On Tuesday 21st May, Miss Evans and Mrs Gibson took our top team of students to the London finals: Johanna Jermy, Carmella Messu Pianta, Iliham Negash, Zoe Kirabo, Bradley Barker and Faith Odeyo. Students began by competing in two rounds of debating with the aim of progressing through to the semi-finals on the day. Competition was intense, but Mount St Mary’s were one of the four schools chosen for the semi-finals. MSM demonstrated excellent skill and resilience in the semi-final against tough competition, but once again they were victorious and progressed into the Grand Final!

After a long day at the University of London, everyone moved to the prestigious offices of Shearman and Sterling for the Grand Final. Our students took everything they had learned from the day, performing to a standard of their own personal best, beyond anything they had ever shown before.

Prepared speeches and notes were pushed aside for impromptu moments of inspired speaking, with passion and determination clear throughout. The judges’ decision was clear: Mount St Mary’s were National champions!

Well done to those students who competed, as well as all of the nearly 100 students who have taken part in Debate Mate over the course of this year. You have shown that we as a school have the right to call ourselves a ‘debating school’. Congratulations MSM!

In January, two of our Year 11 students were given a fantastic opportunity to attend the world’s biggest physics laboratory, CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN stands for European Centre for Nuclear Research, and it was founded by a handful of visionary scientists in 1954 to unite European scientists and enable international physics research collaboration.​

In 2008, CERN started up the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the world’s biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. It consists of an 18-mile ring which is buried under the Swiss-French border. Two beams of protons are accelerated in opposite directions and made to collide at speeds very close to that of light. This can produce new subatomic particles, which enables scientists to expand our knowledge of how the universe works. Moreover, we can thank CERN for the invention of the system that all of us use daily nowadays – the Internet.

Our Year 11s, together with Dr Prisutova, joined 13 students from Fulneck School for a three-day trip to Geneva. They had a guided tour of the facilities and got to see some very impressive equipment at the laboratory, as well as having a chat with scientists that work at CERN. They learnt a lot about the exciting research that is being conducted in physics, as well as brilliant career opportunities that studying physics can offer. In addition, they enjoyed a guided tour of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, an exciting treasure hunt around the city on a sunny Saturday, and of course the Swiss chocolate.