Curriculum Leader for PE, Mr Bartlett, is delighted to announce that our brilliant Year 7 athletes are the Simmond’s Cup Year 7 victors.

This is an invitational competition  for the best athletic schools and many Independent and Grammar schools take part that have state-of-the-art facilities. 

Whilst we have none of those benefits, merely the senior playground where our training takes place, what we do have is passion and determination and tonnes of spirit.

We pipped Whitgift Independent School in South Croydon to the title and were excellent in both track and field and were a credit to our school.

Mr Bartlett is rightly proud of his athletes and thinks their success will spur them on to do well in other competitions.

Tomorrow, May 25, the annual Spring Charity Concert takes place in Cardinal Manning Hall.

Doors open at 5.30pm for a 6pm start and the entrance on Boleyn Road  should be used.

It’s £3 entry or £1 concessions with money this year going to the Sickle Cell Anaemia charity.

Please come along and support the performers as it promises to be a good evening.

Our athletes are at Mile End Athletic Track with Mr Bartlett taking part in the Simmonds Cup and just sent this photo of  Paul Ojo, Noah Myers, Ethan Taasin and Keith Munoz with GB hurdler Perri Shakes Drayton.

Good luck lads!

Year 7 boys went out int the Spring sunshine this morning  on the friary lawn to meet with our local parish priest, Father John Jesus from St Antony’s to crown the statue of Our Lady in the shrine.

May is traditionally the month of Mary in the church and as part of that tradition her statues are crowned with blossoms.

The students, led by Father John Jesus,  Mr Connolly and Mr Lewis recited the rosary and sang “As I Kneel Before You” and prayed to Our Lady.

A crown of  beautiful, small, white roses was handcrafted by Mrs Ho in the office for the ocassion.

It was a lovely start to the day and something the Year 7 boys will remember.

May’s Jack Petchey award was this week given to a 6th Form student who works tirelessly with students raising awareness and the profile of women in the science subjects.

Aleffa Islam, who’s 17,  joined St Bonaventure’s 6th Form from Brampton Manor Academy in September. She spends much of her free time networking with University science departments trying to organise speakers to come into school and motivate our young female science students.

She is in the process of setting up a women’s group with the focus on women in science. She’s constantly on the lookout for opportunities for scholarships, incentives and opportunities for women to study science at university not only for herself but for other girls in our 6th Form and she passes on what she has found freely. She recently organised a group of girls to visit Queen Mary University for a WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) conference.

Curriculum Leader of Numeracy and Key Stage 5 Maths Co-ordinator,  Miss Murphy nominated Aleffa for the award and commented: “I had a lunchtime launch event where Aleffa supported me in speaking to our female students about the importance of raising the profile of women in science. We discussed how we can play our part in inspiring the next generation and take advantage of some of the positive discrimination that is currently around. Aleffa really is a positive, proactive student who is passionate about what she believes in and genuinely wants to help young women fulfil their dream of a career in science.”

Aleffa wins £250 as part of her award and she is thinking on how best to spend her prize money.

The annual Mass for Migrants in the Capital in honour of St Joseph the Worker, took place in Brentwood Diocese this year at our local church,  St Antony’s.

Bishop Alan Williams was the Chief Celebrant and a magnificent, colourful procession of banners from London’s diverse ethnic communities and parishes – from the capital’s three Catholic dioceses: Brentwood, Westminster and Southwark greeted the large congregation.

Our  choir  led by Ms Brockett  sang as the procession entered the church with the Kerala community carrying their traditional, stunning parasols. It was a fantastic sight to behold.

The service began with testimonies from various speakers including Dellon in Year 8 who spoke compassionately and with kindness. His poignant words were spoken with love and was along the lines, if we don’t speak out, then who will? He spoke about the events we have organised  in school  to raise awareness of the plight of refugees in Newham and the Refugees Welcome fund.  Mr Lewis, our Director of Religious Studies was there also and said he was incredibly proud of our boys.

In his homily, Bishop Alan  spoke about how it is hard to imagine how difficult it must be to arrive in another country without speaking the language and without knowing the culture adding that having compassion is great, having love and sympathy is great but  what migrants and refugees need is practical help.

Bishop Alan also thanked the ethnic chaplaincies, refugees and migrants for the great contribution they make to parishes.

The Communion Hymns were sung by our choir and St Antony’s Primary School.

Mr Lewis reported that it was a memorable day that made him feel very proud.

Brentwood Cathedral was jam packed full of  brilliant schoolchildren from all across the Diocese for the annual Brentwood Citizenship Awards on  Friday, May 19.

Three of our students,  6th Former, Trey Kyeremeh, Year 10’s Rosen Bello and  Year 8’s Ethan Suppaya, were nominated for the awards  by Mr Halliwell for their work with various charities.

Bishop Allan presented the trophies to schoolchildren from Catholic Primary and Secondary  Schools from East London and Essex in a lovely ceremony attended by Headteachers, teachers and parents.

Mr Halliwell was there to support  our boys and afterwards Bishop Alan was happy to chat with the recipients and have his photo taken.

Well done.