Friday, 8 November 2013

St. Boniface College Headteachers Blog for wb 11.11.13


 Hello once again,

I am hoping that your son has brought home a letter from the Chair of Governors, Mr Stephen Hole, today. In case he has forgotten to give it to you I attach a copy of the letter below:


Dear Parents,

After twenty years of service to St. Boniface’s and Catholic education my commitments have recently significantly changed resulting in my belief that I would be unable to deliver either the time commitment or support required to the College as we move forward to becoming an academy. I therefore discussed the matter with Bishop Christopher in mid October. Bishop Christopher has been totally supportive of the College throughout his tenure as Bishop of the Plymouth diocese and he has agreed with my views and has reluctantly accepted my resignation as a member of the governing body of St. Boniface’s which we have agreed will come into effect from 9th November.

Mr Malcolm Teague, current Vice Chair, will take over from me as Chair of Governors of the College. A formal appointment to Chair of Governors will be made in due course.

I would like to pay tribute to my colleagues who as volunteers give selflessly of their time. Also to  Mr Davies who is competently and professionally leading the College. He is well supported by Mr Ramage and the senior leadership team. All the staff are totally dedicated to the delivery of first class education in accordance with the teachings and practices of the Catholic faith and it has been a privilege to have been able to have been the Chairman of Governors and to have worked with such a dedicated team at all levels within the College.

 The students of this College are a credit to you as parents and I wish them all and you every success for the future.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Hole

 

 

On behalf of the students and staff I would like to formally thank Mr Hole for the hours and hours he has spent supporting the College not just as his time as Chair but also as a Governor, he will be missed.

 

Next week, Wednesday sees the start of the Year 11 mock examinations – please see timetable at the end of this Blog. We are trying to make this experience as similar to that which they will be subject to in June and July. Levels of entry for some GCSE subjects will be based on how well students perform so please do encourage your year 11 son to give of his all.

Other important news this week revolves around the planned first monitoring visit we had on Wednesday from Ofsted. I cannot say anything at this stage but please note that I have a broad smile and am very proud of students and staff. As soon as the letter is printed on the Ofsted website I will be able to provide you with a copy.

A note from Mr Baines our assistant head teacher with a focus upon, assessment, reporting and recording regarding our SLG, Sims Learning Gateway.

Some parents, and staff, have reported problems when accessing the SIMS Learning Gateway (SLG).  This issue is caused by a cookie privacy setting within the web browser on the local machine. To correct the problem within Internet Explorer please follow these steps:

 

1) Open Internet Explorer

2) Select Tools > Internet Options

3) Select Privacy

4) Select Sites

5) In the Address of website add capita-cso.co.uk in the address of website and click Allow

6) Click OK and restart Internet Explorer and try changing the password again

 
 
Our HMS Heroes have been active again with a photo below from a trip this week.

 






 

Year 7

Yes it really is only 30 school days until Christmas!

Over the half term, I have been reviewing the assessment data from the student’s first term at the college as part of our quality assurance of data. It is important at this stage to review the academic groups to ensure that students are placed in the correct group for their ability. In some cases, the SATs results are not as accurate as we would hope, leading to students being misplaced at the start of September. I hope to rectify this and find a suitable group for your son to succeed in his learning; whether that be a higher group to enhance his learning and stretch him further or a lower group to support his academic learning needs and provide him with the support for him to reach his target grades. There will be a number of students who have moved academic groups this week. They have received a new timetable and a letter home explaining the changes. I do hope that first and foremost the students are now happy in a more suitable group and that you support these moves and understand that I always have the students learning and best interests at the forefront when making difficult decisions.

This week we had an informative assembly from Mr MacCormick on the new Behaviour Policy. This is a policy introduced to celebrate student’s achievements with rewards and to support them in behavioural issues. It all sounds very exciting and we thoroughly look forward to the launch of this coming soon!

I am delighted to say that Year 7 have broken the 1000 boundary on the achievement entries onto our SIMS learning platform! We have 1070 entries for a range of achievements including merits, achievement awards, home-learning and effort in learning. Well done year 7! I couldn’t be more proud!

To ensure the extremely high standards that Year 7 continue to demonstrate, please can I ask parents to make a note of the following;

 
·          Students should adhere to the hair and uniform requirements at all times. I hope that the boys have managed to have suitable haircuts over half term! Please also ensure that the correct outer wear garments are being used as the weather starts to turn towards winter. Students should only be wearing black or navy blue coats, thank you.

·          Mobile phones should not be on during the school day. They should be switched off and in bags so that learning is not disturbed.

·          Home learning should be completed for all subjects in a timely manner. Please can parents insist on checking planners and guiding the students with organisation.

·          Please can parents ensure their son has a reading book in his bag every day to support our reading scheme. This is to further help and improve literacy standards whereby all students will undertake 30 minutes of silent reading each day.

 Just a quick reminder in advance that the Mentoring Day is on Friday 22nd November. For those of you, to whom this is a new concept, it is a collapsed day at the college where students will be expected to continue with home learning etc at home for the majority of the day. Parents (and students) will meet with their son’s mentor at a convenient time, to discuss the academic progress during the first term and put in place any intervention to overcome barriers to learning. The meeting times will be arranged with the mentors and will be approximately 15 minutes in length (similar to the old-fashioned parents evening). Mentors letters will be coming home to parents shortly to arrange appointments.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Beales – Head of Year 7

 

Year 8

Well here we are again, in the final term in the run up for Christmas, I hope you all had a relaxing half-term break, my break was to take 34 students to New York along with Mr Scott, Dr summers and Miss Blackshaw to experience the sights and sounds of the Big Apple: The Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building, The Metropolitan Art Museum,  Wall Street, Times Square, Central Park, Madison Sq. Garden, Brooklyn Bridge and the emotional setting of Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial to name but a few of the activities covered. If you are interested in taking part next year letters are available from Mr Scott in Room 114.

This week we have had students taking part in many different activities, ranging from singing with the Sing Plymouth group, Pupils from HMS Heroes visiting the  Royal Navy Heritage Centre & boarding  HMS Courageous (Submarine), and a  vocational taster day  including, Plastering, Wall Tiling, Bricklaying, Carpentry, Motor Vehicle, Painting and Decorating, Early Years Care, Health and Social Care, Hairdressing, Sport & Leisure and Business,  plenty going on and with plenty more activities to come.

This weekend several of the lads are taking part in various parades across the city marking remembrance Sunday can I thank them for their loyalty and give them my good wishes.

 Mrs Mcloughlin

 

Year 10 – Mr Scott
Mr Ramage led us in an inspiring assembly Monday – encouraging  us to live life to the full.

The boys have written prayers on the back of paper poppies (kindly cut out by Year 7 students) which will be attached to a wreath and used as a focus in this Monday’s assembly with Mr Neethling.

Revision and exam technique workshops begin shortly.  If you would like your son to take part, please ask him to sign up in my classroom.
Jordan – “My Time at Calvert Trust”
It was really fun at Calvert it was great seeing people with disabilities and seeing them be able to do things that they could not do before. We did many different activities such as zip wire, climbing, ab sail; crate staking, cc challenge course, archery, canoeing and lots more. The food there was great we had so many different and weird foods. You made so many friends and those friendships will be with you all your life and the friends you make will always be with you no matter what. We had so much fun on the three days it was great we had discos and everything then you could chill until your next activity or waiting for dinner then you do chill or play pool and table football until you were told to go. It was great seeing all the smiling faces going down the  ab sail or going down the zip wire it’s just great to see how people that have been stopped doing things like zip wire because there disabilities had stopped them but it just great to see everyone happy and joyful. At the end it was really sad because all the friendships you had made all leave and you just feel unhappy and sad because you know you won’t see them till next year.

 
Year 11

The year 11 mock examinations will be starting next Wednesday the 13 November 2013.  This is a great opportunity for your son to show what he is capable of.  The marks your son will receive for his mock examinations will provide a benchmark for the rest of the academic year and enable us, as teachers, to gauge his progress and indicate where if necessary   interventions will be best directed. These examinations are very important, so please encourage your son to revise and for him to give them his best effort.   This week’s assembly focussed on the job opportunities on offer at   Babcock Engineering based at the dockyard.  There representatives Hannah and Graeme gave a presentation that was well received by the boys.  Thanks to Mrs Hudson our careers advisor for organising this and the skills day which was open to all year 11boys,   which provided the boys with an opportunity to try out various skills such as joinery and brick laying.  Mr Trimmer’s drama class visited the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on Friday as part of their course.
Mr Redfern

Post 16

Welcome back to the start of a new term.

I have been discussing and going through UCAS preparations and applications with year 13 students. The personal statements are key along with the correct choice of 5 universities. The Universities are now making offers back to students.

Thanks to Plymouth University for hosting the talk on University life and student finance on Thursday evening for students and parents. A lot of interesting and valuable information.

Learn2 Live is on the 28 of November for all Lower sixth students. This is a presentation on Road Safety for all lower sixth formers in Plymouth. It is held at the Pavilions and is a dramatic presentation on the dangers of driving. It was originally set up by families in Plymouth after a tragic accident. It involves all local people and is incredibly moving.

A number of our sixth form students are undergoing illness or stress at present, are prayers are with them.

Stage 1 of the redecoration of the sixth form has begun. Sixth formers were in over the half term armed with paint brushes and white spirit, a radio and many dust sheets. One large room has now been totally repainted white, and amazingly no paint on the floor, so the carpet seems ok. The next step will now start with the radiators painted and the pipes, door frames etc. It is hoped to do this on the 22 November which is mentoring day.

It is also hoped that Stage 2 of the SSS will begin with filler organised and students wanting to come in. It is an important community feature that students invest in their facilities, as they will value them more.

A WiFi survey has been carried out and hopefully this will be integrated in.

Sixth formers have been around the College collecting money and selling poppies for Remembrance Day. They have done a fantastic job.

Today the sixth formers are interviewing our local MP. They are quite opinionated and have strong views. I hope that the MP is ready for what awaits…
Our Sports Coaches are continuing their good work out in the Community at the local Primary schools every week.

May I remind you that Mentoring Day is on the 22 November. The Sixth Form open evening is 21 November where we showcase the sixth form and celebrate the uniqueness and our exceptional results last year. Often we are always looking to the next challenge, sometimes it is good to look at what the students have actually achieved.

Mr Tew
Year 11 Mock Exam timetable 
Date
Subject
Start time
Length of exam
 
Wed 13th
Maths Paper 1
Non calculator
 
08.50am
1 hour 45 mins
Period 1 and 2
History Paper 1
 
11.35am
2 hours
Period 3 and 4
Thurs 14th
Geography Paper 1
 
08.50am
1 h 30mins
Period 1 and 2
PE (GCSE only)
 
11.35am
1 h 30mins
Period 3 and 4
Fri 15th
French Listening and Reading exams
08.50am
2 hours Higher
1 hour 15mins
Foundation
Period 1 and 2 in Sixth form study
Product Design
Engineering
 
11.35am
2 hours
1 hour
Period 3 and 4 in Sixth form study.
Mon 18th
English
 
08.50am
2 hours 15 mins
Period 1 and 2
Geography Paper 2
 
11.35am
1 hour
Period 3 and 4
Tues 19th
Religious Studies
 
08.50am
1 hour 30 mins
Period 1 and 2
Science
11.35am
11D 1 hour 30
11 LOP 1 hour
11 T 45 mins
Period 3 and 4
Wed 20th
Maths Paper 2 Calculator
 
08.50am
1 hour 45 mins
Period 1 and 2
History Paper 2
 
08.50am
1 hour 30 mins
Period 3 and 4
Thurs 21st
ICT
08.50am
11DLOP
1 hour 30 mins
Period 1 and 2
 
 
 
 
Friday 22nd is mentoring day for all students – no exams
Mon 25th
 
Art
08.50am
All day
Mrs Wills’ room
Tues 26th
 
Art
08.50am
All day
Mrs Wills’ room
The mock exams will  be run under the strict rules used in all public exams and you will find a copy of the JCQ regulations attached to this letter.  You must read through the rules with your parent and make sure that you understand the importance of adhering to them.

You must be on time for each exam. You will need to arrive with the correct equipment for the exam in a clear plastic bag.  This will include black pens, pencils, ruler, eraser together with calculator and other Maths equipment necessary.

If you are not well enough to attend school please phone as soon as possible and inform the school so that we are aware of this.  If you have a problem and will be late arriving again you should phone and tell us what the situation is.

You will have a desk allocated in the Gym or in learning for life where you will be for all of your exams except for French, Product Design and Engineering.

If you do not have an exam you will be in your normal lessons and if the exam ends before the end of the period you will be expected to return to your normal class.

Mrs J Gimblett (Exams’ Officer)  jgimblett@stbonifaces.com
 


Monday 11 November 2013
 
Bun sale in the canteen at break time –proceeds to the Royal British Legion
13:35 – 14:20 - Geography Clinic - (Miss Beales)
13:35 – 14:20 – Film Club with Mr Redfern (Room 136)
13:35 – 14:20 – Christian Union – (Chapel)
13:35 – 14:20 – Quiz in the Library – Years 7, 8 and 9
13:35 – 14:20 – Card Club – (Back room in LfLC)                        
15:00 – Maths Drop in Session Room A37 – (Mr Allerton)
15:00 - Year 11 Higher GCSE Homework , Catch up and Revision - (A29)
15:00 - STEM -  (Mr Smart)

Tuesday 12 November 2013
 
Library is closed today at lunch time due to an exam in SSS
13:35 – 14:20 – Film Club with Mr Redfern (Room 136)
13:35 – 14:20 – Card Club – (Back Room in LfLC)
13:35 – 14:20 - Drama Club – (Mr Trimmer)       
13:35 – 14:20 - Workshop Sessions Catch up – (Mr Griffin)
13:35 – 14:20 - Geography Clinic – (Miss Beales)
13:40 – Year 8 Inter-House Football – Year 8 Barrett v Errington (Year 8 Yard)
 

Wednesday 13 November 2013
 
Year 11 GCSE Mock Exam
13:35 – 14:20 – Film Club with Mr Redfern (Room 136)
13:35 – 14:20 – Card Club – (Back Room in LfLC)
13:35 – 14:20 – Panda Knitting Club – (Miss Gosling’s Room)
13:35 – 14:20 - Board Games (Mrs Williamson-Firth – Miss Gosling’s Room)
13:35 – 14:20 – Geography Clinic – (Miss Beales)
13:35 – 14:20 – Workshop Sessions Catch-Up – (Mr Griffin)
13:35 – 14:20 – Careers Club – Mr Potts Engineering (Library)
15:20 – 16:20 – Philosophy Club with Miss Sandford – (Room 150) – Week B only
15:30 – 15:45 - Time for Prayer for Staff and Students – (Chapel) – Week A only
 

Thursday 14 November 2013
 
Year 11 GCSE Mock Exam
13:35 – 14:20 – Film Club with Mr Redfern (Room 136)
13:35 – 14:20 – Card Club – (Back room in LfLC)
13:35 – 14:20- Geography Clinic – (Miss Beales)
13:35 – 14:20 – ICT Careers Club – (Room 108)
15:20 – 16:30 - Miss Gosling’s Art Club - (Week A only)
15:30 – 15:45 – Time for Prayer for Staff and Students – (Chapel) – Week B only
15:40 – Year 8 Inter-House Football – Grimshaw v Kiely (Year 8 Yard)
 

                                 Friday 15 November 2013
                                                             
Year 11 GCSE Mock Exam
13:35 – 14:20 – Film Club with Mr Redfern (Room 136)
13:35 – 14:20 – Years 9 – 11 Android Club - (Mr Neethling)
13:35 – 14:20 - Geography Clinic – (Miss Beales)
 

PE Extra-curricular Clubs Timetable
                                                                  
BEFORE SCHOOL
Breakfast Club
Fitness
Basketball / Badminton
All Years
Breakfast Club
Fitness
Basketball / Badminton
All Years
Breakfast Club
Fitness
Basketball / Badminton
All Years
Breakfast Club
Fitness
Basketball / Badminton
All Years
Breakfast Club
Fitness
Basketball / Badminton
All Years
LUNCH TIME
Fitness Suite + Basketball
All Years
Fitness Suite + Basketball
All Years
Fitness Suite + Basketball
All Years
Fitness Suite + Basketball
All Years
Fitness Suite + Basketball
All Years
AFTER SCHOOL
Year 8 Basketball
All Years Boxing
Sixth Form Rugby
All Years Volleyball
Year 9 Basketball
Year 12+13
A Level Revision
3.30-5pm (A18)
All Years Table Tennis
 
 
 







God our Father,

the qualities I see lived out so well in some people

are a reflection of your own goodness,

and I know

that I have much to learn from other people

who reflect your image and likeness


Gen 126




in different ways.

Inspire me

to respect others fully as my equals,

seeing and loving in them

what you see and love in them.

 

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