Message from the Head of School

During Term 3 we have taken time to reflect on significant world events and our values at St Katherine’s.

Two of our Year 13 students, Jasmine Mahesan and Cathy Howe, are Holocaust Ambassadors and presented an assembly that shone a light on the faults of our past history and the lessons we must learn. We reflected on how our values of acceptance, equality, friendship and responsibility must be demonstrated and embraced by all of us to ensure we can enjoy every day and make the most of the opportunities we have.

Our Year 12 historians along with Miss Schofield and Mr Murdoch travelled to Poland to visit the sites of the Holocaust after speaking to a Holocaust survivor through video link during our Holocaust Remembrance Week.

The French Exchange has been a highlight for a group of Year 9 and 10 students this term.  The exchange was a huge success in every way with whole families embracing the week and putting their French conversation skills to the test. The week was full with a range of visits to local sights and events during the evening. The MFL department have been overwhelmed by the gratitude shown by all families involved. 

At the halfway point during the year we carry out our important self evaluation and I would be grateful if you could spare five minutes to complete our anonymous parent/carer feedback form that has been emailed to you.

Dates for the 2018-2019 academic year are now available on our website. If you noted these provisional dates, please can I draw to your attention to a date change.  The INSET day on Friday 3rd May 2019 has been changed to Friday 15th February 2019. 

Mr J Humphreys

Sixth form history trip to Krakow

To help deepen their understanding of the Holocaust, 20 sixth form students studying A level history visited Krakow in southern Poland in early February. Krakow was occupied by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War Two and the visit provided a thought-provoking and sometimes shocking insight to the experiences of Jewish people during the conflict.

The trip started with a visit to Galicia museum in the Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz which focuses on the experiences of the Jewish population in Poland both pre and post-war. We heard the story of Rywka Lipszyc, a young girl who lived in the ghetto in Lvov, which provided a powerful introduction to our visit. Rywka’s diary was found by a Soviet doctor after the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 and her fate is still unknown.

The next day we visited the largest of the Nazi camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1.5 million people were executed. We began in Auschwitz 1, the main concentration camp and Gestapo interrogation centre and bore witness to the vast array of artefacts which demonstrate the extent of the genocide. Our guide, Marta was keen to remind us that these artefacts are testimony to the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and why the site will remain protected forever.

Everyone was struck by the scale of the former death camp, which was partially destroyed by the Nazis in January 1945. Although very little remains of the barracks and gas chambers the experience was sobering.

Our weekend ended with a visit to the former factory of Oskar Schindler, who was credited with saving the lives of 1000 Jewish people from the Krakow ghetto and inspired the film, ‘Schindler’s List’.

Whilst the subject matter was harrowing, the weekend helped the students reflect on the Holocaust and developed their understanding of Nazi anti-semitic policies, particularly during the war years. The trip also encouraged everyone to reflect on, and celebrate the inspirational stories of kindness, rescue and compassion.

Miss E Schofield, Head of Humanities

Department of Education Performance tables

You may have read articles in the local and national press about the annual GCSE performance tables. Many focused on the new Progress 8 measure and used this to rank and compare schools. However, performance measures only tell part of the story and, more importantly, fail to convey the context on which they are based.

Any proud teacher or headteacher would find this frustrating and as Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the ASCL teaching union, stated in his article in the Times Educational Supplement, “[performance tables] only tell us a limited amount about the true quality of a school.”

St Katherine’s School is a great school which I, along with the staff team, are passionate about making even better. St Katherine’s has a clear purpose and set of values with our wonderful young people at the heart of what we do. Our curriculum is broad, enriching and provides boundless opportunities for our young people both inside and outside of the classroom.

We treat our students as individuals and support them to fulfil their potential, nurturing their skills in academic, creative and vocational subjects. Our results continue to improve and in 2017 we were pleased with our record results at both GCSE and A Level. These were the first results under the new GCSEs in English and maths and we achieved results in line with or above the national average. We were particularly pleased with the 18 Grade 9s achieved across English and maths. Our Attainment 8 at 45.9 places us at the top of the table for a school that does not follow an eBacc curriculum.

I am immensely proud to work alongside such dedicated and talented staff and wonderful young people with so much potential. At St Katherine’s, we continue to focus on the whole child, learning together, succeeding together and inspiring excellence. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the students and staff for their hard work and the continued support from our families and governors.

Mr J Humphreys, Head of School

A memorable French Exchange

At the end of January, Year 9 and 10 students hosted twenty-one French students and three teachers from College Victor Duruy based in Mont-de-Marsan, south west France.

During their week long stay the French students visited Bristol, Cardiff and Tyntesfield. They also spent time in school accompanying their exchange partners to lessons to get a taste of how a British school works.

The week flew by and, after sharing such a special experience together, the students found it hard to say goodbye without shedding a few tears.

The school exchange programme organised by the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) team is designed to give students opportunities to develop their linguistic skills, broaden their cultural knowledge and widen their horizons. The words of one of the teachers from College Victor Duruy and a St Katherine’s parent (below) are testament to the fantastic benefits these exchanges give to our students.

Farewell letter from Mrs Bernarde, French trip Leader:
“Thanks very much to you all, families and staff, for this warm welcome. This trip will remain vivid in everybody’s memories. We, as teachers, are plant growers, gardening your children’s brains, planting seeds to develop. I’d like to use an image to characterize this exchange: that of an acorn. It is a potential oak tree. Let this newly-born link be the first of a long-lasting list and the acorn develop into a sturdy tree. We are delighted to be part of this scheme with St Katherine’s because we share the same values: involvement, commitment, faithfulness, honesty and both our schools highly praise this type of collaboration for the benefit of the whole community.”

Email from host family parent:
“ I wanted to email to say what a wonderful experience my son has had this week with the French Exchange programme. I have watched him blossom and grow this week. His French conversation has improved enormously as has his accent. He played games like Pictionary, Boggle and Guess Who with his French Partner and they enjoyed trips out after school and at the weekend….all the time chatting away in French. It has been such a rich experience for us all and even had me speaking my secondary school French! My son is very much looking forward to his return trip to the French family too. Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity for my son.”

The St Katherine’s students and MFL team visit Mont-de-Marsan in March for the return trip. Needless to say both students and teachers are looking forward to it!

Mrs G Maringo, Head of Modern Foreign Languages.

Students commended by the Head of School this term

Term 3 news round-up

Although Term 3 has been relatively short, as always there has been a lot going on in and out of school!  

Science update

Year 7/8 Science club:   Year 7 and 8s have been enjoying a range of fun activities at Science Club after school on Thursdays. Here they talk about their personal highlights:  

“We have dissected a rat which was very interesting.” “My favourite thing was setting my hands on fire with methane bubbles.” “My favourite activity in science club was making a pH indicator, I wanted to know how it works.” “We made bath bombs which was really fun, I Iove all the things we have done in science club.” “I have enjoyed everything! But if I had to pick one thing, my favourite would be fire writing.” “We made slime which was great.”

Thanks to Mr Francis-Black, Miss Andrews, Mr Hodgson, Ms Mason and Miss Finn for all the fun activities. Next term Science Club will be tackling forensic science investigations.

‘Science Live’:  45 Year 10 and 11 GCSE science students enjoyed presentations by some of the UK’s most well-known scientists at ‘Science Live’ in January. The morning started with a talk from Professor Steve Jones the renowned evolutionary biologist. He told the audience that two out of three of us would die due to genes we carry that are associated with heart disease, diabetes and cancer. However he cheered us up by telling us that in Shakespeare’s time two of the three of us would already be dead!

Next, renowned fertility expert Lord Professor Robert Winston spoke about human fertility and embryo development.  He was followed by an inspiring talk on space science by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Professor Jim Al-Khalili then spoke about Time Travel and whether films like ‘Interstellar’ are realistic. Lastly, a presentation by Professor Andrea Sella from UCL  about the amazing properties of ice, global warming and Primo Levi’s book, ‘The Periodic Table’ ended with a bang as a container exploded during an experiment!

PE and Sport News

It’s been another term of sporting success at St Katherine’s.   There will be a full round-up in the PE and Sport newsletter early next term – here are just some of the highlights:

• The Year 8 girls team netball made it to the county finals representing North Somerset
• Year 7 boys and girls sportshall athletics teams made it to the county finals representing North Somerset
• The Year 7  boys won the County Sportshall Athletics Finals and are the best in South Glos, N Somerset, BANES and Bristol – a great achievement!
• U13 boys, U13 girls and U15 boys have all qualified for the North Schools Play-offs in our annual indoor cricket competitions
• U19 boys are into the semi finals of the Somerset cup after a 4-2 victory over Chew Valley in the recent quarter finals

Mr Cook, Head of PE

Key Dates for Term 4

keep in touch

There isn’t enough space here to showcase the huge variety of student experiences and achievements this term. Keep up to date by visiting the ‘News and Events’ section on the school website, check the school Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @stkathsschool.