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The Mount Weekly 30th September 2022

AMDG

Victory for the First XI!

In school, the students know that the top of the newsletter is the coveted spot - and Miss Chapman and the first XI hockey team have been eyeing it up for some time. This week, the spot is theirs and deservedly so with victory over Ampleforth College! My personal congratulations go to our girls - one very, very proud Headmaster.

The girls travelled to Ampleforth College on Wednesday 28th September and after a less than unconventional start the girls worked hard to move the ball into the final attacking quarter.

Olivia Smith scored early on after the team was awarded a short corner and the girls continued to have great momentum going forwards; creating a number of goal scoring opportunities. After a counter attack from Ampleforth a penalty flick was awarded and scored, which left the score at 1-1. After consistently applying pressure to the Ampleforth defence the score was 3-1 at half time.

The second half was action packed with lots of attack up the left hand side of the field. The girls were able to gain a few more short corners, from which Emily Weaver scored making the score 4-1. In the last five minutes of the game, debut player Tess Wilson made a break along the baseline, flicked the ball across the goal and landed it in the back of the net; resulting in a 5-1 victory. It was a fantastic performance for the girls and they really began to work well as a team. Special mention goes to Tess Wilson who is a current Year 9 student and took to the challenge of playing in the first team and scoring her first goal! This game puts the girls in a great position for the start of their England Hockey Tournament at Hill House next Wednesday.

In addition to the above, we also had our first 2nd XI team out in over four years, which is an amazing achievement for girls sport in general. The girls played against Hill House and narrowly lost 2-0, but Mr Gordon said they put in a fantastic performance and worked well together on the pitch.

Watch this space...we have exciting partnership news coming up in the next few weeks!

Upper Elements and Lower School Enjoy Team Building

This week, we held our Upper Elements and Lower School team building days. Each day consisted of small groups working together on problem-solving tasks and team exercises to win points.

It was a great chance to make new friends for our Upper Elements students, and for our Lower School students to work with different people and to try new things!

Everyone enjoyed the events, and our students should all be proud of yourselves for what they accomplished. A huge thank you to all staff involved for making the days so much fun for our Lower School year groups.

Getting Involved in Drama

It has been lovely to see more of our Upper Elements students getting involved in drama lessons. It seems their confidence is growing each week, and they are really starting to enjoy trying new things!

Boarders Enjoy a Girl's Night In!

Hopkins House enjoyed a girly night this weekend, with spa treatments and manicures!

It has been brilliant to see new friendships forming as our boarders settle back into life at the Mount. We hope you enjoyed your makeovers girls!

RAF Cadets Earn Their Blue Wings

During the summer holidays, three cadets took to the skies from RAF Syerston for their Air experience in the Viking glider T1. After returning from their flights, we presented the cadets with their blue wings, which they will proudly display on their uniforms. They learnt how to control, roll, and yaw the aircraft. Congratulations to Farrah Bacon, Joe Wilson, and Mae Tucker.

Bienvenue Dans Notre Boutique!

Welcome to our Shop! In French class, our Grammar Students have been learning how to go shopping for clothes and practising question words. We had a corner shop set up and they wrote and performed their scripts.

It looks like they came away with some great finds!

Visit from the High Sheriff of Derbyshire

Last Friday the College was honoured to be visited by three distinguished guests.

We welcomed Mr Michael Copestake, the High Sheriff of Derbyshire and a very experienced Corporate Lawyer. Joining him was Mr John Rivers, also an experienced Corporate Lawyer who has worked both in private practices and for a number of blue chip financial services companies, including Barclaycard and HSBC. John-Charles Tanner JP also visited. Mr Tanner is a Senior Magistrate and currently holds the roles of Deputy Chair for the North Derbyshire Bench, MIC Coordinator for the North Derbyshire Bench and the Diversity and Community Relations Magistrate for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

A selection of Sixth Form students who have expressed a particular interest in the legal profession had a formal lunch with our guests in the beautiful Jesuit Library. A wide ranging discussion followed, including topics as diverse as the war in Ukraine, to whether plants could ever have rights! We also learned that Mr Copestake had the rare honour of making the Proclamation of the Accession of King Charles III in Matlock earlier this month.

Prospective Oxbridge Law applicants were then given an individual mock interview which was invaluable. Our guests have provided detailed feedback and many suggestions for further reading.

Finally, the whole of the Sixth Form was invited to a presentation by Mr Tanner on the role of Magistrates. This highly interactive session provided a great insight into this essential component of our legal system. I think we were all surprised by the data point that fully 95% of all court cases are dealt with at the Magistrates Courts. Our students also had the opportunity to hear a couple of case studies and make some sentencing decisions for themselves.

The College is very grateful for the time taken out of their busy schedules to share their expertise and experiences with our students.

Dancing Around the World

On Friday in Enrichment, students from Year 7 to Year 9 enjoyed doing international dance routines with Ms Höggren-Johnson.

It was great to see everyone getting involved!

Jack headed to Le Mans!

A huge well done to Jack Nettleship, who has secured a place in the World Karting Championship. He will be racing at Le Mans during the October half term as part of the competition. Good luck Jack!

A weekend of Rugby

Our Rugby season continues with wins across the board at Hymers College last weekend for the First XV, and the U15s teams.

We managed a 29-7 lead for the First XV against Hymers, and an impressive 42-12 for our U15 boys. Well done lads!

Practising Practical Maths

Year 7 pupils in Maths have been putting theory into practice this week. Not all Maths is esoteric and the origins of Maths is based on concrete concepts. These pupils from Upper Els are gaining physical experience of the metric measuring systems, comparing estimates with actual measurements and solving problems such as ‘How do you accurately weigh a single book?’

Head Girl Performs Stunning Rendition of Pie Jesu

As part of our musical showcase, we have the opportunity to hear performances from soloists and ensembles every Friday in our School Assembly.

Last week our Head Girl, Charlie Haddock, sang Pie Jesu, much to the delight of her peers. You can listen to her beautiful rendition of the piece here:

Emily-Jayne Hikes 17km for DofE

A huge well done to Emily-Jayne Wilson, who walked an incredible 17km at the weekend as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award!

We hope you feel very proud of your achievements Emily-Jayne - you were fantastic!

Teachers Set to Tackle London Marathon

We'd like to wish the best of luck to Mr Scholes and Mrs woodhouse this weekend, as they enter the London Marathon! The pair are running to raise money for Jesuit Missions, and they have put in a fantastic effort so far.

Good Luck!

Headmaster's Reflection

Last Sunday, it was my turn to lead Shrine Prayers on Sunday evening at 17:45 with our boarding community. Here is what I had to say to them.

When I first arrived at the Mount, there were many traditions that I had to get used to - but what I have found is that his is something that has helped me to reexamine not just my relationship with God, but to consider looking at what I would describe as “deliberate acts of worship” and make sure that I really understand why we do them.
The reason for this is that otherwise, certain things can become like wallpaper. Walking into the Memorial Chapel for the first time can take your breath away; the stillness of the Sodality Chapel can strike you as remarkable; however, if we don’t pay close attention to these things and remind ourselves of our surroundings and how lucky we are, then we can find that can take too much for granted. For example, who can tell me what that letter is that is framed over there? (One boarder raises their hand). It is a letter from Pope Pius X in 1908 congratulating the college on the celebration of daily mass for the boys at the time. Not all schools have a letter from the Pope!
So, my reexamination this week of “deliberate acts of worship” is to look at why it is we pray to Mary and specifically, what are we asking her to do for us? My research over the week led me to this explanation.
At the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, in modern day Turkey, Mary was declared Theotokos, meaning Mother of God or God Bearer. It is said that the people of the city took to the streets with torches in celebration when they heard the announcement. The term Theotokos had been in use for many years before the Council’s official endorsement. Mary had a very special place in the hearts of Christians from the beginning. In the Catholic tradition, we pray to Mary to intercede for us with her Son, we do not worship Mary.

It is at this point that Alonso, our Mexican boarder, took us through the weekly ritual of the following prayer:

"My Queen and my Mother, to you I offer myself without any reserve and to give you a mark of my devotion I consecrate to you again my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart and my whole person. Since I belong to you, oh my good Mother, preserve and defend me as your property and possession".

We then, as always weekly, sang the "Salve Regina" before Fr Michael closes with a blessing and the sign of the cross. Dinner was then served as usual - ladies first as always!

I thought that it would be good for those of you who never get to see Shrine Prayers to hear what it is like.

Yours in Christ

Dan Wright, Headmaster

LDS