Year 7 Rewards Assembly

Celebrating success and promoting the aspirations of students within our community are fundamental aspects of school life at Mount St Mary’s. This week we hosted a Year 7 rewards assembly with the intention of recognising individuals for their achievements throughout their first term at secondary school. The process of nominating students for awards made us realise how lucky we are as a year team to work with such an amazing cohort of students, with such a variety of positive characteristics, talents and ambitions; we would have found it much easier to give everybody a reward!

To begin our rewards assembly, we celebrated those of our students who have achieved a perfect overall attendance and punctuality streak for the Autumn Term (Wednesday 8th September to Friday 17th December 2022). The qualifying students had zero days of absence, 100% attendance, zero lates and perfect punctuality. In total we celebrated 48 students who met the criteria and therefore qualified for an award which, during the unprecedented circumstances that we are currently facing, is an amazing accomplishment. Additionally, we celebrated our overall attendance as a Year group. During Term 1 the average attendance of our Year 7 cohort was 96.26% showing the responsibility, enthusiasm and maturity that our students have demonstrated since the beginning of their journey with us.

The celebration went on to focus on individuals who have engaged with the core values of our school by always showing willing and never giving up in spite of the circumstances. Although all Year 7 students have faced or will face challenges throughout their time at Mount St Mary’s, we were incredibly pleased and proud to reward specific students who have continuously demonstrated Resilience throughout the year so far. We believe that the students nominated portray impressive attributes that have enabled them to recover quickly, bounce back from adversity, and face situations with a positive “can-do” attitude. Their efforts within the school and wider community have not gone unnoticed, and we hope that by celebrating their mental toughness, that they will continue to motivate themselves to make further progress and achieve more success over the next five years.

Providing students with enrichment opportunities that will help with their personal development is a crucial part of the student experience at Mount St Mary’s. As a school, we endeavor to offer a variety of extra-curricular sessions that help our students to build relationships, improve their academic abilities and evolve their leadership skills. However, it is less about what we as a school can offer to our students, and more about how they themselves have given back by participating in and leading clubs, schemes and academic sessions themselves. During the rewards assembly, we celebrated a number of students who have excelled in these areas and have gone above and beyond to show Retribuam.

For instance, Miss Mulcahy’s newly formed Embroidery Club has allowed students to get creative whilst practicing key skills such as patience, hand-eye coordination, design, planning and social skills. The dedication and patience of this group of committed students has allowed them to create unique designs, alongside detailed embroidery, which Miss Mulcahy has been significantly impressed with. We hope that these students carry on with their embroidery practice over the next five years at Mount St Mary’s and beyond. Our Year 7 Helping Hands lunchtime club has also become very popular over the past month, which has encouraged certain students to grow in confidence and enhance their overall wellbeing; whilst practicing social skills and cognitive skills in a relaxed and fun environment. Many of our Year 7 students have used the lunchtime club to their advantage and have seized multiple opportunities to make new friends, learn to play new games, and develop positive relationships.

The year team were also keen to present individual awards to students nominated by members of staff for their dedication in specific areas. Year 7 form tutors nominated an individual from each of their forms who has consistently demonstrated Readiness each day, Retribuam during form time and Respect through their support of peers and attitudes to learning. Again, choosing one student proved to be an extremely difficult process for form tutors as they all could have chosen any of the individuals in their forms! We also rewarded students who have further demonstrated Retribuam through their efforts to enrich the lives of others. A key aspect of our year group vision is to progress as a unit. We have endeavored to create a culture of togetherness which will hopefully allow students to feel a part of something really special whilst at Mount St Mary’s.

Finally, a Year Leader award was presented to two separate students who always show maturity, ambition, kindness and modesty. The students who received this award have maintained a positive approach to school life and have made an excellent impression on their peers, subject teachers and the year team. They should be proud of their success and the people that they are.

We would like thank parents and carers for their unwavering support throughout the first term. Together, we will continue to provide students with opportunities and spread positivity through the celebration of their achievements.