Welcome to the first edition of

our new digital version of the

‘Fisher Focus’. We will be

publishing this on a more

regular basis to celebrate all of

the achievements of our

students within and beyond

our school community.

I want to take this opportunity

to thank all students, staff and

parents for their hard work and

efforts across the term and to

wish everybody a restful and

peace filled Easter.

We look forward to welcoming

students back to school on

Monday 16th April.

Mr J Taylor

Headteacher

‘The Church offers people 'the

soothing remedy of prayer,

almsgiving and fasting' during

Lent’ His Holiness Pope Francis

St John Fisher celebrated Year

Group Liturgies to mark the

beginning of the Holy Season of Lent

on Ash Wednesday with the

distribution of Ashes.

The Melodies Choir led the singing

of the hymns and the psalm

accompanied by Mrs Butterworth.

It’s all going swimmingly well

St John Fisher is happy to celebrate the personal successes of some our truly gifted athletes as both Charlotte

Robinson [10R] and Avril Bowler [11F] have reached some of the highest levels of their sport. Charlotte has been

asked to represent the North East Division at the English Schools National Swimming Championship. Avril has

recently swam her Personal Best in breaststroke in The British Swimming Championships.

Chaplaincy News

The Chaplaincy has been buzzing

with staff and students ‘dropping

in’ for a cuppa and a chat.

It was evident that many

members of our community are

aware of family members,

friends and neighbours. Many

students expressed an interest in

supporting ours suffering from

Alzheimer’s and so the ‘Knit &

Natter in the Chaplaincy every

Tuesday’ was established. Miss

Eddy is overwhelmed at the

tremendous support from staff,

students and parents with their

generosity of yarn and knitting

needles, not to mention

additional squares for the

‘sensory twiddle lap blankets’.

March

2018

Sixth Form Matters

Attendance Ambassador We are pleased to welcome Paul Halloran as our Sixth Form Attendance Ambassador. Paul has volunteered to support our students in reinforcing the importance of excellent attendance and punctuality from an employer’s perspective and enabling us to fully prepare students for the next stage in their career. Many parents will recognise Paul as a local entrepreneur and a Fisher’s parent. Thank you in advance for your time and commitment to our students. Extra-Curricular As part of their personal development and to enhance their CV or University applications, students are encouraged to put their names down for various extra-curricular activities including University taster courses, research programmes, subject focus days, Sutton Trust residential, Nuffield Foundation research programme and many others! The picture shows a group of our Year 12 students who were recently successful in applying for the ‘Get Ahead’ programme at Newcastle University. The students will visit the University at the end of March, and will take part in various subject based activities as part of our partnership with the University.

Football The Year 7 and 11 boys are through to the semi-finals of the Spen Valley Cup after beating Westborough 10-2 (Year 7) and Manor Croft 3-0 (Year 11). A massive well done to Joseph Jessop (Year 11) and Sam Aston (Year 7) for their efforts in the games. Netball Year 8 girls won the recent Spen Valley netball tournament. Rugby The Year 11 boys’ rugby team are in the semi-finals of the Yorkshire plate after beating Winifred Holtby 42-6. The Year 11 girls go on to represent Yorkshire in the National Festival where we hope to retain our title as Champions. The final score was 30-24, against Castleford Academy. It was an end to end game that went down to the final play. Despite injuries, the girls performed excellently throughout.

Technology Rotary Tournament 2018

On Tuesday 13th of March, Mrs Gavaghan and

Mrs Coker from DAT took 3 groups of students

to take part in The Rotary Clubs’ annual STEM

competition at Upper Batley High School.

Approximately 16 other schools took part in

this competition and all our students worked

very hard to produce a portfolio of design

work as well tackling a number of difficult

STEM activities.

The stewards at the Competition were full of

praise for our students as usual.

Heckmondwike Grammar narrowly beat our

KS5 Advanced team by 2 points, it was very

close! It was an excellent fun day out. All the

students who took part have received a

certificate and they should be very proud of

their hard work.

The students who took part were: 6th form: Bailey Barber Scargill Harrison Barber Scargill Zain Azhar Ethan Stone Year 9: Grace Marsden Hollie Walker Alfie Fothergill Jaideep Dhangar

Year 11: Aidan Salari Emily Wilson Sam McManus Filip Wasiak

Tougher Minds The Tougher Minds Project has been introduced to St John Fisher to help Y11 students develop their resilience and prepare better for the challenges of their upcoming examinations. The project encourages students to consider their diet, sleep and exercise habits and gives them strategies to manage the ‘Hugely Unhelpful Emotions’ that can side track them from their studies. We wish these students and all of our Y11 students luck in their forthcoming examinations.

St John Fisher crowned Regional

Champions in first student Esports

tournament!

Having battled it out at the regional

qualifiers, St John Fisher Catholic

Voluntary Academy came out on top

in Manchester. Now the team

prepares to compete in the Grand

Final of the Digital Schoolhouse

Esports Tournament, which is both a

competitive gaming and careers

education event taking place during

the London Games Festival.

Students from St John Fisher, joined

four other teams from schools

across the UK in Manchester, using

Blizzard’s popular game, Overwatch,

to compete for the coveted prize of

Regional Champion. It was a close

call between them and students

from Liverpool Studio School, but

ultimately it was St John Fisher’s

Team Veracity that was victorious.

Successful Sixth Former Flying High

Uzayr Fulat who joined Fisher’s Sixth Form from Upper Batley High School is now a

fully-fledged member of British Airways cabin crew. Uzayr who studied A Levels in

English Literature, Travel and Tourism and ICT is now enjoying the jet set life style

regularly flying long haul to places including Kuala Lumpur, Miami, Dubai and

Sydney to name a few. Uzayr competed against hundreds of other candidates,

many of whom were already experienced with other airlines in a gruelling training

and selection process where he was successfully appointed as one of six successful

crew members. Uzayr is based in London and at 18 years old is enjoying his new

lifestyle. Uzayr admitted that the hardest part of his job is the lack of routine for

eating and sleeping, but this is a small price to pay for the realisation of his dream

career. All of Uzayr’s teachers are immensely proud of his achievement and praise

his sheer determination and positive attitude and we look forward to his return to

speak to our students about his experience.

World Book Day

Competition Year 7

A group of our year 7

pupils took part in the

annual regional schools

World book Day

Competition, held at

Huddersfield Town Hall

this week. Between

them, they had read 26

books and it was great

to see them working

together as a team.

Wiktoria Chalinska won

the prize for best

costume with her

fantastic Alice in

Wonderland outfit and

amazing make up!