From the Head Teacher

Term 4 — 2016

I was delighted to receive a letter form Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for Schools, congratulating the staffand students on our excellent Value Added score in 2015. “Your school is one of the top 100 non-selective state-funded schools in England based on the Key Stage 2to Key Stage 4 Value Added measure. This reflects the fantastic progress made by your students since theend of primary school. Thank you for your work in this important area of a young person’s education andcongratulations again to you and your staff for your hard work and professionalism.” Although only a relatively short term we have been incredibly busy as pupils have attended a service ofReconciliation, have taken part in drama and dance performances, enjoyed Book Week, competed andsupported the 25th Young Musician of the Year contest, competed in the Mid Somerset Festival, performed‘Born for This’ with Clifton Diocese Youth Ministry, attended an A level Geography field trip to Cornwall,represented the school at the Bath International Schools Model United Nations Conference, competed in theYoung Voice of Trowbridge, attended our annual Revision Evening and numerous revision sessions, takenpart in Duke of Edinburgh and Ten Tors training, enjoyed a Battlefields trip with the History Department, SixthForm have attended an Oxbridge conference and represented the College most evenings in a range ofsporting fixtures and tournaments, lower school students worked alongside primary pupils at a collaborativeschools science fair hosted at St Augustine’s. I am, as ever, grateful to all staff for enabling the students toaccess such a breadth of opportunity. The students, with the support of their form tutors, have done a great job raising money this Lent to supportthe CAFOD ‘Make a Splash!’ campaign and the fund-raising that we are doing to build a kitchen for a schoolin the village of Choba in Pangani District, Tanga Region of Northern Tanzania. Please keep those students who are sitting examinations this summer in your prayers. I wish you all a veryhappy Easter.

Joe AlsopHead Teacher

Golden Book Nominees

for February 2016Year 7 Inseo Jung (7B), for a highly commended

performance for violin in the Young Musician ofthe Year competition. Louisa McPherson (7B),for a highly commended performance for singingin the Young Musician of the Year competition.Catherine Westley (7B), second in her class andbeing selected to represent Stagecoach,Trowbridge at the Mid Somerset Arts Festival.

Year 8 Dominic Cooke (8B), for being selected as partof the Bath & Wiltshire District Schools SportsTrust BWB football squad tour of Ghana.

Year 9 Kimberley Fowler, Rosalie-Shiku Ogborn,Eleanor Powell, Daria Tadzik, and MeganWargen (9C) for hosting a film screening of Child31. Alexandra Shirley (9T), for rais ingawareness of the Mary’s Meals BackpackCampaign within her Parish and collecting£261.50 to contribute towards the project.

Year 10 Andrzej Korczynski and William Starkey (10C)for their achievement at the MUN Conference.

Year 11 Benedict Bryan (11C) for a highly commendedperformance in the Young Musician of the Yearcompetition.

Golden Book Nominees

for March 2016Year 7 Inseo Jung (7B), for coming first in the Mid-

Somerset Festival in grade six piano, beating49 other pianists.

Year 8 Madeleine Longbotham (8F) for reaching thef inal in the Young Musician of the YearCompetition. Nicole Medin (8M), for reachingthe f inal and being awarded The MostPromising Performance Cup at the YoungMusician of the Year Competition.

Year 9 Zara Alansari, Shannon Hartley, HenriettaPritchard and Ella Veakins (9B) for winning theSustainable St Augustine’s IT Competition.

Year 10 John Horsfall (10B) and Jessica Knollys (10B)for reaching the Grand Final in the YoungMusician of the Year Competition.

Year 11 Sophie Bilzon, Martina Castillo, Anna Chow(11M) and Megan Marszal (11T), for winning theWiltshire Level 3 Badminton Competition andcoming 6 th in the South West SchoolChampionships.

College News

Congratulations

Congratulations to Adam Gordon (12M) on hisselection for the Catholic Schools Sports FederationGreat Britain Athletics squad taking part in theInternational Student Games [FISEC] in Beauvais,France, between 8th and 14th July 2016.

Student Success at BeethovenPiano Society Competition

Many congratulations to Vincent Ling (Yr 11) who, onSunday 13th March, won the Beethoven Piano Societyof Europe’s Junior Intercollegiate Piano Competition inLondon’s Steinway Hall. Vincent represented the RoyalCollege of Music Junior Department and performedagainst pianists from Menuhin School, BirminghamConservatoire, Trinity Music Academy, Royal NorthernCollege of Music, Chethams School of Music and RoyalConservatoire of the Centre for Young Musicians.Vincent performed Beethoven’s Sonata in C minorOp.10 No 1. He will be performing in a pre-concert givenby a number of past winners of the College’s YoungMusician of the Year at the Wiltshire Music Centre from6.30pm on Wednesday 16th March. 

Winner of Young’s Art OpenCompetition

Congratulations to Lucja Korczak whose artwork,“Entwined with Gold”, won the Young’s Art OpenCompetition age category 12-15. It was hosted by theBlack Swan Art Gallery in Frome. The work will beexhibited until 11th April. This prestigious competitionprovides a unique opportunity for young peoplebetween the ages of 8 and 19 to have their workcurated, judged and exhibited. Well done!

Young Voice of Trowbridge

Congratulations to: Hannah Stamp, Alexander Pyper,Kazimir Jeggo (Yr 8) Darcy Farthing, AndrzejKorczynski (Yr 10), Luke Duncan, Emily Moss andAimee Cooke (sixth form) for taking part in the 2016Young Voice of Trowbridge Public Speaking competition2016. The students had prepared excellent thought-provoking speeches, delivered them well and were very

unfortunate not to come away with a win. Congratulationsto The Clarendon Academy who won the Year 8 andsixth form category and John of Gaunt who weresuccessful in the Year 10 category. My thanks to MrTaylor for supporting the students in this competition.

2016 Business, Accounting andSkills Education

Twelve Economics students from Year 12 visited theUniversity of the West of England in March to take partin the Regional Heat of the 2016 Business, Accountingand Skills Education competition, organised by ICAEW.Presented with a plethora of information about a shoebusiness, they had to make a presentation to a panelof judges which indicated strategic recommendationsfor the firm. Competing against 16 other teams fromthe South West region, both of our teams presentedextremely professionally, with one being placed in thetop 4 teams in the competition. Congratulations toPatrick Bates, Paige Brimble, Allan Clifton, EdwardFarrell, Sylvia Francis-Raddon, Thomas Fitzgerald,Chloe Hanna, Harry Jarvis, Chloe Needham, AbbieShanley, Niamh Smith and Kimberley Thomas foracquitting themselves so well.

Model United Nations Conference

Nineteen students took part in the Model United Nationsconference at Kingswood School in Bath. Particularsuccesses were William Starkey and Ciara Fagan(Commended) and Daniel Wykes (HighlyCommended). Well done to all who took part. Thanksto Mr Taylor for arranging and Mr Bailey for his help.Students who took part were: Daniel Wykes, IsaacRhodes, Daniel Fairgrieve, Callum Haine,Niamh Fagan, Chloe Tucker, Luke Duncan, AllanClifton, Dewakar Gurung, Isaac Wood, WilliamRodgerson, Molly Brace, Ciara Fagan, AndrzejKorczynski, William Starkey, Alexandra Scott,William Routledge, William Foster and StephenRoberts.

US Congress to CampusConference

On 29th February the History Department had a uniqueopportunity to take nine Year 12 students to ReadingUniversity to take part in the US Embassy’s Congressto Campus Conference. It was a chance to meetmembers of Congress and leading British academicsspecialising in US history and politics. The Conferencebrought a fascinating insight into the workings of whatis arguably the most important power-house in theworld, offering opinions on contemporary issues andcrises; Donald Trump, US debt and gun control cameup more than once. Congressman Larry LaRocco(Democrat) and Ken Kramer (Republican) occasionallytook time out from sledging one another to answer afew student questions before returning to the issue ofwhose party is best. The students heard first-handaccounts of Clinton’s famous White House parties,conversations with ‘W’ (George W Bush) and RonaldRegan and why the world should be grateful for USdefence spending as shouldering the ‘burden’ for global

peace. Lectures included an insight into ‘The USPresidency in the 21st Century’, comparing the ‘imperialpresidency’ of Bush to the ‘professor-in-chief’ style ofObama. Perhaps student feedback serves as a widercomment on current politics in the UK and across thepond.

Target Careers School LeaversChallenge

Year 12 Economics students have recently participatedin the Target Careers School Leavers Challenge, anational competition which involves completing a seriesof online employability aptitude tests. We are delightedthat as a result of finishing in the South West region’stop 10 students, Allan Clifton and Chloe Needhamhave been invited to attend the National Final thismonth at the BT Tower in London. The sessions at thefinal are competitive, and designed to give students aninsight into post 16 opportunities. We wish Allan andChloe every success.

Folk Workshop

On Wednesday 9th March students in Year 9 and 10took part in a Folk Workshop in College. The workshopwas led by Will Lang, a modern British folk musician,composer and producer, and Niopha Keegan from TheUnthanks. Students made an arrangement of their ownfolk song and learnt how to develop their ownarrangements of compositions. You can listen to theirfinal performance on the college Blog.

Past Student Success Ex-student Callum Tinnion, was recently successfulin winning a sponsorship with Helicentre AviationAcademy to train to become a commercial helicopterpilot. This is the first ever sponsorship offered by thecompany and covers the full cost of all the requiredflying including commercial ground and flight training,as well as the Flight Instructor course, which totalsover 180 flying hours. Callum was absolutely delightedto learn he had been chosen for the award aftersuch a r igorous select ion process. Immediatefull-time employment has been guaranteed for Callumon completion of training as part of the sponsorshipaward.

Bournemouth SymphonyOrchestra Concert

Members of the College’s vocal group Men Onlyattended a very exciting concert of film music given bythe Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Thursday17th March at Bristol’s Colston Hall. The theme wasHeroes and Aliens and scores from films such as StarWars, Nemesis, Avatar, E.T, War of the Worlds andAliens were performed. Thank you to Mr O’Mahonyfor organising the trip.

St Augustine’sYoung Musician of the Year 2016

On Wednesday 16th March at the Wiltshire Music Centre,Bradford on Avon, the 25th St Augustine’s Young Musicianof the Year Competition Final took place. The Collegewelcomed back former winners Dominic Irving (2004),Laura Flowers (2007), Benjamin James (2008) and SorchaRudgley (2012) to perform in a pre-concert before lastyear’s winner, Nicole Micheli, delighted the audiencewith an energetic performance of ‘East Coast Mainline’by James Rae. Vincent Ling, winner in 2014, alsoperformed and superbly accompanied many of thefinalists. We also welcomed back Emma Grindle, neéSalisbury, winner in 1997, Victoria Eadie, neé Day, runnerup in both 1996 and 1998, and Eleanor Jones, a formergrand finalist in 2010, to adjudicate. Past grand finalists,Huw Cheston and Jack Roberts, together with RowanFisher (most promising performer 2013) and SorchaRudgley (winner in 2012), adjudicated the auditions.Messages of congratulations for this year’s anniversarywere received from another eight former winners goingback to 1994! A big thank you to Mrs Sharp, MrsPieczko, Mrs Wakely and Mr Wilson who behind thescenes helped to ensure the competition ran smoothly.Thank you to members of the Senior Team, Head Boyand Head Girl and staff who supported the evening. Thankyou to Mr O’Mahony for organising the competition andto Mrs Medland who accompanied a number of thefinalists and during the auditions.Congratulations must go to the wonderful students whowere awarded their certificates during the evening forentering this year’s competition by Mr Alsop. (HighlyCommended) Piano: Gabriel Longbotham (HC),Elliot Milton, Duncan Hoddinott (HC), IsabelleMcCrindle, Archie Ttwheam (HC) and Charlotte

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

April8th Ten Tors9th Ten Tors 3rd Dartmoor Weekend11th Start of Term 5

18th D&T celebration event19th Year 10 CAFOD Leadership Programme22nd Ten Tors23rd Ten Tors 4th Dartmoor Weekend

Duke of Edinburgh, Bronze Award28th Year 8 Parents Evening

May4th Yr 13 Biology EMPA (Dr Pap)5th Ten Tors

Yr 13 Biology EMPA (Dr Pap)7th Duke of Edinburgh, Bronze Award12th Year 9 Parents Evening14th Ten Tors Event19th Year 9 Options Evening20th Year 10 Geography Field Trip27th End of Term 5

June6th Term 6 Starts

St John’s Church Coffee RotaVolunteers needed, please can you help?Serving teas/coffees after 10.30 am Mass.

Your help would be required on just one Sundayout of ten.

A great way to get involved and to meet otherparishioners.

Please phone the Parish Centre on 767215 formore information.

500 Club 500 Club 500 Club 500 Club 500 Club WWWWWinnerinnerinnerinnerinnersssss

January1st £50 – Mrs D Hall2nd £25 – Mrs S Hunt3rd £25 – Mr & Mrs Hayball February1st £50 – Mrs S Smith2nd £25 – Mrs N Thomason3rd £25 – Mrs A Ibenegbu March1st £50 – Mr F Micheli2nd £25 – Mr R McPherson3rd £25 – Mr & Mrs Schwarz

Evans. Woodwind: Anya Huggett (HC), AndrewHunt (HC) and Elizabeth Gray . Brass andPercussion: Luca Micheli, James O’Donnell (HC),Benedict Bryan (HC), Strings: Jacob Braidley,Edward Bruce, Sebastian Lucas, Joyson Cardoso,Sophie Spencer-Brown (HC), Roan Jeffery ,Henrietta Pritchard , Jack Buchan , BenjaminEasterbrook, Joseph O’Neill (HC), Oliver Barrett,Inseo Jung (HC), Harriet Knollys (HC), YasminMahey and Leonard York (HC). Voice: LouisaMcPherson (HC), Erin O’Mahony, Gemma Tucker,Daisy Braidley (HC), Elizabeth Cadell, AnnabelCooper, Orla Dunne (HC), Harriet Knollys, NicoleMedin, Hannah Stamp, Eve Williams (HC), ChelseaCharman, Yasmine Gattiker, Jessica Knollys (HC),

Georgia Miller (HC), Laura O’Brien , NiamhO’Mahony (HC), Emma Routledge (HC) and FrancisO’Mahony (HC).Well done to Finalists Anna Gray (Yr.13 clarinet),Abigail Hunt (Yr.10 trumpet), Rachel Crofts (Yr.13voice), Madeleine Longbotham (Yr.8 flute), NiamhMassaccesi (Yr.10 violin), Rachael Ibbetson (Yr.13voice), and Warwick Gatland (Yr.10 drums), to GrandFinalists, John Horsfall (Yr.10 drums) and JessicaKnollys (Yr.10 viol in). The Most PromisingPerformance Cup and £25 was awarded to NicoleMedin (Yr.8 piano), Runner Up and £50 to CatherineGurr (Yr.12 harp) and this year’s St Augustine’s YoungMusician of the Year is Clover Kayne (Yr.12 voice),who also won £100. Congratulations Clover!

St Augustine’s Catholic College • Wingfield Road • Trowbridge • Wiltshire • BA14 9EN