St Benedict’s at home Catholic High School and Sixth Form

Dear Students,I hope that you are all well and staying safe, happy and healthy! I know these are challenging times and that some of us may be finding things more stressful than others. Some of us may feel bored at home, some of us may be anxious about missing out on learning and worried about grades, lots of us may be missing friends or family and that’s perfectly normal. It is important that we allow ourselves to feel the way we feel and indeed it is helpful to express those worries and feelings to someone you trust. However, you may also find it helpful, rather than focussing on what we have lost due to the Coronavirus, to think about what we have gained and are learning about ourselves and the world around us. It may also help to think about what we are grateful for. So, this week, I am grateful that the Coronavirus has made so many of us think past ourselves and our own interests to how we can help others. Captain Tom Moore, who turns 100 today and has raised almost 30 million pounds for NHS charities by walking 100 laps around his garden with his Zimmer frame, is an excellent example to us all and shows us that by thinking of others we can achieve great things and make such a difference.

We wish you a Happy 100th Birthday Captain Tom!

But it is also the small acts of kindness that we can all do that can make a difference to others. In this edition of the student newsletter, you will see ways in which St Benedict’s students have been helping other students in the school community with their learning even though we are not physically together. The Bible tells us to ‘be thankful for everything, in all circumstances’ and that seems particularly relevant now when so many of us are going through difficult times. What will you find to be thankful for today?

Your Fantastic Work!!!It has been amazing to see how many students have been completing the optional ‘Extension and Enrichment’ activities made available on our school website. Remember that for every optional activity completed, send the evidence to your subject teacher and you will be given a special positive in ClassCharts that will earn you a ticket for the rewards raffle. We have loved seeing what you are doing so keep them coming in! We are updating many of the activities on a weekly basis so do please keep looking at the website. Since we began last week, we have given out an amazing 304 enrichment points! So well done to all of you and if you haven’t yet given it a go, why not go to our website and choose an activity that interests you? See Ella Peeke’s fabulous Dinosaur Food Chain Mobile completed for Science.

Easter Photography Competition From Mrs Sylvester: Thank you to everyone who entered. We were fortunate to have lovely weather over Easter which has been captured in many of the beautiful photographs we received. Please take a moment to go onto this link on the school website and browse through the amazing entries. I hope this gallery presentation will be a positive memory in this difficult time. All students who submitted an entry will receive a positive in ClassCharts and a ticket for the rewards raffle. We will also present prizes to the winning entries when we re-open. So congratulations to the following:

Runner-up: Lola-Mai Hatcher 7C with ‘Spring Colours’. A beautiful composition that is reminiscent of

a Monet painting. Highly commended: Flavia Cimilluca 8D with ‘Spring

Snowflakes’. Chosen for finding beauty in the every day that is overlooked.

Highly Commended: Max Gilbert 8B with ‘Pink Perfection’ and Kayleigh Sollis 9C with ‘In Full Bloom’.

Both stunning close up images.

And the overall winner isMatheus Mainardi 8D

with ‘Solitude’A meaningful and thought-provoking photograph

as I’m sure you’ll agree. Please see above.

St Benedict’s at home Catholic High School and Sixth Form

Remember this week, if you are in key stage three, you should be completing and emailing assessed pieces of work to your subject teachers for Maths, English and Science. You will receive feedback on these shortly. Next week, you will complete assessed pieces of work for RE, History and Geography.

Make sure you email these to your teachers who will tell you what do via ClassCharts. For key stage 4 students, you are completing assessed pieces of work for the options subjects below listed in the schedule.

Next week, we will be sending a short survey to students and their parents about how home learning is going for you. Home learning is not the same as the learning you may have been used to; otherwise there wouldn’t be the need for schools! It is challenging trying to balance the needs of all the different students and the different circumstances that they have but we are a listening school and we want to hear your views. Please do take the time to complete the survey which we will send via a link to parents and to students’ school email addresses. We want to make sure that we make remote learning as effective as it possibly can be under the challenging circumstances that we find ourselves in and we will let you know about any adjustments we may make in the light of your feedback.

Meanwhile Teachers are doing… Mr Gee

I have been making a more concerted effort to practice my piano every day and learning some new pieces. Even though I play the piano in nearly every lesson I teach, it is very rare I get so much time to practice so that has been lovely. I have also been reading a lot more, and enjoying spending time with my cat (see photo to the right!). As Mrs Eldridge said, it would be great to hear what you have been up to as well. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again once we’re back in school.

Feedback from your teachers... Home Learning – Share your views!

Summer Term Week 2

Summer TermWeek 3

Summer Term Week 4

Summer Term Week 5

KS3

KS4

Maths

English

Science

RE

History

Geography

Spanish

Business/

Computing

PE

Art Technology

Music and other

key stage 4

options(Health

& Social Care,

Psychology, Film

Art Technology

Music and other

key stage 4

options(Health

& Social Care,

Psychology, Film

Spanish

Business/

Computing

PE

Maths

English

Science

RE

History

Geography

Home Learning – Share your views!

Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service

Telephone Support for Parents

Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service (EPS) is offering direct access telephone consultation to parents and carers during the Covid-19 pandemic. This service is available for 4 afternoons each week (Monday to Thursday) for parents and carers who live in Warwickshire and who feel they may benefit from consultation with an Educational Psychologist to support them with concerns that they may have at this time. Concerns might include:

• How to talk with a child/young person about COVID-19 and any worries associated with it

• How to help children/young people to engage with learning whilst at home

• How to support behaviour that can be challenging or difficult to manage • How best to look after your own and/or your child’s mental and emotional

well-being on a daily basis

If you would like to arrange a telephone consultation with an Educational Psychologist, please phone 01926 742921 or email eps@warwickshire.gov.uk. You will be asked to provide the following information:

• Your name • The telephone number you would like to be contacted on and an email

address • A brief description of the area in which you would like support • You or your child’s school if relevant (if your child is not already known to

the Educational Psychology Service, we will not take their name or record details of the conversation)

You will be offered the next available telephone timeslot that an educational psychologist has available and they will then phone you back at that time.

Warwickshire County Council

Please see our website for more support, advice and resources here.

St Benedict’s at home Catholic High School and Sixth Form

Students are… helping each other! This week, I have heard from several students and their teachers about how they have been using their time to help other students. For example, some of our year 12 Film students have produced some fantastic guides and resources to help other students create their own short films and some of the English teachers have posted these on the Extension & Enrichment activities on the school website. Thank you to Sophie Davis and Jim Soriano for sharing! Please email Miss Cotterill if you would like her to send these guides to you and we’d love to see any of the short films you’ve produced as a result. Cotterill.j1@st-benedicts.org

We are also so impressed with Sam Harper-Mills in year 7 who has created and

shared lots of resources with his classmates. Here’s what Sam had to say:“I really love music and playing the Piano and French Horn is keeping me sane during the lockdown!! I enjoy music lessons at school with

Mr Gee (it’s my favourite subject) and I wanted to help other kids to learn the

basics for writing music, so I put together some resources to help them get started!”

Also, we have heard from Mason-Hope Haynes in year 8 who wanted to share an activity with you that she has been doing during the lockdown. It is a Covid-19 2020 Time Capsule with lots of pages to complete to record your experiences during lockdown. Mason-Hope says it was really fun to do and you can find it on the following link:https://www.newfieldschool.co.uk/my-2020-covid-time-capsule-sheets/Thank you Mason-Hope for sharing with us and I’d love to hear any other tips from students about ideas for passing the time. Email me eldridge.c@st-benedicts.org

It’s all about reading… Mrs O’TooleBook of the Week - S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett. This won lots of awards last year including the Warwickshire Secondary Book Award 2019 which some of our Year 7 students took part in. It is also being made into a film by the team who made the Hunger Games films. The book was so successful that M.A. Bennett has already released the sequel D.O.G.S. Nine students and one deadly weekend make this a twisting thriller that is full of suspense and surprises. A real page-turner from start to finish. You can order the book on many different websites or download it to a device to get reading immediately. Read the book and write a book review to receive an enrichment positive in ClassCharts.

As you know we have a Book of the Week on display in the library each week when we are at school. If you have any recommendations for a Book of the Week for the newsletter them please let Miss. O’Toole know at otoole.t@st-benedicts.org

Vocations Sunday... Message from Mrs O’Gara

The 4th Sunday of Easter every year is Vocations Sunday or “Good Shepherd Sunday” The readings are always about Jesus as our shepherd, who cares for us and guides us. We pray for vocations in the Church. We ask God to send us people who will be shepherds to care for us. We all have a calling from God, a vocation, we all have a special purpose but sometimes it is difficult and scary to follow this vocation. Pope Francis asks us to read (Matthew 14:22-33) where Jesus walks on water.Pope Francis wants us to remember 5 words when thinking about vocation: Gratitude, Encouragement, Courage, Fatigue, PraiseAt the start of this newsletter, we began by thinking about being thankful and grateful for what we have even during difficult times and ‘Gratitude’ is the first word in Pope Francis’ list. Our vocation comes from Jesus’ love for us, which we perhaps realise in stormy times. We show gratitude – we thank Jesus for his call to us. Maybe some of you already have an idea of your vocation in the future; maybe you are still unsure and don’t yet know what special purpose God has in mind for you. This Vocation Sunday, maybe you can spend a quiet moment thinking about what you are being called to be and know that God has a special purpose for every single one of us; we just need to listen for his call.

Remember, all the staff at St Benedict’s miss you and have you in their thoughts.

We are looking forward to the day we can welcome you back to school but until then, stay happy, stay healthy and keep learning!

God bless you all,Mrs Eldridge

Assistant Headteacher

Prayer for Vocation Sunday

Send your Holy Spirit upon meto guide me in my own vocation.Enlighten my mind to show me what you want of me;fill my heart with the determinationto answer your call in faith, hope and love.Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.Amen.