Mental Health Awareness Day

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Day on Thursday 10 October, we started our staff briefing with a ‘Cuppa and a catch up’ to encourage our staff to take a minute for themselves. Thank you to the wonderful Y9 Wellbeing Ambassadors for greeting our staff with a warm welcome and a smile, which made all the difference to the start of our day.

We are promoting a positive approach to mental health and well-being by sharing ‘5 ways to well-being’, which encourages students to connect with each other, be active, take notice, keep learning and give back. All our students already have the opportunity to do this through our extra-curricular opportunities. Our recent initiative to inspire students to ‘find your club’ promotes the ‘5 a day’ approach to keeping students healthy and happy.

Library Clubs

Since the beginning of the school year Chess Club has been popular among our students, so popular in fact, that Ms Fennelly and Ms Bennasser have now started to take things slightly more seriously … by making a display wall with the players’ names on it. The goal being to get your name to the top of the list.

Do you like playing chess? Do you enjoy competition as well as challenging yourself? Join us on Wednesdays at lunchtime and test yourself. You can also simply learn how to play: everyone is welcome and the Simpsons chess set is a fun way to get acquainted with the game. Who knows? You might become an expert by the end of the year!

Chess, however, may not be everyone’s cup of tea. That’s fine. Perhaps your brain has a different, fantastic way to shine: you might be a dreamer, have a creative mind.

At Mount St Mary’s, we know how essential reading is. We know it and we promote it. We are readers and some of us are also budding writers and creative poets—perhaps the authors of tomorrow. This is what Ms Fennelly and Ms Bennasser believe in and encourage and is why Writers’ Club was born and takes place in the library, each Thursday after school, from 3.10pm to 4pm. If your head is full of stories and characters, or if you simply enjoy writing and inventing plots, why don’t you join us, savour some biscuits, practise your writing skills and share your work and ideas with us?

We can’t wait to see you!

Year 11 Girls’ Netball

The Year 11 Girls had their first netball fixture against Gateways School on Wednesday 25th September. The final result did not go in our favour, however, I have never seen the girls play such wonderful netball.

Their play was outstanding, passing fluidly up and down the court and creating chance upon chance to score. Unfortunately, on this occasion, Gateways were simply more clinical in the shooting third.

Well, done to all the girls involved. (Mrs Leeson)

“The holidays can bring so many opportunities”

Congratulations to Mercy Annan in Year 11 who used her holiday time to gain excellent experience in the Performing Arts industry, whilst pursuing a great passion to perform.

Mercy took to the stage to perform as part of The Opera North project titled “Songs of Alchemy,” inspired by the renowned artist Bharti Kher. This 40 minute show, which showcased an immense number of talented young people, was a joy to watch when we returned to school.

Mr Flynn (her very proud Year Leader) said “It is so good to see students putting themselves forward for events in the holidays. We hope that many more are inspired by Mercy’s confidence and determination to have fun and chase her dreams. Well done Mercy!” (Photo credited to Justin Slee)

Transition Summer
School 2024

During the last week of July, 42 of our new Year 7 students continued their transition into Mount St Mary’s.

They participated in a number of activities and experiences to boost their confidence and build friendships that will last longer than the five years they spend with us.

Take a look at our latest edition of the MSM Messenger!

Student Leader Results

On Monday 15 July, 9 students from Year 10 delivered their Student Leader speeches, which were excellent. Tuesday morning saw the reveal of our Student Leaders for the next academic year.

The results are in, and the positions have been filled as follows:

Head Girl (Student Leader)
– Gabriella Johnson

Head Boy (Student Leader)
– Joshua Dobry

Deputy Head Girl (Student Leader) – Catreena Kerry

Deputy Head Boy (Student Leader) – Chris Shaji

All 9 students did a great job, and the staff vote matched the student vote. We could not be prouder of all the students who took part and cannot wait to see what the team of 52 Prefects, Senior Prefects and Student Leaders can achieve.

Organiser Front Cover Design Competition

Maya Krupa (Year 9)
Winning design for KS3 Organiser

Well done to all students that submitted a design to the organiser front cover design competition. This year we had a total of 164 official entries. On 15 July we celebrated all the students that were shortlisted in the above competition. There were so many fantastic designs to choose from.

A big well done to Ikjot and Maya in Year 9 for being selected by student voice as the winners. Your work will look incredible on the front of the 2024/25 student organiser!

Ikjot Kaur Khokhar (Year 9)
Winning design for KS4 Organiser

Japanese Taster Session
Leeds University

In July we welcomed Dr Ward from Leeds University for the third year running to deliver a taster session in Japanese.

The students learnt a bit about Japanese culture, some basic greetings and numbers in Japanese and had the chance to practice writing Japanese script.

Well done to everyone who took part and received certificates to use when they are applying for college, University and jobs in the future.

Sayonara (さよなら) is the most famous, but least used way to say goodbye in Japanese since it means “Farewell”. Bai bai (バイバイ) is actually used more frequently and is very similar to the English “Bye bye”.

バイバイ