of its

value. More amazingly, Jack

Halliday in Year 8 managed to

memorise Pi to a staggering seventy

decimal places.

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Congratulations to our Under 13 and Under 15 swimming teams who were recently successful at

the Tyne and Wear Swimming Gala at Sunderland Aquatics Centre. The Under 13 swimming

team were silver medallists in their individual medley and freestyle relay. The Under 15 team

claimed the higher honour of Tyne and Wear Champions in their individual medley and freestyle

relay. Well done to Christian Ubanan, Nicholas Pyle and Jack Mackenzie who have been

successful in gaining qualification times to compete at the National Championships.

Well done to our Sports Leaders who have

successfully completed their respective awards.

Students have coached sessions at St.

Cuthbert’s (Walbottle) and St. John Vianney

and have also taken a lead role at several

events; Primary School Cross Country, Primary

School Tennis Competition and Indoor County

Athletics. In total 52 students completed the

Level 1 qualification and 29 the Level 2. Well

done to all students who have represented the

school with great pride.

Sport Leaders

Swimming Success

Many congratulations to students from years 7, 8

and 9 who took part in our annual Fun Run. The

boys, accompanied by a number of teachers,

completed the run and also raised over £1800

for Sports Relief. Well done to all students

involved!

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Sports Relief

Ten students from Hild house visited

Newcastle University for a medical and

dentistry day. They carried out lots of

activities showing what’s involved in the

profession. A number of students were so

impressed they have decided it’s a

career they wish to pursue!

Medical Day

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As a part of the Sky Sports Living for

Sport initiative our students were

extremely lucky to spend two days

working with Craig Heap. Craig Heap is

a retired artistic gymnast who achieved

national and international success at

the highest level. Craig worked with our

Gifted and Talented PE Academy and

delivered several workshops based

around the six keys to success. Craig

was so impressed with our students he

invited them to Benfield Gymnastics

Centre.

The Gifted and Talented PE Academy

supports our most gifted students in their

pursuit of sporting excellence, Mr Hogg

who runs the academy commented on

the day; ‘A fantastic opportunity for the

gifted and talented students to gain an

insight into a professional athlete’s

lifestyle and the sacrifices that need to

be made in order to exceed in their

particular sporting discipline.’

Eight Year 11 Sport Studies students (Adam

Murphy, David Allasan, Abdul Afolabi, George

Gray, Aleck Haddon, Billy Lamb, Fin Anderson,

Aaron Bamford) recently completed their weight

lifting assessment at Class Fit Gym in North Shields.

The students worked tremendously hard and were

great ambassadors for our school.

Gifted and Talented

PE Academy

Class Fit Gym

Another successful year for our school

basketball teams with our U14 team

winning Newcastle Schools league and

cup. Our U15 team were finalists in

Tyneside Schools final, narrowly being

defeated by Durham Johnston. For the

second year in a row, our Under 18’s

reached the quarter finals in the

national cup, a fantastic achievement.

Basketball

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Gretna Road, Newcastle upon Tyne,

Tyne and Wear, NE15 7PX

www.st-cuthbertshigh.newcaslte.sch.uk

admin@st-cuthbertshigh.newcastle.sch.uk

0191 2744510 @SCCHS1881

Nicholas Pyle continues to go from strength to

strength in the pool. Nicholas reached the final of

the British Swimming Olympic trials in Glasgow,

breaking the county record for 100m back stroke

in the process.

Nicholas also broke the 15 years British Age Group

Record in the 50m back stroke. Two fantastic

achievements. Well done Nicholas!

Swimming Sensation

Well done to all of our football teams for

their performances this season. Special

mention to our very talented Year 7

Football team who were crowned City

Cup Winners. This completed the

‘double’ for the boys after their 5 a side

success earlier in the year.

Our Year 9 team were very unlucky

runners up in the Tyneside Schools Cup

final, where they were narrowly

defeated by Durham Johnston.

Two recent primary school sport events were

hosted at our school. The Skipping Festival was a

fantastic, cheerful, joyful event and after school

the Cross Country Event was very successful,

attended by lots of students and supported by

their parents. Well done to all students who took

part and our sports leaders who helped run the

event.

Primary School Sport

Football Champions