ST MARK’S NEWS Issue No. 12 11 Mar 2016

This edition is so full of fantastic activities, reports and news of up coming events, that I have only a very small space to thank all of those pupils, staff and parents who have contributed so much of their time and energy into making St Mark’s such a great place to learn, work and play. Elaine Heaphy - Headteacher

Golden Jubilee News

As part of our ongoing 50th Anniversary event, Years 9 & 10 will celebrate together at a special Mass for our Golden Jubilee on Monday 21 March 2.30pm.

International Women’s Week

St Mark’s was delighted to welcome back former pupil, Dr Naomi Sams, Clinical Psychologist, who met with A Level Psychology pupils this week. As part of the St Mark’s International Women’s Week programme, her visit gave the pupils a useful and interesting, insight into the academic and training requirements for the profession and also the job satisfaction and the pressures of her role. The school is grateful to Naomi for finding time in her very busy schedule to come back to inspire our pupils.

Year 9 Charity Week

The Year 9 Charity Week was a huge

success. 9 Newman’s plan to sponge

the teachers was very popular among

pupils.

We raised £70. Although it was a cold

day, it didn’t stop anyone doing their bit

for charity. Sponges, buckets and water

were brought to the back playground and

pupils gathered together and took turns

to sponge the teachers.

Thank you to Mr McCarthy, Mr Kelly, Mrs

Miziolek, Mr Martin, Mr Whelan, Mr

Hockley, Mr Heelan, Miss McGuinness &

Mr Gordon for being so charitable! It was

very successful and everyone enjoyed

the event.

Rap Project

St Mark’s has been fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to host workshops on rap / hip hop and general lyric writing led by Max Wheeler and rap artist Eyez. Max Wheeler is a music producer from the band Anushka (with more than two million plays online and support from Radio 1 DJs Skream and Annie Mac), who is also an experienced workshop leader and specialist in rap / hip hop and lyric writing, as well as live music tech performance. Eyez is currently receiving massive support online with millions of hits on YouTube and recent appearances on Charlie Sloth’s 2016 Radio 1 Cypher & Fire in the Booth.

GOOD LUCK! We would like to wish the following pupils the best of luck in their forthcoming LCM Music Theatre Examinations on 14th March: Charlotte Andrews (Grade 6) James Knudsen (Grade 7) Hannah Martin (Grade 6) Madison Middlecott (Grade 6) Arushi Shukla (Grade 4) Olivia Wiley (Grade 4) Sarah Williams (Grade 4) Justin Man has an audition for the Guildhall School of Music - wish him the best of luck.

Industrial Cadets During half term we spent a week at GSK as industrial cadets. We were based at their Harlow laboratories with a

Chemistry focus. We had a tour of the pilot plant on the first day and had to gown up fully as we could have contaminated the area. We also learnt about the supply chain for clinical trials and visited the Ware site to see where manufacture is scaled up. We realised that everything had to be tracked and recorded, rather like a chain of evidence in forensic science. We had a brilliant time and would highly recommend this to other pupils as an experience. It has fired us both up for a career in Science. Jade Creamer(12M) and Steffy Chandran (12F)

The IFS Pupil Investor Challenge The IFS Pupil Investor Challenge is the UK’s premier investment competition. This year, teams took part from over 2500 schools, including many prestigious public schools and grammar schools across the country. Pupils are given an imaginary £100,000 to invest in shares and the winning teams are those who make the most money from trading on the stock exchange. This year, one of our sixth form teams, JMBC & Co have reached the semi-finals stage, achieving 174

th place out of

over 3500 teams. They are currently still trading and their position in the league table changes on daily basis but at one point last week they were in the top 10. Well done to JMBC and Co and good luck as the challenge continues! The Y13 pupils making up JMBC & Co are: Ben Spires, Megan Jones, Jordan Hook and Charley Abela.

7H Assembly for World Book Day

7 Hume led the assembly for their peers last Thursday. They helped

everyone understand the background of World Book Day and

shared their favourite authors and books with the year group –

including a “rap face-off” championing individual authors. Well

done, 7 Hume, and Mr Richards, who helped them with the planning

and preparation.

Bayforbury Observatory

Sixth form pupils visited the Bayforbury Observatory at Hertford (part of the University of Hertfordshire) in order to see the working telescopes at first hand. We had a talk

describing the history of the universe as if it were compressed into 365 days. Modern man would not have appeared until 11:47 on the 31st December on this timescale. After this, we visited the planetarium and the outside telescopes. We were able to see the Pleiades star cluster with enormous clarity.

AS YOU LIKE IT at the NATIONAL THEATRE On Wednesday 24

th February a group of sixth form

Literature pupils and members of the English department went to The National Theatre (London) to see

Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy ‘As You Like It’. This valuable and enhancing experience gave pupils the

opportunity to not only enjoy the theatre culture, but also allowed them to witness a modern interpretation for one of their set texts. This was an entertaining evening for all

involved.

CAREERS CENTRE NEWS

Work Experience Update—Pupils who have decided not to submit an Own Find placement form can log onto the

BEP website ‘Webview’ to make their selections on 14th March. They will need their unique PIN number. If they have

misplaced this, they can obtain it by visiting the Careers Centre during break or lunchtime drop in sessions, from Mrs

Moon. Parental Consent Letters for Work Experience and further information about Webview applications have been

sent to all Year 10 parents.

Careers Carousel Update Next week will be the last week of the Carousel. By that time St Mark’s Year 9 will have benefited from visits from 24 different speakers who have freely giv-en their time to talk about their working life experiences. On Monday 21st of March, online evaluation forms will be available for the pupils to feedback on the talks that they have attended and we hope for some very positive outcomes.

Lenten Activities

There has been a good response to our Lenten Lunchtime activities over

the past 3 weeks.

A varied programme of activities, including

arts and crafts and prayer stations, have

helped pupils who’ve attended to focus on

this important period in the Church’s year.

National Apprenticeship week 14 to 18 March 2016 The key themes for National Apprenticeship Week 2016 are: “An apprenticeship can take you anywhere”, with a particular focus on higher skills to show how young people, entrepreneurs and businesses can “rise to the top” through traineeships and apprenticeships. (www.gov.uk) National links to apprenticeships: http://www.allaboutschoolleavers.co.uk/ Local links:https://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Apprenticeships/Pages/Default.aspx

GET SET COMMUNITY ACTION On Friday 26th February, 10 Year 10 pupils went to Davenant Foundation School to take part in a training day for Get Set Community Action. During the day the pupils took part in a series of activities to give them ideas on how to run their 2 whole school projects. The pupils found the day 'fun and interesting' and are 'looking forward to working with the local community'. The Get Set Action team have started planning their first 'Mini Olympics Project' where they hope to work with a local primary school. Miss E Webster and the Get Set Action Team

Dates for your Diary

Sixth Form Chemistry Lecture—Tuesday 15 March 2016, 4pm—9pm Prospective Year 7 Afternoon Tea—Tuesday 15 March 2016, 5pm—7pm Performing Arts Showcase— Wednesday 16 March 2016—7pm END OF TERM—FINISH 12.30PM—THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016 INSET DAY—MONDAY 11 APRIL 2016 History WW1 Trip information meeting for parents and pupils Wednesday 13 April 2016 5.30pm—6pm Year 9 and 10 girls Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio & Meningitis ACWY Immunisations—Monday 18 April 2016 Year 7 Hume, More & Newman Retreat Day—Tuesday 19 April 2016 Year 7 Bede, Elgar& Fisher Retreat Day—Wednesday 20 April 2016

BOY’S SPORTS RESULTS v St Johns Epping Year 7 lost 0-6 MVP Junior Da Cruz Year 8 drew 3-3 MVP Hassan Ali Year 9 won 4-1 MVP Nathan Sandford

v Passmores

Year 11 drew 3-3 MVP Jack Melaugh

v Burnt Mill Year 7 drew 1-1 Year 9 playing this afternoon

Some games were cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

GIRL’S SPORTS RESULTS v Stewards Year 7 Won 15-9 POM Hikmat Kazeem & Grace Iyinbor Year 8 Won 16-2 POM Alisha Francombe & Tayo Rajitola Year 9 Won 39-10 POM Breanna Philip Essex cup v Westcliff Won 35-11 POM Olivia Burn now through to the Essex cup final on 22nd March v Brent-wood School at Redbridge v Mark Hall Year 7 won 15-2 POM Hikmat Kazeem Year 8 Won 19-5 POM Alisha Francombe

HISTORY GENIUS OF THE WEEK! KS3 - Emily Cole—For fantastic homework KS4 - Moyin Ogutuga - For volunteering to teach his peers about a topic within History. KS3 - Chloe Kemsley - Created a brilliant step by step medieval guide for her class' Medieval Masterchef’

KS4 - Bithiah McSpencer - Consistently outstanding work in History, including a fantastic test result.

UKMT JUNIOR MATHEMATICAL CHALLENGE On Thursday 4th February, high achieving pupils from Years 9 to 11 participated in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust. Pupils were given 1hr to attempt up to 25 problems, with no equipment other than pencil and paper. Congratulations go to the following pupils: Year 9 Best in Year & Silver Award—Timothy Watson Bronze Award—Celiat Rajitola, Stanislaw Szandala, Charlotte Brough, Abigail Dossetter, Ellie Spearman, Matthew Barry, Abeyshaykaa Balandra, Dorothy Nguyen Year 10 Best in Year & Silver Award—Arushi Shukla Silver Award—Elena Gondova, Michelle Colantoni, Zuzanna Iwanczyk, Erin Reilly, Girish Sapkota, Julia Sokol Bronze Award—Jack Piggott, Laetitia Wolff, Muhammed Ahmad, Bertha Napoleon, Daisy Flack, Henry Kwok, Lleyton Humphrey Year 11 Best in School & Gold Award - Georgina Duodu Silver Award - Fern Kelly, Alexandra Lukac, Samuel Gurnett, Bithiah McSpencer Bronze Award - Abigail Willis, Thomas Festa, Ashley Maddams, Magdalena Zajac Georgina has also qualified for the next round, taking place on 17

th March, which means she will competing against

pupils from around the world. We wish her the best of luck! MRS S MIZIOLEK - MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT

Tegwen has the same number of brothers as she has sisters. Each one of her brothers has 50% more sisters than brothers.

How many children are in Tegwen’s family? A5 B 7 C9 D11 E13

The Early Talent Manager from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) came to give a talk about apprenticeships at the company. GSK is a multinational pharmaceutical company with research laboratories in the local area, at Harlow, Ware and Stevenage. The apprenticeships offer the opportunity to gain a degree whilst employed by GSK. If you missed the

talk and are interested please come and see me in K7. Mrs Morrison—Science Department