Global Accountancy giants, Ernst & Young, are mentoring four of our Year 13 students who will be given the unique opportunity to visit one of the world’s leading accountancy and professional services firms to find out more about a career in financial services.

St Bonaventure’s alumnus, Nilesh B Dosa, orchestrated the mentoring as he now works as an advisory consultant with EY and still has fond memories of his time as a student here.

The Year 13  6th Form students are: Joshua Akinsowon, Myles Quacoe , Harraj  Singh and Tolu Obafemi-Ajayi. They are all 17. They visited the offices in More London earlier this month and Nilesh went on to explain: “It was fantastic to welcome 6th Form students into our London Bridge office. The session was informative and inspiring and the students showed their passion and enthusiasm with lots of questions about the variety of activities EY does. I look forward to mentoring them this coming year and hope to see them on our Business Apprenticeship programme next year.”

Amaka Uche from the Ernst & Young Talent team also took part on the day and added: “The EY Business Apprenticeship is a market-leading award winning alternative to university. This training lets you join EY straight after school — just as some of our directors and partners did. When you qualify, you’ll have the same professional qualification you’d study for after university, and you’ll earn this sooner than a graduate, with the same career options to look forward to”

Whichever direction our students take this mentoring opportunity will greatly enhance their career prospects.  All of our students gave us great feedback on their first visit and felt they learnt so much.

Tolu gave this testimonial: “I was provided with a telling insight into the world of finance. Our mentor has really provided a motivation for me to go on and try to be successful”. Myles added: “I was inspired to see how the business world works and it opened my eyes to also explore paths other than university”.

Thanks to Nilesh and his colleagues at EY for organising such a fantastic initiative.

Miss Masset will be running a Chess Club in the library every Thursday from 1.45pm until 2.10pm. 

Students are invited to go along and learn a new skill. They will be made welcome and make new friends at the same time.

Friday lunchtimes will see the library playing host to The Book Club with boys reading and analysing a range of Carnegie Award winning books.

The club promises to be lots of fun. Literacy skills will be improved as well…it’s a win win situation!

See Miss Massett or more details or go along to see for yourself.

St Bonaventure’s teacher, Aaron Senior, was awarded his Level 4 Basketball Referee title earlier this month by the British Basketball League.

Mr Senior undertook a year long course and had to pass a theory paper earlier in the year and fitness test before qualifying.

He was awarded his certificate in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport.

26-year-old Mr Senior is Head of Year 9 and Leader of Student Progress and Development at St Bonaventure’s as well as being a basketball coach for the school team and Under 16 coach for ‘Youngbloods.’

Mr Senior now plans to study for his international referee qualification.

Last night  our Jack Petchey Achievement Awards Winners 2015/2016 were invited along with their families to the O2 in Greenwich to receive their golden medallions.

It was a wonderful occasion and a fantastic venue for schools from the London Borough of Newham to showcase their positive contributions to their schools over the past twelve months.

Rosen, Gabriel, Donte, John, Renee, Nicholas, Tomas and Klaudio collected their boxed medals. Art teacher Ms Murphy was there to collect her special Leader’s Award for the outstanding results she has achieved with her students making her one of the best Art teachers in the country.

A proud moment for St Bonaventure’s.

Parents of Year 6 boys are invited along with their sons to attend our Open Evening on Thursday 13 October at 6pm.

Our Headteacher, Mr Halliwell, will address parents in the Sports’ Hall at the start of the evening. There will then be an opportunity to visit our departments and a chance to meet our staff and students and take part in some fun activities.

Student tour guides will be on hand to answer questions along with the Headboy, Jamie, and the student leadership team. They can see for themselves what makes St Bonaventure’s special.

St Bonaventure’s was founded in 1877 and has the excellent reputation for being a high performing yet caring school where every student is valued and has the chance to reach their potential. Whatever their strength or gift is, we will help develop that at St Bon’s and bring out the best in every student. 

We look forward to seeing you all on 13 October.

For parents who are unable to make the Open Evening there will be three Open Day sessions on 17, 18 and 19 October at 9.30am and 11.30am. They will have the opportunity to see lessons taking place and see how the busy school functions.

Years 7 to 11 had their Celebration of the New Term Mass at St Antony’s Church today, September 9,  in readiness for the start of the autumn term.

Father Bob and Father John Jesus celebrated mass and it was a fantastic way to start the term with lots of singing, prayers and an inspirational homily.

The new Year 7s behaved beautifully and Mr Halliwell  was pleased and commented how well behaved and serene everybody was.

Alumnus and former 6th Form Head Boy Ryan Makuku,  who is now in his second year at Birmingham Uni popped in today, September 8,  to say hi and show us his feature article in ‘Future Leaders Magazine.’

The Magazine highlights Ryan, 19,  from Stratford as one of the best black students in the country. It also features Ryan discussing his experience mentoring. He even  managed to fit in a down the line interview with  a reporter from our local newspaper who have been closely monitoring his progress.

Rightly so, Ryan was proud of his article and wanted to show Mr Halliwell and Mrs Smith the magazine as well as touching base with his old teachers.

He was telling us about his busy student life and his new buddying project he’s devised too for second and third year students that he will be busy overseeing when Uni starts again.

Does he ever sit still? No chance, there is so much to do, so many places to see and so much difference to make to the World. Here at St Bon’s we have faith in Ryan and don’t doubt for one second he won’t fulfill all his dreams and more.

The playground filled up early today with 210 eager, excited boys all looking very smart in their brown blazers and keen to meet their Form teachers.

The students were in for half a day and had assembly and met new chums. Friendships that will last a lifetime were made and there were lots of smiling faces.

At breaktime, Headteacher Mr Halliwell went out into the playground to chat with the boys and check that they were settling in well. He was pleased to report that everyone seemed fine.

Here are a few photos from the playground.