Saint Cecilia's Bake off Results!

Thank you to everyone who took part in our very own Bake Off Challenge. The task was to get creative and produce a sweet or savoury signature bake with the theme of ‘A Tribute to Key Workers’. Children then had to send a photograph of their creations to their House Leader with a short description of what it would taste like and perhaps a little story behind it! 

We are so proud of the floods of insatiable entries we received and the incredible stories that went along with them. We had some wonderful entries – cookies, flans, cakes, cupcakes, brownies (to name a few). The standard was unbelievably high that Paul and Pru would have been impressed for sure. The House Leaders really struggled to pick just one front-runner from each House. Congratulations to everyone who took part and in particular to our two joint winners: Ruby Sims (Archimedes) and Lucy Thompson (Newton) who each win 1,000 points for their Houses. Well done!

Ms Wood, Teacher of English, Newton House Leader

Pupils volunteer 1,000 hours for community projects

Our Duke of Edinburgh students volunteer over 1,000 hours for community projects
June 1-7th is Volunteers’ Week – the annual celebration of the contribution made by millions of volunteers around the UK.  I’d like to take this opportunity to herald all our pupils who volunteer as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. We run Bronze and Silver awards and are now offering the Gold Award to our Sixth Form students. In the last year, 125 of our Year 9 and 10 pupils have given a total of 1,157 hours of their time to helping others. Our pupils have helped the elderly, supported environmental projects, worked at local charity shops, led sports groups and volunteered at various school clubs and in faith communities. This is a huge collaborative achievement and is of enormous benefit to our local community. Thank you to them all!

When will the school reopen?

We are asked this question frequently by parents and students alike. We, like all other schools, have to follow the guidance from Government and cannot open until we are told it is safe to do so. There have been reports in the press this week that the PM, Boris Johnson, will be announcing on Sunday 10 May the Government’s plan to ease lockdown. This may include guidance to schools on how and when we can start opening our doors. All we know so far is that the Dept for Education is considering a ‘phased manner’ to reopening schools – but we do not yet know any further detail of these plans.

The Senior Leadership Team will take the guidance given by Government and create a robust plan to return to school safely for pupils, staff and the wider community. We expect to be able to circulate this to parents in good time before children are due to return.

Our School Is Temporarily Closed

Following Government guidance, as of Friday 20 March, Saint Cecilia’s closed due to Covid-19. We have only remained open for the small number of children whose parents are key workers and who need us to look after their child so that they can continue to work. We have also made provision for some of our other children who we believe to be vulnerable.

Until we are able to open again, our children’s learning is being fully supported through Show My Homework where lesson plans and resources are updated daily. Mentors are also continuing to contact all children regularly.

We will update our school community when the position becomes clear regarding opening our doors again for all staff, pupils and students.

Fairfield Hall - Wandsworth Schools' 'Winter Sounds' Concert.

Ella Wild, Year 9 -

Last Thursday evening Saint Cecilia’s concert band took to the newly reopened Fairfield Halls stage to play as part of Wandsworth Schools’ ‘Winter Sounds’ concert. They were among 500 children from schools across the borough to take part. The concert band opened up the night by playing Also Sprach Zarathusa by Richard Strauss (also known as the title music from 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Pop and Rock Legends: Stevie Wonder. Both were a huge success, with excellent playing from all. It was the result of hard work and dedication from both the band and teachers.

The Little Sleep Out!

Following our successful 'Little Sleep Out' event last year, which raised over £4,500 for Crisis, we are sleeping out again this year in the school playground on Friday 6th December from 4.00pm-7.00pm to
support Crisis in their efforts to end homelessness.

A recent research conducted by Heriot-Watt University shows that in 2016 around 160,000 households experienced the most acute forms of homelessness. If we fail to address homelessness, this figure will reach 392,000 by 2041.

Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for a homeless person. Crisis at Christmas is a unique volunteer effort that provides immediate help for homeless people during this time by providing food, clothing, health services and a chance to relax.

If 40,000 people were prevented from becoming homeless for one year in England it would save the public purse £370 million. In 2012 the cost of homelessness in England was reported as being up to £1 billion
(gross) a year.

Please support Crisis and donate as much as possible to give homeless people a little of what we sometimes take for granted.
You can donate here.

Mark Evison Foundation Grants

In August a handful of students were given the incredible opportunity to spend grants from the Mark Evison Foundation on experiences they wouldn’t normally have. Three students decided to complete a series of hikes in Scotland, including climbing the famous Ben Nevis! Three more students cycled from Rotterdam to Amsterdam Central and back again!

Read their reports on these wonderful trips by following these links –

http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/st-cecilia-c-of-e-school-2019-2/

http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/award/st-cecilia-c-of-e-school-2019/

NATO Youth Conference Trip

On the 11th of October, ten History and Government and Politics students from Year 12 were lucky enough to attend a Q&A with some of the NATO Parliamentary Committee Presidents and Vice Presidents from countries including Luxembourg, Canada, the UK and Spain.

Becky B. (Year 12) , wrote:

“We were celebrating NATO’s 70th anniversary and, as a result, got to learn more about their role in defence today. What was interesting was that we got to ask about current affairs and hear first-hand how they were tackling certain issues. Madeleine Moon, the President of the UK committee, led the session and encouraged us to ask as many questions as possible to ensure we fully understood and got as much out of the event as we could. Issues such as Brexit, future technology, Turkey and the US came up of which it was interesting to hear their point of view on topics that we hear so much about in the recent news. I did not realise how much they were involved with current affairs, so it was definitely eye-opening. After the Q&A we went on a tour of Parliament and got to see places such as Westminster Hall, the House of Commons Chamber and the voting lobbies. It was fascinating to be able to see it in person after having seen it all so much on TV and in the news, as well as having a tour guide explaining the history behind it. Overall it was an enriching experience and definitely has influenced many of us to look more into NATO and their role in politics.”