Jack Petchey Award winner

As a winner of this year’s Jack Petchey Award, Year 9 pupil, Joseph has generously decided to donate his £250 cash award to the Library. The money must be spent on something we would not normally be able to buy, and it was easy to think of something! Joseph has always been a film enthusiast, doing a course during the holidays and helping his mother with videos for her workplace. He’s also kindly agreed to help make promotional videos about the Library’s activities and resources, so a good quality stills and video camera was an obvious choice. Watch out for forthcoming productions!

The Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme, recognises outstanding young people aged 11-25 across London and Essex. These exceptional young people have gone above and beyond to achieve. An important part of the scheme is the involvement of young people in selecting the award winners for their hard work and efforts. Joseph was nominated by his peers at school. Congratulations to Joseph!

Have your say on our consultation for admission agreements 2022/23

Friday 6th November to Friday 18th December 2020

We have opened a consultation about admissions to Year 7 from September 2022. Full information is available here. The key information is:

• Owing to the expansion of the school, we are increasing the admission of new Year 7 pupils to 180 (currently 150) from 2022.

• The number of Foundation Places and Open Places will be balanced at 90 each.

• In light of the closure of churches during the Covid pandemic, we would like ministers to be able to provide a reference for a Foundation Place for members who have been unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances.

Sixth Form prospectus and open event videos now LIVE!

Our full prospectus entry into our Sixth Form in September 2021, together with virtual open event videos are now live. Videos from our Headteacher and Sixth Form team give an introduction to life at the school for Years 12 and 13. Students themselves explain why they chose Saint Cecilia’s, what opportunities they are enjoying, what pastoral support is on offer and explain our curricular offer. And we have a video from London Irish’s wing, Ben Loader, to explain our Rugby Academy.

We will be hosting a Live Online Forum on Wednesday 11th November 7-8pm. To register for this event and receive admissions news, sign up for our Sixth Form mailing list.

National Poetry Day competition

To mark this year’s National Poetry Day, the Library is launching a poetry competition for pupils and students. Winners will be recognised by a trophy for their category (either Junior Award or Senior Award), a prize and a certificate. There will be one main prize in each category and several runners up, who will receive certificates and gifts.

The competition will be judged by external sponsors:
- Patrick Malone, Children's Librarian and member of the Wandsworth Libraries Poetry Group - Years 7 and 8 (Junior Award)
- Sarah Bland of Waterstones (Southside store) - Years 9 to 12 (Senior Award)

The rules: The topic of the poems aligns with the National Poetry Day 2020 theme: Vision (See the National Poetry Day website for full details) Each child may enter a maximum of three poems. Each poem should be between 14 lines and 30 lines long. Any form is admissible, so no rules e.g. rhyming, verse length. Poems must be legible though not necessarily written on a computer, and spelling MUST be correct unless it is obviously a stylistic or vernacular effect. This is important. If your poem is designed to be recited/performed aloud as spoken word you can specify this. The poems/spoken word pieces must be entirely your own work. They must be emailed to library@saintcecilias.london or handed in to the Library by no later than the closing date of Tuesday 3rd November, 3.30 p.m.

Prospectus and Open Event materials now LIVE

Our Year 7 prospectus is ready to download and our open day videos are available to view on the Open Events page.

Virtual Sports Achievements to round off the term

Saint Cecilia’s joined with other Wandsworth schools to form Team Wandsworth in the Virtual London Youth Games 2020. Students were given three sports events to do every week for a month. Overall, Team Wandsworth came 6th out of 33 Boroughs, with just three points separating 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th places.

During the last week of term, pupils in Years 7 to 9 took part in our Virtual Sports Week. PE staff posted a different athletics event each day on Show My Homework for pupils to do at home and submit their scores. They awarded points for participation and bonus points when bronze, silver and gold scores were reached.

Congratulations to all our winners!

House competition:
1st Ives House
2nd Archimedes House
3rd Newton House
4th Turing House
5th Schubert House

Most points accumulated across all events:
1st James Gilmour (Year 8)
2nd Amy Hatherall (Year 9) and Grace Eminson (Year 8)
3rd Barnabas Woodcraft (Year 7)

Winner of each individual event:
Standing long jump: James Gilmour
Endurance shuttles: Grace Eminson
Speed Bounce: Barnabas Woodcraft
Throw: Samantha Gearey
30m sprint: James Gilmour and Barnabas Woodcraft

Don't Stop Believin' by the Concert Band

During the lockdown, members of Saint Cecilia’s Concert Band had been missing their weekly rehearsals and numerous performances (or rather Mr Robinson was), and so the band recorded their individual parts to "Don't Stop Believin' ", a very fitting title for the Coronavirus situation. Over 40 members of the Concert Band recorded themselves at home and submitted their videos. Mr Berry put together the audio, and Mr Robinson put together the videos and then synced with the audio. We are very happy with the end result, and very proud of all our young musicians. Whilst not a replacement for the tour to the South of France that was meant to take place in July, or the performance at the Royal Albert Hall that was due to take place in April, this has provided much joy to the young musicians and teachers. 

Watch it here on our YouTube channel.

Saint Cecilia's Concert Band is the school's most prestigious instrumental ensemble, performing widely across London and Europe, and now online! The Concert Band is a 60 member strong ensemble, with musicians who are beginners to those who have taken their diploma. The Concert Band repertoire encompasses a range of styles, from West End musicals, to Film scores, popular songs and classical transcriptions. The band perform to an incredibly high standard, and are perform at a range of functions, both inside and outside of school. 

Met Police Holiday Activity Scheme comes to Saint Cecilia’s School

The Metropolitan Police will be running their successful holiday activity scheme for 9-16 at Saint Cecilia’s School for four weeks in the summer holidays.  The summer camp comes under the Parallel Youth Enterprise, a registered charity and, in partnership with the Metropolitan Police and the 'Covid-19' situation, will deliver a four week youth project from 10 am to 4 pm on weekdays from Tuesday 28 July to Thursday 20 August.

For just £25 a week, young people can participate in a range of activities.  The extensive programme of activities includes on-site workshops featuring music, dance, computers, video, arts & crafts, beautician & hair care, face painting and more.  Ongoing sports sessions will include football, basketball etc. and in the sports hall table tennis, badminton and pool.  Off site trips include adventure centres, a trampoline arena, London Dungeon, canoeing, sailing, rock climbing, London Zoo, ten pin bowling and ice skating.

Full details, including how to book can be found at:  https://www.wandsworthsummercamp.org/projects