"This term has witnessed many significant changes at Bishop Challoner that have allowed our students to be more focused on their learning, improve overall behaviour and opportunities to become truly men and women for others."
Dear Parent / Carer,
Amidst the hustle and bustle of Christmas, many of us can find it difficult to draw breath and wonder really what is it all about. On the one hand there is the exhilaration of the season of goodwill and spending time with loved ones and on the other is the trepidation of having to do so much, in such a short period of time, and become stressed at making other people happy.
If Christmas is to be seen as a blessed night, a night that is warm and welcoming for all that we love and care about, we must make sure that we keep the true message of Christmas alive. If it is to be a Silent Night, a Holy Night it is for us to allow the stillness of that night to enter our inner person and to do everything we can to be calm. We must seek tranquillity and stillness amongst the bustle for the ultimate message of love and hope to be made real.
Christ has come among us once and forever. He is promised. He is with us until the end of time. We celebrate Christmas each year, not because we have to make him arrive again, but to remind ourselves of what has been, what already is and to sharpen our longing for a world to come. Christmas, in other words, is in itself a preparation, an advent moment. The preparation of Christ coming again, a coming for which we pray for daily.
We celebrate Christmas properly when we recognise the feast is not simply about the commercial aspects, the presents, the food and everything that goes along it, but rather it’s about recognising the birth and infancy of the Christ Child and what He has empowered us to become.
We have to ask ourselves the following questions; What is our part in this divine coming? What is the desire for which Christ in His Grace has planted in us? How can we help those desires to be fulfilled and how can we go about changing the world in which we live in to be a better place?
Within Christmas itself exists a deeper longing for God’s Kingdom to come. To remember Christ birth, to accept him as our own, is an expectation that he will come again indeed that he was always in the process of coming.
“O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend on us we pray
and entering to be born in us today.”
This term has witnessed many significant changes at Bishop Challoner that have allowed our students to be more focused on their learning, improve overall behaviour and opportunities to become truly men and women for others.
In this Christmas parent bulletin we highlight the exceptional generosity of spirit provided by our families in supporting the Advent Giving Calendar. We were able to provide much needed resources for the Bow Food Bank and we are grateful to you all for contributing. We also donated to the St Francis Centre as we do every year. We celebrated this term our sporting achievements and prowess at our annual Sports Award Evening, which was very well attended. There have been various theatre trips to the West End and we have been able to send students abroad for the first time since the pandemic began, with our MFL students having a wonderful time in Paris. Also this term, we launched the Debate Mate challenge and we continue to work closely with JP Morgan and Switch to provide mentors for our students. Our annual Sixth Form Open Evening had the highest number ever of external expressions of interest. We have had recognition of success for our musicians and two of our Y10 girls spoke very eloquently and powerfully recently at the Houses of Parliament in regard to the mentoring they had received.
This term has also witnessed structural and system changes at the school. This has involved changes to our Behaviour for Learning Policy with the introduction of two internal referral units for students. They are called Manresa and Manresa 2. The reference to Manresa relates to a physical place just north of Barcelona and its importance in Church history. It was in Manresa where St. Ignatius of Loyola spent time to reflect, repent and to see where he fitted into God’s plan. We have taken the reference of Manresa as our opportunity for those students who do find themselves in a position of the need to reflect after making wrong judgements. Students do have the opportunity to change and return to lessons, refreshed and renewed of the expectations we have of them.
We have made significant changes to staff presence around the school and students are far more engaged in their learning in the classroom and we are delighted to see the progress of many students increasingly becoming more and more independent learners.
Other new systems introduced this term are beginning to show green shoots of success. This includes the introduction and development of our new school planners. The planner is a tool to be used by all students to communicate with you, the parents/carers at home on what they have been doing during the day. This will refer to homework or any notification of success or infringements so you have an immediate record of what has happened that day. It is a very useful tool and one we have placed a great emphasis on this term. All students must make sure there in possession of their planner every single day in the inside pocket of their blazer.
Another change for the school is our new Snow Day procedure. As you are well aware we were caught out a few weeks ago with heavy snowfall on a Sunday evening and the decision to close the school did not come until 7.30am the next morning. This did impact on our community significantly as many staff and students were stuck on the way in and had to turn around. My apologies for the inconvenience caused that day. To ensure that does not happen again the following arrangements have been agreed. We will always aim to keep the school open, but in the event of snow in the spring term you can assume the school will open later than normal the next day to allow staff time to get in. It is not snow that closes the school it is the inability to get enough staff into work. If we have to close the school you will know by 7.30am but your child will not have left home because we have introduced the late start policy to cover the possibility it may close later.
1. Text message the night before or 6am:
Please check the school website for further snow day information
2. Website & Social Media
This will depend on whether or not the school is open or closed and any specific details.
a. If school is closed:
Due to health and safety reasons following the snowfall the school will be closed today. Please continue to check your texts and the school website for further updates.
b. If school is partially open:
Following the snowfall the school will be open today until 12.30pm (update with correct time) / have a delayed start at 9.45am (update with correct time). Please continue to check the school website for further updates.
c. If school is open as normal:
Following the snowfall the school will be open today as normal. Please continue to check your texts and the school website for further updates.
The school has published on its website the latest Pupil Premium statement. The Government expects all schools in the country to have published this by the 31st December and I am delighted to say that ours is now available to our parent community.
At this time of year, we are also very conscious of students who sat their grade indicator exams both at KS4 and KS5 and the impact this will have on the new term. Early in the New Year 11 parents will have the opportunity to meet staff to discuss their child’s progress so far and what work still needs to be done to ensure they achieve their very best next summer.
At the end of this term, we do say goodbye to some colleagues who are moving on to pastures new. I would like to pass on my sincere thanks for the hard work and professionalism of the following colleagues who sadly leave us at Christmas. We say goodbye to Mrs Daughtry, Mr Khan, Miss Kaur, Mr Dilley, Ms Degmenlibey and Mr Skinner.
Thank you to all our parents and carers for your ongoing support and we look forward to working with you and for you in the new year.
Finally, on behalf of all the Staff and Governors of this school, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy, Holy and peaceful Christmas and may the true message of Christ live among us and with you and your family and have a wonderful time together.
Yours in Christ,
JP Morrison, Executive Headteacher
Advent Giving Calendar
As a school that has been forming ‘young men and women for others’ in East London for almost 90 years, we have been doing what we can to support local families this Christmas. Throughout the Advent season, we collected donations for Bow Foodbank – an organisation that has been doing vital work in Tower Hamlets since 2014.
Each day students and staff brought in donations of food, which were stored in school and delivered to the foodbank after the last school Mass on Monday, 19th December. Our thanks to Ms Finamore and 8 Joan for sorting all of the donations and to Mr Shannon for driving the school minibus to deliver them.
We thank all of our families who donated and supported with the Giving Calendar this year. This will be an annual tradition each Advent from now on.
Whole School Christmas Masses
On the last full day of term the whole school came together to celebrate Mass in St Mary and St Michaels' Church. Led by Parish Priest Fr Willie Skehan, the celebrations offered the chance to give thanks and to prepare for Christmas and the birth of the Christ child. Music was led by Mr McGarvey and the school choir, with readers from across the school, and students brought some of the foodbank donations to the altar during the offertory. We thank all involved in the planning of the Masses - it was a wonderful way to end a busy and successful term.
giving gifts to those in need with St Francis Family Centre
On Monday, 19th December, we delivered a minibus of presents to the St Francis Family Centre. The gifts were bought with the money raised from last year’s Christmas Appeal co-ordinated by the Sixth Form Charity Committee.
St Francis works in partnership with parents to provide outstanding pre-school education, giving disadvantaged children the best possible start in life in an area that has the highest rate of child poverty in the country. The Centre is run by the Catholic Children’s Society, who also give members of our school community a tremendous amount of practical and financial help. It is our privilege to support them every year and we thank the nursery children in particular for the beautiful thank you card they made.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR SCHOOL CATERER, CHARTWELLS
Like all UK businesses, we are currently experiencing significant inflationary pressures. As has been widely reported in the media, these pressures have particularly impacted the price of food. We have been working hard over recent months to absorb these costs through menu changes and negotiating with our suppliers. With inflation continuing to rise, we are now required to increase the price of some of the products served at your child's school from January 2023. We have worked with the school to keep the price of the meal deal at £2.75.
All menus will continue to provide children a choice of nutritious and delicious meals, while complying with the Government’s nutritional guidelines, and catering for those with allergies. We want to assure you that the decision to take this action was not taken lightly. We will always continue to do all that we can to provide you the best possible value for money.
Bishop Challoner Sports Awards 2022
On Tuesday, 1st December the annual Bishop Challoner Sports Awards returned! This fantastic evening celebrating the sporting achievements of our students has not been able to take place since before the pandemic, and there has been a lot of excitement for the event this year. It was a fantastic evening celebrating Sport at Bishop Challoner and the students and teams who have particularly excelled. We thank all those who presented awards and performers who shared their talents throughout the evening. Congratulations to all those who won awards and to all those who were nominated.
To Kill A Mockingbird Theatre Trip
On the 16th November a selection of Year 9 and 10 students visited the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End to see Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' The performance helped bring to life the famous novel students have been studying in their book club sessions. The behaviour of the students was exemplary, gaining praise from members of the public and theatre staff.
A massive thank you to Ms Gunning and Ms Mcquade for accompanying the students. This trip was made possible with funding from the Jack Petchey Achievement Award.
MFL trip to Paris
From the 3rd-6th December a group of students from Year 11-13 were able to practice their French in Paris on a trip organised by our Modern Foreign Languages faculty. The group had a fantastic few days, visiting museums, galleries and landmarks in the French capital.
Achievement Award Trip to the London Eye
Also this term, we had the pleasure of treating 25 of our highest achieving students to a trip to the London Eye. Students were awed by watching the sun go down over the London skyline and enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Thank you to Ms Jones and Ms Harrison for accompanying Ms Abidi on the trip.
Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge
On Friday 4th of November, a group of 30 Year 10 boys completed the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge. As part of the Speak Out Challenge, the students were trained in the skill of public speaking by a Jack Petchey professional. All students had to plan and perform a positive speech of their choosing, with 4 students chosen as the winners.
All the boys were amazing throughout the day, with the Jack Petchey specialist commenting that this was one of the best groups she had ever worked with.
Sixth Form Open Evening
A huge thank you to all involved in our busy Sixth Form Open Evening in November. It was a pleasure to speak with our own students and with so many students from other schools about all that Bishop Challoner Sixth Form can offer. Applications for September 2023 are now open to Year 11 students via the link below.
Debate Mate Launch Event at the Emmanuel Centre
Another highlight this term was the Debate Mate Launch in Westminster, attended by 23 of our students. The students were introduced to debating by former competitors and witnessed an exciting mock debate with the motion “Students should be allowed to vote for their headteacher”. Our pupils showed enthusiasm and participated from the floor with great gusto, getting an honourable mention for their clear teamwork. Thank you to Ms Jones and Ms Harrison for accompanying us on the excursion.
JP Morgan and the Switch Mentoring Programme
Last academic year, multinational bank J.P. Morgan ran an amazing workshop for our Year 9 students. This year, it was our turn to visit them at their offices in Canary Wharf for the start of the Year 10 Mentoring Programme. The selection process was tough, with only 23 spaces available to the Year 10 boys and girls cohort. Students had to scan a QR code and make an application, then wait to see if they had been chosen.
On the launch day students were given an introduction and then paired up with their mentor. Students then spent time speaking with their Mentor, asking questions and getting to know them and their respective roles in the organisation.
The programme runs until June 2023 and our students are very much looking forward to the next session in January. The students commented that the event was amazing, as was the food!
MUSIC MEDALS
This term Key Stage 3 Musicians have been developing their Keyboard Skills. Each pupil completed an Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Music Medal assessment (which is Pre-Grade 1). Year 7s completed Bronze, Year 8s completed Silver and Year 9s completed Gold/Platinum. Year 7 have had to play two pieces of music on the keyboard using the correct hand position, playing the correct fingers and the correct rhythm, Year 8 had to navigate sharps, flats and changing pitches, and Year 9 have been developing two handed practice. Students completing the requirements of their Music Medal Assessment were awarded a Music Medal - congratulations to them all!
Year 10 girls visit parliament
Amongst a number of trips this term, including visits the London Eye and the Temple of Mithraeum and seeing To Kill A Mockingbird on stage, two of our students were invited to share their experience of the One Million Mentors (1MM) scheme at the Palace of Westminster. Pakeeza and Ore (Year 10) were completely brilliant and a highlight of the Parliamentary Reception, and attendees stated that they were ‘memorable for all the right reasons’. The girls spent the evening networking with MPs, CEOs and Directors and represented Bishop Challoner beautifully. Pakeeza has even managed to swap contacts with Rushanara Ali (MP Bethnal Green and Bow), with plans to secure an opportunity to shadow her in the near future.
