Anxious faces turned into smiles this morning as nervous students started streaming through the gate at school to hear how they had done in their exams.

75 percent of students gained A* – C grades and 98 percent A* – E.
There were many success stories too with students gaining places at universities such as Warwick, Kings, Imperial, Royal Holloway, Loughborough and so on. Teachers were on hand to guide the students through the clearing process too.

Director of 6th Form, Wayne Templeman, was very pleased with the results and said that all the students’ hard work had paid off.

Here are some photos from this morning, as you can see it was an emoji-tional day!

Today, July 15, we celebrate the Feast Day of our patron saint, St Bonaventure.

St. Bonaventure was born in the small town of Bagnoregio inTuscany, Italy in 1221 and received the baptismal name of John. An event that occurred when he was a boy profoundly influenced his life. He had a serious illness and not even his father, who was a physician, believed that he would survive. His mother prayed for the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, who had been canonized a short time earlier. And John was cured.

At the age of twenty-two, John entered the Franciscan Order and was named Bonaventure. After he made his vows, he was sent to Paris to continue his studies in theology and philosophy. In Paris he became a close friend of St. Thomas Aquinas and received his Doctor of theology degree, together with St. Thomas Aquinas. Like St. Thomas Aquinas, he enjoyed the friendship of the holy King, St. Louis IX.

Known as the Seraphic Doctor because of his burning love for God and his great zeal to do God’s work, St Bonaventure is usually depicted reading and or writing. His symbol is a red Cardinal’s hat.

He taught us that “when we pray, the voice of the heart must be heard more than that proceeding from the mouth.” Wise words indeed.

To celebrate our Feast Day, all staff and students were treated to a cooked breakfast to start off the day. A special celebratory mass will take place too before pupils are dismissed for the summer holidays at 12.25pm.

Message from our Headmaster, Mr Halliwell: 

” As you know, we have been designated as a Teaching School which is a great honour for all associated with St Bonaventure’s. We have now formed our Teaching School Alliance which is the group of Schools and Universities that are committed  to work together to ensure a world class provision  for students, training teachers and established teachers. I am very lucky that brilliant schools and fantastic Headteachers are so enthusiastic about joining our Alliance. We have decided to call  ourselves ‘The Agnus Dei Teaching School Alliance’ which reflects our  Catholic identity. All the establishments in the Alliance are currently Catholic Secondary Schools and Universities. They are:

The Palmer Catholic Academy, Seven Kings

Holy Family, Walthamstow

St Thomas More, Leigh-On-Sea

The Campion School, Upminster

De La Salle, Basildon

St John Payne, Chelmsford

St John’s Special School, Chigwell

New Hall Independent School, Chelmsford

St Benedict’s Catholic College, Colchester

St Mary’s University, Twickenham

New signage has been erected at the entrance to the school on Boleyn Road and on Upton Lane and on the gold wall by reception. 

Agnus Dei translates from Latin as ‘Lamb of God’. This is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” We have adopted the lamb logo which will be used on letter heads and other stationery.

These are exciting times and I am looking forward to be able to develop and influence the next generation of exceptional school teachers, be at the heart of school improvement and support other schools.”

Cameron Thompson who is in 8 Kolbe at St Bonaventure’s School in Boleyn Road is seen here modelling their new Basketball away kit with the money from Tomas Augustauskas and Franklin Agu’s Jack Petchey combined award money.

The new kit is a real boost for St Bon’s especially as they became the quadruple National Schools England Basketball champions back in May this year and will now have their very own kit to play in instead of having to borrow a local independent team’s shirts.

Aaron Senior, who is a basketball coach and Head of Year 8 said: “The new shirts look great and having their own shirts will bring the team together and make them feel more professional. They are at the top of their game anyway but I know this will make them look and feel special and ready  to face their opponents.  The students can’t wait for the new season to start to wear them”

Franklin, 14, was given the March Jack Petchey Award and Tomas, 13, the April award for their outstanding team spirit, effort and determination throughout the whole season which contributed to the phenomenal success for St Bons’ basketball.

Picture – Di Halliwell

Our Annual MAD event (Music Art and Drama) takes place next Tuesday, July 12 from 4.30pm until 7.30pm on the Friary Lawn.

If it’s anything like last year’s event it will be fantastic with musical performances, drama performance and art auction taking place.

Of course, there will be plenty to eat and drink with a barbecue, nibbles and refreshments on offer. Tickets cost £5 for adults and £2 for students and children  Under 5’s are free with all proceeds going to support Medicins Sans Frontieres.

With building work going on at school, visitors are  asked to use the playground gate entrance on St Antony’s Road.

All’s we need now is for the sun to shine for a positively perfect afternoon.

School Librarian Ms Masset spent many hours over many months designing and painting a huge Scrabble board for students to enjoy at lunchtimes and break-times in the library to increase their word power and literacy.

Our students love Scrabble and will really benefit from it

 Lasian Tracey-Masset aged 8 from St Edwards Primary school thinks it’s a great idea too.

Despite the wind and rain, the weather couldn’t dampen spirits at Sport’s Day this year as another successful display of sporting talent was on display at Newham Leisure Centre for all to witness.

The students performed well in their chosen races and events and the overall winner was declared as Kolbe using an overall average score.

Kolbe House Captain Hadrian is seen here with the winning trophy.

Here are some photos capturing the day.

Newsreader, journalist, broadcaster and writer, Nicholas Owen, was one of the special guests at The Arch Hotel yesterday, June 28, for the launch of ‘Book of Decamot’.

Nicholas now works for the BBC  presenting on the BBC News channel and BBC One but yesterday he was happy to pose with Year 10’s Rodolfo Adebajos III and chat about Rodolfo’s experience of the Decamot process in St Bonaventure’s.

Rodolfo’s script called ‘Rodriges’ Legacy’ impressed Decamot authors Stanley and Gavin Jackson and so Mr Halliwell and Rodolfo were invited to the press launch of the book with writers and comedians Dominic Holland and Miles Jupp and impressionist Rory Bremner  in attendance.

Only two other schools were invited, a Northampton School and a school from Kendal in Cumbria with their teachers with Rodolfo representing London and the South.

A buffet lunch was provided after a Question and Answer session hosted by Nicholas Owen whereby Rodolfo had to explain what he thought of Decamot.

The comedians joined in with them creating their own Decamot stories using ten given words and  true to their witty form their stories were topical, controversial and very funny.

Rodolfo said after the event: “It was very interesting to hear how everyone came up with their very different short scripts and I think Decamot is a unique and fun way to encourage creativity in people. I really enjoyed the process.”

The June Jack Petchey Award winner has been named today as Year 9’s Gabriel Brunette Peters.

14 year old Gabriel is proving to be a natural leader. Every Wednesday, Gabriel takes the driving seat at the lunchtime Anime Club and each week selects a different Japanese cartoon for his peers to study. The club is very popular and is growing week by week.

Gabriel is always the first through the door and has it all organised by the time the teacher arrives to supervise. He is a pleasant and good natured student who has excellent manners and is a very positive role model for younger students.

Gabriel from 9 Gregory wants to take his fellow Anime Club colleagues to ‘Harry Potter World’ with  his £250 award money as they are all fans of the teen wizard.