Ask yourself this, Year 9...how much can you be trusted? ⭐Can you be trusted to get on with your home learning without your parents nagging you? ⭐Can you be trusted to go out and socially distance with your friends? ⭐Do friends trust you with their secrets? ⭐More importantly, who do you put your trust in? You might have guessed that our theme this week is Trust. In the gospel,Jesus encourages the disciples not to be afraid of anything, even death, but rather, to trust in God the Father. He tells them that God knows each and every one of them and that they are all precious to Him, so they should have nothing to worry about. Believe it or not, this is how I feel about you, Year 9 and without risking sounding too Gollum-esque, individually, you are all incredibly precious to me. We've all learnt to live with a new sense of normal over the last few months and things continue to be uncertain for the not-so-distant future, but I want to reassure you that things will be OK. I can't promise you that I know all the answers, and I am certainly not suggesting that I am a God-like figure for you. What I can promise you however, is that teachers have your back when it comes to your education and come your exams in year 11, things will be OK. As this week draws to a close, I want you consider the following questions:
Who do you trust and why?
How do you build trust in your relationship with others?
Which relationships do you need to work on in order to build trust?
How could you go about getting to know God better this week?
Which fears might you be able to overcome if you genuinely trusted in the fact that, with God, everything is always alright in the end?
Below is the link to Miss Forman's assembly this week and Mr Kibble's video gives us an insight into forward plans for September.
So, what have you been up to in the heat wave, Miss?
Well, Year 9, that's nice of you to ask.
We managed to do some Cherry-picking from a tree in a family member's garden. Best cherries I've ever tasted!
Lots of staff members had a great time making home-made pizza last Friday night, all courtesy of ZIO's Italian (Miss Smeraglia's husband's restaurant). We've had a mini competition within the staff and I've just been told by Miss Gallagher that I won a prize for the best pizza. Quite frankly, I'm amazed as I never win anything! I'll let you make your own judgement below...
A quick Pup-date
As ever, I couldn't sign off without giving you a quick update on Lola.
She's become a lot bigger over the last week and can't quite believe that she hasn't stopped growing yet. I imagine that I'll get the same shock when I see you all after all of this time off!
Lola now loves the water too. Here she is having the time of her life in Crane Park...
I'll keep things short and sweet from me this week Year 9, as (much to my dismay in having to record myself) I've filmed an assembly for you all to enjoy that will be released next week...don't get too excited.
We're creeping ever-closer to the end of term now and Miss Cella and I are in the process of choosing students for our final awards. For that reason, we're not having nominations this week, but will save them all up for a big blow-out at the end of term. Stay safe Year 9 and don't forget to lather on that sun-cream (after all, I wouldn't want you burning...you're too precious!) Miss M x
I don't know about your Year 9, but there's something special that happens when we all come together as a Salesian community for feast days and whole school masses. There's a part of me that desperately misses seeing everyone congregate on the yard with their chairs and glancing across a sea of heads over at other members of staff as we struggle to reach the high notes in the ever-favourite 'ShineJesus shine'. With our current situation, it's very unlikely that we will be sitting together as a community for a while longer, and whilst technology has brought us together and Microsoft Teams has allowed us a bit of normality as far as lessons go, it's just not the same- let's be honest. This week sees the celebration of The feast of Corpus Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ). It's been a fair amount of time since anyone received any kind of blessing, or communion so it's an important time to reflect on that and what we are missing. With that in mind, take time to ask yourself the following questions this week...
What could you do to draw your community together this week?
What sacrifices am you prepared to make for others this week?
How will you provide spiritual nourishment for others this week?
How will you, through your words and actions, be like Jesus Christ in our world this week?
Also, check out this week's assemblies and messages from Mr Bruynseels and Mr Kibble.
Things are changing...
The bubble.
Yep, that's right. We have a Year 9 bubble and it's ever-growing. Those of you at school, you know what I'm talking about. You come to school each day ready to sit at the computer and work through all the tasks you have been given for the week. You get to wear your own clothes, play Kahoot and get help with your work. It's not really like a proper school day...sounds OK, right?
I know that some of you are feeling really detached from school at the moment, and might think it's unfair that you can't come in- trust me, we would have all of you back if we could! I also know that those in school are really benefitting from the interaction they are getting with others, but I'm sure they would be the first to say that the novelty wears off after the first week, or so.
That's why it's really important that those of you at home are sticking to social distancing as much as possible in order to get this virus under control. If we don't all play our part, then the Lockdown will be for nothing. So, in short, although the rules are lifting a little, please remember that we have some who are in school from 9-3.30pm every day and they are going to feel very hard done by if they know that some of you are off out socialising in town whilst they are stuck within the same 4 walls at school.
Finding a balance...
This brings me nicely on to how much work you are all being set at home. I know that there are two ends of the spectrum:
One End: Diligent students who work their socks off and put 100% effort in to every task
The Other End: Students who haven't picked up a pen/logged on in 13 weeks.
Hopefully, many of you will find yourself around the middle of this very wide spectrum. You're the type of person who completes all the work and feels satisfied knowing that it's out of the way.
So you've done all of your work?
Now, ask yourself this: How good is the work you have produced? Would you give it in to your teacher to be marked?
I have a funny feeling (having seen how quickly some of you are pacing through things in school) that you are not putting as much effort as you could into some of the tasks being set.
Let's take English for example (you know I'm biased)...
Explain how Mr Birling might be considered selfish? Why has Priestley portrayed him like this?
Student 1:
Mr Birling is selfish because he says that he only cares about himself. He is a capitalist thinker and Priestley liked socialism, so he wanted him to be the opposite.
Student 2:
Throughout the play, Priestley presents Mr Birling as a clear representation of the patriarchal upper class. He repeats multiple times in his speeches that he is a 'hard headed, practical man of business' who doesn't believe in the idea of 'community'. Mr Birling believes that the idea of equality is 'nonsense'. Instead he would prefer to 'look out for his business, himself and his own'. This reflects a lack of social responsibility and justice in his character, and demonstrates Priestley's dislike for Capitalist beliefs within society.
Already, you should be able to see the difference. Think of each answer (particularly for written subjects like History and English) as being mini PEA paragraphs. Each week, you should essentially have an essay written in your book. This means analysing key quotations and looking at methods. You can't just write a couple of sentences and be done with it...imagine the horror on your teacher's face!
Equally, I know this doesn't apply to all of you. Some of you are working incredibly hard and struggling to get through it all- so give yourselves a break. And remember, you can reach out for help at any time! Teachers are just at the end of an email (or teams).
Moore's Top Four 👑
Izzy Thorpe for her amazing minimalism project for Music - Mr Goldberg
Great work by Laurence Wjingaarden this week. Already completed the weeks work on angles! - Mr Weedon
Amir Bunce for a great on line French lesson today (Friday 12th June) and I was also very impressed with Isabelle Thorpe, George Black, Keira Foley, Marielle Saraty and Toby Dickenson. A great start to the GCSE course! Mr Delaney
Alexander McRobb-Roldan– for such carefully considered explanations as to the meanings behind his images
Amir Bunce– for showing great photography skills with a fab use of colour
Francesca Holgate– for submitting a great set of composition images with really interesting personal meanings behind them
Rachel Lightfoot– for her excellent presentation of her work and stunning sketches of still life objectsn Mr Kern
Oliver Salamonefor his perseverance and continued efforts at home-learning with regard to my subject RE. He has shown that he can take responsibility for his own learning, as he always does. Mr Castillone
Yasmin and Ollie Davis for cooking an amazing Anniversary dinner for their parents. Mrs Carr
Yasmin Davies and Tom Stokes for excellent work being produced and good contributions to online sessions. Miss Mullane
Chester Nucum and Dhilan Joshi got good contributions to online sessions. Miss Mullane
Harry Priestly is really engaged in responding in online lessons. Mr Legrand
Millie Hopkins for going above and beyond during our daily walk in school the other day and rescuing a bird! She picked it up, put it in a tree and that allowed it to fly away - it was hovering dangerously close to Guildford Road before that! Miss Gallagher
Izzy Noto and Oliver Storer: Very, very impressed with early GCSE photography – Mega! Mr O'Keeffe
A HUGE congratulations to all of you for your efforts.
I know how hard it is to stay motivated as time goes on. By the time we reach September, you will have missed 14 weeks of school! Add on the 9 weeks of half term and summer holidays, and that surmounts to a hell of a lot of time that we will have spent away from our school community. Please do yourselves a favour and put in as much effort into these final weeks as you can, so you can have a stress free Summer without worrying about all of the work you still need to catch up on.
Pup-date
Yes, it's that time again.
It's been a fairly quiet, rainy week for Lola. Despite this, I thought you might like to see a clip from last weekend that was taken on a walk at Staines Moor (joined by Miss Peterkin and Mrs Clarke and their puppies and Miss Cella and her horse...sorry I mean her dog, Nala)
Whilst Lola has to be thrown in the water to encourage her to swim, Miss Cella has to physically get in with Nala...mainly because she insisted on rolling in every bit of cow poo she could find *the dog, not Miss Cella*.
Supposedly, Year 9, three is a 'magic number'. If you've heard the song on the most recent lottery advert, you'll know the lyrics from the song I'm referring too- or maybe I'm just a bit old and you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Three: It's the number of close friends I had in my main friendship group at school, the number of biscuits I usually have to eat to satisfy my sugar craving and the number of Microsoft Teams sessions I have today.
Three, as you well know, is also a crowd.
Despite all of this, Google will also confirm that three is meant to be a sacred number and that might have something to do with the Trinity (or, as we know it The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit). God gives Himself three times over out of love and reminds us of how to be selfless...something we have all had time to reflect upon during lockdown. With that in mind, going forward this week, I want us all to be thinking about how we can continue to carry out selfless acts to those around us, whether that is for friends, family, or our wider community.
For more on Trinity, check out this week's assembly by Mrs Bolton on the school youtube channel:
Let's get down to Business...
Unfortunately, you may have heard that we are having a few problems with staffing Business Studies GCSE next year. As a result, I wanted to spend a bit of time addressing a few common questions that I have been receiving from you and your parents.
Question 1: Why have I received an email from Mr Kibble, but my friend (who is also doing Business) hasn't?
If you selected Business Studies as your third choice of subject on your Options form, you will have received an email from Mr Kibble this week asking whether you wouldn't mind swapping to your reserve choice of subject.
Question 2: What if you find a teacher to run the Business course by September? Will I still have to take my reserve if I agreed to it?
At the moment, the leadership team are working tirelessly to try and solve the issue so as many of you can do Business as possible. However, in the event that we are unable to have as many Business classes as we would ideally like, some of you will be allocated your reserve choice. Therefore, Mr Hamshar and I are making calls to your parents this week to ask if this is something you wouldn't mind doing. By agreeing to go to your reserve subject, this does NOT mean that you will have to take it if we end up finding another teacher.
Question 3: I have changed my mind about my reserve subject and am worried that I will be allocated it if Business doesn't have capacity for me. Can I still change my reserve?
If you are someone who is worried about doing your reserve because you now don't particularly want to do the subject, please get in touch with me, or Mr Hamshar to let us know. We would rather we make the swap to a subject that you wouldn't mind doing now, rather than in September, because by that point it may be too late for us to make timetable changes (COVID-19 is likely to have an impact with this too, so we need to have a clear plan put in place for you all ahead of time).
Question 4: Can I still do Business Studies A Level if I don't do GCSE?
Yes. If you don't do Business Studies GCSE, you will still be able to do it for A Level.
Question 5: If I choose not to take my reserve, is there still the possibility that I will get given it?
Yes. If we don't manage to recruit someone by September, the school will have to allocate student with their reserve choice, regardless of whether you have accepted it, or not. This is why it is imperative that you are happy with your reserve.
If you have any other questions that I haven't covered, please do get in touch with me. Remember to have conversations with your parents about this too, as it would help knowing what your decision is before Mr Hamshar and I make calls to you over the next few days.
Early Birds catch the worms 🐦
Metaphorical worms of course.
Microsoft Teams sessions are now in full swing and it's been great to hear so many of you and actually get some class discussions going. I know that for some of you, it's also given you a little more structure to your day. However, just from my own knowledge, it's clear to see the difference between attendance at my 9am calls, as opposed to my 11am calls and I think that has a lot to do with some lengthy teenage lie-ins.
Remember, your teachers will have put a lot of work into these sessions and they are a great opportunity to get involved with discussion and receive that much needed social interaction with your teachers again, so use them to your advantage because we are desperately trying to ensure that everyone gets a good deal whilst you have to remain at home. This is particularly important if you are someone who is struggling with work, or if you are unsure of how to structure your day- these sessions are there to help you get back into a routine if yours has 'gone out of the window' during lockdown.
Positive Praise...👏 🍓 👑
Over the last week, there's been some name dropping of certain students by other members of staff (particularly within my English Department Meetings) for great efforts with home-learning, or contribution to Teams sessions. Whilst we're saving up for a big end of term 'Moore's Top Four' celebration, I wanted to do a few shout-outs this week for some individuals who have come to my attention. A HUGE well done to the names below...
Harry Priestley: For fantastic contributions on his English Teams lesson for An Inspector Calls. Could he be a long, lost relative of JB Priestley, our playwright?!
Ella Hough: For her insightful contributions on her English Teams lesson.
Dhilan Joshi: For his excellent contribution to his recent English Teams lessons.
Yasmin Davis: For great work in her English lessons on Teams.
Chester Nucum: For working consistently hard on his English work.
Tom Stokes: For being resilient in his learning and making valid contributions in his Teams lessons.
Ana Altarac: For working really hard on her work for all subjects, particularly English!
Ella Brittan: For taking initiative by asking for extra pre-reading for her GCSE subjects.
Laurence Wjingaarden: For upping his game on his work ethic and getting on top of all subjects that he is completing for GCSE
Owen Christmas: For reading Act 2 and beyond in 'An Inspector Calls'
Marco Underwood: For tremendous efforts creating a bar in the garden as a lockdown project...serving non-alcoholic beer to minors of course!
Marco putting in some hard graft on the circular saw!
The finished product that RMT teachers would be proud of
Now, before I sign off and go to my third Teams session of the day, I'll leave you with a quick 'pup-date' on Lola's last week...
Into the woods
Looking ratty after her first swim in Richmond Park
Looking cleaner after the first trip to the grooming salon
Take care, stay safe (especially those of you who I've seen wondering around Chertsey recently...remember to keep your distance!) Miss M x
We've officially reached our last half-term before we enter the Summer holidays and I can't quite believe it. Notoriously, this is the half term where our Year 11s would usually be sitting their exams and things start to become a little quieter around school. Classrooms get so hot and stuffy, to the point at which you're making fans out of paper and your legs start sticking to your chair. There are some things I'm sure we won't miss during the latter half of this Summer Term, but there are also so many more things that we will be missing: Trips, lunches outside in the sun, extra-curricular events, sports day...the list goes on. I hope I am not alone in saying that the main thing we are missing is each other's company.
It's been a real pleasure getting to go in to school on more of a regular basis this week and I've managed to see a handful of you whose parents have now returned to work. It might seem like things will be like this forever, but slowly life will start returning to normal and this might be quite daunting for some of you. I know that those of you who have come back to school are enjoying the social interaction and I hope, before long, we'll be able to get more of you back too.
As humans, we adapt very quickly to change and you have demonstrated that beautifully with how you have responded to this situation. However, coming back to school might be harder for some than others. If you are worried about the possibility of returning to school, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. We have teachers at school who can help you with any anxieties that you might be having- that goes for your parents as well!
Microsoft Teams
This week has seen the start of Teams meetings with your teachers. On the whole, minus a few teething problems for some of you, these seem to have had a positive impact on your learning and the feedback I have had from some of you has been great. If you have any issues with logging in to Teams, remember to get in touch with someone (Mr Hamshar is a bit of a guru in this) so any issues can be fixed. Similarly, if you have a great idea about how the use of Teams might benefit you even more, I'd love to hear your 'EBIs'...teachers like responding to feedback too!
This week's most common question:
"Do I still have to complete work for subjects that I am not doing for GCSE? I keep seeing work being set on SMHW and I am being invited to Teams Meetings"
The short answer for this is 'No'.
Although you will still see tasks appearing on SMHW, you only need to complete these if you are planning on taking the subject as an option next year. Equally, if you have been invited to a Teams meeting, this is because teachers have sent this to whole classes. Again, you do not need to attend these unless you are doing the subject for GCSE.
Later this week, you should receive a booklet that will provide 'short guide' to your GCSE courses. This will help you to get ahead between now and September, as I know some of you are already worried about falling behind.
If you have any further questions about GCSE subjects, you can always drop me an email.
Videos to watch this week:
If you still haven't checked out the School Youtube Channel, make sure you get on there and look through the playlist of videos for each subject.
Also, you might have spotted Mr Kibble's most recent message. Just in case you haven't, here it is below:
Making Changes
Some of you may remember that, prior to 'lockdown', we completed a survey about altering the timings of the school day.
If you haven't seen the letter from Mr Kibble, here was the outcome for those who took part in the survey:
Category
Responses
For
Against
Staff (Teachers)
69
91%
9%
Staff (Support)
14
79%
21%
Students (Years 7-11)
377
80%
20%
Students (Years 12-13)
133
61%
39%
Parents
197
83%
17%
Others
2
50%
50%
Overall
794
79%
21%
As you can see from the results, the vast majority were in favour of the earlier finish. Therefore, from the start of the next academic year, the timings for the school day will be as follows:
8.45 School starts
8.50 - 9.10 Registration
9.10 - 10.00 Period 1
10.00 - 10.50 Period 2
10.50 - 11.10 Break
11.10 - 12.00 Period 3
12.00 - 12.50 Period 4
12.50 - 1.35 Lunch
1.35 - 2.25 Period 5
2.25 - 3.15 Period 6
Of course, with all of the ongoing changes due to COVID-19, there is a high chance that this may have to be altered slightly for the initial return to school. By this, I mean staggered timings to allow for social distancing- by now, you know the drill. However, eventually, we will get back to a normal routine and it is going to look like the one above.
A super quick puppy update...
Don't lie, I know you were desperate for one!
We've had a busy half-term running around after Lola. She's now 4 months old and ginormous to say the least. Her favourite thing to do is chase her tail and eat anything edible...or non-edible in some cases.
We won't be able to lift her soon!
'Socially Distanced' Picnic with Mrs Clarke, Miss Cella and Miss Peterkin
That's about all I have from the little lamb look-a-like at the moment. Right, now I have to get back to creating some 'An Inspector Calls' videos for you all to enjoy over the next few weeks.
Good luck with starting that GCSE course content and remember to give me a shout if you're struggling.
