Today’s mufti day in school has raised another £800 for CAFOD bringing the total charity money raised this academic year – since September 2016 – to a whopping £18, 767.
Thanks to everyone who participated and donated money for non uniform day.
A very special visitor spent the morning with us today, June 28, as part of the Speakers For Schools programme.
Justice of the Supreme Court, the Right Honourable Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill, CVO, came in to speak to 6th Form students about his career.
He told them that after studying law at Cambridge’s Trinity College he was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1968 and took silk in 1985.
He served as Attorney General to the Prince of Wales from 1988 to 1994 before becoming a judge of the Chancery Division from 1994 to 2002. During some of this time he was also Chairman of the Law Commission.
He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2002 and between 2007 and 2012 he was Senior President of Tribunals and led the planning and implementation of the reforms of the tribunal system following the Leggatt report.
He was happy to answer questions and pose for photos afterwards too.
This year’s Sports Day was fantastic with gloriously sunny weather but a cool breeze making the day extremely enjoyable.
Right at the start of the day early birds to the Terence McMillan were treated to seeing two of Britain’s top athletes, Christine Ohruogu and Cijindu Ujah training and they were kind enough to pose for a photograph with some of our 6th Form Sports Science students.
The day was a huge success with Bell being declared the overall winners of Sports Day.
Hot dog Ziggy and Mr V.I. visited the Jack Petchey Foundation in the Docklands area of Canary Wharf this morning, June 21, to meet Grants’ Officer, Jane Evans and other staff and take part in a photocall in their stunning new Dockmaster’s House premises.
Ziggy took it all in his stride, however, and impressed the team with his calm and laid back demeanour.
After a photocall in their back garden, Ziggy met staff from Petchey Holdings too.
The Foundation moved to the swanky new premises from Ilford in March and Jane and staff there have been dying to meet Ziggy since he joined St Bon’s three weeks ago.
Watch this space for posts when his photos appear on their website and publications.
June’s Jack Petchey award has been presented to 6th Form student, Amal Shabu.
16 year old Amal has been very active raising funds for the charity CAFOD this year. He organised ice cream sales during the recent heatwave which were a huge hit as well as taking part in a charity abseil down the Arcelor Orbit at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Amal and two friends managed to raise almost £700 and his enthusiasm and drive has made sure the school 6th Form CAFOD group has been invigorated this year.
Mr Halliwell presented Amal with his Petchey certificate and badge yesterday, June 19, and said: “I have been really impressed with the way Amal organised these summer events. He has shown maturity and arranged things with minimum fuss. When he wanted to organise something he just got on and did it with confidence and didn’t need supervising or coaching.”
Amal is the last of the nine students to receive a Petchey award in school.
The nine, Mr V.I. and our school will receive special awards at the O2 on September 18 at the Newham Schools event.
Amal is now deciding how to spend his £250 award money.
Barrister Max Archer came in to visit last week and spoke to a group of our 6th Form students about his successful career.
He was happy to answer questions on how he became a lawyer, what his day entails plus other advice and guidance that will hopefully inspire some of the teenagers to pursue a similar career.
Mr Jarvis has been busy making contacts with the Civil Service Department of Health all year and now has been able to secure work experience for four of our Year 12 students from July 17 for a week.
The lucky students will be able to shadow senior civil servants with a trip the house of commons and No 10 Downing Street on the agenda.
A senior civil servant has set this up for and she works at a senior level organising scrutiny committee meetings at the House of Commons. The lucky students are:
Kiran Sweeney
Harjinder Singh Chauhan
Nnaemeka Obiozor
Nicola Laudat
What fantastic experience they’ll gain.
On Friday, June 16, three 6th Form students from St Bonaventure’s, abseiled down the iconic Orbit structure and observation tower in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, for CAFOD.
The 114.5 metre tall building is the UK’s highest free fall abseil and only the brave attempt such a feat but that is exactly what John Dawes and Gabriel Vieira, both 17 and Amal Shabu who’s 16, did to raise funds for the charity.
In the build up the the descent, the boys were busy selling ice creams and lolly ices in the playground at the school in Boleyn Road every lunch time and break time to help boost funds. With the warm weather, it proved to be very popular with the ices selling out each day. This gave the lads tremendous encouragement and set the scene for the abseil beautifully.
They set up a JustGiving page as they initially wanted to raise £300. They exceeded their target by an amazing £360 and raised £662 in total and were overwhelmed by people’s support and generosity. Amal went on to explain: “It was a fantastic challenge and I’m glad we reached the ground safely. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed and made it all worthwhile”
The Director of RE at St Bonaventure’s, Andy Lewis, went with them added: “They said they wanted to do something big for CAFOD and you can’t get much bigger than this. I felt really proud the way they behaved on the day and the way they wanted to do something good for the charity that’s close to their hearts.”
The recent three day Bushcraft trip to Penshurst Place in the beautiful Weald of Kent that returned this week was a huge success Mr Murray reports.
Year 7, 8 and 9 students learned how to survive in the wild on the banks of the Medway 32 miles south of London.
They developed their leadership skills, decision making and practical thinking and each day they got to grips with life in the outdoors which was a unique way to learn and interact.
Outside the usual confines of the classroom, the boys blossomed and really took to the outdoor life and learnt new skills as well as gaining a greater understanding of the British landscape.
They learned how to build fires, shelter building, camp craft, camouflage and concealment and fresh water swimming techniques as well as an end of camp bushcraft tournament.
They were taken out of their comfort zone and away from the distractions of city and school life and they were encouraged to be independent and work in a team when needed. By the end of the three days they left with a new sense of self sufficiency and confidence.
Sounds wonderful!
The Bushcraft trip is due to return to school between 4.30pm and 5pm today, June 14, depending on the volume of traffic on the roads.
