School of Rock: A Showstopping Whole School Production!

Rock got no reason, rock got no rhyme…You better get me to school on time! This year’s whole school production was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock. Based on the iconic movie, the musical tells the story of Dewey Finn, a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn an extra bit of cash by posing as a supply teacher at a prestigious school.

Pupils and students from Years 7-13, worked really hard during the rehearsals and produced exceptionally high level, showstopping performances on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th July, with an additional matinee for local primary schools and Year 7 pupils, also on 3rd July. Congratulations to all the pupils involved and to the Music and Drama departments - a very successful production with a fantastic display of talents.

Pupils selected for National Athletics event

Congratulations to Freddie Arkell, in Year 9 and Ignatius Abebrese in Year 10. Both pupils have been selected to compete at a national level, representing London at the English Schools Championships in Birmingham on 12th and 13th July.

Pupils win Global Design a Book Competition

Many congratulations to Bea Loteryman, Ruby Wilson, Quinn McNicholas and Levi Oliver, all in Year 7. Bea and Ruby have just been announced as the secondary school award winners of the ReadingZone Design a Picture Book Competition. Their story To be Grateful is Key was praised by the the judge, author and illustrator Steven Lenton. He wrote: “What a beautiful and cleverly laid out story. So much thought and detail has gone into this book and I think everyone can identify with the characters in this story, showing us we must never take anything for granted.”

Quinn and Levi were the 2nd runner ups of the same category with A Place Called Anywhere. The judge wrote: “A calming, peaceful and very thoughtful poetic piece that makes you stop, breath slowly and think. Beautiful work.”

The Reading Zone Design a Picture Book annual competition attracts hundred of entries from around the world so the school is delighted with this announcement.

Ruby and Bea have won £100 worth of books for the school Library from Macmillan Children's Books, together with signed copies of Steven Lenton’s picture books and a critique of their picture book by Plum Pudding Illustration Agency. For further information, please visit the ReadingZone website.

A fantastic achievement from all the pupils involved!

Students invited to attend new exciting literary festival

Next September sees the inauguration of a new literary festival in London, Capital Crime, and two of our students have been given complimentary tickets to attend, further to their participation in an event held by the organisers to attract new, young talent to the publishing industry. The students joined eighteen others from London secondary schools for a highly entertaining and informative evening giving them direct access to industry professionals.

Mathias says of the evening: “Listening to the authors and screenwriters made me think about the skill required to make a character truly alive, and when a writer pulls it off I‘m guaranteed to read to the end. Of course the writing is only the beginning of getting a book published and I was amazed to hear about the sheer time and effort needed for editing and promoting a book. Thinking of my own skills and mind-set, I realise I would need to develop more commitment; it’s all too easy to drop something and move on to a new interest, especially if you’re juggling priorities”.

The Capital Crime festival features bestselling authors including David Baldacci, Kate Mosse and Lynda La Plante. For more information see the website, here.

Experimental Drawing Workshop at the V&A

A group of Year 8 pupils went to the Victoria and Albert Museum to take part in an Experimental Drawing workshop.

The workshop was run by award winning artist Anne Harild, who exhibits her own artwork regularly. Led by Anne, pupils enjoyed drawing with wire in the V&A’s silver gallery, used torches to play with scale in one of the sculpture galleries and drew with sticks and graphite. This was also a fantastic opportunity for pupils to experience an exciting variety of  artwork exhibited at the V&A and respond in their own personal way.

The artist was very impressed with the creativity and enthusiasm of Saint Cecilia’s pupils, and many pupils commented on how they learnt different skills and ways of responding to art outside of the classroom. The skills pupils learnt will feed back into their current project, which is drawing landscapes inspired by the mark making skills of David Hockney.

Taster Day for Years 4 and 5 pupils

Years 4 and 5 pupils from St Michael’s and Sheringdale Primary Schools have recently visited us for a full day of activities. The interactive day was designed to give pupils a real experience of secondary school life here. The activities included taster lessons in Science, History and Music. The group of pupils also had a tour of the school, a snack and a lunch in the Refectory. The pupils were fantastic and really enjoyed the whole experience.

Sports Day!

On Thursday 23rd May our annual Sports Day took place in Wimbledon Park's athletics track. The event was, as always, a tremendous success and the fine weather made the occasion even more special. Records tumbled on the field and track events (more details to follow) and there was an atmosphere of friendly rivalry with pupils cheering and competing fiercely for their respective Houses. This year we've replaced the rounders with the tug of war competition and the day ended with the popular staff race. Congratulations to Schubert - this year's victorious House, to the whole school community and especially to the PE department for organising the event.

Sports Day Records

Design a Picture competition

Book designers from Little, Brown Book Group have been to school to share their insight into the publishing industry and to coach children wanting to enter this year’s Design a Picture Book competition. Offered by reading charity ReadingZone, this competition attracts thousands of entries nationally, and is judged each year by a different author/illustrator appointed by ReadingZone. At Saint Cecilia’s we award school prizes of art sets and book vouchers to the best three completed books, as judged by Little, Brown book Group designers, and display some of the work at Southfields Library. This year, we had a celebratory event there, at which the prizes were awarded and children enjoyed an informal careers talk, A Day in the Life of a Book Designer. Congratulations to Ellen R., Emily M.and Beth D. in Year 7, joint winners of the first prize for a book they made together, and Raphaela M. in Year 8, winner of the second prize.

Children were asked what they most enjoyed about Design a Picture Book and mentioned the satisfaction of completing their books, the fun they had doing the artwork and storyline, and being able to choose their own ideas to work on. Challenging aspects described were managing time and balancing the project with school work and commitments, and knowing when to stop adding to the story and re-drafting.

This year the judge for ReadingZone is illustrator Steve Lenton whose work adorns novels by David Baddiel among many others, and the winner will be announced in June. As our students have been shortlisted in the past we hope they will again achieve recognition for their work, and in the meantime they have enjoyed a great boost to their cultural capital. We are very grateful to Little, Brown Book Group and to Southfields Library for their support.