Welcome to Saint Paul's Academy

Archbishop Peter visits Saint Paul's Academy

On Tuesday, 13th December 2011, Archbishop Peter visited St Paul's Academy.

During his visit, he blessed the new Chapel and the Peace Garden in the Academy's grounds.

He also had the opportunity to chat with groups of students from Years 7,8 and 9 and Years 10 and 11.

View more photos of the Archbishop Peter's visit.

Newsletter December 2011

Welcome to the December 2011 edition of Saint Paul's Academy's newsletter!

In this issue:

• Christmas Carol Service
• Advent Charity Appeal
• Year 10 Talent show
• Supporting the Community
• Awards Evening
• Students visit French Christmas market
• Tag Rugby Festival
• Remembrance Day
• New recruits are always welcome
• Well done girls
• The importance of e-safety
• Returning to Ireland
• A message from Ms Forte
• Important dates
• Holiday dates

Dear Parents and Carers

“May the message of Christmas enter your lives and may you be filled with every blessing in the New Year.”

Patrick Winston, Principal

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Christmas Carol Service

It seems hard to believe that we have completed our second year on Finchale Road and we are now establishing annual routines which give each term a structure for us to work with. A good example of this would be the Christmas Carol Service; at Saint Paul’s Catholic School, when we had around 500 students, we could accommodate years 7 – 10 in Saint Michael’s Church in order to celebrate Christmas. We now have 940 students and the traditional model of Year 11 being on study leave for their mocks is a distant memory! Year 11 now benefit from doing test papers in lessons and therefore learning can continue uninterrupted. The carol services are now held separately for each year group, which gives a more personal and relevant focus for students. This year, the carols were led by students and included Little Drummer Boy which features on the latest Justin Bieber album, “Under the Mistletoe”. Some of our young people were under the impression that this was a new song written for this album and didn’t believe that Bing Crosby had sung it many years ago!

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Advent Charity Appeal

We were also pleased to repeat, and indeed improve, many activities which we undertook for the first time last year. The Advent Charity appeal kicked off with a Mufti Day and the Fun Run, or in some cases walk, was a huge success. Over 300 people took part, including 60 students and members of staff from Boxgrove Primary School and this event alone raised over £1,000.00, with one class raising nearly £300. We were delighted to work so closely with one of our main feeder primary schools and hope to have even more students and staff on the streets of Abbey Wood next year! The Christmas Fayre was also a huge success, with stalls ranging from Penalty Football, Paper Aeroplane Wall, Ball in Cup Extravaganza, as well as seasonal crafts and Christmas cards. Not only was this an excellent fundraising event, but also a hugely enjoyable activity; all members of our community were able to make a positive contribution, whether it was giving time and talent or simply spending money.

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Year 10 Talent show

Given the success of the talent show they held last year, Year 10 decided to repeat the event this year. The Sports Hall was again packed and the talent equally impressive. In fact, a year on, many students had improved! Many acts were familiar, from the girls’ a capella singing quintet, whose harmonies get stronger with every performance, to the street dancers who are always a crowd pleaser. We were delighted to see the return of the Indian dancing and rapping is always popular. Not only is this event tremendously popular, it is also a great fundraiser.

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Supporting the Community

As you know, we consider our links with local and global communities extremely important and therefore we are continuing to support local causes, such as the Weybourne Care Home and Sister Ann in Kenya. We are also adding the Beat Blood Cancers campaign to our Advent Charity list, after the discovery that a young member of staff is suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. In the previous newsletter I outlined that support is not only by way of financial donation, but through gifts which have been specifically requested through certain institutions, for example, for young people who are spending a great deal of time in hospital, good quality televisions are essential, while the clients at Weybourne needed new tablecloths and other items to brighten their environment. For the elderly, especially those who have few visitors, company and time are in many ways more important than money and we were delighted to welcome our friends from Weybourne to join us and other neighbours for a traditional Christmas meal.

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Awards Evening

Awards Evening for the Class of 2011 took place at the beginning of December and we were, of course, delighted to welcome students and their families back to Saint Paul’s to share their achievements. We were also delighted to welcome back Mrs Gobey, who was Assistant Principal in charge of Creativity and Technology until last Summer and Mr Crawley, who was Assistant Principal in charge of Creativity and Technology from the opening of the Academy in 2005 until 2008. We were able to publicly thank them for their huge contribution in the establishment of the Academy and for their tremendous support to the Class of 2011. We were also very pleased to welcome Teresa Pearce, MP for Thamesmead and Erith, who inspired us all with her story and the challenges she had to face as a young woman living in the local area. She urged the young people not to let problems stand in their way and to look for ways round them. She did not, however, mention that the most immediate danger to many of the girls present was 9 inch heels!

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Students visit French Christmas market

For the second year running, a party of students visited the Christmas market in Lille in Northern France. Last year we ran this trip as a day trip, but even for the most experienced shoppers it was extremely tiring! This year, 40 very wellbehaved Year 8 students with 5 members of staff stayed overnight and had a more relaxed experience, which included a ride on the Big Wheel and admiring the views of Northern France. It has to be said that there was no shortage of staff willing to accompany these students. Closer to home, the entire Year 7 cohort went to see Arthur Christmas in Bexleyheath and had a hugely enjoyable afternoon. This may sound a fairly mundane event, but organising tickets and public transport for 240 children is no mean feat and something which we are obviously going to have to get used to. Congratulations to all Year 7 staff and students on their achievement!.

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Tag Rugby Festival

Another recent innovation has been the introduction of Rugby and on Thursday 20th October, the Academy welcomed 5 local primary schools for a Tag Rugby Festival. Nearly 60 children enjoyed the last of the Summer sunshine on the grass pitches as they displayed very high levels of talent. This was not surprising because since the beginning of September, throughout the heatwave, the schools have been working with Mr McGrath developing their skills and understanding of the game. It is hoped that this event will become a regular feature. Rugby club for Year 10 and 11 boys is every Thursday after school from 3.45pm – 4.45pm. Rugby is a very physical game and in order to ensure that there is a level of protection, all participants must have a mouthguard. These are available from Mr Donnelly in the sports office at £2 each.

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Remembrance Day

We are delighted to continue our very positive relationship with the Metropolitan Police and on Sunday 13th November 2011 Greenwich Volunteer Police Cadets, including four Saint Paul’s students, participated in the Remembrance Parade in Eltham marching with the Greenwich Cadet Standard along with Veterans, including a large party from the Gurkha Regiment and their wives, current Armed Services Personnel and Cadet Units. The parade passed along Eltham High Street to the War Memorial where wreaths were laid by Greenwich MPs, the Borough Commander Det.Ch.Supt. Richard Wood and other local dignitaries. After the two minutes silence, the cadets attended the Remembrance Service at Eltham Parish Church and were then invited to the British Legion Club for refreshments.

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New recruits are always welcome

The Cadets, led by PC Andy Harris, who is also our School’s Police Liaison Officer, have their meetings on Wednesday evenings between 7pm – 9.30pm and he is always ready to welcome new recruits who are willing to accept the challenges the Police Cadets offer. At the end of November, the Cadets were delighted to welcome the Deputy Borough Commander, Superintendent Hafford, Chief Inspector Myers, as well as Gwanwyn Mason, who is in charge of Police Cadet development at Scotland Yard. They were most impressed not only with the facilities, but with the enthusiasm, commitment and demeanour of our young people.

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Well done girls

We are particularly proud of two of our students who are Police Cadets. Chelsie Maskell is to receive a Police Commendation for the assemblies she delivered on anti-knife crime, whilst Becky Lazarus has been promoted within the Cadet unit for the leadership qualities she has displayed.

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The importance of e-safety

I would like to take this opportunity to remind all parents and carers of the importance of e-safety. Despite everything we say, senior staff, in particular, continue to waste an awful lot of time dealing with students who deliberately flaunt school rules. Smart Phones are not allowed in school under any circumstances because they compromise health and safety and distract students from their learning. If any Smart Phone is seen, no matter what the circumstances, it will be confiscated and the issue dealt with as outlined in my letter of 17th March 2011. Students should also be very clear that more sophisticated monitoring systems in school are allowing staff to view what students are accessing or writing using the school computers. This information is filtered from the system through a third party and the evidence is irrefutable.

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Returning to Ireland

At the end of a term, we quite often have to say goodbye to someone and at this point, we would like to wish Miss Forte every success as she returns to Ireland. Miss Forte has been an invaluable member of the PE staff for five years; she has been Head of Girls’ PE and paramount in the establishment of Netball at Saint Paul’s Academy. More recently, she has been a pastoral leader in the Year 8 team and students and staff alike will miss her greatly. We wish her every happiness in the future.

“I wish you all peace and blessings for Christmas and look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.”

Patrick Winston, Principal

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A message from Ms Forte

“Dear Students and Staff

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you and goodbye.

As many of you know, I am leaving Saint Paul’s this month to take up a post near to my home and family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and will miss your energy, enthusiasm and general spirit immensely. I feel privileged to have taught at Saint Paul’s and will cherish my memories of you all dearly.

Thank you for being an inspiration.”

Laura Forte

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Important dates

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Holiday dates

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