Chess Tournament Winners

A huge well done to all those who participated in our first whole school chess tournament. It was a fantastic day of great chess playing with a full turnout of 64 competitors. The comradery and support all the competitors showed each other was a pleasure to see throughout the day, as well as the support of the whole school. Well done everyone!

Here’s what Michael (Year 7) wrote about the chess tournament: ‘On Thursday 3rd February 64 students went to battle and competed in the ultimate chess tournament (held by Mrs Davis). Throughout the day, students played what might be the toughest challenge yet. From Year 7 to Sixth Form, people won and people lost in many long games and some surprisingly short games. As people fought, surprise and relief came to students from our wonderful, talented school. By the afternoon, the tournament was down to the final four: two good friends in Year 11 (Victor and Sacha), a Sixth Former (Matthew) and Year 7 (Ermuun) . The battle could have been won by anyone. After a tough match, one fatal mistake saw Matthew out of the competition and Ermuun into the final, who was overjoyed. Shortly after, Sacha managed to beat his long-term competitor Victor who was excited to see if his friend could make it all the way. After school, students and teachers gathered in the chapel to see the final match between Sacha (Year 11) and Ermuun (Year 7). After a gruelling 20 minutes, Sacha managed to eliminate most of Ermuun’s pieces, win back his queen and trap Ermuun’s king with his castle, delivering the final blow with his queen. Everyone really enjoyed the day and we hope it happens again.’

Wimbledon Ball Girls and Boys success

As a school local to the AELTC, we were able to enter eight pupils this year into the selection process to be trained to be ball boys and girls at this Summer’s Wimbledon Tennis championships. We are thrilled to announce that all eight were successful and now progress to the next stages of training at the AELTC. An amazing achievement!

Girls Football Champs

Our Year 7 and 8 girls’ football squad travelled to Plough Lane, the home of AFC Wimbledon, to take part in a 5-a-side tournament. After a tour of the stadium, sitting in the subs bench and in the changing rooms, the girls competed against four other schools. Our girls were undefeated and won the whole tournament! A fantastic achievement.

Pupils get Innovated

Click here to see the final design our Innovation Club submitted to the Victoria and Albert Museum for consideration in their annual National Schools Innovation competition.

The challenge is for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 to work in teams of four to six to design a solution to a real-world problem. Our designers picked the Renew theme and researched, developed and designed the Manypen collaboratively. As detailed in their competition entry this is “… a way to re-use pencil stubs, whilst also solving other important issues such as plastic waste from one-time-use pens, and portability of a pencil case”. All the graphics were produced by Patrick. We are really excited to hear the results…..

Supporting our local community

Levi and Chukwudi (Year 10) report: “A group of pupils visited Home Café before Christmas to present them with our donation of £560 raised by pupils during the internal school fetes held as part of Activities Week in 2021.  Home Community Café is based in St Andrews Church (Earlsfield) and is a Community Interest Company. Their aim is to help those who are lonely or in need through community meals, hampers and meals with other people in their situations. Their staff is largely made up of volunteers, willing to help other members of their community. The money our school donated has helped fund community meals as well as food hampers that are given out to those in need.” 

Big Little Sleep Out

A group of pupils from Years 7, 12 and 13 had the opportunity to take part in the fifth annual Little Sleep Out on Monday 6th December 2021 on the school playground. The pupils gained a very small insight into what it’s like to be homeless, especially at this cold time of year, whilst also raising money for Crisis at Christmas. The Little Sleep Out was inspired by a book that we used to teach in English to Year 7 about a homeless boy and through his character, we were able develop an insight into life for a homeless person. We were really impressed with the attitude of all the pupils who came along to participate in this annual event. We are delighted to have raised £3,112 on the JustGiving page and Lily in Year 7 has set up her own fundraising page and has raised £350 too.

Christmas Card Competition Winner

We are delighted to announce this year’s winning entry was designed by Amy in Year 11.

Packs of five A6 sized cards are available for parents to buy via ParentPay at £2.50 per pack. These cards will be blank inside so you can use them as Christmas or thank you cards. All profits from the sale of these cards will be given to Home Café Earlsfield, a local charity associated with Earlsfield Food Bank. Packs are already being distributed.

Parent Governor Vacancy

We are advertising a vacancy for a parent Governor and are seeking applications from all parents.  Full details with the (short) application form were emailed out earlier this week and are available on our website or from reception. 

The school has an active and engaged Governing Body comprising of fifteen Governors with a wide range of skills and experiences.  Governors conduct an annual skills audit and, while these skillsets are not essential, we are keen to encourage applications from those that have experience in: health and safety; human resources; premises and facilities management; and/or ICT systems.  We strongly advocate inclusion and diversity and would like to ensure the composition of our Governing Body reflects the diversity of our whole school community. 

Governors play an important role in providing oversight of the operations, as well as helping to shape our future plans and aspirations.  There are two committee meetings a term (one in person, one via MS Teams) and there is also the opportunity to join working groups for short term projects and to represent the school at events.  We provide a range of training and support so that Governors learn and develop through their four year term.

Please click here to find out more about the role and the application form under November letters. If anyone would like further information about the Parent Governor role or any aspect of Governance, please contact dcobb@saintcecilias.london at any time.  The closing date is Friday 3rd December 2021 at noon.