OCTOBER 2013

Peace One Day:Day of Prayer

Celebration of theEuropean Day of Languages

St Chad’s Record Breakers!

CONTENTSHeadteacher’s Message

REQM

St Chad’s Record Breakers!

Educational Visits

School Life

Forest School

School Improvements

In this issue...

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Page 3

Page 5

Page 6-7

Page 8-9

Page 10

Page 11

Pages 12-17

Page 19

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A MESSAGE FROMOUR HEADTEACHER...

The summer of 2013 will be remembered mainly because at last we actually had summer weather which we all enjoyed for the last few weeks of the academic year and throughout the summer break!

However, at St.Chad’s we had many other reasons to enjoy and celebrate the summer, most of which are recognised in this edition of The Bridge.

We were delighted that St.Chad’s broke all of its previous records in terms of examination results, beating last year’s record results at GCSE with a massive 9% rise in students achieving 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths and an incredible 14% rise in the numbers of students gaining the English Baccalaureate. This latter achievement is by far the best indicator of how well a school is doing in offering and achieving a set of results that best prepare students for the future as it includes quality GCSE qualifications in Maths, English, Science, a modern foreign language and a humanities subject. When parents are looking to choose a secondary school they should pay particular attention to the EBac results and on this measure St.Chad’s matches any of the high achieving schools in Halton and is way ahead of school’s whose results initially appear better than ours. As always results are about individual students and two success stories are on the front cover with Matthew Marnell

achieving 8A*/A grades and Olivia Tringham a remarkable 13 A*/A grades!

The summer also saw our first summer school which was very well attended and enjoyed by all and should help Year 6 students to settle into Year 7.

All students will be enjoying further improvements in our already superb facilities with the full opening of the £1 million extension to the new Science Block, new toilets, a new 6th Form common room, improved social areas in and outside school and improved access for disabled students to all areas of the school.

In what is my 30th year at St.Chad’s, it is a privilege to see the school looking and doing so well – here’s to the next thirty!

St Chad’s Community

In Other News...

In a year when national GCSE results have fallen for the second year running, St Chad’s has bucked the trend by again improving on last year’s best-ever results with massive rises in the two measurements of quality GCSE passes. The percentage of students achieving 5 GCSEs at A*-C, including English and Maths, has reached a record 59%, the biggest rise in the school’s history of 9%, and the percentage achieving the English Baccalaureate (English, Maths, 2 quality Sciences, a Humanities subject and a Modern Foreign Language) has risen by a huge 14%! This includes a significant number of students who have achieved between 6 to 14 A*/A grades and A grades for Chinese!

Headteacher Andrew Keeley said, ‘I am delighted as always for each student achieving their targets. The outstanding quality of the teaching at St Chad’s is emphasised again by the fact that although exam boards have made exams tougher by raising grade boundaries and marking more harshly, leading to the national drop, students at St Chad’s have been encouraged to rise to the challenge and done even better!’

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St Chad’s Record Breakers!

St.Chad’s RE Department has seen changes over the years since, believe it or not, we had a Head of Department called Church and a second in department called Pope! Probably the biggest change has been moving from a Catholic-based curriculum to a joint-church one to reflect our new and proud identity.

The current RE team under the leadership of Mrs Ryder-Smith has led our students and the school to great success. Before the summer the department achieved the prestigious RE Quality Mark at the highest level – Gold. This national award and standard confirms that the curriculum, teaching, assessment etc. are of the highest quality. This was further emphasised by the phenomenal examination results at A Level and GCSE – an incredible 87% of students gaining A*-C for the latter. This is particularly impressive because I believe Theology and RE are challenging subjects and to achieve so highly confirms the outstanding teaching and the fact students enjoy studying them!

If RE was included as a English Baccalaureate subject, which most people believe it should, whilst it would make no difference to other Runcorn schools’ results, our results would be significantly the best in the area! Well done to Mrs Ryder-Smith, the RE team and our two chaplains, Niall Hammond and Reverend Wullie!

It was a pleasure

to spend the weekend in the

company of such fantastic young

people.

On Friday 27th September 70 Sixth Form students and 10 staff set off for an adventure weekend at the Colomendy Centre, North Wales.

During the weekend students took part in lots of high adrenalin activities, some of which included; the giant zip wire, vertical play pen, caving, raft building and problem solving just to name a few.

It was a fantastic weekend that has made unforgettable memories for all involved.

This was an excellent opportunity for all members of the Sixth Form whether new or existing to get to know each other.

Recently Year 10 pupils studying History at GCSE went to visit the best preserved cotton mill in the world and setting for Channel 4’s ‘The Mill’ ; Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire.

Here they saw spinning and weaving machines in action and got a sense of just how dangerous and unhealthy life was for the workers. They also visited the Apprentice House where a guide shared with them stories of the punishments suffered by child apprentices such as Esther Price. After running away to Liverpool to find her family she was brought back and put into solitary confinement next to a room containing the dead body of Mrs Timperley, the superintendent’s wife, who had just died. The ghost of Mrs Timperley is still rumoured to inhabit the attic of the house. Pupils saw the bedrooms where children slept two to a bed and the school room where children were taught to read and write.

Evidence gained on the day will enable pupils to complete their GCSE controlled assessment in History.

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On 11th September Mr Merryweather accompanied 40 year 10 and 11 Leisure and Tourism students on a visit to Chester Zoo to evaluate the customer experience and gain an insight into how the zoo runs as a business.

The students took part in two workshops which involved mock job applications, interviews and dealing with difficult and dissatisfied customers. The students enjoyed the experience and have not only gained knowledge which they will use to pass their course, but skills which will give them an edge on their competitors in future employment situations.

Thanks to Miss Cassidy, Miss Goldstein and Mr Murray for helping the day run smoothly.

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Monday 5th August saw the beginning of a two week adventure for prospective Year 7 pupils from our partner primary schools. Over ninety students participated in a fun, action-packed summer school delivered by dedicated St Chad’s staff.

Pizza making and aeroplane design were enjoyed by all students in the first week but the highlight had to be song writing and T-shirt design. The week ended on a high with a ceremony show -casing the songs that had been written by the students with performances that wouldn’t be out of place on the X Factor!

The excitement continued into the second week as Everton worked with St Chad’s staff to deliver engaging activities such as numeracy, literacy and of course, team sports. Red or blue the pupils responded brilliantly to all the activities none more so than the guided tour of Goodison Park on Thursday.

Pupil behaviour throughout the summer school was impeccable and this was reflected in the wonderful graduation on the final day. The pupils’ enthusiasm and energy never wavered and their enjoyment was evident. Over sixty students attended every day of the summer school and were rewarded for their commitment with a brand new Kindle!

Thank you to the pupils, parents and staff who made the summer school a brilliant success.

If there is something we are proud of at St. Chad’s, it is the love for languages and other cultures we all share. This is the reason that for another year, we have joined in the celebrations of the European Day of Languages that is celebrated all across Europe on 26th September.

This is a time for all students and staff across the school to celebrate more than 6000 languages that are spoken around the world, promote language learning and have some multicultural time embedded into all our lessons and time in school.

Languages brains on! It’s time for language and culture quizzes, get some encouragement words in your PE lessons in a different language or research about different scientists from all around the globe!

Last year the EAL Department hosted a Teacher from Poland under the British Council Comenius Programme.

Iwona Soltysik worked with Polish pupils both at St Chad’s and at St Gerard’s RC Primary school in Widnes. She helped the younger pupils in their acquisition of English and also ran a very successful Polish language after school club for all pupils. She supported the EAL teachers in their work with Yr 11 Polish pupils who gained A* Grades in GCSE Polish.

The EAL Department have welcomed another teacher of Polish this week. We look forward to working with Piotr Bak.

European Day of Languages 2013

Learning how to protect beauty spots has given Runcorn teenagers pride in their home town.

Pupils from our Forest School team joined rangers to conserve heathland at Runcorn Hill and have preserved woodland at Wigg Island and Spike Island. Pupils have also teamed up with Warrington Angling to clean up the lake at Phoenix Park. They did a fantastic job and gave the whole area a new facelift.

Dale Blackburn our Forest School Learning Mentor said: “We are delighted to have the support of such a big and well established organisation. Warrington Angling is keen to get as many young people as possible interested in fishing. They have been kind enough to allow is to fish for free as an incentive for all the hard work”.

Students removed car wheels, a rusty wheelbarrow, cut down overgrown foliage and filled bags with rubbish at the Runcorn community park.

The conservation work gives them recognisable qualifications to add to their GCSEs.

Dale added “The kids love it. It gives them confidence and builds up their self-worth. It helps them to work together as a team and make them more employable. It gives them life skills. The response we have had has been fantastic. Many of the students have gone on to apprenticeships or other jobs. Others have come back to do enrichment and A-Level courses. It has really motivated them.”

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This new academic term has seen the introduction of a new, exciting reward system at St Chad’s which has become a talking point across the school. Vivo Miles is a web-based system proven to improve student engagement and help achieve school values. With students receiving Vivo points for attendance, punctuality, behaviour in lessons, homework, appearance and contributing to the positive ethos of the school, the high standards we set and expect should be maintained into the future.Having collected points students can log in to their Vivo account and purchase items from the Vivo online shop. We are now hoping that this positive reward system will become a way of improving the outstanding standards within the school. If you have not done so already ask your son or daughter to log in so you too can see the way that Vivo works. The impact in just a few weeks has been amazing as we can see from these quotes from students:Shaun (Year 11) – ‘I tried hard in PE and I got Vivos – they are making people work harder in lessons, especially Maths’. Francis (Year 9) – ‘Vivos are better than credits, everyone is working hard to get them’. Chloe (Year 9) – I got Vivos for finishing work in History. I want to be able to buy things with my Vivos’.

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MILES ARE HERE...

We are delighted to have the support of such a big and well established

organisation.

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Whilst there is a mixed array of evidence about what can raise the attainment of children in education the one aspect that is proven to work is having the support and involvement of their parents.

At St Chad’s we are committed to ensure that every parent therefore has the opportunity to become actively engaged with the child’s school life. Recently we launched the Learning Gateway which allows you as a parent to access information such as attendance, behaviour and achievement to allow you to communicate effectively with the school and, more importantly your child, about their progress and attitude towards their learning.

Accounts and passwords have now been created for those parents who have expressed an interest and have been issued as part of two separate emails. If you signed up for the Gateway but have still not received your account ID and password please contact the school.

For the current Year 7, 8 and Sixth Form we will be collecting email addresses at the next scheduled P a r e n t s ’ Evening from i n t e r e s t e d parents.

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With all the publicity for the Brownlee brothers in the recent World Triathlon championships, it was easy to miss that Britain did see a world champion crowned in the female event in the form of Non Stanford. We are privileged to have a future star of the triathlon here at St.Chad’s in the form of Kathryn Schofield in Year 8. It always amazes me that anyone can come straight out of the water, ride a bike and then have enough energy to run! Kathryn started with the Chester Aquathlon at in April 2013 doing the super sprint event 100 metres swim and 800 metres run. Kathryn won her event by 36 seconds.

Kathryn then competed in the Ruthin Triathlon winning the event by beating 14 – 15 year olds! After this Kathryn joined Warrington Triathlon Club.

On Friday 20th September, over 350 of our fantastic young people commemorated World Peace Day (usually celebrated on September 21st) by participating in an all day prayer vigil.

During the day, classes came for a service to encourage them to think about the need for peace and reconciliation in our broken world. Pupils were invited to reflect upon Jesus’ words “Blessed are the peacemakers” and on the words of our school prayer ‘Make me a channel of your peace’.

We encourage everyone this weekend to make an effort to live more peacefully with our family, friends and neighbours.

God Bless.

In the Blackpool Triathlon Kathryn came 11th against the top girls in the country only by 4 minutes behind them. On the 8th September Kathryn did Salt Ayre Junior Triathlon in Lancaster T2 Event 200 metre swim, 5.2 km bike and 1600 metres run, coming 9th, only 2 minutes behind the top girls.

Next year Kathryn will be doing the T3 events in the Northwest Junior Triathlon Series, which is a 300 metre swim, 7.8 km bike ride and 2400 metre run.

The series starts again is February 2014 with Aquathlon at Wirral.

Well done to Kathryn and good luck for next year – we will all be cheering you on!

At the beginning of the year a group of year 9 art students were asked by St Edward’s Church to produce a series of altar frontals representing the liturgical seasons in the Christian calendar.

Over the months, Eve Roberts (a Textile Artist) and Kathy Hodgkinson (parishioner at St Edward’s) worked alongside Mrs Parker and the students to produce individual squares. The squares were constructed into a wall hanging and submitted to the ‘Great Northern Quilting show’, held annually in Harrogate.

This event included 100s of pieces of art by various Textile artists and groups from around the country. To the school’s delight, St Chad’s entry won 1st prize in the under 16’s group category.

Well done to Mrs Parker and our students for all their hard work and effort that they put into making this quilt as they were up against some very stiff competition!

GREAT QUILTING!

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The department was delighted to hear that two former A-Level Applied ICT students have achieved degree success. Tom Dutton and Liam McElroy were the first cohort of students who completed a GCE in Applied ICT. Both went on to Liverpool John Moores University after completing their A-levels here at St Chad’s. As part of the course, Tom and Liam had to complete a year in industry where they gained practical, hands-on experience. Thomas Dutton achieved a BSC (Hons) in IT and Multimedia Computing. Liam McElroy achieved a BSC(Hons) in Software Engineering. Liam also runs his own Software Engineering Company. Congratulations to both students on their success.

We wish them every success in their future careers in ICT and Multimedia.

The teaching of ICT, which is soon to be renamed ‘Computing’, has been making headlines for a number of months now. It seems like everyone from government to industry has had a say on how this important subject should be taught.

Here at St Chad’s we believe that our learners should have every opportunity to make the most of their talents and to learn new skills.

Year 10 are the first cohort of pupils who were able to ‘opt’ to take GCSE Computer Science. Numbers are extremely positive and the ICT Department is looking forward to delivering this new course.

The course is both practical and academic and will suit students who are hands on, and who have an interest in computer programming.

Any Year 9s who are interested in opting for Computer Science next year should speak to a member of the ICT Department.

COMPUTERSCIENCE

@ ST CHAD’S

1st class honours success for past a-level ict students

The end of the school year is always a busy time, but for about 30 pupils trying to learn a lot of lines made things a lot more hectic.

St Chad’s Drama Club had been formed to accommodate budding actors and actresses as they were to showcase their talent to a live audience in the premier of “Murder Mayhem at the Mayview Manor”. This was to be no ordinary production as the audience had to watch the play and during the interval try to figure out the murder. After a successful performance, with pupils from Y7 to Y12,

the ‘Top Detective Award” went to Helen Barrett (Leah and Jane’s mum).

Everyone who was involved should be very proud of themselves and are hopefully all set for this year’s production that will take place in March.

If you are interested in joining the drama club come see Miss Brennan or Sean Murray as rehearsals will resume again every Wednesday.

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Year 7 pupils at St Chad’s recently had the opportunity to experience “real theatre”. The Flying Theatre Company came to perform a French production, ‘Bon Voyage’, which focussed on all the topics that the students have been studying since primary school. It allowed them to reinforce outside the classroom what they already had been taught in class. It included key vocabulary from Key Stage 2 and 3 including: holidays, travel, directions, the weather, family, food,numbers, hobbies and interests.

The production included a variety of music, singing, playing of instruments, illusions, mime, special effects and circus skills!

The Flying Theatre’s aim is to break down cultural barriers through the use of language and drama. The performance left a lasting impression on the students, which will motivate them to explore other cultures and stimulate their interest in learning another language so they may benefit from the doors that this can open.

The students really enjoyed the production from start to finish, and participated well throughout!

The Celebration Evening is an annual event we all look forward to as it is an opportunity to celebrate the many achievements of St.Chad’s students.

Since I became Headteacher I have always asked as our Guest of Honour a former student who has gone on to achieve great success in their chosen career after a successful education at St.Chads’s – our alumni. I believe the example of our alumni will inspire others to emulate their success. In 2012 our guest was Martin O’Brien who not only has had a glittering career as an actor and director but also ‘came home’ to produce last year’s hugely successful ‘Runcorn Passion’.

I am equally delighted to welcome as our guest this year Siobhan Garrigan who after great success at St.Chad’s went to Oxford University. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Siobhán worked among homeless populations in England and New York City, and was the first Director of the second Emmaus House in the UK, an intentional community of formerly homeless people, self-supporting through its recycling industries. She is currently Associate Professor of Theology at Exeter after having served as a professor at Yale University for the previous eight years and as a lecturer in theology at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and the Open University (Ireland) for the previous five. From January the 1st 2014 Siobhan will be the Loyola Professor at Trinity College Dublin.

This is a new established chair for a theologian in the catholic tradition whose work pays particular attention to issues of social justice. It is also the first chair for a catholic theologian ever at Trinity (so it involved a historic change to the university’s constitution by Elizabeth I in order to create the post), and it was Siobhan’s leadership on ecumenical theology that has led to her appointment – it seems particularly appropriate that Siobhan will be our guest at one of the few joint-church schools in this country. We will be inviting Siobhan’s parents, Phil and Tony Garrigan, parishioners of St.Edward’s as our guests as well.

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Celebration Evening On Tuesday 17th September students from SC6F were given the opportunity to take part in the Wire FM Scholarship programme as part of their A-level Media Studies Course. 13 students from years 12 and 13 spent the day experiencing how a live working radio station functions. In one session they worked as a group to record a radio programme, they selected song choices that were suitable for the Wire FM audience, selected advertising, scripted and recorded links and features. The second session gave them the unique opportunity to create an advert for broadcast on Wire FM, which promoted the St Chad’s Open Evening, students brainstormed, scripted and recorded adverts which have been played on Wire Fm on the week before Open Evening. Mrs Hill, The course leader said “The students showed outstanding maturity and creativity working in a professional Media Environment, we may have some budding Chris Moyles presenters”.

Budding Radio Presenters!

IN OTHER NEWS

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In other news...

Mrs Pendlebury’s Year 9 group contributed to the BBC School News Report on 24th March 2013. The pupils researched both local and global topics of interest and compiled interviews and reports. They then went on to perform their reports using Green Screen Technology in the Multimedia Studio. The project was a huge success and to recognise their efforts the pupils received a certificate of commendation from Huw Edwards - BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader for the BBC.

Our Community Cohesion group have continued to work hard with charity fund-raising for Alder Hey Hospital. This was a whole school initiative to raise awareness of Leukemia and to help to raise money for our new Year 7 pupil, Shaun Garner.

The fundraiser was launched through year group assemblies where outside agencies spoke about how we could help as a school community. The request to staff was successful as many departments within the school immediately got on board and started to think of how they could generate subject- based fundraising.

The English Department created posters, had spelling tests, readathons and also created a school Joke Book. The PE Department held basketball games and penalty shoot outs and the History Department also held some sporting events.

The group worked extremely hard to get local businesses on board to provide Shaun with a special day to remember. Many thanks go to the support of Pizza Hut, Gulliver’s World and Cineworld.We have finally reached our target of £1,000.

Everyone who comes to St.Chad’s compliment the superb facilities we have and the way they provide students and staff with the very best teaching and learning environment.

Since I became Headteacher I have tried to ensure that every area of the school is brought up to the same standard as the new-build and with the improvements of this summer I think that is now the case.

The Art and Technology block was the original school when it first opened in 1975 and it is appropriate that with the refurbishment of the Food Technology room (pictured being opened) that all rooms in this block are now state-of-

the-art in terms of the facilities and equipment in them. Art rooms were refurbished last year and we have had a rolling programme for each Technology room – now completed! At the recent Open Evening prospective parents were amazed by the new facilities which they are thrilled about their children using to achieve their potential when they come to St.Chad’s in the future.

The extended Science Block is now fully open and we have also improved the outside social areas for students over the summer allowing us to bring students inside the school security fence at all times to allow for improved safeguarding.

BUILDING OF THE FUTURE!

Online Paymentsare now available at our school

For more information about how you can pay online for the school cashless catering or school trips, please contact Joanne McMannion at St Chad’s.