Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility
(RERF) Year 9 Reward Trip

On 16 December a group of Year 9 students visited a local recycling facility, where they participated in a series of educational activities. Upon arrival, they were divided into small groups to engage in a task that required them to use their prior knowledge to sort recyclable and non-recyclable items. The exercise encouraged teamwork and communication skills.

One highlight of the visit was the famous living plant wall, which stands 28 meters tall and houses over 100,000 plants, including shrubs and trees. It also supports more than 700 habitat boxes for insects.

In the control room, students learned about the company’s operations, including how cameras monitor the sorting process and help decide when machines or manual labour is needed. They also had the opportunity to see how different machines function. The day concluded with a video on material decomposition and an activity sorting items based on their decomposition rates. The visit was both informative and inspiring, offering a hands-on learning experience.

Year 9 Rugby
25 November 2024

WOW! WOW! WOW! What an evening that was!

After a shock, but not surprising, defeat against Cockburn in our first game, we displayed some good rugby but struggled throughout to get our heads in the right place to compete. Cockburn were a very well organised team who all play together outside of school. We never gave up and continued to challenge them whenever we had ball in hand. Unfortunately losing 4 tries to 1.

We then had a wait to play our final game against Leeds West. Thankfully this did not put out the fire that had ignited after our loss to Cockburn. The boys did not want to finish the evening after their first performance and set out to take the game to Leeds West as soon as it began.

In the opening minute James took the ball and ran around their entire team before straightening up to run in our first try. With some powerful tackling and impeccable discipline, we forced a handling error from Leeds West and regained the ball. With some fantastic plays and strong carries from Harry, Aleks and Emmanuel we got closer and closer to their try line before James again ran straight through their defence to score another try. From here the game evened out with strong runs from Leeds West seeing them cut through our defence and score twice to bring them level. We had a real fight on our hands. With our team’s grit and determination, they wanted to ensure Leeds West did not take victory after meeting them in the Campion Schools league earlier in the year.

We pushed up the field with several strong runs before Evan was tripped in a tackle resulting in a penalty 10 metres from the try line. Evan took a quick tap and ran it in, bursting through tackles and getting over the line himself. Finally, after receiving the kick off, we retained the ball and James was able to go on another of his wonderful, winding runs, beating defenders and eventually crossing the line carrying one of the opposition.

Our final game finished 4 tries to 3.

We WON!! WE ARE GOING TO THE FINAL!! (10th March so plenty of time to prepare)

As the game ended all of the boys began to celebrate like they had just won the World Cup. However, Harry went over and began to shake the oppositions hands, including their coach, thanking them for a great game of rugby. The others quickly realised and followed suit. Harry has really grown into the captaincy he has been given and leads by example both on and off the pitch.

Below are the names of the students that played this evening:

Harry Cawthorne (C), Aleksander Bogdanowicz, Ngaanue Nguvauva, Emmanuel Pelo, Chivuso Amoke, David Batista Neto, Riley Clark, James Kaba, Sekou Kourouma, Simao Marques, Evan Whitford, Chinonso Okunbor, Tiago Malu, Zoel Deji,Demi Awosanya
and Hayden Wright.

Mr S Cooper

THE HALLOWEEN ESCAPE ROOM

On Wednesday, October 23rd, something terrible happened in the library. As if awakened by the approaching date of Halloween, the library’s infamous ghost appeared to

Ms Fennelly and Ms Bennasser. Brutally squashed many years ago under a heavy bookcase, the ghost demanded the best readers of Mount St Mary’s as vengeance for her literary demise. Under the ruse of a celebration, she trapped MSM’s top 34 readers in the library, threatening to absorb their reading skills if they did not find the four-digit code that would release them in under forty minutes. The task to be able to do so, however, proved itself to be quite arduous.

A great deal of clues were hidden everywhere in the library on that menacing day: keys delivering half messages resting on the bookshelves of the Horror and Fantasy sections; hieroglyphic codes to decipher; a code breaking sheet stuck between pages of a romance book; a mysterious letter written in invisible ink and requiring cranberry potion to be readable by human eyes; hints in the forms of book covers concealed in cups of jelly-like substance you would, trust me, rather not know the real origin of; a sentence written in various foreign languages right where Mount St Mary’s is on a map of England and underneath some library chairs, a sentence leading to numbers of major importance.

Under the perilous ghostly threat and the ominous ticking of the clock, the gathered remarkable readers had to use their brains, shared teamwork and cross-curricular knowledge to escape in time. All the remarkable readers demonstrated exceptional logical skills and notable enthusiasm.

Once the code was cracked the library doors reopened, to the great relief of all. Following this was the consumption of delicious treats, cheering and, in one group, exuberant celebratory dancing!

One of the three teams was particularly fast and efficient, getting out of the library with 11 minutes and 58 seconds to spare. The key to their success? Epic teamwork, patience and listening to one another. Well done to every remarkable reader who escaped the clutches of the library ghost … for now!

If you want to come to our next celebration, collect fifteen remarkable reader stamps by reading books and quizzing. You have until 12th December to earn your invitation!

Champion Schools competition with a win for
Year 9 Rugby Team

Well what a night that was!

We took 15 Year 9 boys to Allerton Grange, all up for finishing the first round of the Champion Schools competition with a win… what a win it was!

Captained by Harry, he led by the front and put in some fantastic tackles and scored our first try. This set an example to the other players and showed that if they ran with intent they could break through their tackles and make ground every time they carried the ball.

In the last 10 minutes of the first half Allerton Grange seemed to find their rhythm and responded to our first half performance with a couple of their own tries.

Feeling a little beaten after their comeback, we went into half time still holding our heads high but wondering how we would get back on top to prevent them from scoring more. With talks from Harry and others they worked out what they were going to do and were ready to put it into action.

The 2nd half began, and it was clear our boys were ready to take their game to the next level and were seemingly unstoppable. Harry, James and Alex all ran hard at the defensive line breaking through tackles and putting the scoreline out of reach for Allerton Grange.

The game finished with us winning 46 – 18.

With that result we should finish mid table so can expect to progress into the Leeds and Hunslet Schools Competition as well as the Yorkshire Cup.

A highlight of the evening has to be Harry coming and asking me if I knew where their coach was at the end of the game as he wanted to thank him for hosting us.

Because of the spirit the game was played in, and the conduct and sportsmanship of our boys, Allerton’s coach has asked if we would visit again and possibly on a more regular basis for “friendly” games to help them develop.

What a fantastic night and a great way to finish the first rugby campaign before the half term break.

Mr S Cooper

Year 9 Rugby – 15/10/24

On Tuesday 15 October we hosted Leeds West Academy in the “Champions School Cup”, an opportunity for our team to play and develop as a squad. 14 Year 9 students played in their 2nd game of 4 this half term.

When the game started, we were quick off the mark and ran in our first try within the first 2 minutes, all created from incredible strength and speed to break through tackles and cross over the line.

This was not what Leeds West were expecting, and they kicked into gear. Over the next 20 minutes there were several sets of 5 completed, with both teams showing off their abilities but with Leeds West coming out on top at half time.

After a quick team talk, we started the 2nd half inspired. Very quickly from the kick off we regained the ball and scored. The 2nd half saw us going toe to toe with Leeds West scoring 2 tries each. In the final minutes Leeds Wests players’ experience and stamina saw them cross the line a further 3 times to leave the final score at 24-66.

Despite the score line we saw further developments in the team’s ability asthey continue to bond. They consistently show impeccable sportsmanship, which keeps their morale high, even after tough games. The Leeds West staff were impressed with the boys’ conduct throughout the game and were over the moon that once the game finished, both teams came together to chat with each other and walk back to the changing rooms together.

I must mention Harry Cawthorne as it was his first time as captain of the team. He held himself and the team accountable for any infringements and, when given the opportunity, pulled players aside to offer advice and encouragement. Harry was amazing again and set the example for the others to follow throughout the evening.

A special shout out goes to Alissia Johns who was my designated photographer and captured some fantastic photos.

Mr S Cooper

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!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park trip
Years 8, 9, & 10

We recently had the pleasure of celebrating the shortlisted winners of our school organiser front cover competition from Years 8, 9, and 10. As a reward for their hard work and creativity, these talented students were invited to a special trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where we enjoyed a day of art and inspiration.

It was a fantastic day, not only to acknowledge their artistic achievements, but also to inspire them further. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and thrilled to see Ikjot and Maya’s fantastic designs featured on this year’s school organiser, bringing their creativity to life in our school community.

Science Club

Calling all Year 7, 8, and 9 students! Last year’s Science Club was a huge success, and this year it’s going to be even better. Explore fascinating experiments, boost your communication and innovation skills and build confidence in a fun, hands-on environment.

Every Thursday from 3:10 to 4:00 pm in S7, we’ll dive into the wonders of science with exciting activities and projects. Whether you’re a science enthusiast or just curious, everyone is welcome. Don’t miss out on this chance to discover, create, and explore. See you there! The video showcases some of the work completed by our Scientists last year.

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.