Friday the 20th October will be a day stamped in the memories of some our Year 13 history and politics stu-dents for a long time to come as they set off on the first ever BTHCC trip to Washington DC.

The majority on the trip had never been to the USA before so it was a huge new experience for them over the four days and three nights that they were out there.

The students visited the Lincoln Memorial and the Wash-ington Monument, as well as visiting the Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian, the Supreme Court and of course the White House.

The group of 21 students and 3 staff travelled by subway and bus for most of the trip in order to immerse them-selves in the city and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

The trip ended all too soon, with a visit to Six Flags of America Theme Park for a Halloween event and a chance to enjoy the rides.

Millie, who intends to study politics; Joe, who intends to study history and Holly who intends to study science were kind enough to talk to me about their fabulous experience.

B Akintoye

Washington DC Year 13 Trip

Race Night 2017

Following on from last year’s success. Fundraising for the Future organised a Race Night on Friday 3rd November. The evening was a run-away success as the runners and riders gathered in the School Hall to have fun, meet friends, enjoy the odd light refreshment (or two) and support the school.

Around 70 people attended and the tables were set for an evening of tension and drama as we all wagered on which horse would win one of the 7 races that were run. Everyone enjoyed a delicious pie and peas during the interval. It was good fun and a great chance for parents and staff to let their hair down and enjoy the evening with their families. The event culminated with an Auction and Raffle prizes galore which were very kindly donated from local businesses, parents and staff.

We raised a fantastic £1753.37 for the school, an amazing achievement and a great addition towards funds for our new Library. We would also like to give a special thank you to Principal Energy solutions for sponsoring the event. Thanks very much to all of those who came, helped and supported the race night and made the evening a great success! We hope you will join us again next year!

The Fundraising for the Future team

Year 13 have recently completed a 5 week life drawing course at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. The course has given them the opportunity to develop their skills in figure and portrait drawing, building upon the fantastic skills they already have and allowing them to learn new technical skills and formal drawing tech-niques. It has been really lovely to see their confidence grow throughout the course and they have looked forward to the sessions each week. In fact, they en-joyed the sessions so much that they are going to go to extra lessons at Nexus Art Café in Manchester in their own time.

The Year 13 Fine Artists are so mature, passionate and dedicated- and are a credit to the school. I am incredibly proud of them. This work will look fantastic in their portfolios when they take them to their Univer-sity Fine Art interviews!

The course was attended by Maddy, Victoria, Mia, Alice, Ellie and Hannah.

Mrs Penny-Collings

Year 13 Life Drawing

Year 8 have been working incredibly hard completing Artist Research pag-es for their New Orleans Project, in-spired by Miss. Harris’ recent travels in America! Pupils have been chal-lenging themselves to work to a GCSE standard, using new materials such as Brusho ink and completing their own independent research. It’s safe to say that they have risen to the challenge and have exceeded our expectations with the excellent quality of work produced! Well done Y8 artists, you should be very proud of yourselves!

Miss Harris and Mrs Penny-Collings

Year 8 New Orleans Project

Year 7 Basketball Success

The Year 7 boys recently won their first basketball game 27-6 against St Ambrose, and are to be congratulated on such a fantastic result following a run of disappointing results in Year 9 and Year 10 lately. Hopefully this will be the match that turns things around for the hard-working BTHCC teams this autumn! Well done to James, William, Luke, Joe, Tho-mas, Harrison, Charlie, Nathan, Louis and Reece. A brilliant picture taken here by Mr Hodgson which shows their tired but really proud faces!

Mr Hodgson

Extra-curricular prize draw

A massive congratulations to the Year 7 pupils who won the extra curricular prize draw this term. All pupils are awarded a raffle ticket after they have attended five after school sports clubs.

Raffle tickets are put into a prize draw which is drawn after every half term.

A special award was given to Isabel whose commitment to after school clubs has been amazing so far this year.

Miss Connell

Year 8 pupils were set a challenging task before October half-term to create an imaginative model to demonstrate key features of what they have learnt in geography, in their first half-term this year. And wow, they did not disappoint. Over the period of one week a wide variety of erupting volcanoes, devastating earthquakes and towering tsunamis flowed into the Geography department. Pupils had excelled in creativity and sustainability using recycled materials to create their models including empty plastic bottles to used cardboard, newspapers to tissue paper. Clay was also a choice for a few if they felt they were strong enough to carry their volca-no into school. And their imaginations did not stop there, Geographers also had a ‘bake-off’! Glorious cakes were baked, in the form of both dormant and active volcanoes and a wonderful tsunami wave. Chocolate and icing flowed over the cakes and the layering of sponges showed the complex cross-sections of composite volcanoes.

The department is now erupting in splashes of colour, from gloomy blacks and greys to vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. With annotated labels on cocktail sticks, booklets and notes boards describing and explaining the different tectonic hazards. Some even exploded! Chatting to the pupils it is clear to see they had fun producing their crea-tions.

After reflecting with the pupils on this homework task it was clearly evident all had fun producing their masterpieces.

They enjoyed working with each other and deciding upon their design and how to make it. Many comments included: ‘it took longer than I thought for the paper-mache to dry out’, ‘It was great fun shaping and painting the volcano’, We love baking but it was a real challenge and it made us laugh because one of us accidentally fell onto the volcano and squashed it so we had to start all over again!’ Well done Year 8, you have excelled yourselves again.

Mrs Williams

Year 8 Geography excel in their volcano project

This year’s BTHCC annual Christmas Appeal gets underway shortly with Year 7 – 11 raising money for Cornerstone and the Sixth Form and staff collecting items for a Rucksack Appeal for the homeless.

Main School Appeal

Forms 7 – 11 will raise money by way of a sponsored litter pick. Money raised from the litter pick will be donated to Cornerstone. In addition, for each of the three weeks of advent that we are in school, each year group will focus on bringing in a specific items each week for the homeless.

● Week 1, Hats, scarves, gloves. ● Week 2. Tinned soups. ● Week 3. Toilet and kitchen roll.

Sixth Form and Staff Appeal

Sixth Form and staff are doing something new this year! They are to support the Stockport Rucksack appeal in which a rucksack will be filled with essentials item that will be distributed (rucksack and all) to the homeless. They get to choose what goes in, have considered essentials that the homeless might need, as well as some seasonal treats.

Celebrations will also include a Family Carol Concert, Mass, and to reward everyone for their hard work and generosity over the advent period, the spectacular BTHCC Talent Show on the last day of term.

Miss McCurry

BTHCC Christmas Appeal 2017

Harry Potter 2017

Someone must have cast a traveling spell on this year’s Year 9 Creative iMedia trip to the Harry Potter Studios near Watford as we flew down the motorway, experienced no traffic at all and arrived an hour and a half early! Our lovely coach was almost as good as the Hogwart’s Ex-press! We had an early lunch and then the Warner Bros staff kindly let us in ahead of our scheduled time. This year’s trip was amazing. We saw the brand new Forbid-den Forest exhibit, and although I wasn’t there, I hear Molly let out a blood curdling scream when one of the spiders came down. Even I jumped a few times! They were very big spiders!

We also found out that our tickets entitled us to a free photo opportunity, which was a lovely surprise, so lots of fabulous pictures were posed for and collected. As always we learnt huge amounts about this gem of the British film industry and all of the hard work that goes into making such magical films. We even saw outdoors sets across

the car park where filming was currently going on for other new Warner Bros films.

We got to practice our wand technique, had a go at casting spells and saw the magnificent Great Hall decorated for Christmas and the model of Hogwarts School sprinkled with dusting of snow.

On the way back, again magically traffic free on a Friday night, Miss Akintoye dared the Year 9s to take four jelly bean from a packets of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, and our magical luck continued as no-one was sick!

Miss Akintoye

On Wednesday 1st November 2017, guitarists in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 took part in a guitar workshop with Ed Billingham. Ed is a guitarist who regularly performs classical music as well as rock and pop music.

The session started with everyone learning the chords to ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ by Guns ‘n’ Roses. The chords for both the verse and the chorus are similar so it was quite straight forward to learn. We then talked about improvisation which gets used in a lot of music styles. Improvisation is making up music as you go along but you must use a certain set of notes to make it sound good! We all had a chance to practise the scale and then worked on our own improvisation. We then took it in turns to perform a solo- it was great fun!

Overall, we had a great afternoon with Ed and everyone in the group got the opportunity to perform together. We all met guitarists in different year groups who we haven’t met before.

“It has helped me with my chord progressions and will allow me to use the chords for my own songs” Joe

“I enjoyed stretching my own ability but also per-forming with younger pupils whose guitar skills were very good” Charlie

We would like to thank Ed for teaching us this piece. We loved learning about the how improvisation can make the music sound ‘your’ own’ even though it has been written by someone else.

Mrs Edwards

Guitar and singing workshops

On Wednesday 1st October 2017, we invited Mrs Mac-kenzie and her Year 3 class to come along and take part in a vocal workshop. Forty children came along to sing with sixty of our pupils in Years 7, 8,9,10 and 11. The session started with vocal warm-ups to make sure that our voices were ready to sing. Mrs Edwards chose some call and response songs such as ‘Flea Fly Flo’ and ‘Oo-a-lay-Lay’ which was then followed by ‘Sing a Little Boogie’ which is a jazz piece in four parts.

We then learnt about slavery and how the African Slaves used singing as a code to let the others know that the weather was stormy that night and that the plan was to escape. We learnt a song called ‘Wade in the Water’ which was a code to say that they were planning to escape by running through the water later that night. This music is in four parts and we all took in turns to learn each part and then to them together. It was great fun! The session finished with a performance which included the

songs that we had already learnt as well as a quick rendition of ‘The Circle of Life’ from the Lion King.

The St Vincent’s children had already learnt the main melody in preparation for this workshop and the BTHCC Capriccio Singers had previously learn the harmonies. We had a quick recap of each part and everyone sang their hearts out during the finale of this fun event!

We would like to thank Mrs Mackenzie and her class for coming along to join us with our singing. We had so much fun that we were sad to see you all leave. We loved it when we all sang in harmony and thoroughly enjoyed helping the children when they had to split into difficult parts. Luckily for us, there is a plan to bring up another Year 3 class so we might see some of you next time!

Mrs Edwards

A visit from St Vincent’s Primary School

BTHCC @ the BBC

During this year’s Year 10 Creative iMedia trip to the BBC we did some of the activities we unusually do such as touring the studios and having a go at presenting the weather and the news. But this year the second group had the opportunity to take part in a radio drama, complete with script and sound effects. Katie, Jazmin and Holly volunteered to ‘read’ and Oliver, Farrah and Rebecca created the digital and sound effects. Can you imagine what sound effect a bunch of rubber gloves tied together would make?*

It was great fun and a really interesting expe-rience for the pupils, who performed confi-dently alongside the members of the public who were also on the tour, and whose man-ners and behaviour did BTHCC proud.

Miss Akintoye

*A flock of birds taking off - try it!

The last fortnight has seen Year 7 go above and be-yond, raising a huge amount of money for their chosen charity, Laughter Africa. Fundraising has included a plethora of activities including a sponsored silence, cross bar challenges and chocolate raffles.

Laughter Africa is charity based in Sierra Leone, they work with street children to help them fulfil their aspira-tions and bring about positive change in their lives. This may be through activities in the local community, pro-viding medicines, reuniting lost children with their fami-lies and even paying the fees so the young people can attend school.

Two stand out fundraising items were the ‘Laughing Africa’ badges, sold to promote the charity and hand-made at BTHCC on the laser cutter, and the sponsored swim completed by Rhys in 7GM. Rhys completed 100 lengths in less than an hour to raise a fantastic amount. Well done Rhys!

All of the money which Year 7 have raised will go di-rectly to the children and will make a huge difference to their lives.

The feast week concluded on Friday with a fantastic liturgy to celebrate all of the hard work the pupils have put in. It was an opportunity the year group to come together for prayer, songs and moments of reflection.

Well done Year 7!

Mr Worth and Mrs Tarry

Year 7 Feast Week

The Edge at BTHCC

Today saw the first of our three Edge Open Mornings at BTHCC where delegates from across the North West came to listen to our experience with The Edge and how we have developed our programme here. The morning began with a presentation by our Headteacher Mr Cornally who emphasised the importance and value of the Edge program to every pupil and student in our College. He spoke of the importance of Leadership support and teach-ers across the College supporting the program within their own Departments. Mr Cornally went on to encourage them to listen to our experience and use the resources we have and guidance to create their own Edge journey in their schools.

Mrs O’Rourke, who is Leader of The Edge at BTHCC and Local Edge Coordinator; gave a presentation about our history with The PiXL Edge since being part of the pilot in 2014 to today when the Edge is whole school. We as a College are looking forward to another very successful year with many more Apprentices qualifying and seeing our first cohort of Graduates on the program.

For more information about The Edge see our school website link or email mrsorourke@bthcc.org

The Message Trust has its roots in the late 1980’s when business men Andy and Simon Hawthorne began to feel stirred to present the Christian faith relevantly to the young people of Greater Manchester. They organised a week of gigs at the Manchester Apollo, Message ’88, attracting thousands of young people to live performances by bands, and a clear presentation of the Christian message.

In the early 1990’s the Message to Schools Trust was born, formed with the express purpose of presenting the Chris-tian faith to young people in schools through hip hop and dance music. A new band was formed – The World Wide Message Tribe, later called The Tribe. Demand for the band to play in schools and further afield quickly increased and they went on to record albums which brought critical acclaim and international success.

Some 25 years on, The Message Trust now has multiple teams that visit and partner with schools offering though provoking lessons and performances using music. Our Year 10 were lucky enough to experience this on Monday

13th November with a performance here at BTH by Vital Signs. They captivated pupils from their first introduction; performing their powerful raps written by themselves about their own personal journeys of hope and transformation as

part of the Higher Tour. Year 10s have been talking so positively about the performance since Monday and we look forward to welcoming them back soon!

Mrs O’Rourke

A visit from the Message Trust

From Monday 13th November

to Thursday 23rd November, our Library held its first book fair. Scholastic books deliv-ered the event. Pupils were able to browse hundreds of books, and purchase any they wanted. We also had bags, stationary and even posters for sale. The book fair has been a resounding success, especially among our Year 7 and 8 pupils and because of this, we aim to hold another two throughout the school

year. At the time of writing this we have sold £422.95 worth of books and stationary, and this will earn us £177.77 in free books for our school library!

Mr Lynskey

“It was a really good book fair and every-thing was fairly priced. I bought lots of stationary as well as two posters. I would definitely come to the next book fair at BTH!” Joshua 7GM

“I liked the book fair because you got to discover new books and learn new things. I hope there is another one soon because I would defi-nitely buy more books from it.” Charlotte 7KD

“ I really enjoyed the book fair, as you got to read and find new books that you might not have had the chance to read before.” Robert CS1

BTHCC Book Fair

“The selection of books was great, the book I got is very good. I really hope BTH runs another book fair soon!”Benedict 8B1

“I have loved the school book fair and have treated myself to a few books. I would definitely come to the next one!” Carolina 9MT

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Every Thursday afternoon Miss Eastwood's classroom is an oasis of calm as a group of pupils join together (knit together) to learn to knit, and hopefully create a blanket for refugees.

Research has shown that knitting can induce similar re-laxed states to mediation or yoga, lowering the heart rate and blood pressure, while engaging the mind and improv-ing concentration. It’s creative and a valuable skill to learn! This is an opportunity to play a part in producing something that will be valued by refugees in need of warmth and shelter. Beginner and advanced knitters are welcome.

Miss Eastwood

Knitting for Peace

Advent Prayer

God of light,As we prepare for these days of Advent,

help us to get ready:not just with presents and cardsand parties and celebrations,

but also in our minds and in our hearts.You came to earth bringing light to our darkness:

help us to share this light today.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord: Amen

Blessed Thomas Holford… Pray for us.In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.