Newsletter 16.02.2024

Message from Headteacher C Burns

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you are all well and looking forward to some time with your children next week.

It has been another busy half-term at St. Nicholas with our students going above and beyond to serve and support others. We have had a very successful Mission Day where our students took part in a number of activities, including working at the Local Food Bank and litter picking in the community showing our commitment to caring for God’s creation. Our students make a difference to others on a daily basis. It was great to see our students coaching some of our Year 1 students last week at our Sports Fun Festival, as well as our mini-Dash students presenting at the Headteacher conference on Wednesday. I was proud to sit among them as they discussed their ideas and thoughts for the future development of our school. Finally, it was a privilege to join staff and students at our Ash Wednesday Services on Wednesday as we prepare for Lent. I could add more to some of the highlights of the term – the list goes on and I am grateful to the staff team for providing our students with a range of events and opportunities.

This term, we had official notification from the Department of Education that the progress our students make here is significantly above the national average and the best in Cheshire West! Students here are very successful and this is because of the excellent support we receive from our parents and carers, our talented staff team and our wonderful students who aspire to be the best they can be. Our Governors are also proactive, caring and dedicated to ensuring St. Nicholas continues on its journey to becoming an outstanding school in the future.

Mr. Spencer (Associate Deputy Head) will be writing to you separately but I am pleased to say that our phase one of our pastoral review is complete and recommendations will be made to staff, students, parents and governors shortly. We are aiming to enhance the pastoral system within the school, which will involve enhancing some of the current roles within the school, as well as creating a space for students to support their mental health and wellbeing. We have taken our time with this to ensure we get it right and so that it will benefit all students at St. Nicholas Catholic High School.

Year 11 are working hard to prepare for their forthcoming GCSEs and our A level students are certainly putting in the time! The half-term break is important for some rest and recouperation, but also a perfect opportunity to set aside some time for revision on a daily basis. The exams are now only a few months away and it won’t be long before they are sitting in the exam hall – every day counts now so please encourage your child to be prioritising study at this crucial time. Of course, for some who have already been working too hard, please ensure you take some time to rest and switch off when you can.

I look forward to writing to you next term with an update on some of the developments outlined above.

I wish our students and their families a safe and enjoyable half-term.

Kind regards,

Craig Burns

Headteacher

Message from our Chaplain Mairie

Ash Wednesday
We were very blessing to begin our Lenten journey by celebrating Ash Wednesday in school with liturgies for all year groups during the day. We are reminded that Lent gives us the time, opportunity and encouragement to change for the better. Our commitment to reconciliation and renewal was shown in the respectful and considered attitude of all our students during the liturgies.

Lent Charity
During the last week we have had assemblies with a difference. For our Lent challenge , we move to Saint houses, so all year forms in Bernadette, Camara, John Paul etc will work together to plan and promote as many fundraising opportunities as they can over the next half-term and up until the end of April. This is to support CARITAS Shrewsbury and CARITAS International, two really important charities that give practical and necessary support to individuals, families and communities. You can look at the work of CARITAS Shrewsbury here About (caritasshrewsbury.org.uk) and CARITAS International here Caritas – Ending poverty, promoting justice and restoring dignity
Last year we raised nearly £2,500 for the Good Shepherd Fund, which is their name for the Lent Appeal, you may remember this from The Children’s Society, a longstanding diocesan charity that is now included in the CARITAS family.
We are hoping for a number of exciting challenges and fundraising ideas to take place in school over the next weeks and will be including an item on ParentPay, if you wish to make a donation this way. Thank you in advance for your support.

We wish you all a restful and blessed half-term. Safe journey to all who are travelling.

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge 2024

Name	Certificate	Year
Alexander Bickerton	Gold (Best in school)	11
Edward Smalley	Gold (Best in year 10)	10
Harry McDonagh	Gold	10
Charlie Fitzsimmons	Silver	10
Gemma Chadwick	Silver	11
Chloe Yip	Silver	10
George Yearsley	Silver	10
Aidan Sham	Silver (Best in year 9)	9
Luca Cairnduff	Silver	10
Zachary Dean	Silver	9
Neve Hancock	Silver	10
Isaac Dixon	Silver	11
Aaron Shepherd	Silver	10
Sinead Garrard	Silver	10
Sebastiano Verardi	Silver	10
Jonah Ashworth	Bronze	9
Ygritte Tsui	Bronze	9
William Watts	Bronze	10
Megan Simmons	Bronze	11
Finn Scott	Bronze	11
Peace Chilakalaka	Bronze	10
Rory Johnston	Bronze	10
Hugo Shum	Bronze	10
Henryk Wieckowski	Bronze	10
Alexander Kirkby	Bronze	11
Rufus Reeves	Bronze	9

Constance Scurry	Bronze	10
Thomas Fallon-Williams	Bronze	11
George Reynolds	Bronze	9
James Lewis	Bronze	9
Cameron Giles	Bronze	11
Timmie Jacob	Bronze	10
Alex Hubbard-Storrow	Bronze	10
Brandon Williams	Bronze	9
Ruben Alcazar	Bronze	11
Nneoma Njoku	Bronze	9
Alex Simmons	Bronze	9
Edward Cranmer-Gordon	Bronze	10
Holly Dutton	Bronze	10
Matilda Hitchen	Bronze	10
Zac Mikoleizik	Bronze	10
Patrick Grice	Bronze	11
Isabelle Leather	Bronze	11
Alessa Pacitti	Bronze	9
Charlie Yarwood	Bronze	9
Belle Brown	Bronze	10
Bailey Fearn	Bronze	11
Alexandra Neshkova	Bronze	11
Lucy Riddell	Bronze	9
Rodrigo Caracas	Bronze	10
Evie Grensinger	Bronze	10
Lexi Mahon	Bronze	11

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge 2024
More than 100 students in year 9, 10 and 11 took part in the IMC last month, and 52 of these went on to achieve a certificate. The IMC tests maths skills in a challenging problem solving context. Special shout outs to Alex Bickerton (best in school) and Ed Smalley (best in year 10) who both achieved a Gold certificate and qualified for the follow-on round. Also to Aidan Sham (best in year 9) who achieved a Silver certificate, and to all the year 9 students who achieved a certificate because they sit the same paper as year 10 and 11.

Want to have a go? Here are an ‘easy’, ‘medium’ and ‘hard’ question from this year’s paper. Answers next week.

Easy:

Medium:

Hard:

Easter Donation to St Luke's

Mrs Sandbach and the catering team have donated 100 Cream Eggs to St Luke’s Hospice in Winsford. Here they will be dressed as knitted Easter chicks and donated or sold to raise money for a two person ‘cuddle bed’ for the Hospice.

St Luke’s Hospice rang Mrs Sandbach and thanked her for the donation.

For further information about the hospice or if you wish to donate cream eggs or make a donation, click here https://slhospice.co.uk/

Sparx Reader Success

Sparx Reader

Over the past 10 weeks Years 8 and 9 have been getting to grips with our new homework package, ‘Sparx Reader’. It’s created by the same company who developed Sparx Maths. The main purpose of the package is to encourage reading and to enable teaching staff to track individual student’s progress. There were a couple of teething troubles during the first few weeks but we feel confident now that the students are engaged and are able to access the homework tasks effectively. The homework can be accessed via a phone, tablet or computer. Students have access to computers during homework club before and after school every day if ever they can’t access the homework at home.

The English department would like to ask that parents and carers continue to encourage their children in years 8 and 9 to engage with their English homework every week. Sparx Reader is set weekly and your child’s teacher will have made that clear to their class. There are prize draws for students who exceed their weekly target such as lunch time queue jump passes and entry into a raffle.

The headlines are fantastic. Our students have read the equivalent of 86 books between them so far this year. That is fantastic!

Please contact Mrs Buckley or Mr Huws if you would like to find out more about Sparx Reader.

Shrove Tuesday

Pancakes in the ARC

The ARC students have been celebrating Shrove Tuesday this lunch time.

Mrs Rose made over 40 pancakes for students and staff and they were enjoyed with a variety of fillings. Lemon and sugar was the clear winner. Syrup and chocolate sauce also very popular.

Science Club

The Y12 Biologists ran a special Science Club this week for KS3 students to learn more about the mammalian system through a mouse dissection. We had over 50 students join them and there was a great atmosphere of calm, purposeful learning with great questions and enthusiasm to explore more about the body. Mrs Pidsley and Mrs Jones were truly impressed by the way the Y12 Biologists worked with the KS3 students, making it fun and engaging for all.

RE News

Dear Parents/ Carers,

As half term approaches we have put a PowerPoint together with some keywords practice. Often we find that students forget a keyword and as a result cannot “unlock” the question.

These are some great ideas how students can revise keywords and how you can revise together.

Click here to see the Powerpoint.

Our next revision session will be on Tuesday, 27th February 2024.

The next Year 11 mock exam is on Wednesday , 13th March 2024 (Y band) and Thursday, 14th March 2024 (b-band).

Wishing you a happy half term,

The RE department

Sporting Success - Athletics

Year 7 & 8 Sports Hall Athletics

Year 7 & 8 Girls and Boys were involved in the Sports Hall Athletics this week at Rudheath.

Year 7 boys finished 3rd but there was only 1 point between the top three places.

Year 7 girls finished 3rd.

Year 8 boys finished 4th

Year 8 girls finished 2nd.

All students involved were excellent ambassadors of our school and gave their all!

Sporting Success - Table Tennis

Table Tennis

Last week, St Nicholas students were in the Cheshire Table Tennis Competition in Widnes.

Lauren Eaton got to the semi-final and

James, Matthew Lewis and Rafeal Wong also all played extremely well.

Music News

Music Upcoming Events:

North Wales Choir Festival Llandudno 2nd March

NCO Mainly Baroque Concert 10th March Storyhouse Chester GCSE and A Level

Recital Evening 25th March A Level

PTFA

Dear Parents & Carers,

We do hope you can join us for our Bingo evening to help raise funds to enhance our children’s journey through school.

Wishing everyone a very happy half term.

Your PTFA

Your School Lottery

Remember to check your email to see if you’ve won!

544802

One of our supporters won £14.40 in the draw!

If you haven’t signed up yet visit our lottery here – https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/st-nicholas-catholic-high-schoolThank you everyone!

Library and Literacy

Romantasy is back in business

Followers of teen and YA fiction will notice trends in the popularity of genres. Remember Twilight and the torrent of amorous vamps that followed? Then came the zombies (Zom-B, Warm Bodies, The Enemy), dystopian and post apocalyptic fiction (Hunger Games, Divergent, Uglies, Maze Runner), magical realism (Shadowhunters ), fallen angels (Fallen, Hush Hush) and most recently we’ve been inundated with murder mysteries (One of Us is Lying, Good Girls Guide to Murder, Win Lose Kill Die etc).

Now, thanks in part to obsessed Tiktokkers, there’s a new genre in town. Well, not so much new as revived. Romantasy is back! That’s fantasy with but with strong romantic vibes for those not already familiar with authors such as Sarah J Mass. In fact, Sara J Mass’s newest book, House of Flame and Shadow has become the third fastest-selling science fiction and fantasy title since records began. It’s in good company with Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame) which has an Amazon show in the works and Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent and Dove series which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. If you haven’t already indulged in these fantasy worlds, now is the time to give it a go. Make sure to check the suitability of titles before giving to younger readers as content can vary between titles in the same series (e.g. I would happily loan out A Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass to yr 7s but later titles in the series are more suitable for 9s and above).

Check out the link below for more Romantasy titles:
https://www.epicreads.com/blog/romantasy-books/

World Book Day 7th March 2024

World Book day approaches and we have lots of activities planned for the week. We’ll let you know more nearer the time but here is the schedule of library events. The Lit-Spud competition (dressing up a potato as a book character) is open to all year groups and will be judged on Wednesday 6th March so make sure to get your entry into the library before then.

Book of the Week

One Punch Man vol.1 by ONE

Tongue in cheek superhero series about a despondent unemployed man called Saitama who decides to train himself to defeat any assailant in one punch. He soon grows bored of his ability, never finding an enemy to rival his power and becomes despondent once again. In a particularly grueling battle with a mosquito woman, he meets Genos, a cyborg who, after witnessing Saitama’s strength, begs him to mentor him. Will this give him a renewed purpose? You’ll have to read the rest of the series to find out.

It’s as silly as it sounds and is generally popular with boys 12+. Each adventure is stand alone and serialised, so good for readers with shorter attention spans

Vaccinations in school

The Td/IPV and MenACWY vaccination programme for St Nicholas Catholic High School is scheduled for:
WEDNESDAY 13TH MARCH

The vaccination is for Year 9 plus anyone in years 10 and 11 who have missed theirs last year.
St Nicholas Catholic High School, has a unique code that you will be prompted to input into the system. The code is: CP111450
Please submit consent here https://www.cwpstartingwellimms.co.uk/Forms/DTP

by 12 NOON MONDAY 11TH MARCH to ensure that your child receives the vaccination.

Community Notices

The Grange Theatre is launching a Young Company for young people (14-21yrs) who have a particular interest in the performing arts and who might be considering a career in the arts. The company will meet weekly during term time and is free to those students selected.

As well as encouraging students in contemporary theatre practice, I hope the Young Company will also form a peer group of support for likeminded individuals.

Level 2 Award in Childcare Development.

Monday 26^th Feb – Fri 1^st March

Coming February *FREE course : Level 2 Award in Childcare Development….

Learners will learn about the importance of play to a Child’s development.

Be able to plan activities that meet the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage

Gain and understanding of Autistic Spectrum Disorder

* FREE to anyone over 19 years of age on an out of work benefit or earning less than £20,319

To book a place, check your eligibility or further enquiries call or text: 07833 236675 or email workzonenorthwich@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

Community Notices - Cricket

Lunchtime and after school Clubs

Lunchtime:

Monday : Linguistics Club, Years 10,11,12,13 in E7
Monday : Memrise Club in L5
Tuesday : Science Club in S5
Tuesday: GCSE Computer Science Revision in C2
Tuesday : Chess Club in M5
Wednesday : Art club – all years in A1 and A2
Wednesday : Easy as Pi – Maths Club – in M6
Wednesday : Dungeons and Dragons in B5
Thursday : Art club -all years A1 in and A2 – KS4
Thursday : KS3 History Club – Week 2 in H1
Friday : GCSE History Film Club – Week 1 in H1

After School:

Tuesday
Performing Arts Club – 3.15 – 4.30 Drama
Food Club – Year 9 and GCSE – 3.15 – 4.30 in T6
Drama Club in Drama Studio
Wednesday
Dungeons and Dragons – in the library

Thursday
Art club for everyone in A2

Music - lunchtime and after school clubs

Lunchtime:

Monday: Choir rehearsal with Mrs Leigh 1M
Tuesday : Year 9 band 1M
Wednesday : Jazz Band (GCSE and A Level)
Thursday : String Ensemble

After School:

Tuesday : GCSE Revision
Wednesday Choir
Thursday No ORCHESTRA- Year 13 Parents evening

Instrumental Lessons in school

MONDAY GUITAR, PIANO and FLUTE
TUESDAY SINGING
WEDNESDAY PIANO
THURSDAY VIOLIN, CLARINET AND SAXOPHONE
FRIDAY DRUM KIT

If you are interested in learning an instrument in school, please click here

PE - lunchtime and after school clubs

Lunchtime:

Monday : Basketball – sports Hall – Year 9
Tuesday : Basketball – sports Hall – Year 10
Wednesday : Basketball – sports Hall – Year 7&8
Thursday : Football – sports Hall – Year 9
Friday : Football – sports Hall – Sixth Form

After School:

Some New Clubs this half term

Monday
Cricket Nets Practice Tuesday Football and Hockey All Years
Year 8 Basketball Home v Middlewich High School
Wednesday
Netball All Years
SEND table cricket competition at Wirral Grammar (daytime)
U15 indoor cricket competition at SNCH
Thursday
Year 7 Boys football at Middlewich
KS3 Rugby
Friday Run Club
A Level PE Revision

Upcoming dates

Thursday 29th Feb English & Maths Mocks commence
Thursday 29th Feb Year 13 Parent’s Evening 4.15 – 7.30pm
Monday 4th Mar PTFA Meeting 5.15 – 6.15pm
Weds 6th Mar & Thurs 7th Mar Y11 GCSE Food preparation and nutrition practical exam
Friday 15th Mar Y11 and Y12 Silver and Gold DofE training expedition departs
Monday 18th Mar Year 9 exams commence
Tuesday 26th Mar Y8 Parents Evening 4.15 – 7.30pm
Wednesday 27th Mar Whole School Mass
Thursday 28th Mar Stanley Igoe Cup (Y11 pm)
EASTER HOLIDAY 29TH MARCH – 14TH APRIL
29th – 31st March Silver 7 Gold DofE Qualifying/Training Expedition
Monday 15th Apr School Reopens

Click here for future dates

Attendance

“Everyone Matters – so attendance matters”

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