Two of our talented Music Scholars, Ella (Year 10) and Talitha (Year 9) have gained places at the prestigious Junior Royal Academy of Music. Ella has also been shortlisted for the Wessex Music Competition and has been accepted into the National Youth Concert Band.
Congratulations to them both!
Pictured Ella (l), Talitha (r)
Over YouTube, on Monday 10th May, we celebrated the 2020 winners of the Jack Petchey Foundation Achievement Awards. The Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme recognises outstanding young people aged 11-25 across London and Essex.
Our winners this time were: Emilie from Year 8, for overcoming challenges and submitting every piece of science work during lockdown; Joseph from Year 9, for his positive attitude, contributions in class times and consistent hard work even during isolation; George in Year 9, for outstanding care for another student; Amanda in Year 10, for going above and beyond what was asked of her, submitting every piece of science work during lockdown and responding to all feedback with detailed corrections; Jesse Year 11 for completing all work during lockdown, overcoming struggles with limited access to technology and Lola Year 13, for taking the initiative to plan and lead Year assemblies during Black History Month.
Congratulations to all our very worthy winners!
Every school in the UK must now include a Relationships, Sex and Education (RSE) Policy. The RSE policy at Saint Cecilia’s explains what we mean by RSE, and how we implement RSE teaching and learning in our school. We are inviting all our parents and carers to read through the policy and complete this short survey, which will close on 11th May. Letters were sent to all parents and carers with the link to the survey.
School Building Works
Building works to enable the school expansion are progressing well and are on target to be finished in the summer holidays. The new teaching block will contain ten new classrooms (one Science lab, three ICT suites and a standard classroom on the first floor; with five classrooms to house History, Government & Politics on the ground floor). We take possession of the first floor at May half term when History will temporarily move to the first floor while works to the ground floor and the landscaping are completed. The History portacabins will then be lifted out at half term so that works can be started to create an internal courtyard in the area they occupy.
The History, Government & Politics department will move to their permanent home on the ground floor over the Summer break; with ICT moving into the first floor. In addition, there are some internal refurbishments to create a new classroom for PE theory, two toilets blocks and a staff work room. All the works will be complete in time for September 2021 when our expanded Year 7 cohort join us for the first time. Pupils will numbers will grow by 30 per year as the new Year 7 works its way up through the school. To ensure we have sufficient dining space, an extension to the Refectory is planned by Summer 2022.
Environmental Improvements
Our new teaching block will house photovoltaic cells on its roof to generate electricity and each classroom includes a heat recovery ventilation unit to avoid wasting heat in winter. The ventilation units extract hot air from the new classrooms and use it to preheat the fresh air as it is brought in to ensure an optimum classroom environment for learning. We have also been successful in application to the Government’s ‘Decarbonisation Fund’, which is providing a grant to install an air source heat pump (which extracts heat from the air and transfers it into our heating and hot water system to reduce gas bills); and also to upgrade corridor and classrooms lights to new energy efficient LED systems. These projects will reduce our use of gas and electricity, saving money and improving our impact on the environment.
We ended the Spring term celebrating House achievements and individual academic and sporting successes. Huge congratulations to Archimedes (led by Miss Mouland) who came first in the overall House Competition with 2914 House Points, and were awarded the House Trophy for the Spring Term.
Teachers recognised individual pupils they felt had made a worthy contribution to school life for a Jack Petchy Award. Congratulations to Elizabeth and Natasha in Year 11 and Bethan in Year 8. All pupils have received a £250 grant to spend on improving learning at school, in an area of their choice.
During our Easter Worship Service, Sports Colours were awarded to pupils and students in the upper year groups in recognition of their commitment to school sport. The following pupils were awarded Half Sports Colours: Elizabeth, Eloise, Sophia, Kudler, Oliver, Maximus, Archie, Gabriel, Joel, Ronald, Jamaal, Freddie, Alex, Joel G, Kanye and Enguun. Full Sports Colours are only presented to students in Year 13 and this year were awarded to Becky, Zoe, Scout and Hector on their achievement and commitment to school life and sport over a number of years.
Congratulations to all award winners.
Plans for return to school following Government announcement
Yesterday the Government announced plans for the release from lockdown, including plans for the return of pupils and students to school from 8th March. Following that announcement, full advice for schools was published in the evening, and it is likely further clarification will emerge in the coming days.
We will look carefully through the guidance and inform you of the plan for welcoming pupils back to the building, once we have digested the advice fully and worked through any ambiguities.
You will be aware that schools will offer all pupils and students asymptomatic testing on their return. Testing is voluntary and schools must obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian. Please can you log onto ParentPay to give consent.
Please bear with us, as we again look through all areas of school life, and agree a plan that ensures the safety of all in our community. We will share a full plan for re-opening next week.
We looking forward to welcoming pupils and students back into the school building.
Last week our asymptomatic COVID-19 test centre opened its doors for the first time to staff, pupils and students. With the help of a team of volunteers (pictured), many staff and pupils who are currently attending school were able to complete tests and will now have access to weekly tests to hopefully contribute to the management of the COVID-19 virus and keep our staff, pupils and students safe. Test results are given after 30 minutes and the test itself takes only a few seconds.
Testing is only currently available to pupils and staff working on-site and we plan to enable our pupils and students access to testing when we are able to welcome our Saint Cecilia’s family back through our doors.
The Saint Cecilia’s Family supported each other and the wider community in so many ways during the first term.
Our Little Sleep Out event has so far raised an enormous £3,880 for Crisis at Christmas. Just £28 gets a homeless person off the streets for a week over the Christmas period. This means that we gave 132 homeless people some respite from the cold over the festive period.
Our Sixth Form took part in Football Shirt Friday - a nationwide campaign raising money for Cancer Research UK and the Bobby Moore Bowel Cancer Fund. Everyone really enjoyed wearing their football tops into school and we raised £160 for an excellent cause.
The official school Christmas cards featuring the design by Amy in Year 10, raised £183.65 to support our local Home Café, who have been working closely with Earlsfield Foodbank to provide for those in need during the pandemic. Our contribution helped them gather items for Christmas hampers for families in need to provide them with luxuries many of us take for granted.
Sixth Formers and Staff donned Christmas Jumpers at the end of term and raised £161 for Save the Children Fund.
Trolley-loads full of food was donated for local charity KICC the Open Door Charity which was made into Christmas hampers for local families, including our own. And four car-loads full of warm clothes, sleeping bags and toiletries were handed in to the school. These were driven to YMCA in Wimbledon and will be distributed to homeless people and people living in temporary accommodation. They were so grateful for our donations.
And finally, we have collected close to £2,000 for our Hardship Fund to help Saint Cecilia’s families in need. Thank you for all your generous donations and do please get in touch f we can help you through this Fund.
THANK YOU!!
CONTACT US Address: Saint Cecilia’s Church of England School, Sutherland Grove, London, SW18 5JR Telephone: 020 8780 1244 Email: info@saintcecilias.london
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