Dear Students,I hope you have all had a productive week and enjoyed the bank holiday weekend and the VE day celebrations. Many of you completed the VE enrichment activities and we greatly enjoyed seeing how you commemorated the day. Take a look at our celebration wall on the school website. Check here www.st-benedicts.org/celebration-of-students-work-at-home/. This week it was the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale and Miss Munro collated some cross-curricular enrichment activities for you to complete to honour this special woman and her achievements. See website link here www.st-benedicts.org/florence-activities/. In RE, year 8 and 9 students have been studying a topic called ‘Can one person change the world?’ and Florence Nightingale is certainly someone who has left behind a huge positive impact that can still be felt to this day.

On Tuesday it was International Nurses’ Day and the public were asked to shine a light, (just as Florence Nightingale shone her lamp while caring for her patients), in windows in order to recognise the extraordinary work that nurses are doing across the world in the fight against Coronavirus. Take a moment to reflect on the tremendous work of our nurses and other workers in the healthcare profession and to thank God for the amazing people that are there for us in our time of need.

It has been another week where I have been inundated with requests from teachers to feature students’ work. It is so inspiring to see the efforts of your hard work and achievements. This week, special recognition goes to Cameron (CJ) Warren in year 11 who has been doing some extraordinary work in many subjects but particularly in RE. In addition to his core activities, he has also been completing many of the extension and enrichment tasks. It has been such a difficult and unsettling time for year 11 students (and year 13) and they are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. It makes Cameron’s achievements all the more admirable. Well done Cameron and to all our year 11 students, keep going! This time will pass and you all have a bright future ahead of you.

We are also immensely proud of Elliot Gist in year 7 who through his hard work and perseverance has produced some amazing assessment work for Geography with a detailed record of the weather complete with graph and

illustrations. His Mum was eager to share this with us and we can see why. Keep up the good work Elliot; your teachers are proud of you!

In Science, we have seen some amazing enrichment work from Evie Cooper (year 8), Joel Mekkunel (year 8) and Alfie Withers (year 9) who used a homemade quadrat to estimate the population of a particular organism in an environment. Also, well done to Chloe Clifford (year

8) who has been working very hard on her home learning and is pictured here estimating the daisy population in her lawn.

We have also seen some fabulous VE day enrichment work and Miss Smallbone was particularly impressed with the quality of some of the recipe activities where students had to make either a 1945 VE day party plan or a

lockdown party plan. Well done to Nathan Warren (year 9) and Ella Peeke and Ben Sparks (year 7). See the fabulous activities completed by Ella Peeke and Ben Sparks (year 7) in the photos.

Well done to Emily Ravenhill (year 8) too for her enrichment work in Art. Emily is accruing an impressive number of enrichment positives in ClassCharts. Remember, every enrichment activity completed earns a positive and a ticket for the reward raffle!

Your Fantastic Work!!!

Could you be our 2020 Guess Who champion? - How well do you know the staff at St. Benedict’s? You may be surprised! Take a look at our Guess Who? competition link here and see if you can identify the 20 members of staff who have cunningly disguised themselves.

For example, which member of staff could this be?Click on the link to the competition and send your answers by email

to Miss. O’Toole at otoole.t@st-benedicts.org

Answers should be returned by Friday 22 May. There will be prizes! Good luck - this is a lot harder than you think.

Matthew Lee. Year 9

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

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

Teachers are doing… Ms Akram

During these challenging times while we cannot meet with some family members, even those who might need additional help, I found myself thinking how difficult this is, especially for those needing the extra support. I then started to think of those around me who were helping me support my family and in particular, my disabled daughter. How could I show my appreciation for their support, kindness and love? Before I knew it, my list had about 93 names on it! My daughter, you see, lives at St. Catherine’s Bungalows, which is linked to Father Hudson Care. This Catholic Charity was set up to help those with severe disabilities who need 24-hour care.I decided to create a Fundraising Page which would allow other parents to also give their thanks to the same 93 people, and we decided to call it “Heroes of St. Catherine’s”. The Fundraising Page has been hugely successful. So far we have raised over £1200 in less than a week! Our target is £2000. The money will be used to organise something extra special as a ‘Thank You’ to the Support Workers, Maintenance Staff and Admin Teams who all work together for the residents of St. Catherine’s Bungalows.It’s important to give thanks and appreciate those who help support our loved ones, especially when we can’t help them ourselves. Can you think of someone who you would like to say ‘Thank You’ to today? How long can you make your list?

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

We have been impressed with the efforts that students have been putting into their assessed pieces of work. Next week we are on week 5 of the schedule so please ensure that you take note of the subjects that you will be completing assessments for and email these to your teachers within 7 days.

The links to the surveys have been sent to parents via parentmail and to students via their school email account. We will listen to your feedback and share any changes to our approach to home learning in a letter to parents and in this newsletter next week. Your feedback is important to us and we welcome your views so that we can make home learning as effective as possible in today’s challenging circumstances. The closing date for the survey is Monday 18 May.

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

Special poem written by St Benedict’s student: Emma Francioni from year 8

We have been so impressed with the quality of work produced by students for extension and enrichment activities in English and Emma Francioni (year 8) has been particularly busy! Inspired by poetry extension work, she has written a beautiful poem about the Coronavirus and her thoughts and feelings about the

current situation. Perhaps you could use poetry to express your feelings during lockdown?

Our eyes were opened in 2020.This time so peculiar to our world of plenty,

Strict lockdown rules, we were all confined to our homesPeople suddenly became even more attached to their phones.

But still, don’t lose hope, there were things to cheer us up,The bright, welcoming sun shining on our buttercups.

And yes, I know the shortage of food-Might have put us all in a bad mood.

But this new virus that had broken out,Threw away our freedom, stopped us from being out and about.

Although worthy for making its improvementsThe loss, our grief- these were despairing movements.

But consoling ourselves, by thinking of the world at wideNow spinning happily, even if we had to hide.

We heard the Earth give a blissful sigh of relief,It had taken so long- but now it was healing- no matter your belief

With no cars roaming the roads, and precious air singing without coalQuality time was on a roll.

Jobs were grounded and the huge drop in pollution,Guided us to a fantastic solution

The pause button in life had been pressed,We wouldn’t resume normalities any time soon, at best.

We enjoyed the little things and did good deedsWe wisely sorted our wants from our needs.

When finally our planet had fully healed,We shared a smile at the new world revealed.

Now that it’s all over, couldn’t we keep it this way?It’s better like this, and the world’s contented nowadays.

But would we swop this confusing timeFor the normal life from which we could climb?

“No, we would not,” people would admittedly say,We now see our world in a different way.

By Emma Francioni Year 8

Key Stage 1

Sweet: Katie Ravenhill St. Mary’s Studley

Savoury: Franio Rapacz St. Mary’s Evesham

Key Stage 2

Sweet: Benjamin Mathews

St. Mary’s Henley

Savoury: Ella Lewis St. Mary’s Evesham

Year 7 Sweet: Olivia Remus 7D Savoury: Jarno Beamish 7D

We would like to thank Miss Smallbone for all her efforts in running this hugely popular competition. Over to you Miss Smallbone:“I have been overwhelmed with the number of entries and the quality of the food produced. It has been such a joy to receive all of the entries and I hope you have had an opportunity to look at them on the school website. We have had entries from 22 students in our MAC Primary Schools, 23 staff from across the MAC and 34 St. Benedict’s students – well done to

all. All participants will receive a certificate of entry to celebrate your success and the winners an extra prize. These will be given to the winners and participants at a Celebration Assembly when we are back as a school community. The winning products have been judged on their creativity, skill level and overall appearance under the sweet and savoury category.

And, after much deliberation, the winners are….(drum roll please!)

Bake-off…

Highly commendedStaff entry

Mrs Conn from St Benedict’s

Highly commended

Student

Luke Fensom Year 10

For MAC StaffSweet: Mrs Elmes from Our Lady’s Savoury: Mrs Caffrey from St. Gregory’s

St Benedict’s Staff

Sweet: Miss Neal

Savoury: Mrs Gilbert

Year 10Sweet:

Harley Garrett

Savoury:Tom Rainbow

Savoury: Tonii Felton 8C Year 9 Sweet: Leila Gibbons Bennet

Year 8 Sweet: Alfie Withers 8C

Students are... achieving amazing things!! Students are… joining the St Benedict’s SingalongRomilly O’Gara joined in with our virtual singalong to the

iconic tune ‘We’ll Meet Again’. Paul Lenart in year 8 also accompanied on keyboard and supplied

the illustration used for our video clip. Thank you to all the teachers who also

participated in this and especially to Mr Gee for organising. Click on the link to watch our St Benedict’s Singalong and remember, we will meet again!Watch the video here www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwCy-DHs7P0

Romilly from year 7 told us: “I really wanted to do the recording

of ‘We’ll meet again’ to support Mr Gee because he is one of my favourite teachers.

I had time to do this in lockdown and it was one way of commemorating VE day. I don’t remember celebrating VE day before but it definitely brought our village closer together. At home we made bunting and scones. I found the song very moving and I was able to sing it at 9pm with all my neighbours on our driveway. I was proud of the final video, Mrs Holmes is brilliant! Celebrating VE day 2020 really reminded me that although lockdown is difficult, sometimes we really are very lucky!”

Message from Mrs O’GaraGospel Values: Compassionate and loving. As part of a liberal Unitarian family, Florence Nightingale found great comfort in her religious beliefs. At the age of 16, she experienced one of several “calls from God.” She viewed her particular calling as reducing human suffering. Nursing seemed the suitable route to serve both God and humankind. Two hundred years after her birth Florence is remembered for the good that she did and the changes she made to save the lives of others. We may not all be called to change the whole world but we are called to change the world around us. What can you do this week to be a positive force in your home? How can you spread peace, love and hope in your household? Remember to keep trying and that we are so proud of all of you!

It’s all about reading… Mrs O’TooleBook of the Week - this week’s book is Lie, Kill, Walk Away by award winning author Matt Dickinson. Joe and Becca discover a deadly secret. Now they are being hunted down. And their problems have only just begun..... This is a fast paced and exciting thriller that keeps the tension in place right to the end. A real page-turner of a book.

You can order the book on many different websites or download it 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

Government Announcement Following Sunday’s government announcement, it is now clear that most students will return to school in September. We are working hard to look at curriculum plans and how we adjust learning for when you return so that we can ensure you catch up on some of the things you might need more support with. We will communicate further details to year 10 and year 12 students shortly about arrangements for them. Whichever year group you are in, it is important that you try your best with home learning so that you come back to school in the best possible position. We know and understand that some of you find home learning more difficult than others however you must do all the core learning activities and we strongly encourage you to do at least some of the extension and enrichment tasks. Please do ask your teachers if you need help with anything. We are here to support you!

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

Let us Pray…

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.Where there is hatred, let us sow love;where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;where there is sadness, joy.Amen

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

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