Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy part of Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust

The Friday Letter Edition No 140

Friday 11 March 2016

[Follow us on www.st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk and on Twitter@SJHCVA]

Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him. Show us your face and we will be saved. Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money; the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things; made Peter weep after his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief. Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift of God!”

You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error: let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing, so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord, and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed, and restore sight to the blind.

We ask this of you, Lord Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy; you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Important dates

Wednesday 23 March – Students break up for the Easter Holiday. Thursday 24 March – Inset Day. Monday 11 April - Students return to school after the Easter Holiday.

A reminder that the deadline for

return of Option Forms for

year 9 is Tuesday 15th March.

Day of Mercy at Saint John Houghton On Friday 04 March, in conjunction with all the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Nottingham, we held a Day of Mercy as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

This day was led by Rachel Rose our lay chaplain. She has written the following account for the letter: Our Day of Mercy began with The Year of Mercy prayer being read in Staff Briefing. We ran two Acts of Worship. Our Head Boy, Matthew Shepherd read the scripture reading, Mark 12.41-45, and the pupils were praised for all the fund raising they do with a good and generous heart. However, there are times when it is

hard to give and there comes a time for us to accept that God has a plan for us and that God is

in control. The Choir sang, 'I am broken at your feet', whilst we had time to reflect on the times we have failed to keep God at the centre of our lives. It was an opportunity to remind our staff and pupils that the Church offers the sacrament of reconciliation, a way back to God and a new beginning and we watched an interview and role play led by Fr David Cain. Mrs McCarthy has purchased a Mercy Wristband for every pupil in school and we were able to read the blessing and hear Bishop Patrick’s words of encouragement and support.

Well done to Mr Quenby and the choir who sang, 'Meekness and Majesty'. And our Act of Worship ended with our Head Girl, Leah Edge, reading the Year of Mercy prayer. Mercy Workshops ran throughout the day for Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils. Year 10 and 11 have relieved information and boring forms for 'Search for the Light' retreat at The Briars and The Church Big Day Out. The pupils entered the Mercy Workshop listening to, 'The Mercy CD', copies can be bought from The Briars. I read The Jubilee Year Of Mercy Missionary Prayer, by Pope Francis, to the pupils. The prayer asks us to become agents of Mercy, but in order to do that our pupils first needed the opportunity to receive God's mercy and be feel renewed by God's deep love. It was a privilege to serve our pupils juice

and biscuits to help refresh them and see them enjoy their friends whilst they answered the question, ' What does love look like?' As the pupils came through the classroom door they came as they were, carrying burdens and worries belonging to the past. We talked about the door of Noah's Ark, which was opened to save the animals and we thought about the tomb door which would be opened in a few weeks’ time for Jesus to walk again. We had time to reflect about how Jesus travelled from one place to another, often on a boat, which is made of timber, we realised doors are made of timber and lead us out of one place and into another. I asked the pupils to walk in silence out of the classroom and into our Millennium Garden where they could take many different paths, were they going round and round in circles? Did they face Dilemma Doors? This was the time for the pupils to choose a different path, to enter their school as a new beginning, having handed over to Our Lord, all the problems on their mind, asking him

help and forgiveness. As the pupils returned to the Mercy Room they were handed a Mercy Wristband. We talked about Mary, who is Gospel Warrior and compared her to our pupils who are Keyboard Warriors, and reconfirmed that Mary was there until the very end. It is important to have a Chaplain in school. Without a Chaplain pupils read information and act on it. With a Chaplain they have time and direction to understand why things happen and why we act on it.

Mercy is a verb, a doing word, we act. It is a time to run towards suffering and pain and embrace sin. God's mercy gives life to a woman/man and God's mercy will always be bigger than any sin you commit or will commit.

We came back to the scripture reading from the morning Act of Worship and each pupil was given two coins, one with a purple sticker on, the colour of Lent, which they were asked to keep forever as a reminder of our day, and another penny which they could donate to either, Friends of Street Child Africa, CAFOD, or Chaplaincy Department SJH, to run more days like The Day of Mercy. Amounts will be given in next week’s Friday Letter. Every child gave freely and wore there Mercy Wristband with pride. Mercy changes everything and I was able to tell our pupils to expect special and wonderful things to happen in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. Hearing the word of the Lord, receiving Mercy in Mug, having time to reflect and share, to move from one place to another and to feel the love through Mercy Moves, who could ask for more.

Parents and pupils, you are blessed to be part of the Saint

John Houghton

Community and we are

grateful to have you. We are powerful beyond measure together.

Chaplaincy Department News As an Academy we have included The Jimmy Mizzen Foundation Peace Handprints into our induction for Year 7 and new staff and pupils. Rachel would like to thank the Year 8 Team Chaplaincy for giving up their time to support this,

you have become wonderful leaders. Well done Year 7 for having the courage to do what is right.

Good to see you Dylan Butler Parsons In the chaplaincy department this week

As an academy we raised a fabulous amount for The MacMillan Coffee Morning £114.70 thank you all for your support again. Each morning we are meeting the challenge from Bishop Patrick to spend 15 minutes in prayer and worship. Thank you to all the staff who gather to pray at 8.00am and to Mr Hope, Mr Warden and Mr Quenby for leading these reflections this week.

Thank you Jonathan for preparing our Mercy quotes, they look great.

Well done Kian Beer and Tom Hampson for preparing the Day of Mercy posters, they look great!

Thank you to James Daly and Louis Diamond for having hot chocolate and a chat with me this week.

More thanks to the dream team, Emily Gilhooly, Tamzin Evans and Alex Hall for giving a tour of our lovely Academy.

Rachel's hero of the week: Mr Carr.

National Careers Week This week we've had a big focus on Careers. A variety of activities have taken place which have been

informative, raised aspirations and challenged students to think differently about their futures. In tutor time students looked at the skills employers ask for and how they could raise their game to beat the competition. Lesson starters have included information and film clips about different types of job role. Four different guest speakers have given up their time to host a series of STEM focused 'Breakfast Talks' about their own careers and the different routes to entry. Thank you very much to Mike Mountey (former pupil and Aviation

Engineer at Rolls Royce), Connor McIntyre (former pupil and Higher Apprentice at Rolls Royce), Roy Parker (Architect and Construction Lecturer and STEM Ambassador at the University of Derby) and Ian Hall (Systems Strategy Lead, Roll Royce). The students found the talks fascinating and inspirational. It was lovely to hear them say phrases like "That was brilliant", "I've been given so much to think about", "I've heard about new things I'd never even thought of before."

BBC School News Report Miss Pearce would like to thank 9-1 for their participation and excellent attitude and behaviour when filming the BBC school news reports. On Thursday 10th March, pupils from SJH began the morning by browsing current newspapers and selecting hot topics in order to create their own spin on the news. The pupils chose to focus their reports on knife crime, Donald Trump, Maria Sharapova (or Sharap-over as the article suggests), social media and the issues with underage smoking. The pupils created both a video and a written report and spent the day meeting the tight deadlines set for each activity. Pupils who are away at the Briars had already filmed their sections of the report, so it was therefore the responsibility of the pupils back at SJH to edit the videos so that the others pupils could feature and they did a brilliant job. The pupils managed to keep to the strict deadlines and the videos and the written reports were all uploaded in time, much to the relief of the pupils. Miss Pearce would like to say well done in particular to: Kia Winfield, Erin Nelson, Deborah Banks, Jude Cobb, Lucy Summers, Ben Langfield, Taya Joslin, Carly Mee and Molly Hinton who behaved brilliantly throughout the day and demonstrated an excellent attitude for learning. They worked so hard to pull together all of their research and to finish the reports on time. Well done guys! If you would like to view our news reports or read our views on the hot topics in our society, go to: http://www.st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk/bbc-school-report-2016/

Resilience evening Many issues face our young people in our world today. You, as parents, face every demanding pressures on ensuring your children can cope with many issues. The school have been working with our friends from the Amy Winehouse Foundation and AddAction UK in preparing an Information evening on issues concerning drugs and alcohol. The meeting is on Monday evening at 6pm and I do hope hope you can join us.

Ancient Music for Retired Priests The renowned early music ensemble Aitone has once again kindly agreed to offer a concert in aid of the Retired Priests Appeal. Featuring renaissance and baroque music for Holy Week, the concert starts at 7.30pm on Palm Sunday, 20th March, at St Francis Church in Long Eaton.

Admission is free, and a collection will be shared between the group and the appeal. Fr Martin Sylvester, parish priest of St Francis parish in Long Eaton, said, "Everyone who's been to one of Aitone's Holy Week concerts has come away marvelling at the richness of the early music repertoire for this season, and impressed by the group's musicianship. Some visitors who'd never heard early music before were surprised by its power to move their hearts, and the brief introductions the group give to the pieces makes the night an education as well as an entertaining and uplifting musical treat." Maps, public transport information and driving directions can be found at www.lecatholic.org.uk and the programme for the concert can be found at www.aitone.org.uk.

Digital Sunset and ‘No screen’ hour

There has been some publicity in recent months about the effect that using screens has on our well-being –that using screens late at night can affect our sleep in a negative way.

“… analysis of the research showed overall social media use, and specifically night-time use, was related to poorer sleep quality, lower self-esteem and higher levels of anxiety and depression. A pronounced emotional investment in social media had a similar effect.” (The Guardian September 2015)

In school we notice that some children are unable to concentrate for long in lessons: sometimes they will say that they’ve been playing games or on their phones until very late at night - 4am in one case!

Perhaps you could think about having a ‘digital sunset’ (if you don’t already). If phones and controllers were left downstairs when children went to bed, then they might get a better night’s sleep and be more able to cope with school work.

At a recent parents’ evening, I suggested that some children would benefit from having a ‘no screens’ hour in the early evening – maybe from 7pm until 8pm – so that there was a definite time for homework and revision. This could operate from Monday to Thursday. The vast majority of exams for our students involve them writing: working on the computer is only going to help with revision up to a point.

Anyway, why not give it a try for a few weeks? It could really help your child’s progress –and if they’re angry about it, you can blame me!

Mrs Folan

Air Cadets

Congratulations to Peter Murphy, Adam Morley, Kenneth Lee and William Holmes on “passing out” with T flight at Ilkeston 348 squadron ATC - shown here along with other former SJH students at Ilkeston 348 squadron ATC this evening.

Well done Year 8 football team

On Wednesday night, the Year 8 boys made the short trip to neighbours Kirk Hallam. The

boys were keen to secure the result which meant they would maintain their 100% winning

record in the league so far.

The game started off brightly for Saint John, dominating possession and creating a couple

of early opportunities which were unfortunately squandered. However, shortly after, a big

punt from the defence found Nick Bradley in space who finished with aplomb. Saint John

1-0 Kirk Hallam.

Saint John continued to create a few openings, with Theo Shelton guiding his header just

wide of the target following good work from Nick Bradley down the right. The pair again

linked up soon after and managed to score, but unfortunately the goal was ruled out for

offside.

Against the run of play, Kirk Hallam won a free-kick about 25 yards out. Their player struck

the ball in to the top left-hand corner of the goal beating the helpless Chris Stratford in

goal. HT Saint John 1-1 Kirk Hallam.

The second half began, but unlike the first, Kirk Hallam were seeing a lot more of the ball.

However, a quick counter-attack by Theo Shelton passed the ball to Nick Bradley just inside

the box. With a lot still to do, Nick Bradley managed to evade the defence numerous times,

skilfully working himself into space before expertly finishing into the far right corner. Saint

John 2-1 Kirk Hallam.

Now with the lead, the boys were clinging on. Kirk Hallam had chances but to no avail. Solid

defensive displays from Oliver Wheeldon, Luke Gibbons, Alex Leatherland, Rhys Windridge

and Ryan Fee managed to ensure the victory. FT Saint John 2-1 Kirk Hallam.

A fantastic performance and result from the lads. Great team spirit and determination won

them the game and they continue their winning streak in the competition. Congratulations

from Mr Harris go to: Chris Stratford, Oliver Wheeldon, Luke Gibbons, Alex Leatherland,

Rhys Windridge, Ryan Fee, Luke Wilson, Liam Hughes, Jorge Kitchen, Oliver Jasper, James

McElwee, Theo Shelton and Nick Bradley.

Religious Education On Wednesday, Mr Long's combined year 9 classes finished their unit on Christian Love and Marriage by beginning the arduous task that some of them will later undertake: wedding dress fitting. Hopefully with the real bridal gowns they

won't need to use toilet tissue!

We have just introduced the new key stage 3 project to both year 7 and year 8. By the end of the week all students will have the homework sheet stuck in their planners.

Year 7 Science Project Homework - Term 4

Each term you will be asked to complete a science project based on the topics being

taught. In term 4 you will be studying a Chapter about Pure and Impure Substances.

Your project based on this is to decide and plan how you would produce pure water from

sea water.

This is the scenario:

You are abandoned on a desert island. You have no fresh water only sea water. All you have are the

clothes you are wearing and any resources you find on the small island. You need to make pure water

to drink to survive. Can you produce a plan and describe how you are going to succeed in this task.

You could produce a poster, a PowerPoint, a model, write a report for a newspaper or scientific journal or

even present a 3 minute talk to your class. You can decide. All projects need to be in school for your first

science lesson after the Easter break.

Year 8 Science Project Homework - Term 4

Each term you will be asked to complete a science project based on the topics being taught. In

term 4 you will be studying a Chapter about The Earth and Atmosphere.

Your project based on this is to explain ‘What is Global Warming and how could this affect the Earth’.

You could produce a poster, a PowerPoint, a model, write a report for a newspaper or scientific journal or

even present a 3 minute talk to your class. You can decide. All projects need to be in school for your first

science lesson after the Easter break. Good luck with your research.

Humanities Geography - Controlled Conditions coursework Congratulations to all those Geographers that have exceeded their Target Grade in their Year 11 Coursework; Olivia Borste, Finn Broderick, Lydia De Gioia, Anouska Ekemere, Madeleine Fletton, Tom Flynn, Molly Griffiths, Tara Hall, Sophie Ingall, Isabella Lee, Isabelle Marchewka, Natalie Monk, Eleanor Rhodes, Nina Schofield, Matthew Shepherd, Jacob Siara, Stephanie Siara, Anna Stevenson, Elizabeth Varley, Matthew Woodward.

The Art, Design and Technology department are looking for charity collection boxes. Old boxes,

used, new. Anything you have we will take! Please bring these in and

give to the Art, Design and Technology department. Thank you – Mr Wheldon

Well done Well done to our Year 8 and Year 11 students for their excellent behaviour and conduct during their examinations this week

Hackett Stock Concert – 23 March 2016

As you may now Mick Hackett from our ICT Support Department is not too well.

Mick has a passion for music and has been heavily involved in School Productions including leading the Sound and Light Crew. We thought it would be fitting to have a Concert to thank Mick for his support over the years.

Tickets are £5 for Adults /£3 for students and are on sale now in the Hall Corridor at lunchtimes.

Thank you for taking the time to read the Friday letter this week. I do hope some of you may consider attending the Resilience Meeting on Monday in school. Year 9 have been away at the Briars this week and full details of their trip will be in next week’s letter.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Joan McCarthy

23 March 2016 – 7pm in the School Hall Tickets - £5 (£3 concessions)